Disabling or turning Off VMware FT

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

You might need to either disable or turn off the VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) feature. For example, if you are downgrading a license, VMware FT might not be supported by the downgraded license. In such a case, you must first disable or turn off VMware FT for all virtual machines on which VMware FT is currently enabled.

Disabling VMware FT preserves the secondary virtual machines, their configuration, and all history. Use this option if you might re-enable VMware FT in the future. Turning off VMware FT deletes all secondary virtual machines, their configuration, and all history. Use this option if you do not plan to re-enable VMware FT.

Environment

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

To disable VMware FT on a virtual machine:

• In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine with Fault Tolerance enabled, click Fault Tolerance, and click Disable Fault Tolerance.
  
  Note: When you disable FT, the secondary virtual machine is powered off .

To turn off VMware FT on a virtual machine:

• In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine with Fault Tolerance enabled, click Fault Tolerance, and click Turn Off Fault Tolerance.
  
  Note: Turning off FT completely removes the secondary virtual machine and its data, such as task history and performance data.

Additional Information

Note: Disabling or turning off VMware FT can be performed whether the virtual machines are powered on or powered off.

• Turn on Fault Tolerance option is disabled

Note: If you are downgrading a license and FT is no longer supported by this license, ensure that Fault Tolerance Logging is disabled on the VMkernel Port. For related information, see:

• Enabling Fault tolerance logging

For translated versions of this article, see:

• 日本語: VMware FT を無効またはオフにする (2081834)
• 简体中文: 禁用或关闭 VMware FT (2087216)