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ESXi: ESXi is a software developed by VMware Company, Which converts hardware servers into multiple
software servers.
Hardware Requirements:
∙ 2GB RAM
∙ 2GB Hard disk
∙ 2 GHz Processor
∙ One or more gigabit Ethernet controllers.
ESX Versions:
ESX 1.0
ESX 1.5
ESX 2.0
ESX 2.5
ESX 3.0
ESX/ESXi 3.5
ESX/ESXi 4.0
ESX/ESXi 4.1
ESXi 5.0
ESXi 5.1
ESXi 5.5
ESXi 6.0
VCenter server: it is a windows based application . It is used to manage multiple ESX servers and
provides additional features like clusters and datacenters.
Hardware requirements:
Software Requirements:
VCenter server.
requirements:
CPU – 1 CPU
RAM – 1 GB RAM
Hard disk – 2 GB
Microsoft Visual J#
Virtualization: It is a software which allows to create virtual hardware and multiple Virtual machines
and allows to run multiple OS on a single Physical server.
Virtual Machine: Virtual machine is a software machine that likes a physical machine. It can runs
operating system and applications.
Uses:
VM files :
.vmx: it is configuration file with out this file we con't power on virtual machine
.vmdk : This is VM disk file which stores the content of the VM hard disk.
.log :This file can be useful in troubleshoot parts when encounter the problem.
.vswp : This file will be automatically created when VM will power on and automatically deleted
when VM will power off.
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Datacenter: A datacenter is the primary container of inventory objects such as hosts and virtual
machine. From the datacenter ,you can add organize inventory objects. Typically, you add host, folders,
and clusters to a datacenters.
Host: A host is a computer that uses virtualization software such as esx or esxi, to run virtual machine.
hosts provide the CPU memory resources that virtual machine use and give virtual machine access to
storage and network connectivity.
Cluster: Cluster is a group of hosts. when you add a host to a cluster, the host resource become part of
the clusters resources. The cluster manages the resource of all hosts within it.
Hypervisor:
Hypervisor is a program that manage the virtual machine. it also act like virtual machine manager that
manages many virtual machine from one place. it allow multiple operating system to share single
hardware host. Each operating system appears to have the host's processor, memory, and other
resources all to itself.
1.Baremetal Hypervisor : In this application we can directly install the esx in brand new machine.
2. Host Hypervisor
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Vmotion: It used to migrate virtual machines from one host to another host while it is running.
Pre requisites:
Background Process:
∙ All running state of virtual machines will be captured as Bitmap images that bitmaps
Vsphere 4.0 we can do the vmotion across clusters and we can't do the vmotion across data centers
Vsphere 5.0 we can do the vmotion across clusters and data centers and in 5.0 Vmotion support
multiple NIC's.
->Host -> configuration -> Networking -> Vswitch properties -> management network -> edit ->
-> r/c on vm -> migrate -> change host -> select destination -> finish.
SVmotion: It used to migrate virtual machine files and disks from one data store to another while It is
running.
Pre requisites:
Background process:
∙ Virtual machine files and disks will be created as Blocks that blocks move from source and
destination.
∙ Esxi host performs fast suspend and resumes of the vm.
∙ VM will continuously running on the destination data store and source files will be deleted.
Configuration:
r/c on vm -> migrate -> change datastore -> select destination -> finish.
E1000 – which will emulate a 1 Gbit Intel 82545EM card, and is available for most operating systems
since the generation of Windows Server 2003. This card is the default when creating almost all virtual
machines and is by that widely used.
E1000E – emulates a newer real network adapter, the 1 Gbit Intel 82574, and is available for Windows
2012 and later. The E1000E needs VM hardware version 8 or later.
VMXNET3-The paravirtualized network card does not exist as a physical NIC, but is a device “made up”
entirely by VMware. For the guest operating system this will mean that it typically during the OS
installation phase only senses that an unknown device is located in a PCI slot on the (virtual)
motherboard, but it has no driver to actually use it.
Snapshot: Snapshot is a copy of running state of virtual machine. You can create a snapshot while it is
power on, power off, suspend mode.
When you create a snapshot of vm it will occupies the same size of the .vmdk file in data store. If you
take more snapshots more space willbe occupied. But it is useful when we apply patches or install
updates make upgrades on the OS in the VM. If anything goes wrong with the VMafter doing these
tasks, we can immediately revert back to the current working state. In this way we can save our time
without recreating VM and reimaging the os on to vm.
.vmsn : This file stores the running state of VM when you will take a snapshot.
.vmsd : This is a centralized file for storing information and meta data about snapshot.
delta.vmdk :
Clone: Clone is an Exact copy of vm with same configuration and installation without perform any
additional settings.
You can create a clone by R/C on VM and select Clone. Clone can power on and can make any changes.
By using customized guest operating system We can change some properties of clone such as Computer
name, network and ip address. Clone is used for testing and development environments where you
want create, test and with an exact copy of vm without disturbing production server to crete a clone of
production vm.
Template:
Template is a master copy of virtual machine. By using template we can deploy multiple virtual
machines . Template cannot be power on and we cont make changes. Template can be created by clone
to template and convert a vm to template. template can be used for production environment.
HA High Availability:
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HA is a cluster level feature. If one esx server will be failed then all vms on the host will automatically
reboot to another host with minimum downtime.
Prerequisites:
∙ HA enabled in cluster.
∙ Atleast two hosts in a cluster.
∙ Shared storage.
∙ All hosts should be configured with static ip address.
∙ All hosts must be accessed by same management network.
∙ All hosts should have Enterprise licence for ha.
Background process:
In a cluster first 5 hosts will be act as primary hosts and remaining hosts will act as a secondary hosts.
HA continuously monitors all esx servers in a cluster and detect the server failures. When you enable HA
in cluster an agent will be installed on each host that agent is called AAM(FDM IN 5) Automated
availability manager. An agent placed on each that maintains the heart beats with another host that
agent will communicate with the other agent in ahost every 5 seconds and loss of heart beats initiate
restart process of all affected vm’s on another host.
∙ First 5 hosts are primary and remaining secondary -> first host is master and remaining
will be slave
∙ HA election Based on First come first out -> Election will happen which has
max no. of datastores
If select Enable = disallows Virtual machines to power on when violates availability constraints.
If select Disable = allows Virtual machines to power on when violates availability constraints.
Because we have max 5 primary hosts in a cluster, if 4 primary hosts will be failed at the time one
primary host to take care of the secondary host.
DRS is a Distributed Resource Scheduler. It is a cluster level feature. It continuously monitors high
utilization and load balancing between esx servers in a cluster.
Prerequisites:
Background process:
DRS continuously monitors all servers in a cluster. If one host have heavy utilization then some Virtual
machines on the host will be migrated to another host. DRS can be performed by using Vmotion and
mathematical algorithms.
Automation Levels:
∙ Manual
∙ Partial automated
∙ Fully automated
Partial Automated: VM are placed on host at power on then VC suggests the migration recommendation
on a VM.
Fully Automated: VM are placed on host at power on then automatically migrated to another host.
DRS rules:
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∙ Affinity Rule : Two or more VM’s are always running on same host
∙ Anti Affinity rule: Two or more vms should not be running on same host.
HA DRS
∙ If host will fails then all VM’s on the host will -> if one host has high utilization then s
∙ HA will works when VC fails -> DRS will not work when VC fails.
SDRS:
SDRS is automation process of SVmotion. Storage DRS is a new feature introduced in VSphere 5.0
providing smart virtual machine placement and load balancing mechanism based on I/O and space
capacity. Storage DRS will helps decreasing operational effort associated with the provisioning of virtual
machine and monitoring of the storage environment.
Prerequisites:
∙ HA enabled in cluster.
∙ DRS disabled in cluster.
∙ Shared storage.
∙ It has enterprise plus licence
∙ Its not support thin provision disk.
∙ No snapshot
∙ 1 vm with 1 cpu
Background Process:
FT can be performed by using lockstep Technology. When you enable FT on primary virtual
machine a duplicate copy of another vm will be created in another host. FT then runs the primary and
secondary VM’s in lockstep with each other. If primary virtual machine will be failed ,the secondary
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virtual machine will immediately active where the primary virtual machine left off, and continuous to
run without loss of data, network connections and transactions.
MultiPathing: Multipathing is a path selection policy where the data will flow more than one way
between ESX server and storage.
∙ Fixed
∙ MRU(Most Recently Used)
∙ Round Robin
Fixed: The data flow through path A then path B in sleep mode If path A will be failed then Path B will
activate. Whenever Path A will be repaired then path B again goes to sleep mode.
MRU: In this The data flow through path A then path B in sleep mode If path A will be failed then Path B
will activate. Whenever Path A will be repaired but in sleep mode when ever path B fails then path A will
active.
Round robin: In this the data flow from both ways parallel.
Resource pool: Resource pool is a pool of CPU and Memory allocation from a single host or a cluster.
Resource pool can be hierarchical and nested. You can partition any resource pool into smaller resource
pools to divide and assign resource to different groups or different purpose .
Prerequisites:
∙ Verify Vsphere client is connected to the Vcenter. If the client is connected directly to the esx
server you cannot create a resource pool.
∙ Make sure you have a permissions sufficient to create a resource pool.
∙ Verify the cluster, vapps or other resource pool object is parent to the resource pool.
Raw Device Mapping (RDM) use cases & Limitations:
Raw device mapping (RDM) is method to provide direct access to a LUN on a iscsi or fibre channel
storage system for a virtual machine. RDM is basically a Mapping file acts as a proxy for a raw physical
storage device placed in a VMFS volume. Virtual Machine can directly access the storage device using
RDM and RDM contains metadata which controls the disk access to the physical device.
3.For running SAN management software (Storage resource management software, storage array
snapshot software, replication software, etc) inside a virtual machine
4.For any application running in a virtual machine that needs to access a device using hardware-specific
SCSI commands
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5.RDM is useful in physical-to-virtual conversion operations by avoiding migration of a large data LUN to
a VMDK.
Virtual compatibility mode preserves the ability to perform virtual machine snapshots.
-> VCB (VMware consolidated backup) support is not possible, because VCB requires VMware snapshots
-> Cloning of VMs that use physical mode RDMs is not possible
-> Converting VMs into templates that use physical mode RDMs is not possible
-> Migration of VMs with physical mode RDMs if the migration involves copying the disk is not possible.
-> No VMotion with physical mode RDMs
Alarms/Events:
Alarms: it is used to know the status of the resource usage for a VM.
Events: used to monitor the tasks that are taken place on the ESX server or in VC.
Vswitch: Vswitch is a software switch and each host has one vswitch. One side of the Vswitch are port
groups that are connected to virtual machine
And other side are uplinks that are connected to the physical adapters on esx server.
∙ Standard switch
∙ Distributed switch
Standard switch:
Standard switch is a software switch used to connect multiple hosts at host level.
Distributed switch:
Distributed switch is a software switch. it is used to manage multiple hosts at datacenter level.
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Uplink: Uplinks are associate with physical adapters that provides connection between physical network
and virtual network.
Port groups: Port group segregates the network traffic over esx server.
Service console: It is developed based on red hat Linux operating system used to manage esx servers.
Security policies:
∙ Promiscuous mode
∙ MAC address change
∙ Forged transmits
Promiscuous mode: If promiscuous mode set to accept segregates the network traffic to all Virtual
machines then all VM’s were able to see the communication. If promiscuous mode set to reject only one
VM was able to see the communication.
MAC address change: when you create a new virtual machine the configuration wizard generates the
MAC address for that machine, you can see it in .vmx file. if it doesn’t matches with the MAC address in
the OS this setting doesn’t allow incoming traffic to the VM. So by setting reject option both MAC
address will be remain same, and the incoming traffic will be allowed to the VM.
Forged Transmits: when you create a new virtual machine the configuration wizard generates the MAC
address for that machine, you can see it in .vmx file. if it doesn’t matches with the MAC address in the
OS this setting doesn’t allow outgoing traffic from the VM. So by setting reject option both MAC address
will be remain same, and the outgoing traffic will be allowed from the VM.
VLAN: A VLAN is a logical configuration on the switch port to segment the IP traffic. for this to happen,
the port must be trunked with the correct VLAN ID
Nic Teaming: A group of nic cards are called Nic teaming. If the data flow from one nic card another nic
card in standby mode. if the one nic card will fail immediately another nic card will active.
Update Manager: Update manager is a tool. It is windows based application. it is used to update
patches and make upgrade versions.
Prerequisites:
∙ Memory: 2GB RAM if vCenter Update Manager and vCenter Server are on different machines
4GB RAM, if vCenter Update Manager and vCenter Server are on the same machine
∙ Network: 1 GB
Database Requirements:
∙ SQL Server 2005
∙ SQL Server 2008
∙ SQL Server 2008 Express 32/64bit (Experimental support in Update 1 only)
∙ Oracle 10g
∙ Oracle 11g
Software Requirements:
Storage: Storage is a device which is used to store the virtual machine files and disks.
Stores virtual machine files remotely on an FC storage area network (SAN). FC SAN is a specialized
high-speed network that connects your hosts to high-performance storage devices. The network uses
Fibre Channel protocol to transport SCSI traffic from virtual machines to the FC SAN devices.
To connect to the FC SAN, your host should be equipped with Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs).
Unless you use Fibre Channel direct connect storage, you need Fibre Channel switches to route storage
traffic. If your host contains FCOE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) HBAs, you can connect to your shared
Fibre Channel devices using an IP network.
Stores virtual machine files on remote iSCSI storage devices. iSCSI packages SCSI storage traffic into the
TCP/IP protocol so that it can travel through standard TCP/IP networks instead of the specialized FC
network. With an iSCSI connection, your host serves as the initiator that communicates with a target,
located in remote iSCSI storage systems.
Hardware iSCSI
Your host connects to storage through a third-party adapter capable of offloading the iSCSI and network
processing.
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Software iSCSI
Your host uses a software-based iSCSI initiator in the VMkernel to connect to storage. With this type of
ISCSI connection, your host needs only a standard network adapter for network connectivity.
Stores virtual machine files on remote file servers accessed over a standard TCP/IP network. The NFS
client built into ESXi uses Network File System (NFS) protocol version 3 to communicate with the
NAS/NFS servers. For network connectivity, the host requires a standard network adapter.
Stores virtual machines on direct-attached SAS storage systems that offer shared access to multiple
hosts. This type of access permits multiple hosts to access the same VMFS datastore on a LUN.
WWN: it is worldwide network. Every HBA has one unique name that is called WWN.
When you enabled lockdown mode prevents remote users from logging directly into Host
Linked mode : Linked mode is used to connect two or more Vcenter servers at a time.
Ballooning: it is used when the host is running out of machine memory or VM hits a limit then kernel
needs to reclaim the memory. Ballooning drivers installed inside the guest operating system as part of
the VMware installation tools and it is also known as VM memctl driver . when there is available
memory in the machine the guest operating system will returns the memory from its free lists. when
there is memory is not available the guest operating system has its own memory management
technique which decided to which page need to reclaim.
Conversions:
Converters:
P2V Prerequisites:
Post Conversions:
-> Reboot.
V2V: It is used to makes non ESX readable virtual machines to ESX readable virtual machines.
VMware tools:
Vmware tool is a set of drivers for virtual machine. It is VM level feature used to improve the
performance of virtual machine.
2. NIC drivers
3. SCSI drivers
4. Ballooning Drivers
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5. Time synchronization.
-> it support both ESX and ESXi -> it support only ESXi
->HA host approach is Primary and secondary -> HA host approach is Master and
Slave
-> HA logs are etc/opt/VMware/AAM -> HA logs are etc/opt/VMware/FDM
-> LUNs per ESX server - 256 -> LUNs per ESX server - 256
-> No.of VM per host - 170 -> No.of VM per host - 320
-> SVmotion is available with CLI -> SVmotion is available with GUI
ESX ESXi
-> ESX has service console and use CLI -> ESXi has no service console but instead
of service console it uses VCLI -> ESX supports
thickest version -> ESXi supports thinnest version
-> ESX requires more patches -> ESXi requires fewer patches.
-> ESX provide greate security -> ESXi provide lesser security.
-> ESX cost is very high like $ 1500 -> ESXi cost is low like $495
s-> ESX supports scriptable installations -> ESXi doesn't support scriptable through
utilities like kickstart installations
-> ESX support active directory integrations -> ESXi doesn't support active directory
through 3rd party agents installed on the authentication of local user at this time.
service console.
Template Clone
-> Template is a master image of VM from -> Clone is an exact copy of VM with same
Which you can deploy multiple VM configuration and installations without
perform additional settings.
-> you can create a template by convert -> you can create a clone by R/C on VM and
a VM to template, clone VM to template. clone
-> Template cannot be powered on and can't -> Clone can be power on and can make
make any changes. changes.
-> Convert VM to template cannot be performed -> Clone of VM is created when the power on
when VM power on
-> you can convert the template back to VM ->you can't convert the clone back to VM
->Template is useful for production environments. -> Clone is useful for testing and development
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purpose.
host -> configuration -> storage -> add storage -> select Disk/LUN -> select VMFS Version -> data
store name -> specify block size -> finish.
Thin: In thin provisioned disks, the size of the VMDK (at any point in time) is as much as the amount of
data written out from the VM. So if you provision a 1 TB virtual drive and the VM only wrote 200GB then
the size of the vmdk on disk is 200GB. The key thing to note is that the storage is zeroed on demand and
data written out.
Lazy Zero Thick In Flat or Lazy Zero Thick format, the VMDK is provisioned and whenever a guest issues a
write it is zeroed first and then the data is written. The size of the VMDK on the datastore is same as the
size of the virtual disk that was created.
Eager Zero Thick: With Eager Zero Thick, the VMDK is pre-zeroed and assigned to the guest during
provisioning of the VMFS volume.
By using update manager tool, we can update patches and upgrade versions.
steps:
-> Reboot.
in 4,4.1
in 5.0
services.sh restart
If it is not pinging
it is not up
if it is not reboot call VMware ( check the issue whether it is hardware or software).
VM hung:
C drive expansion:
-> ok
4. Extend.
-> in 2008
R/C on My computer -> select manage -> storage -> Disk management -> R/C on disk -> click on extend
volume.
VC not Responding
Enable Vmotion:
Host -> Configuration -> Networking -> Vswitch properties -> management networking -> edit ->
Enable Vmotion.
R/C on VM -> Edit settings -> click on add -> select hard disk -> select disk type enable Raw device
mapping.
Host -> Configuration -> storage -> R/C on data store -> properties -> click on Extent.
Host -> configuration -> storage -> R/C on data store -> properties -> Manage paths -> select Fixed,
MRU, Round Robin.
R/C on VM -> edit settings -> Option tab -> VMware tools -> Enable Synchronize guest time with Host.
One VM has two disks How can you move one disk to one data store and another disk to another
data store:
R/C on VM -> Migrate -> Change data store -> select Advance option -> Browse select destination data
store -> finish.
Enable SSH:
Host -> configuration -> security profile in software -> firewall properties -> Enable SSH
1. By using SVmotion (R/C on Vm -> Migrate -> Change datastore -> select Advance option -> )
2. By using P2V
VM not power on :
sol:
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-> Connect ESX direct to Vsphere client and then try to power on (its not up)
-> Unmount the datastore ( Host -> configuration -> storage -> R/C on datastore -> click on Unmount)
Configure NAS:
Host -> configuration -> storage -> add storage -> NFS -> Server name -> shared folder name -> datastore
name -> finish.
Host -> configuration -> networking -> Add network -> select VM -> give the name and VLANID -> finish.
VM logs:
Summary -> R/C on data store -> Browse data store -> select VM
Port numbers
80 TCP vCenter Server requires port 80 for direct HTTP connections. Port 80 redirects requests to
HTTPS port 443. This redirection is useful if you accidentally use http://server instead
ofhttps://server.
Note: Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) also use port 80. For more information, see
theConflict Between vCenter Server and IIS for Port 80 section in the vSphere
Installation and Setup guide.
389 TCP/UDP This port must be open in the local and all remote instances of vCenter Server. This is the LDAP
port number for the Directory Services for the vCenter Server group. The vCenter Server system
needs to bind to port 389, even if you are not joining this vCenter Server instance to a Linked
Mode group. If another service is running on this port, it might be preferable to remove it or
change its port to a different port. You can run the LDAP service on any port from 1025 through
65535.
If this instance is serving as the Microsoft Windows Active Directory, change the port number from
389 to an available port from 1025 through 65535.
443 TCP The default port that the vCenter Server system uses to listen for connections from the vSphere
Client. To enable the vCenter Server system to receive data from the vSphere Client, open port
443 in the firewall.
The vCenter Server system also uses port 443 to monitor data transfer from SDK clients.
902 TCP/UDP This is the default port used by the vCenter Server system to send data to managed hosts.
Managed hosts also send a regular heartbeat over UDP port 902 to the vCenter Server system.
This port must not be blocked by firewalls between the server and the hosts or between hosts.
903 TCP Access a virtual machine console from the vSphere Client when the vSphere Client is connected
directly to the ESXi host (no vCenter Server).
8080 TCP Web Services HTTP. Used for the VMware VirtualCenter Management Web Services.
8443 TCP Web Services HTTPS. Used for the VMware VirtualCenter Management Web Services.
7343 TCP vSphere Web Client - HTML5 Remote Console, HTTPS (vCenter 5.5 Update 2 and later)
8009 TCP AJP connector port for vCenter Server Appliance communication with Tomcat
8100 TCP Traffic between ESXi hosts for vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT)
8182 TCP Traffic between ESXi hosts for vSphere High Availability (HA)
8200 TCP Traffic between ESXi hosts for vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT)
9000 TCP Port range used if 80 and 443 are unavailable for communication to the ESXi hosts.
-9010
9875 - TCP vSphere Web Client Java Management Extension (JMX). Dynamically acquired upon the vSphere
9877 Web Client service starting.
49000 - TCP vCenter Single Sign-On - VMware Identity Management Service. Dynamically acquired upon the
65000 VMware Identity Management Service starting.
135 TCP/UDP Used by ADAM for RPC communications between vCenter Servers in Linked Mode.
389 TCP/UDP This port must be open in the local and all remote instances of vCenter Server. This is the LDAP port
number for the Directory Services for the vCenter Server group. The vCenter Server system needs
to bind to port 389, even if you are not joining this vCenter Server instance to a Linked Mode group.
If another service is running on this port, it might be preferable to remove it or change its port to a
different port. You can run the LDAP service on any port from 1025 through 65535.
If this instance is serving as the Microsoft Windows Active Directory, change the port number from
389 to an available port from 1025 through 65535.
636 TCP This is the SSL port of the local instance for vCenter Server Linked Mode. If another service is
running on this port, it might be preferable to remove it or change its port. You can run the SSL
service on any port from 1025 through 65535.
25
1024 TCP RPC communication on dynamic TCP ports is required between all vCenters that need to replicate
(through ADAM).
7500 UDP vCenter Inventory Service Groups diagnostics port for Inventory Service instances.
8443 TCP VMware Web Management Services Linked Mode Communication port.
1044 TCP vCenter Inventory Service Linked Mode Communication between Inventory Service instances.
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This can be changed during the vCenter Server installation and should be adjusted in the firewall
settings as needed.