Protecting vCenter

[bbb123]

Hi,

I am designing a vSphere 5 environment and have a question regarding what to do about protecting the vCenter VM.  The vCenter will be a VM in linked mode with another one on a remote site.

Due to cost reasons we will not be using Heartbeat to protect the VC so I have another option I have thought of and would appreciate your opinion:

I intend to create a clone of the VC VM (at each site) and leave powered off until such time as the live VC fails.  I understand that the ADAM database will not be kept up to date on the clone so that will require some support to keep up-to-date (but things like licenses & roles do not change too much).

The other method could be to use MSCS to cluster the VC service, this again won't cater for the ADAM database but I assume the remote linked VC will replicate the updates if needed should the cluster fail to the other node?

Which is the best option here?

Thanks

Bob

[arturka]

Hi

Are you looking for cost free solution or low cost solution, automatic or manual ?

BTW, as far as I remember VMware does not support vCenter services on MSCS that was o vSphere 4, maybe something has changed in vSphere 5

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[bbb123]

Hi,

I have heard that MSCS is not supported as well and I'm not keen on that option.  Basically, other than heartbeat is there another low-cost / free solution to protecting VC?  Manual failover would suffice so long as it's painless!

Thanks again for your reply.

[arturka]

Hi

Low cost:

DoubleTake HA - nice solution and work well

Platespin Protect - good solution too

For both above you can get trial license

Cost Free

PWCLi scripts:  create and schedule a script which will clone your vCenter VM and keeps 2 copies (every day or every 6 hours - depend what you need)

power CLI community, place where you can find a scripts

http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/server/vsphere/automationtools/powercli

Where is your vCenter DB located on this same VM where vCenter run or it's on separate server?

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[bbb123]

Thanks for that!  I'll go with the PowerCLI scripts to enhance my solution.

The DB is located on a separate SQL cluster.

Cheers

Bob

[arturka · Accepted solution]

Thanks for that!  I'll go with the PowerCLI scripts to enhance my solution.

you are welcome, award me some points and we are good 😉

The DB is located on a separate SQL cluster.

Protect vCenter DB is much more important than vCenter instance itself.

Cheers
Artur

Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.