vcenter Server 6.0: Deep Dive Nick Marshall Integration Architect 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Who is this guy? Nick Marshall Author: Mastering vsphere Blog: NickMarshall.com.au Twitter: @NickMarshall9 Community: AutoLab, vbrownbag CONFIDENTIAL
Agenda vcenter 6 Enhancements Platform Services Controller vcenter Server Install vcenter Server Upgrade vsphere Web Client 6.0 vcenter Performance and Scalability vcenter Availability Reference Architectures CONFIDENTIAL
vcenter 6 Enhancements
vcenter Server 6.0 Platforms Metric Windows Appliance Hosts per VC 1,000 1,000 Powered on VMs per VC 10,000 10,000 Hosts per cluster 64 64 VMs per cluster 8,000 8,000 Linked Mode 5
Linked Mode vsphere 5.5 vsphere 6.0 Windows Yes Yes Appliance No Yes Single Inventory View Yes Yes Single Inventory Search Yes Yes Replication Technology Microsoft ADAM Native Roles & Permissions Yes Yes Licenses Yes Yes Policies No Yes Tags No Yes CONFIDENTIAL 6
Platform Services Controller
VMware Platform Services 5.0 No Platform Services 5.1 and 5.5 1 VM/Host SSO Web IS Single Sign-On (SSO) 2 VMs/Hosts 5.1 1 st release of platform services (SSO 1.0) 5.5 2 nd release of platform services (SSO 2.0) SSO Web IS 4 VMs/Hosts SSO Web IS CONFIDENTIAL 8
VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC) Platform Services Controller Platform Services Controller Platform Services Controller No longer just Single Sign-On We re adding additional services Platform Services Controller includes a set of common infrastructure services that are used by the vcloud Suite (vcenter, vcac, vcops, etc) Single Sign-On (SSO) Licensing Certificate Authority Certificate Store Service (Product) Registration Other Services will be added in future releases Platform Services Controller supports data replication CONFIDENTIAL 9
Recommended vsphere 6.0 Deployment Models vcenter Server with Embedded PSC Sufficient for most environments. Easiest to deploy and maintain Multiple standalone instances supported Replication between embedded instances not supported Supports Windows & Appliance vcenter Server Platform Services Controller vcenter Server Host or VM vcenter Server with External PSC Recommend this if deploying/growing to multiple vcenter instances that need to be linked SSO Platform Server Services Web Client Controller Reduces footprint by sharing Platform Services Controller across several vcenter Servers Supports Windows & Appliance vcenter Server 6.0 vcenter Server 6.0 vcenter Server 6.0 CONFIDENTIAL 10
vcenter Server Install
vcenter Server Install vcenter Server Installer Windows vcenter Server Installer Appliance CONFIDENTIAL 12
vcenter Server Install For Windows One installer Choose deployment type All input up front & validated Custom Paths/Ports Pre-Check functionality Scripted Install for Advanced Administrators CONFIDENTIAL 13
vcenter Server Appliance Install New Guided Install Choose deployment type All input up front & validated Pre-Check functionality Scripted Install for Advanced Administrators CONFIDENTIAL 14
vcenter Server Upgrade
vcenter Server Upgrade Supported Paths Platform vcenter 4.x vcenter 5.0 vcenter 5.1 vcenter 5.5 Windows vcenter Yes (Multi-step upgrade: 4.x-to-5.x-to-6.0) Yes Yes Yes vcsa No No Yes (5.1 U3 onwards only) Yes CONFIDENTIAL 16
vcenter Server Upgrade: vcenter 5.0 to vcenter 6.0 5.0 6.0 To Embedded PSC vcenter PSC 5.0 To External PSC (pre-requisite: PSC must exist) 6.0 Step 1: Install PSC Step 2: Upgrade 5.0 to RC vcenter PSC CONFIDENTIAL 17
vsphere Web Client 6.0 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
1 9 vsphere Web Client The Solution Single Platform Support (Windows) vsphere Web Client is Platform Agnostic (sort of) Scalability Limits Built to handle thousands of objects White Screen of Death Performance Inconsistent look and feel across VMware solutions Extensibility Workflow Lock Pause current task and continue later right where you left off Browser Behavior Upgrades Upgrade a Single server side component
Putting tasks back in their place Before After Problem: Hard to troubleshoot using Recent Tasks due to limited screen real estate. Fix: Display more information by moving Recent Tasks to the bottom of the screen. 20
Dockable UI (customizable UI) Default 6.0 Customized for more workspace Problem: Workspace (or another pane) needs to be wider to display more information, or panes need to be Fix: Customizable UI. Every pane but the central work space can be dragged like a window to different locations 21
Making right-click work like it did before Before After Problem: Too slow to navigate to frequent actions. Fix: Flatten the right-click menus, make them closer to Windows Client 22
Improving Lateral Navigation Home menu Problem: Lots of up and down navigation via Home. Fix: Add menu for navigation across functions. 23
vcenter Performance and Scalability
Performance and Scalability in vsphere 6.0 Significant Performance Improvements in vcenter 6.0 Increase in supported cluster size: 64 hosts and 8000 VMs Improvements in operational latencies (up to 10x) Improvements in concurrency (up to 2x throughput improvements) Feature/Performance Parity between Windows and Embedded vcenter Appliance Upto 2 X improvements in average page response times through the Web client for typical user actions such as Navigation, Settings, and Action-Menu CONFIDENTIAL 25
Milliseconds Performance Improvements (vsphere Client) 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 vsphere 5.5 vsphere 6.0 - Problem: Everything is slow. Fix: Performance improvements made in as many common actions as possible 26
vcenter Server Availability
Options for protecting vcenter Backup (VDP / Third Party VADP) Database Clustering (RAC / WSFC) VMware HA Hardware failure Guest OS failure VMware SMP-FT Hardware Failure Relevant to vcenter sizes of 4 vcpu and below Windows Server Failover clustering for protecting vcenter server services Multiple PSC instances with a load balancer 28
Deployment Modes
Configuration #1 Embedded Deployment Model vcenter Server Host OS Embedded Platform Services Controller Sufficient for most environments. Easiest to deploy and maintain Multiple standalone instances supported Replication between embedded instances not supported Supports Windows & Appliance 30
Configuration #2 External Deployment Model Local PSC High Availability External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS vcenter Server vcenter Server Host OS Replicating Load Balancer External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS vcenter Server vcenter Server Host OS Multiple PSC nodes locally vcenter interacts with the PSCs through a load balancer vcenter instances are clustered with WSFC PSCs replicate state information between them 31
Configuration #3 External Deployment Model Multiple Site PSC and vcenter Server Los Angeles New York Miami Common SSO Domain External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS vcenter Server vcenter Server Host OS vcenter Server vcenter Server Host OS vcenter Server vcenter Server Host OS By Default Each site is independent PSC automated replication Site awareness Enhanced Linked Mode Facilitated via Platform Services Controller Maintains single management point Works in Windows and VCVA Replicates Licenses, permissions, tags and roles CONFIDENTIAL 32
Configuration #4 External Deployment Model Multiple Site PSC and vcenter Server with High Availability Los Angeles New York Miami Common SSO Domain External Platform Services Controller External Platform PSC Host OS Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller External Platform PSC Host OS Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller External Platform PSC Host OS Services Controller PSC Host OS Load Balancer Load Balancer Load Balancer Clustered vcenter Server Clustered vcenter vcenter Server Server Host OS vcenter Server Host OS vcenter Clustered Server vcenter Clustered Server vcenter vcenter Server Host OS vcenter Server Server Host OS vcenter Server Host OS Clustered vcenter Server Clustered vcenter vcenter Server Host OS vcenter Server Host OS Setup Each site configured then populated with at least two PSCs vcenters are clustered with WSFC for availability Load balancer is required at each site to provide PSC high availability CONFIDENTIAL 33
Configuration #5 External Deployment Model Local Windows vcenter Server High Availability External Platform Services Controller (VM) Node 1 Replicating External Platform Services Controller (VM) Node 2 Windows Server Failover Cluster (VPXD) vcenter Server (VM1) Node 1 vcenter Server (VM1) Node 2 Windows Server Failover Cluster (VCDB) SQL Server (VM1) Node 1 SQL Server (VM1) Node2 Leverages Windows Server Failover Cluster (previously MSCS) Protects vcenter Services and Databases separately Requires two physical RDM disks that are shared between the primary and standby nodes RDM uses separate SCSI controller with bus sharing enabled Multiple Platform Services Controllers for resilience 34
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