Title Details

Scott Lowe, VCDX 39, is an engineering architect for VMware focusing on network virtualization and software-defined networking (SDN). He is also a VMware vExpert and author of Mastering VMware vSphere 5. Nick Marshall is a senior consultant with over 13 years of IT experience and multiple advanced IT certifications, including VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) in Datacenter Administration (DCA) and Datacenter Design (DCD). He currently works at VMware in the APAC region.

Introduction xxv

Chapter 1 • Introducing VMware vSphere 55 1

Exploring VMware vSphere 55 1

Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite 3

Examining the Features in VMware vSphere 8

Licensing VMware vSphere 18

Why Choose vSphere? 22

The Bottom Line 24

Chapter 2 • Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 25

Planning a VMware vSphere Deployment 25

Choosing a Server Platform 26

Determining a Storage Architecture 28

Integrating with the Network Infrastructure 29

Deploying VMware ESXi 30

Installing VMware ESXi Interactively 31

Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi 35

Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy 39

Performing Post-installation Confi guration 47

Installing the vSphere C# Client 47

Reconfiguring the Management Network 50

Configuring Time Synchronization 52

Configuring Name Resolution 53

The Bottom Line 54

Chapter 3 • Installing and Configuring vCenter Server 57

Introducing vCenter Server 57

Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Single Sign-On 59

Using the vSphere Web Client for Administration 62

Understanding the vCenter Inventory Service 62

Providing an Extensible Framework 63

Choosing the Version of vCenter Server 64

Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deployment 65

Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server 66

Choosing a Database Server for vCenter Server 68

Planning for vCenter Server Availability 70

Running vCenter Server and Its Components as VMs 72

Installing vCenter Server and Its Components 74

Configuring the vCenter Server Backend Database Server 75

Installing the vCenter Server Components 80

Installing vCenter Server in a Linked Mode Group 88

Deploying the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 91

Configuring an IP Address on the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 94

Accepting the End-User License Agreement 95

Configuring the Database 96

Setting Up Single Sign-On 96

Active Directory Settings 97

Starting the vCenter Server Services 97

Exploring vCenter Server 97

What’s in the vSphere Web Client Home Screen? 98

Using the Navigator 100

Creating and Managing a vCenter Server Inventory 100

Understanding Inventory Views and Objects 100

Creating and Adding Inventory Objects 103

Exploring vCenter Server’s Management Features 106

Understanding Basic Host Management 106

Examining Basic Host Confi guration 108

Using Scheduled Tasks 111

Using Events Console in vCenter Server 113

Working with Host Profi les 114

Tags 116

Managing vCenter Server Settings 120

General vCenter Server Settings 120

Licensing 123

Message of the Day 123

Advanced Settings 123

vSphere Web Client Administration 123

Roles 124

Licensing 124

vCenter Solutions Manager 124

Log Browser 124

The Bottom Line 126

Chapter 4 • vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools 129

vSphere Update Manager 129

Installing vSphere Update Manager 131

Defining the Requirements 132

Configuring VUM’s Database 133

Creating the Open Database Connectivity Data Source Name 136

Installing VUM 137

Installing the Update Manager Download Service (Optional) 140

Installing the vSphere Update Manager Plug-in 141

Reconfiguring the VUM or UMDS Installation with the Update Manager Utility 142

Upgrading VUM from a Previous Version 143

Configuring vSphere Update Manager 143

Creating Baselines 149

Routine Updates 153

Attaching and Detaching Baselines or Baseline Groups 153

Performing a Scan 156

Staging Patches 159

Remediating Hosts 160

Upgrading VMware Tools 164

Upgrading Virtual Appliances and Host Extensions 166

Upgrading Hosts with vSphere Update Manager 166

Importing an ESXi Image and Creating the Host Upgrade Baseline 167

Upgrading a Host 168

Upgrading VM Hardware 171

Performing an Orchestrated Upgrade 173

Investigating Alternative Update Options 173

Using vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI 173

Upgrading and Patching without vSphere Update Manager 174

vCenter Support Tools 175

ESXi Dump Collector 175

Syslog Collector 181

Other vCenter Support Tools 185

The Bottom Line 185

Chapter 5 • Creating and Configuring Virtual Networks 189

Putting Together a Virtual Network 189

Working with vSphere Standard Switches 192

Comparing Virtual Switches and Physical Switches 193

Understanding Ports and Port Groups 194

Understanding Uplinks 196

Configuring Management Networking 198

Configuring VMkernel Networking 202

Configuring TCP/IP Stacks 207

Configuring VM Networking 209

Configuring VLANs 212

Configuring NIC Teaming 216

Using and Configuring Traffic Shaping 229

Bringing It All Together 230

Working with vSphere Distributed Switches 234

Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch 234

Removing an ESXi Host from a Distributed Switch 239

Removing a Distributed Switch 240

Managing Distributed Switches 240

Working With Distributed Port Groups 244

Managing Adapters 252

Using NetFlow on vSphere Distributed Switches 257

Enabling Switch Discovery Protocols 259

Setting Up Private VLANs 260

Configuring LACP 263

Examining Third-Party Distributed Virtual Switches 268

Cisco Nexus 1000V 269

IBM Distributed Virtual Switch 5000V 269

HP FlexFabric Virtual Switch 5900v 270

Confi guring Virtual Switch Security 270

Understanding and Using Promiscuous Mode 271

Allowing MAC Address Changes and Forged Transmits 272

Looking Ahead 276

The Bottom Line 277

Chapter 6 • Creating and Configuring Storage Devices 279

Reviewing the Importance of Storage Design 279

Examining Shared Storage Fundamentals 280

Comparing Local Storage with Shared Storage 283

Defining Common Storage Array Architectures 284

Explaining RAID 286

Understanding VSAN 290

Understanding Midrange and External Enterprise Storage Array Design 292

Choosing a Storage Protocol 294

Making Basic Storage Choices 307

Implementing vSphere Storage Fundamentals 309

Reviewing Core vSphere Storage Concepts 309

Working with VMFS Datastores 327

Working with Raw Device Mappings 347

Working with NFS Datastores 349

Working with VM-Level Storage Configuration 359

Leveraging SAN and NAS Best Practices 372

The Bottom Line 377

Chapter 7 • Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity 379

Understanding the Layers of High Availability 379

Clustering VMs 381

Introducing Network Load Balancing Clustering 382

Introducing Windows Server Failover Clustering 383

Implementing vSphere High Availability 395

Understanding vSphere High Availability 395

Understanding vSphere HA’s Underpinnings 396

Enabling vSphere High Availability 399

Configuring vSphere High Availability 401

Managing vSphere High Availability 413

Implementing vSphere Fault Tolerance 415

Using vSphere Fault Tolerance with vSphere High Availability 420

Using vSphere Fault Tolerance with vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler 420

Examining vSphere Fault Tolerance Use Cases 421

Planning for Business Continuity 421

Providing Data Protection 421

Recovering from Disasters 425

Using vSphere Replication 427

The Bottom Line 431

Chapter 8 • Securing VMware vSphere 433

Overview of vSphere Security 433

Securing ESXi Hosts 434

Working with ESXi Authentication 434

Controlling Access to ESXi Hosts 441

Keeping ESXi Hosts Patched 449

Managing ESXi Host Permissions 449

Confi guring ESXi Host Logging 458

Reviewing Other ESXi Security Recommendations 458

Securing vCenter Server 459

Authenticating Users with Single Sign-On 460

Understanding the vpxuser Account 464

Managing vCenter Server Permissions 466

Examining vCenter Server Logging 476

Securing Virtual Machines 477

Configuring Network Security Policies 477

Keeping VMs Patched 478

The Bottom Line 478

Chapter 9 • Creating and Managing Virtual Machines 481

Understanding Virtual Machines 481

Examining Virtual Machines from the Inside 481

Examining Virtual Machines from the Outside 484

Creating a Virtual Machine 488

Choosing Values for Your New Virtual Machine 499

Installing a Guest Operating System 504

Working with Installation Media 505

Using the Installation Media 507

Working in the Virtual Machine Console 508

Installing VMware Tools 509

Installing VMware Tools in Windows 510

Installing VMware Tools in Linux 514

Managing Virtual Machines 516

Adding or Registering Existing VMs 516

Changing VM Power States 518

Removing VMs 519

Deleting VMs 519

Modifying Virtual Machines 519

Changing Virtual Machine Hardware 520

Using Virtual Machine Snapshots 524

The Bottom Line 529

Chapter 10 • Using Templates and vApps 531

Cloning VMs 531

Installing Sysprep on the vCenter Server 532

Creating a Customization Specification 533

Cloning a Virtual Machine 538

Creating Templates and Deploying Virtual Machines 541

Cloning a Virtual Machine to a Template 542

Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template 544

Using OVF Templates 545

Deploying a VM from an OVF Template 546

Exporting a VM as an OVF Template 549

Examining OVF Templates 550

Working with vApps 553

Creating a vApp 553

Editing a vApp 555

Changing a vApp’s Power State 559

Cloning a vApp 561

Importing Machines from Other Environments 562

The Bottom Line 562

Chapter 11 • Managing Resource Allocation 565

Reviewing Virtual Machine Resource Allocation 565

Working with Virtual Machine Memory 568

Understanding ESXi Advanced Memory Technologies 569

Controlling Memory Allocation 572

Managing Virtual Machine CPU Utilization 581

Default CPU Allocation 582

Setting CPU Affi nity 583

Using CPU Reservations 584

Using CPU Limits 584

Using CPU Shares 585

Summarizing How Reservations, Limits, and Shares Work with CPUs 587

Using Resource Pools 588

Configuring Resource Pools 590

Understanding Resource Allocation with Resource Pools 591

Regulating Network I/O Utilization 597

Controlling Storage I/O Utilization 602

Enabling Storage I/O Control 604

Configuring Storage Resource Settings for a Virtual Machine 606

Utilizing Flash Storage 611

The Bottom Line 615

Chapter 12 • Balancing Resource Utilization 617

Comparing Utilization with Allocation 617

Exploring vMotion 618

Examining vMotion Requirements 622

Performing a vMotion Migration 626

Ensuring vMotion Compatibility 629

Using Per-Virtual-Machine CPU Masking 629

Using VMware Enhanced vMotion Compatibility 630

Using Storage vMotion 634

Combining vMotion with Storage vMotion 637

Exploring vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler 640

Understanding Manual Automation Behavior 641

Reviewing Partially Automated Behavior 642

Examining Fully Automated Behavior 642

Working with Distributed Resource Scheduler Rules 644

Introducing and Working with Storage DRS 651

Creating and Working with Datastore Clusters 652

Configuring Storage DRS 656

The Bottom Line 664

Chapter 13 • Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance 667

Overview of Performance Monitoring 667

Using Alarms 669

Understanding Alarm Scopes 670

Creating Alarms 671

Managing Alarms 677

Working with Performance Charts 679

Overview Layout 679

Advanced Layout 681

Understanding vCenter Operations Manager 692

Installing vC Ops 692

vC Ops Foundation Features 694

Working with resxtop 695

Using resxtop 696

Capturing and Playing Back Performance Data with resxtop 698

Monitoring CPU Usage 698

Monitoring Memory Usage 701

Monitoring Network Usage 703

Monitoring Disk Usage 705

The Bottom Line 707

Chapter 14 • Automating VMware vSphere 709

Why Use Automation? 709

vSphere Automation Options 710

Automating with PowerCLI 711

PowerShell and PowerCLI 711

What’s New in PowerCLI 55 715

Installing and Confi guring PowerCLI 715

Getting Started with PowerCLI 718

Building PowerCLI Scripts 722

PowerCLI Advanced Capabilities 725

Using vCLI from vSphere Management Assistant 729

What’s New in vCLI and vMA for vSphere 55 729

Getting Started with vCLI 729

Using vSphere Management Assistant for Automation with vCenter 732

Leveraging the Perl Toolkit with vSphere Management Assistant 733

Automating with vCenter Orchestrator 736

New Features in vCenter Orchestrator 55 736

Understanding vCenter Orchestrator Prerequisites 737

Configuring vCenter Orchestrator 737

vCenter Orchestrator Appliance 744

Implementing the vCenter Orchestrator Appliance 745

Accessing vCenter Orchestrator 746

vCenter Orchestrator and vCenter Server 746

Using an Orchestrator Workfl ow 747

The Bottom Line 748

Appendix • The Bottom Line 751

Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 55 751

Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 752

Chapter 3: Installing and Configuring vCenter Server 753

Chapter 4: vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools 756

Chapter 5: Creating and Configuring Virtual Networks 758

Chapter 6: Creating and Configuring Storage Devices 761

Chapter 7: Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity 764

Chapter 8: Securing VMware vSphere 766

Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Virtual Machines 767

Chapter 10: Using Templates and vApps 769

Chapter 11: Managing Resource Allocation 771

Chapter 12: Balancing Resource Utilization 773

Chapter 13: Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance 775

Chapter 14: Automating VMware vSphere 777

Index 779