I'd appreciate some design idea/assistance

[Kahonu84]

Thank you for taking the time to read this.. We are currently at 5.5U3 and are about to begin migrating to 6.5.2 (with Enhanced Linked Mode/ELM).

I realize I need to make some decisions we'll have to live with for a while. Want to make sure I get 'em right the 1st time.

We have 3 sites - KOM, KPD and WPD. At the moment each site has it's own 5.5 vcenter.

KOM site houses one vcenter with one cluster with VMs relating to government services. I will use gov AD for authentication.

WPD site houses one vcenter with one cluster with VMs relating to police. I will use pd AD for authentication.

KPD site houses one vcenter with two clusters with VMs relating to government services and police. I hope I can use gov and police AD for authentication.

As I see it, KOM and WPD will have their own one cluster ELM. KPD will have a two cluster ELM. Now we're getting into the fuzzy area (at least for me).

I have a wish list. I'm not sure if it's possible as the concept of domains and sites still confuses me a little.

I'd like to link KOM to government cluster at KPD and be able to failover either way. Same desire for WPD and police cluster at KPD.

I know there's likely several ways to do this. If you guys/gals can give some ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

Bill

[TechMassey]

As the common meme statement goes: One Does Not Simply Failover a Datacenter.

Sounds like you realize the challenge level. Given this is outside your comfort zone, I would recommend looking at vSphere Site Recovery Manager. Another option is leveraging replication functionality in 3rd party software like Veeam. Hopefully that helps.

[Kahonu84]

I suggest you re-reading my post. No where did I say a single thing about DR. We have Zerto

for that. I want a logical layout and reliability for my vcenters. I think the people not over their

heads call it VCHA.

Bill