Specifications

Options for Protecting vCenter Single Sign-On and vCenter Server
The following options vary in the level of protection afforded, and in the recovery time required.
Backup and restore
Backup and restore should be an essential part of any availability solution,
providing a granular recovery method, by tape, disk, or snapshot. However,
the recovery time is typically measured in hours or days and requires
manual intervention. Any backup solution must be independent of vCenter
Server. Solutions like VMware Data Protection require an operational
vCenter Server with a functioning vCenter Single Sign-On server to restore a
virtual machine.
vSphere HA
vSphere HA is an industry standard for maintaining uptime of virtual
machines and for detection of ESXi host failure. Also, with vSphere HA, a
failed response to a configured VMware Tools heartbeat automatically
reboots the virtual machine onto another operational host within the vSphere
cluster. This detection usually occurs within seconds. A virtual machine can
be fully rebooted within minutes, providing redundancy for vSphere host
failures and virtual machine operating system crashes. vSphere HA does not
have any knowledge of the application running inside the virtual machine.
vCenter Server
Heartbeat
This separately licensed vCenter Server plug-in provides vCenter Server
protection (physical or virtual) and can protect against failure of hosts.
vCenter Server Heartbeat also adds application-level monitoring and
intelligence of all vCenter Server components. vCenter Server Heartbeat is
installed directly onto the vCenter Server or vCenter Server component, and
replicates changes to a cloned virtual machine. The cloned virtual machine
can take over when a failure event is triggered. The recovery can be
accomplished by restarting the component, by restarting the entire
application, or by the entire failover of the component or application to one
or more paired virtual machines. Recovery time is measured in minutes.
vCenter Single Sign-On Deployment Modes and High Availability
To determine the best deployment mode for vCenter Single Sign-On availability, consider the environment
that vCenter Single Sign-On will serve.
Single vCenter Server
with local vCenter
Single Sign-On in Basic
deployment mode
In the simplest deployment of vCenter Single Sign-On for high availability,
you install vCenter Single Sign-On in Basic deployment mode, local to
vCenter Server, and then add the availability solution. If the single machine
that hosts vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On is virtual, you can
place it in a vSphere HA-enabled cluster and protect it with no further
configuration. If you require protection at the application level, you can use
vCenter Server Heartbeat. If vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On are
hosted on a physical server, vCenter Server Heartbeat is the only solution for
availability.
Multiple vCenter
Servers in a single
location
In this environment, a dedicated, standalone vCenter Single Sign-On
instance serves multiple vCenter Server instances in one physical location. If
vCenter Single Sign-On is hosted on a virtual machine, you can place the
standalone vCenter Single Sign-On server in a vSphere HA-enabled cluster
and protect vCenter Single Sign-On with no further configuration. If you
require application-level protection, you can use vCenter Server Heartbeat.
vSphere Upgrade
36 VMware, Inc.