What feature must be enabled in vSphere to utilize Fault Tolerance?

To utilize Fault Tolerance in vSphere, it is essential to have vSphere High Availability (HA) enabled. Fault Tolerance works closely with HA to ensure that virtual machines (VMs) remain available even in the event of hardware failures.

vSphere HA provides the capability to automatically restart VMs on other hosts within a cluster if there is a failure of the host on which they are running. This capability allows for an extra layer of protection, ensuring that if a VM experiences downtime due to a host failure, it can be restored quickly. For Fault Tolerance to function properly, the VMs that require the feature must also be configured on hosts that are part of a cluster that has HA enabled.

While other features like vSphere Replication, vSAN, and vSphere DRS provide different functionalities—such as data protection, storage management, and resource allocation respectively—they do not directly relate to enabling Fault Tolerance. vSphere Replication takes care of data backup and recovery, while vSAN manages storage resources, and vSphere DRS optimizes the placement of VMs, ensuring efficient use of cluster resources. Therefore, enabling vSphere HA is crucial for supporting the Fault Tolerance feature in a vSphere environment.