Previously, I mentioned that a metric is used to prioritize the cluster networks to be
used for cluster communications and that the cluster network would use the lowest-
cost network. The same prioritization is used for Live Migration, but to avoid
conflicting with cluster traffic, Live Migration will automatically select the second-
least-cost network. If you want to use the same network for Live Migration as for
cluster communications, you can override this by using the graphical interface and
PowerShell.
In Windows Server 2008 R2, the network used for Live Migration was set on the
virtual machine group properties via the Network For Live Migration tab. I have a
write-up on the Windows Server 2008 R2 method at the following location:
http://windowsitpro.com/windows/q-which-network-does-live-migration-traffic-use
This was changed in Windows Server 2012 to be a property of the cluster networks for
the cluster. This can be set as follows:
1 . Launch Failover Cluster Manager.
2 . Right-click Networks and select Live Migration Settings.
3 . A list of all cluster networks is displayed. Check the networks that should be used
for Live Migration and move them up or down to set their priority. As shown in
Figure 7.34, I used the cluster network, which is a 10Gbps network, and I leveraged
QoS to ensure that Live Migration gets sufficient bandwidth. Click OK.Figure 7.34 Setting the Live Migration network for a cluster
The Live Migration network can be changed using PowerShell, but it’s the