Multi-Site View Architecture

[pscheri]

Hi, I was wondering if it is possible to deploy a multi-site View 5.0 architecture with a single instance of vCenter and View Composer.

I am attaching a jpg with the diagram.

Thanks in advance!

Pablo.-

[markbenson]

A View environment split across datacenters in this way is not supported. Your diagram is almost OK in that you don't have Coonnection Server replica communication between sites or Connection Server to View Agent comms over teh WAN, but there needs to be a vCenter Server in each site for performance and HA reasons.

The aim of such a design is to ensure that if the WAN links go down between the datacenters, each site can operate autonomously.

Mark.

[pscheri]

Hi Mark, and thank you for the quick respnse.

The WAN links are redunded between sites and since HA is managed directly onto the hosts, is this still a not supported arquitecture?

I mean, the comunication between View connection server and vCenter/Composer is via SOAP (not JMS), this protocol is WAN supported.

What happens in case I lose the connection with Composer Server? do I lose all Linked Clones or are the vDesktops still accessible through View Connection Servers?

Thanks!

Pablo.

[markbenson]

Sure, I'm aware that it's SOAP and that this is WAN supported, but if your WAN links do fail, site A will be fine, but site B will not be able to clone or perform power operations, and therefore it is not recommended from a reliability (HA) perspective.

Youve solved 90% of the split-site problem by having no JMS or LDAP replication between sites. Why not go to 100% and have vCenter in each site. This is mainly about HA. We test large scale View environments all on the same LAN and recommend a complete split when doing multi-site. Techniques such as global load balancing and entitlements through pool-> AD groups makes the management of multi-site more manageable and gives the advantage of *complete* autonomous operation in the event of link failure.

Your question was a good one, and the diagram was very helpful.

Mark.

[pscheri]

The problem here is the double vSphere administration, the customer does not want that or at least wants to minimize the administration as much as they can. Taking into account that they will all ready have double administration from View and Nexus 1000v point of view.

I will present them with your solution, but from the VMware Global Support Services point of view, and taking into account all the disadvantages you told me (and I now really understand), is this a supported configuration or my only chance is to design this doubled?

Thank you so much!

Pablo.

[markbenson · Accepted solution]

You make very valid points, but I just checked our Architecture and Planning Guide on this and we do state "In scenarios where a View deployment needs to span datacenters, create a separate View deployment for each datacenter." As the View deployment includes vCentert, this really does mean a complete split.

View power management and cloning would clearly fail in site B while the link is down, and therefore we really couldn't recommend/endorse/support it.

This came from page 43 here http://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/view-50-architecture-planning.pdf

Mark.