Vcenter 4.1: cluster it ?!

[dagn46]

Hi,

Is it possible to cluster Vcenter 4.1 (2 nodes for example) ?!

It was ok with VirtualCenter 2.5, under MSCS, but i can't see anything to do that for Vcenter 4.1 ...

Thanks

Regards

[eeg3]

Just out of curiousity, why are you clustering vCenter?

[dagn46]

For the HA (people like it ... so if we loose the service -> problem )

[eeg3]

HA on your hosts will work even if VC is down. You could virtualize vCenter and let VMware's HA/FT handle it.

[dagn46]

sorry, when i said, that wasn't the HA setting on a cluster

the high avaiblity in general LOL

[peterdabr]

VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat can be used to make vCenter highly available

Due to the cost of the Heartbeat license, I came up with my own way of making vCenter redundant. I have a warm standby vCenter server with MS SQL installed and I have SQL mirroring in synchronous mode on the vcenter database between primary vcenter a standby. The standby also have vCenter installed, but its services disabled. Failing over to the standby is a matter of bringing 'mirror' database online, moving vCenter's IP to the standby and finally starting vCenter services on the standby.

[Linjo]

Have a look at vCenter Heartbeat, that does exactly that:

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server-heartbeat/

Best regards,

Linjo

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[mark_chuman]

We had more than one vCenter clusters and moved to VMs. I am glad to see the clusters go. Upgrades were very complex on the clustered VCs.

[chadwickking · Accepted solution]

In our environment our mandate is HA or no go. Clustering is always a must... but from some odd reason this didnt apply to vcenter because it is a VM that runs in a HA Cluster. As to the heartbeat its only good for having a standby and accessible vcenter server. it doesn't MIRROR the DB which can still be a single point of failure depending on your configuration.

Some good insigts on the matter:

http://virtualfuture.info/2009/01/vmware-vcenter-sql-server-best-practices/

Official KB on the matter:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=102405...

Vmware says "yeah you can do it... but

"You may choose to protect VMware vCenter Server using third-party clustering solutions including, but not limited to, MSCS (Microsoft Cluster Services) and VCS (Veritas Cluster Services). VMware does not certify these third party solutions. VMware will provide support for any issues encountered with an environment that uses third party solutions for protecting against VMware vCenter Server downtime. However if your issue is deemed to be related to the third party clustering solution, VMware will refer to our third-party software policy."

And of course Duncan at Yellow-Bricks has something to say about this as well:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2010/07/16/mscs-clustered-vcenter-server-4-x-not-supported/

Right now Vmware HA - Heartbeat is the ONLY SUPPORTED method...

Cheers,

Chad King

VCP-410 | Server+

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cwjking

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[AndreTheGiant]

Have a look at:

Andre

[dagn46]

thanks for answers

regards