VM anti-affinity and host patching order
Overview
Anti-affinity rules keep clustered roles or SQL AG nodes on separate hypervisor hosts; patching order preserves quorum and performance headroom.
Design
Define preferred sites and fault domains (rack, power); verify rules after host additions—auto-placement ignores stale rules.
Patching cadence
- Drain host A live-migrate VMs per performance policy.
- Patch + reboot A; validate storage paths return.
- Migrate roles back gradually; repeat host B.
SQL specifics
Never patch both AG replicas same window without failover plan; watch sync lag.
Validation
Post-reboot teaming status, multipath, and jumbo frames if used—drivers reset quirky defaults.
CMDB
Record last successful drain month—silent failures cluster until holiday traffic spike.
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