VCSA PRO AND CONS

Andrew Mauro – VCDX & vExpert

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/

14/10/2014

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vCSA pro and cons

VIRTUAL APPLIANCE

Angels or daemons?

http://vinfrastructure.it/2012/06/virtual-

appliance-angels-o-demons/

VA are bricks but also are (or must be

considered) black-boxes

vCSA pro and cons

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14/10/2014

CHOOSING THE VCENTER

There are the same features? What about next version?

There are the same limits? Hosts per vCenter: 1.000

Powered on VMs: 10.000

Registered VMs: 15.000

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/2014/01/vmware-vcenter-server-installable-vs-appliance/

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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VCENTER SERVER APPLIANCE

Pro

It’s a VA with all-in-one (included the Web Client)

Simple and smaller (OVA is smaller than ISO)

Faster to deploy (or re-deploy)

Does not require a Windows license

Cons

Not the same features

Not compatible with other components (ie: VUM)

vCSA pro and cons

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DATABASE EMBEDDED OR NOT?

Actually there are some limits using the

embedded (v)Postgres

In 5.5:

Max 100 hosts or

Max 3000 VMs

What about next version?

External DBMS?

Only Oracle

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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LINKED MODE

Windows only (ADAM/AD-LDAP) based

Max 10 vCenters

Max 3.000 hosts

Max 30.000 powered on VMs

Max 50.000 registered VMs

No way with vCSA

What about next version?

Do you really need Linked Mode?

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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SCALABILITY CONSIDERATION?

Actually vCSA is a monolithic VM

optional can have an external DBMS

SSO and other platform services are not

sharable

Can be used a Windows Server with vCenter

components

What about next version?

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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VA DEPLOYMENT

Faster than the Windows version

Could be faster?

Could be easiest?

Guided or scripted installation?

What about next version?

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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VA PATCHING

The vCSA upgrade process is quite easy

Single point, single updade/upgrade

But could be better?

What about security patches at the OS level?

Multiple repositories or patch levels?

What about next version?

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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VM SIZING

KB 2005086 for version 5.5

Very small inventory

10 or fewer hosts, 100 or fewer virtual machines

at least 8 GB

Small inventory

10-50 hosts or 100-1500 virtual machines

at least 16 GB

Medium inventory

the maximum inventory supported with the embedded database; 50-100 hosts or 1500-3000 virtual machines

at least 24 GB

14/10/2014 vCSA pro and cons

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MORE INFORMATION

This slide

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/

vCSA Next

Stay tuned

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vCSA pro and cons 14/10/2014

THANK YOU

14/10/2014

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Andrew Mauro – VCDX & vExpert

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/

vCSA pro and cons