vCenter Essentials, multi-site SSO/PSC, Enhanced Linked Mode

[Bill_Oyler]

In vCenter 6.0 with Platform Services Controller 6.0, I realize that the new "Enhanced Linked Mode" is enabled by default when you join a 2nd PSC/SSO node to an existing PSC/SSO domain.  This is great when vCenter Standard Edition is used at both sites in a multisite setup.  However, vCenter Essentials does not support Enhanced Linked Mode per VMware documentation:

"Enhanced Linked Mode requires the vCenter Server Standard licensing level, and is not supported with vCenter Server Foundation or vCenter Server Essentials."

My question is:  In the case of the Primary Site running vCenter Standard, and the DR Site running vCenter Essentials, each with their own External Platform Services Controller, does VMware support joining the two Platform Services Controllers together into a single SSO domain?  Or must they each be completely isolated into their own separate SSO domains?  The reason I ask is that using products like vSphere Replication and SRM are much easier when both sites are joined to the same SSO domain (fewer pop-ups asking for credentials).  Also, it would be nice to be able to set up "multisite" SSO in advanced, so the customer can seamlessly upgrade from vCenter Essentials to vCenter Standard in the future with just a license key swap (rather than rip and replace the PSC nodes and re-point vCenter).  However, since VMware does not support Enhanced Linked Mode with vCenter Essentials, and Enhanced Linked Mode is enabled automatically when two PSC nodes join the same SSO domain, I suspect it is not supported to do this.  Does anyone know the "official" answer on this?

Bill

[Bill_Oyler]

Just to provide a data point to those who are curious... even though I am replying to my own question from 8 months ago... I have a customer with the following setup:

Site 1:

External PSC 6.0U1

SSO Domain = vsphere.local

SSO Site = "HQ"

vCenter Standard 6.0U1

(6) ESXi 6.0U1 Standard Hosts

Site 2:

External PSC 6.0U1

SSO Domain = vsphere.local (joined to above domain)

SSO Site = "DR"

vCenter Essentials 6.0

(3) ESXi Essentials Plus Hosts

Even though I was not expecting Enhanced Linked Mode to function, it appears to function just fine, even though one of the vCenter servers is running Essentials.  There is no way to turn ON or OFF Enhanced Linked Mode in v6.0... it just works.  I don't know if this is by design or just a "happy accident" but I thought I'd share with everyone.  So it appears as though as long as you have (1) vCenter Standard license, you get Enhanced Linked Mode (unless this is a mistake that will get "fixed" by a future update ).

Bill

[jasoncain_22]

Thanks for the post. This reinforces what i've just learned.

AS long as the vCenters are in the same SSO domain, ELM will allow all vCenters to be seen. If I use the C# client, this is not the case. (only in Web client can I see all vCenters)