Adding redundancy to vCenter on a physical server

[MariusRoma]

I implemented vCenter on a physical Windows server in order to manage a vSphere v.5 infrastructure based on 2 ESXi v.5 servers.

How can I make the vCenter redundant and fault tolerant, in order to protect it in case of failure of the Windows server?

• Can I install a second vCenter on a VM and keep it synchronized with the main vCenter?
  
• Can I add a second vCenter as a Virtual Appliance and keep it synchronized to the main vCenter?
  

As I am quite sure I am not the first asking this question, is there any document containing the best practice to make the vCenter redundant and fault tolerant?

Regards

marius

[PduPreez]

Have a look at vCenter Heartbeat

vCenter Server Heartbeat delivers high availability and disaster

recovery for vCenter Server and all of its components—including

the database and licensing server—with failover across the LAN

or WAN. The software supports physical-to-virtual (P2V),

physical-to-physical (P2P) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) failover,

Other options is to MSCS the SQL database

Or do a daily or weekly P2V of your vCenter

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[MarekZdrojewski]

Hi Marius,

This may be a little bit off-topic, but why don't you P2V your vCenter server. HA would provide necessary failover tolerance imho.

Regards.

[MariusRoma]

Is vCenter Server Heartbeat available in vSphere 5 standard and/or in vsphere 5 essentials plus or is it an add on to be purchased?

Regards

marius

[PduPreez]

Hi Marius

vCenter heartbeat is an additional application/license and not included with any bundle.

Although it might be a bit pricey for a 1VC and 2Host environment.

I would virtualize the vCenter server and set its startup priority to high.

This way you could use VDR(free) to backup your vCenter for fast recovery if needed.

If it has to stay physical I would schedule a weekly P2V of vCenter and daily SQL backups to another location.

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