HA: migration of Stopped server ignores Group restrictions

SteveITS

Member
Feb 6, 2025
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We have one VM which is used just for occasional testing. Accordingly, it is set to not start automatically and we can't set it to Requested State=started.

We would like it to be limited to a specific HA Group to limit it to certain physical nodes.

I find if it is set State=stopped it can still be migrated to a nonapproved node outside the group. Is this expected or a bug? The group is set restricted=yes.
 
If the group IS set to restricted and the VM is in the group and then the VM is started on a node not in the restricted set, then yes, that would be a bug.

Per docs: Non-group member nodes are considered as runnable target if no group member is available. Unless restricted is set that is.

Post your /etc/pve/ha/groups.cfg and your VM config to be sure.
 
Yes, the restriction is on automatic starting on the other nodes. The configuration files are on a shared file system so always accessible to any node. You can always manually override the HA config and start the VM even if the restricted group is down if that becomes necessary.
 
Hmm, the docs say it shouldn't be able to run, but technically they don't say it can't migrate:
"Resources bound to restricted groups may only run on nodes defined by the group. The resource will be placed in the stopped state if no group node member is online."