VMware vSphere High Availability (HA) is a functionality that is used to prepare a cluster of hosts to handle failure gracefully. vSphere HA has several mechanism and failure tolerance levels that can be set on the workloads, and can minimize or, in specific cases, also nullify downtime. In essence, any IT organization has to deliver and adhere to a set of SLAs and vSphere HA is a critical feature that aids in meeting these business-driven SLAs. Starting with vSphere 6.5, one key addition has been made to the vSphere HA optimization by enabling a native High Availability for vCenter.

The key aspect of the feature is that it's native unlike the previous clustering and back up methodologies that were used to safeguard vCenter as an application. On the other hand, vSphere AppHA is no longer available in vSphere 6.0 onwards. In this chapter, we will learn the configuration steps and nuances of High Availability.