The Virtual Data Center Benefits and technologies of virtualization If you are already familiar with virtualization, this chapter will provide a review of many of the benefits and technologies of virtualization the specifics of how to configure resources in a virtual data center. Most of you g Since the focus of this book is on design, we will not go into great detail discussin probably already have a good understanding of VMware 's virtualization architecture, so this chapter will just provide a basic overview of the key VMware components that are the building blocks to the virtual data center Virtualization creates a layer of abstraction between the physical hardware and the virtual machines that run on it. Virtual hardware is presented to the virtual machine granting access to the underlying physical hardware, which is scheduled by the hypervisor's kernel. The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machine, as shown in the following diagram Windows Windows Linux Virtual Hardware Virtual Hardw Hypervisor Physical Hardware The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machines. The new release of VSphere 6.7 does not change the design process or the design methodologies. The new functions and features of the release provide an architect with more tools to satisfy design requirements [9]
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 9 ] Benefits and technologies of virtualization If you are already familiar with virtualization, this chapter will provide a review of many of the benefits and technologies of virtualization. Since the focus of this book is on design, we will not go into great detail discussing the specifics of how to configure resources in a virtual data center. Most of you probably already have a good understanding of VMware's virtualization architecture, so this chapter will just provide a basic overview of the key VMware components that are the building blocks to the virtual data center. Virtualization creates a layer of abstraction between the physical hardware and the virtual machines that run on it. Virtual hardware is presented to the virtual machine granting access to the underlying physical hardware, which is scheduled by the hypervisor's kernel. The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machine, as shown in the following diagram: Logical representation of hypervisor layer The hypervisor separates the physical hardware from the virtual machines. The new release of vSphere 6.7 does not change the design process or the design methodologies. The new functions and features of the release provide an architect with more tools to satisfy design requirements
The Virtual Data Center The hypervisor At the core of any virtualization platform is the hypervisor. The VMware hyperviso is named vSphere ESXi, simply referred to as ESXi. ESXi is a Type 1 or bare-metal hypervisor. This means that it runs directly on the host's hardware to present virtual hardware to the virtual machines. In turn, the hypervisor schedules access to the physical hardware of the hosts ESXi allows multiple virtual machines with a variety of operating systems to run simultaneously, sharing the resources of the underlying physical hardware. Access to physical resources, such as memory, CPU, storage, and network, used by the virtual machines is managed by the scheduler, or Virtual Machine Monitor(VMM), provided by ESXi. The resources presented to the virtual machines can be over committed; this means more resources that are physically available can be allocated to the virtual machines on the physical hardware. Advanced memory sharing and reclamation techniques, such as Transparent Page Sharing(TPS)and ballooning, along with CPU scheduling, allow for over commitment of these resources to b possible, resulting in greater virtual-to-physical consolidation ratios ESXi 6.7 is a 64-bit hypervisor that must be run on a 64-bit hardware. An ESXi 6.7 hard disk locally, a USB device, a Logical Unit Number(LUN) on a Storage Area Q installation requires at least 1 GB of disk space for installation. It can be installed or Network(SAN), or deployed stateless on hosts with no storage using Auto Deploy The small footprint of an ESXi installation provides a reduction in the management overhead associated with patching and security hardening With the release of VSphere 5.0, VMware retired the ESX hypervisor ESX had a Management functions were provided by agents running in the service console. he a separate, Linux-based console for the management interface of the hyper service console has since been removed from ESXi, and agents now run directly on ESXi's VMkernel
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 10 ] The hypervisor At the core of any virtualization platform is the hypervisor. The VMware hypervisor is named vSphere ESXi, simply referred to as ESXi. ESXi is a Type 1 or bare-metal hypervisor. This means that it runs directly on the host's hardware to present virtual hardware to the virtual machines. In turn, the hypervisor schedules access to the physical hardware of the hosts. ESXi allows multiple virtual machines with a variety of operating systems to run simultaneously, sharing the resources of the underlying physical hardware. Access to physical resources, such as memory, CPU, storage, and network, used by the virtual machines is managed by the scheduler, or Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), provided by ESXi. The resources presented to the virtual machines can be over committed; this means more resources that are physically available can be allocated to the virtual machines on the physical hardware. Advanced memory sharing and reclamation techniques, such as Transparent Page Sharing (TPS) and ballooning, along with CPU scheduling, allow for over commitment of these resources to be possible, resulting in greater virtual-to-physical consolidation ratios. ESXi 6.7 is a 64-bit hypervisor that must be run on a 64-bit hardware. An ESXi 6.7 installation requires at least 1 GB of disk space for installation. It can be installed on a hard disk locally, a USB device, a Logical Unit Number (LUN) on a Storage Area Network (SAN), or deployed stateless on hosts with no storage using Auto Deploy. The small footprint of an ESXi installation provides a reduction in the management overhead associated with patching and security hardening. With the release of vSphere 5.0, VMware retired the ESX hypervisor. ESX had a separate, Linux-based service console for the management interface of the hypervisor. Management functions were provided by agents running in the service console. The service console has since been removed from ESXi, and agents now run directly on ESXi's VMkernel
The Virtual Data Center To manage a standalone host running ESXi, a Direct Console User Interface(DCUn) is provided for basic configuration and troubleshooting. A shell is available that can either be accessed locally from the console or remotely using Secure Shell (SSH) The esxcli command-line tools and others can be used in the shell to provide advanced configuration options. An ESXi host can also be accessed directly using the vSphere Client. The ESXi DCUI is shown in the following screenshot: WHuarc, Inc, VMuwre Virtual Platform To manage this host go to: tp://18.日.20.17( STATIC The dCUI can be accessed remotely using SSH by typing the dcui command in the prompt. Press Ctrl C to exit the remote TIP/DCUI session [11]
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 11 ] To manage a standalone host running ESXi, a Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) is provided for basic configuration and troubleshooting. A shell is available that can either be accessed locally from the console or remotely using Secure Shell (SSH). The esxcli command-line tools and others can be used in the shell to provide advanced configuration options. An ESXi host can also be accessed directly using the vSphere Client. The ESXi DCUI is shown in the following screenshot: Screenshot of ESXi's DCUI The DCUI can be accessed remotely using SSH by typing the dcui command in the prompt. Press Ctrl + C to exit the remote DCUI session
The Virtual Data Center Virtual machines A virtual machine is a software computer that runs a guest operating system. Virtual machines are comprised of a set of configuration files and data files stored on local or remote storage. These configuration files contain information about the virtual hardware presented to the virtual machine. This virtual hardware includes the CPU, RAM, disk controllers, removable devices, and so on, and emulates the same unctionality as the physical hardware. The following screenshot depicts the virtual machine files that are stored on a shared Network File System(NFS) datastore Summany Monitor manage Related Objects INFS Datastore] LABFILE01 目c凹 色LBFE01.1wm 2562000KB12262015318叫 INFS_ Datastore LABFILE01-测xxm 0.01KB11420158524 INFS_Datastore 1. LABF. □ TESTVM D UBFLEO1vmulck 0.00KB122s2015318P [NFs- Datastore 1 LABF Non-olatile Memoty File NFS_ Datastore) LABF □s D LABFILEO1vmsd 0.04KB111420155241 B vmx-LABFILE01-418. 194550.00KB12262015318阳 口ims 色 LABFRLEO1mk 1067584400B1282015318PM Amal Diss NFs_ Datastore们LAeR 目 vmware. log 5310Bt2201614 INFS_Datastore LABF- 口LBDc1 22128210gr NFS. Datas:ore □ N-winv center 710 49489KB8272015736AM LOg Fte INFS Daasore11 LAg 卜口wn212R2Ten目 swatow6 14639HB7142015250PM MLog Fto INFS- Datastore! LAB 口 wSphere-HA E vmware l 20029HB1420163514M Log F [NFS- Datas:ore 1 LABFI □EsX 日 vmware.510g 22871KB6252015904 M Log File INFS- Datas ore) LAB 口 CONsRV01 M LOg File INFS_ D3tasore1I LA9 口 SECSRV01 的 LABFILE01wm 314AB2201 Mmual Machine INFS_ cre1] LABF ∩LBFE0113906 2.09715200KB12262015318PMF INES Datastore LABEL. rtual machine files stored on a shared NFS datastore displayed using the vSphere Web Clent The files that make up a virtual machine are typically stored in a directory set aside for the particular virtual machine they represent. These files include the configuration file, virtual disk files, NVRAM file, and virtual machine log files
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 12 ] Virtual machines A virtual machine is a software computer that runs a guest operating system. Virtual machines are comprised of a set of configuration files and data files stored on local or remote storage. These configuration files contain information about the virtual hardware presented to the virtual machine. This virtual hardware includes the CPU, RAM, disk controllers, removable devices, and so on, and emulates the same functionality as the physical hardware. The following screenshot depicts the virtual machine files that are stored on a shared Network File System (NFS) datastore: Virtual machine files stored on a shared NFS datastore displayed using the vSphere Web Client The files that make up a virtual machine are typically stored in a directory set aside for the particular virtual machine they represent. These files include the configuration file, virtual disk files, NVRAM file, and virtual machine log files
The Virtual Data Center The following table lists the common virtual machine file extensions along with a description of each: is a virtual machine co onf mucin file I It contains the of the virtual hardware at is presented to the virtu dk This is a virtual disk descriptor file. It contains a header and other information pertaining to the virtual disk flat vmdk his is a preallocated virtual disk. It contains the content or data on the disk used by the virtual machine nvram This is a file that stores the state of a virtual machine s Basic Input Output System(BIOS)or Swp This is a virtual machine swap file. It gets created when a virtual machine is powered on. The size of this file is eq memory reservations. This is a virtual machine log file vsd This is a virtual machine file used with snapshots to store data about each snapshot active on a virtual machine nsn This is a virtual machine snapshot data file Virtual machines can be deployed using a variety of methods as follows Using the New Virtual Machine Wizard in the vSphere Client or vSphere Web client By getting converted from a physical machine using the VMware Converter By getting imported from an Open Virtualization Format(OVF)or Open Virtualization Archive(ova) By getting cloned from an existing virtual machine By getting deployed from a virtual machine template When a new virtual machine is created a guest operating system can be installed on the virtual machine. VMware vSphere 6.7 supports more than 120 different guest operating systems, many distributions and versions of Linux and Unix operating b systems, and Apple macOS operating systems Virtual appliances are preconfigured virtual machines that can be imported to the virtual environment. A virtual appliance can be comprised of a single virtual machine or a group of virtual machines with all the components required to support an application. The virtual machines in a virtual appliance are preloaded with gues operating systems, and the applications they run are normally preconfigured and optimized to run in a virtual environment
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 13 ] The following table lists the common virtual machine file extensions along with a description of each: File extension Description .vmx This is a virtual machine configuration file. It contains the configurations of the virtual hardware that is presented to the virtual machine. .vmdk This is a virtual disk descriptor file. It contains a header and other information pertaining to the virtual disk. -flat.vmdk This is a preallocated virtual disk. It contains the content or data on the disk used by the virtual machine. .nvram This is a file that stores the state of a virtual machine's Basic Input Output System (BIOS) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) configurations. .vswp This is a virtual machine swap file. It gets created when a virtual machine is powered on. The size of this file is equal to the amount of memory allocated minus any memory reservations. .log This is a virtual machine log file. .vmsd This is a virtual machine file used with snapshots to store data about each snapshot active on a virtual machine. .vmsn This is a virtual machine snapshot data file. Virtual machines can be deployed using a variety of methods, as follows: Using the New Virtual Machine Wizard in the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client By getting converted from a physical machine using the VMware Converter By getting imported from an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) or Open Virtualization Archive (OVA) By getting cloned from an existing virtual machine By getting deployed from a virtual machine template When a new virtual machine is created, a guest operating system can be installed on the virtual machine. VMware vSphere 6.7 supports more than 120 different guest operating systems. These include many versions of the Windows server and desktop operating systems, many distributions and versions of Linux and Unix operating systems, and Apple macOS operating systems. Virtual appliances are preconfigured virtual machines that can be imported to the virtual environment. A virtual appliance can be comprised of a single virtual machine or a group of virtual machines with all the components required to support an application. The virtual machines in a virtual appliance are preloaded with guest operating systems, and the applications they run are normally preconfigured and optimized to run in a virtual environment