Migrating a peer managed federation to a centrally managed federation

[AleksandarPeev]

Hi guys,

I have a federation that is consisted ot 8 2-node clusters that are located in various locations.
The peer managed federation is now becoming a pain to maintain as the nodes need to communicate and maintain the federation, but the network topology policy does not easily permit it.

My first question is, how do I move it to a centrally managed federation. Would just a simple deployment of the MVA suffice? If so does it mean that, as a centrally managed federation is set up, that the peer-to-peer communication is no longer needed? As from what I can read it may still be needed but only if the MVA fails.

Secondly, I read that the MVA has to be placed on a Simplivity. Is there an option here that it is at deplyoment time, deployed onto a Simplivity cluster but then afterwards be moved to a non simplivity HA protected cluster?

Third, is there a document on the process of upgrading the federation and the MVA, and the supported mix of versions?

Regards,

[Deepak_K]

Hi AleksandarPeev,

Thank you for writing to us.

Please find the answers in-line:

Q. I have a federation that is consisted ot 8 2-node clusters that are located in various locations.
The peer managed federation is now becoming a pain to maintain as the nodes need to communicate and maintain the federation, but the network topology policy does not easily permit it.

My first question is, how do I move it to a centrally managed federation. Would just a simple deployment of the MVA suffice? If so does it mean that, as a centrally managed federation is set up, that the peer-to-peer communication is no longer needed? As from what I can read it may still be needed but only if the MVA fails.

Ans. The MVA is recommended to be used in a Federation only when the Federation consists of 32 and more nodes.

For 8 cluster x 2 nodes = 16 nodes, a MVA is not needed.

Please refer Page No. 16-17 & 122-128 in the HPE OmniStack 4.1.2 for vSphere Administration Guide:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=a00123771en_us

Q. Secondly, I read that the MVA has to be placed on a Simplivity. Is there an option here that it is at deplyoment time, deployed onto a Simplivity cluster but then afterwards be moved to a non simplivity HA protected cluster?

Ans: It is always recommended to run the MVA on a SimpliVity Cluster using SimpliVity Datastore.

Q. Third, is there a document on the process of upgrading the federation and the MVA, and the supported mix of versions?

Ans. Please refer the HPE SimpliVity OmniStack Interoperability Guide 4.1.2 to know details about the supported/supported mix of versions:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=a00117319en_us

Please refer HPE OmniStack 4.1.2 for vSphere Upgrade Guide to know the process of upgrading the Federation:
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=a00123771en_us

Regards
Deepak
HPE

[AleksandarPeev]

@Deepak_K 

Hi Deepak,

Just to make sure I understood things correctly.

1. The MVA is not needed but in order too keep the communication Hub <-> Spoke instead of Spoke <-> Spoke the MVA is required? Having the MVA in the Hub Site and the OVCs in the Spoke sites it would prevent the need for the Spoke site OVCs to communicate between each other and instead synchronize the federation via the MVA?.

My idea here is to prevent or minimize traffic between the different-cluster OVCs as they are located in different countries.

2. As far as I understand from the manual pages 16-17 the MVA cannot and may not reside in a non-simplivity datastore? operations on the datastore are limited and changing or renaming the MVA, datastore is a no-no?

Am I right on this?

[Deepak_K]

Hi AleksandarPeev,

Thank you for writing to us back.

Please find the answers in-line:

1. The MVA is not needed but in order too keep the communication Hub <-> Spoke instead of Spoke <-> Spoke the MVA is required? Having the MVA in the Hub Site and the OVCs in the Spoke sites it would prevent the need for the Spoke site OVCs to communicate between each other and instead synchronize the federation via the MVA?.

My idea here is to prevent or minimize traffic between the different-cluster OVCs as they are located in different countries.

Ans: Yes, we understand your concept on the Hub and Spoke communications. However, still the MVA is recommended to be used in a Federation where there are more than 32 nodes. The HUB OVC is capable enough to handle the communication between the Spokes' OVCs.

2. As far as I understand from the manual pages 16-17 the MVA cannot and may not reside in a non-simplivity datastore? operations on the datastore are limited and changing or renaming the MVA, datastore is a no-no?

Am I right on this?

Ans: Yes, you are correct

Thanks

Deepak

HPE