Designing  a  Highly  Available  Management  Cluster  for  the  Cloud  

Arron  Stebbing  

Why  a  management  cluster?  

•  Availability  •  Manageability  •  Stability  •  Support  and  Troubleshoo?ng    

VMware  vCloud  Architecture  Toolkit  –  3a  Architec7ng  a  VMware  vCloud    

Simple  or  Complex?  

Design  Goals  

•  Design  for  Failure  •  Design  for  Resilience  •  Design  for  Data  Integrity  •  Design  for  Recoverability  

Infrastructure  

•  Hosts  – 3  or  more  

•  Network  – Dedicated  

•  Storage  – Dedicated  /  Converged  

Not  a  Marke?ng  Slide.  

What  is  in  my  management  cluster?  

•  Ac?ve  Directory  /  DNS  •  Database  (SQL/Oracle)  •  VMware  Appliances  •  Message  Bus  (RabbitMQ)  •  Load  Balancers  •  Monitoring  PlaSorm  •  Remote  Access  (View/Terminal  Server)  •  Time  Services  •  Syslog  

Ac?ve  Directory  /  DNS  

•  Server  Core  OS  •  List  Object  Mode  •  Cer?ficate  Services  •  Independent  domain  

Databases  

VMware  Stack  

•  Use  Appliances  •  Enable  /  Implement  Core  Features  •  Configure  Alerts  and  SNMP  

Message  Bus  

•  Enabling  so  much  more!  

Load  Balancing  

•  Virtual  Appliances  •  Ensure  Health  Status  •  Load  Balance  Core  Services  – LDAP  – DNS  – Web  Applica?ons  

Vendor  Applica?ons  

•  Compute  Management  – Configura?on  – Remote  Management  

•  Network  Management  – Single  pane  of  glass  – Version  Control  

•  Storage  Management  – GUI  

 

Remote  Access  

•  Out  of  Band  Management  •  Secure  Access  –  RDP/SSH  •  VPN  

Monitoring  /  Aler?ng  

•  Email  •  Syslog  •  SNMP  •  SMS,  Mobile  

•  Consume  everything!  

Configura?on  Management  

•  Define  standards  

•  Maintain  standards  

Security  

•  Isola?on  •  Audi?ng  •  Event  and  Change  Tracking  •  Change  defaults  •  Role  based  access  controls  

Mul?  Site?  

High  Availability  vs  Disaster  Recovery  

•  Requirements  •  Availability  •  RTO  /  RPO  •  Supported?  

Data  Protec?on  

•  Configura?on  Level  •  Applica?on  Level  •  Image  Level  •  Storage  Level  

Right  Sizing  

•  Ignore  Defaults  •  Start  Small,  Upscale  Later  •  Don’t  be  scared!  

Cost?  

•  VMware  Licensing  •  Microso^  Licensing  •  Third  Party  So^ware  Costs  

•  Open  Source  non  cri?cal  toolsets  –  IPAM  – Syslog  

Best  Prac?ces  and  Recommenda?ons  

•  VMware  vCloud  Architecture  Toolkit  •  Microso^  Infrastructure  Planning  and  Design  •  Vendor  documenta?on  •  Blogs  /  Forums  

Ques?ons?