VMware VS4-ENT-PL-A - vSphere Enterprise Plus Setup Manual page 188

vSphere Installation and Setup
Understanding Reference Host Setup
A well-designed reference host connects to all services such as syslog, NTP, and so on. The reference host
might also include setup of security, storage, networking, and ESXi Dump Collector. You can then apply the
host setup to other hosts with host profiles.
The exact setup of your reference host depends on your environment, but you might consider the following
customization.
NTP Server Setup
Syslog Server Setup
Core Dump Setup
Security Setup
Networking and Storage
Setup
In very large deployments, the reference host setup supports an Enterprise Network Manager, which
collects all information coming from the different monitoring services in the environment.
188
When you collect logging information in large environments, you must make
sure that log times are coordinated. Set up the reference host to use the NTP
server in your environment that all hosts can share. You can specify an NTP
server with the
vicfg-ntp
for a host with the
vicfg-ntp
All ESXi hosts run a syslog service (
the VMkernel and other system components to a file. You can specify the log
host and manage the log location, rotation, size, and other attributes with the
vCLI command or with the vSphere Web Client.
esxcli system syslog
Setting up logging on a remote host is especially important for hosts
provisioned with Auto Deploy that have no local storage. You can optionally
install the vSphere Syslog Collector to collect logs from all hosts.
You can set up your reference host to send core dumps to a shared SAN
LUN, or you can install ESXi Dump Collector in your environment and set
up the reference host to use ESXi Dump Collector. See
Dump Collector with ESXCLI,"
Dump Collector by using the vCenter Server installation media or use the
ESXi Dump Collector that is included in the vCenter Server Appliance. After
setup is complete, VMkernel memory is sent to the specified network server
when the system encounters a critical failure.
In most deployments, all hosts that you provision with Auto Deploy must
have the same security settings. Make any customization in your reference
host. You can, for example, set up the firewall to allow certain services access
to the ESXi system. See the vSphere Security documentation. Security setup
includes shared user access settings for all hosts. You can achieve unified
user access by setting up your reference host for Microsoft Active Directory.
N If you set up Active Directory by using host profiles, the passwords
OTE
are not protected. Use the vSphere Authentication Service to set up Active
Directory to avoid exposing the Active Directory password.
If you reserve a set of networking and storage resources for use by hosts
provisioned with Auto Deploy, you can set up your reference host to use
those resources.
command. You can start and stop the NTP service
command, or the vSphere Web Client.
), which logs messages from
vmsyslogd
on page 189. You can either install ESXi
"Configure ESXi
VMware, Inc.