VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide VMware Lab Manager 2.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Revision: 20070330 Item: VL-ENG-Q406-273 You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on our Web site at http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com © 2007 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos.
Contents Preface 9 1 Introducing Lab Manager 13 Lab Manager Components 14 Lab Manager Benefits and Features 15 Using Lab Manager with VirtualCenter Management Server 16 2 Getting Started with Lab Manager 17 Setting Internet Explorer Options 18 Accessing the Lab Manager Console 19 Reviewing the Lab Manager User Interface 20 Default Landing Page 20 Specific Areas and Operations 22 Interface Features 23 Mouseover Menus 23 Breadcrumb Titles 23 Text Search Filter 24 Column Sorting 24 VMware Tools and Mouse C
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Summary of Virtual Machine States 33 Changing IP or MAC Addresses 33 Setting Up Remote Desktop Connections 35 Taking Snapshots and Reverting the Snapshots 36 Inserting CDs 36 Ejecting CDs 38 Inserting Floppy Disks 38 Ejecting Floppy Disks 39 Adding Virtual Hard Disks to Virtual Machines (Templates) Adding SCSI Virtual Hard Disks 41 Editing Virtual Machine Properties 42 Reviewing the Properties List 42 39 4 Working with Machine Templates 45 About Templates 46 Accessing the
Contents Editing Template Properties 68 Deleting Templates 70 5 Working with Configurations 71 About Configurations 72 Accessing Configurations 72 Reviewing Configuration Operations 75 Summary of Configuration Operations 75 Summary of Configuration States and Attributes 77 Creating Configurations 78 Manually Configuring the IP Address for the Virtual Machine 80 Adding Virtual Machines to Existing Configurations 80 Deploying Configurations 82 Deploy Options 83 Deploy with Defaults Option 84 Undeploying Con
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Editing Media Properties 104 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager 105 Monitoring Lab Manager 106 Monitoring the Activity Log 106 Monitoring the Server Pool 107 Monitoring Deployed Machines 109 Managing Users 111 Setting User Preferences 111 Defaults Tab 111 Password Tab 113 Viewing Users 113 Adding New Users 115 Deleting Users 117 Editing User Properties 117 Authenticating User Names and Passwords 119 Using the LDAP Binding String 119 Marking an LDAP User Without Au
Contents Reviewing the IP Pool Tab 138 Understanding IP Address Management 139 Adding IP Addresses to the Lab Manager IP Pool 139 Removing IP Addresses from the Lab Manager IP Pool 141 Configuring Lab Manager Settings 142 Accessing Lab Manager Settings 142 Reviewing the General Tab 142 Server Preferences 143 Email Preferences 144 Default User Preferences 144 Default Deployment Options 145 Reviewing the License Tab 145 Review the LM Tools Tab 147 Reviewing the SupportLink Tab 149 8 Troubleshooting Lab Mana
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Processor Type Incompatibility 163 Viewing Virtual Switches for Fences 164 Reviewing Additional Fencing Operations 164 B Extending LM Tools 165 How does LM Tools work? 166 Extending the LM Tools Script 167 Extending the LM Tools Script on a Windows Guest OS 167 Extending the LM Tools Script on a Linux Guest OS 167 Index 169 8 VMware, Inc.
Preface This preface provides information about the VMware Lab Manager User’s Guide and links to VMware® technical support and educational resources. This preface contains the following topics: “About This Book” on page 9 “Technical Support and Education Resources” on page 10 About This Book The VMware Lab Manager User’s Guide provides detailed information about the VMware Lab Manager system and its components, commands, operations, configuration, and user interface.
VMware Lab Manager User’s Guide Document Feedback If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to: docfeedback@vmware.com Conventions Table P‐1 illustrates the typographic conventions used in this manual. Table P-1.
Preface Online and Telephone Support Use online support to submit technical support requests, view your product and contract information, and register your products. Go to http://www.vmware.com/support. Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for the fastest response on priority 1 issues. Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html. Support Offerings Find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs. Go to http://www.vmware.
VMware Lab Manager User’s Guide 12 VMware, Inc.
1 Introducing Lab Manager 1 VMware Lab Manager provides a robust solution for managing virtual machines in a test lab. Lab Manager does not assume extensive knowledge of virtualization and allows software developers and QA engineers to quickly provision, share, and tear down multimachine test cases or configurations. Specifically, Lab Manager streamlines the setup, capture, storage, and sharing of multimachine software configurations in virtualized environments.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Lab Manager Components Figure 1‐1 illustrates the components of Lab Manager. network Lab Manager client user administrator Lab Manager Managed Server virtual machine storage Lab Manager Server Lab Manager client user Lab Manager client user Lab Manager Managed Server default media storage Lab Manager Managed Server additional media storage (NFS) Figure 1-1.
Chapter 1 Introducing Lab Manager Lab Manager Web console – The browser‐based console that enables management for all testing activities, regardless of physical location. You can access this component using standard HTTP protocols.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Outsourcing and distributed development – Allows geographically dispersed teams to work on the same machines and configurations over the Internet. Review these specific features: Templates – Create new, fully configured virtual machines in seconds. Configurations – Run, manage, and monitor multiple configurations simultaneously. Configuration library – Store configurations to persistent storage for team use.
2 Getting Started with Lab Manager 2 To get started with Lab Manager, you can become familiar with the main elements, operations, and navigation of the Lab Manager Web console. This chapter covers these topics: “Setting Internet Explorer Options” on page 18 “Accessing the Lab Manager Console” on page 19 “Reviewing the Lab Manager User Interface” on page 20 “Reviewing the General Workflow in Lab Manager” on page 24 VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Setting Internet Explorer Options Review the requirements for client user machines in the VMware Lab Manager Installation Guide. When accessing the Lab Manager Web console with IE, make sure to set browser settings to enable client operation. To set IE options 1 If you are using Windows 2003, open the Control Panel from the desktop and click Add or Remove Programs. If you are using a Windows platform other than Windows 2003, proceed to Step 4.
Chapter 2 Getting Started with Lab Manager Accessing the Lab Manager Console After installing Lab Manager, you can access the Lab Manager Web console and Overview page. See the VMware Lab Manager Installation Guide for complete requirements, including browser settings, on client user machines. To access the Lab Manager console 1 Obtain a Lab Manager account. If you do not have an account or need account information, see a Lab Manager Administrator.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Reviewing the Lab Manager User Interface The Lab Manager Web console has a navigation pane on the left and a main display area on the right. Figure 2‐1 shows a sample page in the console. Figure 2-1.
Chapter 2 Getting Started with Lab Manager Figure 2-2. Overview Page The Performance Summary column includes these statistics: Total Slots – Number of reserved spaces across all virtual machines on the Managed Server systems. Slots Used – Number of deployed machines. Slots Available – Difference between Total Slots and Slots Used. Maximum Memory – Physical memory of the Managed Server systems.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide VMFS Disk Space used per VM– Average disk space for each virtual machine. This entry assumes you are using dedicated VMFS disk space for Lab Manager virtual machines. The Support column provides access to documentation and customer support. Up‐to‐date product documentation is available on the VMware Web site. The Getting Started column provides access to video tutorials to become familiar with the product.
Chapter 2 Getting Started with Lab Manager Media – Enables you to add, delete, and track media (CD and floppy) image files. You can upload data (for example, drivers) to a template from the media library and synchronize the library with the files in media storage servers. Activity Log – Displays the status of operations. Most Lab Manager operations occur immediately (synchronously), while others take time and complete asynchronously.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Text Search Filter Use the Filter button at the top of various pages to view a subset of the information on the current page. Lab Manager matches the text entered in the field to the left of the button against the attribute data of the search objects. Entries are not case‐sensitive. NOTE The filter text search does not recognize wildcards. If you enter a traditional wildcard, such as an asterisk (*), this function performs a literal search for an asterisk symbol.
3 Working with Virtual Machines 3 A virtual machine is a simulated computer environment running a guest operating system and associated application software. Virtual technology allows a “host” server to run multiple virtual machines concurrently and isolate each virtual machine in a self‐contained environment. Lab Manager enables you to create virtual machines from machine templates and to create configurations composed of multiple virtual machines.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Accessing Virtual Machines From the Lab Manager Web console, you can drill down to individual virtual machine consoles and perform a range of operations. For details on accessing a virtual machine console for the first time, see “Accessing a Virtual Machine Console for the First Time” on page 27. For details on logging in to a virtual machine console of the sample template or configuration packaged with Lab Manager, see the VMware Lab Manager Installation Guide.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines To access all virtual machines in a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 If the configuration is undeployed, move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Deploy from the menu. For details on this operation, see “Deploy Options” on page 83 and “Deploy with Defaults Option” on page 84. 3 Move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Show Consoles from the menu. You can work in the consoles for all virtual machines.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Installing the VMware Remote MKS Plugin for Firefox The first time you access an individual virtual machine console page using Firefox, a message notes that you must install the VMware Remote MKS Plugin to use the console. To install the VMware Remote MKS Plugin 1 Click Install Plugin. 2 When the message appears across the top of the page about Firefox preventing the installation to protect your computer, click the Edit Options button in the top right corner.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines Reviewing the Virtual Machine Console Page Review the elements of the virtual machine console page: Figure 3-2. Virtual Machine Console Page Fencing – If the virtual machine uses Lab Manager network fencing, the internal and external IP addresses appear at the upper‐left corner of the page. For details on network fencing, see Appendix A, “Network Fencing,” on page 161.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide After the virtual machine reverts to the last snapshot, the display matches the Revert Point thumbnail icon. Install VMware Tools – Installs VMware Tools on this template. For information on VMware Tools, see “Installing VMware Tools” on page 57. Install LM Tools – Installs LM Tools on this template. For information on LM Tools, see “Installing LM Tools” on page 58 and “Review the LM Tools Tab” on page 147.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines Reviewing Virtual Machine Operations The options in the mouseover menu for a virtual machine are contingent upon its state. Operations on individual virtual machines affect the menu options for configurations. For example, you have a configuration with four deployed virtual machines. If you undeploy one of the virtual machines, the configuration status in the Workspace page remains Deployed but both the Deploy and Undeploy options appear in the mouseover menu.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Table 3-1. Virtual Machine Operations (Continued) Operation Install LM Tools Description Install LM Tools. This installation allows Lab Manager to automatically customize the network settings for a virtual machine. See “Installing LM Tools” on page 58. Install VMware Tools Installs VMware Tools on Windows machines. This installation has numerous benefits and makes it easier for you to move the mouse in to and out of the console window.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines Summary of Virtual Machine States Table 3‐2 summarizes the non‐transitory states of virtual machines. Table 3-2. Virtual Machine States (Non-Transitory) State On Description Virtual machine is deployed and running on the Managed Server. You can see the thumbnail icon of the virtual machine console. Off Virtual machine is deployed (registered on the Managed Server) but not running. Suspended Virtual machine processor is frozen.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 5 Enter the properties information: a Enter a new IP address. b To create a random MAC address, click Reset MAC Address. You cannot choose your own MAC address. c 6 Click Update. Move the pointer over the virtual machine configuration name and choose Deploy from the menu. NOTE When you deploy the virtual machine, an error message might appear about a duplicate IP address because only Lab Manager is aware of the new IP address.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines c Click Properties. d From the General tab, select the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) check box and click Properties. e Click Use the following IP address, and enter the new IP address. f Close all screens. For Linux machines, complete these steps: a Log in as root. b Use the ifconfig -a command to retrieve the IP address of the machine and the name of the Ethernet Card Identifier.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Taking Snapshots and Reverting the Snapshots After deploying a virtual machine, you can take a snapshot and revert the virtual machine to that snapshot at a later time. The snapshot is a captured virtual machine state at a specific point in time. Lab Manager stores snapshots persistently with the virtual machine image. If you undeploy a virtual machine and deploy it, the snapshot remains. NOTE Only one snapshot for a virtual machine is active at a time.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines To insert a CD into a virtual machine 1 From the virtual machine console window (see page 26), move the pointer over the virtual machine name and choose Insert CD from the menu. 2 Specify the information for the ISO image: a Select an ISO file from the media library. VMware recommends putting your ISO image files in the default \\VMwareLM\ISO directory created during installation. Images in this directory are automatically populated to the Media Library list.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide After a brief pause, the virtual machine console appears. The Eject CD option replaces the Insert CD option on the mouseover menu. Ejecting CDs After inserting a CD to a virtual machine, you can eject the CD. To eject the CD from a virtual machine From the virtual machine console window (see page 26), move the pointer over the virtual machine name and choose Eject CD from the menu.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines After a brief pause, the virtual machine console appears. The Eject Floppy option replaces the Insert Floppy option on the mouseover menu. Ejecting Floppy Disks After inserting a floppy disk to a virtual machine, you can eject the floppy disk. To eject the floppy disk from a virtual machine From the virtual machine console window (see page 26), move the pointer over the virtual machine name and choose Eject Floppy from the menu.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To add virtual hard disks 1 After accessing the page with properties information for either machine templates or virtual machines, click Add Hard Disk. 2 Enter the disk information: a Specify whether the bus type is BusLogic SCSI or LSI Logic SCSI. b Review these details on the bus number, bus ID, and disk size: Table 3-4.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines Adding SCSI Virtual Hard Disks Review these points about adding SCSI virtual hard disks: If you add a SCSI hard disk to a virtual machine, you might generate an operating system error message about missing drivers for this device. If this error occurs, download and install the appropriate driver, and contact VMware for further support.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Editing Virtual Machine Properties You can access and edit the properties of virtual machines. To edit virtual machine properties 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 If the virtual machine is deployed, move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Undeploy from the menu. 3 Move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Details from the menu. 4 Move the pointer over the virtual machine name and choose Properties from the menu.
Chapter 3 Working with Virtual Machines Description – (Optional) Maximum number of characters is 128. Guest OS – (Optional) Maximum number of characters is 128. The guest OS is the operating system of the virtual machine and runs on the Managed Server OS (“Host OS”). Storage Server – Storage server or storage device where the virtual machine image resides. VM Technology – Virtualization technology (VMware ESX Server) that this machine is configured for.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide MAC Address – Machine Media Access Control (MAC) Address of the virtual machine. If the virtual machine is undeployed, you can click the Reset MAC Address button to re‐create the MAC address. For more information, see “Changing IP or MAC Addresses” on page 33. Boot Sequence – Integer number (0‐n) indicating the boot order for virtual machines. Lab Manager can boot virtual machines in a configuration in a specific sequence or all at once.
4 Working with Machine Templates 4 Machine templates are virtual machine images used as building blocks for configurations. You can build a collection of templates containing a variety of operating systems, application servers, databases, directory servers, and other infrastructures used in development and testing. This chapter covers these topics: “About Templates” on page 46 “Accessing the Templates Page” on page 46 “Reviewing Template Operations” on page 47 VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide About Templates A template is a virtual machine image loaded with an operating system, applications and data. You can think of a template as a raw virtual machine. Once you “publish” a template (make it available to the public), you can lay the foundation for multimachine configurations without the time‐consuming process of reinstalling software or performing setup tasks again.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Filter – View a subset of the templates. In the field to the left of the Filter button, enter text that appears in the attributes of the configuration you want to view. The filter text search does not recognize wildcards. If you enter a traditional wildcard, such as an asterisk (*), this function performs a literal search for an asterisk symbol. Scope – Use the Scope list to determine which templates are displayed.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Table 4-1. Machine Template Options Option Description Clone Creates a delta disk instead of copying an entire virtual hard disk. This operation addresses virtual machine proliferation by using “referential provisioning.” This process involves storing new changes but referring back to a chain of delta disks. For each change, Lab Manager freezes a delta disk and creates a new one. Copy Creates a complete (deep) copy of the template.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Summary of Template States and Attributes Machine template states are transitory or nontransitory: Transitory states, such as Cloning and Deploying, exist for most operations. These states appear in the Status column on the Templates page when active. When a machine template is in a transitory state, a spinning icon appears in the Status column.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Creating Templates Use one of these methods to create a machine template: Import a machine template from a directory on your network. Use this option to incorporate a virtual machine external to Lab Manager. See “Importing Templates” on page 50. Install an operating system and other applications on a new template. See “Creating Templates from Scratch” on page 53. Use an active virtual machine in Lab Manager as the basis of a new template.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Importing a Template from SMB Storage You can import virtual machines up to 2GB per .vmdk file. Virtual machines larger than this size may require VMware Virtual Disk Manager packaged with Workstation. For details, see “Importing a Virtual Machine as a Template Fails” on page 155. NOTE Do not import templates manually with ESX Server commands. To import a template from SMB storage 1 In the left pane, click Templates. 2 Click the Import Template button.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide e Click Next. 4 If Lab Manager cannot detect if VMware Tools and LM Tools is installed on the template, you might need to specify that information. 5 Select the storage server to import the template to. 6 Click Import. The Templates page displays the imported template. The import process takes several minutes. 7 Move the pointer over the template name and choose Publish from the menu. Publishing makes the template available for use in building configurations.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates 3 Enter the information for the template: a Select the server hosting the .vmx file. b Enter the path to .vmx file (for example, [storage1] abc/abc.vmx). c Enter a name. d (Optional) Enter a description. e Specify whether VMware Tools is installed on the template. f Click Import. Creating Templates from Scratch Creating a machine template from scratch involves these tasks: Create a blank template without an operating system or additional software.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Be aware of the problem of moving a mouse into and out of a virtual machine console window before VMware Tools is installed. You must press Ctrl + Alt to correct this problem until you install VMware Tools. Install any additional software you need to run on the virtual machine. See page 58. Install LM Tools to automatically configure network settings for virtual machines. See page 58. Publish the template to make it available for building configurations.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates 3 Specify the template information: a Enter a name. b (Optional) Enter a description. c (Optional) Select the storage server. d Select the guest operating system. e Select the disk type. f Enter the disk size (GB). g Enter the memory (MB). h Click Add. The Templates page lists the new template with an Undeployed status.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To deploy a template 1 From the left pane, click Templates. 2 If the template is published, move the pointer over the template name and choose Unpublish from the menu. 3 Move the pointer over the template name and choose Deploy from the menu. 4 If the NTLM Authentication dialog box appears, select the Don’t Ask Me Again check box and click Yes.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates The machine console appears on the Templates > Machine Template: page. 4 Move the pointer over the tab with the template name and choose Insert CD from the menu. 5 Specify the information for the operating system: a Select an operating system ISO image. If your ISO image file does not appear in the media library list, enter the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name of your machine image (for example, \\\LM\ISO\wind2k3.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To install VMware Tools 1 From the left pane, click Templates. 2 If the template is not yet deployed, move the pointer over the template name and choose Deploy from the menu. 3 Move the pointer over the template name and choose View Console from the menu. 4 Click Install VMware Tools. NOTE Installing VMware Tools takes several minutes and requires you to restart the machine.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates You have virtual machines that must remain untouched for specific security or integrity requirements. You have guest operating systems that Lab Manager does not support. To review a list of supported operating systems for LM Tools, see “Guest Operating System Requirements” in the VMware Lab Manager Installation Guide. Prerequisites for LM Tools Review these prerequisites: You must install VMware Tools prior to installing LM Tools.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To install LM Tools on Linux machines 1 In the left pane of the console, click Templates. 2 Move the pointer over the name of a deployed template, and choose View Console from the menu. 3 Click the Install LM Tools button. 4 In the virtual machine console, perform the installation with these case‐sensitive commands. For RHEL, type: > > > > > mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom cd /etc/rc.d/init.d cp /mnt/cdrom/lm-tools .
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Tools button from the virtual machine console page after it assumes an installation has already taken place. If you need to try to install LM Tools again after a failed attempt, you can still complete this operation through the mouseover menu on the virtual machine console page. To install LM Tools after a failed attempt 1 In the left pane of the console, click Templates.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide # chkconfig --del lm-tools # rm –f /etc/rc.d/lm-tools To uninstall LM Tools on a Windows guest operating system Use the Add or Remove Programs window in the Control Panel to remove LM Tools. If you uninstall LM Tools in a virtual machine environment, Lab Manager is isolated from and unaware of that operation. Make sure to deselect the LM Tools Installed check box that is automatically selected after installing LM Tools.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Shutting Down a Template You must shut down the virtual machine and bring it back up. Creating Templates from Active Virtual Machines in Lab Manager You can create a template from an active virtual machine in Lab Manager. After a virtual machine in a configuration undergoes changes, such as the addition of software or altered properties, you might want to use it as the basis of a new machine template.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 Specify the details on the template: a Enter a name. b (Optional) Enter a description. c Click Clone. In the Templates page, the template status is Cloning. After a brief time, your new template is available on the page. 4 (Recommended) Install LM Tools. You must install VMware Tools before installing LM Tools. For more information, see “Installing VMware Tools” on page 57 and “Installing LM Tools” on page 58.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Copying Templates You can make a copy of your own template or a template shared by another user. To copy a template from another template 1 From the left pane, click Templates. 2 Move the pointer over the template name, and choose Copy from the menu. 3 Specify the details on the template: a Enter a name. b (Optional) Enter a description. c Select the storage server for the copy of the template. d Click Copy.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Undeploying Templates You can undeploy a template to stop the virtual machine from running on the Managed Server pool. Various operations, such as exporting a template, require you to undeploy the template. To undeploy the template 1 From the left pane, click Templates. 2 If the template is deployed, move the pointer over the template name and choose Undeploy from the menu.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates 4 Enter the information for the export process: a In the UNC Path to Export Directory text box, enter the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name of the directory (relative to the Lab Manager Server) where you want to store the configuration files. A sample path is \\10.10.10.10\\VMwareLM\ExportTemplates. Use English characters for the UNC path. b Click Export. c Confirm to continue the export process.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To consolidate a template 1 From the left pane, click Templates. 2 Move the pointer over the template name and choose Consolidate from the menu. On the Templates page, the virtual machine status changes to Consolidating the hard disk. The hard disk is the virtual machine disk (.vmdk). Editing Template Properties You can edit and select various properties of the template. To edit template properties 68 1 From the left pane, click Templates.
Chapter 4 Working with Machine Templates Name – Can contain only alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9), hyphens, underscores, or periods. Maximum length is 15 characters. Description – (Optional) Maximum number of characters is 128. Owner – Name of the template owner. Guest OS – (Optional) Maximum number of characters is 128. Storage Server – Storage server to store the virtual machine on.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide NOTE 4 To add a new virtual hard disk, click the Add Hard Disk button at the top of the page. To edit or remove a virtual hard disk, click the Edit or Delete buttons. Adding or editing a virtual hard disk requires unpublishing the template. If the template is published, click Templates in the left pane, move the pointer over the template name, and choose Unpublish from the menu. Click Update.
5 Working with Configurations 5 Configurations are the core of the Lab Manager system and are composed of one or more virtual machines created from machine templates. Lab Manager offers the ability to group, deploy (“power on” to interact with a template), save, share, and monitor multimachine configurations. This chapter covers these topics: “About Configurations” on page 72 “Accessing Configurations” on page 72 “Reviewing Configuration Operations” on page 75 VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide About Configurations Templates must be published (made available for public use) before you can create configurations. For information on building and using machine templates, see Chapter 4, “Working with Machine Templates,” on page 45. Lab Manager provides the Workspace page to work with configurations and the configuration library to store and check out configurations.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations wildcard, such as an asterisk (*), this function performs a literal search for an asterisk symbol. Scope – Use the Scope list options to determine which configurations are displayed. My Configurations – View only your configurations, both shared and private. Configurations Shared by Others – View all shared configurations except for your own configuration.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Figure 5-2. Configuration Library Page The Library page for configurations includes these elements: Configurations – View the configurations, status, owner, and other details on this page. Filter – View a subset of the configurations. In the field to the left of the Filter button, enter text that appears in the attributes of the configuration you want to view. The filter text search does not recognize wildcards.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations Date Captured – Column shows the date the configuration was captured from the Workspace to the configuration library. # Machines – Column shows the number of virtual machines in the console. Sharing – Column shows configurations available for others to use beside the owner. Reviewing Configuration Operations Most operations for a configuration affect all the virtual machines in the configuration.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Table 5-1. Configuration Options Operation Description Capture to Library Captures the configuration and saves it to the configuration library. Checkout Checks out a copy of configuration from configuration library and moves it to the Workspace. Clone Makes a quick copy of this configuration and moves it to the Workspace. Instead of copying an entire virtual hard disk, Lab Manager creates a delta disk.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations Table 5-1. Configuration Options (Continued) Operation Description Reset Restarts the virtual machines in a configuration and clears the machine states. This operation does not shut down the guest operating systems. Resume Resumes the operation of a suspended configuration. Revert Returns the configuration to its last snapshot revert point. Show Consoles Shows a large, graphical display of all configuration virtual machine console windows.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Fenced mode status (if deployed) Creating Configurations A configuration uses templates created by you or provided by Lab Manager. You must publish the templates to make them available for building configurations. Creating a configuration involves defining configuration properties and adding virtual machines to the template. To define configuration properties for a new configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations To add virtual machines to a new configuration 1 Select the template for the virtual machine. The Template list contains the templates you created and the templates shared by others. If a known template does not appear in the list, verify that you published the template (see page 62). 2 Enter the name of the virtual machine. 3 (Optional) Enter a description of the virtual machine.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Manually Configuring the IP Address for the Virtual Machine On the New Configuration page, entering an IP address changes the information that Lab Manager has about the machine but does not necessarily change the IP address configured on the machine. This situation depends on whether the template has LM Tools. Review the scenarios in Table 5‐2. Table 5-2.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations 4 Enter the information for the virtual machine: a Enter a virtual machine name. The name must contain alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9), hyphens, underscores, or periods. Maximum length is 15 characters. b Select the template from the list of published templates. c Specify whether you want automatic IP management. To manually configure an IP address for this virtual machine, deselect the Automatic IP Management check box.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide For example, if you have a server and client setup, the client requires the server to function upon startup. You can use this feature to start the server, pause, and start the client. g Click OK. The new virtual machine appears as part of the configuration in the Workspace page. Deploying Configurations Deploying a configuration registers and runs the virtual machines on the Managed Server pool.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations Deploy Options Review the options for the Deploy operation: Specify whether to deploy the configuration in fenced mode. Fencing is a technology that isolates or “fences” groups of machines on the same network from other machines. For complete information on this feature and consequences of deploying a fenced configuration after deploying it without fencing and saving its state, see Appendix A, “Network Fencing,” on page 161.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide CAUTION If you deploy a cloned or checked‐out configuration and you do not use fencing, errors about duplicate IP addresses appear when the original configuration is also deployed in unfenced mode. Other than fencing one of the configurations, your only other option is to manually change the IP and MAC addresses (and Security Identifiers on Windows machines) on each of the virtual machines in one of the configurations.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations Undeploying Configurations Undeploying a configuration stops virtual machines in a configuration from running on the Managed Server pool. To undeploy a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 Move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Undeploy from the menu. If an undeploy operation fails, you can force the undeploy operation to occur to clean the Workspace area.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Checking Out Configurations from the Library Configurations stored in the library are read‐only. When you check out a configuration, Lab Manager creates a copy that requires a different name. To check out and copy a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Library. The Library page shows all your captured configurations and captured configurations shared by other users. 2 (Optional) Use the Scope list to determine which configurations are displayed.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations CAUTION During the undeploy operation, an orderly shutdown of the virtual machines does not exist. The undeploy operation “turns off” the virtual machines before uninstantiating them, and removes them from the Managed Server pool. For example, if you have an application open on a Windows virtual machine, you must remember to save your work. If you need to preserve the current state of the configuration, capture the configuration to the configuration library.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 Specify the details of the clone: a Enter a name for the clone. b (Optional) Enter a description. c Click Clone. The cloned configuration appears in the Workspace page with an Undeployed status. The status of the original configuration being cloned is Cloning. After cloning process, the status reverts to its previous state. Copying Configurations You can make a copy of your own configuration or a configuration shared by another user.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations 4 Specify the details of the configuration: a Enter a name. b (Optional) Enter a description. c Select the storage server for the copy of the configuration. d Click Copy. In the Workspace page, the configuration status is Copying. After a brief time, the new configuration is available on the page. For more information on copy operations, see “Reviewing Configuration Operations” on page 75.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To export a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 Move the pointer over the undeployed configuration name and choose Export from the menu. 3 Enter the information on the configuration: a Enter the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) name of the directory (relative to the Lab Manager Server) where you want your configuration files stored. A sample path is \\10.6.1.246\VMwareLM\ExportConfigs. Use English characters for the UNC path.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations Importing Configurations You can import a configuration and all its virtual machine files to a directory on the network. Importing can take up to 30 minutes for each virtual machine in the configuration, depending on the size of the virtual machine. To import a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 Click the Import Configuration button at the top of the page.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 4 Enter the information on the storage server: a Select the storage server to import the configuration to. b Click Import. The Workspace page has an Importing status for the configuration. Sharing Configurations Sharing a configuration to make it available for other users. To share a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 Move the pointer over the undeployed configuration name and choose Make Shared from the menu.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations 4 Set up the LiveLink: a Click Copy URL to copy the URL to your Windows clipboard. b Email this link to another tester or developer. c (Optional) Type a note in the Attach a comment field. This note appears when a user invokes the URL of the configuration LiveLink. To restore a configuration LiveLink 1 Invoke a LiveLink URL in a browser. If you are not already logged in, the Lab Manager login page appears. 2 VMware, Inc. Enter your user name and password.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide The Restore Lab Manager LiveLink page appears. Thumbnails of the virtual machines are available. 3 Click Deploy to deploy the configuration in the Workspace. The configuration name is the name of the Library configuration with “LiveLink” prefixed to it. For example, “Oracle Linux Bob” becomes “LiveLink – Oracle Linux Bob (n),” where “n” indicates the number of times the LiveLink has been restored.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations To take a snapshot of a configuration 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 Move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Deploy from the menu. 3 Move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Snapshot from the menu. The configuration status displays Setting the Revert Point. After a brief time, the configuration returns to its previous state. To revert a configuration to its snapshot 1 In the left pane, click Workspace.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 Edit the appropriate properties: a Enter a name for the configuration. b Enter a description of the configuration. c Specify whether to share this configuration with other users. d Change the networking information for the gateway, netmask, and DNS settings for the virtual machines. e Click OK. Viewing Details on Virtual Machines in a Configuration From the Workspace or configuration library, you can view details on the virtual machines in a configuration.
Chapter 5 Working with Configurations utilization, fence status, and more. Library configurations do not include all of the details that appear for Workspace configurations. Review these highlights: IP Address – Provides the IP address of the virtual machine. External IP – Provides the external IP address for the virtual machine if it runs in fenced mode. This column appears only for fenced configurations in the Workspace.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Accessing a Virtual Machine Console From the Workspace, you can navigate to a specific virtual machine console. To navigate to a large-screen display of a virtual machine console 1 In the left pane, click Workspace. 2 If the configuration is undeployed, move the pointer over the configuration name and choose Deploy from the menu. 3 Click the virtual machine thumbnail icon in the Console column.
6 Working with Media 6 The media library enables you to store media (CD and floppy) image files. You can upload data (for example, drivers) to a template from the media library. During the Insert CD or Insert Floppy operations available from the individual console of a template or configuration, you can access the ISOs in the media library. This chapter covers these topics: “Accessing the Media Library” on page 100 “Reviewing Media Operations” on page 101 VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Accessing the Media Library Access the Media page to work with CD and floppy image files. To access the media library In the left pane, click Media. Figure 6-1. Media Page The page highlights the owner of the file, the type of media, the sharing status, and the path location. You can view image files shared by other users. Administrators can view all media images. For your convenience, Lab Manager automatically provides the (LMStorage1) vmscsi-1.2.0.4.
Chapter 6 Working with Media Reviewing Media Operations Review the operations available from the Media page: “Adding Media to the Library” on page 101 “Synchronizing Lab Manager with Media Storage” on page 102 “Deleting Media from the Library” on page 103 “Sharing Media Files” on page 103 “Privatizing Media Files” on page 103 “Editing Media Properties” on page 104 Adding Media to the Library You can add media from an SMB server to the library.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 4 Enter the details of the file: a Enter a name. You cannot enter a name that already exists in the library. b Browse for the file. c Specify whether you want to share the file with others. d Select the SMB storage server that contains the media file. e Enter specific notes on the file. f Click Add. During the upload process, you can navigate to other pages and check on the progress at your convenience.
Chapter 6 Working with Media The ability to synchronize the library enables users to perform ISO operations outside of the Lab Manager Web console. Use the synchronize feature after moving or deleting large files or large numbers of files. For more details on NFS storage, see “Adding Media Storage to Lab Manager” on page 130. To synchronize Lab Manager Server with NFS media storage 1 In the left pane, click Storage. 2 In the left pane, click Media.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Editing Media Properties From the Media page, you can edit the properties of a media file. To edit media properties 104 1 In the left pane, click Media. 2 Move the pointer over a media file name and choose Properties from the menu. 3 Edit the properties: a Enter the name of the file. b Specify whether to share the template among users. c Enter extra details on the file. d Click OK. VMware, Inc.
7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager 7 Use the Lab Manager Web console to manage and monitor your Lab Manager system. Many operations appear only for users with Administrator privileges. This chapter covers these topics: “Monitoring Lab Manager” on page 106 “Managing Users” on page 111 “Managing Managed Server Systems” on page 121 “Managing Storage Servers” on page 128 “Configuring Network Settings” on page 137 “Configuring Lab Manager Settings” on page 142 VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Monitoring Lab Manager You can monitor these areas: Activity Log – View information about asynchronous actions. This feature is available to all users. Server Pool – View a graphical display of the Managed Server systems and current usage. From this page, you can perform configuration operations and access virtual machine consoles. Deployed Machines – View information about all deployed virtual machines.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager The Status column indicates the success, failure, or in progress status of a job. A failed job includes a short description in the Details column. The job types include Configuration, Machine, Storage Server, and Managed Server. Details and debugging information are available through the link in the Operation column. Monitoring the Server Pool Administrators can view a graphical display of the Managed Server pool and its usage.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide The type of virtual machine (machine in a Workspace configuration or template) running on each Managed Server. The number of available slots you have for virtual machines on your Managed Server systems. The left panel in the page presents these options: If you do not select any option, you can still see the outline of each Managed Server that you have a license for. You can click a Managed Server to view machine details in the bottom of the left panel.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager If you select the Show Activities check box, an icon appears next to a Managed Server that is in the midst of some activity. Use the links in the right panel of the page to add a new Managed Server or to expand the size of the Managed Server pool: For instructions on adding a Managed Server, see “Adding Managed Server Systems” on page 122. Expanding the Managed Server pool involves a license change.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Configuration – Specifies whether the virtual machine is part of a configuration or a template. IP Address – Provides the IP address of the virtual machine. External IP – Provides the external IP address for the virtual machine if it runs in fenced mode. For details about fenced mode, see Appendix A, “Network Fencing,” on page 161. CPU Utilization – Displays the amount of virtual machine CPU used over the last five minutes.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Managing Users Managing users involves these procedures: “Setting User Preferences” on page 111. This feature is available to all users. “Viewing Users” on page 113 “Adding New Users” on page 115 “Deleting Users” on page 117 “Editing User Properties” on page 117 Setting User Preferences All users can set a range of user preferences. To set user preferences In the left pane, click Preferences.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Review the options: Start Page – Sets the first page that appears after logging in. The Workspace page is the default setting. Show Page Header by Default – Deselect the check box to prevent the display of information that usually appears at the top of the each page. This information includes IP addresses, virtual machine description, virtual machine owner, breadcrumb title, link for downloading the Lab Manager Web console and a snapshot thumbnail (if set).
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager This option is useful when virtual machines need to obtain data or execute code outside the fence (as seen with Web services or databases) but do not want to receive messages that disrupt testing. Block Traffic In and Out – Network traffic does not travel across the fence.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Figure 7-5. Users Page The Users page includes these highlights: Username – Displays an icon in this column. A gray icon indicates the user is disabled and cannot log in to the Web console. A blue and yellow icon indicates the user is enabled. NOTE A user can exist in the system without an enabled status. For example, you can disable a user on extended leave. Filter – Shows a subset of the total number of users.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager View all deployed machines and configurations. Add, delete, and configure Managed Server systems, storage servers, and the Lab Manager Server. Deployed VM Quota – Displays two numbers (separated by “/”). The first number indicates the number of virtual machines this user deployed. The second number indicates the number of virtual machines that the user is allowed to deploy. (The Administrator sets that limit during the process of adding a user.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Selecting the Is Administrator check box assigns Administrator privileges. Deselecting the Is Enabled check box blocks the user from immediate access to the Web console. (Although user information remains stored in the system, you can enable and disable access.) The Stored VM Quota is an integer number indicating how many virtual machine images the user is allowed to store in the configuration library.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager 4 The Wait After Turn On (Seconds) value sets the default value for the delay time (or “pause”) between booting each virtual machine in a configuration. Click OK. The new user appears on the Users page. Deleting Users Administrators can delete a user. To delete a user 1 In the left pane, click Users. 2 If the user is enabled, move the pointer over the user name and choose Disable from the menu.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 Edit the information: You can alter the password in the Password and Confirm Password fields. A name and email address is required for the user. Selecting the Is Administrator check box gives the user Administrator privileges. Only Administrators can add users, change network settings, view all deployed machines and configurations, and add, delete and configure Managed Server systems and the Lab Manager Server.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager The Deployed VM Quota is an integer number indicating how many virtual machines at a time the user is allowed to deploy on Managed Server systems. You can leave this field blank or enter “0” to avoid setting a quota. 4 Click OK. Authenticating User Names and Passwords Lab Manager can authenticate a password either against its own database or against an LDAP server.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide To mark an existing Lab Manager user as an LDAP user with authentication 1 In the left pane, click Settings. 2 Select Validate LDAP Users when Added. 3 In the left pane, click Users. 4 Click the user name. 5 Select the Is LDAP check box. A message appears confirming whether the user is actually an LDAP user. 120 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Managing Managed Server Systems Managing Managed Server systems involves these procedures: “Viewing Managed Server Systems” on page 121 “Adding Managed Server Systems” on page 122 “Removing Managed Server Systems” on page 125 “Editing Managed Server Properties” on page 125 “Reviewing Additional Managed Server Operations” on page 127 Viewing Managed Server Systems Administrators can view a list of Managed Server systems.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Reachable – Indicates that the Lab Manager Server can communicate with (“ping”) the Managed Server. In Service – Indicates whether the Managed Server is available for running deployed machines. If the Managed Server is not reachable, it is also not in service. The Managed Server might also not be in service if the Administrator disallows deployments (using the Managed Server mouseover menu) for this Managed Server.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager All Managed Server systems must exist on the same subnet. The Lab Manager Server does not need to exist on the same subnet as the Managed Server systems. Before adding a Managed Server to Lab Manager, you must install the Managed Server agent software on the target Managed Server. For installation instructions, see the VMware Lab Manager Installation Guide. You cannot have two Managed Server systems with the same VMFS partition name.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide d Enter a host Administrator user name and password for when you log in to the Managed Server. A Managed Server is a “host” computer, while the virtual machines running on the Managed Server are “guest” computers. Do not confuse these fields with your Lab Manager Web console login. e 4 Click Next. Enter the information for these items: a Enter an integer number for the maximum number of virtual machines.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager e Click Add. The new Managed Server appears on the Managed Servers page. Removing Managed Server Systems Administrators can remove Managed Server systems. To remove a Managed Server 1 In the left pane, click Servers. 2 Move the pointer over the Managed Server name, and choose Disallow Deployments from the menu. 3 Undeploy all virtual machines running on this Managed Server: a In the left pane, click Deployed Machines.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 126 Edit the properties that can be altered: Name – Contains alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9), hyphens, underscores, or periods. The maximum length is 15 characters. (Optional) Description – Maximum number of characters is 128. Host Name or IP Address – Domain Name System (DNS) name or IP address of Managed Server. Host Computer Administrator Username – User name of the Administrator account on the Managed Server.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager If you do not want to put this Managed Server into production right away, you do not need to select any devices. Click OK. Reviewing Additional Managed Server Operations Review these additional operations available from the mouseover menu on the Managed Servers page: Disallow Deployments – Prevents Lab Manager from further deploying virtual machines on the Managed Server. This operation does not affect the virtual machines currently deployed.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Managing Storage Servers Managing storage servers involves these procedures: “Viewing Storage Servers” on page 128 “Moving the Contents of a SAN Server” on page 129 “Adding Media Storage to Lab Manager” on page 130 “Removing Storage Servers” on page 133 “Editing Storage Server Properties” on page 134 “Reviewing Additional Storage Server Operations” on page 136 Viewing Storage Servers Administrators can view storage servers for virtual machines and me
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Filter – Shows a subset of the total number of storage servers. Lab Manager matches the text entered in the field to the left of the button against the attribute data of the search objects. Entries are not case‐sensitive. The filter text search does not recognize wildcards. If you enter a traditional wildcard, such as an asterisk (*), this function performs a literal search for an asterisk symbol.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 4 Complete the move operation: a Select the destination server. b If applicable, review the list of affected virtual machines. The user can inform the owners of the impacted machines that the machines will be unavailable. c Click Execute Move. Adding Media Storage to Lab Manager Adding media storage to Lab Manager involves a two‐step process: Configuring the target storage server for Lab Manager.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Setting Up SMB Media Storage for Lab Manager If necessary, set the server computer name and DNS suffix. To set up SMB media storage for Lab Manager 1 From the desktop, choose Start > Control Panel > System. 2 Select the Computer Name tab and click Change. 3 Enter a computer name. 4 Select the Workgroup check box. 5 Click More. 6 Enter a DNS suffix (for example, VMware.com). 7 If you made changes, restart the computer.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 3 Enter the details on the SMB or NFS server: a Enter a name for the new server. The name can only contain alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9), hyphens, underscores, or periods. The maximum length is 15 characters. b (Optional) If you do not want the storage server immediately available for use, deselect the Enabled check box. c Enter a value for Disk Space Threshold Yellow.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager NOTE A limit may exist on the number of storage servers you can add depending on your license type. f Specify NFS media storage (if applicable), and enter the NFS export path. g Click OK. The new storage server appears on the Storage Servers page. To verify a successful attachment, create a new configuration and deploy it on the new storage server.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Though Lab Manager removes the storage server from the Lab Manager system, the files on the storage server still exist. The user must delete these files manually to reclaim the space. Additional Tasks for Removing an NFS Media Server After you remove an NFS storage server, the media files in its ISO sub folder disappear from the media library listing but the files on the storage server still exist.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager 3 Edit the various properties that apply to your server: a Enter a name that only contains alphanumeric characters (a–z, A–Z, 0–9), hyphens, underscores, or periods. The maximum length is 15 characters. b (Optional) If you need to take the storage server out of production, deselect the Enabled check box. c Enter the value for Disk Space Threshold Yellow.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Reviewing Additional Storage Server Operations Table 7‐1 describes additional operations on storage servers. Table 7-1. Storage Server Operations 136 Operation Description Attempt to Remount Attempts to remount the Lab Manager Data Repository share for the storage server. Disable Makes this storage server unavailable for Lab Manager use. Enable Makes this storage server available for Lab Manager use. Refresh Updates displayed storage server information.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Configuring Network Settings Configuring network settings involves these sections: “Viewing Network Settings” on page 137 “Understanding IP Address Management” on page 139 “Adding IP Addresses to the Lab Manager IP Pool” on page 139 “Removing IP Addresses from the Lab Manager IP Pool” on page 141 Viewing Network Settings Administrators can view network settings.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Lab Manager uses the network settings for unfenced virtual machines and the external IP addresses of fenced virtual machines. For details on fencing, see Appendix A, “Network Fencing,” on page 161. Lab Manager uses the installation ID to generate the MAC addresses used by the virtual machines. Before altering the installation ID, make sure no other installations of Lab Manager on the network use the same ID.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Allocated – Green check mark indicates a virtual machine has this IP address. Deployed – Green check mark indicates the virtual machine is deployed. A hyphen (“‐”) indicates the virtual machine is not deployed. Type – Allocated IP address is assigned to a virtual machine (VM) or virtual router (VR). Machine Name – Virtual machine names can be the same unless the virtual machines are in the same configuration.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide NOTE Every virtual machine requires an IP address. A virtual machine requires an additional IP address for fenced mode. Every virtual router (automatically created for fenced configurations) requires two IP addresses. Virtual machine addresses remain allocated until you delete a virtual machine and all its clones. The addresses for a virtual router return to the IP pool when you undeploy a fenced configuration. 3 Click Add.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Removing IP Addresses from the Lab Manager IP Pool Administrators can remove IP addresses from the IP pool. To remove IP addresses 1 From the IP Pool tab, click Remove. 2 Specify the range of IP addresses. The “From” address must be less than the “To” address. You cannot delete IP addresses allocated to a virtual machine. 3 Click Delete. Lab Manager removes the IP addresses from the Network page. VMware, Inc.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Configuring Lab Manager Settings Managing Lab Manager settings involves these procedures: “Accessing Lab Manager Settings” on page 142 “Reviewing the General Tab” on page 142 “Reviewing the License Tab” on page 145 “Review the LM Tools Tab” on page 147 “Reviewing the SupportLink Tab” on page 149 Accessing Lab Manager Settings Administrators can access various settings for Lab Manager. To access Lab Manager settings In the left pane, click Settings.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Server Preferences Review the server preferences: Login Mode – Lab Manager can remember the user name and password and can also automatically log the user in. NOTE Like most browser applications, Lab Manager uses persistent cookies (physically stored in the computer hard disk) to remember the login information. If you delete the browser cookies, this information is no longer unavailable until the next time you log in.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Managed Server Hung Timeout (Seconds) – Length of time to wait before determining a Managed Server is hung. For example, if the timeout is 20 seconds and Lab Manger pings a Managed Server every 10 seconds, Lab Manager marks the Managed Server as hung if it fails to respond for 20 seconds. Managed and Storage Server Refresh Frequency (Seconds) – Frequency of updating page information about a storage server or Managed Server.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Default Deployed VM Quota – Number of virtual machines you can deploy at one time. Default Media Server – Media server for CD and floppy images. Default Deployment Options These options set the default deployment options for new users. Use Network Fencing – Run your configurations in fenced mode. For details on fencing, see Appendix A, “Network Fencing,” on page 161.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Figure 7-10. License Tab for Lab Manager Settings Use the Edit License button to alter the license text. You might need to change the text when you purchase an updated license or feature. 146 VMware, Inc.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Review the LM Tools Tab Lab Manager customizes virtual machines (IP address, machine name, security identifier (SID), and more) using LM Tools. SIDgen is a tool packaged with Lab Manager to change the SID for a Windows machine. If you prefer to use Sysprep (supported by Microsoft and included on the installation CDs for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003), you can create a custom ISO for that purpose.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 7 In the LM Tools tab, click Build ISO. NOTE If you do not have an existing custom ISO, certain options do not appear. After creating the ISO, the page notes the path of the ISO. At this point, any person installing LM Tools on templates uses this default ISO. If you need to remove the ISO for any reason, use the Delete ISO button in the LM Tools tab.
Chapter 7 Administering and Monitoring Lab Manager Reviewing the SupportLink Tab The Lab Manager SupportLink feature sends usage data to VMware for improved product support. VMware does not share this data with other organizations or trace any data back to individual users. During the Lab Manager installation and initialization process, the Administrator initially indicates whether to enable SupportLink.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 150 d If VMware support requests you to collect information from your Lab Manager environment, click the Collect button. e Click OK. VMware, Inc.
8 Troubleshooting Lab Manager 8 This chapter addresses these troubleshooting topics: “Blank Screen Appears When Accessing Lab Manager” on page 152 “Lab Manager Does Not Display Virtual Machine Console” on page 152 “Duplicate IP Address Errors Appear” on page 153 “Addition of SCSI Virtual Hard Disk Fails” on page 153 “Mouse Navigation on Virtual Machine Console Fails” on page 153 “Remote Access to Virtual Machine Fails” on page 154 “LiveLink URL Error Appears” on page 154 “H
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Blank Screen Appears When Accessing Lab Manager Problem When I try to access the Lab Manager Web console, a blank page appears even though Done appears in the browser status bar. As required, I am using Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. Solution You might not have enabled all the IE options for client access, such as Allow paste operations via script. For details on setting up IE for client operation, see “Setting Internet Explorer Options” on page 18.
Chapter 8 Troubleshooting Lab Manager Duplicate IP Address Errors Appear Problem After creating a baseline configuration and saving it to the configuration library, I check it out and save a duplicate configuration to the library. From the configuration library, I navigate to the details page for the duplicate configuration and open the properties page for each virtual machine to modify the IP and MAC addresses. I deploy the original configuration and then deploy the duplicate configuration.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Solution VMware Tools is not installed on the guest operating system. If you do not install VMware Tools, you cannot move the pointer outside of the guest operating system unless you press Ctrl + Alt. Install VMware Tools to move the pointer freely between the virtual machine window and the host operating system. For more information, see “Installing VMware Tools” on page 57.
Chapter 8 Troubleshooting Lab Manager Importing a Virtual Machine as a Template Fails Problem I try to import a virtual machine to serve as a template and see this error message: Disk too large to import. Consider using ‘VMware vdiskmanager’ to split the large disk. Solution You can import virtual machines up to 2GB per .vmdk file. For monolithic templates that exceed the size limit, create split disks using the VMware Virtual Disk Manager utility packaged with Workstation.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Make sure all Managed Server systems meet these requirements: You properly configured the vmkernel. The vmkernel is attached to a NIC that has connectivity to the NFS storage server. The gateway of the vmkernel is set to the correct value for the network. The NIC is up. Conflicting NFS datastores cannot exist on the Managed Server.
Chapter 8 Troubleshooting Lab Manager Lab Manager Server Fails, Loses Connectivity, or Reboots the System Table 8‐1 describes the behavior and recovery options for a Lab Manager Server failure. Table 8-1. Lab Manager Server Failure and Recovery Options Failure Behavior Recovery Behavior and Actions Additional Steps The user interface stops working. Lab Manager Server reconnects with the deployed virtual machines and resumes control.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Permanent Failure of Managed Server Occurs Table 8‐3 provides details on addressing a permanent Managed Server failure. Table 8-3. Managed Server Failure (Permanent) and Recovery Options Failure Behavior Recovery Behavior and Actions Additional Steps Within two minutes, the Lab Manager Web console notes the lost Managed Server is “unreachable.” Automatic recovery does not exist. Review the manual steps for recovery: No additional steps are necessary.
Chapter 8 Troubleshooting Lab Manager Temporary Failure of Managed Server Occurs (Reboot or Turn Off) Table 8‐4 describes the temporary failure of the Managed Server after someone reboots or turns off the server. Table 8-4. Managed Server Failure (Reboot or Turn Off) and Recovery Options Failure Behavior Recovery Behavior and Actions Additional Steps Within two minutes, the Lab Manager Web console notes the lost Managed Server is “unreachable.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Temporary Failure of Managed Server Occurs (Networking) Table 8‐5 describes the temporary failure of the Managed Server because of a networking glitch. Table 8-5. Managed Server Failure (Networking) and Recovery Options Failure Behavior Recovery Behavior and Actions Additional Steps Within two minutes, the Lab Manager Console notes the lost Managed Server is “unreachable.” When the network glitch disappears, the Managed Server typically works as it used to.
A Network Fencing A Lab Manager uses network fencing, a technology that isolates or “fences” virtual machine configurations while allowing full network access. Fencing enables you to work with live instances of the same configuration on the same network. For example, when you want to have concurrent development or testing on the same configuration, you can duplicate or clone the configuration and avoid any IP or MAC address collision with this technology.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Why Should I Fence Configurations? Typically, you want to enable network fencing under these circumstances: You have a configuration with one or more servers, and you anticipate cloning the configuration numerous times. You have a configuration involving a difficult and complex setup, and cloning the configuration is an easier route than repeating the setup. With fencing, engineers can run multiple, independent tests on a configuration deployed multiple times.
Appendix A Network Fencing Allow Traffic In and Out – Virtual machines can communicate with machines outside the fence and machines outside the fence can communicate with virtual machines in the fenced configuration. Allow Traffic Out – Virtual machines in a fenced configuration can initiate communication to machines outside the fence and can receive messages back on the same connection. Machines outside the fence cannot initiate communication to virtual machines in the fenced configuration.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide Viewing Virtual Switches for Fences You can use the VI Client in the ESX Server system to see the “LMNetwork” virtual switches or networks that Lab Manager creates for each fence. To view virtual switches for fences 1 Navigate to the Configuration tab of the VI Client. 2 Click the Networking link in the Hardware list to view virtual switches (for example, “LMNetwork001”). See the VMware Infrastructure 3 documentation for details on using VI Client.
B Extending LM Tools B Installing LM Tools allows Lab Manager to automatically customize the network settings for a virtual machine made from a template. For general information on LM Tools, see “Installing LM Tools” on page 58. In some cases, you might want to extend the customization of LM Tools. Review some examples: If you have an application that depends on the SID, you might need to prevent LM Tools from changing the SID but still allow LM Tools to make other changes.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide How does LM Tools work? The configuration file for a virtual machine, the .vmx file, contains a machine.id line. If you install VMware Tools on the template, the guest operating system can read this line. The Lab Manager Server sets the values for this line while deploying virtual machines. See this example of the machine.id line: machine.id = "ip=10.6.11.101&netmask=255.255.0.0&gateway=10.6.0.1&dns1=10.5.1.20&dns 2=10.5.1.
Appendix B Extending LM Tools Extending the LM Tools Script Review the instructions to extend the customization of the LM Tools script. Extending the LM Tools Script on a Windows Guest OS The Windows script, win_autoconfig.vbs, is installed in the LM Tools program files folder (usually C:\Program Files\VMware\LM Tools). Write your own script based on win_autoconfig.vbs, and perform the required customization using the settings passed to the Lab Manager Server.
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide 168 VMware, Inc.
Index A C ActiveX control capturing installing 27 activity log configurations 85 CD images monitoring Lab Manager 106 adding IP addresses to Lab Manager pool 139 Managed Server systems 122 media 101 users 115 virtual machines to configurations 80 Administrators configuring Lab Manager settings 142 configuring network settings 137 managing Managed Server systems 121 managing storage servers 128 managing users 111 monitoring Lab Manager 106 All Deployed Machines page 109 attributes for configurations 7
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide deleting 98 E deploying 82 exporting deploying in fenced mode 83, 162 configurations 89 exporting 89 templates 66 importing 91 operations 75 properties 95 resuming 87 reverting to snapshots 94 F filters for text 24 floppy files ejecting from virtual machines 39 sharing 92 inserting into virtual machines 38 states and attributes 77 stopping 86 suspending 87 taking snapshots 94 turning off 87 undeploying 85, 86 viewing details on virtual machines 96 consolidating
Index general settings 142 extending the customization 165 general workflow 24 installing on Linux 60 getting started 17 installing on Windows 59 introducing 13 Lab Manager Server 14 modifying templates after installation 61 license details 145 overview 58 LM Tools 165 prerequisites 59 Managed Server 14 reasons to install 58 managing IP addresses 139 uninstalling 61 managing users 111 using null passwords 61 media library 100 monitoring 106 network fencing 161 overview of operations 22 Ov
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide properties 104 properties removing NFS servers 134 of configurations 95 sharing 103 of Managed Server systems 125 synchronizing Lab Manager with media storage 102 Media page 100 mouseover menus 23 of media 104 N of virtual machines 42 network adding IP addresses 139 configuring settings 137 IP pool 138 removing IP addresses 141 of storage servers 134 of templates 68 of users 117 R remote desktop connection for virtual machines 35 removing Managed Server systems
Index attempting to remount 136 operations 47 disabling 136 properties 68 enabling 136 publishing 62 managing 128 sharing 62, 66 moving the contents of SAN servers 129 states and attributes 49 properties 134 refreshing 136 removing 133 viewing 128 Storage Servers page 128 Support using SupportLink 149 SupportLink setting up 149 T undeploying 66 Templates page 46 troubleshooting 151 U undeploying configurations 85 templates 66 user groups accessing 10 User Preferences page 111 users technical
VMware® Lab Manager User’s Guide configuration 27 accessing consoles 27 W Web console accessing single machine in configuration 26 about 15 accessing template consoles 26 column sorting 24 adding to configurations 80 adding virtual hard disks 39 changing console display sizes 30 breadcrumb titles 23 filters 24 mouseover menus 23 Workspace page 72 changing IP or MAC addresses 33 creating templates from 63 defining 25 ejecting CD images 38 ejecting floppy files 39 inserting CD images 36 inserting flo
