VMware vSphere 4 Implementation

VMware vSphere 4 Implementation

Authors: Mike Laverick

Published: January 2010

eISBN: 9780071664530 007166453X | ISBN: 9780071664523

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Install and Configure ESX 4 Classic

What Is ESX?

Preparing for ESX Installation

Confirming Physical Settings

Checking Your Source Code ISO

Using an ILO

Installing ESX 4 Locally

Starting the Installation

Specifying Your Network Configuration

Setting Up Your Storage and Datastore

Creating the Partitions

Completing the Installation

Connect and Manage the ESX host

Gaining Command-Line Access

Installing the vSphere Client

Creating Additional Local Users on an ESX Host

Enabling SSH from Your ESX Host to Other Hosts

Configuring NTP

Monitoring Hardware

Viewing Health Status

Installing Hardware Management Agents

Increasing Memory Allocation to the Service Console

Configuring ESX4 Classic for SAN Booting

SAN-Based Booting Restrictions and Requirements

Preparing for Installing a SAN-Based Booting Configuration

Configuring the Fibre Channel BIOS Options

Configuring the Main System BIOS

Installing ESX to a SAN LUN

Summary

2 Install and Configure ESXi 4

Advantages of ESXi 4

Installing ESXi 4

Creating USB Memory Sticks for ESXi

Setting Up ESXi 4

Setting the Root Password

Configuring Management Network

Setting Other ESXi 4 Options

Viewing the System Logs

Rebooting an ESXi 4 Host

Enabling the Tech Support Command-Line/PuTTY Access

Summary

3 Install vCenter

What Is vCenter?

What Is VMware vCenter Web Access?

What Are vSphere Modules, Extensions, and Plug-ins?

Should vCenter Run on a Virtual or Physical Machine?

Join vCenter Servers in to “Linked Mode”

Configure Your Database for vCenter

Setting SQL Server Authentication

Create the Database and Setting Permissions

Configuring a DSN Connection

Setting Up vCenter

Installing vCenter with Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Creating Datacenters and Folders

Adding ESX and ESXi Hosts to vCenter

Configuring vCenter Linked Mode

Monitoring vCenter

Viewing vSphere 4 License Usage

Protect Your vCenter Server

Technology Preview: vCenter Mobile Access

Downloading and Configuring Mobile Access

Using Mobile Access

Summary

4 Standard Networking

What Are Standard vSwitches?

What Are Port Groups?

Port Group Naming

Creating Standard vSwitches

Creating an Internal Standard vSwitch

Creating a Teamed Standard vSwitch

Creating a Standard vSwitch with VLAN Support

Creating a VMkernel Standard vSwitch for VMotion

Configuring Standard vSwitches and Port Groups

Increasing the Number of Ports on a vSwitch

Setting Speed and Duplex on Physical NICs

Setting vSwitch and Port Group Policies

Using a Master vSwitch

Creating Standby vSwitches

Managing Service Console Networking

Creating a Backup Port Group for the Service Console

Changing the Service Console Network Settings

Troubleshooting Service Console Networking

Correcting Your NIC Selection

Correcting IP Settings

Advanced Switch Settings

Configuring the Cisco Discovery Protocol

Configuring the Maximum Transmission Unit Size

Enabling IPv6 Support

Introduction to IPv6 Addressing

Enabling IPv6 Support in Windows 2003 with DNS

Enabling IPv6 Support in Windows 2008 with an IPv6 DHCP Server

Enabling IPv6 Support in vCenter

Enabling IPv6 Support on ESX

Summary

5 Distributed Virtual Networking

What Are DvSwitches?

What Are Distributed Virtual Uplinks?

Creating Distributed vSwitches

Creating a DvSwitch for Virtual Machine Networking

Creating a VMkernel DvSwitch for VMotion

Creating a DvSwitch Port Group for the Service Console

Adding and Removing Physical NICs

Removing a DvSwitch from an ESX Host

Advanced DvSwitch Settings

Configuring and Viewing DvSwitch Settings

Configuring DvSwitch Port Group Settings

Migrating from Standard vSwitches to DvSwitches

Migrating to a Virtual Machine Networking DvSwitch

Migrating to a VMkernel DvSwitch

Migrating to a Management DvSwitch

Migrating from a DvSwitch to a Standard vSwitch

Summary

6 Storage

Configuring SAN-Based Storage

Discovering Your HBA’s WWN

Rescanning HBAs

Understanding the vmhba Syntax

Configuring iSCSI SAN-Based Storage

Hardware and Software Initiators

iSCSI Qualified Names

Limitations on iSCSI Use

Emulating an iSCSI System

Configuring ESX for iSCSI

Connecting ESX to an iSCSI Software Adapter

Setting Up iSCSI with CHAP Authentication

Managing VMFS Volumes

Formatting Volumes with VMFS

Increasing the Size of VMFS Volumes

Viewing Free Space and Disk Alarms

Configuring Multipathing with Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN

Managing Multiple Fibre Channel Paths

Install, License, and Configure Third-Party Path Selection Policies

Viewing Broken Paths

Configuring NAS Storage

Setting Up NFS on Red Hat Linux

Setting Up NFS on Windows with SFU

Adding an NFS Mount Point

Removing an NFS Mount Point

Storage Views and Maps

Summary

7 Creating and Modifying Virtual Machines

What Defines a Virtual Machine?

Virtual Motherboard

USB, Parallel, and Serial Devices

Virtual CDs and Floppies

Keyboard and Mouse Interface

Setting Up Your First VM

Creating a VM

Installing the Guest Operating System

Powering On and Off VMs

Powering Off Your VM

Setting a Boot Delay

Automatically Starting and Stopping of VMs

Setting up VMware Tools

Installing VMware Tools for Windows

Installing VMware Tools for Linux

Configuring VMware Tools

Checking If VMware Tools Is Up to Date

Upgrading Virtual Hardware and VMware Tools

Adding Virtual Hardware

Giving a VM Direct Access to a SAN or iSCSI LUN

Hot Adding Virtual Disks to Linux

Hot Adding NICs

Hot Adding Memory and CPUs

Adding IDE Drives to Windows

Enabling the VMCI Device

Using VMDirectPath I/O

Configuring VM Features

Configuring a Static MAC Address

Enabling N-Port Virtualization

Enabling Paravirtualization

Configuring the Memory Management Unit

Managing Virtual Disks

Resizing Virtual Disks

Converting a Thin Virtual Disk to a Thick Virtual Disk

Converting a Thick Virtual Disk into Thin Virtual Disk

Using Snapshots

Creating a Snapshot

Reverting to a Snapshot

Deleting a Snapshot

Changing Disk Modes

Removing, Adding, and Deleting VMs

Adding a VM

Removing a VM

Deleting a VM

P2V of a Physical Machine with vCenter Converter

Installing vCenter Converter

Using vCenter Converter with the Agent (Enterprise Mode)

Using vCenter Converter with the Cold-Clone Boot CD (Enterprise Mode)

Cleaning Up After P2V Conversion

Using Guided Consolidation for P2V Conversion

Setting Up a VMware ESX Testing Environment

Option A: Two ESX Servers and a NAS, Please!

Option B: Run on PCs

Option C: Virtualize ESX

Summary

8 Rapid VM Deployment

Duplicating VMs

Preparing for Templates

Storing Templates

Cloning to a Template

Converting a VM to a Template

Using VM Templates

Adding Sysprep Support to vCenter

Creating a New VM from a Template

Using the Customization Specification Manager

Using the VMware Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF)

Importing a Virtual Appliance

Exporting a VM in OVF Format

Summary

9 Access Control

The VMware Security Model

Assigning and Using Roles

Assigning a Predefined Role

Creating Custom Roles

Removing Custom Roles

Permission Anomalies

Managing User Access

Sending Messages to Users and Disconnecting Users

Using the Web Access Service

An Access Control Example: Create VMs and Restrict Storage Access

Assigning a Custom Read-Only Rights Role to vCenter

Assigning the Virtual Machine Administrator Role to the Datacenter

Reorganizing Datastores in Folders

Denying Rights to the Folder Containing Local VMFS Volumes

Summary

10 Resource Monitoring

Introduction to VM Resource Monitoring

VM Resource Allocation

CPU Allocation

Memory Allocation

Identifying Resource Constraints

CPU Monitoring

Memory Monitoring

Network Monitoring

Disk Monitoring

Accessing Performance Data

Using vCenter Performance Charts

Viewing CPU Utilization

Setting Chart Options

Configuring Alarms and Alerts

Modifying Alarms

Creating Custom Alarms

Configuring Alarm Tolerance and Frequency

Configuring Email Alerts

Configuring SNMP Alerts

Acknowledging Alarms

Viewing Events and Tasks

Configuring Scheduled Tasks

Accessing and Exporting Log Files and Support Data

Accessing and Exporting vCenter Logs

Generating ESX Host Log Files

Summary

11 Resource Management

Setting Limits

Setting Reservations

The Share System

Processor Affinities

Resource Pools

A Resource Pool Example

CPU Ready Values and Multiple vCPUs

Share Values on VMs Within a Resource Pool

Admission Control: Insufficient Resources to Power On?

Admission Control Examples

Resolving Admission Control Problems

Using vApps

Creating a vApp

Configuring Internal Dynamic IP Allocation

Setting Descriptive (Advanced) Information

Summary

12 VMotion, Storage VMotion, and Cold Migration

VMotion (Change Host)

VMotion Requirements on the ESX Host

CPU Incompatibilities

VMotion Requirements on the VM

Resolving VMotion Errors and Warnings

Enabling VMotion on Standard vSwitch

Initiating VMotion

VMotion Without Drag-and-Drop

Storage VMotion (Change Datastore)

Requirements for Storage VMotion

Performing SVMotion from the GUI

Performing SVMotion from the vSphere CLI

Cold Migration (Change Host and/or Datastore)

Summary

13 VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler

DRS Overview

DRS Levels of Automation

Migration Thresholds

DRS Rules and Regulations

Resource Pools and DRS Clustering

Preparing for DRS

Configuring DRS

Setting Up a DRS Cluster in Manual Mode

Viewing and Applying Recommendations

Choosing Initial Placement

Configuring DRS Cluster Affinity/Anti-Affinity Rules

Setting Custom Automation Levels

Configuring Fully Automated DRS Using Maintenance Mode

Resolving Maintenance Mode Problems

Viewing DRS Fault Reports

Creating Resource Pools on a DRS Cluster

Enabling Enhanced VMotion Compatibility

Relocating the VMkernel Swap File

Summary

14 VMware Distributed Power Management

DPM Overview

Preparing for DRS

Checking WoL Support

Manually Testing Standby Mode

Enabling DPM on a Cluster

Configuring DPM with ILO/RAC/DRAC Cards

Preparing for Using ACPI Features for DPM

Configuring the ESX Hosts

Summary

15 VMware High Availability

HA Overview

HA and Resource Management

HA and the Split-Brain Phenomena

ESX 4 and Split-Brain/Isolation

ESXi 4 and Split-Brain/Isolation

Enabling and Configuring VMware HA

Enabling HA on ESX Host Clusters

Setting VMware HA Options

Configuring VM Options

Configuring VM Monitoring

Configuring VMware HA and VM Clustering

Testing and Monitoring VMware HA

Testing HA with ESX Classic

VMware HA and VMotion

Monitoring a HA Cluster

Summary

16 VMware Fault Tolerance

FT Advantages and Disadvantages

Hardware and Software Requirements for FT

Discovering CPU Types

Using VMware SiteSurvey to Check FT Support

Enabling VMware FT

Confirming Certificate Management

Confirming That HA and VMotion Function Correctly

Enabling FT Logging on a New Port Group

Confirming the Target VM’s Disk Type

Checking VM Settings

Enabling VMware FT on a VM

Testing VMware FT

Soft Testing VMware FT

Hard Testing—Real-World FT What-if Scenarios

Turning Off or Disabling FT

Turning Off FT

Disabling FT

Summary

17 vSphere Advanced Configuration Tools

Configuration Tool Overview

Implementing Host Profiles

Creating a Host Profile from an Existing ESX Server

Editing a Host Profile

Attaching and Applying a Host Profile

Using a Host Policy to Reconfigure a VMware Cluster

Updating and Exporting Host Profiles

Using the vSphere CLI with ESX 4

Authenticating to a Server

Creating vSwitches

Enabling the VMware iSCSI Software Initiator

Setting Your NTP Configuration

Configuring NAS

Managing Files

Creating a Snapshot of a VM and Exporting Its Files to Local Storage

Backing Up Your ESXi Configuration

Using the vSphere Management Assistant

Downloading and Importing vMA

Adding Credentials and ESX Hosts

Connecting to an ESX Host and Running Commands

Using the Interactive Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4

Using the vSphere PowerCLI for Windows

Installing Windows PowerShell and the vSphere PowerCLI

Using VMware PowerShell Cmdlets

Using PowerShell Scripts

Scripted Installations of ESX 4 Classic

Downloading and Installing the UDA

Configuring the UDA

Creating Templates

Scripted Installation File Overview with Advanced %post Scripting

Interactive PXE Installation

Summary

18 Virtual Machine Backup

How Do Hot Backups Work?

Overview of Backup Strategies

Backup Agents Inside the VM

Free Virtualization Backup Utilities

Third-Party Virtualization-Only Solutions

VMware Technology

Using the VMware Data Recovery Appliance

vDR Requirements

Installing and Configuring vDR

Backing Up a VM

Restoring VMs

Managing Restore Points

Using VMware Consolidated Backup

Installing VMware Consolidated Backup

Using VCB on the Command Line

Virtualizing VCB

Summary

19 VMware Patch Management

VMware Updates

Using the vSphere Host Update Utility with ESXi 4

Patching ESXi 4 with the Host Update Utility

Rolling Back ESXi 4 Host Updates

Using VMware Update Manager

Installing VMware Update Manager

Creating Baselines and Baseline Groups

Attaching Baselines and Scanning for Updates

Staging and Remediation of ESX hosts

Configuring VMware Update Service Settings

Summary

20 Upgrading from VI3.5 to vSphere 4

A Clean Install or an Upgrade?

Upgrading Using VMware Update Manager

Upgrading vCenter and the Client

Upgrading vCenter Components

Upgrading ESX Hosts Using VUM

Upgrading VMware Tools with VUM

Upgrading Virtual Hardware with VUM

Upgrading ESXi Hosts Using the Host Update Utility

Upgrading VMs with CLI Tools

Per-ESX Host Virtual Hardware and VMware Tools Update

Per VM Virtual Hardware and VMware Tools Update

Summary

Conclusion

Index