Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.3
Other applications
can extend vCen-
ter Server's core
services to provide
additional manage-
ment functionality.
vSphere
Update
Manager
VMware
vCloud
Director
Resource
management
ESX/ESXi
host
management
Template
management
Alarms and
event
management
vCenter
Server core
services
VM
deployment
Statistics
and logging
VM
management
Scheduled
tasks
Third-party
applications
via API
vCenter Site
Recovery
Manager
Choosing the Version of vCenter Server
As mentioned in the previous section, vSphere 5.5 vCenter Server comes not only as a Windows-
based application but also as a SuSE Linux-based virtual appliance. As a result, one of the pri-
mary decisions that you must make as you prepare to deploy vCenter Server is which version
you will use. Will you use the Windows Server-based version or the virtual appliance?
There are some advantages and disadvantages to each approach:
If your experience is primarily with Windows Server, you may not be familiar with the
Linux underpinnings of the vCenter virtual appliance. This introduces a learning curve
that you should consider.
◆
If you need support for Microsoft SQL Server, the Linux-based vCenter virtual appliance
won't work; you'll need to deploy the Windows Server-based version of vCenter Server.
However, if you are using Oracle, or if you are a small installation without a separate data-
base server, the vCenter Server virtual appliance will work just i ne (it has its own embed-
ded database if you don't have or don't need a separate database server).
◆
If you want to use vCenter Heartbeat to protect vCenter Server from downtime, you'll need
to use the Windows Server-based version of vCenter Server.
◆
◆
If you need to use linked mode, you must deploy the Windows Server-based version of
vCenter Server. The vCenter Server virtual appliance does not support linked mode.
