What are the implications of using Log insight with vCenter Heartbeat? If vCenter fails over to a standby heartbeat server, will log insight continue to function without interruption or loss of available logs as the failover takes place?
Are there any special configurations particular to using Log Insight with Heartbeat?
The point of vCenter Heartbeat is to keep a backup of vCenter Server available at all times. This is achieved through a lock-step mechanism that ensures that everything that happens on the primary vCenter Server instance also happens on the secondary vCenter Server instance. Since the configurations of the vCenter Server instances are guaranteed to be the same, Log Insight would not be able to tell the difference.
With that said, vCenter Heartbeat supports three different types of configuration: LAN, stretched LAN, and WAN. For LAN and stretched LAN the IP address of the active vCenter Server gets moved during failover. For WAN, during a failover the IP address of the vCenter Server instance changes, but heartbeat notifies DNS of the change. Since with LAN and stretched LAN the IP address of the vCenter Server instance remains the same, Log Insight will continue to function as expected once the failover has occurred and the new primary vCenter Server instance has sent a gratuitous ARP. In the WAN configuration, the IP address of vCenter Server changes. If you configured Log Insight to connect to the vCenter Server instance by IP address then after failover Log Insight will not be able to collect information from the new vCenter Server IP address. In this case, you would need to modify the configuration on Log Insight and the new IP would be treated as a completely separate vCenter Server instance. If you configured Log Insight to connect to the vCenter Server instance by FQDN then Log Insight will pick up the change on the next polling interval. If for you do end up in a state where Log Insight is no longer collecting information from a vCenter Server instance, once the issue has been addressed, Log Insight will collect all information missed between when it was working and when it was fixed. In short, Log Insight keeps track of the last information collected from a vCenter Server instance and can collect missing information.
In short, Log Insight should work with vCenter Heartbeat though it is not officially supported at this time (per the interoperability matrix). If you are using vCenter Heartbeat in a WAN configuration then you should enable vSphere integration with a FQDN so that polling will continue to function after failover. I hope this helps!
The point of vCenter Heartbeat is to keep a backup of vCenter Server available at all times. This is achieved through a lock-step mechanism that ensures that everything that happens on the primary vCenter Server instance also happens on the secondary vCenter Server instance. Since the configurations of the vCenter Server instances are guaranteed to be the same, Log Insight would not be able to tell the difference.
With that said, vCenter Heartbeat supports three different types of configuration: LAN, stretched LAN, and WAN. For LAN and stretched LAN the IP address of the active vCenter Server gets moved during failover. For WAN, during a failover the IP address of the vCenter Server instance changes, but heartbeat notifies DNS of the change. Since with LAN and stretched LAN the IP address of the vCenter Server instance remains the same, Log Insight will continue to function as expected once the failover has occurred and the new primary vCenter Server instance has sent a gratuitous ARP. In the WAN configuration, the IP address of vCenter Server changes. If you configured Log Insight to connect to the vCenter Server instance by IP address then after failover Log Insight will not be able to collect information from the new vCenter Server IP address. In this case, you would need to modify the configuration on Log Insight and the new IP would be treated as a completely separate vCenter Server instance. If you configured Log Insight to connect to the vCenter Server instance by FQDN then Log Insight will pick up the change on the next polling interval. If for you do end up in a state where Log Insight is no longer collecting information from a vCenter Server instance, once the issue has been addressed, Log Insight will collect all information missed between when it was working and when it was fixed. In short, Log Insight keeps track of the last information collected from a vCenter Server instance and can collect missing information.
In short, Log Insight should work with vCenter Heartbeat though it is not officially supported at this time (per the interoperability matrix). If you are using vCenter Heartbeat in a WAN configuration then you should enable vSphere integration with a FQDN so that polling will continue to function after failover. I hope this helps!
Just following up to ensure your question is answered. If so, can you please mark the question as answered?
Sorry - yes appreciate this input this answers the question. Marked it correct - thanks again.
