VM-VM Affinity Rules with vSphere DRS

A VM-VM affinity rule with DRS specifies whether selected individual virtual machines should run on the same host or be kept on separate hosts. This type of rule is used to create affinity or anti-affinity between individual virtual machines that you select.

Note: This topic describes using affinity rules with DRS. You can also use affinity rules without DRS.

When an affinity rule is created, DRS tries to keep the specified virtual machines together on the same host. You might want to do this, for example, for performance reasons.

With an anti-affinity rule, DRS tries to keep the specified virtual machines apart. You could use such a rule if you want to guarantee that certain virtual machines are always on different physical hosts. In that case, if a problem occurs with one host, not all virtual machines would be placed at risk.