This will be a short post to cover the VCAP-DCA objective of the same name. When you create a DRS enabled cluster you set the cluster’s default automation level, shown below:
The DRS automation level set here can be overridden on a per virtual machine basis. This can be configured under ‘Virtual Machine Options’ within the cluster’s DRS settings:
There are a number of different options available here:
- Default
- Disabled
- Fully Automated (Automatic Initial Placements and Migrations)
- Partially Automated (Automatic Initial Placements only)
- Manual
Along with configuring these settings using the vSphere client, you can also set per virtual machine DRS automation levels using PowerCLI, which can be useful if making changes in bulk. As an example, to change the automation level for a virtual machine called ‘XP2’ you could run:
Set-VM XP2 -DRSAutomationLevel Disabled
Looking at the settings in the vSphere client, XP2 has been changed, with it’s automation now being ‘Disabled’:
