vSphere vCenter (v7.0) Required? If so, what features speficially?

[RITR]

I'm seeing somewhat conflicting messaging when it comes to requiring vCenter.

Here, it states it is mandatory when running on third party spec based hardware:

"VMware vCenter is mandatory when deploying on UC on UCS Specs-based and Spec-based 3rd-party infrastructure."

Here it says it is optional:

"VMware vCenter is not a pre-requisite to install, first-time-setup, administer or engage to support Cisco Collaboration apps; the local management client ... is sufficient"

I have three physical hosts on "third-party" Dell servers. Does that qualify as needing vCenter? More importantly, what features are actually required of vCenter? Is it just the logging? We will not be using any other features ourselves, such as vMotion, etc. So we will likely just go with the vCenter Essentials Kit if it is just logging.

[Jaime Valencia · Accepted solution]

The only part that is not completely clear is this: engage to support Cisco Collaboration apps IMO

You can do pretty much any installation task, admin, configuration, etc. without vCenter, on any HW. That is completely true and some apps even have instructions for vCenter and vSphere depending on what you have.

3rd party HW sizing and making sure it meets the requirements falls on whoever chose to use that HW, it's not a TRC which Cisco tested and knows 100% it meets all the requirements for the UC apps, so that's when the vCenter logging comes into play, and why it is indeed mandatory to have it when using 3rd party HW or UC on UCS specs based.

If you're going to use 3rd party HW, then it's mandatory for you to have vCenter with the correct logging level as explained in the documentation, that's really all that is required, using the other features is up to you, your requirements and UC app compatibility.

See the first table in this doc:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/virtualization/collaboration-virtualization-hardware.html

[RITR]

Thanks for the clarification, Jamie.