CONTENTS XXI Managing Virtual Machine CPU Utilization Default CPu Allocation Setting CPU Affinity Using CPU Reservations Using CPU limi Using CPU Shares Summarizing How Reservations, Limits, and Shares Work with CPUs ..615 Using Resource Pools. 615 Understanding Resource Allocation with Resource Poc Controlling Storage I/O Utilization Enabling Storage I/O Control 632 Settings for a Virtual Machine orage The bottom line Chapter12· Balancing Resource Utilization∴ 45 Comparing Utilization with Allocation Exploring VMotion Performing a vMotion Migration Within a Cluster Ensuring vMotion Compatibility Using Per-Virtual-Machine CPU Masking Using Enhanced vMotion Compatibility ombining vMotion with Storage vMotion Cross-vCenter vMotion 668 Examining Cross-v Center vMotion Requirements Exploring vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler Understanding Manual Automation Behavior Reviewing Partially Automated Behavior. ated Beh Working with Distributed Resource Scheduler Rules Working with Storage DRS Creating and Working with Datastore Clusters Chapter13· Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance∴…697 Overview of Performance Monitoring Using Alarms Understanding Alarm Scopes
Contents | xxi Managing Virtual Machine CPU Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608 Default CPU Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609 Setting CPU Affinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 Using CPU Reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 Using CPU Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612 Using CPU Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 Summarizing How Reservations, Limits, and Shares Work with CPUs . . . . . . . . . . 615 Using Resource Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 Configuring Resource Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616 Understanding Resource Allocation with Resource Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Regulating Network I/O Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625 Controlling Storage I/O Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630 Enabling Storage I/O Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632 Configuring Storage Resource Settings for a Virtual Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 Using Flash Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643 Chapter 12 • Balancing Resource Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645 Comparing Utilization with Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645 Exploring vMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 Examining vMotion Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650 Performing a vMotion Migration Within a Cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653 Ensuring vMotion Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 Using Per-Virtual-Machine CPU Masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656 Using Enhanced vMotion Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658 Using Storage vMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662 Combining vMotion with Storage vMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665 Cross-vCenter vMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668 Examining Cross-vCenter vMotion Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669 Performing a Cross-vCenter Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670 Exploring vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671 Understanding Manual Automation Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672 Reviewing Partially Automated Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672 Examining Fully Automated Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673 Working with Distributed Resource Scheduler Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674 Working with Storage DRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 Creating and Working with Datastore Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683 Configuring Storage DRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694 Chapter 13 • Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697 Overview of Performance Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697 Using Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698 Understanding Alarm Scopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700 Creating Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700 Managing Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
XXII ONTENTS Working with Performance Charts Overview Layout Advanced Layout Working with estop monitoring CPU Usage Monitoring Memory Usage Monitoring Network Usage Monitoring Disk Usage 729 The bottom line Chapter 14. Automating VMware vSphere 735 Sphere Automation Options Automating with PowerCLI PowerShell and PowerCLI 737 Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on macOS G Installing and Configuring Power CLI on Windo 741 745 Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on Linux 74 Additional PowerCLI Capabilities Getting Started with PowerCLI Building Power CLI Scripts PowerCLI Advanced Capabilities 767 Additional resources The bottom line 772 Appendix A· The bottom line∴∴ 775 Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 6 Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi Chapter 3: Installing and Configuring vCenter Serve Chapter 4: vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools hapter 5: Creating and Configuring a vSphere Network Chapter 6: Creating and Configuring Storage Devices Chapter 7: Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity Chapter 8: Securing VMware vSphere 788 apter 9: Creating and Managing Virtual Machine apter 10: Using Templates and vApps Chapter 11: Managing Resource Allocation Chapter 12: Balancing Resource Utilization hapter 13: Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance Chapter 14: Automating VMware vSphere
xxii | Contents Working with Performance Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708 Overview Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708 Advanced Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710 Working with esxtop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 Monitoring CPU Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721 Monitoring Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725 Monitoring Network Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727 Monitoring Disk Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 Chapter 14 • Automating VMware vSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Why Use Automation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735 vSphere Automation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736 Automating with PowerCLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737 PowerShell and PowerCLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737 What’s New in PowerCLI 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on macOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745 Installing and Configuring PowerCLI on Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747 Additional PowerCLI Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749 Getting Started with PowerCLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750 Building PowerCLI Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755 PowerCLI Advanced Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767 Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772 Appendix A • The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775 Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775 Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776 Chapter 3: Installing and Configuring vCenter Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777 Chapter 4: vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780 Chapter 5: Creating and Configuring a vSphere Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781 Chapter 6: Creating and Configuring Storage Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783 Chapter 7: Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787 Chapter 8: Securing VMware vSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788 Chapter 9: Creating and Managing Virtual Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790 Chapter 10: Using Templates and vApps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792 Chapter 11: Managing Resource Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794 Chapter 12: Balancing Resource Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 Chapter 13: Monitoring VMware vSphere Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798 Chapter 14: Automating VMware vSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Foreword When Mastering VMware vSphere 6.0 was released in 2015, Nick Marshall stopped by my office for a chat. We discussed the vSphere 6.0 release, of course, but we also discovered we had number of things in common. Obviously, we have a love for virtualization, some would be aware of our strong Christian faiths, but maybe more obscurely, we discovered that we have both written books for(Wiley)Sybex. During this meeting, Nick also asked me if I would write the foreword for the next Mastering VMware vSphere book. As you can see, he's been planning this Fast forward to 2018, and it brings us to a very exciting year in virtualization. VMware eleased vSphere 6.7, and Nick has now released the long-awaited Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 to accompany it. This is Nick's third revision of the best-selling vSphere book after being handed the mantle from Scott Lowe. Stepping back a little, there are some anniversaries to celebrate this year too. This is the 10-year mark from when Chris McCain released the very first Mastering being founded by Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Edward Wang,and since VMware book, Mastering VMiare Infrastructure 3. Also, VMware celebrates its 20th year Edouard Bugnion. Looking back at these milestones gives us an opportunity to also consider where virtualiza- tion sits in todays IT environment. Weve come a long way since IBM enabled multitasking by partitioning their mainframes into virtual machines. The days of traditional client/server workloads are definitely diminishing, and we are well and truly in the cloud era, a multi-cloud orld. Even though we are moving into a new era, virtualization is still the foundation of both public and private clouds. And of course, the best, most advanced virtualization platform is still VMware vSphere Vith VMware vSphere 6.7, we have taken the worlds best hypervisor, ESXi, and added improvements in scale, performance, and even more stability. VMware has enabled even mor seamless cross-cloud mobility with features like Per-VM EVC, and weve doubled down on security with features like TPM, VTPM, and FIPS compliance. In this book, you'll find all the features and functionality available to you in vSphere, not just the things that have changed in 6.7. Nick and his coauthors have made that both new and old features are covered so that you can understand everything there is to know. Well done on another release of this bit of VMware history, Nick. I know the readers will appreciate your continued dedication to their understanding of vSphere and the value it can them Pat Gelsinger, VMware CEO
Foreword When Mastering VMware vSphere 6.0 was released in 2015, Nick Marshall stopped by my office for a chat. We discussed the vSphere 6.0 release, of course, but we also discovered we had a number of things in common. Obviously, we have a love for virtualization, some would be aware of our strong Christian faiths, but maybe more obscurely, we discovered that we have both written books for (Wiley) Sybex. During this meeting, Nick also asked me if I would write the foreword for the next Mastering VMware vSphere book. As you can see, he’s been planning this one for a while! Fast forward to 2018, and it brings us to a very exciting year in virtualization. VMware released vSphere 6.7, and Nick has now released the long-awaited Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 to accompany it. This is Nick’s third revision of the best-selling vSphere book after being handed the mantle from Scott Lowe. Stepping back a little, there are some anniversaries to celebrate this year too. This is the 10-year mark from when Chris McCain released the very first Mastering VMware book, Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3. Also, VMware celebrates its 20th year since being founded by Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Edward Wang, and Edouard Bugnion. Looking back at these milestones gives us an opportunity to also consider where virtualization sits in today’s IT environment. We’ve come a long way since IBM enabled multitasking by partitioning their mainframes into virtual machines. The days of traditional client/server workloads are definitely diminishing, and we are well and truly in the cloud era, a multi-cloud world. Even though we are moving into a new era, virtualization is still the foundation of both public and private clouds. And of course, the best, most advanced virtualization platform is still VMware vSphere. With VMware vSphere 6.7, we have taken the world’s best hypervisor, ESXi, and added improvements in scale, performance, and even more stability. VMware has enabled even more seamless cross-cloud mobility with features like Per-VM EVC, and we’ve doubled down on security with features like TPM, vTPM, and FIPS compliance. In this book, you’ll find all the features and functionality available to you in vSphere, not just the things that have changed in 6.7. Nick and his coauthors have made sure that both new and old features are covered so that you can understand everything there is to know. Well done on another release of this bit of VMware history, Nick. I know the readers will appreciate your continued dedication to their understanding of vSphere and the value it can bring them. —Pat Gelsinger, VMware CEO
Introduction It seems like a lifetime ago, 2005. That was the year that I tried to convince my boss to use VMware GSX Server on our new DL385 and thus the start of my journey delving into the depths of virtualization. The world of information technology(IT) has definitely shifted a couple of times since then. The two most obvious changes are the proliferation of virtualization and the ubsequent widespread adoption of cloud computing Virtualization--especially server virtualization--is readily embraced in datacenters world- wide. VMware has gone from being a relatively small vendor to having the commanding share of the server virtualization market. Over the years, other companies such as Microsoft, Red Hat, and Citrix have jumped into the server virtualization space, but after all this time, it's still VMware that's synonymous with virtualization. For all intents and purposes, VMware invented the market Cloud Computing is a somewhat natural evolution of virtualization. If virtualization is the abstraction of individual server hardware, cloud computing is the abstraction of entire datacent- rs worth of hardware. The scale can be smaller or larger, but the abstraction type is the same But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you're reading this, theres a chance you' re just now starting to learn about virtualization. What is virtualization, and why is it important to you? As I mentioned, I define virtualization as the abstraction of one computing resource from another computing e. Consider storage virtualization---in this case, you are abstracting servers(one computing resource) from the storage to which they are connected(another comput- ing resource). This holds true for other forms of virtualization, too, like application virtualization (abstracting applications from the operating system). When most IT professionals think of virtualization, they think of hardware(or server) virtualization: abstracting the operating system from the underlying hardware on which it runs and thus enabling multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on the same physical server That is the technology on which VMware has built its market share Almost single-handedly, VMware's enterprise-grade virtualization solution has revolution- ized how organizations manage their datacenters. Before VMware introduced its powerful virtualization solution, organizations bought a new server every time a new application needed to be provisioned. Over time, datacenters became filled with servers that were all using only a fraction of their overall capacity. Even though these servers were underutilized, organizations still had to pay to power them and to dissipate the heat they generated Now, using VMware's server virtualization products, organizations can run multiple operat ing systems and applications on their existing hardware, and new hardware is purchased only when capacity needs dictate. No longer must organizations purchase a new physical server whenever a new application needs to be deployed By stacking workloads together using
Introduction It seems like a lifetime ago, 2005. That was the year that I tried to convince my boss to use VMware GSX Server on our new DL385 and thus the start of my journey delving into the depths of virtualization. The world of information technology (IT) has definitely shifted a couple of times since then. The two most obvious changes are the proliferation of virtualization and the subsequent widespread adoption of cloud computing. Virtualization—especially server virtualization—is readily embraced in datacenters worldwide. VMware has gone from being a relatively small vendor to having the commanding share of the server virtualization market. Over the years, other companies such as Microsoft, Red Hat, and Citrix have jumped into the server virtualization space, but after all this time, it’s still VMware that’s synonymous with virtualization. For all intents and purposes, VMware invented the market. Cloud Computing is a somewhat natural evolution of virtualization. If virtualization is the abstraction of individual server hardware, cloud computing is the abstraction of entire datacenters’ worth of hardware. The scale can be smaller or larger, but the abstraction type is the same. But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’re reading this, there’s a chance you’re just now starting to learn about virtualization. What is virtualization, and why is it important to you? As I mentioned, I define virtualization as the abstraction of one computing resource from another computing resource. Consider storage virtualization—in this case, you are abstracting servers (one computing resource) from the storage to which they are connected (another computing resource). This holds true for other forms of virtualization, too, like application virtualization (abstracting applications from the operating system). When most IT professionals think of virtualization, they think of hardware (or server) virtualization: abstracting the operating system from the underlying hardware on which it runs and thus enabling multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on the same physical server. That is the technology on which VMware has built its market share. Almost single-handedly, VMware’s enterprise-grade virtualization solution has revolutionized how organizations manage their datacenters. Before VMware introduced its powerful virtualization solution, organizations bought a new server every time a new application needed to be provisioned. Over time, datacenters became filled with servers that were all using only a fraction of their overall capacity. Even though these servers were underutilized, organizations still had to pay to power them and to dissipate the heat they generated. Now, using VMware’s server virtualization products, organizations can run multiple operating systems and applications on their existing hardware, and new hardware is purchased only when capacity needs dictate. No longer must organizations purchase a new physical server whenever a new application needs to be deployed. By stacking workloads together using
XXVI INTRODUCTION virtualization, organizations derive greater value from their hardware investments. They also reduce operational costs by reducing the number of physical servers and associated hardware in the datacenter, in turn decreasing power usage and cooling needs in the datacenter. In some cases, these operational cost savings can be quite significant But consolidation is only one benefit of virtualization; companies also realize greater work load mobility, increased uptime, streamlined disaster-recovery options, and a bevy of other benefits from adopting virtualization. And virtualization, specifically server virtualization, has created the foundation for a new way of approaching the computing model: cloud computing Cloud computing is built on the tenets of broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, on-demand self-service, and measured service. Virtualization, such as that provided by VMware s products, enables the IT industry to embrace this new operational model of more efficiently providing services to their customers, whether those customers are internal(their employees)or external (partners, end users, or consumers). That ability to efficiently provide services is the reason virtualization is important to you. This book provides all the information you, as an IT professional, need to design, deploy, configure, manage, and monitor a dynamic virtualized environment built on VMware's enter- prise-class server virtualization product: vSphere 6.7 Nick MarshalL, Author What Is Covered in This Book This book is written with a start-to-finish approach to installing, configuring, managing, and monitoring a virtual environment using the VMware vSphere 6. 7 product suite. The book begins by introducing the vSphere product suite and all of its great features. After introducing all of the bells and whistles, the book details an installation of the product and then moves into configura- tion.This includes configuring vSphere's extensive networking and storage functionality. We wrap up the configuration discussion with chapters on high availability, redundancy, and resource utilization. After completing the installation and configuration, we move into virtual machine creation and management and then into monitoring and troubleshooting. You can read this book from cover to cover to gain an understanding of the vSphere product suite in prepara- tion for a new virtual environment, or you can use it as a reference if you are an it professional who has begun your virtualization and wants to complement your skills with real-world tips, tricks, and best practices as found in each chapter This book, geared toward the aspiring as well as the practicing virtualization professional, provides information to help implement, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot an enterprise virtualization scenario Here is a glance at what's in each chapter and the appendix: Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 We begin with a general overview of all the products that make up the vSphere 6.7 product suite. This chapter also covers vSphere icensing and provides some examples of benefits that an organization might see from Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi This chapter looks at the architecture of the VMware hypervisor, ESXi, along with selecting the physical hardware, choosing you
xxvi | INTRODUCTION virtualization, organizations derive greater value from their hardware investments. They also reduce operational costs by reducing the number of physical servers and associated hardware in the datacenter, in turn decreasing power usage and cooling needs in the datacenter. In some cases, these operational cost savings can be quite significant. But consolidation is only one benefit of virtualization; companies also realize greater workload mobility, increased uptime, streamlined disaster-recovery options, and a bevy of other benefits from adopting virtualization. And virtualization, specifically server virtualization, has created the foundation for a new way of approaching the computing model: cloud computing. Cloud computing is built on the tenets of broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, on-demand self-service, and measured service. Virtualization, such as that provided by VMware’s products, enables the IT industry to embrace this new operational model of more efficiently providing services to their customers, whether those customers are internal (their employees) or external (partners, end users, or consumers). That ability to efficiently provide services is the reason virtualization is important to you. This book provides all the information you, as an IT professional, need to design, deploy, configure, manage, and monitor a dynamic virtualized environment built on VMware’s enterprise-class server virtualization product: vSphere 6.7. —Nick Marshall, Author What Is Covered in This Book This book is written with a start-to-finish approach to installing, configuring, managing, and monitoring a virtual environment using the VMware vSphere 6.7 product suite. The book begins by introducing the vSphere product suite and all of its great features. After introducing all of the bells and whistles, the book details an installation of the product and then moves into configuration. This includes configuring vSphere’s extensive networking and storage functionality. We wrap up the configuration discussion with chapters on high availability, redundancy, and resource utilization. After completing the installation and configuration, we move into virtual machine creation and management and then into monitoring and troubleshooting. You can read this book from cover to cover to gain an understanding of the vSphere product suite in preparation for a new virtual environment, or you can use it as a reference if you are an IT professional who has begun your virtualization and wants to complement your skills with real-world tips, tricks, and best practices as found in each chapter. This book, geared toward the aspiring as well as the practicing virtualization professional, provides information to help implement, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot an enterprise virtualization scenario. Here is a glance at what’s in each chapter and the appendix: Chapter 1: Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 We begin with a general overview of all the products that make up the vSphere 6.7 product suite. This chapter also covers vSphere licensing and provides some examples of benefits that an organization might see from adopting vSphere as its virtualization solution. Chapter 2: Planning and Installing VMware ESXi This chapter looks at the architecture of the VMware hypervisor, ESXi, along with selecting the physical hardware, choosing your