Deploying VSP HA in Integrated Mode

Working with the Virtual Services Platform : VSP High Availability Overview : Deploying VSP HA in Integrated Mode

This section describes how to deploy SteelHead EXs in an integrated mode high availability configuration. In integrated mode, SteelFusion services and virtual machines operate on the same SteelHead EX; the failover target for both is a secondary SteelHead EX.

To deploy SteelHeads in an integrated mode high availability configuration

1. Deploy an active SteelHead EX and a passive, failover SteelHead EX as indicated in Figure: Integrated Mode.

2. Ensure that SteelFusion is properly licensed on the active appliance and on the passive appliance.

3. Enable multi-path I/O (MPIO) interfaces on each appliance. For details about enabling MPIO interfaces, see the SteelFusion Core Management Console User’s Guide.

4. Provision a LUN to host virtual machine datastores. The LUN must be accessible to both the active and passive SteelHead EXs. The LUN can be sourced from the active appliance’s local disk, or it can be sourced and projected from a SteelFusion Core appliance. See Adding SteelFusion Edge as an ESXi Datastore.

5. Establish datastores on the LUN. See Creating a Datastore on the LUN.

6. Ensure that the VMware vSphere licenses on each appliance are sufficient to enable native vSphere high availability. (Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus licenses enable high availability.)

7. Launch a vSphere Client and connect to your vCenter Server that manages ESXi on the SteelHead EXs.

8. Using the vSphere Client, place the active SteelHead EX and the passive one into the same HA cluster.

9. Deploy your virtual machines to ESXi on the active SteelHead EX.