VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook

Table of Contents

VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Instant Updates on New Packt Books

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Upgrading to vSphere 5.1

Introduction

Upgrading the vCenter Server

Upgrading the ESXi server

vSphere Web Client

Carrying out pre-upgrade checks before performing a vCenter upgrade

How to do it...

Checking the ESX server compatibility

Running VMware vCenter Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker

Checking database compatibility

Backing up the SSL certificates

Enabling SSL certificate verification

Uninstalling the non-default software and plugins

Performing an in-place upgrade of vCenter Server

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a table space for SSO on a SQL instance

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating DB users for the SSO database

How to do it...

How it works...

Upgrading a 32-bit vCenter Server to vCenter 5.1

How to do it...

Backing up the settings from a 32-bit vCenter Server

Restoring the configuration on the new machine

How it works...

Upgrading to ESXi 5.1

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing vSphere Web Client

How to do it...

There's more...

Upgrading VMware Tools

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Upgrading the virtual machine hardware

How to do it...

How it works...

2. Performing a Fresh Installation of vSphere 5.1

Introduction

VMware vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA)

Installing vCenter 5.1

Getting ready

How to do it...

Deploying a VMware vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA)

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Preparing vCenter Server Appliance for first use

Getting ready

How to do it...

Installing the vCenter Server Appliance update

How to do it...

How it works...

Upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing ESXi 5.1

How to do it...

Performing a scripted install of the ESXi server

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

3. vSphere Auto Deploy

Introduction

Installing the Auto Deploy server

How to do it…

Configuring a TFTP server with Auto Deploy files

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Configuring the DHCP server for PXE boot

How to do it…

How it works…

Testing the PXE boot configuration

How to do it…

How it works…

Preparing VMware PowerCLI for first use

How to do it…

How it works…

Downloading an ESXi Offline Bundle

How to do it…

Adding the Offline Bundle to the Auto Deploy server

How to do it…

How it works…

Choosing an ESXi Image to deploy

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating a Host Profile

How to do it…

Creating a deploy rule

How to do it…

How it works…

Activating a deploy rule

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Testing Auto Deploy

How to do it…

How it works…

First boot

Subsequent boot

Enabling Stateless Caching

How to do it…

How it works…

Performing an Auto Deploy stateful install

How to do it…

How it works…

4. ESXi Image Builder

Introduction

Offline Bundle

VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle)

Image Profiles

Creating an Image Profile by cloning an existing one

How to do it…

Verifying the existence of a Software Depot in the current session

Adding a Software Depot

Listing available Image Profiles

Cloning an Image Profile to form a new one

How it works…

See also

Removing an Image Profile

How to do it…

Adding a VIB (software package) to an Image Profile

How to do it…

Verifying whether the Image Profile is read-only

Adding the driver's Offline Bundle to the PowerCLI

Checking the availability of the needed software package (VIB)

Adding the VIB to the Image Profile

Verifying whether the VIB has been added to the Image Profile

Exporting an Image Profile as an ISO or Offline Bundle

How to do it…

Creating an Image Profile from scratch

How to do it…

There's more...

See also

Applying an Image Profile to the host

How to do it…

How it works…

5. Creating and Managing VMFS Datastores

Introduction

Viewing the LUNs presented to an ESXi host

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client to view LUNs

Using the ESXi Console to view the LUN information

Viewing the datastores seen by the ESXi host

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client to view LUNs

Using the ESXi Console to view the datastores

Viewing the multipathing information of a LUN

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client GUI

Using the esxcfg-mpath

Creating a VMFS datastore

How to do it...

Using the New Datastore wizard

Using vmkfstools

There's more…

Expanding/growing a VMFS datastore

How to do it...

Using the Increase Datastore Capacity wizard

Using vmkfstools

How it works...

Extending a VMFS datastore

Getting ready

How to do it...

Using the Increase Datastore Capacity wizard

Using vmkfstools

How it works...

There's more…

Unmounting a VMFS datastore

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client GUI to unmount

Using esxcli to unmount

Mounting a VMFS datastore

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client UI to mount

Using esxcli to mount an unmounted volume

Deleting a VMFS datastore

How to do it...

Upgrading VMFS-3 to VMFS-5

How to do it...

Upgrading the VMFS using vSphere Web Client GUI

Upgrading using vmkfstools

How it works...

Mounting VMFS on a snapshot LUN

How to do it...

Using the New Datastore wizard

Using ESXi CLI

How it works...

Resignaturing VMFS on a snapshot LUN

How to do it...

Using the New Datastore wizard

Using ESXi CLI

How it works…

Masking paths to a LUN

How to do it…

Unmasking paths to a LUN

How to do it…

Creating a datastore cluster

How to do it

How it works…

Enabling Storage DRS

How to do it…

How it works…

Initial placement

Balancing space utilization

Balancing I/O load

There's more…

6. Managing iSCSI and NFS Storage

Introduction

Adding the software iSCSI adapter

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a new VMkernel interface for iSCSI or NFS

How to do it...

There's more

Preparing the vSphere network for iSCSI multipathing

How to do it...

There's more...

Binding VMkernel interfaces to the software iSCSI adapter

How to do it...

Adding an iSCSI target server to the software iSCSI adapter

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating an NFS datastore

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

7. Profile-driven Storage and Storage I/O Control

Introduction

Profile-driven storage

Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

Adding a storage provider

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating user-defined storage capabilities

How to do it...

Mapping user-defined storage capabilities to datastores

How to do it...

Creating a VM storage profile and enabling it

How to do it...

Assigning storage profiles to virtual machine disks and checking compliance

How to do it...

Enabling Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

How to do it...

How it works...

Modifying disk shares on a VM

How to do it...

How it works...

8. Configuring the vSphere Network

Introduction

Creating a vSphere Standard Switch

How to do it...

Using vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch

Deleting a vSphere Standard Switch

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch

Creating a VMkernel interface on a vSphere Standard Switch

How to do it...

Using vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch and esxcfg-vmknic

There's more…

See also

Deleting a port group

How to do it...

Using vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch

Adding an uplink to a vSphere Standard Switch

How to do it...

Using vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch

Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a distributed port group

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding hosts to a vSphere Distributed Switch

How to do it...

Mapping a physical adapter (vmnic) to a dvUplink

How to do it...

Using the vSphere Web Client

Using esxcfg-vswitch

How it works...

Migrating virtual machine network from vSphere Standard Switch to vSphere Distributed Switch

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

Migrating management and VMkernel interfaces between vSphere Standard and Distributed Switches

How to do it...

See also

Creating a VMkernel interface on a vSphere Distributed Switch

How to do it...

Exporting the vSphere Distributed Switch configuration

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Restoring the vSphere Distributed Switch configuration

How to do it...

How it works...

Importing a vSphere Distributed Switch into the datacenter from a backup

How to do it...

How it works...

Enabling port mirroring on a DSwitch

How to do it...

How it works...

Enabling NetFlow on a DSwitch

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Configuring private VLANs (PVLANs) on a DSwitch

How to do it...

How it works...

9. Creating and Managing Virtual Machines

Introduction

The virtual machine components

Files that back a virtual machine

The virtual machine configuration file

The virtual machine BIOS file

Virtual machine enhancements available with vSphere 5.1

Creating a virtual machine

How to do it...

Creating a new hard disk for a virtual machine

Virtual machine disk provisioning methods

Virtual machine disk modes

How to do it...

Adding an existing hard disk to a virtual machine

How to do it...

Attaching RDM to a virtual machine

How to do it...

Mapping a virtual machine's vNIC to a different port group

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding a new virtual network adapter to a virtual machine

How to do it...

Creating a virtual machine snapshot

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Deleting a virtual machine snapshot

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Reverting to a current virtual machine snapshot

How to do it...

How it works...

Going to a virtual machine snapshot

How to do it...

How it works...

Consolidating snapshots

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Exporting a virtual machine

How to do it...

How it works...

10. Configuring vSphere HA

Introduction

Enabling vSphere HA on a cluster

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Setting host isolation response for an HA cluster

How to do it...

See also

Setting VM restart priority for an HA cluster

How to do it...

Configuring VM monitoring

How to do it...

How it works...

Configuring datastore heartbeating

How to do it...

How it works...

Disabling host monitoring

How to do it...

How it works...

Configuring vSphere HA admission control

How to do it...

How it works...

Failover capacity by static number of hosts

Failover capacity by reserving a percentage of the cluster resources

Dedicated failover hosts

See also

Configuring a VM to override host monitoring and VM monitoring settings

How to do it...

11. Configuring vSphere DRS, DPM, and VMware EVC

Introduction

Enabling vSphere DRS on a cluster

How to do it…

How it works…

Choosing a DRS automation level

How to do it…

How it works…

Overriding the cluster automation level for a VM

How to do it…

How it works…

Setting a migration threshold

How to do it…

How it works…

Creating host and VM DRS groups

How to do it…

Creating virtual machines to host affinity rules

How to do it…

How it works…

Must rules:

Should rules:

Creating Inter-VM affinity/anti-affinity rules

How to do it…

How it works…

Keep virtual machines together:

Separate virtual machines:

Configuring vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM)

How to do it…

How it works…

Enabling power management on a per-host level

How to do it…

Configuring VMware EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility)

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

12. Upgrading and Patching using vSphere Update Manager

Introduction

Preparing a database for vSphere Update Manager

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Installing vSphere Update Manager

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing the vSphere Update Manager plugin

How to do it...

Adding a download source

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a baseline

How to do it...

How it works...

Importing ESXi Images

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a host baseline group

How to do it...

Creating a VM and VA baseline group

How to do it...

Remediating a host or a cluster

How to do it...

How it works...

Host maintenance mode options for remediation

Cluster maintenance mode options for remediation

Remediating a VM or a VA

How to do it...

How it works...

Staging patches

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing the Update Manager Download Service (UMDS)

How to do it...

Configuring UMDS and downloading data

How to do it...

Creating a shared repository

How to do it...

How it works...

Using a shared repository

How to do it...

13. Using vSphere Management Assistant (vMA 5.1)

Introduction

Deploying the vMA appliance

How to do it…

How it works…

Preparing vMA for first use

How to do it…

How it works…

Configuring vMA to join an existing domain

How to do it…

Adding vCenter to vMA with AD authentication

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding vCenter to vMA with fastpass (fpauth) authentication

How to do it…

How it works…

Adding an ESXi host to vMA

How to do it…

How it works…

Reconfiguring an added target server

How to do it…

Changing the authentication policy

Changing or recovering a user

How it works…

Running CLI command on target servers

How to do it…

Method 1 – Issue commands on the default target

Method 2 – Issue commands by specifying a target server

Method 3 – Issuing commands against a vCenter Server added as the target

Index

VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook

VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2013

Production Reference: 1040713

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-84968-402-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by J.Blaminsky (<milak6@wp.pl>)

Credits

Author

Abhilash GB

Reviewers

Edvaldo Alessandro Cardoso

Christian Mohn

Chris Wahl

Acquisition Editors

Saleem Ahmed

Rukhsana Khambatta

Lead Technical Editor

Arun Nadar

Technical Editors

Ruchita Bhansali

Sampreshita Maheshwari

Nitee Shetty

Hardik B. Soni

Project Coordinator

Arshad Sopariwala

Proofreaders

Stephen Copestake

Dirk Manuel

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Graphics

Abhinash Sahu

Production Coordinator

Arvindkumar Gupta

Cover Work

Arvindkumar Gupta

About the Author

Abhilash GB specializes in the area of Datacenter Virtualization and Cloud Computing. He is also a VMware Certified Advanced Professional in Datacenter Administration (VCAP-DCA #382).

He is currently working as a VMware Specialist at Hewlett-Packard, Bangalore.

He has nine years of IT experience, which includes over 6 years on VMware products and technologies.

His primary areas of interest include Datacenter Virtualization and Cloud Solutions using VMware technologies.

I would like to dedicate this book to my wife and my parents. Without their patience and support this book would not have been possible.

A big thanks to Dilip Venkatesh, Acquisition Editor, Packt Publishing, for giving me an opportunity to debut my first book. Special thanks to the Lead Technical Editors (Unnati Shah and Arun Nadar), the Project Coordinators (Vishal Bodwani and Arshad Sopariwala), and the Technical Reviewers (Christian Mohn, Chris Wahl, and Alessandro Cardoso) who helped me deliver this book.

About the Reviewers

Alessandro Cardoso is a virtualization and management enthusiast, author, and evangelist. He is a subject matter expert in cloud computing, virtualization, and management, and works at Insight as a Practice Manager for Cloud and Emerging technologies, leading award-winning IT projects in key areas involving Cloud, Virtualization, Security, Messaging, and Hosting within the IT, Health, and Government industries.

A VMware VCP and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in virtualization since 2009, his product skill set includes Microsoft infrastructure technologies such as O365, Hyper-V, System Center, Windows Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, IIS, and Forefront, and he also has sound knowledge of Quest Migration Manager, Linux Infrastructure, Networking, Security Solutions, and VMware in complex and large scenarios.

He is a well-known speaker at IT-related events and is the author of the book System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and was the technical reviewer of the Windows 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook.

You can also check his personal blog where he talks about Microsoft Virtualization and System Center at http://virtualisationandmanagement.wordpress.com or can follow him on twitter at @edvaldocardoso.

I would like to thank my wife Daniele and my kids Matheus, Lucas, and Nicole for the support and for being my inspiration. I love you all.

Christian Mohn is currently employed as a senior consultant at EVRY Consulting AS in Norway, and is currently serving as Tech Champion for Server Virtualization.

He has a background as an IT-professional since 1997, and has worked both as a consultant and as an infrastructure manager for a large Norwegian shipping company.

He is also one of the co-hosts of the vSoup Virtualization Podcast. Christian was awarded the VMware vExpert title for both 2011 and 2012.

He wrote the foreword in Building End-User Computing Solutions with VMware View, which is available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/mike-laverick-and-barry-coombs/building-end-user-computing-solutions-with-vmware-view/ebook/product-20368612.html.

Chris Wahl has over 13 years of IT experience in enterprise infrastructure design, implementation, and administration within a diverse set of business and regulatory requirements, such as HIPPA, SOX, PCI-DSS, ITIL, and ePHI. He has held architect and engineer roles in a variety of virtualization, converged infrastructure, and private cloud based engagements, while working with high-performance technical teams in tiered data center environments.

He has over 30 active industry certifications, including the VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX #104), and is a recognized VMware vExpert. Additionally, he holds an active Master rank on the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) as a contributor and forum moderator. Chris also volunteers as a Leader in the Chicago VMware User Group (VMUG) to help spread education and technical knowledge of VMware's products and related architecture.

As an Independent Blogger for the award winning Wahl Network Chris focuses on creating content that revolves around virtualization, converged infrastructure, and evangelizing products and services that benefit the technology community. Over the past three years, he has published over 200 articles and was voted the Favorite Independent Blogger by vSphere-Land.com for 2012. Chris also travels globally to speak at industry events, provide subject matter expertise, and offer insight as a technical analyst.

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

You might want to visit www.PacktPub.com for support files and downloads related to your book.

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.

http://PacktLib.PacktPub.com

Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can access, read and search across Packt's entire library of books.

Why Subscribe?

Fully searchable across every book published by Packt

Copy and paste, print and bookmark content

On demand and accessible via web browser

Free Access for Packt account holders

If you have an account with Packt at www.PacktPub.com, you can use this to access PacktLib today and view nine entirely free books. Simply use your login credentials for immediate access.

Instant Updates on New Packt Books

Get notified! Find out when new books are published by following @PacktEnterprise on Twitter, or the Packt Enterprise Facebook page.

Preface

Amid all the recent competition from Citrix and Microsoft, VMware's vSphere product line is still the most feature-rich product in the virtualization industry. Knowing how to install and configure VMware vSphere components is important to give yourself a head start towards datacenter virtualization using VMware.

VMware vSphere 5.1 Cookbook is a task-oriented, fast-paced practical guide to installing and configuring vSphere 5.1 components. This book was written with the intention of providing the reader with a visual walkthrough of the most common configuration tasks that an administrator will perform in a VMware vSphere environment. It takes you through all of the steps required to accomplish a task, with less reading required. The book concentrates more on the actual task rather than theory around it, making it easier to understand what really is needed to achieve the task. However, most of the concepts has been well described, to help the reader understand its background and working.

The main highlight of this book is the use of the new vSphere 5.1 Web Client to accomplish most of the tasks. Although a few tasks cannot be accomplished using web client with the current vSphere version, VMware will be integrating them into the web client in future product releases.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Upgrading to vSphere 5.1, discusses the procedures involved in upgrading the current vSphere environment to vSphere 5.1. It covers upgrading the vCenter Server and the ESXi host.

Chapter 2, Performing a Fresh Installation of vSphere 5.1, explains how to deploy a new vSphere 5.1 environment. It covers the installation of vCenter 5.1 and ESXi 5.1.

Chapter 3, vSphere Auto Deploy, explains how to install and configure Auto Deploy in order to provision ESXi servers. It also covers stateless caching and stateful installation.

Chapter 4, ESXi Image Builder, explains how to