In our previous post we have seen on what is vCenter HA or VCHA & how it works. Basically VCHA is an high availability for the vCenter Server so that if your vCenter Server goes down you have another vCenter Server running & up for your operations. VCHA is introduced in vSphere 6.5 for the first time. VCHA only works with the vCenter Server Appliance. So if you want to use this high availability feature then you must go for the vCenter Server Appliance.
VCHA helps to achieve the high availability of vCenter Server system in the event of host failure or crash. Once the VCHA configured successfully & vCenter Server fails then the passive vCenter Server Instance will become active & you can do your operations without much downtime. It require just few minutes to setup & achieve high availability.
VCHA requires an separate network for connectivity & replication. Make sure you don’t use the Production or Management network. If you require any help in setting up the vCenter HA Network then check below link:
How to setup vCenter HA network step by step ?
Once you configure vCenter HA Network on all 3 ESXi hosts now we are ready to setup the vCenter HA.
Let’s see How to Deploy VCHA cluster:
Step 1:
Login to vSphere Web Client.
Select the vCenter Server.
Go to Configure Tab. Select vCenter HA.
Click Configure button to setup.
Step 2:
Choose the configuration option either Basic or Advanced.
If you go for Basic then all the things will be done by the vCenter itself but if you go for Advanced then you need to do the things manually.
It is recommended to go with Basic. Choose the Basic option.
Click Next.
Step 3:
Provide the IP address & Subnet mask for the vCenter HA network. Make sure you don’t use management network instead use the separate network.
Select the vCenter HA Network Port group by Browse.
Click Next.
Step 4:
Here you need to provide the vCenter HA IP addresses for Passive & Witness Nodes.
Click Next.
Step 5:
Here you can see the deployment configuration of Active, Passive & Witness nodes.
You can see the Location, Network & Storage.
Make sure that you keep Passive & Witness nodes on the different ESXi hosts & different storage. To do this click on Edit button as shown.
Step 6:
Select the Datacenter and folder for the virtual machine store.
Click Next.
Step 7:
Select the ESXi host to be used. Keep node on the different ESXi then the vCenter is currently running.
Click Next.
Step 8:
Select the storage for the node.
Keep all the 3 nodes on 3 different storage for availability.
Click Next.
Step 9:
Set the correct Management network & vCenter HA network for the node.
Click Next.
Step 10:
Review all the configuration & click Finish.
Step 11:
This we have done for the Passive node. Follow same for the Witness node setup.
Once you are done Check that all the 3 nodes are on different ESXi hosts & storage.
You might get the Compatibility warning just check it & confirm.
Click Next.
Step 12:
Review all the configuration & click Finish to setup the vCenter HA.
Once you click Finish it will take few minutes depending on your configuration to setup the complete vCenter HA cluster with Passive & Witness nodes. You can see in the recent tasks to see the progress.
You can see in the above image that we have successfully configured the VCHA for our vCenter Server. HA is enabled. you can see the Active, Passive & Witness node details here and all are showing up & green.
That’s it now you can easily configure the vCenter High Availability in your environment easily.
Checkout our Post on What is vCenter High Availability & how it works ?
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