VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat - 6.3 QuickStart Guide
QuickStart Guide
vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.3 Update 1
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EN-000563-01
QuickStart Guide
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Contents
About This Book 5
1 vCenter Server Heartbeat Introduction 7
vCenter Server Heartbeat Overview 7
vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection 7
Server Protection 8
Network Protection 8
Application Protection 8
Performance Protection 8
Data Protection 9
Communications 9
vCenter Server Heartbeat Communications 9
VMware Channel 9
Principal (Public) Network 9
Node Configuration 10
2 vCenter Server Heartbeat Installation 11
Overview 11
Environmental Prerequisites 11
FireWall Configuration Requirements 11
Common Requirements 12
Server Architecture 13
Application Component Options 13
vCenter Server with SQL Server on the Same Host 14
vCenter Server with SQL Server on a Separate Host 14
Network Requirements 14
Primary Server 14
Secondary Server 14
Installation Process 15
Primary Server 15
Secondary Server 19
Renaming the Servers 21
vCenter Server Heartbeat Console 22
Installation of Client Tools 22
Administering vCenter Server Heartbeat 23
Navigate vCenter Server Heartbeat Console 23
Add a vCenter Server Group 24
Add a New Connection 24
Post Installation Configuration 25
Configuring VirtualCenter Plug-in with the Correct Credentials 25
Configuring SQL Server Plug-in to run with the Correct Credentials 25
Installing the View Composer Plug-in 26
vCenter Server with SQL Server on a Separate Host 26
3 Installation Verification 27
Verifying vCenter Server Heartbeat 27
Failover Simulation 27
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Appendix – Pre-Installation Checklist 31
Starting Conditions 27
Actions 28
Results 28
Data Replication Exercise 28
Starting Conditions 28
Actions 29
Results 29
Switchover Exercise 29
Starting Conditions 29
Actions 29
Results 30
31
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About This Book
This Quick Start Guide provides an introduction to VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat and guides you through
the steps required to install vCenter Server Heartbeat in the most common environment and to perform basic
configuration. This guide also provides a brief introduction to basic administration tasks and advanced
configuration features, and provides pointers to more detailed information in other manuals.
Intended Audience
This guide assumes the reader has working knowledge of networks including the configuration of TCP/IP
protocols and domain administration on the Windows
and DNS.
VMware Technical Publications Glossary
VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions
of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
Document Feedback
VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation and invites you to send your feedback
to docfeedback@vmware.com.
™ 2003 and 2008 platforms, notably in Active Directory
Abbreviations Used in Figures
The figures in this book use the abbreviations listed in Tab le 1.
Table 1. Abbreviations
Abbreviation Description
NIC Network Interface Card
P2P Physical to Physical
P2V Physical to Virtual
V2V Virtual to Virtual
Technical Support and Education Resources
The following sections describe the technical support resources available to you. To access the current versions
of this guide and other publications, go to www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
Online and Telephone Support
Go to www.vmware.com/support to use online support to submit technical support requests, view your
product and contract information, and register your products.
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Go to www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html to find out how to use telephone support for the
fastest response on priority 1 issues (applies to customers with appropriate support contracts).
Support Offerings
Go to www.vmware.com/support/services to find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your
business needs.
VMware Professional Services
Go to www.vmware.com/services to access information about education classes, certification programs, and
consulting services. VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study examples,
and course materials designed for use 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.
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1
vCenter Server Heartbeat Introduction
This chapter introduces vCenter Server Heartbeat and provides an overview of vCenter Server Heartbeat
concepts. It contains the following sections:
“vCenter Server Heartbeat Overview” on page 7
“vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection” on page 7
“Communications” on page 9
“Node Configuration” on page 10
vCenter Server Heartbeat Overview
vCenter Server Heartbeat is a Windows based application specifically designed to provide high availability
protection for vCenter Server configurations without requiring specialized hardware and provides a flexible
solution that can be adapted to meet most business requirements for deployment. When discussing vCenter
Server Heartbeat, it is beneficial to use common terminology to describe its configuration and what is
occurring.
VMware describes the organization of servers based upon Pairs and Pair status. VMware refers to two servers
with vCenter Server Heartbeat installed working together as a vCenter Server Heartbeat Pair.
1
Each server in the Pair is assigned both an Identity (Primary or Secondary) and a Role (active or passive).
Identity is used to describe the physical instance of the server while the Role is used to describe what the server
is doing. When the Identity is assigned to a server it normally will not change over the life of the server
whereas the Role of the server is subject to change as a result of the operations the server is performing.
In its simplest form, vCenter Server Heartbeat operates as a vCenter Server Heartbeat Pair with one server
performing an active role (normally the Primary server) while the other server performs a passive role
(normally the Secondary server). The server in the active role hosts the vCenter Server components that are
monitored. Data from the server performing in the active role is replicated to the passive (standby) server
through a communications channel referred to as the VMware Channel. This communications channel is
typically a standard 100Mb (or greater) LAN connection. In the event of a failure or manual action, the vCenter
Server components that were protected by vCenter Server Heartbeat can be brought online on the Secondary
server by switching roles.
vCenter Server Heartbeat Protection
vCenter Server Heartbeat provides protection on many levels including Server, Network, Application,
Performance, and Data.
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When a failure occurs or condition is reached that falls outside of established parameters, vCenter Server
Heartbeat can take a variety of actions in response. For example, in the event of a server failure, the passive
(standby) server will detect that the active server has failed and will immediately assume the role of the active
server. This is referred to as a “failover” event. Additionally, vCenter Server Heartbeat can be configured to
gracefully switch roles (switchover) in the event of manual action by the administrator, network failure,
application failure, or when application performance metrics fall outside of preconfigured parameters.
The vCenter Server Heartbeat architecture also allows the passive server to be easily accessed for maintenance
purposes such as hardware component replacement, updating anti-virus definition files, receiving operating
system hot fixes, updates and patches from third-party management software, and additionally allows use of
third-party monitoring tools.
Server Protection
The servers that make up the vCenter Server Heartbeat Pair communicate regularly by sending “I’m alive”
messages and message acknowledgments to each other. Through this mechanism, hardware failure scenarios
or operating system crashed can be detected. This allows, vCenter Server Heartbeat to provide continuous
availability to vCenter Server ensuring users are provided with a replica server in the event of failure of the
production server.
Network Protection
vCenter Server Heartbeat continuously monitors the network by periodically polling up to three defined
nodes. 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 automatically migrate all operations to the Secondary server to prevent
interruption of service.
Application Protection
Running on the active server, vCenter Server Heartbeat locally monitors vCenter Server and its services. If the
protected application fails, vCenter Server Heartbeat first tries to restart the application on the active server.
If restarting the application fails, then vCenter Server Heartbeat can be configured to migrate operations to the
Secondary server to prevent service interruption.
Performance Protection
vCenter Server Heartbeat continuously monitors system performance attributes to ensure that the system
administrator is notified of problems and can take preemptive action to prevent an outage. Additionally,
vCenter Server Heartbeat can monitor specific application attributes to ensure that they remain within normal
operating ranges. Various rules can be configured to trigger specific corrective actions whenever these
attributes fall outside of their respective ranges.
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Data Protection
vCenter Server Heartbeat intercepts all data written by users and applications, and maintains a copy of this
data on the passive server which is used in the event of a failure. vCenter Server Heartbeat configures itself to
protect files, folders, and even the registry settings for vCenter Server on the active server by replicating these
in near real-time to the passive server. If a server fails, all files protected on the failed server are available on
the Secondary server after a failover completes.
Communications
vCenter Server Heartbeat Communications
vCenter Server Heartbeat Primary and Secondary servers communicate with one another via the VMware
Channel which is used for control and data transfer. Clients connect to vCenter Server and vCenter Server
Heartbeat using the Principal (Public) network.
Chapter 1 vCenter Server Heartbeat Introduction
VMware Channel
The VMware Channel is a dedicated communications link for control and data replication between the active
and passive servers. The VMware Channel operates independently from the Principal (Public) network that
services clients. The VMware Channel consists of a dedicated NIC on each of the two servers configured to
communicate with only the other server’s VMware Channel NIC. When required, static routing can be used
to direct traffic to the other server. A second pair of NICs is recommended in order to provide a degree of
redundancy for the VMware Channel. The NICs on the active and passive servers used for the VMware
Channel are normally configured so that their IP addresses are outside of the subnet range of the Principal
(Public) network. These addresses are referred to as VMware Channel addresses as illustrated above.
Principal (Public) Network
Users connect to vCenter Server Heartbeat using the Principal (Public) network. For communications with the
Principal (Public) network, each server in the Pair must have at least one dedicated NIC on the Primary (active)
server and one dedicated NIC on the Secondary (passive) server. The NIC on the passive server is configured
to use the same IP address as that of the active server but is prevented from communicating with the live
network through an IP packet filtering system installed with vCenter Server Heartbeat. This packet filter
prevents traffic using the Principal (Public) address from being committed to the wire. It also prevents
NetBIOS traffic utilizing other IP addresses on the NIC from being sent to prevent NetBIOS name resolution
conflicts.
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Node Configuration
vCenter Server Heartbeat can be configured to support multiple configuration modes such as identical nodes
and non-identical nodes with updatable DNS servers but is most commonly configured for non-identical nodes
with non-updatable DNS servers (referred herein as non-identical nodes). In this configuration vCenter Server
Heartbeat provides enhanced management capabilities by providing continuous access to the passive server
simultaneously while the active server continues to vCenter Server. With non-identical nodes, vCenter Server
Heartbeat uses unique server names for each server and enhanced IP address management capabilities to
accommodate non-updatable DNS servers.
The Secondary server uses a different Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) than the Primary server but uses
the same file and data structure, same Principal (Public) network address, and can run the same applications
and services as the Primary server. With vCenter Server Heartbeat software symmetrical in almost all respects,
either the Primary server or the Secondary server can assume the active role providing availability of vCenter
Server to the user.
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