vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Update 1 Modified on 14 FEB 2018 VMware vSphere 6.5 VMware ESXi 6.5 vCenter Server 6.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware website at: https://docs.vmware.com/ If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2009–2018 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information. VMware, Inc.
Contents About vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Updated Information 6 7 1 Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines 8 Virtual Machine Files 8 Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure Virtual Machine Lifecycle 9 10 Virtual Machine Components 10 Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines Virtual Machine Options and Resources vSphere Web Client vSphere Client 11 13 14 15 Where to Go From Here 15 2 Deploying Virtual Machines 16 About Provisioning Virtual M
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Delete a Content Library 79 Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries Populating Libraries with Content Working with Items in a Library 79 81 81 85 Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content Library 89 5 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware 91 Virtual Machine Compatibility Virtual CPU Configuration 91 98 Virtual Memory Configuration 105 Network Virtual Machine Co
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add Virtual Machine or Child vApp to a vApp Edit vApp Settings Clone a vApp 187 188 194 Perform vApp Power Operations Edit vApp Notes 194 196 Add a Network Protocol Profile Virtual Machine vApp Options 196 201 8 Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager 206 View Solutions in the vSphere Web Client Monitoring Agents 206 207 9 Managing Virtual Machines 209 Edit Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown Settings 209 Install the VMware Enhanced Auth
About vSphere Virtual Machine Administration vSphere Virtual Machine Administration describes how to create, configure, and manage virtual machines ® in the VMware vSphere environment. In addition, this information provides introductions to the tasks that you can do within the system as well as cross-references to the information that describes the tasks. This information focuses on managing virtual machines in the VMware vSphere Web Client and includes the following information.
Updated Information This vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide is updated with each release of the product or when necessary. This table provides the update history of the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide. Revision 14 FEB 2018 03 OCT 2017 EN-002631-00 VMware, Inc. Description n Removing information about vServices in Chapter 8 Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager. n Changed the description of .vmsd and .vmsn files in Virtual Machine Files.
Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines 1 Before you start creating and managing virtual machines, you benefit from some background information, for example, the virtual machine lifecycle, components, and VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 1‑1. Virtual Machine Files File Usage Description .vmx vmname.vmx Virtual machine configuration file .vmxf vmname.vmxf Additional virtual machine configuration files .vmdk vmname.vmdk Virtual disk characteristics -flat.vmdk vmname-flat.vmdk Virtual machine data disk .nvram vmname.nvram or nvram Virtual machine BIOS or EFI configuration .vmsd vmname.vmsd Virtual machine snapshot descriptions .vmsn vmname.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The vSphere Web Client presents the organizational hierarchy of managed objects in inventory views. Inventories are the hierarchal structure used by vCenter Server or the host to organize managed objects. This hierarchy includes the monitored objects in vCenter Server. In the vCenter Server hierarchy, a data center is the primary container of ESXi hosts, folders, clusters, resource pools, vSphere vApps, virtual machines, and so on.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration In the vSphere Web Client, you assign each virtual machine to a compatible ESXi host version, cluster, or datacenter by applying a compatibility setting. The compatibility setting determines which ESXi host versions the virtual machine can run on and the hardware features available to the virtual machine. The hardware devices listed in the Virtual Machine Properties editor complete the virtual machine. Not all devices are configurable.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions (Continued) Hardware Device Description DVD/CD-ROM Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine. You can configure DVD/CD-ROM devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or datastore ISO files. You can add, remove, or configure DVD/CD-ROM devices. Floppy Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions (Continued) Hardware Device Description SCSI device By default, a SCSI device interface is available to the virtual machine. The SCSI interface is a typical way to connect storage devices (floppy drives, hard drives, and DVD/CD-ROMs) to a virtual machine. You can add, remove, or configure SCSI devices. SIO controller Provides serial and parallel ports, floppy devices, and performs system management activities.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration VMware virtual machines have the following options: General Options View or modify the virtual machine name, and check the location of the configuration file and the working location of the virtual machine. VMware Tools Manage the power controls for the virtual machine and run VMware Tools scripts. You can also upgrade VMware Tools during power cycling and synchronize guest time with the host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The vSphere Web Client is a cross platform application that can connect only to vCenter Server. It has a full range of administrative functionality and an extensible plug-in-based architecture. Typical users are virtual infrastructure administrators, help desk, network operations center operators, and virtual machine owners. Users can use the vSphere Web Client to access vCenter Server through a Web browser.
Deploying Virtual Machines 2 To deploy virtual machines in the vCenter Server inventory, you can deploy from a template, create a virtual machine, or clone an existing virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Create a template to deploy multiple virtual machines from. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that you can use to create and provision virtual machines. Use templates to save time. If you have a virtual machine that you will clone frequently, make that virtual machine a template. See Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template. Cloning a virtual machine can save time if you are deploying many similar virtual machines.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool. n Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder. n Network.Assign network on the network that the virtual machine will be assigned to. To verify the privileges assigned to your role, see the Required Privileges for Common Tasks topic in the vSphere Security documentation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 8 Finish Virtual Machine Creation Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings. 9 Installing a Guest Operating System A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools. Installing a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a physical computer.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides. If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability. Procedure 1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Only host versions that are in your environment appear in the Compatible with drop-down menu. For information about choices and compatibility strategies, see Virtual Machine Compatibility. Procedure u Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click Next. Select a Guest Operating System The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs available for the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 5 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware. Procedure 1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down menu and click Add. 2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings. 3 To remove a device, move the pointer over the device and click the Remove icon. This icon appears only for virtual hardware that you can safely remove.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Have a network adapter connected to the network where the PXE server resides. For details about guest operating system installation, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html. Install a Guest Operating System from Media You can install a guest operating system from a CD-ROM or from an ISO image. Installing from an ISO image is typically faster and more convenient than a CD-ROM installation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration What to do next Install VMware Tools. VMware highly recommends running the latest version of VMware Tools on your guest operating systems. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality and convenience without them. See Chapter 10 Upgrading Virtual Machines for instructions on installing and upgrading VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the data center or virtual machine folder. Required only if you customize the original hardware by adding a new virtual disk. n Virtual machine .Provisioning.Deploy template on the source template. n Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool. n Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore. n Network.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 5 Select a Datastore Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure u Select to deploy a virtual machine from a template. Option Description Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine. b Select Deploy from template and click Next. The Select a name and folder page opens.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots, and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and Performance documentation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Select Clone Options You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the virtual machine. The User Settings screen appears when you apply a customization specification for which at least one of the following conditions is true. n The option Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard was selected during the creation of the customization specification.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Finish Virtual Machine Creation Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings. Procedure 1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page. 2 Click Finish. The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory. Clone a Virtual Machine Cloning a virtual machine creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the original.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Start the Clone an Existing Virtual Machine Task To make an original copy of a virtual machine, you can clone an existing virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the virtual machine that you are going to clone.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 Customize the Guest Operating System When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Select a Virtual Machine to Clone You select a virtual machine to clone, and you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine. 3 Click Next. Select a Resource When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object. For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 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. Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Customize the Guest Operating System When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Click Next. Customize Virtual Machine Hardware Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you can choose to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation. Verify that you have the following privileges: n Virtual machine .Provisioning.Create template from virtual machine on the source virtual machine. n Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on virtual machine folder where the template is created. n Resource.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Start the Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template Task To make a master copy of a virtual machine, you can clone the virtual machine to a template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you change the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change. Procedure 1 Type a name for the template. 2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the template. 3 Click Next.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 2 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. Any 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.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client After you create a template, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the state of the original template. Prerequisites Verify that you have the following privileges: n Virtual machine .
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Start the Clone a Template to a Template Task To make changes to a template and preserve the state of the original template, you clone the template to a template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization and you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way. The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 2 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. Any 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.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine Converting a template to a virtual machine changes the template. This action does not make a copy. You convert a template to a virtual machine to edit the template. You might also convert a template to a virtual machine if you do not need to preserve it as a master image for deploying virtual machines. Prerequisites Verity that you have the following privileges: n Virtual machine .Provisioning.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure u Select how to convert a template to a virtual machine. Option Description Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine. b Select Convert template to virtual machine and click Next. The Select a resource page opens.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page. 2 Click Finish. The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory. Customizing Guest Operating Systems 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. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Linux Requirements Customization of Linux guest operating systems requires that Perl is installed in the Linux guest operating system. Verifying Customization Support for a Guest Operating System To verify customization support for Windows operating systems or Linux distributions and compatible ESXi hosts, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 5 Click OK. You can select the option to use an application to generate computer names or IP addresses during guest operating system customization. Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment You can customize Windows guest operating systems for the virtual machine when you deploy a new virtual machine from a template or clone an existing virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Enter the guest operating system's computer name. The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name. Option Action Enter a name a Type a name. 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 Virtual Machine Administration 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 9 a Select Custom settings and click Next. b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis button (...). c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 15 Save the customized options as an .xml file. a Select Save this customization specification for later use. b Specify the filename for the specification and click Next. 16 Click Finish to save your changes. You return to the Deploy Template or to the Clone Virtual Machine wizard. The customization is finished after you complete the Deploy Template or the Clone Virtual Machine wizard.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Enter the guest operating system's computer name. The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name. Option Action Enter a name a Type a name. 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 Virtual Machine Administration 7 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network. The virtual machine can retain the IP address allocated from the network and IPv6 addresses. a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompt you to enter IPv6 address. b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list. n Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you clone an existing virtual machine, or deploy a virtual machine from a VM template in a folder, you can customize the guest operating system of the resulting virtual machine during the clone or the deployment tasks. When you deploy a virtual machine from a template in a content library, you can customize the guest operating system only after the deployment task is complete. Prerequisites n Verify the guest operating system is running.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Create a Customization Specification for Linux Use the Guest Customization wizard to save guest operating system settings in a specification that you can apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates. Prerequisites Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See Guest Operating System Customization Requirements.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system. Option Action Standard settings Select Use standard network settings and click Next. vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings. Custom settings a Select Manually select custom settings. b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the pencil icon.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization Specification Manager. 2 Click the Create a new specification icon to open the New VM Guest Customization Spec wizard. 3 Select Windows from the Target VM Operating System drop-down menu, and enter a name and optional description for the specification and click Next.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 Configure the administrator password for the virtual machine and click Next. a Type a password for the administrator account and confirm the password by typing it again. Note You can change the administrator password only if the administrator password on the source Windows virtual machine is blank. If the source Windows virtual machine or template already has a password, the administrator password does not change.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 15 Select how the virtual machine will participate in the network and click Next. Option Action Workgroup Type a workgroup name. For example, MSHOME. Windows Server Domain a Type the domain name. b Type the user name and password for a user account that has permission to add a computer to the specified domain. 16 (Optional) Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization Specification Manager. 2 Click the Create New Specification icon. 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.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 12 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. 13 Click Finish to save your changes. The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites You must have at least one customization specification. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization Specification Manager. 2 Right-click a specification and select Duplicate. A new specification is created. If the specification does not appear in the Name column, refresh the vSphere Web Client.
Deploying OVF and OVA Templates 3 You can export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps in Open Virtual Format (OVF) and Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) . You can then deploy the OVF or OVA template in the same environment or in a different environment. In previous versions of vSphere, you needed to install the Client Integration Plug-in to deploy and export OVF or OVA templates. vSphere 6.5 no longer requires that you install the Client Integration Plug-in to deploy or export OVF and OVA templates.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n The vSphere Web Client validates an OVF or OVA file before importing it, and ensures that it is compatible with the intended destination server. If the appliance is incompatible with the selected host, it cannot be imported and an error message appears. n OVF and OVA can encapsulate multi-tiered applications and more than one virtual machine. Exporting OVF or OVA templates allows you to create virtual appliances that can be imported by other users.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 4 5 On the Review details page, verify the OVF or OVA template details and click Next. Option Description Publisher Publisher of the OVF or OVA template, if a certificate included in the OVF or OVA template file specifies a publisher. Download size Size of the OVF or OVA file. Size on disk Size on disk after you deploy the OVF or OVA template. On the Select storage page, define where and how to store the files for the deployed OVF or OVA template.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Deploy a VM from an OVF Template in a Content Library You can deploy a virtual machine from an OVF template in a local or subscribed content library. Prerequisites You must have a Content Library containing the OVF template you want to use. n For more information on creating content libraries, see Create a Library. n For more information on importing content in to a content library, see Import Items to a Library from a URL.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 4 Proceed through the Deploy OVF Template wizard, using the following settings. a For the VM folder, select Workloads, Templates, or another folder that you have write permissions on. b For the compute resource, select Compute-ResourcePool. c For the datastore, select workloadDatastore. On the Select networks page, enter an IP address in the IP address field. The IP Allocation Settings field is populated based on the OVF descriptor file.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace The Virtual Appliance Marketplace contains a variety of virtual appliances packaged in OVF format that you can download and deploy in your vSphere environment. Procedure 1 Go to the Virtual Appliance Marketplace, which is part of the VMware Solution Exchange. 2 Search the Marketplace to find a prepackaged application. 3 Log in and download the appliance. 4 Deploy the appliance in your vSphere environment.
Using Content Libraries 4 Content libraries are container objects for VM templates, vApp templates, and other types of files. vSphere administrators can use the templates in the library to deploy virtual machines and vApps in the vSphere inventory. Sharing templates and files across multiple vCenter Server instances in same or different locations brings out consistency, compliance, efficiency, and automation in deploying workloads at scale.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Subscribed Libraries You subscribe to a published library by creating a subscribed library. You can create the subscribed library in the same vCenter Server instance where the published library is, or in a different vCenter Server system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Libraries store content on a file system or a datastore. To ensure optimal performance, use file systems for libraries that are published, and use datastores for local and subscribed libraries.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Option Optimized published content library Description Select Optimize for syncing over HTTP to create an optimized published library. This library is optimized to ensure lower CPU usage and faster streaming of the content over HTTP. Use this library as a main content depot for your subscribed libraries. You cannot deploy virtual machines from an optimized library.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Synchronize a Subscribed Library To ensure that your subscribed library displays the latest content of the published library, you can manually initiate a synchronization task. You can also have subscribed libraries automatically synchronize with the content of the published library. To enable automatic synchronization of the subscribed library, select the option to Enable automatic synchronization with the external library in the subscribed library settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Edit the settings for the library. Type of Content Library Action Content library that is local You can publish a local library to share its contents with other users. Content library that is published 4 a Select the Publish this library externally check box. b Select whether to set a password for authentication to the library.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Delete a Content Library You can delete a content library that you no longer want to use. Prerequisites Required privilege: Content library.Delete subscribed library or Content library.Delete local library on the type of library you want to delete. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries. 2 Right-click a content library from the list and select Delete.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Figure 4‑1.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration For example, a user has an Administrator role that is defined at a vCenter Server level. When the Administrator navigates to Content Libraries in the object navigator, he sees 0 libraries despite there are existing libraries in the vSphere inventory of that vCenter Server instance. To see the libraries, the Administrator needs a Read-Only role assigned as a global permission.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Clone a vApp to a Template in Content Library You can clone existing vApps to vApp templates in a content library. You can use the vApp templates later to provision new vApps on a cluster or a host in your vSphere inventory. The vApp is exported to a content library in the OVF format.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Import Items to a Library from a Local File on Your System You can add items to a content library by importing files from your local system. You can import an OVF package to use as a template for deploying virtual machines and vApps. You can also import other types of files, such as scripts or ISO files, that you want to use in your vCenter Server instance, or you want to share across multiple vCenter Server systems. Prerequisites Required privilege: Content library.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 Click OK. A new task for cloning to OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the vApp template appears on the Templates tab for the content library. What to do next Use the template to provision vApps on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 Click OK. A new task for cloning to OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the template appears in the Templates tab for the content library. What to do next Use the template to create virtual machines on hosts or clusters in the vSphere inventory . Clone Library Items from One Library to Another Library You can clone a template from one content library to another in the same vCenter Server instance.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Each VM template, vApp template, or another type of file in a library is a library item. An item can contain a single file or multiple files. In the case of VM and vApp templates, each item contains multiple files. For example, because an OVF template is a set of multiple files, when you upload an OVF template to the library, you actually upload all the files associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, and .
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration After synchronization completes, the item content and metadata are downloaded to the backing storage of the subscribed library, and the value for the item in the Stored Content Locally column changes to Yes. Export Item from a Content Library to Your Local Computer You might need to export an item from a content library to your local system. Prerequisites Required privilege: Content library.Download files on the library.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Select the file that you want to update. n From the Templates tab, right-click a template from the library, and select Update Item. n From the Other Types tab, right-click a file from the library that is not a template, and select Update Item. The Update Library Item dialog box opens. 4 Select a file to overwrite the item in your library. Option Description URL Enter the URL to a web server where the item is stored .
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Delete Library Item You can delete an item you no longer need to use. Prerequisites Required privilege: Content library.Delete library item on the library item. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries. 2 Select a library. 3 Right-click an item from the Templates or Other Types lists, and select Delete. 4 In the dialog box, confirm that you want to delete the item.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 On the Customize Guest OS page, select a customization specification or create a new one, and click Next. 7 On the Select a resource page, select a host, a cluster, a resource pool, or a vApp where to run the deployed VM template, and click Next. 8 On the Review details page, verify the template details and click Next. 9 On the Select networks page, select a network for each network adapter in the template and click Next.
Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware 5 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 configure the virtual machine hardware and can change nearly every characteristic that you selected when you created the virtual machine. You can view the existing hardware configuration and add or remove hardware. You can configure CPUs, memory, and disks.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. Virtual hardware includes BIOS and EFI, available virtual PCI slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other characteristics. New virtual hardware capabilities are typically released once a year with major or minor releases of vSphere.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you create a virtual machine, consider the environment that the virtual machine will run in and weigh the benefits of different compatibility strategies. Consider your options for these scenarios, which demonstrate the flexibility inherent with each virtual machine compatibility selection. Objects in Environment Compatibility Results Cluster with ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0, and ESXi 6.5 hosts ESXi 5.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure u Select a host, cluster, or data center in the inventory. Option Action Host a Click the Configure tab, and click Settings. b In the Virtual Machines section, select Default VM Compatibility and click Edit. c Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK. Note You can set the compatibility only on hosts that are not part of a cluster. Cluster a Click the Configure tab and click Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu. The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded the next time you restart the virtual machine. 4 (Optional) To upgrade the compatibility when you do regularly scheduled guest maintenance, select Only upgrade after normal guest OS shutdown. The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded and the new version appears on the virtual machine Summary tab.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 5‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility (Continued) ESXi 6.5 and later ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later ESXi 5.1 and later ESXi 5.0 and later ESX/ESXi 4.x and later ESX/ESXi 3.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 5‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility (Continued) ESXi 6.5 and later ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later ESXi 5.1 and later ESXi 5.0 and later ESX/ESXi 4.x and later ESX/ESXi 3.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 5‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility (Continued) ESXi 6.5 and later ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later ESXi 5.1 and later ESXi 5.0 and later ESX/ESXi 4.x and later ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later Parallel ports 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 Floppy devices 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Feature Virtual CPU Configuration You can add, change, or configure CPU resources to improve virtual machine performance.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Resource sharing Shares specify the relative priority or importance of a virtual machine or resource pool. If a virtual machine has twice as many shares of a resource as another virtual machine, it is entitled to consume twice as much of that resource when the two virtual machines are competing for resources.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.0 and later to have up to 128 virtual CPUs. A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. The number of logical CPUs means the number of physical processor cores or two times that number if hyperthreading is enabled. For example, if a host has 128 logical CPUs, you can configure the virtual machine for 128 virtual CPUs.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can now add CPUs even if the virtual machine is turned on. Change the Number of Virtual CPUs You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.5 and later to have up to 128 CPUs. You can change the number of virtual CPUs while your virtual machine is powered off. If virtual CPU hotplug is enabled, you can increase the number of virtual CPUs while the virtual machine is running.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites Power off the virtual machine. Procedure 1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory. 2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit settings from the pop-up menu. 3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and allocate CPU capacity for the virtual machine. 4 Option Description Reservation Guaranteed CPU allocation for this virtual machine. Limit Upper limit for this virtual machine’s CPU allocation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and enter a comma-separated list of hyphenated processor ranges in the Scheduling Affinity text box. 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. You must provide at least as many processor affinities as you have virtual CPUs. 3 Click OK.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Expose VMware Hardware Assisted Virtualization You can expose full CPU virtualization to the guest operating system so that applications that require hardware virtualization can run on virtual machines without binary translation or paravirtualization. Prerequisites n Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.1 and later. n Intel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3 (Greyhound) or later processors.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Verify that Intel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3 ("Greyhound") or later processors are installed. n Verify that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS so that hardware-assisted virtualization is possible. n Required Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Settings is set on the vCenter Server system. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The memory resource settings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine. A virtual machine cannot benefit from more memory resources than its configured virtual hardware memory size.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 In the RAM text box, type the amount of RAM to assign to the virtual machine or select one of the suggested values from the drop-down menu. 4 Select whether the memory is specified in MB or GB. 5 Click OK. Allocate Memory Resources to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client You can change the amount of memory resources allocated to a virtual machine by using the shares, reservations, and limits settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 4 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory, and allocate the memory capacity for the virtual machine. Option Description Reservation Guaranteed memory allocation for this virtual machine. Limit Upper limit for this virtual machine’s memory allocation. Select Unlimited to specify no upper limit. Shares The values Low, Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server. Click Save.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Network Adapter Types When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type. The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors: n The virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that created or most recently updated it. n Whether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the latest version for the current host. n The guest operating system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration PVRDMA A paravirtualized NIC that supports remote direct memory access (RDMA) between virtual machines through the OFED verbs API. All virtual machines must have a PVRDMA device and should be connected to a distributed switch. PVRDMA supports VMware vSphere vMotion and snapshot technology. It is available in virtual machines with hardware version 13 and guest operating system Linux kernel 4.6 and later.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Change the Virtual Machine Network Adapter Configuration To change the way the virtual machine communicates with the host or other virtual machines over the network, you can change the power-on connection setting, the MAC address, and the network connection for the virtual network adapter configuration for a virtual machine. For information about configuring the networking for virtual machine network adapters, see the vSphere Networking documentation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 If the network adapter is connected to a distributed port group of a distributed switch that has vSphere Network I/O Control version 3 enabled, allocate bandwidth to the adapter. Note You cannot allocate bandwidth to SR-IOV passthrough network adapters. 7 a From the Shares drop-down menu, set the relative priority of the traffic from this virtual machine as shares from the capacity of the connected physical adapter.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 From the drop-down menu next to the New Network label, select the standard or distributed port group to connect to. The menu lists all standard and distributed port groups that are available for virtual machine use on the host. If you want to provision bandwidth to the network adapter from a reserved quota by using vSphere Network I/O Control version 3, select a port group that is associated with the network resource pool that provides the quota.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Connect to a named pipe Sets a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. With this method, two virtual machines or a virtual machine and a process on the host can communicate as if they were physical machines connected by a serial cable. For example, use this option for remote debugging of a virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Before you connect network-backed virtual serial ports, you must add one of the following firewall rule sets to prevent the firewall from blocking communication: n VM serial port connected to vSPC. Use to connect the serial port output through a network with the Use virtual serial port concentrator option enabled to allow only outgoing communication from the host. n VM serial port connected over network.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n To use authentication parameters with network serial port connections, see Authentication Parameters for Virtual Serial Port Network Connections. n Required privileges: n Virtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings on the virtual machine. n Virtual machine .Interaction .Device connection on the virtual machine to change the device connection status. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server Without Authentication Parameters If you do not use vSPC and you configure your virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows operating system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Authentication Parameters For an encrypted connection, the URI includes a set of authentication parameters. Enter the parameters as key words or key/value pairs. You can enter authentication parameters for secure Telnet (telnets), or for Telnet (telnet) as shown in the following syntax: telnet://host:port #key[=value] [&key[=value] ...] The first parameter must have a number sign (#) prefix. Additional parameters must have an ampersand (&) prefix.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Simple Client Connection If you are running a Telnet server on your system and you want the virtual machine to automatically connect to it, you can configure the virtual machine as a client using telnet://yourLinuxBox:23. The Virtual machine keeps initiating the Telnet connection to port 23 on yourLinuxBox. Secure Client Connection Additional URI options allow you to enforce a specific server certificate and restrict the ciphers being used.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Serial Port from the New device drop-down menu, and click Add. The serial port appears at the bottom of the virtual device list. 3 Expand New Serial Port. 4 Select a connection type. Option Action Use physical serial port Select this option to have the virtual machine use a physical serial port on the host computer. Select the serial port from the drop-down menu.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 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 Parallel Port Configuration You can change the output file for peripheral device output and schedule the parallel port to connect when the virtual machine powers on.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add a Parallel Port to a Virtual Machine vSphere Web Client To connect peripheral devices to virtual machines, such as printers or scanners, you can use a parallel port. You send the output of such devices to a file on the host computer. Note If you are adding a parallel port to a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host, you can also select to send output to a physical parallel port on the host. This option is not available with ESXi 5.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration For virtual machines running on an ESXi host, you can store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN instead of using a virtual disk file. This option is useful if in your virtual machines you run applications that must detect the physical characteristics of the storage device. Mapping a SAN LUN also allows you to use existing SAN commands to manage storage for the disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can use Storage vMotion or cross-host Storage vMotion to transform virtual disks from one format to another. Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated when the disk is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand later on first write from the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n You can move or clone disks that are greater than 2 TB to ESXi 5.5 or later hosts or to clusters that have such hosts available. n The datastore format must be VMFS5 or later or an NFS volume on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server. n Virtual Flash Read Cache supports a maximum hard disk size of 16 TB. n VMFS3 volumes are not supported. You cannot move disks greater than 2 TB to a VMFS3 datastore. n Fault Tolerance is not supported.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine When you create a virtual machine, a default virtual hard disk is added. You can add another hard disk if you run out of disk space, if you want to add a boot disk, or for other file management purposes. When you add a hard disk to a virtual machine, you can create a virtual disk, add an existing virtual disk, or add a mapped SAN LUN.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Add an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine You can use a raw device mapping (RDM) to store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN, instead of storing it in a virtual disk file. You can add an RDM disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add the disk when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 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.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 9 If you selected Custom, type a number of shares in the text box. 10 In the Limit - IOPs box, enter the upper limit of storage resources to allocate to the virtual machine, or select Unlimited. This value is the upper limit of I/O operations per second allocated to the virtual disk. 11 Accept the default or select a different virtual device node. In most cases, you can accept the default device node.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove icon. The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files are not deleted. 3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Existing Hard Disk from the New device drop-down menu and click Add. 4 In the Datastores column, expand a datastore, select a virtual machine folder, and select the disk to add.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove icon. The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files are not deleted. 3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select RDM Disk from the New device drop-down menu and click Add. 4 Select the target LUN for the raw device mapping and click OK. The disk appears in the virtual device list.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 8 (Optional) If you selected virtual compatibility mode, select a disk mode to change the way that disks are affected by snapshots. Disk modes are not available for RDM disks using physical compatibility mode. 9 Option Description Dependent Dependent disks are included in snapshots. Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you enable Flash Read Cache, you can specify the block size and cache size reservation. Block size is the minimum number of contiguous bytes that can be stored in the cache. This block size can be larger than the nominal disk block size of 512 bytes, between 4 KB and 1024 KB. If a guest operating system writes a single 512-byte disk block, the surrounding cache block size bytes are cached. Do not confuse the cache block size with the disk block size.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk. The disk type is displayed in the Disk Provisioning field. 3 Click OK. What to do next If your virtual disk is in the thin format, you can inflate it to its full size using the vSphere Web Client.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility To access virtual disks, CD/DVD-ROM, and SCSI devices, a virtual machine uses storage controllers, which are added by default when you create the virtual machine. You can add additional controllers or change the controller type after virtual machine creation. You can make these changes while you are in the creation wizard.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Storage Controller Limitations Storage controllers have the following requirements and limitations: n LSI Logic SAS and VMware Paravirtual SCSI are available for virtual machines with ESXi 4.x and later compatibility. n AHCI SATA is available only for virtual machines with ESXi 5.5 and later compatibility. n NVMe is available only for virtual machines with ESXi 6.5 and later compatibility.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 5‑4.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add a SCSI Controller in the vSphere Web Client Many virtual machines have a SCSI controller by default, depending on the guest operating system. If you have a heavily loaded virtual machine with multiple hard disks, you can add up to three additional SCSI controllers to assign the disks to. When you spread the disks among several controllers, you can improve performance and avoid data traffic congestion.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add an NVMe Controller If a virtual machine has multiple hard disks, you can add up to four NVMe controllers to which to assign the disks. NVMe reduces software overhead by over 50% compared to AHCI SATA SCSI device. Reduced guest I/O processing overhead with virtual NVMe devices leads to more virtual machines per host and more transactions per minute. Prerequisites n Verify that the virtual machine has a guest operating system that supports NVMe.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand SCSI controller, and select the type of sharing in the SCSI Bus Sharing drop-down menu. Option Description None Virtual disks cannot be shared by other virtual machines. Virtual Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on the same ESXi host. Physical Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on any ESXi host. For virtual or physical bus sharing, select Thick provision eager zeroed when you create the disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration About VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are high performance storage controllers that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU use. These controllers are best suited for high performance storage environments. VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are available for virtual machines with ESXi 4.x and later compatibility.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Expand SCSI controller and select VMware Paravirtual from the Change Type drop-down menu. 4 Click OK. Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration In addition to configuring virtual machine CPU and Memory and adding a hard disk and virtual NICs, you can also add and configure virtual hardware, such as DVD/CD-ROM drives, floppy drives, and SCSI devices. Not all devices are available to add and configure.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites Verify that you have the following privileges: n Virtual machine .Interaction .Configure CD media on the virtual machine. n Datastore.Browse datastore on the datastore to which you upload the installation media ISO image. n Datastore.Low level file operations on the datastore to which you upload the installation media ISO image. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Configure a Host Device Type for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client You can configure the virtual machine’s CD/DVD drive to connect to a physical CD or DVD device on the host so that you can install a guest operating system, VMware Tools, or other applications. When you create a virtual machine, a controller is added by default and the CD/DVD drive is attached to that controller. The controller and driver type depend on the guest operating system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration By default, passthrough IDE mode is used for remote client device access. You can write or burn a remote CD only through passthrough mode access. Prerequisites Verify that the virtual machine is turned on. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and click the Summary tab. 2 In the VM Hardware pane, click the CD/DVD drive connection icon, select an available drive to connect to, and browse for the CD/DVD media.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Expand New CD/DVD Drive and select the device type. Option Action Client Device a Select to connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device on the system from which you access the vSphere Web Client. b From the Device Mode drop-down menu, select Passthrough IDE. a Select to connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device on the host. b From the CD/DVD Media drop-down menu, select the media to connect to .
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Floppy drive. 3 Select the device type to use for this virtual device. Option Action Client Device Select this option to connect the floppy device to a physical floppy device or a .flp floppy image on the system from which you access the vSphere Web Client. Use existing floppy image a Select this option to connect the virtual device to an existing floppy image on a datastore accessible to the host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Expand New Floppy drive and select the device type to use for this virtual device. Option Description Client Device Select this option to connect the floppy device to a physical floppy device or a .flp floppy image on the system from which you access the vSphere Web Client. Use existing floppy image a Select this option to connect the virtual device to an existing floppy image on a datastore accessible to the host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Add a SCSI Device to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client To use peripheral SCSI devices, such as printers or storage devices, you must add the device to the virtual machine. When you add a SCSI device to a virtual machine, you select the physical device to connect to and the virtual device node. The SCSI device is assigned to the first available virtual device node on the default SCSI controller, for example (0:1).
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Verify that the PCI devices are connected to the host and marked as available for passthrough. Disable the USB controller for passthrough if your ESXi host is configured to boot from a USB device, or if the active coredump partition is configured to be on a USB device or SD cards connected through USB channels.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 5‑5. Linux Driver Location VMware Linux Guest Kernel Drivers Debian Format RPM Format vmwgfx.ko dpkg -S vmwgfx.ko rpm -qf vmwgfx.ko vmwgfx_dri.so dpkg -S vmwgfx_dri rpm -qf vmwgfx_dri vmware_drv.so dpkg -S vmware_drv rpm -qf vmware_drv libxatracker.so.1 dpkg -S libxatracker rpm -qf libxatracker 3D Rendering Options You can select the 3D rendering options for each virtual machine to be Hardware, Software, or Automatic. Table 5‑6.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The default setting for total video RAM is adequate for minimal desktop resolution. For more complex situations, you can change the default memory. Typically, 3D applications require a video memory of 64– 512MB. Fault Tolerance is not supported for virtual machines that have 3D graphics enabled. Prerequisites n Verify that the virtual machine is powered off. n Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.0 and later.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 8 (Optional) Select a 3D Renderer. Option Description Automatic Selects the appropriate option (software or hardware) for this virtual machine. Software Uses normal CPU processing for 3D calculations. Hardware Requires graphics hardware (GPU) for faster 3D calculations. Note The virtual machine will not power on if graphics hardware is not available. 9 Click OK. Sufficient memory allocation is set for this virtual machine's graphics.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual Machines with 3D Graphics Option Virtual machines with the 3D graphics option enabled can have higher memory consumption than other virtual machines. You can reduce the memory overhead by editing the configuration file (.vmx file) of your virtual machines and disabling certain memory-related settings. Reducing the memory overhead of virtual machines can help you increase the number of virtual machines per host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 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.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration With autoconnect enabled, the device connection re-establishes in the following cases: n The virtual machine is cycling through power operations, such as Power Off/Power On, Reset, Pause/Resume. n The device is unplugged from the host then plugged back in to the same USB port. n The device is power cycled but has not changed its physical connection path. n The device is mutating identity during usage.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration If a host with connected USB devices resides in a DRS cluster with DPM enabled, you must disable DPM for that host. Otherwise DPM might turn off the host with the device, which disconnects the device from the virtual machine. Configuring USB Devices for vMotion With USB passthrough from a host to a virtual machine, you can migrate a virtual machine to another ESXi host in the same datacenter and maintain the USB passthrough device connections to the original host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Before you change the state of the arbitrator, make sure that USB devices residing on the host are not attached to a virtual machine. If USB devices become unavailable to a virtual machine, a host administrator might have disabled the arbitrator. When an administrator stops or disconnects the arbitrator for troubleshooting or other purposes, USB devices attached to that host become unavailable to the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration USB Compound Devices For compound devices, the virtualization process filters out the USB hub so that it is not visible to the virtual machine. The remaining USB devices in the compound appear to the virtual machine as separate devices. You can add each device to the same virtual machine or to different virtual machines if they run on the same host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration What to do next You can now add the device to the virtual machine. See Add USB Devices from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine. Add a USB Controller to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client USB controllers can be added to virtual machines to support USB passthrough from an ESXi host or from a client computer to a virtual machine. You can add one virtual xHCI controller, one virtual EHCI controller, and one virtual UHCI controller per virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory. 2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit settings from the pop-up menu. 3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, click Add other device, and click USB Controller from the drop-down menu. The new USB controller appears at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware device list. 4 Expand New USB Controller to change the USB controller type.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Host USB Device from the New device drop-down menu, and click Add. The new USB device appears at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware device list. 3 Expand New USB Device, and select the device to add. You can add multiple USB devices, but only one device at a time. 4 If you do not plan to migrate a virtual machine with USB devices attached, deselect the Support vMotion option.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites Verify that the USB devices are not in use. Procedure u Follow the device manufacturers instructions to safely remove the device. When you remove the device from the host, it is no longer available to the virtual machines that run on the host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration USB 3.0 Device Requirements Starting with vSphere 5.5 Patch 3, USB 3.0 devices are available for passthrough not only from a client computer to a virtual machine, but also from an ESXi host to a virtual machine. USB 3.0 devices still have the following virtual machine configuration requirements: n The virtual machine that you connect the USB 3.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration USB Compound Devices For compound devices, the virtualization process filters out the USB hub so that it is not visible to the virtual machine. The remaining USB devices in the compound appear to the virtual machine as separate devices. You can add each device to the same virtual machine or to different virtual machines if they run on the same host.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can add one virtual xHCI controller, one virtual EHCI controller, and one virtual UHCI controller per virtual machine. With Hardware Version 11, the supported number of root hub ports per xHCI controller is eight (four logical USB 3.0 ports and four logical USB 2.0 ports). The conditions for adding a controller vary, depending on the device version, the type of passthrough (host or client computer), and the guest operating system. Table 5‑9.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 4 Expand New USB Controller to change the USB controller type. If compatibility errors appear, fix them before you add the controller. 5 Click Save. What to do next Add one or more USB devices to the virtual machine. Add USB Devices from a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client You can add one or more USB passthrough devices from a client computer to a virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Remove USB Devices That Are Connected Through a Client Computer in the vSphere Web Client You can remove USB devices from a virtual machine if the devices are no longer needed. When you disconnect a USB device from a virtual machine, the device is released from the virtual machine and is given back to the client computer, which starts using it.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Select a virtual machine, click it again, and click the Summary tab. 3 Select Virtual Hardware and expand the USB controller menu. 4 Click Remove. 5 Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. The controller is no longer connected to the virtual machine, but remains available to add at a later time.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites n Verify that the smart card reader is connected to the client computer. n Verify that the virtual machine is powered on. n Verify that a USB controller is present. n Required Privilege: Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device Procedure 1 Navigate to a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, host, or vApp, and click the Related Options tab and click Virtual Machines.
Configuring Virtual Machine Options 6 You can set or change virtual machine options to run VMware Tools scripts, control user access to the remote console, configure startup behavior, and more. The virtual machine options define a range of virtual machine properties, such as the virtual machine name and the virtual machine behavior with the guest operating system and VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The host that the virtual machine runs on and the guest operating system must support any configurations that you make. When you select Edit Settings from a virtual machine right-button menu and click VM Options, you can select one of the following options. Table 6‑1. Virtual Machine Options Options Description General Options Virtual machine name and location of the virtual machine configuration file and virtual machine working location.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The virtual machine name also determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk, win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you set the guest operating system type for a new virtual machine, vCenter Server chooses configuration defaults based on the guest type. Changing the guest operating system type after the virtual machine is created does not retroactively change those settings. It affects the recommendations and setting ranges offered after the change. Prerequisites Power off the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 Specify your user name and password. 4 Click OK. The existing in-guest user mappings are displayed. Add SSO users to Guest Operating Systems You can map a new SSO user to a guest user account by creating a new user map. Mapping can be established for any type of SSO users, such as solution as well as regular users. Prerequisites Power on the virtual machine. Procedure 1 In the View Guest User Mappings window, click Add new user mappings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites n Verify that VMware Tools is installed and running. n To use the Guest OS lock option, verify that you have a Windows XP or later guest operating system. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings. 2 Click the VM Options tab, and expand VMware Remote Console Options. 3 (Optional) Select Guest OS lock to lock the guest operating system when the last remote user disconnects.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 3 4 5 6 Select an option for the virtual machine Power Off ( ) control from the drop-down menu. Option Description Shut Down Guest Uses VMware Tools to initiate an orderly system shut down of the virtual machine. Soft power operations are possible only if the tools are installed in the guest operating system. Power Off Immediately stops the virtual machine. A Power Off action shuts down the guest operating system or powers off the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Wake on LAN supports only Windows guest operating systems and is not available on Vlance NICs or when a Flexible NIC is operating in Vlance mode. That is, the current VMware Tools are not installed on the guest operating system. n Wake on LAN can resume virtual machines that are in an S1 sleep state only. It cannot resume suspended, hibernated, or powered off virtual machines.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n A VMware certificate that is used only for booting ESXi inside a virtual machine. The virtual machine's default configuration includes one certificate for authenticating requests to modify the secure boot configuration, including the secure boot revocation list, from inside the virtual machine, which is a Microsoft KEK (Key Exchange Key) certificate. In almost all cases, it is not necessary to replace the existing certificates.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Delay the Boot Sequence Delaying the boot operation is useful when you change BIOS or EFI settings such as the boot order. For example, you can change the BIOS or EFI settings to force a virtual machine to boot from a CD-ROM. Prerequisites n Verify that vSphere Web Client is logged in to a vCenter Server. n Verify that you have access to at least one virtual machine in the inventory. n Verify that you have privileges to edit boot options for the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Enable Virtual Machine Logging You can enable logging to collect log files to help troubleshoot problems with your virtual machine. ESXi hosts store virtual machine log files in the same directory as the virtual machine's configuration files. By default, the log file name is vmware.log. Archived log files are stored as vmware-n.log, where n is a number in sequential order beginning with 1. Prerequisites Required privilege: Virtual machine.Configuration.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Change the Swap File Location When a virtual machine is powered on, the system creates a VMkernel swap file to serve as a backing store for the virtual machine's RAM contents. You can accept the default swap file location or save the file to a different location. By default, the swap file is stored in the same location as the virtual machine's configuration file. Procedure 1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Click the VM Options tab and expand Advanced. 3 Click Edit Configuration. 4 (Optional) To add a parameter, click Add Row and type a name and value for the parameter. 5 (Optional) To change a parameter, type a new value in the Value text box for that parameter. 6 Click OK.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 4 5 Select an option for assigning WWNs. n To leave WWNs unchanged, select Leave unchanged. n To have vCenter Server or the ESXi host generate new WWNs, select Generate New WWNs. n To remove the current WWN assignments, select Remove WWN assignment. Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp 7 A vSphere vApp allows packaging of multiple interoperating virtual machines and software applications that you can manage as a unit and distribute in OVF format.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 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. When you create a vApp, you can add it to a folder, standalone host, resource pool, cluster enabled for DRS, or another vApp.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 In the Deployment section, click Memory resources to allocate memory resources to this vApp. Option Description Shares Memory 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 Virtual Machine Administration 3 Release the mouse button. Edit vApp Settings You can edit and configure several vApp settings, including startup order, resources, and custom properties. Procedure 1 Configure vApp Properties If you define a property in the Authoring section of the Edit vApp Settings dialog box, you can assign a value to that property when you edit the vApp settings the next time.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure u Navigate to a vApp and click Edit vApp Settings. Expand the areas of the vApp configuration that you want to edit. Area Description Application Properties Displays non-editable product informaion such as name, vendor, and version, and allows specifying values for vApp custom properties. Deployment Allows you to specify CPU and memory resources and configure IP allocation.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Configure vApp CPU and Memory Resources You can configure the CPU and memory resource allocation for the vApp. Reservations on vApps and all their child resource pools, child vApps, and child virtual machines count against the parent resources only if those objects are powered on. Prerequisites Required privilege: vApp.vApp resource configuration on the vApp. Procedure 1 Navigate to a vApp in the inventory and click Edit vApp Settings.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration View Unrecognized OVF Sections If your vApp is based on an OVF file that was not created in the vSphere Web Client, it might include some configuration information that is not recognized by vCenter Server. You can view the information in the Edit vApp Settings dialog. Procedure 1 Navigate to a vApp in the inventory and click Edit vApp Settings. 2 Click Unrecognized OVF Sections in the Deployment section. 3 Click OK.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Option Description DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. The addresses assigned by the DHCP server are visible in the OVF environments of virtual machines started in the vApp. Static - IP Pool IP addresses are automatically allocated from the managed IP network range of vCenter Server at power-on, and remain allocated at power-off.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Configure vApp Product Properties You can configure product and vendor information for a vApp. Prerequisites Required privilege: vApp.vApp application configuration on the vApp. Procedure 1 Navigate to a vApp in the inventory and click Edit vApp Settings. 2 In the Authoring section, click the Product triangle to expand the product options. 3 Set and configure the settings that appear on the summary page of the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Click View License Agreement in the Options list. 3 Click OK. Clone a vApp Cloning a vApp is similar to cloning a virtual machine. When you clone a vApp, you clone all virtual machines and vApps in the vApp. Prerequisites When you clone a vApp, you can add the clone to a folder, standalone host, resource pool, cluster enabled for DRS, or another vApp. Verify that one of those objects is available in your datacenter. n A standalone host that is running ESX 3.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites Required privilege: vApp.Power On on the vApp. Procedure 1 Navigate to the vApp you want to power on. 2 Right-click the vApp and select Power On. If a delay is set in the startup settings of a virtual machine in the vApp, the vApp waits for the set length of time before powering on that virtual machine. In the Summary tab, the Status indicates when the vApp has started and is available.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Navigate to the vApp you want to resume. 2 Right-click the virtual machine and select Power On. Edit vApp Notes You can add or edit notes for a particular vApp. Procedure 1 Select the vApp in the inventory. 2 Select All Actions > Edit Notes. 3 Type your comments in the Edit Notes window. 4 Click OK. Your comments appear in the Summary tab for the vApp.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 Associate a Port Group with a Network Protocol Profile To apply the range of IP addresses from a network protocol profile to a virtual machine that is a part of a vApp or has vApp functionality enabled, associate the profile with a port group that controls the networking of the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 5 If you enable IP Pools, enter a comma-separated list of host address ranges in the IP pool range field. A range consists of an IP address, a pound sign (#), and a number indicating the length of the range. The gateway and the ranges must be within the subnet. The ranges that you enter in the IP pool range field cannot include the gateway address. For example, 10.20.60.4#10, 10.20.61.0#2 indicates that the IPv4 addresses can range from 10.20.60.4 to 10.20.60.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Specify Network Protocol Profile DNS and Other Configuration When you create a network protocol profile, you can specify the DNS domain, DNS search path, a host prefix, and HTTP proxy. Procedure 1 Enter the DNS domain. 2 Enter the host prefix. 3 Enter the DNS search path. The search paths are specified as a list of DNS domains separated by commas, semi-colons, or spaces. 4 Enter the server name and port number for the proxy server.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 4 On the Set association type page of the Associate Network Protocol Profile wizard, select Use an existing network protocol profile and click Next. If the existing network protocol profiles do not contain settings suitable for the vApp virtual machines in the port group, you must create a new profile. 5 Select the network protocol profile and click Next. 6 Examine the association and settings of the network protocol profile, and click Finish.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Virtual Machine vApp Options When you edit the settings for a virtual machine, you can enable vApp options. When vApp options are enabled, you can configure OVF properties, use the OVF environment, and specify IP allocation and product information for the virtual machine. Enable Virtual Machine vApp Options You can configure vApp options in a virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 5 If the OVF template included editable IP allocation options, make changes if necessary. Option Description Static - Manual IP addresses are manually configured. No automatic allocation is performed. Transient - IP Pool IP addresses are automatically allocated using IP pools from a specified range when the vApp is powered on. The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered off. DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 2 Manage vApp Custom Properties for a Virtual Machine You can manage and define custom properties that are stored in the OVF template when you export a virtual machine or vApp and are used by vCenter Server when you deploy the OVF template. OVF templates support static properties, which are often configured by the user, and dynamic properties, which are always set by vCenter Server.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Manage vApp Custom Properties for a Virtual Machine You can manage and define custom properties that are stored in the OVF template when you export a virtual machine or vApp and are used by vCenter Server when you deploy the OVF template. OVF templates support static properties, which are often configured by the user, and dynamic properties, which are always set by vCenter Server.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 4 Select a network configuration scheme. Option Description OVF environment Determined by the environment in which you deploy the OVF template. DHCP The IP addresses are allocated using DHCP when the virtual machine is powered on. 5 Choose the IP protocol that this vApp supports: IPv4, IPv6, or both. 6 Click OK.
Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager 8 In the vSphere Web Client, you can view an inventory of installed solutions, view detailed information about the solutions, and monitor the solution health status. A solution is an extension of vCenter Server that adds new functions to a vCenter Server instance. VMware products that integrate with vCenter Server are also considered solutions.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration You can navigate to the Solutions Manager from the home page of the vSphere Web Client. The Solutions Manager view displays information about the solution, such as the solution name, the vendor name and the version of the product. Procedure 1 From the vSphere Web Client home page, navigate to the Solutions Manager by selecting Administration > Solutions > vCenter Server Extensions. 2 Double-click a solution.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 8‑1. 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.
Managing Virtual Machines 9 You can manage individual virtual machines or a group of virtual machines that belongs to a host or cluster. From virtual machine's the console, you can change the guest operating system settings, use applications, browse the file system, monitor system performance, and so on. Use snapshots to capture the state of the virtual machine at the time you take the snapshot.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown (automatic startup) setting is disabled for all virtual machines residing on hosts that are in a vSphere HA cluster. Automatic startup is not supported with vSphere HA. Note You can also create a scheduled task to change the power settings for a virtual machine. See vCenter Server and Host Management. Procedure 1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the host where the virtual machine is located. 2 Select Configure.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 6 (Optional) In the Per-VM Overrides pane, configure the startup order and behavior for individual virtual machines. Use this option when you need the delay of the virtual machine to be different from the default delay for all machines. The settings that you configure for individual virtual machines override the default settings for all machines.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 Click OK to close the dialog box and save your settings. Install the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in The VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in provides Integrated Windows Authentication and Windows-based smart card functionality. In this vSphere 6.5 release, the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in replaces the Client Integration Plug-in from vSphere 6.0 releases and earlier.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7 On the External Protocol Request dialog box, click Launch Application to run the Enhanced Authentication Plug-in. The link to download the plug-in disappears from the login page. Using a Virtual Machine Remote Console With the vSphere Web Client, you can access a virtual machine's desktop by launching a remote console to the virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 5 (Optional) Press Ctrl+Alt to release the pointer from the console window and work outside the console window. 6 (Optional) Click Full Screen to view the console in full screen mode. 7 (Optional) Press Ctrl+Alt+Enter to enter or exit full screen mode. Install the VMware Remote Console Application The VMware Remote Console (VMRC) is a standalone console application for Windows.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Prerequisites Verify that the virtual machine hardware version is 11 or higher. Procedure 1 In the Answer Question dialog box, click Show virtual machines. 2 Select all the virtual machines that you want to apply this answer to. 3 Click OK. Adding and Removing Virtual Machines You add virtual machines to the vCenter Server inventory through their managed hosts.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Remove Virtual Machines from the Datastore If you no longer need a virtual machine and want to free up space on the datastore, you can remove the virtual machine from vCenter Server and delete all virtual machine files from the datastore, including the configuration file and virtual disk files. Prerequisites n Power off the virtual machine. n Ensure that another virtual machine is not sharing the disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The virtual machine is added to the vCenter Server inventory. Change the Template Name If you move a template to another host or datacenter folder, you can change the template name to make it unique in that folder. Procedure 1 Right-click the template and select Rename. 2 Enter a new name and click OK. Deleting Templates You can delete a template by removing it from the inventory or deleting the template from the disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Browse to or search for the datastore that contains the template. 2 Click the Configure tab and click Files. 3 Browse to locate the template and click it to display the template files. The hard disk and configuration and other files appear in the Name column. 4 Click the template to display the template files. 5 Locate and right-click the .vmtx file and select Register VM. The Register Virtual Machine wizard appears.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration With snapshots, you can preserve a baseline before making changes to a virtual machine in the snapshot tree. Several operations for creating and managing virtual machine snapshots and snapshot trees are available in the Snapshot Manager of the VMware Host Client. These operations enable you to create snapshots, restore any snapshot in the snapshot hierarchy, delete snapshots, and more.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The relationship of parent and child snapshots can change if you have multiple branches in the snapshot tree. A parent snapshot can have more than one child. Many snapshots have no children. Important Do not manually manipulate individual child disks or any of the snapshot configuration files because doing so can compromise the snapshot tree and result in data loss.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration The files that make up the delta disk are called child disks or redo logs. Flat file A -flat.vmdk file that is one of two files that comprises the base disk. The flat disk contains the raw data for the base disk. This file does not appear as a separate file in the Datastore Browser. Database file A .vmsd file that contains the virtual machine's snapshot information and is the primary source of information for the Snapshot Manager.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Snapshots are not supported with PCI vSphere Direct Path I/O devices. n VMware does not support snapshots of virtual machines configured for bus sharing. If you require bus sharing, consider running backup software in your guest operating system as an alternative solution. If your virtual machine currently has snapshots that prevent you from configuring bus sharing, delete (consolidate) the snapshots.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Details Shows the snapshot name and description, the date you created the snapshot, and the disk space. The Console shows the power state of the virtual machine when a snapshot was taken. The Name, Description, and Created text boxes are blank if you do not select a snapshot. Navigation Contains buttons for navigating out of the dialog box. n Close the Snapshot Manager. n The question mark icon opens the help system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration If the virtual machine is powered off or VMware Tools is not available, the Quiesce parameter is not available. You cannot quiesce virtual machines that have large capacity disks. Important Do not use snapshots as your only backup solution or as a long-term backup solution. Change Disk Mode to Exclude Virtual Disks from Snapshots You can set a virtual disk to independent mode to exclude the disk from any snapshots taken of its virtual machine.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you quiesce a virtual machine, VMware Tools quiesces the file system in the virtual machine. The quiesce operation pauses or alters the state of running processes on the virtual machine, especially processes that might modify information stored on the disk during a restore operation. Application-consistent quiescing is not supported for virtual machines with IDE or SATA disks.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you restore a snapshot, you return the virtual machine's memory, settings, and the state of the virtual machine disks to the state they were in at the time you took the snapshot. If you want the virtual machine to be suspended, powered on, or powered off when you start it, make sure that it is in the correct state when you take the snapshot.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration When you revert to a snapshot, disks that you added or changed after the snapshot was taken are reverted to the snapshot point. For example, when you take a snapshot of a virtual machine, add a disk, and revert the snapshot, the added disk is removed. Independent disks are also removed when you revert to a snapshot that was taken before the disk was added. If the latest snapshot includes an independent disk, its contents do not change when you revert to that snapshot.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Deleting a snapshot does not change the virtual machine or other snapshots. Deleting a snapshot consolidates the changes between snapshots and previous disk states and writes all the data from the delta disk that contains the information about the deleted snapshot to the parent disk. When you delete the base parent snapshot, all changes merge with the base virtual machine disk. To delete a snapshot, a large amount of information needs to be read and written to a disk.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 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. n Required Privilege: Virtual machine .Snapshot management.Remove Snapshot on the virtual machine. Procedure 1 Right-click the virtual machine and select Manage Snapshots. a To locate a virtual machine, select a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, host, or vApp.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Procedure 1 Show the Needs Consolidation column. a Select a vCenter Server instance, a host, or a cluster and click the VMs tab and click Virtual Machines. b Right-click the menu bar for any virtual machine column and select Show/Hide Columns > Needs Consolidation. A Yes status indicates that the snapshot files for the virtual machine should be consolidated, and that the virtual machine's Tasks and Events tab shows a configuration problem.
Upgrading Virtual Machines 10 You can upgrade virtual machines to a higher level of compatibility and a higher version of VMware tools. After the upgrade, your VMs can take advantage of new hardware options and new features. For a list of hardware features available to virtual machines with each ESXi hardware compatibility setting, see Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings. VMware Tools Upgrade The first step in upgrading virtual machines is to upgrade VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration This chapter includes the following topics: n Planning Downtime for Virtual Machines n Downtime for Upgrading Virtual Machines n Upgrade the Compatibility for Virtual Machines n Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for Virtual Machines Planning Downtime for Virtual Machines Plan downtime for each virtual machine during the upgrade process. Typically, this downtime occurs during the virtual machine upgrade and the VMware Tools upgrade.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n For BSD, NetWare, Solaris, and Mac OS X guest operating systems, no restart is required at the end of the procedure. During the virtual machine compatibility upgrade, you must shut down the virtual machine for all guest operating systems. Table 10‑1. Virtual Machine Downtime by Guest Operating System Guest Operating System Upgrade VMware Tools Upgrade Virtual Machine Compatibility Microsoft Windows Downtime to restart the guest operating system.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Verify that all virtual machines and their .vmdk files are stored on storage connected to the ESXi host or the client machine. n Determine the ESXi versions that you want the virtual machines to be compatible with. See Virtual Machine Compatibility. Procedure 1 Log in to the vSphere Client and right click a virtual machine. 2 (Optional) Select Power > Power Off. Some Linux operating systems don't require a power off for VM upgrade.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration n Determine the ESXi versions that you want the virtual machines to be compatible with. See Virtual Machine Compatibility. Procedure 1 Log in to the vCenter Server from the vSphere Web Client. 2 Select the virtual machines. a Select a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host. b Click the VMs tab and click Virtual Machines. 3 Power off the selected virtual machines. 4 Select Actions > Compatibility > Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade....
Required Privileges for Common Tasks 11 Many tasks require permissions on multiple objects in the inventory. If the user who attempts to perform the task only has privileges on one object, the task cannot complete successfully. The following table lists common tasks that require more than one privilege. You can add permissions to inventory objects by pairing a user with one of the predefined roles or with multiple privileges.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 11‑1. Required Privileges for Common Tasks (Continued) Task Required Privileges Applicable Role On the network that the virtual machine will be assigned to: Network Consumer or Administrator Network.Assign network Power on a virtual machine On the data center in which the virtual machine is deployed: Virtual machine .Interaction .Power On On the virtual machine or folder of virtual machines: Virtual Machine Power User or Administrator Virtual machine .
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Table 11‑1. Required Privileges for Common Tasks (Continued) Task Required Privileges Applicable Role On a datastore that contains the installation media ISO image: Virtual Machine Power User or Administrator Datastore.Browse datastore (if installing from an ISO image on a datastore) On the datastore to which you upload the installation media ISO image: Migrate a virtual machine with vMotion n Datastore.Browse datastore n Datastore.
