Quick links

Just 2 links I came across I want to peruse more later. 

http://blog.mwpreston.net/vcp-5/vcp-5-objective-4-3-manage-virtual-machine-clones-and-templates/

http://virtuallymikebrown.com/2012/02/05/a-small-virtual-machine-for-a-test-lab/

Info on adding a datastore to multiple hosts in a cluster via PowerCLI:

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/PowerCLI/PowerCLI41/html/New-Datastore.html

I should be able to modify the code in example 2 to add NFS storage to a group of hosts:

Get-VMHost | New-Datastore -Nfs -Name NFS1 -Path "/mnt/nfs1/nfs11/test1" -NfsHost 10.91.246.21
Looks easy, right? How hard could that be? ;)

Licensing

3 editions of vCenter Server:
VMware vCenter server for Essentials (bundled with kits)
VMware vCenter Server Foundation (up to 3 vSphere hosts)
VMware vCenter Server Standard (limited only by sizing limits; includes vCenter Orchstrator)

3 editions of vSphere
vSphere Standard Edition
vSphere Enterprise Edition
vSphere Enterprise Plus Edition

Note: version 4 had an edition called VMware vSphere Advanced.  It no longer exists, and users who purchased Advanced Edition licenses are entitled to use Enterprise Edition in vSphere 5

Physcial CPU cores and Phsycial max of 256GB of RAM limits go away in vSphere 5. However, they introduced vRAM entitlements
vRAM entitlements:
Standard: 32GB
Enterprise: 64GB
Enterprise Plus: 96 GB

These entitlements are per license.  vSphere 5 is licensed on a per-processor basis.  So, a physical server with 2 physical CPUs needs 2 licenses. There is no limit on the number of cores or the amount of RAM that can be physically installed in the server. If you use 2 licenses of Enterprise Plus, you get a vRAM entitlement of 192 GB of RAM.
vRAM entitlements can be pooled across all the hosts being managed by one vCenter server
basic idea is to help organizations move closer to usage-based cost and chargeback models that are more typical of cloud computing or IaaS models.

Memorize the table on pp 18-19 on vRAM entitlement, vCPUs per VM, and what functions are included in each product edition.

All editions of vSphere 5 include support for thin provisioning, vSphere Update Manager, and storage APIs for Data Protection.

On all editions except Essentials, VMware requires at least one year of Support to be purchased.
Essentials kits are all-in-one solutions for small environments (up to 3 hosts with 2 CPUs each and a 32GB RAM entitlement)

You can't buy Essentials kids on a per-CPU basis; they are bundled solutions for three servers

You can buy Acceleration Kits as well. (allows customers an easier way to purchase necessary licenses in one step

**Note: I am aware that VMware has ditched its vRAM licensing as of August 27, 2012.  My notes are based on the book.

High availability, Fault Tolerance, Storage APIs

High Availability (HA)

automated process for restarting VMs that were running on an ESXi host at a time of complete server failure
VMs are migrated to an ESXi host that is part of the HA-enabled cluster (does not use vMotion!!)
Intended to address unplanned downtime, not planned outages
Improved in v5

1. scalability (up to 512 VMs per host and 3000 VMs per cluster)
2. integrates more closely with DRS, giving Ha greater ability to restart VMs in the event of a host failure
3. rewrite of the architecture to Fault Domain Manager, eliminating many of the contraints in earlier versions

by default, vSphere HA does not provide failover in the event of a guest OS failure, but it can.
Remember that HA will have service interruptions. If vSphere HA restarts the VM, the applications or services provided by that VM are unavailable during the restart

vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT)

Even greater level of high availability than HA can provide.
Eliminates any downtime in the event of a host failure
uses vLockstep technology
utilizes a mirrored secondary VM on a separate physical host that is kept in lockstep with the primary VM.
If the physical host on which the primary VM is running fails, the secondary VM can immediately step in and take over without any loss of connectivity.
Also, if the physical host on which the secondary VM is running fails, the mirrored secondary VM will be automatically recreated on another host.
In the event of multiple host failures, vSphere HA will reboot the primary VM on another available server and recreate the secondary VM
In this version, vSphere FT can work in conjunction with vMotion and is integrated with DRS, but it does require EVC

vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection and VMware Data Recovery

Two key components:

1. vSphere Storate APIs for Data Protection (VADP)
2. VMware Data Recovery (VDR)

VADP is a set of APIs that backup vendors leverage to provide enhanced backup functionality of virtualized environments
enables functionality like file-level backup and restore; support for incremental, differential, and full-image backups
supports multiple storage protocols
provides for native integration with backup software
NOT a backup solution, it just provides the framework for making backups possible.
VMware Data Recovery (VDR) is VMware's backup tool that leverages VADP to provide a full backup solution for smaller vSphere environments

Storage DRS, Storage/Network I/O Control, Profile-driven storage

Storage DRS

helps balance storage capacity and performance across a cluster of datastores
Includes choosing the best datastore when placing a new VM
Also includes storage vMotion to reblance storage resource utilization dynamically

Storage I/O Control and Network I/O Control

allows admins to assign relative priority to storage I/O and limit storage I/O.
Settings are enforced cluster-wide
Works for VMFS and NFS datastores in 5.0 (4.1 included only VMFS datastores)
Similarly, network I/O has extensive controls so admins can ensure that VMs that need priority access to network resources get the resources they need

Profile-Driven Storage

New to vSphere 5
storage profiles ensure that VMs are residing on storage that can provide the capacity, performance, availability, and redundancy they require.
Key components:

1. Storage capabilities, leveraging vSphere's storage awareness APIs
2. VM storage profiles

some arrays can provide their own storage capabilities to vSphere using the APIs
admins can provide the storage capabilities as well
profiles are created that specify the storage capabilities that must be present in order for the VM to run.

vSMP, vMotion/Storage vMotion, DRS

Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing

Technology that allws the use of multiple processors inside a VM.
v5 lets you specify multiple cores (e.g. dual socket VM with 2 cores per socket)

vMotion and Storage vMotion

vMotion also known as 'live migration'
moves a running VM from one physical host to another with no downtime
Allows easy maintenance of a physical host that needs to be brought down for repair or maintenance
Allows easy migration to new physical hardware
Helps when multiple VMs are in contention for the same resources
Storage vMotion migrates a VM's storage while the VM is running
doing both vMotion and storage vMotion at the same time requires the VM to be powered off

vSphere DRS

leverages vMotion to provide automatic distribution of resource utilization across multiple ESXi hosts
At startup, DRS tries to put the VM on the physical host that is best suited to run that VM at that time (also known as intelligent placement)
While VM is running, DRS tries to provide 'load balancing' and moves VMs to the physical hosts that can provide the best resources without contention.

vSphere client, vShield Zones, and vCenter Orchestrator

VMware vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client

Windows-based application that facilitates management of ESXi hosts, either directory or via a vCenter Server
Browse to the URL of an ESXi host or vCenter Server to install it
Connect to a vCenter Server for the full set of management capabilities

Web client is a dynamic, web-based UI
No client installation necessary
Not all functionality of the full vSphere Client is available

VMware vShield Zones

virtual firewall functionality
let admins see and manage network traffic flows occurring on the virtual network switches
Apply network security polies that survive vMotion and vSphere DRS
Other items in the vShield family of products

• vShield App (guest-level firewall)
• vShield Edge (network edge security/DHCP/NAT/VPN/Load-balancing)
• vShield Endpoint (AV solution for third-party AV vendors to leverage)

VMware vCenter Orchestrator

workflow automation engine
build automated workflows
plug-ins extend functionality to include manipulating AD, UCS, and vCloud Director

vCenter Server features - more notes and things to read

VM templates
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vc_2_templates_usage_best_practices_wp.pdf
VM customization 
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-2481FF43-8C73-41FE-9BA0-D2676E5BC781.html  http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc_50%2FGUID-1D9EFBFA-A8CD-4091-90A9-7151B4724FB3.html
rapid provisioning and deployment
role-based access controls
http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/vmware-access-control-101-roles-and-permissions http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-security-guide.pdf
fine-grained resource allocation controls
vSphere vMotion
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/vmotion.html#glance
vSphere distributed resource scheduler
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/drs-dpm.html
vSphere High Availability
https://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/high-availability.html
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-High-Availability-DS-EN.pdf
vSphere Fault Tolerance
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-Fault-Tolerance-FT-DS-EN.pdf
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003212
Host Profiles
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-Host-Profiles-Tech-Overview.pdf
Storage I/O control
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-vSphere41-SIOC.pdf http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/03/debunking-storage-io-control-myths.html
vSphere Distributed Switches
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-vNetwork-Distributed-Switch-DS-EN.pdf http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010555
Network I/O Control
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW_Netioc_BestPractices.pdf
vSphere Storage DRS
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vsphere-storage-drs-interoperability.pdf

ESXi, vCenter Server, and Update Manager

ESXi

VMware documentation: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vSphere-5-ESXi-Operations-Guide.pdf
Core of the vSphere product
Bare-metal hypervisor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor)
From v 5.0, only the "i" version with no service console is available http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/esxi-and-esx/compare.html
Ultralight footprint (70MB OS)

Make sure to read the ESXi maximums documentation (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r50/vsphere-50-configuration-maximums.pdf) and memorize the key maximums:

1. # of virtual CPUs per host (2048)
2. # of cores per host (160)
3. # of logical CPUs per host with hyperthreading (160)
4. # of virtual CPUs per core (25)
5. Amount of RAM per host (2TB)

VMware vCenter Server

Centralized management utility for all ESXi hosts and their respective VMs.
Allows IT admins to deploy, manage, monitor, automate, and secure a virtual infrastructure in a centralized manner
VMware documentation: http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/overview.html
Available as a Windows application or as a prebuilt vCenter Server appliance based on Linux
Provides numerous capabilities:

• VM templates
• VM customization
• rapid provisioning and deployment
• role-based access controls
• fine-grained resource allocation controls
• vSphere vMotion
• vSphere distributed resource scheduler
• vSphere High Availability
• vSphere Fault Tolerance
• Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
• Host Profiles
• Storage I/O control
• vSphere Distributed Switches
• Network I/O Control
• vSphere Storage DRS

vCenter Server is available in 3 packages:

1. vCenter Server Essentials (integrated into vSphere Essentials kits for small offices)
2. vCenter Server Standard ('normal' version)
3. vCenter Server Foundation (limited to 3 ESXi hosts and does not include vCenter Orchestrator)

vSphere Update Manager (VUM)

Helps keep ESXi hosts and VMs patched with the latest updates
Scans to identify systems that are not compliant
User-defined rules for identifying out-of-date systems
Automated installation of patches for ESXi hosts
Full integration with other vSphere features

MATC ITNET-157-502

I'm currently enrolled in the ITNET-157-502 (86199) Emerging Tech (VMware VCP) at MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College) http://www.matc.edu

Week 1 homework is to read Chapter 1 of Scott Lowe's book 'Mastering VMware vSphere 5'.  In order to deepen my understanding, I thought I'd create an outline. And what better place to store notes than in an online blog accessible from all my devices?  Hopefully someone else may find these notes interesting as well.

Chapter 1 is an introduction to VMware vSphere 5.  The vSphere product suite is a collection of products that provide virtualization.  Scott identifies 15 main products/functions.

1. ESXi
2. VMware vCenter Server
3. vSphere Update Manager
4. VMware vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client
5. VMware vShield Zones
6. VMware vCenter Orchestrator
7. vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing
8. vSphere vMotion and Storage vMotion
9. vSphere Distributed Resource Schedule
10. vSphere Storage DRS
11. Storage I/O Control and Network I/O Control
12. Profile-Driven Storage
13. vSphere High Availability
14. vSphere Fault Tolerance
15. vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection and VMware Data Recovery

In the next few posts, I'll go deeper into these items.