© 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
Nick Marshall
Integration Architect
Who is this guy?
Nick Marshall
– Author: Mastering vSphere
– Blog: NickMarshall.com.au
– Twitter: @NickMarshall9
– Community: AutoLab, vBrownBag
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
vCenter Server 6.0 Platforms
5
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
CONFIDENTIAL 6
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
VMware Platform Services
IS SSO Web 1 VM/Host 2 VMs/Hosts IS Web SSO IS SSO Web 4 VMs/HostsSingle Sign-On (SSO)
5.1 – 1st release of platform services (SSO 1.0)
5.5 – 2nd release of platform services (SSO 2.0)
5.1 and 5.5
5.0
No Platform Services
VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC)
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 9 Platform Services Controller Platform Services Controller Platform Services Controller CONFIDENTIAL
Recommended vSphere 6.0 Deployment Models
CONFIDENTIAL 10
Platform Services Controller
vCenter Server Host or VM
vCenter Server vCenter Server 6.0 SSO Server Web Client Platform Services Controller vCenter Server 6.0 vCenter Server 6.0
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 with External PSC
• Recommend this if deploying/growing to multiple vCenter instances that need to be linked
• Reduces footprint by sharing Platform Services Controller across several vCenter Servers
vCenter Server Install
CONFIDENTIAL
vCenter Server Installer
Appliance
vCenter Server Installer
Windows
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
vCenter Server Appliance Install
New Guided Install
Choose deployment
type
All input up front &
validated
Pre-Check
functionality
Scripted Install for
Advanced
Administrators
vCenter Server Upgrade Supported Paths
CONFIDENTIAL
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
vCenter Server Upgrade: vCenter 5.0 to vCenter 6.0
5.0
6.0
6.0
5.0
vCenter PSCTo External PSC
(pre-requisite: PSC must exist)
Step 1: Install PSC
vCenter PSC
To Embedded PSC
Step 2: Upgrade 5.0 to RC
© 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.
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
1 9
Putting tasks back in their place
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)
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
Default 6.0 Customized for more workspace
Making right-click work like it did before
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.
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
Performance Improvements (vSphere Client)
Problem: Everything is slow.
Fix: Performance improvements made in as many common actions as
possible 26
Mill
ise
cond
s
500 1,000 1,500 2,000 vSphere 5.5 vSphere 6.0Options 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
Configuration #1 – Embedded Deployment
Model
Sufficient for most environments. Easiest to deploy and maintain
Multiple standalone instances supported
Replication between embedded instances not supported
Supports Windows & ApplianceHost OS Embedded Platform Services Controller vCenter Server 30
Configuration #2 – External Deployment Model
Local PSC High Availability
Multiple PSC nodes locally
vCenter interacts with the PSCs through a load balancer
vCenter instances are clustered with WSFC
PSCs replicate state information between themvCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller Load Balancer
vCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server
Replicating
CONFIDENTIAL
32 Common SSO Domain
Los Angeles New York Miami
Configuration #3 – External Deployment Model
Multiple Site PSC and vCenter ServerBy 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
PSC Host OS
External Platform Services Controller
PSC Host OS
External Platform Services Controller
PSC Host OS
External Platform Services Controller
vCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server
vCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server
vCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server
CONFIDENTIAL
33 Common SSO Domain
Los Angeles New York Miami
Configuration #4 – External Deployment Model
Multiple Site PSC and vCenter Server with High AvailabilitySetup
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
PSC Host OS
External Platform Services Controller
PSC Host OS
External Platform
Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller
PSC Host OS
External Platform
Services Controller PSC Host OS External Platform Services Controller
PSC Host OS
External Platform Services Controller
Load Balancer Load Balancer Load Balancer
vCenter Server Host OS
Clustered vCenter Server
vCenter Server Host OS
Clustered vCenter
Server vCenter Server Host OS
vCenter Server
vCenter Server Host OS
Clustered vCenter Server
vCenter Server Host OS
Clustered vCenter
Server vCenter Server Host OS Clustered vCenter
Server
vCenter Server Host OS
Clustered vCenter Server
Configuration #5 – External Deployment Model
Local Windows vCenter Server High Availability 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
Windows Server Failover Cluster (VCDB) SQL Server (VM1) Node 1 SQL Server (VM1) Node2 Windows Server Failover Cluster (VPXD) vCenter Server (VM1) Node 1 vCenter Server (VM1) Node 2 External Platform Services Controller (VM) Node 1 External Platform Services Controller (VM) Node 2 Replicating 34
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