vCenter sizing

[Hooman201110141]

Hi,

I am looking at

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-upgrade... page 19

What I am doing now is to size the environment for separate installs.

My question is this and I cannot find a reference to it:

If I am planning to separate the inventory service server and vCenter service server what spec should I run the machines.

We have 200+ hosts per VC 4x VCs

The documents only size a VC with having inventory service and virtual centre service running on the same machine.

What I need to know is for this size environment, what should the vCenter Server size be, and should my inventory service server will have to be.

200+ hosts

vCenter Server:

vCPU: ?

Memory?

JVM Heap Setting?

Inventory Service Server:

vCPU: ?

Memory?

JVM Heap Setting?

And also what are the pros and cons for having the inventory service and vCenter service on separate and same VMs? is the full advantage/disadvantage documented somewhere?

Regards,

[Hooman201110141]

anyone?

[Kylel]

Hi Hooman,

The vCenter 5.1 whats new guide has this to say about the Inventory Service:

vCenter Inventory Service

vCenter Server responsiveness is one of the challenges administrators face when environments grow. This can

be the effect of multiple client connections to the vCenter server. Active vSphere Client connections, idle

connections such as a session that a client has left open, poorly written scripts and so on impact performance of

the vCenter server. With vSphere 5.1, vCenter Inventory Service reduces direct client requests to the vCenter

server with query caching, reducing the load on core vCenter Server processes.

The main use case of the vCenter Inventory Service is to manage the vSphere Web Client inventory objects and

property queries that the client requests when users navigate the vSphere environment. The vSphere Web

Client requests only information viewed on the screen, so navigation is more efficient. In vCenter Server 5.0,

vCenter Inventory Service was a separate process. With the updated vCenter Server, it is now a separate

independent component and can be offloaded to a separate server or closer to the vSphere Web Client. This

reduces traffic and improves response times.

As for sizing, have you taken a look at the installation best practices?

KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=202120...

Full:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-install...

It lists off some of the minimum requirements when running the components seperately as well as some sizing guidelines.

Hope this points you in the right direction,

Kyle.

[Hooman201110141]

Hi and thank you for your response, I have read the documents hence we are taking the path of changing our environment and I believe this will be the strategy for other companies who do have 200+ hosts per vCenter Server. I wanted to know if anyone else has separated and seen any pros and cons (and if it has actually been documented, eg if you do separate your services processing is improved by x amount and there are cons such as introducing a network layer and what negatives that can have in the environment) I would assume VMware to be producing such documents as they must have ran stress tests and quality tests, but I cannot find any referring documents.

I am also not looking for a minimum spec and am looking for actual sizing, the Minimum spec which is documented only takes into account vCenter Servers with less than 100 hosts attached. Or it has a reference that takes into account vCenter and inventory service being in one server and suggests sizing, but it doesn’t show the actual sizing if you have the services separated.