This document discusses best practices for designing a highly available management cluster for cloud environments. It recommends hosting critical management services like Active Directory, databases, load balancers, and monitoring platforms within a dedicated management cluster for availability, manageability, stability, and troubleshooting. The management cluster should be designed to be resilient to failures through techniques like redundancy of components, disaster recovery planning, and data protection strategies. Infrastructure, software, and security considerations are also outlined.

1. Designing
a
Highly
Available
Management
Cluster
for
the
Cloud
Arron
Stebbing

2. Why
a
management
cluster?
•
•
•
•
Availability
Manageability
Stability
Support
and
Troubleshoo?ng
VMware
vCloud
Architecture
Toolkit
–
3a
Architec7ng
a
VMware
vCloud

3. Simple
or
Complex?

4. Design
Goals
•
•
•
•
Design
for
Failure
Design
for
Resilience
Design
for
Data
Integrity
Design
for
Recoverability

5. Infrastructure
• Hosts
– 3
or
more
• Network
– Dedicated
• Storage
– Dedicated
/
Converged

6. Not
a
Marke?ng
Slide.

7. What
is
in
my
management
cluster?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ac?ve
Directory
/
DNS
Database
(SQL/Oracle)
VMware
Appliances
Message
Bus
(RabbitMQ)
Load
Balancers
Monitoring
PlaSorm
Remote
Access
(View/Terminal
Server)
Time
Services
Syslog

8. Ac?ve
Directory
/
DNS
•
•
•
•
Server
Core
OS
List
Object
Mode
Cer?ficate
Services
Independent
domain

9. Databases

10. VMware
Stack
• Use
Appliances
• Enable
/
Implement
Core
Features
• Configure
Alerts
and
SNMP

11. Message
Bus
• Enabling
so
much
more!

12. Load
Balancing
• Virtual
Appliances
• Ensure
Health
Status
• Load
Balance
Core
Services
– LDAP
– DNS
– Web
Applica?ons

13. Vendor
Applica?ons
• Compute
Management
– Configura?on
– Remote
Management
• Network
Management
– Single
pane
of
glass
– Version
Control
• Storage
Management
– GUI

14. Remote
Access
• Out
of
Band
Management
• Secure
Access
–
RDP/SSH
• VPN

15. Monitoring
/
Aler?ng
•
•
•
•
Email
Syslog
SNMP
SMS,
Mobile
• Consume
everything!

16. Configura?on
Management
• Define
standards
• Maintain
standards

17. Security
•
•
•
•
•
Isola?on
Audi?ng
Event
and
Change
Tracking
Change
defaults
Role
based
access
controls

18. Mul?
Site?

19. High
Availability
vs
Disaster
Recovery
•
•
•
•
Requirements
Availability
RTO
/
RPO
Supported?

20. Data
Protec?on
•
•
•
•
Configura?on
Level
Applica?on
Level
Image
Level
Storage
Level

21. Right
Sizing
• Ignore
Defaults
• Start
Small,
Upscale
Later
• Don’t
be
scared!

22. Cost?
• VMware
Licensing
• Microso^
Licensing
• Third
Party
So^ware
Costs
• Open
Source
non
cri?cal
toolsets
– IPAM
– Syslog

23. Best
Prac?ces
and
Recommenda?ons
•
•
•
•
VMware
vCloud
Architecture
Toolkit
Microso^
Infrastructure
Planning
and
Design
Vendor
documenta?on
Blogs
/
Forums

24. Ques?ons?