## 6.1.2 IBM VM Recovery Manager HA components 

This section provides a brief overview of VMR HA and introduces the solution’s main components and capabilities. 

## KSYS controller 

This is the core component of the solution. KSYS acts as an overall orchestrator of the entire solution. It monitors the whole infrastructure, reacts to failures when they occur, and communicates and interact with HMCs, Power Systems, and VIOSs. KSYS runs on an AIX VM that is on an Power Systems server that is not  part of the IBM VM Recovery Manager scope to ensure that it remains operational if the entire managed infrastructure fails. 

## VM agent 

This is an agent that communicates with KSYS, and monitors the health status of the VMs and (optionally) applications running in the VMs. 

## GUI server 

This is the GUI to the KSYS that represents a convenient alternative to the KSYS CLI. It can be used to manage both HA and DR deployments. 

## Hardware Management Consoles 

These are the HMCs that manage the Power Systems servers. All Power Systems servers that are included in a VMR HA solution must be managed by HMCs. All HMCs are registered with KSYS and act as an intermediary that provides KSYS access to Power Systems servers, VIOSs, and that are VMs included in the scope of VMR HA solution. 

## Virtual I/O Server 

VIOSs are used to deploy VMs on Power Systems servers and provide KSYS with all the required configuration details for all VMs. VIOSs also run a special process that is named Host Monitor (HM) that monitors the heartbeats that are sent by VMs, and intermediates the communications with KSYS. 

VMR HA has the following key features: 

GLYPH<SM590000> VM moves by using LPM for planned outages. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Restart-based VM moves for unplanned outages. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Host grouping for Power Systems servers with similar network and storage connectivity. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Definition of colocation and anti-collocation policies. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Definition of VM relocation policies. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Host, VM, and application-level monitoring. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Cross-VM application dependency. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Enhanced VIOS monitoring. 

GLYPH<SM590000> GUI and CLI-based management. 

For more information and implementation guidelines for VMR HA, see Implementing IBM VM Recovery Manager for IBM Power Systems , SG24-8426. 

