VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC Administration Manual

Basic system administration

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vSphere Basic System Administration

vCenter Server 4.0

ESX 4.0

ESXi 4.0

This document supports the version of each product listed and

supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced

by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this

document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

EN-000105-08

Table of Contents

Troubleshooting

Summary of Contents for VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC

Page 1 Server 4.0 ESX 4.0 ESXi 4.0 This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs. EN-000105-08...
Page 2 VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Starting vCenter Server 26 Start the vSphere Client and Log In 27 Stop the vSphere Client and Log Out 28 vSphere Web Access 28 VMware Service Console 29 Using vCenter Server in Linked Mode 31 Linked Mode Prerequisites 31 Linked Mode Considerations 32...
Page 4 Consolidation First Time Use 88 Consolidation Prerequisites 88 About Consolidation Services 91 Configuring Consolidation Settings 91 Find and Analyze Physical Systems 92 Viewing Analysis Results 93 Converting Physical Systems to Virtual Machines 93 Viewing Consolidation Tasks 94 Troubleshooting Consolidation 95 VMware, Inc.
Page 5 Contents Deploying OVF Templates 99 About OVF 99 Deploy an OVF Template 99 Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace 101 Export an OVF Template 101 Managing VMware vApp 103 Create a vApp 103 Populate the vApp 105 Edit vApp Settings 106...
Page 6 Removing or Modifying Users and Groups 211 Best Practices for Users and Groups 211 Using Roles to Assign Privileges 211 Permissions 215 Best Practices for Roles and Permissions 222 Required Privileges for Common Tasks 223 Monitoring Storage Resources 225 Working with Storage Reports 225 VMware, Inc.
Page 7 Alarm Actions 243 Alarm Reporting 248 Creating Alarms 248 Managing Alarms 252 Managing Alarm Actions 256 Preconfigured VMware Alarms 259 Working with Performance Statistics 261 Statistics Collection for vCenter Server 261 vCenter Server Performance Charts 268 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Performance 273...
Page 8 Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tools from the Windows Operating System CD 322 Performance Metrics 325 Cluster Services Metrics 326 CPU Metrics 327 Disk Metrics 331 Management Agent Metrics 335 Memory Metrics 336 Network Metrics 344 Storage Utilization Metrics 346 System Metrics 347 Virtual Machine Operations Metrics 348 Index 351 VMware, Inc.
Page 9: Updated Information
OS cutomization. The topic “About Snapshots,” on page 201 now reflects that VMware does not support snapshots of virtual machines configured with bus-sharing. “Disk Metrics,” on page 331, corrected the table. The latency counters were marked as available for V (virtual machines) and H (hosts), when they are actually only available for hosts.
Page 10 Chapter 16, “Migrating Virtual Machines,” on page 183 has been revised to remove references to VMware Server. VMware Server hosts are not supported by vCenter Server. Table A-22 the description for the Host USB device privilege now reflects that adding USB devices to virtual machines is not supported.
Page 11: About This Book
Linux system administrators and who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations. Document Feedback VMware welcomes your suggestions for improving our documentation. If you have comments, send your feedback to docfeedback@vmware.com. VMware vSphere Documentation The vSphere documentation consists of the combined VMware vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi documentation set.
Page 12 Customers with appropriate support contracts should use telephone support for priority 1 issues. Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html. To find out how VMware support offerings can help meet your business needs, Support Offerings go to http://www.vmware.com/support/services. VMware Education Services courses offer extensive hands-on labs, case study...
Page 13: Getting Started
Getting Started VMware, Inc.
Page 14 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 15: Vsphere Components
Components VMware vSphere™ includes components and operations essential for managing virtual machines. vSphere works with several client interfaces and offers many optional components and modules, such as VMware High Availability (HA), VMware VMotion™, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), VMware Update Manager, and VMware Converter Enterprise.
Page 16 If your ESX/ESXi host is registered with vCenter Server, a vSphere Client that accommodates vCenter Server features is available. A service that acts as a central administrator for VMware ESX/ESXi hosts that vCenter Server are connected on a network. vCenter Server directs actions on the virtual machines and the virtual machine hosts (the ESX/ESXi hosts).
Page 17: Vsphere Client Interfaces
Web Access works directly with a host or through vCenter Server. See the vSphere Web Access Administrator’s Guide for additional information. A command-line interface for configuring an ESX host. For an ESXi host, use VMware Service Console the vSphere Command-Line Interface. A command-line interface for configuring an ESXi host. The vSphere...
Page 18 Maps are available only through vCenter Server. Allows you to view, create, apply, and check compliance for host profiles. Host Profiles Allows you to create new virtual machine guest operating system Customization specifications and manage existing specifications. Specifications Manager VMware, Inc.
Page 19: Managed Components
The cluster manages the resources of all hosts. If you enable VMware DRS on a cluster, the resources of the hosts in the cluster are merged to allow resource balancing for the hosts in the cluster. If you enable VMware HA on a cluster, the resources of the cluster are managed as a pool of capacity to allow rapid recovery from host hardware failures.See the Resource...
Page 20 When vCenter Server refers to a host, this means the physical machine on which the virtual machines are running. All virtual machines within the VMware vSphere environment are physically on ESX/ESXi hosts. The term host in this Help system refers to the ESX/ESXi host that has virtual machines on it.
Page 21: Access Privileges Components
Some modules are packaged separately from the base product and require separate installation. Modules and the base product can be upgraded independently of each other. VMware modules include: Enables administrators to apply updates and patches across ESX/ESXi hosts VMware Update Manager and all managed virtual machines.
Page 22: Vcenter Components That Require Tomcat
Zones is a critical security component for protecting virtualized datacenters from network-based attacks and misuse. VMware vCenter Orchestrator is a workflow engine that enables you to create VMware vCenter and execute automated workflows within your VMware vSphere environment.
Page 23 All running virtual machines on that host can be restarted on remaining hosts. By default, you cannot power on a virtual machine if doing so violates required failover capacity. See the VMware Availability Guide for more information.
Page 24 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 25: Starting And Stopping The Vsphere Components
“Stop the vSphere Client and Log Out,” on page 28 “vSphere Web Access,” on page 28 “VMware Service Console,” on page 29 Start an ESX/ESXi Host When you install ESX/ESXi, it starts itself through the installation reboot process. If your ESX/ESXi host is shut down, you must manually restart it.
Page 26: Stop An Esx Host Manually
Server. The Status column indicates whether the service started. Right-click the vCenter Server service and select Properties. In the VMware vCenter Server Services Properties dialog box, click the General tab and view the service status. Restart the vCenter Server System The vCenter Server service starts when the machine on which it is installed is booted.
Page 27: Start The Vsphere Client And Log In
Domain Administrators group. VMware does not recommend running on a domain controller . Double-click a shortcut or select the vSphere Client from Start > Programs > VMware > vSphere Client. Enter or select the server name, your user name, and your password.
Page 28: Stop The Vsphere Client And Log Out
Log out when you are finished with your vSphere Web Access activities. Procedure Click the Log Out link at the top right corner of every page. Remote client devices are disconnected when you log out of vSphere Web Access. VMware, Inc.
Page 29: Vmware Service Console
IP address. Another caution against using DHCP is that the numeric IP address might change as DHCP leases run out or when the system is rebooted. VMware does not recommend using DHCP for the service console unless your DNS server can handle the host name translation.
Page 30 View the man Page for a Service Console Command pages provide information about commands, their usage, options, and syntax. Procedure At the service console command line, type the command followed by the name of the command for which you want to see information. For example: <command> VMware, Inc.
Page 31: Using Vcenter Server In Linked Mode
37 Linked Mode Prerequisites Prepare the system for joining a Linked Mode group. All the requirements for standalone vCenter Server systems apply to Linked Mode systems. For more information, see ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide. VMware, Inc.
Page 32: Linked Mode Considerations
“Linked Mode Considerations,” on page 32. Procedure Select Start > All Programs > VMware > vCenter Server Linked Mode Configuration. Click Next. Select Modify linked mode configuration and click Next. Click Join this vCenter Server instance to an existing linked mode group or another instance and click Next.
Page 33: Reconciling Roles When Connecting Vcenter Server To A Linked Mode Group
If the vCenter Server installer detects a role conflict, select how to resolve the conflict. Option Description Click Next. Yes, let VMware vCenter Server resolve the conflicts for me The role on the joining system is renamed to <vcenter_name> <role_name>, where <vcenter_name> is the name of the vCenter Server system that is joining the Linked Mode group, and <role_name>...
Page 34: Isolate A Vcenter Server Instance From A Linked Mode Group
You can isolate a vCenter Server instance from a Linked Mode group. Procedure Select Start > All Programs > VMware > vCenter Server Linked Mode Configuration. Click Modify linked mode configuration and click Next. Click Isolate this vCenter Server instance from linked mode group and click Next.
Page 35: Linked Mode Troubleshooting
Server inventory view. If you cannot join a vCenter Server instance, you can resolve the problem with the following actions: Ensure that the machine is grouped into the correct organizational unit in the corresponding domain controller. VMware, Inc.
Page 36 RPC ports for replication. When you install vCenter Server in Linked Mode, the firewall configuration on any network-based firewalls must be modified. Incorrect configuration of firewalls can cause licenses and roles to become inconsistent between instances. VMware, Inc.
Page 37: Monitor Vcenter Server Services
A list of all vCenter Server systems and their services, and vCenter Server plug-ins. The status of all listed items. The date and time when the last change in status occurred. Any messages associated with the change in status. VMware, Inc.
Page 38 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 39: Using The Vsphere Client
41 “Searching the vSphere Inventory,” on page 41 “Using Lists,” on page 42 “Custom Attributes,” on page 43 “Select Objects,” on page 44 “Manage vCenter Server Plug-Ins,” on page 45 “Save vSphere Client Data,” on page 46 VMware, Inc.
Page 40: Getting Started Tabs
Displays a hierarchical list of vSphere objects when an Inventory or Maps view Inventory panel appears. Display lists and charts. Depending on the navigation items or Inventory item Information panels selected, the Information panel is divided into tabbed elements. VMware, Inc.
Page 41: View Virtual Machine Console
(Optional) If more items are found than can be displayed in the results pane, click Show all to display all results. What to do next If you are not satisfied with the results of the simple search and want to refine your search, perform an advanced search. VMware, Inc.
Page 42: Using Lists
You can also filter a list, sorting and including only selected items. A filter is sorted by a keyword. Select the columns you want to include in the search for the keyword. VMware, Inc.
Page 43: Custom Attributes
Name. Add the custom attribute, Name, column to one of the list views. Add the appropriate name to each product entry. Click the column title Name to sort alphabetically. The custom attributes feature is available only when connected to a vCenter Server system. VMware, Inc.
Page 44: Select Objects
Server objects are datacenters, networks, datastores, resource pools, clusters, hosts, and virtual machines. Selecting an object does the following: Allows you to view the status of the object. Enables the menus so you can select actions to take on the object. VMware, Inc.
Page 45: Manage Vcenter Server Plug-Ins
Select the Installed tab in the Plug-in Manager dialog box. Select Enable to enable a plug-in, or deselect Enable to disable it. Disabling a plug-in does not remove it from the client. You must uninstall the plug-in to remove it. VMware, Inc.
Page 46: Save Vsphere Client Data
URL where extension.xml the corresponding Web application can be accessesed (files are located in C:\Program ). Extension installers populate these XML Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\extensions files using the DNS name for the machine. Example from the stats file: extension.xml <url>https://SPULOV-XP-VM12.vmware.com:...
Page 47: Configuring Hosts And Vcenter Server
Each type of host has a manual that provides information on the configuration for that host. For information on configuring an ESX host, see the ESX Configuration Guide. For information on configuring an ESXi host, see the ESXi Configuration Guide. VMware, Inc.
Page 48: Configuring Vcenter Server
SSL certificates of the remote host when establishing remote connections. The vCenter requires verified host SSL certificates option is enabled by default, and is required for the VMware Fault Tolerance feature to operate. Specify advanced settings. VMware recommends that you do not change these Advanced Settings settings without contacting VMware technical support.
Page 49: Configuring Communication Among Esx, Vcenter Server, And The Vsphere Client
These features are not available when your vSphere Client is connected to an ESX/ESXi host. View Active Sessions You can view active sessions on the Home page of a vSphere Client. Procedure From the Home page of a vSphere Client connected to a vCenter Server system, click the Sessions button. VMware, Inc.
Page 50: Snmp And Vsphere
To use the vCenter Server SNMP traps, configure the SNMP settings on vCenter Server and configure your management client software to accept the traps from vCenter Server. The traps sent by vCenter Server are defined in . See “VMWARE-VC-EVENT- VMWARE-VC-EVENT-MIB.mib MIB,” on page 62. VMware, Inc.
Page 51 ESX 4.0 with MIBs supplied by your hardware vendor and other third-party management applications. However, to use the VMware MIB files, you must use the embedded SNMP agent. By default, the embedded SNMP agent is disabled. To enable it, you must configure it using the vSphere CLI command .
Page 52 If you do not specify a port, the SNMP agent sends traps to UDP port 162 on the target management system by default. Prerequisites SNMP configuration for ESX/ESXi requires the vSphere CLI. For information on installing and using the vSphere CLI, see vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide. VMware, Inc.
Page 53 To configure your management client software, you must specify the communities for the managed device, configure the port settings, and load the VMware MIB files. Refer to the documentation for your management system for specific instructions for these steps.
Page 54 UDP port 162, configure the management client software to listen on the port you configured. Load the VMware MIBs into the management software so you can view the symbolic names for the vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi variables.
Page 55 VMWARE-VMINFO-MIB.mib virtual machine traps. Table 5-2 lists MIB files included in the VMware MIB files package that are not created by VMware. These can be used with the VMware MIB files to provide additional information. Table 5-2. Other MIB Files...
Page 56 Basic System Administration VMWARE-ROOT-MIB file defines the VMware enterprise OID and top level OID assignments. VMWARE-ROOT-MIB.mib Table 5-3 lists the identification mapping defined in VMWARE-ROOT-MIB.mib Table 5-3. Definition Mapping for VMWARE-ROOT-MIB.mib Label Identification Mapping vmware enterprises 6876 vmwSystem vmware 1...
Page 57 Chapter 5 Configuring Hosts and vCenter Server Table 5-4. Variable Definitions in VMWARE-ENV-MIB (Continued) Variable ID Mapping Description The type of hardware component that is vmwSubsystemType vmwEnvEntry 2 reporting its environmental state. The last reported status of the vmwHardwareStatus vmwEnvEntry 3 component.
Page 58 Basic System Administration Table 5-5. Variables Defined in VMWARE-OBSOLETE-MIB (Continued) Variable ID Mapping Description A record for a single HBA connected to vmwHBAEntry vmwHBATable 1 the host machine. Index for the HBA table. vmwHbaIdx vmwHBAEntry 1 A string describing the disk. Format:...
Page 59 This trap is sent when a virtual machine is powered off. vmPoweredOff This trap is sent when a virtual machine detects a loss in guest heartbeat. VMware Tools vmHBLost must be installed in the guest operating system in order for this value to be valid.
Page 60 Basic System Administration VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB file defines OIDs to uniquely identify each SNMP agent on each VMware VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB.mib platform. Table 5-7 lists identification mappings defined in VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB.mib Table 5-7. Identification Mappings for VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB.mib Label Identification Mapping oidESX vmwOID 1 vmwESX...
Page 61 6 The PCI ID of the adapter. vmwHbaPci vmwHostBusAdapterEntry 7 VMWARE-SYSTEM-MIB file provides variables for identifying the VMware software running on a managed VMWARE-SYSTEM-MIB.mib system by product name, version number, and build number. Table 5-9 lists the variables defined in VMWARE-SYSTEM-MIB.mib...
Page 62 Server. These definitions were VMWARE-VC-EVENT-MIB.mib provided by in earlier versions of VirtualCenter Server. VMWARE-TRAPS-MIB.mib Table 5-10 lists the traps defined for vCenter Server. Table 5-10. Alarms Defined in VMWARE-VC-EVENT-MIB Trap ID Mapping Description The vCenter Server SNMP agent sends vpxdAlarm vmwVCNotifications 201 this trap when an entity's alarm status changes.
Page 63 Reports the configured virtual hardware MAC address. vmwVmMAC vmwVmNetEntry 7 If VMware Tools is not running, the value is zero or empty. Virtual Floppy Device Variables A table of floppy drives for all virtual machines in...
Page 64 Basic System Administration Table 5-12. Identification Mappings for VMWARE-VMINFO-MIB (Continued) Variable ID Mapping Description Identifies a single floppy device. May change across vmwFloppyEntry vmwFloppyTable 1 system reboots. A number corresponding to the virtual machine’s index vmwFdVmIdx vmwFloppyEntry 1 in the vmwVmTable.
Page 65: System Log Files
The following task describes how to access and view system logs. Procedure From the Home page of a vSphere Client connected to either a vCenter Server system or an ESX/ESXi host, click System Logs. From the drop-down menu, select the log and entry you want to view. VMware, Inc.
Page 66 Click Clear to empty the data field. External System Logs VMware technical support might request several files to help resolve any issues you have with the product. This section describes the types and locations of log files found on various ESX 4.0 component systems.
Page 67 Data\vpx\viclient-x.log x(=0, 1, ... 9) VMware Server System Logs You may need the VMware Server system log files and the configuration file to resolve technical issues. Table 5-17 lists log files associated with VMware Server hosts. Table 5-17. VMware Server System Logs...
Page 68: Configure Syslog On Esxi Hosts
When you export log file data, the script creates a file of the selected data and stores it in a location vm-support you specify. The default file type is if no other extension is specified. The file contains Type, Time, and .txt Description. VMware, Inc.
Page 69 From the vCenter Server system, select Start > Programs > VMware > Generate vCenter Server log bundle. You can use this to generate vCenter Server log bundles even when you are unable to connect to the vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
Page 70 Click Add, and click OK. ESX/ESXi VMkernel Files If the VMkernel fails, an error message appears and then the virtual machine reboots. If you specified a VMware core dump partition when you configured your virtual machine, the VMkernel also generates a core dump and error log.
Page 71: Managing The Vsphere Client Inventory
Server system in the group. The name of the root folder is the name of the vCenter Server system which it represents. In vCenter Server only. Child objects are datacenters, hosts, clusters, Folders networking objects, datastores, virtual machines, templates, or subfolders. VMware, Inc.
Page 72 NFS volumes on your host. In addition, you can add a host with existing datastores to the inventory. Central repositories for virtual machine provisioning media such as virtual Libraries machine templates, ISO images, floppy images, VMDK files, guest customization files, and so on. VMware, Inc.
Page 73: Add An Inventory Object
Clusters, resource pools, hosts, and virtual machines can be added from the Hosts and Clusters view in vSphere Client. Procedure From the vSphere Client, right-click the parent object in the inventory. Select , where <Object> is a folder, datacenter, cluster, resource pool, host, or virtual machine. <Object> Complete the wizard and click Finish. VMware, Inc.
Page 74: Moving Objects In The Inventory
Returns all processor and migration licenses assigned to the object to available status. If the object is a host, ceases to manage the object’s virtual machines, but allows them to remain on the host. Removing a virtual machine from the inventory does not delete it from its datastore. VMware, Inc.
Page 75: Browsing Datastores In The Vsphere Client Inventory
You can download virtual disks from a datastore to local storage, but you cannot upload virtual disks from local storage to a datastore, because the disk format cannot be verified during the upload. VMware, Inc.
Page 76 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 77: Managing Hosts In Vcenter Server
Most of the host configuration and virtual machine configuration features still apply. Features that require multiple hosts, such as migration with VMotion of a virtual machine from one host to another, are not available through the standalone host connection. VMware, Inc.
Page 78: Add A Host
This option is available for ESXi hosts only. Selecting this check box ensures that the host is managed only through vCenter Server. Certain limited management tasks can be performed while in lockdown mode by logging into the local console on the host. VMware, Inc.
Page 79: Completing The Add Host Process
After you dismiss the Add Host wizard, vCenter Server finishes the process of adding a host by performing the following steps. Searches the network for the specified managed host and identifies all the virtual machines on the managed host. VMware, Inc.
Page 80: Disconnecting And Reconnecting A Host
Right-click the host and select Connect from the pop-up menu. When the managed host’s connection status to vCenter Server is changed, the statuses of the virtual machines on that managed host are updated to reflect the change. VMware, Inc.
Page 81: Remove A Host From A Cluster
The managed host and its associated virtual machines remain in the vCenter Server inventory. Removing a managed host from vCenter Server does not remove the virtual machines from the managed host or datastore. It removes only vCenter Server’s access to the managed host and virtual machines on that managed host. VMware, Inc.
Page 82: Remove A Managed Host From Vcenter Server
On the confirmation dialog, click Yes. The host icon changes and the term “maintenance mode” is added to the name in parentheses. Right-click the appropriate host in the inventory panel, and select Remove from the pop-up menu. VMware, Inc.
Page 83: Monitoring Host Health Status
The Reading column displays the current values for the sensors. For instance, the column displays rotations per minute (RPM) for fans and degrees Celsius for temperature. Procedure Log in to the host using the vSphere Client, and select the host in the inventory. VMware, Inc.
Page 84 Select the Local intranet Web content zone. Click Custom Level. Underneath Allow scripting of Internet Explorer Webbrowser control, select Enable. Click OK to close the Security Settings dialog box, and click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box. VMware, Inc.
Page 85: Virtual Machine Management
Virtual Machine Management VMware, Inc.
Page 86 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 87: Consolidating The Datacenter
Consolidating the Datacenter VMware vCenter Guided Consolidation, recommended for smaller IT environments, enables you to streamline your datacenter by moving business applications, spread across multiple disparate physical systems, into a centrally managed virtual environment. Use the consolidation feature to start building your virtual environment, or to further consolidate your datacenter as it grows.
Page 88: Consolidation First Time Use
Basic System Administration Consolidation First Time Use The first time you use the Consolidation feature, VMware recommends that you specify consolidation settings. These settings include default system credentials and active domains. Default system credentials enable you to store a set of credentials so that you do not have to enter them each time you add systems for analysis.
Page 89: Network Connections
This is because of Windows servers that use NetBIOS (as well as DNS) to resolve IP addresses to names using the gethostbyaddr() function. As users behind the firewalls visit Windows-based Web sites, those servers frequently respond with NetBIOS lookups. VMware, Inc.
Page 90 DNS is used for name resolution, and the Microsoft networking communication is sent directly over TCP without a NetBIOS header. Direct hosting over TCP/IP uses TCP and UDP port 445 instead of the NetBIOS session TCP port 139. VMware, Inc.
Page 91: About Consolidation Services
Analyzes the data and generates placement recommendations. Also communicates with vCenter Server to perform conversion. Runs inside a generic servlet container labeled VMware vCenter Management Webservices. The services of other vCenter features and extensions might also be present inside that servlet container.
Page 92: Find And Analyze Physical Systems
That information is updated daily as long as the domain remains active. VMware recommends that you leave domains where new systems are frequently added as Active and that you remove domains that do not frequently change after their information has been cached. Because scanning active domains is resource intensive, VMware also recommends that no more than 50 domains are simultaneously active.
Page 93: Viewing Analysis Results
The following formula is used to resize converted disks: amount of space used on physical disk * 1.25 = resultant virtual disk size Virtual disks are set to a size of 4GB or larger. VMware, Inc.
Page 94: Viewing Consolidation Tasks
You can convert systems manually if you want to specify values other than the default values for the resultant virtual machine's properties. The option to convert systems manually is available only if the VMware Converter Enterprise Client is installed and enabled on your vSphere Client. You can verify whether VMware Converter Enterprise Client is installed and enabled through the Plug-in Manager.
Page 95: Troubleshooting Consolidation
Enable the Computer Browser service on the machine where Guided Consolidation is installed and on the systems that are not discovered. Ensure that the Log On As credentials for VMware vCenter Collector Provider Service met the prerequisites as mentioned in “Consolidation Prerequisites,”...
Page 96 Double-click on Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts. Ensure that Classic - local users authenticate as themselves is selected. Ensure the changed settings are applied. Restart VMware vCenter Collector Provider Service. gpupdate /force Reboot the Guided Consolidation host system.
Page 97 On the Guided Consolidation host system, open the Services control panel. Stop theVMware vCenter Management Webservices (applicable when Guided Consolidation and vCenter Server are not collocated), the VMware Collector for vCenter, and the VMware Provider for vCenter services. Uninstall Guided Consolidation Uninstall Guided Consolidation to completely remove the feature.
Page 98 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 99: Deploying Ovf Templates
You can deploy an OVF template from a local file system accessible to the vSphere Client machine, or from a web URL. To import a virtual machine that was created by another VMware product and is not in OVF format, use the VMware vCenter Converter module. See the VMware Converter Enterprise for vCenter Server documentation for more information.
Page 100 The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered off. A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. DHCP This page is not shown if the deployed OVF template does not contain information about the IP scheme it supports. VMware, Inc.
Page 101: Browse Vmware Virtual Appliance Marketplace
14 Review your settings and click Finish. The progress of the import task appears in the vSphere Client Status panel. Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace Available vApps appear in the main panel. To get to the Virtual Appliance Marketplace page, select File > Browse VA Marketplace from the main menu.
Page 102 (Optional) In Description, type a description for the virtual machine. By default, the text from the Notes pane on the virtual machine’s Summary tab appears in this text box. The download process is shown in the Export window. VMware, Inc.
Page 103: Managing Vmware Vapp
Managing VMware vApp You can use VMware vSphere as a platform for running applications, in addition to using it as a platform for running virtual machines. The applications can be packaged to run directly on top of VMware vSphere. The ®...
Page 104 If you selected a DRS-enabled cluster and the cluster is in DRS manual mode, select the host as the destination for the vApp. The message in the Compatibility panel indicates whether the validation for this destination succeeded or if a specific requirement was not met. VMware, Inc.
Page 105: Populate The Vapp
Chapter 10 Managing VMware vApp Click Next. Allocate vApp Resources Determine how much CPU and memory should be allocated for the vApp. Procedure In the Resource Allocation page, allocate CPU and memory resources for this vApp. Click Next. Complete the vApp Creation The Ready to Complete page enables you to review the vApp’s configuration.
Page 106: Edit Vapp Settings
You can edit the CPU and memory resource allocation for the vApp. Procedure On the Summary page of the vApp, click Edit Settings. Click Resources in the Options list. Edit the CPU and memory resource allocation. Click OK when finished. VMware, Inc.
Page 107 Chapter 10 Managing VMware vApp Edit vApp Properties You can edit any vApp property that is defined in Advanced Property Configuration. Procedure On the Summary page of the vApp, click Edit Settings. Click Properties in the Options list. Edit the vApp properties.
Page 108 Procedure On the Summary page of the vApp, click Edit Settings. Click Advanced in the Options list. Edit the product information within the appropriate fields. If permissions are set to read-only, the fields cannot be edited. Click Properties. VMware, Inc.
Page 109: Configuring Ip Pools
Chapter 10 Managing VMware vApp In Advanced Property Configuration, you may perform the following actions. ClickNew to add a new custom property. Select the property and click Edit to edit a property. Click Delete to delete a property. Click OK when finished.
Page 110 In the IP Pools tab, right-click the IP pool you wish to edit and select Properties. If no IP pools are present, click Add to add a new IP pool. In the Properties dialog, select the Proxy tab. VMware, Inc.
Page 111: Clone A Vapp
Chapter 10 Managing VMware vApp Enter the server name and port number for the proxy server. The server name can optionally include a colon and a port number. For example, is a valid proxy server. web-proxy:3912 Click OK when finished.
Page 112: Power Off A Vapp
You can add or edit notes for a particular vApp. Procedure Select the vApp in the inventory. Click the Summary tab for the vApp. In the Annotations box, click Edit. Enter text in the Edit Service Annotation window. Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Page 113: Creating Virtual Machines
“Select the Number of Virtual Processors,” on page 115 “Configure Virtual Memory,” on page 116 “Configure Networks,” on page 116 “About VMware Paravirtual SCSI Adapters,” on page 116 “Select a SCSI Adapter,” on page 117 “Selecting a Virtual Disk Type,” on page 117 “Complete Virtual Machine Creation,”...
Page 114: Select A Path Through The New Virtual Machine Wizard
Click Next. Select a Resource Pool The resource pool option is available when resource pools are configured on the host. Procedure Navigate to the resource pool where you want to run the virtual machine. Select it and click Next. VMware, Inc.
Page 115: Select A Datastore
Select a datastore large enough to hold the virtual machine and all of its virtual disk files and click Next. Select a Virtual Machine Version If the host or cluster where you chose to locate the virtual machine supports more than one VMware virtual machine version, you have the option to select a version for your virtual machine.
Page 116: Configure Virtual Memory
CPU utilization. Paravirtual SCSI adapters are best suited for high performance storage environments. Paravirtual SCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments. VMware recommends that you create a primary adapter (LSI Logic by default) for use with a disk that will host the system software (boot disk) and a separate PVSCSI adapter for the disk that will store user data, such as a database.
Page 117: Select A Scsi Adapter
If you upgrade from RHEL 5 to an unsupported kernel, you might not be able to access data on the disks attached to a Paravirtual SCSI adapter. To regain access to such disks, run the VMware Tools configuration ) with kernel-version parameter and pass the kernel version after the kernel is vmware-config-tools.pl...
Page 118 Select a virtual device node. Enable Independent mode and select whether you want changes to the disk to persist, or whether you want changes to be discarded when the virtual machine is powered off or reverted to a snapshot. VMware, Inc.
Page 119 When you create a virtual machine, you can select not to create a virtual disk. Select this option if you want to create a virtual machine without a disk, or if you want to add disks to the virtual machine later using the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box. VMware, Inc.
Page 120: Complete Virtual Machine Creation
Follow the installation instructions provided by the operating system vendor. Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine.
Page 121 ESX/ESXi as ISO image files. An ISO image file looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system and even appears as a CD-ROM disc in Windows Explorer. You do not use an actual CD-ROM disc to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file.
Page 122 To determine the status of VMware Tools, select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab. The VMware Tools label indicates whether VMware Tools is installed and current, installed and not current, or not installed.
Page 123 What to do next Verify the status of VMware Tools by checking the VMware Tools label on the virtual machine Summary tab. The VMware Tools label should display the word OK. Install VMware Tools on a Linux Guest with the Tar Installer Install the latest version of VMware Tools to enhance the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating...
Page 124 What to do next After you install or upgrade VMware Tools on a virtual machine, verify the status of VMware Tools by checking the VMware Tools label on the virtual machine Summary tab. The VMware Tools label should display the word OK.
Page 125 Before you install or upgrade VMware Tools on a virtual machine, determine the status of VMware Tools. To do this, select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab. The VMware Tools label indicates whether VMware Tools is installed and current, installed and not current, or not installed.
Page 126 What to do next After you install or upgrade VMware Tools on a virtual machine, verify the status of VMware Tools by checking the VMware Tools label on the virtual machine Summary tab. The VMware Tools label should display the word OK.
Page 127 Log off of the root account. exit What to do next Verify the status of VMware Tools by checking the VMware Tools label on the virtual machine Summary tab. The VMware Tools label should display the word OK. Install VMware Tools on a NetWare Guest Install or upgrade VMware Tools to the latest version to enhance the performance of the virtual machine’s...
Page 128 Procedure On a Windows guest: Open a console to the virtual machine and double-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray from inside the guest operating system. On a Linux or Solaris guest: Open a console to the virtual machine and open a terminal window and enter the command: /usr/bin/vmware-toolbox &...
Page 129 Upgrade. Click OK. The next time the virtual machine is powered on, it checks the ESX/ESXi host for a newer version of VMware Tools. If one is available, it is installed and the guest operating system is restarted (if required).
Page 130 Install WYSE Multimedia Support with VMware Tools When you install VMware Tools in a Windows 2003 or Windows XP guest operating system for the first time, you can install WYSE Multimedia Support at the same time by choosing a custom installation path.
Page 131 Chapter 11 Creating Virtual Machines Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Page 132 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 133: Managing Virtual Machines
Figure 12-1 illustrates the components in an ESX/ESXi Virtual Infrastructure. Figure 12-1. vSphere Components with an ESX/ESXi Host vSphere vSphere Client Client Host Agent ESX/ESXi host datastore Figure 12-2 illustrates the components in a vCenter Server Virtual Infrastructure. VMware, Inc.
Page 134: Changing Virtual Machine Power States
Pauses the virtual machine activity. All virtual machine operations are frozen Suspend until you issue a resume command. Allows virtual machine activity to continue and releases the Suspend state. Resume Shuts down the guest operating system and restarts it. Reset VMware, Inc.
Page 135 Chapter 12 Managing Virtual Machines The following power options perform extra functions in addition to the basic virtual machine power operations. VMware Tools must be installed in the virtual machine to perform these functions: Shuts down the guest operating system gracefully.
Page 136 Basic System Administration In the right panel, enter the settings you want for the Power Controls, Run VMware Tools Scripts, and Advanced options. Click OK to save your settings and close the dialog box. Power On or Power Off a Virtual Machine Manually You can power on or off a virtual machine manually.
Page 137: Adding And Removing Virtual Machines
Right-click the virtual machine and select Remove from Inventory. To confirm that you want to remove the virtual machine from the inventory, click OK. vCenter Server removes references to the virtual machine and no longer tracks its condition. VMware, Inc.
Page 138: Configure Virtual Machine Startup And Shutdown Behavior
Click Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown, and click Properties. Select Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system. Click Continue immediately if the VMware Tools starts to have the operating system boot immediately after VMware Tools starts. To have the operating system start after a brief delay, enter a Default Startup Delay time.
Page 139 Use Move Up and Move Down to specify the order in which the virtual machines start when the system starts. 10 To configure user-specified autostartup and autoshutdown behavior for any virtual machine, select the virtual machine and click Edit. VMware, Inc.
Page 140 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 141: Virtual Machine Configuration
In particular, you cannot add or remove virtual devices on virtual machines with hardware versions lower than 4 when they reside on an ESX/ESXi 4.x host. To make full use of these virtual machines, upgrade the virtual hardware as described in the Upgrade Guide. VMware, Inc.
Page 142: Virtual Machine Properties Editor
If you connect the vSphere Client directly to the host, add hardware operations might fail with the error message Cannot complete operation due to concurrent modification by another operation Procedure From the vSphere Client, click Inventory in the navigation bar. VMware, Inc.
Page 143 Click the DVD/CD-ROM drive in the Hardware list. Select or deselect the Connected check box to connect or disconnect the device. If you do not want the CD-ROM drive connected when the virtual machine starts, deselect Connect at power on. VMware, Inc.
Page 144 To connect the device, you must click the Connect Floppy button in the toolbar when you power on the virtual machine. Select this option to connect the floppy device to a physical floppy device Host Device on the host. Select the specific device from the drop-down list. VMware, Inc.
Page 145 Use the Hardware tab to configure memory for a virtual machine. Procedure In the Virtual Machine Properties Editor, click the Hardware tab. Click Memory in the Hardware list. Adjust the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine. VMware, Inc.
Page 146 Changing the SCSI controller type might result in a virtual machine boot failure. AUTION You can also specify whether the SCSI bus is shared. Depending on the type of sharing, virtual machines can access the same virtual disk simultaneously on the same server or any server. VMware, Inc.
Page 147 Select Server or Client in the Near end list. In general, select Server if you plan to start this end of the connection first. Select An application in the Far end list. By default, the serial port is connected when you power on the virtual machine. You might deselect the Connect at power on check box (optional). VMware, Inc.
Page 148: Virtual Machine Options
Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. Change the Virtual Processor or CPU Configuration You can configure more than one virtual processor or CPU for a virtual machine using VMware Virtual SMP for ESX. If the virtual machine is on an ESX/ESXi host, you can configure a virtl machine to have up to eight virtual processors or CPUs.
Page 149 Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box. Change the VMware Tools Options for a Virtual Machine You can change the power controls, the time VMware Tools scripts run, the upgrade check option, and the time synchronization option with the VMware Tools settings for a virtual machine.
Page 150 Change Advanced Virtual Machine Settings The virtual machine options define a range of virtual machine properties such as name, vApp functionality, its behavior with the guest operating system and VMware Tools, and other Advanced options. Procedure Click the Options tab.
Page 151 Legend. The virtual machine must be powered off before you can change this setting. Select Advanced > Memory/CPU Hotplug. VMware Tools must be installed for hotplug functionality to work properly. Select Enable memory hot add for this virtual machineto enable memory hot add, or select Disable memory hot add for this virtual machine to disable this feature.
Page 152 47 for more information on host swapfile settings. See the Resource Management Guide for more information on cluster settings. Always store with the virtual machine— Store the virtual machine swapfile in the same folder as the virtual machine configuration file. VMware, Inc.
Page 153 The processor can run two independent applications at the same time. While hyperthreading does not double the performance of a system, it can increase performance by better utilizing idle resources. For detailed information about hyperthreading and its use in vSphere, see the Resource Management Guide (select Help > Manuals). VMware, Inc.
Page 154 You can edit some of the same information on the Resource Pools tab of the main vSphere Client window, which you might do to edit resource settings at the same time as other virtual machine settings. VMware, Inc.
Page 155 The Disk Resources panel lets you allocate host disk I/O bandwidth to the virtual hard disks of this virtual machine. Disk I/O is a host-centric resource and cannot be pooled across a cluster. However, CPU and memory resources are much more likely to constrain virtual machine performance than disk resources. VMware, Inc.
Page 156: Adding New Hardware
You rescan a host to ensure that it detects changes made to storage adapter or SAN configuration. Procedure Select a host. Select the Configuration tab. Click Network Adapters in the Hardware section. Click Rescan. Select New Storage Devices Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Page 157 This forces the affected virtual machine to use interrupt mode, which yields CPU time if the only task it is trying to do is poll the virtual serial port. 11 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish. VMware, Inc.
Page 158 Review the information on the Ready to Complete window, and click Finish or Back if you want to change any information. Add a Floppy Drive to a Virtual Machine Use a physical floppy drive or a floppy image to add a floppy drive to a virtual machine. Procedure Start the Add Hardware wizard. VMware, Inc.
Page 159 The version of the virtual machine, which depends on what host created it or most recently updated it. Whether or not the virtual machine has been updated to the latest version for the current host. The guest operating system. VMware, Inc.
Page 160 Vlance adapter would function. If you want to obtain significantly better performance, you need only install the VMware Tools on the virtual machine as described in the previous step. If the adapter type is vmxnet, the adapter type on the upgraded virtual machine is still vmxnet. However, you cannot change this adapter’s type to Vlance, as you would have been able to do on a legacy virtual...
Page 161 Select a datastore and click Next. Select the compatibility mode: physical to allow the guest operating system to access the hardware directly or virtual to allow the virtual machine to use VMware snapshots and other advanced functions. Click Next. Specify the virtual device node.
Page 162 I/O-intensive applications. PVSCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments. Prerequisites An existing virtual machine with a guest operating system and VMware Tools installed. Paravirtual SCSI adapters do not support bootable disk. Therefore, the virtual machine must be configured with a primary SCSI adapter to support a disk where the system software is installed.
Page 163: Converting Virtual Disks From Thin To Thick
If you upgrade from RHEL 5 to an unsupported kernel, you might not be able to access data on the disks attached to a Paravirtual SCSI adapter. To regain access to such disks, run the VMware Tools configuration ) with kernel-version parameter and pass the kernel version after the kernel is vmware-config-tools.pl...
Page 164 Click the virtual machine folder to find the virtual disk file you want to convert. The file has the .vmdk extension. Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate. The virtual disk in thick format occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it. VMware, Inc.
Page 165: Working With Templates And Clones
Templates can be created by using an existing virtual machine or cloning a virtual machine or existing template. You can create a template by: Using an existing virtual machine in place. This process converts the original virtual machine. Cloning a virtual machine to a template. Cloning an existing template. VMware, Inc.
Page 166 Click Next. Click Finish. vCenter Server displays the Tasks inventory panel for reference and adds the cloned template to the list in the information panel. VMware, Inc.
Page 167: Edit A Template
You must convert the template to a virtual machine, edit it, and convert the edited virtual machine to a template. Procedure Convert the template to a virtual machine. Edit the virtual machine. Convert the virtual machine to a template. VMware, Inc.
Page 168: Change Template Name
If you want to customize your guest operating system, click one of the other selections as appropriate. You customize guest operating systems through the wizard or by using an existing customization specification that you create. Customization is not supported for all guest operating systems. Additionally, some guest operating systems require Microsoft Sysprep tools. VMware, Inc.
Page 169: Convert Templates To Virtual Machines
Start the vSphere client, and log in to the vCenter Server system. From the Home page, click VMs and Templates. Select the datastore that contains the template, and click the Virtual Machine tab. Right-click the template, and select Delete from Disk. VMware, Inc.
Page 170: Regain Templates
If you select a cluster, you must select a specific host within the cluster, and click Next. Select a resource pool in which to run the clone, and click Next. 10 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files, and click Next. VMware, Inc.
Page 171: Create A Scheduled Task To Clone A Virtual Machine
Server first verifies that the user who created the task still has permission to complete the task. If the permission levels are not acceptable, vCenter Server sends a message to the log and the task is not performed. VMware, Inc.
Page 172 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 173: Customizing Guest Operating Systems
If you are customizing a Windows guest operating system, verify that all required components are installed on the Windows machine where vCenter Server is installed. After deploying and customizing nonvolume-licensed versions of Windows XP or Windows 2003, you might need to reactivate your Microsoft operating system on the new virtual machine. VMware, Inc.
Page 174 Web site. Windows XP Home or Windows NT4 operating system guest customization is not supported. The guest operating system has the most recent version of VMware Tools installed. The Microsoft Sysprep tools are installed on the vCenter Server system.
Page 175: Customize Windows During Cloning Or Deployment
VMware vSphere documentation Web site. The guest operating system has the most recent version of VMware Tools installed. Perl must be installed in the Linux guest operating system. The clone or template has a root volume formatted with an ext2, ext3, or ReiserFS file system.
Page 176: Customize Linux During Cloning Or Deployment
From the Clone Virtual Machine or Deploy Template wizard, select Guest Customization. Specify a host name to identify the guest operating system on the network. Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next. Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next. VMware, Inc.
Page 177: Create A Customization Specification For Linux
In the vSphere Client, select View > Management > Customization Specifications Manager. Click New. In the Guest Customization wizard, select Windows from the Target Virtual Machine OS menu. To use a custom Sysprep Answer File, select the check box. VMware, Inc.
Page 178 18 (Optional) Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next. 19 Click Finish to save your changes. The custom specification you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You can use it to customize virtual machine guest operating systems. VMware, Inc.
Page 179: Managing Customization Specification
You can remove customization specifications from the Customization Specification Manager. Prerequisites Before you begin, you must have at least one customization specification. Procedure In the vSphere Client, select View > Management > Customization Specifications Manager. In the Customization Specification Manager, right-click a specification and select Remove. VMware, Inc.
Page 180: Completing A Guest Operating System Customization
Open the virtual machine’s console to determine whether the system is waiting for information. The guest operating system runs finalization scripts. The virtual machine might reboot a number of times. The log in page appears when the process is complete. VMware, Inc.
Page 181 Click the Windows Start button and select Programs > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. Errors are logged to %WINDIR%\temp\vmware-imc View the Error Log on Linux If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is booting, the errors are reported using the guest’s system logging mechanism. Procedure Navigate to /var/log/vmware/customization.log VMware, Inc.
Page 182 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 183: Migrating Virtual Machines
193 “Migrate a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine,” on page 194 “Migrate a Powered-On Virtual Machine with VMotion,” on page 195 “Migrate a Virtual Machine with Storage VMotion,” on page 196 “Storage VMotion Command-Line Syntax,” on page 198 VMware, Inc.
Page 184: Cold Migration
Migration with VMotion happens in three stages: When the migration with VMotion is requested, vCenter Server verifies that the existing virtual machine is in a stable state with its current host. VMware, Inc.
Page 185 (SAN), but can also be implemented using iSCSI and NAS shared storage. See the VMware SAN Configuration Guide for additional information on SAN and the ESX Configuration Guide or ESXi Configuration Guide for information on other shared storage.
Page 186 Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC), or if a CPU compatibility mask is applied to the virtual machine. VMware, in partnership with CPU and hardware vendors, is working to maintain VMotion compatibility across the widest range of processors. For additional information, search the VMware Knowledge Base for the VMotion and CPU Compatibility FAQ.
Page 187 VMotion compatibility. If the specifications of a server or its CPU features are unknown, VMware’s bootable CPU identification utility (available for download from the VMware website) can be used to boot a server and determine whether its CPUs contain features such as SSE3, SSSE3, and NX/XD.
Page 188 VMotion. SSSE3 Considerations Within the Intel P4 and Intel Core processor families, VMware places a restriction between processors that do support the SSSE3 instructions and processors that do not support the SSSE3 instructions. Because they are application level instructions that bypass the virtualization layer, these instructions could cause application instability if mismatched after a migration with VMotion.
Page 189 Create an empty cluster, enable EVC, and move hosts into the cluster. Enable EVC on an existing cluster. VMware recommends creating an empty EVC cluster as the simplest way of creating an EVC cluster with minimal disruption to your existing infrastructure.
Page 190 EVC, see the vSphere Client online Help. Other cluster features such as VMware DRS and VMware HA are fully compatible with EVC. You can enable these features when you create the cluster. For information on specific cluster options, see the vSphere Client online Help.
Page 191 The dialog box displays the current EVC settings. To edit the EVC settings, click Change. From the VMware EVC Mode drop-down menu, select the baseline CPU feature set you want to enable for the cluster. If the selected EVC Mode cannot be selected, the Compatibility pane displays the reason or reasons why, along with the relevant hosts for each reason.
Page 192 Migrations with VMotion are not allowed unless the destination swapfile location is the same as the source swapfile location. In practice, this means that virtual machine swapfiles must be located with the virtual machine configuration file. See the vSphere Client online Help for more information on configuring swapfile policies. VMware, Inc.
Page 193: Migration With Storage Vmotion
A virtual machine and its host must meet resource and configuration requirements for the virtual machine disks to be migrated with Storage VMotion. Storage VMotion is subject to the following requirements and limitations: Virtual machines with snapshots cannot be migrated using Storage VMotion. VMware, Inc.
Page 194: Migrate A Powered-Off Or Suspended Virtual Machine
NFS datastore. For physical compatibility mode RDMs, you can migrate the mapping file only. Migration of virtual machines during VMware Tools installation is not supported. The host on which the virtual machine is running must have a license that includes Storage VMotion.
Page 195: Migrate A Powered-On Virtual Machine With Vmotion
Any compatibility problem appears in the Compatibility panel. Fix the problem, or select another host or cluster. Possible targets include hosts and fully automated DRS clusters. You can select a non-automated cluster as a target. You are prompted to select a host within the non-automated cluster. VMware, Inc.
Page 196: Migrate A Virtual Machine With Storage Vmotion
To move the virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks to a single destination, select the datastore and click Next. To select individual destinations for the configuration file and each virtual disk, click Advanced. In the Datastore column, select a destination for the configuration file and each virtual disk, and click Next. VMware, Inc.
Page 197 Specific items of virtual machine hardware can also cause compatibility issues. For example, a virtual machine using an enhanced vmxnet virtual NIC cannot be migrated to a host running a version of ESX that does not support enhanced vmxnet. VMware, Inc.
Page 198: Storage Vmotion Command-Line Syntax
You must specify the datastore path to the virtual machine’s configuration file in the <VM config datastore command. path> svmotion Procedure In the vSphere Client inventory, select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab. Click Edit Settings to display the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box. VMware, Inc.
Page 199 --url=https://myvc.mycorp.com/sdk --username=me --password=secret --datacenter=DC1 --vm='[old_datastore] myvm/myvm.vmx: new_datastore' An example of relocating a virtual machine to , while leaving the disks, new_datastore myvm_1.vmdk myvm_2.vmdk old_datastore svmotion --datacenter='My DC' --vm='[old_datastore] myvm/myvm.vmx: new_datastore' --disks='[old_datastore] myvm/myvm_1.vmdk: old_datastore, [old_datastore] myvm/myvm_2.vmdk: old_datastore' VMware, Inc.
Page 200 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 201: Using Snapshots
Virtual machine settings State of all the virtual machine’s virtual disks VMware does not support snapshots of raw disks, RDM physical mode disks, independent disks, or of virtual machines configured with bus-sharing. If you require bus-sharing, consider running backup software within your guest operating system as an alternative solution.
Page 202 Because you cannot revert to a snapshot with dynamic disks, quiesced snapshots are not used when backing up dynamic disks. Backup solutions, like VMware Data Recovery, use the snapshot mechanism to freeze the state of a virtual machine. However, the Data Recovery backup method has additional capabilities that mitigate the limitations of snapshots.
Page 203: Take A Snapshot
(Optional) Select the Snapshot the virtual machine’s memory check box if you want to capture the memory of the virtual machine. (Optional) Select the Quiesce guest file system (Needs VMware Tools installed) check box to pause running processes on the guest operating system so that file system contents are in a known consistent state when the snapshot is taken.
Page 204: Using The Snapshot Manager
Delete commits the snapshot data to the parent and removes the selected snapshot. Delete All commits all the immediate snapshots before the You are here current state to the base disk and removes all existing snapshots for that virtual machine. VMware, Inc.
Page 205: Restore A Snapshot
This process is illustrated in Figure 17-1. Virtual machines running certain kinds of workloads might take several minutes to resume responsiveness after reverting from a snapshot. This delay may be improved by increasing the guest memory. VMware, Inc.
Page 206 (deleted, modified, or defined) after the virtual machine reverts to that snapshot or any prior snapshots. Revert to Parent Snapshot You can revert any snapshot to the parent snapshot state. Procedure Select Inventory > Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Revert to Snapshot. VMware, Inc.
Page 207: System Administration
System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 208 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 209: Managing Users, Groups, Roles, And Permissions
Several users can access the vCenter Server system from different vSphere Client sessions at the same time. vSphere does not explicitly restrict users with the same authentication credentials from accessing and taking action within the vSphere environment simultaneously. VMware, Inc.
Page 210: Groups
A user can be a member of more than one group. When you assign permissions to a group, all users in the group inherit those permissions. Using groups can significantly reduce the time it takes to set up your permissions model. VMware, Inc.
Page 211: Removing Or Modifying Users And Groups
Use best practices for managing users and groups to increase the security and manageability of your vSphere environment. VMware recommends several best practices for creating users and groups in your vSphere environment: Use vCenter Server to centralize access control, rather than defining users and groups on individual hosts.
Page 212 System roles are permanent. You cannot edit the privileges associated with System roles these roles. VMware provides sample roles for convenience as guidelines and suggestions. Sample roles You can modify or remove these roles. You can also create completely new roles.
Page 213: Create A Role
Create a Role VMware recommends that you create roles to suit the access control needs of your environment. If you create or edit a role on a vCenter Server system that is part of a connected group in Linked Mode, the changes you make are propagated to all other vCenter Server systems in the group.
Page 214 Be sure that you understand how users will be affected before removing all assignments or replacing AUTION them. Users that have no permissions granted to them cannot log in to vCenter Server. VMware, Inc.
Page 215: Permissions
For example, to configure memory for an ESX/ESXi host, a user must be granted a role that includes the Host.Configuration.Memory Configuration privilege. By assigning different roles to users or groups for different objects, you can precisely control the tasks that users can perform in your vSphere environment. VMware, Inc.
Page 216 When you assign a permission to an object, you can choose whether the permission propagates down the object hierarchy. Propagation is set per permission, not universally applied. Permissions defined for a child object always override those propagated from parent objects. Figure 18-2 illustrates the vSphere inventory hierarchy, and the paths by which permissions can propagate. VMware, Inc.
Page 217 Distributed Switch and its associated dvPort Groups, set permissions on a parent object, such a folder or datacenter, and select the option to propagate these permissions to child objects. Permissions take several forms in the hierarchy: Can have permissions defined on them. Managed entities Clusters Datacenters Datastores Folders VMware, Inc.
Page 218 Group B is granted Role 2 on VM Folder, with the permission set to propagate to child objects. User 1 is not assigned specific permission. User 1, who belongs to groups A and B, logs on. User 1 can both power on and take snapshots of VM A and VM B. VMware, Inc.
Page 219 User 1 has no access to VM Folder or VMs A and B. Figure 18-5. Example 3: User Permissions Overriding Group Permissions group A + role 1 VM Folder user 1 + no access user 1 has no access to the folder VM A or the virtual machines VM B VMware, Inc.
Page 220 The server adds the permission to the list of permissions for the object. The list of permissions references all users and groups that have roles assigned to the object, and indicates where in the vCenter Server hierarchy the role is assigned. VMware, Inc.
Page 221 Propagate check box. You can also remove the permission setting. Procedure From the vSphere Client, select an object in the inventory. Click the Permissions tab. Click the line item to select the user or group and role pair. VMware, Inc.
Page 222: Best Practices For Roles And Permissions
Use best practices for roles and permissions to maximize the security and manageability of your vCenter Server environment. VMware recommends the following best practices when configuring roles and permissions in your vCenter Server environment: Where possible, grant permissions to groups rather than individual users.
Page 223: Required Privileges For Common Tasks
Move a virtual machine into a On the virtual machine or folder of virtual machines: Virtual Machine resource pool Administrator Resource.Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool Virtual Machine.Inventory.Move On the destination resource pool: Virtual Machine Administrator Resource.Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool VMware, Inc.
Page 224 Virtual Machine Datastore.Allocate Space Administrator Move a host into a cluster On the host: Datacenter Administrator or Virtual Machine Host.Inventory.Add Host to Cluster Administrator On the destination cluster: Datacenter Administrator or Virtual Machine Host.Inventory.Add Host to Cluster Administrator VMware, Inc.
Page 225: Monitoring Storage Resources
You can customize the tables by adding or removing columns. Reports are updated every 30 minutes. You can manually update the reports by clicking Update. You can search for specific information you need to see by filtering report tables based on storage attributes and keywords. VMware, Inc.
Page 226 The table is updated based on your search criteria. For example, if you are reviewing reports for datastores in a datacenter, you can display information for only those datastores that have NFS format by selecting the File System Type attribute and entering NFS as a key word. Filtering is persistent for the user session. VMware, Inc.
Page 227: Working With Storage Maps
You can export maps to various graphic files, including JPEG, TIFF, and GIF. Procedure Display a storage map. Right-click the map and select Export Map from the menu. Type a file name, type, and location. Click Save. The image file is saved to the format and directory you specified. VMware, Inc.
Page 228 Move Items on Storage Maps You might need to move individual items on the storage map to make the map visually more clear. Procedure Display a storage map. Click the item you want to move and drag it to the new location. VMware, Inc.
Page 229: Using Vcenter Maps
This chapter includes the following topics: “vCenter VMotion Maps,” on page 230 “vCenter Map Icons and Interface Controls,” on page 230 “View vCenter Maps,” on page 231 “Print vCenter Maps,” on page 231 “Export vCenter Maps,” on page 231 VMware, Inc.
Page 230: Vcenter Vmotion Maps
Heavily used hosts are pale; low-load hosts are saturated green. A host that is not compatible for VMotion migration. Virtual machine icon. When the virtual machine is powered on, the icon contains a green triangle. Network icon. Datastore icon. VMware, Inc.
Page 231: View Vcenter Maps
Click Print. Export vCenter Maps Exporting a resource map saves the map to an image file. Perform this procedure on the vSphere Client Map tab. Procedure If necessary, view the resource map. Select File > Export > Export Maps. VMware, Inc.
Page 232 Basic System Administration Navigate to the location to save the file. Type a name for the file and select a file format. Click Export. VMware, Inc.
Page 233: Working With Alarms
Most triggers consist of a condition value and a length of time that value is true. For example, the virtual machine memory alarm triggers a warning when memory usage is over 75% for one hour and over 90% for five minutes. VMware uses colors to denote alarm severity: Normal – green Warning – yellow Alert –...
Page 234: Alarm Triggers
You can set alarms to trigger when the state changes from green to yellow, yellow to red, red to yellow, and yellow to green. Triggers are defined for the default VMware alarms. You can change the trigger conditions (thresholds, warning values, and alert values) for the default alarms.
Page 235 For condition triggers, after the warning condition is reached, the amount of time the warning condition stays true in order for the warning to trigger. State triggers do not have condition lengths. As soon as the state condition occurs, the warning is triggered. VMware, Inc.
Page 236 75% and the warning alarm will no longer be triggered. The threshold condition is dependent on any tolerance range you set for the threshold. Virtual Machine Condition and State Triggers VMware provides default triggers that you can use to define alarms on virtual machines when they undergo certain conditions and states. Table 21-4 lists the Condition and State triggers you can set on virtual machines.
Page 237 Aggregate amount of disk space occupied by all virtual machines on the host. Host Condition and State Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when hosts undergo certain conditions and states. Table 21-5 lists the default Condition and State triggers you can set on hosts.
Page 238 Rate at which host memory is swapped out to the disk. Condition Datastore Condition and State Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when datastores undergo certain conditions and states. Table 21-6 lists the default Condition and State triggers you can set on datastores.
Page 239 When the triggering conditions are no longer true, a triggered alarm resets automatically, and no longer triggers. Virtual Machine Event Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when events occur on virtual machines. Table 21-9 lists events you can use to trigger alarms on virtual machines.
Page 240 Start a recording session, Start a replay session. Resource Pool Resource pool moved, Resource pool relocated. Host Event Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when events occur on hosts. Table 21-10 lists events you can use to trigger alarms on hosts. Table 21-10. Host Event Triggers...
Page 241 Host IP changed, IP inconsistent, IP to short name not completed, Cannot get short host name, Short name to IP not completed, Duplicate IP detected. Datastore Event Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when events occur on datastores. Table 21-11 lists events you can use to trigger alarms on datastores.
Page 242 Distributed virtual group reconfigured, Distributed virtual group renamed. vNetwork Distributed Switch Event Triggers VMware provides preconfigured alarms that trigger when events occur on on vNetwork distributed switches. Table 21-15 lists the events you can use to set alarms on vNetwork distributed switches.
Page 243: Alarm Actions
Alarm actions are operations that occur in response to triggered alarms. For example, email notifications are alarm actions. VMware provides a list of preconfigured actions you can associate with an alarm. These actions are specific to the object on which you set the alarm. For example, preconfigured alarm actions for hosts include rebooting the host and putting the host in maintenance mode.
Page 244 Reboot or shutdown the Reboot shuts down and restarts the guest operating virtual machine guest system without powering off the virtual machine. Shutdown shuts down the guest operating system gracefully. VMware, Inc.
Page 245 Threshold value that triggered the alarm. Applies only to metric condition triggers. Alarm Definition Alarm definition in vCenter Server, including the alarm name and status. Description Localized string containing a summary of the alarm. For example: Alarm New_Alarm on host1.vmware.com changed from Gray to Red. VMware, Inc.
Page 246 VMWARE_ALARM_ALARMVALUE You can attach the script to any alarm on any object without changing the script. Alarm Environment Variables To simplify script configuration for alarm actions, VMware provides environment variables for VMware alarms. Table 21-21 lists the default environment variables defined for alarms. Use these variables to define more complex scripts and attach them to multiple alarms or inventory objects so the action occurs when the alarm triggers.
Page 247 Switch on which the event occurred. Alarm Command-Line Parameters VMware provides command-line parameters that function as a substitute for the default alarm environment variables. You can use these parameters when running a script as an alarm action for a condition, state, or event alarm.
Page 248: Alarm Reporting
By default, the trigger frequency for the default VMware alarms is set to 5 minutes. For example, if the Host CPU Usage alarm triggers for a warning state at 2 p.m. and an alert state occurs at 2:02 p.m, the alert state is not reported at 2:02 p.m.
Page 249 (Optional) To define the alarm triggers, click the Triggers tab. (Optional) To save general edits without updating the alarm triggers or alarm actions, click OK. You cannot save an alarm if it does not have triggers defined for it. VMware, Inc.
Page 250 You cannot use the VM Total Size on Disk and VM Snapshot Size triggers in combination with other triggers. Below the triggers list, select one of the following options to specify how to trigger the alarm. If any conditions are satisfied (default). If all conditions are satisfied. VMware, Inc.
Page 251 To replace the default operator, double-click the operator name and select an operator from the list. Click the Value field and type a value. (Optional) To define multiple conditions for the same trigger, repeat Step Click OK. (Optional) To define additional event triggers, repeat this task. Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Page 252: Managing Alarms
(Optional) To acknowledge multiple alarms at one time, shift-click each alarm to select it, right-click the selection, and select Acknowledge Alarm. Change Alarm Attributes You can rename alarms and change alarm triggers, reporting, and actions. Required privilege: Alarm.Modify Alarm VMware, Inc.
Page 253 Display the object in the inventory. Select the object and click the Alarms tab. Click Definitions. Select File > Export > Export List. In the Save As dialog box, specify the directory, file name, and file type for the exported file. Click Save. VMware, Inc.
Page 254 You remove alarms from the object on which they were defined. You cannot remove an alarm from a child object that inherited the alarm and you cannot remove the default VMware alarms. When an alarm is removed, it is removed from vCenter Server and cannot be retrieved.
Page 255: View Alarms
You view triggered alarms in the Alarms tab of the Status bar. Procedure Display the vSphere Client inventory. If necessary, select View > Status Bar to display the status pane at the bottom of the vSphere Client. In the Status bar, click Alarms. VMware, Inc.
Page 256: Managing Alarm Actions
In the Alarm Actions column of the object's child object tabs. For example, if you select a host in the inventory, the Virtual Machines tab displays whether alarm actions are enabled or disabled for each virtual machine on the host. VMware, Inc.
Page 257 C:\tools c:\tools\cmd.exe If the command is a file, enter the full pathname of the command as an argument to the .bat command. For example, to run the command in the c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe cmd.bat directory, type: C:\tools c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c c:\tools\cmd.bat VMware, Inc.
Page 258 Before vCenter Server can send email, you must perform the following tasks: Configure the SMTP server settings for vCenter Server. Specify email recipients through the Alarm Settings dialog box when you configure alarm actions. To perform this task, the vSphere Client must be connected to a vCenter Server. VMware, Inc.
Page 259: Preconfigured Vmware Alarms
Sender Account Click OK. Preconfigured VMware Alarms VMware provides preconfigured alarms for the vCenter Server system that trigger automatically when problems are detected. You only need to set up actions for these alarms. Table 21-24 lists the preconfigured alarms available for the vCenter Server system.
Page 260 Basic System Administration Table 21-24. Default VMware Alarms (Continued) Alarm Name Description Host Storage Status Monitors host connectivity to storage devices. License Error Monitors license errors. License Inventory Monitoring Monitors the license inventory for compliancy. Migration Error Monitors whether a virtual machine cannot migrate or relocate, or is orphaned.
Page 261: Working With Performance Statistics
(such as latency and read/write speeds), and utilization metrics for storage as a finite resource. Network Network utilization for both physical and virtual network interface controllers (NICs) and other network devices, such as the virtual switches (vSwitch) that support connectivity among all components (hosts, virtual machines, VMkernel, and so on). VMware, Inc.
Page 262 Measurement used during the statistics interval. The statistics type is related to the unit of measurement. One of: Rate – Value over the current statistics interval Delta – Change from previous statistics interval. Absolute – Absolute value (independent of the statistics interval). VMware, Inc.
Page 263 To ensure performance is not impaired when collecting and writing the data to the database, cyclical queries are used to collect data counter statistics. The queries occur for a specified collection interval. At the end of each interval, the data calculation occurs. Table 22-3 lists the default collection intervals available for the vCenter Server. VMware, Inc.
Page 264 In the Statistics Intervals section, select or deselect a collection interval to enable or disable it. Enabling a longer interval automatically enables all shorter intervals. If you disable all collection levels, statistical data is not archived in the vCenter Server database. VMware, Inc.
Page 265 (Optional) In the Database Size section, estimate the effect of the statistics settings on the database. Enter the number of Physical Hosts. Enter the number of Virtual Machines. The estimated space required and number of database rows required are calculated and displayed. If necessary, make changes to your statistics collection settings. Click OK. VMware, Inc.
Page 266 Table 22-4. Collection Levels Level Metrics Best Practice Level 1 Cluster Services (VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) – Use for long-term performance all metrics monitoring when device statistics are not required. CPU – cpuentitlement, totalmhz, usage (average), usagemhz Level 1 is the default Collection Level Disk –...
Page 267 By default, statistics are stored in the vCenter Server database for one year. You can increase this to five years. To save statistical data for longer than five , archive it outside of the vCenter Server database. VMware, Inc.
Page 268: Vcenter Server Performance Charts
Display storage metrics for datastores in a selected datacenter. Each datastore Bar charts is represented as a bar in the chart, and each bar displays metrics based on file type (virtual disks, snapshots, swap files, and other files). VMware, Inc.
Page 269 It also describes the metric counters displayed in each overview chart. Procedure Display the object in the inventory panel. Select the object and click the Performance tab. VMware, Inc.
Page 270 Shows aggregate CPU, aggregate memory, and failover statistics for DRS Cluster Services and HA clusters and hosts that are part of DRS clusters. The amount of historical data displayed in a chart depends on the collection interval and collection level set for vCenter Server. VMware, Inc.
Page 271 You can customize a performance chart by specifying the objects to monitor, the counters to include, the time range, and chart type. You can customize preconfigured chart views and create new chart views. Changes to chart options take effect immediately. New views are added to the Switch to menu. VMware, Inc.
Page 272 Click the Performance tab and click Advanced. Click Chart Options to open the Customize Performance Charts dialog box. Click Manage Chart Settings. Select a chart and click Delete. The chart is deleted, and it is removed from the Switch to menu. VMware, Inc.
Page 273: Monitoring And Troubleshooting Performance
Table 22-6. CPU Performance Enhancement Advice Resolution Verify that VMware Tools is installed on every virtual machine on the host. Compare the CPU usage value of a virtual machine with the CPU usage of other virtual machines on the host or in the resource pool.
Page 274 To verify that virtual machines have adequate memory, check swap statistics in the guest operating system. Increase the guest memory, but not to an extent that leads to excessive host memory swapping. Install VMware Tools so that memory ballooning can occur.
Page 275 Table 22-8. Memory Performance Enhancement Advice Resolution Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each virtual machine. The balloon driver is installed with VMware Tools and is critical to performance. Verify that the balloon driver is enabled. The VMkernel regularly reclaims unused virtual machine memory by ballooning and swapping.
Page 276 Resolution Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each virtual machine. If possible, use vmxnet3 NIC drivers, which are available with VMware Tools. They are optimized for high performance. If virtual machines running on the same ESX/ESXi host communicate with each other, connect them to the same vSwitch to avoid the cost of transferring packets over the physical network.
Page 277 If snapshot files are consuming a lot of datastore space, consider consolidating them to the virtual disk when they are no longer needed. Consolidating the snapshots deletes the redo log files and removes the snapshots from the vSphere Client user interface. For information on consolidating the datacenter, see the vSphere Client Help. VMware, Inc.
Page 278 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 279: Working With Tasks And Events
Server system on which the task was performed. View All Tasks You view completed tasks and running tasks on the vSphere Client Tasks & Events tab. Procedure Display the object in the inventory. VMware, Inc.
Page 280 You can filter the tasks list based on any task attribute, including task name, target, status, initiator, change history, and time. Filtering is inclusive, not exclusive. If the keyword is found in any of the selected columns, the task is included in the filtered list. Procedure Display the object in the inventory. VMware, Inc.
Page 281 Checks that a host's configuration matches the configuration specified in a host profile. Clone a virtual machine Makes a clone of the virtual machine and places it on the specified host or cluster. Create a virtual machine Creates a new virtual machine on the specified host. VMware, Inc.
Page 282 Exports virtual machines that vCenter Server manages to managed formats or hosted formats. The export process converts the source to a virtual machine in the format you specify. This scheduled task is available only when VMware vCenter Converter is installed. Import a virtual machine Imports a physical machine, virtual machine, or system image into a virtual machine that vCenter Server manages.
Page 283 Tasks that aren’t running can be cleared when they are in a queued or scheduled state. In such cases, because the cancel operation is not available, either remove the task or reschedule it to run at a different time. Removing a scheduled task requires that you recreate it to run it in the future, rescheduling does not. VMware, Inc.
Page 284 Required privilege:Scheduled Task.Remove Task Procedure In the vSphere Client navigation bar, click Home > Management > Scheduled Tasks. Select the task. Select Inventory > Scheduled Task > Remove. Click OK. The task is removed from the list of scheduled tasks. VMware, Inc.
Page 285: Managing Events
The events listed for a selected object include events associated with the child objects. Detailed information about a selected event appears in the Event Details panel below the event list. When the vSphere Client is connected directly to an ESX/ESXi host, the Tasks & Events tab is labeled Events. VMware, Inc.
Page 286 If the Show all entries list and search field are not visible under the Tasks and Events buttons, select View > Filtering. Click Show all entries and select Show host entries or Show datacenter entries, depending on the object selected. VMware, Inc.
Page 287: Export Events
For help on configuring the values on each tab, click Help. Export Events You can export all or part of the events log file when the vSphere Client is connected to a vCenter Server system. Required Privilege: Read-only Procedure Select File > Export > Export Events. VMware, Inc.
Page 288 In Limits, set the number of events to export. Select All matching events. Select most recent matching events and enter the number. Click OK. vCenter Server creates the file in the specified location. The file contains the Type, Time, and Description of the events. VMware, Inc.
Page 289: Appendixes
Appendixes VMware, Inc.
Page 290 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 291: Defined Privileges
300 “Host Local Operations,” on page 301 “Host Profile,” on page 302 “Network,” on page 302 “Performance,” on page 303 “Permissions,” on page 304 “Resource,” on page 304 “Scheduled Task,” on page 306 “Sessions,” on page 306 VMware, Inc.
Page 292: Alarms
Changes the status of the configured VC only All inventory Object on which event alarm. The status can change to objects an alarm is Normal, Warning, or Alert. defined User interface element – Alarm Settingsdialog box, Triggers tab VMware, Inc.
Page 293: A Defined Privileges
Move datastore Moves a datastore between folders. VC only Datastore, Datastores, source and Datastore Privileges must be present at both the destination folders source and destination. User interface element – Inventory drag- and-drop VMware, Inc.
Page 294: Distributed Virtual Port Group
Set the policy of a distributed virtual port HC and VC vNetwork vNetwork group. Distributed Distributed Switch, Switch Network folder, Datacenter Scope operation Set the scope of a distributed virtual port HC and VC vNetwork vNetwork group. Distributed Distributed Switch, Switch Network folder, Datacenter VMware, Inc.
Page 295: Distributed Virtual Switch
HC and VC vNetwork vNetwork operation Distributed Switch. Distributed Distributed Switch, Switch Network folder, Datacenter VSPAN operation Change the VSPAN configuration of a HC and VC vNetwork vNetwork vNetwork Distributed Switch. Distributed Distributed Switch, Switch Network folder, Datacenter VMware, Inc.
Page 296: Extensions
Privilege must be present at both the source and destination. User interface element – Inventory drag-and- drop Rename folder Changes the name of a folder. VC only Folders Folders User interface element – Inventory pane object text field, context menu, File menu VMware, Inc.
Page 297: Global
User interface element – Should ask for a reason when shutting down or rebooting a host. Manage Custom Add, remove, or rename custom field VC only Any object Root vCenter Attributes definitions. Server User interface element – Administration > Custom Attributes VMware, Inc.
Page 298: Host Cim
User interface element – Host Configuration tab > Advanced Settings, Inventory hierarchy context menu Change date and time Sets time and date settings on the host. HC and VC Hosts Hosts settings User interface element – Host Configuration tab > Time Configuration VMware, Inc.
Page 299 Manages VMFS datastore and diagnostic HC and VC Hosts Hosts configuration partitions. Scan for new storage devices. Manage iSCSI. User interface element– Host Configuration tab > Storage, Storage Adapters, Virtual Machine Swapfile LocationHost Configuration tab datastore context menu VMware, Inc.
Page 300: Host Inventory
User interface element– Inventory hierarchy Move host Move a set of existing hosts into or out of a VC only Datacenters, Clusters cluster. Host folders, Clusters Privilege must be present at both the source and destination. User interface element– Inventory hierarchy drag-and-drop VMware, Inc.
Page 301: Host Local Operations
Root host Root host groups User interface element – Users & Groups tab (only present if the vSphere Client logs on to the host directly) Reconfigure Reconfigure a virtual machine. HC only Root host Root host virtual machine VMware, Inc.
Page 302: Host Profile
Effective on Privilege Name Description Affects Object Object Assign network Assign a network to a virtual machine. HC and VC Networks, Networks, Network folders Virtual Machines Configure Configure a network. HC and VC Networks, Networks, Network folders Virtual Machines VMware, Inc.
Page 303: Performance
Effective on Privilege Name Description Affects Object Object Modify intervals Creates, removes, and updates performance VC only Root vCenter Root vCenter data collection intervals. Server Server User interface element– Administration > vCenter Server Management Server Configuration > Statistics VMware, Inc.
Page 304: Permissions
Resource pools, Virtual Machine wizard Hosts Create resource pool Create a new resource pool. HC and VC Datacenters, Resource pools, Host folders, clusters User interface element – File Clusters, menu, context menu, Summary Resource pools, tab, Resources tab Hosts VMware, Inc.
Page 305 Remove, Inventory > Resource Pool > Remove, inventory context menu, Resources tab Rename resource pool Rename a resource pool. HC and VC Resource pools Resource pools User interface element – Edit > Rename, Inventory > Resource Pool > Rename, context menu VMware, Inc.
Page 306: Scheduled Task
Verifies session validity. VC only Root vCenter Root vCenter Server Server View and stop View sessions. Force log out of one or more VC only Root vCenter Root vCenter sessions logged-on users. Server Server User interface element– Sessions tab VMware, Inc.
Page 307: Tasks
User interface element – Inventory > vApp > Delete from Disk Export Export a vApp from vSphere. HC and VC Datacenters, clusters, vApps hosts, virtual User interface element – File > machine folders, Export > Export OVF Template vApps VMware, Inc.
Page 308 Modify a vApp's instance HC and VC Datacenters, clusters, vApps configuration configuration, such as policies. hosts, virtual machine folders, User interface element – Edit vApps vApp Settings dialog box, Options tab, Properties option and IP Allocation Policy option VMware, Inc.
Page 309: Virtual Machine Configuration
Resource pools, Virtual machines Add or remove Add or removes any non-disk device. HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual device Hosts, machines User interface element – Virtual Machine Clusters, Properties dialog box Virtual machine folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 310 Hosts, machines Clusters, Virtual machine folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines Disk lease Leases disks for VMware Consolidated HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual Backup. Hosts, machines Clusters, No user vSphere Client interface elements are Virtual associated with this privilege.
Page 311 Remove a virtual disk device. HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual Hosts, machines User interface element – Virtual Machine Clusters, Properties dialog box > Hard Disk (but not a Virtual raw disk mapping) machine folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 312 Virtual hardware hardware version from a previous version of Hosts, machines VMware. Clusters, Virtual User interface element – context menu, File machine menu (appears only if vmx file shows a lower folders, configuration number) Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 313: Virtual Machine Interaction
Appendix A Defined Privileges Virtual Machine Interaction Virtual Machine Interaction privileges control the ability to interact with a virtual machine console, configure media, perform power operations, and install VMware Tools. Table A-23. Virtual Machine Interaction Pair with Effective on Privilege Name...
Page 314 HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual down guest. Hosts, machines Clusters, User interface element – Inventory > Virtual Virtual Machine > Power > Power Off, Summary tab, machine toolbar button, virtual machine context menu folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 315 Test Fault Tolerance failover by making the VC only Datacenters, Virtual Secondary virtual machine the Primary virtual Hosts, machines machine. Clusters, Virtual User interface element – Inventory > Virtual machine Machine > Fault Tolerance > Test Failover folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 316: Virtual Machine Inventory
Machine > Fault Tolerance > Turn On Fault Virtual Tolerance machine folders, Resource pools, Virtual machines VMware Tools Mounts and unmounts the VMware Tools CD HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual install installer as a CD-ROM for the guest operating Hosts, machines system.
Page 317: Virtual Machine Provisioning
Open a disk on a virtual machine for random Datacenters, Virtual access read access. Used mostly for remote disk Hosts, machines mounting. Clusters, Resource No user vSphere Client interface elements are pools, Virtual associated with this privilege. machine folders, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 318 Virtual machines Deploy template Deploy a virtual machine from a template. VC only Datacenters, Templates Hosts, User interface element – “Deploy to template” Clusters, File menu, context menu items, Virtual Resource Machines tab pools, Virtual machine folders, Templates VMware, Inc.
Page 319 Virtual Hosts, machines Clusters, Resource pools, Virtual machine folders, Virtual machines Read customization View the customization specifications defined VC only Root vCenter Root vCenter specification on the system. Server Server User interface element – Edit > Customization Specifications VMware, Inc.
Page 320: Virtual Machine State
HC and VC Datacenters, Virtual machines snapshot. Clusters, Hosts, User interface element – virtual machine Resource context menu, toolbar button, Inventory > pools, Virtual Virtual Machine > Snapshot > Revert to machine Snapshot, Virtual Machines tab folders, Virtual machines VMware, Inc.
Page 321: Installing The Microsoft Sysprep Tools
Navigate to the page that contains the download link to the version of the tools you want. Click Download and save the file to your local disk. Open and expand the file, using a tool such as Winzip.exe or another tool capable of reading Microsoft .cab CAB files. VMware, Inc.
Page 322: Install The Microsoft Sysprep Tools From The Windows Operating System Cd
Basic System Administration Extract the files to the provided directory. The following System Preparation tools support directories were created during vCenter Server installation: <ALLUSERSPROFILE> \Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep ...\1.1\ ...\2k\ ...\xp\ ...\svr2003\ ...\xp-64\ ...\svr2003-64\ where <ALLUSERSPROFILE> is usually . This is where \Documents And Settings\All Users\ vpxd.cfg...
Page 323: B Installing The Microsoft Sysprep Tools
2000, Windows XP, or Windows 2003) you plan to customize using vCenter Server. What to do next You are now ready to customize a new virtual machine with a supported Windows guest operating system when you clone an existing virtual machine. VMware, Inc.
Page 324 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.
Page 325: Performance Metrics
Each object and device has its own set of data counters that provide the metadata for the metrics. The performance metrics for VMware vSphere are organized into tables for each metric group: cluster services, CPU, disk, management agent, memory, network, system, and virtual machine operations. Each table contains the following information: Lists the display name of each data counter.
Page 326: Cluster Services Metrics
348 Cluster Services Metrics The cluster-services metric group (clusterServices) tracks performance statistics for clusters configured by using VMware DRS (distributed resource scheduler), VMware HA (high availability), or both. Table C-1 lists the cluster services data counters. The cluster services metrics appear only in the advanced performance charts.
Page 327: Cpu Metrics
The performance charts display a subset of the CPU data counters. The entire set is collected and available in vCenter Server. You can use the vSphere Web Services SDK to query vCenter Server and get statistics for those counters. For more information, see the VMware vSphere API Reference. VMware, Inc.
Page 328 Unit: millisecond Rollup Type: summation Collection Level: 3 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes reservedCapacity CPU Reserved Total CPU capacity reserved by the virtual machines. ο • ο • Capacity Stats Type: absolute Unit: megaHertz Rollup Type: average Collection Level: 2 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 329 VM totalmhz = 2 vCPUs × 3000MHz = 6000MHz Host totalmhz = 4 CPUs × 3000MHz = 12000MHz Cluster totalmhz = 2 x 4 × 3000MHz = 24000MHz Stats Type: rate Unit: megaHertz Rollup Type: average Collection Level: 1 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 330 Sum of actively used CPU of all virtual Cluster machines in the cluster, as a percentage of the total available CPU. CPU Usage = CPU usagemhz ÷ effectivecpu Stats Type: rate Unit: percent Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 1(4) VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 331: Disk Metrics
In addition, only a subset of the disk counters appear in the overview performance charts. To view all disk data counters, use the advanced performance charts. VMware, Inc.
Page 332 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes kernelReadLatency Kernel Disk Read Average amount of time, in milliseconds, spent by VMKernel ο • ο ο Latency processing each SCSI read command. Stats Type: absolute Unit: millisecond Rollup Type: average Collection Level: 2 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 333 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes queueLatency Queue Command Average amount of time spent in the VMkernel queue, per SCSI ο • ο ο Latency command, during the collection interval. Stats Type: absolute Unit: millisecond Rollup Type: average Collection Level: 2 VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 334 ο • ο ο Latency process a SCSI read command issued from the Guest OS to the virtual machine. The sum of kernelReadLatency and deviceReadLatency. Stats Type: absolute Unit: millisecond Collection Level: 2 Rollup Type: average VC/ESX: Yes/Yes VMware, Inc.
Page 335: Management Agent Metrics
The management agent metric group tracks consumption of resources by the various management agents (hostd, vpxd, and so on) running on the ESX/ESXi host. Table C-4 lists the management agent data counters. The management agent metrics appear only in the advanced performance charts. VMware, Inc.
Page 336: Memory Metrics
ESX/ESXi host. Table C-5 lists the memory data counters. Only a subset of memory counters appear in the overview charts. To view all memory data counters, use the advanced performance charts. VMware, Inc.
Page 337 It does not include host-specific overhead memory, such as memory used by the service console or VMkernel. Stats Type: absolute Unit: KiloBytes Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 1(4) VMware, Inc.
Page 338 Memory Used Amount of used memory. Sum of the memory used by all powered ο • ο ο on virtual machines and vSphere services on the host. Stats Type: absolute Unit: kiloBytes Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 3 VMware, Inc.
Page 339 ο • ο ο Shared virtual machines and vSphere services on the host. Common Memory Shared - Memory Shared Common = Host memory saved by sharing Stats Type: absolute Unit: kiloBytes Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 2(4) VMware, Inc.
Page 340 Stats Type: rate Unit: kiloBytesPerSecond Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 1(4) VMware, Inc.
Page 341 Target, possibly for a prolonged period of time. This simply means that the swapped memory is not currently needed by the virtual machine and is not a cause for concern. Stats Type: absolute Unit: kiloBytes Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 2(4) VMware, Inc.
Page 342 VMs’ user-specified memory reservations and overhead memory. This statistic is no longer relevant to virtual machine admission control, as reservations are now handled through resource pools. Stats Type: absolute Unit: kiloBytes Rollup Type: average (min/max) Collection Level: 2(4) VMware, Inc.
Page 343 Amount of memory allocated by the virtual machine memory • • • • Balloon control driver, which is installed with VMware Tools. Amount of guest physical memory that is currently reclaimed from the virtual machine through ballooning. This is the...
Page 344: Network Metrics
• • ο ο Stats Type: delta Unit: number Rollup Type: summation Collection Level: 2 droppedTx droppedTx Number of transmit packets dropped during the collection interval. • • ο ο Stats Type: delta Unit: number Rollup Type: summation Collection Level: 2 VMware, Inc.
Page 345 Rate at which data is received across each vNIC on the virtual machine. Rate at which data is received across each Host physical NIC instance on the host. Stats Type: rate Unit: megabitsPerSecond Rollup Type: average Collection Level: 3 VMware, Inc.
Page 346: Storage Utilization Metrics
Storage Utilization Metrics The disk metric group tracks statistics for datastore utilization. Table C-7 lists the storage utilization data counters. Storage metrics appear only in the overview performance charts. Legend: D = Datastores V = Virtual Machines F = Filetypes VMware, Inc.
Page 347: System Metrics
The system metric group tracks statistics for overall system availability. These counters are available directly from ESX and from vCenter Server. Table C-8 lists the system data counters. The system metrics appear only in the advanced performance charts, and only for hosts and virtual machines. VMware, Inc.
Page 348: Virtual Machine Operations Metrics
Rollup Type: latest Collection Level: 1 numChangeHostDS VM host and Number of host and datastore change operations for powered-off and datastore change suspended virtual machines. count (non-powered- Stats Type: absolute on VMs) Unit: number Rollup Type: latest Collection Level: 1 VMware, Inc.
Page 349 Number of virtual machine reconfigure operations. Stats Type: absolute Unit: number Rollup Type: latest Collection Level: 1 numRegister VM register count Number of virtual machine register operations. Stats Type: absolute Unit: number Rollup Type: latest Collection Level: 1 VMware, Inc.
Page 350 Number of virtual machine unregister operations. Stats Type: absolute Unit: number Collection Level: 1 Rollup Type: latest numVMotion VMotion count Number of migrations with VMotion (host change operations for powered-on virtual machines). Stats Type: absolute Unit: number Collection Level: 1 Rollup Type: latest VMware, Inc.
Page 351: Index
250 boot settings 150 setting for events 251 BusLogic 117 virtual machine conditions/states 236 alarms about 233 cable/interconnect, health monitoring 83 acknowledging triggered alarms 252 charts customizing advanced charts 271 actions 243 alarm reporting 248 VMware, Inc.
Page 352 41 storage 346 consolidation analysis results 93 system 347 cache 95 virtual machine operations 348 database, vCenter Server 15, 48 confidence metric 93 databases, preparing 31 credentials 91 datacenters first use 88 adding 74 limits 95 VMware, Inc.
Page 353 DVD/CD-ROM,, See optical drives lists 43 dvPorts, event triggers 242 logs 68 OVF templates 99, 101 vCenter Server data 46 e1000 159 extensions editing vApp properties 106 privileges 296 educational support 11 troubleshooting 46 email notification, setting up 49, 258 VMware, Inc.
Page 354 174 hyperthreaded core sharing 154 Windows customization during cloning or hyperthreading 153 deployment 175 Windows requirements 174 guest operating systems IDE,ATAPI 117 customization prerequisites 173 image files, ISO 143 install 120 independent disks 203 installing 120 VMware, Inc.
Page 355 35, 36 memory affinity 155 Linux memory allocation 155 guest, customize 173 memory metrics 336 install VMware Tools on 122 metrics Linux guest, VMware Tools upgrade (rpm cluster services 326 installer) 125 cpu 327 lists exporting 43 disk 331 filtering 43...
Page 356 276 monitoring 273 privileges 302 network 276 requirements for VMotion 185 overview charts 269 NICs performance chart types 268 configuration 146 privileges 303 e1000 159 statistics collection 261 flexible 159 statistics impact on vCenter Server database 268 VMware, Inc.
Page 357 226 power off, shutdown, versus 136 required privileges, for common tasks 223 power states rescanning, hosts 156 transitional 135 reservation 153 virtual machines 134 printing, vSphere Client window 46 reset 134 privileges resource maps alarms 292 exporting 231 VMware, Inc.
Page 358 214 consolidation 91 copy 214 syslogd 68 creating 213 vCenter Server 37 default 212 VMware Tools 120 sessions editing 214 privileges 306 in linked mode groups 33 viewing 49 privileges, lists of 291 vSphere Client, terminating 50 removing 214, 222...
Page 359 53 substitution parameters, alarm action ports 53 scripts 247 traps 50 suspend, virtual machines 136 vCenter Server settings 48 swapfile 148 VMWARE-ENV-MIB 56 syslog 68 VMWARE-OBSOLETE-MIB 57 Sysprep Tools VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB 60 installing 321 VMWARE-RESOURCES-MIB 60 installing from CD 322...
Page 360 Basic System Administration viewing recent tasks 280 viewing scheduled tasks 280 updated information 9 technical support 11 upgrading, VMware Tools 120, 122, 123, 128, Telnet 29 temperature, monitoring 83 upgrading,VMware Tools 125 templates upgradingi, VMware Tools 120, 122, 123, 128,...
Page 361 Server services, monitoring 37 deploy from templates 168 vCenterServer.VimApiUrl 34, 35 disk settings 155 vCenterServer.VimWebServicesUrl 34, 35 editing 142 verbose logging, configuring 69 Ethernet adapter 159 version, virtual machine 115 event triggers 239 virtual compatibility mode 119 VMware, Inc.
Page 362 185 migrating with VMotion 184 swapfile considerations 192 migration 183 virtual machine requirements 192 name 114, 149 VMware Converter Enterprise, about 21 NIC 159 VMware Data Recovery 22 NICs 116 VMware DRS 22 optical drives 158 VMware High Availability (HA) 22...
Page 363 28 logging out 28 VWS 34, 35 watchdog, health monitoring 83 Web Service, vCenter Server settings 48 Windows, guest operating system customization 173 WWN 150 WYSE, install 130 WYSE multimedia 130 X terminal 122 XD 187 VMware, Inc.
Page 364 Basic System Administration VMware, Inc.

This manual is also suitable for:

Vsphere vcenter server 4.0 Vsphere esx 4.0 Vsphere esxi 4.0

VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC Administration Manual

Getting Started

1 Vsphere Components

2 Starting and Stopping the Vsphere Components

3 Using Vcenter Server in Linked Mode

4 Using the Vsphere Client

5 Configuring Hosts and Vcenter Server

6 Managing the Vsphere Client Inventory

7 Managing Hosts in Vcenter Server

Virtual Machine Management

8 Consolidating the Datacenter

9 Deploying OVF Templates

10 Managing Vmware Vapp

11 Creating Virtual Machines

12 Managing Virtual Machines

13 Virtual Machine Configuration

14 Working with Templates and Clones

15 Customizing Guest Operating Systems

16 Migrating Virtual Machines

17 Using Snapshots

System Administration

18 Managing Users, Groups, Roles, and Permissions

19 Monitoring Storage Resources

20 Using Vcenter Maps

21 Working with Alarms

22 Working with Performance Statistics

23 Working with Tasks and Events

Appendixes

Quick Links

Troubleshooting

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Summary of Contents for VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC