what happens to dvSwitch if vCenter fails?

[st3reo]

Hello,

I have a bunch of HP ProLiant DL 380 G5 servers that are going to act as ESX hosts and I also have a dedicated physical vCenter server.

All the servers have only the default 2 gigabit ethernet NICs, which for our purposes should provide enough bandwidth.

I was thinking of creating a dvSwitch to which each ESX host will connect both it's NICs...so that means..the service console and vmkernel as well, would run on the dvS.

But my question is...what would happen if the vCenter server would go down, will all the servers loose connectivity? would management access to them be lost?

Is it advisable to setup such a scenario?

Thanks,

[weinstein5]

It continues to run - it is similar to HA in that vCenter is used to manage and configure but functioning is pushed to the ESX host -

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[DSTAVERT]

The VMs would not loose connectivity and you would still be able to access the Hosts via the vSphere Client. If you need the features provided with dvSwitch then it would be of value.

[st3reo]

Ok, that's good to know.

But what if the vCenter is completely destroyed.

And a new vCenter is created..do you have to create a new dvswitch there and move all the hosts to the new one somehow...or what?

I'm asking because while testing I had a ESX host connected to a vCenter and I created a dvSwitch..and then I reinstalled the vCenter and added the ESX again and it flashed some kind of warning about that host belonging to a different dvswitch or something like that, I it only appeared for a moment when I first added it to vCenter and then dissapeared and I can't find it anywhere...but the ESX host appears in vCenter with a small yellow warning sign next to it.

[weinstein5]

If you have protected the vc database you will be able to recover the

vc environment including thedvs

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 4, 2010, at 3:54 PM, "st3reo" <communities-emailer@vmware.com

[st3reo]

ok, but what it's a complete loss..no backup.

[Kasraeian]

As I know, when you creating a dvSwitch, It's Control Plane will place on your vCenter and it's I/O Plane will place on your Hosts.

So when for any reason your vCenter goes down or losing its connectivity with the hosts, the hosts will continue their work but as long as the vCenter can't reach the Hosts, you can't make any modification or configuration on your dvSwitches.

But For Recovering your vDS configuration (Generally your vCenter), I think it would be wise to install your vCenter Database on separate Machine or get backup of your vCenter DB frequently, in case of recovery in Disaster.

Another way I think may be work in these case (at least for your vDS configuration), is "Host Profile" which will keep configuration of hosts as file and you can export them, so latter you can import it to the new vCenter.

By the way, did you checked that Yellow Warning?

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[st3reo]

Yes I guess the host profile is a good ideea, but I`ve never actually used that feature before, I`ll have to dig into it.

But one more question, If I have to reinstall the vCenter machine from scratch and I have a backup of the SQL database...what is the procedure?

I install MS SQL...create the database...restore the backup...then install vCenter and point it to that database..and it will be exactly as when the backup was made? or install vcenter with a fresh database and then restore the backup into that database? or how?

Oh and that yellow warning sign I mentioned before, well I removed the ESX from vCenter and added it again and it seems to be fine now.

Thanks,

[Kasraeian · Accepted solution]

Hello

About Host Profile, You can Find it Here, the Second bullet Under "Simplified Management" and as you see, it address the related documents.

For Backing up and Restoring your DB, You can check this link, This File (which can be find in previous link) or search it in VMTN.

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MCTS, VCP