Working with the Virtual Services Platform : VSP High Availability Overview : Deploying VSP HA in Dedicated Mode
  
Deploying VSP HA in Dedicated Mode
This section describes how to deploy SteelHead EXs in an dedicated mode high availability configuration. Dedicated mode is when SteelFusion services operate on the SteelHead EX and virtual machines are hosted on a separate ESXi system; the failover target for SteelFusion is the secondary SteelHead EX, while the failover target for virtual machines is a secondary ESXi system.
To deploy SteelHead EXs in a dedicated 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 functionality is properly licensed on both the active and the passive appliances.
3. Enable 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 the ESXi systems.
8. Using the vSphere Client, place both the active and the passive ESXi systems into the same HA cluster.
9. Deploy your virtual machines to the active ESXi system.