Mastering VMware vSphere 6. Marshall Nick

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      Given that VMware ESXi is the foundation of virtualization within the vSphere product suite, you’ll see content for VMware ESXi throughout the book. Table 1.1, earlier in this chapter, tells you where you can find more information about specific features of VMware ESXi elsewhere in the book.

      VMware vCenter Server

      Stop for a moment to think about your current network. Does it include Active Directory? There is a good chance it does. Now imagine your network without Active Directory, without the ease of a centralized management database, without the single sign-on capabilities, and without the simplicity of groups. That’s what managing VMware ESXi hosts would be like without using VMware vCenter Server. Not a very pleasant thought, is it? Now calm yourself down, take a deep breath, and know that vCenter Server, like Active Directory, is meant to provide a centralized management platform and framework for all ESXi hosts and their respective VMs. vCenter Server allows IT administrators to deploy, manage, monitor, automate, and secure a virtual infrastructure in a centralized fashion. To help provide scalability, vCenter Server leverages a backend database (Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are both supported, among others) that stores all the data about the hosts and VMs.

      In previous versions of VMware vSphere, vCenter Server was a Windows-only application. Version 6.0 of vSphere still offers this Windows-based installation of vCenter Server but also offers a prebuilt vCenter Server Appliance (a virtual appliance, in fact, something you’ll learn about in Chapter 10, “Using Templates and vApps”) that is based on SUSE Linux. Having a Linux-based vCenter Server Appliance is a great alternative for organizations that don’t want to deploy a Windows Server instance just to manage the vSphere environment.

      vCenter Server not only provides configuration and management capabilities – which include features such as VM templates, VM customization, rapid provisioning and deployment of VMs, role-based access controls, and fine-grained resource allocation controls – it also provides the tools for the more advanced features of vSphere vMotion, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler, vSphere High Availability, and vSphere Fault Tolerance. All of these features are described briefly in this chapter and in more detail in later chapters.

      In addition to vSphere vMotion, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler, vSphere High Availability, and vSphere Fault Tolerance, using vCenter Server to manage ESXi hosts enables a number of other features:

      • Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC), which leverages hardware functionality from Intel and AMD to enable greater CPU compatibility between servers grouped into vSphere DRS clusters

      • Host profiles, which allow you to bring greater consistency to host configurations across larger environments and to identify missing or incorrect configurations

      • Storage I/O Control, which provides cluster-wide quality of service (QoS) controls so you can ensure critical applications receive sufficient storage I/O resources even during times of congestion

      • vSphere Distributed Switches, which provide the foundation for networking settings and third-party virtual switches that span multiple hosts and multiple clusters

      • Network I/O Control, which allows you to flexibly partition physical NIC bandwidth and provide QoS for different types of traffic

      • vSphere Storage DRS, which enables VMware vSphere to dynamically migrate storage resources to meet demand, much in the same way that DRS balances CPU and memory utilization

      vCenter Server plays a central role in any sizable VMware vSphere implementation. In Chapter 3, “Installing and Configuring vCenter Server,” I discuss planning and installing vCenter Server as well as look at ways to ensure its availability. Chapter 3 will also examine the differences between the Windows-based version of vCenter Server and the Linux-based vCenter Server virtual appliance. Because of vCenter Server’s central role in a VMware vSphere deployment, I’ll touch on vCenter Server in almost every chapter throughout the rest of the book. Refer to Table 1.1, earlier in this chapter, for specific cross-references.

      vCenter Server is available in two packages:

      • vCenter Server Essentials is integrated into the vSphere Essentials kits for small office deployment.

      • vCenter Server Standard provides all the functionality of vCenter Server, including provisioning, management, monitoring, and automation.

      You can find more information on licensing and product editions for VMware vSphere in the section “Licensing VMware vSphere.”

      vSphere Update Manager vSphere Update Manager is an add-on package for vCenter Server that helps users keep their ESXi hosts and select VMs patched with the latest updates. vSphere Update Manager provides the following functionality:

      • Scans to identify systems that are not compliant with the latest updates

      • User-defined rules for identifying out-of-date systems

      • Automated installation of patches for ESXi hosts

      • Full integration with other vSphere features like Distributed Resource Scheduler

      vSphere Update Manager works with the Windows-based installation of vCenter Server as well as the prepackaged vCenter Server virtual appliance. Refer to Table 1.1 for more information on where vSphere Update Manager is described in this book.

      VMware vSphere Web Client and vSphere Desktop Client vCenter Server provides a centralized management framework for VMware ESXi hosts, but it’s the vSphere Web Client (and its predecessor, the Windows-based vSphere Desktop Client) where you will spend most of your time.

      With the release of vSphere 5, VMware shifted its primary administrative interface to a web-based vSphere Client. The vSphere Web Client provides a dynamic, web-based user interface for managing a virtual infrastructure and enables you to manage your infrastructure without needing to install the Windows-based vSphere Desktop Client on a system. In its initial release, the vSphere Web Client provided a subset of the functionality available to the “full” Windows-based vSphere Desktop Client. However, in subsequent releases – including the 6.0 release – the vSphere Web Client has been enhanced and expanded to include almost all the functionality you need to manage a vSphere environment. Further, VMware has stated that the vSphere Web Client will eventually replace the Windows-based vSphere Desktop Client entirely. For this reason, I’ll use screen shots of the vSphere Web Client throughout this book unless it is impossible to do so.

      The Windows-based vSphere Desktop Client is still available to allow you to manage individual ESXi hosts, either directly or through an instance of vCenter Server. You can install the vSphere Desktop Client by browsing to the URL of an ESXi host or vCenter Server and selecting the appropriate installation link (although keep in mind that Internet access might be required in order to download the client in some instances). The vSphere Desktop Client provides a rich graphical user interface (GUI) for all day-to-day management tasks and for the advanced configuration of a virtual infrastructure. Although you can connect the vSphere Desktop Client either directly to an ESXi host or to an instance of vCenter Server, the full set of management capabilities are available only when you are connecting the vSphere Desktop Client to vCenter Server.

      As I mentioned earlier, the vSphere Web Client is the stated future direction for VMware vSphere’s management interface. For that reason, I focus primarily on how to use the vSphere Web Client throughout this book. Tasks in the vSphere Desktop Client should be similar, but note that some tasks can be performed only in the vSphere Web Client, not СКАЧАТЬ