FusionAccess Planning and Deployment · Topic 1 of 2
FusionAccess Component Planning and Deployment
Plan a FusionAccess deployment: all-in-one or separate modes, which components share a VM, active/standby HA, network planes and AD, DNS and DHCP.
- 5 min
- FusionAccess management components run as infrastructure VMs on FusionCompute.
- All in one puts every component on one VM, or one VM pair for HA; separate mode splits core components from vAG and vLB.
- Management components are deployed in active/standby pairs reached through a floating IP.
What it is
Component planning decides how many VMs the FusionAccess management components need, which components share a VM, how they are made highly available and which networks they connect to. It is done before anything is installed.
The FusionAccess management components run as infrastructure VMs on FusionCompute, next to the desktop VMs they manage. AD, DNS and DHCP run on Windows servers, either provided by the customer or built for the project.
How it works
Deployment modes
| Mode | Layout | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| All in one (combined) | All management components on one VM, optionally paired with a standby VM | Small sites and labs |
| Separate (standard) | Core components on one pair of VMs, vAG and vLB on another pair | Production and larger sites |
| Further separation | Components spread over more VMs | Large deployments with many users |
In the common separate layout, ITA, GaussDB, HDC, WI and License are installed together on one VM, and vAG and vLB together on another. Each of those VMs is deployed twice for reliability.
Component groups
| Group | Components | Why they belong together |
|---|---|---|
| Core management | ITA, HDC, WI, GaussDB, License | Management and login services that share the database |
| Access gateway | vAG, vLB | Face user traffic and can be scaled with the number of users |
| Domain services | AD, DNS, DHCP | Windows services for accounts, names and IP addresses |
| Terminal management | TCM | Needed only where thin clients are used |
The gateway group grows with the user count. More concurrent users need more vAG capacity, while the core group changes far less.
High availability
Management components are deployed as active/standby pairs on two VMs, and clients and other components reach the pair through a floating IP address. If the active VM fails, the standby takes over the floating IP.
Place the two VMs of a pair on different CNA hosts. If both sat on one host, a single host failure would stop the whole service, which defeats the pair.
Network planes
| Plane | Carries |
|---|---|
| Management plane | Traffic between FusionAccess components, FusionCompute and administrators |
| Service plane | User access traffic: logins and HDP desktop sessions |
| Storage plane | FusionCompute host traffic to the datastores |
The management and service planes can share one network on small sites or be kept apart on separate port groups and VLANs. Desktop VMs sit on the service plane, where DHCP gives them their IP settings.
Planning AD, DNS and DHCP
| Service | What to plan |
|---|---|
| AD | Domain name, organizational units (OUs) for desktops, a domain account FusionAccess uses to join desktops to the domain |
| DNS | Forward and reverse zones, records for the components and the desktop VMs |
| DHCP | A scope for desktop VMs: address range, gateway, DNS server, domain name and lease time |
Size the DHCP scope for every desktop VM you plan to create, with room to spare. If the scope runs out, new desktops get no address and cannot register with the HDC.
Time synchronization
All components, the AD server and FusionCompute must keep the same time. Kerberos authentication in AD fails when clocks drift too far apart, and logs become hard to correlate.
Plan one reliable time source, such as an external NTP server or the AD server, and point every component at it.
Storage for desktops
Desktop storage is planned on FusionCompute datastores. Linked clone desktops share a read only base disk, so they need much less capacity than full copy desktops, but the shared disk must deliver enough IOPS when many users start at once.
A worked example
A company plans 800 office desktops. The designer chooses the separate mode: two VMs for ITA, HDC, WI, GaussDB and License, and two VMs for vAG and vLB, each pair split across two CNA hosts.
A customer AD server already exists, so the plan adds an OU for desktops, a domain account for FusionAccess, DNS records and a DHCP scope of 1,000 addresses on the desktop VLAN.
How the exam asks about this
- "Which components are usually installed on the same VM as ITA in a separate deployment?" -> HDC, WI, GaussDB and License.
- "Why should the active and standby management VMs run on different hosts?" -> So one host failure cannot stop both copies.
- "Which service assigns IP addresses to desktop VMs?" -> DHCP.
What to remember for the exam
- FusionAccess management components run as infrastructure VMs on FusionCompute.
- All in one puts every component on one VM, or one VM pair for HA; separate mode splits core components from vAG and vLB.
- Management components are deployed in active/standby pairs reached through a floating IP.
- Plan management, service and storage planes; desktops get their addresses from DHCP on the service plane.
- AD, DNS and DHCP are prerequisites, and all components must share one time source.
A pair of management VMs on the same CNA host is not highly available. Spread each pair across hosts.
Common mistakes
Forgetting the domain services. FusionAccess needs AD, DNS and DHCP in place; it does not provide them.
Sizing only for capacity. Linked clones save space, but the shared base disk must also handle the IOPS of many desktops booting together.
Ignoring time. Clock drift between AD, FusionCompute and FusionAccess breaks domain authentication and confuses logs.
Check yourself
What is the difference between the all in one and separate deployment modes?
All in one puts every management component on one VM, or one VM pair for HA, while separate mode places the core components and the vAG and vLB on different VM pairs.
How do clients reach an active/standby pair of management VMs?
Through a floating IP address that moves to the standby VM if the active one fails.
Why must the DHCP scope be sized for all desktops?
Desktop VMs get their IP settings from DHCP, and a desktop without an address cannot register or be reached.
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