Running vCenter in virtual machine

[Mitsou]

Hello all,

We're planning to install vcenter in a virtual machine. It will be connected to an SQL server who will also be a virtual machine.

Everything is looking appealing regarding this config but we have some questions about VUM and other patching and upgrade that will have to take place.

My question are as follow:

- If vCenter and Vum are virtual, What will arrive during a patch deployment for these servers ???

- If SQL is also virtual, what will arrive during patching of virtual server ???

Thanks in advance for any suggestion or answers

Michel

[MKguy · Accepted solution]

Uh, excuse me, but i can't quite follow your 2 questions.

Running vCenter with VUM in a VM is a fully supported configuration, where you will also benefit from features such as HA for increased availability, snapshots etc.

I'm running a virtual vCenter with VUM and the other optional packages in a VM, managing 8 hosts and 130 VMs too without any issues.

This guide is for vCenter 2.x, but applies to 4.x for most part too: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vc_in_vm.pdf

[oreeh]

• * If vCenter and Vum are virtual, What will arrive during a patch deployment for these servers ???

The same that happens when they are physical - downtime (of the VM in question).

Or do you mean what happens when you patch an ESX host? In that case you simply migrate them to another host.

• * If SQL is also virtual, what will arrive during patching of virtual server ???

See above

[msemon1]

VC works just fine as a VM. The updates you can choose through VUM are primarily for the ESX hosts although you can choose updates for Windows and Linux. Not sure how many people are pushing out Linux and Windows updates through VUM. VUM does not update the Windows Server and SQL server which operates them if that is your question. That would be done through your Microsoft updates or whatever patching tool you are using.

Mike