Needs for Virtual Center Console network redundancy ?

[Malawa]

Simple questions here, I hope

Do I need to have network redundancy for the virtual center console ? We will use vMotion and probably HA and DRS. What will append if I loose network for the weekend ?

Thanks

[Rob_Bohmann1]

I have not made the Virtual Center server's nic redundant, but it would not be a bad idea if you can spare the port.

DRS requires Virtual Center communication to all the hosts in the DRS cluster. For HA, once you configure HA, you only need VC to change the configuration. It depends on your environment in the end. If you are mostly concerned about the weekends and DRS, what are the server load characteristics of the guests in your DRS cluster(s). Are there are a lot of batch jobs that run on the weekends, where VC would vmotion servers around to balance the load ? Do you frequently have network maintenance where you lose the VC server connectivity? If you lose your VC server, the DRS Clusters will run whatever guests are on their hosts when VC goes away. It basically becomes a static configuration at that point. Probably not a big concern for most environments, but that is a big generalization.

Your results may vary.

For me, a 2nd VC server nic (or team) is not a requirement.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VC is only required for vMotion capability, which is vMotion and DRS. HA once setup will run without VC around. So you loose vMotion only during the down time plus the ability to add/remove Servers from clusters. Having 802.3ad for a physical box is a good thing, however if VC is a VM, you can use Failover mode within the vSwitch given that you have at least 2 pNICs associated with the vSwitch.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky, author of the forthcoming 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', publishing January 2008, (c) 2008 Pearson Education

[Malawa]

Is it a good practice to put the VC in a VM ?

[Texiwill · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Many people put VC in a VM. However, if the host on which VC resides fails for some reason, make sure you have HA set to auto start it on another host. Otherwise management becomes an issue. There is no limitation on where it can reside just understand the caveats when it is on a VM or a physical box for your environment.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky, author of the forthcoming 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', publishing January 2008, (c) 2008 Pearson Education