Information Technology Reference
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running on a different server, this should not be very different. However, remember that the
Windows Server-based version of vCenter Server uses an ADAM database to store roles and
permissions, so roles and permissions on the clone will “roll back” to the point in time at which
the clone was created. Additionally, if you are using the vCenter Server virtual appliance with
the embedded database, you could run into issues with snapshots and reverting to snapshots.
This might or might not be an issue, but be sure to plan accordingly. Figure 3.6 illustrates the
setup of a manual cloning of a vCenter Server VM.
Figure 3.6
If vCenter Server
is a VM, its virtual
disk fi le can be cop-
ied regularly and
used as the hard
drive for a new VM,
eff ectively provid-
ing a point-in-time
restore in the event
of complete server
failure or loss.
Standby vCenter
Server VM
vCenter Server VM
Copy virtual
disk files
Some organizations may have a “virtualize i rst” or a “100% virtual” policy; while this
may give all the advantages of virtualization, you need to consider other issues in the design
of the infrastructure. Having a separate management cluster to host all of the vCenter Server
Components, along with any dependencies such as database servers and Active Directory, is fast
becoming commonplace. This separate management cluster will ensure that a production work-
load incident would not negatively impact the manageability of the environment.
Separating Management from Workloads
As mentioned, separating the management VMs from the rest of the workload VMs is fast becoming
commonplace. h e reason behind this is the increased dependency on the virtual infrastructure and
its management. VMware itself recommends this design practice in its vCloud Director A rchitecture
Toolkit (vCAT). h ink of this design best practice as similar to the way we separate the management
network in physical designs. Ensuring that this environment is highly secure and available goes a
long way toward decreasing the downtime in the event of a problem.
While delving into design best practices is outside the scope of this topic, just as with physi-
cal infrastructure design, there are certain things that need to be considered to ensure that your
virtual infrastructure is designed to meet business requirements. But like any “best practice,”
it's a recommendation when there are no requirements that would point you in a different
