Preface

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

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

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

What this book covers

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

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

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

Chapter 4, ESXi Image Builder, explains how to create, manage, and apply Image Profiles to ESXi hosts.

Chapter 5, Creating and Managing VMFS Datastores, explains how to create, view, and manage VMFS datastores on an ESXi host. It also covers datastore clusters and storage DRS.

Chapter 6, Managing iSCSI and NFS Storage, explains how to configure iSCSI and NAS storage on an ESXi host.

Chapter 7, Profile-driven Storage and Storage I/O Control, explains how to use storage profiles to ensure that the VMs are placed in appropriate datastores, and how to use storage I/O control to manage queue bandwidth between VMs.

Chapter 8, Configuring the vSphere Network, explains how to set up and configure vSphere networking using vSphere standard switches and vSphere distributed switches. It also covers port mirroring, NetFlow, and PVLANs.

Chapter 9, Creating and Managing Virtual Machines, explains how to create and configure virtual machines in a vSphere environment.

Chapter 10, Configuring vSphere HA, explains how to configure High Availability for ESXi servers.

Chapter 11, Configuring vSphere DRS, DPM, and VMware EVC, explains how to enable and configure DRS on a cluster. It also covers vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM) and VMware Enhanced vMotion Capability (EVC).

Chapter 12, Upgrading and Patching using VMware Update Manager, explains how to install and configure VMware Update Manager to manage patching and upgrading ESXi hosts. It also covers the installation and configuration of the Update Manager Download Service (UMDS).

Chapter 13, Using vSphere Management Assistant (vMA 5.1), explains how to deploy and configure vMA 5.1 to run commands/scripts with the need to authenticate every attempt.

What you need for this book

You will learn the software requirements for every vSphere component covered in this book, but to start with the basics you will need at least two ESXi servers, a vCenter Server, a domain controller, a DHCP server, a DNS server, and a TFTP server. For learning purposes, you don't really need physical machines to run ESXi. You can use VMware Workstation to set up a hosted lab on your desktop PC or laptop, provided the machine has adequate resources. For shared storage, you can use any of the free virtual storage appliances, such as the Celera UBER, the Openfiler, or a trial version of HP LeftHand (StoreVirtual) VSA.

• Celera UBER 3.2

  http://nickapedia.com/2010/10/04/play-it-again-sam-celerra-uber-v3-2/

• Openfiler

  http://www.openfiler.com/

• Hp LeftHand (StoreVirtual) VSA

  http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/vsa/index.html

Who this book is for

This book is a guide for anyone who wants to learn how install and configure VMware vSphere components. It is an excellent handbook for support professionals, or for anyone looking for a head start in learning how to install and configure vSphere 5.1 components. It is also a good, task-oriented reference material for consultants who design and deploy vSphere environments.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The datamigration.zip file can located under the datamigration folder on root the vCenter installer ISO/ZIP/DVD."

A block of code is set as follows:

#
# Sample scripted installation file
#
# Accept the VMware End User License Agreement
vmaccepteula

# Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode
rootpw mypassword

# Install on the first local disk available on machine
install --firstdisk –overwritevmfs

# Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapter
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0

# A sample post-install script
%post --interpreter=python --ignorefailure=true
import time
stampFile = open('/finished.stamp', mode='w')
stampFile.write( time.asctime() )

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

#
# Sample scripted installation file
#
# Accept the VMware End User License Agreement
vmaccepteula

# Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode
rootpw mypassword

# Install on the first local disk available on machine
install --firstdisk –overwritevmfs

# Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapter
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0

# A sample post-install script
%post --interpreter=python --ignorefailure=true
import time
stampFile = open('/finished.stamp', mode='w')
stampFile.write( time.asctime() )

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "It can be enabled at the vCenter Server by navigating to Administration | vCenter Server Settings | SSL Settings, and selecting the vCenter requires verified host SSL certificates checkbox."

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Tip

The numbered circle-pointers in the screenshots of the book do not always correspond to the numbered steps. The circle-pointers are used to provide navigational guidance.

Reader feedback

Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.

To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[email protected]>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.

If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.

Customer support

Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the errata submission form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded on our website, or added to any list of existing errata, under the Errata section of that title. Any existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Piracy

Piracy of copyright material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works, in any form, on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.

Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.

We appreciate your help in protecting our authors, and our ability to bring you valuable content.

Questions

You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.