VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat - 5.5 QuickStart Guide

QuickStart Guide

vCenter Server Heartbeat 5.5 Update 2

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EN-000205-01

QuickStart Guide

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Contents

About This Book 5

1 vCenter Server Heartbeat Introduction 7

vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection 7

Server Protection 7
Network Protection 8
Application Protection 8
Performance Protection 8
Data Protection 9

Communications 9

2 vCenter Server Heartbeat Installation 11

Overview 11
Environmental Prerequisites 11
Common Requirements 11
Server Architecture Options 12

Virtual to Virtual (V2V) 12
Physical to Virtual (P2V) 13
Physical to Physical (P2P) 13

Primary Server 13
Secondary Server 13
Software 13

Cloning Technology Options 14

Supported Pre-Clone Technologies 14
Supported Install Clone Technologies 14

Application Component Options 14

vCenter Server with SQL Server on the Same Host 14
vCenter Server with SQL Server on a Separate Host 15
vCenter Server Only 15

Network Options 15

LAN 15

Primary Server 15
Secondary Server 16

WAN 16

WAN Requirements 16
Bandwidth 17
Latency 17

Installation Process 17

Installation Options Checklist 17

Installation 18

Primary Server 18
Secondary Server 19

Post Installation Tasks 19

When Deployed in a WAN Environment 19

3 Installation Verification 21

Verifying vCenter Server Heartbeat 21

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Exercise One 21

Starting Conditions 21
Actions 22
Results 22

Exercise Two 22

Starting Conditions 22
Actions 22
Results 22

Exercise Three 23

Starting Conditions 23
Actions 23
Results 23

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About This Book

This Quick Start Guide provides an introduction to VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat. It guides you through
the steps required to install vCenter Server Heartbeat and to perform basic configuration. It provides a brief
introduction to basic administration tasks and advanced configuration features. For more information, the
guide provides pointers to other manuals.

Intended Audience

The user guide assumes a working knowledge of networks including the configuration of the TCP/IP suite of
protocols, a sound knowledge of domain administration on the Windows 2003 platform notably in Active
Directory and DNS.

Document Feedback

VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your
feedback to [e-mail].

Abbreviations Used in Figures

The figures in this book use the abbreviations listed in Tab le 1.

Table 1. Abbreviations

Abbreviation Description

Channel VMware Channel

NIC Network interface card

P2P Physical to physical

P2V Physical to virtual

V2V Virtual to virtual

SAN Storage area network type datastore

Technical Support and Education Resources

The following sections describe the technical support resources available to you. To access the current versions
of this book and other books, go to www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

Online and Telephone Support

Use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product and contract information, and
register your products. Go to www.vmware.com/support.

Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for the fastest response on
priority 1 issues. Go to www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html.

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QuickStart Guide

Support Offerings

Find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs. Go to

www.vmware.com/support/services

VMware Professional Services

VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study examples, and course materials
designed to be used as on-the-job reference tools. Courses are available onsite, in the classroom, and live
online. For onsite pilot programs and implementation best practices, VMware Consulting Services provides
offerings to help you assess, plan, build, and manage your virtual environment. To access information about
education classes, certification programs, and consulting services, go to www.vmware.com/services.

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1

vCenter Server Heartbeat Introduction

This chapter introduces vCenter Server Heartbeat and provides an overview of the vCenter Server Heartbeat
concepts. It contains the following sections:

 “vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection” on page 7

 “Communications” on page 9

vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection

vCenter Server Heartbeat is a Windows based service specifically designed to provide high availability
protection for vCenter Server configurations without requiring any specialized hardware.

Server Protection

Two instances of vCenter Server Heartbeat regularly send “I’m alive” messages and message
acknowledgments to one another over a network connection referred to as the VMware Channel to detect
interruptions in responsiveness. If the passive server detects that this monitoring process (referred to as the
heartbeat) has failed, it initiates a failover as illustrated in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1. Failover

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A failover is similar to a switchover but is used in more urgent situations, such as when the passive server
detects that the active server is no longer responding. This can occur when the active server hardware fails,
loses its network connections, or otherwise becomes unavailable. Rather than the active server gracefully
closing, the passive server determines that the active server has failed and requires no further operations. In a
failover, the passive server immediately assumes the active server role.

Network Protection

vCenter Server Heartbeat proactively monitors the active server to verify that it can communicate with the rest
of the network. vCenter Server Heartbeat polls defined nodes around the network, including the default
gateway, the primary DNS server, and the global catalog server at regular intervals. If all three nodes fail to
respond, for example, in the case of a network card failure or a local switch failure, vCenter Server Heartbeat
can initiate a switchover, allowing the Secondary server to assume an identical network identity as the Primary
server.

Application Protection

vCenter Server Heartbeat running on the active server locally monitors the applications and services it has
been configured to protect through the use of plug-ins.

If a protected application fails, vCenter Server Heartbeat first tries to restart the application on the active server
(1). If restarting the application fails, then vCenter Server Heartbeat can initiate a switchover (2).

Figure 1-2. Switchover

A switchover gracefully closes any protected applications that are running on the active server and restarts all
of them on the passive server, including the application or service that caused the failure as illustrated in

Figure 1-2.

Performance Protection

vCenter Server Heartbeat monitors application services and specific application attributes to ensure that
protected applications are operational and not in an unresponsive or stopped state. This level of monitoring is
fundamental in ensuring that applications are available to users.

In addition to monitoring application services, vCenter Server Heartbeat can also monitor specific application
attributes to ensure that they remain within normal operating ranges. Similar to application monitoring,
various rules can be configured to trigger specific corrective actions whenever these attributes fall outside of
their respective ranges.

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