If your environment scales beyond that, then this is a reason to stick with the external model, which is still supported in 6.7. With the release of vSphere 6.7, the vCenter Server Appliance now has support for an embedded deployment (vCenter Server and PSC on the same node) to be connected with other embedded nodes with what is being named Embedded Linked Mode (yep, still got the ELM acronym!), which allows you to log in and manage all vCenter Servers that are linked within the same SSO domain in a single browser session.Īs of this release, VMware are supporting up to 15 embedded nodes to be connected in Embedded Linked Mode.
VCENTER 6.5 DEPLOYMENT MODELS DRIVER
Deciding if you need Enhanced Linked Mode is the primary driver to determine if you should go down the path of an embedded or external deployment model (but do note this isn’t the only deciding factor). By going down the path of an external deployment, Enhanced Linked Mode is automatically enabled, meaning you can manage all vCenter Servers in the vSphere SSO domain from a single vSphere Web Client session. External PSC servers can also be load balanced for high availability, albeit at the cost of complexity. External PSC servers replicate with other external PSC servers in the same vSphere SSO domain. Multiple vCenter Servers can link to a single PSC. The down side is that an embedded deployment cannot replicate to another embedded deployment, and Enhanced Linked Mode is not supported.Īn external deployment means the PSC is deployed on a single server, and then the vCenter Server is installed on a separate server, which then links to a PSC server. The embedded deployment model is easy to deploy and maintain, and multiple standalone embedded deployments are supported in a single environment. There are two models in which vCenter 6.0 / 6.5 can be deployed Embedded or External.Īn embedded deployment means the PSC and vCenter Server roles are installed on a single server. From the VMware Documentation Site - ‘Enhanced Linked Mode lets you view and search across all linked vCenter Server systems and replicate roles, permissions, licenses, policies, and tags’ VSphere 6.0 / 6.5 also introduced “Enhanced Linked Mode”.
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If you are really familiar with vCenter 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5 topologies, it might be worth skipping this section. I also compare a couple of topologies between vSphere 6.0/6.5 and vSphere 6.7 to show the savings in the amount of nodes and in some cases, the complexity, that can be saved by using this new deployment topology. In this post, I go over a little history for common deployment models, as well as what the new “vCenter Embedded Linked Mode” brings to the table. This feature is now included in the release of vSphere 6.7. Starting from VMworld US 2017, VMware announced their plans to support PSC replication and Enhanced Linked Mode with the vCenter Embedded deployment model, simplifying overall deployment and management requirements for a multi-vCenter environment.