vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client vCenter Server 6.0 ESXi 6.0 This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware 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 Copyright © 2016 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com 2 VMware, Inc.
Contents vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 9 Updated Information 11 1 Using the vSphere Client 13 Start the vSphere Client and Log In 14 Stop the vSphere Client and Log Out 14 Status Bar and Recent Tasks 14 Getting Started Tabs 15 View Virtual Machine Console 15 Using Lists 16 Save vSphere Client Data 17 Panel Sections 17 Searching the vSphere Inventory 17 Custom Attributes 18 Select Objects 20 Manage vCenter Server Plug-Ins 20 Working with Active Sessions 21 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Cancel a Task 53 Schedule Tasks 53 Policy Rules for Task Operations 57 6 Securing the Management Interface 59 Securing ESXi Hosts 59 Securing Virtual Machines 63 7 ESXi Authentication and User Management 69 Managing Users with the vSphere Client 69 Assigning Permissions for ESXi 72 Managing ESXi Roles 73 Using Active Directory to Manage ESXi Users 76 Use vSphere Authentication Proxy to Add a Host to a Domain Adjust the Search List in Large Domains 78 7
Contents Change Template Name in the vSphere Client 105 Deleting Templates 106 Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client 107 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems 109 Guest Operating System Customization Requirements 109 Configure a Script to Generate Computer Names and IP Addresses During Guest Operating System Customization in the vSphere Client 110 Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment in the vSphere Client 111 Customize Linux During Cloning or Deployment in the vSpher
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 16 Managing Virtual Machines 185 Edit Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown Settings Open a Console to a Virtual Machine 186 Adding and Removing Virtual Machines 186 Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual Machines 187 185 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client 195 Create a vApp 196 Power On a vApp in the vSphere Client 197 Clone a vApp 198 Power Off a vApp in the vSphere Client 198 Suspend a vApp in the vSphere Client 198 R
Contents 22 Networking Policies 257 Applying Networking Policies on a vSphere Standard or Distributed Switch 257 Teaming and Failover Policy 259 VLAN Policy 267 Security Policy 269 Traffic Shaping Policy 273 Resource Allocation Policy 277 Monitoring Policy 278 Port Blocking Policies 279 Manage Policies for Multiple Port Groups on a vSphere Distributed Switch 279 23 Advanced Networking 285 Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Support 285 VLAN Configuration 286 Working With Port Mirroring 286 Configure NetF
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts 341 Configuring Resource Allocation Settings 341 Administering CPU Resources 342 Administering Memory Resources 345 Managing Storage I/O Resources 349 Managing Resource Pools 352 Using DRS Clusters to Manage Resources 356 Creating a Datastore Cluster 368 Using Datastore Clusters to Manage Storage Resources Using NUMA Systems with ESXi 379 Advanced Attributes 381 371 26 Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters 383 vSphe
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client The vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client documentation provides information on managing a single ESXi host or vCenter Server system through a direct connection from the vSphere Client. You can use these tasks to manage hosts that are not connected to a vCenter Server system, or to troubleshoot or manage hosts that have become disconnected from the vCenter Server system that managed them.
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Updated Information This vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client is updated with each release of the product or when necessary. This table provides the update history of the vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client . Revision Description EN-001606-02 n n EN-001606-01 n n n EN-001606-00 VMware, Inc. Removed information related to vSphere Storage Appliance. This functionality is deprecated in vSphere 6.0.
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Using the vSphere Client 1 The vSphere Client is an interface for administering vCenter Server and ESXi. The vSphere Client user interface is configured based on the server to which it is connected: n When the server is a vCenter Server system, the vSphere Client displays all the options available to the vSphere environment, according to the licensing configuration and the user permissions.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Start the vSphere Client and Log In The vSphere Client is a graphical user interface for ESXi host and vCenter Server management. A login screen appears when you start the vSphere Client. After you log in, the client displays the objects and functionality appropriate to the server you are accessing and the permissions available to the user you logged in as. Procedure 1 Log in to your Windows system.
Chapter 1 Using the vSphere Client Getting Started Tabs In the case where ESXi or vCenter Server is newly installed and no inventory objects have been added, the Getting Started tabs guide you through the steps of adding items to the inventory and setting up the virtual environment. n Disable Getting Started Tabs on page 15 You can disable the Getting Started tabs if you do not want to display them.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Using Lists Many vSphere Client inventory tabs display lists of information. For example, the Virtual Machines tab displays a list of all the virtual machines associated with a host or a cluster. Sort any list in the vSphere Client by clicking the column label heading. A triangle in the column head shows the sort order as ascending or descending. You can also filter a list, sorting and including only selected items. A filter is sorted by a keyword.
Chapter 1 Using the vSphere Client Save vSphere Client Data The vSphere Client user interface is similar to a browser. Most user actions are persistent in the ESXi host and vCenter Server data that appears. You typically do not have to save the data. Procedure u You can save the client data by either printing a copy of the window or exporting the server data. Option Description Copy the window Use the Microsoft Windows Print Screen option to print a copy of the vSphere Client window.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Folders n Datastores n Networks n Inventory, which finds matches to the search criteria in any of the available managed object types. 2 Type one or more search terms into the search field and press Enter. 3 (Optional) If more items are found than can be displayed in the results pane, click Show all. What to do next If you are not satisfied with the results of the simple search, perform an advanced search.
Chapter 1 Using the vSphere Client For example, suppose you have a set of products and you want to sort them by sales representative. Create a custom attribute for sales person name, Name. Add the custom attribute, Name, column to one of the list views. Add the appropriate name to each product entry. Click the column title Name to sort alphabetically. The custom attributes feature is available only when you are connected to a vCenter Server system.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Select Objects vCenter Server objects are datacenters, networks, datastores, resource pools, clusters, hosts, and virtual machines. Selecting an object allows you to view the status of the object and enables the menus so you can select actions to take on the object. Procedure u Locate the object by browsing or search.
Chapter 1 Using the vSphere Client 3 Select the Installed tab in the Plug-in Manager dialog box. 4 Right-click on a plug-in and select Enable to enable a plug-in, or select Disable to disable it. Remove Plug-Ins You can remove plug-ins through the operating system’s control panel. Procedure u Consult your operating system’s documentation for instructions on how to use the Add/Remove Programs control panel.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Send a Message to All Active Users You can send a Message of the Day to all active session users and to new users when they log into the vSphere Client. The Message of the day text is sent as a notice message to all active session users and to new users when they log in. Procedure 1 On the Home page of a vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server system, click the Sessions button. 2 Type a message in the Message of the day field. 3 Click Change.
Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 2 Use the vSphere Client to configure ESXi and vCenter Server settings.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Verify that the serial port is not already in use for serial logging and debugging, or for ESX Shell (tty1Port). Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the host in the inventory. 2 Click the Configuration tab. 3 Under Software, click Advanced Settings. 4 In the left pane, expand the VMkernel listing and select Boot. 5 Make sure that the VMkernel.Boot.logPort and VMkernel.Boot.
Chapter 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 4 Select Syslog in the tree control. 5 To set up logging globally, click global and make changes to the fields on the right. 6 7 Option Description Syslog.global.defaultRotate Sets the maximum number of archives to keep. You can set this number globally and for individual subloggers. Syslog.global.defaultSize Sets the default size of the log, in KB, before the system rotates logs.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select the acceptance level and click OK. Table 2‑1.
Chapter 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 3 In the vCenter License section, select the type of license key to assign to this vCenter Server. n Select Assign an existing license key to this vCenter Server and select a license key from the Product list. n Select Assign a new license key to this vCenter Server, click Enter Key, and enter a vCenter Server license key and an optional label for the key.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Configure Runtime Settings You can change the vCenter Server ID and the vCenter Server Managed IP address. Usually, you do not need to change these settings, but you might need to make changes if you run multiple vCenter Server systems in the same environment. Required privilege: Global.Settings Prerequisites To configure runtime settings, the vSphere Client must be connected to the vCenter Server system.
Chapter 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 5 In Users & Groups, enter the maximum number of users and groups to display. If you enter 0 (zero), all users and groups appear. 6 Select Enable Validation to have vCenter Server periodically check its known users and groups against the Active Directory server. 7 In Validation Period, enter the number of minutes between instances of synchronization. 8 Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 In the settings list, select SNMP. 3 In Receiver URL, enter the host name or IP address of the SNMP receiver. 4 In the field next to the Receiver URL field, enter the port number of the receiver. The port number must be a value between 1 and 65535. 5 In Community String, enter the community identifier. 6 Click OK. Configure Timeout Settings You can configure the timeout intervals for vCenter Server operations.
Chapter 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 4 Option Description Info (Normal logging) Displays information, error, and warning log entries Verbose (Verbose) Displays information, error, warning, and verbose log entries Trivia (Extended verbose) Displays information, error, warning, verbose, and trivia log entries Click OK. Changes to the logging settings take effect immediately. You do not need to restart vCenter Server system.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Click OK. Configure Advanced Settings You can use the Advanced Settings page to modify the vCenter Server configuration file, vpxd.cfg. This page can be used to add entries to the vpxd.cfg file, but not to edit or delete them. VMware recommends that you change these settings only when instructed to do so by VMware technical support or when you are following specific instructions in VMware documentation. Required privilege: Global.
Chapter 2 Configuring ESXi Hosts and vCenter Server in the vSphere Client 4 Provide a reason for the shut down. This information is added to the log. VMware, Inc.
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Organizing Your Inventory 3 Plan how you will set up your virtual environment. A large vSphere implementation might contain several virtual data centers with a complex arrangement of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and networks. Smaller implementations might require a single virtual data center with a much less complex topology. Regardless of the scale of your virtual environment, consider how the virtual machines it will support are going to be used and administered.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Create clusters to consolidate the resources of multiple hosts and virtual machines. You can enable vSphere HA and vSphere DRS for increased availability and more flexible resource management. See vSphere Availability for information about configuring vSphere HA and vSphere Resource Management for information about configuring vSphere DRS. n Create resource pools to provide logical abstraction and flexible management of the resources in vSphere.
Chapter 3 Organizing Your Inventory Add Hosts You can add hosts under a datacenter object, folder object, or cluster object. If a host contains virtual machines, those virtual machines are added to the inventory together with the host. Information about configuring hosts is located in the vSphere Networking, vSphere Storage, vSphere Security, and vSphere Host Profiles documentation. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client session to a vCenter Server.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Create Clusters A cluster is a group of hosts. When a host is added to a cluster, the host's resources become part of the cluster's resources. The cluster manages the resources of all hosts within it. Clusters enable the vSphere High Availability (HA) and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) solutions. Prerequisites n Open vSphere Client session to a vCenter Server. n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to create a cluster object.
Chapter 3 Organizing Your Inventory n Verify that a cluster, vApp, or other resource pool object is parent to the resource pool. Procedure 1 Select Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters. 2 Select a cluster, vApp, or resource pool. 3 Select File > New > Resource Pool. 4 Enter a name and specify resource settings. 5 Click OK. The resource pool is added to the inventory. What to do next Add virtual machines and vApps to your resource pool.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Create Host-Wide Networks In vSphere, you can create standard networks and distributed networks. Standard networks provide a method of communication among the virtual machines on a standalone host and consist of standard switches and port groups. Distributed networks aggregate the networking capabilities of multiple hosts and enable virtual machines to keep consistent network configuration as they migrate across hosts.
Chapter 3 Organizing Your Inventory 4 In the General section, type a name for the switch. 5 Specify the maximum number of uplink ports (physical adapters per host) and click Next. 6 Select Add now to add hosts and their physical adapters to the switch. Select Add later to add hosts and their physical adapters to the switch after the vSphere Distributed Switch has been created. 7 Select the hosts to add in the Host/Physical adapters section and click Next.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to edit a distributed switch. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Edit Settings. 3 Select Advanced to edit the following vSphere distributed switch settings. 4 Option Description Maximum MTU Maximum MTU size for the vSphere distributed switch.
Chapter 3 Organizing Your Inventory 8 (Optional) Migrate virtual machine networking to the distributed switch. a Select Migrate virtual machine networking. b For each virtual machine, select Destination port group and select a port group from the dropdown menu or select Do not migrate. 9 Click Next. 10 (Optional) If you need to make any changes, click Back to the appropriate screen. 11 Review the settings for the distributed switch and click Finish.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 4 Select General to edit the following distributed port group settings. Option Action Name Type the name for the distributed port group. Description Type a brief description of the distributed port group. Number of Ports Type the number of ports on the distributed port group. Port binding Choose when ports are assigned to virtual machines connected to this distributed port group.
Managing License Keys in the vSphere Client 4 Use the vSphere Client to manage license keys directly on individual ESXi hosts or centrally in the license inventory of a vCenter Server system.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Assign a License Key to an ESXi Host Using the vSphere Client, you can assign an existing or new license key to an ESXi host. If the vSphere Client is connected directly to the host, on the host Configuration tab, click Licensed Features > Edit to change the license key. Prerequisites Verify that you have the Global.Licenses privilege. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the host in the inventory and click the Configuration tab.
Chapter 4 Managing License Keys in the vSphere Client The License Key of an ESXi Host is Replaced The license key that you assigned through a direct connection with the vSphere Client to an ESXi host changes. Problem You use the vSphere Client to connect directly to an ESXi host. You use the Configuration > Licensed Features > Edit operation to assign a license key to the host. Later, a different license key replaces the license key you assigned to the host.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client The Management tab displays the available license keys listed by product, license key, or asset. You can right-click any of the listed items to add, assign, and remove license keys and copy license information to your clipboard. What to do next If you have a license key with zero assigned capacity, you can: n Assign the license key to assets that require licensing. n Remove the license key if the key is no longer required.
Chapter 4 Managing License Keys in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select Home > Administration > Licensing. 2 Click Manage vSphere Licenses. 3 Click Next to go to the Assign Licenses page. 4 Click the ESX, vCenter Server, or Solutions tab to display the available assets. 5 Select the assets to show. 6 In the Asset window, select one or more assets to license. To select multiple assets, use Ctrl-click or Shift-click.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 50 1 In the vSphere Client, select Home > Administration > Licensing. 2 In the Management tab, select the view that you want to export. n Product n License key n Asset 3 Click Export. 4 In the Save As dialog box, select a folder, a filename, and a format for the exported license data and click Save. VMware, Inc.
Managing Tasks 5 Tasks represent system activities that do not complete immediately, such as migrating a virtual machine. They are initiated by high-level activities that you perform with the vSphere Client in real time and activities that you schedule to occur at a later time or on a recurring basis. For example, powering off a virtual machine is a task. You can perform this task manually every evening, or you can set up a scheduled task to power off the virtual machine every evening for you.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 3 Display the tasks for a single object or the entire vCenter Server. n To display the tasks for a single object, select the object. n To display the tasks in the vCenter Server, select the root folder. Click the Tasks & Events tab. The task list contains tasks performed on the object and its children. 4 (Optional) To view detailed information for a task, select the task in the list.
Chapter 5 Managing Tasks Use Keywords to Filter the Tasks List You can filter the tasks list based on any task attribute, including task name, target, status, initiator, change history, and time. Filtering is inclusive, not exclusive. If the keyword is found in any of the selected columns, the task is included in the filtered list. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client session to a vCenter Server. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the object in the inventory.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 5‑1. Scheduled Tasks Scheduled Task Description Add a host Adds the host to the specified data center or cluster. Change the power state of a virtual machine Powers on, powers off, suspends, or resets the state of the virtual machine. Change cluster power settings Enable or disable DPM for hosts in a cluster. Change resource settings of a resource pool or virtual machine Changes the following resource settings: CPU – Shares, Reservation, Limit.
Chapter 5 Managing Tasks Procedure 1 In the navigation bar, click Home > Management > Scheduled Tasks. The current list of scheduled tasks appears. 2 In the toolbar, click New. 3 In the Select a Task to Schedule dialog box, select a task and click OK to open the wizard for that task. NOTE For some scheduled tasks, the wizard opens the wizard used specifically for that task.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Change or Reschedule a Task After a scheduled task is created, you can change the timing, frequency, and specifics of the task. You can edit and reschedule tasks before or after they run. Required privilege:Schedule Task.Modify Task Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client session to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, click Home > Management > Scheduled Tasks. 2 Select the task. 3 In the toolbar, click Properties.
Chapter 5 Managing Tasks n Migrating a powered off virtual machine. This task is cancelable only when the source disks have not been deleted. If your vSphere environment uses virtual services, you can also cancel the following scheduled tasks: n Change the power state of a virtual machine n Make a snapshot of a virtual machine Policy Rules for Task Operations The vCenter Server system and ESXi hosts adhere to certain rules when managing tasks.
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Securing the Management Interface 6 Secure the management Interface of an ESXi host and the virtual machine guest operating system by restricting the services and management agents that are allowed to interface directly with the host or virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 In the Firewall section, click Properties. The Firewall Properties dialog box lists all the rule sets that you can configure for the host. 4 Select the rule sets to enable, or deselect the rule sets to disable. The Incoming Ports and Outgoing Ports columns indicate the ports that the vSphere Client opens for the service. The Protocol column indicates the protocol that the service uses.
Chapter 6 Securing the Management Interface Using the ESXi Shell The ESXi Shell (formerly Tech Support Mode or TSM) is disabled by default on ESXi hosts. You can enable local and remote access to the shell if necessary. Enable the ESXi Shell for troubleshooting only. The ESXi Shell can be enabled and disabled whether or not the host is running in lockdown mode. See the vSphere Security publication for more information on lockdown mode behavior.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Select the host in the inventory and click the Configuration tab. 2 Under Software, select Advanced Settings. 3 In the left panel, select UserVars. 4 In the UserVars.ESXiShellTimeOut field, enter the availability timeout setting. You must restart the SSH service and the ESXi Shell service for the timeout to take effect. 5 Click OK. If you are logged in when the timeout period elapses, your session will persist.
Chapter 6 Securing the Management Interface Securing Virtual Machines The guest operating system that runs in the virtual machine is subject to the same security risks as a physical system. Secure virtual machines as you would secure physical machines. 1 Prevent Virtual Disk Shrinking on page 63 Nonadministrative users in the guest operating system are able to shrink virtual disks. Shrinking a virtual disk reclaims the disk's unused space.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 6 Add or edit the following parameters. Name Value isolation.tools.diskWiper.disable TRUE isolation.tools.diskShrink.disable TRUE Click OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog box, and click OK again to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box. When you disable this feature, you cannot shrink virtual machine disks when a datastore runs out of space.
Chapter 6 Securing the Management Interface 4 If the size limit attribute is not present, you must add it. a Click Add Row. b In the Name column, type tools.setInfo.sizeLimit. c In the Value column, type Number of Bytes. If the size limit attribute exists, modify it to reflect the appropriate limits. 5 Click OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog box, and click OK again to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Add or edit the following parameters. Name Value isolation.device.connectable.disabl e true isolation.device.edit.disable true These options override any settings made in the guest operating system's VMware Tools control panel. 5 Click OK to close the Configuration Parameters dialog box, and click OK again to close the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box.
Chapter 6 Securing the Management Interface 6 7 (Optional) To overwrite the default log size and log rotation for any of the logs. a Click loggers. b Click the name of the log you that want to customize and enter the number of rotations and log size you want. Click OK. Changes to the syslog options take effect immediately. VMware, Inc.
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ESXi Authentication and User Management 7 ESXi handles user authentication and supports user permissions. When you connect directly to an ESXi host with the vSphere Client, you can create users and groups that are local to that ESXi host. You can also assign permissions to these users and groups. vCenter Server is not aware of users that are local to ESXi, and ESXi is not aware of vCenter Server users.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Add an ESXi User Adding a user to the users table updates the internal user list that the host maintains. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client session to an ESXi host. n Review the password requirements as described in the vSphere Security publication. Procedure 1 Log in to ESXi using the vSphere Client. You cannot create ESXi users with the vSphere Web Client. You must directly log into the host with the vSphere Client to create ESXi users.
Chapter 7 ESXi Authentication and User Management 4 Enter a login, a user name, and a password. NOTE Do not create a user named ALL. Privileges associated with the name ALL might not be available to all users in some situations. For example, if a user named ALL has Administrator privileges, a user with ReadOnly privileges might be able to log in to the host remotely. This is not the intended behavior. 5 n Specifying the user name is optional.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 Select the file type and click OK. Assigning Permissions for ESXi For ESXi, permissions are defined as access roles that consist of a user and the user’s assigned role for an object such as a virtual machine or ESXi host. Permissions grant users the right to perform the activities specified by the role on the object to which the role is assigned. For example, to configure memory for the host, a user must be granted a role that includes the Host.
Chapter 7 ESXi Authentication and User Management 4 Select Properties. 5 Select a role for the user or group from the drop-down menu. 6 To propagate the privileges to the children of the assigned inventory object, click the Propagate check box and click OK. Remove Permissions Removing a permission for a user does not remove the user from the list of those available. It also does not remove the role from the list of available items. It removes the user and role pair from the selected inventory object.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client You can create custom roles by using the role-editing facilities in the vSphere Client to create privilege sets that match your user needs. If you use the vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server to manage ESXi hosts, you have additional roles to choose from in vCenter Server. Also, the roles you create directly on a host are not accessible within vCenter Server. You can work with these roles only if you log in to the host directly from the vSphere Client.
Chapter 7 ESXi Authentication and User Management Procedure 1 On the vSphere Client Home page, click Roles. 2 Right-click the role to edit and select Edit Role. 3 Select privileges for the role and click OK. Rename a Role When you rename a role, no changes occur to that role’s assignments. Prerequisites Verify that you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges, such as root or vpxuser. Procedure 1 On the vSphere Client Home page, click Roles.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Using Active Directory to Manage ESXi Users You can configure ESXi to use a directory service such as Active Directory to manage users. Creating local user accounts on each host presents challenges with having to synchronize account names and passwords across multiple hosts. Join ESXi hosts to an Active Directory domain to eliminate the need to create and maintain local user accounts.
Chapter 7 ESXi Authentication and User Management Prerequisites Verify that the vSphere Client is connected to the host. Procedure 1 Select a host in the vSphere Client inventory, and click the Configuration tab. 2 Under Software, click Authentication Services. 3 Click Properties. 4 In the User Directory Services dialog box, select the directory service from the drop-down menu. 5 Enter a domain. Use the form name.tld or name.tld/container/path. 6 Click Join Domain.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n If ESXi is using a CA-signed certificate and is not provisioned by Auto Deploy, verify that the CA certificate has been added to the local trust certificate store of the authentication proxy server as described in the vSphere Security documentation. n Authenticate the vSphere Authentication Proxy server to the host as described in the vSphere Security documentation. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, select the host.
Managing Hosts in vCenter Server 8 To access the full capabilities of your hosts and to simplify the management of multiple hosts, you should connect your hosts to a vCenter Server system. For information about configuration management of ESXihosts, see the vSphere Networking documentation, the vSphere Storage documentation, or the vSphere Security documentation. The views and capabilities displayed vary depending on whether the vSphere Client is connected to a vCenter Server system or an ESXi host.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Reconnect a Managed Host Use the vSphere Client to reconnect a managed host to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server system, display the inventory and click the managed host to reconnect. 2 Right-click the host and select Connect from the pop-up menu.
Chapter 8 Managing Hosts in vCenter Server 4 Select the host icon in the inventory panel, and drag it to the new location. The host can be moved to another cluster or another datacenter. When the new location is selected, a blue box surrounds the cluster or datacenter name. vCenter Server moves the host to the new location. 5 Right-click the host, and select Exit Maintenance Mode from the pop-up menu. 6 (Optional) Restart any virtual machines, as needed.
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Using vCenter Maps 9 A vCenter map is a visual representation of your vCenter Server topology. Maps show the relationships between the virtual and physical resources available to vCenter Server. Maps are available only when the vSphere Client is connected to a vCenter Server system. The maps can help you determine such things as which clusters or hosts are most densely populated, which networks are most critical, and which storage devices are being utilized.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Set the Maximum Number of Map Objects In large environments, maps can be slow to load and difficult to read. You can set the maximum number of objects maps can display so that maps load more quickly and are easier to read. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select Edit > Client Settings > Maps tab. 2 Enter the maximum number of objects you want maps to display. 3 Click OK.
Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client 10 Virtual machines are the key component in a virtual infrastructure. You can create virtual machines to add to the host inventory. When you create a virtual machine, you associate it to a particular datastore and select an operating system and virtual hardware options. After you turn on the virtual machine, it consumes resources dynamically as the workload increases, or it returns resources dynamically as the workload decreases.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites Verify that you have the following privileges: n Host.Local operations.Create virtual machine n Virtual machine.Inventory.Create new on the destination folder or datacenter. n Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are adding a new disk. n Virtual machine.Configuration.Add existing disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are adding an existing disk. n Virtual machine.
Chapter 10 Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client n Parameters for the virtual disk size and provisioning settings. In addition to the information for a Typical configuration, for a Custom configuration, verify that you have the following information: n Virtual machine version. n Number of CPUs and memory size. n Number of NICs, network to connect to, and network adapter types. n SCSI controller type. n Disk type (new disk, existing disk, RDM, or no disk).
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 On the Host / Cluster page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, select the host or cluster where you want to run the virtual machine. NOTE The Host / Cluster page is only available when you are connected to a vCenter Server system. 2 Click Next. If resource pools are configured on the host, the Resource Pool page opens. Otherwise, the Datastore page opens. What to do next Select a resource pool or a datastore on which to run the virtual machine.
Chapter 10 Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client Select a Virtual Machine Version in the vSphere Client If the host or cluster where you place the virtual machine supports more than one VMware virtual machine version, you can select a version for the virtual machine. For virtual machine and host compatibility options, see “Virtual Machine Hardware Versions,” on page 139. Procedure 1 2 Select a virtual machine hardware version.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 On the Guest Operating System page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, select an operating system family. 2 Select an operating system and version from the drop-down menu and click Next. If any of the total cores available on the host, the maximum virtual CPUs supported by the virtual machine hardware version, or the maximum supported CPUs on the guest operating system equal 1, the virtual machine CPU count is set to 1 and the Memory page opens.
Chapter 10 Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client If the virtual machine memory is greater than the host memory size, swapping occurs, which can have a severe effect on virtual machine performance. The memory size must be a multiple of 4 MB. The maximum for best performance represents the threshold above which the host’s physical memory is insufficient to run the virtual machine at full speed.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 For each NIC, select a network and adapter type from the drop-down menus Depending on the host version and the guest operating system, a choice of adapter types for each virtual NIC might not be available. In many cases, only one type of adapter is supported. If more than one type of adapter is supported, the recommended type for the guest operating system is selected by default.
Chapter 10 Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client n Create a Virtual Disk in the vSphere Client on page 93 When you create a virtual disk, you can specify disk properties such as size, format, clustering features, and more. n Use an Existing Virtual Disk in the vSphere Client on page 94 You can use an existing disk that is configured with an operating system or other virtual machine data. This choice allows you to freely move the virtual hard drive from virtual machine to virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 6 (Optional) To change the way disks are affected by snapshots, click Independent and select an option. Option Description Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written permanently to the disk. Independent - Nonpersistent Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power off or reset the virtual machine.
Chapter 10 Creating a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client Add an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client You can store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN instead of storing it in a virtual disk file. This ability is useful if you are running applications in your virtual machines that must detect the physical characteristics of the storage device. Mapping a SAN LUN allows you to use existing SAN commands to manage storage for the disk.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 7 (Optional) To change the way disks are affected by snapshots, click Independent and select an option. Option Description Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written permanently to the disk. Independent - Nonpersistent Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power off or reset the virtual machine.
Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client 11 A clone is a copy of a virtual machine. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create many clones. When you clone a virtual machine, you create a copy of the entire virtual machine, including its settings, any configured virtual devices, installed software, and other contents of the virtual machine's disks.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites n You must be connected to vCenter Server in order to clone a virtual machine. You cannot clone virtual machines if you connect directly to an ESXi host. n To customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine, check that your guest operating system meets the requirements for customization. See “Guest Operating System Customization Requirements,” on page 109.
Chapter 11 Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client 6 7 8 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks. Option Action Same format as source Use the same format as the source virtual machine. Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Create a Scheduled Task to Clone a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client This procedure creates a scheduled task to clone a virtual machine. Prerequisites n You must be connected to a vCenter Server system with the vSphere Client. Procedure 1 From the Home page, click Scheduled Tasks. 2 Select File > New > Scheduled Task, or click New. The Select a Task to Schedule dialog box appears.
Chapter 11 Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client n Before you convert a virtual machine to a template, select it in the inventory and power it off. Procedure u Right-click the virtual machine and select Template > Convert to Template. vCenter Server marks that virtual machine as a template and displays the task in the Recent Tasks pane.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files. Option Action Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore. a b Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster. a b Store virtual machine configuration files and disk in separate locations.
Chapter 11 Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client Option Action Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files. Option Action Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore. a (Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy drop-down menu. The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage policy.
Chapter 11 Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client 7 8 Select a guest operating system customization option. Option Description Do not customize Select Do not customize and click Next. Does not customize any of the guest operating system settings. All settings remain identical to those of the source virtual machine. Customize using the Customization Wizard Opens the Customization Wizard so that you can select customization options for the guest operating system.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Right-click the template and select Rename. 2 Enter a new name and click outside the field to save your changes. Deleting Templates You can delete a template by removing it from the inventory or deleting the template from the disk. If you remove the template from the inventory, it remains on the disk and can be reregistered with vCenter Server to restore it to the inventory.
Chapter 11 Working with Templates and Clones in the vSphere Client Reregister Templates in the vSphere Client Templates can become unregistered from the vCenter Server if they are removed from the inventory or if the hosts with which they are associated are removed from the vCenter Server and then readded. Prerequisites n You must be connected to a vCenter Server system with the vSphere Client. Procedure 1 From the Home page, click Datastores and Datastore Clusters.
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Customizing Guest Operating Systems 12 When you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template, you can customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine to change properties such as the computer name, network settings, and license settings. Customizing guest operating systems can help prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed, such as conflicts due to duplicate computer names.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Windows Requirements Customization of Windows guest operating systems requires the following conditions: n Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. n The ESXi host that the virtual machine is running on must be 3.5 or later. Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Windows operating systems.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems 5 e In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.program. f In the Value text box, type c:\perl\bin\perl.exe and click Add. Click OK. You can select the option to use an application to generate computer names or IP addresses during customization.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 6 Option Action Enter a name in the Deploy wizard The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or deployment is complete. Generate a name using the custom application configured with vCenter Server Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application. Provide licensing information for the Windows operating system and click Next.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems 11 (Optional) Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next. A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed. Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of a domain and only domain user accounts are used.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Specify how to determine the host name to identify the guest operating system on the network. Option Action Enter a name a Type a name. b The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive. (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a numeric value to ensure uniqueness.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems What to do next If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is booting, the errors are reported using the guest’s system logging mechanism. View the errors by opening /var/log/vmwareimc/toolsDeployPkg.log. Managing Customization Specifications in the vSphere Client Customization specifications are XML files that contain guest operating system settings for virtual machines.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next. 7 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next. 8 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system. Option Action Typical settings Select Typical settings and click Next. vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings. Custom settings a b c d 9 Enter DNS and domain settings.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems 6 Enter the guest operating system's computer name and click Next. The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name. 7 8 Option Action Enter a name a Type a name. b The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 11 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system. Option Action Typical settings Select Typical settings and click Next. vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings. Custom settings a b c d 12 13 Select Custom settings and click Next. For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis button (...) . Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems 3 In the Guest Customization wizard, select Windows from the Target Virtual Machine OS menu. 4 (Optional) Select Use Custom Sysprep Answer File. 5 Under Customization Specification Information, enter a name for the specification and an optional description and click Next. 6 Select the option to import or create a sysprep answer file and click Next. 7 Option Description Import a Sysprep answer file Click Browse and browse to the file.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Remove a Customization Specification in the vSphere Client You can remove customization specifications from the Customization Specification Manager. Prerequisites You must have at least one customization specification. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Client Home page, select Customization Specifications Manager. 2 Right-click a specification and select Remove. 3 In the confirmation dialog box, select Yes. The specification is deleted from the disk.
Chapter 12 Customizing Guest Operating Systems Import a Customization Specification in the vSphere Client You can import an existing specification using the Customization Specification Manager, and use the specification to customize the guest operating system of a virtual machine. Prerequisites Before you begin, you must have at least one customization specification saved as an xml file located on a file system accessible from the vSphere Client.
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Migrating Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 13 You can move virtual machines from one host or storage location to another location using hot or cold migration. For example, with vMotion you can move powered on virtual machines away from a host to perform maintenance, to balance loads, to collocate virtual machines that communicate with each other, to move virtual machines apart to minimize fault domain, to migrate to new server hardware, and so on.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client In vCenter Server, you have the following migration options: Change Host Moving a virtual machine, but not its storage to another host. You can move the virtual machine using cold migration or hot migration. You use vMotion to move a powered on virtual machine to another host. Change Datastore Moving a virtual machine and its storage, including virtual disks and configuration files or a combination of these, to a new datastore on the same host.
Chapter 13 Migrating Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 6 7 Select the migration priority level and click Next. Option Description High Priority On hosts running ESX/ESXi version 4.1 or later, vCenter Server attempts to reserve resources on both the source and destination hosts to be shared among all concurrent migrations with vMotion. vCenter Server grants a larger share of host CPU resources to high priority migrations than to standard priority migrations.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files. Option Action Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore. a b Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster. a b Store virtual machine configuration files and disk in separate locations.
Chapter 13 Migrating Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 5 If you chose to move the configuration file and virtual disks of the virtual machine, select a disk format. Option Description Same as Source Use the format of the original virtual disk. Thin provisioned Use the thin format to save storage space. The thin virtual disk uses just as much storage space as it needs for its initial operations. When the virtual disk requires more space, it can expand up to its maximum allocated capacity.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client CPU Compatibility and EVC vCenter Server performs compatibility checks before it allows migration of running or suspended virtual machines to ensure that the virtual machine is compatible with the target host. vMotion transfers the running state of a virtual machine between underlying ESXi systems.
Chapter 13 Migrating Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click on a data center and click New Cluster. 2 Enter a name for the cluster and select cluster features, then click Next. Cluster features such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA are fully compatible with EVC. You can enable these features when you create the cluster. For information on specific cluster options, see the vSphere Client online Help.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 If you powered off or migrated virtual machines out of the cluster, power on the virtual machines in the cluster, or migrate virtual machines into the cluster. Any virtual machines running with a larger feature set than the EVC mode you enabled for the cluster must be powered off before they can be moved back into the cluster.
Chapter 13 Migrating Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client For example, consider a cluster containing hosts with Intel Xeon 45nm Core™ 2 processors that have been ® ® set to the Intel "Merom" Generation (Xeon Core™ 2) EVC mode. A virtual machine powered on in this cluster runs in the Intel "Merom" Generation (Xeon Core 2) EVC mode. If the cluster's EVC mode is raised to Intel "Penryn" Generation (Xeon 45nm Core 2), the virtual machine remains at the lower Intel "Merom" Generation (Xeon Core 2) EVC mode.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure u Enable the AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!) EVC mode for your EVC cluster. The steps to enable the EVC mode differ depending on whether you are creating a cluster or enabling the mode on an existing cluster, and on whether the existing cluster contains powered-on virtual machines. Option Description Creating a new cluster In the New Cluster wizard, enable EVC for AMD hosts and select the AMD Opteron Gen. 3 (no 3DNow!) EVC mode.
Deploying OVF Templates 14 You can export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF). You can then deploy the OVF template in the same environment or in a different environment.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 7 Select the disk format to store the virtual machine virtual disks, and click Next. Format Description Thick Provisioned Lazy Zeroed Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated when the virtual disk is created data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Chapter 14 Deploying OVF Templates 2 In the Export OVF Template dialog, type the Name of the template. For example, type MyVm. NOTE When exporting an OVF template with a name that contains asterisk (*) characters, those characters turn into underscore characters (_). 3 Enter the Directory location where the exported virtual machine template is saved, or click “...” to browse for the location. The C:\ drive is the default location where the template is stored. For example, OvfLib.
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Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 15 You can add or configure most virtual machine properties during the virtual machine creation process or after you create the virtual machine and install the guest operating system. You can configure three types of virtual machine properties. Hardware View existing hardware configuration and add or remove hardware.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n “Configure the Virtual Machine Power States,” on page 180 n “Delay the Boot Sequence in the vSphere Client,” on page 182 n “Enable Logging in the vSphere Client,” on page 182 n “Disable Acceleration in the vSphere Client,” on page 183 n “Configure Debugging and Statistics in the vSphere Client,” on page 183 Virtual Machine Limitations in the vSphere Client The virtual machine configuration tasks that you can perform when you connect directly to an
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Virtual Machine Hardware Versions The hardware version of a virtual machine reflects the virtual machine's supported virtual hardware features. These features correspond to the physical hardware available on the ESXi host on which you create the virtual machine. Virtual hardware features include BIOS and EFI, available virtual PCI slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other characteristics typical to hardware.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 15‑1. ESXi Hosts and Compatible Virtual Machine Hardware Versions Versio n 11 Versio n 10 Versio n9 Version 8 Version 7 Version 4 Compatible with vCenter Server Version ESXi 6.0 Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run vCenter Server 6.0 ESXi 5.5 Not support ed Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run Create, edit, run vCenter Server 5.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Change the Virtual Machine Name in the vSphere Client You can change the virtual machine name in the Virtual Machine Name panel in the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box. Changing the name does not change the name of any virtual machine files or the name of the directory that the files are located in. Prerequisites n Verify that you have access to the virtual machine in the vSphere Client inventory list.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Options tab and under Advanced, click General. 3 Click Configuration Parameters. 4 (Optional) Change or add a parameter. 5 Click OK to exit the Configuration Parameters dialog box. 6 Click OK to save your changes.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 3 Select Check and upgrade Tools during power cycling in the Advanced pane. 4 Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. The next time the virtual machine is powered on, it checks the ESX/ESXi host for a newer version of VMware Tools. If one is available, it is installed and the guest operating system is restarted (if required).
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Change CPU Hot-Plug Settings in the vSphere Client The CPU hot plug option lets you add CPU resources for a virtual machine while the machine is powered on. The following conditions apply: n For best results, use virtual machines with hardware version 8 or later. n Hot-adding multicore virtual CPUs is supported only with hardware version 8 or later. n Not all guest operating systems support CPU hot add.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Prerequisites n If CPU hot add is not enabled, power off the virtual machine before adding CPUs. n If CPU hot remove is not enabled, power off the virtual machine before removing CPUs. n To hot add multicore CPUs, verify that the virtual machine has hardware version 8. n Required privilege: Virtual Machine.Configuration.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Allocate CPU Resources in the vSphere Client You can change the amount of CPU resources allocated to a virtual machine by using the shares, reservations, and limits settings. A virtual machine has the following user-defined settings that affect its CPU resource allocation. Limit Places a limit on the consumption of CPU time for a virtual machine. This value is expressed in MHz. Reservation Specifies the guaranteed minimum allocation for a virtual machine.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Configuring Advanced CPU Scheduling Settings You can select CPU options that involve scheduling the virtual machine processing to physical processor cores and hyperthreads. ESXi generally manages processor scheduling well, even when hyperthreading is enabled. These settings are useful only for detailed tweaking of critical virtual machines.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Resources tab and select Advanced CPU. 3 In the Scheduling Affinity panel, enter a comma-separated list of hyphenated processor ranges. For example, "0,4-7" would indicate affinity with CPUs 0,4,5,6, and 7. Selecting all processors is identical to selecting no affinity.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 4 (Optional) To edit mask values other than the NX bit or to set NX mask values to states other than “0” or “H”, click Advanced. a Select the relevant tab. b Click a row and edit the mask value. To view an explanation of a values symbol, click Legend. c 5 Click OK to apply the changes and return to the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box. Click OK to save your changes.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client If the virtual machine memory is greater than the host memory size, swapping occurs, which can have a severe effect on virtual machine performance. The memory size must be a multiple of 4 MB. The maximum for best performance represents the threshold above which the host’s physical memory is insufficient to run the virtual machine at full speed. This value fluctuates as conditions on the host change, for example, as virtual machines are powered on or off.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Resources tab and select Memory. 3 Allocated the memory capacity for this virtual machine. 4 Option Description Shares The values Low, Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Checking all the boxes is the same as applying no affinity. For information about NUMA and advanced memory resources, including usage examples, see the Resource Management documentation. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Select the Resources tab, and select Memory. 3 In the NUMA Memory Affinity panel, set the NUMA node affinity for the virtual machine.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Network Virtual Machine Configuration ESXi networking features provide communication between virtual machines on the same host, between virtual machines on different hosts, and between other virtual and physical machines. The networking features also allow management of ESXi hosts and provide communication between VMkernel services (NFS, iSCSI, or vSphere vMotion) and the physical network.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Add a Network Adapter to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client When you add a Network adapter (NIC) to a virtual machine, you select the adapter type, the network connection, and whether the device should connect when the virtual machine is powered on. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Hardware tab and click Add. 3 Select Ethernet Adapter, and click Next.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client network connections to a virtual machine's serial ports to migrate seamlessly when you use vMotion to migrate the virtual machine. For requirements and steps to configure the Avocent ACS v6000 virtual serial port concentrator, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022303. Server and Client Connections for Named Pipe and Network Serial Ports You can select a client or server connection for serial ports.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Add a Serial Port to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client A virtual machine can use up to four virtual serial ports. You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical serial port or to a file on the host computer. You can also use a host-side-named pipe to set up a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Similarly, if you run the Telnet Server on your Linux system on port 23 (telnet://yourLinuxBox:23), you configure the virtual machine as a client URI. telnet://yourLinuxBox:23 The virtual machine initiates the connection to your Linux system on port 23. Change the Serial Port Configuration in the vSphere Client A virtual machine can use up to four virtual serial ports.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Option Description Use named pipe Select this option to set a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. a Type a name for the pipe in the Pipe Name field. b Select the Near End and Far End of the pipe from the drop-down menus. Use network Select Use network to connect through a remote network. a Select the network backing.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 4 Select Output to file and click Next. 5 Browse to the location of the output file and Select or deselect the Connect at power on check box to connect or disconnect the device. 6 Click Next. 7 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites n To edit the virtual machine’s WWNs, power off the virtual machine. n Verify that the virtual machine has a datastore containing a LUN that is available to the host. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Options tab and under Advanced select Fibre Channel NPIV. 3 (Optional) Select the Temporarily Disable NPIV for this virtual machine check box.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Change the Virtual Disk Configuration in the vSphere Client You can change the virtual device node, the size of the disk, and the persistence mode for virtual disk configuration for a virtual machine. NOTE The Manage Paths feature for RDM disks is not available for virtual machines on legacy hosts running versions of ESX Server earlier than 3.0.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select the type of disk to use. Option Action Create a new virtual disk a b c d 5 Type the disk capacity. Select a disk format. n Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. n Thick Provision Eager Zeroed creates a type of thick virtual disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. n Thin Provision creates a disk in thin format. Use this format to save storage space.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Shares is a value that represents the relative metric for controlling disk bandwidth to all virtual machines. The values are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server. Disk shares are relevant only within a given ESXi host. The shares assigned to virtual machines on one host have no effect on virtual machines on other hosts.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client When you add storage controllers, they are numbered sequentially 1, 2, and 3. If you add a hard disk, SCSI, or CD/DVD-ROM device to a virtual machine after virtual machine creation, the device is assigned to the first available virtual device node on the default controller, for example (0:1). If you add a SCSI controller, you can reassign an existing or new hard disk or device to that controller.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Add SCSI Controllers You can add SCSI controllers to an existing virtual machine by adding hard disks on unused SCSI Bus numbers. Adding a new hard disk on an unused SCSI bus number automatically creates a new SCSI controller. Prerequisites Sufficient privileges to edit the virtual machine. Procedure 1 Right-click on a virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Select the Hardware tab. 3 Click Add. 4 Select Hard Disk and click Next.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client If you create an LSI Logic virtual machine and add a virtual disk that uses BusLogic adapters, the virtual machine boots from the BusLogic adapters disk. LSI Logic SAS is available only for virtual machines with hardware version 7 or later. Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on LSI Logic SAS, VMware Paravirtual, and LSI Logic Parallel adapters.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Hardware tab and click Add. 3 Select SCSI Device and click Next. 4 Select a SCSI device in the Connection panel. 5 Select an unused Virtual Device Node and click Next. For device node SCSI (0:2), 0 is the controller number and 2 is the number of the device that is attached to the controller.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select one option. Option Description Use physical drive a b Use ISO Image Enter the path and filename for the image file, or click Browse to navigate to the file. Select Client or Host as the location. Select a Pass through (recommended) or ATAPI emulation connection type. 5 If you do not want the CD-ROM drive connected when the virtual machine starts, deselect Connect at power on. 6 Click Next.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 5 Select Host Device under Device Type and select a device from the drop-down menu. 6 (Optional) In the drop-down menu under Virtual Device Node, select the node the drive uses in the virtual machine. 7 Click OK to save your changes. Configure a Datastore ISO File for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Client You can connect the CD/DVD device to an ISO file that is stored on a datastore accessible to the host.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 To have the floppy drive connected to the virtual machine when you power it on, select Connect at power on. 6 Click Next. 7 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish. 8 Click OK to save your changes. Change the Floppy Drive Configuration in the vSphere Client You can configure a virtual floppy drive device to connect to a client device or to an existing or new floppy image.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 6 Review the information in the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish. 7 Click OK to save your changes. Change the SCSI Device Configuration in the vSphere Client You can change the physical device and the virtual device node of the SCSI device connection. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Hardware tab and select a SCSI device in the Hardware list.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Hardware tab and select Video card. 3 Select the display settings type and configure the available settings. 4 Option Description Auto-detect video settings Applies common video settings to the guest operating system. Specify custom settings Lets you select the number of displays and the total video memory.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client 8 (Optional) If this dependency is required, select the check box and click Next. Required dependencies must be bound before powering on. 9 (Optional) If this dependency should be bound to the provider immediately, select the Bind to provider immediately check box, and click Next after the validation is complete. If you choose to bind this dependency now, the validation result displays.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Connecting a USB passthrough device to a virtual machine that runs on the ESXi host to which the device is physically attached requires an arbitrator, a controller, and a physical USB device or device hub. USB Arbitrator Manages connection requests and routes USB device traffic. The arbitrator is installed and enabled by default on ESXi hosts. It scans the host for USB devices and manages device connection among virtual machines that reside on the host.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client For virtual machines with Linux guests, you can add one or both controllers, but 3.0 superspeed devices are not supported for passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine. You cannot add two controllers of the same type. For USB passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, the USB arbitrator can monitor a maximum of 15 USB controllers.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Add USB Devices from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client You can add one or more USB passthrough devices from an ESXi host to a virtual machine if the physical device is connected to the host on which the virtual machine runs. If a USB device is connected to another virtual machine, you cannot add it until that machine releases it.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Remove a USB Device from a Virtual Machine When you remove a USB device from a virtual machine, it reverts to the host and becomes available to other virtual machines that run on that host. To minimize the risk of data loss, follow the instructions to safely unmount or eject hardware for your operating system. Safely removing hardware allows accumulated data to be transmitted to a file.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client USB 3.0 Device Limitations USB 3.0 devices have the following requirements and limitations: n The virtual machine that you connect the USB 3.0 device to must be configured with an xHCI controller and have a Linux guest operating system with a 2.6.35 or later kernel. n You can connect only one USB 3.0 device operating at superspeed to a virtual machine at a time. n USB 3.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Add USB Devices From a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client You can add one or more USB passthrough devices from a client computer to a virtual machine in the vSphere Client. The devices must be connected to a client computer that connects to the ESXi host on which the virtual machines reside. The devices maintain their virtual machine connections in S1 standby, if the vSphere Client is running and connected.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select the device to remove from the drop-down menu. For example, select USB Device 1 > Disconnect from device name. The menu shows the device status as Disconnecting. The device reconnects to the client computer and is available to add to another virtual machine. In some cases, Windows Explorer detects the device and opens a dialog box on the client computer. You can close this dialog box.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Table 15-5 lists available power buttons and describes their behavior. Table 15‑5. Virtual Machine Power Button Settings Power Button Description Shuts down the guest operating system or powers off the virtual machine. A power off operation displays a confirmation dialog box indicating that the guest operating system might not shut down properly. Use this power off option only when necessary.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 7 Select an option for the Reset button. Option Description Restart Guest Uses VMware Tools to initiate an orderly reboot. (This type of reset is known as a "soft" power operation. Soft power operations are possible only if the tools are installed in the guest operating system.) Reset Shuts down and restarts the guest operating system without powering off the virtual machine. (This type of reset is known as a "hard" power operation.
Chapter 15 Configuring Virtual Machines in the vSphere Client Disable Acceleration in the vSphere Client You can temporarily disable acceleration to allow a virtual machine to successfully run or install software. In rare instances, you might find that when you install or run software in a virtual machine, the virtual machine appears to stop responding. Generally, the problem occurs early in the program’s execution.
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Managing Virtual Machines 16 When you connect directly to an ESXi host or vCenter Server system using the vSphere Client, you can open a console to any of the host's virtual machines, add and remove virtual machines in the host's inventory, and manage virtual machine snapshots.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Option Action Default Shutdown Delay Select the amount of time to delay shutdown for each virtual machine. The shutdown delay applies only if the virtual machine does not shut down before the delay period elapses. If the virtual machine shuts down before the delay time is reached, the next virtual machine starts shutting down. Shutdown Action Select a shutdown option from the drop-down menu.
Chapter 16 Managing Virtual Machines Remove Virtual Machines from the Datastore You use the Delete from Disk option to remove a virtual machine from a host and delete all virtual machine files, including the configuration file and virtual disk files, from the datastore. Prerequisites Power off the virtual machine. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Delete from Disk. 2 Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client A snapshot preserves the following information: n Virtual machine settings. The virtual machine directory, which includes disks that were added or changed after you took the snapshot. n Power state. The virtual machine can be powered on, powered off, or suspended. n Disk state. State of all the virtual machine's virtual disks. n (Optional) Memory state. The contents of the virtual machine's memory.
Chapter 16 Managing Virtual Machines Each snapshot creates an additional delta .vmdk disk file. When you take a snapshot, the snapshot mechanism prevents the guest operating system from writing to the base .vmdk file and instead directs all writes to the delta disk file. The delta disk represents the difference between the current state of the virtual disk and the state that existed at the time that you took the previous snapshot.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Change Disk Mode to Exclude Virtual Disks from Snapshots in the vSphere Client You can set a virtual disk to independent mode to exclude the disk from any snapshots taken of its virtual machine. Prerequisites Power off the virtual machine and delete any existing snapshots before you change the disk mode. Deleting a snapshot involves committing the existing data on the snapshot disk to the parent disk. Required privileges: n Virtual machine.
Chapter 16 Managing Virtual Machines Prerequisites n If you are taking a memory snapshot of a virtual machine that has multiple disks in different disk modes, verify that the virtual machine is powered off. For example, if you have a special purpose configuration that requires you to use an independent disk, you must power off the virtual machine before taking a snapshot. n To capture the memory state of the virtual machine, verify that the virtual machine is powered on.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n If the snapshot includes the memory state, the virtual machine will be in the same power state as when you created the snapshot. Table 16‑1. Virtual Machine Power State After Restoring a Snapshot Virtual Machine State When Parent Snapshot Is Taken Virtual Machine State After Restoration Powered on (includes memory) Reverts to the parent snapshot, and the virtual machine is powered on and running.
Chapter 16 Managing Virtual Machines 4 Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box. Subsequent child snapshots from this point create a new branch of the snapshot tree. The delta disks for snapshots that you took after you restored the current snapshot are not removed and you can restore those snapshots at any time. Deleting Snapshots Deleting a snapshot removes the snapshot from the Snapshot Manager.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites n Ensure that you are familiar with the Delete and Delete all actions and how they might affect virtual machine performance. See “Deleting Snapshots,” on page 193. n Required Privilege: Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot on the virtual machine. Procedure 1 Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager. 2 In the Snapshot Manager, click a snapshot to select it. 3 Select a delete option.
Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client 17 You can use VMware vSphere as a platform for running applications, in addition to using it as a platform for running virtual machines. The applications can be packaged to run directly on top of VMware vSphere. The format of how the applications are packaged and managed is called vSphere vApp. A vApp is a container, like a resource pool and can contain one or more virtual machines.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n “Configuring IP Pools,” on page 204 n “Edit vApp Annotation in the vSphere Client,” on page 206 Create a vApp A vApp allows you to perform resource management and certain other management activities such as power operations for multiple virtual machines at the same time. You can think of the vApp as the container for the virtual machines, and you can perform the operations on the container.
Chapter 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client 4 In the Resource Allocation page, allocate CPU and memory resources to this vApp. a b Allocate CPU resources for this vApp. Option Description Shares CPU shares for this vApp with respect to the parent's total. Sibling vApps share resources according to their relative share values bounded by the reservation and limit. Select Low, Normal, or High, which specify share values respectively in a 1:2:4 ratio.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Clone a vApp Cloning a vApp is similar to cloning a virtual machine. Prerequisites To clone a vApp, the vSphere Client must be connected to the vCenter Server system. A host must be selected in the inventory that is running ESX 4.0 or greater, or a cluster enabled with DRS. Procedure 1 Select the vApp in the inventory. 2 Select Inventory > vApp > Clone. Complete each page in Clone vApp the wizard. 3 Select the vApp destination and click Next.
Chapter 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client Resume a vApp in the vSphere Client You can continue the activity of the virtual machines within a vApp that is in a suspended state. The suspended virtual machines within the vApp are resumed in reverse order to the order in which they were suspended. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Client, select the vApp. 2 Right-click the vApp and select Power On.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 Release the mouse button. Either the object moves to the new location or an error message indicates what needs to be done to permit the move. Edit vApp Settings in the vSphere Client You can edit and configure several vApp settings, including startup order, resources, and custom properties. Procedure 1 On the Summary page of the vApp, click Edit Settings. 2 Click the Options tab to edit or view vApp properties.
Chapter 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client 4 Click OK. Edit vApp Properties You can edit any vApp property that is defined in Advanced Property Configuration. Required privilege: vApp.vApp application configuration Procedure 1 On the Summary page of the vApp, click Edit Settings. 2 Click Properties in the Options list. 3 Edit the vApp properties. 4 Click OK. Edit IP Allocation Policy You can edit how IP addresses are allocated for the vApp.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Click Add. 6 In the Add Dependency wizard, select the provider for this dependency and click Next. 7 Enter the name and description for this dependency. 8 (Optional) If this dependency is required, select the check box and click Next. Required dependencies must be bound before powering on.
Chapter 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client 3 Set and configure the settings that appear on the summary page of the virtual machine. vApp Setting Description Product Name Product Name. Version vApp version. Full Version Full version of the vApp. Product URL If you enter a product URL, a user can click the product name on the virtual machine summary page and go to the product's web page.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Click OK. Configuring IP Pools IP pools provide a network identity to vApps. An IP pool is a network configuration that is assigned to a network used by a vApp. The vApp can then leverage vCenter Server to automatically provide an IP configuration to its virtual machines. Specify an IP Address Range You can set up an IP address range by specifying a host address range within a network. IP pool ranges are configured with IPv4 and IPv6.
Chapter 17 Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp in the vSphere Client Specify DNS Settings Enter the DNS settings for the vApp. Procedure 1 In the inventory, select the datacenter that contains the vApp you are configuring. 2 In the IP Pools tab, right-click the IP pool that you want to edit and select Properties. If no IP pools appear, click Add to add a new IP pool. 3 In the Properties dialog box, select the DNS tab. 4 Enter the DNS server information.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select the networks that use this IP pool. A network can be associated with one IP pool at a time. 5 Click OK. Edit vApp Annotation in the vSphere Client You can add or edit notes for a particular vApp. Procedure 1 Select the vApp in the inventory. 2 Click the Summary tab for the vApp. 3 In the Annotation section, click Edit. 4 Type your comments in the Edit Service Annotation window. 5 Click OK. Your comments appear under Annotation.
Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager 18 A vSphere administrator uses the vCenter Solutions Manager in the vSphere Client to view the installed solutions, view detailed information about the solutions, and monitor the solution health status. You can also perform those tasks in the vSphere Web Client. You can monitor and manage vSphere solutions from the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. Both clients display an inventory of vSphere solutions and details about each solution.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Viewing Solutions You can deploy, monitor, and interact with solutions that are installed in a vCenter Server instance with the vCenter Solutions Manager. The Solutions Manager displays information about the health of a solution. You can navigate to the Solutions Manager from the home page of the vSphere Client.
Chapter 18 Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager Table 18‑1. ESX Agent Manager health status Status Description Red The solution must intervene for the ESX Agent Manager to proceed. For example, if a virtual machine agent is powered off manually on a compute resource and the ESX Agent Manager does not attempt to power on the agent. The ESX Agent Manager reports this action to the solution, and the solution alerts the administrator to power on the agent.
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Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client 19 The host profiles feature creates a profile that encapsulates the host configuration and helps to manage the host configuration, especially in environments where an administrator manages more than one host or cluster in vCenter Server. Host profiles eliminates per-host, manual, or UI-based host configuration and maintains configuration consistency and correctness across the datacenter by using host profile policies.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Using host profiles is only supported for VMware vSphere 4.0 hosts or later. This feature is not supported for VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or earlier hosts. If you have VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or earlier hosts managed by your vCenter Server 4.0 or later, the following problems can occur if you try to use host profiles for those hosts: n You cannot create a host profile that uses a VMware Infrastructure 3.5 or earlier host as a reference host.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client Create a Host Profile from Host Profiles View You can create a host profile from the Host Profiles main view using the configuration of an existing host. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. You must have a vSphere installation and at least one properly configured host in the inventory. Procedure 1 In the Host Profiles main view, click Create Profile. The Create Profile wizard appears.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the Host Profiles view page, select the profile to export from the profile list. 2 Right-click the profile and select the Export Profile. 3 Select the location and type the name of the file to export the profile. 4 Click Save. Import a Host Profile You can import a profile from a file in the VMware profile format (.vpf). NOTE When a host profile is exported, administrator and user profile passwords are not exported.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client 5 (Optional) Enable or disable the policy compliance check. 6 Click OK to close the Profile Editor. Edit a Policy A policy describes how a specific configuration setting should be applied. The Profile Editor allows you to edit policies belonging to a specific host profile. On the left side of the Profile Editor, you can expand the host profile.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 19‑1. Subset of Host Profile Subprofile Configurations (Continued) Sub-Profile Configuration Example Policies and Compliance Checks Date and Time Configure the time settings and timezone of server. Firewall Enable or disable a ruleset. Security Add a user or a usergroup and set the root password. Service Configure settings for a service. Advanced Modify advanced options. Notes For the time zone, enter a UTC string.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client Enable Compliance Check You can decide whether a host profile policy is considered during compliance check. Procedure 1 Open the Profile Editor for a profile and navigate to the policy you wish to enable for compliance check. 2 On the right side of the Profile Editor, select the Compliance Details tab. 3 Enable the check box for the policy. NOTE The check box is enabled by default.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 Select the host or cluster from the expanded list and click Attach. The host or cluster is added to the Attached Entities list. 4 Click OK to close the dialog. Attach Profiles from the Host Before you can apply the profile to a host you need to attach the host to the profile or the profile to the host. You can attach a profile to a host from the host's context menu in the Hosts and Clusters inventory view.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client 4 Enter the parameters and click Next. 5 Continue until all the required parameters are entered. 6 Click Finish. Compliance Status is updated. Apply a Profile from the Host You can apply a profile to a host from the host's context menu. Prerequisites The host must be in maintenance mode before a profileis applied to it. Procedure 1 In the Host and Clusters view, select the host to which you want to apply a profile.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Manage Profiles from a Cluster You can create a profile, attach a profile, or update reference hosts from the cluster's context menu. Procedure u In the Hosts and Clusters view, right-click a cluster and select Host Profile > Manage Profile. Depending on your host profile setup, one of the following results occurs: Profile Status and Task Result If the cluster is not attached to a host profile and no profile exist in your inventory, create a profile.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client Check Compliance from the Host Profiles View You can check the compliance of a host or cluster to a profile from the Host Profiles main view. Procedure 1 From the Host Profiles list, select the profile that you want to check. 2 In the Hosts and Clusters tab, select the host or cluster from the list under Entity Name. 3 Click Check Compliance Now. The compliance status is updated as Compliant, Unknown, or Non-compliant.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Host Profiles and vSphere Auto Deploy Host profiles are used to help vSphere Auto Deploy provision physical ESXi hosts with configuration state information (virtual switches, driver settings, boot parameters, and so on). Configuration state information cannot be stored directly on a host provisioned with Auto Deploy. Instead, you can create a reference host and configure it with the settings you want. Then, create a host profile using this reference host.
Chapter 19 Using Host Profiles in the vSphere Client Import Answer File You can import a previously exported answer file to associate with a host profile. Prerequisites The imported answer file must be associated with at least one host. Procedure 1 Right-click the host entity and select Import Answer File. 2 Select the answer file to import. Export Answer File You can export an answer file so that it can be imported and used by another host profile.
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Networking in the vSphere Client 20 When you connect directly to a host or vCenter Server with the vSphere Client, you can view and configure vSphere standard switches.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client View Networking Information in the vSphere Client The vSphere Client shows general networking information and information specific to network adapters. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the host from the inventory panel. 2 Click the Configuration tab and click Networking. 3 (Optional) Choose the type of networking to view. Option Description vSphere Standard Switch Displays vSphere standard switch networking on the host.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Setting Up Networking with vSphere Standard Switches vSphere standard switches handle network traffic at the host level in a vSphere deployment. Add a Virtual Machine Port Group Virtual machine port groups provide networking for virtual machines. Procedure 1 Log in to the ESXi host using the vSphere Client and select the host in the inventory pane. 2 On the host Configuration tab, click Networking. 3 Select the vSphere Standard Switch view.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 Select the check boxes for the network adapters for your vSphere standard switch to use. Select adapters for each vSphere standard switch so that virtual machines or other services that connect through the adapter can reach the correct Ethernet segment. If no adapters appear under Create a new vSphere standard switch, all the network adapters in the system are being used by existing vSphere standard switches or vSphere distributed switches.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client 17 Review the information, click Back to change any entries, and click Finish. View VMkernel Routing Information on a vSphere Standard Switch You can view IP and IPv6 routing information, such as network, prefix, and gateway, for a VMkernel network interface on a vSphere standard switch. Procedure 1 Log in to the ESXi host using the vSphere Client and select the host in the inventory pane.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 6 To select the connection speed manually, select the speed and duplex from the drop-down menu. Choose the connection speed manually if the NIC and a physical switch might fail to negotiate the proper connection speed. Symptoms of mismatched speed and duplex include low bandwidth or no link connectivity.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the Networking inventory view and select the datacenter. 2 Select Inventory > Datacenter > New vSphere Distributed Switch. 3 Select a vSphere distributed switch version. Option Description vSphere Distributed Switch Version: 5.0.0 Compatible with ESXi version 5.0 and later. Features released with later vSphere distributed switch versions are not supported. vSphere Distributed Switch Version: 5.1.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to edit a distributed switch. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Add Host. 3 Select the hosts to add. 4 Under the selected hosts, select the physical adapters to add and click Next. You can select physical adapters that are not being used and physical adapters that are being used.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client 7 Migrate virtual machine networking to the vSphere distributed switch. a Select Migrate virtual machine networking. b For each virtual machine, select the Destination port group from the drop-down menu or select Do not migrate. 8 Click Next. 9 (Optional) If you need to make any changes, click Back to the appropriate screen. 10 Review the settings for the distributed switch, and click Finish.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 5 (Optional) Edit uplink port names. a Click Edit uplink names. b Type new names for one or more uplink ports. c Click OK. Click OK. Edit Advanced vSphere Distributed Switch Settings You can change advanced vSphere distributed switch settings such as Cisco Discovery Protocol and the maximum MTU for the vSphere distributed switch. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client connection to a vCenter Server.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client 4 Click OK. Upgrade a vSphere Distributed Switch to a Newer Version A vSphere distributed switch version 4.0 or newer can be upgraded to a later version, enabling the distributed switch to take advantage of features that are only available in the later version. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client connection to a vCenter Server. n Verify that you have sufficient permissions to edit a distributed switch.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Distributed Port Groups A distributed port group specifies port configuration options for each member port on a vSphere distributed switch. Distributed port groups define how a connection is made to a network. Add a Distributed Port Group Add a distributed port group to a vSphere distributed switch to create a distributed switch network for your virtual machines. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client connection to a vCenter Server.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client 4 Option Action Number of Ports Type the number of ports on the distributed port group. Port binding Choose when ports are assigned to virtual machines connected to this distributed port group. n Select Static binding to assign a port to a virtual machine when the virtual machine connects to the distributed port group. This option is not available when the vSphere Client is connected directly to ESXi.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client The table on the Ports tab for the distributed switch now displays runtime statistics for each distributed port, including broadcast, multicast, and unicast ingress and egress traffic and packets. The State column displays the current state for each distributed port. Table 20‑2. Distributed Port States State Description Link Up The link for this distributed port is up. Link Down The link for this distributed port is down.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Edit Settings. 3 Select the Private VLAN tab. 4 Under Primary Private VLAN ID, click [Enter a Private VLAN ID here], and enter the number of the primary private VLAN. 5 Click anywhere in the dialog box, and then select the primary private VLAN that you just added.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Select a primary private VLAN to display its associated secondary private VLANs. 5 Select the secondary private VLAN to remove. 6 Click Remove under Secondary Private VLAN ID, and click OK. Managing Physical Adapters For each host associated with a vSphere distributed switch, you must assign physical network adapters, or uplinks, to the vSphere distributed switch. You can assign one uplink on each host per uplink port on the vSphere distributed switch.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Remove NICs from Active Virtual Machines When you remove NICs from active virtual machines, you may still see the NICs you removed reported in the vSphere Client. Remove NICs from an active virtual machine without a guest operating system installed You cannot remove NICs from an active virtual machine if the virtual machine has no operating system installed.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 9 Select Use this virtual adapter for vMotion to enable this port group to advertise itself to another ESXi host as the network connection where vMotion traffic is sent. You can enable this property for only one vMotion and IP storage port group for each host. If this property is not enabled for any port group, migration with vMotion to this host is not possible. 10 Choose whether to Use this virtual adapter for Fault Tolerance logging.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select a host in the inventory pane. 2 On the host Configuration tab, click Networking. 3 Select the vSphere Distributed Switch view. 4 Click Manage Virtual Adapters. 5 Select the virtual adapter to migrate, and click Migrate. 6 Select the standard switch to migrate the adapter to and click Next. 7 Enter a Network Label and optionally a VLAN ID for the virtual adapter, and click Next.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 13 Click OK. View VMkernel Routing Information on a vSphere Distributed Switch You can view IP and IPv6 routing information, such as network, prefix, and gateway, for a VMkernel network adapter on a vSphere distributed switch. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select a host in the inventory pane. 2 On the host Configuration tab, click Networking.
Chapter 20 Networking in the vSphere Client Migrate Virtual Machines to Or from a vSphere Distributed Switch In addition to connecting virtual machines to a distributed switch at the individual virtual machine level, you can migrate a group of virtual machines between a vSphere distributed switch network and a vSphere standard switch network. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 246 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the virtual machine from the inventory panel. 2 On the Summary tab, click Edit Settings. 3 On the Hardware tab, select the virtual network adapter. 4 Select the distributed port group to migrate to from the Network Label drop-down menu, and click OK. VMware, Inc.
Managing Network Resources 21 vSphere provides several different methods to help you manage your network resources.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Select the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane. 3 On the Resource Allocationtab, click New Network Resource Pool. 4 Type a Name for the network resource pool. 5 (Optional) Type a Description for the network resource pool. 6 Select the Physical adapter shares for the network resource pool.
Chapter 21 Managing Network Resources 6 Click OK. Edit Network Resource Pool Settings You can change network resource pool settings such as allocated shares and limits for each network resource pool to change the priority network traffic for that network resource pool is given. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Select the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client TCP Segmentation Offload and Jumbo Frames Using TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) in a VMkernel network adapter and virtual machines, and jumbo frames on a vSphere distributed switch or vSphere standard switch, improves the network performance in virtual machines and infrastructure workloads. Enable TSO Support for a Virtual Machine You can enable TSO support on a virtual machine by using an enhanced vmxnet adapter for that virtual machine.
Chapter 21 Managing Network Resources Enable Jumbo Frames on a vSphere Distributed Switch Enable a vSphere distributed switch for jumbo frames by changing the MTU size for that distributed switch. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Edit Settings. 3 On the Properties tab, select Advanced.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client DirectPath I/O DirectPath I/O allows virtual machine access to physical PCI functions on platforms with an I/O Memory Management Unit. The following features are unavailable for virtual machines configured with DirectPath: n Hot adding and removing of virtual devices n Suspend and resume n Record and replay n Fault tolerance n High availability n DRS (limited availability.
Chapter 21 Managing Network Resources Configure a PCI Device on a Virtual Machine You can configure a passthrough PCI device on a virtual machine. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Select a virtual machine from the inventory panel of the vSphere Client. 2 From the Inventory menu, select Virtual Machine > Edit Settings. 3 On the Hardware tab, click Add. 4 Select PCI Device and click Next.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) vSphere 5.1 and later releases support Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV). You can use SR-IOV for networking of virtual machines that are latency sensitive or require more CPU resources.
Chapter 21 Managing Network Resources 4 Expand Kernel Module Parameter and select the parameter of the physical function driver for creating virtual functions. For example, the parameter for the physical function driver of an Intel physical NIC is max_vfs. 5 Click Edit. 6 In the Value text box, type a comma-separated list of valid virtual function numbers. Each list entry is the number of virtual functions that you want to configure for each physical function.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 8 From the drop-down menu select the virtual function. 9 Click Finish. 10 Power on the virtual machine. Adding a virtual function as a PCI device to a virtual machine sets memory reservation to the memory size of the virtual machine.
22 Networking Policies Policies set at the standard switch or distributed port group level apply to all of the port groups on the standard switch or to ports in the distributed port group. The exceptions are the configuration options that are overridden at the standard port group or distributed port level.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 22‑1. Virtual Switch Objects Where Policies Apply (Continued) Virtual Switch Virtual Switch Object Description Uplink port group You can apply policies at uplink port group level, and the are policies are propagated to all ports in the group. Uplink port You can apply different policies on individual uplink ports by overriding the policies that are inherited from the uplink port group. Table 22‑2.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies Teaming and Failover Policy NIC teaming lets you increase the network capacity of a virtual switch by including two or more physical NICs in a team. To determine how the traffic is rerouted in case of adapter failure, you include physical NICs in a failover order. To determine how the virtual switch distributes the network traffic between the physical NICs in a team, you select load balancing algorithms depending on the needs and capabilities of your environment.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Failback Policy By default, a failback policy is enabled on a NIC team. If a failed physical NIC returns online, the virtual switch sets the NIC back to active by replacing the standby NIC that took over its slot. If the physical NIC that stands first in the failover order experiences intermittent failures, the failback policy might lead to frequent changes in the NIC that is used.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 6 Click the NIC Teaming tab. You can override the failover order at the port group level. By default, new adapters are active for all policies. New adapters carry traffic for the standard switch and its port group unless you specify otherwise. 7 8 9 In the Load Balancing list, select an option for how to select an uplink. Option Description Route based on the originating port ID Select an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the standard switch.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 11 Set Failover Order to specify how to distribute the work load for adapters. To use some adapters but reserve others for emergencies, you can set this condition using the dropdown menu to place them into groups. Option Description Active Adapters Continue to use the adapter when the network adapter connectivity is available and active. Standby Adapters Use this adapter if one of the active adapter’s connectivity is unavailable.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 6 Specify the settings in the Policy Exceptions group. Option Description Load Balancing Specify how to choose an uplink. n Route based on the originating port ID. Choose an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the virtual switch. n Route based on ip hash. Choose an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each packet. For non-IP packets, whatever is at those offsets is used to compute the hash.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Edit the Teaming and Failover Policy on a Distributed Port Group Teaming and Failover policies allow you to determine how network traffic is distributed between adapters and how to re-route traffic in the event of an adapter failure. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 5 Option Description Failback Select Yes or No to disable or enable failback. This option determines how a physical adapter is returned to active duty after recovering from a failure. If failback is set to Yes (default), the adapter is returned to active duty immediately upon recovery, displacing the standby adapter that took over its slot, if any.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 In the Teaming and Failover group, specify the following. Option Description Load Balancing Specify how to choose an uplink. n Route based on the originating virtual port — Choose an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the vSphere distributed switch. n Route based on ip hash — Choose an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each packet.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies VLAN Policy VLAN policies determine how VLANs function across your network environment. A virtual local area network (VLAN) is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements, which communicate as if they were attached to the same broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical local area network (LAN), but it allows for end stations to be grouped together even if not on the same network switch.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 6 Select the VLAN Type to use. Option Action None Do not use VLAN. VLAN In the VLAN ID field, enter a number between 1 and 4094. VLAN Trunking Enter one or more VLAN trunk range. Private VLAN Select an available private VLAN to use. Click OK. Edit the VLAN Policy on an Uplink Port Group Set the VLAN policy on an uplink port group with the vSphere Client to configure VLAN traffic processing generally for all member uplinks.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies Prerequisites To override the VLAN policy at the port level, enable the port-level overrides. See “Edit Advanced Distributed Port Group Settings,” on page 44. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Select the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane. 3 On the Ports tab, right-click the port to modify and select Edit Settings. 4 Under Policies, select VLAN and click Override.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 7 In the Policy Exceptions pane, select whether to reject or accept the Layer 2 Security policy exceptions. Option Description Promiscuous Mode n n MAC Address Changes n n Forged Transmits n n 8 Reject — Placing a guest adapter in promiscuous mode has no effect on which frames are received by the adapter.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 7 In the Policy Exceptions pane, select whether to reject or accept the security policy exceptions. Table 22‑3. Policy Exceptions 8 Mode Reject Accept Promiscuous Mode Placing a guest adapter in promiscuous mode has no effect on which frames are received by the adapter. Placing a guest adapter in promiscuous mode causes it to detect all frames passed on the standard switch that are allowed under the VLAN policy for the port group that the adapter is connected to.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 In the Security group, select whether to reject or accept the Security policy exceptions. Option Description Promiscuous Mode n n MAC Address Changes n n Forged Transmits n n 5 Reject — Placing a guest adapter in promiscuous mode has no effect on which frames are received by the adapter.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 5 In the Security group, select whether to reject or accept the Security policy exceptions. Option Description Promiscuous Mode n n MAC Address Changes n n Forged Transmits n n 6 Reject — Placing a guest adapter in promiscuous mode has no effect on which frames are received by the adapter.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Edit the Traffic Shaping Policy for a vSphere Standard Switch ESXi allows you to shape outbound traffic on standard switches. The traffic shaper restricts the network bandwidth available to any port, but may also be configured to temporarily allow “bursts” of traffic to flow through a port at higher speeds. A traffic shaping policy is defined by three characteristics: average bandwidth, peak bandwidth, and burst size.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 2 On the host Configuration tab, click Networking. 3 Choose the vSphere Standard Switch view and click Properties for the port group to edit. 4 In the Properties dialog box, click the Ports tab. 5 Select the port group item and click Edit. 6 In the Properties dialog box for the port group, click the Traffic Shaping tab. When traffic shaping is disabled, the options are dimmed.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 6 Specify network traffic parameters. Option Description Average Bandwidth Establishes the number of bits per second to allow across a port, averaged over time—the allowed average load. Peak Bandwidth The maximum number of bits per second to allow across a port when it is sending/receiving a burst of traffic. This tops the bandwidth used by a port whenever it is using its burst bonus. Burst Size The maximum number of bytes to allow in a burst.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 6 7 Specify network traffic parameters. n Average Bandwidth establishes the number of bits per second to allow across a port, averaged over time—the allowed average load. n Peak Bandwidth is the maximum number of bits per second to allow across a port when it is sending/receiving a burst of traffic. This tops the bandwidth used by a port whenever it is using its burst bonus. n Burst Size the maximum number of bytes to allow in a burst.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 Select the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane. 3 On the Ports tab, right-click the port to modify and select Edit Settings. 4 Select Policies. 5 In the Resource Allocation group, select the Network Resource Pool to associate the port with from the drop-down menu. 6 Click OK. Monitoring Policy The monitoring policy enables or disables NetFlow monitoring on a distributed port or port group.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 5 In the Monitoring group, select NetFlow status. Option 6 Description Disabled NetFlow is disabled on the port. Enabled NetFlow is enabled on the port. You can configure NetFlow settings at the distributed switch level. See “Configure NetFlow Settings,” on page 293. Click OK. Port Blocking Policies Port blocking policies allow you to selectively block ports from sending or receiving data.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Create a vSphere distributed switch with one or more port groups. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the distributed switch and select Manage Port Groups. 3 Select the policy categories to modify. Option Description Security Set MAC address changes, forged transmits, and promiscuous mode for the selected port groups.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies Status — If you enable the policy exception for either Ingress Traffic Shaping or Egress Traffic Shaping in the Status field, you are setting limits on the amount of networking bandwidth allocated for each distributed port associated with the selected port groups. If you disable the policy, the amount of network bandwidth is not limited before it reaches the physical network . 8 9 VMware, Inc. (Optional) Specify network traffic parameters.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 10 (Optional) In the Teaming and Failover group specify the following. Option Description Load Balancing Specify how to choose an uplink. n Route based on the originating virtual port — Choose an uplink based on the virtual port where the traffic entered the distributed switch. n Route based on ip hash — Choose an uplink based on a hash of the source and destination IP addresses of each packet.
Chapter 22 Networking Policies 11 (Optional) In the Resource Allocation group, choose the Network Resource Pool to associate the distributed port group with from the drop-down menu. 12 (Optional) In the Monitoring group, choose the NetFlow status. Option Description Disabled NetFlow is disabled on the distributed port group. Enabled NetFlow is enabled on the distributed port group. NetFlow settings can be configured at the vSphere distributed switch level.
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Advanced Networking 23 Advanced networking configuration options allow you greater control over your vSphere networking environment.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 5 Select Enable IPv6 support on this host and click OK. 6 Reboot the host. VLAN Configuration Virtual LANs (VLANs) enable a single physical LAN segment to be further isolated so that groups of ports are isolated from one another as if they were on physically different segments. Configuring ESXi with VLANs is recommended for the following reasons. n It integrates the host into a pre-existing environment. n It isolates and secures network traffic.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking Port Mirroring Version Compatibility Certain port mirroring functionality in vSphere 5.1 and later depends on which version of vCenter Server, vSphere distributed switch, and host you use, and how you use these aspects of vSphere together. Table 23‑1. Port mirroring compatibility vCenter Server version vSphere distributed switch version Host version vSphere 5.1 port mirroring functionality vSphere 5.1 and later vSphere 5.1 and later vSphere 5.1 and later vSphere 5.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 23‑2. vMotion Interoperability with port mirroring Port mirroring session type Source and destination Interoperable with vMotion Functionality Distributed Port Mirroring Non-uplink distributed port source and destination Yes Port mirroring between distributed ports can only be local. If the source and destination are on different hosts due to vMotion, mirroring between them will not work.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking When TSO is enabled on a vNIC, the vNIC might send a large packet to a distributed switch. When LRO is enabled on a vNIC, small packets sent to it might be merged into a large packet. Source Destination Description TSO LRO Packets from the source vNIC might be large packets, and whether they are split is determined by whether their sizes are larger than the destination vNIC LRO limitation.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 7 (Optional) Select Preserve original VLAN to keep the original VLAN in an inner tag so mirrored frames are double encapsulated. This option is available only if you select Encapsulation VLAN. 8 (Optional) Select Mirrored packet length to put a limit on the size of mirrored frames. If this option is selected, all mirrored frames are truncated to the specified length. 9 Click Next.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking View Port Mirroring Session Details View port mirroring session details, including status, sources, and destinations. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Edit Settings. 3 On the Port Mirroring tab, select the port mirroring session to view.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 12 Click OK. Edit Port Mirroring Sources Edit sources and traffic direction for the port mirroring session. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the Networking inventory view. 2 Right-click the vSphere distributed switch in the inventory pane, and select Edit Settings. 3 On the Port Mirroring tab, select the port mirroring session to modify and click Edit.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking 7 (Optional) Select a destination from the right-hand column and click << to remove the destination from the port mirroring session. 8 Click OK. Configure NetFlow Settings NetFlow is a network analysis tool that you can use to monitor network monitoring and virtual machine traffic. NetFlow is available on vSphere distributed switch version 5.0.0 and later. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Enable Cisco Discovery Protocol on a vSphere Distributed Switch Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) allows vSphere administrators to determine which Cisco switch port connects to a given vSphere standard switch or vSphere distributed switch. When CDP is enabled for a particular vSphere distributed switch, you can view properties of the Cisco switch (such as device ID, software version, and timeout) from the vSphere Client.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking 6 7 Select the LLDP mode from the Operation drop-down menu. Option Description Listen ESXi detects and displays information about the associated physical switch port, but information about the vSphere distributed switch is not available to the switch administrator. Advertise ESXi makes information about the vSphere distributed switch available to the switch administrator, but does not detect and display information about the physical switch.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client MAC Address Management MAC addresses are used in the Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) of the network protocol stack to transmit frames to a recipient. In vSphere, vCenter Server generates MAC addresses for virtual machine adapters and VMkernel adapters, or you can assign addresses manually. Each network adapter manufacturer is assigned a unique three-byte prefix called an Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI), which it can use to generate unique MAC addresses.
Chapter 23 Advanced Networking 3 Add or adjust one of the following allocation types. NOTE Use only one allocation type. u Prefix-based allocation Key Default Value config.vpxd.macAllocScheme.prefixScheme.prefix 005026 config.vpxd.macAllocScheme.prefixScheme.prefixLength 23 Change the default values to your choice of prefix and prefix length. u Range-based allocation Key Default Value config.vpxd.macAllocScheme.rangeScheme.range[0].begin 005067000000 config.vpxd.macAllocScheme.rangeScheme.
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Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 24 When you connect to a host or vCenter Server using the vSphere Client, you can perform a variety of storage management tasks, including configuring adapters, creating datastores, and viewing storage device information.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n “Storage Thin Provisioning,” on page 336 n “Using Storage Vendor Providers,” on page 338 Storage Limitations in the vSphere Client The storage tasks that you can perform when you connect directly to an ESXi host or vCenter Server system with the vSphere Client are limited. The following storage features are unavailable or read-only in the vSphere Client: n AHCI SATA devices n NFS client 4.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client Display Storage Devices for an Adapter in the vSphere Client Use the vSphere Client to display a list of storage devices accessible to a specific storage adapter on the host. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Select a host and click the Configuration tab. 2 In Hardware, select Storage Adapters. 3 Select the adapter from the Storage Adapters list. 4 Click Devices.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Open the New Virtual Machine wizard. 2 Select Custom, and click Next. 3 Follow all steps required to create a custom virtual machine. 4 On the Select a Disk page, select Raw Device Mapping, and click Next. 5 From a list of SAN disks or LUNs, select a raw LUN you want your virtual machine to access directly. 6 Select a datastore for the RDM mapping file.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Open the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box by clicking the Edit Settings link for the selected virtual machine. 2 Click the Options tab and select Fibre Channel NPIV. The Virtual Machine Properties dialog box opens. 3 4 Edit the WWN assignments by selecting one of the following options: Option Description Temporarily disable NPIV for this virtual machine Disable the WWN assignments for the virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 8 Specify a VLAN ID and click Next. Because FCoE traffic requires an isolated network, make sure that the VLAN ID you enter is different from the one used for regular networking on your host. For more information, see the vSphere Networking documentation. 9 Specify the IP settings and click Next. 10 Review the information and click Finish. You have created the virtual VMkernel adapter for the physical FCoE network adapter installed on your host.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 2 Click the Configuration tab and click Advanced Settings under Software. 3 Click Disk in the left panel and scroll down to Disk.EnableNaviReg on the right. 4 Change the default value to 0. This disables the automatic host registration enabled by default. Setting Up Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters An independent hardware iSCSI adapter is a specialized third-party adapter capable of accessing iSCSI storage over TCP/IP.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Click Properties. The iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box appears. The General tab displays additional characteristics of the adapter. You can now configure your independent hardware adapter or change its default characteristics. Change Name and IP Address for Independent Hardware iSCSI Adapters When you configure your independent hardware iSCSI adapters, make sure that their names and IP addresses are formatted properly.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client See “View Dependent Hardware iSCSI Adapters,” on page 307. If your dependent hardware adapters do not appear on the list of storage adapters, check whether they need to be licensed. See your vendor documentation. 2 Determine the association between the dependent hardware adapters and physical NICs. See “Determine Association Between iSCSI and Network Adapters,” on page 308. Make sure to note the names of the corresponding physical NICs.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Determine Association Between iSCSI and Network Adapters You create network connections to bind dependent iSCSI and network adapters. To create the connections correctly, you must determine the name of the physical NIC with which the dependent hardware iSCSI adapter is associated. Prerequisites Required privilege: Host.Configuration.Storage Partition Configuration Procedure 1 In the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, click the Network Configuration tab.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Required privilege: Host.Configuration.Storage Partition Configuration NOTE If you boot from iSCSI using the software iSCSI adapter, the adapter is enabled and the network configuration is created at the first boot. If you disable the adapter, it is reenabled each time you boot the host. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client, and select a host from the inventory panel.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Setting Up iSCSI Network Software and dependent hardware iSCSI adapters depend on VMkernel networking. If you use the software or dependent hardware iSCSI adapters, you must configure connections for the traffic between the iSCSI component and the physical network adapters. Configuring the network connection involves creating a virtual VMkernel adapter for each physical network adapter. You then associate the VMkernel adapter with an appropriate iSCSI adapter.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client One way to achieve the 1:1 mapping when you have multiple NICs, is to designate a separate vSphere switch for each virtual-to-physical adapter pair. NOTE If you use separate vSphere switches, you must connect them to different IP subnets. Otherwise, VMkernel adapters might experience connectivity problems and the host will fail to discover iSCSI LUNs.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 24‑1. Networking configuration for iSCSI (Continued) iSCSI Adapters VMkernel Adapters (Ports) Physical Adapters (NICs) vmhba33 vmk1 vmnic1 vmhba34 vmk2 vmnic2 Create Network Connections for iSCSI in the vSphere Client Configure connections for the traffic between the software or dependent hardware iSCSI adapters and the physical network adapters. The following tasks discuss the iSCSI network configuration with a vSphere standard switch.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client If you have multiple network adapters, create additional VMkernel adapters and then perform iSCSI binding. The number of virtual adapters must correspond to the number of physical adapters on the host. Create Additional VMkernel Adapters for iSCSI Use this task if you have two or more physical network adapters for iSCSI and you want to connect all of your NICs to a single vSphere standard switch.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Change Port Group Policy for iSCSI VMkernel Adapters If you use a single vSphere standard switch to connect VMkernel to multiple network adapters, change the port group policy, so that it is compatible with the iSCSI network requirements. By default, for each virtual adapter on the vSphere standard switch, all network adapters appear as active. You must override this setup, so that each VMkernel interface maps to only one corresponding active NIC.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 5 Click Add and select a VMkernel adapter to bind with the iSCSI adapter. You can bind the software iSCSI adapter to one or more VMkernel adapters. For a dependent hardware iSCSI adapter, only one VMkernel interface associated with the correct physical NIC is available. 6 Click OK. The network connection appears on the list of VMkernel port bindings for the iSCSI adapter.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 7 Set the MTU to match the value configured on the standard switch, and click OK. Configuring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Adapters You need to set up target discovery addresses, so that the iSCSI adapter can determine which storage resource on the network is available for access. The ESXi system supports these discovery methods: Dynamic Discovery Also known as SendTargets discovery.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 7 Type the IP address or DNS name of the storage system and click OK. After your host establishes the SendTargets session with this system, any newly discovered targets appear in the Static Discovery list. 8 To delete a specific SendTargets server, select it and click Remove. After you remove a SendTargets server, it might still appear in the Inheritance field as the parent of static targets.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Set Up CHAP for iSCSI Adapter in the vSphere Client You can set up all targets to receive the same CHAP name and secret from the iSCSI initiator at the initiator level. By default, all discovery addresses or static targets inherit CHAP parameters that you set up at the initiator level. The CHAP name should not exceed 511 alphanumeric characters and the CHAP secret should not exceed 255 alphanumeric characters.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 5 Click OK. 6 Rescan the initiator. If you change the CHAP or mutual CHAP parameters, they are used for new iSCSI sessions. For existing sessions, new settings are not used until you log out and log in again. Set Up CHAP for Target in the vSphere Client For software and dependent hardware iSCSI adapters, you can configure different CHAP credentials for each discovery address or static target.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client c Specify the mutual CHAP name. d Enter the mutual CHAP secret. Make sure to use different secrets for the one-way CHAP and mutual CHAP. 6 Click OK. 7 Rescan the initiator. If you change the CHAP or mutual CHAP parameters, they are used for new iSCSI sessions. For existing sessions, new settings are not used until you log out and login again. Disable CHAP You can disable CHAP if your storage system does not require it.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 3 Configure advanced parameters at the target level. At the target level, advanced parameters can be configured only for software and dependent hardware iSCSI adapters. 4 a Select either the Dynamic Discovery tab or Static Discovery tab. b From the list of available targets, select a target to configure and click Settings > Advanced. Enter any required values for the advanced parameters you want to modify and click OK to save your changes.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 3 Select a rescan option. Option Description Storage In the Hardware panel, click Storage, and click Rescan All above the Datastores or Devices panel. Storage Adapters In the Hardware panel, click Storage Adapters, and click Rescan All above the Storage Adapters panel. NOTE You can also right-click an individual adapter and select Rescan to rescan just that adapter. Specify extent of rescan.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client Depending on the type of storage you use, datastores can be backed by the following file system formats: n Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) n Network File System (NFS) After creating datastores, you can organize them in different ways. For example, you can group them into folders according to business practices. This allows you to assign the same permissions and alarms on the datastores in the group at one time.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 10 If the space specified for storage is excessive for your purposes, you can adjust the capacity values. By default, the entire free space on the storage device is available. 11 Click Next. 12 In the Ready to Complete page, review the datastore configuration information and click Finish. A datastore on the SCSI-based storage device is created. If you use the vCenter Server system to manage your hosts, the newly created datastore is added to all hosts.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client n SPC-2 compliancy enablement ESXi can detect the VMFS datastore copy and display it in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. You have an option of mounting the datastore copy with its original UUID or changing the UUID to resignature the datastore. Whether you chose resignaturing or mounting without resignaturing depends on how the LUNs are masked in the storage environment.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client When you perform datastore resignaturing, consider the following points: n Datastore resignaturing is irreversible. n The LUN copy that contains the VMFS datastore that you resignature is no longer treated as a LUN copy. n A spanned datastore can be resignatured only if all its extents are online. n The resignaturing process is crash and fault tolerant. If the process is interrupted, you can resume it later.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client n While performing an upgrade, your host preserves all files on the datastore. n The datastore upgrade is a one-way process. After upgrading your datastore, you cannot revert it back to its previous VMFS format. An upgraded VMFS5 datastore differs from a newly formatted VMFS5. Table 24‑3.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Upgrade VMFS3 Datastores to VMFS5 in the vSphere Client VMFS5 is a new version of the VMware cluster file system that provides performance and scalability improvements. Prerequisites n Open a vSphere Client connection to a vCenter Server. n If you use a VMFS2 datastore, you must first upgrade it to VMFS3. Follow the instructions in “Upgrade VMFS2 Datastores to VMFS3,” on page 327. n All hosts accessing the datastore must support VMFS5.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 4 Click Increase. 5 Select a device from the list of storage devices and click Next. Option Description To add a new extent Select the device for which the Expandable column reads NO. To expand an existing extent Select the device for which the Expandable column reads YES 6 Review the Current Disk Layout to see the available configurations and click Next. 7 Select a configuration option from the bottom panel.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Group VMFS or NFS Datastores in the vSphere Client If you use the vCenter Server system to manage your hosts, group datastores into folders. This allows you to organize your datastores according to business practices and to assign the same permissions and alarms on the datastores in the group at one time. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 3 Click Datastores and click Add Storage. 4 Select Diagnostic and click Next. If you do not see Diagnostic as an option, the host already has a diagnostic partition. 5 Specify the type of diagnostic partition. Option Description Private Local Creates the diagnostic partition on a local disk. This partition stores fault information only for your host. Private SAN Storage Creates the diagnostic partition on a non-shared SAN LUN.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Raw Device Mapping Raw device mapping (RDM) provides a mechanism for a virtual machine to have direct access to a LUN on the physical storage subsystem (Fibre Channel or iSCSI only). The following topics contain information about RDMs and provide instructions on how to create and manage RDMs.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 8 Click Next. 9 In the Ready to Complete New Virtual Machine page, review your selections. 10 Click Finish to complete your virtual machine. Manage Paths for a Mapped Raw LUN You can manage paths for mapped raw LUNs. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system or an ESXi host. Procedure 1 Log in as administrator or as the owner of the virtual machine to which the mapped disk belongs.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client For the paths managed by the NMP module, a second set of claim rules is applied. These rules determine which Storage Array Type Plug-In (SATP) should be used to manage the paths for a specific array type, and which Path Selection Plug-In (PSP) is to be used for each storage device. Use the vSphere Client to view which SATP and PSP the host is using for a specific storage device and the status of all available paths for this storage device.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client 6 (Optional) To extract the path's parameters, right-click the path and select Copy path to clipboard. Change the Path Selection Policy in the vSphere Client Generally, you do not have to change the default multipathing settings your host uses for a specific storage device. However, if you want to make any changes, you can use the Manage Paths dialog box to modify a path selection policy and specify the preferred path for the Fixed policy.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Disable Hardware Acceleration for Block Storage Devices On your host, the hardware acceleration for block storage devices is enabled by default. You can use the vSphere Client advanced settings to disable the hardware acceleration operations. As with any advanced settings, before you disable the hardware acceleration, consult with the VMware support team. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client View Virtual Machine Storage Resources You can view how datastore storage space is allocated for your virtual machines. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system or an ESXi host. Procedure 1 Select the virtual machine in the inventory. 2 Click the Summary tab. 3 Review the space allocation information in the Resources section. n Provisioned Storage – Shows datastore space allocated to the virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 Click the Summary tab and, under Resources, double-click the datastore for the virtual machine to open the Datastore Browser dialog box. 3 Click the virtual machine folder to find the virtual disk file you want to convert. The file has the .vmdk extension. 4 Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate. The inflated virtual disk occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it.
Chapter 24 Managing Storage in the vSphere Client View Vendor Provider Information After you register a vendor provider component with the vCenter Server, the vendor provider appears on the vendor providers list in the vSphere Client. View general vendor provider information and details for each vendor component. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Select View > Administration > Storage Providers.
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Resource Management for Single Hosts 25 When you connect the vSphere Client directly to a host, you have access to a limited number of resource management settings, including hyperthreading settings, power management configuration, and swapfile properties.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Changing Resource Allocation Settings—Example The following example illustrates how you can change resource allocation settings to improve virtual machine performance. Assume that on an ESXi host, you have created two new virtual machines—one each for your QA (VM-QA) and Marketing (VM-Marketing) departments. Figure 25‑1.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts View Processor Information You can access information about current CPU configuration through the vSphere Client or using the vSphere SDK. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the host and click the Configuration tab. 2 Select Processors. You can view the information about the number and type of physical processors and the number of logical processors.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory panel, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Resources tab, and click Advanced CPU. 3 Select a hyperthreading mode for this virtual machine from the Mode drop-down menu. Assign a Virtual Machine to a Specific Processor Using CPU affinity, you can assign a virtual machine to a specific processor.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts 2 Under Software, select Advanced Settings. 3 Click Power in the left pane. 4 In the right pane, you can edit the power management parameters that affect the Custom policy. Power management parameters that affect the Custom policy have descriptions that begin with In Custom policy. All other power parameters affect all power management policies. NOTE The default values of power management parameters match the Balanced policy.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 In the left pane of the cluster Settings dialog box, click Swapfile Location. 3 Select the Store the swapfile in the datastore specified by the host option and click OK. 4 In the vSphere Client inventory, select one of the hosts in the cluster and click the Configuration tab. 5 Under Software, select Virtual Machine Swapfile Location.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts 2 Click the Configuration tab. 3 Click the Virtual Machine Swapfile Location link. The Configuration tab displays the selected swapfile location. If configuration of the swapfile location is not supported on the selected host, the tab indicates that the feature is not supported.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Delete Swap Files If a host fails, and that host had running virtual machines that were using swap files, those swap files continue to exist and consume many gigabytes of disk space. You can delete the swap files to eliminate this problem. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system or an ESXi host. Procedure 1 Restart the virtual machine that was on the host that failed. 2 Stop the virtual machine.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts 5 Enter 1 to enable or enter 0 to disable the memory compression cache. 6 Click OK. Set the Maximum Size of the Memory Compression Cache You can set the maximum size of the memory compression cache for the host's virtual machines. You set the size of the compression cache as a percentage of the memory size of the virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Storage I/O Control Resource Shares and Limits You allocate the number of storage I/O shares and upper limit of I/O operations per second (IOPS) allowed for each virtual machine. When storage I/O congestion is detected for a datastore, the I/O workloads of the virtual machines accessing that datastore are adjusted according to the proportion of virtual machine shares each virtual machine has.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Procedure 1 Select the datastore in the vSphere Client inventory and click the Performance tab. 2 From the View drop-down menu, select Performance. For more information, see the vSphere Monitoring and Performance documentation. Set Storage I/O Control Resource Shares and Limits Allocate storage I/O resources to virtual machines based on importance by assigning a relative amount of shares to the virtual machine.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client On the Datastores tab, the Storage I/O Control column shows that Storage I/O Control is enabled for the datastore. Set Storage I/O Control Threshold Value The congestion threshold value for a datastore is the upper limit of latency that is allowed for a datastore before Storage I/O Control begins to assign importance to the virtual machine workloads according to their shares. You do not need to adjust the threshold setting in most environments.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Users can create child resource pools of the root resource pool or of any user-created child resource pool. Each child resource pool owns some of the parent’s resources and can, in turn, have a hierarchy of child resource pools to represent successively smaller units of computational capability. A resource pool can contain child resource pools, virtual machines, or both. You can create a hierarchy of shared resources.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Specify how to allocate CPU and memory resources. The CPU resources for your resource pool are the guaranteed physical resources the host reserves for a resource pool. Normally, you accept the default and let the host handle resource allocation. 5 Option Description Shares Specify shares for this resource pool with respect to the parent’s total resources.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Edit a Resource Pool After you create the resource pool, you can edit its CPU and memory resource settings. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the resource pool in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 In the Edit Settings dialog box, you can change all attributes of the selected resource pool as described in “Create a Resource Pool,” on page 353.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Remove a Virtual Machine from a Resource Pool You can remove a virtual machine from a resource pool either by moving the virtual machine to another resource pool or deleting it. When you remove a virtual machine from a resource pool, the total number of shares associated with the resource pool decreases, so that each remaining share represents more resources.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Table 25‑1. DRS Behavior with vSphere FT Virtual Machines and EVC EVC DRS (Load Balancing) DRS (Initial Placement) Enabled Enabled (Primary and Secondary VMs) Enabled (Primary and Secondary VMs) Disabled Disabled (Primary and Secondary VMs) Disabled (Primary VMs) Fully Automated (Secondary VMs) Create a DRS Cluster Create a DRS cluster using the New Cluster wizard in the vSphere Client.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 15 Click Finish to complete cluster creation, or click Back to go back and make modifications to the cluster setup. A new cluster does not include any hosts or virtual machines. To add hosts and virtual machines to the cluster see “Adding Hosts to a Cluster,” on page 359 and “Removing Virtual Machines from a Cluster,” on page 361.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Disable DRS You can turn off DRS for a cluster. When DRS is disabled, the cluster’s resource pool hierarchy and affinity rules are not reestablished when DRS is turned back on. So if you disable DRS, the resource pools are removed from the cluster. To avoid losing the resource pools, instead of disabling DRS, you should suspend it by changing the DRS automation level to manual (and disabling any virtual machine overrides).
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client vCenter Server creates a top-level resource pool that becomes a direct child of the cluster and adds all children of the host to that new resource pool. You can supply a name for that new top-level resource pool. The default is Grafted from . The host is added to the cluster. Add an Unmanaged Host to a Cluster You can add an unmanaged host to a cluster.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Removing Virtual Machines from a Cluster You can remove virtual machines from a cluster. You can remove a virtual machine from a cluster in two ways. n When you remove a host from a cluster, all of the powered-off virtual machines that you do not migrate to other hosts are removed as well. You can remove a host only if it is in maintenance mode or disconnected.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 2 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click a host and select Enter Maintenance Mode. n If the host is part of a partially automated or manual DRS cluster, a list of migration recommendations for virtual machines running on the host appears.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Managing Power Resources The vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM) feature allows a DRS cluster to reduce its power consumption by powering hosts on and off based on cluster resource utilization. vSphere DPM monitors the cumulative demand of all virtual machines in the cluster for memory and CPU resources and compares this to the total available resource capacity of all hosts in the cluster.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 Click Power Management. 4 Click Properties. 5 Enter the following information. 6 n User name and password for a BMC account. (The user name must have the ability to remotely power the host on.) n IP address of the NIC associated with the BMC, as distinct from the IP address of the host. The IP address should be static or a DHCP address with infinite lease. n MAC address of the NIC associated with the BMC. Click OK.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts 4 For any host that fails to exit standby mode successfully, select the host in the cluster Settings dialog box’s Host Options page and change its Power Management setting to Disabled. After you do this, vSphere DPM does not consider that host a candidate for being powered off. Using DRS Affinity Rules You can control the placement of virtual machines on hosts within a cluster by using affinity rules. You can create two types of rules.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client What to do next Using this host DRS group, you can create a VM-Host affinity rule that establishes an affinity (or antiaffinity) relationship with an appropriate virtual machine DRS group. “Create a Virtual Machine DRS Group,” on page 366 “Create a VM-Host Affinity Rule,” on page 367 Create a Virtual Machine DRS Group Affinity rules establish an affinity (or anti-affinity) relationship between DRS groups.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 In the left pane of the Cluster Settings dialog box under vSphere DRS, select Rules. 3 Click Add. 4 In the Rule dialog box, type a name for the rule. 5 From the Type menu, select either Keep Virtual Machines Together or Separate Virtual Machines. 6 Click Add.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 7 8 Select a specification for the rule. n Must run on hosts in group. Virtual machines in VM Group 1 must run on hosts in Host Group A. n Should run on hosts in group. Virtual machines in VM Group 1 should, but are not required, to run on hosts in Host Group A. n Must not run on hosts in group. Virtual machines in VM Group 1 must never run on host in Host Group A. n Should not run on hosts in group.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Enable and Disable Storage DRS Storage DRS allows you to manage the aggregated resources of a datastore cluster. When Storage DRS is enabled, it provides recommendations for virtual machine disk placement and migration to balance space and I/O resources across the datastores in the datastore cluster. When you enable Storage DRS, you enable the following functions. Space load balancing among datastores within a datastore cluster.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 Click OK. Set Storage DRS Runtime Rules Set Storage DRS triggers and configure advanced options for the datastore cluster. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 (Optional) Select or deselect the Enable I/O metric for SDRS recommendations check box to enable or disable I/O metric inclusion. When you disable this option, vCenter Server does not consider I/O metrics when making Storage DRS recommendations.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Adding and Removing Datastores from a Datastore Cluster You add and remove datastores to and from an existing datastore cluster by dragging them in the vSphere Client inventory. You can add to a datastore cluster any datastore that is mounted on a host in the vSphere Client inventory, with the following exceptions: n All hosts attached to the datastore must be ESXi 5.0 and later.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 (Optional) On the Placement Recommendations tab, deselect any recommendations you do not want to apply. NOTE The datastore cannot enter maintenance mode without evacuating all disks. If you deselect recommendations, you must manually move the affected virtual machines. 3 If necessary, click Apply Recommendations.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Table 25‑2. Storage DRS Recommendations Label Description Priority Priority level (1-5) of the recommendation. (Hidden by default.) Recommendation Action being recommended by Storage DRS. Reason Why the action is needed. Space Utilization % Before (source) and (destination) Percentage of space used on the source and destination datastores before migration.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 4 5 In the Automation Level column, select an automation level for the virtual machine. Option Description Default (Manual) Placement and migration recommendations are displayed, but do not run until you manually apply the recommendation. Fully Automated Placement and migration recommendations run automatically. Disabled vCenter Server does not migrate the virtual machine or provide migration recommendations for it.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts e Set the I/O latency threshold. Use the I/O Latency slider to indicate the maximum I/O latency allowed before Storage DRS is triggered. Storage DRS makes recommendations and performs migrations when latency is higher than the threshold. NOTE The Storage DRS I/O Latency threshold for the datastore cluster should be lower than or equal to the Storage I/O Control congestion threshold. f Set the I/O imbalance threshold.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Datastore Cluster B has an inter-VM anti-affinity rule. When you move a virtual disk out of Datastore Cluster A and into Datastore Cluster B, any rule that applied to the virtual disk for a given virtual machine in Datastore Cluster A no longer applies. The virtual disk is now subject to the inter-VM antiaffinity rule in Datastore Cluster B. n Datastore Cluster B has an intra-VM anti-affinity rule.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Create Intra-VM Anti-Affinity Rules You can create a VMDK anti-affinity rule for a virtual machine that indicates which of its virtual disks must be kept on different datastores. VMDK anti-affinity rules apply to the virtual machine for which the rule is defined, not to all virtual machines. The rule is expressed as a list of virtual disks that are to be separated from one another.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n If the virtual machine's virtual disk violates the rule, Storage DRS makes migration recommendations to correct the error or reports the violation as a fault if it cannot make a recommendation that will correct the error. When you add a datastore to a datastore cluster that is enabled for Storage DRS, the VMDK affinity rule is disabled for any virtual machine that has virtual disks on that datastore if it also has virtual disks on other datastores.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Using NUMA Systems with ESXi ESXi supports memory access optimization for Intel and AMD Opteron processors in server architectures that support NUMA (non-uniform memory access). After you understand how ESXi NUMA scheduling is performed and how the VMware NUMA algorithms work, you can specify NUMA controls to optimize the performance of your virtual machines.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Associate Memory Allocations with Specific NUMA Nodes Using Memory Affinity You can specify that all future memory allocations on a virtual machine use pages associated with specific NUMA nodes (also known as manual memory affinity). NOTE Specify nodes to be used for future memory allocations only if you have also specified CPU affinity. If you make manual changes only to the memory affinity settings, automatic NUMA rebalancing does not work properly.
Chapter 25 Resource Management for Single Hosts Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the Options tab. 3 Select Advanced > General. 4 Click Configuration Parameters. 5 Click Add Row to add a new option. 6 In the Name column, enter numa.nodeAffinity. 7 In the Value column, enter the NUMA nodes where the virtual machine can be scheduled. Use a comma-separated list for multiple nodes.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 382 1 In the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 Click Options and click Advanced > General. 3 Click Configuration Parameters. 4 In the dialog box that appears, click Add Row to enter a new parameter and its value. 5 Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters 26 vSphere HA clusters enable a collection of ESXi hosts to work together so that, as a group, they provide higher levels of availability for virtual machines than each ESXi host can provide individually. When you plan the creation and usage of a new vSphere HA cluster, the options you select affect the way that cluster responds to failures of hosts or virtual machines.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n To ensure that any virtual machine can run on any host in the cluster, all hosts must have access to the same virtual machine networks and datastores. Similarly, virtual machines must be located on shared, not local, storage otherwise they cannot be failed over in the case of a host failure. NOTE vSphere HA uses datastore heartbeating to distinguish between partitioned, isolated, and failed hosts.
Chapter 26 Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters Prerequisites Verify that all virtual machines and their configuration files reside on shared storage. Verify that the hosts are configured to access that shared storage so that you can power on the virtual machines using different hosts in the cluster, Verify that hosts are configured to have access to the virtual machine network. NOTE Use redundant management network connections for vSphere HA.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Configuring vSphere HA Cluster Settings in the vSphere Client When you create a vSphere HA cluster or configure an existing cluster, you must configure settings that determine how the feature works. In the vSphere Client, you can configure the following vSphere HA settings: Host Monitoring Enable host monitoring to allow hosts in the cluster to exchange network heartbeats and to allow vSphere HA to take action when it detects failures.
Chapter 26 Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters Disabling admission control allows a virtual machine to be powered on even if it causes insufficient failover capacity. When this happens, no warnings are presented, and the cluster does not turn red. If a cluster has insufficient failover capacity, vSphere HA can still perform failovers and it uses the VM Restart Priority setting to determine which virtual machines to power on first.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Select the VM restart priority for virtual machines in the cluster. The restart priority determines the order in which virtual machines are restarted when the host fails. Higher priority virtual machines are started first. This priority applies only on a per-host basis. If multiple hosts fail, all virtual machines are migrated from the first host in order of priority, then all virtual machines from the second host in order of priority, and so on.
Chapter 26 Creating and Using vSphere HA Clusters 4 To instruct vSphere HA about how to select the datastores and how to treat your preferences, choose from the following options: Table 26‑1. Datastore Heartbeating Options Select only from my preferred datastores Select any of the cluster datastores Select any of the cluster datastores taking into account my preferences 5 In the Datastores Available for Heartbeating pane, select the datastores that you want to use for heartbeating.
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Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines 27 You can utilize vSphere Fault Tolerance for your virtual machines to ensure business continuity with higher levels of availability and data protection than is offered by vSphere HA. Fault Tolerance is built on the ESXi host platform, and it provides continuous availability by having identical virtual machines run on separate hosts.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client of mission critical information. With vSphere Fault Tolerance, you can protect this virtual machine prior to running this report and then turn off or suspend Fault Tolerance after the report has been produced. You can use On-Demand Fault Tolerance to protect the virtual machine during a critical time period and return the resources to normal during non-critical operation.
Chapter 27 Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines Other Configuration Recommendations You should also observe the following guidelines when configuring Fault Tolerance. n If you are using NFS to access shared storage, use dedicated NAS hardware with at least a 1Gbit NIC to obtain the network performance required for Fault Tolerance to work properly. n The memory reservation of a fault tolerant virtual machine is set to the VM's memory size when Fault Tolerance is turned on.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 2 Click the Configuration tab. 3 Select Networking under Hardware, and click the Add Networking link. The Add Network wizard appears. 4 Select VMkernel under Connection Types and click Next. 5 Select Create a virtual switch and click Next. 6 Provide a label for the switch. 7 Select either Use this port group for vMotion or Use this port group for Fault Tolerance logging and click Next. 8 Provide an IP address and subnet mask and click Next.
Chapter 27 Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines n VLAN C: vMotion Port Group-active on vmnic1 (to physical switch #2); standby on vmnic3 (to physical switch #1.) n VLAN D: FT Logging Port Group-active on vmnic3 (to physical switch #1); standby on vmnic1 (to physical switch #2.) vMotion and FT Logging can share the same VLAN (configure the same VLAN number in both port groups), but require their own unique IP addresses residing in different IP subnets.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client The results of the compliance test appear at the bottom of the screen. A host is labeled as either Compliant or Noncompliant. Using Fault Tolerance After you have taken all of the required steps for enabling vSphere Fault Tolerance for your cluster, you can use the feature by turning it on for individual virtual machines. Before Fault Tolerance can be turned on, validation checks are performed on a virtual machine.
Chapter 27 Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the Hosts & Clusters view. 2 Right-click the fault tolerant virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance > Turn Off Fault Tolerance. Fault Tolerance is turned off for the selected virtual machine. Any history and the secondary virtual machine for the selected virtual machine are deleted.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client, select the Hosts & Clusters view. 2 Right-click the fault tolerant virtual machine and select Fault Tolerance > Test Failover. This task induces failure of the Primary VM to ensure that the Secondary VM replaces it. A new Secondary VM is also started placing the Primary VM back in a Protected state.
Chapter 27 Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines n Not Protected. The Secondary VM is not running. Possible reasons are listed in the table. Table 27‑1. Reasons for Primary VM Not Protected Status Reason for Not Protected Status Description Starting Fault Tolerance is in the process of starting the Secondary VM. This message is only visible for a short period of time. Need Secondary VM The Primary VM is running without a Secondary VM, so the Primary VM is currently not protected.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Best Practices for Fault Tolerance To ensure optimal Fault Tolerance results, you should follow certain best practices. The following recommendations for host and networking configuration can help improve the stability and performance of your cluster. Host Configuration Hosts running the Primary and Secondary VMs should operate at approximately the same processor frequencies, otherwise the Secondary VM might be restarted more frequently.
Chapter 27 Providing Fault Tolerance for Virtual Machines Store ISOs on Shared Storage for Continuous Access Store ISOs that are accessed by virtual machines with Fault Tolerance enabled on shared storage that is accessible to both instances of the fault tolerant virtual machine. If you use this configuration, the CD-ROM in the virtual machine continues operating normally, even when a failover occurs.
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Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 28 When you connect to a single host using the vSphere Client, you can monitor the host health status, and view events, system logs, and performance charts.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Export to spreadsheet. n Save to image file or spreadsheet. Set Advanced Performance Charts as the Default You can configure the vSphere Client to display the advanced performance charts by default when you open the Performance tab. The default is to display the overview performance charts. Prerequisites Ensure that you have connected to a vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Client. Procedure 1 Select Edit > Client Settings.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 7 In Counters, select the data counters to display in the chart. You can also specify counters using the All or None buttons. Click a counter name to display information about the counter in the Counter Description panel. 8 Click Apply. Changes to chart settings take effect immediately after they are applied. 9 Click OK. Create a Custom Advanced Chart You can create your own charts by saving customized chart settings.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 In the Performance tab, click Advanced. 2 Click Save. 3 In the Save Performance Chart dialog box, navigate to the location to save the file. 4 Enter a name for the file. 5 Select a file type. 6 Click Save. The file is saved to the location and format you specified. Export Performance Data to a Spreadsheet You can export performance data from the Advanced charts to a Microsoft Office Excel file.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client n Power n Network n Battery n Storage n Cable/Interconnect n Software components n Watchdog n PCI devices n Other The host health monitoring tool presents data gathered using Systems Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) profiles. The information displayed depends on the sensors available on your server hardware.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Reset Hardware Sensors When Directly Connected to a Host Some host hardware sensors display data that is cumulative over time. You can reset these sensors to clear the data in them and begin collecting new data. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to the ESXi host. If you need to preserve sensor data for troubleshooting or other purposes, take a screenshot, export the data, or download a support bundle before resetting sensors.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client Event data includes details about the event such as who generated it, when it occured, and what type of event it is. There are three types of events: n Information n Warning n Error In the vSphere Client, event data is displayed in Tasks and Events tab for the selected inventory object. See “View Events,” on page 410.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client View Events You can either view all vSphere events or view events associated with a single object. The events list for a selected inventory object includes events associated with child objects. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Required privilege: Read-only Procedure u To see a list of events associated with a selected inventory object and its child objects, select the Tasks & Events tab and click Events.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 5 Click OK. vCenter Server creates the file in the specified location. The file contains the Type, Time, and Description of the events. View Triggered Alarms and Alarm Definitions Triggered alarms are visible in several locations throughout the vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure n To view all triggered alarms, click Alarms in the status bar.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client n Specify Alarm Tolerance and Frequency on page 414 You can use reporting to apply a tolerance range for the alarm triggers. This can help you distinguish temporary problems from more serious, chronic ones. The Reporting settings allow you to specify the amount a condition or state must exceed the trigger value before the alarm triggers.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 4 Select the type of activity this alarm will monitor. The options in the Triggers tab change depending on the type of activity you select. 5 Click OK to save your changes and exit the dialog box or select a different tab to make further changes to the alarm. What to do next NOTE You cannot save an alarm without triggers defined for it.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Specify How the Alarm is Triggered (Event-based) You can specify the events, states, or conditions that trigger the alarm in the Triggers tab of the Alarm Settings dialog box. The options you choose under the General tab of the Alarm Settings dialog box determine the options available under the Triggers tab. An alarm definition must contain at least one trigger before it can be saved.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 2 (Optional) Select a Frequency. The frequency sets the time period during which a triggered alarm is not reported again. When the time period has elapsed, the alarm will report again if the condition or state is still true. What to do next Optionally specify alarm actions, or click OK to save your changes and exit the dialog box.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client 3 Click in the Configuration column and enter configuration information for those actions that require additional information: Option Action Send a notification email Enter email addresses, separated by a comma, and press Enter. Migrate a VM Complete the Migrate Virtual Machine wizard . Run a command Take one of the following actions and press Enter: n If the command is a .exe file, enter the full path name of the command and include any parameters.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client vCenter Server Email Agent Notifications The following tables describe the information that is included in Alarm-based and Event-based email notifications. The first table described the information included in all email notifications; the second table describes additional information that is included in Event-based notifications. Table 28‑1.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client SNMP Trap Notifications The following table describes the information that is included in vCenter Server and ESXi trap notifications. Table 28‑3. SNMP Trap Notification Details Trap Entry Description Type The state vCenter Server is monitoring for the alarm. Options include Host Processor (or CPU) usage, Host Memory usage, Host State, Virtual Machine Processor (or CPU) usage, Virtual Machine Memory usage, Virtual Machine State, Virtual Machine Heartbeat.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 3 In the Configuration column, type script or command information: For this type of command... Enter this... EXE executable files Full pathname of the command. For example, to run the cmd.exe command in the C:\tools directory, type: c:\tools\cmd.exe. BAT batch file Full pathname of the command as an argument to the c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe command. For example, to run the cmd.bat command in the C:\tools directory, type: c:\windows\system3
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Table 28‑4. Alarm Environment Variables (Continued) Variable Name Variable Description Supported Alarm Type VMWARE_ALARM_EVENT_USERNAME The user name associated with the event. Event VMWARE_ALARM_EVENT_DATACENTER The name of the data center in which the event occurred. Event VMWARE_ALARM_EVENT_COMPUTERESOURCE The name of the cluster or resource pool in which the event occurred.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client Enable and Disable Alarm Actions You can disable alarm actions on any inventory object. Disabling alarm actions is not the same as disabling an alarm, nor is it the same as acknowledging an alarm. When alarm actions are disabled, the alarm can still be triggered but its associated actions will not be performed. You might want to disable alarm actions when, for example, you plan on putting a host into maintenance mode.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Procedure 1 Locate the triggered alarm in the Triggered Alarms panel or on the Alarms tab for the object. 2 Right-click the alarm and select Reset Alarm to Green. Identify Disabled Alarm Actions If you are experiencing problems with alarm actions for a specific inventory object, ensure that alarm actions are enabled for that object. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client 3 n Solutions tab. Lists each managed solution. n Health tab. Provides the health status of the vCenter services. It also shows alerts or warnings for each of the services. In the Solutions Manager inventory, click one of the solutions. n Summary tab.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client System Log Files In addition to lists of events and alarms, vSphere components generate assorted logs. These logs contain additional information about activities in your vSphere environment. View System Log Entries You can view system logs generated by vSphere components. Procedure 1 From the Home page of a vSphere Client connected to either a vCenter Server system or an ESX/ESXi host, click System Logs.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client vSphere Client System Logs You might need the vSphere Client system log files to resolve technical issues. Table 28-6 lists log files associated with the vSphere Client machine. Table 28‑6. vSphere Client System Logs Component Location vSphere Client Installation log Temp directory on the vSphere Client machine. vSphere Client Service log Pre-Windows 2008 example: C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Temp\vminst.log or vim-vic-msi.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Configure Syslog on ESXi Hosts All ESXi hosts run a syslog service (vmsyslogd), which logs messages from the VMkernel and other system components to log files. You can use the vSphere Client or the esxcli system syslog vCLI command to configure the syslog service. For more information about using vCLI commands, see Getting Started with vSphere Command-Line Interfaces. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Client inventory, select the host.
Chapter 28 Monitoring a Single Host with the vSphere Client Collecting Log Files VMware technical support might request several files to help resolve technical issues. The following sections describe script processes for generating and collecting some of these files. Set Verbose Logging You can specify how verbose log files will be. Prerequisites Launch the vSphere Client and log in to a vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Select Administration > vCenter Server Settings. 2 Select Logging Options.
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Turn Off Compression for vpxd Log Files By default, vCenter Server vpxd log files are rolled up and compressed into .gz files. You can turn off this setting to leave the vpxd logs uncompressed. Procedure 428 1 Log in to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Client. 2 Select Administration > vCenter Server Settings. 3 Select Advanced Settings. 4 In the Key text box, type log.compressOnRoll. 5 In the Value text box, type false.
Index Numerics 3DNow!, EVC modes 131 A acceleration, disabling 183 active adapters 230 Active Directory configuring settings 28 server 28 Active Directory Timeout 78 active sessions, send messages 22 active uplinks 262, 265 adapters Ethernet, See network adapters See also storage controllers adding distributed port groups 43, 236 license keys 48, 49 NFS storage 324 paravirtual SCSI controller 166 SCSI controllers 165 SCSI devices 170 USB controllers 174 USB devices to client computers 178 vSphere distribu
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client answer file, update 222 applying networking policies 257 assigning license keys 46, 48 attributes, custom 19 authentication ESXi 69 ESXi users 69 users 69 authentication proxy 76, 77 Auto Deploy 222 automatic host registration, disabling 304 automation level datastore clusters 369 Storage DRS 373 virtual machines 358 average bandwidth 273–276, 279 B bandwidth average 273, 274 peak 273, 274 Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) 363 beacon probing, standard swi
Index enabling CPU/MMU Virtualization 149 hot adding 144 hot plug 144 hyperthreaded core sharing 147 identification mask 148 limits 146 parameters 143 reservation 146 scheduling affinity 147 shares 146 create alarms 411 creating clusters 38 datastores 39 host profiles 212, 213 resource pools 38 vApps 196 virtual machines 85 creating a vSphere HA cluster 384 creating datacenter-wide networks 40 creating datacenters 36 creating host-wide networks 40 current multipathing state 334 custom attributes, adding 19
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client Disk.EnableNaviReg 304 Disk.MaxLUN 322 disks format 337 independent 190 inflate 337 limits 162 modes 161 shares 162 thick 101 thin 101 think vs.
Index DRS clusters adding managed hosts 359 adding unmanaged hosts 360 creating 357 managing resources with 356 DVD/CD-ROM, adding 167 dynamic discovery, configuring 316 dynamic discovery addresses 316 E early binding port groups 43, 236 editing host profile policies 215 host profiles 214 vApp properties 200, 201 EFI changing boot delay 182 settings 182 email, content of vCenter Server notifications 417 Email messages 29 enabling, host profile policy compliance checks 217 Enhanced vMotion Compatibility, S
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client turning on 396 use cases 391 version 392 vLockstep Interval 398 vSphere configuration 392 Fault Tolerance status Disabled 398 Need Secondary VM 398 Starting 398 VM not Running 398 Fibre Channel NPIV settings 159 filtering, lists 16 firewall, configure communication 32 firewall settings 60 firewalls access for management agents 59 access for services 59 Flash Read Cache 160 floppy drives adding 169 configuring 170 forced transmits 272 forged transmits 269, 271,
Index host profiles, cloning profiles 214 host profiles,import answer file 223 host security, virtual disk shrinking 63 host-local swap DRS cluster 345 standalone host 346 hosts adding 37 adding ESXi users 70 adding to a vSphere distributed switch 42, 231 adding to DRS clusters 359, 360 advanced attributes 381 clustering 87 configuring 23 connecting to vCenter Server 79 connecting virtual machines to 87 custom attributes 18 disconnecting 79 disconnecting from vCenter Server 79 ESXi 32 hardware monitoring 4
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client licenses assigning 46 viewing 47 licensing adding license keys 48, 49 assigning 48 per-processor 48 licensing limitations, vSphere Client 45 limiting users or groups 28 Link Layer Discovery Protocol 293–295 link status, standard switches 260 Linux customizing during cloning or deployment 113 guest operating system customization 109 requirements for customization 109 lists exporting 16 filtering 16 live port moving, distributed port groups 44, 237 LLDP, enable
Index multiple monitors, selecting 171 N name-ip-generator 110 NetFlow collector settings 293 configure 293 disable 278, 279 distributed ports 278 distributed port Groups 278, 279 enable 278, 279 network, SNMP traps 417, 418 network adapters distributed switch 241 viewing 226, 234 See also NICs network association settings 205 network connections, create 312 network failover detection 262, 265 Network I/O Control 277 network partition 400 network resource management 247 network resource pools distributed
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client peak bandwidth 273–276, 279 per-processor licensing 48 performance, advanced charts 403 performance charts advanced charts about 403 deleting views 405 customizing 404 exporting data 406 saving data to a file 405 permissions administrator 72 and privileges 72 changing 72 overview 72 removing 73 root user 72 search 17 validating 72, 73 vpxuser 72 physical compatibility mode 95 physical network adapters adding to a vSphere distributed switch 240 managing 240 rem
Index raw device mappings 92, 95, 160, 161 RDM 392 RDMs, path management 333 Read Only role 73 receiver URL 29 recommendations, Storage DRS 372 reconnecting hosts 80 reference host 219 removing, plug-ins 21 renaming, templates 105 rescanning datastores 321 storage adapters 321 storage devices 321 reset sensors, host health 408 resetting virtual machines 180 resignaturing 324 resource pools adding virtual machines 355 creating 38, 353 deleting 356 editing attributes of 355 grafted 359, 360 networks 247 pare
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client searching inventory, permissions 17 security, permissions 72 security policies, distributed ports 272 security policy distributed port groups 271, 279 policy exceptions 269 virtual switches 269 selecting datastores 88 serial port, redirecting the direct console using the vSphere Client 23 serial ports adding 156 adding Firewall rule set 155 changing 157 conditions for network connections 155 conditions for physical connections 154 connection types 154 server c
Index startup settings, for virtual machines 185 states, distributed ports 237 static discovery, configuring 317 static discovery addresses 316 Statistics, Collection Intervals 27 status bar 14 storage health monitoring 406 iSCSI 392 NAS 392 NFS 392 not-shared 337 provisioned 337 Storage Limitations, vSphere Client 300 used by virtual machines 337 vSphere Client, Storage Limitations 300 storage adapters about 306 rescanning 321 viewing 301 storage controllers AHCI SATA 163 and snapshots 163 BusLogic Parall
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client distributed port groups 264, 279 port group 262 temperature, monitoring 406 templates changing names 105 cloning 101, 102 converting to virtual machines 107 converting virtual machines to 100 creating 100, 101 deleting 106 deploy virtual machines 103 OVF 134 removing from inventory 106 renaming 105 returning to inventory 107 returning to a host 187 unregistering 106 test failover, Fault Tolerance 397 test restart secondary, Fault Tolerance 398 thick provisione
Index of users or groups 28 period 28 vApps adding objects to 199 advanced properties 202 cloning 198 configuring DNS 205 configuring IP address 204 configuring networks 201 creating 196 creating objects inside 199 defining OVF environment properties 203 editing advanced IP allocation properties 203 editing annotations 206 editing custom properties 203 editing properties 200, 201 editing resources 200 IP pools 204 managing 195 populating 199 power off settings 198 power on settings 197 resuming 199 selecti
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client types 92 using nondefault device node 93, 94 Virtual Guest Tagging 286 virtual machine hardware determining version 140 upgrading 139 virtual disks 161 virtual machine affinity 365–367 virtual machine anti-affinity 365–367 virtual machine console 186 virtual machine DRS groups 366 virtual machine hardware version 139 Virtual Machine Limitations, vSphere Client 138 virtual machine monitoring 388 virtual machine networking 227 virtual machine options, vSphere HA
Index Virtual SMP 90 Virtual Switch Tagging 286 VLAN port mirroring 289, 291 private 238 VLAN ID primary 238 secondary 238 VLAN policies distributed ports 267 uplink ports 267, 268 uplink port groups 268 VLAN policy, distributed port groups 267, 279 VLAN trunking, distributed port groups 267, 279 VLAN Trunking 43, 236, 267 VLAN Type 267 VM Component Protection 383 VM-Host affinity rule 365–367 VM-VM affinity rule 365, 366 VMCP 383 VMDK 392 VMFS, resignaturing 324 VMFS datastores adding extents 328 changing
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client maximum number of ports 41, 234 migrating virtual machines to or from 245 mirror 286 port mirroring 286 ports 233 protection against MAC address impersonation 269 protection against traffic scanning 269 resource pool settings 249 security policy 269 upgrading 235 virtual machines 244 virtual network adapter 242 virtual network adapters 241 vSphere Distributed Switch Network I/O Control 247 See also distributed switch Network I/O Control vSphere DRS, creating r
