1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network and Internet Connections. 2.

Click Network Connections, and then click Create a new connection in the Network Tasks pane. 3. After the Network Connection Wizard starts, click Next. 4. Click Connect to the Internet, and then click Next. 5. Click Set up my connection manually, and then click Next. 6. Click either Connect using a broadband connection that requires a user name and password or Connect using a broadband connection that is always on. 7. Type the Internet service provider (ISP) name that your ISP provided, and then click Next. 8. Type the user name that the ISP provided. 9. Type the password that the ISP provided. 10. Type the password one more time to confirm it, and then click Next. 11. Click Add a shortcut to this connection to my desktop. 12. Click Finish to complete the wizard.
070-284 Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 070-290 TS: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment 070-680TS: Windows 7, Configuring 070-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

1. VMWare Kernel is a Proprietary Kenral and is not based on any of the UNIX operating systems, it's a kernel developed by VMWare Company. 2. The VMKernel can't boot it by itself, so that it takes the help of the 3rd party operating system. In VMWare case the kernel is booted by RedHat Linux operating system which is known as service console. 3. The service console is developed based up on Redhat Linux Operating system, it is used to manage the VMKernel 4. To restart webaccess service on vmware

service vmware-webaccess restart this will restart apache tomcat app 5. To restart ssh service on vmware service sshd restart 6. To restart host agent(vmware-hostd) on vmware esx server service mgmt-vmware restart 7. Path for the struts-config.xml /usr/lib/vmware/webAccess/tomcat/apache-tomcat-5.5.17/webapps/ui/WEB-INF/ 8. To start the scripted install the command is esx ks=nfs:111.222.333.444:/data/KS.config ksdevice=eth0 location device name 9. Virtual Network in Simple. Virtual Nic(s) on Virtual Machine(s) -----> Physical Nic on the ESX Server (Virtual Switch - 56 Ports) -----> Physical Switch Port need access Should be trunked with all the VLANS to which the VM's

All the ESX servers should be configured with Same number of Physical Nics (vSwitches) and Connectivity also should be same, So that vMotion succeeds All the Virtual Machines are connected to one vSwitch with Different VLANS, this means the Physical Nic(vSwitch) needs to be trunked with the same VLANS on the Physical Switch Port 10 What are the three port groups present in ESX server networking 1. Virtual Machine Port Group - Used for Virtual Machine Network 2. Service Console Port Group - Used for Service Console Communications 3. VMKernel Port Group - Used for VMotion, iSCSI, NFS Communications 11. What is the use of a Port Group? The port group segregates the type of communication. 12. What are the type of communications which requires an IP address for sure ? Service Console and VMKernel (VMotion and iSCSI), these communications does not happen without an ip address (Whether it is a single or dedicated) 13. In the ESX Server licensing features VMotion License is showing as Not used, why?

Even though the license box is selected, it shows as "License Not Used" until, you enable the VMotion option for specific vSwitch 14. How the Virtual Machine Port group communication works ? All the vm's which are configured in VM Port Group are able to connect to the physical machines on the network. So this port group enables communication between vSwitch and Physical Switch to connect vm's to Physical Machine's 15. What is a VLAN ? A VLAN is a logical configuration on the switch port to segment the IP Traffic. For this to happen, the port must be trunked with the correct VLAN ID. 16. Does the vSwitches support VLAN Tagging? Why? Yes, The vSwitches support VLAN Tagging, otherwise if the virtual machines in an esx host are connected to different VLANS, we need to install a separate physical nic (vSwitch) for every VLAN. That is the reason vmware included the VLAN tagging for vSwitches. So every vSwitch supports upto 1016 ports, and BTW they can support 1016 VLANS if needed, but an ESX server doesnt support that many VMs. :) 17. What is Promiscuous Mode on vSwitch ? What happens if it sets to Accept? If the promiscuous mode set to Accept, all the communication is visible to all the virtual machines, in other words all the packets are sent to all the ports on vSwitch If the promiscuous mode set to Reject, the packets are sent to inteded port, so that the intended virtual machine was able to see the communication. 18. What is MAC address Changes ? What happens if it is set to Accept ? When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow incoming traffic to the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the incoming traffic will be allowed to the VM. 19. What is Forged Transmits ? What happens if it is set to Accept ? When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow outgoing traffic from the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the outgoing traffic will be allowed from the VM. 20. What are the core services of VC ? VM provisioning , Task Scheduling and Event Logging 21. Can we do vMotion between two datacenters ? If possible how it will be?

Yes we can do vMotion between two datacenters, but the mandatory requirement is the VM should be powered off. 22. What is VC agent? and what service it is corresponded to? What are the minimum req's for VC agent installation ? VC agent is an agent installed on ESX server which enables communication between VC and ESX server. The daemon associated with it is called vmware-hostd , and the service which corresponds to it is called as mgmt-vmware, in the event of VC agent failure just restart the service by typing the following command at the service console " service mgmt-vmware restart " VC agent installed on the ESX server when we add it to the VC, so at the time of installtion if you are getting an error like " VC Agent service failed to install ", check the /Opt size whether it is sufficient or not. 23. How can you edit VI Client Settings and VC Server Settings ? Click Edit Menu on VC and Select Client Settings to change VI settings Click Administration Menu on VC and Select VC Management Server Configuration to Change VC Settings 24. What are the files that make a Virtual Machine ? .vmx - Virtual Machine Configuration File .nvram - Virtual Machine BIOS .vmdk - Virtual Machine Disk file .vswp - Virtual Machine Swap File .vmsd - Virtual MAchine Snapshot Database .vmsn - Virtual Machine Snapshot file .vmss - Virtual Machine Suspended State file .vmware.log - Current Log File .vmware-#.log - Old Log file 25. What are the devices that can be added while the virtual Machine running In VI 3.5 we can add Hard Disk and NIC's while the machine running. In vSphere 4.0 we can add Memory and Processor along with HDD and NIC's while the machine running 26. How to set the time delay for BIOS screen for a Virtual Machine? Right Click on VM, select edit settings, choose options tab and select boot option, set the delay how much you want. 27. What is a template ?

We can convert a VM into Template, and it cannot be powered on once its changed to template. This is used to quick provisioning of VM's. 23. What to do to customize the windows virtual machine clone,? copy the sysprep files to Virtual center directory on the server, so that the wizard will take the advantage of it. 24. What to do to customize the linux/unix virtual machine clone,? VC itself includes the customization tools, as these operating systems are available as open source. 25. Does cloning from template happens between two datacenters ? Yes.. it can, if the template in one datacenter, we can deploy the vm from that template in another datacenter without any problem. 26. What are the common issues with snapshots? What stops from taking a snapshot and how to fix it ? If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's, then the snapshot failed. If it is mapped as virtual then we can take a snapshot of it. If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's as physical, you need to remove it to take a snapshot. 27. What are the settings that are taken into to consideration when we initiate a snapshot ? Virtual Machine Configuration (What hardware is attached to it) State of the Virtual Machine Hard Disk file ( To revert back if needed) State of the Virtual Machine Memory (if it is powered on) 28. What are the requirements for Converting a Physical machine to VM ? An agent needs to be installed on the Physical machine VI client needs to be installed with Converter Plug-in A server to import/export virtual machines 29. What is VMWare consolidated backup ? It is a backup framework, that supports 3rd party utilities to take backups of ESX servers and Virtual Machines. Its not a backup service. 30. To open the guided consolidation tool, what are the user requirements ? The user must be member of administrator, The user should have "Logon as service" privileges - To give a user these privileges, open local sec policy, select Logon as service policy and add the user the user should have read access to AD to send queries

How to install Virtual Center 2.5/ vCenter 4.0 in a simple steps?

What is Virtual Center ? Virtual Center is a management interface for ESX Virtual Infrastructure. Using Virtual Center you can manage all the ESX servers from a single point, in a simple words its a centralized administration point for VMWare ESX environment. How do you connect to the Virtual Center? Using the Virtual Infrastructure Client. What are the requirements for Virtual Center? 1. Windows 2003/2008 Operating System 2. SQL 2005/2008 Database installed 3. IP Address 4. Proper Licensing to enable all the futures of Virtual Center. How do you Install it ? 1. Make sure Windows 2003 OS is installed correctly. 2. Install SQL 2005/2008 on the same machine. 3. Create a database named vmware by using Database creation wizard from SQL Management Studio 4. Create a Login name vmware from SQL MS, and give access to the vmware database that you just created. 5. Create an ODBC connection in System DSN 6. Start the VC installation, at the point of Database selection, use the existing system DSN to enable VC to store its details in vmware database. 7. At this stage, the installer checks the access to the vmware database using the ODBC (system DSN) connection. If it is authenticated successfully, the installation completed without any problems. Other wise check the ODBC Settings, VMWare User Access, VMWare Database Options and make sure everything was correct.

Unable to power on the Virtual Machine, How to fix it?

If the virtual machine is running in a cluster of esx hosts, some times it wont power on. Why because, the files that are associated with that VM are locked by the host at the time of running. So when you try to vmotion the vm from one host to another host, the first host releases those files and again locked by the second host. So what is meant by locking here, and why it is happening? Locking is nothing but, the registration of a vm with a host. this happens everytime when the vm is hosted on a host. this is helpful to prevent the access to the same vm for remaining hosts in the cluster. Why the vm fails when trying to power it on? When the files associated with that VM are locked by a host it wont powered on. At that time, you must unregister the vm from the host using vmware-cmd utility.

Virtualization : Basics VMware Topics Index : CLICK HERE

Hi Friends, Today, i want to discuss about Virtualization, my most favorite thing in my work place. I am a big fan of VMware, as they are the Virtualization leaders in the industry. The concept of virtualization is itself beyond the imagination. As of we all are known about software and hardware, those are the big guys up to now. And both are inter dependable on one another. One not works without the other. For example, if you take an operating system, it runs on hardware. Without the hardware, the OS and Applications installed on it will not work. In the same way, if the software (drivers) is not installed the hardware also not work. And as these are inter dependable, there are so many limitations to achieve our needs. So lets see how a common computer architecture looks like. Normal Computer Hardware Architecture (Overview)

The first layer is hardware layer which is a bare metal, the second layer is Operating system and the third layer is Application Layer. In other words, Operating system will be installed on Hardware and it takes the advantage of the kernel to communicate with hardware. Applications will be installed on the Operating system. like yahoo messenger, vmware workstation, photo shop etc. Limitations So as the OS and Applications are dependent on Hardware, if anything goes wrong with the hardware both will get crashed. And with this type of architecture we cannot run multiple operating systems at a time, we can install multiple OSes but we cannot run them at a time, if we want Linux, we need to logoff from Windows and vice versa. And one more thing is, as per the case studies done by so many professionals, at a point of peek time also, an operating system does not utilize more than 50% of the total physical resources (applicable to servers), so with this we are wasting our money for servers. That being said, to overcome these limitation we need is a better solution. Here i want to introduce the hero of Virtualization, that is none other than VMWARE. May be some of you are already aware and using VMware Workstation Application. If you ask a question like What is the use of VMware Workstation then? . Even though it may fulfill some requirements of virtualization and overcome some limitations of normal architecture and it is also providing access to virtual machines w but before that remember its an application which resided on Operating system, that means it provides virtual machines side by side but access to all the resources allocated for those virtual machines are given by the Operating system only. What is a Hypervisor? There are two types of virtualization software's available from vmware. One works at application level (ex. vmware workstation & vmware server) and the other one works at Operating system level (ex.VMWare ESX server, Microsoft Hype-V, Citrix XenServer etc. These are called Hypervisors. The Hypervisor is an operating system/virtualization which directly communicate with the hardware and provides better access of resources to the virtual machines. Where as i said before, virtualization apps like vmware workstation, microsoft virtual server, vmware server will provide access of resources to virtual machines through Operating system, as those are dependent on OS and are residing at application level. So, with the help hypervisor we can take the advantage of extra-ordinary resource allocation and management. With the Hypervisor, the architecture looks like below

In detail.. 1. Hardware CPU, Memory, NIC and Disk 2. Virtualization Layer VMware ESX Server Kernel 3. Service Console VMware ESX Server Operating system (RedHat Based) 4. Virtual Hardware Set of files, which resembles hardware in the Guest OS 5. Operating System OS which is installed on a Virtual Machine 6. Virtual Machine The combination of Virtual Hardware and Operating system (point 4+ 5). WATCH THE VIDEO : Server Virtualization Advantages of Virtualization 1. Utilizing server resources at fullest (by installing virtual machines side by side) If a physical server has 100% resources for example, in the normal architecture at the peek time also the operating system is able to utilize its resources between 25%-50%. In that case, we are wasting the other 50%-75% resources. But with the use of virtualization using a Hypervisor we are creating more than virtual machines. They all are running side by side, they have their own allocated resources. So if you assume like, we have created 2 virtual machines(one windows & one linux) with 50-50 resources allocated for them, and in this case, we are utilizing 100% resources of the server. 2. Access to multiple operating systems simultaneously 3. We are using one physical server, to host one or more virtual machines (depending on the physical server resources). With this we are saving power, data center space and administrative personnel. 4. With the advantage of the features provided by vmware (vmotion, ha, drs, dpm) , we can get uptime of a operating system / application up to 99% . 5. As the virtual machine is made with a set of files, we can move it / copy it / back up it/ restore it very easily. So the administration of machine when compared to physical is very very less.

vSphere : Completeness of Virtualization

VMware vSphere is a new product of VMware which supports Cloud level infrastructure. It is released in 2009 with lot of new features and enhancements. It only available in 64bit vesrion, but supports all types of Virtual Machines (32bit and 64bit). The Management suite includes the following applications.

vSphere New Features 1. Storage VMotion 2. Host profiles 3. VM Fault Tolerance 4. vApps 5. vShieldzones 6. Distributed vSwitch 7. Distributed Power Management Existing Features 8. VMotion 9. DRS 10. HA Storage VMotion (VIDEO) It is also available in VMware Infrastructure 3. It is a plug-in that needs to be installed on vCenter. Till now we are doing VMotion of VM, means moving the VM from one ESX host to another without downtime while the VM is running. But with SVMotion we can move VM files (.vmdk) from one data store to another without any downtime. This can be done in several cases like, insufficient disk space on Datastore, vmfs upgrade, vmfs maintenance, LUN maintenance etc. Host profiles (VIDEO 1 , VIDEO 2) This is absolutely new feature introduced with vSphere. With this feature we can create a profile for all ESX hosts with recommended settings. This created profile can be applied to entire cluster or a single host in the cluster. In other words its a blue print of recommended settings for perfect management of entire cluster. With this feature we can configure all the hosts with the same settings which is helpful in conditions like VMotion, DRS and HA etc. VM Fault Tolerance (VIDEO LINK) This is also a new feature introduced with vSphere. With this feature we will get absolute high availability of a Virtual Machine. When you enable this feature for a VM, it creates a secondary VM from the original. The secondary will always be in sync with original. In case of first VM failure or the ESX host on which it resides failures immediately the secondary will continue to

work without any downtime. Secondary maintains absolutely exact copy of the original, so that it will be available all the time. vApps A vApp has the same basic operation as a virtual machine, but can contain multiple virtual machines or appliances. With vApps, you can perform operations on multi-tier applications as separate entities (for example, clone,power on and off, and monitor). vApps package and manage those applications. vShieldzones (VIDEO) It is again a new feature of vSphere. With this feature we can provide more security at the Virtual Machine level. VShield Zones is essentially a virtual firewall designed to protect VMs and analyze virtual network traffic. Distributed vSwitch (VIDEO) This is an extra-ordinary feature of vSphere 4.0, which saves lot of administrative time in configuring networking on each and every single ESX server in a cluster individually. With this ultimate feature we can configure a dvSwitch at the cluster level, which is applied to all the hosts. So that the network configuration on all hosts remains identical which avoids network related issues while doing vMotion like things. Distributed Power Management (VIDEO1, VIDEO2) This is a feature which is already available in VI 3 also, but VMware made it available as an experimental feature. DPM works in a way same as DRS. It is obviously a dependent on DRS. When an ESX host using a very low resources DRS starts calculating the things behind, and then moves the Virtual Machines on it to another hosts. After migration is done, it simply power off the ESX host which is not at all in use at that time using DPM. When ever resource requirement increases on the remaining hosts in the cluster, it then power on the previously power down ESX server. Then again move the VM's with high resource contention to the newly powered on ESX server. But it is not recommended to implement this feature in production environments.

How to access ESX Server in Different ways? What are the major differences in these?
Hi Friends. Today i want to discuss about the types of access that an ESX Server can provide. Some of you guys already may be familiar with some types management interfaces, for example if you want to manage a Linksys router or a DSL modem or a Switch what you will do is you just type the IP address of that device in the internet explorer or any other web browser, so that you will get a

beautiful management interface including all the options available in that devices software. Am I Right? So here what's happening is, most of the devices comes command based operating systems. But as you know our world is become very much comfortable with Graphical interfaces like Windows, most of the time we will prefer to use the GUI. The work can be done with a GUI is very slow when compared to CUI, but using GUI there is no need to remember all commands or options available in that software. This is the main advantage of GUI. In the same way ESX Server also comes with UNIX based OS(Remember Kernel is VMware Proprietary, the Service console only RedHat Based) , but it is very difficult to manage it using those command for a basic windows guy. That is the reason why they implemented the GUI interface as Windows Based (may be). Apart from the GUI access, ESX server can be managed using the CUI also. Enough introduction right, so lets move on to the types of Access and their Pros and Cons.

LINKSYS GUI Types of ESX Server access: There are five types of access available for ESX servers.
Console access to the Service Console

CISCO GUI

Directly if you are sitting in front of the ESX Server system, you can access ESX Server using the UNIX based authentication. To do that you need to press Alt+F1 to get the login prompt. From there using root credentials you can do what ever you want.

Disadvantages you must be at the console (or connect using an IP KVM) and you must know Linux to accomplish your task (no GUI). SSH to the Service Console You can SSH to the console prompt of an ESX server and receive the same Linux text console access as I showed above. Telnet is not allowed. To use this method, the ESX server must be working on the network and you must have an SSH client on your PC to connect. Again, in this mode, you don't get a GUI interface. But you can access the machine remotely. VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Web Access to the ESX Server This is the VMware VI Web Access interface. You can access ESX Server from a web browser using the root credentials(UNIX type authentications). Advantages The benefit to using this is that you get a GUI client for your ESX server without having to install a client on your local machine. Disadvantages The downside to the web interface is that you can only perform basic ESX functions like controlling existing machines (start/stop/pause) and console remote access. You cannot add new VMs, work with VM storage, or VM networks. Still, this is a great interface if you just need to check the status of your ESX VMs, restart a VM, or use console remote control. VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) to the Single ESX Server The benefits to the VI client are that you have full access to do whatever is needed on the ESX Server and you get a GUI client to do it in. The only downside is that you must install the VI client application to do this. However, the installation is negligible and the VI client is the absolute best way to administer your ESX Server.

VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) to the Virtual Center Server (VC Server)
From this VI VC interface, you can manage all ESX servers, VM storage, VM networks, and more. Virtual Center, of course, is an optional product that requires additional licenses and hardware. All the enterprise futures are only available with VC access.