This section describes how to install and run SwyxWare in the vSphere virtual machine and make it highly available with vSphere.

SwyxWare is installed complete with a SQL Server Express in a virtual machine. Alternatively, SwyxWare can be installed without SQL Express and the database can be run on an existing SQL Server cluster.

VMware vSphere offers various functions to make virtual machines highly available:

monitors the VM and the application running in it and restarts the VM if the operating system or application in the VM stops responding.

maintains a constantly updated copy of the virtual machine on a second host and automatically switches to the copy if one host fails.

For more information, see the vSphere documentation: docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.avail.doc/GUID-63F459B7-8884-4818-8872-C9753B2E0215.html

So that vSphere can monitor not only the VM but also the SwyxWare running in it, install the SwyxWare HealthMonitor service in addition to SwyxWare. This monitors the SwyxWare services and uses the vSphere Heartbeat interface. If all SwyxWare services are available, the HealthMonitor sends a "Heartbeat" every twenty seconds via the vSphere Heartbeat interface. If one of the services stops responding, the heartbeat fails. vSphere uses the failure of the heartbeat to detect a nonresponding application and restart the VM.