VCSA hosted on SimpliVity cluster

[CadenLange]

Hi

Is anyone hosting their VCSA on the SimpliVity cluster? 

We have a customer who wants to by a 3 node SimpliVity cluster to replace an aging Dell array and blade system. However, HPE are saying we need to sell a further two node cluster just to host vCenter - Previosuly the customer hosted their VCSA on the Dell cluster (and we have a lot of customer's who do the same) but HPE are saying that the VCSA needs to be hosted outside the SimpliVity federation..... buying and licensing two new ESXi servers just for the VCSA could be a deal breaker. Is it really not possible to host the VCSA on the cluster?

I know the VCSA needs to be built first (in a temporary location) but we were then planning to move it onto the SimpliVity cluster once the SimpliVity has been deployed.

thanks for any thoughts on this.

[support_s]

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[ICPMuenchen]

Hello,

thats absolute nonsense! Of course you can host the VCSA in the Cluster. We do this for over 5 years now, and always have this done in every virtual environment before. Providing regular backups of the VCSA of course and everything is fine. And if your VCSA dies or breaks some day, with veeam e.g. you can do an instant restore in your veeam environment and get full access back immediatelly. The one and only service which should really be considered to be outside of the Simplivity Cluster is the Arbiter Service. Its a small service acting as witness of the simplivity cluster. Doesnt need a lot of resources and can be installed on a small physical windows server/machine, or on a vm at a remote site e.g. The service just needs permanent connection to the cluster, so a working vpn connection if on a remote site is mandatory.

Regards

Peter

[giladzzz]

hi

 ICPMuenchen  is right you can host VCSA inside the Simplivity cluster.

the only difficulty is when you have to shutdown the cluster.

because Simplivity is very dependent on the VCSA but if you plan

before hand you can overcome this.

Regards

Give a KUDO if this helps

[CadenLange]

Thanks both. It’s good to hear you both feel this is an acceptable scenario. I just wish someone would tell HPE that!
Perhaps someone from HPE would care to confirm/comment?
It’s quite a frustrating statement I’m hearing from HPE as we’ve a very healthy SimpliVity pipeline but now nervous to progress these as we don’t want any contradiction with HPE best practice so may need to look at other vendor solutions. Thanks again

[Mahesh202 · Accepted solution]

Hi CadenLange

While the majority of workloads, including the vCenter Server, can run on the SimpliVity cluster itself, there are some recommendations and guidelines for deploying the VCSA.

In certain cases, HPE recommends deploying the VCSA outside of the SimpliVity federation to avoid the scenario where a loss of the SimpliVity federation may also result in losing access to vCenter, which could hinder management and recovery tasks. By keeping the VCSA outside of the SimpliVity federation, you ensure that vCenter remains accessible even if the SimpliVity federation is experiencing issues.

However, this does not mean it is not possible to host the VCSA on the SimpliVity cluster at all. It depends on the specific requirements and preferences of the customer. If the customer is comfortable with the risk of having vCenter tied to the SimpliVity cluster and is aware of the considerations, it might be acceptable to host the VCSA on the SimpliVity cluster.

As for the scenario you mentioned, where the VCSA is initially built in a temporary location and then moved to the SimpliVity cluster after deployment, this approach could work. It is crucial to follow proper migration and best practices to ensure a smooth transition.

Hope this helps.!!

Regards
Mahesh.