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

Provisioning Configuration Capacity Operations Performance Availability

SLA Driven Management Model

Availability Security Performance

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

Component Impact Experienced

Virtual Machines Management requires direct connections to host; can’t provision new VMs from templates

ESX Servers Management requires direct connections to host

Performance & Monitoring Statistics

Historical records will have gaps during outages, still available via ESX Servers

VMotion / Storage VMotion Unavailable

VMware DRS Unavailable

vCenter Plug - Ins Unavailable

VMware HA HA failover works, admission control unavailable

VMware VDI Cannot 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 Server

Database Server

VI Services

VI Inventory

Database Server

Standard DR Solution

StandbyvCenter Server

Primary

Replication ofstate 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 assignprimary’s IP to

standby?

Maintain separateup to date copy oflocal configuration

files

Install freshvCenterinstance

Installconfig files; connect to

standby DB

Disaster!

ESX Server hostsreconnect

automatically

Run script to reconnectall ESX Server hostsDone

yes

no

Warm Standby Recovery Procedure: Complex, Faster

Able to assignprimary’s IP to

standby?

Keep localconfiguration files

synchronized between

primary and standby

Disaster!

ESX Server hostsreconnect

automatically

Run script to reconnectall ESX Server hostsDone

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 Solutions Third-Party SolutionsVMware HA

VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat

Backup

Clustering

Host Replication

vCenter Server

vCenter Server

vCenter Server

Active Passive

vCenter Heartbeat

vCenter Server

vCenter Server

vCenter Server

Replicated licenses & roles

ESXi ESX ESX ESXi ESXi ESXi ESX

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

NetworkFailures

OSFailures

ApplicationFailures

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are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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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 failover Partial Yes

Hardware & OS failures Yes Yes

Protects vCenter Server components

No Yes

Network failures No Yes

Configuration Agnostic Yes Yes

Complexity Medium-High Low

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 HeartbeatExtends 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 Solutions Third-Party SolutionsVMware 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

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 failover No No

Hardware & OS failures Yes Yes

Protects vCenter Server components

Database Database via clustering

Network failures No Yes

Configuration Agnostic Yes No

Complexity Low High