Reposting my latest Blog entry from the VMware Consulting Blog:
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As a member of VMware Global Technology and Professional
Services at VMware I get the privilege of being able to work with products prior
to release. This not only gets me familiar with the changes but allows for me
to be able to question and figure out how the architecture will change in a
datacenter.
I have recently been working on doing exactly this with
vCenter 6.0 because of all the changes which are coming as a part of the
release. One of my favorite things about vSphere 6.0, is actually the
simplification of vCenter and associated services. Previously each individual
major service (vCenter, Single Sign-On, Inventory Service, the vSphere Web
Client, Auto Deploy, etc.) was installed as its own entity. This added complexity and uncertainty to what
the best way to architect the environment.
As of vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server installation and
configuration has been dramatically simplified. The installation of vCenter now
consists of only two components which provide all services for the virtual
datacenter. The two components are as follows:
·
Platform
Services Controller – provides infrastructure services for the
datacenter. The Platform Services Controller
contains the following services:
o
vCenter Single Sign-On
o
License Service
o
Lookup Service
o
VMware Directory Service
o
VMware Certificate Authority
·
vCenter
Services – The vCenter Server group of services provides the remainder of
the vCenter Server functionality. It
includes the following services:
o
vCenter Server
o
vSphere Web Client
o
vCenter Inventory Service
o
vSphere Auto Deploy
o
vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
o
vSphere Syslog Collector (Windows) / VMware
Syslog Service (Appliance)
When deploying vSphere 6.0 you therefore have to understand the implications of this change to properly architect the environment, whether that be a fresh installation or an upgrade. This is actually a dramatic change from previous releases, and one that is going to be sure a source of many discussions.
To help prevent confusion, along with my colleagues from
VMware Global Support and VMware Engineering, we have developed guidance on
supported architectures and deployment modes. This two part blog series will
discuss how to properly architect and deploy vCenter 6.0.
vCenter Deployment Modes
There are two basic architectures which can be used when
deploying vSphere 6.0. The deployment
modes are as follows:
- vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller – This mode installs all services on the same virtual machine or physical server as vCenter Server. This is ideal for small environments, or if simplicity and reduced resource utilization are key factors for the environment. The configuration looks as follows:
- vCenter Server with an External Platform Services Controller – This mode installs the platform services on a separate system to vCenter services. The platform services must be installed first as it is a prerequisite for vCenter to be installed. This is ideal for larger environments, where there is a need for single pane of glass in the environment and there are multiple vCenter Servers in the same site. The configuration looks as follows:
Choosing an architecture to be used is critical as once
the model is chosen, it is difficult to change and configuration limits could
limit the scalability of the environment.
Enhanced Linked Mode
As a result of these architectural changes Platform
Services Controllers can be linked together.
This enables a single pane of glass view of any vCenter server which has
been configured to use the Platform Services Controller domain. This feature is
called Enhanced Linked Mode and is a replacement for Linked Mode, which was a
construct which could only be used with vCenter for Windows. The recommended
configuration when using enhanced linked mode is to use an external platform
services controller.
Note: Although using embedded Platform Services
Controllers and enabling Enhanced Linked Mode can technically be done, it is
not a recommended configuration. See List of Recommended topologies for
vSphere 6.0 (2108548) for further details.
The following are the recommended and not recommended
options for Enhanced Linked Mode configurations:
- Enhanced Linked Mode with an External Platform Services Controller with No HA (Recommended)
In this case the Platform
Services Controller is configured on a separate virtual machine and then the
vCenter Servers are then joined to that domain, providing the Enhanced Linked
mode functionality. The configuration looks like the following:
There are benefits and drawbacks
to this approach. The benefits include:
·
Less resources consumed by the combined
services.
·
More vCenter instances are allowed.
·
Single-Pane of glass management of the
environment
The drawbacks include the
following:
·
Network connectivity loss between vCenter and
the Platform Service Controller can cause outages of the services
·
More Windows licenses required (if on a Windows
Server)
·
More Virtual Machines to Manage
·
Outage on the Platform Services Controller will
cause an outage for all vCenter Servers connected. High availability not included in this design
·
Enhanced
Linked Mode with an External Platform Services Controller with HA (Recommended)
In this case the Platform
Services Controllers are configured on separate virtual machines and configured
behind a load balancer to provide high availability to the configuration. The vCenter Servers are then joined to that
domain using the shared Load Balancer IP address which provides the Enhanced
Linked mode functionality, but is resilient to failures. The configuration
looks like the following:
There are benefits and drawbacks
to this approach. The benefits include:
·
Less resources consumed by the combined
services.
·
More vCenter instances are allowed.
·
Platform Services Controller configuration
Highly Available
The drawbacks include the
following:
·
More Windows licenses required (if on a Windows
Server)
·
More Virtual Machines to Manage
·
Enhanced
Linked Mode with Embedded Platform Services Controllers (Not Recommended)
In this case vCenter is
installed win an embedded configuration on the first server. Subsequent installations are then configured
in embedded mode but joined to an existing Single Sign-On domain.
Linking embedded platform
services controllers is possible but it is not a recommended
configuration. It is preferred to have
an external configuration for the platform services controller.
The configuration looks like the
following:
·
Combination
Deployments (Not Recommended)
In this case there is a
combination of embedded and external platform services controller
architectures.
Linking an embedded platform
services controller and an external platform services controller is possible
but it is not a recommended configuration.
It is preferred to have an external configuration for the platform
services controller.
As an example, the following
depicts one such scenario:
·
Enhanced
Linked Mode using only an Embedded Platform Services Controller (Not Recommended)
In this case there is an
embedded platform services controller and vCenter Server linked with an
external standalone vCenter Server.
Linking a second vCenter Server
to an existing embedded vCenter Server and platform services controller is
possible but it is not a recommended configuration. It is preferred to have an external
configuration for the platform services controller.
As an example, the following
depicts one such scenario:
Part 2 of this blog post will discuss the different platforms for vCenter, High Availability and different deployment recommendations.
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