vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 3.2: Configure load balancing with NSX
This is the second part of the 3rd article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model.
By the end of this part, we will not have modified the vCAC deployment in any way, we’ll just have 3 configured load balanced URLs
vCAC Simple Install with vPostgres deployed and load balancers prepared
An overview of the steps required are below:
- Issue and install certificates
- Deploy an external vPostgres appliance and migrate the vCAC database
- Configure load balancing
- Deploy a second vCAC appliance and configure clustering
- Install and configure additional IaaS server
- Deploy vCenter Orchestrator Appliance cluster
vCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 2: vPostgres
This is the second article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model.
The diagram below shows the deployment at the end of this part, with vPostgres deployed and the vCAC Appliance running from the remote database.
vCAC deploymnent with vPostgres deployed
An overview of the steps required are below:
- Issue and install certificates
- Deploy an external vPostgres appliance and migrate the vCAC database
- Configure load balancing
- Deploy a second vCAC appliance and configure clustering
- Install and configure additional IaaS server
- Deploy vCenter Orchestrator Appliance cluster
VCAC 6.0 build-out to distributed model – Part 1: Certificates
This is the first article in a series about how to build-out a simple vCAC 6 installation to a distributed model.
Simple vCAC deployment
In a simple installation you have the Identity Appliance, the vCAC appliance (which includes a vPostgres DB and vCenter Orchestrator instance) and an IaaS server. The distributed model still has a single Identity Appliance but clusters 2 or more vCAC appliances behind a load balancer, backed by a separate vPostgres database appliance. The IaaS components are installed on 2 or more IaaS Windows servers and are load balanced, backed by an external MSSQL database. Additionally, the vCenter Orchestrator appliance is used in a failover cluster, backed by the external vPostgres database appliance.
The distributed model can improve availability, redundancy, disaster recovery and performance, however it is more complex to install and manage, and there are still single points of failure – e.g. the vPostgres database is not highly available and although protected by vSphere HA could be the cause of an outage. Clustering the database would provide an improved level of availability but may not be supported by VMware. Similarly the Identity Appliance is currently a single point of failure, although there are also options for high availability there too.
An overview of the steps required is below:
- Issue and install certificates
- Deploy an external vPostgres appliance and migrate the vCAC database
- Configure load balancing
- Deploy a second vCAC appliance and configure clustering
- Install and configure additional IaaS server
- Deploy vCenter Orchestrator Appliance cluster
