evaluation vmware vsphere 5 - itcourseware vsphere 5.5 with esxi and ... chapter 7 – virtual...

Study Guide

5 Day

VMware vSphere 5.5with ESXi and vCenterA step by step approach to successful virtualization planning, deployment and administration.

Featuring VMware vSphere with

VMware ESXi™ 5.5,VMware vCenter™ 5.5,

and related products

May 2014

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Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.

Time Line & Table of Contents

Day 1 Topics

Chapter 0 - Overview

Chapter 1 – VMware vSphere Overview

Chapter 2 – Standalone ESXi

Chapter 3 – Virtual & Physical Networking

Chapter 4 – NAS Shared Storage

Day 2 Topics

Chapter 5 – Virtual Machines

Chapter 6 – vCenter

Chapter 7 – Virtual Machine Rapid Deployment

Day 3 Topics

Chapter 8 – Permission Model

Chapter 9 – Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage

Chapter 10 – VMware File System

Chapter 11 – Alarms

Chapter 12 – Resource Pools

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Day 4 Topics

Chapter 13 – VMware Converter Standalone

Chapter 14 – VM Migration

Chapter 15 – Distributed Resource Scheduler

Chapter 16 – VMware High Availability Clusters

Day 5 Topics

Chapter 17 – Host Profiles

Chapter 18 – VMware Update Manager

Chapter 19 – VMware vSphere Replication

Chapter 20 – Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Chapter 21 – Final Thoughts

Appendix

Appendix 1 – Definitions & Acronyms

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Notes

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

Overview-1Copyright © 2013 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization.

Chapter 0 - Overview

VMware vSphere 5.5 with

ESXi and vCenter

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Virtualization➲ Introduction to Virtualization in general➲ Introduction to vSphere 5.5 features➲ Class OverviewEVALUATION COPY


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Virtualization – Before & After

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

➲ Is completely transparent to guest OS and applications

AppO/S

AppO/S

AppO/S

VMware vSphere

Before Virtualization

Traditional PC Server Deployments

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

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

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VMware vSphere➲ VMware ESXi● Enterprise class server virtualization software

➲ Management, Performance, Monitoring● vCenter Server, vCenter Server Appliance

➲ Workload Resource Balancing● VMotion, DRS Load Balancing Clusters

➲ Storage Resource Balancing● Storage VMotion, Storage Profiles, Storage DRS

➲ High Availability● HA Clusters, Fault Tolerant VMs

➲ Workload Migration and Back Up● vCenter Converter● Data Recovery / Data Protection / Replication

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Public Class Daily Timetable

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

➲ Informal● Ask questions anytime

➲ Cell phones on vibrate please● Please take calls

outside class

Class Schedule

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

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Problems & Opportunities➲ Business or IT

problem we face● Identify common

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

➲ Virtual Solution● Explain how Virtual

Infrastructure addresses the problem● New methods● Streamlined

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

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

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Introductions➲ Who● Name and current job

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

➲ Prior experience with● Windows● Linux/UNIX● VMware hosted products (Player, Server, etc.)● vSphere 5.x/4.x, ESX 3.x, VirtualCenter 2.x● 3rd party Virtualization (Xen/Hyper-V)

➲ Favorite vacation destination?

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

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VMware Certified Associate➲ VCA-DV (Datacenter Virtualization)● New vSphere certification track

● Authorized training not required● Register with VMware to sit the exam● Pass the VMware VCA-DV exam● 50 Questions in 75 minutes● Must score 300+ out of a possible 500● No retake cooling-off period● Cost is about $120USD

● We cover most things you need to know you to pass the VCA-DV exam!● Should also learn the basic features and

capabilities of● vCenter Operations Manager● VMware Site Recovery Manager

VMware Certified Associate – DataCenter VirtualizationA new certificate created by VMware August, 2013. VCA-DV is an first-tier certificate that indicates that holders posess a solid grounding in virtualiza-tion fundamentals including design, implementation, administration and troubleshooting. The test is managed through Pearson/VUE and has a stan-dard price of $120USD (as of October, 2013).

Holders of VCA-DV will be able to:- define the use cases and benefits of datacenter virtualization- Show cost, administrative and operational benefits- Install, configure, administer and operate all major components- Be able to back up and recover VMs- Create and manage scalable clusters- Deliver high service availability

For more information on the new VMware VCA-DV certificate, please visit:

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=41162&ui=www_cert

The exam blueprint (requirements/details, etc.) is here: http://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCA_Blueprints/VCAD510%20Exam%20Blueprint%20Guide%201.0.pdf

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http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=41162&ui=www_cert

http://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCA_Blueprint

Notes



ESXLab vSphere Certification➲ ESXLab Certified Virtualization

Specialist, Technician● Exam based certifications for

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

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

VMware VCA-DVFor more information see the brochure at the back of this book

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

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

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

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

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http://www.vmware.com

Notes



Review & Questions➲ VMware vSphere...● A suite of software products that improves

● Resource usage – consolidation, load balancing● Availability – rapid recovery, FT duplication● Scalability – DRS clusters, Storage clusters● Management – vCenter Server

➲ Works with local storage, shared stor-age● Shared Storage enables

● Hot and cold VM migration● Dynamic CPU/RAM load balancing● Dynamic Storage load balancing● High Availability clusters

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Notes

Chapter 1 - Introduction to vSphere 5.5Photocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted

Copyright © 2013 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization. Introduction-1

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction to

VMware vSphere 5.5

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

➲ Scaling vSphere deployments➲ Storage, Network and Server private

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

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Server Resource Utilization➲ Pre-virtualization server resource utiliza-

tion rates are often very low● Typically, one OS/application per server● Dedicated server average utilization: 3%-35%● Usually one critical resource

● Other sub-systems mostly idle➲ Why deploy only 1 OS, application/server?● For political, administrative isolation● I own/manage my own server

● For application, DLL isolation● To simplify backup, recovery, DR● Because of the perception that PC servers are

cheap to buy, license, run

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

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

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

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

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

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

as needed

vSphere Virtualization

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

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

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

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

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

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

➲ Virtual Solutions● VM Consolidations:

5-50+ VMs ESXi host ● Relieves rack space

congestion● Reduces power,

cooling costs● Leverages existing

networking, storageresources (SAN switches)

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

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

- A 1U PC Server can draw 100W to 600W of power- A 2U PC Server can draw 200-900W of power on each of its power supplies- A 42U rack of 1U servers at just 200W/server will consume 8+kw/hr of power- Many data centers double their power consumption every 3 years- As servers become more powerful, the power draw per server increases- Data centers often run out of power/cooling before running out of rack space- Idle servers often consume more than 50% of their maximum power draw- It can take up to 2 times the energy to cool a server as the server uses to operate- Servers with 32+GB of RAM use more power to run RAM than they do to run CPUs (especially true of servers that run high frequency FB memory)

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

● Time consuming● Introduce needless

variation, risk● Imaging solutions not

universal● Tied to manufacturer,

hardware components● Images may not help if

maker changes hardware configuration

➲ Virtual Solutions● VMs use generic

virtual hardware, not the underlyingphysical hardware

● Easy to create VM master images● Clones, Templates

● VM copy, customize...● Easy to create a VM

Image Library● Easier to maintain● Not tied to hardware● Easy to change

server H/W vendors

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

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

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

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Back Up & Recovery➲ Virtual Solutions● Legacy LAN backup tools work in VMs● File system back ups● Expensive, complex, not always 100% reliable

● Backup/recovery/application/open file agents, etc.● Disk Block Change Tracking● ESXi marks disk blocks changed since the last

back up● Snapshot VM, copy changed block, commit

● Many solutions use this approach● VMware Data Protection / Data Recovery● Veeam● Phd Virtual / Unitrends● others...

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

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

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

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

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http://www.vizioncore.com)

http://www.phdvirtual.com)

http://www.veeam.com

Notes



Server Refresh➲ Problems● PC servers have a

short life span● 3-5 yrs depending on

available maintenance support contracts

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

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

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

of physical hardware● Easy to migrate VMs

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

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

● Can be performed remotely

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

Virtual machines see:

● A virtual motherboard with a chipset, keyboard, mouse, IDE, floppy controller● A virtual PCI video controller● One to four virtual IDE CD/DVD devices● One to two virtual floppy drives● A virtual PCI bus● Up to 10 virtual Network Interface Cards (NICs)● One to 4 virtual SCSI Host Bus Adapters (SCSI HBAs)● Up to 15 virtual SCSI disks per SCSI HBA● Up to 8-64 virtual CPUs that map to physical CPU cores (depending on your vSphere license and cannot exceed the physical cores in your ESXi host)● Virtual memory that is indistinguishable from physical memory

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

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

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Windows Licensing for VMs➲ Some Windows Server 2003/2008

editions have VM friendly licensing ● Windows Server 2k3/2k8 Standard

● Each VM needs its own license● Windows Server Enterprise

● Each license key licenses up to four VM on one host at no additional charge

● Windows Server Datacenter ● VM friendly pricing● Each license key licenses an unlimited VMs on

one host at no additional charge● Always check your license agreements

● If possible, use volume license keys or multiple activation keys

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

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

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

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

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

Windows Datacenter simplifies license compliance because you are entitled to run an unlimited number of VMs/server. You are also entitled to downgrade your Windows edi-tions in the same family (e.g.: If you have W2k8 Datacenter, you can deploy W2k8 Stan-dard or Enterprise in your VMs).

For more information on licensing Windows Server 2003/2008 for VMs, please visit:

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

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

Notes



Windows Server 2012➲ Windows 2k12 Virtualization entitlements● Standard Edition● 2 sockets per license● Only 2 VMs permitted per license● You must buy more W2k12 Standard licenses if

● If you have > 2 processors in your server, or ● You want to run > 2 VMs in your server

● Enterprise Edition - no longer available● Datacenter Edition● One license required for every 2 physical CPUs● Unlimited number of VMs / server

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

The following is quoted directly from the ws2012_licensing-pricing_faq.pdf document provided by Microsoft:

“Both Standard and Datacenter editions provide the same set of features; the only thing that differentiates the editions is the number of Virtual Machines (VMs). A Standard edition license will entitle you to run up to two VMs on up to two proces-sors (subject to the VM use rights outlined in the Product Use Rights document). A Datacenter edition license will entitle you to run an unlimited number of VMs on up to two processors.”

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Disaster Recovery➲ Problems● Ensure business

continuity● Replication is costly● Duplicate all HW, SW

at remote site● Complex● DR procedures must

be tested, reviewed, refined, retested

● Risky● Failure of DR plan

puts business at extreme risk

➲ Virtual Solutions● SAN Replication +

Site Recovery Mgr● Shadow SAN LUNS

to DR site● ESXi host(s) at DR

site set to run VMs● vSphere Replication● Duplicates VMs to

secondary site● Keeps VMs in sync

by replicating disk block changes

● Included in many vSphere licenses

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check out a comparison of these two products here:

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

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http://www.veeam.com)

http://www.vizioncore.com)

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

Notes



Test, Development & QA➲ Problems● Development, test

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

an exact match● Differences introduce

variation, risk● Hard to validate

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

➲ Virtual Solutions● Hot clone VMs● Clone - Exact copy of

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

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

problems encountered● Revert back to original● Try again!

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IT Technical Career Benefits

➲ Average salary for IT jobs with virtualization skills● http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Skill=Virtualization/Salary#by_Job

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

Note: VMware has been experiencing increased competition from Microsoft with Hyper-V inlcuded with Windows Server 2008/2012 and with XenServer. These products com-pete aggressively on price (XenServer is now free) and have features comparable to VMware vSphere Essentials Plus.

Hyper-V Features- Live Migration (move VMs from one server to another)- Live Storage Migration (move VM files from one datastore to another)- VM Replication for backup and disaster recovery- Failure recovery clustering

XenServer Features (in Free/OpenSource edition)- Live Migration with XenMotion (move VMs from one server to another)- Live Storage Migration (move VM files from one datastore to another)- Central management with XenCenter- High Availability clusters (automatic VM placement power on if a server fails)- Disaster Recovery capability (recover VMs on DR site and put them back into service)- VM Snapshots- XenMotion across servers with non-identical CPUs- Centralized monitoring and alerting

For more information or to do a salary check on your area, browse over to www.payscale.com

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http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Skill=Virtualization/Salary#by_Job

http://www.payscale.com

Notes



Virtualization Over Time

➲ VMs – get bigger and faster over time● Eliminate hardware virtualization capacity

and performance limitations● Resources – make VMs any size you want● Performance – VMs more than fast enough for

99+% of all enterprise workloads

ESX 1 ESX 2.x

ESX(i) 3.x

ESX(i) 4.x

ESXi5.0

ESXi5.1

ESXi 5.5

Year Released 2002 2003 2005 2008 2011 2012 2013Max vCPUs/VM 1 2 4 8 32 64 64Max RAM/VM 2GB 3.6GB 64GB 256GB 1TB 1TB 1TBNetwork I/O .5Gb .9Gb 9Gb 30Gb >36Gb >36Gb 80GbStorage I/O Op/s < 5k 7k 100k 300k 1,000k 1,000k 1,000kCPU Cores/ESXi 4 8 96 128 160 160 320Max RAM/ESXi 256GB 1TB 2TB 2TB 4TB

VMware's goal is to scale up VM performance and size beyond the need of any single enterprise workload.

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

Virtual networking performance is dependent on the capabilities of the underlying physical network. For fastest virtual networking speed, deploy teamed 10Gb or 40Gb NICs.

Virtual storage performance is improved through the use of very high speed storage adapters (8/16Gb Fibre cards, 10Gb iSCSI adapters) and through the use of virtual-ization aware Storage Area Networks (SANs). For example, VMware can now delegate many storage operations directly to the back end SAN (including file copy for VM cloning) using VMware APIs for Array Integration (VAAI). This dramatically improves storage performance because the VM being copied can be copied within the SAN (and doesn't have to be copied to the ESXi host and back to the SAN as part of the copy operation).

Source: http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-5-0-whats-new-excitinghttp://longwhiteclouds.com/2013/09/23/vsphere-5-5-record-breaking-network-performance/

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

http://longwhiteclouds.com/2013/09/23/vsphere-5-5-record-breaking-network-performance/

Notes



vSphere Small Business LicensesEssentials Essentials + Essentials +

With vSAESXi Servers (2 sockets) 3 3 3Processor Cores/socket no limit no limit no limitvCenter Server Nodes 3 3 3VSMP (Max vCPUs/VM) 8 8 8VMware HA ● ●

Data Protection ● ●

VMotion ● ●

vSphere Replication ● ●

vShield Endpoint ● ●

VM Hot Add CPU, Memory ● ●

vSphere Storage Appliance ●

Retail Price $495 $4,495 $4,995

Features from www.vmware.com as of August, 2013Search for vsphere_pricing.pdf

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

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

VMware publishes full pricing information on their web site:

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

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

Notes



VMware vSphere 5.5 EditionsFree vSphere vSphere vSphereESXi Standard Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Maximum vCPUs per VM 8 8 32 64Maximum Physical RAM per ESXi host unlimited unlimited unlimited unlimitedESXi + VSMP + VMFS ● ● ● ●vSphere Data Protection Hot Backup ● ● ● ●Update Manager ● ● ● ●vSphere Storage Appliance ● ● ●Data Recovery ● ● ●High Availability Clusters ● ● ●vShield EndPoint AntiVirus ● ● ●vSphere VM Hot Replication ● ● ●VMotion ● ● ●vShield Zones ● ● ●Fault Tolerance (1 x vCPU core) ● ● ●Storage VMotion ● ● ●High Reliability Memory for VMkernel ● ●Big Data Hypervisor Extensions ● ●DRS Load Balancing ● ●DRS Power Management ● ●vNetwork Distributed vSwitches ●Network, Storage I/O Control ●Host Profiles ●Auto Deploy ESXi Hosts ●Storage DRS / Profile Driven Storage ●

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business Essentials / Essentials PlusKit Name vCenter vSphere

Storage Appl.Server Entitlement

Max vCPUs per VM

Small Business Essentials

Essentials3 Host Max

No Max 3 Hosts, 2 CPUs each

8

Small Business Essentials Plus

Essentials3 Host Max

Yes Max 3 Hosts, 2 CPUs each

8

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

Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 8

Enterprise Enterprise Yes 6+ CPUs 32Enterprise Plus Ent. Plus Yes 6+ CPUs 64

vSphere Acceleration Kits are bundles of vSphere licenses that provide bet-ter value than purchasing vSphere and vCenter license entitlements sepa-rately.

There are two tiers of vSphere Kits:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

more than 3 ESXi hosts

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

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

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

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

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

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

● E.g.: from vSphere 5.0/5.1 to vSphere 5.5● Out of support customers can reactivate by:● Paying all back support● Paying for the next year(s) support, and● A penalty for allowing your support to lapse

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

Software support must be renewed yearly. If you keep support renewed, you are entitled to upgrade vSphere licenses to future releases both within the same major release number (e.g.: upgrade from vSphere 5.0/5.1 to vSphere 5.5) or across major release numbers (e.g.: upgrade from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 when it becomes available).

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

You may bring your licenses back into support by paying:

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

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

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VMware ESXi➲ Enterprise class

virtualization● Bare metal install● Lean hypervisor● Dynamically load

balances VMs● Assigns CPU, RAM

resources when needed, as needed

● If resources are scarce, idling VMs get little service

● Dynamically tunable

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

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

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

RAM, Disk, Network of the host system

● Manage with vSphere Client

● Low-cost or free● ESXi or vSphere

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

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

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

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Multiple ESXi w. Shared Storage➲ Migrated VMs

onto shared SAN storage● VMs still run on

single host➲ No VMotion, DRS, HA

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

to import VMs onto surviving host(s)

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

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

So, if a server does fail...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Storage Cloud➲ Storage Area

Networks (SANs)● Aggregate physical disks

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

● Grow LUNs as needed● Provision LUNs on

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

LUNs

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Server Cloud➲ Add new PC Servers

to meet capacity, recovery, performance needs● Install ESXi● Add to DRS cluster:● VMs rebalance by mi-

grating onto new server● Reduces CPU, memory

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

host fails

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Network Cloud

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

● Common MAC address table● Supports internal Private vLANs

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

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

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

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

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

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What's New in vSphere 5.1 / 5.5➲ Bigger ESXi host support● 320 physical CPU cores (5.5)● 16 NUMA Nodes● 16Gb end-to-end Fibre SAN connections

➲ Bigger VMs, more VMs● Up to 64 vCPUs/VM● Up to 1TB of RAM/VM● Up to 512 VMs/ESXi host● Up to 4096 powered on vCPUs/ESXi host

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

host or your vSphere Client PC

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What's New in vSphere 5.1 / 5.5➲ VMFS for vSphere 5.5 supports● Physical / Virtual disk volumes up to 62TB● Raw Device Maps for volumes up to 64TB● Unlimited blocks per file

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

➲ vSphere Replication● Hot replicate VMs to another host or site

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What's New in vSphere 5.1 / 5.5➲ Storage vMotion VMs with snapshots➲ vSphere Web Client● New primary administrative interface with

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

➲ VMware vCenter Appliance (vCSA)● SuSE Linux based vCenter server● Includes open source PostgreSQL database● Also connect to Oracle databases

➲ Auto-deploy ESXi host capability● Simplifies install and upgrade of ESXi hosts● New stateful/stateless caching

Auto Deploy Caching

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

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

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

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What's New in vSphere 5.1/5.5➲ Additional features in vSphere 5.1 and 5.5● Hardware Version 10 ● Support for shared, high end GPUs in ESXi hosts

● Perfect for CAD/CAM, graphics intensive virtual desktops● vNetwork Distributed Switch upgrades● vSwitch health checks● Configuration change roll back and recovery● Back up and restore● Multiple LACP NIC teams (vSphere 5.5)● Improved vSwitch port replication

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

● Normally RP configurations lost on DRS disable/enable

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Notes

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

Copyright © 2013 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization. ESXi-1

Chapter 2 – VMware ESXi

How to Install, ConfigureVMware ESXi 5.5

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Stand Alone ESXi➲ ESXi Overview➲ ESXi Installation Procedures● Perform the initial install● Post-install steps● Configure Networking, Time Services, Security

➲ Best Practices

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Project Plan

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

ESXi ESXi

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

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ESXi Block Diagram

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

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

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Scaling Up Networks, Storage

➲ Shared SAN Storage● Centralizes storage capacity,

mgt, performance● Fast storage networks● 8/16Gb Fibre, 10Gb iSCSI

● Multiple storage paths

➲ Networking● Use multiple physical,

virtual LAN segments● Use NIC teams

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

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

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

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ESXi Server Hardware➲ CPUs● Max 320 pCPU cores● Intel Core 2 Xeons or

newer ● 2-15 cores/CPU● Hyperthreading

● All AMD Opteron● 1-16 cores/CPU

● Non Uniform Memory● Up to 16 NUMA nodes

● Memory● 4GB to boot, 4TB Max● 5% RAM for VMkernel

● VMs use all remaining

➲ Networking● Up to 32 Gb NICs● Max 8 10Gb NICs● Max 8 40Gb NICs

● Mellanox ConnectX-3 NICs only

➲ Storage● Local SCSI, SAS,

SATA, SSD volumes● Infiniband, iSCSI,

Fibre, SANs● NFS File Shares

● No native SMB/CIFS support

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

● No more than 320 CPU cores (includes Hyperthreaded logical processors) for CPU scheduling purposes● All available RAM up to 4TB

Furthermore the following implementation limitations need to be considered:

● ESXi supports a modest selection of 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet controllers● Jumbo Frames supported, which may improve software iSCSI I/O performance.

Notes about Local Storage● ESXi requires enterprise class storage controllers. This means that it usually doesn't work with embedded SATA controllers found on desktop motherboards● ESXi has support for controllers from LSI Logic, Adaptec and many others. Most vendor branded controllers (Dell PERC, HP SmartArray, IBM ServeRAID, etc.) are made by (i.e.: rebranded from) either LSI Logic or Adaptec● HP SmartArray controllers have significant limitations you should know about:

1. They may refuse to boot off a local storage volume that is >2TB in size2. They may refuse to use disk that do not carry HP's brand even if HP OEM's the drive. This means that generic Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, etc. enterprise drives (that work fine) may be rejected by HP controllers and/or storage shelves

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

the motherboard● Host boots ESXi after

POST● Boots from flash drive

● ESXi configuration can reside on local storage or retrieved from the network via Host Profiles / Auto Deploy

➲ ESXi Installable● Local disks● RAID, JBOD● Can run from SSDs

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

SD flash storage● Easy to duplicate● Most servers have

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DCUI - Direct Console User Interface This is the Yellow & Grey screen on the console of your ESXi host once it is fully booted.

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ESXi Boot Screen

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

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

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

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

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Accept the VMware EULA➲ You must

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

proceed to the next step

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Select the Target Volume

➲ Installer displays available storage volumes● Categorized as Local or Remote● Local - RAID, JBOD volumes on your ESXi host● Remote - Fibre or iSCSI SAN LUNs accessible

via hardware SAN controllers

In the above screen shot, the ESXi 5.5 isntaller detected a local SATA based Intel SSD and a 4.09 TB local RAID array on an LSI Logic hardware RAID controller. Since our in-tent is to use the SSD as a hardware based Read cache (see Performance chapter), we'll select the RAID set as the install target for ESXi

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Performing an In-Place Upgrade

➲ You can upgrade ESXi 5.x hosts to ESXi 5.5 by performing an in-place upgrade● Preserves local VMFS contents● Preserves ESXi host configuration● Preserves VMs, storage settings, etc.

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Keyboard, root Password

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

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

forget the root password

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Hardware Virtualization Assist

➲ All Xeon/Opteron CPUs made after 2007 have (at least) some hardware virtualization assist features● Intel VT technology, AMD-V● Always enable all H/W virtualization features

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

Intel and AMD have virtualization hardware assist technology in their CPUs, offering sophisticated memory management capabilities, better hardware emulation features and other improvements that dramatically reduced the overhead of virtualization while maintaining compatibility with Guest OS'.

ESXi probes physical CPUs for Intel VT or AMD-V technology and will not in-stall or run if the feature is not present or enabled, so please be sure to turn on this feature in your machine's BIOS.

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

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Hardware Virtualization Assist➲ Hides privileged CPU

instructions from the Guest OS● Restrict guest OS physical

hardware access● Intel VT, AMD-V

➲ I/O Memory Management● Gives Guest OS access to

RAM on adapter cards● Includes NICs, Video Cards● Called device Passthrough

● VMware calls it DirectPath● Requires Intel VT-d, AMD-Vi

support on physical CPUs

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Ready to Install

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

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

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

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

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

Note: ESXi 5.x can install on > 2TB volumes. ESX(i) 4.1 and earlier cannot. Be aware that some vendor supplied RAID controllers (e.g.: older HP gear) cannot use a greater than 2TB volume as a boot volume.

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Installation Completed

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

It only takes about 5-10 minutes to install ESXi 5.5 onto your PC server. The install proceeds non-interactively. A status indicator updates a percent completed horizon-tal bar.

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ESXi 5.5 DCUI➲ ESXi Direct Console

User Interface● Simple BIOS like

interface➲ ESXi configuration● Default – FQDN and

IP properties acquired via DHCP

● Use F2 at the boot screen to set up your ESXi 5.5 host

● Use F12 to shutdown or reboot your host

ESXi has a simple, BIOS-like interface called the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). The DCUI makes it very easy to configure. To configure your ESX host...simply hit F2 at the greeter screen and update your host configuration.

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Log In for the First Time

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

easy way to recover it!

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

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

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

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ESXi Configuration Menu

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

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

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

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

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Default Management IP Settings

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

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

● ESXi needs static IP properties

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

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

and other properties.

You can set these values statically or dynamically using DHCP. If you use DHCP, you must configure your DHCP servers to send static properties to a host. To do this, con-figure your DHCP server with the MAC address of your ESXi host management NIC and then set the static properties to server whenever that NIC broadcasts for a DHCP lease.

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Configure Management Network

➲ Configure Management Network menu let's you set key network properties● NIC used to carry Management traffic● IP V4, IP V6 properties● DNS settings● DNS domain search list

It is a best practice to use static network settings for your ESXi host. To complete this task, you must:

1. Select the correct NIC for management networking2. Set a static IP address and Netmask and Default Gateway values3. Identify your local DNS server(s) and the default DNS search domains

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Select Management NIC(s)

➲ Physical NICs carry ESXi network traffic (VM, mgt., cluster, replication, FT, etc.)● Select Network Adapters to view/change NICs● Avoid disconnected NICs● Means they have no link to the network switch

You manage your ESXi host through your network. To communicate with your ESXi host (using either the vSphere Client directly or vCenter indirectly), you must have network connectivity to it.

Since modern PC servers may have many NICs and these NICs may be connected into different physical and/or virtual LAN segments, you may have to select the correct physical NIC (rather than the default NIC) before you can manage your machine.

NIC TeamsThe Network Adapters screen lets you review and select the NIC or NICs you wish to use to carry network traffic. If you select more than one physical NIC, you automati-cally create a NIC team. NIC teams afford better speed and redundancy.

TipIt can be difficult (or impossible) to tell which RJ45 jack is associated with which MAC address. A simple way of selecting the correct physical NIC(s) is to unplug all NICs from their switch except for the NICs you wish to use for management. Then use the Status column (Connected means the NIC has a link to the switch) to deter-mine which NICs you should for management.

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Network Adapter Details

➲ ESXi now exposes underlying network adapter card details● Highlight the desired adapter and hit D● Add-on NICs have a Chassis slot number

ESXi 5.5 makes it easier to identify onboard NICs from add-on NICs. In previous ver-sions of ESXi, all NICs were reported in the order they were discovered during a boot up PCI bus scan. Normally, onboard NICs were discovered first – but this was not guaranteed. This could lead to problems trying to identify how vmnic# (alias for physical nic #) mapped to physical NICs.

With ESXi 5.5, VMware now identifies NICs as follows:

- If the Hardware Label values starts with N/A, then the NIC is on the motherboard- If the Hardware label value starts Chassis slot... then the NIC is an add on NIC

For NICs on the motherboard, the NIC labeled NIC 1 will show up first, then NIC 2 and so on.

For add-on NICs, port 1 will show up first and then ports 2-4 (if the card is a dual/quad NIC)

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IPV4 Configuration

➲ Best Practice - use Static IP properties● No chance your server could lose its assigned

lease and therefore it's IP address● Static IPs required for vCenter Management

Complete this form to set your ESXi host management NIC IP properties.

vCenter cannot manage an ESXi host whose IP address changes. For this reason it is best to give all of your ESXi, ESXi hosts fixed IP properties.

You must select Set static IP addresses... and complete all three fields to complete your static IP address properties assignment.

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IPV6 Configuration

➲ ESXi 5.5 supports IPV6● Multiple IP address policies supported

ESXi 5.5 supports IP V6. You can assign IP V6 addresses:

- Via DHCP- Self generated via ICMP stateless configuration

You can assign up to 3 static IPV6 addresses to your ESXi host.

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DNS Configuration

➲ You must set DNS server and host name● Enter the IP of your DNS server(s)● Enter the host name of your ESXi host● The domain name is set in DNS Suffixes

ESXi and vCenter require DNS services to function properly. So it is critical that you have DNS name servers set up and accessible from your local LAN segment.

It is a best practice to have both primary and secondary DNS servers available... but ESXi will function with just primary DNS.

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Custom DNS Suffixes

➲ DNS suffixes help resolve host names● DNS look ups that contain only a host name

append domain suffixes from this list, before a DNS look up is attempted● Use spaces, commas to separate multiple domains

DNS Suffixes are used to enable DNS to look up the IP address of a host specified only by it's host name (and not qualified with a domain name). An example might be a look up request for a host called esxi5.

DNS needs a full domain name. Custom Suffixes will append domain names from the list set on this screen to simple host names and then perform a DNS query. This con-tinues until either:

- a matching FQDN is found and it's IP address is returned- no matching FQDN is found and all suffix Domain names have been tried

It is a good practice to add at lest one domain name (the primary domain name for your organization) to this list!

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Apply Network Changes

➲ Network changes are applied en mass● NIC, IP and DNS changes are activated by

restarting Management Network services

All network changes are applied at one time when you leave the Configure Manage-ment Network sub-menu. First the new settings are applied to the appropriate con-figuration files and then the ESXi hosts' management network is brought down and back up again. For this reason it is best to be at the physical server's console when updating management networking properties.

You should be brought back to the System Customization menu. Your network changes should be visible.

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Test Management Network

➲ Basic connectivity test with Ping, DNS● Pings gateway,

DNS server● Tries to resolve the

server's FQDN

➲ Each test reports OK or Fail● Do not proceed

until all tests pass!● Verify your DNS

server is ping-able

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Local/Remote Tech Support

➲ Tech Support mode enables command line access to your ESXi host● ESXi Shell – Command line access from the

physical server console● SSH – Secure Shell access to your server● Default is Disabled for both services● You may need to turn on to allow VMware or partner

access (e.g.during a support call)

Tech Support Mode enables functions used by support providers who are comfortable working on the ESXi command line. By default, all local and remote command line access to your ESXi host is disabled – so you can only access your ESXi host through:

- the vSphere client pointed directly at your ESXi host- vCenter if vCenter has management control over your ESXi host- The VMware Management Assistant service (VMA), if installed

Enabling Local Tech Support allows physical console command line access. Support personnel who have access to the physical console directly or via remote console services such as Dell DRAC (Dell Remote Access Controller), HP ILO (Integrated Lights Out) or IBM Integrated Management Module (MM) would be able to log in to your server.

Enabling Remote Tech Support enables the Secure Shell Daemon (sshd) and supports network based administrator access to your box without the need for remote console services.

WarningEnabling Remote tech support enables direct root access to your ESXi host through a TCP/IP connection. This is a potential security threat. Turn on this feature only if needed. If this feature is turned on, set a strong root password.

Never expose your machine to an untrusted network like the Internet - especially if Remote Tech Support is turned on!

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Restart Management Agents

➲ ESXi uses agents (services) to communicate with vCenter / vSphere Client● If agents fail, your server is unmanageable● Use this feature to reset management agents● Does not interfere with running VMs

It may happen that the management agents (services) on your ESXi host become un-stable or crash. If this occurs, your ESXi host will not respond to vCenter or the vSphere client. In vCenter your host will grey out and report as disconnected.

You could reboot the ESXi host but that would bring down all running VMs. A more acceptable option is to simply restart the management agents on your ESXi host.

This function can be done at any time. Any connected vSphere Client sessions will be closed. Once this function completes, your host should become active in vCenter and should accept direct vSphere Client login requests.

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ESXi Ready for Service➲ ESXi server is ready

for use● Additional hot keys

are active● Alt-F1 – command

line access to your machine (if enabled)

● Alt-F2 – this screen● Alt-F12 – VMkernel

log records● Use the vSphere

Client to manage ESXi

Once ESXi has rebooted, it is managed via VMware's vSphere Client. You can down-load the vSphere Client from www.vmware.com/download.

There are additional hot keys active on the ESXi console:

Alt-F1 – first command line log in screenAlt-F2 – the ESXi greeter screen (screen shot above)Alt-F3 to Alt-F10 – no functionAlt-F11 – Grey status screen/greeter screen with no F-key promptsAlt-F12 – VMkernel log dump

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Notes



Alt-F12 VMkernel Log Entries

➲ Hit Alt-F12 to view the VMkernel log file● Displays the most recent VMkernel log contents

● Look here to see detailed error messages● File - /scratch/log/vmkernel.log on the

command line

The VMkernel records detailed log entries into a file called /var/log/messages. You can view this file by logging into the Local/Remote tech support prompts (as root) and issuing the command:

# less /var/log/messages

You can see the most recent entries by hitting the Alt-F12 keys on your machine's console. This display shows one screen full of the most current additions to the VMk-ernel log file. You should check this file if you are troubleshooting problems and need more information than is available in the vSphere client.

Hit Alt-F2 to go back to the ESXi greeter screen when done.

NoteAll command line commands entered using Local or Remote tech support are logged to /var/log messages. In this way, it is possible to reproduce the activities of prior command line sessions.

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Browse Host Log/Config Files➲ You can use a web

browser to view ESXi host log files, configu-ration files

➲ Browse to:● http://..FQDN../host or

http://..Host-IP../host● Log in as root● Click file to view

current contents● Log out of web viewer

when finished

VMware makes log files and configuration files available for review in a number of different ways. The approach (above) is to use a web browser to log in to and view ESXi host configuration/web files.

VMware has a good knowledge base article on the files available using this approach here - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004201

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Login with vSphere Client➲ Launch vSphere Client● ESXi host IP or FQDN● User name (root), password

➲ vSphere Client● MS Windows only tool● Uses MS Visual C#, J#

● Needed for direct ESXi host management

● Supports all features of vSphere 5.0● Not being updated with

featues added to 5.1, 5.5● Cannot view/set advanced

features added to 5.1, 5.5

You manage your ESXi host directly with the vSphere Client. This is a separate down-load and install available from VMware (http://www.vmware.com/download). Alter-natively, you can just point your web browser over to your ESXi host and follow the vSphere Client download link found there.

All VMware client to server connections are encrypted using strong encryption. The encrypted link is set up before any data is exchanged between the client and the back end server.

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Security Warning

➲ All VMware software connections use 256-bit block, AES symmetric key ciphers● ESXi uses self-signed Digital Certificates● No Certificate Granting Authority to verify authenticity

➲ Since host is local, ignore warning● Check Install this certificate...

ESXi uses self-signed digital certificates to support end-to-end encryption. All com-munications between VMware client and VMware server software is encrypted using strong encryption.

Since self-signed digital certificates cannot be independently verified by a 3rd party Certificate Granting Authority (CA), a warning is issued. It is (usually) safe to perma-nently disregard this warning.

It is possible to acquire an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA) and then install that certificate onto your ESXi host. This would eliminate the warning mes-sages because a trusted certificate can be used to verify that the host is who it says it is.

Normally trusted certificates are used on Internet facing hosts to ensure the integrity of web requests (e.g.: for secure banking/payment systems, etc.). Since your ESXi hosts won't be directly on the Internet, there is no need (and no benefit) to purchas-ing a trusted certificate for your machine.

CA generated certificates are also a good idean (and may be mandatory) in organiza-tions where security is critical. Such organizations will run their own Certificate Au-thority and will have policies that all servers on their internal network must use digi-tal certificates created by and verifiable from the central CA.

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vSphere Client > ESXi Host➲ vSphere Client

presents a task launch page● Inventory – work

with your ESXi host

● Roles – define user categories

● System Logs – review, save ESXi log files

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vSphere Client > Inventory

➲ 4 Sections: Menus, Inventory, Tabs, Recent Tasks

Menu, Button Bars

Tabbed Interface

Recent Actions

Items being Managed

By default, the vSphere Client warns you whenever any command line service is en-abled. To avoid the distraction, we have manually turned off these warnings. Since granting command line access is normally not a good idea, presenting these warnings makes sense.

There are some situations where you want to enable command line access and don't want to be bothered about the fact that these service(s) are turned on. To disable command line warning sin the vSphere Client, please check out the following Knowl-edge Base article:

kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2003637

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Local ESXi Users & Groups

➲ Local Users & Groups Tab● Manage ESXi users, groups● Scope is the host on which the user/group is defined

● Right click on background > click Add...● Set user login, password, group (optional)

You can create local ESXi user accounts with passwords to allow for local authentica-tion (for both the vSphere client and Local/Remote Troubleshooting – if enabled). To do this click on the Local Users & Groups tab and then right-click the back ground and select Add.... You can make new groups by clicking the Groups button and then right-clicking the background.

Best PracticeYou would create local accounts only if you do not have an Active Directory service available. Otherwise, it is a best practice to join an AD domain and use domain ac-counts.

TipTo command line log into ESXi over the network (from Windows, ESXi Remote Trou-bleshooting Mode must be enabled) download the putty Secure Shell terminal emula-tor at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

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ESXi Host Roles

➲ Roles determine privileges by user, group● Default role: No access – no rights on ESXi host● Read-only: look but cannot modify● Administrator: full control of local ESXi host● root for ESXi, DCUI (local configuration) and vpxuser

(for vCenter) hold the Administrator role

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Joining ESXi to an AD Domain

➲ Joining an ESXi host to an Active Directory domain● Navigation: Software >

Authentication Services > Properties...

● Specify domain, domain user name, password with rights to add hosts to the domain

ESXi 5.x can join an Active Directory domain. AD authentication allows you to set up access rules for ESXi login without having to create local user accounts on ESXi. To join an ESXi host to an AD domain, you must have a domain account with Add Host to Domain privileges set.

FYIJoining an AD domain is the first step to allowing AD defined users to access ESXi di-rectly. The second step is to select inventory items (your ESXi host, folders, VMs, Re-source Pools) and assign these users rights on these items. Without specific permis-sion assignments, AD based users will not be able to interact with ESXi – as the de-fault permission for all AD users is No Access.

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Physical CPU Properties

➲ Click Configuration > Processors● Review CPU socket, core, Hyperthreading

status matches expectations

ESXi reports on the properties of the CPUs found in your server, including:

- The make/model of the machine- Make/model and speed of the CPUs- Number of populated sockets- Number of cores in the CPU- Number of Logical Processors (sockets * cores * HT logical processors)- Presence/Absence of Hyperthreading (Intel CPUs only)- Presence/Absence of power management capabilities (newer CPUs only)

If you have Intel CPUs and Hyperthreading is reporting N/A you should check to see if Hyperthreading is active. To do this, click:

Properties > Hyperthreading > Enabled

This will turn on Hyperthreading support even if the machine's BIOS is set to disable it. You will need to reboot ESXi for this change to take effect.

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Enable / Verify Hyperthreading

➲ Hyperthreading lets one core work on two tasks (VMs) in lock step● Check to ensure it is enabled in BIOS/UEFI

Hyperthreading is a feature baked into Intel CPUs that allows a single CPU Core to work on two tasks in lock step. The idea is to keep the CPU core busy by giving it a 2nd task when the Core would otherwise be idle waiting on a physical memory fetch (after a local Cache miss)

Hyperthreading provides a modest increase in performance under typical workloads (usually 5% to 20% increase over the same workloads on the same CPUs with Hyperthreading turned off).

Hyperthreading is especially useful when the VMkernel uses it to provide some CPU service to low priority VMs or VMs that would otherwise just run their Idle task (because they have nothing better to do).

If you use PC Servers powered with Intel CPUs, you should:

- Verify that Hyperthreading is available on your CPU- Verify that Hyperthreading is turned on in your physical machine's BIOS- Verify that ESXi recognizes that Hyperthreading is available and that ESXi will use Hyperthreading

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Physical Memory Properties

➲ Click Configuration > Memory to review host RAM configuration.● System (VMkernel) reserves about 5% of RAM● Only 38.9MB used for 8GB server● 323.7MB used for 64GB server

● All remaining memory is available for VM use

ESXi uses memory in 2 ways:

1. For the VMkernel hypervisor (approximately 40MB), and2. For virtual machines (all remaining RAM).

ESXi needs a minimum of 2GB of RAM or it will refuse to run. Adding more RAM means more room for VMs to run which should result in good performance as your VM population and RAM requirements grow.

ESXi is very frugal and hands out memory to VMs only when needed and only for as long as needed. We will explore ESXi memory scavenging techniques later in this class.

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Review/Set Time Configuration

➲ Configuration > Software > Time Configuration

➲ ESXi owns the hardware clock● Provides clock services to VMs● Use Network Time Protocol to

ensure a very accurate clock● Use Properties... to

enable/configure NTP

ESXi uses Network Time Protocol to ensure that it's clock remains accurate. This is important because the ESXi host provides clock services to all VMs it runs. So, any clock drift in the ESXi host will result in clock drift in VMs. If VM clocks drift by more than 5 minutes they may not be able to join or remain members of Active Directory domains.

Click the Properties... link to review and configure NTP.

Best PracticeAlways set your server's BIOS clock to UTC. That way, VMs will get a UTC clock and can then set their local time zone to any region they like.

If you set the hardware clock to your local time, then VMs must all operate in your local time zone only (because they cannot calculate time zone offsets from any time zone other than UTC).

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Licensed Features in ESXi 5.5➲ License options● Evaluation Mode● 60-day evaluation

● Cannot be extended● All features available

● Serial Number● 25 character code● Get from VMware● Enables entitled

licensed features● Click Edit... to add an

ESXi license● License entitlements

can also be obtained from vCenter

ESXi installs with an unrestricted use 60-day evaluation license. This eliminates the need to contact VMware for temporary evaluation licenses.

ESXi can be activated using a stand alone host license. A host license is issued on a host by host basis and unlocks access to feature entitlements purchased for that host. Alternatively, ESXi can draw a license entitlement for needed features from vCenter.

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System Health Status

➲ Click Configuration > Health Status to review host hardware health● Uses CIM to poll hardware● Reports back issues found ● Issues propagate up to the host

The vSphere Client can report on most aspects of your system's hardware health including:

- CPU sockets, cores and cache size- Power supply, motherboard, CPU and add-on card temperatures- Fan location, health and speed- Hardware firmware and driver health including chipset, NIC, storage controller, BIOS functionality- Power supply count and health (connected, disconnected, missing, etc.) and- System boards.

Use this view to get a quick assessment of your server's physical health.

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Network Adapters

➲ All NICs recognized by ESXi are displayed in the Network Adapters view● Speed, Assigned vSwitch, physical MAC

address and Observed IP ranges reported● Observed IP range - helps you determine

which sub-net a physical NIC can see – and consequently what traffic it should carry

Observed IP RangesThis value displays the IP address range observed by ESXi as frames flow through each physical NIC. Here's what it's used for.

In most corporate networks, different physical LAN segments are used to isolate dif-ferent types of traffic such as Production traffic, storage traffic, management traf-fic, back up traffic, etc. It is a common practice to use different sub-net address blocks for each physical segment.

For example, your company may subnet its network traffic as follows:

10.1.0.0/16 – Production traffic including servers10.2.0.0/16 – Desktop PCs and printers172.16.0.0/16 – Management LAN segment for direct PC server management192.168.50.0/24 – Back Up LAN192.168.100.0/24 – IP Storage LAN (for iSCSI servers)

In the above scheme, if a physical NIC reported Observed IPs in the 10.1/16 range, you would know it was physically connected to the management LAN. If another physical NIC reported Observed IPs in the 192.168.100/24 range, then it should be used to carry back up traffic.

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DNS and Routing Settings

➲ Configuration > DNS and Routing to review ESXi management settings:● Verify Host, Fully Qualified Domain Name, IP

address, DNS IP and Gateway● Click Properties... link to make corrections

It is important that your namagement network settings are correct. After installa-tion, it is a good idea to review these settings and fix any errors you find.

Click Properties... to edit network settings for the management network. You may need to reboot your ESXi host before these changes take effect.

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ESXi System Logs

➲ Review, save ESXi system logs● Home > Administration > System Logs● hostd.log: host management service log● Licensing, cluster mgt., vCenter mgt., etc.

● Use Export System Logs to save log files locally as text files

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Sizing ESXi CPU, Memory➲ pCPU cores service vCPU cores● vCPU cores slightly slower than pCPUs

● About 2-5% slower than physical CPU cores due to virtualization overhead

● Maximize pCPU cores, speed, cache size● Intel Hyperthreading will help... but modestly● No physical core restrictions in vSphere 5

➲ Memory● Need 4GB RAM to install/boot ESXi

● The VMkernel uses approximately 5% of RAM● All remaining RAM free for VM use

● VMs given RAM as needed, not declared● 20%-40% memory overcommit is reasonable

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Sizing ESXi Storage, NICs➲ Storage Controllers● ESXi is inherently multipath aware:

● Improve reliability through path redundancy● Default is active/standby multipathing

● Enable active/active multipathing if your SAN supports it● SAN vendor supplied multipath drivers supported

● Should provides best storage I/O performance, reliability➲ NICs● Virtual Switches use physical NICs as uplinks● Physical NIC uplinks vSwitch to physical LAN segments

● Virtual NIC traffic consumes CPU cycles● Faster ESXi CPUs give faster virtual network speed● Benchmark network performance before deploying

network heavy production workloads

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RDP, Web Remote Lab Access

➲ Remote lab access via RDP or HTTP● Web Portal – access through locked firewalls

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Lab 2 – Install ESXi 5.5➲ In this lab we will install ESXi 5.5 ● Install onto a dedicated server

● Connect to our remote lab access machine● Install and configure ESXi● Configure ESXi networking with the DCUI● Perform post-install configuration using vSphere

Client

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Chapter 15 – VMware Distributed Resource Scheduling ClustersPhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted

Copyright © 2013 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization. DRS-1

Chapter 15 - DRS

VMware DistributedResource Scheduling

Clusters

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Distributed Resource Scheduler

➲ A load balancing cluster of ESXi hosts ● VMs dynamically balanced across the cluster

➲ Cluster acts like a super Resource Pool● DRS monitors ESXi host load, VM resource

requirements over time● Looks for VMs that are CPU/RAM starved due to

host over commit● Checks to see if another host has free resources● Recommends or hot migrates VMs to the other

ESXi host

vCenter can organize two or more ESXi hosts into a load balancing cluster called a Distributed Resource Scheduling cluster. DRS clusters dynamically monitor ESXi host load and VM resource demands. Because VMs resource demands change over time, it is possible that a VM that was previously receiving all of the resources it needed could become resource starved due to the changing resource demands of other VMs on the same host.

DRS looks for this very situation and will take action by either recommending VMo-tion migrations or initiating VMotion migrations to rebalance VMs across the cluster. In this way, your DRS cluster always runs VMs in the most resource efficient manner. DRS delivers the following benefits:

- Resource contention is immediately addressed- ESXi hosts are always approximately equally loaded- As VM resource demands change, DRS responds with rebalancing decisions- All VMs receive the same resource availability (subject to resource settings). This means that as VM resource demands increase over time, the load is rebalanced so that all VMs receive the same level of service (subject to resource tuning)- New ESXi servers can be provisioned based on demonstrable resource demands across all systems rather than the need of one or a few VMs- Adding a new ESXi host to a DRS cluster causes the cluster to rebalance VMs across the new host thereby reducing resource stress across all VMs

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DRS Clusters

➲ To create a cluster● Right click your

Datacenter or a folder

● Select New Cluster● Name the Cluster● Check DRS● Review, set

properties● Drag and drop ESXi

hosts onto the new cluster

DRS clusters are vCenter objects that you can create only in the Hosts and Clusters view. To create a new cluster, select either a datacenter or a folder, right click and select New Cluster. This creates the new inventory object and lets you set the clus-ter's name. You would then right click the new cluster and select Edit Settings... to enable and configure DRS.

A DRS cluster needs one or more ESXi hosts in order to function. You can add ESXi hosts to a DRS cluster by dragging an ESXi host onto the DRS cluster inventory object. You can add a new ESXi host to a DRS cluster at any time. Upon receiving a new host, the cluster will reassess VM placements and migrate VMs onto the new host to even out resource consumption across all hosts.

It is the ability to hot-add ESXi hosts to DRS clusters that gives IT managers the abil-ity to provision new servers in response to demonstrable increases on PC server work loads. In the past IT managers had to provision new PC servers for every new work-load (OS + application). Now IT managers can simply create new VMs on a DRS clus-ter and let the cluster load balance the VM population. If the cluster's overall re-source utilization rate climbs too high (say over 80%), you can simply add a new ESXi host to the cluster. DRS will re-balance across all hosts so overall resource load goes down and VM performance goes up.

When you add a host to a DRS cluster – everybody benefits!

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DRS Functions

➲ DRS performs two primary functions➲ Initial Placement● Move VM to least busy ESXi host before

power on➲ Dynamic Balancing● Monitor ESXi resource consumption● Monitor VM resource needs● Recommend/VMotion VMs whose resource

needs are not being met, but could be met on another ESXi host

Initial Placement is the act of selecting a suitable ESXi host for VM placement and power on. When a user powers on a VM, DRS will:

- Query the current resource load across ESXi hosts- Look at the resource demands of the VM (# of VCPUs, RAM declaration)- Cold migrate (reassign VM ownership) to the ESXi host that has the most free resources- Tell that ESXi host to boot the VM

Because DRS cluster resident VMs should all be VMotion compatible, any ESXi host can act as a power on host for the VM. By finding the least busy ESXi host at VM power on time, DRS attempts to place the VM on the host that will provide the VM with the best overall access to resources.

Dynamic Balancing starts monitoring ESXi host load and VM resource demands. If DRS determines that a VM is being resource starved, it will look to see if another ESXi host has free resources of the type the VM needs (CPU, RAM). If yes, then DRS will either migrate or recommend the migration of the VM over to that host. In this way, DRS can respond to changes in VM resource demands as VMs run without the need for human intervention.

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DRS Automation Level

➲ Manual● Initial placement recommendations● Migration recommendations● Will not place/move VMs automatically

➲ Partially Automated● Automatic VM assignment to ESXi host at

VM power on● Migration recommendations

➲ Fully Automated● Automatic power on placements● Automatic migration of VMs if DRS can

reduce or eliminate VM resource contention by moving the VM

DRS has three modes of operation...

In Manual mode, DRS makes Initial Placement and Migration recommendations only. However, VMotion will take no action on its own.

DRS clusters in Partially Automated mode will make Initial Placement decisions at VM boot time thereby freeing users from having to deal with this task. But, DRS will only make VMotion migration recommendations when it detects signs of resource stress.

DRS clusters in Fully Automated mode make both Initial Placement and Dynamic Balancing decisions automatically. In this way, they address both power on resource contention and running VM resource contention. Fully Automated DRS clusters have additional tuneables that let the ESXi administrator fine tune DRS behavior.

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DRS Automation Level

➲ Fully automated DRS clusters● Adjusted to balance VMotion resource

benefits vs. VMotion resource overhead

If you set your DRS cluster to fully automated, then you must further tune the cluster to trade off load balancing vs. VMotion overhead.

VMotion takes CPU and memory resources to complete – so there is a resource penalty to pay when a VM is hot migrated to a new host. Aggressive DRS clusters move VMs when the potential VM performance improvement is just slightly more than the cost of the VMotion. This could result in unnecessary VMotions if the VM is experiencing a very short spike in resource demands.

As a DRS cluster administrator, your job is to find the setting that provides good overall load balancing while minimizing the number of VMotions. Typically this set-ting is either in the middle (default) or just to the right or left of the middle.

Experiment to find the best setting for your organization.

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Migration Threshold

➲ DRS includes a 5-position Migration threshold slider

Automation Level Stars ExplanationVery Conservative 5 Migrate VMs to fix Affinity/Anti-Affinity violations onlyConservative 4 Migrate VMs with severe resource contentionNeutral 3 Migrate VMs with noticeable resource contentionSlightly Aggressive 2 Migrate VMs with moderate resource contentionVery Aggressive 1 Migrate VMs with slight resource contention

A DRS cluster in Fully Automated mode can be tuned for resource contention sensi-tivity. This allows ESXi administrators to set the level of resource contention that must be present before DRS will intervene.

The relative benefit a VM will receive through VMotion migration is represented in DRS by one to five stars. The more stars a recommendation receives, the more DRS believes the VM will benefit if a recommendation is accepted.

DRS recommendations are based on two factors:

- How much resource starvation the VM is experiencing and- How long the VM has been starved for resources

In a nutshell, the length and severity of resource starvation, along with the target ESXi hosts ability to satisfy the VMs resource needs, determines the number of stars a recommendation receives.

A 5-star recommendation is a special case. DRS includes VM affinity and anti-affinity settings (see slide 16). A 5-star recommendation is only made when a VM's current ESXi placement is in violation of any (anti-)affinity rules.

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Power Management

➲ Power Management is a true 'green' tool that power stand-by's unnecessary ESXi hosts during off peak hours● Power Management is supported in production

Power Management (PM) (previously called Distributed Power Management or DPM) is a VMware technology that allows DRS to save electrical power. Here's how it works:

● During the production day, all ESXi hosts are powered on and fully operational● As load goes down, PM VMotions VMs off of one host in the cluster● When that host is fully evacuated, PM soft powers down the host● If your PM cluster is large, it may be possible to soft power down multiple hosts while still delivering good performance to all VMs. This results in power saving (the power the powered down ESXi hosts would normally use)

When VMs start to become busy PM detects the increase in resource demands. It uses Wake on Lan (WoL), IPMI or HP's ILO command line interface to wake up the ESXi hosts and take it out of power stand-by mode. Once the ESXi host is fully awake, PM will move some VMs onto the ESXi host thereby improving all VMs resource alloca-tions. It repeats this process as load grows – potentially powering on all ESXi hosts.

With vSphere 4.x and 5.x, PM is certified for production. In ESX 3.5/VC 2.5, it was an experimental feature and consequently only suitable for use in test, development and disaster recovery environments.

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EVC and AMD CPUs

➲ Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC)● Provides VMotion CPU compatibility across CPU models● Masks away features of newer CPUs to make them

compatible with older AMD CPUs

CPU compatibility has always been an issue with VMotion. Here's the problem:

When a VM powers on, it gets service by a physical CPU core. At power on time, the VM probes the CPU for special capabilities (e.g.: SSE, SSE2, SSE3 or SSE 4.1 instruc-tion support, 64-bit support, Virtualization Assist technology, etc.). Once the VM learns about the special capabilities of the CPU running it – it never, ever re-probes the CPU. This can present a problem for VMotion because – if a VM moves to a host that lacks some of the capabilities the VM expects, any attempt to use those capabil-ities will result in application or OS failures (e.g.: Illegal instruction faults if a VM tries to execute an SSE3 instruction on a host that only supports SSE2).

VMware partially solves this problem with Enhanced VMotion Compatibility mode. With this DRS feature turned on, ESXi hosts will mask away features that are not common to all the physical CPUs in the cluster. This creates a situation where VMs see only compatible CPUs – even if the physical CPUs are not the same.

EVC works within processor families – and to a limited extent, across processor fami-lies. Before turning on EVC, check to make sure that all of the CPUs in your physical hosts are EVC compatible and determine the highest common EVC processor family. You can use the VMware CPU identification tool to assist (See VMotion chapter).

To use EVC, select your CPU maker, then CPU family.

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EVC for Intel CPUs

➲ EVC supports 5 Intel Xeon CPU families● Original Core 2 up to the latest Sandy Bridge processors● Different model CPUs in the same processor families are

abstracted so they look/function the same to all VMs

Intel and AMD improve their CPU products regularly. They add features, new instruc-tions, new hardware capabilities, etc. - some of which are visible to the Guest OS. Any CPU mismatch could result in VMotion failures or VM failures due to CPU compat-ibility.

If you have Intel Xeon CPUs, EVC will mask away the differences within Xeon product families. That would allow you to mix different versions or steppings of these four Xeon families:

1. Xeon Core i7 CPUs2. Xeon 45nm Core 2 CPUs3. Xeon Core 2 CPUs4. 32nm Core i7 CPUs5. Sandy Bridge CPUs6. Ivy Bridge CPUs7. Haswell CPUs

Click the Xeon processor family that represents your CPUs. Review the information provided and ensure that all of your CPUs match before turning on EVC.

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EVC Benefits

➲ Without EVC, ESXi hosts needed to have CPUs that were (nearly) identical for VMotion/DRS to work. But...● CPU models, features change regularly● Makes it difficult to add brand new servers to a cluster

that is 1+ years old➲ EVC abstracts CPUs to a common baseline● All VMs see the same CPU features● When Guest OS probes CPUs, they see the same● Instruction set● Registers, status bits● Virtualization assist capabilities

EVC abstracts CPUs within a CPU family down to a common set of features and func-tions. This makes all CPUs VMotion compatible (because VMs all see the same CPU feature set). This lets you:

- Mix hosts with new and older CPUs from the same CPU family- Mix hosts from different manufacturers as long as the CPUs meet EVC requirements- Mix hosts with different core/socket counts- Extend the life (capacity) of your cluster rather than buying new hosts

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DRS EVC Requirements

➲ Once EVC is enabled● All hosts entering the cluster must have

CPUs supported in the EVC setting● Hosts with older CPUs will not be allowed to join

the cluster● CPUs must have hardware virtualization

assist technology● Intel VT or AMD-V● This may have to be enabled in the host BIOS

● Hosts must be running ESX(i) 4.1 orESXi 5.x

EVC places strict limits on hosts when they attempt to join a cluster. EVC performs a host CPU compatibility check and will refuse to allow any host to join the cluster where the new host CPUs a older than the CPU family selected when EVC was enabled.

EVC was introduced in ESXi 3.5 Update 2 and is supported for this release of ESXi and all newer releases of ESXi (e.g.: ESXi 3.5 Update 3, Update 4, ESXi 4.0 ESXi 4.1 and ESXi 5.x).

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EVC Validation Checks

➲ All hosts meet the selected EVC CPU level● Validation succeeds

➲ ESXi hosts too old for EVC level● Power off VMs● Set EVC level● Power VMs on

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Mixing Server Generations w. EVC

➲ When you add hosts to an EVC enabled DRS cluster● All hosts must expose the same CPU

features to all VMs➲ Adding older ESXi hosts to a DRS

cluster with EVC set for newer CPUs● Power down all VMs, edit cluster settings...● Enable EVC and set the base Processor level● Add the legacy host to the cluster

● Power VMs back on➲ Adding a newer ESXi host to DRS● Power down VMs on the newer host, add to

DRS, power on VMs on

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VMkernel Swapfiles

➲ Pre-allocated storage for VMkernel paging● Used to page out low value VM's RAM under

extreme memory stress● Normally live with VM on shared storage● Can reside on local or network based SSDs for best

performance

The VMkernel creates a VM swapfile whenever a VM is powered on. By default the swapfile is the same size as the VM's declared RAM – less any reservation set for the VM.

The VMkernel swapfile is used whenever the VMkernel must page out VM memory to cope with memory starvation. Under extreme memory contention, most (or all) of the VM's memory could be paged to the swapfile.

Normally the VMkernel makes the VM's swapfile in the same directory as the VMs other files. This keeps all VM files in one place (good) but can result in I/O con-tention if VMkernel paging for the VM has to compete for disk bandwidth with normal VM I/O operations (bad).

An alternative is to place the VM's swapfile on ESXi local VMFS storage. The benefit to this strategy is that swapfile I/Os (if any) complete locally whereas VM I/Os com-plete against shared storage resources – so swapfile overhead doesn't slow down the VM.

If you locate swapfiles on local SSD storage, paging will be very fast and will result in little overhead on VM paging. However, VMotion must move VMkernel swap files whenever you VMotion a VM. This adds overhead/time to VMotion, but does not pose any stability risk to VMotion.

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Affinity, Anti-Affinity Rules

➲ Affinity keeps VMs on the same ESXi host● Benefits from virtual

networking speed➲ Anti-Affinity distributes

VMs across hosts● Use to distribute similar

workloads (e.g.: Web Servers, DCs, e-mail servers, VMDR VMs), that perform the same function across different ESXi hosts

To set (Anti-)Affinity rules, right click the DRS cluster > click Edit Settings > click Rules.

Some VMs may perform better whenever they reside on the same ESXi host. An ex-ample might be a SQL database VM and an Accounting VM that uses SQL for record storage/retrieval. If these VMs reside on different ESXi hosts then network SQL re-quests must flow through physical networking at 1GB. If these VMs reside on the same ESXi host then they can exchange packets at virtual network speed (which should be faster). In cases like this, you would create an Affinity rule to tell DRS to keep these VMs on the same ESXi host.

For many applications, it makes sense to create two or more VMs that perform ex-actly the same function. That way, you can take one VM down for maintenance and the service is still available. Applications that could benefit from this approach in-clude E-mail servers, Web servers, DNS servers, DHCP servers, etc. that perform the same function for the same clients.

If DRS were to place two VMs that provide the same service on the same ESXi host, problems could arise because the VMs compete with each other for the same re-sources. If the ESXi host were to go down, both VMs would fail. In this case, create an Anti-Affinity rule and DRS will place these VMs on separate ESXi hosts.

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DRS Groups Manager➲ Groups Manager● Create VM Groups● VMs that you want

DRS to treat as one entity for balancing

● Create Host Group● Set of ESXi hosts to

cooperate to load balance one or more DRS VM Groups

● DRS group man-ager used to create VM group to ESXi host group affinity rules

DRS Groups are named groups of VMs or ESXi hosts. You can use DRS groups to indi-cate to DRS that VMs in each group belong together and should be run (if possible) on a host group.

In the example above, we have both the Larrys VMs VM group and the Erics VMs VM group. We also have the Larrys Hosts and Erics Hosts host groups. In this configura-tion, DRS will try to run one of the VM groups on one of the host groups – and the other VM group on the other host group.

DRS will make a reasonable effort to honor VM and Host groups. However, it will not allow VMs to become resource starved just to honor VM and Host group rules.

Use VM and Host groups when you have

- a large DRS cluster- VMs and hosts owned by just a few stake holders- Where you want to try to run the stakeholders VMs on the stakeholders ESXi hosts; but where it is not imperative that a stakeholders VMs only run on that stakeholders ESXi hosts

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Per-VM Overrides

➲ Overrides default automation level on a per-VM basis

In the above screen shot, the owner of VM EricV-w2k3-a doesn't believe in DRS and has insisted that he have full control over VMotioning this VM (Partially Automated) over his VMs. All other VMs run fully automated and load balance automatically...

A DRS cluster is configured with a default automation level (either Manual, Partially Automated or Fully Automated). With no further action, this default automation level would be applied to all VMs on the cluster. However, ESXi administrators can override the default DRS cluster automation level on a VM per VM basis.

For example: suppose your organization ran strict change management procedures only on critical production VMs. An ESXi administrator could set the default DRS clus-ter automation level to Fully Automated and then use per-VM overrides to down-grade critical production VMs to Partially Automated. That way, a person would have to approve (and log) any VMotion migrations of critical production VMs (only).

For another example, suppose a small IT department had 3 ESXi hosts; 2 for Produc-tion and one for Test. They wanted to give their production VMs the best possible performance but did not want their Test VMs to leave the test ESXi server. They could create a 3 host DRS cluster and set their production VMs to Fully Automated. They could then set their test VMs automation level to Disabled. As a result, Test VMs would never leave the Test ESXi host. But production VMs could be migrated to/from the Test ESXi host to take advantage of the resources available on all ESXi hosts.

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DRS Cluster Summary Tab

➲ Cluster properties displayed in Summary Tab● Look in General box for cluster settings,

resources, VMs● Look in VMware DRS box for DRS settings● Resource Distribution chart shows individual

hosts resource utilization rates

You can review the settings, resource consumption, etc. of your DRS cluster by click-ing the cluster and then the Summary tab. This is a great place to start if you sus-pect your cluster is overworked or if you simply want to review how the cluster is running at any point in time.

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CPU/RAM Host Distributions

➲ DRS Resource Distributions● Display resource load across hosts● Categories are CPU, Memory● Can view by Percent or Mhz/MB

➲ Used to review host load across the cluster

Memory Usage

CPU Usage

Resource Distribution Charts let you review ESXi host CPU and Memory use across all the hosts in your cluster. This gives you a great view on how busy each host is (CPU and Memory wise) and how good a job DRS is doing at balancing the cluster, etc.

These charts also help you understand how each automation level works. With very conservative automation levels the cluster may become significantly out of balance before DRS takes action, With very aggressive automation, DRS works extra hard to keep the cluster in balance.

Review these graphs to check the level of resource balance across your hosts. Do this when you are tuning your DRS cluster (moving from Conservative to Aggressive or vis-versa). You would stop tuning when you get the level of balance you require with the lowest number of VMotions.

Understand that DRS' job is to balance clusters so that each VM gets the resources it needs to run well. DRS' job is not to ensure that each host has exactly the same re-source consumption levels – but it will try to keep the cluster reasonably in balance.

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Resource Allocation Tab

➲ Display/edit resource settings for VMs, Resource Pools in the DRS cluster● Review shares, reservations, limits● Verify VMs, RPs resource are set appropriately

● Worst Case Allocation shows resources given to item (VM / Resource Pool) under contention

The Resource Allocation tab gives you a point in time view of your VMs and the re-sources they are receiving (as well as the host they are on and the shares they hold, reservations, limits, etc.).

This view displays values that are editable. If you see a VM whose resources, etc. don't match your needs simply click the value you wish to change and edit it directly. No need to launch the Cluster Properties window to make small changes.

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DRS Tab

➲ DRS tab displays current cluster status● Provides migration recommendations● DRS errors and past DRS actions● Click Run DRS to update recommendations● Click Apply Recommendations to give

DRS permission to migrate VMs

The DRS tab displays the status of your cluster along with additional functions...

The Run DRS link lets you tell DRS to refresh its recommendations – now!

The Apply Recommendations button is how you give DRS permission to make the changes it suggests

The Edit... link lets you change the cluster properties directly from this screen

The Faults button lets you review past DRS actions that failed for any reason

The History button lets you review past DRS actions taken to keep the cluster in bal-ance

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DRS History

➲ DRS keeps an activity log of all past ac-tions● Initial placements● Load balancing VMotions● Fully Automated DRS will quickly move VMs

(making it hard to see what DRS does)● Click the History button to view past actions

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Resource Management

➲ DRS will honor all resource settings for VMs, Resource Pools that are added to the cluster● VMs cannot exceed settings just because

the cluster has free resources➲ DRS clusters will only load balance

VMotion compatible VMs, which means...● No active connections to Internal switches● No active connections to removable media

(floppies or CD/DVDs)● All other VMs locked to their respective ESXi

hosts

DRS clusters honor all resource settings on individual VMs and also on Resource Pools including CPU/Memory reservations, shares and limits. So, VMs will not have their re-source entitlements changed simply because they are now managed by a DRS cluster.

Because DRS relies on VMotion, DRS can only load balance VMs that are VMotion compatible. For best results, you should carefully plan your ESXi host deployment and configuration so that all of your ESXi hosts are VMotion compatible. Then, you should take care to configure your VMs so that they use only common storage, net-working and removable media resources so that you do not inadvertently lock a VM to an ESXi host.

DRS can run VMs that are not VMotion compatible – but it cannot move them. So, if an ESXi host is running a mix of VMotion and non-VMotion compatible VMs, DRS is lim-ited to moving only the VMotion compatible VMs. This may impair its ability to fully load balance across the cluster.

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Adopting DRS

➲ Organizations may be uncomfortable with DRS (at first):● Start with Manual automation. Let owners

see, accept power on recommendations● Move up to Partially Automated when users

become comfortable with Initial Placement● Move to Fully Automated when users

become tired of always accepting VMotionrecommendations● Use Per-VM overrides to address concerns

● Use VM Groups and Host Groups to organize large clusters

If your organization is new to VMotion and DRS it is likely that you may receive resis-tance to the idea of automatically hot migrating VM. If this happens to you, you can ease your organization into VMotion and DRS as follows:

Create a DRS cluster and set the automation level to Manual

- Let VM owners review and accept Initial Placement recommendations- When VM owners get tired of always accepting DRS Initial Placement recommendations, increase the automation level to Partially Automated

Over time, VMs will experience resource starvation on their ESXi host

- Have VM owners address their own performance issues by asking them to review and accept DRS Migration recommendations- Once VM owners get tired of always accepting VMotion migration recommendations, increase the automation level to Fully Automated

Finally, deal with any per-VM concerns by using DRS Rules to override the DRS cluster default for that VM.

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DRS Best Practices

➲ Always accept 5-Star recommendations● Means (anti-)affinity rules are being violated

➲ 3-Star, 4-Star recommendations● Accept - or VM performance will suffer

➲ Review, accept 1-Star, 2-Star recommendations ● Only if you think it will help● May be just a temporary spike in VM

resource needs● Might not be worth the overhead of VMotion

DRS will only violate affinity rules when it has no choice. The most likely scenario is where a DRS cluster is also an HA (fail over) cluster. For example, if you have two ESXi hosts in a combined DRS+HA cluster and you have two VMs in an anti-affinity rule (keep apart) for high service availability, the following situation could lead to a 5-star recommendation:

1. The two VMs are running on separate ESXi hosts2. One host fails completely causing an HA VM migration of VMs that died when the ESXi host died to the surviving ESXi host3. The failed VM in the anti-affinity relationship is started on the surviving ESXi host4. Both VMs (in the anti-affinity relationship) are now running but in violation of the anti-affinity rule intended to keep them on separate ESXi servers5. The failed ESXi host is repaired and rebooted6. When it comes up, it rejoins the DRS+HA cluster7. DRS will generate a 5-star recommendation on one of the 2 anti-affinity VMs so that it can be migrated over to the restored ESXi host

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Lab 15

➲ To complete this Lab, you will● Create a DRS Cluster● Drag and drop your ESXi hosts into the Cluster● Set DRS to Manual mode● Optionally promote 3 VMs to dual-core

● Enough to over commit a physical quad-core CPU● Unbalance the Cluster and trigger DRS

recommendations● Accept recommendations and watch cluster

rebalance

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