VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat – Overview

Why is VMware vCenter Availability Important? What Needs to be Protected? Protecting vCenter Server with vCenter Server Heartbeat Agenda

Virtual Datacenter Operating System vCenter Infrastructure Management ProvisioningConfigurationCapacityOperationsPerformanceAvailability SLA Driven Management Model AvailabilitySecurityPerformance 99.99%High.2 Milli- seconds Self Service Management Self Service Portal Service Catalog Billing/ Chargeback

What is VMware vCenter Server?

vCenter Server: A Key Infrastructure Component A universal hub for virtualization management

How Do You Use vCenter Server? Monitor cluster, host and VM performance Manage VM and host provisioning Patch and update hosts and VMs Configure and operate VMotion, DRS and HA Provision and manage a VDI environment Manage disaster recover plans

Impact of vCenter Server Downtime ComponentImpact Experienced Virtual Machines Management requires direct connections to host; can’t provision new VMs from templates ESX ServersManagement requires direct connections to host Performance & Monitoring Statistics Historical records will have gaps during outages, still available via ESX Servers VMotion / Storage VMotionUnavailable VMware DRSUnavailable vCenter Plug - InsUnavailable VMware HAHA failover works, admission control unavailable VMware VDICannot provision new desktop instances

Why is VMware vCenter Availability Important? What Needs to be Protected? Protecting vCenter Server with vCenter Server Heartbeat Agenda

Determining a Strategy Define the Scope of Protection Desired Which is most important? Local high availability for hardware/network failures? Protecting application integrity and uptime against all types of threats? Remote disaster recovery for large scale, site-wide outages? What is the recovery time objective? Need to base this on what functionality is unavailable during vCenter Server outage

How Do You Protect vCenter Server Today? No protection Keep a backup copy archived Cold standby Clustering VMware HA

Protecting vCenter Server vCenter ServerDatabase Server VI Services VI Inventory Database Server Standard DR Solution Standby vCenter Server Primary Replication of state files

What is required to restore vCenter functionality? vCenter Server is an almost stateless application Data stored in the vCenter database is the most critical resource Following data is necessary to restore the vCenter functionality (with intact database) vCenter server IP Address DNS name for ODBC connection License files for the License Manager Server Security Certificates vCenter Configuration file vCenter Plug-in data Customized data from upgrade directory (if applicable)

Cold Standby Recovery Procedure: Simple, Slow Able to assign primary’s IP to standby? Maintain separate up to date copy of local configuration files Install fresh vCenter instance Install config files; connect to standby DB Disaster! ESX Server hosts reconnect automatically Run script to reconnect all ESX Server hosts Done yes no

Warm Standby Recovery Procedure: Complex, Faster Able to assign primary’s IP to standby? Keep local configuration files synchronized between primary and standby Disaster! ESX Server hosts reconnect automatically Run script to reconnect all ESX Server hosts Done yes no Faster end-to-end recovery (RTO) Also allows for scripting and automation Replication of configuration files through host-based replication or backup tools

Why is VMware vCenter Availability Important? What Needs to be Protected? Protecting vCenter Server with vCenter Server Heartbeat Agenda

Solutions for Protecting vCenter Server vCenter downtime greatly impacts productivity of VI Administrators However, several options can be used to mitigate the potential for vCenter Server downtime The solution of choice will depend on level of protection desired and recovery point objectives. VMware SolutionsThird-Party Solutions  VMware HA  VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat  Backup  Clustering  Host Replication

vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Active Passive vCenter Heartbeat vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Replicated licenses & roles ESXi ESX ESXi ESX vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server vCenter Server Protecting vCenter Server Against Downtime Threats VMware HA Linked Mode provides visibility across multiple vCenter Servers (coming in 2009) VMware HA protects a virtualized vCenter Server against hardware and OS downtime Heartbeat provides broad failover protection for vCenter Server against all types of planned or unplanned downtime

Introducing VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat  Extends availability for the vCenter Server platform Add-on to vCenter Server protects critical components of the infrastructure Deep awareness of all vCenter Server components Simple configuration and deployment Replicates all data and transactions to a standby server Failover of the application and database over the LAN or WAN

Introducing VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat  Best-of breed-technology VMware has selected Neverfail to provide the underlying technology Proven technology supports SQL, Exchange, Blackberry availability vCenter Server Heartbeat is a VMware product and fully supported by VMware

vCenter Server Heartbeat Hardware Failures Network Failures OS Failures Application Failures vCenter Server vCenter Server Heartbeat

vCenter Server Heartbeat Architecture Software Based Solution Providing: Paired Servers with Shared Nothing Architecture Active/Passive clone Hardware Agnostic Physical & Virtual Support Application Awareness (AMF) Hardware and Software Redundancy Automated Failover Planned Maintenance Network Monitoring Low Bandwidth Module

Comparing vCenter Server Heartbeat Host Replication Heartbeat WAN failoverPartialYes Hardware & OS failuresYes Protects vCenter Server components NoYes Network failuresNoYes Configuration AgnosticYes ComplexityMedium-HighLow Deeper more granular protection than other solutions

vCenter Server Heartbeat: Defense in Depth Breadth of workloads supported Depth of HA protection Specific All Hardware/OS Complete VMware HA vCenter Heartbeat Replication Clustering

Summary: Why vCenter Server Heartbeat?  High availability for VC is growing in importance for customers running VMware in production Underlying infrastructure needs to be fully protected HA provides robust general-purpose protection of virtualized workloads Need to protect against configuration errors, network failures, OS failures, database failures with WAN failover support Many customers run vCenter Server on a physical server Other solutions are expensive, complex and lack app awareness, support for database, WAN failover Customers have been asking for a VMware solution that provides more granular availability for vCenter Server

Introducing VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat  Extends availability for the vCenter Server platform Announce at VMworld Europe, GA in mid-March Add-on to vCenter Server protects critical components of the infrastructure Deep awareness of the vCenter Server components Failover of the application and database over the LAN or WAN  Best-of breed-technology VMware has signed an agreement to license the technology for Heartbeat and sell it as a VMware product Proven technology supports SQL, Exchange, Blackberry availability VMware will provide training and support as with any other VMware product Neverfail provides underlying technology and updates, as well as support for field, channel and GSS enablement

Questions?

Backup Slides

VMware HA for vCenter Server Availability  This section discusses how HA can be used for vCenter Server availability

Solutions for Protecting vCenter vCenter downtime greatly impacts productivity of VI Administrators However, several options can be used to mitigate the potential for vCenter downtime The solution of choice will depend on level of protection desired and recovery point objectives. VMware SolutionsThird-Party Solutions  VMware HA  VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat  Backup  Clustering  Host Replication

vCenter with VMware HA: Out-of-Band Two approaches Two vCenter instances manage each other (pictured) Both run in HA cluster Each manages the other’s HA cluster Separate vCenter instance is used to manage 2-node HA cluster (not pictured) vpxd

vCenter with VMware HA: In-Band vCenter Server manages the VMware HA cluster providing its protection When the ESX hosts with vCenter VM fails, VM is restarted automatically by HA Failover functionality provided by HA is independent from vCenter (post-configuration) vpxd

Comparing Solutions: VMware HA and Clustering VMware HA Clustering WAN failoverNo Hardware & OS failuresYes Protects vCenter Server components DatabaseDatabase via clustering Network failuresNoYes Configuration AgnosticYesNo ComplexityLowHigh