High Availability with vSphere on UCS B200 M4 / FI 6248 UP

[LMSADSA]

Hi

We are new to VMWare and a little experience with vSphere. As of now The UCS blades are configured with Microsoft HV 2016. We purchased vSphere 6.7. Our first concern is whether we need to go with 6.5 or 6.7 (Management asked to go with latest version), next is we are looking some kind of assistance / support to configure vSphere in UCS with HV (3 hosts). Hope some once can guide us

Thanks in advance

[diegodco31]

Hi,

First step is to check the compatibility:

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

What is the blade model?

[LMSADSA]

Hi

We already checked the compatibility with UCS Compatibility matrix and it's compatible. We are using 6248 UP FIs, M200 M4 blades with latest firmware 3.2.3d. So to which version of vSphere should we go. There will be 2 hosts in HA cluster.

Thanks

[RickVerstegen]

I recommend to go for the latest version 6.7. It contains new important features.

Check below blogpost to see what's new in 6.7.

Announcing the What's New in vSphere 6.7 Whitepaper - VMware vSphere Blog

Rick

[LMSADSA]

Thank You Rick. We will go with 6.7. Since we use Cisco UCS can we go ahead and download the customized version (VMware-ESXi-6.7.0-8169922-Custom-Cisco-6.7.0.1.zip) to use with UCS?

Also about the vCenter server - we need to go with VMware vCenter Server Appliance or  VMware vCenter Server for Windows?  We have 4 socket license for vSphere, so will configure 2 UCS servers in HA cluster. MS HV clusters are in place and it's easy for us to go with vCenter Server for Windows. But since HA is available with vCenter Server Appliance just we are considering that option as well. Your advice please

Thanks

[waqarmustafa]

Hi,

My recommendation is to install vCenter server appliance.

Check this blog and below links:

Introducing vCenter Server 6.7 - VMware vSphere Blog

https://www.techcrumble.net/2018/04/introducing-vsphere-6-7-whats-new-in-vcenter-server-6-7/

[LMSADSA]

Thank You

So once we install the vmWare on 2 hosts, how do we start the cluster configuration w/o vCenter. Also if we decide to go with vCenter server appliance, since we have only one HA cluster, we have to place them in the same HA cluster, is it a recommended setup?

Sorry to ask these basic questions...

[diegodco31]

You don't do the cluster configuration without of vcenter.

Recommend install the vcsa, but vcenter for windows end of life.

Farewell, vCenter Server for Windows - VMware vSphere Blog

No problem the vcenter in the same HA cluster.

Please consider marking this answer "correct" or "helpful" if you think your question have been answered correctly.

[LMSADSA]

Thanks Oliveira

Sorry for the delay, I was on emergency leave for past 2 months.

We have prepared 2 ESXi hosts with 6.7. Both the hosts have local datastore. Downloaded VCSA 6.7. Here we doubt where should we place the VM:- should we configure a new LUN (we use FC SAN) and assign to both the hosts and configure VCSA VM in shared datastore or should it be on local datastore?

We got a good article to follow up (New Walkthroughs for vCenter High Availability - VMware vSphere Blog ), so we ill go with Basic VCSA HA. Do you have any recommendation here?

Regards

[SupreetK]

Place the vCSA active and passive nodes in two different shared datastores and on two different hosts to have lesser number of single point of failures. First link will help you install the vCenter and the second link will help you setup vCHA -

Installing VMware vCenter Server 6.7 with an embedded Platform Services Controller guide – Siva Sank...​

Part 5 : VMWare VCenter 6.7 : VCenter 6.7 VCHA configuration – Siva Sankar Blogs

Configure vCenter HA for vSphere 6.7 (Basic Option) - vCallaway

Cheers,

Supreet

[LMSADSA]

Thank You Supreet.

Can we summarize the steps as below

a) Prepare 2 ESXi hosts

b) From the storage assign two LUNs (LUN1 & LUN2) to both the ESXi hosts, create & assign the datastore to each server one at a time (LUN1 to ESXi 1 & LUN2 to ESXi2)

c) Start configuring the VCSA and place the active node in LUN1 & passive in LUN2 

d) Configure cluster, HA & DRA and then configure the shared datastores LUN1 & LUN2 to both teh hosts

Is this plan looks fine?

[SupreetK]

1) Install the two ESXi hosts.

2) Present one LUN to one ESXi host, create a datastore and setup the required VMs such as AD, DNS, NTP (all these services can be put on a single VM, depending on your requirement).

3) Deploy vCenter Appliance on datastore-1.

4) Create the cluster and add both the hosts.

5) Mount the first datastore to the second host from the storage view of the Web Client.

6) Present the second LUN to both the hosts and create a datastore from the vCenter.

7) Enable HA, DRS and the required advanced settings on the cluster. In step-4, create a cluster without these options being selected.

😎 Setup vCenter High Availability, active node in datastore-1 and passive node in datastore-2.

Cheers,

Supreet

[LMSADSA]

Hello Supreet

Thanks a lot for your great support. We configured all as you mentioned. but the VCSA HA configuration failed saying it requires at least 3 ESXi hosts to complete the HA configuration. Do we have any work around to configure VCSA HA with 2 ESXi hosts?

[SupreetK]

Your query states that you have three Cisco UCS servers Anyways, you can use the below override option to deploy vCHA on only two hosts -

https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2016/11/how-to-enable-vcenter-server-high-availability-vcha-in-vsphe...

Cheers,

Supreet

[LMSADSA]

Sorry Supreet for typo. We have license for 4 sockets and thus we can use only 2 servers now.

Even though we modified the setting it fails. Anyway we will go with single VCSA.

A few doubts regarding VCSA installation & config

. migrate VCSA - VM configured on local datastore to shared datastore will provide high availability in some sense, what is best practice here and your recommendation?

. If we select Tiny model with VCSA, then should we allocate 300 GB for the LUN / datastore (thin LUN), once completed the installation where can we check the model we selected during installation (by checking VM size?)

. While installing & configuring VCSA it's asking FQDN. Usually we provide a standalone domain name like vSphere.local. Do we have to add the VCSA VM to Windows AD or do we need to provide a FQDN corresponds to DNS name as a best practice and security perspective? 

. About SSO domain name we have same doubt as VCSA VM FQDN with respect to security and best practice

Thanks in advance

[SupreetK]

Ahh!

1) Keep vCSA in the shared datastore.

2) From ESXi, we cannot check if the LUN is thick or thin provisioned. If you are asking about the provisioning type of the vCSA VM disks, you can check it by going to VM --> Right Click --> Edit Settings --> Expand the hard disk properties.

3) FQDN corresponding to the DNS name.

4) Default SSO domain vsphere.local can be used.

Cheers,

Supreet