Introduction

A single ESXi host allows you to run multiple virtual machines on a single server, but to tap the full potential of power from vSphere, you're going to need vCenter and clusters of ESXi hosts. This chapter will cover the basic concepts of creating and managing pools of resources using vCenter and multiple ESXi hosts.

vCenter is an increasingly critical part of the vSphere infrastructure since it handles the coordination of clustering and automation across multiple ESXi hosts. This drives the change and increases the complexity of vCenter deployments in each new version of vSphere. Even while the vCenter deployments are becoming more complex, VMware is working to try and ease that management by packaging the solution in simpler ways. vSphere 5.1 introduced the new Single Sign-On (SSO) service to the platform, and vSphere 5.5 streamlined deployment of the SSO's second version in vSphere. vSphere 5.5 also improved the virtual appliance version of vCenter, known as the...