dzak64 wrote:
We currently have two vCenter Servers.
First vCenter (VC1) supports a three host cluster (Cluster 1) for virtualized servers. The vCenter is also virtualized and runs in this cluster (Cluster 1).
Second vCenter (VC2) supports a five host cluster (Cluster 2) for VMware View. The vCenter is also virtualized and runs in this cluster (Cluster 2).
Should I be running the second vCenter on the first cluster, since servers have different I/O patterns then workstations (View)? Does it matter?
Any suggestions?
There isn't a hard and fast rule for vCenter placement based on your configuration scenario. It is, however, recommended that server/application workloads and VDI workloads are in separate clusters but your team is already doing that (kudos). If you are considering placing management components of one cluster in another cluster, then I would highly recommend that you think carefully about whether or not it will start to over-complicate the environment and cause more operational harm than good. Based on what I know of your environment, I look at it this way (and you can tell me if I am wrong based on my assumptions of your situation):
- Cluster 1's purpose is to provide highly-available server application workloads.
- Cluster 2's purpose is to provide highly-available virtual desktops.
If you start mixing management components between clusters in the way you are considering, you start adding more text to those bullet points with little exceptions and caveats that can drive the Systems Administrators a little bonkers. Let me give you an example where it makes a lot of sense to have that VMware View/Horizon View vCenter Server in another cluster:
- Cluster 1's purpose is to provide highly-available server application workloads.
- Cluster 2's purpose is to provide highly-available virtual desktops.
- Cluster 3's purpose is to provide a highly-available, security-hardened management cluster for the environment.
In my example, you have a separate "Management Cluster" that could contain servers for Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, vCenter, vCenter Operations Manager, vMA, vCenter Log Insight, etc. In this design, your team doesn't have to seriously ponder what virtual machine is in what cluster. You could sit a new hire down in front of your vSphere Client/Web Client and just say "Here are our clusters and here are their purposes." To me, that simplicity of thought leads to elegance of design.
