Introduction to Server Virtualization

What is Virtualization?
Virtualization is a proven software technology that makes it possible to run multiple operating
systems and applications on the same server at the same time. It’s transforming the IT
landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people utilize technology. The choice is an
easy one for IT departments that want to implement the most sophisticated virtual machine
migration and management tools. It's VMware.

Types of Virtualizations

Server Virtualization:
Most servers operate at less than 15 percent of capacity, leading to server sprawl and
complexity. Server virtualization addresses these inefficiencies by allowing multiple operating
systems to run on a single physical server as virtual machines, each with access to the
underlying server's computing resources. Server virtualization also enables faster workload
deployment, increased application performance, and higher availability. Furthermore, as
operations get automated, IT becomes simpler to manage and less costly to own and operate.

Network Virtualization:
Network virtualization is the complete reproduction of a physical network in software.
Applications run on the virtual network the same as if on a physical network. Network
virtualization presents logical networking devices and services—logical ports, switches, routers,
firewalls, load balancers, VPNs, and more—to connected workloads. Virtual networks offer the
same features and guarantees of a physical network with the operational benefits and hardware
independence of virtualization.

Software-Defined Storage:
Storage virtualization abstracts the disks and flash drives inside your servers, combines them
into high-performance storage pools, and delivers them as software. Software-
defined storage (SDS) is a new approach to storage that enables a fundamentally more efficient
operational model.

Desktop Virtualization:
Deploying desktops as a managed service gives you the opportunity to respond quickly to
changing needs and opportunities. You can reduce costs and increase service by quickly and
easily delivering virtualized desktops and applications to branch offices, outsourced and offshore
employees, and mobile workers on iPad and Android tablets.

What is VMware?
VMware is cloud computing and virtualization software. The base for VMware virtualization
technologies is its bare-metal hypervisor ESX/ESXi in x86 architecture. A hypervisor is set up on
the server (physical) to allow several virtual machines to run on the same VMware server
virtualization. All virtual machines can run their own operating system (OS).

Multiple virtual machines on the same physical server share some of the common resources like
RAM, network, etc.

What is VMware Workstation?

VMware software is now commonly used in virtualized storage and networking, cloud
management services, private data centers, desktop software, etc. VMware company also
launched the VMWare ESX server and VMWare GSX Server. Mostly, VMWare virtualization
software is for commercial use.

What is a hypervisor system?

A hypervisor is a software that you can use to run multiple virtual machines on a single
physical machine. Every virtual machine has its own operating system and applications. The
hypervisor allocates the underlying physical computing resources such as CPU and memory to
individual virtual machines as required.
  VMware ESXi Server: This is an organization-level software built to provide better
functionality than a freeware VMware Server to reduce system overhead. But, the service
console in the VMware ESX server is replaced by Busy Box installation, which requires low
disk space.

 VMware ESX Server: This is similar to the VMware ESXi server where VMware ESX is
combined with VMware vCenter produces additional solutions to improve the consistency
and manageability of the server implementations. VMware vSphere and VMWare Server
are some of the important server Virtualization software.

 VMware vSphere: The vSphere is the best and well-known product from VMware.
vSphere is the integration of well-known, commonly used vCenter, and ESXi hypervisor
suite for applications.

 VMware Server: It is an open-source (Freeware) software that can be used on any

existing operating system like Ubuntu, LINUX, or Windows.

Physical Topology of Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Datacentre

A classic VMware vSphere data centre contains (physical) building blocks like IP networks,
desktop clients, storage networks and arrays, a management server, and x86 virtualization
servers.
The vSphere data centre topology components are listed below:
 IP networks
 Management clients
 Compute servers
 Storage networks and arrays
 vCenter Server

IP networks: Any compute server can have one or more physical network adapters, and they
provide reliable networking and high bandwidth to the whole VMware vSphere data center.

Management clients: They provide many interfaces to access a virtual machine, and for data
centre management. These interfaces incorporate either vSphere Command-Line Interface
(vSphere CLI), or vSphere Web Client to access a web browser.

Compute servers: The x86 servers run ESXi on bare metal. Compute server provides resources
for virtual machines to run. In the virtual environment, each computing server is called a
standalone host.

All servers configured with x86 are grouped together with a number of connections and can be
connected to the same storage subsystems and network: A cluster (grouping of similarly
configured servers creating a cumulative set of resources in the virtual environment) is formed.

Storage networks and arrays:  NAS arrays, Fibre Channel SAN arrays, and iSCSI SAN arrays
are the most frequently used storage technologies. VMware vSphere supports these techniques
to meet data center storage requirements. 

Sharing of data between the group of servers is possible by connecting them through storage
area networks. This aggregation provides more flexibility to virtual machines.

vCenter Server: The vCenter Server is a single point of control to the data center. It transfers
essential data center services like configuration, access control, performance monitoring, etc. It
merges all the resources from the individual computing servers and shares them with virtual
machines in the whole data center. 
vCenter Server manages all the tasks right from computing servers to virtual machines. The
assignment of resources to the virtual machines is done by computing servers. The system
administrator sets some policies based on which resources are assigned.

When vCenter Server is not unreachable, still computing servers continue to function. For
example, if the network is not severed, servers can be managed individually and continue to run
the assigned virtual machines.  After the connection is restored, the server functions within the
network as usual.

Virtual Datacenter Architecture

The whole IT infrastructure including networks, servers, and storage is virtualized by VMware
vSphere.  These resources are accumulated and presented in a uniform set (elements) in the
virtual environment. The IT resources can be managed With VMware vSphere. The dynamic
provision and shared utility are resources for different business projects.

In Virtual Datacenter Architecture, vSphere is used to configure, manage, and view the key
elements. The key elements in a virtual data center are:

Hosts, resource pools, and clusters are regarded as memory and computing resources.

 Virtual machines.
 Datastores act as storage resources.
 Networks (Networking resources).

Host: The virtual presentation of the memory resources and calculation of physical machines
(PMs) running ESX/ESXi is called a Host.

Cluster: When more than two PMs are connected together to manage and work as an entire
entity, it is called cluster (The collaboration of computing and memory resources). Machines can
be removed or added from a cluster dynamically. 

Hierarchy of resource pools: The partitioning from hosts and clusters into computing and
memory resources is called resource pools.

Datastores: The virtual representation of integrated physical storage resources in the

datacentres. 

These physical storage resources are:

 F-SAN (File Storage Area Network) disk arrays.
 SAN (Storage Area Network) disk arrays.
 NAS (Network Area Storage) arrays.
 SAS (Statistical Analysis System) disks of the server.
The virtual machines are connected to each other through the physical networks in the virtual
environment outside of the virtual datacenter. Virtual machines are assigned to a particular
cluster, resource pool, or host to create datastores.

When a virtual machine is powered on, then workload increases, and it consumes resources
dynamically. It reverts the resources dynamically as workload decreases. New virtual machines
can be created in a fraction of a second, as it is much faster and easier than physical machines.
An appropriate operating system and applications must be installed to alter the virtual machine
to handle the workload.

Resources are allocated to virtual machines based on the principles set by the system
administrator. Resources can be reserved for a particular virtual machine to guarantee its
performance. Principles are given priority to set a differing portion of resources for every virtual
machine. 

VMware Infrastructure 
VMware Infrastructure is a virtualization suite for infrastructure that provides a complete
overview of application availability, virtualization, resource optimization, management, and
operational automation. VMware Infrastructure integrates and virtualizes the hardware
resources among two or more systems. In the virtual environment, it provides virtual resource
pools to the data canter.

In addition to this, VMware Infrastructure has a distributed architecture that provides excellent
features like high availability, consolidated backup, fine-grain, policy-driven, and resource
allocation of the entire virtual datacenter. To establish an IT enterprise, these distributed
architecture services play a major role in meeting their service level agreements and production
in a cost-effective manner.

VMware ESX Server – The virtualization layer which is production-proven, and robust is run on
physical servers that abstract storage, memory, processor, and networking resources across
multiple virtual machines (VMs).

VirtualCenter Management Server (VirtualCenter Server) – VirtualCenter Server is the

central point for acceleration, managing, and configuring virtual environments.
VMware High Availability – Provides features that are cost-effective, easy-to-use, high
availability to run applications on virtual machines. 

Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) – VirtualCenter Server or individual ESX Servers
connect remotely from any Windows PC, and an interface is used by the client to connect.

Virtual Infrastructure Web Access – A virtual machine makes use of a web interface to
manage and access remote consoles.

VMware Virtual Machine File System – ESX Server virtual machines have a high-
performance file system cluster.

VMware Virtual Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) – SMP feature is enabled for a single
virtual machine to convert into multiple physical processors to work parallelly.

VMware Virtual Motion – To run virtual machines from one physical server to another physical
server, the VMotion feature is used, which allows live migration with complete transaction
integrity, zero downtime, and continuous service availability.

If the server fails, virtual machines automatically restart with production servers that have spare
capacity.

VMware Backup – Consolidated Backup is easy to use. Backup can be simplified, and it
reduces the overload on ESX Servers. Virtual machines have a centralized agent-free backup
facility.

VMware Infrastructure SDK – SDK provides third-party access to the VMware Infrastructure
and provides a standard interface for VMware.

Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) – To allocate resources for virtual machines,

collection of hardware, and balancing the computing capacity dynamically done using DRS.

Network Architecture
In this architecture, VMware vSphere VMs in the data center is linked with a group of virtual
networking elements in a virtual environment similar to physical network elements in the
physical environment.

The physical environment and the virtual environment will have similar networking elements.
Some of the networking elements are port groups, virtual network interface cards, vSphere
Distributed Switches, distributed port groups, and vSphere Standard Switches.

Every virtual machine has several virtual NICs. The application program and operating system
interact with a virtual NIC. Virtual Machine communicates through device driver either via
VMware or a frequently available driver that is optimized for the virtual environment.

In both cases, interaction in the operating system occurs the same as of physical device. The
virtual NIC has one IP address and its own MAC id. The virtual machine has the same ethernet
protocol as of physical NIC. Agents outside the virtual machine cannot detect that it is
communicating.

A virtual vSphere Standard switch works as a physical switch that is two-layered. Every server
will have its own virtual switch. The vSphere Distributed Switch topology contains a single
virtual switch connected to several servers. A Virtual switch has port groups on one side that are
connected to VM and the ones on the other side are connection links to physical Ethernet
adapters.

A virtual switch has the ability to connect links to one or more physical Ethernet adapters. When
NIC teaming is enabled, two or more physical adapters provide a passive failover network: In
such a situation, an outage occurs, or the traffic load is shared.
The unique concept of the virtual environment is the port group. It is a method for setting rules
that need to be followed to connect the network. A switch can have multiple port groups.

By Configuring port groups, we can implement the method to enhance traffic management,
better performance, network segmentation, high availability, and networking security.

Networking with vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS)

A VDS acts as a single virtual switch among many associated hosts as they travel across one or
more hosts. This capability of VDS helps VM to maintain constant network configuration.

The virtual machines can use every VDS as a network. To route traffic internally between an
external network and virtual machines, VDS is used by connecting ethernet adapters.

A VDS can have multiple distributed ports assigned to it. Distributed port groups have common
configurations to give a stable point for VM connected within the network.

The Network resource pools decide the order of priority for various network traffic based on the
types. When this is enabled, the VDS traffic is divided into network resource pools as listed
below:

 FT traffic
 Management traffic
 vMotion traffic
 NFS
 iSCSI traffic

The below architecture shows the relationship of vSphere Distributed Switches within the
Networks that are either inside or outside the virtual environment. 

The priority of the traffic for each network can be controlled by network resource pools by
setting host limits for each network resource pool and the by sharing physical adapters. The
virtual switching layer works similarly to regular physical switches such as monitoring, traffic
shaping, and VLANs. 

Networking with VSphere Standard Switches

In the standard vSphere Switches, every server will have its self-virtual switch (VSS) to handle
the traffic within the network at the host level in a vSphere virtual environment. A VSS has the
ability to route the network traffic inside the virtual environment. The routing is done between
external networks and virtual machines.

The below architecture shows the relationship of vSphere Standard Switches within the
Networks that are either inside or outside the virtual environment.
Storage Architecture
To manage the difficulty and hide the differences between physical storage subsystems, the
“VSphere storage architecture” consists of several layers of abstraction.

The guest operating systems (OS) and the applications within virtual machine appearance – the
virtual SCSI controller is connected to more than two virtual SCSI disks in the storage
subsystem. A virtual SCSI controller is a type of SCSI controller that a VM can access. These
controllers include VMware Paravirtual, BusLogic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and LSI Logic Parallel.

The datastore elements support virtual SCSI disks in the datacenter. The storage space for
virtual machines among several physical hosts (clients) is provided by the datastore. The
datastore acts similar to a storage appliance. The datastore cluster is a combination of multiple
datastores as a load-balanced pool or one-logic.

The technique to assign storage space to the datastore of a virtual machine (VM) is called
abstraction. While installing the guest VM, the complexity is based on physical storage
technology. The guest VM is not disclosed to NAS, iSCSI SAN, Fibre Channel SAN (F-SAN), and
direct-attached storage.

The datastore is a physical storage system and the virtual machine file store (VMFS) is a storage
device. Network-attached storage (NAS) datastores are network file storage (NFS) devices
having volume (storage space) the same as VMFS. Datastores can be expanded to one or more
physical storage subsystems.
One VMFS can have more than one logical unit number (LUNs) from a Fibre Channel SAN disk,
or an iSCSI SAN disk, or a local SCSI disk array on a physical host.

The addition of any new LUNs to the physical storage subsystem is identified and provided to
new and existing datastores. The storage capacity of the existing datastore can be extended
without shutting down the storage subsystems and physical hosts.

If LUNs become unavailable within a VMFS, then virtual machines using that particular LUN are
damaged or affected, but other VM with virtual disks in LUNs function normally.

In VM, data is stored as files in a directory within the datastore. The disk storage of each virtual
guest is a group of files in the guest's directory. 

The guest disk storage can be operated as a normal file. It can be moved, backed up, or copied.
A virtual disk file with the extension (.vmdk) is created in VMFS for newly added virtual disk with
a virtual machine.

VMFS is a clustered file system that allows the sharing of storage data among multiple physical
hosts in order to read, store, and write data simultaneously. The on-disk locking feature of VMFS
will safeguard from switching on the same virtual machine by multiple servers at a time.

In the case of a physical host failure, the on-disk locking feature enables each virtual machine to
release so that VMs can restart on other hosts (physical).

The other features of VMFS include techniques of recovery, failure consistency, virtual machine
state snapshots, a failure-consistent virtual machine I/O path, and distributed journaling. These
techniques can serve better by identifying the root cause and recovery from storage subsystem
failures, physical host, and virtual machine.

VMFS supports raw device mapping (RDM). RDM grants methods for a VM to have direct access
to a LUN on the Fibre Channel or iSCSI only (physical storage subsystem). RDM supports two
methods of applications, and they are as follows:

 SAN snapshot
 Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS) 

VMware vCenter Server Architecture

The three main components of vCenter Server architecture are as follows: 

 vSphere Web Client.

 vCenter Server Database.
 vCenter Single Sign-On.

The vSphere Web Client: vSphere Web Client is a web application that acts as the user interface.
The administrator can handle inventory objects and manage the installation in a vSphere
prototype and virtual machines can get access to the console. VMware software recently
launched HTML5 based vSphere web Client in their latest version (vSphere 6.5).

 The vCenter Server Database: The server data is stored and managed from resource
pools and inventory items. Each instance of vCenter Server will have its own database.

 vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO): SSO is a security token and authentication broker that
allows the user to log in once to access the vSphere infrastructure, and doesn't require
further authentication.
Key features of the vCenter Server are listed below:
 “Multi-hypervisor management”: vCenter Server provides unified management for
Microsoft Hyper-V hosts and VMware.
  “VMware Host Profiles”: To configure ESX and ESXi host, the VMware Host Profiles tool is
used. To create a standard configuration, vSphere uses Host outlines which work as a
blueprint for all the hosts. VMware Host Profiles automate the configuration across all the
clusters.
 “Automatic VM restart”: To unite Virtual machines and their hosts into a cluster, VMware
vCenter Server requires vSphere. If server failure occurs, vSphere HA will instantly restart
the Virtual Machines on the host inside the same cluster.
 “Patch management”: The patches on ESXi hosts, Microsoft, and Linux VMs are scanned
automatically by vSphere Update Manager (VUM). 
 “vRealize Orchestrator (vRO)”: To automate tasks using workflows, the server (vCenter)
integrates with vCloud Suite and vRealize Suite.
 “vRealize Log Insight for vCenter Server.” vRealize Log Insight is a log management
software used to identify and troubleshoot issues, customize dashboards, check for
system compliance, and provides an administrator to analyze system log data.
 
 “vCenter Server Linked Mode”: The administrator uses “Linked Mode” to connect several
vCenter Server systems. The “Linked Mode” feature allows the administrator to view their
deployment (vSphere). The center server permits VM to share information. This feature
instantly duplicates the resources generated by the administrator including policies, roles,
and permissions throughout the vCenter Server.
 “Application programming interfaces (APIs)”: These make use of APIs to integrate and
interact with a third-party application (software).

Advantages vCenter Server

The enabled administrator will constantly monitor the performance. The vCenter Server assigns
VM deployment and obstructs any unauthorized access. Some of the other benefits include it
simplifies integration with third-party products, minimizes the effects of system failures, and
automates workflows.

A server (vCenter) can alone manage multiple virtual machines. The number increases by
connecting multiple instances. However, the capacity of the server (vCenter) is huge, and that
can be a drawback as well. Therefore, the server (vCenter) database can store all the data.
When the number of virtual machines on a particular instance is overloaded, the risk of
exceeding the database's limits will be higher: This leads to purchasing of vCenter Server (in
addition to the existing server). 

VMware will not favor server (vCenter) for “Windows” in further launches of vSphere. The next
version of the vCenter server has been replaced with a server application (vCSA) as its clear-cut
prototype. Even though the Linux version of vCSA comes with greater scalability and is
configured, the vCSA can be run only on virtual hardware, and a cluster of VMs. The enterprise
can resolve the issue by separately creating a cluster for vCSA. This process requires further
license and hardware which is costly.

Communication Between vCenter Server and ESX

vCenter Server interacts with the ESX/ESXi host via VMware vSphere API. When the first host is
added to the vCenter Server, it assigns a vCenter Server agent to run on the client. Then the
client agent shows its interaction with the server agent.
The functions of the vCenter Server agent are as follows:
 vCenter Server takes decisions regarding resource allocation and relays sent by the DRS
engine.
 The virtual machine will pass commands related to configuration changes and equipment
to the host agent.
 The passing of commands like host configuration changes the host agent.
 Server agent's alarms collect the overall performance and failure conditions from the host
agent (client) and send them to the Server (vCenter).
 vCenter Server agent allows you to manage ESX/ESXi hosts with new versions.
Accessing the Virtual Datacenter
Users can access the web via Windows Terminal Services, or Web browser. VMware vSphere
data center can be accessed via the vSphere Client. In special cases, only the physical
administrators have the right to access the host. All functions that are performed on the vCenter
Server can also be performed on the host.

vCenter Server is accessed by vSphere Client via the VMware API. A session will be initiated in
the vCenter Server after the users’ authentication. Then, the users can see all the resources
assigned to them on a virtual machine.

The process starts first with the vSphere Client, and it obtains the location of VM from vCenter
Server via VMware API to get access to the VM console. Then Vcenter server connects to the
proper host and gives access to the virtual machine (VM) console. A host running ESXi can’t be
accessed using the vSphere Web.
First Time Use
The vSphere Client guides the users on various virtualization techniques through a step-by-step
procedure to set up their own virtual environment. This guidance content is present in the
vSphere Client Graphical User Interface (GUI). The assistance or guidance can be turned on or
off based on users’ experience with VMs.

Web Access
Users can access the web browser through Apache Tomcat Server that is installed on the
vCenter Server. The Apache Tomcat Server acts as a mediator between the vCenter Server and
the browser via VMware API. vCenter Server creates bookmarks for users to access the virtual
machine (VM) console-web browser. The bookmark points to the vSphere for Web Access.

vSphere Web Access of the virtual machine (VM) in physical location redirects the Web browser
to ESX/ESXi. If the user is aware of the IP address of the VM that is running, he/she can access
the virtual console using standard tools. By default, for the ESX host, the web access is turned
off.

VMware Tools
To enhance the performance of the virtual machine, VMware tools are utilized that improve the
management and guest operating system of the virtual machine. The following are some of the
features of VMware Tools that are available when installed:

 To automate the guest operating system, operation scripting is used.

 Operating systems that support Aero have significantly faster (graphics) performance
Example – Windows Aero
 For an application in a virtual machine to appear on the host desktop similar to any other
application on Windows, the Unity feature is enabled.
 Exchange of files between the virtual machine and client desktop can be done by the Copy
and paste (text and graphics) method.
 Performance of mouse is Improved.
 The clock on the host desktop is synchronized with the clock of the virtual machine.

By using either Linux or Windows, you can easily install VMware applications and tools. As soon
as the operating system (OS) is installed, the VMware Fusion starts installing VMware Tools.

In case if the installation of OS is done on any other virtual machine by rebooting it, then you
need to install VMware Tools, as all features are not supported on all guest OS. But, use the
control panel to set other options that can optimize your guest OS in the virtual environment.
The guest OS can also run without VMware Tools, but there is a chance of losing important
functionalities.

Conclusion:
VMware is being used by many organizations all over the world, and it has a long way to go.
However, the main drawback is that it depends on multiple systems to function like automated
pools. The system has to be designed and configured in such a way that multiple tasks can be
performed.

For example – Setting task X to function, before Setting task “X” task “Y” starts functioning,
these two tasks should allow task Z to function, which is a parallel process that is not new for a
distributed system. We need to check whether those dependencies are put together reliably, if
not fix them when unexpected changes occur.

VMware virtualization has entirely changed our view of the operation system. There are many
roles to create job opportunities such as VMware administrator, VMware engineer, VMware cloud
manager, etc. VMware has a bright future as many industries are now planning to virtualize
their network to reduce physical overload.
VMware engineers are hired by many multinational companies like IBM, Mindtree, Accenture,
etc. We can expect many more innovations in this area in the years to come. So, people can opt
for this field and have a career in it for its lucrative job opportunities. 
VMware vSphere
The objective of these tutorials is to provide an in-depth understanding of VMware vSphere.
In addition to free VMware vSphere Tutorials, we will cover common interview questions, issues and how
to’s of VMware vSphere.

Introduction to VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere leverages the power of virtualization to transform data centers into simplified
cloud computing infrastructures and enables IT organizations to deliver flexible and reliable IT services.
VMware vSphere virtualizes and aggregates the underlying physical hardware resources across multiple
systems and provides pools of virtual resources to the datacenter.
As a cloud operating system, VMware vSphere manages large collections of infrastructure (such as CPUs,
storage, and networking) as a seamless and dynamic operating environment, and also manages the
complexity of a data center.

The following component layers make up VMware vSphere:

Infrastructure Services
Infrastructure Services are the set of services provided to abstract, aggregate, and allocate hardware or
infrastructure resources. Infrastructure Services can be categorized into:
-VMware vCompute—the VMware capabilities that abstract away from underlying disparate server
resources. vCompute services aggregate these resources across many discrete servers and assign them to
applications.
-VMware vStorage—the set of technologies that enables the most efficient use and management of storage
in virtual environments.
-VMware vNetwork—the set of technologies that simplify and enhance networking in virtual environments.

Application Services
Application Services are the set of services provided to ensure availability, security, and scalability for
applications. Examples include HA and Fault Tolerance.

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vCenter Server provides a single point of control of the datacenter. It provides essential datacenter
services such as access control, performance monitoring, and configuration.

Clients
Users can access the VMware vSphere datacenter through clients such as the vSphere Client or Web Access
through a Web browser

VMware vSphere Architecture 

VMware vCenter Server
VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for datacenters. vCenter Server aggregates
physical resources from multiple ESX/ESXi hosts and presents a central collection of simple and flexible
resources for the system administrator to the provision to virtual machines in the virtual environment.
vCenter Server components are user access control, core services, distributed services, plug-ins, and
various interfaces.
The User Access Control component allows the system administrator to create and manage different levels
of access to vCenter Server for different classes of users. For example, a user class might manage and
configure the physical virtualization server hardware in the datacenter. Another user class might only
manage virtual resources within a particular resource pool in the virtual machine cluster.

vCenter Server Interfaces

vCenter Server interfaces integrate vCenter Server with third-party products and applications.

vCenter Server has four key interfaces:

ESX management
Interfaces with the vCenter Server agent to manage each physical server in the datacenter.

VMware vSphere API

Interfaces with VMware management clients and third-party solutions.

Database Interface
Connects to Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, or IBM DB2 to store information, such as virtual machine
configurations, host configurations, resources and virtual machine inventory, performance statistics,
events, alarms, user permissions, and roles.

Active Directory interface

Connects to Active Directory to obtain user access control information.

Storage Architecture
The VMware vSphere storage architecture consists of layers of abstraction that hide and manage the
complexity and differences among physical storage subsystems.
To the applications and guest operating systems inside each virtual machine, the storage subsystem
appears as a virtual SCSI controller connected to one or more virtual SCSI disks as shown in Figure. These
controllers are the only types of SCSI controllers that a virtual machine can see and access and include
BusLogic Parallel, LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual.

The virtual SCSI disks are provisioned from datastore elements in the datacenter. A datastore is like a
storage appliance that delivers storage space for virtual machines across multiple physical hosts. The
datastore abstraction is a model that assigns storage space to virtual machines while insulating the guest
from the complexity of the underlying physical storage technology. The guest virtual machine is not
exposed to Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN, direct-attached storage, and NAS. Each virtual machine is stored
as a set of files in a directory in the datastore. The disk storage associated with each virtual guest is a set of
files within the guest's directory. You can operate on the guest disk storage as an ordinary file. It can be
copied, moved, or backed up. New virtual disks can be added to a virtual machine without powering it
down. In that case, a virtual disk file (.vmdk) is created in VMFS to provide new storage for the added virtual
disk or an existing virtual disk file is associated with a virtual machine. Each datastore is a physical VMFS
volume on a storage device. NAS datastores are an NFS volume with VMFS characteristics. Datastores can
span multiple physical storage subsystems, a single VMFS volume can contain one or more LUNs from a
local SCSI disk array on a physical host, a Fibre Channel SAN disk farm, or iSCSI SAN disk farm. New LUNs
added to any of the physical storage subsystems are detected and made available to all existing or new
datastores. Storage capacity on a previously created datastore can be extended without powering down
physical hosts or storage subsystems. If any of the LUNs within a VMFS volume fails or becomes unavailable,
only virtual machines that touch that LUN are affected. An exception is the LUN that has the first extent of
the spanned volume. All other virtual machines with virtual disks residing in other LUNs continue to
function as normal.

VMFS is a clustered file system that leverages shared storage to allow multiple physical hosts to read and
write to the same storage simultaneously. VMFS provides on-disk locking to ensure that the same virtual
machine is not powered on by multiple servers at the same time. If a physical host fails, the on-disk lock for
each virtual machine is released so that virtual machines can be restarted on other physical hosts.

VMFS also features failure consistency and recovery mechanisms, such as distributed journaling, a failure
consistent virtual machine I/O path, and machine state snapshots. These mechanisms can aid quick
identification of the cause and recovery from the virtual machine, physical host, and storage subsystem
failures.
VMFS also supports raw device mapping (RDM). RDM provides a mechanism for a virtual machine to have
direct access to a LUN on the physical storage subsystem (Fibre Channel or iSCSI only). RDM is useful for
supporting two typical types of applications:

-SAN snapshot or other layered applications that run in the virtual machines. RDM better enables scalable
backup offloading systems using features inherent to the SAN.

-Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS) spanning physical hosts and using virtual-to-virtual clusters as well as
physical-to-virtual clusters. Cluster data and quorum disks must be configured as RDMs rather than files on
a shared VMFS.

An RDM is a symbolic link from a VMFS volume to a raw LUN. The mapping makes LUNs appear as files in a
VMFS volume. The mapping file, not the raw LUN, is referenced in the virtual machine configuration.

When a LUN is opened for access, the mapping file is read to obtain the reference to the raw LUN.
Thereafter, reads and writes go directly to the raw LUN rather than going through the mapping file.

VMware Consolidated Backup

The VMware vSphere storage architecture enables VMware Consolidated Backup. Consolidated Backup
provides a centralized facility for LAN-free backup of virtual machines.

Consolidated Backup works in conjunction with a third-party backup agent residing on a separate backup
proxy server (not on the server running ESX/ESXi) but does not require an agent inside the virtual machines.