itcourseware · time line & table of contents day 1 topics chapter 0 - overview chapter 1 –...

Study Guide

5 Day

VMware vSphere 5.1with ESXi and vCenterA step by step approach to successful virtualization planning, deployment and administration.

Featuring VMware vSphere with

VMware ESXi™ 5.1,VMware vCenter™ 5.1,

and related products

November, 2012

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Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.

VMware vSphere 5.1 with ESXi and vCenterCopyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by ESXLab.com – All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means, mechanical, electronic or otherwise, without prior written permission from the authors.

Researched, written, published by:

Larry Karnis, ESXLab.com15 Claypine TrailBrampton, Ontario CanadaL6V 3L8

Phone:Toll Free:Facsimile:

LinkedInE-mail:

Web:Twitter:

(905) 451-9488(888) 451-3131(905) 451-7823ca.linkedin.com/[email protected] www.esxlab.com @ESXLab

First edition published October 2009Second update for vSphere 4.1, December 2010Fourth edition updated for vSphere 5, April 2012Fifth edition updated for vSphere 5.1, November 2012

To find out more about our products and services including consulting services, renting our remote lab facilities, running your own VMware class or custom training and content solutions, please visit our website www.esxlab.com or e-mail the author: [email protected].

This document was prepared in its entirety using the open source LibreOffice 3.4.5 office suite. LibreOffice can be freely downloaded for free from www.LibreOffice.org. Microsoft Visio™ 2007 was used to create some of the slide graphics. Final PDF assembly was performed with PDFFactory Pro™ available at www.FinePrint.com. Screen grabs were captured with Snagit from TechSmith.

This document, the images, screen grabs, etc. are original works. This document is copyright 2009-2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means including photo-copying or electronic imaging is permitted without prior written authorization from the copyright holder.

This training material is provided 'as is', without any warranty either expressed or implied. ESXLab.com prepared this material with due care for accuracy and completeness, but does not warrant that the content is either error free or suitable for any specific use. By using this courseware, the user agrees to accept responsibility for all results – desirable or otherwise. Customer agrees that all lab exercises are for illustration purposes only, and assumes all risks including but not limited of data damage or loss, resulting from such use. Customer agrees to indemnify ESXLab.com and its employees/contractors from all claims arising out of the use or misuse of the material in our courseware.

Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange 5.5, Microsoft Exchange 2000, Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2007 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. GroupWise and NetMail are trademarks of Novell Inc. Lotus Domino is a trademark of IBM Corporation. RedHat and Fedora Core are trademarks of RedHat Inc. VMware, VMware Workstation, VMware Server, VMware Player, VMware ESX, VMotion, vSphere, etc. are registered trademarks of VMware Corporation. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

ESXLab.com is an independent training and content development company that is in no way affiliated with or in any way related to VMware Inc. In no case is any such relationship either implied or intended.

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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 – Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage

Chapter 10 – VMware File System

Chapter 11 – Alarms

Chapter 12 – Host Profiles

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Day 4 Topics

Chapter 13 – Resource Pools

Chapter 14 – VMware Converter Standalone

Chapter 15 – VMware Data Recovery

Chapter 16 – VM Migration

Day 5 Topics

Chapter 17 – Distributed Resource Scheduler

Chapter 18 – VMware High Availability Clusters

Chapter 19 – VMware Update Manager

Chapter 20 – Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Chapter 21 – Final Thoughts

Appendix

Appendix 1 – Definitions & Acronyms

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Author's Note

Twenty five years ago, I started my IT career as a UNIX/C programmer. By 1992, I was working as a very busy UNIX administrator so I gave up the safety of fulltime work for consulting. As a hedge against down time, I contacted a major training company and offered my services. Soon, I was teaching their UNIX and C programming classes (very popular at the time). Over time, my love of UNIX morphed into a love of Linux so by 2002 I was teaching Linux for RedHat.

In 2004, I had the very good fortune to be contacted by VMware. Would I like a job working as a trainer? I said “no” and asked if they wanted a contractor. They said no. I had this conversation with VMware three times in 2004 until they finally agreed to hire me as a contractor. I sat the ESX I & II classes and earned my VMware Certified Professional on ESX 2.0 (VCP# 993).

I worked as a contract resource for VMware for about 4 years. I got to watch ESX grow from a niche product used primarily for testing into a full blown production platform. VMware was a young, company creating technical magic (VMotion was absolutely unbelievable in 2003). IMHO, their software magicians were, and still are without equal. They have since delivered Storage VMotion, High Availability, DRS clusters, Fault Tolerant VMs and much, much more.

In 2008, I left VMware to work again as an independent. I enjoy training and was still a huge advocate of VMware's technology, so I decided to start a company to provide vendor independent VMware training courses that anyone could run. The result is this book set.

This Study Guide fully explains how each vSphere feature works. The accompanying Lab Guide takes you through the mechanics. Each lab starts at the very beginning and takes you through all the steps needed to complete the job. There is no magic in this course because nothing is done for you. In most cases, you can perform the labs at work exactly the same way and get the same result (just be careful and don't break anything!).

Developing courseware is much like developing software (my first job). You write, re-write, review, edit update, test until you truly believe that it is bug free. The reality is that bugs exist – and no doubt, some are lurking in this book set. If you find one, please let me know. I'll fix the issue and the next version of the courseware will be better for your input. As a bonus, I will provide a free ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam voucher to the first person who reports each unique bug

VMware vSphere has rekindled my love of IT, and I've seen it do the same for others. Demand for VMware vSphere skills is growing – and so will your career once you master VMware vSphere 5. My hope is that this class will help you get there much faster.

Larry KarnisE-mail: [email protected] Phone: 1 (905) 451-9488 x100

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Notes

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

0-1Copyright © 2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization.

Get Certified now. Sit the ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam at the end of your class.

Chapter 0 - Overview

ESXLab.com

VMware vSphere 5.1 with

ESXi and vCenter Evaluation Copy


Notes




Virtualization➲ Introduction to Virtualization➲ Introduction to vSphere 5.1 ➲ Class Overview

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Virtualization

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

➲ Is completely transparent to guest OS and applications

AppO/S

AppO/S

AppO/S

VMware vSphere

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

➲ Workload Resource Balancing● VMotion, DRS Clusters

➲ Storage Resource Balancing● Storage VMotion, Storage DRS

➲ High Availability● HA Clusters, Fault Tolerance

➲ Workload Migration and Back Up● vCenter Converter● VMware Data Recovery

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 all of the above features. Other products are maturing but do not yet offer the same breadth or depth of functionality as VMware.

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Notes




Key Topics➲ Virtualization Overview➲ Stand Alone ESXi➲ Virtual & Physical Networking➲ Virtual Machines, Rapid Deployment➲ vSphere Management➲ Shared Storage➲ VM Migration & Load Balancing➲ High Availability➲ Physical to Virtual (P2V) Conversions➲ Back Up, Recovery & Disaster Recovery➲ 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 any

time➲ Cell phones on

vibrate please➲ Take calls

outside 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

➲ Experience with● Windows● Linux/UNIX● VMware hosted products (Player, Server, etc.)● vSphere 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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Vendor Neutral 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

For 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


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Notes

Chapter 1 - Introduction to vSpherePhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted

Copyright © 2012 by ESXLab.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior written authorization.

Get Certified now. Sit the ESXLab Certified Virtualization Specialist exam at the end of your class. 1-1

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction to

VMware vSphere 5.1 Evaluation Copy


Notes




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

➲ Scaling vSphere deployments➲ Storage, Network and Server private

cloud computingEvaluation Copy


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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 utilization

rates are very low● Typically, one OS/application per server● Physical server average utilization: 3%-35%● Usually one critical resource● Other sub-systems mostly idle

➲ Why 1 OS, application/server?● Political, administrative isolation● I own/manage my own server

● Application, DLL isolation● Simplify backup, recovery, DR● 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 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 1,200W 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 get generic

hardware, not physical hardware

● Easy to create VM master images● Clones, Templates● Copy & customize...● Easy to create a VM

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

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Back Up & Recovery➲ Problems● Backup tools are

expensive, complex● Backup, recovery,

application, open file agents

● Speed limited by network bandwidth● Limited back up

windows● Virtual networking not

as fast as physical networking

➲ Virtual Solutions● Most LAN backup

tools are supported● File system back ups

● VM snapshots● Data synchronized● Disk image backup

● Data Recovery● VM back up, recovery● Guest OS File level

recovery capability● Virtual appliance

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 Recovery (DR) 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.

VMware Consolidated Backup was officially retired as of vSphere 4.1 and is not avail-able for vSphere 5.0.

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 (subject to licensing)● 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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Hardware Maintenance➲ Problems● HW maintenance

requires down time● Short maintenance

windows● Weekend vendor support

is costly● Must be on site

● 7x24 4hr response● Expensive● Often no guarantee of a

fix within 4hr window● Without top tier contract,

hardware issues may keep a server down for days

➲ Virtual Solutions● To perform H/W

tasks on ESXi host● Evacuate ESXi host of

Virtual Machines● VMotion, cold migrate

VMs to other ESXi hosts● Patch, upgrade, repair,

reconfigure host● No VM down time during

maintenance● If ESXi capacity permits,

maintenance can be done during production hours

Before virtualization, server hardware maintenance was a costly and risky task that was usually performed on weekends.

With virtualization, server hardware maintenance is greatly simplified and risk is elimi-nated. To perform physical server maintenance on ESXi hosts:

- VMotion all VMs off the host that will be maintained- Shut down and power off the host when all fully evacuated of VMs- Add, upgrade, fix hardware- Power on the server- Rejoin clusters- Migrate VMs back to the fixed host

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Windows Server VM Licensing➲ Problems● Windows 2003, 2008,

2012 Server licenses are expensive● Host licenses, CALs ● May have to buy more

expensive editions for needed features● E.g. Microsoft Cluster

Services not available on Windows Server Standard Editions

➲ Solution● Windows 2k3, 2k8/R2

Enterprise, Datacenter VM friendly pricing● Enterprise – 4 VM at

no additional charge● Datacenter – unlimited

VMs at no additional charge

● Check your ● License agreement for

entitled instance count● Volume purchase

agreements

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 does 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 W2k3 Datacenter, you can deploy W2k3 Stan-dard or Enterprise in your VMs).

Note: Posted prices are accurate retail prices as of September, 2009.

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

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Notes




MS Virtualization Calculator

● Part A – License cost by average VM/s per server● Part B – License cost by actual VMs per server

This calculator, published on Microsoft's web site shows the US Manufacturer's Sug-gested Retail Price (MSRP) of Microsoft Windows Server operating system licenses (both Windows Server 2008 and 2003) and Virtual Machine instance counts as permit-ted by the three Windows Server editions; Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter.

This calculator shows that, under certain conditions, substantial savings can be had by purchasing either Windows Enterprise or Windows Datacenter editions over indi-vidual Windows Standard editions. With the premium Windows editions, the higher base cost is offset by the lower marginal cost per Windows VM.

To gain the lowest cost per Windows VM, you must have high Virtual Machine to physical machine ratios (e.g.: 15-30+ VMs per physical server). With today's high core count CPUs (i.e.: CPUs with 4, 6, 8, 12 and 16 cores per physical CPU) and low RAM costs, such consolidation rates are not just attainable, but actually quite reasonable.

In the example above, there are 2 ways to calculate license costs; Average VMs per host and actual VM's per host. The example was worked so that both methods corre-late (i.e.: actual VMs in the bottom (Blue) part match the average VMs in the top (Green) part), and prices mostly match as a result. Please check your own volume li-cense agreements before changing your licensing strategy!

Note: Posted prices are accurate retail prices as of September, 2011 and apply to the US only.


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Notes




Windows Server 2012➲ Windows Server 2012 Virtualization● Standard Edition● 2 sockets max per license● 2 VMs per license● If you have > 2 sockets or > 2 VMs/socket, you

must buy more licenses● Enterprise Edition no longer offered● Some features pushed down to Standard or up

to DataCenter editions● Datacenter Edition● One license required for each physical CPU● Unlimited number of VMs / server

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

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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● Shadow SAN LUNS

to DR site● ESXi host(s) at DR

site set to run VMs● vSphere Replication● Duplicates VMs

across LAN/WAN to secondary site

● Keeps VMs in sync by replicating disk updates

● 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● Clone production VMs● Clone - Exact copy of

original 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

➲ Demand for VMware skills since Jan, 2005 www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Vmware&relative=1➲ According to Dice (www.dice.com)● Candidates with one completed virtualization

project are considered experienced

As a IT technical professional, having ESXi and vCenter 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.

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http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=Vmware&relative=1

http://www.dice.com)

Notes




Virtualization Over Time

➲ VMs - bigger, faster over time● Goal: eliminate all hardware limits to

virtualizatin● Resources – make VMs any size you want● Performance – VMs more than fast enough for

almost all workloads

ESX 1 ESX 2.x

ESX(i) 3.x

ESX(i) 4.x

ESXi5.0

ESXi5.1

Number of vCPUs 1 2 4 8 32 64GB RAM per VM 2GB 3.6GB 64GB 256GB 1TB 1TBNetwork I/O (Gb/s) .5GB .9GB 9GB 30GB >36GB >36GBStorage I/O Ops/sec

< 5k 7k 100k 300k 1,000k 1,000k

CPU Cores/ESXi host 4 8 96 128 160 160

VMware's goal is to make VMs so big and so fast that neither virtual hardware size nor the performance of virtual hardware will be a factor forcing you to deploy physi-cally rather than virtually.

Over time, VMware has significantly increased the maximum virtual hardware avail-able to a VM (more vCPUs, more RAM, more NICs, etc.). They've also worked to im-prove the throughput of virtual networks and virtual disks (as vCPU speed is deter-mined 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 NICs.

Virtual storage performance is improved through the use of very high speed storage adapters (8GB Fibre cards, 10GB iSCSI adapters) and through the use of virtualization 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). 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-exciting

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VMware vSphere 5.1 EditionsStandard Enterprise Enterprise Plus

Maximum vCPUs per VM 8 8 32 64Maximum Physical RAM per ESXi host 32GB 2TB 2TB 2TB

● ● ● ●Thin Provisioning ● ● ● ●Update Manager ● ● ● ●

● ● ●Data Recovery ● ● ●High Availability ● ● ●

● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●

Fault Tolerance ● ● ●Hot Add Hardware ● ● ●

● ● ●Virtual Serial Port Concentrator ● ●DRS Load Balancing ● ●DRS Power Management ● ●

●Network, Storage I/O Control ●Host Profiles ●

vSphere vSphere vSphereESXi

ESXi + VSMP + VMFS

vSphere Storage Appliance

vShield EndPoint AntiVirusvSphere VM Hot ReplicationVMotionvShield Zones

Storage VMotion

vNetwork Distributed vSwitches

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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http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf

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Small Business Bundles

Essentials Essentials Plus3 3

Processor Cores/socket no limit no limit3 38 8

●

Data Recovery ●

●

●

●

VM Hot Add CPU, Memory ●

●

vSphere 5.1 vSphere 5.1

ESXi Servers (2 sockets)

vCenter Server NodesVSMP (Max vCPUs/VM)VMware HA

VMotionvSphere ReplicationvShield Endpoint

vCenter Storage Appliance

Features from http://www.vmware.com as of August, 2012Search 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 Recovery). 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

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vSphere Acceleration Kits➲ 'Kits' are bundles of vSphere licenses● 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 Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 32Enterprise Plus Standard Yes 6+ CPUs 64

vSphere Kits (aka Acceleration Kits) are bundles of vSphere licenses that provide better value than purchasing vSphere and vCenter license entitle-ments individually.

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 very small businesses who will never need more than 3 ESXi hosts with no more than 2 physical CPUs per host. These are very economical li-censes that provide basic (Essentials) or highly capable (Essentials Plus) vir-tualization 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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http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter

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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 to vSphere 5.1● 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 to vSphere 5.1) 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● 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➲ Provision PC Servers

to meet capacity, performance needs● Buy a new PC server● Install ESXi, join

vCenter ● 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➲ Bigger VMs and more VMs● Up to 64 vCPUs (V5.1), 1TB of RAM● Support for 2-8 Core vCPUs● Up to 512 VMs/ESXi with up to 2048 vCPUs

➲ 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➲ Storage Load Balancing● New Storage DRS capacity/load balanced

storage volume groups● Helps ensure you don't slow down on over

worked volumes or run out of space

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What's New in vSphere 5➲ New VMFS 5 supports● Volumes up to 64TB● Raw Device Maps for volumes > 2TB● Unlimited blocks per file

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

➲ vSphere Replication● Hot replicates VMs to another host or site● Minimizes VM downtime due to disasters

➲ Single Sign On (V5.1)● Central authentication service● Can connect to AD, OpenLDAP, NIS

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What's New in vSphere 5➲ Storage vMotion can hot migrate VMs

with snapshots➲ New vSphere Web Client (V5.1)● New primary administrative interface with

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

➲ VMware vCenter Appliance● SuSE Linux based vCenter server● Includes Postgress (free) or connect to

Oracle databases➲ Auto-deploy ESXi host capability● Simplifies install and upgrade of ESXi hosts● New stateful/stateless caching (V5.1)

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➲ Additional features in vSphere 5.1● Hardware Version 9 ● 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● Link Aggregation Control Protocol NIC teams● 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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Chapter 2 – Installing and Configuring ESXiPhotocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted



Chapter 2 – VMware ESXi

How to Install, ConfigureVMware ESXi 5.1Evaluation Copy


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Stand Alone ESXi➲ ESXi Overview➲ ESXi Installation Procedures● Perform the install● Configure Networking, Security● Post-Install best practices

➲ Best PracticesEvaluation Copy


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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

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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Problems & Opportunities➲ Problems● Server consolidation● DNS, DHCP, Web,

File & Print, AD, DC● Reduce costs● Capital $● Hardware support $● IT staff admin time

● Free up rack space● Increase server

utilization rates● Position for future

growth, flexibility

➲ Virtual Solution● ESXi or vSphere hosts● Up to 2TB RAM● Up to 32 1gb NICs● Up to 8 10gb NICs● Local, shared storage

volumes, file shares● Consolidate many

workloads onto one ESXi host

vSphere Standard Edition is a low cost version of VMware ESXi especially intended for entry level virtualization deployments that offer the following hardware capabilities

One or more physical CPUs Will use up all available physical memory Local disks or RAID volumes on supported SATA, SCSI or SAS controllers Up to 32, 1gb NICs including dual and quad NICs Up to 8, 10gb NICs iSCSI hardware and software initiators Fibre host bus adapter support and Use of NFS shares.

With the ability to run up to 8 light duty or 2-4 medium duty VMs per physical CPU core, ESXi or vSphere Standard Edition is an excellent choice for entry level server consolidation projects.

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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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Scalable ESXi Deployment

➲ SAN advantages● High performance● Higher availability● Capacity management● LUN Backup, replication● Disaster Recovery

➲ Local storage for● Boot, VMs, VM paging

➲ SAN LUNs● ESXi boot, swap, VMs

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

● Different LAN (virtual) segments to isolate network traffic. 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● 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 16

core physical CPUs● Max 160 cores/host

● Intel 64-bit Xeon only● Hyperthreading● Not old EMT64 CPUs

● AMD Opteron● NUMA local memory● All Opteron CPUs

supported● Memory● Min 2GB to boot● All remaining physical

RAM used for VMs

➲ Network● Up to 32 GB NICs● Up to 8 10GB NICs● VLAN, NIC Teams

➲ Storage● Local volumes

● SCSI, SAS, SATA● RAID, non-RAID● SSD

● iSCSI SANs● Fibre SANs● File Shares

● NFS only● No SMB 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 160 CPU cores (includes Hyperthreaded logical processors) for CPU scheduling purposes● All available RAM

Furthermore the following implementation limitations need to be considered:

● Modest selection of supported 10GB Ethernet controllers● Jumbo Frames supported, which will dramatically improve software iSCSI performance.

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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 be on local stor-age or retrieved from the network via PXE

➲ ESXi Installable● Local disks● RAID or JBOD● Can run on SSDs

● USB 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.

VMware has officially retired ESX. That is, VMware will no longer release ESX for future releases of their software – just ESXi.

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

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ESXi Boot Screen

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

➲ Customized installs● Serve media from HTTP or NFS● Scripted installs simplify deployment

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 volumes are visible to just your host and

consist of local RAID, JBOD volumes● Remote volumes are visible SAN LUNs

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Performing an In-Place Upgrade

➲ You can upgrade ESXi 5.0 hosts to ESXi 5.1 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

➲ Modern CPUs have H/W virtualization assist capabilities● Intel VT technology and AMD-V● Significantly reduces VM overhead

● Best Practice – Enable H/W virtualization features in the machine's BIOS if present

Virtualization abstracts the physical hardware to the VM. The VM guest oper-ating system normally expects to own all hardware and also expects 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 instruc-tions, then the guest OS could manipulate hardware directly, possibly inter-fere with virtual memory page translation tables and perform other opera-tions that could compromise the ESXi host. To avoid this problem, VMware blocked guest OS' from privileged/dangerous instructions and CPU features through software that emulated (and controlled) what the guest OS could do. This worked but added significant overhead to some operations.

In 2006, both Intel and AMD introduced virtualization hardware assist tech-nology in their updated CPUs. These new CPUs added sophisticated memory management capabilities, better hardware emulation features and other im-provements 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 attempts to use it if available (and warns if it isn't). Please be sure to turn on this fea-ture in your machine's BIOS.

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

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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.

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Installation Completed

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

It only takes about 3-5 minutes to install ESXi 5.1 onto your PC server. The install proceeds non-interactively. A status indicator updates a percent completed horizon-tal bar.

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ESXi 5.1➲ ESXi is a small foot-

print, bare metal hypervisor● Default – FQDN and

IP properties acquired via DHCP

● Use F2 at the boot screen to set up your ESXi 5.1 host

● Use F12 to shutdown or reboot your host

● Simple BIOS like interface

ESXi has a simple, BIOS-like interface that makes it very easy to configure. To con-figure your ESX host, simply hit F2 at the greeter screen.

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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. DHCP servers can send static properties to a host. To do this, configure your DHCP server with the MAC ad-dress of your ESXi host management NIC and then set the static properties to server whenever that NIC broadcasts for a DHCP lease.

Be sure to Restart Management Network after all changes to ensure your updates take effect.

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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 are used to carry vSphere Client and vCenter management traffic● 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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IP 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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DNS Configuration

➲ You must set DNS and FQDN properties● Enter the IP of your DNS server(s)● You MUST enter the FQDN of your ESXi host

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.

You must set a fully qualified domain name for your ESXi host. The ESXi FQDN must → →be resolvable forward (host name IP address) and backward (IP address FQDN).

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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 last one domain name 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● May need to turn on for VMware/partner access

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, HP ILO or IBM RMM) 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 if Remote Tech Support is turned on!

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Restart Management Agents

➲ ESXi uses agents (services) to communicate with vCenter and the 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

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

log records● Use the vSphere

Client to manage ESXi

Once ESXi has rebooted, it is managed through the web or via VMware's vSphere Client. You can download 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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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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Login with vSphere Client➲ Launch vSphere Client● Use ESXi IP or FQDN● ESXi User name (root)● ESXi Password

● Chatty, but low bandwidth application● Runs well over corporate

LAN, WAN● Can run over Internet● Configurable session

time-out values

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 client/server connections use 256-bit AES symmetric key encryption● 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 the digital certificate cannot be independently verified by a 3rd party Certifi-cate Granting Authority, a warning is issued. It is (usually) safe to permanently dis-regard this warning.

It is possible to purchase an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA) and then install that certificate onto your ESXi host. This would eliminate the warning messages 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.

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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

➲ 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. In the screen shot above, both local command line (via the machines physical console) and remote command line (via Secure Shell) are enabled. Since granting com-mand line access is normally not a good idea, presenting these warnings makes sense.

However, 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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ESXi >Configuration

➲ Hardware links to review/set HW settings➲ Software links to review/customize ESXi

Most ESXi hardware and software configuration is done using the vSphere Client.

Use the Configuration tab and the appropriate boxes (Hardware, Software) to review and/or configure your server.

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Local ESXi Users & Groups

➲ Users & Groups Tab – Define ESXi users● Right click on background, Select Add...● Set user login, password and 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 Users & Groups tab and then right-click the back ground and se-lect 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, dcui (local configuration) and vpxuser

(for vCenter) hold the Administrator role

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Joining a Domain

➲ Join ESXi to an Active Directory domain● Navigation: Software > Authentication

Services > Properties...● Specify domain, domain user name, pass-

word 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.

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.

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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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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 and ensure you select Server Clock is UTC when you install ESXi. That way, VMs will get a UTC clock and can then set their lo-cal 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 5.1➲ 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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Physical CPU Properties

➲ Click Configuration > Processors to review host CPU properties. Verify:● CPU socket, core and Hyperthreading status

matches expectations● Click Properties... to enable Hyperthreading

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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Physical Memory Properties

➲ Click Configuration > Memory to review host RAM configuration. Note:● System (VMkernel) RAM is reserved● All remaining RAM 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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Network Adapters

➲ All recognized NICs 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 re-view ESXi management settings:● Verify Host, Fully Qualified Domain Name, IP

address, DNS IP and Gateway● Click Properties... 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➲ Physical CPUs service Virtual CPUs● vCPU slightly slower than physical CPUs

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

● Plan for between 2-4 vCPUs / physical CPU core● Maximize CPU cores, speed, cache size● Intel Hyperthreading will help... but modestly● Physical core restrictions removed vSphere 5

➲ Memory● Need 2GB RAM to install/boot ESXi

● Once booted, the VMkernel uses 40+MB of RAM● All remaining RAM free for VM use

● VMs given RAM as needed, not declared● 1.2-1.4x memory overcommit is reasonable

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

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

● Active/active multipathing disabled for best SAN compatibility● 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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Lab 2 – Install ESXi 5.1➲ In this lab we will perform an install of

ESXi 5.1 onto a physical PC server● Install onto a dedicated server

● Use MS RDP to access our kit central server● From there, use Remote ILO console to power

on and install ESXi➲ Our server pod● Is located in a Class-A data center● Every attendee gets their own server● Uses real PC server hardware

● Not a simulation

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Chapter 10 – VMware Cluster File System (VMFS)Photocopying this book in whole or in part is not permitted



Chapter 10 - VMFS

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VMware File System

➲ VMFS Overview➲ Unique features and benefits➲ Creating VMFS➲ Working with VMFS➲ Managing VMFS capacity➲ Multipath access to VMFS➲ Selecting a Path Selection PolicyEvaluation Copy


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Project Plan

➲ Format storage volumes VMFS● Safe for concurrent ESXi host access● High performance file system

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Shared Storage

➲ Problems● Storage is shared at

the SAN level but not at the OS level● Typically SAN LUN is

visible to just one host● If host goes down, no

other host can use the LUN withoutreconfiguration● Any OS/app on that LUN

becomesinaccessible

➲ Virtual Solutions● VMware File System● Designed for safe,

concurrent access by many ESXi hosts

● VMs live in their own sub-directory

● Careful LUN and file locking keep data safe

● VMFS supports VMotion, DRS, HA

Traditional SAN storage provisioning involves allocating a private SAN LUN to physical servers. In this case, the PC Server benefits from using the SAN:

- Redundant configurations provide for additional performance/redundancy- Multipathing redirects SAN LUN I/Os around failed storage components- Active concurrent paths provide extra performance as I/Os can use different paths to different LUNs- SAN acceleration provides faster I/Os than local captive storage can deliver- LUN Snapshotting and shadowing assist with backup and disaster recovery

The problem is that legacy operating systems Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc.) require ex-clusive access to any SAN LUNs. That is, none of these operating systems would permit two or more physical machines using the same LUN at exactly the same time.

So, even though a PC server may use a SAN LUN, that SAN LUN is effectively held cap-tive by that PC server. If the PC server were to fail, then no other physical machine would be able to use that LUN (for recovery purposes) unless the SAN administrator re-configured the SAN to make the LUN visible to a new PC server.

VMware File System (VMFS) volumes were designed for safe, concurrent access by ESXi hosts. This means that, unlike traditional operating systems, many ESXi hosts can con-nect to, mount and concurrently use files on the same VMFS volume at the same time.

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VMware File System

➲ General purpose, hierarchical filesystem suitable for:● Virtual Machine files including virtual disks● VM templates, clones● ISO image repository

➲ Currently proprietary to VMware● Uses aggressive SCSI persistent, non-

persistent reservations to manage locks● Requires strict adherence to SCSI protocol● Some SAN hardware unsupported due to

incomplete, incorrect implementation of SCSIreservations

VMFS file systems are general purpose, hierarchical file systems that can be used to hold files needed for your virtualization initiatives. VMFS was designed to be an effi-cient (very low overhead) file system suitable for files of all sizes. It is especially im-portant that VMFS remain efficient on extremely large files because virtual disk files (.vmdks) can be up to 2TB in size.

VMFS are often used to hold other files useful to virtualization such as operating sys-tem, utility and application install images. If you rip (using Roxio, Nero or your fa-vorite CD/DVD ripping tool) install media to files on a VMFS, then any VM can mount those files on its virtual CD/DVD device and use the image as if it were physical me-dia. This eliminates many problems normally encountered with physical media in-cluding:

- Lost, misplaced, scratched or dirty media- Use of non-approved media to install software into virtual machines- Eliminates the need and risk of having to use physical media in the ESXi server. This can be especially dangerous because, an operating system install media left in an ESXi physical CD/DVD tray could be booted if the machine were accidentally restarted, possibly reformatting local disks- Virtual CD/DVD images deliver data at up to 10 times the speed of physical CD/DVD readers (that typically read at no more than 2MB/second).

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VMFS 5 Features

➲ VMware developed file system driver that meets the following objectives:● Safe for true active-active access by multiple

ESXi hosts (not active/standby)● Low overhead. VMFS adds no more than 3-

6% I/O overhead over native volumes● Journaled file system ensures no data loss if

your ESXi ever crashes● Volume Managed File System

● Expand capacity on demand● Files up to 2TB in size, Volumes up to 64TB in size

● Efficient● Optimized for large file access (e.g.: .vmdks)● Sub-block allocations; small files don't waste space

VMFS volumes are designed to safely handle concurrent I/O activity by multiple ESXi hosts. This is accomplished by cleaver use of LUN and file locks. For example, when an ESXi host is told to power on a VM, it must assert a file lock on the VM (so that no other ESXi host can manipulate the VMs virtual disk files). The virtual disk file lock is established as follows:

- The ESXi host asserts a non-persistent SCSI reservation (LUN lock) on the entire VMFS volume. This gives the ESXi host temporary exclusive access to the LUN. I/Os from other ESXi hosts will queue at the host while the non- persistent SCSI reservation is present- The ESXi host then places a file lock on the .vmdk file of the VM to be powered on- The ESXi host updates the file system structure to indicate that the VM has been powered on- The ESXi host then releases the non-persistent SCSI reservation against the LUN. This allows I/Os from other ESXi hosts to other files on the LUN to proceed- The ESXi host then proceeds to power on and run the VM

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VMFS Auto Discovery

➲ When ESXi scans LUNs, it looks for VMFS partitions● Any VMFS found is

automatically madeavailable for use

● Rescan for new LUNs any time

● ESXi uses HW path vmhba2:C0:T1:L1

➲ ESXi mounts VMFS volumes. Look under: /vmfs/volumes/Production

ESXi hosts scan for storage volumes on boot or whenever the Rescan link (Configura-tion Tab > Storage Adapters > Rescan...) is clicked. The ESXi host will update it's available storage roster with the properties of all visible LUNs found during a rescan.

If a LUN is partitioned and formatted VMFS, the ESXi host will add the VMFS volume to the available storage view (Configuration Tab > Storage). Any volume in this view is immediately available for use by the ESXi host either to access existing files on that VMFS or to create new files on the VMFS.

VMFS volumes can be referenced by either their Runtime path (e.g.: vmhba32:C0:T1:L1) or their label (e.g.: Production, Test, etc.). The vSphere Client displays VMFS volumes by their label.

If you log in to the Local/Remote Tech Support command line, you can navigate over to the top directory of a specific VMFS volume with the command:

# cd /vmfs/volumes/VMFS-Label (VMFS-Label is the name of the VMFS)

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Building a VMFS

➲ Steps to building a VMFS● ESXi Host > Configuration tab > Storage >

Add Storage > Disk/LUN ● Select LUN● Set Datastore Name, VMFS block size ● Done!

It is easy to construct a new VMFS volume onto an available storage volume. You do this by invoking the Add Storage Wizard (Configuration tab > Storage > Add Storage...)

The first step of this wizard asks you if you want to add either a NAS/NFS resource or a Disk/LUN resource. Click Disk/LUN.

Next, the wizard will display a list of all volumes visible to the ESXi host that contain non-VMFS partitions or volumes that have no partition table at all (e.g.: new SAN LUNs or local physical/RAID volumes).

Whenever physical LUN properties are displayed, the following should be kept in mind:

Capacity – is the actual reported size of the LUN in GB or MBAvailable – is the amount of unpartitioned space available on the LUN

A disk is unpartitioned when the Available space almost matches the reported capac-ity (as some space is held back for the MBR and partition table). If available space reports as zero, then the disk is fully partitioned with non-VMFS partitions. If you delete these partitions, then non-VMFS data will be irretrievably lost.

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Select Disk/LUN

➲ Select from roster of available storage volumes visible to your ESXi host● Click any column header to sort by that

column

Above is a roster of available storage volumes on an ESXi host. To complete the Add Storage wizard, select one of the volumes. All column headers are sortable – and LUNs are added in the order found – so click a column header to re-order the LUNs into something that makes sense for you (e.g. Click LUN header to see LUNs sorted by their LUN ID value).

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Select VMFS Version

➲ vSphere 5 supports VMFS-3● Backward compatibility with ESXi 4.x, 3.x● VMFS-3 still has

● 2TB max volume limit● 256,000 block max file size limits

Use VMFS-3 if you have ESXi 4.x or 3.x hosts sharing storage access with ESXi 5.x hosts. If you have no legacy ESXi hosts, then you should select VMFS-5 for higher ca-pacity, more flexibility and better performance.

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Volume Partition Table

➲ Current volume partition layout● The wizard shows the partition table (if any)

on the selected volume● A new volume should be unpartitioned

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Properties and Formatting

➲ Provide the new VMFS a label● Becomes the

generic name for the volume

● Displayed in the Storage roster

➲ Set VMFS size● Default is to use all

available space● Can reduce● Best Practice – 1

Partition / VMFS

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New VMFS

➲ The freshly formatted volume is added to the Storage > Datastores view● Note VMFS storage overhead of .75GB

● Journal area, ● Volume manager● Directory structure and block free list● Volume lock/unlock coordination across hosts

Once the Add Storage Wizard completes, your new VMFS volume is ready for use (and is added to the Storage roster).

ESXi uses VMFS labels as a way to defend against SAN LUN renumbering and/or changes in the LUN Name (e.g.: vmhba1:C0:T1:L1) which can happen across boots. Fibre SANs may sometimes renumber (reassign LUN volume numbers) as SAN adminis-trators add/remove volumes from the SAN. By using the VMFS volume name, rather than it's number, ESXi administrators can continue to use a mnemonic name rather than having to concern themselves with the currently active LUN number for a LUN.

VMFS volumes are very efficient but do impose both capacity and performance costs on a storage volume.

Capacity - VMFS volumes lose about 3-6% of their overall capacity to VMFS file system overhead. Smaller VMFS LUNs lose more capacity to overhead than do larger LUNsPerformance – A VM's virtual disk is represented as file in a VMFS. When a VM does I/Os against it's virtual disk, those I/Os are completed by the VMFS file system driver. As a result, the VM not only has its normal disk I/O overhead (e.g. NTFS overhead) but also a modest amount of VMFS overhead.

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VMFS Details

Datastore Details window● Location● Total, used,

free space● Path policy● Paths, Total,

Broken andDisabled

● Volume Label● VMFS version● VMFS block

size● List of Extents

The Details pane shows the properties of a VMFS volume. ESXi administrators can use this view to determine the health of the VMFS volume and the storage network by reviewing the:

Paths - Total number of paths through the storage network to the LUNBroken - Number of paths degraded by a component failureStand By - Number of paths that are not in use

On a healthy system, the number of broken paths should be zero. If this is not the case, you should alert the SAN administrator so they can remediate the problem.

Note here that you can also see the block size used when the VMFS is formatted. Un-fortunately, once set, there is no easy way to change the block size of a VMFS. If the VMFS block size is not appropriate, you would need to:

- back up or cold migrate all VMs off of this LUN- remove the VMFS volume on the LUN- make a new VMFS volume on the LUN with an appropriate block size- restore or cold migrate back the VMs and files

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VMFS Capacity Management

➲ Option 1: Create a Volume SpanVMFS can span multiple SAN LUNs● Adding unused LUN(s) to a VMFS adds the

LUNs space to the VMFS● Called a LUN Span● Similar to a Microsoft Dynamic Disk

➲ Option 2: Grow the SAN LUN, then grow the VMFS partition● Use SAN capacity management tools to

grow SAN LUN● Edit VMFS properties to grow VMFS

partition, file system into the newly allocated space

VMFS volumes now support capacity growth through dynamic LUN expansion. This means that your SAN administrator can grow a storage volume and you can grow a VMFS partition and file system onto the newly allocated space.

There is another strategy for growing VMFS volumes. VMFS supports capacity expan-sion through LUN spanning – the joining together of a VMFS volume with additional empty SAN volumes.

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Option 1 - LUN Span - Before

➲ Problem: Production VMFS volume is ei-ther full or nearly full● A full VMFS will prevent VM power-on, VM

snapshotting, VM operation with snapshots➲ Solution: Span with empty LUNs● In this case, we'll add 2 LUNs● vmhba0:C0:T0:L0 and vmhba0:C0:T0:L2

Suppose our Production VMFS volume were full (or nearly full). If a VMFS volume fills, there can be undesirable results including:

- You cannot power on a VM because there is no room to create the VMkernel swap file that must be present to handle VM paging to disk- You cannot snapshot a VM because there is no space left to hold the file that accumulates the changes to a virtual disk that occur after the snapshot is taken- You cannot make new VMs on the LUN because there is no room left to allocate space to the VMs virtual disk and other constituent files- You cannot increase the size of existing virtual disk files- VMs with snapshots will freeze when there is no more space to record virtual disk changes

LUN spanning is a capacity management technique that lets ESXi administrators in-crease the size of a VMFS by gluing together (spanning) an existing VMFS with an empty volume. Once the Span is complete, the VMFS will be able to use free space on the original volume allocated to the VMFS and the new volume (that was added to the VMFS).

The other advantage to LUN Spanning is that spans can be created while the VMFS is in use so that capacity issues can be dealt with immediately rather than having to wait for the next maintenance window.

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LUN Span - After

➲ After the LUN span● Production VMFS can use all free space on

vmhba0:C0:T0:L1, vmhba0:C0:T0:L2● Spanned volumes disappear from the

available storage roster● Do not appear in the Storage View● As they are owned by the Production VMFS vol-

ume

VMFS LUN spanning can cross multiple volumes. In the example above, the Produc-tion VMFS has been spanned across two additional volumes. In this case the Produc-tion VMFS will report, as its capacity, the sum of the sizes of all three volumes as-signed.

LUN Spans are not a form of RAID. That is, LUN Spans do not mirror or stripe across the allocated volumes. As storage is requested, the Span will allocate space from the first volume until it fills. Once the first volume has filled, additional storage needs will be met by allocating free space from the second LUN. And, when that LUN fills, storage will be allocated from the third LUN (and so on). Files on the Span get free space from whichever volume has it to give. So, there is no way to know (on a file by file basis) which volumes contribute storage to a file.

Once a volume is assigned to a VMFS (either as the first or subsequent volume), it is considered in use and that volume is removed from the available storage roster.

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Create/Grow a LUN Span

➲ Navigation: Storage View > VMFS > Properties● Click the Increase button

You can add a volume to a VMFS at any time by completing these steps:

Configuration tab > Storage > click VMFS > Properties > Increase button

The LUN Properties window lets you review the currently assigned storage volume(s) for a VMFS and also lets you add additional volume(s) to the VMFS through the In-crease button.

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To Add an Extent - 2

➲ Extend Device● A roster of available SAN LUNs is presented● Select the LUN you wish to add

● We'll add LUN 1 to our VMFS

When you click the Increase button, you invoke the Increase Datastore Capacity Wiz-ard. This wizard starts by showing you a roster of all volumes visible to the ESXi host that contain either unpartitioned space (Capacity nearly equals Available space) or volumes with non-VMFS partitions (Available space is either substantially less than Capacity or reports as None).

Note that the Datastore Capacity Wizard will automatically assume you want to cre-ate a Span if there is no free space on the LUN whose properties you are editing. If there is free space on the LUN, the wizard will assume you wish to grow the LUN.

In the example above, we select a volume and assign it as LUN span to the VMFS.

Use caution when reformatting a non-VMFS volume volume for use as a VMFS. If you do this, the volume will be repartitioned and formatted with a single VMFS partition causing the complete and irretrievable loss of the data that was on the disk.

You need to rerun the Increase Datastore Capacity wizard for each additional LUN you wish to add to a VMFS.

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To Add an Extent - 3

➲ Now 2 SAN LUNs in VMFS● LUNs listed under Extents

Once you have completed the Increase Datastore Capacity wizard, the newly as-signed disk space should be reported in the Storage view. In this case we have added two volumes to the original Production LUN. As a result it's size has grown from it's original 6GB to almost 12GB.

You can see the hardware paths of all volumes used by the Production VMFS under the Extents label in the Details window.

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Spanned LUNs - FYI

➲ LUN spanning is a pure capacity mgt tool➲ Exercise caution when spanning. Match:● Performance – match RAID, acceleration● Visibility – All ESXi hosts should see LUN● Redundancy – same redundancy level

➲ Best practice – Grow the LUN, don't span!

Be aware that ESXi does not judge or second guess the suitability of the LUN(s) you select for use as extent volumes for a VMFS. Poor choices for extent candidates are any LUNs that do not match the

- Performance- Visibility- Redundancy

of the original LUN in the VMFS. If the additional LUNs are not as fast as the first LUN (because of a different RAID strategy or different SAN acceleration settings), then some of your I/Os to the LUN will take longer to complete than others – proba-bly leaving you scratching your head wondering why some VMs run quickly and others don't.

If you use additional LUNs that are visible to you but not other ESXi hosts then any VMs on the span would not be able to use VMotion, DRS or HA.

And, if you span redundant LUNs with non-redundant LUNs, then you risk data loss across all files on the LUN if the non-redundant volume were to fail.

Exercise care when selecting LUN span candidate volumes for a VMFS

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Option 2 - Grow Volume, VMFS

➲ ESXi 5.1 can grow a VMFS● Before a VMFS fills, grow the SAN volume● Then grow VMFS partition, file system to use

newly allocated space

As of ESXi 4.0, you can now increase VMFS space by:

1. Having your SAN administrator grow the SAN LUN on which a VMFS partition lives2. Growing the VMFS partition and file system on the newly expanded LUN

This process can be performed hot – while ESXi is up and running and while VMs are actively using the VMFS that is being grown.

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Grow VMFS Into Free Space

➲ Review current Partition Table layout● vSphere 5.x uses GPT partition tables● Includes VMFS partition, free space● Free space will be used to expand VMFS

The Increase Datastore Capacity wizard validates your selected volume - to ensure it is the same volume on which the VMFS lives and that it has free space available. If both conditions are met, then the wizard will allow you to grow the VMFS.

By default, the wizard will grow the VMFS onto all free space. You can grow the VMFS to less than all free space – but there is really no benefit to having unallocated free space on a volume.

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Expand Partition, VMFS In Place

➲ To increase the size of a VMFS volume● Have SAN administrator grow SAN LUN● Navigation: Storage > Datastore > Details● Click Increase button● Find the volume where Expandable is Yes

When growing a VMFS it is really important to record the LUN Name (vmhba#:C#:T#:L#) before you attempt to grow the VMFS. You will need this infor-mation so you can select the correct volume in the Extent Device screen (above). You get this information from the Storage view.

With the hardware path (vmhba#...) in hand, review the Extent Device roster looking for a volume Name that has a Yes in the Expandable column. That will be your newly (physically) extended volume. Select this volume and continue with the Wizard.

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Multipathing

➲ ESXi has built in multipathing capabilities● No need to add 3rd party multipath products

● But, 3rd party multipath solutions supported● On boot up, Rescan, ESXi learns all paths to a

SAN LUN➲ By default, ESXi 5 uses:● Fixed (VMware) multipathing● Most compatible with SANs that only do

active/standby multipathing● Change to Round Robin (VMware) if your

SAN can do active/active multipathing● Provides better performance● Storage I/O's are distributed equally across all

available SAN hardware paths

ESXi has multipathing capability built right into the VMkernel. As a result, there is no need for 3rd party multipathing tools. New to ESXi 4 is the ability to add a limited number of 3rd party multipath solutions to ESXi.

On boot or rescan, ESXi scans Fibre and iSCSI SANs and discovers all available paths to each LUN. Here is how ESXi uses hardware paths to reference LUNs:

The Canonical Path is the generic name used by ESXi when referencing a LUN. By de-fault, this is the first path found to a LUN. The Canonical path remains the same re-gardless of any changes in underlying path usage due to path failures or active path re-assignments.

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Fibre SAN Multipathing➲ Multipathing directs I/Os

around failed HW● Eg: if SP1 fails, ESXi sends

I/Os through SP2➲ ESXi detects path failures ● Isolates failed component● Consults available path list● Automatically directs I/Os

around the failed component● May be a 5-10 second pause

in I/Os● No I/Os lost during fail over

x

At boot or on rescan, ESXi learns all healthy paths to each LUN. So, if a path were to fail, ESXi can easily reroute I/Os around the failed component to the desired LUN. For example, if Storage Processor 1 were to fail, ESXi would:

- Immediately detect the loss of SP1- Select a healthy path that does not include SP1. There may be a short lag in I/Os while ESXi tests the health of the path and selects an alternative- Re-issues I/Os that did not complete on the failed path over to the new active path so that no VM I/Os are lost or handled out of order

In the above case, ESXi would direct I/Os around the failed SP1 and through SP2. When SP1 reports that it is healthy (either because SP1 was replaced or the fault was cleared (e.g.: Fibre cable was plugged back in), ESXi must decide how to respond. It can either continue to use the known healthy (but more congested) SP2 or it can swing back to using SP1. Fail back policies determine how ESXi responds:

Most Recently Used - ESXi continues to use SP2. We have high confidence in the health of the path, but I/Os might take longer to complete due to path congestion at SP2.

Fixed Path - ESXi swings I/Os back to SP1, I/Os will complete more quickly but there may be a risk that SP1 could fail again if the fault was not completely cleared.

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iSCSI SAN Multipathing

iSCSI SAN, network➲ Send Targets reply

includes all paths through network (src/dest IP)● Reports LUN

availability by IP address

ESXi Host➲ iSCSI S/W Initiator:● Have 2+ vSwitches to

iSCSI network● Have one VMkernel

per vSwitch● Distributes I/Os evenly

➲ Or use 2+ iSCSI H/W initiators

Multipathing on an iSCSI storage network is a function of how the TCP/IP network was provisioned. If you have two iSCSI hardware initiators or two ports on a single iSCSI HBA and/or two iSCSI Storage Processors, then ESXi will automatically discover all paths through the HBAs and SPs to visible SAN LUNs. As with Fibre SANs, having multiple HBAs and SPs contributes to iSCSI reliability and performance.

If you are using iSCSI software initiators, you can further enhance reliability and per-formance by NIC Teaming the vSwitch that is carrying iSCSI traffic. Through NIC Teaming, the vSwitch can assign more NICs to handle iSCSI traffic. And, if the as-signed NIC fails, the Team will re-balance so that iSCSI I/Os will complete through a healthy NIC.

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Manage Paths Selection Policy

➲ Use multiple paths to a SAN LUN● Round Robin distributes I/Os across all paths● Fixed uses active/standby paths (default)

By default, ESXi uses Fixed (VMware) multipathing. You should upgrade to Round Robin (VMware) which is active-active multipathing if you have more than one I/O path to a LUN and only if your SAN supports active/active multipathing. Round Robin multipathing distributes storage I/Os across all healthy paths which substantially im-proves VM disk I/O performance.

In the past, VMware only supported one I/O path per LUN. This made virtualization unsuitable for workloads that required high storage bandwidth (e.g.: workloads that need more than one path of I/O bandwidth). With Round Robin multipathing, these workloads can now be virtualized because their disk I/O demands can (finally) be met.

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Path Selection Policy

➲ Round Robin (VMware) - fastest● Distribute I/Os equally across all paths● Avoids failed paths automatically● Do not use for MSCS cluster node VMs

➲ Fixed (VMware) - fast● Uses a single Preferred path if available

● Fail over to stand-by path on HW failure● Fail back when preferred path reports healthy● Most compatible with MSCS clusters● Default for ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.x

➲ Most Recently Used (VMware) - safe● Use Preferred path if available

● Fail over to a stand-by path if preferred path fails● Use stand-by path even if Preferred path healthy

Fixed path and MRU multipathing are now considered Legacy I/O strategies and would not normally be selected unless you had just one physical path between your ESXi host and your SAN storage device or your SAN does not support active/active multipathing.

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Pluggable Storage Architecture

➲ ESXi supports native and 3rd party multipathing through new PSA● SAN vendors can now develop their own

multipath I/O load balancing, failure management software for ESXi● SAN vendors already do this for Windows,

Linux, UNIX● Allows for active/active, active/stand-by and

concurrent multipathing● Vendor maintains control over their

multipathing strategy and implementation● No need to disclose proprietary technical

information about SAN to VMware

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Lab 10

➲ In this lab, we will create and work with VMFS volumes. To complete this lab, you will● Use LUNs assigned to you by your instructor● Create a VMFS volume on a single LUN● Span the VMFS volume onto a second LUN● Review the spanned LUNs properties● Delete the LUN● Create a new VMFS of less than full size● Grow the VMFS to consume all available

space

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