Best Practices to control ESX servers in Remote Sites

[JasonVmware]

Hello All,

I was just wondering what the best practices or options are for managing ESX servers in Remote Sites or Branch offices. I know you could always use the VI to control the server onsite but what if you want to use some of the functions of Virutal Center? How would you remotely manage and take advantages of the Virutal Center capabilties in remote sites or branch offices since you can only have Virutal Center installed in one domain.

Other then a dedicated VPN to all the Remote Sites or Branch offices is there any other way to use Virtual Center to remotely manage ESX servers in Remote Sites or Branch offices ?

[Troy_Clavell]

an ESX Host can only be managed by a single vCenter Server. You can howerver have multiple clusters or datacenters within a single vCenter instance. Another option would be to setup multiple vCenter instances at each site and manage them with some sort of federated tool like VC Administrator Portal. However limited, it does help a bit.

Hope this helps.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Other then a dedicated VPN to all the Remote Sites or Branch offices is there any other way to use Virtual Center to remotely manage ESX servers in Remote Sites or Branch offices ?

The biggest concern you will have doing this will be latency. If there is too much, ESX hosts appear offline. You could have VC setup remotely but locally at each site create a VM that has on it a copy of the VIC, RCLI, Powershell, and other tools as necessary. This way if VC fails you can still reach the remote site and manage it.

Consider all your failure points of remote management and have a backup at each stage just in case.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[atbnet · Accepted solution]

What are your current DR plans if the main site goes hosting VC?

You could run your VC in a VM and have a powered off clone at a remote site or two incase of complete failure.

Then using RCL etc as texiwill recommends and/or vMotion the VC VM to other sites if required.

Andy, VMware Certified Professional (VCP),

If you found this information useful please award points using the buttons at the top of the page accordingly.

[JasonVmware]

Currently we do have a system that has the VIC and RCL installed to give some remote management but I just wondering what some other practices are for this situation to best manage the other ESX systems in teh branch office with VC.

Another thing I was wondering is how would I be able to use VCB from Virutal Center. Can you acutally install a local copy of Virutal Center and VCB at the branch office to handle VM backups even though I already have Virutal Center setup at the main office on the same domain?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VCB is independent of vCenter. You can setup a VCB Proxy at the remote sites or locally as you do not necessarily need vCenter to make it work, you can specifically target each ESX host using VCB.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[jguidroz]

We run a setup with VC local to one cluster of ESX host and manages 6 other ESX clusters across our WAN. Every now and then I'll get notifications of a host being disconnected, but this is due to network latency more times than not. As far as VCB goes, I set up VCB on the backup server at each site and connect directly to the ESX hosts to backup the VMs. I did not want my remote sites to be tied into my VC server for backups in case the sites lose connectivity to VC. It works well.

[meistermn]

JasonVmware look at this document:

1.)Proven Practice: ROBO - Managing Remote ESX Hosts Over WAN with VirtualCenter

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1144#

2.)Control and Manage Remote Servers and Desktops from a Central Location

http://vsolutionplaybook.com/Virtual-Desktops-Clients/tools-files/WKO_Remote_Office_cheatsheet_q108....

3.)Video

http://www.solutiontracks.com/vi4.asp#section=SolutionTrackVirtualInfrastructureSlide4

[JasonVmware]

Thanks that was really helpfull ! unfortantly I already gave away all the helpfull points