How to Configure Priority in VMM for a Virtual Machine on a Host Cluster
Updated: May 13, 2016
Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager
Starting with System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1), if you deploy or are planning to deploy virtual machines on a host cluster, you can use Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) to configure priority settings for the virtual machines. With these settings, the cluster starts or places high-priority virtual machines before medium-priority or low-priority virtual machines. This ensures that the high-priority virtual machines are allocated memory and other resources first, for better performance. Also, after a node failure, if the high-priority virtual machines do not have the necessary memory and other resources to start, the lower priority virtual machines will be taken offline to free up the necessary resources for the high-priority machines. Virtual machines that are preempted are later restarted in priority order.
You can also configure the virtual machine priority setting in a virtual machine template, so that any virtual machines that are created with that template will have the specified virtual machine priority. For virtual machines that have been deployed on a host cluster, you can also configure these settings by using Failover Cluster Manager.
For information about other settings related to availability of virtual machines on a host cluster, see Configuring Availability Options for Virtual Machines Overview.
Account requirements To complete this procedure you must be a member of the Administrator or Delegated Administrator user role, or a self-service user who has the Deploy action in the scope of your user role.
To configure priority for a virtual machine on a host cluster or in a virtual machine template designed for deployment on a host cluster
Configure a virtual machine or virtual machine template by using one of the following options:
To configure a deployed virtual machine, in the VMs and Services workspace, navigate to the host on which the virtual machine is deployed. In the results pane, right-click the virtual machine, and then click Properties.
To configure a stored virtual machine, in the Library workspace, navigate to the library server on which the virtual machine is stored. In the results pane, right-click the virtual machine, and then click Properties.
To configure a virtual machine while you are creating it, follow an appropriate procedure under Configuring Virtual Machine Settings in VMM to open the Create Virtual Machine Wizard and to proceed to the Configure Hardware page.
To configure a virtual machine template, in the Library workspace, under Templates, click VM Templates. In the results pane, right-click the virtual machine template, and then click Properties.
On the Hardware Configuration tab or (for the wizard) the Configure Hardware page, scroll down to Advanced and under it, click Availability.
Confirm that Make this virtual machine highly available is checked. (On a deployed virtual machine, this setting cannot be changed, because it depends on whether the virtual machine is deployed on a host cluster.)
Under Virtual machine priority, select a priority of High, Medium, or Low for the virtual machine. If you want the virtual machine to always require a manual start and never pre-empt other virtual machines, select Do not restart automatically.
Click OK or complete the wizard.
To verify the setting, reopen the properties sheet.
See Also
How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Blank Virtual Hard Disk
How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from an Existing Virtual Hard Disk
How to Create a Virtual Machine Template
How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template
Configuring Availability Options for Virtual Machines Overview