VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use

by Ryan Troy, Matthew Helmke

Overview

With scores of step-by-step solutions, this cookbook helps you work with VMware ESXi in a wide range of network environments. You’ll not only learn the basics—how to pool resources from hardware servers, computer clusters, networks, and storage, and then distribute them among virtual machines—but also how to overcome the stumbling blocks you’ll encounter when you monitor systems, troubleshoot problems, and deal with security.

This expanded second edition covers recent advances in vCloud Director and vShield cloud security. Ideal for system administrators of any level, VMware Cookbook also includes valuable information to help you determine your virtualization needs.

• Move into the cloud with vCloud Director, and secure virtual datacenters with vSphere
• Secure and monitor your virtual environment from the command line
• Manage disk, SSD, and SAN storage implementation and configuration
• Discover options for managing resources, such as clustering, shares, and hot add/hotplug support
• Configure logical and physical networks, including virtual switches and software and hardware adapters
• Make virtual machine replication easier by automating ESXi installations
• Gain valuable tips for configuration and fine-tuning

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449314477
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/26/2012
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ryan Troy has over 12 years of Unix/Linux system administration experience, working in diverse industries that range from web hosting to the newspaper industry. He has written articles for Linux Identity magazine and co-authored articles for Linux+ magazine. He is passionate about virtualization, specifically VMware's technologies. Ryan also founded the now-official Ubuntu Linux forums (http://www.ubuntuforums.org) in October 2004; he currently serves as technical administrator and chairman of the Ubuntu Forum Council.



One of Ryan's latest projects has been to architect and build a virtualization infrastructure for a large newspaper chain in Michigan using VMware's ESX product line along with Dell Equallogic Storage Arrays.



Ryan is also a VMware Certified Professional.

Matthew Helmke has written articles for magazines such as Linux+ and Linux Identity, helped write Prentice Hall's The Official Ubuntu Book, and has written and self-published two books about Arabic and Moroccan culture. He first used Unix in 1987 while studying Lisp on a Vax at the university. Currently, he is an active member of the Ubuntu Linux community as an Administrator and Forum Council member for the Ubuntu Forums (ubuntuforums.org), and a member of the membership approval committee for Ubuntu in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has run a business using only free software, has done some consulting, and is currently working on a master's degree in Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona.

Table of Contents

Preface; Audience; Organization of This Book; Font Conventions; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; We’d Like to Hear from You; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: VMware Infrastructure Installation; 1.1 What Is VMware Infrastructure 5?; 1.2 What Is VMware vSphere 5.0?; 1.3 Convergence from ESX to ESXi with vSphere 5.0; 1.4 VMware ESXi 5.0 Configuration Maximums; 1.5 VMware ESXi 5.0 Server Overview; 1.6 VMware ESXi 5.0 Overview; 1.7 VMware ESXi 5.0 Installation; 1.8 VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Overview; 1.9 vCenter Server 5.0 Installation; 1.10 VMware vCenter Client 5.x Overview; 1.11 vCenter Client 5.x Installation; 1.12 vCenter 5.0 Web Client Installation; 1.13 vSphere 5.0 License Changes; 1.14 vConverter; Chapter 2: Storage; 2.1 Comparing ESXi Storage Options; 2.2 Selecting the Virtual Machine Datastore Location; 2.3 Storage Runtime Naming Scheme; 2.4 Creating a Network for the Software iSCSI Initiator; 2.5 Configuring Software iSCSI on ESXi; 2.6 Configuring Hardware iSCSI with an HBA; 2.7 Configuring iSCSI in Windows Virtual Machines; 2.8 Opening Firewall Ports for an ESXi iSCSI Software Initiator; 2.9 Multipathing with iSCSI; 2.10 Adding Fibre Channel Storage in ESXi; 2.11 Creating a Raw Device Mapping for Virtual Machines; 2.12 Creating a VMkernel Port for Access to NFS Datastores; 2.13 Configuring ESXi to Use NFS; 2.14 Creating a VMFS Volume in vCenter; 2.15 Performing a Storage Rescan; 2.16 Creating a VMFS Volume via the Command Line; 2.17 Viewing the Files that Define a VMFS Volume; 2.18 Increasing the VMFS Volume Capacity; 2.19 Reading VMFS Metadata; 2.20 Creating a Diagnostic Partition; 2.21 Removing Storage Volumes from ESXi; 2.22 Determining whether a VMFS Datastore Is on a Local or SAN Disk; 2.23 Adjusting Timeouts When Adding Storage in vCenter; 2.24 Setting Disk Timeouts in Windows; 2.25 Renaming Datastores; Chapter 3: Networking; 3.1 Configuring ESXi Network Ports and the Firewall; 3.2 Creating a vSwitch for Virtual Machines; 3.3 Removing a Virtual Switch; 3.4 Adding VMotion to Enable Virtual Machine Migration; 3.5 Modifying the Speed of a Network Adapter; 3.6 Choosing Network Elements that Protect Security; 3.7 Setting the Basic Level 2 Security Policy; 3.8 Ethernet Traffic Shaping on Standard vSwitches; 3.9 Load Balancing and Failover; 3.10 Enabling Jumbo Frames on a VMkernel for iSCSI; 3.11 Enabling Jumbo Frames on a Standard vSwitch; 3.12 Enabling Jumbo Frames on a Virtual Machine; 3.13 Changing the ESXi Host IP Address; 3.14 Using the Remote Command Line to Locate Physical Ethernet Adapters; 3.15 Changing the Ethernet Port Speed via the Command Line; 3.16 Enabling TCP Segmentation Offload Support on a Virtual Machine; 3.17 Enabling Jumbo Frames on a Distributed Switch; 3.18 Changing DNS Entries on the ESXi Host; 3.19 Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch; Chapter 4: Resource and vCenter Management; 4.1 Monitoring Virtual Machines Inside the vSphere Cluster; 4.2 Understanding Virtual Machine Memory Use Through Reservations, Shares, and Limits; 4.3 Configuring Virtual Machine CPU Limits; 4.4 Configuring Virtual Machine CPU Shares; 4.5 Configuring Virtual Machine CPU Reservations; 4.6 Setting Up Resource Pools; 4.7 Understanding Resource Pools; 4.8 Expandable Reservations in Resource Pools; 4.9 Creating a Cluster; 4.10 Adding Hosts to a Cluster; 4.11 Enabling Hyperthreading on a Virtual Machine; 4.12 Enabling DRS in a Cluster; 4.13 Understanding Cluster States and Warnings; 4.14 Using ESXi CPU/RAM Hot Add/Hotplug Support; 4.15 Surviving a vCenter Server Failure or Outage; Chapter 5: Useful Tools and References; 5.1 Entering Maintenance Mode via the Command Line; 5.2 Displaying Server Information; 5.3 Viewing the ESXi Version; 5.4 Changing the Virtual Disk from BusLogic to LSI Logic; 5.5 Hiding the VMware Tools Icon; 5.6 Viewing Disk Partitions via the Console; 5.7 Monitoring CPU Usage; 5.8 Monitoring Memory; 5.9 Monitoring Storage Performance; 5.10 Monitoring Network Usage; 5.11 Managing Virtual Switches; 5.12 Generating a Logfile for VMware Support; 5.13 Checking ESXi Patches; 5.14 Enabling NTP in the vCenter; 5.15 Changing the ESXI Server’s Time; 5.16 Restarting the vCenter Agent; 5.17 Finding Virtual Machine Snapshots; 5.18 Renaming a Virtual Machine via the vCenter; 5.19 Setting ESXi Options Using the Command Line; 5.20 Configuring Authentication Choices Using the Command Line; 5.21 Manipulating the Crash Dump Partition; 5.22 Configuring a Firewall on the Command Line; 5.23 Managing ESXi Driver Modules; 5.24 Configuring Storage Multipathing; 5.25 Managing NFS Mounts; 5.26 Managing Disk Volumes; 5.27 Configuring Ethernet Adapters; 5.28 Rescanning Host Bus Adapters; 5.29 Managing Add-ons from the Command Line; 5.30 Managing VMkernel Network Routes; 5.31 Configuring Software iSCSI Options; 5.32 Configuring Hardware iSCSI Options; 5.33 Upgrading Software VIBs; 5.34 Displaying Storage Path Information; 5.35 Managing SCSI Device Mappings with ESXi5 vSphere; 5.36 Managing VMkernel Ports; Chapter 6: General Security; 6.1 Enabling SSH on ESX 3.5 / ESX 4.x; 6.2 Enabling Direct Root Logins on Your ESX Server; 6.3 Adding Users and Groups; 6.4 Allowing or Denying Users the Use of SSH; 6.5 Turning On the Message of the Day for Console Users; 6.6 Changing the Root Password via the Console; 6.7 Recovering a Lost Root Password; 6.8 Disabling Direct Root Console Logins; 6.9 Securing the GRUB Bootloader Menu; 6.10 Disabling USB Drive Mounting; 6.11 Opening and Closing Firewall Ports via the Console; 6.12 Checking Default ESX Ports; 6.13 Turning on SNMP for Remote Administration; 6.14 Using SNMP Version 3; 6.15 Using Sudo; 6.16 Configuring Sudo; 6.17 Tracking Users via the CLI; 6.18 Configuring Active Directory Authentication; 6.19 Setting a Maximum Number of Failed Logins; 6.20 Limiting Access to the Su Command; 6.21 Setting User Password Aging; 6.22 Disabling Copy and Paste; 6.23 Disabling Disk Shrinking on Virtual Machines; 6.24 Disabling Unneeded Devices; 6.25 Preventing Unwanted Device Additions and Removals; 6.26 Disabling VMware Tools Settings Override; Chapter 7: Automating ESXi Installations; 7.1 Selecting a Different Boot Option with ESXi 5.x; 7.2 Building a Kickstart Configuration File for Automated Deployments; 7.3 Differences Between ESXi 4.x and ESXi 5.x Kickstart Commands; 7.4 Advanced Installation Scripting Using %firstboot; 7.5 Advanced Installation Scripting Using %pre; 7.6 Advanced Installation Scripting Using %post; 7.7 Methods of Upgrading ESX 4.0 Classic to ESXi 5.0; 7.8 Upgrading ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.0 via CD/DVD; 7.9 Installing vSphere Auto Deploy; 7.10 Formatting a USB Key for ESXi Installations; Chapter 8: vCloud Director Overview; 8.1 What Is vCloud Director?; 8.2 What’s New in vCloud Director 1.5; 8.3 vCloud Director Maximums; 8.4 vCloud Director Requirements; 8.5 vCloud Director (Evaluation Appliance); 8.6 Deploying vShield Manager; 8.7 Attaching vCloud Director to the vCenter Server; 8.8 Creating a Provider Virtual Datacenter; 8.9 Allocating External Network Resources; 8.10 Adding Network Pools for Virtual Datacenters; Chapter 9: vSphere Storage Appliance; 9.1 What Is the vSphere Storage Appliance?; 9.2 vSphere Storage Appliance Requirements; 9.3 Installation of the vSphere Storage Appliance; 9.4 vSphere Storage Appliance Cluster Creation Process; Colophon;