6.6

IP Addressing
■
“Public IP Address” – a static IP address used by clients to access protected applications hosted on the
active node.
■
“Management IP Address” – a unique permanent static IP address assigned to each node (Primary and
Secondary) that is used for management of the node when the node is in the passive role.
Figure 1- 1. Architecture Overview
Managing the Primary and Secondary Servers
vCenter Server Heartbeat pairs are managed using standard network, domain policy, and domain management
procedures with each node (both Primary and Secondary) assigned a unique domain name. Each domain
name differs from the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) used by the original vCenter or SQL servers.
Additionally, a Management IP address on each node ensures that the Administrator can access the node
even when it is passive thereby allowing use of 3rd party monitoring tools and maintenance operations.
Failover Overview
The role of the nodes can be changed by a process known as “Failover” that is initiated automatically by vCenter
Server Heartbeat or manually by the administrator.
vCenter Server Heartbeat uses failover to ensure that vCenter Server and its components are continuously
available should a critical failure occur such as vSphere ESX host network failure.When a failover occurs,
clients continue to connect to vCenter Server. View, or SQL Server using the vCenter Server service name
which is the original and unique fully qualified domain name that was used previously by clients.
8 VMware, Inc.
vCenter Server Heartbeat Administrator's Guide