2.1 Management Cluster Conceptual Overview
A management-only cluster is a group of host hypervisors joined together to host all the VMware vCloud® management components required for the specific environment under examination. The cluster resources are reserved for the specific and sole purpose of powering and supporting the management components with the desired performance, availability, security, and reliability.
The following products are key Cloud Management Platform (CMP) elements. The list is not exhaustive and might contain additional service provider management services to increase operational manageability and efficiency of the solution.
• VMware vCenter Server® and its database, or VMware vCenter® Server Appliance®
• VMware vCloud Director® cells and database
• VMware NSX® Manager™
• VMware vRealize® Automation™
• VMware vRealize Operations Manager™
• VMware vRealize Log Insight™
• VMware Site Recovery Manager™
• Optional infrastructure services tailored for the specific environment (directory services, name resolution, time keeping, IP address management, logging, and so on)
The advantage of deploying a management cluster separated from the other resource clusters is to provide access to sufficient resources (compute, storage, network) at any time without having to compete with other virtualized workloads, and the freedom to manage different plans for data protection and recoverability tailored to the specific workloads running on the clusters.
The following figure shows a conceptual overview of the management components overlaying a vSphere cluster of hypervisors.
Figure 1. Management Cluster Overview
In this scenario, the management cluster and its managed resource groups supporting the vCloud infrastructure reside on the same site to minimize latency issues associated with the speed or reliability of the network.
