VMware Communities: Message List - VCS, license and database on one server?

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

LiamGP — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:43:09 GMT

At the minute we only have 2 ESX Hosts (this is our first go at ESX, so not sure what we need yet) and a small number of VM's. We're going to aim to get about 20 VM's by the end of the year though. Both 2950's with 16GB Ram each.

VC is running on a 1950 with 2x Dual Core 1.6Ghz and 4GB RAM. Seems fine just now, but we can always migrate it to a quad core with 8GB if we need to.

Cheers
Liam

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

Texiwill — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:01:29 GMT

Hello,

I use a ML370 G2 (Dual 1.4GHz) with 6GBs of memory. I added in a dual port ethernet device and run VC, SQL, License Manager, and HPSIM w/all its plugins. In addition, I run an NFS server to handle how I do backups as this is also my backup server.

Never a problem and it works fine. My backup for VC/License Manager/SQL is a VM. For HPSIM, there is another VM. As my ultimate backup for License Management, I use a laptop that sits in the server room waiting for use. I have had my ESX servers have a license management problem and the only solution was to have it available on a physical box. THe laptop while not the fastest was handy, so I keep it as the ultimate backup in case I need it.

Failover clustering whether using SteelEye or MSCS is all that you really need.

Best regards,
Edward

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

Mike_Laverick — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:19:46 GMT

As I understand it - the release notes for patch2 of VC now state you can cluster VC...

Regards
Mike

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

DaveBerm — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:18:39 GMT

SteelEye is the only company I am aware of that has a failover solution for Virtual Center.

http://www.steeleye.com/pdf/literature/lk_for_vmware_vc1h07.pdf

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

Mike_Laverick — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:14:50 GMT

I've got VC, licence server and SQL 2000 all running
on the same physical box. Not had any problems so
far...

Cool - how many esx hosts do you have & how many vms?

What hardware (physical or virtual) have you allocated to the VC box?

Regards
Mike

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

LiamGP — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:20:40 GMT

I've got VC, licence server and SQL 2000 all running on the same physical box. Not had any problems so far...

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

VMELH — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:03:28 GMT

However, do be aware that running the license server within a VM can cause some interesting issues. While the ESX servers will cache a license for up to 14 days, if for some reason you do not realize there is a license server issue, which is not necessarily related to a VM issue, the ESX server can cease to function properly.

So just be sure to keep track of how the license manager is functioning at all times. Funny thing is that when I ran it as a VM I had more issues than when we run VirtualCenter, License manager, and DB on one machine. You may even want to use a Microsoft cluster with VC, LM, and DB where one node is physical and one node is virtual. You definitely want some form of backup available.

Best regards,
Edward
Edward Haletky

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

alias747 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:15:08 GMT

Ok excellent! Thanks!

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

esiebert7625 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:03:52 GMT

Correct, create two VM's and run VC/License on one and the DB on the other. Optionally you can run one as physical and the other as virtual.

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

alias747 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:01:16 GMT

Ok so I can use one server and then jsut run 2 seperate virtual machines, one for the VCS/license and the other for the SQL database?

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

esiebert7625 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:53:07 GMT

You can also run both of them as virtual machines...

Running VirtualCenter in a Virtual Machine - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vc_in_vm.pdf

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

alias747 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:52:39 GMT

Just curious though, why does the install guide say that you can use a Oracle database locally on the VCS then?

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

alias747 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:50:00 GMT

Ok thanks for the advice, that is the best idea i am sure.

Re: VCS, license and database on one server?

Mike_Laverick — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:35:19 GMT

VC and License server on the same copy of Windows is actually recommended from VMware. If you decide to add SQL to the mix, then you will have to provision more hardware (virtual or physical) to offset the demands made on the box... plus you would need to make sure SQL started before VC in the service order otherwise reboots might cause a problem...

Personally, I would recommend keeping your VC DB on separate box...

Regards
Mike

VCS, license and database on one server?

alias747 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:30:03 GMT

Is this an ok thing to do? Or will there be bad effects from this? Thanks!