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Project Name: VMware vSphere 5.1 Project
Project Manager: Kho Zhen Jia Document Version No: Version 1.0
Project Phase: Documentation Document Version
Date:
July 2013
Quality Review Method: Standard Assessments
Prepared By: Daniel Yee Jeat Sern Preparation Date: July 2013
Reviewed By: Kho Zhen Jia Review Date:
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Contents New Features .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Virtual Machine Enhancements .......................................................................................................... 4
Virtual Machine Scalability and Added Device Support ..................................................................... 4
Compatibility with Older Versions of VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware ...................................... 4
Improved SSD Handling and Optimization .......................................................................................... 5
New Command-Line Interface ............................................................................................................ 5
New “esxcli” Command ...................................................................................................................... 5
Formatted “esxcli” Command Output ................................................................................................ 6
“esxcli” Command Authentication ...................................................................................................... 6
Augmenting “esxcli” with Other Commands ...................................................................................... 6
The “localcli” Command ...................................................................................................................... 7
ESXi Firewall ........................................................................................................................................ 8
vCenter Update Manager ................................................................................................................... 9
Improved Integration with vSphere Clusters ...................................................................................... 9
Enhanced Update Manager Download Service .................................................................................. 9
Update Manager UI Improvements .................................................................................................... 9
Support for VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x to VMware ESXi 5.1 Upgrades ..................................................... 9
Improved VMware Tools Upgrade ...................................................................................................... 9
vMotion Enhancements .................................................................................................................... 10
Extended Guest OS and CPU Support ............................................................................................... 10
vCenter Server Configurations .............................................................................................................. 11
Adding and Creating Inventory Objects ............................................................................................ 11
Creating New VM .............................................................................................................................. 17
Installing VMTools in Windows virtual machine ........................................................................... 25
Installing VMTools in Red Hat Linux virtual machine.................................................................... 31
Using Snapshots .................................................................................................................................... 32
About Snapshots ............................................................................................................................... 32
Taking a Snapshot ............................................................................................................................. 34
Restore a Snapshot ........................................................................................................................... 36
Delete a Snapshot ............................................................................................................................. 38
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Creating Templates and Deploying Virtual Machines ........................................................................... 40
Clone Virtual Machines to Template ................................................................................................ 40
Deploy Virtual Machines from Template .......................................................................................... 44
Adding and Creating Virtual Networks ................................................................................................. 45
Creating or adding vNetwork Standard switch ................................................................................. 45
Creating or adding new vSwitch with Virtual Machine port Group .................................................. 48
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New Features
Introduction VMware vSphere™ 5.1 (“vSphere”) introduces many improvements and new features to extend the
benefits and capabilities of vSphere 4.1. These advancements build on the core capacities in vSphere to
provide improved scalability; better performance; and easier provisioning, monitoring and
troubleshooting. This paper focuses on
the following new features and enhancements:
• Virtual machine enhancements
• Improved SSD handling and optimization
• Command-line enhancements
• VMware® ESXi™ firewall
• VMware vCenter™ Update Manager
• Enhanced vMotion capabilities
• Extended Guest OS and CPU Support
Virtual Machine Enhancements vSphere 5.1 provides a significant leap forward in the areas of virtual machine scalability and
performance. It offers support for significantly larger virtual machines along with added device support
and enhanced backward compatibility for virtual machines running older versions of VMware Tools and
virtual hardware.
Virtual Machine Scalability and Added Device Support In vSphere 5.1 it is now possible to run practically any workload inside a virtual machine. In addition to its
providing support for larger virtual machines, each virtual machine now supports additional capabilities
and devices not previously available, including the following:
• Up to 32 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and up to 1TB of RAM
• Enhanced graphics capabilities, including 3D graphics support that enables a richer desktop experience
• Broader device coverage, including support for 3.0 USB devices, smart card readers and EFI BIOS
• New user interface support for configuring multicore vCPUs
• Support for new guest operating systems including Mac OS X Server v10.6 (“Snow Leopard”)
Compatibility with Older Versions of VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware Along with the improvements in scalability and added device support, vSphere 5.1 continues to support
hosting virtual machines running prior versions of VMware Tools and older virtual hardware versions.
With this support it is not necessary to upgrade all your virtual machines in conjunction with your
vSphere 5.1 upgrade. You can continue to run virtual machines with the 4.x version of VMware Tools, and
virtual hardware versions 4 and 7, in a fully supported configuration. You are required to upgrade the
VMware Tools and virtual hardware version only when necessary to take advantage of the new features
and capabilities added in vSphere 5.1.
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VERSION VSPHERE 4.X VSPHERE 5.1
VMware Tools 4.x Yes Yes
VMware Tools 5 Yes Yes
VMFS – 3 Yes Yes
VMFS – 5 No Yes
Virtual Hardware 3,4,7 4,7,8,9
Table 1. vSphere 4.x and vSphere 5.1 Compatibility
Improved SSD Handling and Optimization vSphere 5.1 provides new forms of SSD handling and optimization. The VMkernel automatically
recognizes and tags SSD devices that are local to an ESXi host or are on the network. In addition, the
VMkernel scheduler is modified to allow ESXi swap to extend to local or network SSD devices, which
enables memory over commitment and minimizes performance impact.
New Command-Line Interface vSphere 5.1 introduces a new command-line interface (CLI). A challenge long faced by vSphere
administrators has been the need to work with many different command-line tools, each with a unique
syntax. In addition, different commands were needed to manage a host locally versus remotely. vSphere
5.1 marks the beginning of efforts by VMware to standardize on a single CLI for both local and remote
administration, as well as to help reduce the overall number of CLI tools.
New “esxcli” Command The new “esxcli” command provides an intuitive, user-friendly interface that enables real-time discovery
of command syntax. While similar in look and feel to its vSphere 4.x predecessor, the new “esxcli”
command has an improved syntax and has been extended to include additional functionality not
previously available, such as the ability to configure network policies and security policies, manage VIBs,
and configure and manage the VMware ESXi firewall. The “esxcli” command is available on each VMware
ESXi host via the VMware ESXi shell. It is also available as part of the optional vCLI package that can be
installed on any supported Windows or Linux server, or through the vSphere Management Assistant
(vMA).
Figure 1. “esxcli” Command
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Formatted “esxcli” Command Output In addition to providing a consistent look and feel for both local and remote CLI administration, the new
“esxcli” command provides the ability to format the command output. Using the “--formatter” option,
administrators can choose to have the command output formatted as XML, a key-value pair or a list of
comma-separated values. The “esxcli” formatter enhances your ability to parse command output, helping
to simplify scripting and improve report generation.
Figure 2. “esxcli” Formatter Option
“esxcli” Command Authentication Each time you run an “esxcli” command, you must be authenticated. Users can choose to authenticate
against an individual VMware ESX® host or a vCenter Server. vSphere 5.1 provides the following options
for managing user authentication:
• If you are logged on locally using the VMware ESXi shell, “esxcli” will use the credentials of the logged-in
user.
• If you are running commands remotely, you can specify the credentials as part of the command.
• You can save the user’s credentials into a “session file” and provide the name of the session file as a
commandline parameter.
• If running commands remotely from a Windows server, you can configure the Windows “—
PassThroughAuth.”
• If using the vMA, you can use the “fast pass” authentication.
When working remotely if no authentication credentials are provided with the “esxcli” command, you
will be prompted to provide a username and password.
Augmenting “esxcli” with Other Commands In vSphere 5.1, the new “esxcli” command replaces the deprecated “esxcfg-*”-style commands. However,
it doesn’t yet provide a comprehensive set of command-line capabilities. The “esxcli” command will
continue to be enhanced in future releases and will eventually replace the non-“esxcli” commands. Until
that time, you will continue to augment the “esxcli” command with the “vicfg-” commands and other
familiar CLI tools such as “vmware-cmd” and “vmkfstools” to troubleshoot and administer your VMware
ESXi hosts. Of course, you can also continue to use the vSphere PowerCLI.
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The “localcli” Command In addition to the new “esxcli” command, a new “localcli” command has been added in vSphere 5.1. The
“localcli” command is largely equivalent to the “esxcli” command, with the notable exception that it
bypasses the local “hostd” process on the server. The “localcli” command is intended for situations where
the VMware ESXi host’s “hostd” daemon becomes unresponsive. It is recommended that you do not use
the “localcli” command outside of the direction of VMware global services because it can result in host
instability.
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ESXi Firewall vSphere 5.1 now provides a new firewall that protects the management interface of a host running ESXi.
This firewall provides similar access control capabilities for the VMware ESXi platform to those available
on the VMware ESX platform. However, the technology used to build this firewall is different from the
iptables running on a console operating system (OS) in the VMware ESX environment.
In VMware ESXi, the access control capability is provided through a vmknic (VMkernel network adaptor)-
level firewall module. This module sits between a vmknic and a virtual switch. It inspects packets against
firewall rules.
Based on the results, it determines whether to drop or pass packets. The following are key features of the
new firewall:
• It is a service-oriented and stateless firewall.
• It supports additional capability to restrict access to services based on IP address and subnet mask.
• The configuration GUI is similar to the VMware ESX firewall.
• The firewall can be configured using the new “esxcli” command-line interface.
• Host Profiles support is provided for this firewall.
The VMware ESXi firewall provides security to the management interface and helps manage firewall rules
through a familiar, service-oriented GUI. This familiar GUI and the capability to preserve firewall settings
help administrators tremendously during the transition from the VMware ESX to the VMware ESXi
platform.
In the following section, higher-level details on firewall GUI, CLI and third-party interface are provided to
help administrators understand the firewall rule management and configuration process.
VMware ESXi Firewall GUI Similar to the VMware ESX firewall, the VMware ESXi firewall can be managed
from the vSphere client’s host and cluster view. After selecting the host and choosing the configuration
tab, the VI administrator can check different services and firewall settings under the security profile.
Figure 3 shows the screenshot of the security profile of a host, with details on available services and
firewall rules. Administrators can start or stop any of these services and also provide access to these
services through the firewall parameters.
Figure 3. Security Profile Screenshot
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vCenter Update Manager The vCenter Update Manager has been further optimized in vSphere 5.1.
Improved Integration with vSphere Clusters The new Update Manager includes improved integration with vSphere clusters. Update Manager now
monitors the cluster’s available capacity and uses the information on spare capacity, to optimize the
number of hosts that can be patched simultaneously. This enables more optimal patching of clusters,
with no risk of virtual machine downtime. In the case where maintenance windows are limited and virtual
machine downtime is not critical, Update Manager is now able to patch an entire cluster in unison,
enabling rapid and simultaneous patching of all hosts in a cluster.
Enhanced Update Manager Download Service Update Manager 5.1 also provides more flexibility in configuring the Update Manager Download Service
(UMDS). Users can now define multiple URLs from which the host can download updates. In addition,
administrators can now filter the updates that get downloaded to include only those patches/updates
that are applicable to their environment.
Update Manager UI Improvements The Update Manager Utility has also been improved to make it easier to update and manage the Update
Manager configuration itself. With the new Update Manager Utility, users can now change the Update
Manager database password and configure proxy authentication, as well as manage SSL certificates.
Support for VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x to VMware ESXi 5.1 Upgrades Update Manager 5.1 also provides support for upgrading VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x hosts to VMware ESXi 5.1.
Administrators can use Update Manager to expedite the migration of existing VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x hosts
to VMware ESXi 5.1, including migrating third-party components such as Cisco Nexus 1000V and EMC
PowerPath.
Improved VMware Tools Upgrade In addition to facilitating the upgrade of VMware ESX/ESXi hosts, Update Manager also facilitates the
updating of VMware Tools running inside virtual machines by allowing the update to be scheduled in
advance and performed at a convenient time without requiring the administrator to be present for the
update.
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vMotion Enhancements Enhancements to vMotion in vSphere 5.1 provide a new level of ease and flexibility for live virtual
machine migrations. vSphere 5.1 now enables users to combine vMotion and VMware vSphere® Storage
vMotion® (Storage vMotion) into one operation. The combined migration copies both the virtual machine
memory and its disk over the network to the destination host. In smaller environments, the ability to
simultaneously migrate both memory and storage enables virtual machines to be migrated between
hosts that do not have shared storage. In larger environments, this capability enables virtual machines to
be migrated between clusters that do not have a common set of datastores.
Extended Guest OS and CPU Support Along with security, auditing and monitoring updates, and the enhanced vMotion capabilities, vSphere
5.1 adds support for the latest guest operating systems and CPUs. vSphere 5.1 introduces support for
Microsoft Windows 8, both server and desktop editions, along with support for the latest AMD and Intel
CPUs, including the AMD “Piledriver” series and the Intel “Ivy Bridge” and “Sandy Bridge” series.
For a comprehensive list of the supported guest operating systems and server hardware, refer to the
VMware Compatibility Guide. The guide is updated frequently, so it’s a good idea to check it often to get
the latest updates.
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vCenter Server Configurations
Adding and Creating Inventory Objects Before you can really build your inventory—in either Hosts And Clusters view or VMs And
Templates view—you must first get your ESXi hosts into vCenter Server. And before you can get your
ESXi hosts into vCenter Server, you need to have a datacenter object. We can have multiple
datacenter objects within a single vCenter Server instance.
Perform the following steps to add a datacenter object:
1. Launch the vSphere Client, if it is not already running, and connect to a vCenter Server
instance.
2. From the View menu, select Inventory Hosts And Clusters
3. Right-click the vCenter Server object, and select New Datacenter.
4. Type in a name for the new datacenter object. Press Enter, or click anywhere else in
the window when you are finished.
If you already have a datacenter object, then it’s ready to start adding ESXi hosts to
vCenter Server.
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Perform the following steps to add an ESXi host to vCenter Server:
1. Launch the vSphere Client, if it is not already running, and connect to a vCenter Server
instance.
2. From the View menu, select Inventory Hosts And Clusters
3. Right-click the datacenter objects, and selects Add Host.
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4. In the Add Host Wizard, supply the IP address or fully qualified hostname and user
account information for the host being added to vCenter Server. This will typically be
the root account.
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5. When prompted to decide whether to trust the host and an SHA1 fingerprint is
displayed, click Yes.
6. The next screen displays a summary of the ESXi host being added, along with
information on any virtual machines currently hosted on that server. Click Next.
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7. License assignment to the host. Click Next
8. Configure lockdown mode. If enable, will prevent remote user from log directly into
this host.
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9. Click Finish at the summary screen.
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Creating New VM 1. To create new VMs, right click the Cluster and click New Virtual Machine
2. A Create New Virtual Machine window will appear. Click Custom for more available settings
and click Next
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3. Select the Inventory Location for the new VM and give a desired name for the VM. Click
Next to proceed.
4. Select the desired datastore to use if applicable for storing the VM files and click Next to
proceed.
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5. Select the Virtual Machine Version and click Next to proceed.
(Note: VM version 9 is not available in the creation of new VM. To have VM version 9, OS
and VMware Tools needed to be installed first. Following on by power off the VM, right click
the VM and select upgrade VM hardware.)
6. Select the desired OS to be installed on this new VM and click Next to proceed.
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7. Select the desired Number of Virtual Sockets and Number of cores per virtual socket to be
used for the new VM. After configuring, click Next to proceed.
8. Adjust the amount of Memory Size to be used for this VM. After configuring, click Next to
proceed
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9. Select the amount of NIC to be used for the new VM and Select the Network Type for the
NIC. Click Next to proceed when done configuring. (Note: Make sure Connect at Power On is
checked upon confirmation)
10. Select the SCSI controller types and click Next
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11. Select Create New Virtual Disk for the new VM.
12. Adjust the desired Disk Size to be used and select the desired Disk Provisioning types to be
used.
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13. Select the desired Virtual Device Node to be used and click Next
14. After the whole process of configuration, view the summary and upon confirmation, make
sure the Edit Virtual Machine settings before completion is checked. Press continue to
proceed to virtual machine settings
.
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15. Navigate to Hardware tab and in the hardware device list, select New CD/DVD device for the
options to be displayed. Checked on Connect at power on and select a method to install the
OS. Press Finish upon confirmation and power on the VM to start the OS installation.
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Installing VMTools in Windows virtual machine
1. Use the vSphere Client to connect to a vCenter Server or an individual ESXi host.
2. Right-click the virtual machine in the inventory tree, and select Guest
Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
(Vi Client)
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3. A warning message displays that indicates that VMware Tools cannot be installed
until the guest operating system is installed. Click OK.
4. Open the VM’s console and an AutoPlay dialog box appears, prompting the user for
action. Select the option Run Setup.exe. If the VMware Tools installation process
does not begin automatically, open Windows Explorer, and double-click the CD/DVD
drive icon. The VMware Tools installation should then launch.
5. Click Next on the Welcome To The Installation Wizard For VMware Tools page.
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6. Select the appropriate setup type for the VMware Tools installation, and click Next.
The Typical radio button will suffice for most situations. The Complete installation
option installs more features than are used by the current product, while the Custom
option allows for the greatest level of feature customization.
7. Click Install.
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8. After the installation is complete, click Finish.
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9. Click Yes to restart the virtual machine immediately, or click No to manually restart
the virtual machine at a later time.
10. After restart, right-click an empty area of the Windows desktop, and select the
Properties option.
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11. Select the Settings tab, and click the Advanced button.
12. Select the Troubleshooting tab.
13. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the Full setting.
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Installing VMTools in Red Hat Linux virtual machine
To install VMware Tools:
1. Open the VM’s console
2. Choose VM > Guest > Install VMware Tools.
The guest operating system mounts the VMware Tools installation virtual CD and an autoplay will appear.
3. Copy the VMwareTools-5.1.0-<xxxx>.tar.gz, go to desktop, create a new folder named vmtools and paste the file inside.
4. Go to vmtools folder, right click the tar.gz file and select Extract Here
5. Go to desktop, right click anywhere and select open terminal.
6. Input cd desktop > cd vmtools > cd vmware-tools-distrib > ./vmware-install.pl
Setup should start running and proceed all following options by default accept for choosing the
right resolution for the VM to run on.
7. Restart VM after the completion of vmware tools installation.
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Using Snapshots
About Snapshots
Snapshots operate on individual virtual machines. In a team of virtual machines, taking a snapshot
preserves the state only of the active virtual machine.
When you revert to a snapshot, you return all these items to the state they were in at the time you
took that snapshot. If you want the virtual machine to be suspended, powered on, or powered off
when you launch it, be sure it is in the correct state when you take that snapshot.
Snapshots are useful when you need to revert repeatedly to the same state but you don’t want to
create multiple virtual machines. With snapshots, you create backup and restore positions in a linear
process. You can also preserve a baseline before diverging a virtual machine in a process tree.
Snapshots can be used as restoration points during a linear or iterative process, such as installing
update packages, or during a branching process, such as installing different versions of a program.
Taking snapshots ensures that each installation begins from an identical baseline.
Multiple snapshots refer to the ability to create more than one snapshot of the same virtual
machine. To take snapshots of multiple virtual machines, (for example, snapshots for all members of
a team) requires that you take a separate snapshot of each team member.
Multiple snapshots are not simply a way of saving your virtual machines. With multiple snapshots,
you can save many positions to accommodate many kinds of work processes.
In order to take a snapshot, the state of the virtual disk at the time the snapshot is taken must be
preserved. When this occurs, the guest cannot write to the vmdk file. The delta disk is an additional
vmdk file that the guest is allowed to write. The delta disk represents the difference between the
current state of the virtual disk and the state that existed at the time of the previous snapshot. If
more than one snapshot exists, delta disks may represent the difference (or delta) between each
snapshot. For example, a snapshot can be taken, then the guest could write to every single block of
the virtual disk causing the delta disk to grow as large as the entire virtual disk.
When a snapshot is deleted, all the data from the delta disk that contains the information about the
deleted snapshot is written to the parent disk. This can involve a large amount of disk input and
output. This may reduce the virtual machine performance until consolidation is complete.
The amount of time it takes to commit or delete snapshots is a function of how much data the guest
operating system has written to the virtual disks since the last snapshot was taken. The required
time is directly proportional to the amount of data (committed or deleted) and the virtual machine’s
RAM size.
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The relationship between snapshots is like that of a parent to a child. In the linear process, each
snapshot has one parent and one child, except for the last snapshot, which has no children.
The snapshots taken form a tree. Each time you revert and take another, a branch (child) is formed.
In the process tree, each snapshot has one parent, but one snapshot may have more than one child.
Many snapshots have no children. You can revert to a parent or a child.
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Taking a Snapshot
1. Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Take Snapshot. You can also right-
click the virtual machine and select Snapshot > Take Snapshot. The Take Virtual
Machine Snapshot window appears.
2. Type a name for your snapshot.
3. (Optional) Type a description for your snapshot.
4. (Optional) Select the Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory check box if you want to
capture the memory of the virtual machine.
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5. (Optional) Select the Quiesce guest file system (Needs VMware Tools installed) check
box to pause running processes on the guest operating system so that file system
contents are in a known consistent state when the snapshot is taken. This applies only
to virtual machines that are powered on.
6. Click OK.
7. When the snapshot has been successfully taken, it is listed in the Recent Tasks field at
the bottom of the vSphere Client.
8. Click the target virtual machine to display tasks and events for this machine or, while
the virtual machine is selected, click the Tasks & Events tab.
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Restore a Snapshot
1. Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager.
2. In the Snapshot Manager, select a snapshot by clicking it.
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3. Click the Go to button to restore the virtual machine to any arbitrary snapshot.
4. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.
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Delete a Snapshot
1. Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager.
2. In the Snapshot Manager, select a snapshot by clicking it.
3. Click Delete to permanently remove a snapshot from vCenter Server. Clicking Delete All
permanently removes all snapshots from the virtual machine.
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4. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.
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Creating Templates and Deploying Virtual Machines
vCenter Server offers two different options for creating templates: Clone To Template and Convert
To Template. As the name suggests, the Clone To Template feature copies a virtual machine to a
template format, leaving the original virtual machine intact. Similarly, the Convert to Template
feature involves a virtual machine that is changed to a template format, thereby removing the ability
to turn on the virtual machine without converting back to a virtual machine format.
When considering which virtual machines should become templates, remember that the idea behind
a template is to have a pristine system configuration that can be customized as needed for
deployment to the target environment. Any information stored on a virtual machine that becomes a
template will become part of the new system that is deployed from that template. If you have virtual
machines that are critical servers for production environments that have applications installed, those
are not good candidates to become templates.
Clone Virtual Machines to Template
Use the vSphere Client to connect to a vCenter Server instance. Cloning and templates are not
supported when using the vSphere Client to connect directly to an ESXi host.
1. Right-click the virtual machine to be used as a template, and select Template Clone
To Template.
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2. Type a name for the new template in the Template Name text box, select a location in
the inventory to store the template, and then click Next
3. Select the host or cluster where the template should be hosted, and click Next.
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4. Select the datastore where the template should be stored, and click Next.
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5. Select the disk format for the template and click Next. Three options are available for
the template’s disk format:
The Same Format As Source option keeps the template’s virtual disks in the same
format as the virtual machine that is being cloned.
Thin Provisioned Format commits space on demand, meaning that it will occupy
only as much space as is currently used by the guest operating system.
Thick Format allocates and commits the full size of the virtual disks upon creation.
6. Review the template configuration information, and click Finish.
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Deploy Virtual Machines from Template
1. Use the vSphere Client to connect to a vCenter Server instance. Cloning and templates
are not supported when using the vSphere Client to connect directly to an ESXi host.
2. Locate the template object to be used as the virtual machine baseline.
3. Right-click the template objects, and selects Deploy Virtual Machine from This
Template.
4. Type a name for the new virtual machine in the virtual machine’s Name text box,
select a location in the inventory to store the virtual machine, and then click Next
5. Select a host on which the virtual machine should run, and then click Next.
6. Select a datastore location for the virtual machine files. Click the Advanced button if
you want to specify an alternate storage location for virtual machine disk files.
7. Select the disk format for the virtual machine to be created from the template.
8. For first-time template deployments, select the Customize Using The Customization
Wizard option to create a new XML-based answer file, and then click Next.
9. At this point, the vSphere Client Windows Guest Customization Wizard starts.
Provide a name and organization to be used for virtual machines built from the
customization file.
10. For simplicity and consistency, select the Use the Virtual Machine Name option to
specify that the guest operating system hostname be the same as the display name,
and then click Next.
11. Enter a valid Windows product key, configure the licensing mode, and click Next.
12. Enter an administrator password, and click Next.
13. Enter the appropriate time zone for the new virtual machine, and click Next.
14. Enter any commands that should run one time at the end of the setup, and click Next.
15. Configure the network adapter to use DHCP and standard settings with the Typical
option; to manually configure each network interface, select Custom, and then click
Next. If you select Custom, then you must configure the settings for each of the
network adapters in the virtual machine accordingly.
16. Specify the workgroup or domain membership of the new guest operating system, and
click Next.
17. In almost all instances, you’ll want to ensure that the Generate New Security ID (SID)
check box is selected. Click Next.
18. Ensure the Save This Customization Specification For Later Use check box is selected,
provide a name for the customization file, enter a description as needed, and then
click Next.
19. Review the customization information, and then click Finish.
20. Review the template deployment information, select the Power On The New Virtual
Machine After Creation option as needed, and then click Finish.
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Adding and Creating Virtual Networks
In vSphere, we can create various virtual networks. These are the common virtual networks utilized:
vNetwork Standard Switch (vSwitch) - A software-based switch for Virtual Machine networking.
VMkernel port - A specialized virtual switch port type that is configured with an IP address to allow
VMotion, iSCSI storage access, network attached storage (NAS) or Network File System (NFS) access,
or VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) logging.
Creating or adding vNetwork Standard switch
1. Use the vSphere Client to establish a connection to a vCenter Server or an ESXi host.
2. Click the hostname in the inventory panel on the left, select the Configuration tab in
the details pane on the right, and then choose Networking from the Hardware menu
list.
3. Click Properties for the virtual switch to host the new VMkernel port.
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4. Click the Add button, select the VMkernel radio button option, and click Next.
5. Type the name of the port in the Network Label text box.
6. If necessary, specify the VLAN ID for the VMkernel port.
7. Select the various functions that will be enabled on this VMkernel port, and then click
Next. For a VMkernel port that will be used only for iSCSI or NAS/NFS traffic, all check
boxes should be deselected.
8. Select Use This Port Group For VMotion if this VMkernel port will host VMotion traffic;
otherwise, leave the check box deselected. Similarly, select the Use This Port Group For
Fault Tolerance Logging box if this VMkernel port will be used for VMware FT traffic.
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9. Enter an IP address for the VMkernel port. Ensure the IP address is a valid IP address for
the network to which the physical NIC is connected. You do not need to provide a
default gateway if the VMkernel does not need to reach remote subnets.
10 Click Next to review the configuration summary, and then click Finish.
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Creating or adding new vSwitch with Virtual Machine port Group
1. Use the vSphere Client to establish a connection to a vCenter Server or an ESXi host.
2. Click the hostname in the inventory panel on the left, select the Configuration tab in
the details pane on the right, and then select Networking from the Hardware menu
list.
3. Click Add Networking to start the Add Network Wizard.
4. Select the Virtual Machine radio button option, and click Next.
5. Because you are creating a new vSwitch, select the check box that corresponds to the
network adapter to be assigned to the new vSwitch. Be sure to select the NIC
connected to the switch that can carry the appropriate traffic for your virtual machines.
6. Type the name of the virtual machine port group in the Network Label text box.
7. Specify a VLAN ID, if necessary, and click Next.
8. Click Next to review the virtual switch configuration, and then click Finish.