Evaluation with ESXi and vCenter...2013/02/20 · for VMware vSphere skills is growing – and so...

Study Guide 5 Day

VMware vSphere 5.1with ESXi and vCenterA step by step approach to successful virtualization planning, deployment and administration.

Featuring VMware vSphere with

VMware ESXi™ 5.1,VMware vCenter™ 5.1,

and related products

November, 2012

Evaluation Copy

VMware vSphere 5.1 with ESXi and vCenterCopyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by ESXLab.com – All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means, mechanical, electronic or otherwise, without prior written permission from the authors.

Researched, written, published by:

Larry Karnis, ESXLab.com15 Claypine TrailBrampton, Ontario CanadaL6V 3L8

Phone:Toll Free:Facsimile:

LinkedInE-mail:

Web:Twitter:

(905) 451-9488(888) 451-3131(905) 451-7823ca.linkedin.com/[email protected] www.esxlab.com @ESXLab

First edition published October 2009Second update for vSphere 4.1, December 2010Fourth edition updated for vSphere 5, April 2012Fifth edition updated for vSphere 5.1, November 2012

To find out more about our products and services including consulting services, renting our remote lab facilities, running your own VMware class or custom training and content solutions, please visit our website www.esxlab.com or e-mail the author: [email protected].

This document was prepared in its entirety using the open source LibreOffice 3.4.5 office suite. LibreOffice can be freely downloaded for free from www.LibreOffice.org. Microsoft Visio™ 2007 was used to create some of the slide graphics. Final PDF assembly was performed with PDFFactory Pro™ available at www.FinePrint.com. Screen grabs were captured with Snagit from TechSmith.

This document, the images, screen grabs, etc. are original works. This document is copyright 2009-2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means including photo-copying or electronic imaging is permitted without prior written authorization from the copyright holder.

This training material is provided 'as is', without any warranty either expressed or implied. ESXLab.com prepared this material with due care for accuracy and completeness, but does not warrant that the content is either error free or suitable for any specific use. By using this courseware, the user agrees to accept responsibility for all results – desirable or otherwise. Customer agrees that all lab exercises are for illustration purposes only, and assumes all risks including but not limited of data damage or loss, resulting from such use. Customer agrees to indemnify ESXLab.com and its employees/contractors from all claims arising out of the use or misuse of the material in our courseware.

Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 5.5, Microsoft Exchange 2000, Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2007 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. GroupWise and NetMail are trademarks of Novell Inc. Lotus Domino is a trademark of IBM Corporation. RedHat and Fedora Core are trademarks of RedHat Inc. VMware, VMware Workstation, VMware Server, VMware Player, VMware ESX, VMotion, vSphere, etc. are registered trademarks of VMware Corporation. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

ESXLab.com is an independent training and content development company that is in no way affiliated with or in any way related to VMware Inc. In no case is any such relationship either implied or intended.

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mailto:[email protected]://www.esxlab.comhttp://www.esxlab.commailto:[email protected]://www.LibreOffice.orghttp://www.FinePrint.com

Time Line & Table of Contents

Day 1 Topics

Chapter 0 - Overview

Chapter 1 – VMware vSphere Overview

Chapter 2 – Standalone ESXi

Chapter 3 – Virtual & Physical Networking

Chapter 4 – NAS Shared Storage

Day 2 Topics

Chapter 5 – Virtual Machines

Chapter 6 – vCenter

Chapter 7 – Virtual Machine Rapid Deployment

Day 3 Topics

Chapter 8 – Permission Model

Chapter 9 – Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage

Chapter 10 – VMware File System

Chapter 11 – Alarms

Chapter 12 – Host Profiles

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Day 4 Topics

Chapter 13 – Resource Pools

Chapter 14 – VMware Converter Standalone

Chapter 15 – VMware Data Recovery

Chapter 16 – VM Migration

Day 5 Topics

Chapter 17 – Distributed Resource Scheduler

Chapter 18 – VMware High Availability Clusters

Chapter 19 – VMware Update Manager

Chapter 20 – Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Chapter 21 – Final Thoughts

Appendix

Appendix 1 – Definitions & Acronyms

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Author's Note

Twenty five years ago, I started my IT career as a UNIX/C programmer. By 1992, I was working as a very busy UNIX administrator so I gave up the safety of fulltime work for consulting. As a hedge against down time, I contacted a major training company and offered my services. Soon, I was teaching their UNIX and C programming classes (very popular at the time). Over time, my love of UNIX morphed into a love of Linux so by 2002 I was teaching Linux for RedHat.

In 2004, I had the very good fortune to be contacted by VMware. Would I like a job working as a trainer? I said “no” and asked if they wanted a contractor. They said no. I had this conversation with VMware three times in 2004 until they finally agreed to hire me as a contractor. I sat the ESX I & II classes and earned my VMware Certified Professional on ESX 2.0 (VCP# 993).

I worked as a contract resource for VMware for about 4 years. I got to watch ESX grow from a niche product used primarily for testing into a full blown production platform. VMware was a young, company creating technical magic (VMotion was absolutely unbelievable in 2003). IMHO, their software magicians were, and still are without equal. They have since delivered Storage VMotion, High Availability, DRS clusters, Fault Tolerant VMs and much, much more.

In 2008, I left VMware to work again as an independent. I enjoy training and was still a huge advocate of VMware's technology, so I decided to start a company to provide vendor independent VMware training courses that anyone could run. The result is this book set.

This Study Guide fully explains how each vSphere feature works. The accompanying Lab Guide takes you through the mechanics. Each lab starts at the very beginning and takes you through all the steps needed to complete the job. There is no magic in this course because nothing is done for you. In most cases, you can perform the labs at work exactly the same way and get the same result (just be careful and don't break anything!).

Developing courseware is much like developing software (my first job). You write, re-write, review, edit update, test until you truly believe that it is bug free. The reality is that bugs exist – and no doubt, some are lurking in this book set. If you find one, please let me know. I'll fix the issue and the next version of the courseware will be better for your input. As a bonus, I will provide a free ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam voucher to the first person who reports each unique bug

VMware vSphere has rekindled my love of IT, and I've seen it do the same for others. Demand for VMware vSphere skills is growing – and so will your career once you master VMware vSphere 5. My hope is that this class will help you get there much faster.

Larry KarnisE-mail: [email protected] Phone: 1 (905) 451-9488 x100

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mailto:[email protected]

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Notes

Chapter 0 – IntroductionPhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted

0-1Copyright © 2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization.Get Certified now. Sit the ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam at the end of your class.

Chapter 0 - Overview

ESXLab.com

VMware vSphere 5.1 with

ESXi and vCenter Evaluation Copy

Notes



Virtualization➲ Introduction to Virtualization➲ Introduction to vSphere 5.1 ➲ Class Overview

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Virtualization

➲ A software abstraction that creates virtual hardware & maps it to physical hardware

➲ Is completely transparent to guest OS and applications

AppO/S

AppO/S

AppO/S

VMware vSphere

Traditional PC Server Deployments

●One O/S and Application per server●Captive local disk●Workloads locked to server

Virtual Deployment●Require fewer physical servers●Can run many workloads as Virtual Machines●Workloads not locked to server (cold migration, VMotion, Storage VMotion)●Load balancing and high availability options depend on shared disk●Higher hardware utilization rates●Lower marginal cost to deploy new workloads (just make a new VM)●Better reliability and performance due to more capable hardware●New options for Disaster Recovery, Back Up

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VMware vSphere➲ VMware ESXi● Enterprise class server virtualization software

➲ Management, Performance, Monitoring● vCenter

➲ Workload Resource Balancing● VMotion, DRS Clusters

➲ Storage Resource Balancing● Storage VMotion, Storage DRS

➲ High Availability● HA Clusters, Fault Tolerance

➲ Workload Migration and Back Up● vCenter Converter● VMware Data Recovery

VMware provides a complete suite of products both for virtualization as well as for management, back up, disaster recovery, testing, replication and much more. These products make migrating to virtualization deployments very beneficial.

The primary risk of virtualization is too many eggs in one basket... That is, you cre-ate risk if you consolidate workloads into virtual machines but lack the ability to:

- Load balance your VMs across physical servers- Load balance storage capacity and performance across storage volumes- Rapidly recover VMs that fail when a physical host fails- Easily manage and monitor VMs- Deploy VMs from known good images

If you cannot load balance, then you run the risk of poor VM performance (due to host resource over-commit).

If you cannot automatically place and restart VMs due to a physical server failure, then you may have critical production VMs down for hours if a host fails. Further-more, if a physical host that supports a large VM population fails catastrophically, then your VMs might be down for days (until the hardware can be repaired).

VMware Virtual Infrastructure provides all of the above features. Other products are maturing but do not yet offer the same breadth or depth of functionality as VMware.

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Notes



Key Topics➲ Virtualization Overview➲ Stand Alone ESXi➲ Virtual & Physical Networking➲ Virtual Machines, Rapid Deployment➲ vSphere Management➲ Shared Storage➲ VM Migration & Load Balancing➲ High Availability➲ Physical to Virtual (P2V) Conversions➲ Back Up, Recovery & Disaster Recovery➲ Scalability and Performance

The above items are key topics in this class but not a complete list of topics. For a complete list of topics, please consult the table of contents.

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Public Class Daily Timetable

09:00 a.m. Start10:30 a.m. Break12:00 p.m. Lunch01:00 p.m. Resume03:00 p.m. Break05:00 p.m. End of Day

➲ Informal● Ask questions any

time➲ Cell phones on

vibrate please➲ Take calls

outside class

Schedule

The above schedule is for public classes based on our standard timetable. Your training company/partner may set a different schedule.

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Problems & Opportunities➲ Business or IT

problem we face● Identify common

pain points. E.g.● Provisioning● Deployment● Management● Imaging● Back Up & DR● Etc.

➲ Virtual Solution● Explain how Virtual

Infrastructure addresses the problem● New methods● Streamlined

procedures● Less risk● Faster results● Reduced costs● Simplify● Etc.

Virtualization addresses most of the common pain points experienced by modern PC server deployments. As we go through this class you will learn how virtualization de-livers the above benefits – and much more.

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Introductions➲ Who● Name and current job

➲ Why are you here?● Official reason, then the honest reason!● Personal goals for this class

➲ Experience with● Windows● Linux/UNIX● VMware hosted products (Player, Server, etc.)● vSphere 4.x, ESX 3.x, VirtualCenter 2.x● 3rd party Virtualization (Xen/Hyper-V)

➲ Favorite vacation destination?

Experience with virtualization is not a prerequisite for this class... If you do have prior virtualization experience either with VMware products or other products – please feel free to share them with the class.

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Vendor Neutral Certification➲ ESXLab Certified Virtualization

Specialist, Technician● Exam based certifications for

virtualization professionals● Score 80%+ and earn ECVS ● Score 60-79% and earn ECVT

➲ About the exam● Available at the end of class● 75 questions in 90 minutes● Multiple choice or True/False

For more information see the brochure at the back of this book

VMware will not award certification to candidates unless you attend their class and then pass their exam. In response, ESXLab.com has created verifiable, vendor neu-tral VMware vSphere certifications so that attendees of ESXLab vSphere classes can achieve certification. Our exam fully tests a candidates knowledge and skill with VMware's vSphere products.

There are two certifications you can earn. ECVS is awarded to candidates who, by scoring 80% or higher in the exam, demonstrate a superior level of knowledge and experience. ECVT is awarded to candidates who, by scoring 60% to 79%, demonstrate a solid understanding of the skills needed to effectively manage vSphere.

The ECVS exam is free to any one who attends an ESXLab.com class. Your instructor should make the exam available to you on Friday afternoon at the end of the lec-ture/lab portion of the class. If you cannot stay for the exam (or if it is not offered), you can make arrangements with your local training center to sit the exam at a later time (note: a fee may apply).

To be successful in the exam, we strongly suggest you: - Review the course book daily giving extra time to topics you found challenging - Review and/or redo the labs so that you fully understand the mechanics - Ask questions in class - Review VMware official product documentation available at www.vmware.com

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http://www.vmware.com

Notes


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Notes

Chapter 1 - Introduction to vSpherePhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted

Copyright © 2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization.

Get Certified now. Sit the ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam at the end of your class. 1-1

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction to

VMware vSphere 5.1 Evaluation Copy

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VMware vSphere➲ Common IT problems● vSphere solutions to these problems

➲ Scaling vSphere deployments➲ Storage, Network and Server private

cloud computingEvaluation Copy

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Problems & Opportunities ➲ Low server resource utilization➲ Data center costs, space, power, cooling➲ Application, OS deployment➲ Back Up & Recovery➲ Server Refresh➲ Remote access and support➲ Hardware maintenance➲ Operating system license costs➲ Disaster Recovery➲ Test, Development, Training, QA

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Server Resource Utilization➲ Pre-virtualization server resource utilization

rates are very low● Typically, one OS/application per server● Physical server average utilization: 3%-35%● Usually one critical resource● Other sub-systems mostly idle

➲ Why 1 OS, application/server?● Political, administrative isolation● I own/manage my own server

● Application, DLL isolation● Simplify backup, recovery, DR● Perception that PC servers are cheap to buy,

license, run

The most common method of deploying PC servers is one application per server. The reason for this is many-fold but is based on the belief that the complexities, risks and inflexibility of running many applications on a single server and operating system are simply not worth the cost savings of running many applications or services on a single PC server.

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Server Consolidation➲ Many VM's/physical server● VMs compete for available host

CPU, RAM, Disk, Network ● VMs get needed resources● Not declared resources● Idling VMs may give up CPU, RAM

● Ensures active VMs run well under CPU, memory over commit (i.e.:when vCPU count > physical core count)

● Share network, storage bandwidth● Administrators can tune VMs● Weighted scheduling, memory

management and disk I/O● Ensures critical VMs get resources

as needed

vSphere

Virtualization solves the one-workload/server problem without the traditional costs, risks or complexities of installing many applications on a single server.

A PC server running VMware ESXi is capable of running many virtual machines con-currently. Each virtual machine is an independent software entity that functions as a complete, generic PC server. Each virtual machine has:

- A virtual hardware layer that includes a generic motherboard, chipset, keyboard, mouse, video controller, IDE controller, CD/DVD device, NIC, PCI bus, SCSI controller, SCSI disk(s), CPU(s) and memory sized appropriately for the intended operating system and application- An operating system that recognizes and can drive virtual hardware- One or more applications

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Datacenter Issues ➲ Problems● Power, cooling costs● Square foot costs● Out of rack space● Expensive to build out

● Additional concerns● Networking costs● Shared SAN storage● Back up procedures,

time, costs● Disaster Recovery● Administrator time● Config. consistency

➲ Virtual Solutions● VM Consolidations:

5-50+ VMs ESXi host ● Relieves rack space

congestion● Reduces power,

cooling costs● Leverages existing

networking, storageresources (SAN switches)

● Fewer physical servers to administer, back up, network, etc.

Data center power and cooling costs are substantial and are expected to continue to rise. Here are some sobering facts about what it takes to power a server in a data center:

- A 1U PC Server can draw 100W to 1,200W of power- A 2U PC Server can draw 200-900W of power on each of its power supplies- A 42U rack of 1U servers at just 200W/server will consume 8+kw/hr of power- Many data centers double their power consumption every 3 years- As servers become more powerful, the power draw per server increases- Data centers often run out of power/cooling before running out of rack space- Idle servers often consume more than 50% of their maximum power draw- It can take up to 2 times the energy to cool a server as the server uses to operate- Servers with 32+GB of RAM use more power to run RAM than they do to run CPUs (especially true of servers that run high frequency FB memory)

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OS, Application Imaging➲ Problems● Bare metal installs● Complex● Drivers, agents, etc.

● Time consuming● Introduce needless

variation, risk● Imaging solutions not

universal● Tied to manufacturer,

hardware components● Images may not help if

maker changes hardware configuration

➲ Virtual Solutions● VMs get generic

hardware, not physical hardware

● Easy to create VM master images● Clones, Templates● Copy & customize...● Easy to create a VM

Image Library● Easy to maintain● Not tied to hardware● Easy to change H/W

vendors

OS and application imaging solutions ease the task of deploying operating systems and their applications. Typically an administrator installs their preferred OS and apps onto a PC server and then uses an imaging tool to harvest a deployment image for future use. This works great if you need to deploy the same image onto the same hardware but can cause problems if:

- Your vendor changes underlying hardware (chipsets, storage controllers, etc.)- Your images require frequent maintenance- You change hardware vendors

Virtual machines don't suffer from these problems because their virtual hardware is in-dependent from the physical hardware seen by ESXi. So, even if you change hardware (or hardware vendors), you can still deploy VMs from your pre-built VM images.

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Back Up & Recovery➲ Problems● Backup tools are

expensive, complex● Backup, recovery,

application, open file agents

● Speed limited by network bandwidth● Limited back up

windows● Virtual networking not

as fast as physical networking

➲ Virtual Solutions● Most LAN backup

tools are supported● File system back ups

● VM snapshots● Data synchronized● Disk image backup

● Data Recovery● VM back up, recovery● Guest OS File level

recovery capability● Virtual appliance

VMs work with traditional LAN based back up tools – so you can continue to use these if you like. However, VM networking is not as efficient as pure physical networking, so you should expect your back up windows (time to complete a back up) to increase when us-ing network based back up tools in a VM.

There are a number of solutions to this problem...

VMware Data Recovery (DR) performs snapshot based back ups with full virtual disk de-duplication, so backups are fast and complete. And Data Recovery provides you with the ability to do both file level and full virtual machine level recoveries.

VMware Consolidated Backup was officially retired as of vSphere 4.1 and is not avail-able for vSphere 5.0.

Third party back up tools such as VRanger Pro (www.vizioncore.com), PHD Virtual Back Up (www.phdvirtual.com) or Veeam Backup & Replication (www.veeam.com) leverage ESXi storage APIs to quickly and safely back up VMs. These tools are easy to install and use, are (relatively) low in cost (unlike traditional network back up tools) and make it easy to recover individual files or complete VMs.

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http://www.vizioncore.com)http://www.phdvirtual.com)http://www.veeam.com

Notes




Server Refresh➲ Problems● PC servers have a

short life span● 3-5 yrs depending on

available maintenance support contracts

● OS, application migrations are timeconsuming, risky● Workload down during

migration● Done off hours● Hard to do remotely● Inherently risky

➲ Virtual Solution● Virtual hardware● VM H/W is independent

of physical hardware● Easy to migrate VMs

to another ESXi host● Hot, cold VM migration ● Limits down time

● 4 simple steps...● Provision new server● Install ESXi, join cluster● Migrate VMs to new host● Shut down, wipe server

● Can be performed remotely

Virtual Machine hardware is a software abstraction that is independent of physical PC server hardware. ESXi maps virtual hardware operations to physical hardware ac-tivity.

Virtual machines see:

● A virtual motherboard with a chipset, keyboard, mouse, IDE, floppy controller● A virtual PCI video controller● One to four virtual IDE CD/DVD devices● One to two virtual floppy drives● A virtual PCI bus● Up to 10 virtual Network Interface Cards (NICs)● One to 4 virtual SCSI Host Bus Adapters (SCSI HBAs)● Up to 15 virtual SCSI disks per SCSI HBA● Up to 8-64 virtual CPUs that map to physical CPU cores (subject to licensing)● Virtual memory that is indistinguishable from physical memory

Virtual hardware presented to VMs is the same regardless of the underlying physical hardware. Therefore a VM can migrate from ESXi host to ESXi host (even if the ESXi hosts are different makes or models of hardware) without issue.

The only exception is CPU. The make, model and stepping, but not cores or hyper-threading, of the physical CPU is exposed to the Guest OS at boot time. These prop-erties must not change (due to VM migration) as the VM runs.

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Hardware Maintenance➲ Problems● HW maintenance

requires down time● Short maintenance

windows● Weekend vendor support

is costly● Must be on site

● 7x24 4hr response● Expensive● Often no guarantee of a

fix within 4hr window● Without top tier contract,

hardware issues may keep a server down for days

➲ Virtual Solutions● To perform H/W

tasks on ESXi host● Evacuate ESXi host of

Virtual Machines● VMotion, cold migrate

VMs to other ESXi hosts● Patch, upgrade, repair,

reconfigure host● No VM down time during

maintenance● If ESXi capacity permits,

maintenance can be done during production hours

Before virtualization, server hardware maintenance was a costly and risky task that was usually performed on weekends.

With virtualization, server hardware maintenance is greatly simplified and risk is elimi-nated. To perform physical server maintenance on ESXi hosts:

- VMotion all VMs off the host that will be maintained- Shut down and power off the host when all fully evacuated of VMs- Add, upgrade, fix hardware- Power on the server- Rejoin clusters- Migrate VMs back to the fixed host

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Windows Server VM Licensing➲ Problems● Windows 2003, 2008,

2012 Server licenses are expensive● Host licenses, CALs ● May have to buy more

expensive editions for needed features● E.g. Microsoft Cluster

Services not available on Windows Server Standard Editions

➲ Solution● Windows 2k3, 2k8/R2

Enterprise, Datacenter VM friendly pricing● Enterprise – 4 VM at

no additional charge● Datacenter – unlimited

VMs at no additional charge

● Check your ● License agreement for

entitled instance count● Volume purchase

agreements

Microsoft may grant you the right to run additional instances of Windows 2003/2008 Server depending on the base license installed...

Windows 2003/2008 Standard does not permit additional VM instances so every VM would require a unique Windows Standard license.

Windows 2003/2008 Enterprise permits a limited number of Windows VMs (up to 4) to be run on the same machine running the original license without additional charge.

Windows 2003/2008 Datacenter permits an unlimited number of Windows VMs to run on the same host running the original Windows license at no additional cost.

As VM consolidation rates go up (more VMs/ESXi host), the cost to license Windows per VM can go down dramatically if you select the appropriate Windows edition (Enterprise or Datacenter). You also get the added benefit of the enhanced features (e.g.: Cluster-ing) offered by premium Windows editions).

Windows Datacenter simplifies license compliance because you are entitled to run an unlimited number of VMs/server. You are also entitled to downgrade your Windows edi-tions in the same family (e.g.: If you have W2k3 Datacenter, you can deploy W2k3 Stan-dard or Enterprise in your VMs).

Note: Posted prices are accurate retail prices as of September, 2009.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calc_2.htm

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Notes




MS Virtualization Calculator

● Part A – License cost by average VM/s per server● Part B – License cost by actual VMs per server

This calculator, published on Microsoft's web site shows the US Manufacturer's Sug-gested Retail Price (MSRP) of Microsoft Windows Server operating system licenses (both Windows Server 2008 and 2003) and Virtual Machine instance counts as permit-ted by the three Windows Server editions; Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter.

This calculator shows that, under certain conditions, substantial savings can be had by purchasing either Windows Enterprise or Windows Datacenter editions over indi-vidual Windows Standard editions. With the premium Windows editions, the higher base cost is offset by the lower marginal cost per Windows VM.

To gain the lowest cost per Windows VM, you must have high Virtual Machine to physical machine ratios (e.g.: 15-30+ VMs per physical server). With today's high core count CPUs (i.e.: CPUs with 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 cores per physical CPU) and low RAM costs, such consolidation rates are not just attainable, but actually quite reasonable.

In the example above, there are 2 ways to calculate license costs; Average VMs per host and actual VM's per host. The example was worked so that both methods corre-late (i.e.: actual VMs in the bottom (Blue) part match the average VMs in the top (Green) part), and prices mostly match as a result. Please check your own volume li-cense agreements before changing your licensing strategy!

Note: Posted prices are accurate retail prices as of September, 2011 and apply to the US only.


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Notes




Windows Server 2012➲ Windows Server 2012 Virtualization● Standard Edition● 2 sockets max per license● 2 VMs per license● If you have > 2 sockets or > 2 VMs/socket, you

must buy more licenses● Enterprise Edition no longer offered● Some features pushed down to Standard or up

to DataCenter editions● Datacenter Edition● One license required for each physical CPU● Unlimited number of VMs / server

Source: ws2012_licensing-pricing_faq.pdf from download.microsoft.com

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Disaster Recovery➲ Problems● Ensure business

continuity● Replication is costly● Duplicate all HW, SW

at remote site● Complex● DR procedures must

be tested, reviewed, refined, retested

● Risky● Failure of DR plan

puts business at extreme risk

➲ Virtual Solutions● SAN Replication● Shadow SAN LUNS

to DR site● ESXi host(s) at DR

site set to run VMs● vSphere Replication● Duplicates VMs

across LAN/WAN to secondary site

● Keeps VMs in sync by replicating disk updates

● Included in many vSphere licenses

The traditional approach to disaster recovery is to duplicate all of your expensive hard-ware and software at a second datacenter. This is costly and must be carefully planned and tested before being trusted.

With virtualization, you can simplify disaster planning by replicating VMs and storage at your DR site. If you have SANs that support LUN shadowing, you could shadow critical LUNs from your production SAN to your DR SAN. If you have a primary site failure, just boot the VMs at your DR site's ESXi hosts and SAN.

If you don't have LUN shadowing capabilities, you can still replicate VMs at a DR site. In this case, you need to decide how you are going to replicate your VMs. You could:

- Use vSphere Replication to perform online replication of VMs to your remote site- Use 3rd party tools to perform snapshot nightly back ups. There are many 3rd party products available that perform this task- Use 3rd party tools to do on-the-fly VM replication at your DR site.

A number of 3rd party tools are available to perform VM hot replication including:

- Veeam Backup & Replication (www.veeam.com)- Vizioncore vReplicator (www.vizioncore.com)

Check out a comparison of these two products here:

http://www.itcomparison.com/DR/VizioncorevsVeeam/VizioncorevsVeeam.htm

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http://www.veeam.com)http://www.vizioncore.com)http://www.itcomparison.com/DR/VizioncorevsVeeam/VizioncorevsVeeam.htm

Notes




Test, Development & QA➲ Problems● Development, test

environments don't match production environment● Too costly to deploy

an exact match● Differences introduce

variation, risk● Hard to validate

changes, test software, catch errors if produc-tion, test/development environments differ

➲ Virtual Solutions● Clone production VMs● Clone - Exact copy of

original VM● Test changes on clone● Configuration changes● OS patches● Application upgrades● Validate procedures

● VM snapshots let you back out of changes● Saves VM state● No need to re-image if

problems encountered● Revert back to original● Try again!

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IT Technical Career Benefits

➲ Demand for VMware skills since Jan, 2005 www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Vmware&relative=1➲ According to Dice (www.dice.com)● Candidates with one completed virtualization

project are considered experienced

As a IT technical professional, having ESXi and vCenter skills is good for your career! VMware vSphere virtualization skills remain in demand even though demand for skills for many other aspects of IT are flat.

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http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Vmware&relative=1http://www.dice.com)

Notes




Virtualization Over Time

➲ VMs - bigger, faster over time● Goal: eliminate all hardware limits to

virtualizatin● Resources – make VMs any size you want● Performance – VMs more than fast enough for

almost all workloads

ESX 1 ESX 2.x

ESX(i) 3.x

ESX(i) 4.x

ESXi5.0

ESXi5.1

Number of vCPUs 1 2 4 8 32 64GB RAM per VM 2GB 3.6GB 64GB 256GB 1TB 1TBNetwork I/O (Gb/s) .5GB .9GB 9GB 30GB >36GB >36GBStorage I/O Ops/sec

< 5k 7k 100k 300k 1,000k 1,000k

CPU Cores/ESXi host 4 8 96 128 160 160

VMware's goal is to make VMs so big and so fast that neither virtual hardware size nor the performance of virtual hardware will be a factor forcing you to deploy physi-cally rather than virtually.

Over time, VMware has significantly increased the maximum virtual hardware avail-able to a VM (more vCPUs, more RAM, more NICs, etc.). They've also worked to im-prove the throughput of virtual networks and virtual disks (as vCPU speed is deter-mined by the speed and capabilities of the physical CPUs and virtual memory speed is determined by the speed of physical RAM).

Virtual networking performance is dependent on the capabilities of the underlying physical network. For fastest virtual networking speed, deploy teamed 10GB NICs.

Virtual storage performance is improved through the use of very high speed storage adapters (8GB Fibre cards, 10GB iSCSI adapters) and through the use of virtualization aware Storage Area Networks (SANs). For example, VMware can now delegate many storage operations directly to the back end SAN (including file copy for VM cloning). This dramatically improves storage performance because the VM being copied can be copied within the SAN (and doesn't have to be copied to the ESXi host and back to the SAN as part of the copy operation).

Source: http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-5-0-whats-new-exciting

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VMware vSphere 5.1 EditionsStandard Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Maximum vCPUs per VM 8 8 32 64Maximum Physical RAM per ESXi host 32GB 2TB 2TB 2TB

● ● ● ●Thin Provisioning ● ● ● ●Update Manager ● ● ● ●

● ● ●Data Recovery ● ● ●High Availability ● ● ●

● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●

Fault Tolerance ● ● ●Hot Add Hardware ● ● ●

● ● ●Virtual Serial Port Concentrator ● ●DRS Load Balancing ● ●DRS Power Management ● ●

●Network, Storage I/O Control ●Host Profiles ●

vSphere vSphere vSphereESXi

ESXi + VSMP + VMFS

vSphere Storage Appliance

vShield EndPoint AntiVirusvSphere VM Hot ReplicationVMotionvShield Zones

Storage VMotion

vNetwork Distributed vSwitches

VMware licenses are expensive. To get the best value out of them, you should plan for high server consolidation rates. Consolidating 10-30+ legacy physical PC servers onto one ESXi host is very reasonable (the author has seen 50+ VMs on a single ESXi host, delivering great performance, on a number of occasions).

By consolidating many workloads onto a single PC server you avoid:

- The cost of refreshing older PC servers- The cost of maintenance contracts for these PC servers- The labor cost of physically migrating the OS and apps to a new server- Administrative and power costs running more PC servers- Reduced network switch and SAN switch port use

VMware licenses ESXi by the socket – so a two physical CPU machine would require two licenses.

vCenter server license(s) are also needed to take advantage of many features such as VMotion, Storage VMotion, Update Manager, High Availability, DRS, Fault Tolerance, Distributed Power Management, Distributed vSwitches and Host Profiles.

vSphere licensing options are explained in the following document http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

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http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

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Small Business Bundles

Essentials Essentials Plus3 3

Processor Cores/socket no limit no limit3 38 8

●

Data Recovery ●●

●

●

VM Hot Add CPU, Memory ●●

vSphere 5.1 vSphere 5.1

ESXi Servers (2 sockets)

vCenter Server NodesVSMP (Max vCPUs/VM)VMware HA

VMotionvSphere ReplicationvShield Endpoint

vCenter Storage Appliance

Features from http://www.vmware.com as of August, 2012Search for vsphere_pricing.pdf

VMware has created special license bundles that are targeted at small business. These license bundles provide smaller customers with virtualization and management capabilities for less than the cost of one (competent) PC server.

The Essentials Plus bundle adds hot migration (VMotion) rapid VMware failure recov-ery (VMware HA), automated patching and updating capability for ESXi hosts and Windows (Update Manager) and simple back up and recovery (Data Recovery). These added features make Essentials Plus a compelling offering.

VMware publishes full pricing information on their web site:

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/pricing.html

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http://www.vmware.comhttp://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/pricing.html

Notes




vSphere Acceleration Kits➲ 'Kits' are bundles of vSphere licenses● Offered at discounted prices● CPU entitlements bumps not available to Small

Business Essentials / Essentials PlusKit Name vCenter vSphere

Storage Appl.Server Entitlement

Max vCPUs per VM

Small Business Essentials

Essentials3 Host Max

No Max 3 Hosts, 2 CPUs each

8

Small Business Essentials Plus

Essentials3 Host Max

Yes Max 3 Hosts, 2 CPUs each

8

vSphere Standard Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 8vSphere Standard + Operations

Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 8

Enterprise Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 32Enterprise Plus Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 64

vSphere Kits (aka Acceleration Kits) are bundles of vSphere licenses that provide better value than purchasing vSphere and vCenter license entitle-ments individually.

There are two tiers of vSphere Kits:

Small Business – capped at 6 physical CPUs with no more than 2 CPUs/servervSphere – comes in Standard/Enterprise/Enterprise Plus

Small Business (Essentials / Essentials Plus) are non-expandable license bundles for very small businesses who will never need more than 3 ESXi hosts with no more than 2 physical CPUs per host. These are very economical li-censes that provide basic (Essentials) or highly capable (Essentials Plus) vir-tualization platforms.

vSphere kits are a great way to get started with vSphere virtualization. They provide license entitlements at various vSphere tiers (Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus) for 6 physical CPUs in any arrangement (per host). vSphere Kit customers can purchase additional physical CPU entitlements to grow their virtualization environment. Link:

www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/compare-kits.html

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vSphere Acceleration Kits➲ Acceleration kits typically include:● Fixed number of CPU licenses (eg.: 6 CPUs)● One vCenter Server license entitlement● May also include add-on licenses such as:● vSphere Storage Appliance● vSphere Operations Management

➲ Physical CPU entitlements can be added● So you can add servers to your environment● Not available for Small Business Essentials,

Essentials Plus● These max out at 3 servers of 2 CPUs each● vCenter for SBE, SBE+ is ESXi host limited to no

more than 3 ESXi hosts

For full VMware product bundling, pricing and support costs, please visit:

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/pricing.html

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http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter

Notes




VMware Service & Support (SnS)➲ Support contracts must be purchased with

all new licenses● Provides 1-3 years of unlimited support● No per-incident support charges

➲ Upgrades to new releases offered for alllicenses that have valid SnS contracts

➲ For non-active licenses (support expired)● You cannot upgrade across major releases● Can upgrade across minor releases

● E.g.: from vSphere 5.0 to vSphere 5.1● Out of support customers can reactivate by:● Paying all back support● Paying for the next year(s) support, and● A penalty for allowing your support to lapse

VMware sells its licenses with Service and Support (SnS) as a non-optional component. This entitles you to one year of support with unlimited incidents within the support hours specified in your support contract.

Software support must be renewed yearly. If you keep support renewed, you are entitled to upgrade vSphere licenses to future releases both within the same major release number (e.g.: upgrade from vSphere 5.0 to vSphere 5.1) or across major release numbers (e.g.: upgrade from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 when it becomes available).

If you let support lapse, you are no longer entitled to upgrades and VMware may block you from downloading newer versions of the software.

You may bring your licenses back into support by paying:

- support for the current year- support for all years your licenses were out of support- a 20% penalty on top of the above

Note: VMware acknowledges that bringing licenses back into support may, in some extreme cases, cost more than purchasing brand new licenses!

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VMware ESXi➲ Enterprise class

virtualization● Bare metal install● Lean hypervisor● Dynamically load

balances VMs● Assigns CPU, RAM

resources when needed, as needed

● If resources are scarce, idling VMs get little service

● Dynamically tunable

ESXi is a bare metal hypervisor. It is bare-metal because ESXi is installed upon and owns the physical PC server.

A hypervisor is an operating system whose primary task is running virtual machines rather than normal operating system tasks.

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Single Host Deployment➲ Single ESXi host● VMs share host CPU,

RAM, Disk, Network of the host system

● Manage with vSphere Client

● Low-cost or free● ESXi or vSphere

Standard Edition ● Benefits● Lower capital cost● Lowers power use● Faster deployments● Easier upgrades

The primary benefit that moves most organizations to virtualization is server consolida-tion (replacing physically deployed servers/workloads with virtual machines). While there are many benefits to consolidating onto ESXi there is one major risk – you have many workloads now dependent on the health of a single machine.

In the past, if a server failed, only one group of users were inconvenienced. With virtu-alization, a physical server failure has the potential to impact many more users.

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Multiple ESXi w. Shared Storage➲ Migrated VMs

onto shared SAN storage● VMs still run on

single host➲ No VMotion, DRS, HA

without vCenter➲ Some fault tolerance● If an ESXi host fails● Use Datastore Browser

to import VMs onto surviving host(s)

By moving your VMs onto shared storage, you untie your VMs from a single physical host. You also break the storage limits that may be imposed on you by your server platform.

But, best of all, you now have a simple way to recover VMs that fail due to a server failure. As we will see later, VMware provides a piece of software called the Datastore Browser. The Datastore Browser has the ability to reassign ownership of powered off VMs to other hosts.

So, if a server does fail...

- Log into a surviving ESXi host- Launch the Datastore Browser- Identify the VMs that failed when the ESXi host failed- Take ownership of these VMs using the Datastore Browser by adding them to the surviving ESXi host's inventory- Power on these VMs on the new host

While this approach is somewhat labor intensive, it does solve the problem of VMs being down because a host is down. You can automate VM recovery with VMware HA.

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vSphere Private Cloud➲ Add vCenter ● ESXi, VM, LAN,

Storage mgt.● Tasks & Events, Logs● Cold migration● Monitoring, Alarms● Scheduled Tasks

● Enables ● VMotion● Storage VMotion● High Availability● Load balancing ● Fault Tolerance● Back Up● etc.

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Private Cloud Computing➲ Dynamically provision hardware on demand● Provision what's needed, when needed● Physical hardware abstracted, shared

● Storage – Storage Area Networks (SANs)● Provision, grow LUNs on demand● LUNs usable by any or all ESXi hosts

● PC Servers – install ESXi to deploy, run VMs● Size servers for high VM tennancy● Provision new ESXi hosts as VM population grows● Dynamically load balance to maintain performance

● Networking – vNetwork Distributed vSwitches● Virtual switches that span ESXi hosts● Add physical uplinks to improve ESXi > LAN speed● Consistent configuration, metrics across ESXi hosts

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Storage Cloud➲ Storage Area

Networks (SANs)● Aggregate physical disks

into LUNs● Presents LUNs to ESXi● VMFS cluster filesystem● Safe concurrent access

● Grow LUNs as needed● Provision LUNs on

demand● Snapshot, back up LUNs● Shadow (replicate)

LUNs

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Server Cloud➲ Provision PC Servers

to meet capacity, performance needs● Buy a new PC server● Install ESXi, join

vCenter ● Add to DRS cluster:● VMs rebalance by mi-

grating onto new server● Reduces CPU, memory

use on other servers● Add to HA cluster:● Restarts VMs if an

ESXi host fails

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Network Cloud

➲ Distributed vSwitches span ESXi hosts● Unified view of all Port, Port Group settings● Simple, consistent, VMotion compatible configuration

● Common MAC address table● Supports internal Private vLANs

Distributed vSwitches are software objects that emulate a standard layer 2 switch. Distributed vSwitches span two or more ESXi hosts and provide consistent network functionality across all VMs, etc. that are plugged into the distributed vSwitch.

A distributed vSwitch has a single common MAC table and a unified set of perfor-mance counters. Because a vNetwork Distributed Switch configuration spans all ESXi hosts, they are especially helpful for VMotion because VMs will find exactly the same Port Group (configured exactly the same way) on any ESXi host that shares the dis-tributed vSwitch.

Distributed vSwitches are created and managed with the vSphere Client. You must have vCenter to create a distributed vSwitch.

You must have VMware vSphere Enterprise + to create and use vNetwork Distributed Switches.

For organizations that run Cisco enterprise networking products, VMware offers the Cisco Nexus 1000V distributed switch. This is an upgrade to VMware's default vNet-work Distributed Switch. The Nexus 1000V offers full Cisco IOS compatibility and can be managed and monitored with standard Cisco tools.

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What's New in vSphere 5➲ Bigger VMs and more VMs● Up to 64 vCPUs (V5.1), 1TB of RAM● Support for 2-8 Core vCPUs● Up to 512 VMs/ESXi with up to 2048 vCPUs

➲ Better USB support● USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 support● USB devices can be plugged into the ESXi

host or your vSphere Client PC➲ Storage Load Balancing● New Storage DRS capacity/load balanced

storage volume groups● Helps ensure you don't slow down on over

worked volumes or run out of space

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What's New in vSphere 5➲ New VMFS 5 supports● Volumes up to 64TB● Raw Device Maps for volumes > 2TB● Unlimited blocks per file

➲ Solid State Device support for● ESXi host cache improves disk reads perf.● Fast VMkernel paging space

➲ vSphere Replication● Hot replicates VMs to another host or site● Minimizes VM downtime due to disasters

➲ Single Sign On (V5.1)● Central authentication service● Can connect to AD, OpenLDAP, NIS

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What's New in vSphere 5➲ Storage vMotion can hot migrate VMs

with snapshots➲ New vSphere Web Client (V5.1)● New primary administrative interface with

capabilities not in legacy vSphere Client● Simultaneously VMotion + Storage VMotion a VM

➲ VMware vCenter Appliance● SuSE Linux based vCenter server● Includes Postgress (free) or connect to

Oracle databases➲ Auto-deploy ESXi host capability● Simplifies install and upgrade of ESXi hosts● New stateful/stateless caching (V5.1)

Auto Deploy Caching

Auto deploy caching is the installation of an ESXi install image to local hard disk storage. In vSphere 5.0, auto deploy simply booted the ESXi host from the network and then applied a Host Profile to set the ESXi host's configura-tion. This created problems when a host rebooted and the auto deploy ser-vice was unavailable. To solve this problem, VMware created:

Stateless Caching where the ESXi host;- Gets its IP properties via a dedicated DHCP lease- Boots from the network- Gets its configuration from Host Profiles- Is added to any configured clustersBenefit is that a local operating system image is present on the host so that if auto deploy is unavailable during a reboot, the local image is booted

Stateful Caching where the ESXi host:- First time boots, installs and runs like Stateless Caching but- The host is configured to boot off local disk for all future bootsSimplifies the install of ESXi operating system images to host local hard disks

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What's New in vSphere 5.1➲ Additional features in vSphere 5.1● Hardware Version 9 ● Support for shared, high end GPUs in ESXi hosts

● Perfect for CAD/CAM, graphics intensive virtual desktops● vNetwork Distributed Switch upgrades● vSwitch health checks● Configuration change roll back and recovery● Back up and restore● Link Aggregation Control Protocol NIC teams● Improved vSwitch port replication

● vShield EndPoint hypervisor based antivirus● Save/restore Resource Pool configuration● Useful when you disable/enable DRS

● Normally RP configurations lost on DRS disable/enable

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Chapter 2 – Installing and Configuring ESXiPhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted



Chapter 2 – VMware ESXi

How to Install, ConfigureVMware ESXi 5.1Evaluation Copy

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Stand Alone ESXi➲ ESXi Overview➲ ESXi Installation Procedures● Perform the install● Configure Networking, Security● Post-Install best practices

➲ Best PracticesEvaluation Copy

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Project Plan

➲ By the end of this chapter, we will have● Installed ESXi onto a stand alone server● Partitioned local storage for ESXi, VM use● Connected to ESXi using the vSphere Client

Our first step in this class is to install ESXi onto stand alone PC servers and then con-nect to those newly installed ESXi hosts using the vSphere Client and SSH. In future chapters we will add to our original implementation. Our ultimate objective is a scalable, highly redundant, load balanced Virtual Infrastructure implementation that supports a large community of Windows 2003 / 2008 / 2012, desktop, Linux and other VMs.

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Problems & Opportunities➲ Problems● Server consolidation● DNS, DHCP, Web,

File & Print, AD, DC● Reduce costs● Capital $● Hardware support $● IT staff admin time

● Free up rack space● Increase server

utilization rates● Position for future

growth, flexibility

➲ Virtual Solution● ESXi or vSphere hosts● Up to 2TB RAM● Up to 32 1gb NICs● Up to 8 10gb NICs● Local, shared storage

volumes, file shares● Consolidate many

workloads onto one ESXi host

vSphere Standard Edition is a low cost version of VMware ESXi especially intended for entry level virtualization deployments that offer the following hardware capabilities

One or more physical CPUs Will use up all available physical memory Local disks or RAID volumes on supported SATA, SCSI or SAS controllers Up to 32, 1gb NICs including dual and quad NICs Up to 8, 10gb NICs iSCSI hardware and software initiators Fibre host bus adapter support and Use of NFS shares.

With the ability to run up to 8 light duty or 2-4 medium duty VMs per physical CPU core, ESXi or vSphere Standard Edition is an excellent choice for entry level server consolidation projects.

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ESXi Block Diagram

VMware ESXi is a bare-metal virtualization hypervisor solution. As such, it must in-stall on an industry standard PC server. Please check VMware's Hardware Compatibil-ity Guide (portal on www.VMware.com web site) for the most up to date list of sup-ported PC servers.

Because it owns the hardware, ESXi is in full control of resource assignments to run-ning VMs. The VMkernel, allocates hardware resources on an as-needed basis. In this way, the VMkernel can prevent idling VMs from wasting CPU cycles that could other-wise be used by busy VMs. Likewise, the VMkernel keeps track of needed RAM, not just requested or allocated RAM. It can dynamically re-assign RAM to memory starved VMs, thereby ensuring that VMs get the memory they need to run.

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http://www.VMware.com

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Scalable ESXi Deployment

➲ SAN advantages● High performance● Higher availability● Capacity management● LUN Backup, replication● Disaster Recovery

➲ Local storage for● Boot, VMs, VM paging

➲ SAN LUNs● ESXi boot, swap, VMs

As your ESXi deployment matures (technically) you will want to introduce:

● Different LAN (virtual) segments to isolate network traffic. You could use different LAN segments for things like IP Storage, Management and production systems● Shared storage solutions including iSCSI, Fibre SAN and NFS shares● Hardware redundancy in the form of multipath storage solutions and teamed NIC configurations● You may even wish to consider a Boot From SAN or boot from USB/SD card solution so you don't need to provision and configure local storage.

Boot from SAN is available on supported Fibre SAN controllers and also with iSCSI SAN controllers (using iSCSI hardware initiators).

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ESXi Server Hardware➲ CPUs● 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 16

core physical CPUs● Max 160 cores/host

● Intel 64-bit Xeon only● Hyperthreading● Not old EMT64 CPUs

● AMD Opteron● NUMA local memory● All Opteron CPUs

supported● Memory● Min 2GB to boot● All remaining physical

RAM used for VMs

➲ Network● Up to 32 GB NICs● Up to 8 10GB NICs● VLAN, NIC Teams

➲ Storage● Local volumes

● SCSI, SAS, SATA● RAID, non-RAID● SSD

● iSCSI SANs● Fibre SANs● File Shares

● NFS only● No SMB support

ESXi is capable of using the largest PC server hardware platforms. Apart from what is stated above, ESXi is limited to:

● No more than 160 CPU cores (includes Hyperthreaded logical processors) for CPU scheduling purposes● All available RAM

Furthermore the following implementation limitations need to be considered:

● Modest selection of supported 10GB Ethernet controllers● Jumbo Frames supported, which will dramatically improve software iSCSI performance.

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ESXi Embedded, Installable➲ ESXi Embedded● Burned into flash on

the motherboard● Host boots ESXi after

POST● Boots from flash drive

● ESXi configuration can be on local stor-age or retrieved from the network via PXE

➲ ESXi Installable● Local disks● RAID or JBOD● Can run on SSDs

● USB boot ● No RAID controller● No hard disks● Install, boot from USB,

SD flash storage● Easy to duplicate● Most servers have

internal USB or SD card sockets so the device cannot be accidentally removed

JBOD – Just a Bunch of Disk. Physical disks in a non-RAID configuration.

VMware has officially retired ESX. That is, VMware will no longer release ESX for future releases of their software – just ESXi.

ESXi comes in two forms – Embedded and Installable. Embedded is baked into firmware on the motherboard of select PC servers. This lets you boot your server without any local storage.

ESXi Installable is a version of ESXi that can be installed onto local storage, USB memory keys or SAN storage. It is installed from CD media that you can download from www.vmware.com.

ESXi does away with the Service Console found in ESX 4.1 and older. This provides a smaller, leaner hypervisor than full ESX. It is also more secure be-cause there is less software (to exploit) and fewer services running on ESXi than there is on ESX.

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http://www.vmware.com

Notes




ESXi Install Steps➲ Install steps...● Boot your server from ESXi install media● Accept the EULA● Select target disk for installation● Select keyboard language● Set the root (administrator) password● Agree to partition and format disk● Reboot server when install complete

➲ Post install steps... log in to DCUI and● Select NIC for management traffic● Set static IP, host name, domain name● Test network configuration● Review (enable) local, remote Tech Support

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ESXi Boot Screen

➲ To begin your ESXi install, boot from CD● Hit ENTER to launch the installer

➲ Customized installs● Serve media from HTTP or NFS● Scripted installs simplify deployment

ESXi is installed in text mode – so your PC server doesn't need to have graphics capa-bility.

VMware makes it possible to set up an install server for ESXi so you can perform network based installs. Using Linux' KickStart capabilities, ESXi installations can be automated/scripted so you can install and configure new servers hands-off.

VMware also offers an ESXi automated deployment capability. This is part of the VMware vCenter Appliance that is new with vSphere 5.x.

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Accept the VMware EULA➲ You must

accept the VMware End User License Agreement before you install ESXi● Hit F11 to

proceed to the next step

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Select the Target Volume

➲ Installer displays available storage volumes● Categorized as Local or Remote● Local volumes are visible to just your host and

consist of local RAID, JBOD volumes● Remote volumes are visible SAN LUNs

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Performing an In-Place Upgrade

➲ You can upgrade ESXi 5.0 hosts to ESXi 5.1 by performing an in-place upgrade● Preserves local VMFS contents● Preserves ESXi host configuration● Preserves VMs, storage settings, etc.

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Keyboard, root Password

➲ Next, you specify:● Keyboard layout being used● The password for the ESXi 5.x root (local

administrator) account● There is no password reset tool for ESXi 5.x so don't

forget the root password

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Hardware Virtualization Assist

➲ Modern CPUs have H/W virtualization assist capabilities● Intel VT technology and AMD-V● Significantly reduces VM overhead

● Best Practice – Enable H/W virtualization features in the machine's BIOS if present

Virtualization abstracts the physical hardware to the VM. The VM guest oper-ating system normally expects to own all hardware and also expects to be able to execute privileged CPU instructions that are not available to applica-tions. If ESXi allowed guest operating systems full access to these instruc-tions, then the guest OS could manipulate hardware directly, possibly inter-fere with virtual memory page translation tables and perform other opera-tions that could compromise the ESXi host. To avoid this problem, VMware blocked guest OS' from privileged/dangerous instructions and CPU features through software that emulated (and controlled) what the guest OS could do. This worked but added significant overhead to some operations.

In 2006, both Intel and AMD introduced virtualization hardware assist tech-nology in their updated CPUs. These new CPUs added sophisticated memory management capabilities, better hardware emulation features and other im-provements that dramatically reduced the overhead of virtualization while maintaining compatibility with Guest OS'.

ESXi probes physical CPUs for Intel VT or AMD-V technology and attempts to use it if available (and warns if it isn't). Please be sure to turn on this fea-ture in your machine's BIOS.

For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization

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Ready to Install

➲ The installer is ready to proceed...● Selected volume is re-partitioned, formatted● All existing partitions on the selected volume are

deleted (unless you are upgrading)● All local storage is used for ESXi● No partition customization options are available

The installer will now install ESXi onto your selected storage volume. To do this, the in-staller:

- Wipes all partitions on the selected target storage volume- Creates partitions as needed (normally 8 partitions are created)

Useful information about the installation disk:- ESXi consumes about 4GB of disk space in overhead. The rest is for VM use- partition 4 is the boot partition and is located at the front of the disk (behind the Master Boot Record and partition table)- partitions 2 and 4, 5, 6 & 8 are for ESXi use and occupy the front of the disk- partition 7 is a vmkcore partition (partition code 0xfc) and is a ESXi partition used to hold crash dumps- partition 3 consumes all remaining disk space and is partitioned and formatted as a VMware File System (VMFS)

Note: ESXi 5.x can install on > 2TB volumes. ESX(i) 4.1 and earlier cannot.

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Installation Completed

➲ Once your installation has completed, hit Enter to reboot to ESXi

It only takes about 3-5 minutes to install ESXi 5.1 onto your PC server. The install proceeds non-interactively. A status indicator updates a percent completed horizon-tal bar.

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ESXi 5.1➲ ESXi is a small foot-

print, bare metal hypervisor● Default – FQDN and

IP properties acquired via DHCP

● Use F2 at the boot screen to set up your ESXi 5.1 host

● Use F12 to shutdown or reboot your host

● Simple BIOS like interface

ESXi has a simple, BIOS-like interface that makes it very easy to configure. To con-figure your ESX host, simply hit F2 at the greeter screen.

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Log In for the First Time

➲ The administrator account for ESXi is root● The root password is set during install● Do not lose the root password – there is no

easy way to recover it!

The ESXi administrator account is root (the traditional Linux administrator account). When you install ESXi, the system defaults to:

- The root password is set during installation- IP properties set via DHCP- No command line access (either locally or remotely)

In the next few slides, we will discuss how to change these values.

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ESXi Configuration Menu

➲ Configure ESXi via a simple text interface● Current menu item settings displayed on the

right side of the screen● Hit Enter to activate a menu function

The ESXi configuration menu is a simple text interface where you complete your server's customizations.

Use the up/down arrows to move to a function. When a function is highlighted, its properties and the command keys used to modify that function are displayed on the right.

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Default Management IP Settings

➲ ESXi hosts uses DHCP on first install● Host name, domain name and the IP address

is assigned using an IP address out of the DHCP lease pool● Example above reclaims a desktop PC lease!

● ESXi needs static IP properties

You must set the IP properties of your ESXi host before you can manage it. Select Configure Management Network to set the:

- Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)- IP address- Netmask- Default Gateway

and other properties.

You can set these values statically or dynamically using DHCP. DHCP servers can send static properties to a host. To do thi

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