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TRANSCRIPT
20030127
E V A L U A T O R ' S G U I D E
VMware ESX Server Virtual Infrastructure Node Evaluator’s GuideData Center-Class Virtual Infrastructure for Mission-Critical Environments
Installing, Configuring and Evaluating ESX Server 2.5 and VirtualCenter 1.3 November 2005
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Contents1 GettingStarted..................................................................3
2 TheITChallengeToday................................................5
3 VMwareVirtualInfrastructureIntroduction.....6
4 VMwareVirtualInfrastructureProducts.............8
5 VMwareVirtualInfrastructureBusinessSolutions........................................................10
6 ESXServerOverview...................................................11
7 VirtualCenterOverview.............................................15
8 ExampleCustomerImplementations..............18
9 EvaluationPlanningandEnvironmentSetup......................................................20
9.1PlanningWorksheet...........................................20
9.2OverviewoftheEvaluationDeployment............................................................24
9.3TypicalEvaluationTimeline...........................25
9.4HardwareRequirementsforESXServer...............................................................26
9.5HardwareRequirementsforVirtualCenterManagementServer...........27
9.6HardwareRequirementsforRemoteManagementWorkstation.............................27
9.7GuestOperatingSystemsSupported.....28
9.8DownloadProductBinariesandBurntoCD-ROM..............................................................28
9.9HelpfulTechnicalTips........................................28
10 InstallingESXServer....................................................30
11 InstallingVirtualCenterManagementServer&Client.................................................................44
12 UnderstandingtheVirtualInfrastructure.......50
12.1VirtualCenterManagesVirtualMachinesRunningonPhysicalHosts..50
12.2CPU,MemoryandHardwareVirtualization........................................................50
12.3StorageVirtualization.....................................54
12.4NetworkVirtualization....................................55
12.5VirtualCenterSoftwareComponents...56
12.6VirtualCenterOrganizesServersintoFarmsandGroups............................................57
12.7VirtualCenterManagesTasks,Templates,AlarmsandEvents..................58
12.8VirtualCenterManagesAccessPrivilegeswithUsersandGroups...........59
12.9WorkingwiththeVirtualCenterClient.........................................60
12.10CommonActionsPerformedThroughVirtualCenter.................................62
13 CreatingNewVirtualMachines............................63
13.1CreatingNewVirtualMachinesfromScratch.........................................................63
13.2CreatingNewVirtualMachinesfromExistingServers..................................................68
13.3Creating,StoringandDeployingVirtualMachineTemplates..........................69
13.4CloningVirtualMachines.............................83
14 ManagingVirtualMachines....................................87
14.1Starting,Stopping,SuspendingandResettingVirtualMachines.........................87
14.2EditingVirtualMachineConfigurations....................................................87
14.3SchedulingTasks...............................................92
14.4UsingEventsandAlarms.............................94
15 ConfiguringanESXVINtouseaStorageAreaNetwork...................................................................96
16 MigratingVirtualMachinesacrossESXServers..................................................................... 102
16.1MigrateaPowered-OffVirtualMachinetoanotherHostusingtheSAN................................................................ 103
16.2MigrateaPowered-OnVirtualMachinetoanotherHostusingtheSAN(VMotion)................................................. 104
17 ApplicationFunctionalTestingandLoadTesting................................................................... 109
18 Summary......................................................................... 109
19 Glossary............................................................................ 110
20 VMwareProfessionalServices............................ 113
21 VMwareSupportServices..................................... 114
22 VMwarePartnerAlliance....................................... 114
23 AboutVMware............................................................. 115
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1. getting startedabout this guideThepurposeofthisdocumentistosupportaself-guidedevaluationofaVMwareVirtualInfrastructureNode(VIN)runningVMware®ESXServer2.5andmanagedbyVMwareVirtualCenter1.3.Thisdocumentisintendedtoprovideatechnicalproductreviewerwiththenecessaryinformationtoinstall,manageandevaluateVMwarevirtualinfrastructure.
Thecontentincludesaproductoverview,descriptionofhowothercustomersareusingtheproduct,andproductinstallationandusagewalkthroughstodemonstratehoweasyitistogetstartedusingVMwarevirtualinfrastructure.Tosimplifyandminimizeinitialhardwarerequirements,thisguideshowshowtoinstallasingleESXServerlicensetolocalSCSIdisks.TheguidethencontinueswithademonstrationofhowtousemultipleESXServerlicenseswithastorageareanetwork(SAN)tosupportadvancedfeaturessuchasVMotionforthemigrationofrunningvirtualmachinesbetweenESXServerhosts.
Inchapters2-8,thisguideprovidescontextualbackgroundthatwillassistanevaluatorinunderstandingservervirtualizationandhowthetechnologycanbestbeappliedtodrivevalueinyourorganization.ThoseseekingtogetstartedquicklymayskiptoChapter9tobegintheserverpreparationandinstallation.
Conventions used in this guideThefollowingconventionsareusedinthisguide.
Blue Crossreferences,links
Courier Commands,filenames,directories,paths,userinput
Semi-Bold Interactiveinterfaceobjects,keys,buttons
Bold Itemsofhighlightedinterest,terms
Italic Variables,parameters
Italic Webaddresses
additional documentation resourcesAlthoughthematerialpresentedinthisdocumentcanallbefoundontheVMwareWebsite,thisevaluationguideattemptstobringalltheinformationintoasingledocumenttofacilitatetheevaluationprocess.Fullproductdocumentationoninstallationandadministrationisavailablefordownloadathttp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/.
Evaluation Hardware requirementsBeforestartinganevaluationofVMwarevirtualizationsoftware,checktheonlinehardwarecompatibilityguidesthatarepublishedontheVMwareWebsiteathttp://www.vmware.com/support/resources/esx_resources.html.ThecompatibilityguideswillensurethatthehardwarethatisbeingconsideredfortheESXServerevaluationhasgonethroughcompatibilitytestingbyVMware.
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Whilethehardwarerequirementsarecoveredinmoredetailinsection9.4,ahighlevelsummaryisprovidedbelow:
• Anx86multi-processorserver(2-CPUminimumperserver)withaSCSIdiskforESXServerinstallation.TwoESXserverlicensesareneededalongwithaSANtoevaluateVMotion™migrationofvirtualmachinesfromoneESXServertoanotherESXServer.
• Anx86PCorserverwithWindows2000(orhigher)forVirtualCenterManagementServerandClientinstall
• Guestoperatingsystemsandapplicationsfortesting
• NotethatESXServerrequireseitheraSANorlocalSCSIdisksforvirtualmachinestorage
Help and support during the EvaluationBeyondtheproductdocumentationavailableathttp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/,thebestsourceforsupportduringanESXServerevaluationistorefertotheVMwareonlineKnowledgeBaseavailableathttp://www.vmware.com/support/kb.TheKnowledgeBasecontainshundredsofdocumentedissuesandtypicallyoffersworkaroundsorfixesthatcanhelpyouresolveyourissuequickly.ThisonlineKnowledgeBaseissearchableandcoversalltheproductsthatVMwareoffers.OthergoodsourcesforsupportincludetheVMwareTechnologyNetworkdiscussionforumsandthepublicVMwarenewsgroups.
TheVMwareTechnologyNetworkhostsasetofmoderateddiscussionforumsontheVMwareWebsitethatareopentoallVMwareusers.Intheforums,VMwareTechnologyNetworkmemberscometogethertoexchangeinformation,asktechnicalquestionsandsharecomments.VMwarerepresentativesmonitortheforumandrespondtoquestionsasappropriate.Youcanjointhecommunitydiscussionforumathttp://www.vmware.com/community.
TheVMwareNewsgroupsareprimarilyforumsforuserstohelpeachother.Youareencouragedtoreadandpostissues,workaroundsandfixes.WhileVMwarepersonnelmayreadandposttothenewsgroups,thisisnotachannelforofficialsupport.TheVMwareNNTPnewsserverisatnews.vmware.comwithadditionalusageinformationat http://www.vmware.com/vcommunity/newsgroups.html.
PleasenotethatVMwaredoesnotoffertechnicalsupportonanevaluationbasis.Whenyoupurchaseyourproductlicense,youcanselecttheleveloftechnicalsupportthatmeetsyourneeds.MoreinformationaboutVMwaresupportofferingsisavailableathttp://www.vmware.com/support/programs.html.
Providing FeedbackWeappreciateyourfeedbackonthematerialincludedinthisguide.Inparticular,wewouldbegratefulforanyguidanceonthefollowingtopics:
• Howusefulwastheinformationinthisguide?
• Whatotherspecifictopicswouldyouliketoseecovered?
• Overall,howwouldyouratethisguide?
Pleasesendyourfeedbacktothefollowinge-mailaddress:[email protected],with“VMwareVirtualInfrastructureNodeEvaluator’sGuide”inthesubjectline.Thankyouforyourhelpinmakingthisguideavaluableresource.
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2. the it Challenge today Today,ITorganizationsareworkingdiligentlytosolvetheproblemscreatedbytheexplosioninthescopeandcomplexityofITplatformsadoptedinthe1990’s.Themigrationofapplicationarchitecturestothin-clientmulti-tierarchitectures,theintroductionofmultiplegenerationsandeditionsofWindowsserversandtherapidgrowthofLinuxhavesweptacrossITorganizationsinsuccessivewavesoverthelasttenyears.Thesewavescausedrecordgrowthinservercounts,networkcomplexityandstoragevolumesthroughoutgeographicallydistributedITorganizations.Thepoliciesandproceduresadoptedtogainbackcontroloftheinfrastructurehaveoftenintroducedtheirownchallenges.
SomeoftheresultingsymptomsreportedbyITorganizationsinclude:
• Largenumbersofunderutilized“one-application/onebox”x86-basedservers
• Pervasiveover-provisioningcausedbypoliciesthatsizeallserversfor“worst-case”workloadscenarios
• Longprovisioningcycletimesfornewservers,storageandnetworking
• Longdelaysinprovisioningnewservices
• Narrowscheduleddowntimewindowsthatareover-subscribedwithmaintenanceactivities
• Inconsistent,non-reproducibleserverbuildsduetoalackofbuildpoliciesoranabilitytoenforcethem
• Rushedpatchroll-outsthatbreakapplicationfunctionalityorperformancebecausethepatch-testingsystemsdonotmatchproductionsystems
• MultiplemanagementsystemsfordistributedLinux,WindowsandNetWareservers
• Incompleteinformationforequipmentcounts,statusandownership
Thislistofchallengesisdaunting,butIThasstartedtoregaintheupperhandinthebattleagainstcostly,inflexibleanddisorderlyinfrastructure.Asafirststep,ITorganizationshavegenerallycentralizedtheirITinfrastructureintofewerlocationsforbettervisibility.Asasecondstep,theyareadoptinganewgenerationofinfrastructuretechnologiesandmethodologies.
ThecommonvisionofITorganizationstodayistoprovidetheirbusinessunitswithlowercost,higherservice-levelinfrastructurethatenablesthemtorespondfastertobusinessunitdemands.Forexample,mostenterprisesarealreadymigratingtostorageareanetworking(SAN)foraflexible,lowercost,higherservicelevelstorageinfrastructure.Currently,thousandsofenterprisesareadoptingservervirtualizationtechnologiesthatprovidethesamebenefitsfortherestoftheITinfrastructure.Thissynergisticcombinationofstorage,networkingandcomputingvirtualizationhascreatedanewcategoryofinfrastructuresoftwarecalledvirtualinfrastructure.
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3. vMware virtual infrastructure introductionVirtualinfrastructureprovidesalayerofabstractionbetweenthecomputing,storageandnetworkinghardware,andthesoftwarethatrunsonit.Virtualinfrastructureintroducesanewcategoryofinfrastructurecapabilitiestothedatacenter.Withvirtualinfrastructure,ITorganizationscanprovisionnewservicesandchangetheamountofresourcesdedicatedtoasoftwareservicesimplybyinteractingwithamanagementconsole.Hardwaremanagementiscompletelyseparatedfromsoftwaremanagement,andhardwarecanbetreatedasasinglepoolofprocessing,storageandnetworkingpower—whichcanbeallocatedorreallocatedtovarioussoftwareservicesonthefly.
VMwareisapioneerofvirtualinfrastructurebasedonvirtualmachinetechnology.Thistechnologywasoriginallydevelopedformainframestoallowmultipleoperatingsystemstoshareasinglepieceofhardware.VMwarepioneeredvirtualmachinesonthex86platform,andhasspentmorethansevenyearsenhancingtheircapabilitiesforgeneralenterpriseuse.TheVMwarevirtualhardwareplatformimplementedbyVMwarevirtualmachinesmakesvirtualinfrastructurepossible.Itprovidesastandardizedhardwareimage—implementedentirelyinsoftware—onwhichoperatingsystemsandapplicationscanrun.WhethertheunderlyinghardwareisaSAN-attached8-waysystemwithgigabitEthernetcardsorabladeserverwithlocaldiskssharinganetworkswitch,theexactsamevirtualhardwareplatformispresentedtotheoperatingsystemanditsapplications.
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the vMware virtual Hardware Platform Bycreatingauniformvirtualhardwareplatformacrosstheentiredatacenter,virtualinfrastructureallowssoftwaretobeinstalledonormovedfromonephysicalsystemtoanotherwithoutrequiringreconfigurationoftheoperatingsystemorapplications.WithgroundbreakingVMwareVMotiontechnology,thismoveistransparenttotheuseranddoesnotcauseaninterruptioninuserservice.Adoptingvirtualinfrastructureresultsin:
• 60-80%utilizationratesforx86-basedservers—upfromtoday’stypical5–15%
• Just-in-timeprovisioningofadditionalresourcestoapplications
• Provisioningtimesfornewapplicationsmeasuredinseconds,notdays
• Responsetimesforchangerequestsmeasuredinminutes
• Zero-downtimehardwaremaintenancewithoutwaitingformaintenancewindows
• Unifiedserverprovisioning,monitoringandresourceallocationacrossmultiplegenerationsofWindows,LinuxandNetWareservers
• Guaranteedbuildconsistencyacrosssystems
• Highersuccessratesforpatchroll-outs
• Completeinformationforequipmentcounts,statusandownership
getting ready for Next-generation Computing Fororganizationsthatwanttoevolvetheirinfrastructuretowardnext-generationcomputing,thefirststepistheimplementationofavirtualinfrastructure.Fortheseorganizations,VMwareoffersacomprehensiveopenWebservicesAPIforitsimplementationofvirtualinfrastructurethateasilyplugsintoothervendor’sautomationandpolicymanagementframeworks.Asenterprisesselectvendorsforhigher-levelcapabilitiessuchasservicelevelmanagementorchargeback,VMwarevirtualinfrastructurecanbeeasilyintegrated.
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4. vMware virtual infrastructure ProductsESXServerandVirtualCenterarepartofafamilyofVMwarevirtualinfrastructureproducts.TheVMwareplatformincludes:
• VMwareACE—AnenterprisesolutionforITdesktopmanagerswhowanttoprovisionandmanagesecure,standardizedPCenvironmentsthroughouttheextendedenterprise.
• VMwareWorkstation—Powerfuldesktopvirtualizationsoftwareforsoftwaredevelopers/testersandITprofessionalswhowanttostreamlinesoftwaredevelopment,testinganddeploymentintheirenterprise.VMwareWorkstationallowsuserstorunmultiplex86-basedoperatingsystems,includingWindows,Linux,andNetWare,andtheirapplicationssimultaneouslyonasinglePCinfullynetworked,portablevirtualmachines—noharddrivepartitioningorrebootingrequired.
• VMwareGSXServer—Enterprise-classvirtualinfrastructuresoftwareforx86-basedserversthatrunshostedonWindowsandLinuxx86servers.GSXServerutilizeshostoperatingsystemnativedriversupporttomakeVMwareGSXServerthemostflexibleservervirtualizationproductavailable.
• VMwareESXServer—Datacenter-classvirtualinfrastructuresoftwarethatrunsnativelyonthehardwaretopartition,consolidateandmanagesystemsinmission-criticalenvironments.ESXServerprovidesitsowndriversupportandadvancedresourcemanagementforthehighestpossibleperformanceoncertifiedhardware.
o VMwareVirtualSMP™—Anadd-onmoduletoVMwareESXServerthatmakesitpossibleforasinglevirtualmachinetospanmultiplephysicalprocessors.VMwareVirtualSMPisidealforscalingyourvirtualinfrastructuretohandlethemostresource-intensiveapplications.OnlyVMwarepro-videssymmetricmultiprocessingfunctionalityforx86-basedvirtualmachines.
• VMwareVirtualCenter—VirtualinfrastructuremanagementsoftwarethatprovidesacentralandsecurepointofcontrolforyourGSXServerandESXServervirtualcomputingresources.VirtualCentercreatesamoreresponsivedatacenter,whichenablesfasterreconfigurationandreallocationofapplicationsandservices.Itallowsinstantprovisioningofservers.User-downtimeisdecreased.Thedatacenterbecomesoptimized.
o VMwareVMotion™—Anadd-onmoduletoVMwareVirtualCenterthatmakesitpossibletomigratearunningESXServervirtualmachinetoadifferentphysicalserverconnectedtothesamestorageareanetwork(SAN)withoutserviceinterruption.VMotionenablescontinuousworkloadbalancingandzerodowntimemaintenance.
• VMwareP2VAssistant—Anenterprise-classmigrationtoolthattransformsanimageofanexistingWindowsphysicalsystemintoaVMwarevirtualmachinetoenablefastandreliablephysicaltovirtualmachinemigration.
• VMTNSubscription—VMwareTechnologyNetwork(VMTN)SubscriptionisaservicefordevelopersandtestersthatprovidesapowerfulsuiteofVMwareproducts,supportandupgradesaswellaspre-builtvirtualmachinesfordevelopmentandtestinginaconvenient,low-costannualsubscription.
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“Once we introduced VMware ESX Server, it caught on faster than I could have imagined. Even more amazing than the product’s efficiency was the way it reduced our costs. VMware probably saved us several hundred thousand dollars this year on hard-ware purchases alone. As QUALCOMM grows, we antici-pate even greater savings.”
—Paul Poppleton, IT Manager, QUALCOMM
virtual infrastructure NodesTheprimarybuildingblocksrequiredtobuildavirtualinfrastructuresolutionincludeoneormoreVirtualInfrastructureNodes(VINs)andVMwareVirtualCenter.VirtualInfrastructureNodesbundlethemostpopularVMwareplatformcomponentstosimplifyorderingandprovideadiscountovertheindividuallypricedcomponents.TheavailableVINoptionsincludetheGSXServerVIN(whichincludesVMwareGSXServerandVirtualCenterAgent)andtheESXServerVIN(whichincludesESXServer,VirtualCenterAgent,VMotionandVirtualSMP).ITmanagerscanselecteitherGSXServerorESXServerVINs,oruseacombinationofboth,basedontheiruniquevirtualinfrastructurerequirements.
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5. vMware virtual infrastructure Business solutionsBusiness Use Benefits
Implement Server Consolidation Consolidatebranchofficeanddatacentermission-criticalapplicationsandinfrastructureservicesontofewerhighlyscalable,highlyreliableenterprise-classservers.
ReducedTCOacrossthecomputinginfrastructure
Built-inheadroomforexpansionandscaling
Maximumhardwareutilization
Simplifiedsystemmanagement
Lower IT Costs and Improve Flexibility and Responsiveness UseVirtualCentertodeployandmanageESXServerVirtualInfrastructureNodesandmanageyourhardwareresourcesasasinglepoolofcomputer,storageandnetworkingpower.
Improveutilizationratesupto60-80%forx86servers
Provisioningtimesfornewapplicationsmeasuredintensofseconds,notdays
Responsetimesforchangerequestsmeasuredinminutes
Zero-downtimehardwaremaintenancewithoutwaitingformaintenancewindows
Deliver High Availability and Guarantee Service Levels
Protectcriticaldatainsecurevirtualmachinesandisolatemultipleserversthatruntogetheratnear-nativeperformancelevelsonstandardx86-basedhardware.
Protectionagainstnon-hardwareerrorsandsinglepointoffailureforhigheravailability
Runresource-intensiveSMPapplicationssuchasOracle,SQLServer,MicrosoftExchangeserver,SAP,Siebel,LotusNotes,BEAWebLogicandApache
MorecontroloverITperformancemetrics
RunITasanenterpriseserviceprovider,deliveringbetterservicelevelstocustomers
Dramatically Improve and Lower the Cost of Disaster Recovery Capability
Createaunifieddisasterrecoveryplatformthatincreasesavailability,reducesrecoverytimeandlowershardwareandoperationalcosts.
StreamlineDisasterRecoverymanagement
Eliminatetheneedforcostly1-to-1mappingofproductionandDisasterRecoveryservers
Recovervirtualmachineimagesonanyx86hardwareplatform
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6. EsX server overviewVMwareESXServerisvirtualinfrastructuresoftwareforpartitioning,consolidatingandmanagingsystemsasvirtualmachinesinmission-criticalenvironments.ESXServerVirtualInfrastructureNodestransformphysicalsystemsintoapooloflogicalcomputingresources,whereoperatingsystemsandapplicationsarefullyisolatedwithinthemultiplevirtualmachinesthatresideonphysicalservers.Systemresourcesaredynamicallyallocatedtovirtualmachinesbasedonneedandservicelevelguarantees,providingmainframe-classcapacityutilizationandcontrolofserverresources.
ESXServerrunsdirectlyonthesystemhardwaretoprovideasecure,uniformplatformfordeploying,managing,andremotelycontrollingmultiplevirtualmachines.ESXServervirtualizationhasthreekeyfeaturestoenableadynamicandflexibledatacenter:partitioning,isolationandencapsulation.
PartitioningESXServerusesauniquebare-metal(orhypervisor)architecturethatinsertsasmallandhighlyrobustvirtualizationlayerbetweenthex86serverhardwareandthevirtualmachines.ThisapproachgivesESXServercompletecontrolovertheserverresourcesallocatedtoeachvirtualmachineanditavoidstheperformanceoverhead,availabilityconcernsandcostsofservervirtualizationarchitecturesbuiltonahostoperatingsystem.
Thisvirtualizationlayerperformsallthenecessarytranslationstomaskthephysicalhardwareresourcesfromtheguestoperatingsystem.Theguestoperatingsystemseesaconsistentsetofvirtualhardware,regardlessofwhattypeofphysicalhardwaretheservercontains.Thismeans,forexample,thatregardlessofthespecificnetworkcontrollerthephysicalserverisusing,theguestoperatingsystemwillseeonlythenetworkcontrollerdefinedbythestandardizedvirtualhardwaresetinESXServer.
Becauseapplicationsinteractonlywiththeassociatedguestoperatingsystemandnotwiththeunderlyingvirtualhardware,onceoperatingsystemcompatibilitywiththevirtualhardwareisestablished,applicationcompatibilityisnotanissue.Thishardwareindependenceenhancesreliabilityduetothesmallnumberofdevicedriversrequiredforthevirtualhardwareand,thus,foreachvirtualmachineoperatingsystem.Multipleoperatingsystemscanberuninvirtualmachinesononephysicalmachinetofullyutilizeserverresources,andtheycanallshareanyhighavailabilityfeaturesoftheserver.
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isolationThevirtualizationlayeralsoprovidestheabilitytocompletelyisolateonevirtualmachinefromanotheratthehardwarelevel.Eachvirtualmachineincludesacompletelyseparateoperatingsystem,registry,applicationsanddatafiles.Becauseeachoperatingsystemisisolated,oneoperatingsystemcannotcommunicatewithorleakdatatoanyotheroperatingsystem,otherthanthroughnetworkingmechanismssimilartothoseusedtoconnectseparatephysicalmachines.Errorsoruseractionsthatinterferewiththeoperationoftheoperatingsystemandapplicationsrunninginonevirtualmachinehavenoeffectonthecontinuingoperationofothervirtualmachinesonthesameserver.
Thisisolationexistsatthehardwarelayeraseachvirtualmachineandtheconsolearegiventime-slicesoftheprocessorandthusneverconcurrentlyshareakerneloranyprocesses.Inarealenvironment,whatthismeansisthatapplicationsinonevirtualmachinecanencountervirusesorbluescreentheiroperatingsystem,andthereisnoeffectonanyothervirtualmachine.Multipleoff-the-shelfoperatingsystemscanberunsidebysidewhilestillprovidingapplicationownerswithfullprotectionfromthestabilityandperformanceproblemsofotherapplicationsduringserverconsolidation.
EncapsulationVMwareencapsulatestheentirestateofavirtualmachineincludingthememory,diskimages,andI/Odevicestateintoasfewastwofiles.Thetwofilesincludeashorttextfiledefiningtheconfigurationofthevirtualmachineandavirtualdiskfilethatcontainsitsdata.Thus,thevirtualmachinecanbecopied,saved,andmovedlikeafile.
Youcanmoveentirevirtualmachinesamongdevelopment,testing,andproductionenvironmentssimplybymovingthevirtualmachinestatefilefromonephysicalsystemtoanother.Thisallowsyoutodeployandredeployvirtualmachineseasilyandflexiblyevenacrossserversthatvarysignificantlyintheirhardwareconfiguration
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OthernotablefeaturesofESXServerinclude:
Bare-Metal Hypervisor architectureAsVMware’sflagshipvirtualinfrastructureplatformfordatacenterenvironments,ESXServeremploysauniquebare-metalhypervisorarchitecturetoprovidethebestpossibleperformanceandscalabilityforserverapplicationsrunninginvirtualmachines.TheESXServervirtualizationlayer,orVMkernel,isathinsoftwarelayerofonlyabout200,000linesofcodeentirelydedicatedtomanagingtheexecutionofvirtualmachines.Unlikevirtualizationproductsthatrequireahostoperatingsystemcomprisingtensofmillionsoflinesofcode,ESXServerprovidesmuchlessexposuretosecurityvulnerabilitiesandmuchhigherreliability.Thebare-metalarchitecturegivesESXServercompletecontrolofthehosthardware,makingitpossibletoprovidefine-grainedresourceallocationstoeachvirtualmachine.ESXServeremploysaLinux-basedServiceConsoleformanagementaccess,butallvirtualmachineexecutionishandledbythecustom-writtenVMkernel.
runs unmodified, off-the-shelf softwareBecauseESXServervirtualmachinesimplementacompletex86platform,theysupportstandardguestoperatingsystemsandapplications.Nosoftwaremodificationsorspecialprocessorhardwaresupportisrequiredasisthecasewith“paravirtualization”products.Thisisespeciallyimportantwhenusingvirtualmachinesinsoftwaredevelopmentandtesting,wherethevirtualplatformmustexactlyreplicateaphysicalplatform.
Broad server supportESXServerhasbeentestedandfullysupportsmostcommonx86serverandbladesystemsfromtheleadinghardwarevendorssuchasDell,HP,IBM,FujitsuSiemens,NEC,Sun,Bull,UnisysandIntel.ESXServercansupportlargehostsystems(upto64GBofhostmemory,256TBofstorage,16hostprocessors,and80powered-onvirtualmachines)forscalability,extensibility,androbustness.Additionally,ESXServerisqualifiedwithsystemsmanagementapplicationsincludingHPInsightManager,DellOpenManageandIBMDirector.
virtual sMPESXServersupportsSymmetricMultiprocessing(SMP)virtualmachines,withsingleordualvirtualCPUs.VMwareVirtualSMPisanadd-onmoduleincludedintheVINbundlethatmakesitpossibleforasinglevirtualmachinetospanmultiplephysicalprocessors.VMwareVirtualSMPallowsmultipleprocessorstoworkinparallelwhileusingonlyasingleguestoperatingsystemimage,makingitsuitableforeventhemostresource-intensiveapplications.
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EsX server Multiplies the Benefits of saNs & High availability HardwareByvirtualizingaccesstohardware,ESXServermultipliesthebenefitsofusinghighavailabilityhardwareasallvirtualmachinescantakeadvantageofhighavailabilityfeatures:
• CPU—A4-wayservercanhost20-30virtualmachineswithanysubsetofthembeingabletodynamicallyscaleupasneededwithintheirallocationsandusealargershareoftheprocessingpool.
• Memory—Usingmemoryover-commitment,aserverwith6GBofphysicalmemorycanactlikeaserverwith12GBofvirtualmemory.ESXServerwilldynamicallymanagethememoryandforcevirtualmachinestopagememorybasedontheirownprioritiesonceallthephysicalmemoryisinuse.ESXServeralsoemploysafeaturecalledtransparentpagesharingtoconservememorybyidentifyingmemorypagesthatareidenticalacrossmultipleVMs(suchasmultipleVMswiththesameoperatingsystemrunning)andstoringthemonlyonce.
• Storage—TwopairedHostBusAdapters(HBAs)cansupport,forexample,32virtualdisksonaSANinafaulttolerantmanner.ESXServermaximizesstorageareanetwork(SAN)availabilitybyprovidingmulti-pathingorautomaticpathfailoverincaseofHBA,switch,orstoragecontrollerfailure.ItincreasesscalabilityandeasesmanagementbyallowingsystemadministratorstodirecttrafficfromspecificHBAstoindividuallogicalunits(LUNs)anddiscovernewLUNsanddeviceswhilevirtualmachinesarerunning.
• Network—ESXServersupportsNICteamingtoincreasenetworkreliabilityandperformancewhilesimplifyingnetworktopologies.NICteamingenablesadministratorstogrouptwothroughtenphysicalnetworkinterfacecontrollers(NICs)intoonesinglevirtualnetworkdevicethatcanappearasadedicatedvirtualNICtoeachof32separatevirtualmachines.BybindingallthesephysicalNICstogether,customerscanimprovenetworkavailabilitybycreatingredundancyinthecaseofNICfailureandincreaseperformancebydynamicallyload-balancingtrafficbetweenallavailablephysicalNICs.ESXServeralsosupportsVirtualLANtaggingtoenablethecreationofmultiplelogicalLANswithinoracrossphysicalnetworksegments.
vMFs File systemESXServerincludesaVMFSfilesystemthatprovidesoptimizedI/Operformanceforvirtualdiskfiles,highavailabilityfeaturesandsupportforlargestorageconfigurations.WiththeVMFSfilesystem,userscandynamicallygrowthesizeofafilesystemwhileESXServerisrunning,accessthesamefilesystemfrommultipleESXServerhostssimultaneously,reconfigurestoragewithoutpoweringoffmachines,andsupportfilesizesupto64TB.
Fine grained resource Controls and Workload ManagementESXServerallowsuserstograntspecificallocationsforCPU,disk,memory,andnetworkbandwidthforeachvirtualmachineanddynamicallychangetheseresourceallocationsonthefly.Forexample,anadministratorcancreateavirtualmachinewithaminimumCPUpercentageof30%andamaximumCPUpercentageof80%,andthisvirtualmachinewillalwayshaveatleast30%,andnevermorethan80%,ofaphysicalCPU’sresources.
AdditionalwhitepapersandinformationontheseESXfeaturesandtheirusageareavailableontheVMwareWebsiteathttp://www.vmware.com/support/resources/esx_resources.html.
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7. virtualCenter overviewEnterprisesthatdeployhundredsofvirtualmachinesshouldtakeadvantageofVirtualCenter,thesecureandcentralizedmanagementproductthathelpsadministratorsmanageESXServerandGSXServerdeployments.VirtualCenteristhecenterpieceofthevirtualinfrastructure,enablingITstafftoeasilymanageworkloadsacrossmultiplesystemswithoutrequiringamajorinvestmentinadditionalresourcesortraining.WithVirtualCenter,anadministratorcanmanagehundredsofMicrosoftWindowsNT®,Windows2000,WindowsServer2003,WindowsXP,LinuxandNetWareserversfromasinglepointofcontrol,givingITmanagerscompletecontrolovertheirlarge-scalevirtualinfrastructure.Serverscanbeinstantlyprovisionedandquicklyconfiguredtosupportapplicationsandservices,souser-downtimeisdecreased.VirtualCenteruniquelyleveragesvirtualcomputing,storage,andnetworkingtoimproveenterpriseresourcemanagementandreducecosts.
VirtualCenterprovides:
Centralized ManagementVirtualCenterprovidesaWindows-basedmanagementclientthatisdesignedtofacilitatethemanagementofthousandsofvirtualmachinesfromasinglelocation.TheVirtualCentermanagementsystemincludesallthefeaturesexpectedfromamodernmanagementenvironment:performancemonitoring,alerts,remoteaccess,taskscheduling,reporting,androbustaccesscontrol.
MonitoringAdministratorscanmonitorsystemavailabilityandperformanceinrealtime:viewinghostserverandvirtualmachinepowerstate,systemstatusandcurrentCPU,andmemoryutilization.VirtualCenterallowsyoutotrackperformanceutilizationforhostserversorbreakitdownbyindividualvirtualmachine.Pre-configuredgraphsdisplaythecurrentCPUusage,memoryusage,diskI/O,andnetworkI/O.Viewsofhistoricalperformancedatacanbecustomizedbytheadministratortoquicklyidentifypossibleperformanceissuesandidentifythebesthostsfornewvirtualmachines.
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alert NotificationVirtualCenterincludesanalertnotificationsystemthatallowsadministratorstocreatecustomalarmsbasedontriggersthatarerelevanttotheirbusinessandITneeds.Thresholdandeventalertscanbeconfiguredforalargenumberofeventswithinthevirtualinfrastructure,includingserverfailuresandover-andunder-utilizationevents.Bydefault,VirtualCenterhaspredefinedalarmsforCPUusage,memoryusage,andheartbeatofallhostserversandvirtualmachines.UserscansetspecificthresholdstotriggeralarmsandinformVirtualCentertotakeaction.Atriggeredalarmcanresultinanalertnotificationsenttosystemadministratorsviaemailand/orpageroranactionbeingperformedsuchasrunningascripttoshutdown,suspend,ormigrateavirtualmachine.
remote accessVirtualCenterincludesafullyintegratedRemoteConsole,providingkeyboardvideomouse(KVM)accesstorunningsystems.Thisfeatureallowsadministratorstoaccessthedesktopoftheirvirtualmachinesandadministertheirapplicationsremotelyoveranetwork.Withouteversteppingfootintothedatacenter,anadministratorcanmanageanentirevirtualinfrastructureusingtheVirtualCenterclient,deployingnewsystemsandmigratingrunningsystemsbetweenphysicalservers.
automationUsingthetaskschedulingmechanismofVirtualCenter,severaladministrativetasks,includingtheprovisioningofnewsystems,canbefullyautomated.Thewizard-basedtaskschedulerallowsyoutoscheduledeploymentsofnewvirtualmachines,changethepowerstateofvirtualmachines,andschedulemigrationofvirtualmachines.
Administratorscanusethetaskschedulertopowerdownavirtualmachineorsetofvirtualmachinestoperformnightlyorweeklybackups.Forexample,anadministratorcreatesanewtasktosuspendaparticularvirtualmachine,onaweeklybasis,inordertoperformafullsystembackup.Theadministratorcanthencreateanothertasktoresumethatvirtualmachineafterthebackupiscomplete.Automatingthesetasksallowsthebackuporcopyofthevirtualmachinetorununattended.
securityVirtualCenterincorporatesarobustaccesscontrolframeworksoITstaffcanbegrantedappropriateaccessrightstomanagetheinfrastructure.Thisallowsadministratorstocontrolwhichapplicationsanddatauserscanaccess.VirtualCenterintegrateswithWindowsActiveDirectoryauthenticationenablingITorganizationstouseexistingloginsandusergroupswithnoneedtocreateanadditionalauthenticationstructure.
software developer’s KitTheVMwareVirtualInfrastructureSDKprovidesarichWebservicesAPIintegrationcapabilityenablingroutineeventstobeautomatedortriggeredbyexternalsystems.TheVMwareSDKenablesintegrationwithexistingmanagementandmonitoringsolutions.SeveralserverandsoftwarevendorshavealreadyintegratedtheirproductswithVMwarevirtualinfrastructureusingtheVMwareSDK.
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vMotion technologyVMotiontechnologyletsyoumovelive,runningvirtualmachinesfromonehosttoanotherwhilemaintainingcontinuousserviceavailability.VMotiontransferstheentiresystemandmemorystateofarunningvirtualmachinefromoneESXServertoanother.VMotionallowsfastreconfigurationandoptimizationofresourcesacrossthevirtualinfrastructurebecauseyoucanmakechangeson-the-flywithoutimpactingusers.VMotionenableszero-downtimemaintenanceandcontinuousworkloadconsolidationforESXServerhosts.
instant Provisioning of New serversInstantprovisioningenablesadministratorstocreateanddeployanewserverinminutes,completewithanoperatingsystemandapplications.It’sdifferentthanmostprovisioningsolutionsbecauseit’smuchfasterandtakesadvantageoftheuniformityofvirtualhardware.VirtualCentercanalsohelpstreamlineserverprovisioningbymaintainingarepositoryofhardwareindependentvirtualmachinetemplates,anditincludesawizard-basedsystemtodeploytheseasnewservers.Virtualmachinetemplatesareaquickandconsistentmethodforaddingnewapplicationstoyourvirtualcomputinginfrastructure.
BenefitsofInstantProvisioning:
• Respondfastertochangingbusinessneeds
• Reduceserver-provisioningtimefromweekstominutes,allowingadministratorstorespondimmediatelytorequestsforITservices
• Automateandstandardizeserverdeploymentsandprovisioningfordisasterrecovery
• Usetemplatestoensureconsistencywithcurrentbuildandsecuritypolicies
• Rapidlydeploynewserverstomeetdemand,quicklyrecoverfromasystemcrashornaturaldisaster
• FullyleverageSANstorage,move/copysystemsbetweenLUNsand/orstorageservers
• Reduceoperationcostsassociatedwithserverprovisioning
AdditionalwhitepapersandinformationontheseVirtualCenterfeaturesandtheirusageareavailableontheVMwareWebsiteathttp://www.vmware.com/support/resources/vc_resources.html.
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8. Example Customer implementationsProduction server ConsolidationContainserversprawlbyconsolidatingserversintovirtualmachineshostedonfewerbutmorepowerfulphysicalsystems.
Summary MoreInformation
ESXServerhelpsAIGTechnologiesreduceserverprovisioningtimeby50%anddelivers20:1reductioninthenumberofservers
www.vmware.com/cus-tomers/stories/aig.html
7-Eleven’sCPUutilizationaverages50-70%onitsVMwareservers,comparedto6-8%onmostotherservers
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/ 7-Eleven.html
LeadingcellularcompanyinIsrael,Cellcom,embracesvirtualizationtechnol-ogytomeetgoalsforbusinessgrowthandprovidesuperiorcustomerservice
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/cellcom.html
Byenablinga30:1reductioninthenumberofservers,VMwareESXServerhelpsQUALCOMMsavesixfiguresonhardware-whilefreeingdatacenterspacetosupportthecompany’srapidexpansion
www.vmware.com/ customers/stories/ qualcomm.html
software development optimizationVirtualizecompletetestanddevelopmentenvironmentsandsavethemasfiles.
Summary MoreInformation
AbacusInternational
VMwareESXServer,GSXServer,VirtualCenterandWorkstationachievea19:1serverconsolidation,acceleratelegacyapplicationmigrationsandenhanceproductivitywithautomatedtestinganddevelopmentprocesses
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/abacus.html
BaptistHealthcareSystemusesthefulllineofVMwareproductsforcostsavings,easeofmanagementandhighperformance
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/bhs.html
VMwarehelpsGoogledevelopinnova-tivesearchWebsitetechnologies
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/google.html
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Business ContinuityImprovebusinesscontinuitybytakingadvantageofvirtualinfrastructurehardwareindepen-denceandapplicationportability
Summary MoreInformation
BB&KusesESXServertoautomateprocessesandsimplifycorebusinessobjectives
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/bbk.html
Award-winninghospitalusesVMwareESXServertooptimizecomputingforhospitalstaffsotheycandeliverthebesthealthcareandservices
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/clark_memorial.html
SubaruofIndianaAutomotivecutsdowntime40%withVMwareVirtualInfrastructure
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/subaru.html
VMwareESXServerprotectsagainstvulnerabilitiesofphysicalserverswhilereducingcostsandenhancingcompetitiveadvantage
http://www.vmware.com/customers/stories/neverfail.html
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9. Evaluation Planning and Environment setup9.1 Planning Worksheet
Technical Configuration ChecklistBelowaretasksandremindersthatshouldbecompletedbeforesoftwareinstallation.
ServersystemissupportedbyESXServer?-SeeESXServerSystemCompatibilityGuide
ServersystemcontainsVMwareHardwareCompliantI/OAdapters?-SeetheI/OAdapterCompatibilityGuide
Serverhasatleasttwo(preferably3forVMotion)LAN-connectedapprovedNICs?-SeetheI/OAdapterCompatibilityGuide
ServerhasasupportedSANandHBAconfigurationifevaluatingusewithaSANandVMotion?SeetheSANCompatibilityGuide
ServersystemandI/OcomponentsareatlatestBIOS/Firmware?
Serverhasamplememoryfortestingrequirements?-(2GBminimum,preferably3GB+)
ServercontainsamplelocalstoragespaceforServiceConsoleandrecommendedpartitions?(9GBminimum,36GB+recommended)
ALANconnectedworkstation/serverfortheVirtualCenterManagementServerisavailablethatcangettoESXServersubnetforconfiguration?
UserhasamplefixedIPaddressesforconsole,VMNIC(s),andguestVMs?(VMwaredoessupportDHCP,butstaticaddressesaregenerallysimplertomanage)
UseralreadyhasVMwareinstallmedia?(MediaKitCDordownloadfromevaluationsite)
UseralreadyhasVMwarelicenseinformation?(Sentviaemailfollowingevaluationrequest)
Userhasallnecessaryoperatingsysteminstallationmedia,licensekeysandservicepackstosupportoperatingsysteminstallationsonvirtualmachines?(Forexample,Windows2003ServerwithServicePacks)
System Configuration InformationPleaseenterintheinformationfortheESXServersystemsthatwillbeused.
Manufacturer:CircleDell,HP,IBM,FujitsuSiemens,NEC,Sun,Bull,UnisysorIntel
Product________________________Model__________________________
NumberofProcessors_______Speed______GHz
DualCoreand/orHTenabled?________________
AmountofMemory_______GB
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Local Disk StorageDiskVendor__________________
Make______________________Model____________________
LocalStorage_______GB,RAIDType_______
SAN FC HBAs (if used)QLogicModel______________________________
EmulexModel______________________________
OtherHBA_________________________________
SAN Disk Storage (if used)SANStorage_______GB,RAIDType_______
AnticipatedVMFSLUN_____________________
SANSwitchVendor___________________________
Make______________________Model____________________
Network InterfacesVMwareofficiallysupportsIntelandBroadcomnetworkcards
NIC#1—Vendor____________Model___________Speed_______________
NIC#2—Vendor____________Model___________Speed_______________
NIC#3—Vendor____________Model___________Speed_______________
ESXServerHostname_____________________IPAddress______________________
VirtualCenterManagementServerHostname_____________________IPAddress__________________
Netmask________________________
Gateway________________________
DNSServer(Primary)__________________
DNSServer(Secondary)__________________
User AccountsESXServerUserID_root____________Password___________________FullName_________________
ESXServerUserID_esxuser_________Password___________________FullName_________________
VirtualCenterUserID_vcuser________Password___________________FullName_________________
VMware Evaluation Serial NumbersESXServer1 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
ESXServer2 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VirtualSMP1 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VirtualSMP2 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VMotion1 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VMotion2 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VirtualCenterAgent1 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VirtualCenterAgent2 SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
VirtualCenterMgmtServer SerialNumber_______-_______-_______-_______
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Operating Systems and ApplicationsPleasemarkalloperatingsystemsandservicepacksthatwillbetested:
Microsoft___WindowsServer2003EnterpriseEdition(baseorServicePack1)
___WindowsServer2003StandardEdition(baseorServicePack1)
___WindowsServer2003WebEdition(baseorServicePack1)
___WindowsServer2003SmallBusinessServerEdition(baseorServicePack1)
___WindowsXPProfessional(ServicePack1or2)
___Windows2000Server(ServicePack3or4)
___Windows2000AdvancedServer(ServicePack3or4)
___WindowsNT4.0Server(ServicePack6a)
Linux___RedHatLinux7.2,7.3,8.0and9.0
___RedHatEnterpriseLinux(AS)2.1(Update5)
___RedHatEnterpriseLinux(AS)3.0(Update3)
___SUSELinux8.2,9.0,9.1,9.2and9.3
___SUSELinuxEnterpriseServer(SLES)8and9
Novell___NovellOpenEnterpriseServer(ServicePack2)
___NovellNetWare6.5(ServicePack2)
___NovellNetWare6.0(SupportPack5)
___NovellNetWare5.1(SupportPack7)
FreeBSD___FreeBSD4.10
Other_________________________________
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Applications to be TestedBelowisalistofapplicationsthatVMwarecustomerscommonlydeploywithinvirtualmachines.Markallapplicationstobetestedandaddanyadditionalapplicationsthatyourorganizationmayconsiderevaluat-ingforconsolidationontovirtualinfrastructure.
Software Categories Software Products
Web Services MicrosoftIIS,Netscape,Apache,AllaireColdfusion
Application Servers BEAWebLogic,IBMWebSphere,.ASP
Enterprise Messaging MicrosoftExchange,LotusNotes,Groupwise,Sendmail,OtherPOP&IMAPservices
Database Oracle,MicrosoftSQLServer,IBMDB2
File and Print Services Microsoft,Novell,Samba/CIFS,NFS
Remote Session Access CitrixMetaFrame,WindowsTerminalServices
Enterprise Applications SAP,Siebel,Peoplesoft,J.D.Edwards,MicrosoftGreatPlains,OracleApplications
Business Integration MicrosoftBizTalk,IBMMQSeries
Helpdesk Applications Remedy
System Management HPOpenview,Tivoli,MSSystemsManagementServer,VMwareVirtualCenter
Backup Services VeritasBackupExec,VeritasNetBackup,TivoliStorageManager,CAArcServe,CommVaultGalaxy,LegatoNetworker,HPDataProtector
Network Services WindowsNT/2000DomainControllers,MSActiveDirectory,SunOneDirectoryServer,LDAP,WINS,DHCP,DNS
Firewall / Proxy Services Squid,NetscapeProxyServer,MicrosoftISA
Custom Developed & Legacy Applications
CustomNTandLinuxapplications
Development and Quality Assurance
RationalTestSuite,MicrosoftVisualStudio,IBMVisualAge,MercuryInteractive
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9.2 overview of the Evaluation deployment ThediagrambelowshowsanoverviewofastandardVirtualCenterinfrastructuredeploymentwithaVirtualCenterServerconnectingtomultipleVirtualCenterClientsandmultipleVirtualInfrastructureNodes(VINs).TheVINscanuselocalSCSIstorageforvirtualmachinesorpreferablyastorageareanetworktobeabletoutilizeVMotiontechnologyandincreaseflexibilityandbusinesscontinuity
ThenextdiagramshowsasimplifiedviewofavirtualinfrastructuredeploymentforthisevaluationwheretheVirtualCenterClientandManagementServerandDatabaseareallinstalledonthesamecomputertominimizehardwarerequirementsandtheESXVirtualInfrastructureNode(VIN)isusinglocalSCSIstorageforboththeESXServerinstallationandforvirtualmachinestorage.Optionalactivitiesinchapters15and16ofthisevaluationguideincludeusingasharedSANtostorevirtualmachinesformultipleESXServerlicenses.ThisconfigurationenablesVMotionmigrationsofrunningvirtualmachinesacrossESXServerhosts.
Note: IfanextrasystemforVirtualCenterisnotavailable,itispossibletoinstalltheVirtualCenterServerintoavirtualmachineononeoftheinstancesofESXServeritwillmanage.Inproductiondeployments,VMwarerecommendsthattheVirtualCenterManagementServeranddatabasecomponentsbeinstalledonmultipleserversand/orinseparatevirtualmachines.
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9.3 typical Evaluation timelineThissectionoutlinesatestplanforevaluatinganESXServerVirtualInfrastructureNodemanagedbyVirtualCenter.ThistimelinehighlightsthecommontaskswhensettingupanESXServerandVirtualCenter,creatingvirtualmachinesandmanagingtheESXServerandthevirtualmachinesfromVirtualCenter.Youmaychoosetomodifythissectionwhereappropriatetofitwithintheirenvironment.Thislististoserveasaguidelineonly.Thetimelineassociatedwiththechecklistrepresentssuggestionsforatypical30-dayVMwareevaluationperiod.
Evaluation Planning & Environment SetupTimeline:Completepriortosoftwareinstallation
VerifythatyourhardwaremeetstherequirementsintheVMwarecompatibilityguides
ConfirmthattargetESXServerandVirtualCenterServerandclientsystemshavenetworkconnectivity
Confirmaccesstoinstallationmedia,documentation,websupportforums,etc
ESX Server & VirtualCenter Installation & OverviewTimeline:Week1:Day1
InstallESXServeronthedesignatedserver
InstallRemoteConsoleonmanagementworkstation
InstallVirtualCenterManagementServeronthedesignatedserverusingthedefaultAccessdatabase
InstallVirtualCenterManagementClientonthemanagementworkstation
Virtual Machine Functional TestingTimeline:Week1:Day2-5
Createavirtualmachine
InstallthevirtualmachineoperatingsystemusinglocalmediaoroperatingsystemISOimage
PoweronthevirtualmachineandinstallVMwareToolsinthevirtualmachine
Configureandtestbasicnetworkconnectivityofavirtualmachine
Createatemplatefromavirtualmachine
Deployandcustomizethetemplateasanewvirtualmachine
Cloneavirtualmachinetocreateanewone
Createascheduledtask
Createanalert
OptionallyconfiguretheESXServertostorevirtualmachinesonaSAN
OptionallyinstallasecondESXServer,configureandrunaVMotionMigration
Application Functional & Load TestingTimeline:Week1-4
Installtargettestapplicationsinvirtualmachine
Configureapplicationsettingsinvirtualmachinesperyourstandardprocess
Applicationfunctionaltest—Applicationstartswithouterrorsandfunctionsasitdoesonaphysicalserver
Simulateactual“realworld”loadonapplicationinthevirtualmachine
MonitorvirtualmachineperformancewithexistingperformancetoolssuchasPerfMon
Haveanendusertestcorefunctionalityofapplicationsinavirtualmachine
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9.4 Hardware requirements for EsX serverMakesuretheserveryouintendtoinstallESXServeronmeetsthefollowingminimumrequirements:
Minimum Server Requirements VMware ESX Server
Processors 2-16Processors
CPUSpeed 1GHzPentiumIIIXeonorabove
1GHzAMDOpteronorabove
RAM 512MBminimum;2+GBrecommended(sufficientRAMforeachvirtualmachineandtheserviceconsole)
EthernetControllers 1-3EthernetAdapters
• 1EthernetAdapterisrequiredfortheServiceConsole(thisadaptercanbesharedwithvirtualmachinesbutthisisnotrecommendedforperformanceandsecurityreasons),
• 1ormoreEthernetAdaptersarerequiredforVirtualMachinestoaccessthenetworkthroughvirtualswitches,and
• 1additionaldedicatedEthernetAdapterisrequiredtosupportVMotionMigrations.VMwarerecommendsusingadedicatedGigabitconnectionforVMotionmigrationsforhighperformance.
Supportedcontrollersinclude:
• Broadcom®NetXtreme570xGigabitcontrollers
• IntelPRO/100adapters
• IntelPRO/1000adapters
ThenormalpreferredminimumnumberofEthernetAdaptersisthree—onededicatedtotheserviceconsole,one(ormore)dedicatedtothevirtualmachines,andonededicatedtoVMotion.
DiskControllers 1InternalSCSIcontrollerwithlocallyattachedSCSIHardDrive
1HostBusAdapterconnectedtoaSAN(Optional)
ThesupportedSCSIcontrollersareAdaptec®Ultra-160andUltra-320,LSILogicFusion-MPTandmostNCR/Symbios™SCSIcontrollers.Thesup-portedRAIDcontrollersareHP®SmartArray,Dell®PercRAID(AdaptecRAIDandLSIMegaRAID),IBM®(Adaptec)ServeRAID,IntelRAIDandMylexRAIDcontrollers.ThesupportedFibreChanneladaptersareEmulex™andQLogic™host-busadapters(HBAs).
ASCSIdisk,FibreChannelLUNorRAIDLUNwithunpartitionedspace.Inaminimumconfiguration,thisdiskorRAIDissharedbetweentheserviceconsoleandthevirtualmachines.
DiskSpace SufficientdiskspaceonlocalSCSIdisksorontheSANforthevirtual
machinestobedeployedonVMFSformattedpartitions.
9GBinternalminimum;36GB+recommended(4GBisrequiredforESX
Serverandserviceconsoleinstallation.Theadditionalspacecanbeused
forvirtualmachinesandtostoreguestoperatingsystemISOimages.
VirtualmachinesrunningWindows2003Servertypicallyneed4GBof
spacefortheoperatingsystemandapplications.)Notethatwhilealocal
SCSIdiskoraSANisrequiredforVMFS,additionalnon-VMFSpartitionsand
eventhemainESXServerinstallationaresupportedonIDEdisks.
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9.5 Hardware requirements for virtualCenter Management serverMakesuretheserver,workstationorlaptopyouintendtoinstallVirtualCenterManagementServeronmeetsthefollowingminimumrequirements:
Minimum Server Requirements VMware VirtualCenter Management Server
Processors 1Processor
CPUSpeed 1GHzorfasterx86Processor
RAM 512MB,2GBpreferred
OperatingSystem WindowsXPProfessionalWindows2000ServerorAdvancedServerWindows2003Enterprise,Standard,WebEditions
EthernetControllers 110/100MbpsNIC
DiskSpace 30MBVirtualCenterinstallation(MorediskspaceisneededifthetemplateuploaddirectoryismaintainedontheVirtualCenterManagementServer)
10MBVirtualCenterdatabase
Notethatifasystemisn’tavailabletohosttheVirtualCenterServerandDatabase,theycanbeinstalledandhostedwithinavirtualmachineontheESXServer.
Requirements for Optional VMotion EvaluationFurtherdetailonVMotionRequirementsisavailableinsection16.2ofthisdocument,butyouwillessentiallyneedthefollowinghardwaretoevaluatetheVMotionmigrationofrunningvirtualmachinesbetweenESXServers:
• 2ormoreESXServerswithcompatibleprocessorstosupportvirtualmachinetransferfromonetoanother
• SharedSANforvirtualmachinestoragesothatvirtualmachinefilesdonothavetobemoved
• DedicatedGigabitEthernetNetworkbetweentheESXServerstosupporttherapidtransferofdata
9.6 Hardware requirements for remote Management WorkstationMakesuretheworkstationorlaptopyouintendtoinstallVirtualCenterManagementClientandtheRemoteConsoleonmeetsthefollowingminimumrequirements:
Minimum Server Requirements VMware VirtualCenter Management Client & Remote Console Client
CPUSpeed Standardx86-basedcomputer266MHzorfasterprocessor
RAM 64MBRAMminimum
OperatingSystem WindowsXPorXPProfessionalWindows2000Professional,ServerorAdvancedServerWindows2003Enterprise,Standard,WebEditions,andSmallBusinessWindowsNT4.0WorkstationorServer,ServicePack6aLinux(RemoteConsoleClientonly)
WebBrowser InternetExplorer6.0orhigherNetscapeNavigator®7.0Mozilla1.x
EthernetControllers 110/100MbpsNIC
DiskSpace 10MBfreediskspacerequiredforbasicinstallation
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9.7 guest operating systems supportedThefollowingtableliststhesupportedguestoperatingsystemsinESXServer2.5.VMwareVirtualSMPcanbeusedtoconfigureguestoperatingsystemsmarkedasSMP-CapablefordualvirtualCPUconfigurations.
Guest Operating System SMP Capable?
WindowsServer2003(Enterprise,Standard,WebEditions,andSmallBusiness) Yes
WindowsXPProfessional(ServicePack1or2) No
Windows2000Server&AdvancedServer(ServicePack3or4) Yes
WindowsNT4.0Server(ServicePack6a) No
RedHatLinux7.3and8.0 No
RedHatLinux7.2and9.0 Yes
RedHatEnterpriseLinux(AS)2.1(Update5)and3.0(Update3) Yes
SUSELinux8.2,9.1and9.3 No
SUSELinux9.0and9.2 Yes
SUSELinuxEnterpriseServer(SLES)8and9.0 Yes
NovellNetWare6.5(SupportPack2)5,6.0(SupportPack5)and5.1(SupportPack7) No
FreeBSD4.10 No
9.8 download Product Binaries and Burn to Cd-roMAfteryousuccessfullysignupfortheVINevaluation,youwillreceiveanemailcontainingyourevaluationlicensekeysandinstructionsfordownloadingESXServerandVirtualCenter.Onceyouhaveaccessedanddownloadedthesoftware,burntheISOimagefilestoanESXServerCD-ROMandaVirtualCenterCD-ROMtosupporttheinstallation.
9.9 Helpful technical tips
How to Access the ESX Server Service Console RemotelyYoucanuseafreeSSHclienttoaccesstheserviceconsoleremotely.Puttyisavailablefordownloadathttp://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html.Noinstallationisrequired.Simplyruntheclient,selecttheSSHradiobutton(ratherthanthedefaulttelnet),entertheIPaddressofyourESXServeranclicktheOpenbuttontoconnect.Youcansavethisprofileforfutureaccess.
How to Transfer Files to the ESX Server using FTP UtilitiesOnceyouhaveenabledFTPAccessontheESXServer(seestep36onpage40),youcanuseafreeFTPClientsuchasWinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/download.php)toaccessthedirectorystructureontheESXServerandcopyoverfilesasneeded.AcommonexamplewouldbetoplaceISOimagesofoperatingsysteminstallationdisksinthe/vmimagespartition.
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How to Transfer Files to the ESX Server using a Mounted SMB ShareThesmbmountcommandcanbeusedmountaremoteSMBsharefromtheESXServerServiceConsole.FirstlogintotheServiceConsoleasrooteitherdirectlyfromtheserverorremotely.Runsmbmountusingthefollowingsyntax:
smbmount //<Target_server_name>/<share_name> /<mount_path> -o
ip=<Target_server_ip>,username=<username>,password=<password>
Youcanrunsmbclient–L<IP_address>toidentifytheserverandsharenamesavailableonatargetserver.
Shutdown the ESX Server CleanlyToshutESXServerfromtheServiceConsolecommandline,usethefollowingcommand:
shutdown –h now
Additional Troubleshooting & Performance Tuning ToolsBoththeESXServerManagementUserInterface(MUI)andVirtualCenterprovidesignificantdetailonserveractivityandresourceutilization,butseveralmoregranulartoolsarealsoavailabletosupporttroubleshootingandperformancetuning.
• esxtop—esxtopisapowerfultoolthatlistsCPUutilizationforeachphysicalprocessor,memoryutilization,anddiskandnetworkbandwidthforeachforeachdeviceavailabletotheESXServer.DocumentationonesxtopisavailableinaVMwaredocument“UsingesxtoptoTroubleshootPerformanceProblems”availableathttp://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2_using_esxtop.pdf.
• vmkusage—Theweb-basedvmkusageutilitydisplayshistoricalgraphsthatshowphysicalserver,ESXServersystemandvirtualmachinestatistics.Bydefault,thesegraphsshowthemostrecent,dailyandweeklydata.ThevmkusageutilitygathersthestatisticsitusestogeneratedthegraphsfromtheESXServermachine’s/procnodes.DocumentationonthevmkusageutilityisavailableinaVMwaredocument“UsingvmkusagetoIsolatePerformanceProblems”availableathttp://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2_using_vmkusage.pdf.
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10. installing EsX serverThissectiondescribeshowtoinstallESXServeronyourserver:
1. EnsuretheservermeetstheminimumhardwarerequirementsandiscompatiblewithESXServer.
2. VerifythatanetworkcableispluggedintotheEthernetadapterthatyouareusingfortheserviceconsoleandanyEthernetadaptersthatyouwillbeusingforvirtualmachines.TheESXServerinstallerneedsthistoproperlydetectthatthemachinehasanetworkcard.AlsoverifythattheserverisconfiguredintheBIOStobootfromtheCD-ROM.
3. IfyouaregoingtobeevaluatingESXServerwiththeuseofaSAN,removeanyHBAfibercablesduringtheESXinstallandplugthembackinonceESXhasbeeninstalled.Thiswillensureyoudon’taccidentallyinstalltheESXServerServiceConsoleontheSAN.
4. PoweronthemachinewiththeVMwareESXServerCDintheCD-ROMdrive.TheESXServerbeginsitsbootprocess.TheInstallationBootScreenOptionswindowwillappearandofferalternativestothestandardgraphicalinstallation.YoucanusetheseoptionsinthefuturetosupportmoreadvancedinstallationssuchasinstallingESXServeronanIBMBladeconfigurationortobootfromaSAN.NotethatyoualsomayneedtousetheText-modeinstallerifyoursystemusesagraphicschipnotsupportedbyESXServer,orifyourkeyboardandmousedonotfunctionproperlyusingthegraphicalinstaller.
5. PressEntertobeginastandardESXServerinstallationorletthetimerautomaticallycountdowntobeginthestandardinstallation.
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6.Pressenter.TheWelcomescreenappears.SelectNexttobegintheinstallation.
7. TheInstallationTypescreenappears.SelectInstall DefaulttoinstallESXServeronanewsystem.Notethatthisoptionperformsafullinstallationanddestroysanypreviouslysavedinformationontheselectedpartitions.SelectNexttocontinue.ACustominstallallowsyoutoselectadditionalconfigura-tionoptionsforyourkeyboardandmouse.
8.TheEndUserLicenseAgreementscreenappears.ReadthroughtheenduserlicenseagreementandcheckI accept the terms in the license agreement.SelectNexttocontinue.
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9. TheVMwareESXServerSerialNumbersscreenappears.EntertheESXServerserialnumbersenttoyoubyemailintheVMwareESXServerfield.Notethatenteringtheserialnumberisnotarequiredstepforcompletingtheinstallation.Youmayenteritatalatertime.Ifyouskipthisstep,however,youwillnotbeabletostartvirtualmachinesinyourESXServer.IfyouhavealicenseforVMwareVirtualSMPforESXServer,enterthatserialnumberintheVMwareVirtualSMPforESXServerfieldtoconfigureyourvirtualmachineswithmorethanonevirtualprocessor.EnteringtheserialnumberinstallsVMwareVirtualSMPforESXServer.SelectNexttocontinue.
10. TheDeviceAllocationscreenappearstodefinehowtosetupyoursystemdevices.Configuretheserviceconsoleincludingreservedmemory,SCSIstoragecontroller,Ethernetcontrollers,andfibrechanneldevices.
11. SelectReservedMemory—Thedefaultamountofmemoryreservedfortheserviceconsole,192MB,issufficientformanaginguptoeightvirtualmachinesconcurrently.Changethisto272MBforupto16virtualmachines,384MBforupto32virtualmachinesor512MBformorethan32virtualmachines.Choose800MBforthemaximumnumberofvirtualmachines.
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12. ConfigureSCSIStorageControllers—Allocatestorageadapterstobeusedbytheserviceconsoleandvirtualmachinesontheserver.Ensurethatboththeserviceconsoleandthevirtualmachineshaveaccesstoatleastonestoragedevice.ASCSIorRAIDadaptershouldbesharedifyouwanttousethatadapterorarrayforboththeserviceconsoleandtohostvirtualmachines.WhenyouareallocatingSCSIorRAIDdevices,theunitofdeviceallocationisaPCIcarddevice.YoumayconnectmultipleSCSIorRAIDdisks,CD-ROMdrives,tapedrivesandotherdevicestotheSCSIorRAIDadapter.YoushouldgiveasmanySCSIorRAIDdevicestothevirtualmachinesaspossibletoensurethatthemajorityofyourmassstorageresourcesareavailabletoyourvirtualmachines.Beforecontinuing,ensurethatalocalSCSIdiskisallocatedtovirtualmachinesandsharedwiththeserviceconsole.Thisshouldbethedefaultsettingandnotrequireanychanges.
13. ConfigureEthernetControllers—Allocatenetworkadapterstobeusedbytheserviceconsoleandvirtualmachinesontheserver.Notethatthefirstnetworkadapterdiscoveredwillautomaticallybeallocatedtotheserviceconsole(thisallocationcanlaterbechangedintheVMwareManagementInterface)andisrequiredinordertomanagetheESXServerremotely.Allothernetworkadaptersshouldbeallocatedtovirtualmachines.
14. TheDiskPartitioningSetupscreenappearsandliststwochoicesforthetypeofdiskpartition:
a. ManualPartitioning—youmanuallycreateeachpartition.Besuretodeleteanyexistingpartitions.Thisistherecommendedoptionforthisevaluationinstallation.
b. AutomaticPartitioning—theinstallerestimatesandcreatesdefaultpartitionsonyourdisk.Youcanedittheseautomaticselectionsaftertheyaresuggestedandbeforetheyarecreated.Automaticpartitioningallowsyoutohavesomecontrolconcerningwhatdata(ifany)isremovedfromyoursystem.
WhenusingAutomaticPartitioning,youcanselecttoeitherremoveallpartitionsorpreserveanexistingVMFSpartition:
a. Removeallpartitions—removesallpartitionsonthesystem.Thisistherecommendedoptionfornewinstallations.Notethatyouwilllaterseeawarningscreenconfirmingthatyouwanttoremoveallpartitions.
b. RemoveallpartitionsexceptVMFS—removesallpartitionsonthesystembutkeepstheVMFSpar-titionwhereyourvirtualmachinesarestored.Thisistherecommendedoptionifyouarere-install-ingandwanttopreserveyourexistingvirtualmachinesontheVMFSpartition.
c. InstallationDrives—liststheharddriveselectionsavailable.ThesearebasedontheharddrivesdetectedbytheESXServerinstaller.Theserviceconsoleisinstalledontheharddriveselected.
IntheInstallationDrivesdialog,ensurethecorrectSCSIdiskisselectedforthesuccessfulinstallationoftheServiceConsole.TheSCSIdiskwilllikelybeidentifiedwithadevicenameofsdaorccissratherthananIDEharddrivenameofhda.SelectNexttocontinue.
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15. ThePartitioningscreendisplaysthepartitionsthatESXServerwillcreateontheavailabledisks.ESXServerrequiresaminimumofthreeprimarypartitions(/boot,/andswap),andtheremainingrecommendedpartitionsareconfiguredaslogicalpartitionsonthefourthextendedpartition.
16. SelectNewtocreatepartitionsdescribedbelow.Thereisalsoasummaryviewofrecommendedpartitionsonthenextpage.Foreachnewpartition,becertainthatthecorrecttargetdriveisselected.
a. ClickNewtocreateabootprimarypartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/bootandthesizeto50MB.ChecktheboxtoForcetobeprimarypartition.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
b. ClickNewtocreateaswapprimarypartitionontheinstallationdisk.SetthefilesystemtypetoswapandthesizetotwicetheamountofmemoryyoureservedfortheServiceConsoleinthedeviceallocationconfiguration.Ifyouacceptedthedefaultof192MBofServiceConsolememory(suitabletosupport8VMs),thenyouwouldenter384MBhere.ChecktheboxtoForce to be primary partition.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
c. ClickNewtocreatearootprimarypartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/andthesizeto1800MB.ChecktheboxtoForcetobeprimarypartition.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
d. ClickNewtocreateavmkcorelogicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthefilesystemtypetovmkcoreandthesizeto100MB.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.ThecoredumppartitionstoresinformationgeneratediftheVMkernelcrashes.ThecoredumpinformationisimportantindiagnosinganyproblemswiththeVMkernel.
e. Optionally,clickNewtocreateavmimageslogicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/vmimagesandthesizeto10000MB.ClickOK tocloseandsavethechanges.Thisparti-tioncanholdtemplatesandISOimagestosupportrapidprovisioningsosizeitaccordingtothequantityoffilesthatmightbestoredthereversusdiskspaceavailable.ThisdatapartitioncanalsobeplacedonanotherSCSIdriveoranIDEdriveontheESXServerifdesired.Thealternativetocreatingavmimagespartitionistocreatealargerhomedirectoryandstoreimagesthere.
f. ClickNewtocreateahomelogicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/homeandthesizeto1800MB.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.ThispartitionwillcontainhomedirectoriesforusersoftheServiceConsole.Separatinghomedirectoriesfromtherootfilesystembyplacingthemintheirownpartitionprotectstherootfilesystemfromfilling.Notethatthispartitionshouldbelargerifyouwillbestoringimageshere.
g. ClickNewtocreateavarlogicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/varandthesizeto2000MBorasdesired.ThisdatavolumecanbeplacedonanotherSCSIoranIDEdriveontheserverifdesired.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
h. ClickNewtocreateatemplogicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthemountpointto/tmpandthesizeto2000MBorasdesired.ThisdatavolumecanbeplacedonanotherSCSIoranIDEdriveontheserverifdesired.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
i. ClickNewtocreatetheVMFS(VirtualMachineFileSystem)logicalpartitionontheinstallationdisk.Setthefilesystemtypetovmfs2andchecktheboxtoFill to maximum allowable size.ClickOKtocloseandsavethechanges.
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j. Whenfinishedcreatingpartitions,thepartitiondefinitionshouldbesimilartothisscreenshot.SelectNextonthepartitioningscreentocontinue.
Belowisasummaryoftherecommendedpartitions:
MountPoint FileSystemType
Size(MB) AdditionalSizeOptions
ForcetobeaPrimaryPartition
UsedBy
/boot ext3 50MB FixedSize Select ServiceConsole
NotApplicable swap 2xServiceConsoleMemory(e.g.384MB)
FixedSize Select ServiceConsole
/ (root) ext3 1,800MB FixedSize Select ServiceConsole
NotApplicable vmkcore 100MB FixedSize DonotSelect*
VMkernel
/vmimages** ext3 10,000MBorasdesired
FixedSize DonotSelect
Exportedvirtualdisks,virtualmachinetemplates,ISOimagesandotherlargefiles
/home ext3 1,800MBorasdesired
FixedSize DonotSelect
Personalfilesforserviceconsoleusers;VMconfigfilesandlogs
/var ext3 2,000MBorasdesired
FixedSize DonotSelect
Usedforfileswhichcanvaryinsizesuchaslogfiles
/tmp ext3 2,000MBorasdesired
FixedSize DonotSelect
Usedfortemporaryfiles
NotApplicable(automaticallycreatedas/vmfs/<volume_name>)
vmfs2 Restofdisk Filltomaximumallowablesize(orfixedsizeifnotusingrestofdisk)
DonotSelect
VMwareFileSystem(VMFS)—ThisisthelocationforlocaldiskvirtualmachinesnotstoredonaLUN
*Bynotforcingthefourthpartitiontobeprimary,anextendedpartitionoccupyingtheremainderofthediskwillbecreated,andthevmkcoreandanysubsequentpartitionswillbecreatedaslogicalpartitionswithintheextendedpartition.
**The /vmimagespartitionisoptionalandsizedat10,000MB(10GB)asanexample.Imagesandotherworkingfilescanalternatelybestoredinalarger/homepartition.Inpractice,thesepartitionsshouldbesizedaccordingtothespecificneedsofyourenvironment.
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17. TheNetworkConfigurationscreenappears.Enterthenetworkparameters.UsingastaticIPaddressishighlyrecommendedfortheevaluation.
Theoptionsare:
a. DHCP—allowsthisprocesstodeterminenetworksettingseachtimetheESXServersystemboots.Caution:SelectingthisoptionrequiresthatyourDNSserveriscapableofmappingtheserviceconsole’shostnametothedynamicallygeneratedIPaddress.SeetheVMwareESXServerAdministrationGuideforinstructionsandcautionsonsettingupaDHCP-basedserviceconsole.
b. StaticIP—enterthehostnameintheHostnamefield,IPaddressintheIPAddressfield,thenetmaskintheNetmaskfield,thenetworkgatewayintheGatewayfieldandtheprimaryandsecondarynameserversinthePrimaryDNSandSecondaryDNSfields.
Note: Besuretoincludethefulldomainnameifyouarerunningwithdomains.
Note: Setupdoesnotaskfornetworkparametersifyoudonothaveanetworkcard.Initially,onlythefirstEthernetcardisenabled.Allothernetworkadaptersaredisabled.
Note: IfyouneedtolaterchangethehostnameoftheESXServer,refertoKnowledgeBasearticle#861ontheVMwareWebsiteforinstructions.
18. SelectNexttocontinue.TheTimeZoneSelectionscreenappears.Selectyourtimezone.
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19. SelectNexttocontinue.TheAccountConfigurationscreenappears.Specifyyourdesiredrootpassword.RootistheusernamefortheadministratorontheESXServer.UserswithadministratorprivilegesloginwiththisnamewhenusingtheVMwareManagementInterfaceortheservicecon-sole.
20. Toaddauseraccount,selectAdd.TheAddUserscreenappears.Addatleastoneusersuchasesxuser.YouneedaccountsforalluserswhoneedtologintotheVMwareManagementinterfacetocreateormanagevirtualmachines.Ifyouwish,youmayaddthoseusersatthistime.SelectOKtocontinueaddingusersasdesired.SelectNexttocontinue.
21. TheAbouttoInstallscreenappearsanddisplaysthelocationoftheinstallationlogfile.SelectNexttocontinue.Theinstallerformatsthediskandstartsinstallingthepackages.
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22. Oncethepackagesareinstalled,theCongratulations,ESXServerInstallationisCompletescreenappears.RebootthesystembyclickingNext.RemovetheCD-ROMfromthedrivewhenitisejectedduringtherebootpro-cess.
23. Afterthefullreboot,checktheServiceConsolemonitor.YoushouldseeascreenadvisingyoutouseawebbrowsertocontinuethesetupprocessusingtheURLfortheESXServerManagementUserInterface(MUI).TheURLwillbethehostnameorIPaddressoftheESXServer.
24. Fromyourdesktopsystem,openawebbrowsertotheIPaddressofyourESXServertoaccesstheMUI.ThefirsttimeyouuseaWebbrowsertomakeasecureconnectiontoanESXServer,adialogboxaskswhetheryouwanttoacceptthesecuritycertificatepresentedbytheserver.AcceptingthecertificateallowsyoutoaccesstheserverthroughtheVMwareManagementInterface.WhenyouconnecttothemanagementinterfacewithanInternetExplorerbrowser,aSecurityAlertdialogboxappears.Toseedetailsofandoptionallyinstallthecertificate,clickView Certificate.Acceptthecertificateandproceedtocontinue.
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25. LogintotheVMwareManagementUserInterfaceasuserroot.NotethatifthelocalDNSserverdidnotknowtheIPaddressoftheESXServerorthehostnameyouassignedtoyourESXServer,youcanputanentryinthehostsfileofyourdesktopsystem.
26. ThisisthenativeManagementUserInterface(MUI)usedforaccessingindividualESXServersindependentlyoftheVirtualCenterManagementClient.WeareusingitheretoperformsomeinitialconfigurationsandtoprovideabriefintroductiontotheMUI,buttherestofthisevaluationwilldemonstratemanagingESXServersfromwithinVirtualCenter.
Notethewarningaboutthenon-existenceofswapspaceandvirtualEthernetswitches.Thesewarningswilldisappearonceyoucompletetheremainingconfigurationsteps.
27.ClicktheOptionstabtoreachtheOptionspageoftheMUItoprovideavolumelabelforyourlocalVMFS.NotethatifyouarenotloggedinasrootthentheOptionstabwillnotbeavailable.
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28. OntheOptionstab,clickonStorage Management toaccessasummaryofallthestoragedevicesthatareavailabletoyourESXServer.
29. FindtheVMFSyoucreatedandclicktheEditlinknexttoittochangethevolumelabeltoanamethatreflectsitspurposeorlocationsuchasLocalVMFS.Youshouldleavetheothersettingsattheirdefaultvalues.ClosethesewindowstoreturntotheOptionstab.
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30. FromtheStatusMonitorpageoftheMUI,clicktheReconfigurelinknexttothewarningaboutswapspacetocreateaVMkernelswapfile.ThiswilltakeyoutotheOptionstabwhereyouwillseethattherearenoswapfilesconfiguredoractive.ClicktheCreatelinktoconfigureaswapfile.
31. Attheswapconfigurationscreen,clickOKtoacceptthedefaultsandcreateaVMkernelswapfile.MakesuretheswapfileisalwaysplacedonlocalVMFS-2storageandnotonexternalstorage.ClickOKtocontinue.
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32. Theswapconfigurationpagenowshowsyournewlydefinedswapspace,andshowsthatitwillbeactivatedateachreboot,butitisnotcurrentlyactive.ClickActivatetobeginusingthenewswapwithoutneedingtoreboot.YouarereturnedtotheStatusMonitorpage.
33. NextfollowtheReconfigurelinknexttothewarningaboutvirtualEthernetswitchestocreatetheswitchestobeusedbyyourvirtualmachines.Youwillnowseeapagedescribingvirtualswitches,portgroupsandtheirconnections.ClicktheCreatelinkatthebottomofthepagetobegincreatingyourswitches.
34. CreatetwoorthreevirtualswitcheschangingthelabelfromthedefaultNetwork0toamoredescriptivelabel.
a. CreateavirtualswitchwithnetworklabelInternal0withnoboundnetworkadapter
b. CreateavirtualswitchwithnetworklabelExternal0withanoutboundadapter
c. IfyouareevaluatingVMotion,createathirdvirtualswitchVMotionforthededicatedVMotionnetworkpath.
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35. Notethatyouwillreturnherelatertocreateadditionalswitchesbasedonthenetworkingneedsoffuturevirtualmachines.Reviewyourvirtualswitchestoensurethateachoutboundadapterisboundtoitsownvirtualswitch,andthatthereisatleastoneinternalvirtualswitchthatisnotboundtoanyphysicalNIC.Theresultingconfigurationwillshowthetwoorthreebasicvirtualswitches.ClosethiswindowtoreturntotheStatusMonitor.Noticethatbothwarningsarenowcleared.
36. OntheOptionstab,clickonSecurity Settingstab.SecurityissettoHighbydefaultforallESXServerinstallations,disablingunnecessaryserveraccessprotocolsandencryptingallcommunication.IfyouneedtoaccessortransferfilestoorfromtheESXServer,youwillneedtoselectivelyreducethedefaultHighSecuritySettingstoMedium, Low oraCustomleveltoenableservicessuchasFTP,Telnet,SSHsecureremoteloginsandNFSfilesharing.ClickOKtocontinue.
37. ThiscompletestheESXServerconfigurationusingtheMUIclient.Youmightspendafewminutesbrowsingtheuserinterfacetofamiliarizeyourselfwiththeoptionsavailable.
Forexample,noticethatthereisaManage FileslinkintheupperrightcorneroftheMUIthatletsyoubrowsethefilesontheESXServer.YoucanalsoelecttodownloadandinstalltheVMwareRemoteConsoleforWindowsorLinuxfromthebottomoftheStatusMonitorwindow.ThisisastandaloneversionoftheconsolebrowseravailableintheVirtualCenterclientthatallowsyoutoviewandmanagevirtualmachineswithkeyboardandmouseinput.
Closethewindowtologoutwhenfinished.
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11. installing virtualCenter Management server and ClientThefollowingstepsshouldbeastraightforwardinstallationoftheVirtualCentersoftwareintoaWindowsenvironment.AsingleinstallerpackagecontainstheVirtualCenterclient,VirtualCenterserver,andtheVMwareSDKWebservice.YoucaninstalltheVirtualCenterclientandVirtualCenterservercomponentsseparatelyoronthesameWindowssystem.YoucanalsorepeatthisinstallationtoinstalljusttheVirtualCenterclientonothercomputersforeaseofaccessduringtheevaluation.
Notethatifasystemisn’tavailabletohosttheVirtualCenterServerandDatabase,thesecomponentscanbeinstalledandhostedwithinavirtualmachineontheESXServer.RefertoChapter2,“CreatingandConfiguringVirtualMachines”,intheESXServer2AdministrationGuideforinstructionsoncreatingavirtualmachineusingtheESXServerManagementUserInterface.YoucantheninstalltheVirtualCenterServerontoavirtualmachinerunningontheESXServer.
VirtualCentersupportsthreetypesofdatabaseformats:
• MicrosoftAccess(default)
• MicrosoftSQLServer2000,MicrosoftSQLServer7
• Oracle8i,9i,10g
ThisevaluationwillusethedefaultMicrosoftAccessdatabasefordemonstrationandtrialpurposes.UsingtheMicrosoftAccessdatabaseforproductionenvironmentsisnotrecommendedforperformancereasons.
installing the virtualCenter Management server and ClientThissectiondescribeshowtoinstallVirtualCenteronyoursystemwhenthereisnootherVirtualCenterinstallationpresent.ToinstalltheVirtualCenterclientandserveronyoursystem:
1. EitherloadtheinstallationdiskimagecreatedearlierordownloadtheVirtualCenterinstallerfilefromtheVMwaresecureWebsitetoalocaldrive.
2. Runtheinstaller.Double-clicktheVMwareinstallationiconorselectStart > RunandenterthelocationoftheinstallerintheRunwindow.TheVirtualCenterinstallerpreparestoinstallthecomponents.IfyoudonothaveMicrosoft.NETFrameworkversion1.1onyourmachine,apromptappearstoaskifyouwishtoinstallit.IfyouclickYes,thentheinstallerautomaticallyinstallsthispackage.Ifyouhaveinstalledanolderversion,thentheinstallerautomaticallyupgradesyourversiontoversion1.1.
3. VerifyyouareinstallingtheVirtualCenterproduct.ClickNext.
4. AccepttheVMwarelicenseterms.ClicktheAcceptbutton,thenclickNext.
5. EnteryourcustomerinformationUser NameandOrganizationname.ThenclickNexttocontinuetheinstallation.
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6.SelecttoperformaCustomsetuptoinstallboththeServerandClientandclickNext.
7. SelecttoinstallboththeClientandtheServercomponents.Clickthedownarrownexttotheappropriatecomponentandselectfromthedrop-downmenutocompletetheCustomSetupscreen.ClickNexttocontinuewiththeinstalla-tion.
8.ClicktheUse Access Database buttonandclickNexttohavetheinstallercreatethenecessaryAccessdatabase.
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9. OnthenextVirtualCenterWebServiceconfigura-tionwindow,enterauser nameandpasswordofauserintheadministratorsgrouponthelocalmachinetoenableWebServicesaccesstotheVirtualCenterManagementServer.
10.Verifythatyouarereadytoproceedwithinstallation.ClickInstalltocontinuetheinstallation.
11.Progressmessagesappearwhiletheinstallationproceeds.TheVirtualCenterinstaller,asspecified,installstheVirtualCenterserver,startstheVirtualCenterdatabase,performsadefaultAccessdatabasesetupoftheopendatabaseconnectivity(ODBC),registersandactivatestheVirtualCenterserver,andinstallstheVirtualCenterclient.
12.ClickFinishtoclosetheinstallationwizard.TheselectedVirtualCentercomponentsareinstalledonyourWindowscomputer.
Note: TheVirtualCenterservermustbeabletosenddatatoeveryVirtualCentermanagedhostandreceivedatafromeachVirtualCenterclient.ToenableanymigrationorprovisioningactivitiesbetweenVirtualCentermanagedhosts,thesourceandtargethostsmustbeabletoreceivedatafromeachother.Duringnormaloperations,VirtualCenterislisteningfordatafromitsmanagedhostsandclientsondesignatedports.Additionally,VirtualCenterassumesthatitsmanagedhostsarelisteningfordatafromVirtualCenterondesignatedports.Ifthereisafirewallbetweenanyoftheseelements,aholemustbecreatedtoallowdatatransfertothesedesignatedports.RefertotheVirtualCenterUsersGuideforinstructionsifyouneedtoconnectyourVirtualCenterservertoclientsandhoststhroughafirewall.
Also,anoptionalsteptothatcanbeemployedtoimprovetheperformanceoftheMicrosoftAccessdatabase:
1. OpentheWindowsODBCDataSourceAdministrator.SelectSettings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
2. SelecttheSystem DSNtab.
3. SelectODBC Microsoft Access Setup.ClickOptions.
4. IncreasethebuffersizeandclickOK.Thedefaultvalueis2048.Changeitto8192.
RestarttheVirtualCenterserver,ifitisrunning.
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starting the virtualCenter Client and logging on WhenVirtualCenterisinstalled,allusersintheAdministratorsgroupareassignedVirtualCenterAdministratorprivilegesbydefaultfortheVirtualCenterenvironment.PermissionsforallotherVirtualCenterusersneedtobeexplicitlysetbyaVirtualCenterAdministrator.VirtualCentersupportsusergroupsformanagingaccessrights.Usersmaybelongtooneormoregroupstoallowaggregatesecurityassignments.Usersassumetherolesassignedtoanygroupofwhichtheyaremembers.
TostartaVirtualCenterclientsession:
1. LogontoyourWindowssystem.ThefirsttimeyoustarttheVirtualCenterclient,logonasanadministratorofthelocalsystem.Bydefault,administratorsareallowedtologontoVirtualCenter.Administratorsherearedefinedtobeeither:
• MembersofthelocalAdministratorsgroupiftheVirtualCenterserverisnotadomaincontroller.Logonaseither<local host name>\<user>or<user>,where<user>isamemberofthelocalAdministratorsgroup.
• MembersofthedomainAdministratorsgroupiftheVirtualCenterServerisadomaincontroller.Logonas <domain>\<user>,where<domain>isthedomainnameforwhichthemanagedhostisacontrollerand<user>isamemberofthatdomain’sDomainAdministratorsgroup.Thispracticeisnotrecommended.
2. LaunchtheVirtualCenterclient.Double-clickashortcutorselecttheapplicationthroughStart > Programs > VMware > VMware VirtualCenter.
3. WhenyoustarttheVirtualCenterclient,logontotheVirtualCenterserver.EnterorselecttheVirtualCenterservername,yourusernameandyourpasswordforthatVirtualCenterserver.ClickLogIntocontinue.ThedefaultlocalhostlocationisthelocalWindowsserverormachinewhereyoustartedtheVirtualCenterclient.UsinglocalhostintheLogInscreen,theVirtualCenterclientassumestheVirtualCenterserverislocatedonthesamehostastheVirtualCenterclient.Alternatively,clicktheServerlistarrowandselectfromthelistofavailableVirtualCenterserversortypethenameoftheVirtualCenterserveronyournetwork.AnIPaddressoranameisacceptable.IfyoucreatedtheexamplevcuserastheVirtualCenteruserforthisserver,youwillneedtocreateauseraccountwithapasswordontheWindowssystemwhereVirtualCenterisrunningtobeabletologin.
4. CreatealicensefilebyplacingallyourVirtualCenterlicensesyoureceivedviaemailintoaplaintextfile.ThislicensefileshouldincludethelicensesforVirtualCenterManagementServer,VirtualCenterAgentandVMotion.Ensurethatthelicensekeystringstartsincolumn1ofthelicensetextfile.Thatisflushleft.Donothaveanyleadingspacesatthebeginningofthelicensefile.Inaddition,besuretokeeptheintegrityofthelicensesyouaregiven;thatis,keepthehyphenationformatasitisprovided.Forexample,xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx.
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5. IfyourVirtualCenterserverdoesnothaveitslicensesinstalledyet,thelicensingscreenappears.TomakelicensesavailabletotheVirtualCenterserver:
a. ClicktheAddLicensesbuttonandselectthelicensefilecreatedinthepreviousstep.
b. ClickOpenandyouwillseethelicensesaddedtothelist.
c. ClickDoneontheLicensingscreen.Youarenowreadytoaddhosts.
6.Next,intheinventorypaneoftheVirtualCentermanager,selecttheServer FarmsnodeandselecttheFile > New FarmmenutocreateanewFarm.NameitsomethingdescriptivelikeEvaluation Farm.YoucanoptionallyselecttocreateasecondserverfarmcalledProduction Farm.
7. NowselecttheEvaluation FarmyoujustcreatedandselectFile > New > Hostfromthemenu.EntertheIPaddressoftheESXServerandtherootuser’susernameandpassword.NotethatthispasswordisnotgoingtobestoredontheVirtualCenterServer.Inproductionenvironments,abestpracticeistocreateanewuseraccountontheESXServerhosttosupportthisconnection.TheconnectionprocessmaytakeseveralminutesasVirtualCenterinstallstheVirtualCenterAgentontheESXServertoenableongoingmanagementoftheESXServer.Onthenextscreen,selecttoNot enable VMotiononthishost.VMotionwillbeaddressedlaterinthisguideasanoptionalevaluationactivity,asitcanbecon-figuredatanytimeforthishostviathehostproperties.ClickFinishonthenextscreentocompletetheAddHostwizard.
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8.NotethatyoucannowclickonanyoftheinventoryassetsintheleftInventoryPanefromtheFarmstoHoststovirtualmachinestoviewthestatusandpropertiesandselectfromtheavailablemanagementactions.Wearenowreadytoaddandmanagenewvirtualmachinesandwillcontinuewiththatfollowingthenextchapterthatintroducessomenewconceptsusefulforunderstandingvirtualinfrastructure.
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12. understanding the virtual infrastructure12.1 virtualCenter Manages virtual Machines running on Physical HostsVirtualCentermonitorsandmanagesvariouscomponentsofyourvirtualandphysicalinfrastructure:
• Virtual machines—Virtualizedx86computerenvironmentsinwhichaguestoperatingsystemandassociatedapplicationsoftwarecanrun.Multiplevirtualmachinescanoperateonthesamemanagedhostmachineconcurrently.VirtualizationplatformsareVMwareproducts,suchasESXServer,GSXServer,orWorkstation.Theseareusedtocreatethevirtualmachinesintheformofasetofconfigurationanddiskfilesthattogetherperformallthefunctionsofaphysicalmachine.Throughthevirtualizationplatform,yourunthevirtualmachines,installoperatingsystemsandrunapplications,andconfigurethevirtualmachines.
• Hosts—Thephysicalcomputersonwhichthevirtualizationplatformsoftware,suchasESXServerorGSXServer,isinstalled.ThesecomputersareaddedtotheVirtualCenterenvironmenttohostvirtualmachinesthroughtheAddHostwizard.WhenVirtualCenteraddsahost,itautomaticallydiscoversandregistersallthevirtualmachinesonthathost.Eachmanagedhostisthenassociatedwithaspecificfarm.
• Datastores—Virtualmachinedisksareencapsulatedintofiles,whichinturnarestoredondatastores.Virtualinfrastructure’sabilitytoencapsulatedisksintofilessimplifiesstoragemanagementbyhidingthedifferencesbetweenvariousstorageoptionssuchaslocalstorage,SANandNAS.
12.2 CPu, Memory and Hardware virtualizationTheheartofvirtualizationisbasedonmanagingtheexecutionofmanyvirtualmachinesonafewprocessors.CPUsarevirtualizedwhentheESXServerVMkernelhypervisordisplacestheoperatingsystemkernelfromRing0intheCPUtoRing1.TheVMkernelthendynamicallyschedulesprocessingtimeforvirtualmachinesandtheServiceConsole.Thisvirtualizationofprocessorscantakeadvantageofhyperthreading,multi-coreandsymmetricmulti-processingCPUs.
Thisabilitytoshareapoolofprocessorsacrossmultipleworkloadsallowsapplicationsfromunder-utilizedserverstobesafelyconsoli-datedontoasingleservertosafelyachievehigherutilization.
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MemoryisvirtualizednexttodynamicallyprovideeachvirtualmachinewithsufficientRAMtorunefficiently.AswiththeCPUs,theadvantageofvirtualizationisthatallserverscanbesizedcollectivelyforpeakloadsratherthanindividually,greatlyincreasingtheresourceutilization.
Twoadditionalvirtualizationfeatureshelpimprovememoryutilizationforvirtualmachines:RAMover-commitmentandtransparentpagesharing.
RAMover-commitmentsafelyincreasesRAMutilizationbyallowingthesumofconfiguredmemoryforallvirtualmachinestoexceedthehost’sphysicalmemory.ESXServerhandlesthisbyusingapre-configuredswapfilefortemporarystorageifthememorydemandsfromvirtualmachinesexceedtheavailabilityofphysicalRAMonthehostserver.ESXServerletsvirtualmachinesmanagetheirownmemoryswapprioritizationbyusingmemoryballooningtodynamicallyshiftmemoryfromidleVMstoactiveVMs.MemoryballooningartificiallyinducesmemorypressurewithinidleVMsasneeded,forcingthemtousetheirownpagingareasandreleasememoryformoreactiveorhigherpriorityVMs.RAMover-commitmentenablesgreatflexibilityinsharingphysicalmemoryacrossmanyvirtualmachinessothatasubsetcanbenefitfromincreasedallocationsofmemorywhenneeded.
Transparentpagesharingconservesmemoryacrossvirtualmachineswithsimilarguestoperatingsystemsbyseekingoutmemorypagesthatareidenticalacrossmultiplevirtualmachinesandconsolidatingthemsotheyarestoredonlyonceandshared.
Thefinalcomponentsvirtualizedforsharingwithinhostserversaretherestofthehardwaredevices.TheVMkernelvirtualizesthephysicalhardwareandpresentseachvirtualmachinewithastandardizedvirtualdevice.Itisexactlythisstandardizationthatenablestheencapsu-lationandportabilitybenefitsofvirtualization.
Thediagramontherightdepictsthecommonstandardcomponentsthatarevirtuallyavailabletoeveryvirtualmachinebasedondynamicmappingstophysicalhardware.
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Virtual Machine Specifications Asaframeofreferenceforvirtualmachinecapabilityandscalability,eachESXServermachinecanhostvirtualmachinesconcurrentlyusingupto80virtualCPUs(andupto200registeredvirtualmachines)onasingleESXServer,withthefollowingcapabilitiesandspecifications:
ESX Server Component Virtual Capacity & Specification
VirtualStorage Upto4hostbusadapterspervirtualmachine
Upto15targetsperhostbusadapter
Upto60targetspervirtualmachine;256targetsconcurrentlyinallvirtualmachinesperESXServer
VirtualProcessor Sameashostsystemprocessor
Oneortwoprocessorspervirtualmachine
VirtualChipSet Intel440BX-basedmotherboardwithNS338SIOchip
VirtualBIOS PhoenixBIOS™4.0Release6
VirtualMemory Upto3.6GBpervirtualmachine
VirtualSCSIDevices Upto4virtualSCSIadapterspervirtualmachinewithupto15devicesperadapter
9TBpervirtualdisk
VirtualEthernetCards Upto4virtualEthernetadapterspervirtualmachine
Note:Eachvirtualmachinehasatotalof7virtualPCIslots,sothetotalnumberofvirtualadapters,SCSIplusEthernet,cannotbegreaterthan7.
VirtualFloppyDrives Uptotwo1.44MBfloppydrivespervirtualmachine
VirtualCD-ROM Uptotwodrivespervirtualmachine
LegacyDevices Virtualmachinesmayalsomakeuseofthefollowinglegacydevices.However,forperformancereasons,useofthesedevicesisnotrecommended.
VirtualSerial(COM)Ports
-UptotwoserialportspervirtualmachineVirtualParallel(LPT)Ports
-OneLPTportpervirtualmachine
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ESX Server Maximum Physical Machine SpecificationsBelowarethemaximumphysicalmachinespecificationsforanESXServertoclarifyhowasinglephysicalservercanscaletoupto200virtualservers:
Maximum Server Specification VMware ESX Server
Processors 16physicalprocessorspersystemwith8virtualCPUsperprocessor,dual-coreprocessorssupported
80virtualCPUsinallvirtualmachinesperESXServersystem
CPUSpeed Standardx86-basedcomputer
Notconstrained
RAM 64GBofRAMperESXServersystem
Upto8swapfileswithamaximumfilesizeof64GBperswapfile
Storage 16hostbusadaptersperESXServersystem
128logicalunits(LUNs)perstoragearray
128LUNsperESXServersystem
128VMFS(VMwareFileSystem)volumesperESXServersystem
Maximum32physicalextentsperVMFS-2volumewith2TBperphysicalextent
Maximum27TBsizeperVMFS-2volumewithamaximumof2TBpereachphysicalextent
Adapters 64adaptersofalltypes,includingstorageandnetworkadapters,persystem
Upto8GigabitEthernetor1610/100Ethernetportspersystem
Upto32virtualmachinespervirtualnetworkdevice(vmnicorvmnetadapter)
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12.3 storage virtualizationStoragevirtualizationisanotherkeyelementtounderstandtosupportthearchitectureanddeploymentofvirtualinfrastructure.AttheheartofvirtualizedstoragemanagementistheVMwareVirtualMachineFileSystem(VMFS).VMFSutilizesverysimpleandfastdatastructuresoptimizedtosupporthighperformancediskaccessandlargepartitionsizesupto2TB.VMFSvolumesareusedbyESXServertostorevirtualdisks,VMkernelswapfiles,suspendedstatefiles,REDOlogsandVirtualCentertemplates.
TwospecialattributesofVMFSmakeitanidealstorageformatforSANs:
• VMFSisamultipleaccessfilesystemthatimplementsfilelevellockingtoallowmul-tipleESXServerstoaccessthesamevolumesimultaneouslyoveraSAN
• VMFSimposesminimalperformanceover-headasnativeSCSIcommandsarepasseddirectlytothephysicalstoragewithouttheneedfortranslation
InadditiontobeingstoredonlocalSCSIdisks,virtualmachinesforESXServerscanbelocatedwithinVMFSpartitionswithinLUNsaSAN.VirtualdiskscanalsobemappedtoarawLUNonaSANortoarawSCSIdevice,andESXServeriscapableofbootingdirectlyfromaSAN.
AllstorageispresentedtovirtualmachinesasSCSIdisks,withthevirtualmachineseeingeitheranLSILogicoraBusLogicSCSIController.
Virtualizedstoragealsoenablesveryflexiblediskaccessmodes.MostvirtualmachineswillruninPersistentmodefornormalread/writeoperations,buttheycanalsouseUndoablemodethatsetsthediskstoread-onlyandcreatesaredologthatcanlaterbecommittedordiscarded.Theseflexiblediskaccessmodesareespeciallyusefulindevelopment,testingandtrainingenvironments.
StoragemanagementwithESXServerismostpowerfulwhenusedwithSANs.SANsallowmultiplephysicalmachinestoaccessthesamestorageLUNs,somultipleESXServerscanseethesameVMFSvolumesfor:
• WorkloadbalancingviaVMotionVMrelocation
• Disasterrecoveryusingcommonaccess
• Highavailabilityusingclusteredapplications
• Rapidprovisioningusingatemplaterepository
SANscanalsoprovideallvirtualmachineswithhighavailabilitystorage.ESXServerprovidesmulti-pathinginthevirtualizationlayertoautomaticallyallowtheuseofadifferentpathtostorageintheeventthataHostBusAdapter(HBA)orstorageswitchfails.
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12.4 Network virtualizationNetworkvirtualizationisthefinalareatoclarifyinthetopicofvirtualizingphysicalservers.Virtualnetworkingisverysimilartophysicalnetworkingconceptuallyandinpractice,butwithmanyaddedbenefits.
Asdepictedinthediagramtotheright,operatingsystemsrunninginvirtualmachinesareassignedvirtualNICswiththeirownMACaddressesthatareboundtophysicalNICsforexternaltrafficusingvirtualswitches.AstrongadvantageofvirtualnetworkingisthatthesevirtualmachinescanalsobenetworkeddirectlytoothervirtualmachinesrunningonthesameESXServer,andtrafficontheseinternalvirtualnetworkscanbeisolatedsonotrafficreachesthephysicalnetwork.Thisopenstheopportunitytocreateveryhighperformingmulti-tierapplicationandfirewallconfigurationsofvirtualmachinesrunningonasinglephysicalserver.
Fromafaulttoleranceperspective,thevirtualizationlayersupportsNICTeamingwhichenablesthegroupingof2-10physicalNICstocreateahighlyredundantnetworkdevicethatcanbeusedtosupportloadbalancedtraffictransparentlytoallvirtualmachinesonthesystem.
VirtualNICsalsoprovidegreaternetworksecurityasvirtualmachinesonthesamevirtualswitchcanbepreventedfromseeingeachother’straffic.YoucanalsoselecttodisallowMACaddresschangesandforgedMACtransmitsbytheguestoperatingsystems.
VirtualLANsalsosupportVLANtaggingtoallowthecreationofmultiplelogicalLANswithinoracrossphysicalnetworksegments.VLANsfreenetworkadministratorsfromthelimitationsofaphysicalnetworkconfigurationtoimprovesecurity,improveperformanceandreducecost.
Thediagrambelowpresentsanexamplevirtualnetworkingscenariowheredatabaseandapplicationserversaresecurelyprotectedbehindavirtualfirewall.
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12.5 virtualCenter software Components VMwareVirtualCenterisdesignedtocentrallymonitorandmanagealltheVMwarevirtualmachinesandhostsinyourenterprisevirtualinfrastructure.Toperformthesefunctions,VirtualCenterprovides:
• VirtualCenter Client—AuserinterfacethatrunslocallyonaWindowsmachine.TheVirtualCenterclientrunsonamachinewithnetworkaccesstotheVirtualCenterserver.ThiscanbeonthesamemachineastheVirtualCenterserveroronanothermachinewithnetworkaccess.
• VirtualCenter Server—AservicethatactsasacentraladministratorforVMwareESXServerandGSXServerhostsconnectedonanetworktodirectactionsuponthevirtualmachinesandthevirtualmachinehosts.VirtualCenterserverprovidesthecentralworkingcoreofVirtualCenter.VirtualCenterserverisdeployedasaWindowsserviceandrunsfull-time.ItmusthavenetworkaccesstoallthehostsitmanagesandbeavailablefornetworkaccessfromanymachinewheretheVirtualCenterclientisrun.
• VirtualCenter Agent—Installedoneachmanagedhost,itcollects,communicates,andexecutestheactionsreceivedfromtheVirtualCenterserver.ItisinstalledautomaticallythefirsttimeanygivenhostisaddedtotheVirtualCenterinventory.
• VMotion—AfeaturethatenablesmovingrunningvirtualmachinesfromoneESXServertoanotherwithoutserviceinterruption.TheVirtualCenterservercentrallycoordinatesallVMotionactivities.
• VirtualCenter Database—Apersistentstoragearea,formaintainingstatusofeachvirtualmachine,host,andusermanagedintheVirtualCenterenvironment.ThiscanbelocalorremotetotheVirtualCenterservermachine.
• Virtual Infrastructure Software Developer’s Kit—ArichWebServicesAPIthatcanbeusedtoper-formanyfunctionprovidedbyVirtualCenter.TheSDKcanbeusedtointegratevirtualinfrastructurewiththird-partymanagementtoolsoryourownprograms.
ThefigurebelowillustratestherelationshipsbetweentheVirtualCenterinstalledcomponents.
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12.6 virtualCenter organizes servers into Farms and groupsAfarmistheprimaryorganizationalstructureusedinVirtualCenter.Afarmcontainsmanagedhostsandvirtualmachines.Allactionstakenuponmanagedhostsandvirtualmachinesareappliedwithintheirfarm.Withinafarm,youcanmonitorandmanagevirtualmachinesseparatelyfromtheirhostsanduseVMotion;youcannotperformmigrationbetweenfarms.
ServerFarmsandGroupsassistinmanagingthecomplexityofthehandlingofpotentiallyhundredsofvirtualmachines.Theycanbeadded,deleted,reorganizedandrenamedtorepresenttheirorganizationpurposes;forexample,theycanbenamedaftercompanydepartmentsorlocationsorfunctions.Theorganizationalcomponentsare:
• Server Farms—Thetop-levelstructurefortheVirtualCenterserver.OnlyoneServerFarmsobjectexistsforeachVirtualCenterserver.ServerFarmscancontainmultiplefarmgroupsandfarms.ThetermServerFarmsisthedefaultvalue;theactualnameusedcanbechanged.
• Farm Groups—AnoptionalgroupingstructurethatishierarchicallycontainedwithintheServerFarmsstructure.TheVirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplefarmgroups.Farmgroupscancontainotherfarmgroupsandfarms.
• Farm—ThemainstructureunderwhichhostsandtheirassociatedvirtualmachinesareaddedtotheVirtualCenterserver.VirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplefarms.Note:Ahostcanbemanagedbyonlyonefarmatatime.Note:Alloperationsbetweenhostsandvirtualmachinesoccurwithinasinglefarm.Forexample,hostsandvirtualmachinesarenotmigratedbetweenfarms.
• Virtual Machine Groups—Anoptionalgroupingstructurethatiscontainedwithinafarm.VirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplevirtualmachinegroups.Virtualmachinegroupscontainvirtualmachinesandothervirtualmachinegroups.
AlltheVirtualCentercomponents—thehosts,thevirtualmachines,andtheorganizationalgroupingsofserverfarms,farms,andfarmgroups—arecontainedwithintheVirtualCenterenvironment.ThefigurebelowillustratesthehierarchyoftheVirtualCenterorganizationalcomponents.
WhenanESXServerhostisaddedtotheinventoryhierarchy,VirtualCenterautomaticallyqueriesthehostforanyregisteredvirtualmachinesandaddsthevirtualmachinestotheVirtualCenterinventorybyincludingthemina
“DiscoveredVMs”folder.Thisfolderissimplyanewlycreatedvirtualmachinegroupthatcanberenamed.VirtualMachinescanbeaddedtoandremovedfromthisdefaultvirtualmachinegroup.
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12.7 virtualCenter Manages tasks, templates, alarms and Events ThefunctionalcomponentsinVirtualCenteraregroupscomprisedofthemonitoringandmanagingtasks.Thefunctionalcomponentsare:
• Inventory—AviewofallthemonitoredobjectsinVirtualCenter.MonitoredobjectsincludeServerFarms,farms,farmgroups,hosts,virtualmachines,andvirtualmachinegroups.
• Scheduled Tasks—Alistofactivitiesandameanstoschedulethoseactivities.
• Templates—Ameanstoimportvirtualmachinesandstorethemastemplatesfordeployingatalatertimetocreatenewvirtualmachines.
• Alarms—Acomponentthatallowsyoutocreateandmodifyasetofalarmsthatyoudefine.Alarmsareappliedtoanobjectandcontainatriggeringeventandanotificationmethod.Alarmsdonothaveanavigationtoolbaroption.AlarmsareviewedthroughtheAlarmstabforeachobject.
• Events—AlistofalltheeventsthatoccurintheVirtualCenterenvironment.UsetheNavigationoptiontodisplayalltheevents.Useanobjectspecificpaneltodisplayonlytheeventsrelativetothatobject.
ThefigurebelowillustratestherelationshipoftheVirtualCenterfunctionalcomponents.
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12.8 virtualCenter Manages access Privileges with users and groupsEachVirtualCenteruserlogsontotheVirtualCenterservicethroughtheVirtualCenterclient.EachVirtualCenteruserisidentifiedtotheVirtualCenterassomeonewhohasassignedrightsandprivilegestoselectedobjects,suchasfarmsandvirtualmachines,withintheVirtualCenterenvironment.VirtualCenteritselfhasfullrightsandprivilegesonallhostsandvirtualmachineswithintheVirtualCenterenvironment.VirtualCenterpassesononlythoseactionsandrequestsfromaVirtualCenteruserthattheuserhaspermis-siontoperform.VirtualCentergrantsaccesstoeachVirtualCenterobject,farm,farmgroup,virtualmachine,andvirtualmachinegroup.Todothis,VirtualCenterassignsaroleandauser(orgroup)toeachobject.IndividualpermissionsareassignedthroughVirtualCenterbypairingauserandaroleandassigningthispairtoaVirtualCenterobject.
• Users and Groups—CreatedthroughtheWindowsdomainorActiveDirectorydatabase.VirtualCenterregistersusersandgroupsaspartoftheassigningprivilegesprocess.
• Roles—AsetofaccessrightsandprivilegespredefinedbyVirtualCenter.
Therearefourroles.Eachroleincludestheprivilegesoflowerlevelroles.Thetypesofrolesthatcanbepairedwithauserandassignedtoanobjectare:
• VirtualCenter Administrator—Usersinthisroleareallowedtochangeprivilegesforanobject.Withthisrole,youcanadd,remove,andsetaccessrightsandprivilegesforalltheVirtualCenterusersandallthevirtualobjectsintheVirtualCenterenvironment.
• Virtual Machine Administrator—Usersassignedthisroleforanobjectareallowedtoadd,remove,ormodifyobjects.Withthisrole,youcan:
o Connect/disconnectmanagedhosts,migrateandmigratewithVMotion,clone,removeandconfigurevirtualmachines.
o Create,import,anddeploytemplates.
o Addandremovehostsfromfarms.
o Create,remove,ormodifyfarms,farmgroups,andvirtualmachinegroupsandtheircontent.
• Virtual Machine User—Usersassignedthisroleforanobjectareallowedtoperformpoweroperationsonvirtualmachines.Withthisrole,youcanconnectwitharemoteconsoleandviewthestatesofvirtualmachines.Youcannotmodifytheconfigurationofhostsorvirtualmachines.
• Read Only User—Usersassignedthisroleforanobjectareallowedtoviewthestateofvirtualmachines,hosts,farms,andgroups.Withthisrole,youcanviewvirtualmachines,hosts,farms,farmgroups,andvirtualmachinegroupattributes,thatis,allthetabpanelsinVirtualCenterexcepttheConsoletab.Youcannotviewtheremoteconsoleforamanagedhost.Allactionsthroughthemenusandtoolbarsaredisallowed.AuserwithRead-OnlyUserroleaccesscanviewthetemplatesandscheduledtasksbutnotperformanyactionswiththem.
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12.9 Working with the virtualCenter ClientTheVirtualCenterclientdisplayisatypicalWindowsscreen.Itcontainsamenubar,ashortcutnavigationbar,anavigationspecifictoolbar,andadisplayarea.TheVirtualCenterclientisbasicallydividedintotwoareas:
• Aheading area withamainmenu,navigationbar,andtoolbar.
• Adata area thatchangesdependingupontheselectioninthenavigationbar.
ThenavigationbaroptionsdividetheprimarytasksofVirtualCenterinto:
• Inventory—Dividedintotwosubpanels,theinventorypanelandtheinformationpanel.ThisnavigationbaroptiondisplaysalltheobjectscontainedwithinVirtualCenter.
• Scheduled Tasks—Displaysaninformationpanelthatlistsallthetasksscheduledtooccur.
• Templates—Displaysaninformationpanelthatlistsallthetemplatesavailablefordeploying.Thislistincludestemplatesthatarestoredinthetemplateuploaddirectory,storedonalocaldisk,orstoredonthesamedatastoreastheirsourcevirtualmachine.
• Events—DisplaysaninformationpanelthatlistsalltheeventsthathaveoccurredinVirtualCenter.
Clickonthenavigationbarbuttonstofamiliarizeyourselfwiththeircontents.BackintheInventorypane,goaheadandselectVirtualCenterobjectssuchasfarms,groups,hosts,andvirtualmachinestomonitorthestatusoftheobjectandright-clickthemtoaccessactionmenus.Thiswillgiveyouanoverviewofthecontextsensitiveoptionsavailableforeach.
virtualmachine inventorypanel popupmenu informationpanel statusbar
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Belowisasummaryviewanddescriptionofthemonitoringtabsavailableforfarm,farmgroup,hostserverandvirtualmachineinventoryobjects:
TabsAvailable ForVCFarm&FarmGroups
ForaFarm ForaHostServer ForaVirtualMachine
Farms Farms
Summary Summary Summary Summary
VirtualMachines VMs VMs VMs
Hosts Hosts Hosts
Performance Performance Performance Performance Performance
Tasks Tasks Tasks Tasks Tasks
Events Events Events Events Events
Alarms Alarms Alarms Alarms Alarms
Permissions Permissions Permissions Permissions
Console Console
VC Farm & Farm Groups• Farms—DisplaysallfarmgroupsavailableontheVirtualCenterServer• VirtualMachines—DisplaysallvirtualmachinesavailableontheVirtualCenterServer• Hosts—DisplaysallphysicalESXandGSXHostServersontheVirtualCenterServer• Performance—DisplaystheaverageCPU,memory,diskandnetworkperformanceforaFarmGroup• Tasks—DisplaysallcurrenttasksontheVirtualCenterServer• Events—DisplaysallcurrenteventsontheVirtualCenterServer• Alarms—DisplaysallcurrentalarmsontheVirtualCenterServer• Permissions—DisplaysallpermissionsattheVirtualCenterServerlevel
Farm• Summary—DisplaysasummaryviewoftheFarm’shosts,VMsandperformance• VirtualMachines—DisplaysalistofallvirtualmachinesintheFarm• Hosts—DisplaysalistofallphysicalESXandGSXHostServersontheFarm• Performance—DisplaystheaverageCPU,memory,diskandnetworkperformancefortheFarm• Tasks—DisplaysallcurrenttasksontheFarm• Events—DisplaysallcurrenteventsontheFarm• Alarms—DisplaysallcurrentalarmsontheFarm• Permissions—DisplaysallpermissionsattheFarmLevel
Host Server• Summary—DisplaysasummaryviewoftheHostServer’spropertiesandperformance• VirtualMachines—DisplaysalistofallvirtualmachinesontheHostServer• Performance—DisplaysthecurrentCPU,memory,diskandnetworkperformancefortheHostServer• Tasks—DisplaysallcurrenttasksontheHostServer• Events—DisplaysallcurrenteventsontheHostServer• Alarms—DisplaysallcurrentalarmsontheHostServer
Virtual Machines• Summary—Displaysasummaryviewofthevirtualmachine’spropertiesandperformance• Performance—DisplaysthecurrentCPU,memory,diskandnetworkperformanceforthevirtualmachine• Tasks—Displaysallcurrenttasksonthevirtualmachine• Events—Displaysallcurrenteventsonthevirtualmachine• Alarms—Displaysallcurrentalarmsonthevirtualmachine• Console—Displaysthecurrentscreenofthevirtualmachineandenablesallkeyboardandmouseinput• Permissions—Displaysallpermissionsatthevirtualmachinelevel
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12.10 Common actions Performed through virtualCenterTypicalVirtualCenteroperationsarefocusedaroundmanagingvirtualmachinesonmultiplehosts.PerforminganactionthroughVirtualCenterinvolves:
StartingandloggingontotheVirtualCenterclient.
• Addingorselectingavirtualmachine,host,farm,orgroup.
• Selectingthedesiredactionfromthecorrespondingmenuforthevirtualmachine,host,farm,orgroup,andansweringthepromptsfromthetaskwizardscreens.
ThefigurebelowillustratestheprocessflowfortypicalVirtualCenteractivities.
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13. Creating New virtual MachinesTherearetwomethodsforaddingvirtualmachinestoVirtualCenter;eitherregisterahostwithexistingvirtualmachinesonit,orcreatenewvirtualmachinesonexistinghosts.Thelistbelowdescribessomeofthekeyprocessoptionsforcreatingnewvirtualmachines.
• AvirtualmachinecanbecreatedfromscratchusingtheNewVirtualMachineWizard.Aftercreatingavirtualmachine,youmustinstallaguestoperatingsystem.
• AnexistingvirtualmachinecanbeclonedtocreatenewvirtualmachinesusingtheCloneWizard.
• AnexistingvirtualmachinecanbeusedasasourcefornewtemplatesusingtheNewTemplateWizard.
• AnexistingphysicalmachinecanbeclonedtocreateaduplicatevirtualmachineusingVMwareP2VAssistant.
13.1 Creating New virtual Machines from scratchThroughtheNewVirtualMachineWizardandtheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox,youcancreatenewvirtualmachinesfromscratchandmakeconfigurationmodificationstothemoncetheyarecreated.Newvirtualmachinesareaddedtomanagedhosts.YoumustselectamanagedhosttobeabletostarttheNewVirtualMachineWizard.
TocreateanewvirtualmachinethroughthetypicalpathintheNewVirtualMachineWizard:
1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,displaytheinventorypanel.ClickInventoryinthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded.SelectamanagedhostandstarttheNewVirtualMachineWizardbyrightclickingonthehostandselectingNew Virtual Machine.
2. Intheinventorylist,selectthemanagedhosttowhichtoaddthenewvirtualmachine.ChooseFile > New > Virtual Machine,andthenclickNext.
3. SelectwhethertouseaTypicalconfigurationorCustomconfiguration.SelectTypicalandclickNext.Usingatypicalinstallation,youcanspecifyoracceptdefaultsonlyfor:
a. Thegroupforthevirtualmachine.
b. Theguestoperatingsystem.
c. Thevirtualmachinenameandthelocationofthevirtualmachine’sfiles.
d. Thenetworkconnectiontype.
e. Thesizeofthevirtualdisk.
Forfuturereference,aCustomInstallationadditionallyallowsyoutospecifythefollowing:
a. Specifythenumberofvirtualprocessorsforthevirtualmachine.
b. Allocateanamountofmemorydifferentfromthedefault.
c. ChoosebetweentheLSILogicandBusLogictypesofSCSIadapters.(AnATAPIIDEadapterisalwaysinstalled.)
d. Useanexistingvirtualdisk.
e. DirectlyaccessasystemLUNinsteadofusingavirtualdisk.
f. Specifyaparticularvirtualdevicenodeforthevirtualdisk.
g. Chooseamodeforthevirtualdisk.
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4. Selectagrouplocationforthenewvirtualmachine.ClickNext.
5. UnderGuest operating system,selecttheoperatingsystemfamily(MicrosoftWindows,Linux,NovellNetWareorOther),thenselectthespecificoperatingsystemfromtheVersionlist.VirtualCenterdoesnotinstalltheGuestOperatingSystemforyou;yourselectionhereisusedonlytoselectappropriatedefaultconfigurationparametersforthevirtualmachine,suchastheamountofmemoryneeded.Thewizardalsousesthisinformationwhennamingassociatedvirtualmachinefiles.ClickNexttocontinue.
6.Specifyanameforthevirtualmachineanddatastorevolumeforthevirtualdisks.
a. EntertheVirtualmachinenametouse.ThenameyouenterintheVirtual Machine NamefieldisthenamethatislistedintheVirtualCenterclientinventory,andinotherareas,suchastheVMwareManagementInterface.Itisalsousedasthenameofthevirtualmachine’sfiles.Enterausefulname.Thenamecanbeupto80characterslongandcontainalpha-numericcharactersandtheunderscore(_)andhyphen(-)characters.Itshouldalsobeuniqueacrossallvirtualmachines.Besurethatthevirtualmachinenameisuniqueasduplicatenamescauseconfusionandarenotallowedwithinavirtualmachinegroup.Abestpracticeistocreatevirtualmachinesusingthesamenameforthevmxfile,thevmdkfile,thedisplaynameandeventheactualguestoperatingsystemhostnameforconsistency.
b. SelecttheDatastoreonthemanagedhosttouseforstoringthevirtualdiskfiles.ForESXServerhosts,thenameslistedunderdatastoresaretheconfiguredVMFSvolumesforthatmanagedhost.
c. ClickNexttocontinue.
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7.Specifythenetworkingsettingsforthevirtualmachine.
a. SelectthevirtualnetworknametousefromtheNIClist.
b. Selectthenetworkadapter typeforthevirtualmachine.SelecteitherthedefaultvlanceadapterorthevmxnetadapteriftheguestoperatingsystemwillbeWindowsServer2003,WindowsXPorWindows2000.Thevmxnetdriverpro-videshigherperformance,especiallywithgigabitadapters.
c. Ifyoudonotwantthevirtualnetworkadaptertoconnectwhenthevirtualmachineispoweredon,cleartheConnect at power oncheckbox.
d. Ifyoudonotwantthevirtualmachinetohaveaconnectiontothenetwork,selecttheDo not use a network connection check box.
e. ClickNexttocontinue.
8.Specifythesizeofthevirtualdisk.EnterthedisksizeinGigabytes(GB).Thedefaultis4GB.Yourvirtualdiskcanbeassmallas0.1GB(100MB).ASCSIvirtualdiskcanbeaslargeas2TBonanESXServerhost.ForESXServerhosts,theavailablespaceontheselectedVMFSvolumeislisted.Thevirtualdiskshouldbelargeenoughtoholdtheguestoperatingsystemandallofthesoftwarethatyouintendtoinstall,withroomfordataandgrowth.Forexample,youneedabout3GBofactualfreespaceonthefilesystemcontainingthevirtualdisktoinstallWindowsServer2003andapplicationssuchasMicrosoftOfficeinsidethevirtualmachine.Itispossibletolaterenlargethesizeofexistingvirtualdisksusingvmkfstools,butitismucheasiertosizethemsufficientlyatcreation.YoucanalsoalwaysinstalladditionalvirtualdiskslaterbyusingtheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox.
9. ClickNextandthenclickFinish.Beforeyoucanuseyournewvirtualmachine,youneedtopartitionandformatthevirtualdisk,theninstallaguestoperatingsystemandVMwareTools.Theoperatingsystem’sinstallationprogrammayhandlethepartitioningandformattingstepsforyou.
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Installing a Guest Operating System
Afteryoucreateavirtualmachine,youmustinstallanoperatingsystemonitsvirtualdiskjustasyoudoonanewphysicalmachine.YouuseastandardinstallationCD-ROMandformatthevirtualdiskattheappropriateplaceintheinstallationprocess.Asafasterandmoreconvenientalternative,youcaninstallanoperatingsystemfromISOimagefilesofinstallationCD-ROMsorusethepre-bootexecutionenvironment(PXE)featureofESXServertoloadasystemimageinavirtualmachinefromthenetwork.Onceyoustartthevirtualmachine,thenormaloperatingsysteminstallationtakesover.Answerthepromptsthatappearonthevirtualmachineconsoletoinstalltheguestoperatingsystem.
Toaccessthevirtualmachinetoinstallaguestoperatingsystem,usethevirtualmachineconsole,foundontheConsoletabfortheInventorybuttoninthenavigationbar.Chooseaninstallationmethod:
• Install from CD-ROM—ConfigurethevirtualmachinetoconnecttothephysicalESXServerCD-ROMandbootanoperatingsysteminstallationdiskfromit.
• Install from ISO Image—ConfigurethevirtualmachineCD-ROMasapathtoalocalornetworkedISOfileandbootfromthat.AvirtualCD-ROMdriveisautomaticallycreatedwhenyoucreateanewvirtualmachine.IfyouareplanningtoinstalltheguestoperatingsystemfromanISOimage,usetheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogboxtomapthevirtualCD-ROMdrivetotheISOimagebeforepow-eringonthevirtualmachine.
10.ToinstalltheguestoperatingsystemviaaCD-ROMdrive:
a. InserttheinstallationCD-ROMforyourguestoperatingsystemintheESXServerCD-ROMdrive.
b. ClickPower OnontheremoteconsoletoolbarandswitchtotheConsoletabtobeginsettingupyourguestoperatingsystem.
11.ToinstalltheguestoperatingsystemfromalocalornetworkISOimage:
a. PrepareISOimagefilesofinstallationCD-ROMsneededfortheinstallation.
b. Right-clickonthevirtualmachineandselectPropertiestoeditthevirtualmachinesproperties.SelecttheCD-ROMdeviceandclickBrowsetoconnectthevirtualmachine’sCD-ROMdrivetotheappropriateISOimagefile.YouwillneedtoaccesstheimagesfromthenetworkorcopytheISOimageontotheESXServerintothevmimagesdirectoryorauser’shomedirectorytobrowsetoit.ClickOKtosavethechanges.
c. Oncetheinstallationmediaissuccessfullymapped,clickPowerOnontheremoteconsoletoolbarandswitchtotheConsoletabtobeginsettingupyourguestoperatingsystem.
Notethatwhenyouareinstallingaguestoperatingsystemonanewvirtualdisk,youmayseeamessagewarningyouthatthediskiscorruptedandaskingifyouwanttoplaceapartitiontableonthedisk.Thismessagedoesnotmeanthereisanyproblemwithyourphysicalharddisk.Itsimplymeanssomedataneedstobewrittentothefilethatholdsyourvirtualharddisk.AllyouneedtodoisrespondYes.Youalsoneedtopartitionandformatthevirtualdiskasyouwouldwithanew,blankharddrive.
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Installing VMware Tools VMwareToolsisasuiteofutilitiesthatenhancestheperformanceofthevirtualmachine’sguestoperatingsystemandimprovesmanagementofthevirtualmachine.ItisveryimportantthatyouinstallVMwareToolsintheguestoperatingsystem.AlthoughtheguestoperatingsystemcanrunwithoutVMwareTools,youloseimportantfunctionalityandconvenience.
WhenyouinstallVMwareTools,youinstallthefollowingcomponents:
• TheVMwareToolsservice(orvmware-guestdonLinuxguests).
• AsetofVMwaredevicedrivers,includinganSVGAdisplaydriver,thevmxnetnetworkingdriverforsomeguestoperatingsystems,theBusLogicSCSIdriverforsomeguestoperatingsystemsandtheVMwaremousedriver.
• TheVMwareToolscontrolpanelthatletsyoumodifysettings,shrinkvirtualdisks,andconnectanddisconnectvirtualdevices.
• Asetofscriptsthathelpautomateguestoper-atingsystemoperations;thescriptsrunwhenthevirtualmachine’spowerstatechanges.
• Acomponentthatsupportscopyingandpastingtextbetweentheguestandmanagedhostoperatingsystems.
ToinstallVMwareToolsinavirtualmachine,right-clickonthevirtualmachineintheinventorypanelandselectto Install VMware Tools.
Notethatwhenworkingwithvirtualmachines,ifthenetworkadaptersdon’tappeartobesettothecorrectspeed/duplexsettingorappeartoberunningslowly,refertothefollowingKnowledgeBasearticle813foraresolution:http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=9uhecMMh&p_lva=& p_faqid=813.
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13.2 Creating New virtual Machines from Existing servers
VMware P2V AssistantOnealternativetorebuildingtestsystemsfromscratchtosupporttheevaluationistoregisterforanevaluationcopyoftheVMwareP2VAssistant,anenterprise-classmigrationtoolthattransformsanimageofanexistingphysicalsystemintoaVMwarevirtualmachine.Thiseasytouse,marketproventoolenablesfastandreliablephysicaltovirtualmachinemigrationforMicrosoftWindowsoperatingsystemsrangingfromWindowsNT4toWindowsServer2003.
VMwareP2VAssistanttakesasnapshotofanexistingphysicalsystemandtransformsitintoaVMwarevirtualmachine,eliminatingtheneedtoreinstallandreconfigurecomplexapplicationenvironments.P2VAssistantperformsallnecessarysubstitutionstotransformaphysicalsystemintoaproduction-readyvirtualmachine,byguidingtheadministratorthroughaneasytouseGUIwizard:
• Createsanimageofthesourcemachinewithbuilt-inimagingor3rdpartyimagingtool
• Performsallnecessarydiskcontrolleranddriversubstitutionssothevirtualmachinecanbebooted
• Recommendsadditionalconfigurationmodificationstomakethenewvirtualmachineproductionready
• VirtualmachinescreatedbytheP2VAssistantwillrunonVMwareESXServer,VMwareGSXServerandVMwareWorkstation.
VMwarecustomersaremostcommonlyusingP2VAssistanttosupportthefollowing:
• FastandcleanmigrationsofexistingapplicationstoVMwarevirtualmachineswithoutrequiringare-installorrebuildtoenablemigrationtovirtualinfrastructure
• EfficientQA&DebuggingbycloningproductionsystemsintoQAandtestingenvironments
• DisasterRecoveryandBackuptoperiodicallycaptureproductionsystemsintoalibrarythatcanbedeployedintheeventofadisaster.
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VMware Technology Network (VMTN) Templates of Pre-Configured Virtual MachinesAnadditionalsourceofvirtualmachinesforevaluationpurposesistheVMwareTechnologyNetwork(VMTN)Subscription,aservicefordevelopersandtestersthatbundlesaccesstoVMwareproducts,supportandupgradesinaconvenient,low-costannualsubscription.Aspartofthedevelopersupportprogram,VMTNprovidesacollectionofpre-builtvirtualmachinesfromindustry-leadingISVandopensourcepartnersthatsimplifiessoftwarepackaging,distribution,anddeployment.Insteadofspendingtimeinstallingandconfiguringapplications,developersandQAteamscannowfocustheireffortsondevelop-mentandtesting.Torunanewapplication,simplydownloadavirtualmachinewiththeapplicationsoftwarepre-installedandconfigured,andrunitinVMwareWorkstation,GSXServerorESXServer.
Someofthesepre-configuredvirtualmachinesareavailablefromVMwareISVpartnerswithoutrequiringanannualsubscriptiontoVMTN.Forexample,youcanfindpointerstovariousLinuxvirtualmachinespre-loadedwithOracle,BEA,MySQL,etc.athttp://www.vmware.com/vcommunity/technology/vm/.Inmostcases,asimpleregistrationwiththeprovideroftheVMisallthatisnecessarytodownloadthesepre-configuredvirtualmachineimagesforevaluationandtestingpurposes.
13.3 Creating, storing and deploying virtual Machine templatesOncevirtualmachineshavebeencreatedandconfiguredasgoldenimages,theycanbepackagedastemplatesandstoredeitherlocallyonESXServersorcentrallywithinaVirtualCentertemplaterepositorytosupporttherapidprovisioningofnewvirtualmachines.
Templatesarecreatedfromexistingvirtualmachines.Thesevirtualmachinescanbeeither:
• VirtualmachineslocatedonaVirtualCentermanagedhost.
• UnmanagedvirtualmachinesstoredonadisklocaltotheVirtualCenterserver.
Whenyoucreateatemplate,VirtualCenterprovidesanoptiontostorethetemplateatoneoftwolocations:
• Datastore—Anydatastoreaccessibletothemanagedhost(localornetworked)wherethesourcevirtualmachineresides.Thisoptionworksbestwithashareddatastorebetweenhostsonafarm.Thisoptionistypicallyusedforcreatingtemplatesfromvirtualmachinesonregisteredhosts.
• Templateuploaddirectory—LocatedontheVirtualCenterservermachine,theuploaddirectorycontainscopiesoftheoriginalvirtualmachinevirtualdisks.SpecifyadirectorylocaltotheVirtualCenterserverasthetemplateuploaddirectory.Thisoptionisusedwhenatemplatemightneedtobedeployedtoanymanagedhost.
ThefigurebelowillustratesthetwomethodsforstoringtemplatesinVirtualCenter.
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Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template Whenyoudeployatemplate,youcreateanewvirtualmachinefromthetemplate.Thevirtualmachinecanbeplacedonanyhostthathaslocalaccessornetworkvisibilityofthetemplate.Thefigurebelowillustratestheprocessfordeployingatemplatetocreateanewvirtualmachine.
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13.3.1 Creating templates from Existing virtual MachinesBeforecreatingatemplatethatwillbeusedasthefoundationformanyothervirtualmachines,arecommendationistomodifythebaseimagetousevmxnet,thehighperformancevirtualnetworkadapter,iftheguestoperatingsystemisWindowsServer2003,WindowsXPorWindows2000.Todothis:
1. Shutdownyourbaseimagevirtualmachineifitisrunning.
2. WithintheVirtualCenterclient,openthevirtualmachine’spropertiesandselectNIC 1ontheHardwaretab.ChangetheAdaptertypefromvlancetovmxnet.ClickOKtoclosethepropertieswindow.
3. PoweronthevirtualmachineandloginasAdministratorfromtheconsoletabtocompletetheinstallationbywalkingthroughtheFindNewHardwareWizard.
4. Shutdownthevirtualmachine.
Tocreateatemplatefromavirtualmachine:
1. StartVirtualCenterclientandlogontotheVirtualCenterserver.
2. Fromtheinventorypanel,clicktheInventorybuttoninthenavigationbar.Theinventorypanelandtheinformationpaneldisplayinformationaboutmanagedfarms,hosts,andvirtualmachines.TheInventorytoolbarappears.
3. Expandtheinventoryasneededandright-clickonthedesiredvirtualmachineandselectNew Template from this Virtual MachinetostarttheNewTemplateWizard.Thevirtualmachinehastobepoweredoffforthisoptiontobeenabled.ClickNexttocontinue.
4. GivethenewtemplateaNameandDescription.Enterausefulnameandabriefdescriptionofthetemplate.Thisdescriptioncanincludetheoperatingsystem,applications,versions,andintendedusesforthetemplate.Thenamecanbeupto80characterslongandcontainalphanumericcharactersandtheunderscore(_)andhyphen(-)characters.Thenameshouldbeuniqueacrossalltemplatesandcannotstartwithaspaceorcontainabackslash(\)orforwardslash(/).ClickNext.
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5. SpecifythetargetLocationoftheTemplateFiles.Thechoicesare:
a. On the VMware VirtualCenter server—ThisoptionmakescopiesofthevirtualmachinediskfilesandplacescopiesintotheVirtualCenteruploaddirectory.Copyingthefilescantakesometime.Aftertheimport-ingtemplateprocess,thesourcevirtualmachineisavailablefornormaloperations.UsethisoptionifthesourcediskisnotonaSAN.Thisoptionensuresthetemplatecanbedeployedtoanymanagedhost.
b. On a datastore—Thisoptionaddsareferencetothelocationofthefiles.ThevirtualmachinedisksarecopiedtotheVMFSvolumethatyouspecify.UsethisoptionwhenthevirtualdiskresidesinaVMFSvol-umeonaSAN.Thisensuresarapiddeploymentofanewvirtualmachinebecauseitisalocaldiskcopy.
c. Theevaluationrecommendationistoplacethetemplateinthevmimagesorhomevolumeofthelocaldatastore.
6.Selectthedatastorelocationinwhichtoplacethenewtemplate.ClickNext.
7. Completetheimportingtemplateprocess.ClickFinish.VirtualCenteraddsthecon-figurationfiledataintotheVirtualCenterdatabaseandaddsthetemplatetothelistofavailabletemplates.ClickontheTaskstabtomonitortheprogressasthetemplateiscreated.Toviewthelistofcreatedtemplates,clicktheTemplatesoptioninthenavigationbar.
NotethatatemplatecanbecreatedfromanyVMwarevirtualmachine,soallguestoperatingsystemssupportedbyVMwareincludingmanyversionsofWindows,Linux,NovellNetwareandFreeBSDcanbemanagedusingtemplates.
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13.3.2 Preparing for guest operating system CustomizationWhenyoudeployatemplateorcloneanexistingvirtualmachine,youhavetheopportunitytocustomizethenewguestoperatingsystem.AGuestCustomizationwizardguidesyouthroughtheconfigurationoptionstoconfigurethemachineasauniquenewsystem.YouneedtouseaVirtualMachineAdministratorroleassignedtothetargethostwherethevirtualmachineislocatedtoperformtheseactivities.
CustomizingWindowsguestoperatingsystemoptionsinclude:
• Joinworkgroupsanddomains
• Networkinterfaceconfiguration
• Domainsuffix,securityID(SID)change
CustomizingLinuxguestoperatingsystemoptionsinclude:
• Hostname
• Domainsuffix
• Networkinterfaceconfiguration
Theseevaluationstepscoverthecustomizationrequirements,preparationandprocessforcustomizingWindowsguestoperatingsystems.PleaserefertotheVirtualCenterUser’sGuideonpages52,324and328forsimilarinstructionscoveringLinuxcustomization.
Virtual Hardware Requirements for Guest Customization IfyouintendtoperformaGuestCustomization,performthefollowingbeforeyouruntheGuestCustomizationwizard,thatis,beforeyoustarttheTemplateDeploymentWizardorCloneWizard:
• Verifythatyoursystemmeetstheguestcustomizationrequirementslistedbelow.
• InstalltherequiredcomponentsdescribedbelowontheWindowsmachinewheretheVirtualCenterserverisinstalled.Notethatafterdeployingandcustomizingnon-volume-licensedversionsofWindowsXPorWindows2003,itmaybenecessarytore-activateyourMicrosoftoperatingsystemonthenewvirtualmachine.
Guestcustomizationrequiresthatthesourcevirtualmachineusedtocreatethecloneortemplateshasthefollowing:
• VMwareToolsinstalled.
• AtleastoneNetworkInterfaceCard(NIC)configured.Whenavirtualmachineisclonedorusedforatemplate,thenewvirtualmachinehastheexactsamenumberandtypeofNICs,forexample,AMD/PCnetversushigh-performanceVMwarevmxnet.Thiscannotbechangedduringthedeploymentorguestcustomizationprocess.
• SCSIdisks.ThedefaultconfigurationforVMwareWorkstationandGSXServercreatingaWindowsXPorWindowsServer2003virtualmachineisIDEdisks.IfyouarecustomizingavirtualmachinewithIDEdisks,itcanonlybedeployedtoaGSXServerhost.VirtualCentercustomizationoperatesonthediskattachedtothevirtualSCSInodewiththelowestaddressontheSCSIcontrollerwiththelowestindex.Asaresult,youmustmakesurethattheguestoperatingsystembeingcustomizedresidesonadiskattachedasSCSI0:0nodeinthevirtualmachineconfiguration.NotethatifavirtualmachinehasmixedIDEandSCSIdisks,thefirstIDEdiskisconsideredthebootdisk,andVirtualCenterpassesittothecustomizer.“First”isincontroller:deviceorder,thatis,ide0:0,ide0:1,scsi0:0,scsi0:1,andsoon.
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ForWindowsguestoperatingsystems:Boththeactivepartition(thepartitioncontainingboot.ini)andthesystempartition(thepartitioncontainingthesystemdirectory,forexample,\WINNTor\WINDOWS),areonthesamevirtualdiskandattachedtheSCSI0:0virtualSCSInode.Notethatitisnotarequirementthatactiveandsystempartitionsbethesamepartition.
Windows Requirements for Guest Customization GuestcustomizationofaWindowsguestoperatingsystemcanoccurif:
• Theguestoperatingsystemisnotaprimaryorbackupdomaincontroller.
• ThecloneortemplatehasoneofthefollowingWindowsversionsinstalled:
o Windows2000ServerorAdvancedServer
o WindowsXPProfessional
o WindowsServer2003,Web,Standard,orEnterpriseEditions.NotethatWindowsXPHomeorWindowsNT4operatingsystemguestcustomizationisnotsupported.
o TheMicrosoftSyspreptoolsareinstalledontheVirtualCenterserver.
Installing the Microsoft Sysprep Tools IfyouplantocustomizeaWindowsguestoperatingsystem,youmustfirstinstalltheMicrosoftSyspreptoolsonyourVirtualCenterservermachine.MicrosoftincludestheSyspreptoolsetontheinstallationCDsforWindows2000,WindowsXP,andWindows2003.ItalsodistributesSysprep1.1fromtheMicrosoftwebsite.InordertoperformaWindowscustomization,youmustinstalltheSyspreptoolseitherfromyourinstallationCD,orfromthe1.1downloadpackage.Duringacustomization,VirtualCentersearchesfortheSyspreppackagecorrespondingtoyourguestoperatingsystem.IftheSyspreptoolsarenotfoundunderthecorrespondingprovidedoperatingsystemdirectory,VirtualCentersearchesintheprovided\1.1directory.IfVirtualCenterdoesnotfindanySyspreptools,theWindowsvirtualmachinecustomizationdoesnotproceed.
1. ToinstalltheMicrosoftSyspreptoolsfromaMicrosoftWebsite,downloadtheSyspreppackagefromhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp
2. ThoughtheSysprepversionindicatesWindows2000,itworkswithbothWindowsXPProfessionalandWindowsServer2003.
3. ClickNexttocontinue.Click I agreetoacceptthetermsandconditions.ClickDownload.Savethefiletoyourlocaldisk.RuntheMicrosoftinstallerQ257813_w2k_spl_x86_en.exe.
4. Extractthefilestotheprovideddirectory.SysprepsupportdirectorieswerecreatedduringVirtualCenterinstallation:
C:\[VirtualCenter_installation_directory]\resources\windows\sys-prep\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\2k\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\xp\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\svr2003\
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5. Selectthe1.1subdirectory.ClickOKtoexpandthefiles.AfteryouhaveextractedthefilesfromQ257813_w2k_spl_x86_en.exetothe\1.1directory,youshouldsee:
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\docs\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\samples\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\tools\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\contents.txt
ToinstalltheMicrosoftSyspreptoolsfromtheWindowsoperatingsystemCD:
1. InserttheWindowsoperatingsystemCDintotheCD-ROM,forexample,D:drive.
2. LocatetheDEPLOY.CABfileintheCDdirectory,\Support\Tools.
3. OpenandexpandtheDEPLOY.CABfile,usingatoolsuchasWinzip.exeoranothertoolcapableofreadingMicrosoftCABfiles.
4. ExtractthefilestotheprovideddirectoryappropriatetoyourSysprepguestoperatingsystem.SysprepsupportdirectorieswerecreatedduringVirtualCenterinstallation:
C:\[VirtualCenter_installation_directory]\resources\windows\sysprep\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\1.1\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\2k\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\xp\
...\resources\windows\sysprep\svr2003\
Selectthesubdirectorythatcorrespondstoyouroperatingsystem.
5. ClickOKtoexpandthefiles.AfteryouhaveextractedthefilesfromDEPLOY.CAB,youshouldsee:
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\deptool.chm
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\readme.txt
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\setupcl.exe
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\setupmgr.exe
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\setupmgx.dll
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\sysprep.exe
...\resources\windows\sysprep\<guest>\unattend.doc
where<guest>iseither2k,xp,orsvr2003.
6.RepeatthisproceduretoextractSysprepfilesforeachoftheWindowsguestoperatingsystem(Windows2000,WindowsXP,orWindows2003)youplantocustomizeusingVirtualCenter.YouarenowreadytocustomizeanewvirtualmachinewithasupportedWindowsguestoperatingsystemwhenyoucloneanexistingvirtualmachineordeployatemplate.
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13.3.3 deploying templates to Create New virtual MachinesTomanuallystarttheTemplateDeploymentWizard:
1. StartVirtualCenterandlogontotheVirtualCenterserver.Fromtheinventorypanel,right-clickonthehostwhereyouwanttodeploythetemplateandselecttoDeploy Virtual Machine from Templatetostartthewizard.ClickNexttoconfirmthestartofthedeploymentwizard.
2. SelectwhichtemplatetodeployforthisvirtualmachineandclickNext.
3. SpecifythenewVirtual Machine Name.ClickNext.Notethatthevirtualmachinenamecannotexceed80characters.
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4. Selectthefarmorvirtualmachinegrouponwhichtodeploythenewvirtualmachine.ClickNext.
5. Selectthedatastoreonwhichtostorethenewvirtualmachineconfigurationfileandvirtualdisks.ClickNext.Thisspecifiesthelocationforthevirtualmachineconfigurationanddiskfiles.Thevirtualmachinemustbeplacedonadatastore.Selectfromthelist.
6.Selectthenetworkinterfacecard(NIC)touseforthevirtualmachine.ClickNext.
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7. Specifyaresourceallocationlevel.ClickNext.
8.SelectStart the guest customiza-tion wizardtoopenthecustomizationwizard.Notethatyoucanalsopre-con-figureImportcustomizationsettingsfromanXMLfilewithcustomizationalreadydefined.RefertothesectiononCustomizingaWindowsGuestOperatingSystemonpage74forinstructionsperformingguestcustomization.
9. CompletetheTemplateDeploymentWizard.ClickFinish.VirtualCenterdisplaystheTasksinventorypanelforreference,makesacopyofthetemplate,applieschangesasspecified,andstoresthenewvirtualmachineonthedesignatedhostlocation.
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13.3.4 Customizing a Windows guest operating system Thecustomizingprocessvaries,dependingupontheguestoperatingsystemtobeusedinthenewvirtualmachine.TocustomizeaWindows2000,WindowsXPProfessional,orWindowsServer2003guestoperatingsystemwhiledeployingatemplateorcloningavirtualmachine,performthefollowing.
TocustomizeaWindowsguestoperatingsystem:
1. StarttheGuestCustomizationwizard.YoucannotstarttheGuestCustomizationwizardfromamenuortoolbaroption.TheGuestCustomizationwizardstartsindirectlyfromtheVirtualCenterTemplateDeploymentorCloneWizard.
2. ConfirmcontinuingwiththeGuestCustomizationwizard.ClickNext.
3. Optionally,specifyregistrationinformation.Theowner’sNameandOrganizationareforyourreferencepurposesonly.Theydonotaffectthefunctioningofthevirtualmachine.Enterthenameofaperson,user,orgroup,andoftheorganizationintheappropriatefields.ClickNext.
4. SpecifyaComputer Nameforthevirtualmachine.Thehostorcomputernameisthenamegiventotheparticularinstanceofaguestoperatingsystem.Theoperat-ingsystemusesthisnametoidentifyitselfonthenetwork.OnWindowssystems,itiscalledthecomputername.Onmostotheroperatingsystems,itiscalledthehostname.ThisisnotthesameasthevirtualmachinenamethatwasdeclaredearlierintheCloneorTemplateDeploymentWizard.Ifanasterisk(*)isenteredintheComputerNamefield,arandomnameisassignedtothecomputername.Whenyouspecifyaname,useonlycharactersthatareallowedinaWindowscomputername.ClickNext.
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5. Providethelicensinginformation.EntertheWindowslicensekeyforthenewguestoperatingsystem.ForWindowsServeroperatingsystems,clicktheappropriatelicensemodeandspecifythemaximumnumberofsimultaneousconnectionsallowed,ifappropriate.ClickNext.
6.SpecifythepasswordfortheAdministratoraccount.
a. EnterthePasswordfortheAdministrativeuser.EnteritagainintheConfirm passwordfield.
b. Optionally,clicktheboxtoautomati-callylogonasadministratorwhenthevirtualmachineboots.Ifthisoptionisselected,alsospecifyhowmanytimestheautomaticlogonistobeper-formed.Thisisusefulifyouknowyouwillhaveaseriesofrebootsbeforethevirtualmachineisreadyfornormallogvonusers.
c. ClickNext.NotethatifyouspecifyanewadministratorpasswordandthesourceWindowsvirtualmachineortemplatealreadyhasone,thenyoumustselecttheDelete all user accountsoptioninstep12.Otherwisetheoldadministratorpasswordisnotchanged.
7. Specifyatimezone.ClickNext.
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8.Specifyanycommandstoberunthefirsttimethenewvirtualmachineisstarted.Toaddcommands,typethecommandstringinthefieldandclickAdd.UsetheDeleteandMoveoptionstopositionthecommandsintheappropriateorder.
9. Selectwhetherornottousetypicalorcustomizenetworksettings.ClickNext.Theoptionsare:
a. Typical settings—VirtualCenterautomaticallyconfiguresallnetworkinterfacesfromaDHCPserver.
b. Custom settings—Youspecifythenetworksettings.
10. Ifyouusecustomnetworksettings:
a. Selectthenetworkinterfacecard(NIC)tocustomize.ClickNext.
b. Optionally,selecttheNIC,thenclickCustomizetomakeadditionalspecifications.
c. IfyouarecustomizingtheNICnetworkproperties,selectthemethodandentertheIPandDNSserveraddresses.SpecifyanIPaddressandDNSserver.ClickOKtoclosethisdialogboxandreturntothepreviousdialogbox.ThenclickNextintheNetworkGuestCustomizationsdialogbox.
d. ClicktheDNStabtospecifytheDNSconnections.EnteranewDNSsuffix.ClickAdd.IfyouareaddingmultipleDNSaddresses,usetheMove UpandMove Downbuttonstosettheorderofuse.ClickOKtoclosethisdialogboxandreturntothepreviousdialogbox.ThenclickNextintheNetworkGuestCustomizationsdialogbox.
e. ClickontheWINStabtoSpecifytheWINSaddress.TypetheappropriateIPaddresses.ClickOKtoclosethisdialogboxandreturntothepreviousdialogbox.ThenclickNextontheNetworkGuestCustomizationsdialogbox.
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11. Joinaworkgroupordomainasdesired.Entertheworkgroupanddomainidentificationinformation.ClickNext.
12. Selectadditionalguestoperatingsystemoptions.Theoptionsare:
a. Generate New Security ID (SID)—Thisoptionissettodefault.
b. Delete all user accounts—Ifyouspecifyanewadministratorpasswordinstep6andthesourceWindowsvirtualmachineortem-platealreadyhasone,thenyoumustselecttheDeletealluseraccountsoptionhere;otherwise,theoldadministratorpasswordisnotchanged.ThisoptionisonlyavailableinthecustomizationwizardforWindows2000guestoperatingsystems.
Clickthebuttonstoconfigureanydesiredoptions.ClickNext.
13.Optionally,savethecustomizedoptionsasan.xmlfile.Specifyafilenameandlocation.ClickNext.VirtualCentersavesthecustomizedconfigurationparametersinan.xmlfile.Later,importthesepredefinedcustomizedparameters,whendeployingatemplateorcloninganexistingvirtualmachine.Ifthecustomizationsettingsaresavedtoafilethentheadministratorpass-wordoftheWindowsvirtualmachineandthedomainadministrator’spassword,asapplicable,arestoredinencryptedformatinthe.xmlfile.NotethatsavedcustomizationfilesareuniquetoeachVirtualCenterserverandtoeachversionofVirtualCenterduetoencryption.Youhavetorecre-atethecustomizationfilesforeachVirtualCenterserver.EncryptionispreservedbetweenupgradeversionsonthesameVirtualCenterserver.ThismeansyoucanusethesamefilesbetweenupgradesofVirtualCenter.Howeverifyouperformanuninstallandalaterfreshinstall,theabilitytodecryptpasswordsfromtheearlierinstallationislost.Torecreatethecustomizedparameters.xmlfiles,usetheImportcustomizationsfromanXMLfileoptionintheDeployTemplatewizard.ClickStart the guest customization wizardandmodifytheentryforthepasswordsandtheadministratorpasswordsagain.
CompletetheGuestCustomizationwizard.ClickFinish.VirtualCenterclosestheGuestCustomizationwizardandreturnsyoutotheDeployaTemplateorCloneaVirtualMachinewizard,clickFinish.
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13.4 Cloning virtual Machines Acloneisacopypluscustomizationofavirtualmachine.Whenyoucreateaclone,VirtualCenterprovidesanoptiontocustomizetheguestoperatingsystemofthatvirtualmachine.Storeclonesonanymanagedhostwithinthesamefarmastheoriginalvirtualmachine.
Thefigurebelowillustratestheprocessforcloninganexistingvirtualmachinetocreateanewvirtualmachine.
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TomanuallystarttheVirtualMachineCloningwizard:
1. StartVirtualCenterandlogontotheVirtualCenterserver.
2. StarttheCloneaVirtualMachinewizard,fromtheinventorypanel:
a. ClicktheInventorybuttoninthenavigationbar.Theinventorypanelandtheinformationpaneldisplaythemanagedfarms,hosts,andvirtualmachineinformation.TheInventorytoolbarappears.
b. Expandtheinventoryasneeded,andclickthesourcevirtualmachine.
c. StarttheClone this Virtual Machine wizard.Fromthemainorright-clickpopupmenu,selectClone.
3. ConfirmcontinuingwiththeCloneWizard.ClickNext.
4. Selectatargethostfortheclone.ClickNext.
5. SelectaVirtualMachineGroupfortheclone.ClickNext.
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6.Assignanametotheclone.Enteraname.ClickNext.
7. Selectthedatastorelocation.Selectalocationfromlist.ClickNext.
8.Assignthenetworkinterfacecards(NIC).Selectfromthelist,ifthereismorethanoneNIC.ClickNext.
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9. Specifytheresourceallocationlevel.TheresourceallocatingleveltellsVirtualCenterwhatpercentageofthehostresourcestomakeavailabletothenewvirtualmachine.Clicktheappropriateradiobutton.ClickNext.
10.Selectwhetherornottocustomizethenewvirtualmachineasyoucreateit.Clicktheappropriateradiobutton.ClickNext.Ifyouselectthecustomizationoption,refertoCustomizingaWindowsGuestOperatingSystemonpage74foradescriptionofthecustomizationwizardandoptions.Ifyoudecidenottocustom-izethenewvirtualmachineaspartofthecloningprocess,proceedtothenextstep.
11.CompletetheCloningaVirtualMachinewizard.ClickFinish.VirtualCenterdisplaystheScheduledTaskspanelforreferenceandmakesacopyofthevirtualmachine,applieschangesasspecified,andstoresthevirtualmachineonthedesignatedhostlocation.
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14. Managing virtual Machines14.1 starting, stopping, suspending and resetting virtual MachinesVirtualmachinescanbeconfiguredtostartautomaticallywhenthehostserverstartsuportheycanbemanuallystartedwhenneeded.Virtualmachinescanbestarted,stopped,suspendedandresetfromthetoolbarinVirtualCenterorfromthesummarytabforthevirtualmachine.
Suspendingavirtualmachinepausesitsoperationandsavesthecurrentstate.Resettingavirtualmachinecausesittoshutdownandrestart.
14.2 Editing virtual Machine ConfigurationsInadditiontocustomizingavirtualmachinewhileyoucreateit,youhavetheoptiontoeditthevirtualmachineconfigurationafteryoucreateit.RefertoyourVMwareESXServerVirtualCenterdocumentationforinformationaboutalltheramificationsofspecificcustomizations.
Toeditanexistingvirtualmachineconfiguration:
1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,displaytheinven-torypanelandexpandtheappro-priatefarm.ClickInventoryinthenavigationbar.Expandtheinven-toryasneeded,andclickthevirtualmachinetocustomize.
2. Poweroffthevirtualmachine.Youcannoteditmostvirtualmachinepropertiesifthevirtualmachineispoweredon.
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3. DisplaytheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox.ChooseEdit > PropertiesorclickEdit PropertiesfromtheSummarytab.
4. Makechangesandoradditionsasneeded.ClickOK.SelectitemsontheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox,andconfigurethem.RefertoyourVirtualCenterandESXServerdocumentationforcomprehensiveinformationaboutconfiguringvirtualmachines.
14.2.1 Changing the Hardware Configuration of a virtual Machine Youcanvirtuallymanageallthehardwareinthevirtualmachine,configuringadditionalvirtualhardwareasneeded.Belowisalistofthevirtualhardwaredevicesthatcanbeadded,disabledorreconfigured:
• DVD/CD-ROMDriveConfiguration
• FloppyDriveConfiguration
• GenericSCSIDeviceConfiguration
• VirtualDiskConfiguration
• MemoryConfiguration
• VirtualEthernetAdapter(NIC)
• ParallelPortConfiguration
• SCSIControllerConfiguration
• SerialPortConfiguration
• VideoConfiguration
• VirtualCPUConfiguration
• MouseConfiguration
14.2.2 adding Hardware to a virtual MachineYouaddvirtualhardwaretoavirtualmachineusingtheAddHardwareWizard.Tostartthewizard:
1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,selectthevirtualmachine.
2. ClickInventoryinthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded,andclicktheappropriatevirtualmachine.
3. DisplaytheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox.IntheSummarytab,clickEdit Properties.Or,choose Edit > Properties.
4. ClicktheHardwaretab.
5. StarttheAdd HardwareWizard.ClickAdd.
Followthestepsinthewizard.Youcanselecttoaddthefollowingvirtualhardwaretoanexistingvirtualmachine:
• DVD/CD-ROMDrive
• FloppyDrive
• GenericSCSIDevice
• HardDisk
• EthernetAdapter(NIC)
• ParallelPort
• SerialPort
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14.2.3 Changing virtual Machine options Thevirtualmachinesettingsallowyoudefineactionsthatoccurinvariousvirtualmachinepowerstates.
Changing General Settings 1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,selectthe
virtualmachine.
2. ClickInventoryinthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded,andclicktheappropriatevirtualmachine.
3. ChooseEdit > Properties orclickEdit PropertiesfromtheSummarytabtodisplaytheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogbox.
4. ClicktheOptionstabtoviewthegeneraloptions.ClickGeneralintheSettingslist.
5. Ifyouwant,youcanchangethenameofthevirtualmachineintheVirtual machine namefield.Thisdoesnotchangethenameofanyvirtualmachinefilesortheassociateddirectory.
6. Ifyouareupgradingtheguestoperatingsysteminthevirtualmachine,selectthenewguestoperatingsystem.Thischangessomebasicconfigurationsettingstooptimizetheguestoperatingsystem’sperformance.
7. ClickOKtosaveyourchanges.TheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogboxcloses.
Changing Power State Options Tochangethesettingsforactionsthatoccurwhenthepowerstateofavirtualmachinechanges:
1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,selectthevirtualmachine.
2. ClickInventoryinthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded,andclicktheappropriatevirtualmachine.
3. DisplaytheVirtualMachinePropertiesdia-logbox.ChooseEdit > PropertiesorclickEdit PropertiesfromtheSummarytab.
4. ClicktheOptionstab.
5. Viewthepoweroptions.ClickPowerintheSettingslist.
6.Thestopbuttononthetoolbarcanbeconfiguredtopoweroffthevirtualmachineorshutdowntheguestoperatingsystem.Theresetbuttononthe
toolbarcanbeconfiguredtoresetthevirtualmachineorrestarttheguestoperatingsystem.ChoosethedesiredactionsinthelistsunderPowerControls.
7. YoucanconfigureVMwareToolsscriptstorunautomaticallywhenyouchangethevirtualmachine’spowerstatebycheckingtheappropriateoptionsunderRun VMware Toolsscripts.
8.ClickOKtosaveyourchanges.TheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogboxcloses.
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Changing Virtual Machine Resource Settings Youcanmanuallychangeindividualresourcesettingsoryoucanscheduletohavethepriorityforresourceschanged.TheVirtualMachinePropertiesdialogboxprovidesameanstoadjustthehostresourceallocationfortheselectedvirtualmachine.
Eachofthefollowingsectionsdescribesadjustingtheallocationsorprioritiesofthereferencedresource:
• Scheduling a Resource Settings Change—FromhereyoucanusetheschedulertoautomaticallychangetheCPUandmemoryresourceallocationforavirtualmachineduringcertaintimeswhengreaterresourcesareneeded.
• Changing CPU Settings—Thesesettingsallowyoutosetminimumandmaximumprocessorresourcesavailabletothevirtualmachine.Therangeallowsfor100pointsperprocessoravailable,so30wouldbe30%ofasingleprocessorand200wouldenablefulluseofdualprocessors.Sharesrepresentarelativemetricforallocatingprocessorcapacitybetweenvirtualmachines.Schedulingaffinityallowsyoutobindavirtualmachinetoaspecificprocessor.
• Changing Memory Settings—Thesesettingsallowyoutosetminimum,maximumandrelativememoryallocationforavirtualmachine.Minimumrepresentstheminimumamountofmemorythatmustbeavailableinordertopoweronthevirtualmachine.Maximumrepresentstheamountofmemoryallocatedtothevirtualmachinewhenitwasconfigured.Sharesrepresentarelativemetricforallocatingmemorytoallvirtualmachines.SymbolicvaluesLow,Normal,andHigharecomparedtothesumofallsharesofallvirtualmachinesontheserverandtheserviceconsole.Shareallocationsymbolicvaluescanbeusedtoconfiguretheirconversionintonumericvalues.
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• Changing Disk Settings—Thesesettingallowyoutochangetheresourceallocationsforthediskofavirtualmachine.Selectthedatastore,thenallocateanumberofsharesofitsdiskbandwidthtothevirtualmachine.Ashareisavaluethatrepresentstherelativemetricforcontrollingdiskbandwidthtoallvirtualmachines.ThevaluesLow,Normal,andHigharecomparedtothesumofallsharesofallvirtualmachinesontheserverandtheserviceconsole.Shareallocationsymbolicvaluescanbeusedtoconfiguretheirconversionintonumericvalues.
• Changing Network Settings—Thesesettingallowyoutochangetheparametersofnetworktrafficshaping.Toenabletrafficshaping,checkEnableTrafficShapingandthendefinenetworktrafficparameters.YoucanselecttospecifytheAverageBandwidth,thePeakBandwidthandtheBurstSizeineitherMegabitspersecond(Mbps),Kilobitspersecond(Kbps),orbitspersecond(bps).
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14.3 scheduling tasks Youcancreatescheduledtaskstoautomaticallyperformoperationsatspecifiedtimesandconfigurethetaskstooccuronceorroutinely.Youcanapplytaskstogroups,farms,orindividualvirtualmachines.TheScheduledTaskspanellistsallplannedforanduser-definedactionswithintheVirtualCenterenvironment.Youcancreate,modify,orremovetasks,asneeded.
CreateascheduledtaskthroughtheNewTaskWizard,whichdisplaystheavailabletaskoptionssuchas:
• Deployavirtualmachinefromatemplate
• Cloneanexistingvirtualmachine
• Changethepowerstateofavirtualmachine
• Migrateavirtualmachine
• MigrateavirtualmachinewithVMotion
• Changeresourcesettingsofavirtualmachine
Afteryouselectanoption,thewizarddisplaysthescreensthatarerelevanttothetypeoftaskyouarescheduling.TheNewTaskWizardendswhenyousetthetimingofthetask.Youcanrescheduletasks.
Ifthedirectionsofmanuallydrivenandscheduledactivitiesconflict,VirtualCenterperformswhicheveractivityisduefirst.Ifavirtualmachineisinanincorrectstatetoperformanyactivity,manualorscheduled,VirtualCentersendsamessagetotheloganddoesnotperformthetask.
Whenyoucreateascheduledtask,VirtualCenterverifiesthatyouhavethecorrectpermissionstoperformtheactionsontherelevantfarms,hosts,andvirtualmachines.Oncethetaskiscreated,thetaskisper-formedevenifyounolongerhavepermissiontoperformthetask.
WhenanobjectisremovedfromVirtualCenter,allassociatedtasksarealsoremoved.Eventsareloggedtotheeventlogatstartandcompletionofthetasks.Anyerrorsthatoccurduringthetaskarealsorecordedintheeventlog.
Performthefollowingstepstoscheduleataskforavirtualmachine.Thisexampleshutsdownaserverat2amdailyforafullbackupandasecondscheduledtaskcanrestarttheserverafterthebackupwindowhaspassed.
1. ChooseFile > New > Scheduled Task fromtheVirtualCenterclientmenu.
2. ConfirmcontinuingwiththeNewTaskWizard.ClickNext.
3. SelecttoChange the power status of a virtual machine.ClickNext.
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4. SelectthePowerOperationShutdownfromtheoptions.ClickNext.
5. Choosewhichvirtualmachinethescheduledtaskappliesto.ClickNext.
6.Choosethetimewhenthistaskwillrun.Thistaskcaneitherrunonceorrecuratregularintervals.SelectaDailyintervalat2:00 am.ClickNext.
7. ClickFinishtocompletetheNewTaskWizard.Youcanoptionallyselecttoreceiveanemailwhenthistaskcompletes.Tocompletethisexample,youcancreateasecondscheduledtaskthatPowers onthevirtualmachineeverydayat2:30amoncethebackupiscomplete.
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14.4 using Events and alarmsAneventisanyactionthatisofinteresttoVirtualCenter.EacheventtriggersaneventmessagethatisloggedintheVirtualCenterdatabase.Youcanvieweventmessagesfromtwolocations:
• TheEventsoptioninthenavigationbardisplaysalleventsthathaveoccurredontheVirtualCenterserver.
• AnEvents tabforanyobjectundertheInventorybutton.TheseEventstablistingsshowonlytheeventsthatoccurredonortotheselectedfarm,host,orvirtualmachine.
Themostrecenteventsappearattheendofascrollablelist.Messagesareidentifiedbytype:
• Information
• Error
• Warning
Messagesarealsocolor-coded.Ashortenedeventmessageappearsinthedescriptionportionofthepanel.AmoredetailedversionofaselectedeventmessageappearsintheEventDetailsportionofthepanel.Typically,theEventDetailentryindicatesthehostorvirtualmachineonwhichtheeventoccurredanddescribestheactionthatoccurred.Theobjectoftheeventisalinktotheobject’sindividualeventpage.
VirtualCenterallowsyoutosortandfilterVirtualCentereventsusingthetextsearchstringfieldintheupperrightcorneroftheEventstab.Youcanalsoexporteventsusingthe File > Export EventsoptionintheVirtualCentermenu.
Alarmsarepreconfiguredactionsthatcanbetriggeredwhenselectedeventsoccur.YoucanapplyalarmstoanyVirtualCenterobjectandview,modify,andremoveanexistingalarmthroughtheAlarmstaboftheobjectwherethealarmwasdefined.ThescreenshotbelowdisplaysthedefaultalarmscreatedforeachESXServerhost.
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YoucancreateadditionalalarmsbyrightclickingonthetargethostorvirtualmachineandselectingNewAlarm.TheavailabletriggersmonitorCPUusage,memoryusage,heartbeatandstateandtrackthemwithinthresholdsthatcategorizethemasGreen,YelloworRed.Whenatriggerchangesfromonecolortoanother,youcanselecttoautomateanactionsuchassendinganemail,sendinganotificationtrap,runningascriptandsuspending/poweringoff/resettingthevirtualmachine.
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15. Configuring an EsX viN to use a storage area NetworkUpuntilnow,allevaluationactivitieshaveusedthelocalVMFSstorageontheESXServer.ThisnextchapterwillwalkyouthroughsettingupyourESXServertostoreandrunvirtualmachinesfromaLUNonasharedstorageareanetwork.ESXServersupportsQLogicandEmulexHBAs(hostbusadapters),whichallowanESXServercomputertobeconnectedtoaSANandtoseetheavailablediskarrays.Thesestepsassumeyouhaveasupportedstoragesystem,asupportedFibreChannelswitch,andthatthereisatleastoneFibreChannelHBAineachserver.Ifyoudon’thavesufficienthardwareavailable,youcanstillreadthroughthissectiontogainanunderstandingofhowSANsareusedbythevirtualinfrastructure.
UsetheStorage ManagementoptionintheESXServerMUItomanageyourstorageareanetworkandattachedstoragedevicesforyourESXServersystemanditsvirtualmachines.BecausemultipleESXServerscanpotentiallyaccessthedisksontheSANsconcurrently,therearesomeconfigurationissuesthatareuniquetoSANs.TheSCSIconfigurationinformationcontainedinthissectionalsoappliestoFibreChanneladapters,butnotethatFCadaptersmayrequireadditionalconfigurationaswell.ForinformationonsupportedSANhardware,downloadtheVMwareESXServerSANCompatibilityGuidefromtheVMwareWebsiteathttp://www.vmware.com/support/resources/esx_resources.html.
Understanding Storage ArraysLargestoragesystems(alsoknownasdiskarrays)combinenumerousdisksintoarraysforavailabilityandperformance.Typically,acollectionofdisksisgroupedintoaRedundantArrayofInexpensiveDisks(RAID)arraytoprotectthedatabyeliminatingdiskdrivesasapotentialsinglepointoffailure.DiskarrayscarvethestorageRAIDsetintologicalunits(LUNs)thatarepresentedtotheserverinamannersimilartoanindependentsingledisk.Typically,LUNsarefewinnumber,relativelylarge,andfixedinsize.YoucancreateLUNswiththestoragemanagementapplicationofyourdiskarray.
ESX Server can Run Virtual Machines from SANs and Optionally Boot from SANsWithESXServer2.5,youcaninstallthesystemonaSANversuslocaldisksandbootfromtheSAN.ThisoptionalruntimeconfigurationisidealfordisklessbladeserversandisfurtherdescribedintheVMwareSANConfigurationGuide.IfyouarenotinstallingESXServersothatitcanbebootedfromaSAN,werecommendthatallFibreChanneladaptersbededicatedexclusivelyforthevirtualmachines.
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ConfirmthatyourHBAisassignedonlytovirtualmachinesandnotsharedwiththeServiceConsole.ThiswasaconfigurationoptionduringresourceallocationintheESXServerinstallation.Right-clickontheESXServerHostinVirtualCenterandselectEdit Configuration.ThiswillopentheVMwareManagementInterfacefortheESXServer.
SelecttheOptionstabandopentheStartup Profiledialog.ScrolldowntoyourfiberstoragecontrollergroupandensurethecontrollerisnotShared with Service Console.Ifitis,deselecttheoption,applythechange,andrebootthesystemtoimplementthechange.
Configure VMkernel Options for Your SAN (Advanced Settings)WhenyouinstalltheVMwareESXServer,varioussystemparametersareassignedpredeterminedvalues.Theseparameterscontrolsettingsformemory,theprocessorandnetworking,forexample,andaffecttherunningofvirtualmachines.YoucanviewthesesettingsfromtheESXServermanagementinterface.InordertouseallstoragedevicesonyourSAN,youmayneedtochangesomeVMkernelconfigurationoptionsasdescribedbelow.Caution:YoushouldnotmakeanychangestothesesettingsunlessyouareworkingwiththeVMwaresupportteamorotherwisehavethoroughinformationaboutwhatvaluesyoushouldprovideforthem.SomeconfigurationsettingsshownonthispagearedescribedintheESXServermanualandmaybechangedasdescribedinthemanual.Inmostcases,however,youshouldnotmodifythesesettingsunlessthisevaluationguideoraVMwaretechnicalsupportengineersuggeststhatyoudoso.
Tomakethesechanges,completethefollowingsteps.
1. LogintotheVMwareManagementInterfaceasroot.TheStatusMonitorpageappears.NotethatyoumustbeloggedintotheESXServerasrootfortheOptionstabtobeavailable,
2. ClicktheOptionstabandtheAdvanced Settingsoption.
3. Ingeneral,tochangethesettingforaVMkernelconfigurationparameter,clickthelinkforthevalue.TheUpdate VMkernel ParameterwindowopensontopoftheVMwareManagementInterfacewindow.IntheValueentryfield,typethevaluefortheparameterandclickOK.ThewindowclosesandtheupdatedparameterappearsontheAdvancedSettingspage.
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4. Bydefault,theVMkernelscansforonlyLUN0toLUN7foreverytarget.IfyouareusingLUNnumberslargerthan7youmustchangethesettingfortheDiskMaxLUNfieldfromthedefaultof8tothevaluethatyouneed.Forexample,ifyounowhaveLUNnumbers0to27active,setthisoptionto28.Currently,anESXServermachinecanseeamaximumof128LUNsoveralldiskarraysonaSAN.
5. Bydefault,theVMkernelisconfiguredtosupportsparseLUNs—thatis,acasewheresomeLUNsintherange0toN-1arenotpresent,butLUNNispresent.ConfirmthattheDiskSupportSparseLUNfieldissetto1.ThisincreasesthetimeneededtoscanforLUNsbutenablestheESXServertofindsparseLUNs.
6.TheDiskMaskLUNsconfigurationoptionallowsthemaskingofspecificLUNsonspecificHBAs.MaskedLUNsarenottouchedoraccessiblebytheVMkernel,evenduringinitialscanning.Thisoptiontakesastringcomprisedoftheadaptername,targetIDandcomma-separatedrangelistofLUNstomask.Theformatisasfollows:
<adapter>:<target>:<comma_separated_LUN_range_list>;
Forexample,ifyouwanttomaskLUNs0-20and27-255onvmhba1target0.Toaccomplishthis,settheDiskMaskLUNsoptiontothefollowing:vmhba1:0:0-20,27-255;
NotethatLUN0cannotbemasked.TheDiskMaskLUNsoptionoverridestheDiskMaxLUNoptionforadaptersthathaveaLUNmask.Inotherwords,continuingtheprecedingexample,therearefouradapters,vmhba0,vmhba1,vmhba2,andvmhba3,andtheDiskMaxLUNoptionissetto28.Inthisexample,vmhba0,vmhba2andvmhba3onlyscanLUNs0-27,butvmhba1scansallLUNsthatarenotmasked,uptoLUN255,orthemaximumLUNsettingreportedbytheadapter,whicheverisless.Foradministrativeorsecuritypurposes,youcanuseLUNmaskingtopreventtheserverfromseeingLUNsthatitdoesn’tneedtoaccess.Refertoyourdocumentationondiskarraysformoreinformation.
Insummary,tousethemostopenconfigurationthatshoulddisplayallavailableLUNs,settheDiskSupportSparseLUNto1,settheDiskMaxLUNto255orashighasyourSANisconfiguredtosupport,andleavetheDiskMaskLUNstoanemptystringtodisableLUNmasking.
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Scan for Devices and LUNs Available to ESX ServerNext,youcanmanuallyinitiateascanthroughtheVMwareManagementInterfacebyselectingtoRescanSANfromtheStorageManagementwindow.ESXServerscansfordevices,andLUNsonthesedevices,wheneveraFibreChanneldriverisloaded.YoumaywanttorescandevicesorLUNswheneveryouaddanewdiskarraytotheSAN,createnewLUNsonadiskarray,orchangetheLUNmaskingonadiskarray.Youcanalsousethecos-rescan.shcommandsimplybyenteringthecommandatashellprompt.
Create a Disk Partition on the Target LUNTheDisksandLUNSwindowallowsyoutoviewandmodifytheparti-tionsandfilesystemsonyourdisks.YoucancreatediskpartitionsthatusetheVMFSfilesystem,suitableforstoringdisksforvirtualmachines.Youcanalsoedit,labelandremoveexistingpartitions.WhenyoueditaVMFSpartition,youcanchangethevolumelabel,maximumfilesize,accessmodeandwhetheryouwanttospanthepartitionacrossmultipleLUNs.YoucanuseanyexistingfreespaceonyourVMFSvolumestocreatenewdiskpartitions.NotethatyoucannotchangeanypartitionssetupwhenyouinstalledESXServer.TheseincludeanyvolumeswithaLinuxfilesystemorthatareusedforLinuxswapspace.BesurethatonlyoneESXServersystemhasaccesstotheSANwhileyouareusingtheVMwareManagementInterfacetoconfiguretheSANandformattheVMFS-2volumes.
TocreateanewVMFS-2partitionforhostingvirtualmachines,completethefollowingsteps.
1. IntheDisksandLUNswindow,clickCreate Volumetotherightoftheunpartitioneddisk.
2. Youareaskedhowyouprefertoconfigurethedisk.ClickTypical.
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3. NextenterauniquelabelforthenewVMFSvolume.ClickOKtocreatethevolume.
4. Afteryoucreatetheparti-tion,youwillseeitinthelistofvolumesavailabletotheESXServer.Toeditanexistingdiskpartition,selectthepartitionandclickEdit.
5. TheEditVolumewindowappears,allowingyoutoeditthevolumelabel,changetheaccessmode,setthemaximumfilesizeandspanthediskwithanypublicextents.Afteryouhavefinishedtheconfiguration,besurethatallpartitionsonthephysicallysharedSANdiskaresetforpublicorsharedaccessforaccessbymultipleESXServersystems.TherearetwomodesforaccessingVMFSvolumes:publicandshared.
• Public—ThisisthedefaultandrecommendedmodeforESXServer.WithpublicVMFSversion2(VMFS-2)volumes,multipleESXServercomputersandtheirhostedvirtualmachinescanaccesstheVMwareESXServerfilesystemconcurrently.VMwareESXServerfilesystemswithapublicmodehaveautomaticlockingtoensurefilesystemconsistency.
• Shared—UsedforaVMFSvolumethatisusedforfailover-basedclusteringamongvirtualmachinesonthesameordifferentESXServers.FormoreinformationonclusteringwithESXServer,seeConfigurationforClusteringintheESXAdministrator’sGuide.
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Troubleshooting SAN Issues with ESX ServerYoucanviewLUNsthroughtheVMwareManagementInterfaceorviewingtheoutputof
ls /proc/vmware/scsi/<FC_SCSI_adapter>fromtheServiceConsole.Iftheoutputdiffersfromwhatyouexpect,thencheckthefollowing:
1. DiskMaxLUN—ThemaximumnumberofLUNspervmhbathatarescannedbyESXServer.YoucanviewandsetthisoptionthroughtheVMwareManagementInterface(AdvancedSettingsintheOptionspage)orbyviewingthissettingthrough/proc/vmware/config/DiskintheServiceConsole.
2. DiskSupportSparseLUN—Ifthisoptionison,thenESXServerscanspastanymissingLUNs.Ifthisoptionisoff,ESXServerstopsscanningforLUNsifanyLUNismissing.YoucanviewandsetthisoptionthroughtheVMwareManagementInterface(AdvancedSettingsintheOptionspage)orbyviewingthissettingthrough/proc/vmware/config/DiskintheServiceConsole.
3. LUNmasking—WithLUNmasking,eachLUNisexclusivelyassignedandaccessedbyaspecificlistofconnections.BesurethatLUNmaskingisimplementedproperlyandthattheLUNsarevisibletotheHBAsonESXServer.
4. Zoning—Zoninglimitsaccesstospecificstoragedevicesandincreasessecurityanddecreasestrafficoverthenetwork.Ifyouusezoning,besurethatzoningontheSANswitchissetupproperlyandthatallvmhbaandthecontrollersofthediskarrayareinthesamezone.
5. Storagecontroller—Ifadiskarrayhasmorethanonestoragecontroller,thenmakesurethattheSANswitchhasaconnectiontothecontrollerthatownstheLUNsyouwishtoaccess.Onsomediskarrays,onlyonecontrolleris“active”andtheothercontrolleris“passive”untilthereisafailure.Ifyouarecon-nectedtothewrongcontroller,thenyoumaynotseetheexpectedLUNs,oryoumayseetheLUNs,butmaygeterrorswhentryingtoaccessthem.
OnceyouhavesuccessfullyconfiguredtheESXServerforaccesstosharedLUNsontheSAN,theseadditionaldatastoreswillshowupalongwithavailablelocaldisksintheDatastoressectionoftheSummarytabfortheselectedhostserverwithintheVirtualCenterclient.Youcancreatenewvirtualmachines,deployvirtualmachinesfromtemplatesandcloneexistingvirtualmachinesontothesenewSANdatastoresjustasthoughtheywerelocalSCSIdisks.
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16. Migrating virtual Machines across EsX serversMigrationistheactofmovingavirtualmachinefromonemanagedhosttoanother.NotethatinordertodemonstratemigrationofvirtualmachinesacrossESXServers,youwillneedtorepeatthestepsinChapter10toinstallasecondESXServerandChapter15toconfigureitsaccesstosharedSANLUNs.Ifyoudon’thavesufficienthardwaretosetupasecondserver,youcanstillreadthroughthissectiontogainanunderstandingofhowvirtualmachinescanbedynamicallyandseamlesslyrelocatedwithinthevirtualinfrastructure.
‘Cold’ Migration—Movingapoweredoffvirtualmachinebetweenmanagedhostsonafarm.Thefiguretotheleftillustratestheprocessformigratingapoweredoffvirtualmachinefromonemanagedhosttoanother.NotethatcoldmigrationofvirtualmachinescanoccurbetweenESXServersandGSXServersanddoesnotrequiretheserverhoststoshareaSAN.
‘Hot’ Migration with VMotion—Movingapoweredonvirtualmachinebetweenmanagedhostsinaserverfarm.Movingapowered-onvirtualmachineallowsthevirtualmachinetocontinueperformingtransactionswithoutinterruption.ThisfunctionrequiresactivationofVMotiononboththesourceandtargethost.ThefiguretotheleftillustratesmigratingapoweredonvirtualmachinefromonemanagedhosttoanotherusingVMotion.
TheVirtualCenterMigrationWizardwillautomaticallyperformacoldmigrationontheselectedvirtualmachineifitispoweredoff,andahotmigrationontheselectedvirtualmachineifitispoweredonandVMotionisenabled.
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16.1 Migrate a Powered-off virtual Machine to another Host using the saNOnceyouhavesuccessfullyconfiguredaccesstotheStorageAreaNetworkontheESXServer,youcannowhostvirtualmachinesontheESXServerthatutilizetheSANserverratherthanthelocalSCSIdiskforstorage.RunningvirtualmachinesfromsharedSANstorageenablesVMotionhotmigrationsandgreatlyincreasesdatacenterflexibilityandfaulttolerance.
Atthispoint,youcanchoosetocreateanewvirtualmachineontheSAN,deployanexistingtemplatetotheSAN,cloneanexistingvirtualmachinetotheSANorcoldmigrateanexistingvirtualmachinetotheSAN.TheonlystepdifferentinplacingavirtualmachineontheSANistoselecttodeploythevirtualmachinetotheSANratherthantoalocalVMFSpartitionwhenprompted.Ascoldmigrationistheonlyoptionnotyetdemonstrated,usecoldmigrationtomoveavirtualmachinetoadifferentESXServerwhilemovingthevirtualmachinestoragefromlocaldisktosharedSANstorage.
Performthefollowingstepstomigrateapowered-offvirtualmachinefromthelocaldiskofoneESXServertothesharedSANstorageofanotherESXServer:
1. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,viewtheinventorypaneltodisplaytheavailablevirtualmachines.Shutdownthevirtualmachineifitisrunning.Right-clickonthedesiredvirtualmachineandselecttheMigrateoptiontostarttheMigrationWizard.ConfirmtheMigrationWizard.ClickNext.
2. Selectthetargetdestinationhostforthevirtualmachine.ClickNext.
3. SelectthesharedLUNdatastoreforthevirtualmachineratherthanalocalSCSIdisk.ClickNext.
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4. Completethewizard.ClickFinish.VirtualCentermovesthevirtualmachineandvirtualdiskstothenewESXServerhostanddatastorelocation.EventmessagesappearintheEventstab.ThedatadisplayedontheSummaryandTaskstabshowsthestatusandstatethroughoutthemigration.
16.2 Migrate a Powered-on virtual Machine to another Host using the saN (vMotion)VMotionallowsworkingprocessestocontinuethroughoutamigrationwithVMotion.TheentirestateofthevirtualmachineaswellasitsconfigurationfileismovedtothenewhostevenwhilethedatastorageremainsinthesamelocationontheSAN.TheassociatedvirtualdiskremainsinthesamelocationontheSANstoragethatissharedbetweenthetwohosts.Oncetheconfigurationfileismigratedtothealternatehost,thevirtualmachineisthenrunonthenewhost.
Thestateinformationincludesthecurrentmemorycontentandalltheinformationthatdefinesandiden-tifiesthevirtualmachine.Thememorycontentincludestransactiondataandwhateverbitsoftheoperat-ingsystemandapplicationsareinthememory.Thedefiningandidentificationinformationstoredinthestateincludesallthedatathatmapstothevirtualmachinehardwareelements,suchasBIOS,devices,CPU,MACaddressesfortheEthernetcards,chipsetstates,registers,andsoforth.MigrationwithVMotionhappensinthreestages:
1. Whenthemigra-tionwithVMotionisrequested,VirtualCenterveri-fiesthattheexistingvirtualmachineisinastablestatewithitscurrenthost.
2. Thevirtualmachinestateinformation,thatis,memory,registers,networkconnections,iscopiedtothetargethost.
3. Thevirtualmachineresumesitsactivitiesonthenewhost.
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Understanding VMotion RequirementsTheESXServerhostsyouareplanningtomigratebetweenmustmeetthefollowingrequirements:
• Shared SAN—ThesourceandtargethostsmustshareaSANwithapublicmodeVMFSpartitionthatcontainsthevirtualmachinetobemigrated.EnsurethatallVMFSvolumesonyourmanagedhostsusevolumenames,andthatthevirtualmachinesusethevolumenamesforspecifyingthevirtualdisks.
• Compatible Processors—Ensurethatthesourceanddestinationhostshaveacompatiblesetofpro-cessors.SinceVMotiontransferstherunningarchitecturalstateofavirtualmachinebetweenunderly-ingVMwareESXServers,VMotioncompatibilitymeansthattheCPUsofthetargethostmustbeabletoresumeexecutionusingtheequivalentinstructionswheretheCPUsofsourcehostweresuspended.CPUclockspeedsandcachesizesmayvary,butinorderfortwoprocessorstobecompatibleformigrationwithVMotion,theymustsatisfythefollowingconstraints:
o Samevendorclass(Intelvs.AMD)
o Sameprocessorfamily(ProcessorfamiliessuchasXeonMPandOpteronaredefinedbytheCPUvendors,anddifferentversionswithinthesameprocessorfamilycanbedistinguishedbycomparingaCPU’smodel,steppinglevel,andextendedfeatures.InmostcasesdifferentCPUversionswithinthesamefamilyaresimilarenoughtomaintaincompatibility.)
• Local Virtual Machine Configuration File—ThevirtualmachineconfigurationfileshouldnotresideonaVMFSlocatedontheshareddatastore.
• No Clustered Applications, Raw or Undoable Disks—VMotiondoesnotcurrentlysupportthemigrationofclusteredapplicationsorraworundoablevirtualdisks.Ifyouhaveclusteredapplicationsorraworundoabledisks,storethedisksonseparateVMFSvolumesfromthevirtualmachinesyouplantomigrateusingVMotion.
• Dedicated Gigabit Ethernet Network—VMotionrequiresthesetupofaprivate,GigabitEthernetmigrationnetworkbetweenalloftheVMotion-enabledmanagedhosts.WhenVMotionisenabledonamanagedhost,configureauniquenetworkidentityobjectforthemanagedhostandconnectittotheprivatemigrationnetwork.
ProvidedyouhaveasharedSANwithcompatibleserverprocessorsandthededicatedEthernetNetwork,theconfigurationdescribedinthisevaluationguideshouldensuretheserequirementsaremet.
Enabling VMotion for an ESX Server HostYoumustenableVMotiononboththetargetandthesourcehosttosupportmigrationwithVMotion.
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To enable a host for VMotion: 1. ThehostneedstohavetheevaluationVMotionlicensesentered.Thiswaslikelyperformedwhen
VirtualCenterwasinstalledandthelicensekeyfilewascreatedandentered.
2. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,displaytheinventorypaneltoviewthehost.t
3. ClicktheInventoryoptioninthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded,right-clickthedesiredhostandselectPropertiestodisplaytheHostPropertiesdialogbox.
4. ToenableVMotion,selecttheVMotiontabandclickYes.TheremainderofthisconfigurationistheinformationfortheVMotionmigrationnetwork,includingwhichNICituses,anditsIPaddressandgateway.Themigrationnetworkispreferablyitsownseparatenetwork.SelecttheNetwork Label,whichislikelyVMotionifthatwaswhatyoulabeledthevirtualswitchduringthevirtualmachine’sconfiguration.EnteranyIP AddressthatshouldbevalidandavailableonthemigrationnetworkconnectingtheESXServerhosts.IntheGatewayaddressfield,youwouldtypicallyenterthestaticIPaddressofanetworkgateway.Forthisexampledeployment,youcanduplicatetheVMotionIPaddressintheGatewayfield.ClickOK.
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Moving Powered-On Virtual Machines with VMotionTodemonstratetheseamlessserver-to-servermigrationofarunningvirtualmachine,youcanselecttohaveanytypeofapplicationsrunningonthevirtualmachinefromadatabaseservertoavideoclient.Inthisexample,avideoisstreamingfromtheInternettoalocalbrowserontheserverandyoucanwatchthevideoconsistentlyontheconsoleevenasthehardwareisexchangedoutfromunderthevirtualmachine.
Tomanuallymigrateapowered-onvirtualmachine:
1. DisconnectanyremoteconsolesthatareexternaltoVirtualCenterandconnectedtothevirtualmachineyouaremigrating.Themigrationwillnotcompleteuntilexternalremoteconsolesarediscon-nected.Also,disconnectanyperipheraldevicesconnectedtothevirtualmachine.
2. FromtheVirtualCenterclient,displaytheinventorypaneltoviewthevirtualmachine.ClicktheInventoryoptioninthenavigationbar.Expandtheinventoryasneeded,andselectthevirtualmachinetomove.
3. ViewtheSummarytabofboththesourceandtargetESXServerhoststoensurethattheyareVMotion-enabledandusingthesameSAN.ChecktheVMotion Enabled fieldandtheDatastoressection.TheVMotion EnabledfieldshouldsayYes.Datastoresonbothhostsshouldlistthesameshareddatastorethatcontainsthevirtualmachinetomigrate.
4. ClickontheConsoletabtoviewthedesktopandconfirmthatthevirtualmachineisrunning.Selecttostartthevirtualmachineifitisnotrunning.Right-clickonthedesiredvirtualmachineandselectMigratetostarttheMigrationWizard
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5. Alternately,youcandraganddropthevirtualmachineontothetargethosttostarttheMigrationWizard.ConfirmtheMigrationWizard.ClickNext.
5. Ifyoudidnotusedraganddroptoidentifythedestinationhostinadvance,theDestinationHostwindowwillappearnext.Selectthetargetdestinationhostforthevirtualmachine.ClickNext.
6.Selectthemigrationprioritylevel.SetthepriorityofthemigrationtoensurethatsufficientCPUresourcesareavailableonboththesourceandtargethoststoperformthemigration.ClicktheappropriatebuttonandclickNext.
7. ConfirmthemigrationwithVMotionWizard.ClickFinish.VirtualCentermovestheselectedvirtualmachinefromtheoriginalhosttothetargethost.Thevirtualdisksremaininthesamelocationontheshareddatastore,theIPaddressofthevirtualmachineremainsthesame,butthevirtualmachineisnowhostedonadifferentserver.
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17. application Functional testing and load testingWithanESXServerVirtualInfrastructureNodeinstalledandbeingmanagedbyVirtualCenter,yourevaluationatthispointisself-directed.Youcould,forexample,recreatesomeoftheproductionsystemsinyourITinfrastructureontooneboxtotesttheirrelativeperformanceindividuallyandunderconsolidatedload.
Withanyofthesevirtualmachines,youcanclickthroughthefullmenustructureofVirtualCenterandtestouttheotherconfigurationpropertiesandactionsavailable.Keepinmindthatyoucanrefertothefulluser’sguidesforESX ServerandVirtualCenterformoreinformationortosupportevaluationstepsnotaddressedinthisguide.
Recallthatvirtualmachinesforevaluationcanbecreatedfromscratch,clonedfromexistingphysicalserversusingP2VAssistant,andinstalledfromtemplatesavailablefrom3rdpartyvendorsthroughtheVMTNprogram.
18. summaryVMwareisthemarketleaderindatacenterservervirtualizationforthex86platform.ESXServeristheVMwareflagshipvirtualizationplatformsoftwareforpartitioningandconsolidatingsystemsinthemostdemandingenvironments.ESXServerisindustryproven,wellaheadofanyothervirtualmachinesoftwareinprovidinghighperformance,scalability,availability,manageability,andsupport.ESXServerprovidesrobustresourcemanagement,allowingworkloadstobedynamicallyreconfiguredbasedonbusinessneeds.ESXServerisproventoreducehardwareandoperationalcostswhilegreatlyreducingthetimerequiredtoprovisionanddeploynewservers.
VirtualCenterprovidesyourentireITadministrativeteamwithoneplacetodeterminethestatusofyourvirtualinfrastructureandtheoverallsystemutilizationofyourcomputingresources.Itgivesusersthetoolstheyneedtoanalyzeandbetterdeterminewhichvirtualmachinesrequireresourceadjustments,sotheywillperformoptimally.ThisproductprovidesITstaffswithtremendousflexibilityinmanagingandconsolidatingapplicationworkloads.VirtualCenterisanecessityformanagingvirtualinfrastructureandakeybuildingblocktoenableutilitycomputing.
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19. glossary Alarms—Anentitythatmonitorsoneormorepropertiesofavirtualmachine,suchasCPUload.Alarmsusegreen,red,andyellowcolor-codingissuenotificationsasdirectedbytheconfigurablealarmdefinition.
Allocated disk—Atypeofvirtualdiskwherealldiskspaceforthevirtualmachineisallocatedatthetimethediskiscreated.ThisisthedefaulttypeofvirtualdiskcreatedbyVirtualCenter.Thealternativetoanallocateddiskisarawdisk.
Clone—Theprocessofmakingacopyofavirtualmachine.Thisprocessincludestheoptiontocustomizetheguestoperatingsystemofthenewvirtualmachine.Whenacloneiscreated,VirtualCenterprovidesanoptiontocustomizetheguestoperatingsystemofthatvirtualmachine.Clonescanbestoredonanyhostwithinthesamefarmastheoriginalvirtualmachine.
Configuration—SeeVirtualmachineconfigurationfile.
Console—SeeVMwareVirtualMachineConsole.
Custom networking—Anytypeofnetworkconnectionbetweenvirtualmachinesandthehostthatdoesnotusethedefaultbridged,host-onlyornetworkaddresstranslation(NAT)networkingconfigurations.Forinstance,differentvirtualmachinescanbeconnectedtothehostbyseparatenetworksorconnectedtoeachotherandnottothehost.Anynetworktopologyispossible.
Customization—Theprocessofcustomizingaguestoperatingsysteminavirtualmachineasitisbeingeitherdeployedfromatemplateorclonedfromanotherexistingvirtualmachine.Customizationoptionsincludechangingthenewvirtualmachineidentificationandnetworkinformation.
Datastore—Thestoragelocationsforthevirtualmachinefiles.
Drag and drop—AfeatureofVMwareVirtualCenterthatallowsyoutomovevirtualmachineseasilybetweengroups.
Events—AmessagerecordofVirtualCenteractivities.ThroughtheNavigationoptionalltheeventsaredisplayed.Throughanobjectspecificpanel,onlyeventsrelativetothatobjectaredisplayed.
Farm—ArequiredstructureunderwhichhostsandtheirassociatedvirtualmachinesareaddedtotheVirtualCenterserver.VirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplefarms.Ahostcanbemanagedonlyunderonefarm.
Farm groups—Anoptionalgroupingstructure,itiscontainedwithintheServerFarmsstructure.TheVirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplefarmgroups.Farmgroupscancontainotherfarmgroupsandfarms.
Guest operating system—Anoperatingsystemthatrunsinsideavirtualmachine.
Headless—Aprogramorapplicationthatrunsinthebackgroundwithoutanyinterfaceconnectedtoit.Arunningvirtualmachinethathasnoconsolesconnectedtoitisrunningheadless.
Host—ThephysicalcomputeronwhichtheVirtualCentervirtualmachinesareinstalled.
Host-only networking—Atypeofnetworkconnectionbetweenavirtualmachineandthehost.Underhost-onlynetworking,avirtualmachineisconnectedtothehostonaprivatenetwork,whichnormallyisnotvisibleoutsidethehost.Multiplevirtualmachinesconfiguredwithhost-onlynetworkingonthesamehostareonthesamenetwork.
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Inventory—ProvidesaviewofallthemonitoredobjectsinVirtualCenter.Monitoredobjectsinclude:ServerFarms,farms,farmgroups,hosts,virtualmachines,andvirtualmachinegroups.
Migration—Coldmigrationmovesapoweredoffvirtualmachinebetweenhosts.Hotmigration(VMotion)movesapoweredonvirtualmachinebetweenhosts.
Migration with VMotion—Movingavirtualmachinethatispoweredonandhasmetselectedrequirements,includingtheactivationofVMotiononboththesourceandtargethost.WhenamigrationwithVMotionisperformed,theoperationsofthevirtualmachinecancontinuewithoutinterruption.
New Virtual Machine Wizard—Apoint-and-clickinterfaceforconvenient,easycreationofavirtualmachineconfiguration.Itpromptsyouforinformation,suggestingdefaultvaluesinmostcases.Itcreatesfilesthatdefinethevirtualmachine,includingavirtualmachineconfigurationfileand(optionally)avirtualdiskfile.
Nonpersistent disk mode—Ifyouconfigureavirtualdiskinnonpersistentmode,alldiskwritesissuedbysoftwarerunninginsideavirtualmachineappeartobewrittentodiskbutareinfactdiscardedafterthevirtualmachineispoweredoff.Asaresult,avirtualdiskinnonpersistentmodeisnotmodifiedbythevirtualmachine.
Persistent disk mode—Ifyouconfigureavirtualdiskinpersistentmode,alldiskwritesissuedbysoft-warerunninginsideavirtualmachineareimmediatelyandpermanentlywrittentothevirtualdisk.Asaresult,avirtualdiskinpersistentmodebehaveslikeaconventionaldiskdriveonaphysicalcomputer.
Read Only User—Arolewheretheuserisallowedtoviewtheinventorybutnotallowedtoperformanytasks.
Redo log—hefilethatstoresthechangesmadetoadiskinundoableornonpersistentmode.Youcanpermanentlyapplythechangessavedintheredologtoadiskinundoablemodesotheybecomepartofthemaindiskfiles.Foradiskinnonpersistentmode,however,theredo-logfileisdeletedwhenyoupowerofforresetthevirtualmachinewithoutwritinganychangestothedisk.
Resume—Returnavirtualmachinetooperationfromitssuspendedstate.Whenyouresumeasuspendedvirtualmachine,allapplicationsareinthesamestatetheywerewhenthevirtualmachinewassuspended.
Role—AVirtualCenterpre-definedsetofaccessrightsandprivileges.Therearefourroles;eachsubsequentroleincludestheprivilegesofthelesserrole.
Scheduled Tasks—AVirtualCenteractivitythatisconfiguredtooccuratdesignatedtimes.TheTaskspaneldisplaysalistofandameanstoscheduleselectedactivities.
Server Farms—Thetop-levelstructurefortheVirtualCenterserver.ThereisonlyoneServerFarmsperVirtualCenterserver.
Suspend—Savethecurrentstateofarunningvirtualmachine.Toreturnasuspendedvirtualmachinetooperation,usetheresumefeature.
Template—Agoldenimageofavirtualmachine.Thistypicallyincludesaspecifiedoperatingsystemandconfigurationthatprovidesvirtualcounterpartstohardwarecomponents.Optionally,atemplatecanincludeaninstalledguestoperatingsystemandasetofapplications.TemplatesareusedbyVirtualCentertocreatenewvirtualmachines.
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Template upload directory—AtemplateuploaddirectoryislocatedontheVirtualCenterservermachine.Acopyoftheoriginalvirtualmachinevirtualdisksisplacedinthedirectoryyouspecifyasthetemplateuploaddirectory.Thisistypicallyusedforcreatingtemplatesfromnon-ESXServerorGSXServervirtualmachinesthatarestoredlocallytotheVirtualCenterserver.
Templates—Providesalistofandameanstoimportvirtualmachinesandstorethemastemplatesfordeployingatalatertimetocreatenewvirtualmachines.
Undoable disk mode—Ifyouconfigureavirtualdiskinundoablemode,alldiskwritesissuedbysoft-warerunninginsideavirtualmachineappeartobewrittentodiskbutareinfactwrittentoaredologthatcanlaterbecommittedordiscarded.Undoablediskmodeallowsoptionaldatacommits,whereasNonpersistentdiskmodealwaysdiscardschangeswhenthevirtualmachineisrestarted.UndoableandNonpersistentdiskaccessmodesareespeciallyusefulindevelopment,testingandtrainingenvironments.
Virtual disk—Avirtualdiskisafileorsetoffilesthatappearasaphysicaldiskdrivetoaguestoperatingsystem.Thesefilescanbeonthehostmachineoronaremotefilesystem.Whenyouconfigureavirtualmachinewithavirtualdisk,youcaninstallanewoperatingsystemintothediskfile.
Virtual machine—Avirtualizedx86serverenvironmentinwhichaguestoperatingsystemandassociatedapplicationsoftwarecanrun.Multiplevirtualmachinescanoperateonthesamehostmachineconcurrently.
Virtual Machine Administrator—Arolewheretheuserisallowedtoperformallthevirtualmachinemanagementfunctions.
Virtual machine configuration—Thespecificationofwhatvirtualdevices(disks,memorysize,etc.)arepresentinavirtualmachineandhowtheyaremappedtohostfilesanddevices.
Virtual machine configuration file—Afilecontainingavirtualmachineconfiguration.ItiscreatedbytheNewVirtualMachineWizard.ItisusedbyVirtualCentertoidentifyandrunaspecificvirtualmachine.
Virtual Machine Properties—Apoint-and-clickcontrolpanelusedtoviewandmodifytheresourcesettingsofallthevirtualmachinesonahost.
Virtual Machine Groups—Anoptionalgroupingstructure,itissubsettoafarm.VirtualCenterserversupportsmultiplevirtualmachinegroups.Virtualmachinegroupscontainvirtualmachinesandothervirtualmachinegroups.
Virtual Machine User—Arolewheretheuserisallowedtoperformpoweroperationsonvirtualmachines.
VirtualCenter Administrator—Arolewheretheuserisallowedtosettheuser+rolepermissionsandcontroltheVirtualCenterlicensing.
VirtualCenter Client—AuserinterfacethatrunslocallyonaWindowsmachine.TheVirtualCenterclientrunsonanetworkedmachine.ThiscanbeonthesamemachineastheVirtualCenterserveroranothernetworkedmachine.TheVirtualCenterclientrequiresamonitorforaccesstothegraphicaluserinterface.
VirtualCenter Database—Apersistentstoragearea,formaintainingstatusofeachvirtualmachineandusermanagedintheVirtualCenterenvironment.ThisislocatedonthesamemachineastheVirtualCenterserver.
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VirtualCenter Agent—Installedoneachvirtualmachinehost,itcoordinatestheactionsreceivedfromtheVirtualCenterserver.
VirtualCenter Server—AservicethatactsasacentraladministratorforVMwareserversconnectedonanetwork,todirectactionsuponthevirtualmachinesandthevirtualmachinehosts.VirtualCenterserveristhecentralworkingcoreofVirtualCenter.
VMotion—EnablesmovingrunningvirtualmachinesfromoneESXServertoanotherwithoutserviceinterruption.Itrequireslicensingonboththesourceandtargethost.ThisfeatureisactivatedbytheVirtualCenteragent.TheVirtualCenterservercentrallycoordinatesallVMotionactivities.
VMware Tools—Asuiteofutilitiesanddriversthatenhancestheperformanceandfunctionalityofyourguestoperatingsystem.KeyfeaturesofVMwareToolsincludesomeorallofthefollowing,dependingonyourguestoperatingsystem:anSVGAdriver,amousedriver,theVMwareguestoperatingsystemservice,theVMwareToolscontrolpanelandsupportforsuchfeaturesastimesynchronizationwiththehost,VMwareToolsscriptsandconnectinganddisconnectingdeviceswhilethevirtualmachineisrunning.
VMware Virtual Machine Console—InterfacetoavirtualmachinethatprovidesaccesstooneormorevirtualmachinesonthelocalhostoraremotehostrunningVirtualCenter.Youcanviewthevirtualmachine’sdisplaytorunprogramswithinitormodifyguestoperatingsystemsettings.Inaddition,youcanchangethevirtualmachine’sconfiguration,installtheguestoperatingsystemorrunthevirtualmachineinfullscreenmode.
20. vMware Professional servicesVMwareprofessionalservicescandeliverdeploymentandimplementationofkeyvirtualinfrastructureservices,includingcustomization,rapidcutoverandbestpracticesconsulting.Inaddition,VMwarehasstrongpartnershipswithconsultingorganizationssuchasIBMGlobalServicesandHPServicesthatcanalsoprovideconsultingservices,includingserverconsolidation,deployment,anddisasterrecovery.
VMwareProfessionalServicesinclude:
Education ServicesVMwareEducationServicesprovideinstructor-ledcoursesonallVMwareproducts—frombasicfunctionalitytoadvancedtechnicalusage.Coursesofferextensivehands-onlabs,casestudyexamples,andcoursematerialsdesignedforuseason-the-jobreferencetools.
Consulting ServicesFordeliveryofbothVMwarecustomandpre-packagedsolutions,VMwarehasassembledateamofconsultingprofessionalswithanextensiveknowledgeoftheentireVMwareproductfamily,advancedexpertiseintechnicalandsystemsmanagementarchitectures,andstrongprojectmanagementdiscipline.
Professional CertificationTheVMwareCertifiedProfessionalProgramofferstechnologyprofessionalstheknowledge,skills,andcredentialstodeployandmaintainVMwarevirtualizationtechnology.Thisprogramisdesignedforanytechnicalindividual—partners,endusers,resellers,andconsultants.
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21. vMware support servicesVMwarehasdesignedasuiteofsupportofferingsmappedtotheuniqueneedsofourcustomers,rangingfromsimpleWeb-basedself-serviceto24/7coverageprovidedbyhighlytrainedsupportengineers.
CustomersupportisavitalpartofthetotalVMwarecustomerexperience.Wewantcustomerstogetthemostfromourproductslongaftertheinitialsaleandinstallation.Wearededicatedtoensuringthatanyissuesareresolvedsatisfactorily.Werecognizetheneedforabroadandflexiblerangeofsupportoptionsthatmeetthediverseneedsofourcustomers—whetheritisasingle-userimplementationofVMwareWorkstationoracomplexmultiplatformimplementationofGSXServerandESXServer.
FormoreinformationaboutVMwaresupportofferings,pleaseseetheVMwareSupportWebsiteathttp://www.vmware.com/support.
22. vMware Partner allianceVMwarehasestablishedaglobalnetworkofbest-of-breedtechnologyanddistributionpartnerstoexpandandpromotethemarketforcomputevirtualization.Ourvaluetomutualcustomersissimple.Together,wedeliversolutionsthathelpbusinessesgrowandinnovate,whilesimplifyingcomputinginfrastructureandminimizingtotalcostofownership(TCO).WhenorganizationscombineVMwaresoftwaresolutionswiththoseofourglobalpartners,theycangetthemostcomprehensivevirtualinfrastructuresolutionsandservicesonthemarket.
Hardware Alliance Partners Software Alliance Partners
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23. about vMwareVMware,anEMCcompany(NYSE:EMC),isthegloballeaderinvirtualinfrastructuresoftwareforindustry-standardsystems.Theworld’slargestcompaniesuseVMwaresolutionstosimplifytheirIT,fullyleveragetheirexistingcomputinginvestmentsandrespondfastertochangingbusinessdemands.VMwareisbasedinPaloAlto,California.
Next steps Ifyouwouldliketopurchase,evaluateorgetmoreinformationaboutVMwareVirtualCenter,ESXServerorP2VAssistant,VMwarehasaglobal network of solutions providerswhoarereadytohelpyou.
Ifyou’dliketocontactVMwaredirectly,youcanreachasalesrepresentativeat1-877-4VMWARE(650-475-5000outsideNorthAmerica)[email protected],pleaseincludethestate,countryandcompanynamefromwhichyouareinquiring.
Youcanalsovisitouronlinestoreathttp://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/.
VMware, Inc. 3145 Porter Drive Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 650-475-5000 Fax 650-475-5001 www.vmware.comCopyright © 2005 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242 and 6,496,847; patents pending. VMware, the VMware "boxes" logo, GSX Server and ESX Server are trademarks of VMware, Inc. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.