introduction
previously : we have discussed how to manage ESXI server
and we mentioned that the good tool is vsphere web client like https://172.16.100.151
but also we mentioned that the great and magic tool is to use Vcenter
so … what is Vcenter ?
vCenter Server is an application that enables you to manage your vSphere infrastructure from a centralized location.
It acts as a central administration point for ESXi hosts and their respective virtual machines.
previously vCenter was installed as windows application in microsoft windows , but this require us more cost like :
- server hardware cost
- windows server license
- SQL database license
- license for vCenter application it self
to save that cost :
- Vmware has developed linux distribution called photon OS
- and make as virtual machine VM inside ESXI called VCSA [vCenter Server Appliance ]
- then create vCenter as linux application rather than windows application
- and use free Database called vPostgres
A single vCenter Server instance can support a maximum of :
- 1,000 ESXI hosts,
- 10,000 powered-on virtual machines and
- 15,000 registered virtual machines.
vCenter capabilities
vCenter Server has many advanced vSphere features, including but NOT limited to :
Vmotion :
- enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another
- Live migration of virtual machines enables companies to perform hardware maintenance without scheduling downtime and disrupting business operations.
Storage vMotion.
- enables the live migration of running virtual machines HDD from one Data Store to another
vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) :
- DRS works with Vmotion to provide automated resource optimization and virtual machine placement and migration
- simply is ESXI host get busy then vcenter will automatically move some VMs from that ESXI to another free ESXI server
High Availability HA :
- if one ESXI server go down for any reason [hardware failure or software , or even power outage ] : vcenter will ask other server to run VMs until that back online
FT Fault Tolerance
- In HA : VM downtime will be short time [from seconds to minutes : typically 3minutes ]
- While in Fault tolerance FT à VM downtime =0 second which required in critical servers environments
- this concept make two copy of same VM that running on different ESXI servers =
Vcenter Components packages
- vCenter Single Sign-On
- VMware vCenter™ Single Sign-On is a critical component of the vCenter Server environment because it provides secure authentication services to many of the vSphere components. vCenter Single Sign-On constructs an internal security domain (vsphere.local) where vSphere solutions and components are registered during installation or upgrade
- vSphere Web Client
- The VMware vSphere Web Client was introduced with vSphere 5.0 and had limited appeal due to the lack of administrative capability.
- Also vSphere client could be installed from ESXI web site
- vCenter Inventory Service The VMware vCenter Inventory Service
- is a caching component used to enhance vSphere Web Client responses to queries by removing the performance tax associated with communicating directly against the already busy core Vcenter processes
- vCenter Server Database
- The database is a key component of the vCenter Server architecture.
- Every call to the vCenter Server instance invokes a communication with the vCenter Server database.
- For this reason, database performance is key to maintaining an acceptable response time.
- The vCenter Server database is the central storage location of almost all vCenter Server configuration parameters (15 percent of database size) as well as the storage location of all statistics and historical data (85 percent of database size)
- vCenter Server
- The vCenter Server component is the central component for managing and optimizing a vSphere environment.
- It provides management and monitoring of multiple vSphere hosts and it also enables essential virtualization technologies such as
- VMware vSphere vMotion®
- and VMware vSphere High Availability (vSphere HA).
- Vcenter Server is dependent on all components listed here and is the “brain” of the management framework within the VMware vCloud® Suite
- Vcenter Server Desktop Client
- The Vcenter Server desktop client has been the de facto standard client used for administrating and managing many previous vSphere releases. As vSphere environments evolved with inclusion of hundreds if not thousands of objects, the desktop client has not been able to scale to meet these demands
- Has been retired
- vSphere update Manger VUM
- enable centralized automated patch for all vSphere components
- require Vcenter installed
- require 32bit Database à we have to create new SQL service for VUM
- VSphere ESXI dump collector
- VSphere Syslog Collector
- Enable mechanism for system logging and network logging
- Collect logs from multiple hosts
- VSphere auto deploy
- Enable to deploy ESXI host faster and efficiency without need to create custom installation script
- VSphere authentication proxy
- Enable ESXI hosts to join domain without active directory credential –.which enhance security
- Require IIS port 80 à couldn’t be installed with Vcenter server
- VSphere host agent pre-update checker
- Ensure vSphere agent is ready for upgrade à by check
- Host is reachable
- Enough disk space
- Network is functioning
- Require patches are applied
- File system is ready prepared
- vCenter certificate automation tools
- Command utility that automate the replacement of default certificate from CA
vCenter & (PSC) Platform Services Controller
VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC) is a new service in vSphere 6 that handles the infrastructure security…
including but NOT limited to
- Vcenter Single Sign-On
- licensing,
- certificate management VMCA à which like [Microsoft CA ]
- authentication [with AD]
- Server reservation.
- Permissions à [RBAC]
in the first installation of vCenter : we ill install one PSC as embedded of vCenter
But : > later when deep we diving inside Vcenter : we will have separate article about PSC and how :
- distribute PSC across the network
- secure PSC
- make HA of PSC
Conclusion
this was small brief article about great vCenter
next articles : we will talk about [ vCenter deployment best practice ] vs [basic installation ]
then we will see how to install one vcenter on ESXI host as VCSA [vcenter server appliance ]
and how to use vCenter to manage vSphere environment
