vCenter Server Heartbeat workshop @ DutchVMUG

The last breakout session we attended the XTG vCenter Server Heartbeat workshop, a quick way to get familiar with a new VMware product.

The instructor first introduced us to the product and discussed some installation and configuration hints and tips.

After that we quickly started with preparing and cloning the vCenter Server and installing and configuring the vCenter Server Heartbeat product.

The workshop certainly was useful but in a different way you would probably expect.

After the workshop Anne Jan and I discussed our experiences with the product and we quickly agreed that VMware could have spent more time OEM-ing the former Neverfail product to give it a VMware-like interface instead of the 1980′s Windows 3.11 interface it has now. Besides that the configuration of the product has a very high tweaker-level. In our opinion this is a 0.9 version and in the 1.0 versionVMware should definitely address the interface and configuration look and feel.

Nevertheless VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat does what it is supposed to as we saw during the lab exercises where we did a clean failover and finally caused a BSOD which vCenter Server Heartbeat handled perfectly.

I wonder if customers are willing to pay so much money for a product which isn’t worthy the VMware name based on its ancient interface. I know I will be having a very hard time to convince customers to use this to achieve a very high vCenter protection level even when it’s clear that the use case is definitively there.

Tags: vCenter Server heartbeat, VMUG, VMware

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 20:46 and is filed under vCenter Server Heartbeat, VMUG, VMware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

About Erik Scholten

Erik Scholten is the founder of VMGuru.nl and works for Imtech ICT as a Solution Architect creating the most ingenious virtual infrastructures. He has over 14 years experience as a system engineer and consultant and now he specializes in virtualization. His current job includes selling, presenting, designing and developing virtual infrastructures for some major companies in the Netherlands. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 VMware awarded him the vExpert award for his virtualization community efforts.

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drexciya

I agree with your opinion here. During the preparation of the workshop and during some test runs I found the product has some rough edges. That’s no problem, but if you’re asking a fairly large sum of money for it (5.000+ dollars) it becomes a problem (we’re Dutch after all).

I do think the technology is interesting and it’s something which can be useful for a lot of larger environments. But I’d like to see a more mature product first.
drexciya

I agree with your opinion here. During the preparation of the workshop and during some test runs I found the product has some rough edges. That’s no problem, but if you’re asking a fairly large sum of money for it (5.000+ dollars) it becomes a problem (we’re Dutch after all).

I do think the technology is interesting and it’s something which can be useful for a lot of larger environments. But I’d like to see a more mature product first.
Rob Mokkink

We use the product more then 2 years now, it’s very robust and mature.

VMware only oem’s the vCenter plugin, because Neverfail still has their other products and plugins.

I never had any issues with the interface. It works pretty good.

The product is mainly for large enterprise networks, where they need high availability. It’s not for small or medium size VMware sites.

Before the product was oem’ed by VMware all the people at our department had to do the Neverfail course, so you really know the product inside out.
Rob Mokkink

We use the product more then 2 years now, it’s very robust and mature.

VMware only oem’s the vCenter plugin, because Neverfail still has their other products and plugins.

I never had any issues with the interface. It works pretty good.

The product is mainly for large enterprise networks, where they need high availability. It’s not for small or medium size VMware sites.

Before the product was oem’ed by VMware all the people at our department had to do the Neverfail course, so you really know the product inside out.