Designing a vCenter Server Appliance Cluster

[SentiBlue]

Hey experts out there, I'd like your advice on creating a management environment.

So I have about a dozen hosts (ESXi 6.0) running on 3 clusters out of a vCenter Server for Windows v6.5.0

I've recently gotten the Windows server crashed and it's unlikely recoverable. I've seek advice in another thread and it seems putting the existing hosts on a new vCSA would work OK.

My question is:

- While having 3 clusters running out of 3 physical datacenters, should I install 3 separate vCSA or stick with one like I had one vCenter for Windows?

- Would it be a better option to design a vCSA cluster with 3 vCSA running out of 3 data centers?

- How do I obtain a VCSA license? (I use vCenter for Windows as part of a hosted solution so I wasn't sure about the licensing part)

I've been searching for documentation but haven't found yet an article with screenshots or a video that shows how to design a vCSA cluster.

Any pointers? Thanks!

[SentiBlue]

I should also ask this; due to my inexperience

With the size of my environment, dozen hosts, 3 clusters, 3 data centers and almost 200 VMs, should I even consider Clustering?

Would one single VCSA support my existing environment and on going with 5 years growth up to 30+ hosts, 500 VMs?

[MikeStoica · Accepted solution]

You can go for one vCSA to manage all the datacenters and configure it in HA. See this vCenter HA Hardware and Software Requirements

[SentiBlue]

Thanks Mike!

I have configured a single vCSA and about to introduce the least critical hosts to its new cluster.

As I mentioned in the first post that I've lost the vCenter Server for Windows and now replacing it with the VCSA.

However, I've never done this before and I'm not sure if I'm going to put myself into trouble if anything goes wrong.

I no longer have control of the previous vCenter Server so if something happens I'm not sure where to go from there.

Have you ever done something like that? Adding a host to a cluster without disassociating it with its current vCenter Server? Let alone not disassociating it with its current cluster.