VMware VS4-STD-C - vSphere Standard - PC Instruction sheet

VMware
vSphere®5.0
Evaluation Guide
Volume One
TECHNICAL WHITE PAPER
V 1.1/UPDATED AUGUST 11 2011

VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide –
Volume One
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Table of Contents
AboutThisGuide.............................................................. 
IntendedAudience ............................................................ 
SystemRequirements ......................................................... 
HardwareRequirements .......................................................
Servers ....................................................................
Storage ....................................................................
Networking ................................................................
SoftwareandLicensingRequirements ..........................................
VMwarevSphere ...........................................................
GuestOperatingSystems ...................................................
EvaluationGuideEnvironmentSetup .............................................
ServerConfiguration ..........................................................
LogicalNetworkSetup ........................................................
StorageSetup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VirtualMachineSetup ........................................................
VMwarevSphereEvaluationGuideVolumeOne –Worksheet ................
vSphereEvaluationTasks ..................................................... 
HighAvailability ............................................................. 
Introduction .............................................................. 
Prerequisites ............................................................. 
EnablingHA.............................................................. 
ConnecttoVirtualServer ..................................................
GotoClusterSummary ....................................................
EditClusterSettings .......................................................
WaitforTasktoComplete ..................................................
VerifyingVMwareHAEnablement ..........................................
HAStatusScreen ..........................................................
VirtualMachineProtectionState ........................................... 
HostProtectionState ......................................................
VMwareHAAdvancedOptions .............................................
AdmissionControl ............................................................
VirtualMachineOptions ....................................................
VirtualMachineMonitoring .................................................
StorageHeartbeats ....................................................... 
ValidatingVMwareHAOperation .......................................... 
HostFailure .............................................................. 

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HostIsolation ............................................................ 
DisablingVMwareHA ......................................................
ConnecttoaVirtualServer.................................................
GototheClusterSummary ................................................ 
EditClusterSettings .......................................................
WaitforTasktoComplete ................................................. 
GettingFamiliarwiththeNewCommand-LineInterface..........................
Introduction ................................................................ 
TheNewesxcliCommand ..................................................
esxcliCommand-LineSyntax ...............................................
RemoteesxcliCommandAuthentication.....................................
EnablingAccesstotheESXiShell .......................................... 
EnablingtheESXiShellfromtheDCUI...................................... 
EnablingtheESXiShellfromthevSphereClient ............................. 
EnablingSSHAccesstotheESXiShell ......................................
EnablingSSHfromtheDCUI................................................
EnablingtheSSHfromthevSphereClient ...................................
vSphereClientNotificationWhentheESXiShellandSSHAreEnabled .........
InstallingthevCLI..........................................................
InstallingthevCLIonWindows .............................................
InstallingthevCLIonLinux ................................................
InstallingthevCLIwiththevMA.............................................
SampleesxcliCommandsRunLocallyfromtheESXiShell ................... 
SampleesxcliCommandsRunRemotelyfromthevCLI .......................
FormattingesxcliOutput .................................................. 
ThelocalcliCommand......................................................
BringingItAllTogether ................................................... 
vSpherePowerCLIbyExample ................................................
Introduction ...............................................................
Prerequisites ..............................................................
InstallvSpherePowerCLI ...................................................
GettingStartedwithvSpherePowerCLI .....................................
ConnectingtoavSphereHostorvCenter....................................
UsingvSpherePowerCLI ...................................................
vSpherePowerCLISummary ...............................................
EvaluatingtheESXiFirewall ...................................................
Introduction ...............................................................

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EvaluationOverview .......................................................
Prerequisites ..............................................................
StoppingSSHServicetoPreventAccess ....................................
TestingAccesswithSSHServiceStopped ...................................
CreatingFirewallRulestoBlockSSHAccess....................................
TestingSSHFirewallRules ................................................. 
ImageBuilder ................................................................
Introduction ...............................................................
ImageBuilderPrerequisites.................................................
PreparationTasks..........................................................
InstallvSpherePowerCLI ...................................................
DownloadtheESXiOineBundle ..........................................
ExtracttheESXiOineBundle .............................................
StartanImageBuildervSpherePowerCLISession............................
ImporttheESXiOineBundle ............................................ 
DisplaySoftwareDepots .................................................. 
DisplayVIBs...............................................................
DisplayImageProfiles......................................................
CreateaNewImageProfile .................................................
CreateaNewImageProfilebyManuallySelectingIndividualVIBs .............
CreateaNewImageProfilebyCloninganExistingImageProfile.............. 
RemovingVIBsfromanImageProfile ...................................... 
CompareImageProfiles ................................................... 
ExportImageProfile ...................................................... 
ExportAsanOineBundle ............................................... 
ExportAsaBootableISOImage.......................................... 
ProductDocumentation.................................................. 
UsingStoragePerformanceStatistics .........................................
Introduction ..............................................................
MonitoringPerformanceStatisticsofaDatastore........................... 
HelpandSupportDuringtheEvaluation .......................................
VMwareContactInformation ................................................ 
ProvidingFeedback ........................................................ 

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VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide –
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About This Guide
The purpose of the VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, Volume One, is to support a self-guided, hands-on
evaluation of VMware vSphere® 5.0 (“vSphere”) features usable by all VMware vSphere customers. The
companion guide, the VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, Volume Two, is intended to highlight vSphere 5.0
features primarily targeted at larger, more complex deployment environments.
Intended Audience
This guide is intended to cover evaluation cases that are suitable for IT professionals who fulfill the following
requirements:

scale deployment.

greater consolidation while maintaining service levels.
System Requirements
To ensure the best experience when using this guide, the user will need to configure hardware and software as
detailed in the following section.
Hardware Requirements
This guide makes the following assumptions about your existing physical infrastructure:
Servers
You must have at least three dedicated servers capable of running VMware ESXi™ 5.0 to provide resources for
this evaluation.1
Storage
You must have shared storage with enough space available to allow the creation of three 100GB dedicated
datastores. Shared storage can be SAN or NAS. This document assumes SAN-based storage.
Networking
You must have at least three virtual networks configured to separate virtual machine, vMotion, and vSphere
management. These networks can be set up on a single virtual switch with multiple port groups, or across
multiple virtual switches. For the purpose of this evaluation guide, the configuration includes a single vSphere
standard switch with three port groups.
TheseserversmustbeontheVMwarevSphereHardwareCompatibilityList(HCL)

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For more detailed requirements, see the following table.
HARDWARE MINIMUM WHAT’S USED IN THIS
GUIDE
ESXi Three ESXi/ESX servers

Memory – 6GB
Network – 2x 1GB network
adaptor
Three ESXi servers (Cisco UCS
1.3.1)
CPU – Two quad-core “Nehalem”

Memory – 48GB
Network – 4x 10GB network
adaptor
Storage One datastore (100GB) Three datastores (Fibre Channel
– 100GB each)
Network One VLAN for carrying virtual
machine trac; one VLAN for
carrying management trac
Separate VLANs for ESXi
management, vMotion, and
virtual machine trac
Software and Licensing Requirements
This guide makes the following assumptions about your existing software infrastructure:
VMware vSphere
This volume of the VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide requires vSphere 5.0 and licensing for Essentials Plus.
If the user intends to also complete the exercises in Volume Two of the VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, a
license for Enterprise Plus will be required. The vSphere 5.0 evaluation license available from the VMware
evaluation portal provides Enterprise Plus functionality for 60 days and is the best choice for performing the
vSphere 5.0 evaluations.
Guest Operating Systems
This volume of the VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide does not place any specific requirements on guest
operating systems, other than ensuring that you can deploy running virtual machines. The user is free to deploy
any VMware-supported operating system (OS) in the virtual machines. The VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation
Guide, Volume Two, will require five or six virtual machines running Windows 2003 or Windows 2008.

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Evaluation Guide Environment Setup
The VMware Technical Marketing lab was built using a combination of Cisco UCS server hardware and EMC
CLARiiON CX-4 Fibre Channel (FC) storage. The environment consisted of eight identical four-node “pods,” with
most pods configured as a three-node ESXi cluster and a fourth node for management. In many cases,
additional resources have been configured in the Technical Marketing test-bed configuration to support other
evaluation projects, and are present in the diagrams. The user can configure only what is called for in the
following section and can safely ignore additional resources in screen shots and topology diagrams. The
following picture shows the Technical Marketing test rack.
EMC CLARiiON CX4-120
Flare version 4.30.000.5.509
15x 600GB 15k SCSI
5x 200GB SSD
10x open slots
Cisco UCS 1.3.1(p)
32x Dual Quad-Core “Nahalem” Proccessors
48GB Memory
Dual port Palo cards
1x 146GB Local HDD
Configure with:
4x 10GB network adaptors
2x 4/8GB HBAs
Slot 1 of each chassis reserved for core management

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Server Configuration
The VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide calls for three modern server-class systems with adequate processors
and memory to host 6–8 minimally configured virtual machines used for testing. The servers used for this
evaluation do not need to be overly powerful, just reliable and on the vSphere 5.0 HCL.
Each server must have at least 2x 1GB or 2x 10GB network adaptor and proper connection to shared storage.

3x 100GB FC LUNs, volume
shared across hosts in pod
(used in Evaluation Guide steps)
Linux vCenter Appliance
(VM can reside in cluster or on
external management cluster)
3x ESXi 5.0 hosts
Logical Network Setup
The VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, Volume 1, uses a very simple network configuration consisting of three
logical networks. The first is for vSphere management trac, including vSphere High Availability (VMware HA).
The second is for VMware vSphere® vMotion® and the third is for virtual machine trac. Each logical network is
configured as a port group on a standard switch, with a corresponding VLAN configured to provide physical
isolation of the network trac.

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TM-POD<xx>ESX<xx>
vmnic0
vSwitch0
VMK0: Management network
VLAN 2912
Production02
VLAN 3001 (VM)
vMotion
VLAN 3002 (TBD)
Not used in Evaluation Guide
vmnic1
vmnic2
vmnic3
Port groups
Name/VLAN
On the vSphere side, the network configuration looks like the following:

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Storage Setup
The VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, Volume One, uses a storage configuration consisting of three 100GB
FC LUNs presented to each host, enabling creation of three datastores.
Virtual Machine Setup
The VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluators Guide, Volume One, uses a total of six to seven virtual machines for testing.
These can be Linux or Windows virtual machines. It is up to the user to configure virtual machines that can be
brought up to a running state for testing. The following diagram shows VM_01 through VM_07 configured in the
Technical Marketing test lab:

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VMware vSphere 5.0 Evaluation Guide, Volume One – Worksheet
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HARDWARE CHECKLIST:
All hardware has been validated against the VMware
vSphere 5.0 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Each server has 2x 1GB or 2x 10GB network cards
connected to a common switch (this will be configured
as a network adaptor team).
Each server has the required HBA/network adaptor to
access shared storage.
SOFTWARE CHECKLIST:
VMware vSphere/VMware ESXi installation media is
available.
VMware vCenter™ Server appliance is downloaded.
VMware vSphere® Client™ is installed.
ESXi host 1 hostname.
ESXi host 2 hostname.
ESXi host 3 hostname.
Subnet, netmask and default gateway for management
network.
Subnet, netmask and default gateway for virtual
machine network.
Subnet, netmask and default gateway for vMotion
network.
STORAGE CHECKLIST:
All servers can see at least three common 100GB LUNs
(or NFS exports).
Datastore 1 name.
Datastore 2 name.
Datastore 3 name.

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vSphere Evaluation Tasks
High Availability
Introduction
Ensuring the availability of virtual machines within an environment is of paramount concern to administrators.
VMware HA alleviates these concerns by providing protection from failures within the following three key layers:
•Theinfrastructurelayer
At this layer, VMware HA monitors the health of the virtual machine and will attempt to restart the virtual
machine when a failure, such as the loss of a physical host, occurs. This protection is independent of the OS
used within the virtual machine.
•TheOSlayer
Through the use of VMware Tools installed within the OS, VMware HA can monitor the OS for proper operation.
This protects against such failures as an unresponsive OS.
•Theapplicationlayer

within the OS for proper operation. In the event of a failure of the application, HA can be triggered to restart
the virtual machine hosting the application.
In this section, you will learn how to enable, configure, and test the operation of HA to provide basic high
availability services for your virtual machines at the infrastructure layer.
Prerequisites
Before continuing, it is important that the environment be configured properly. Refer to the “System
Requirements” section of this document and verify that the environment you are using is configured as
documented. Specific areas of interest include the following:




Enabling HA
Enabling HA is a straightforward process that simply entails editing the properties for the cluster. The following
steps will guide you through this process.

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Connect to Virtual Server
Figure 1. Connecting to Virtual Server
Using the vSphere Client, connect to your virtual server instance.

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Go to Cluster Summary
Figure 2. Cluster Summary
Once connected to your virtual server instance, select your cluster by clicking on its name on the left-hand
panel. Select the Summary tab to bring up the cluster summary screen.

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Edit Cluster Settings
Figure 3. Editing Cluster Settings
In the cluster summary screen, select the Edit Settings
modify the settings of the cluster. Click the check box next to Turn On vSphere HA and select OK. This will close
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Figure 4. Initializing VMware HA

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the systems within the cluster. You’ll notice that the configuration tasks occur in parallel among all the hosts
within the cluster.
Wait for Task to Complete
Figure 5. Tasks Showing Completed Status
Wait until all the tasks show a Completed status. This should only take a minute. At this point, VMware HA is
now providing protection for the virtual machines that are powered on.
Verifying VMware HA Enablement
At this point, WMware HA should be enabled within your cluster. This section will demonstrate several methods
you can use to verify that HA is enabled.
HA Status Screen
Figure 6. Configuration of HA
After enabling HA, you will notice that a section for HA is now shown under the cluster summary screen. This will
show you general information about the configuration of HA. There is also an option for Cluster Status here.
Click this to bring up the HA Cluster Status screen.

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Figu re 7. VMware HA Cluster Status Screen
Under this screen, you will notice three tabs. There is one tab each for Hosts, VMs, and Heartbeat Datastores.
On the Hosts tab, you will see the system that is acting as the Master node. You will also see the number of hosts
that are currently connected to this Master. The number shown should equal the number of hosts that are
contained within you cluster, minus one for the Master.

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Figure 8. Summary of Virtual Machine Protection States
Under the VMs tab, a summary of the virtual machine protection states is displayed. The virtual machines that
were powered on when VMware HA was enabled are in the Protected state.

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Figure 9. Heartbeat Datastores Information
Clicking the Heartbeat Datastores tab will display information about the datastores that were selected as
heartbeat datastores. Heartbeat datastores allow a secondary means of communication between the hosts in
case of a loss of the management network. By selecting a particular datastore, you will display a list of all the
hosts that are using the selected datastore as a heartbeat datastore.
Click OK to exit the cluster status screen.

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Virtual Machine Protection State
Figure 10. Viewing the Current VMware HA Protection State
Another method you can use to see the protection state of the virtual machines would be to select the Virtual
Machines tab for a cluster. Right-clicking the title bar enables you to select the vSphere HA Protection field.
Once the field is selected, you will see a column that displays the current VMware HA protection state for every
virtual machine within the cluster.
Figure 11. HA Protection State for an Individual Virtual Machine
You can also identify the HA protection state for an individual virtual machine by selecting the virtual machine
on the navigation tree and then clicking the Summary tab.