The Symantec High Availability Console enables Symantec High Availability integration with VMware vSphere Client. The Console must be installed separately in the Symantec ApplicationHA monitoring environment and should reside on a separate virtual machine or a physical host.
The Symantec High Availability Console performs the following functions:
As part of the Console installation, the installer registers the Symantec High Availability plugin for VMware vCenter Server. The plugin enables Symantec ApplicationHA integration with VMware vSphere Client and adds the Symantec High Availability tab, the Symantec High Availability dashboard, and the Symantec High Availability home page to the VMware vSphere Client.
This plugin is required to view the Symantec High Availability tab, the Symantec High Availability dashboard, and the Symantec High Availability home page, in the vSphere Client.
The plugin enables you to install ApplicationHA guest components from the vSphere Client GUI. It also enables you to ensure disaster recovery of the monitored applications by using VMware Site Recovery Manager.
You can use the Symantec High Availability tab to configure application monitoring, control application start and stop, and monitor the application status on a virtual machine.
You can use the Symantec High Availability dashboard to administer application monitoring on a VMware cluster or datacenter.
The Symantec High Availability home page is added as an vSphere Client extension under the VMware Solutions and Applications pane. You can use the Symantec High Availability home page to perform any of the following tasks:
Install ApplicationHA or Symantec High Availability guest components
Manage ApplicationHA or Symantec High Availability licenses
Configure single sign-on between sites for application monitoring continuity. The cross-site single sign-on is required to configure ApplicationHA in a VMware site recovery environment.
The Symantec High Availability Console provides a single sign-on mechanism so that an authenticated vCenter user does not have to provide the virtual machine user credentials to configure and control application monitoring. The user also does not have to log on each time to connect to the virtual machine from the vSphere Client.
The Console uses Symantec ApplicationHA Authentication service to provide secure communication between the virtual machine and the vSphere Client. It uses digital certificates for authentication and uses SSL to encrypt communications. Symantec ApplicationHA uses platform-based authentication; it does not store user passwords.
The Console adds the Symantec ApplicationHA privileges to the vSphere Client environment. You can use the privileges to configure access control for vCenter Server users and groups.