Provider Virtual Datacenters and ESXi Compute Clusters

[TheVMinator]

I have 5 ESXi compute clusters, each with 10 ESXi servers in them.  Can I have more than one Provider Virtual Datacenter for a single ESXi Compute Cluster?

[cfor]

Best practices say no, but you can.  When creating a provide vdc you are asked for a resource pool - most the time the cluster is selected, but if you have pre-created resource pools on this cluster you can select those.

[TheVMinator]

OK thanks.  So I would always have a one-to-one relationship then between one provider virtual datacenter and one compute cluster resource pool?

[cfor · Accepted solution]

A provider virtual datacenter (pVDC) links to one resource pool in a standard simple setup.  Many times that resource pool is the ROOT resource pool of a cluster, but it does not have to be.

You can expand your pVDC with "elastic pVDC" and link the provider to multiple resource pools (careful with this, you can't just move resources from one to the other to release one later)

[TheVMinator]

OK thanks