Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish Editor-in-Chief their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in Mark Taub this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations Acquisitions Editor have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. Trina MacDonald The author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but Development Editor make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no Songlin Qiu responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the Managing Editor information or programs contained herein. Kristy Hart The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in Project Editor quantity for bulk purchases or special sales, which may include electronic Betsy Harris versions and/or custom covers and content particular to your business, Copy Editor training goals, marketing focus, and branding interests. For more information, Keith Cline please contact: Indexer U.S. Corporate and Government Sales Brad Herriman (800) 382-3419 Proofreader [email protected] Williams Woods For sales outside the United States please contact: Publishing International Sales Technical Reviewers [email protected] George Vish Ken Cline Visit us on the web: informit.com/ph Steve Beaver Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Dave Mishchenko Siebert, Eric, 1966- Publishing Coordinator Olivia Basegio VMware VI3 implementation and administration / Eric Siebert. Cover Designer p. cm. Chuti Prasertsith ISBN 978-0-13-700703-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. VMware. 2. Virtual computer systems. I. Title. Compositor QA76.9.V5S48 2009 Nonie Ratcliff 005.4’3—dc22 2009007980 Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to: Pearson Education, Inc. Rights and Contracts Department 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900 Boston, MA 02116 Fax (617) 671-3447 VMware is a trademark of VMware, Inc. Used with permission. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-700703-5 ISBN-10: 0-13-700703-5 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Stoughton, Massachusetts. First printing May 2009 Foreword

Virtualization is fundamentally changing the data center and how we approach computing. A friend recently showed me a demo of his latest project, a 3D simulation of a data center. In the demo, your avatar would walk around the rows of racks in a virtual representation of your physical facility. With a click of the mouse, a server in a rack would open like a drawer and a little status screen would emerge and hover in the air in front of your virtual data center administrator. “That’s a really fun demo,” I told my friend, “but it would have actually been useful even five years ago. Now? Not so much.” My friend, who had been in the software industry for 30 years, had missed the wildfire impact that virtualization has had on the IT industry. The hardware is still there, racked up and plugged in, but the physical server is no longer the unit of work or the unit of manage- ment in the data center. We no longer look at one physical machine at a time; we manage entire data centers in a single pane of glass. And just as I don’t care exactly which disk sec- tor my bits are stored on, in most cases these days I don’t care which physical server my applications are running at the moment—or even my desktop. (I’m happy to report my friend has seen the light and is now building a virtual representation of his virtual infrastructure.) The wave of x86 virtualization technology from VMware and others has enabled this transformation, but the benefits of the technology are what have supercharged the velocity of the change. My employer, VMware, reports its 130,000 customers can reduce hardware and operating costs by as much as 50%, reduce energy costs by 80%, reduce the time it takes to provision new servers by up to 70%, and save more than $3,000 per year for every server workload virtualized. Usually the savvy IT professional takes marketing numbers from a vendor with a grain of salt, but just talk to your fellow IT professionals for confir- mation. Every day on blogs and social networks, I see messages pass by like “I Love VMware,” “Snapshots saved my bacon once again,” and “Entering maintenance mode, watching production servers VMotion while eating lunch at my desk.” One of the paradoxes of virtual infrastructure is that most things are the same as physical infrastructure, while at the same time being completely different. You’re running ix Foreword

the same applications in the same topologies. You can treat the applications basically the same as you had been doing previously—after all, from inside the virtual machine, the work- loads think they’re still back in a physical box. But at the same time, virtualization touches and transforms every part of the enterprise software stack: networking, storage, security, dis- aster recovery, management, provisioning, and other business processes, and even how you handle the financials. As a result, the syllabus for a virtualization training class often looks like a complete university curriculum in information technology because it has to touch on all these areas. Virtualization experts are the mixed martial artists of IT—experts in kicks, punches, throws, and wrestling moves. Because of this breadth of impact, virtualization can be daunting. VMware has had a robust set of user forums for years, where the storage expert and the networking expert can come together and help each other with their virtual infrastructure projects—and both become virtualization experts in the process. By now, the VMware Communities is the best enterprise software online community I’ve ever seen, and by far the best place to ask a quick or not-so-quick question about your virtual infrastructure. There you’ll often see esiebert 7625, the author of this book, answering questions and adding to the conversation. Eric Siebert is a natural encyclopedist and cataloguer. You can now find more informa- tion about VMware online than most of us can comfortably digest—documentation, white papers, presentations, blogs, wikis, magazines, and community sites abound. On the Communities, Eric has a knack for not only answering your question, but also always seem- ing to have a set of links to resources that explain the answer and give you a mini-course in why the answer is the way it is. That’s why on the VMware Communities, you’ll see a little brain icon with “Guru” beside Eric’s handle. Eric is a prime example of the Roman philosopher Seneca’s maxim docendo discimus—by teaching we are learning. Eric is a working, hands-on VMware administrator and 25-year IT veteran, but with his work helping literally thousands on the VMware Communities and through his website, freelance writing, and blogging, Eric truly has become an expert educa- tor. Eric was recently one of the first recipients of the VMware vExpert award for his contri- butions giving back to other virtualization users. This book, written by an expert educator and hands-on practitioner, takes you through the full lifecycle of a virtual infrastructure implementation, clearly lays out both the concepts and the steps required for someone new to virtualization, and can serve as a quick, clear review of best practices for the more experienced virtualization administrator. I wish you luck in your journey in virtualization. The first time you come into work in the morning and realize that one of your servers restarted during the night because of VMware’s High Availability feature, but neither your monitoring systems nor your end users noticed anything amiss, I encourage you to march into your boss’s office and ask for a promotion and a raise. You will have earned it.

John Troyer VMware Communities Palo Alto, CA x Introduction

Virtualization is not a new technology, but it has gained popularity in recent years and is used to some degree in almost all datacenters. For most companies, it’s not a question of when they are going to virtualize their infrastructure but how much they are going to vir- tualize. Virtualization has many benefits over traditional physical servers, and the tech- nology is constantly evolving and improving to further make the decision of whether to virtualize an easy one. In addition to the many vendors offering virtualization hypervi- sors, such as VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix, the physical hardware technology vendors, such as AMD and Intel, are changing their products to optimize them to work with vir- tual hosts. In addition, a large amount of vendors have written virtualization-specific applications or modified their applications and hardware to work in virtual environments because they recognize that virtualization is here to stay. Virtualization is so popular now that almost all software vendors support it. So, you don’t have to worry about issues with a vendor supporting their application running in a virtual environment. In addition, most vendors have changed their licensing policies so that they are friendly to running on virtual machines. If you are looking at this book, you must be interested in learning more about virtual- ization and how to implement it. This book was written to cover all the various phases of implementing a virtualization project using VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3, from the initial planning stages all the way through designing, building, configuring, maintaining, troubleshooting, and more. VMware has made it fairly easy to install and use their virtu- alization products, but there’s a lot you need to know to properly set up your environ- ment and to understand how everything works, including the differences between

1 Introduction

physical and virtual servers. This book walks you through the various stages and pro- vides information and tips to guide you through them so that you make informed decisions, use best practices, and avoid common mistakes. This book was written using ESX version 3.5 Update 3 and vCenter Server version 2.5 Update 3. VMware is continuously updating their products to further improve them and provide more features and functionality, and as of the writing of this book, VMware is close to releasing their next-generation product (VI4), tentatively named vSphere. This new version should be an exciting release as VMware continues to build on their Virtual Datacenter OS vision and to head toward their vCloud initiative. Look for a follow-up to this book that will help you under- stand the new version and how to implement and administrate it and upgrade to it from the VI3 release. A friend of mine likes to say that virtualization is a journey, not a project. The journey begins with learning about virtualization, but does not end after you implement it. Virtualization is an enabling technology that will change the way you do things in your datacenter and provide you with greater flexibility and more options for administering your servers. My own virtualization journey began many years ago as part of a server consolidation project and continues today; I am still learning and adapting to all the new technologies and features that come with each new release. So head on over to the first chapter and let your own journey into virtu- alization begin!

2 Chapter 1 Assessing Your Current Environment

Before starting on your virtualization journey, it is important to thoroughly understand your current IT infrastructure. By introducing virtualization into your environment, you are making a big change that will have a ripple effect on all parts of your environment. Standard procedures such as monitoring, backups, patching, and administration will all be affected by this. In addition, all components of your infrastructure will most likely be affected in some way by this big change. As a result, you need to assess all parts of your infrastructure, not just the servers you plan to virtualize, to uncover any potential problems or hur- dles that may impact your project. The old woodworking rule “measure twice, cut once” also applies with computers. You can save yourself from making costly mistakes by making sure you get accurate measure- ments before you begin.

An Important Note In December 2008, VMware announced that they were changing the product names of some of the components in VI3. This was done to better align the product naming with their Virtual Datacenter OS vision. The main change involved introducing vCenter as the new name for their many automation and management products. This affected VirtualCenter, which was renamed as vCenter Server, and so subsequently this book has been updated to use this new name. However, although the name of the product has changed, the application and documen- tation for VI3 has not, and you will still see the old name used in both. This name change applies only to VirtualCenter Server 2.5, and the terms vCenter Server and VirtualCenter refer

3 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

to the exact same product. Older 2.0.x versions of VirtualCenter continue to use that name and are not considered part of the change. It is expected that the new name will be fully used in the application and documentation when VMware introduces their next major release of ESX and vCenter Server (VI4 or vSphere) sometime in 2009. In addition, some of the other products have had the name vCenter added to the beginning of their names, such as vCenter Converter and vCenter Update Manager, and that has also been reflected in this book.

Documenting Your Current Server Environment Most virtualization projects will involve migrating your current physical servers to virtual machines (VMs). Therefore, it is important that you thoroughly understand your current envi- ronment before attempting to migrate it to virtual servers. By doing this, you can ensure that you purchase properly sized server hardware and the right number of VMware licenses. It’s a good idea to do a thorough inventory of all your current physical servers so that you know exactly what you have before you start virtualizing. Also identify what you intend to do with the old physical hardware after it has been virtualized. Often, you may end up reusing newer physical hardware as ESX hosts. It’s best to decide what you will do with your old servers as part of your planning so that you will know exactly what hardware you will be discarding, reusing, and leaving alone.

Watch Out! Don’t virtualize known problems; make sure your current server environment is healthy before attempting to virtualize it. For example, if you have existing performance or applica- tion problems in a physical environment, attempt to resolve those before moving them to a virtual environment.

Measuring Your Current Performance Usage Measuring your current performance is necessary so that you can get a good idea of how your current environment is performing. By doing this, you can ensure that you properly size your virtual hardware and can avoid any bottlenecks on your ESX hosts. Doing this before you start your project is important so that you do not run into any surprises that can cause prob- lems during your deployment phase.

4 Measuring Your Current Performance Usage

What to Measure You should focus on four general performance categories: CPU, memory, disk, and network. You should gather these metrics for a minimum of one week, and preferably over a one- month period of time. Gathering these metrics for a longer period of time gives you a better understanding of any performance trends that you may be experiencing that might not hap- pen on a regular basis. It is also important to gather metrics during critical business cycles (for example, weekly payroll processing or a monthly reporting process) where performance may spike. The combined results of these metrics will help determine your overall consolida- tion ratio (number of VMs per ESX host) and how many ESX servers you will need for the number of physical servers that you want to virtualize. Consolidation ratios can vary from as little as 2:1 to as high as 50:1 based on the total amount of resources that your VMs will require and the size of your ESX host servers. Let’s go over the categories, some important metrics, and some guidelines on each one.

Measuring CPU Usage Typically, most Windows servers have very low overall CPU usage (< 10%), which is why vir- tualization is a great solution to maximize your hardware resources and reduce the number of physical servers in your environment. Average processor utilization is the best metric to use to measure how busy a server actually is. It will give you an overall indication of how much processor the physical server is using, which you can use to help plan your ESX host size. Most servers will peak near 100% at various times, but the peaks are not as important as the overall average utilization. High processor queue lengths can indicate a bottleneck on a physi- cal server, which may disappear in a virtual environment because of the way the ESX hyper- visor handles the scheduling and processing of CPU requests. Table 1.1 lists the CPU metrics that you will want to watch to determine the amount of CPU usage on your servers.

Table 1.1 Important CPU Metrics

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

Processor queue Processor queue length is the number of A sustained processor queue length (average threads in the processor queue. There is a length of ten or more threads and maximum) single queue for processor time even on typically indicates a processor computers with multiple processors or cores. bottleneck. Therefore, if a computer has multiple processors, you need to divide this value by the number of processors servicing the workload.

continues…

5 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

Table 1.1 continued

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

% processor time % processor time is the percentage of elapsed This value indicates how much (average and time that the processor spends to execute a CPU that your server is actually maximum) non-idle thread. It is calculated by measuring using, which can be used to the duration the idle thread is active in the plan the amount of CPU sample interval and subtracting that time from needed on a virtual host. the interval duration. (Each processor has an idle thread that consumes cycles when no other threads are ready to run.) This counter is the primary indicator of processor activity, and displays the average percentage of busy time observed during the sample interval. It is calculated by monitoring the time that the service is inactive and subtracting that value from 100%.

Measuring Memory Usage The actual amount of physical memory that a server uses will determine how much memory your ESX hosts will need to be able to support all the VMs on it. It is possible to overcommit an ESX host (assigning VMs more memory than the host physically has), but it is not recom- mended in most cases because it will degrade the performance of your VMs once your host’s physical memory has been used up. Table 1.2 lists the memory metrics that you will want to watch to determine the amount of memory usage on your servers.

Table 1.2 Important Memory Metrics

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

Available free Available MBytes is the amount This value indicates how much physical memory (average of physical memory, in memory is not being used by your server. and least) megabytes, immediately avail- If you have excessive free memory then able for allocation to a process consider reducing the amount of RAM or for system use. It is equal to assigned to the server when moving it to the sum of memory assigned to a virtual host. the standby (cached), free, and zero page lists.

6 Measuring Your Current Performance Usage

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

Pages/sec (average Pages/sec is the rate at which This value counts the number of times and maximum) pages are read from or written per second that the computer must to disk to resolve hard page access virtual memory rather than physi- faults. This counter is a primary cal memory. This number normally indicator of the kinds of faults increases as available memory decreases. that cause systemwide delays. Too many pages/sec can cause excessive disk activity and create a disk bottleneck. This often indicates that a system does not have enough physical memory.

Measuring Disk Usage The important things to know about a disk are how much you are using (disk space) and how much reading and writing to the disk that each server does (transfer rate). Disk is the slowest of the resources because it relies on a mechanical device and is usually the first bottleneck to performance in most systems. Therefore, it is important to understand how much disk activ- ity your servers will be doing so that you can select a proper storage solution for your virtual hosts. It’s also important to factor in the number of spindles (hard disks) in your redundant array of inexpensive disk (RAID) groups on your physical servers. A RAID group with more spindles will have better disk performance than one with fewer spindles. If you were to virtu- alize a physical server with a ten-spindle RAID group, you may not get the same performance if your ESX host is configured with only a five-spindle RAID group. Table 1.3 lists the disk metrics that you will want to watch to determine the amount of disk usage on your servers.

Table 1.3 Important Disk Metrics

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

% disk time % disk time is the percent- Similar to % processor time, this can be useful in char- age of elapsed time that the acterizing the workload and gives a general indication selected disk drive was busy of how busy the disk is. servicing read or write requests.

continues…

7 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

Table 1.3 continued

Average disk Average disk queue length is This tells you how many I/O operations are waiting queue length the average number of both for the hard disk to become available. This number read and write requests that should be as low as possible; a high number (> 5) can were queued for the selected indicate an I/O bottleneck depending on the number disk during the sample of spindles (hard disks) in your RAID group. It’s best interval. to divide your average queue length by the number of spindles in your RAID group to get a more accurate number.

Disk Disk bytes/sec is the rate This provides information about the throughput of the bytes/sec bytes are transferred to or disk system and how busy it is. from the disk during write or read operations.

Physical disk Disk transfers/sec is the rate This is the total number of read and write requests transfers/sec of read and write operations processed per second (commonly known as I/O opera- on the disk. tions per second or IOPS). Like disk bytes/sec, this also measures the throughput of the system. The dif- ference is that this counter does not consider the size of the request, just the fact that it is a request.

Measuring Network Usage Network is a resource that typically is plentiful in virtual hosts because you can easily put many multiport high-speed network interface cards (NICs) in your ESX servers. You should still identify any servers that generate a large amount of network traffic so that you can add extra NICs if needed, and it will also help you when you build and configure your virtual switches (vSwitches). Also, network traffic between VMs that are on the same vSwitch does not go over the physical network (it travels along the host bus), which could reduce the amount of network traffic generated by your servers after they are virtual. Table 1.4 lists the network metrics that you will want to watch to determine the amount of network usage on your servers.

8 Measuring Your Current Performance Usage

Table 1.4 Important Network Metrics

Statistic Description Why This Is Important

Bytes total/sec Bytes total/sec is the rate at which bytes are This counter shows the sent and received over each network adapter, amount of traffic through including framing characters. Network inter- your network interface in face\\bytes received/sec is a sum of network byte per second. interface\\bytes received/sec and network interface\\bytes sent/sec.

How to Measure It You can determine your current performance usage in a number of ways: I Use existing enterprise monitoring systems. I Use operating system built-in performance monitoring tools (PerfMon). I Use third-party analysis tools such as PlateSpin PowerRecon or Tek-Tools Profiler for VMware. I Contact a VMware business partner and have them install the Capacity Planner tool in your environment.

VMware’s Capacity Planner Capacity Planner is a powerful tool that automatically collects all the relevant performance metrics on each Windows server in your environment and prepares a report that you can use to determine your hardware requirements for your virtual environment. It can identify trends in your environment and make recommendations for grouping physical servers on virtual hosts. It uses the built-in Microsoft performance counters and does not require that an agent be installed on each server that will be analyzed (it uses the WMI and the Remote Registry service). The Enterprise dashboard screen from Capacity Planner, along with all the other available options, is shown in Figure 1.1. Currently, Capacity Planner is provided by VMware to its business partners only and is not available to the general public. Most business partners will install and configure it in your environment for you for free as long as you plan on buying software/hardware and profes- sional services from them for your virtualization project. Using Capacity Planner is the best method for collecting data from your servers and reporting on it, because it was developed specifically for infrastructure assessment and data analysis and will provide consolidation estimates, recommendations, and capacity assessments.

9 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

Figure 1.1 Sample screen from VMware’s Capacity Planner tool

Beginning with vCenter Server version 2.5, a “lite” version of Capacity Planner was inte- grated into vCenter Server as a feature called Guided Consolidation. This utility uses a built- in wizard to discover physical systems and analyze them to prepare them to be converted into VMs. Once these systems have been analyzed, they can be converted into VMs by the built-in VMware Converter feature of vCenter Server 2.5. The data gathered by this utility is basic and does not use some of the more advanced metrics that the full version of Capacity Planner uses. It can analyze up to 100 systems simultaneously and reports only on average CPU and memory utilization. Because of its limitations, it is recommended that you use a more robust performance monitor for your initial implementation. We discuss this feature in detail in a later chapter.

Using Built-In Operating System Tools to Gather Server Performance Statistics For your Windows servers, you can use the Windows built-in performance monitor utility (PerfMon) to measure your server’s statistics. The downside to this method is that you will have to set up, collect, and review the statistics for each server individually, which can be time-consuming if you have many servers. Alternatively, you can set up a dedicated worksta- tion or server to centrally monitor and collect statistics from each server. Most Linux servers have only built-in real-time statistic reporting tools. You may look at some free tools that provide historical performance reporting for Linux servers, like Sysstat (http://pagesperso-orange.fr/sebastien.godard/). If you do choose to use PerfMon to gather your statistics, the following steps will help you set up and configure it. Before you begin, if you are going to use a central workstation to collect statistics, make sure the Performance Logs and Alerts service on the workstation is

10 Measuring Your Current Performance Usage

configured to start with a domain account that has access to every server that you want to monitor: 1. Load the PerfMon utility on a workstation or server (Administrative Tools > Performance). 2. In the left pane, select Counter Logs (located under Performance Logs and Alerts). 3. Select Action from the top menu (or right-click Counter Logs) and choose New Log Settings. 4. Enter a descriptive name for your log settings. 5. Click the Add Counters button. 6. Choose the Select Counters from Computer option, and type in the name of one of the servers you are going to monitor below it. Be sure and include the \\ before the Windows server name. 7. After you enter your server name, it will connect to it and display a list of available counters below it, as shown in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 PerfMon Add Counters window

8. Select the performance object that you want to display counters for (for example, processor, memory, network interface), and then select the individual counter (for instance, Pages/sec), select All Instances if it is applicable (except for Network Interfaces, you do not want to select the Loopback interface) and not grayed out, and then click the Add button. 9. Repeat this for every performance counter that you want to monitor on the server. The recommended counters you will want to add are listed here:

11 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

Memory: Available MBytes Memory: Pages/sec Processor: % processor time System: Processor queue length Network Interface: Bytes total/sec Physical Disk: % Disk Time Physical Disk: Avg. disk queue length Physical Disk: Disk bytes/sec Physical Disk: Disk transfers/sec 10. After you have added all counters for a particular server, you can type in a new server name to continue adding counters for other servers. 11. Click the Close button after you have added all counters. 12. Select the data sample interval, as shown in Figure 1.3; the default is 15 seconds, which is an aggressive interval and will result in more peak instances because of the shorter sampling period. You may want to consider changing this to a high interval between one and five minutes so that you do not overwhelm the workstation and cause it to miss data from some of the servers. 13. Click OK to save your custom log settings.

Figure 1.3 PerfMon Log Settings window

12 Measuring Your Current Performance Usage

14. Collection will automatically begin (as indicated when the icon turns green). The results will be written to a log file (for example, C:\PerfLogs\MyServers000001.blg). You can stop it at any time by selecting your log settings and selecting Action, Stop (or by right-clicking it and selecting Stop). When you stop a collection, the log file it has written to is no longer used; a new log file is created once you start it again. 15. If you have stopped your collection, you can review it by selecting System Monitor in the left pane, and then clicking the Disk icon (View Log Data). Then, on the Source tab, select your log file that was created; optionally, you can change the time range. On the Data tab, add your performance counters for each server. On the General tab, select your view type (Graph, Histogram, or Report) and click OK. Your counter will be displayed, and you can see the minimum, maximum, and average results for each one, as shown in Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4 PerfMon resulting historical data for each counter

16. It’s a good idea to test this for a short period (for example, one hour) and review the results to make sure it is working before you leave it running for a longer period of time.

Using Enterprise Monitoring Systems If you are using an existing monitoring system, try to report on only the appropriate statistics that will be relevant to determining your needs to size your virtual hosts. Too many statistics can make it more difficult to determine how busy a host is in each of the categories. Also, remember that when you convert your physical servers to VMs your enterprise monitoring system may not report accurate statistics because of the differences inherent with virtual environments.

What to Do with the Data You Collect After you have gathered your performance statistics, you should group your servers into three categories:

13 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

I High overall resource utilization I Medium overall resource utilization I Low overall resource utilization Then identify the servers that have the highest resource utilizations in specific areas: CPU, memory, disk, and network. You should then review the servers in the high overall resource utilization category to make sure that virtualizing them makes sense. Also, do the same for the top few servers in each of the specific resource areas. When you’ve determined which servers you want to virtualize, you can move on to sizing your hardware to match your expected workload. It is helpful to put together a spreadsheet that contains the following information about your physical servers to help you add up the amount of CPU, memory, and disk needed for your ESX hosts: I Server name I Model I Operating system I Function I Number of CPUs I Speed of CPUs I Total disk space I Total disk space used I Physical memory Next, add your performance measurements to it: I Average CPU usage (% processor time) I Maximum CPU usage (% processor time) I Average processor queue length I Maximum processor queue length I Average available free memory I Minimum available free memory I Average memory pages/sec I Maximum memory pages/sec I Average % disk time I Maximum % disk time I Average disk queue length

14 Which Servers Are Not Good Virtualization Candidates?

I Maximum disk queue length I Average disk bytes/sec I Maximum disk bytes/sec I Average disk transfers/sec I Maximum disk transfers/sec Finally, add a ranking for each resource using a scale of one (least) to five (most) based on the averages for the measurements of each category. This ranking will help give you an idea of where each server ranks in usage for each of the resource areas. A server that has high ranking in more than two of the following categories may not be a good virtualization candi- date: I CPU resource usage I Memory resource usage I Disk resource usage I Network resource usage When you are done, you will have a spreadsheet that contains an inventory of all your physical servers and the resource usage statistics that you can use to help size your ESX hosts properly. In the next chapter, we discuss sizing hardware for your ESX hosts.

Which Servers Are Not Good Virtualization Candidates? Almost all servers and workloads can be virtualized, but in some cases you may not want to virtualize certain servers because of high-resource utilization, licensing issues, and applica- tion support issues. Let’s cover some reasons you might not want to virtualize certain servers and some reasons that you may consider virtualizing these types of servers: I High-resource utilization servers Why you might not want to virtualize. A server that has very high resource require- ments may not always be as good a fit as a virtual server. Typically, these types of servers have very high CPU and memory usage and high disk and network I/O, and on a virtual host where multiple servers are competing for resources they might not per- form as well. Why you should consider virtualizing. When virtualizing these types of servers, you may be able to have only one or two VMs on a host server. You might wonder why any- one would want to put just a single VM on an ESX host. The reason for this is to take advantage of some of the powerful features that virtualization offers such as snap- shots, VMotion, and high availability (HA) that are more difficult and costly to imple- ment in a physical environment. Also, virtualizing these servers can make for easier disaster recovery implementation and simplified hardware upgrades.

15 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

I Vendor licensing models Why you might not want to virtualize. Some applications, such as Oracle, do not have virtualization-friendly licensing and require you to license their software based on the number of physical CPUs in the host server and not the number of virtual CPUs assigned to the VM that is running the application. So, a VM with two virtual CPUs on a four-CPU host server would require you to purchase a license for four CPUs regard- less of the fact that the VM that is running the application has only two virtual CPUs. Why you should consider virtualizing. Thankfully, most vendors today license their software based on the number of CPUs assigned to the server regardless of whether they are physical or virtual. Other vendors are changing their licensing models to meet the growing demand for using virtual servers. Check with your vendor to see if they have changed their licensing model or have any plans to do so in the future. I Application support Why you might not want to virtualize. Some vendors will not provide support for their application if it is running on a virtual server. We discuss this in more detail later on. Why you should consider virtualizing. Very few vendors do not support running their applications on virtual servers. Consider alternative support options. (For example, HP provides support for both VMware and Microsoft products.) I Specific licensing requirements: Why you might not want to virtualize. Certain applications use stricter licensing meth- ods to prevent piracy and illegal use of their software. Examples of this are hardware dongles (parallel/serial port/USB device keys) that plug into the server and must be present at all times and specific MAC address or hard drive serial number licensing. If a VM moves from one host to another as a result of a failure or due to resource con- straints on a host, then the hardware dongle will no longer be present and the applica- tion will no longer work. Why you should consider virtualizing. There are ways to accommodate these types of licensing schemes on virtual servers. Digi makes a device called AnywhereUSB that works with ESX servers and provides IP-based connections to USB devices. I Hardware that cannot be virtualized Why you might not want to virtualize. Some servers might have nonstandard hard- ware like fax and modem boards that are not supported in ESX which supports only a limited, very specific set of hardware. Why you should consider virtualizing. Solutions are available for faxing and using modems via network connections over IP.

16 Application Compatibility

Should I Consider a 100% Virtualized Environment? Although you will find that having a 100% virtualized environment is certainly achievable, there are a few reasons why you might want to maintain a few physical servers: I Support issues. Some application vendors may require you to reproduce the problem on a physical server if they suspect the virtual host might be causing the problem. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep a physical server around for certain infrastructure components like Active Directory. If you have eight domain controllers in your envi- ronment, you might consider virtualizing six of them and leaving two of them as physi- cal servers. Same with database servers; if you leave one or two Oracle or SQL database servers as physical servers, it gives you the flexibility to move a database hosted on a VM to a physical server if the vendor requests it. I Infrastructure issues. If your environment suffers a major failure (for example, a stor- age area network [SAN] goes down or you experience a major network failure), you may lose most of your VMs. For this reason, you may want to copy at least one DNS/DHCP physical server (because many functions rely on DNS to work properly). I All the eggs in one basket. You will most likely be using shared storage with your ESX hosts to take advantage of all the features that require it. However, if something hap- pens to that storage, it will affect all your hosts and VMs that utilize it. To offset this risk, consider running a few of your key infrastructure VMs (for example, domain con- trollers, authentication servers, database servers, and DNS servers) on local disk rather than shared storage. That way the VM will not be affected if something happens to your shared storage device.

Application Compatibility The assessment of your environment should also include software applications in addition to hardware. You should do a complete inventory of applications running on your servers that you plan to virtualize so that you can ensure there will be no support or licensing issues when running them on virtual servers. You do not want to find out after you are done with your project that the application vendor will not provide support to you because the project is running on a virtual server. In addition, there might be special licensing considerations or configuration changes that need to be made to an application that has been virtualized: I Support issues. One of the first steps that you should complete when considering vir- tualization is to determine whether the applications you use are supported by the ven- dor in a virtualization environment. Almost all applications will run properly on virtual

17 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

servers, but you will find that vendors typically have varying levels of support for vir- tual servers. The levels you will see will include the following: Complete support for it. The vendor has certified their application to run on virtual servers and will support it without question. You will find most major applications will fall into this category, with a few notable exceptions, such as Microsoft. Best effort support. The vendor will make an effort to support their application on a vir- tual server but may ask you to reproduce the problem on a physical server if they determine that the virtual environment is at fault. Microsoft falls into this category; if you have premier-level support with them, they will make more of an effort to help you. No support. The vendor will provide no support for their application in a virtual envi- ronment. Typically, this is either because of known issues when running the applica- tion on a virtual server or that the vendor has not yet tested their product on virtual servers. If this is the case, you need to decide whether you want to risk virtualizing the application. If you do, plan for the times that you do need to contact support for help with problems (such as having a physical server available for reproducing the prob- lem). I Licensing issues. Some vendors have non-virtualization-friendly licensing models when you run their products on virtual servers; Oracle is a good example of this. Typically, they will still license based on the physical number of processors in the host server regardless of how many processors the VM has assigned to it. So for a VM run- ning on a four-CPU host that has only a single virtual CPU, you may be required to license for four CPUs. Other vendors will change their models slightly for virtual servers. For example, IBM has a new processor value unit formula that makes licensing on virtual servers much more difficult to calculate compared to physical servers. Other vendors will license differently based on clusters of servers with pooled resources. If this is the case, you may need to create a smaller cluster just for the specific applica- tion to keep costs down. It’s also common in virtual environments for a VM to not always be on the same host server because of features such as Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), HA, and VMotion. This can also cause headaches when licensing applications that are tied to specific hosts and hardware resources. It’s best to contact all your software application vendors and find out their virtualization support policy in the early stages of your project. You might find that it may cost more to run their appli- cations on virtual servers, but often the advantages that virtualization provides out- weigh the increased costs.

18 Getting Everyone On Board with Virtualization

Did You Know? Put together a spreadsheet of all your applications and check with each vendor to find out their virtualization support policy. Also check to see how they license their products in a virtual environment. Often, you can find this information on their website or in their knowledge base. Include columns for support level, licensing model, and the URLs to their policies. After you complete your spreadsheet, meet with the application owners to discuss the results and make sure they understand the vendor’s policy toward virtualization.

Getting Everyone On Board with Virtualization Virtualization introduces many unique and new concepts into your environment, and as a result many groups within IT often put up resistance to it. This is typically a result of the fear and mistrust of a nonstandard technology like VMware and is most often caused by the lack of understanding of how VMware works. Therefore, plan to educate everyone who will be involved in your virtualization project early on so that they have a good understanding about what VMware is and its capabilities and features. Once they learn more about it and discover the great benefits of virtualization, they will be better prepared and more willing to help you implement it. This section provides examples of the types of resistance you will experience from each group and how you can best deal with each of them. You will often find that most people who are initially negative toward VMware eventually become supporters after they learn more about it and experience it for themselves.

Did You Know? Before you attempt to explain virtualization concepts to other groups, make sure you understand the product thoroughly yourself. First download an evaluation copy, install and configure it, and make sure to read through the documentation. Also contact VMware or a business partner and have them assist you by presenting their product to your company.

The following subsections provide some tips for dealing with specific groups within IT to help them better understand virtualization concepts.

Dealing with Network Administrators Traditionally, most network groups manage the physical network connection of a server from the switch all the way to the NIC. Virtualization changes that with vSwitches, which

19 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

effectively extend the physical network from the NIC in an ESX host to a vSwitch that is man- aged by the ESX server and a virtual NIC that connects a VM to the vSwitch. This vSwitch is usually managed by ESX administrators and not network administrators, which can cause some concern among network administers because they can no longer control and manage part of the network that connects a virtual server to a physical network. 802.1Q VLAN tagging is a network technology commonly used when virtualizing servers. It enables you to use multiple VLANs on a single vSwitch and is a must-have in large envi- ronments. Without it, you would have to create a separate vSwitch for each VLAN and dedi- cate at least one NIC to it. This technology is not used that often with physical servers, and some network people might not have much experience with it. It’s fairly simple to set up and configure, and we cover more on this in a later chapter. Another networking area that is often a concern with virtualization is connecting VMs to your public demilitarized zone (DMZ) while keeping your ESX service console on your private internal network. The concern with this is that the ESX server is straddling the DMZ, because it has connections to both the private and public networks, and a potential attacker could compromise a VM in the DMZ and gain access to your internal network. The design of ESX does not allow for this to occur, and the only scenario in which this could potentially happen is if someone mistakenly configured a VM with two virtual NICs (vNICs), one being on an internal network vSwitch and the other on an external network vSwitch, which you would never want to do (unless the VM is acting as a firewall or proxy server). Here’s what you should tell your network administrators: I Explain the concept of vSwitches and vNICs and how they interact with physical switches and physical NICs. I Show them how to set up and configure a vSwitch and how to install a vNIC in a VM and connect it to a vSwitch. I Explain to them how ESX uses trunked network ports and how 802.1Q VLAN tagging works in a virtual networking environment. I Explain virtual network security principles and how vSwitches are isolated from each other so that traffic cannot leak between them. I Demonstrate NIC teaming and failover in a virtual switch.

By the Way Putting together a pilot project is a great way to learn and experience virtualization and demonstrate its capabilities and potential. Consider a small-scale project using the 60-day evaluation licenses with one to two ESX or ESXi hosts on some existing hardware. You might also try using the free VMware Server, which can run on a wide variety of hardware and operating systems as a good introduction to virtualization.

20 Getting Everyone On Board with Virtualization

Dealing with Developers Many developers will be concerned that their applications may not run properly on virtual servers. Another concern may be that software vendors will not support their products run- ning in virtual environments. Early on in your project, gather support statements from soft- ware vendors that show their level of support for virtualization. Demonstrate the snapshot and cloning features of VMware that will be a great benefit to them. Also explain what virtual hardware is and how VMs see the same hardware regardless of the underlying physical hard- ware (except for the CPU). By having consistent hardware on all servers, you can eliminate any potential problems that may be caused by using different hardware on different servers running the same applications. Here’s what you should tell your developers: I Show them statements of support for VMware from software vendors. I Show them a VM’s hardware configuration. I Explain how VM hardware can easily be modified (more RAM, more disk space, and so on). I Tell them about VMware’s capability to rapidly provision new servers and to have dedi- cated, isolated development sandboxes. I Show them information about the Lab Manager and Stage Manager automation prod- ucts that VMware offers as additional components to VI3. I Demonstrate creating snapshots and reverting back and cloning existing VMs and cre- ating new ones from templates.

Dealing with Security Administrators This is the group that tends to put up the most resistance to VMware because of the fear that if a VM is compromised it will allow access to the host server and the other VMs on that host. This is commonly known as “escaping the cave,” and is more an issue with hosted products such as VMware Workstation and Server and less an issue with ESX, which is a more secure platform.

By the Way The term escaping the cave comes from the analogy that a VM is trapped inside a cave on the host server. Every time it tries to escape from the cave, it gets pushed back in, and no matter what it does, it cannot escape from the cave to get outside. To date, there has never been an instance of a VM escaping the cave on an ESX server.

21 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

ESX has a securely designed architecture, and the risk level of this happening is greatly reduced compared to hosted virtual products such as Server and Workstation. This doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but as long as you keep your host patched and properly secured, the chances of it happening are almost nonexistent. Historically, ESX has a good record when it comes to security and vulnerabilities, and in May 2008, ESX version 3.0.2 and VirtualCenter 2.0.21 received the Common Criteria certification at EAL4+ under the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme (CCS). EAL4+ is the highest assurance level that is recognized globally by all signato- ries under the Common Criteria Recognition Agreement (CCRA). Another concern when it comes to security is with storage logical unit numbers (LUNs). The concern is that a VM that has its virtual disk on a SAN LUN that is shared with other VMs may allow for an attacker to access other data on that LUN or on the SAN fabric itself. Again, the secure design of ESX specifically prevents this from being possible. A VM cannot directly access the Fibre Channel cards in a host system and therefore cannot see anything beyond the virtual disk assigned to it. Here’s what you should tell your security administrators: I Show them the industry security certifications that ESX has achieved. I Explain how the design of ESX does not allow for VMs to directly access host hardware without going through the hypervisor. I Show them CIS ESX Host and Virtual Machine Benchmarks and Guidelines. I Allow them access to a VM so that they can verify its security for themselves. I Show them the vCenter Server roles and very granular permissions that control access to the ESX hosts and VMs. I Explain the ESX Service Console is not just a Linux operating system but a modified and more secure version based on Red Hat Linux. In addition, explain how ESXi no longer has a Service Console and is less vulnerable than ESX. I Explain that the guest operating system on a VM is subject to the same security risks as a physical system and if compromised does not allow access to the ESX host.

Dealing with Management IT management groups are usually the ones that get your funding approved and are typically the ones that sponsor your project. It’s important that they understand the technology and its benefits so that they can support you, ensure you get the appropriate funding, and promote your project within the rest of your company. Here’s what you should tell your management: I Demonstrate some of the cool features that virtualization provides, such as snapshots, VMotion, NIC teaming, and HA.

22 Getting Everyone On Board with Virtualization

I Explain the cost-savings benefits and ROI that virtualization can provide (greatly reduced power and cooling costs, for instance). I Show them the many customer success stories that VMware provides on its website. I Explain how virtualization can greatly simplify disaster recovery. I Provide a high-level executive overview of the technology, its features, and how it works.

Dealing with Storage Administrators Many storage administrators have their own ideas about designing and configuring storage and do not like deviating from them. The most frequent area of contention when deploying ESX is the size of the SAN LUNs. Some old-school storage administrators like creating smaller LUNs (for example, 20GB) and do not like creating the larger LUN sizes that work best with ESX. In addition, assigning storage to ESX servers is a bit different from traditional methods because the same LUNs must all be presented to every ESX server with the same LUN IDs because ESX servers must all see the same storage for features such as VMotion to work. Here’s what you should tell your storage administrators: I Explain how the VMFS file system is a cluster file system that leverages shared storage to allow multiple instances of ESX Server concurrent read and write access to the same storage resources. I Explain what a virtual disk file (vmdk) is and how they are used on VMFS volumes. I Explain how VMFS volumes work best with larger LUNs, and how using extents to enlarge VMFS volumes across multiple LUNs is not a best practice. I Show them the SAN Configuration guide and the SAN Design and Deployment guide that VMware provides. I Explain the reduced SAN administration workload that results because there is no need to configure storage for each server (VM) individually; it’s only necessary to con- figure it for each ESX host. I Explain how ESX servers use multipathing to connect to the SAN fabric.

Dealing with Operating System Administrators This group will typically be concerned with performance, compatibility, security, and manage- ability of their servers running in a virtual environment. The biggest concerns are typically resource contention and not knowing how their servers will perform on a virtual host.

23 Chapter 1—Assessing Your Current Environment

Here’s what you should tell your operating system administrators: I Show them how templates work and will allow them to quickly and easily deploy new servers. I Explain how resource pools work and how resource shares, limits, and reservations can help control the amount of host resources that a VM can access. I Explain how the VI client and vCenter Server are used to administer ESX hosts and VMs and how roles and permissions are used to assign specific privileges to access both host servers and VMs. I Explain the key differences between virtual and physical hardware and how the ESX scheduler handles CPU requests.

Did You Know? Seeing is believing. Download and set up an evaluation version, and then demonstrate some of the advanced features, such as HA and VMotion. Also, unplug a NIC cable on a multi-NIC vSwitch to demonstrate NIC teaming. To get a visual indication of these features working, ping a VM from a separate workstation while you demonstrate. Seeing these fea- tures in action is a sure way to impress any naysayers.

Summary Assessing your current environment is important if you are planning on migrating your cur- rent physical servers to VMs on your ESX hosts. You might be tempted to do some guessing in your haste to get started, but a proper assessment ensures that you do not run into sur- prises later on and that you plan on adequate hardware to support your needs. So take the time and see where you are today, before you progress to where you want to be tomorrow. In the next chapter, we cover all the many things that you will want to plan for when architect- ing your new VI3 environment.

Endnotes 1. The use of the term VirtualCenter here refers to the old name, which still applies to VirtualCenter version 2.0.x and is also still present inside the application in vCenter Server 2.5 (because the software has not yet been updated to reflect the new name).

24 Index

Symbols A -delta.vmdk file (VMs), 445 About tab (VMware Tools), 300 -flat.vmdk file (VMs), 445 Account Configuration screen (ESX), 109 -rdm.vmdk file (VMs), 445 accounts, ESX Service Console, 222-225 .NET Framework, vCenter Server, 88 Acronis True Image, P2V (physical to virtual) / partition (ESX), 100 migration, 307 /boot partition (ESX), 100 Action tab, alarms, creating, 350-351 /home partition (ESX), 101 AD (Active Directory) /tmp partition (ESX), 101 ESX Service Console, authentication, /var partition (ESX), 101 229-230 /var/log partition (ESX), 100 vCenter Server, security, 243-244 /var/log/messages log file, 411 AD (Active Directory) domain controllers, P2V /var/log/secure log file, 411 (physical to virtual) migration, problems, 304 /var/log/vmkernel log file, 410 Add Counters window (PerfMon), 11 /var/log/vmksummary log file, 410 Adding a Host to vCenter Server screen /var/log/vmkwarning log file, 410 (ESX), 112 /var/log/vmware/aam log file, 411 Administrator role (vCenter Server), 253 /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-boot.log log file, 411 administrators /var/log/vmware/esxcfg-firewall.log log file, 411 network administrators, educating, 19-20 /var/log/vmware/esxupdate.log log file, 411 operating system administrators, educating, /var/log/vmware/hostd.log log file, 410 23-24 /var/log/vmware/vpxa.log log file, 411 security administrators, educating, 21-22 /var/log/vmware/webAccess log file, 411 storage administrators, educating, 23 100% virtualized environments, 17 Admission Controls settings, HA (High 10K rpm hard drives, 56-57 Availability), 141-142 15K rpm hard drives, 56-57 advanced configuration options (VMs), 289-291 2GBSparse disks, 447 Advanced CPU resource settings (VMs), 295-296 467 Index

Advanced Memory resource settings (VMs), B 296-297 backup scripts, 399-401 Advanced Option settings, HA (High backup software compatibility guide, 50 Availability), 143-144 backups, 399, 406-407 Advanced, Boot Options (VMs), 290 backup scripts, 399-401 Advanced, CPUID Mask (VMs), 290 ESX hosts, tape drives, 406 Advanced, Fibre Channel NPIV (VMs), 291 esXpress, 403-404 Advanced, General (VMs), 290 file-level backups, 404-405 Advanced, Paravirtualization (VMs), 291 image-level backups, 404-405 Advanced, Swapfile Location (VMs), 291 quiescing process, 404 Advanced, Virtualized MMU (VMs), 291 traditional backup agents, 399-400 affinity rules, DSR (Distributed Resource VBAs (virtual backup appliances), 403 Scheduler), 151-152 VCB (Consolidated Backup), 43-45, agent backups, DR sites, moving to, 71 399-402 Alarm tab, VI Client, 348 Veeam Backup, 403 alarms, vCenter Server VMs, utilities, 460-461 configuring, 344-351 vRanger Pro, 403 inheritance, 345 base filename-delta.vmdk file, snapshots, 436 Alarms privilege (vCenter Server), 249 base filename-delta.vmsd file, snapshots, 436 Alarms tab (VI Client), 124 base filename-delta.vmsn file, snapshots, 436 Altor Network’s Virtual Firewall, 259 baselines, Update Manager Altor Network’s Virtual Network Security attaching, 387-389 Analyzer, 259 creating, 385-388 Altor Network’s Virtual Firewall, 462 Beacon Probing Network Failover Detection, AMD CPUs, 53-54 ESX hosts, 190 antivirus software, ESX Service Console, Beaver, Steve, 434 installing on, 230-232 best practices Apani EpiForce VM, 260 Converter (vCenter Server) application compatibility, virtualization, 17-19 post-conversion, 327-328 application support, virtualization, 16 preconversion, 325-326 applications, vendor virtualization support running, 326 policies, 19 ESX authentication security, 236-239 ESX Service Console, configuring, server hardware security, 236 229-230 Service Console security, 236-238 vCenter Server, troubleshooting, 425 vCenter Server authentication log file, 411 DSR (Distributed Resource automatic mode, DSR (Distributed Resource Scheduler), 155-156 Scheduler), 155 security, 256-257 automation levels, DSR (Distributed Resource VMs Scheduler), 148-150 creating, 301-302 templates, 280

468 Index

“Best Practices for Architecting VCB Enabled CD/DVD-ROM drives, VMs, 442 Solutions,” 407 configuration settings, 287 “Best Practices for Patching VMware CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol), ESX ESX/ESXi,” 397 hosts, 194 BIOS, VMs, 441 centralized licensing, 69-70 blade servers, traditional servers, compared, configuring, 130-133 51-52 Check Point VPN 1-VE, 259 blogs, resources, 464-465 chmod Linux command, 454 blue screen of death (BSoD), 415 chown Linux command, 454 blue VM/template folders Cline, Ken, 434 (vCenter Server), 138 cloning Boche, Jason, 434, 464 cold cloning boot from SAN, 57-58 Converter Enterprise (vCenter ESX, 99 Server), 321-324 boot processes, ESXi hosts, 380 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, Bootloader configuration screen (ESX), 107 303-304 Brambley, Richard, 464 hot cloning BSoD (blue screen of death), 415 Converter Enterprise (vCenter building virtual environments, 75 Server), 320 database servers, 77-86 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, ESX, 98-116 303-304 ESXi, 98-116 VMs, 281-286 licensing servers, 97-98 cluster evaluation frequency, DSR preparation, 75-77 (Distributed Resource Scheduler), 155 vCenter Server, 87-93 cluster settings, HA (High Availability), 143 VI Client, 93-97 Cluster Summary tab (vCenter Server), 153 built-in firewalls clusters ESX Service Console, 232-236 Converter Starter (vCenter), ESXi, 29 choosing, 314 bundles, 368 vCenter Server, creating, 139-140 information, retrieving, 370 cold cloning installing, esxupdate, 372 Converter Enterprise (vCenter Server), patches, scanning for, 369-370 321-324 test installations, esxupdate, 371 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, C 303-304 commands cable management, blade servers, 51 esxcfg-advcfg, 451 Capacity Planner, performance usage, esxcfg-auth, 238, 451 measuring, 9-10 esxcfg-boot, 451 cat Linux command, 454 esxcfg-dumppart, 451 Catbird V-Security, 258, 462 esxcfg-firewall, 232-233, 451 cd Linux command, 454 esxcfg-info, 452 CD-ROM devices, VMs, selecting, 276 esxcfg-init, 452 469 Index

esxcfg-linuxnet, 452 vicfg-vmhbadevs, 450 esxcfg-module, 452 vicfg-vmknic, 450 esxcfg-mpath, 452 vicfg-vswitch, 450 esxcfg-nas, 452 vifs, 450 esxcfg-nics, 228, 417, 452 vihostupdate-, 450 esxcfg-resgrp, 452 vm-support, 412-413 esxcfg-route, 418, 453 vmkfstools, 450, 453 esxcfg-swiscsi, 453 vmware-cmd, 427-428, 450 esxcfg-upgrade, 453 vmware-support, 428-429 esxcfg-vmhbadevs, 453 vmware-vmupgrade.exe, 396-397 esxcfg-vmknic, 418, 453 committing snapshots, 437-439 esxcfg-vswif, 417, 453 compatibility lists, hardware, 50-51 esxcfg-vswitch, 417, 453 Compliance Checker, 259 esxupdate, 367-372 configuration GET, 340 database servers, 77-86 kill, 429-430 ESX hosts, 45-48, 176 RCLI (Remote Command-Line Utility), DNS, 216 449-450 networking, 176-201 reboot, 417 NTP time synchronization, 213-215 resxtop, 449 routing, 216 Service Console, 451-454 Service Console memory, 215-216 Linux commands, 454-455 storage, 201-213 service firewall stop, 236 VM (virtual machine) Set, 340 startup/shutdown, 216-217 svmotion, 449 ESX Service Console tail, 410 authentication, 229-230 useradd, 225 sudo, 225-228 vicfg-advcfg, 449 ESXi hosts, 176 vicfg-cfgbackup, 449 networking, 176-201 vicfg-dns, 449 SNMP, 343-344 vicfg-dumppart, 449 storage, 201-213 vicfg-module, 450 FC (Fibre Channel) storage, 206-209 vicfg-mpath, 450 iSCSI storage, 209-212 vicfg-nas, 450 licensing vicfg-nics, 450 centralized licensing, 130-133 vicfg-ntp, 450 ESXi, 133-134 vicfg-rescan, 450 host-based licensing, 130-131 vicfg-route, 450 single-CPU licensing, 135 vicfg-snmp, 450 stand-alone licensing, 130-131 vicfg-syslog, 450 NFS storage, 212-213 vicfg-user, 450 Oracle, ODBC connections, 85-86

470 Index

SQL Server, ODBC connections, 82-85 contents.xml.sig files, 368 vCenter Server, 45-48, 136-175 Converter (vCenter Server) alarms, 344-345, 347-351 destination formats, 308-309 DPM (Distributed Power operating system support, 308 Management), 156-158 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, DSR (Distributed Resource 305-329 Scheduler), 148-156 source import formats, 308 email alerts, 345-347 VMs, cloning, 282-283 EVC (Enhanced VMotion Converter Enterprise (vCenter Server), 88, Compatibility), 163-166 126, 317 HA (High Availability), 141-148 best practices, preconversion, 325-328 limits, 172 destination formats, 308-309 performance monitoring, 357-360 hot cloning, 320-324 reservations, 172 installing, 318-320 resource pools, 173-174 operating system support, 308 resources, 166-175 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, roles, 253, 255-256 317-329 shares, 172 source import formats, 308 VMotion, 159-163 Converter Starter (vCenter Server) VMs, 286 best practices advanced configuration options, post-conversion, 327-328 289-291 preconversion, 325-326 hardware, 286-288 running, 326 resources, 292-297 clusters, choosing, 314 Configuration tab (VI Client), 123 destination datascores, choosing, 315 Configuresoft Compliance Checker, 259, 462 destination formats, 308-309 Configuresoft ECM (Enterprise Configuration destination host servers, choosing, 314 Manager), 259 destination servers, setting, 313 Confirmation screen (ESXi), 115 destination types, selecting, 312 Connection Settings screen (VMotion), 160 guest customization information, connectivity, ports, 219-222 setting, 316 connectivity problems, vCenter Server, hard disks, selecting for source data, 312 troubleshooting, 425 installing, 309-310 console screen (ESX), 112 login information, setting, 313 Console tab (VI Client), 124 operation system support, 308 consoles, log files, viewing, 419 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, “Consolidated Backup in VMware 309-317 Infrastructure 3,” 407 running, 310-317 Consolidated Backup User role (vCenter source import formats, 308 Server), 255 source login information, setting, 311 Consolidated Backup (VMware), 43-45, source types, selecting, 310 399-402 VMs, naming, 314 contents.xml files, 368 vNIC information, setting, 316 471 Index

cp Linux command, 454 Database Selection screen (vCenter CPU Identification Utility, 459 Server), 90 CPU resource settings (VMs), 292-293 database servers CPU usage, measuring, 5 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, CPUs (central processing units) problems, 305 AMD, 53-54 vCenter Server, choosing and ESX hosts, 47-48 configuring, 77-86 performance monitoring, 355 databases, vCenter Server, 77 Intel, 53-54 ODBC connections, 82-86 multicore CPUs, 52-53 Oracle, 80-81 single-vCPU VMs, 48 SQL Server, 80-82 vCPUs, VMs, 267 statistics collection settings, 77-79 vendors, choosing, 53-54 Datacenter Administrator role (vCenter VMs, 441 Server), 254 assigning, 286 Datacenter privilege (vCenter Server), 246 performance monitoring, 354 datacenter/cluster/host folders (vCenter D Server), 138 datacenters Dabcc.com, 465 remote datacenters, 70 das.allowNetwork setting (HA), 147 vCenter Server, creating, 137 das.allowVmotionNetworks setting (HA), 147 Datacenters tab (VI Client), 122 das.bypassNetCompatCheck setting datascores, Converter Starter (vCenter), (HA), 148 choosing, 315 das.defaultfailoverhost setting (HA), 146 datastore browser (VI Client), VMs, cloning, das.failuredetectioninterval setting (HA), 147 284-286 das.failuredetectiontime setting (HA), 146 Datastore privilege (vCenter Server), 246 das.FailureInterval. 30 setting (HA), 144 datastores, VMs, choosing, 265-266 das.isolationaddress setting (HA), 146 Datastores tab (VI Client), 125 das.isolationShutdownTimeout setting Datastores view (VI Client), 121 (HA), 146 dd command (Service Console), ISO files, das.maxFailures. 3 setting (HA), 144 creating, 272 das.maxFailureWindow. 3600 setting deeply nested snapshots, committing, 439 (HA), 144 default networks, ESX hosts, 180 das.minUptime. 120 setting (HA), 144 deleting snapshots, 435 das.poweroffonisolation setting (HA), 146 Dell OpenManage, ESX hosts, hardware das.usedefaultisolationaddress setting monitoring, 336 (HA), 146 DePetrillo, Mike, 464 das.vmCpuMinMHz setting (HA), 147 depots, applicable bundles, scanning for, das.vmFailoverEnabled Advanced Option 369-370 setting (HA), 144 descriptor.xml files, 368 das.vmMemoryMinMB setting (HA), 147 destination datascores, Converter Starter database, vCenter Server, troubleshooting, (vCenter), choosing, 315 425-426

472 Index

destination host servers, Converter Starter vCenter Server (vCenter), choosing, 314 affinity rules, 151-152 destination servers, Converter Starter automatic mode, 155 (vCenter), selecting, 313 automation levels, 148-150 destination types, Converter Starter best practices, 155-156 (vCenter), selecting, 312 cluster evaluation frequency, 155 developers, virtualization, educating, 21 configuring, 148-156 Devices tab (VMware Tools), 300 DSR Recommendations tab, 154 df Linux command, 454 migration threshold, 150-151 disaster recovery (DR), ESX, 71-72 monitoring, 152-154 Disk resource settings (VMs), 294 VMotion, 155 Disk Selection screen (ESXi), 114 du Linux command, 455 disk space, vCenter Server, dual-core processors, 52 troubleshooting, 426 E disk statistics e1000 virtual network adapter, 66 hosts, performance monitoring, 356 eager-zeroed thick disks, 446 VMs, performance monitoring, 354 ECM (Enterprise Configuration disk usage Manager), 259 ESX hosts, 49 editions, ESX, choosing, 25-48 measuring, 7 eG VM Monitor, 363, 460 disks, snapshots, excluding from, 439 email alerts, vCenter Server, configuring, displaying physical NICs, ESX hosts, 180 345-347 Distributed Power Management (DPM). See Embotics v-Scout, 462 DPM (Distributed Power Management) employees, virtualization, education, 19-24 Distributed Resource Scheduler (DSR). See enhanced vmxnet virtual network adapter, 66 DSR (Distributed Resource Scheduler) enterprise monitoring systems, performance DMZ (demilitarized zone), networks, ESX usage, measuring, 13 hosts, 178-179 environments DNS (domain name system), ESX hosts, assessing, 3-15 configuring, 216 documenting, 4 downloading performance usage, measuring, 4-15 license files, 127-130 virtualization, 75-116 patches, esxupdate, 369 100% virtualized environments, 17 DPM (Distributed Power Management), application compatibility, 17-19 26, 40 educating staff, 19-24 vCenter Server, configuring, 156-158 Epping, Duncan, 464 DRS Recommendations tab (VI Client), 123 “escaping the cave,” 21 DSR (Distributed Resource Scheduler), ESH hosts 25-26, 38-40 patching, 365-366 four-star migration threshold, 150 esxupdate, 367-372 Fully Automated level, 149 methods, 366-367 updating, 365-366

473 Index

EST (external switch tagging), 177 Partition Warning screen, 104 ESX Partitioning Options screen, 104 Account Configuration screen, 109 partitions, 103-106 Adding a Host to vCenter Server patches, 29 screen, 112 physical server hardware, security, 236 Bootloader configuration screen, 107 RCLI, 28 built-in firewall, 29 remote datacenters, 70 configuration, 45-48 scriptable installations, 28 console screen, 112 security, best practices, 236-239 downloading, 75 Service Console, 28 DPM (Distributed Power antivirus software, 230-232 Management), 26 authentication, 229-230 DR (disaster recovery), 71-72 built-in firewall, 232-236 DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler), root user account, 222-225 25-26, 38-40 securing, 222-240 editions, choosing, 25-48 security best practices, 236-238 ESXi, compared, 27, 30 sudo, 225-228 firewall, security best practices, 239 startup screen, 27 HA (High Availability), 25 Storage VMotion, 25 hardware thick client access, 28 blade servers, 51-52 Time Zone Selection screen, 109 compatibility lists, 50-51 updates, 29 CPUs, 53-54 web client access, 28 multicore CPUs, 52-53 welcome screen, 102 network adapters, 55 ESX Enterprise licenses, 133 storage adapters, 55 ESX HealthCheck, 463 storage options, 56-62 ESX hosts traditional servers, 51-52 backups, 399 unsupported hardware, 56 backup scripts, 400-401 hardware monitoring, 29 tape drives, 406 installation, 98-116 CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol), 194 boot from SAN, 99 configuring, 176 partitions, 99-101 DNS, 216 preparation, 98-99 networking, 176-201 Installation Complete screen, 111 NTP time synchronization, 213-215 installation summary screen, 110 routing, 216 Installing Packages screen, 111 Service Console memory, 215-216 licensing, 69-70 storage, 201-213 Media Test screen, 103 VM (virtual machine) media tests, 103 startup/shutdown, 216-217 Network Configuration screen, 108 CPUs, 47-48 networking, security best practices, 239 disk usage, 49 Partition Disks screen, 105-106 esxcfg-nics -l command, 182-184 474 Index

firewalls, SNMP traffic, 341 scripting HA (High Availability), 37-38 Perl, 456 host management networks, configuring, PowerShell, 456-457 179-185 Service Console, 451 host servers, 48 backing up configuration files, 405 licensing, 131 backup agents, 405 memory, 47, 49 commands, 451-454 memory usage, 166-168 service console, configuring, 179-184 monitoring, 335 Service Console, Linux commands, hardware, 336-340 454-455 performance, 352-353 split-brain condition, 145 SNMP (Simple Network SSH console utilities, 458 Management Protocol), 340-344 storage, 46 vCenter Server, 344-351 Storage VMotion, 36-37 network hints, 200-201 troubleshooting, 409 networking, 47 determining versions, 414-415 networks esxcfg commands, 417 default network, 180 hostd service, 418 design considerations, 176-178 log files, 410-414 DMZ (demilitarized zone), 178-179 networking problems, 417-418 NICs, adding, 197, 199 PSoD (purple screen of death), number, determining, 48-49 415-416 patching, 365 Service Console problems, 416-417 Update Manager, 381-393 vxpa service, 418-419 performance monitoring Update Manager, 42-43 configuring, 357-360 updating, 372 CPU statistics, 355 ISO file, 373-374 disk statistics, 356 vCenter Server, 30-33 eG VM Monitor, 363 adding to, 140-141 ESXTOP command-line utility, VI Client, connecting to directly, 125-126 360-362 VM NICs, mapping to pNICs, 194 memory statistics, 356-357 VMkernel networks, configuring, 185-186 network statistics, 357 VMotion, 33-35 Veeam Management suite, 362 vNICs, changing MAC addresses, vFoglight, 362 196-197 physical NICs, displaying, 180 vSwitches RCLI (Remote Command-Line Utility), configuring, 186-193 449-450 internal-only vSwitches, 195 root passwords load-balancing policies, 189-190 changing, 217-218 Network Failover Detection, 190 resetting, 218 ESX servers, Ramcheck memory test SCP file-transfer utilities, 458 utility, 416

475 Index

ESX version 3.5 Update 3, 2 RCLI, 28 esxcfg commands scriptable installations, 28 ESX hosts, troubleshooting, 417 Service Console, 28 ESXi hosts, troubleshooting, 422 security, 239-240 esxcfg-advcfg command, 451 startup screen, 27 esxcfg-auth command, 238, 451 thick client access, 28 esxcfg-boot command, 451 updates, 29 esxcfg-dumppart command, 451 web client access, 28 esxcfg-firewall command, 232-233, 451 welcome screen, 113 esxcfg-info command, 452 ESXi hosts esxcfg-init command, 452 boot process, 380 esxcfg-linuxnet command, 452 CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol), 194 esxcfg-module command, 452 configuring, 176 esxcfg-mpath command, 452 networking, 176-201 esxcfg-nas command, 452 storage, 201-213 esxcfg-nics -l command, 182-184 connecting to directly, VI Client, 125-126 esxcfg-nics command, 228, 417, 452 EULA screen, 114 esxcfg-resgrp command, 452 host management networks, configuring, esxcfg-route command, 418, 453 179-185 esxcfg-swiscsi command, 453 monitoring, 335 esxcfg-upgrade command, 453 hardware, 340 esxcfg-vmhbadevs command, 453 performance, 352-353 esxcfg-vmknic command, 418, 453 SNMP (Simple Network esxcfg-vswif command, 417, 453 Management Protocol), 340-344 esxcfg-vswitch command, 417, 453 vCenter Server, 344-351 ESXi, 26 networks built-in firewall, 29 design considerations, 176-178 Confirmation screen, 115 DMZ (demilitarized zone), 178-179 Disk Selection screen, 114 patching, 365-366, 374-379 dowloading, 75 methods, 366-367 ESX, compared, 27, 30 Update Manager, 381-393 EULA screen, 114 performance monitoring, configuring, hardware monitoring, 29 357-360 installation, 98-116 RCLI (Remote Command-Line Utility), boot from SAN, 99 449-450 partitions, 99-101 rolling back, 379-381 preparation, 98-99 scripting Installation Complete screen, 116 Perl, 456 Installing screen, 115 PowerShell, 456-457 licensing, configuring, 133-134 SNMP, configuring, 343-344 login screen, 116 troubleshooting, 419 management network, configuring, 185 determining versions, 420 patches, 29 esxcfg commands, 422 476 Index

log files, 419-420 file locations, snapshots, changing, 439-440 PSoD (purple screen of death), 422 file types, VMs, 442-445 Tech Support Mode, 420-423 file-level backups, 404-405 updating, 365-366, 374-379 files, bundles, 368 Infrastructure, 374-377 files servers, P2V (physical to virtual) vihostupdate, 377-379 migration, problems, 305 vCenter Server, adding to, 140-141 find Linux command, 454 VM NICs, mapping to pNICs, 194 firewalls VMkernel networks, configuring, 185-186 ESX vNICs, changing MAC addresses, security best practices, 239 196-197 SNMP traffic, 341 vSwitches ESX Server Console, built-in firewall, configuring, 186-193 232-236 internal-only vSwitches, 195 Virtual Firewall, 259 load-balancing policies, 189-190 X-M0n0wall virtual firewall Network Failover Detection, 190 appliance, 260 esXpress, 403-404 five-star migration threshold (DSR), 150 ESXTOP command-line utility, performance Flexible network adapter, 65 monitoring, 360-362 floppy disks, VMs, configuration esxupdate, 367 settings, 286 activity logs, retrieving, 372 floppy drives, VMs, 275 applicable bundles, scanning for, 369-370 Folder privilege (vCenter Server), 246 bundle information, retrieving, 370 folders, creating bundles vCenter Server, 137-138 installing, 372 VI Client, 121 test installations, 371 four-star migration threshold (DSR), 150 disk space, verifying, 370-371 Fully Automated level (DSR), 149 modes, 367 G patch repositories, setting up, 368 Gabe’s Virtual World blog, 464 patches, downloading, 369 General Options (VMs), 289 EULA screen (ESXi), 114 Generate Update Manager log bundle, EVC (Enhanced VMotion Compatibility), vCenter Server, 92 vCenter Server, configuring, 163-166 Generate VirtualCenter1 log bundle, vCenter Events tab (VI Client), 124 Server, 92 Extension privilege (vCenter Server), 250 GET command, net-snmp agent, external switch tagging (EST mode), interaction, 340 vSwitches, 68 Getting Started tab (VI Client), 122 external switch tagging (EST), 177 Global privilege (vCenter Server), 246 F growth FastSCP, log files, viewing, 410 leaving room for, 50 FC (Fibre Channel), 58-59 snapshots, 436-437 storage, configuring, 206-209 guest customization information, Converter Starter (vCenter), 316 477 Index

guest operating systems, VMs, choosing, traditional servers, 51-52 265-266 unsupported hardware, 56 Guided Consolidation (vCenter Server), P2V VMs (physical to virtual) migration, 329-334 configuration settings, 286-288 H virtual hardware, 441-442 hardware initiator, iSCSI, 61 HA (High Availability), 25, 37-38 hardware management agents, HP agents, log file, 411 336, 340 vCenter Server installing, 336-338 Admission Control settings, 141-142 System Management home page, 339 Advanced Option settings, 143-144 System Management login page, 339 cluster settings, 143 hardware monitoring, ESXi, 29 configuring, 141-148 header files, 368 split-brain condition, 145 High Availability (HA). See HA (High Virtual Machine Monitoring settings, Availability) 143-144 high-resource utilization servers, Haletky, Edward, 434 virtualization, 15 hard disks Hoff, Christopher, 464 10K rpm hard drives, 56-57 Host, 247 15K rpm hard drives, 56-57 host management networks, ESX hosts, Converter Starter (vCenter), selecting for configuring, 179-185 source data, 312 Host privilege (vCenter Server), 247 VMs, configuration settings, 288 host servers, ESX, 48 hardware host-based licensing, configuring, 130-131 blade servers, 51-52 hostd service, ESX hosts, troubleshooting, 418 compatibility lists, 50-51 hosts. See also ESX hosts; ESXi hosts CPUs, vendors, 53-54 resource pools, 170-172 ESX hosts, monitoring, 336-340 vCenter Server, troubleshooting, 426 ESXi hosts, monitoring, 340 Hosts and Clusters view (VI Client), 120 growth, leaving room for, 50 Hosts tab (VI Client), 122 multicore CPUs, 52-53 hot cloning network adapters, 55 Converter Enterprise (vCenter requirements, VI Client, 93 Server), 320 storage, 56 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, 10K rpm hard drives, 56-57 303-304 15K rpm hard drives, 56-57 Howarth, Tom, 434, 464 boot from SAN, 57-58 HP hardware management agents, 336 FC (Fibre Channel), 58-59 ESX hosts, 340 iSCSI, 59-61 installing on, 336-338 local storage, 58 System Management home page, 339 mixing types, 62 System Management login page, 339 NAS/NFS, 61-62 HP Systems Insight Manager, ESX hosts, storage adapters, 55 hardware monitoring, 336 478 Index

Hyper-9, 462 VI Client, 93-97 hypervisors, vendors, 1 VMware Tools, VMs, 297-301 I Installation Complete screen (ESX), 111 Installation Complete screen (ESXi), 116 I/O compatibility guide, 50 Installation documentation, downloading, 76 IDE controllers, VMs, 442 installation files, MD5 checksums, 76-77 image backups, DR sites, moving to, 72 installation summary screen (ESX), 110 image-level backups, 404-405 Installation Type screen, vCenter Server, 89 Imgburn, ISO files, creating, 272 Installing Packages screen (ESX), 111 infrastructure Installing screen (ESXi), 115 assessing, 3-15 Intel CPUs, 53-54 performance usage, measuring, 4-15 internal-only vSwitches, ESX hosts, 195 Infrastructure Update, ESXi hosts, 374-377 intervals, statistics collection settings, Inheritance, vCenter Server alarms, 345 vCenter Server, 79 Inspection mode (esxupdate), 367 iSCSI storage, 59-61 installation configuring, 209-212 bundles, test installations, 371 hardware initiator, 61 Converter Enterprise (vCenter Server), software initiator, 60 318-320 ISO files Converter Starter (vCenter Server), creating, applications, 272 309-310 ESX hosts, updating, 373-374 ESX, 98-116 virtual CD/DVD drives, selecting for, 274 boot from SAN, 99 VMs, 272-277 partitions, 99-101 ISO Recorder, ISO files, creating, 272 preparation, 98-99 IT infrastructure ESXi, 98-116 assessing, 3-15 boot from SAN, 99 performance usage, measuring, 4-15 partitions, 99-101 IT management, virtualization, educating, preparation, 98-99 22-23 HP hardware management agents, ESX ITQ VLAN and Portgroup Manager, 459 hosts, 336-339 licensing servers, 97-98 J–K patches, esxupdate, 372 kill command, VM power-state problems, RCLI (Remote Command-Line Interface) troubleshooting, 429-430 utility, 343 knowledge base website (VMware), 431-432 Update Manager, 382-385 known problems, virtulization, 4 vCenter Server, 87-93 KS QuickConfig, 458 Database Selection screen, 90 L Installation Type screen, 89 large snapshots, committing, 439 Licensing Server screen, 90 Laverick, Mike, 464 physical servers, 87-88 Layout, VI Client, 120-125 Server Authorization screen, 91 lazy-zeroed thick disks, 446 virtual machines, 87-88 LC ISO Creator, ISO files, creating, 272

479 Index

Lefthand Virtual SAN Appliance, 461 log files levels, statistics collection settings, vCenter ESX hosts, troubleshooting, 410-414 Server, 78-79 ESXi hosts, troubleshooting, 419-420 license files, obtaining, 127-130 vCenter Server, troubleshooting, 423-424 license server, managing, 135-136 VMs, troubleshooting, 427 License Server (vCenter Server), 88 Log Settings window (PerfMon), 12 settings, 132 login information, Converter Starter licenses, downloading, 75 (vCenter), setting, 313 licensing, 127 login screen (ESXi), 116 centralized licensing, configuring, 130, ls Linux command, 454 132-133 LUN/VMFS volumes, VMs, optimal ESX Enterprise licenses, 133 number, 302 ESXi licensing, configuring, 133-134 LUNs, size considerations, 201-203 host-based licensing, configuring, M 130-131 MAC addresses, vNICs, changing, 196-197 license files, obtaining, 127-130 machine cloning, DR sites, moving to, 72 license server, managing, 135-136 Magic ISO Maker, ISO files, creating, 272 Licensing Sources window, 131 maintenance releases, vCenter Server, server ports, 135 393-394 single-CPU licensing, 135 management, virtualization, educating, 22-23 stand-alone licensing, configuring, management networks, ESXi, 130-131 configuring, 185 VMware, 69-70 “Managing Patches and Updates for Hosts Licensing Server screen (vCenter Server), 90 and VMs,” 398 Licensing Server Tools application Manual automation level (DSR), 148 (LMTools), 136 Maps tab (VI Client), 124 licensing servers, installation, 97-98 MCS StorageView, 462 Licensing Sources window, 131 MD5 checksums, 76-77 limits, vCenter Server, 170 measuring performance usage, 4-15 configuring, 172 Capacity Planner, 9-10 Link Status Only (default) Network Failover enterprise monitoring systems, 13 Detection, ESX hosts, 190 PerfMon (performance monitor), 10-13 Linux tail command, log files viewing, 410 Media Test screen (ESX), 103 Linux-based net-snmp agent, 340 media tests, ESX, 103 LMTools, Licensing Server Tools memory application, 136 ESX hosts, 47-49 load-balancing policies, vSwitches, ESX Service Console, configuring, 215-216 hosts, 189-190 VMs, 441 local storage, 58 assigning, 263, 267-268, 286 configuring, 205-206 memory balloon drivers, hosts, 167-168 locating VM snapshots, 440-441 memory overcommitment, hosts, 166-167 locations, VMs, choosing, 265 Memory resource settings (VMs), 293-294 LOG file type (VMs), 445 480 Index

memory statistics multicore CPUs, 52-53 hosts, performance monitoring, 356-357 AMD CPUs, 53-54 VMs, performance monitoring, 354-355 Intel processors, 53-54 memory usage vendors, choosing, 53-54 measuring, 6 mv Linux command, 454 vCenter Server, virtual hosts, 166-168 N Microsoft .NET Framework, vCenter Nagios, 460 Server, 88 naming Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, vCenter VMFS volumes, 206 Server, 88 VMs, 265 migration, P2V (physical to virtual) nano editor, snmp.conf file, editing, 342 migration, 263, 302 nano Linux command, 454 choosing, 304-305 NAS (network attached storage), 61 cold cloning, 303-304 NAS/NFS storage, 61-62 hot cloning, 303-304 Nero, ISO files, creating, 272 Platespin Migrate, 306 Nested Page Technology (NPT), 53 vCenter Server Converter, 305-329 net-snmp agent, 340 vCenter Server Guided Consolidation, Network Access screen (VMotion), 160 329-334 network adapters, 55 Vizioncore vConverter, 307 e1000, 66 migration threshold, DSR (Distributed Flexible, 65 Resource Scheduler), 150-151 virtual network adapters, 65 Mishchenko, Dave, 434 VMs, configuration settings, 287 mixing storage types, 62 network administrators, virtualization, mkdir Linux command, 454 educating, 19-20 modes, esxupdate, 367 network attached storage (NAS), 61 monitoring Network Configuration screen (ESX), 108 DSR (Distributed Resource Scheduler), network controllers, VMs, 442 152-154 Network Failover Detection, ESX hosts, ESX hosts, 335 vSwitches, 190 hardware, 336-340 Network File System (NFS) protocol, 61 performance, 352-357 network hints, 200-201 SNMP (Simple Network Network privilege (vCenter Server), 246 Management Protocol), 340-344 network statistics vCenter Server, 344-351 hosts, performance monitoring, 357 ESXi hosts, hardware, 340 VMs, performance monitoring, 355 vCenter Server, 351-352 network traffic VMs tagging, 176-177 performance, 352-355 vSwitches, routing, 199-200 utilities, 459-460 network usage, measuring, 8-9 motherboards, VMs, 441

481 Index

networking one-star migration threshold (DSR), 150 ESX, security best practices, 239 Openfiler, 461 ESX hosts, 47 OpenManage, ESX hosts, hardware configuring, 176-201 monitoring, 336 troubleshooting, 417-418 operating system administrators, virtual networking, 63 virtualization, educating, 23-24 pNICs (physical NICs), 63-65 Options tab (VMware Tools), 300 virtual switches, 66-69 Oracle vNICs (virtual NICs), 65-66 ODBC connections, configuring, 85-86 networks vCenter Server, 80-81 ESX hosts P default network, 180 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, 263, 302 design considerations, 176-178 choosing, 304-305 DMZ (demilitarized zone), 178-179 cold cloning, 303-304 network ports, 219, 221-222 hot cloning, 303-304 Networks view (VI Client), 121 Platespin Migrate, 306 New VM Wizard, 264-271 vCenter Server Converter, 305-329 NFS (Network File System) protocol, 61 best practices, 325-328 NFS storage, configuring, 212-213 Converter Enterprise, 317-324 NICs (network interface cards) Converter Starter, 309-317 ESX hosts, adding, 197-199 destination formats, 308-309 virtual NICs, VMs, 267-269 operating system support, 308 No Access preconfigured role (vCenter source import formats, 308 Server), 253 vCenter Server Guided Consolidation, nonroot user account, creating, ESX Service 329-334 Console, 223 Vizioncore vConverter, 307 Norton Ghost, P2V (physical to virtual) parallel ports, VMs, configuration migration, 307 settings, 288 NPT (Nested Page Technology), 53 partial memory reservations, VMs, creating NTP time synchronization, ESX hosts, for, 302 configuring, 213-215 Partially Automated level (DSR), 149 NTPro.nl blog, 464 Partition Disks screen (ESX), 105-106 NVRAM file type (VMs), 442 Partition Warning screen (ESX), 104 O Partitioning Options screen (ESX), 104 objects, VI Client, 122-125 partitions, ESX, 99-106 observed IP ranges, 200-201 passwords, root passwords, ESX hosts, ODBC connections 217-218 Oracle, configuring, 85-86 “Patch Management for ESX Server 3.5,” 397 SQL Server, configuring, 82-85 patch repositories, setting up, esxupdate, 368 vCenter Server, 82-86

482 Index

patches, 397 permissions, vCenter Server, 245-246, downloading, 369 250-252 ESX hosts, 365-366 Permissions privilege (vCenter Server), 250 esxupdate, 367-372 Permissions tab (VI Client), 124 methods, 366-367 PHD esXpress, 460 Update Manager, 381-393 PHD Technologies esXpress, 403-404 ESXi, 29 physical machine cloning, DR sites, moving ESXi hosts, 374-379 to, 72 Update Manager, 381-393 physical NICs, ESX hosts, displaying, 180 patching vCenter Server, 365 physical NICs (pNICs), 63-65 PCNet32 virtual network adapter, 65 physical server hardware, ESX, security, 236 PerfMon (performance monitor) physical servers Add Counters window, 11 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, 302 Log Settings window, 12 choosing, 304-305 performance usage, measuring, 10-13 cold cloning, 303-304 performance monitoring, 352-353 hot cloning, 303-304 eG VM Monitor, 363 Platespin Migrate, 306 ESXTOP command-line utility, 360-362 vCenter Server Converter, 305-329 hosts vCenter Server Guided CPU statistics, 355 Consolidation, 329-334 disk statistics, 356 Vizioncore vConverter, 307 memory statistics, 356-357 vCenter Server, installation, 87-88 network statistics, 357 virtualization, compared, 1 PerfMon (performance monitor), 10-13 physical to virtual (P2V) migration. See P2V vCenter Server, configuring, 357-360 (physical to virtual) migration Veeam Management suite, 362 pilot projects, virtualization, 20 vFoglight, 362 Planet VM blog, 464 VMs, 354 Platespin Migrate, P2V (physical to virtual) CPU statistics, 354 migration, 306 disk statistics, 354 plug-ins, VI Client, 126 memory statistics, 354-355 pNICs (physical NICs), 63-65 network statistics, 355 VM NICs, mapping from, 194 Performance privilege (vCenter Server), 250 ports, network connectivity, 219-222 Performance tab (VI Client), 123 post-conversion best practices, Converter performance usage (vCenter Server), 327-328 measuring, 4-15 Power Management (VMs), 290 Capacity Planner, 9-10 power-state problems (VMs), troubleshooting, enterprise monitoring systems, 13 427-430 PerfMon (performance monitor), PowerShell scripts, 456-457 10-13 running snapshots, checking for, 440 statistics, analyzing, 13-15 preconversion best practices, Converter Perl scripts, 456 (vCenter Server), 325-326 running snapshots, checking for, 441 privileges, vCenter Server, 245-246, 250-252 483 Index

PSoD (purple screen of death) resetting root passwords, ESX hosts, 218 ESX hosts, troubleshooting, 415-416 Resource Allocation tab (VI Client), 123 ESXi hosts, troubleshooting, 422 Resource Management Guide, 175 purple screen of death (PSoD), ESX hosts, Resource Pool Administrator role (vCenter troubleshooting, 415-416 Server), 255 Putty SSH console utility, 458 resource pools, vCenter Server, 170-172 pwd Linux command, 454 adding VMs to, 175 Q–R configuring, 173-174 viewing, 174-175 quiescing process (backups), 404 Resource privilege (vCenter Server), 249 rack density, blade servers, 51 resource requirements, VMs, 263 Ramcheck memory test utility, 416 resources Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI), 53 blogs, 464-465 Rational Survivability blog, 464 vCenter Server, configuring, 166-175 raw disks, 446 VMs RCLI (Remote Command-Line Interface) allocating, 301 utility, 449-450 configuration settings, 292-297 commands, 449-450 websites, 465-466 ESXi, 28 resxtop command, 449 installing, 343 retentions, statistics collection settings, vihostupdate, ESXi hosts, 377-379 vCenter Server, 79 RDMs (raw device mappings), 446 rm -rf Linux command, 454 VMs, choosing, 270 rm Linux command, 454 RDP (raw device mapping), VMFS volumes, rmdir Linux command, 454 compared, 203-205 rocommunity option (snmp.conf file), 342 Read-only role (vCenter Server), 253 roles, vCenter Server, 253-256 reboot command, 417 rollbacks, ESXi hosts, 379-381 recommendations, DSR (Distributed root passwords, ESX hosts Resource Scheduler), 154 changing, 217-218 Reeh, Oliver, 434 resetting, 218 Reflex Systems Virtualization Management root user account, ESX Service Console, Center, 257, 462 222-225 Release Notes, downloading, 76 Route Based on IP Hash policy, remediating hosts, Update Manager, 390-393 vSwitches, 190 Remote Command-Line Interface (RCLI) Route Based on Source MAC Hash policy, utility. See RCLI (Remote Command-Line vSwitches, 189 Interface) utility Route Based on the Originating Port ID remote datacenters, 70 (default) load-balancing policy, Reporting tab, alarms, creating, 349-350 vSwitches, 189 reporting utilities, 462-463 routing requirements, VI Client, 93 ESX hosts, configuring, 216 reservations, vCenter Server, 169-170 traffic, vSwitches, 199-200 configuring, 172 RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) files, 368 484 Index

RTFM Education blog, 464 ESXi, 239-240 running Converter (vCenter Server), best ports, network connectivity, 219-222 practices, 326 Reflex Systems Virtual Management running snapshots, checking for, 440-441 Center, 257 RV Tools, 458 Third Brigade Deep Security, 260 RVI (Rapid Virtualization Indexing), 53 Tripwire ConfigCheck, 258 rwcommunity option (snmp.conf file), 342 Tripwire Enterprise 7.5V, 258 S utilities, 461-462 vCenter Server, 243 Sakac, Chad, 464 AD (Active Directory) integration, SAN replication, DR sites, moving to, 72 243-244 Scan mode (esxupdate), 367 best practices, 256-257 scanning hosts, Update Manager, 388-390 permissions, 245-252 Scheduled Task privilege (vCenter privileges, 245-252 Server), 249 roles, 253-256 Scheduled Tasks feature, VI Client, 126 Virtual Firewall, 259 Scherer, Rick, 464 Virtual Network Security Analyzer, 259 SCP file transfer utilities, 458 VMs (virtual machines), 240-242 SCP tools, log files, viewing, 410 X-M0n0wall virtual firewall scriptable installations, ESXi, 28 appliance, 260 Scripts tab (VMware Tools), 300 security administrators, virtualization, SCSI controllers, VMs, 442 educating, 21-22 configuration settings, 288 serial ports, VMs, configuration settings, 288 search utilities, 462-463 Server Authorization screen, vCenter security Server, 91 Apani EpiForce VM, 260 server environments, documenting, 4 Catbird V-Security, 258 server hardware, ESX, security, 236 Check Point VPN 1-VE, 259 server ports, licensing, 135 Configuresoft Compliance Checker, 259 servers Configuresoft ECM (Enterprise application support, virtualization, 16 Configuration Manager), 259 blade servers, 51-52 ESX high-resource utilization servers, best practices, 236-239 virtualization, 15 firewalls, 239 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, networking, 239 302-304 physical server hardware, 236 choosing, 304-305 Service Console, 222-240 Platespin Migrate, 306 ESX Service Console vCenter Server Converter, 305-329 antivirus software, 230-232 vCenter Server Guided authentication, 229-230 Consolidation, 329-334 best practices, 236-238 Vizioncore vConverter, 307 built-in firewall, 232-236 traditional servers, 51-52 root user account, 222-225

485 Index

vendor licensing models, 16 SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), virtualization candidates, 16 vCenter Server, email alerts, 345-347 Service Console (ESX), 451 SnapHunter and SnapAlert, 459 antivirus software, installing on, 230-232 snapshots, 435-436 authentication, configuring, 229-230 base filename-delta.vmdk file, 436 backup agents, installing inside, 405 base filename-delta.vmsd file, 436 backup scripts, 399-401 base filename-delta.vmsn file, 436 built-in firewall, 232-236 committing, 437-439 commands, 451-454 deleting, 435 Linux commands, 454-455 file locations, changing, 439-440 configuration files, backing up, 405 growth, 436-437 configuring, 179-184 locating, 441 ESX hosts multiple snapshots, creating, 435 memory configuration, 215-216 running snapshots, checking for, 440-441 split-brain condition, 145 VM disks, excluding, 439 hostd service, 418 VMotion, 439 log files, 410-414 SNMP (Simple Network Management nonroot user accounts, creating, 223 Protocol) root user account, 222-225 ESX hosts, monitoring, 340-344 running snapshots, checking for, 440 ESXi hosts, configuring, 343-344 securing, 222-240 snmpd.conf file, editing, nano editor, 342 security, 222-240 software best practices, 236-239 patches, 365 sudo, configuring, 225-228 requirements, VI Client, 93 troubleshooting, 416-417 upgrades, 365 Service Console (ESXi), security, 239-240 software initiator, iSCSI, 60 service firewall stop command, 236 Solarwinds VM Monitor, 459 Sessions privilege (vCenter Server), 250 source login information, Converter Starter SET command, net-snmp agent, (vCenter), setting, 311 interaction, 340 source types, Converter Starter (vCenter), Shared Folders tab (VMware Tools), 300 selecting, 310 shares, vCenter Server, 168-169 split-brain condition, ESX hosts, 145 configuring, 172 SQL Server Show Virtual Machines option ODBC connections, configuring, 82-85 (VI Client), 120 vCenter Server, 80-82 Shrink tab (VMware Tools), 300 SQL Server 2005 Express, vCenter Server, 88 single-CPU licensing, 135 SSH console utilities, ESX hosts, 458 single-vCPU VMs, 48 SSO (Single Sign-on), VI Client, 127 size considerations, LUNs, 201-203 staff, virtualization, education, 19-24 Sloof, Eric, 464 stand-alone licensing, 69-70 configuring, 130-131

486 Index

Star Trek, 72 svmotion command, 449 Start menu folder, vCenter Server, 92 swap partition (ESX), 100 startup screen switches. See vSwitches ESX, 27 systems compatibility guide, 50 ESXi, 27 Systems Insight Manager, ESX hosts, statistics collection settings, vCenter Server hardware monitoring, 336 database, 77-78 T intervals, 79 tablespace problems, vCenter Server, levels, 78-79 troubleshooting, 426 retentions, 79 tabs, VI Client, 122, 124-125 Status column (VMware Tools), 301 tagging (VST mode), vSwitches, 68 storage, 56 tail command, log files, viewing, 410 10K hard drives, 56-57 tape drives, ESX hosts, attaching to, 406 15K rpm hard drives, 56-57 Tasks and Events tab (VI Client), 123 boot from SAN, 57-58 Tasks privilege (vCenter Server), 249 ESX hosts, 46 Tech Support Mode, ESXi hosts, configuring, 201-213 troubleshooting, 420-423 FC (Fibre Channel), 58-59 Tech Target Search Server Virtualization, FC (Fibre Channel) storage, configuring, 464-465 206-209 Search Server Virtualization, 464-465 iSCSI storage, 59-61 VMware, 465 configuring, 209-212 Virtualization Pro blog, 464 local storage, 58 templates (VMs), 277 configuring, 205-206 best practices, 280 LUNs, size considerations, 201-203 creating, 277-279 mixing types, 62 displaying, 278 NAS/NFS, 61-62 using, 279-280 NFS storage, configuring, 212-213 Test mode (esxupdate), 367 RDP (raw device mappings), 203-205 text editor, log files, viewing, 410 VMFS volumes, 203-205 thick client access, ESXi, 28 VMS volumes, naming, 206 thick disks, 446-447 storage adapters, 55 thin disks, 447 VMs, choosing, 268-269 Third Brigade Deep Security, 260 storage administrators, virtualization, third-party security products, 257, 259-260 educating, 23 three-star migration threshold (DSR), 150 storage utilities, 461 Time Zone Selection screen (ESX), 109 Storage VMotion, 25, 36-37 TPS (Transparent Page Sharing), 49 storage/SAN compatibility guide, 50 traditional agent backups, DR sites, moving “Strategies for ESX Server Update to, 71 Management,” 398 traditional backup agents, 399-400 Summary tab (VI Client), 122 traditional servers, blade servers, compared, support forums, VMTN (VMware Technology 51-52 Network), 432-434 487 Index

traffic, vSwitches, routing, 199-200 hosts transparent page sharing, hosts, 167 remediating, 390-393 Transparent Page Sharing (TPS), 49 scanning, 388-390 trapcommunity option (snmp.conf file), 342 installing, 382-385 trapsink option (snmp.conf file), 342 tabs, 385 Triggers tab, alarms, creating, 349 “Update Manager Administration Guide,” 397 Tripwire ConfigCheck, 258, 461 Update Manager plug-in, VI Client, 126 Tripwire Enterprise 7.5V, 258 Update Manager Service, vCenter Server, 88 Tripwire OpsCheck, 459 Update mode (esxupdate), 367 troubleshooting, 409, 431 updates ESX hosts, 409 ESX hosts, 365-366, 372 determining versions, 414-415 ISO file, 373-374 esxcfg commands, 417 ESXi, 29 hostd service, 418 ESXi hosts, 374-379 log files, 410-414 Infrastructure, 374-377 networking problems, 417-418 vihostupdate, 377-379 PSoD (purple screen of death), VMs, 365 415-416 upgrading Service Console problems, 416-417 vCenter Server, 393-394 vxpa service, 418-419 VMs, 394-397 ESXi hosts, 419 Use Explicit Failover Order policy, determining versions, 420 vSwitches, 190 esxcfg commands, 422 useradd command, 225 log files, 419-420 Users and Groups tab (VI Client), 123 PSoD (purple screen of death), 422 “Using VMware Infrastructure for Backup Tech Support Mode, 420-423 and Restore,” 407 resources, 431-434 V vCenter Server, 423 Van Zanten, Gabe, 464 database problems, 425-426 VBAs (virtual backup appliances), 403 host problems, 426 VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup), 43-45, log files, 423-424 399-402 VMs, 426, 431 vCenter Server, 3, 30-33, 48 log files, 427 alarms power-state problems, 427-430 configuring, 344-351 two-star migration threshold (DSR), 150 inheritance, 345 U Cluster Summary tab, 153 Ultra ISO, ISO files, creating, 272 clusters, creating, 139-140 unsupported hardware, 56 configuration, 45-48, 136-175 Update Manager, 42-43, 397 connections, VI Client, 125-126 baselines Converter, 307 attaching, 387-389 best practices, 325-328 creating, 385-388 cloning VMs, 282-283 ESX hosts, patching, 381-393 Converter Enterprise, 317-324 488 Index

Converter Starter, 309-317 HA (High Availability) destination formats, 308-309 Admission Controls settings, 141-142 operating system support, 308 Advanced Option settings, 143-144 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, cluster settings, 143 305-329 configuring, 141-148 source import formats, 308 split-brain condition, 145 Converter Enterprise Service, 88 Virtual Machine Monitoring settings, database, 77 143-144 ODBC connections, 82-86 installation Oracle, 80-81 Database Selection screen, 90 SQL Server, 80-82 Installation Type screen, 89 statistics collection settings, 77-79 Licensing Server screen, 90 database servers, choosing and physical servers, 87-88 configuring, 77-86 Server Authorization screen, 91 datacenter, creating, 137 virtual machines, 87-88 DPM (Distributed Power Management), installation application, downloading, 75 configuring, 156-158 installing, 87-93 DSR (Distributed Resource Scheduler) License Server, 88 affinity rules, 151-152 License Server settings, 132 automatic mode, 155 limits, 170 automation levels, 148-150 configuring, 172 best practices, 155-156 Microsoft .NET Framework, 88 cluster evaluation frequency, 155 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, 88 configuring, 148-156 monitoring, 351-352 DSR Recommendations tab, 154 patching, 365 migration threshold, 150-151 performance monitoring, 352-353 monitoring, 152-154 configuring, 357-360 VMotion, 155 ESX hosts, 355-357 email alerts, configuring, 345-347 VMs, 354-355 ESX hosts reservations, 169-170 adding, 140-141 configuring, 172 monitoring, 344-351 resource pools, 170-172 ESXi hosts, adding, 140-141 adding VMs to, 175 EVC (Enhanced VMotion Compatibility), configuring, 173-174 configuring, 163-166 viewing, 174-175 folders resources, configuring, 166-175 blue VM/template folders, 138 Scheduled Tasks feature, 126 creating, 137-138 security, 243 datacenter/cluster/host folders, 138 AD (Active Directory) integration, Generate Update Manager log bundle, 92 243-244 Generate VirtualCenter1 log bundle, 92 best practices, 256-257 Guided Consolidation, P2V (physical to permissions, 245-246, 250-252 virtual) migration, 329-334 489 Index

privileges, 245-246, 250-252 vendor licensing models, virtualization, 16 roles, 253-256 vendors shares, 168-169 CPUs, choosing, 53-54 configuring, 172 virtualization, 1 Start menu folder, 92 virtualization support policies, 19 troubleshooting, 423 versions database problems, 425-426 ESX host components, determining, host problems, 426 414-415 log files, 423-424 ESXi host components, determining, 420 Update Manager, 381-393, 397 vFoglight, 460 baselines, 385-389 performance monitoring, 362 installing, 382-385 VGT (virtual machine guest tagging), 177 remediating hosts, 390-393 VI Client, 119 scanning hosts, 388-390 Alarm tab, 348 tabs, 385 Converter Enterprise plug-in, 126 Update Manager Service, 88 datastore browser, cloning VMs, 284-286 upgrading, 393-394 Datastores view, 121 VI Client (Virtual Infrastructure Client), ESX hosts, connecting to directly, 125-126 88, 92 folders, creating, 121 SSO (Single Sign-on), 127 hardware health status, displaying, 336 virtual hosts, memory usage, 166-168 Hosts and Clusters view, 120 VM templates, adding existing templates installation, 93-97 back into, 280 hardware requirements, 93 VMotion, configuring, 159-163 software requirements, 93 VMware Capacity Planner Service, 91 layout, 120-125 VMware Converter Enterprise Service, 92 log files, viewing, 410, 420 VMware Infrastructure Update, 92 Networks view, 121 VMware Infrastructure Web Access, 91 nonroot user accounts, creating, 223 VMware License Server, 91 objects, 122-125 VMware Update Manager Service, 92 performance monitoring, 352-353 VMware vCenter Server, 88 ESX hosts, 355-357 VMware VirtualCenter1 Server, 91 VMs, 354-355 vCenter Server version 2.5 Update 3, 2 plug-ins, 126 vCloud, 2 Scheduled Tasks feature, 126 vCPUs, VMs, assigning, 263, 267 Show Virtual Machines option, 120 vdf Linux command, 455 SSO (Single Sign-on), 127 Veeam Backup, 403, 461 tabs, 122, 124-125 Veeam FastSCP file transfer utility, 458 Update Manager plug-in, 126 Veeam Management suite, performance Users and Groups tab, 224 monitoring, 362 vCenter Server, 88, 92 Veeam Monitor, 460 connecting to, 125-126 Veeam Monitor Free Edition, 460 Virtual Infrastructure Client login Veeam Reporter, 463 screen, 95 490 Index

Virtual Infrastructure Client settings, multiple formats, 447-449 96-97 nodes, choosing, 271 Virtual Machines and Templates view, RDMs (raw device mappings), 446 120-121 thick disks, 446-447 VM templates, displaying, 278 thin disks, 447 Web access default welcome screen, 94 virtual environments, building, 75 window panes, 120 database servers, 77-86 vi Linux command, 454 ESX, 98-116 VI3, components, name changes, 3 ESXi, 98-116 vicfg-advcfg command, 449 licensing servers, 97-98 vicfg-cfgbackup command, 449 preparation, 75-77 vicfg-dns command, 449 vCenter Server, 87-93 vicfg-dumppart command, 449 VI Client, 93-97 vicfg-module command, 450 Virtual Firewall, 259 vicfg-mpath command, 450 Virtual Geek blog, 464 vicfg-nas command, 450 virtual hardware vicfg-nics command, 450 virtual disks, 446 vicfg-ntp command, 450 2GBSparse disks, 447 vicfg-rescan command, 450 multiple formats, 447-449 vicfg-route command, 450 RDMs (raw device mappings), 446 vicfg-snmp command, 450 thick disks, 446-447 vicfg-syslog command, 450 thin disks, 447 vicfg-user command, 450 VMs, 441-442 vicfg-vmhbadevs command, 450 virtual hosts, memory usage, 166-168 vicfg-vmknic command, 450 Virtual Infrastructure 3, 1 vicfg-vswitch command, 450 Virtual Infrastructure Client settings, VI video controllers, VMs, 441 Client, 96-97 viewing vCenter Server resource pools, Virtual Infrasturcture Client login screen, 95 174-175 Virtual Machine Administrator role (vCenter vifs command, 450 Server), 254 vihostupdate, ESXi hosts, updating, 377-379 “Virtual Machine Backup Guide,” 407 vihostupdate- command, 420, 450 virtual machine guest tagging (VGT), 177 VIMA (VMware Infrastructure Management Virtual Machine Monitoring settings, HA Assistant), 455-456 (High Availability), 143-144 virtual backup appliances (VBAs), 403 Virtual Machine Power User role (vCenter virtual CD/DVD drives, ISO files, selecting Server), 254 for, 274 Virtual Machine privilege (vCenter Server), Virtual Datacenter OS, 2 247-249 virtual device nodes, VMs, choosing, 271 Virtual Machine User role (vCenter Server), 254 virtual disks, 446 Virtual Machines and Templates view 2GBSparse disks, 447 (VI Client), 120-121 creating, 263, 268 Virtual Machines tab (VI Client), 122

491 Index

virtual network adapters VLAN tagging, 176-177 enhanced vmxnet, 66 Vlance network adapters, 65 PCNet32, 65 VM (virtual machine) vmxnet, 65 VM Backup Script, 460 virtual network adpters, PCNet32, 65 VM Blog, 465 Virtual Network Security Analyzer, 259 VM cloning, DR sites, moving to, 72 virtual networking, 63 VM Explorer, 461 pNICs (physical NICs), 63-65 VM guest tagging (VGT mode), vSwitches, 67 virtual switches, 66-69 VM image backups, DR sites, moving to, 72 vNICs (virtual NICs), 65-66 VM NICs, pNICs, mapping to, 194 virtual NICs (vNICs), 65-66 VM replication, DR sites, moving to, 72 VMs, choosing, 267, 269 VM sprawl, 72-73 Virtual SAN Appliance (VSA), 58 vm-support command, log files, viewing, Virtual Strategy Magazine, 465 412-413 virtual switch tagging (VST), 176 VM/ETC blog, 464 virtual switches, 66-69 VMC (Virtualization Management VirtualCenter, name change, 3 Center), 257 virtualization, 1-2 vmCDconnected, 459 100% virtualized environments, 17 VMDK file type (VMs), 444 application compatibility, 17-19 VMDK Recovery Tool, 458 application support, 16 vmfs partition (ESX), 100-101 benefits, 1 VMFS volumes high-resource utilization servers, 15 naming, 206 known problems, 4 RDP (raw device mapping), compared, physical servers, compared, 1 203-205 pilot projects, 20 VMs, creating on, 302 servers, good candidates, 16 vmkcore partition (ESX), 100 staff, education, 19-24 VMkernel vendor licensing models, 16 ESX hosts, configuring, 185-186 vendors, 1 log files, 410 Virtualization Admin, 465 VMotion, configuring, 160-161 Virtualization Review, 465 vmkfstools command-line utility, 450, 453 Virtualization Sys-con, 465 VMs, cloning, 283-284 Virtualization.com, 465 VMotion, 33-35, 459 Virtualization.info, 465 Connection Settings screen, 160 VISBU, 460 DSR (Distributed Resource Visio Stencils, 459 Scheduler), 155 Vizioncore vConverter, P2V (physical to Network Access screen, 160 virtual) migration, 307 pNICs (physical NICs), 64 Vizioncore vFoglight, 460, 463 snapshots, 439 Vizioncore vRanger, 461 vCenter Server, configuring, 159-163 Vizioncore vRanger Pro, 403 VMkernel, configuring, 160-161

492 Index

VMs (virtual machines), 441 P2V (physical to virtual) migration, backups, 399, 406-407 263, 302 backup scripts, 400-401 choosing, 304-305 esXpress, 403-404 cold cloning, 303-304 file-level backups, 404-405 hot cloning, 303-304 image-level backups, 404-405 Platespin Migrate, 306 traditional backup agents, 400 vCenter Server Converter, 305-329 utilities, 460-461 vCenter Server Guided VCB (Consolidated Backup), 401-402 Consolidation, 329-334 Veeam Backup, 403 Vizioncore vConverter, 307 vRanger Pro, 403 parallel ports, configuring, 288 CD-ROM devices, selecting, 276 partial memory reservations, CD/DVD drives, configuring, 287 creating for, 302 cloning, 281-286 performance monitoring, 352-354 configuration, 45-48 configuring, 357-360 configuration settings, 286 CPU statistics, 354 advanced configuration options, disk statistics, 354 289-291 memory statistics, 354-355 hardware, 286-288 network statistics, 355 resources, 292-297 RDMs, choosing, 270 CPUs, assigning, 286 resource requirements, 263 creating, 263-302 resources, allocating, 301 best practices, 301-302 scripting datastores, choosing, 265-266 Perl, 456 ESX hosts, configuring PowerShell, 456-457 startup/shutdown, 216-217 SCSI controllers, configuring, 288 file types, 442-445 securing, 240-242 floppy disks, configuring, 286 serial ports, configuring, 288 floppy drives, 275 snapshots, 435-436 guest operating systems, choosing, base filename-delta.vmdk file, 436 265-266 base filename-delta.vmsd file, 436 hard disks, configuring, 288 base filename-delta.vmsn file, 436 ISO files, 272-277 changing file locations, 439-440 locations, choosing, 265 committing, 437-439 LUN/VMFS volumes, optimal deleting, 435 number, 302 excluding VM disks from, 439 memory, assigning, 263, 267-268, 286 growth, 436-437 monitoring utilities, 459-460 locating, 440-441 naming, 265 multiple snapshots, 435 Converter Starter (vCenter), 314 VMotion, 439 network adapters, configuring, 287 storage adapters, choosing, 268-269

493 Index

templates, 277 VMware Capacity Planner Service, vCenter best practices, 280 Server, 91 creating, 277-279 “VMware Consolidated Backup,” 407 displaying, 278 “VMware Consolidated Backup: using, 279-280 Improvements in Version 3.5,” 407 troubleshooting, 426, 431 “VMware Consolidated Backup—Partner log files, 427 Integration Guide,” 407 power-state problems, 427-430 VMware Converter, 459 unneeded hardware, removing, 302 VMware Converter Enterprise Service, updating, 365 vCenter Server, 92 upgrading, 394-397 “VMware ESX Server 3 Patch vCenter Server Management,” 398 adding resource pools to, 175 VMware Infrastructure Management installation, 87-88 Assistant (VIMA), 455-456 vCPUs, assigning, 263, 267 VMware Infrastructure Update, vCenter virtual CD/DVD drives, ISO files, 274 Server, 92 virtual device nodes, choosing, 271 VMware Infrastructure Web Access, vCenter virtual disk nodes, choosing, 271 Server, 91 virtual disks, 446 VMware License Server, vCenter Server, 91 2GBSparse disks, 447 VMware Technology Network (VMTN), creating, 263, 268 support forums, 432-434 multiple formats, 447-449 VMware Tips blog, 464 RDMs (raw device mappings), 446 VMware Tools thick disks, 446-447 About tab, 300 thin disks, 447 Devices tab, 300 virtual hardware components, 441-442 Options tab, 300 virtual NICs, choosing, 267, 269 Scripts tab, 300 VMFS volumes, creating on, 302 Shared Folders tab, 300 VMware Tools, installing on, 297-301 Shrink tab, 300 VMSD file type (VMs), 444 Status column, 301 VMSN file type (VMs), 444 upgrading, 394-397 VMSS file type (VMs), 444 VMs, installing on, 297-301 VMTN (VMware Technology Network), VMware Tools (VMs), 289 support forums, 432-434 “VMware Update Manager Performance and VMTS Patch Manager, 459 Best Practices,” 397 VMware, 2 VMware Update Manager privilege (vCenter knowledge base website, 431-432 Server), 250 licenses, downloading, 75 VMware Update Manager Service, vCenter licensing, 69-70 Server, 92 Virtual Infrastructure 3, 1 “VMware VI3 Upgrade Guide,” 397

494 Index

VMware VirtualCenter1 Server, vCenter W-X-Y-Z Server, 91 web access, log file, 411 VMware Virtualization Evangelist blog, 464 Web access default welcome screen vmware-cmd command, 450 (VI Client), 94 VM power-state problems, web client access, ESXi, 28 troubleshooting, 427-428 websites, resources, 465-466 VMware-land, 465 Win Image, ISO files, creating, 272 vmware-support command, VM power-state window panes, VI Client, 120 problems, troubleshooting, 428-429 WinSCP, log files, viewing, 410 vmware-vmupgrade.exe command, 396-397 WinSCP file transfer utility, 458 VMX file type (VMs), 443 wizards, New VM Wizard, 264-271 VMXF file type (VMs), 444 vmxnet virtual network adapter, 65 X-M0n0wall virtual firewall appliance, 260 vNICs X86 Virtualization, 465 Converter Starter (vCenter), setting Xtravirt Virtual SAN, 461 information, 316 Yellow Bricks blog, 464 ESX hosts, changing MAC addresses, 196-197 vNICs (virtual NICs), 65-66 VP Snapper, 458 VPN-1 VE (Virtual Edition), 259 vpxa log file, 411 vRanger Pro, 403 Vroom! by VMware’s Performance Team, 464 VSA (Virtual SAN Appliance), 58 vSMP, 40-42 vSphere, 2 VST (virtual switch tagging), 176 vSwitch Properties window (ESX), 186-192 vSwitches, 67 ESX hosts configuring, 186-193 internal-only vSwitches, 195 load-balancing policies, 189-190 Network Failover Detection, 190 External switch tagging (EST mode), 68 traffic, routing, 199-200 VM guest tagging (VGT mode), 67 vSwitch tagging (VST mode), 68 VSWP file type (VMs), 443 VT FlexMigration, 54 vxpa service, ESX hosts, troubleshooting, 418-419 495