Questions about VirtualCenter server location

[policeman51]

Hi,

We have been testing VMware for about 6 months now and we're finally ready to go in production. We currently have 2 datacenters and we're starting in the smaller office. Not sure the WAN connection speed between the to, but it's adequite enought to run Cisco CallManager across.

My question is Dell says we only need on VirtualCenter Server (vCenter Server) at our main site. I understand that VirtualCenter can control up 200 ESX hosts (with VC 2.5 which we are running). I was just wondering is a standard practice that most people do, just have 1 VirtualCenter server? I was just worried about latency when creating VMs, scanning LUNs, etc.

Also, we'd be running a VCB server at the 2nd site with the ESX hosts. Is it still viable to have the 1 VirtualCenter Server at a remote site?

Basically, I just needed something contrete for management. The only thing I could find from VMware was from my class workbook that stated, "The bandwidth required for communications between the Virtual Center server and the hosts is very small."

Thanks for your help.

[Lightbulb · Accepted solution]

You may want to check out "Proven Practice: ROBO - Managing Remote ESX Hosts Over WAN with VirtualCenter"

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1144

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to vCenter Forum.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[policeman51]

Thanks, that is a great article.

So, not to be repetitive, but is this standard, just to have 1 vCenter server to manage all datacenters?

[Troy_Clavell]

you can have one vCenter managing all of your datacenters. It's all dependent on connectivity and licensing. If you have a bad WAN link you may get some false positives with Hosts "not responding".

We have 7 vCenter instances and it sometimes becomes a pain to know what's where. So, if all pieces are in place a single vCenter instance may make administration a tad easier.

[policeman51]

That makes sense. We only have 3 main sites that we will be virtualizing so it will probably be best to just have the 1 vCenter server as long as we can verify the WAN links.

We were just worried about lag times, especially with running backups since we will be using local VCB servers. I guess it's just a snapshot command so there's very little the vCenter is doing.

[Troy_Clavell]

yeah... The only saving grace we have with multiple vCenter instance is the vCenter Administrator Portal which allow you to do some basic VM administration.

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[policeman51]

Great, thanks so much for your help guys.

[dkraut]

I'm struggling to understand why anyone would want to use ROBO vs. a centralized vCenter?