Vcenter server physical or virtual

[belanger74]

Hi,

What's the best pratice for Vcenter. Install on physical server or virtual server?

Please a need benefic and disadvantage for those solution.

Thanks

[bulletprooffool]

vCentre on a VM is fully virtualised, but you have to be careful of one gotcha - If you have network /power issues and all your hosts go down, you will need to know which one was hosting the VM, so that you can start the vCentre as quickly as possible . . in order to manage the recovery of the rest of the site.

In addition, you will also need to know where your SQL server is located.

If you want to virtualise it, consider the VM Heartbeat Monitor, or FT or atleast setting rules to keep the vCentre in one location.

Personally, I prefer hosting the VC on a physical box.

[belanger74]

If i chose physical vcenter and i have a recovery site. I need to have a physical vcenter in recovery site to?

If a modify my vcenter i have to modify manualy in recovery site?

Thanks

[cnetbuild1]

If the host hosting vCenter suddently drops, you'll loose HA. All the guests on that host will not restart on a new host. I recommend doing a risk analysis to see whether or not this would be a significant problem.

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

>

If the host hosting vCenter suddently drops, you'll loose HA. All the guests on that host will not restart on a new host. I recommend doing a risk analysis to see whether or not this would be a significant problem.

This information is incorrect. vCenter is ONLY needed initially to configure HA and that's it. HA will function without vCenter being present. You will not be able to use DRS, but in the event of a Host failure, HA will still function.

A benefit or running vCenter as a VM is just that, in the event of an HA event your vCenter host server will be restarted on another host in the cluster. I think it all comes down to what you are confortable with. We have both physical and virtual vCenter instances and both work great.

[belanger74]

I not sure I understand your point. The HA need vCenter to work?If my Vcenter is down HA don't work? It's the same problem for HA if my vcenter are physical or virtual.

[Troy_Clavell]

cnetbuild1s information is not correct

[belanger74]

Thank, its more logical like that.

[bulletprooffool]

No,

vCentre is only required for the initial configuration of HA - once HA is enabled, all hosts carry all required config for HA to operate . . even if the VC is down

[belanger74]

If i have a recevory site and I have a physical vcenter server in my primary site. Does I need a physical server in recovery site to? And if i modify vcenter primary site, i need to do manuelly in the recovery site vcenter or i can synchronise the vcenter together?

[gemona]

Troy:

you mentioned that you have both physical and virtual VCs. Do you run them in a cluster ? or one's active and the other is on hot standby. If the later what steps would you take to bring the hot standby to becoming the active VC server in the case of the active VC server not functioning?

In our environment, we have a physical VC server. I am looking to have a simple backup/redundancy solution to this design. I'd like to put a VC ( and the db ) in one VM as a standby with some kind of database replication happening regularly between the db in the active VC server to the DB in the VM.

Can this be done ? If so what other configuration changes I need to make so that the standby can act as the active when required ?

Thanks in advance

-M