VMware vCenter Appliance - VSC/SMVI support

[glen_eustace]

We are planning our upgrade from vSphere 4.1 to 5 and were considering deploying the new vCenter Appliance rather than building vCenter ourselves on a Windows server.  The new appliance, I believe, is based on SUSE Linux not Windows.  Initially this sounded like a great idea, no more Windows patching .  We are currently using SMVI and VSC and these products are currently installed onto our vCenter servers.

At this stage it looks like we will need to stay with a Windows host for vCenter .

Are there any plans to support VSC on the new appliance (i.e. Linux rather than Windows)?  If not, is there any way we can get it to work by splitting VSC and vCenter and hosting on different platform or is the integration too tight for that?

Any suggestions or comments appreciated.

[ricardoduarte]

Hi there,

I'm  currently using SMVI with vCenter Appliance, and it works fine for both backup, provisioning and monitoring.

One thing that does not work tho is VMDK support for SnapDrive, due to the fact that it requires SMVI and vCenter to share the same host.

I'm currently planning to set up a SNAT with IPTABLES on the vCenter Appliance for port 8043, that will forward all requests from the appliance to the host hosting SMVI. I still didn't try it.

Regards.

[glen_eustace]

Hi Richard,

Is this SMVI as in v2, or SMVI as part of VSC which is v3 ?

I would be interested in hearing the outcome of your SNAT test.  I am not sure that my management would be keen to deploy such a solution.  I'd really like to hear from someone at NetApp as to what their roadmap might be for supporting the Appliance.

[ricardoduarte]

I'm currently using the latest VSC (2.1.1).

[arash · Accepted solution]

Hello Glen ;

SMVI/VSC is a windows based application, but it's not required to run on the same machine as your Virtual Center server.

You can install SMVI/VSC on a windows box and register it with VC which is running either on windows or the new SUSE based appliance.

[ricardoduarte]

Hi arash,

While SMVI works fine on a different machine, SnapDrive VMDK support requires it to be on the same machine as vCenter.

You can check the requirements in the documentation for SnapDrive.

Regards.

[arash]

Ricardo ;

As I said before , VSC/SMVI can be installed on a separate server.

You are also correct about the SnapDrive vmdk support.

At this point NetApp is still focused on the full featured VC which is a windows based installation. But you can still register VSC/SMVi running on another windows server to the VC appliance.

Regards.

[glen_eustace]

With VSC being a windows app. there is no gain on our part from using the new Linux based VCenter Appliance.  We are trying to reduce server sprawl and reduce the support overheads.  Moving from Windows to Linux to VCenter appeared attractive.  Having to have another server for VSC would be a step in the wrong direction.  I guess we will be staying with a Windows VCenter for the foreseeable future.

[penangmis]

I agreed with Glen. I believe if most customer will say that. Server consolidation, support overheads, hardware cost, cabling, power, licensing, etc in just increasing IT OPEX. NetApp as a global speak so much and loudly on helping customer to have cut cost and leverage on the product, where is the statement in this sense???

We pay so much for NetApp support and maintenance as customer. We should entitle a better and improve change from NetApp. We need to push NetApp the mind set. It is very disappointing NetApp does not listen to their customer.