vCenter Server: Installable versus Appliance
vCenter Server: Installable versus Appliance. Often when designing an infrastructure there is a choice to be made between the two options. Go for the easy and fast to deploy appliance or go for the scalable and flexible installation. Where with the previous version of ESX before version 5.5 the vCenter Server appliance was limited, when using the embedded database, to environments of up to 5 ESXi hosts and 50 virtual machines. Now that the maximum is raised to 100 supported ESXi hosts and 3000 supported VMs you have a new viable choice to go for the appliance with the internal database. New in vSphere 5.5 is support for clustering of the vCenter Server Database, this can be a viable option because the vCenter server heavily depends on the database that is used to store configuration and statisticals.
The following is a comparison between the Appliance and the Installable version of vCenter Server:
vCenter Server | Appliance | Installable |
Running on | A pre-configured SUSE Enterprise Linux based virtual appliance | The installable version is a Windows application supported on Windows Server 2008R2 64-bit and Windows Server 2012.*Service pack information should be verified before installation in either a virtual or physical machine |
Package | OVF template | ISO file |
Server Virtual or Physical | Virtual | Virtual or Physical |
Database | ||
Database internal | vPostgreSQL database | Microsoft SQL Express database |
Supports #ESXi host | 100 | 5 |
Supports #VM’s | 3000 | 50 |
Larger environment? | Use an external database | Use an external database |
External Database supported | Oracle | Microsoft SQL or Oracle |
vCenter Server Options | ||
Auto Deploy | Pre-installed | Separate installation |
Syslog Collector | Pre-installed | Separate installation |
ESXi Dump Collector | Pre-installed | Separate installation |
vSphere Web Client | Pre-installed | As part of vCenter Install |
Single Sign-On | Pre-installed | As part of vCenter Install |
Scripting & Automation of the DC | ||
vSphere CLI | Cannot be installed | Separate installation |
PowerCLI | Cannot be installed | Separate installation |
Network | ||
IPv4 or IPv6 support | Supports IPv4 Only | Supports IPv4 and IPv6 |
vCenter Update Manager | Cannot be installed inside | Can be installed on the vCenter Server |
Linked Mode | Not compatible | Compatible |
vCenter Heartbeat | Not compatible | Compatible |
Note: the Syslog Collector and ESXi Dump collector must be registered as a plug-in in vCenter Server.
vCenter Server
vCenter Server is comprised of a number of interlinked components and interfaces to other services and infrastructure. I will describe each of the key components and their role in vCenter below.
- vCenter Single Sign-On
- vCenter Inventory Service
- vCenter Server (Core)
- Web Client
1. vCenter Single Sign-On
Offers administrators a deeper level of authentication services that enable VMware solutions to trust each other. SSO allows VMware solutions to utilize multiple directory services and is no longer limited to Microsoft Active Directory. It simplifies the management of multi-site and multi-installation environments by allowing users to move seamlessly between multiple environments without re-authentication. A SSO server can be installed separately and can support multiple vCenter installations. The SSO server must be able to communicate with your identity sources such as Open LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory or a Local Operating System.
2. vCenter Inventory Service
Optimizes client server communications by reducing the number of client requests on vCenter Server. It is now a separate independent component that can be off-loaded to a separate server. (Installable version only!) This can be used to reduce traffic and improve client response times. It also enables users to create and add inventory object-level tags.
These are then used to organize and provide quicker retrieval when performing inventory searches. The inventory service must be able to communicate with the SSO server, the vCenter Server and the client.
3. vCenter Core
Core Services
Are the basic management services for a virtual Data Center. These include virtual machine provisioning; statistics and logging; host host and virtual machine configuration; alarms and event management; and task scheduling. The vCenter Server must be able to communicate with the ESXi hosts and must be accessible to any systems that require access to the API.
Distributed services
Are solutions that extend VMware vSphere capabilities beyond the single physical server. These solutions are DRS, HA, vMotion. They are configured and managed centrally from vCenter Server.
vCenter API
Provides access to the vSphere management components. These are the objects that you can use to manage, monitor and control lifecycle operations of virtual machines and other parts of the virtual infrastructure. (Networks, Datastores, Datacenter, etc.)
The vCenter API provides the interface to vCenter that is used by the vCenter Clients, third party applications, plug-ins and VMware applications such as vCAC. It is available for administrators, developers and partners to integrate and automate solutions.
4. Web Client
Provides a rich application experience in a wide variety of web browsers. This surpasses the functionality of the trusted VMware vSphere Client (the VI or Desktop Client) running on Windows.
Can be installed on the vCenter Server along with other vCenter Server components or it can be installed on a Windows Management server or Windows desktop. The Web Client is accessed via a Web browser that connects to the Web Client Server. The web clients is now the primary management client, because from vSphere 5.5 all of the new vSphere features are only available when using the Web Client interface. (New vSphere 5.5 features include: 62TB VMDK, vFlash Configuration)
Features only available with:
vSphere Desktop Client | vSphere Web Client |
VMware Desktop Plug-ins (SRM, etc) | vCenter Single Sign-on: Authentication, Administration |
3rd Party Desktop Plugins (various) | Navigation with inventory lists |
VXLAN Networking | Inventory Tagging |
Ability to change Guest OS on an exisiting virtual machine | Enhanced read performance utilizing the Inventory Service |
vCenter Server Maps | vSphere Replication |
Create and edit custom attributes | Virtual Infrastructure Navigator |
Connect directly to a vSphere host | Enhanced vMotion (no shared storage) |
Inflate thin disk option found in the Datastore Browser | Integration with vCenter Orchestrator (cVO) Workflows (Extended Menus) |
Virtual Distributed Switch (vDS): Health Check, Export/Restore Configuration, Diagram Filtering | |
Log Browser Plugin | |
vSphere Data Protection (VDP) |
Note: All of the mentioned services rely heavily on DNS.
Additional resources:
VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes
vCenter Server Maximums, see page 7
vCenter Database Size Calculator
Installing vCenter Server 5.5 best practices (2052334)
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Can the appliance handle VMware View Composer Yet?
Yes, Composer works with the vCenter Server appliance.
What is maximum number of vCenter servers that can be deployed either windows based or appliance?
?? You can deploy as many vCenter as you want. What do you mean exactly? Linked vCenters? ESXi hosts managed by a vCenter?
Thanks Erik,
I wanted to know if there is any limit on number of vCenter servers in general per single sign on domain without linked mode.
With vSphere 6 there’s a maximum number of 4 VMware Solutions connected to a
single PSC. This limit is based on the test performed using only vCenter
Server.
The Platform Services Controller (PSC) provides a set of common infrastructure services encompassing
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Licensing
Certificate Authority
Great. Thanks for info.