1. Protect vCenter Server with vCenter Server Heartbeat Deep Dive Shawn Gordon, Neverfail Donna Reineck, VMware VSVC5901 #VSVC5901

2. 2 Houston We Have a Problem! Does your IT organization proactively plan for a vCenter Server outage or will it look something like this? ??? ??? ??? 3. 3 Agenda Scope the problems How can vCenter Server Heartbeat help? Avoiding the pitfalls plan, deploy, validate Common Deployment Use Cases Troubleshooting Q&A 4. 4 Scope the Problem #1 Business Problem Does your IT Service Level Agreement (SLA) cover objectives for virtual/cloud management software? How much does it cost when : vCenter Server Single Sign-on or Inventory Service(s) crashed? Or vCenter Server Backup software missed a 4 hour window of scheduled backups on critical LOB application data because vCenter Server crashed? Or Unable to satisfy self-service workload provisioning and placement requests? 5. 5 Scope the Problem #2 Technical Problem vCloud Suite Variable RTO and RPO definitions Multi-Site and GEO deployments Delivering high availability on tight budget Choosing the right solution to handle the job can be a challenge 125 235 125 88 7 12 0 100 200 300 1 5 10 50 100 More #ofCustomer # of VCs # of Customer by # of VCs 6. 6 SSO Scope the Problem #3 vCenter Server Single Sign-on Lets talk about the elephant in the room identity services MUST be highly available, but so does the rest of vCenter services 7. 7 Downtime Impact to vCenter Integrated Solutions VMware vFabric Application Director VMware vCloud Automation Center VMware vCloud Networking and Security VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager VMware vCenter Server (SSO, HA, DRS/sDRS) VMware vCenter Orchestrator VMware Horizon View VMware Data Protection VMware Horizon View VMware Data Protection VMware vCenter Orchestrator 3rd Party Web Client Plug-ins VMware vFabric Application Director VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite VMware vCloud Automation Center VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager VMware Network and Security 8. 8 Under the Hood Single vCenter Server Downtime Impact What happens if.? 8 vCenter Server SSO Server Web Client Server Inventory Service SQL Server 1. Inventory Server crashes? No inventory view, or object management (e.g. Datacenter, clusters, hosts, VMs) 2. Single Sign-On Crashes? Solution Users and Users are impacted! 9. 9 vCenter Server Heartbeat A look inside the of vCenter Heartbeat 9 10. 10 How Can vCenter Server Heartbeat Help Solve the Problems? First things firstwhat IS vCenter Server Heartbeat? o Software-based o Hardware Agnostic o Storage Agnostic o Mirrored Pair o Fully Automated o Single & Multi-Site deployment modes 11. 11 Failure and Performance Detection Methods Built-in Heartbeat messages between primary and secondary1 Hardware & OS Failures Network Failures Application Failures Application Performance Degradation Polling default gateway, primary DNS, Global Catalog Server at regular and custom intervals 2 Window service monitoring for vCenter and its services to include SQL Server Monitor a set of performance metrics for exceeded/ expected thresholds 3 4 12. 12 How vCenter Heartbeat Works Basic View Host OS vCenter Server SSO Server Web Client Server Inventory Service Replication of applications Host OS vCenter Server SSO Server Web Client Server Inventory Service vCenter Services Replication of SQL DatabasesVC SSO VUM SSO VUM VCvCenter Inventory, Roles, Perm (Primary/Active) (Secondary/Passive) (Primary/Active) (Secondary/Passive) 13. 13 How does replication work in LAN vs. WAN? How Does vCenter Heartbeat Protect Services and Data? 14. 14 3 Strike Rule Customizable rules 3 Strike rule Recover Service (e.g. VPXd) Restart Application (e.g. vCenter) Failover (e.g. vCenter) 15. 15 More Than Just Failover.Its Peak Performance Server side and User defined tasks Out of box rules 16. 16 How do Clients Communicate with Protected Services? Clients are both users and solutions All Clients connect via the Public FQDN:IP Address Public: FQDN:IP SSO VC VUM SQL Server vCenter Heartbeat Plug-in VI Admin UI 17. 17 ButHow do I Know What Services are Protected? Installation Automated services discovery Post-Install Management Console New 18. 18 Avoiding the Pitfalls Plan, Deploy, Validate 19. 19 Avoiding the Pitfalls Planning Know your requirements High Availability (Single site) Disaster Recovery Recovery Time and Recovery Point Objectives (RTO/RPO) Gather data for new installations Choose the right installation guide (V2V, P2V, P2P) Follow the pre-install checklist KISS Can you live with the defaults? Benchmark application restart times know achievable RTO RTO constrained by solution (VC, IS, SSO, Web Client etc..) startup Leverage default application rules where possible 20. 20 Avoiding the Pitfalls Planning continued If Upgrading vCenter Server - start with vCenter Heartbeat Guide; do NOT initiate upgrade using VUM or vCenter related processes? Disaster Recovery Plan for 1Mbps or more available bandwidth for replication performance 21. 21 Avoiding the Pitfalls Deployment Best Practice #1 Avoid splitting services across host OSs and networks (LAN and WAN) that are latency sensitive under high load and scale Host OS vCenter Server SSO Server Web Client Server Inventory Service Host OS Inventory Service Host OS Inventory Service Host OS Host OS vCenter Server SSO Server Web Client Server WAN Site A Site B 22. 22 Avoid the Pitfalls Multi-Site Deployment Best Practice #2 Single vCenter Server per site protected with vCenter Heartbeat within single SSO Auth Domain vCenter Server vCenter Server Basic SSO Server Web Client Inventory Svc New York vCenter Server vCenter Server Basic SSO Server Web Client Inventory Svc Miami vCenter Server vCenter Server Basic SSO Server Web Client Inventory Svc Los Angeles 23. 23 Avoid the Pitfalls Deployment Best Practice #3 Best of both technologies vSphere HA Single Site vCenter Heartbeat Multi-Site VI Resource Cluster Site = xxxx Primary - Passive VI Resource Cluster Site = xxxx Secondary - Active WANVMware Channel Datastore Cluster Datastore Cluster VC VC 24. 24 Validation and Troubleshooting Designing vCenter Server with failure in mind 25. 25 Avoid the Pitfalls Validate! Validate! Validate! DO Automated failover Data verification Managed failover DO NOT.. Pull the channel cable Power-off 26. 26 vCenter Heartbeat Built to Ensure a Peaceful Nights Sleep Spend the upfront time on pre/post installation processes and avoid becoming a statistic Customer Service Requests (SRs) Analysis 48% of cases opened are related to Failover / Switchover issues 32% of cases opened are Installation and Setup 8% of cases opened are Upgrades 27. 27 Troubleshooting Installation Issues Channel Doesnt Connect IP Configuration Static Routing (Disaster Recovery) Windows Server Firewall Configuration Server Renaming fails to complete Excessive permission prompts Setup fails to progress Web Client Server is not set to automatic/manual 28. 28 Troubleshooting Operational Issues Channel Disconnects Managed failover Replication Stops Channel Drop MaxDiskUsage Error 29. 29 Troubleshooting MaxDiskUsage Errors 30. 30 Q&A 31. 31 References VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat Installation Guide VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat Administrators Guide VMware KB 2009860 vCenter Server Heartbeat Web Service Logs consume excessive disk space VMware KB 1008561 Troubleshooting MaxDiskUsage errors VMware KB 2017531 VMware channel fails to connect after configuring firewall ports to allow traffic VMware KB 1008556 Firewall connections causing channels to drop in VMware vCenter Heartbeat VMware KB 1008551 Troubleshooting VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat channel drops 32. 32 Other VMware Activities Related to This Session HOL: HOL-SDC-1305 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery In Action Group Discussions: BCO 1004-GD vCenter Heartbeat with Harry Smith 33. THANK YOU 34. Session Title Presenter Name, Company Presenter Name, Company Session # Twitter Hashtag