We have 2 sites that we have VSphere ESXi 5.5 Servers at one primary site and one backup site. I am working on bring the backup site online right now, however I am running into a conundrum. Each site has its own SAN for VM Storage.
My issue is, can I setup a second copy of VCenter at the backup site and integrate it with the first copy of Vcenter at the primary site so I can use the primary Vcenter instance to manage both sites, and run Vmotion between sites, but if my primary site goes down I would like to be able to manage my backup site servers via Vcenter from that location.
If that is not possible, and I can only run one copy of Vcenter, is there a way to setup HA or FT to keep an active or passive copy of the Vcenter server on my backup site hardware (both the data and the server instance) so it can come up automatically if the main site goes down. We are running the enterprise version of VSphere.
Or is it just best to keep to separate instances of Vcenter, one at the primary and one at the backup site, each managing their own servers and VM's. If this is the best option, what is the easiest way to migrate VM's between the primary and backup site.
My last option I guess would be to just run Vcenter at my primary site and if it goes down don't use Vcenter for management at the backup site and just connect to the ESXi servers manually one at a time with the VSphere Client (not my preferred method).
What do you think?
Jim