Running a virtual environment as compared to physical ones has become the norm lately and upgrading to new technologies such as hyper-convergence and containerization have become the next step in that evolution.
Any organization that took the step to virtualize made some gains in cost (Electricity, Cooling, Hardware), flexibility and overall ability to keep things running. The days of running one application per physical server seem to be long gone and it seems just right.
VMware was one of the pioneers in that field and with their vSphere suite, their strategic partnerships with Dell, and Tanzu, they retain their sit at the table of the major enablers of virtualization and containerization in the enterprise world. Building a private or a hybrid cloud is always a lot of work and the steps to get there using VMware always pass through setting up the de-facto management system, namely vSphere vCenter.
Over the years, vCenter has served us right (moving from a server/client app to a web-accessed app) but with high availability becoming more important, it became necessary to be able to retain the availability of this management system even during major downtime. This has become increasingly important knowing that so many other systems now tap into vCenter (NSX, vCloud, 3rd party systems by HPE, Dell, Veeam, etc.)
How to ensure your vCenter remains available even if you lose your primary infrastructure completely is the subject of this article. The acronym is vCHA which stands for vCenter High Availability.
vCenter High Availability (vCHA) is a method by which vCenter is able to exist at two locations simultaneously in an active-passive topology. This provides a significant downtime reduction when you lose your primary vCenter unexpectedly.
In the event of a hardware or software failure, an automated failover from the active vCenter to the secondary one will ensure your associated services and your central management are still available. Consider the diagram below:
Figure 1 – vCenter High Availability Architecture
In order to provide high availability to your vCenter system, in addition to your active and passive nodes, typically running in two different DCs or clusters, you require a witness node. The job of the witness node is to protect against split-brain scenarios and to kind of arbitrate the failover activity.
Active Node actively serves all the client requests and the appliance that faces the end users. It maintains constant communication with the passive node and uses it as a target for the continuous vSphere database replication. It also communicates with the witness node to telling it about its ability to deliver services. All this traffic is sent through a dedicated vCenter HA network.
Passive Node is initially a clone of the active vCenter. It then continuously syncs with the active node over the vCenter HA network. Should any failure occur, the passive nodes automatically take over the role of active vCenter.
Witness Node is a lightweight clone of the active node that provides a quorum to the cluster.
The specific scenarios in which your vCHA will become handy are listed below:
Prerequisites
As vCHA is relatively new, there are various considerations one must take into account when planning to provide High-Availability for vCenter.
It is important to note that vCenter HA does not require you to purchase an additional vCenter license; your current (single) vCenter license is sufficient.
For now, upgrading a vCHA environment requires you to delete or remove the witness and passive node, upgrade the primary vCenter and then redeploy the vCHA environment.
You may go through the KB here for more information on the procedure.
In a production environment, you must always be on the lookout to maintain availability when unforeseen failures hit the environment. Our dependency on vCenter has increased greatly and the ability to maintain the single pane of glass management it provides during failures and major maintenance exercises is certainly great.
It is still a relatively new technology with less flexibility than we would like but we believe it is a good start. VMware will keep developing it and eventually, it will become as smooth as we would expect it to be.
Matilda, a Chartered Accountant, joined Apotica in May 2023. With over 12 years of experience in banking, insurance, pensions, accounting and finance, she is responsible for the company’s financial control, strategic planning, management reporting, and overall financial performance.
She holds a BSc degree in Business Administration (Accounting) from the University of Ghana Business School and an MSc in Accounting and Finance from the same institution. Matilda is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana.
Matilda has attended the Executive Education course in Strategic Management at the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands and participated in other leadership seminars around the world.
Peniel Korley is Head of Marketing for Apotica, designing and implementing comprehensive marketing strategies to create awareness of the company’s business activities.
Peniel joined Apotica in April 2019 and has helped build our market presence through an adept combination of traditional marketing and digital marketing techniques, executing and monitoring corporate promotion campaigns, and conducting market research to help us stay abreast of trends.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Ghana and a Master of Business Administration degree in Marketing from the University of Ghana Business School. He’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.
As Head of Projects, Sylvester Kyeremeh is responsible for coordinating people and processes to ensure that our client projects are delivered on time and produce the desired results. He leads this function within the confines of our quality management and information security management systems.
Sylvester joined Apotica in 2017 as a Systems Engineer, before moving on to join our project management practice a year later. His calm and collected approach to interpersonal engagements, impressive sense of planning, and excellent communication skills continue to receive the plaudits of our customers.
Sylvester received his B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology. He’s a Certified Information Systems Auditor, a Cisco-certified professional, an ISO 27001 Lead Implementer, and a member of the Project Management Institute with PMP and Scrum Master qualifications.
At 25, Millicent is currently the youngest head of department at Apotica, taking up this role in August 2020. She’s responsible for managing all aspects of risk to the organization, employees, clients, assets, reputation, and interests of stakeholders. Millicent also works with the leadership of the organization to embed and maintain a risk-aware culture in the organization.
Before joining Apotica, she worked as a broadcast journalist at Radio Universe – a popular media house in Accra. Millicent holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and has attended the Executive Education course in Personal Leadership at the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands.
She’s a Certified Governance, Risk, and Compliance Professional (GRCP) and a qualified ISO 9001 Lead Implementer.
Elom Kutsienyo is the Chief Technology Officer at Apotica. A technology enthusiast and Apple nerd, he is responsible for the development and maintenance of our excellent technical services capabilities and enabling our engineering teams to become adept at industry best practices relating to enterprise solutions design, deployments, and support.
Since taking up the CTO role in August 2019, he has strategically grown our product offerings through strong channel partnerships with leading ICT vendors. Elom’s extensive experience in product sales, project management, service delivery, and field engineering also helps as he oversees company webinars, product demos, proof-of-value activities, and technical proposals for clients.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Telecom Engineering from Ghana Technology University College and has attained several professional qualifications including the coveted Cisco CCIE certification as well as certifications from Microsoft, VMware, NetApp, HPE, and Nutanix.
Clifford leads the Customer Experience practice at Apotica which encompasses our consulting, technology, support, and learning services.
Prior to his position at Apotica, Clifford was the senior manager of IT Infrastructure at Stanbic, a leading commercial bank in Ghana. He has also previously held roles in field engineering, service delivery, and customer support at organizations including Huawei, IBM, Tech Mahindra, and Zenith Bank.
Clifford is PMP-certified and holds a Bachelor’s in Information Technology, as well as several industry certifications from Microsoft, VMware, and Amazon.
Dzigbodi Amekoudi oversees company business in Benin and the countries in French West Africa. As Country Manager, his primary responsibility is business development, which involves helping to define and introduce the right go-to-market strategies and making sure our business operates profitably in the territory. He’s also responsible for establishing operating budgets and managing company employees in his region.
During his tenure, Dzigbodi has led Apotica’s expansion into other countries including Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Mali, and Niger. Additionally, he works with our technical services leads to ensure successful post-sales delivery of customer projects.
Dzigbodi started his career in engineering and project management, before joining Apotica as a key accounts manager in January 2020.
He earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Telecommunications from Ghana Technology University College and a Master of Science degree in International Management from Franklin University Switzerland. He’s a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.
Emmanuel Nketia is responsible for managing all sales functions at Apotica and oversees other departments, including marketing, operations, and client renewals. An excellent salesman and negotiator, he brings with him 20 years of experience in logistics, accounting, business development, and customer relationship management.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology. He’s also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, and an MBA Marketing candidate at the University of Ghana Business School.
Emmanuel has attended the Executive Education course in Strategic Management from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands and participated in other leadership seminars in the USA.
At Apotica, we are on a mission to help clients grow and serve their customers better. As CEO, Felix Nkansah works closely with our Sales, Services, and Operations leadership to identify customer and industry transitions and determine our strategies to address them.
Felix joined Apotica in January 2017 and brings more than 18 years of experience across executive leadership, systems engineering, customer support, and sales functions with some regional conglomerates and information technology companies.
He has a background in computer science and holds expert-level professional certifications in networking, security, and systems design.