vCenter Server 6.

0: Deep Dive

Nick Marshall
Integration Architect
2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Who is this guy?

Nick Marshall
Author: Mastering vSphere

Blog: NickMarshall.com.au
Twitter: @NickMarshall9
Community: AutoLab, vBrownBag

CONFIDENTIAL

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

CONFIDENTIAL

vCenter 6 Enhancements

vCenter Server 6.0 Platforms

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

Linked Mode
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

Tags

No

Yes

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Platform Services Controller

VMware Platform Services

5.0
No Platform Services

5.1 and 5.5

1 VM/Host
SSO

Web

Single Sign-On (SSO)

IS

2 VMs/Hosts
SSO

Web

5.1 1st release of platform services (SSO 1.0)

5.5 2nd release of platform services (SSO 2.0)

IS

4 VMs/Hosts
SSO

Web

IS

CONFIDENTIAL

VMware Platform Services Controller (PSC)

No longer just Single Sign-On
Were adding additional services
Platform
Services
Controller

Platform
Services
Controller

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
Platform
Services
Controller

Certificate Store
Service (Product) Registration
Other Services will be added in future

releases
Platform Services Controller supports data
replication
CONFIDENTIAL

Recommended vSphere 6.0 Deployment Models

vCenter Server with Embedded PSC
Sufficient for most environments. Easiest to
deploy and maintain

vCenter
Server

Multiple standalone instances supported

Replication between embedded instances not

Platform
Services
Controller

vCenter Server Host or VM

supported

Supports Windows & Appliance

SSO
Platform
Server
Services
Web Client
Controller

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

Supports Windows & Appliance

vCenter
Server
6.0

vCenter
Server
6.0

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vCenter
Server
6.0

10

vCenter Server Install

vCenter Server Install

vCenter Server Installer
Windows

vCenter Server Installer

Appliance
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12

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

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13

vCenter Server Appliance Install

New Guided Install

Choose deployment
type
All input up front &
validated

Pre-Check
functionality
Scripted Install for
Advanced
Administrators

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14

vCenter Server Upgrade

vCenter Server Upgrade Supported Paths

Platform
Windows
vCenter
vCSA

vCenter 4.x

vCenter 5.0

vCenter 5.1

vCenter 5.5

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

(Multi-step
upgrade:
4.x-to-5.x-to-6.0)

No

(5.1 U3 onwards
only)

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CONFIDENTIAL

vCenter Server Upgrade: vCenter 5.0 to vCenter 6.0

5.0

6.0
vCenter

To Embedded PSC

5.0

To External PSC

PSC

6.0

(pre-requisite: PSC must exist)

Step 1: Install PSC

vCenter

PSC

Step 2: Upgrade 5.0 to RC

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17

vSphere Web Client 6.0

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

Before

After

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)

Default 6.0

Customized for
more workspace

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

Making right-click work like it did before

Before

After

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.

23

vCenter Performance and Scalability

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

CONFIDENTIAL

25

Performance Improvements (vSphere Client)

2,000

Milliseconds

1,500

1,000

vSphere 5.5
500

vSphere 6.0

Problem: Everything is slow.

Fix: Performance improvements made in as many common actions as
possible
26

vCenter Server Availability

Options 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

28

Deployment Modes

Configuration #1 Embedded Deployment

Model
Sufficient for most environments. Easiest
Embedded
Platform
Services
Controller

vCenter
Server

Host OS

to deploy and maintain

Multiple standalone instances supported

Replication between embedded instances
not supported

Supports Windows & Appliance

30

Configuration #2 External Deployment Model

Local PSC High Availability
Replicating
External Platform
Services Controller

External Platform
Services Controller

PSC Host OS

PSC Host OS

Multiple PSC nodes locally

vCenter interacts with the PSCs
through a load balancer

Load Balancer

vCenter instances are clustered

with WSFC

vCenter
Server
vCenter Server Host OS

vCenter
Server
vCenter Server Host OS

PSCs replicate state information

between them

31

Configuration #3 External Deployment Model

Multiple Site PSC and vCenter Server
Los Angeles

New York

Miami

Common SSO Domain

External Platform Services

Controller

External Platform Services

Controller

External Platform Services

Controller

PSC Host OS

PSC Host OS

PSC Host OS

vCenter
Server

vCenter
Server

vCenter
Server

vCenter Server Host OS

By Default
Each site is independent
PSC automated replication
Site awareness

vCenter Server Host OS

vCenter Server Host OS

Enhanced Linked Mode

Facilitated via Platform Services Controller
Maintains single management point
Works in Windows and VCVA
Replicates Licenses, permissions, tags
CONFIDENTIAL
and roles
32

Configuration #4 External Deployment Model

Multiple Site PSC and vCenter Server with High Availability
Los Angeles

New York

Miami

Common SSO Domain

External Platform
Services Controller
External Platform
PSC Host OS
Services Controller
PSC Host OS

Load Balancer
Clustered vCenter
Server
Clustered vCenter
vCenter Server
Host OS
Server
vCenter Server Host OS

External Platform
Services Controller
External Platform
PSC Host OS
Services Controller
PSC Host OS

Load Balancer
vCenter
Clustered
Server vCenter
Server vCenter
Clustered

vCenter Server Host OS

Server
vCenter Server
Host OS

vCenter Server Host OS

External Platform
Services Controller
External Platform
PSC Host OS
Services Controller
PSC Host OS

Load Balancer
Clustered vCenter
Server
Clustered vCenter
vCenter Server
Host OS
Server
vCenter Server Host OS

Setup
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
CONFIDENTIAL
33

Configuration #5 External Deployment Model

Local Windows vCenter Server High Availability
Replicating
External Platform
External Platform
Services
Services
Controller (VM) Node
Controller (VM) Node
1
2

Windows Server
Failover Cluster (VPXD)

Windows Server Failover

Cluster (VCDB)

vCenter Server
(VM1) Node 1

SQL Server
(VM1) Node 1

vCenter Server
(VM1) Node 2

SQL Server
(VM1) Node2

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
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