Tagged: Design

Architecture Principles: Where do they fit in the RAC model?

Eric Wright recently asked, “Is open source a true technical requirement?” A great question that Eric explores well, and after reading his article it felt like we could quest a little further. So please, go read Eric’s article if you haven’t already, then pop...

VMware Platform Services Controller

What is the VMware Platform Services Controller? With vSphere 6, VMware updated the architecture for vCenter. One of those changes was the introduction of the Platform Services Controller, or PSC. The PSC combines a number of components, including those that used to be...

Planning for Failure with DRS Groups

You’ve spent many hours on your virtualization infrastructure design. There are multiple network paths, at least two of each physical device, and, heck, even multiple upstream Internet providers. The multi-tiered application has multiple VM nodes at each tier for distributing load and boosting...

Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) Best Practices

During an infrastructure provisioning conversation the other day a comment was made that, as a best practice, EVC should be avoided if possible. I was taken aback by this statement as the use of EVC is clear to me. Unfortunately I haven’t had a...

Designing a Virtual Infrastructure Architecture – Sketchnote

I recently watched Mike Rohde‘s [amazon text=The Sketchnote Handbook Video&asin=0321885139] DVD. In it, Mike describes what a sketchnote is and provides some tips and tricks to help you start sketchnoting. Sketchnotes are a more visual approach to note taking. Imagery, layout and typography are...

vSphere Island Clusters

Sit Right Back and You’ll Hear a Tale A very important, and sometimes underappreciated, area of vSphere design is the humble cluster. The cluster is a fairly well understood concept. After all, it’s just a grouping of ESXi hosts, right? Well, yes, however...