VMvisor and vCenter Server and vSphere Client

Host Cluster (Shared) Datastore (Shared) Datastore Cluster

vMotion DRS and DPM Storage vMotion Storage DRS
HA (VM Restart) FT (VM Never Restart)

VMkernel Port TCP/IP stack handles traffic for the following ESXi services: vMotion, FT Logging, iSCSI, NFS, and Host Management.
1. Inventory

The inventory is a hierarchy of objects that allow you to manage your virtual enterprise. These objects are
either containers of other objects, such as datacenters and folders, or objects that you manage, such as hosts
and virtual machines. The inventory shows you all objects and object relationships and allows you to organize
these objects and access the vCenter Server operations that manage them.

You can view the inventory in the left panel of the vSphere Client when you are connected to vCenter Server.

Datacenters

A datacenter is the primary container of inventory objects such as hosts and virtual machines. From the
datacenter, you can add and organize inventory objects. Typically, you add hosts, clusters, and folders to a
datacenter.

The vCenter Server can contain multiple datacenters. Large companies might use multiple datacenters to
represent organizational units in their enterprise.

Inventory objects can interact within datacenters, but interaction across datacenters is limited. For example,
you can move a virtual machine with vMotion technology across hosts within a datacenter but not to a host in
another datacenter.

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Hosts

A host is a computer that uses virtualization software to run virtual machines. Typically, a host is a computer
running ESX or ESXi software.

Hosts provide the CPU and memory resources that the virtual machines use and give the virtual machines
access to storage and networks. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same host at the same time.

Adding a host to the vCenter Server allows you to manage it and the virtual machines that run on it.

Clusters

A cluster is a group of hosts that share resources and a management interface. When you add a host to a
cluster, the host’s resources become part of the cluster’s resources. The cluster manages the aggregate
resources of all hosts within it.

Clusters enable the vSphere High Availability (HA) and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
solutions. vSphere HA allows the virtual machines running on ESX/ESXi hosts to automatically recover from
host failures. vSphere DRS continuously balances virtual machine workloads across your ESX/ESXi hosts.

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Datastores

A datastore is a logical container that holds virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.

Datastores can exist on different types of physical storage, including local storage i.e. Direct Attached Storage
(DAS) of a server using SATA, SCSI or SAS connection or a shared storage resources using either iSCSI disk
arrays/SANs, Fibre Channel disk arrays/SANs, or Network Attached Storage (NAS) disk arrays/NFS.

A datastore can be VMFS-based or NFS-based.

Shared storage resources are useful for vMotion, HA, DRS, and Disaster Recovery.

Storage virtualization is most commonly achieved through a mapping mechanism where a logical storage
address is translated into a physical storage address. Block-based storage such as those used in SANs use a
feature called a Logical Unit Identifier (LUN) with specific addresses stored in the form of an offset called the
Logical Block Address (LBA). The address space mapping then maps the address of the logical or virtual disk
(vdisk) to the logical unit on a storage controller. Storage virtualization may be done in software or in hardware
and it allows requests for virtualized storage to be redirected as needed.
Datastore Clusters

A datastore cluster is a group of datastores that share resources and a management interface. When you add
a datastore to a datastore cluster, the datastore’s resources become part of the datastore cluster’s resources.
You use datastore clusters to aggregate storage resources, which enables you to support resource allocation
policies at the datastore cluster level.

When you create a datastore cluster, you can use Storage DRS to manage storage resources. The I/O Load
Balancing functionality available with Storage DRS is available only when all hosts connected to the
datastores in the datastore cluster are running vSphere version 5 or later.

Storage DRS require that Storage I/O Control be enabled on all the datastores and performs automatic
placement of virtual machines upon creation or load balance through migration.

Storage DRS run infrequently and does analysis to determine long term I/O Load Balancing.
• Storage DRS does not use real-time latency to calculate I/O Load Balancing.
• I/O Load Balancing history is checked once every 8 hours.

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Networking: vSphere Standard Switchs (vSS) vs. vSphere Distributed Switchs (vDS)

vSphere Standard Switch (vSS)

Networking with vSS is driven from the host level. A vSS works much like a physical switch, detecting which
virtual machines are connected to each of its virtual ports and using that information to forward traffic to the
correct virtual machines. One or more Port Groups connected to a vSS and specify Port Group configuration
options such as VLAN, Security, Traffic Shaping, and NIC Teaming policies for each of its member port. Each
virtual machine NIC can be assigned to one Port Group. Port Group setting overrides vSwitch setting.

vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS)

Networking with vDS is driven from the datacenter level. A vDS exists as an object in the datacenter that acts
as a virtual switch across all associated hosts, enabling virtual machines to keep consistent network
configuration as they migrate across hosts.

Uplinks connect the vDS to physical NIC on associated hosts. That means, if any host has 4 NIC, max. 4
Uplinks should .be created, Each host must contribute 1 NIC to each Uplinks and it is better to have 1 vDS.

Virtual machine NICs connect to vDS through Distributed Port Groups, which aggregate multiple ports under a
common configuration and provide a stable anchor point for virtual machines connecting to a labeled network.

Since policies are applied at the port group and port level, and not at the vDS level, more features are added,
such as: Private VLANs, Netflow, Port Mirroring, and Network I/O Control.

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Virtual Machines

A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and
applications. An operating system installed on a virtual machine is called a guest operating system.

Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same functionality as physical hardware. Virtual
machines get CPU and memory, video cards, access to storage, and network connectivity from the hosts they
run on.

In vSphere, virtual machines run on hosts or clusters. Multiple virtual machines can run on the same host or
cluster at the same time.

VM Tools are used for VM Heartbeat, Time Synchronization, and Hardware Enhancement including Power Off.

Raw Device Mapping (RDM) allows you to store virtual machine data directly on a LUN. The Mapping File is
stored on a VMFS datastore that points to the raw LUN.

An Overcommitted Datastore can occur when there are many thin-provisioned virtual disks that use close to
their maximum allotted disk space.
When a Host fails, vSphere HA restarts the affected virtual machines on other Hosts.
When a Virtual Machine stops sending heartbeats or an Application fails, vSphere HA restarts the affected
virtual machine on the same host. Requires VMware Tools to be installed.

vSphere HA uses Heartbeats (Master/Slaves) for maintaining cluster and for that it uses either management
networks or datastores.
Virtual Machines to Hosts Affinity and Anti Affinity Rule: Virtual Machines DRS Group and Hosts DRS Group
Virtual Machines Affinity and Anti Affinity Rule:
Templates

A template is a master image of a virtual machine that you can use to create and provision new virtual
machines. This image typically includes an operating system, applications, and a virtual machine configuration
that defines a full set of virtual hardware.

You can create a template by converting an existing virtual machine to a template (Power Off), cloning a
virtual machine to a template, or cloning an existing template. You can then create new virtual machines by
deploying the template.

Using templates can save the time of configuring a new virtual machine and installing a guest operating
system.

Templates appear only in the Virtual Machines and Templates inventory view.

By Template or Cloning, virtual machine deployment is allowed across datacenters.

Snapshots allow you to preserve the state or delta state of the virtual machine, so you can return to the same
state repeatedly.

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Folder

A folder is a container used to further refine object grouping within your inventory. Folders provide a natural
structure on which to apply permissions.

For example, using folders, you can organize virtual machines and templates based on function. Similarly, you
can use folders to group datacenters by geographic location.

You can group the following inventory objects in folders:

 Datacenters
 Virtual machines (which include templates)
 Computer resources (which include hosts and clusters)

The objects grouped within a folder must be of the same type.

vApp

A vApp is a group of virtual machines that can be managed as a single object. vApps simplify management of
complex, multi-tiered applications that run on multiple interdependent virtual machines. vApps have the same
basic operations as virtual machines and resource pools. With vApps, you can set the order in which the
virtual machines in the vApp power on, automatically assign IP addresses to virtual machines in the vApp, and
provide application-level customization.

Resource Pool

A resource pool provides a way to divide the resources of a stand-alone host

or a cluster into smaller pools. A resource pool is configured with a set of CPU
and memory resources that the virtual machines that run in the resource pool
share. Resource pools are self-contained and isolated from other resource
pools.

You can combine multiple physical servers into a single resource pool that
aggregates CPU and memory capacity.

Virtual machines execute in, and draw their resources from, resource pools.
This arrangement allows virtual machine workloads to continuously balance across resource pools. When the
workload increases, the vCenter Server automatically allocates additional resources and transparently
migrates virtual machines between hosts in the resource pool.
2. Administration

When multiple users are accessing the vSphere Client environment, a best practice is to give each user only
the necessary permissions and nothing more. vCenter Server allows flexible assignment of permissions.

Roles and Users or Groups (Local or AD) combinedly determine permission of an Object in Inventory

 A permission can propagate down the object hierarchy to all subobjects or it can apply only to an
immediate object.
 When a user is a member of multiple groups, the user is assigned the union of privileges assigned to
the groups for that object.
 Permissions defined explicitly for the user on an object take precedence over all group permissions on
that same object.
3. (Monitoring and) Management

Although VMkernel works proactively to avoid resource contention, maximizing performance requires both
the, ongoing resource monitoring and management.

.
Alarm

An alarm is a notification that occurs in response to selected events or conditions that occur with an object in
the inventory.

Default alarms exist for various inventory objects: Many default alarms for Hosts and Virtual Machines
You can create custom alarms for a wide range of inventory objects: Datacenters, Hosts, Clusters,
Datastores, Networks, Virtual Machines.

An alarm requires a Trigger. Types of Triggers:

Condition or State Trigger – Monitors the current condition or state.
Example:
• A virtual machine’s current snapshot is above 2GB in size.
• A host is using 90 percent of its total memory.
• A datastore has been disconnected from all hosts.

Event Trigger– Monitors events.

Example:
• VM is power on
• A host has left the vNetwork distributed switch.
• A license has expired in the datacenter.

Every alarm type has these actions:

 Send a notification email (SMTP), send a notification trap (SNMP), or run a command.
4. Solutions and Applications

vShield Manager

vShield Manager is the centralized management component of vShield. 

vShield Manager is used to monitor and push configurations to vShield App, vShield Endpoint,

and vShield Edge instances. These collections of virtual appliances provide security services for vSphere
VMs, supporting activities such as firewall protection and anti-malware. They can also provide network edge
and gateway services, including DHCP, VPN, NAT, port translation, and load balancing.

vShield Manager is a virtual appliance deployed as an OVA file downloaded from VMware.
1. After the OVF file is deployed, power on the vShield Manager virtual machine and open the console.
2. Log in to the console with the user name admin and password default.
3. At the manager> prompt, type enable. At the Password prompt, type default.
4. At the manager# prompt, type setup to begin the setup procedure.
Enter the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway for the vShield Manager virtual machine.

https://IP address of vShield Manager/

You need this information to attach a vCenter Server to vCloud Director.
It is necessary to synchronize vShield Manager with vCenter or register the vShield Manager as a
vSphere Client plug-in, when you use vShield Manager with vCloud Director.
Data Protection (VMware Data Recovery) and Replication (Site Recovery Manager)
Auto Deploy and vSphere Update Manager (VUM)
5. Managing ESXi from the Remote Command Prompt

To power on a virtual machine from the command line:

1. List the inventory ID of the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms |grep <vm name>

Note: The first column of the output shows the vmid.

2. Check the power state of the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.getstate <vmid>

3. Power-on the virtual machine with the command:

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <vmid>

To install VEM from the command line:

#esxcli software vib install –v /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/…vib

#vem status -v