Use NCS for scalability.
Use NCS for service monitoring and service availability.
Use NCS for maintenance.
Use multipathing on the host.
Use LAN fault tolerance on the host.
Do not use vMotion for cluster nodes.
IMPORTANT:If you use vMotion on guest machine that is used as a cluster node, you must issue a cluster leave command in the guest environment before the vMotion migration is performed in the host environment.
Increase tolerance by setting up hardware monitoring to be done by the host.
Back up the guest machine with the vm API. Include memory in the backup and keep in mind the restore process. For consistency, use the single file restore.
No back up to SAN within virtualized environments.
Do not create templates or clones of servers that have eDirectory installed.
Do not use snapshots of the host.
IMPORTANT:If you use a host snapshot, ensure that you fix eDirectory when you go back to a specific snapshot.
Do not mix physical and virtual cluster nodes.
Physical and virtual cluster nodes will have different response times and performance characteristics. It is preferred to have consistency of hardware or guest environments for nodes in the same cluster.
Do not run multiple NCS nodes on the same virtualization host.
The server hardware represents a single point of failure for all virtual machines running on the same virtualization host.
All nodes require the same view to LAN and storage.
No I/O caching to the SBD.
Add multiple CPUs and enough memory.