Title Details

Nick Marshall has worked in the IT industry for nearly 20 years. As a senior integration architect at VMware, he now helps develop products such as VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Validated Designs and vSphere itself. Nick blogs at nickmarshall.com.au and you can follow him on Twitter at @nickmarshall9.

Contents

Foreword xxiii

Introduction xxv

Chapter 1 • Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 1

Exploring VMware vSphere 6.7 1

Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite 3

Examining the Features in VMware vSphere 8

Licensing VMware vSphere 17

Why Choose vSphere? 20

The Bottom Line 22

Chapter 2 • Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 23

VMware ESXi Architecture 23

Understanding the ESXi Hypervisor 23

Examining the ESXi Components 24

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 38

Performing Post-installation Configuration 40

Reconfiguring the Management Network 40

Using the vSphere Host Client 42

Configuring Time Synchronization 43

Configuring Name Resolution 45

The Bottom Line 46

Chapter 3 • Installing and Configuring vCenter Server .47

Introducing vCenter Server 47

Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Single Sign-On 49

Understanding the Platform Services Controller 52

Using the vSphere Web Client for Administration 53

Providing an Extensible Framework 54

Choosing the Version of vCenter Server 55

Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deployment 56

Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server 56

Planning for vCenter Server Availability 58

Running vCenter Server and Its Components as VMs 60

Installing vCenter Server and Its Components 63

Installing vCenter Server in an Enhanced Linked Mode Group 74

Exploring vCenter Server 77

The vSphere Web Client Home Screen 78

Using the Navigator 80

Creating and Managing a vCenter Server Inventory 80

Understanding Inventory Views and Objects 80

Creating and Adding Inventory Objects 83

Exploring vCenter Server’s Management Features 86

Understanding Basic Host Management 86

Examining Basic Host Configuration 89

Using Scheduled Tasks 93

Using the Events and Events Consoles in vCenter Server 95

Working with Host Profiles 95

Tags and Custom Attributes 99

Managing vCenter Server Settings 102

General vCenter Server Settings 102

Licensing 105

Message of the Day 106

Advanced Settings 106

Auto Deploy 106

vCenter HA A 106

Key Management Servers 106

Storage Providers 106

vSphere Web Client Administration 106

Roles 107

Licensing 107

vCenter Solutions Manager 107

System Configuration 107

VMware Appliance Management Administration 109

Summary 110

Monitor 111

Access 113

Networking 113

Time 113

Services 113

Update 114

Administration 114

Syslog 114

Backup 115

The Bottom Line 115

Chapter 4 • vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools .117

vSphere Update Manager 117

vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Server Appliance 120

Installing the Update Manager Download Service (Optional) 121

The vSphere Update Manager Plug-in 122

Reconfiguring the VUM or UMDS Installation with the Update Manager Utility 123

Upgrading VUM from a Previous Version 124

Configuring vSphere Update Manager 124

Creating Baselines 130

Routine Updates 134

Attaching and Detaching Baselines or Baseline Groups 135

Performing a Scan 137

Staging Patches 141

Remediating Hosts 142

Upgrading VMware Tools 145

Upgrading Host Extensions 148

Upgrading Hosts with vSphere Update Manager 148

Importing an ESXi Image and Creating the Host Upgrade Baseline 148

Upgrading a Host 151

Upgrading VM Hardware 152

Performing an Orchestrated Upgrade 154

Investigating Alternative Update Options 155

Using vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI 155

Upgrading and Patching without vSphere Update Manager 156

vSphere Auto Deploy 157

Deploying Hosts with Auto Deploy 157

vCenter Support Tools 172

ESXi Dump Collector 172

Other vCenter Support Tools 175

The Bottom Line 176

Chapter 5 • Creating and Configuring a vSphere Network .179

Putting Together a vSphere Network 179

Working with vSphere Standard Switches 182

Comparing Virtual Switches and Physical Switches 183

Understanding Ports and Port Groups 184

Understanding Uplinks 186

Configuring the Management Network 189

Configuring VMkernel Networking 192

Enabling Enhanced Multicast Functions 197

Configuring TCP/IP Stacks 198

Configuring Virtual Machine Networking 200

Configuring VLANs 202

Configuring NIC Teaming 207

Using and Configuring Traffic Shaping 219

Bringing It All Together 220

Working with vSphere Distributed Switches 224

Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch 224

Removing an ESXi Host from a Distributed Switch 229

Removing a Distributed Switch 230

Managing Distributed Switches 231

Working with Distributed Port Groups 234

Managing VMkernel Adapters 240

Using NetFlow on vSphere Distributed Switches 245

Enabling Switch Discovery Protocols 247

Enabling Enhanced Multicast Functions 248

Setting Up Private VLANs 249

Configuring LACP 252

Configuring Virtual Switch Security 256

Understanding and Using Promiscuous Mode 257

Allowing MAC Address Changes and Forged Transmits 258

The Bottom Line 262

Chapter 6 • Creating and Configuring Storage Devices .265

Reviewing the Importance of Storage Design 265

Examining Shared Storage Fundamentals 267

Comparing Local Storage with Shared Storage 269

Defining Common Storage Array Architectures 271

Explaining RAID 273

Understanding vSAN 278

Understanding Midrange and External Enterprise Storage Array Design 282

Choosing a Storage Protocol 284

Making Basic Storage Choices 299

Implementing vSphere Storage Fundamentals 301

Reviewing Core vSphere Storage Concepts 302

Understanding Virtual Volumes 318

SCs vs LUNs 320

Storage Policies 320

Virtual Volumes 321

Working with VMFS Datastores 322

Working with Raw Device Mappings 337

Working with NFS Datastores 339

Working with vSAN 347

Working with Virtual Machine–Level Storage Configuration 349

Leveraging SAN and NAS Best Practices 361

The Bottom Line 366

Chapter 7 • Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity .369

Understanding the Layers of High Availability 369

Clustering VMs 371

Introducing Network Load Balancing Clustering 371

Introducing Windows Server Failover Clustering 372

Implementing vSphere High Availability 384

Understanding vSphere High Availability Clusters 384

Understanding vSphere High Availability’s Core Components 385

Enabling vSphere HA 389

Configuring vSphere High Availability 393

Configuring vSphere HA Groups, Rules, Overrides, and

Orchestrated VM Restart 409

Managing vSphere High Availability 413

Introducing vSphere SMP Fault Tolerance 415

Using vSphere SMP Fault Tolerance with vSphere High Availability 421

Examining vSphere Fault Tolerance Use Cases 421

Planning for Business Continuity 422

Providing Data Protection 422

Recovering from Disasters 426

Using vSphere Replication 427

The Bottom Line 432

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 439

Keeping ESXi Hosts Patched 447

Managing ESXi Host Permissions 447

Configuring ESXi Host Logging 455

Securing the ESXi Boot Process 456

Reviewing Other ESXi Security Recommendations 459

Securing vCenter Server 459

Managing vSphere Certificates 460

Working with Certificate Stores 460

Getting Started with Certificate Management 463

Authenticating Users with Single Sign-On 465

Understanding the vpxuser Account 469

Managing vCenter Server Permissions 470

Configuring vCenter Server Appliance Logging 482

Securing Virtual Machines 483

Configuring a Key Management Server for VM and VSAN Encryption 483

Virtual Trusted Platform Module 2.0 490

Configuring Network Security Policies 491

Keeping VMs Patched 492

The Bottom Line 492

Chapter 9 • Creating and Managing Virtual Machines .495

Understanding Virtual Machines 495

Examining Virtual Machines from the Inside 495

Examining Virtual Machines from the Outside 498

Creating a Virtual Machine 503

Choosing Values for Your New Virtual Machine 513

Sizing Virtual Machines 514

Naming Virtual Machines 516

Sizing Virtual Machine Hard Disks 516

Virtual Machine Graphics 518

Installing a Guest Operating System 518

Working with Installation Media 519

Using the Installation Media 521

Working in the Virtual Machine Console 523

Installing VMware Tools 524

Installing VMware Tools in Windows 525

Installing VMware Tools in Linux 529

Managing Virtual Machines 532

Adding or Registering Existing VMs 532

Changing VM Power States 534

Removing VMs 535

Deleting VMs 535

Modifying Virtual Machines 536

Changing Virtual Machine Hardware 536

Using Virtual Machine Snapshots 541

The Bottom Line 546

Chapter 10 • Using Templates and vApps .549

Cloning VMs 549

Creating a Customization Specification 550

Cloning a Virtual Machine 555

Introducing vSphere Instant Cloning 558

Creating Templates and Deploying Virtual Machines 561

Cloning a Virtual Machine to a Template 563

Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template 564

Using OVF Templates 566

Deploying a VM from an OVF Template 567

Exporting a VM as an OVF Template 569

Examining OVF Templates 571

Using Content Libraries 573

Content Library Data and Storage 573

Content Library Synchronization 574

Creating and Publishing a Content Library 574

Subscribing to a Content Library 575

Operating Content Libraries 577

Working with vApps 579

Creating a vApp 580

Editing a vApp 581

Changing a vApp’s Power State 586

Cloning a vApp 586

Importing Machines from Other Environments 587

The Bottom Line 588

Chapter 11 • Managing Resource Allocation .591

Reviewing Virtual Machine Resource Allocation 591

Working with Virtual Machine Memory 594

Understanding ESXi Advanced Memory Technologies 595

Controlling Memory Allocation 599

Managing Virtual Machine CPU Utilization 608

Default CPU Allocation 609

Setting CPU Affinity 610

Using CPU Reservations 611

Using CPU Limits 612

Using CPU Shares 613

Summarizing How Reservations, Limits, and Shares Work with CPUs 615

Using Resource Pools 615

Configuring Resource Pools 616

Understanding Resource Allocation with Resource Pools 619

Regulating Network I/O Utilization 625

Controlling Storage I/O Utilization 630

Enabling Storage I/O Control 632

Configuring Storage Resource Settings for a Virtual Machine 635

Using Flash Storage 639

The Bottom Line 643

Chapter 12 • Balancing Resource Utilization .645

Comparing Utilization with Allocation 645

Exploring vMotion 646

Examining vMotion Requirements 650

Performing a vMotion Migration within a Cluster 653

Ensuring vMotion Compatibility 656

Using Per-Virtual-Machine CPU Masking 656

Using Enhanced vMotion Compatibility 658

Using Storage vMotion 662

Combining vMotion with Storage vMotion 665

Cross-vCenter vMotion 668

Examining Cross-vCenter vMotion Requirements 669

Performing a Cross-vCenter Motion 670

Exploring vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler 671

Understanding Manual Automation Behavior 672

Reviewing Partially Automated Behavior 672

Examining Fully Automated Behavior 673

Working with Distributed Resource Scheduler Rules 674

Working with Storage DRS 682

Creating and Working with Datastore Clusters 683

Configuring Storage DRS 686

The Bottom Line 694

Chapter 13 • Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance .697

Overview of Performance Monitoring 697

Using Alarms 698

Understanding Alarm Scopes 700

Creating Alarms 700

Managing Alarms 706

Working with Performance Charts 708

Overview Layout 708

Advanced Layout 710

Working with esxtop 719

Monitoring CPU Usage 721

Monitoring Memory Usage 725

Monitoring Network Usage 727

Monitoring Disk Usage 729

The Bottom Line 732

Chapter 14 • Automating VMware vSphere 735

Why Use Automation? 735

vSphere Automation Options 736

Automating with PowerCLI 737

PowerShell and PowerCLI 737

What’s New in PowerCLI 10 741

Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on Windows 741

Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on macOS 745

Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on Linux 747

Additional PowerCLI Capabilities 749

Getting Started with PowerCLI 750

Building PowerCLI Scripts 755

PowerCLI Advanced Capabilities 767

Additional Resources 771

The Bottom Line 772

Appendix A • The Bottom Line .775

Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 775

Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 776

Chapter 3: Installing and Configuring vCenter Server 777

Chapter 4: vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools 780

Chapter 5: Creating and Configuring a vSphere Network 781

Chapter 6: Creating and Configuring Storage Devices 783

Chapter 7: Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity 787

Chapter 8: Securing VMware vSphere 788

Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Virtual Machines 790

Chapter 10: Using Templates and vApps 792

Chapter 11: Managing Resource Allocation 794

Chapter 12: Balancing Resource Utilization 796

Chapter 13: Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance 798

Chapter 14: Automating VMware vSphere 799

Index 801