The virtual data center Since virtual machines are just a collection of files on a disk, they become portable Virtual machines can be easily moved from one location to another by simply moving or copying the associated files Using VMware VSphere features, such as vMotion, Enhanced vMotion, or Storage vMotion, virtual machines can be migrated from host to host or datastore to datastore while a virtual machine is running. Virtual machines can also be exported to an oVF or Ova to be imported into another VMware vSphere environment Virtual infrastructure management VMware vCenter Server provides a centralized management interface to manage and onfigure groups of ESXi hosts in the virtualized data center. The vCenter Server is required to configure and control many advanced features, such as the distributed Resource Scheduler(DRS), Storage DRS, and VMware High Availability (HA). The vCenter Server management Graphical User Interface(GUi) is accessed using the browser-based vSphere Client. Many vendors provide plugins that can be installed to allow third-party storage, network, and compute resources to be managed using the Sphere client v Center access using the C#, or Windows vSphere Client, is only available in versions prior to 6.5. Since the release of vSphere 5.5, however, access to, and the configuration of, new features is only TiP/ available using the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Web Client can be acces athttps://fqdn_or_ip_ofvcenter_serveR:9443/. v Center Server 6.7 must use a 64-bit architecture if installed on a Windows server. It an be dedicated physical hardware or as a virtual machine. When the vCenter Server is deployed on Windows, it requires either the embedded PostgreSQL database, a Microsoft SQL database, or an Oracle database to store configuration and performance information. IBM DB2 databases are supported with vSphere 5.1,but this support was removed in vSphere 5.5 With the release of vCenter 6.0, the Microsoft SQL Express database is no longer used as the embedded database. Embedded PostgresQL is now used as the embedded database for small deployments. The PostgreSQL database on a Windows Server can be used to support environments of less than 20 hosts and 200 virtual machines When upgrading to vCenter 6.7, if the previous version was using the Microsoft SQL Express database, the database will be converted to the embedded PostgreSQL as part deployments, but using an external database is still supported for almost all of the upgrade. The embedded Postgre sQL database is suitable [14
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 14 ] Since virtual machines are just a collection of files on a disk, they become portable. Virtual machines can be easily moved from one location to another by simply moving or copying the associated files. Using VMware vSphere features, such as vMotion, Enhanced vMotion, or Storage vMotion, virtual machines can be migrated from host to host or datastore to datastore while a virtual machine is running. Virtual machines can also be exported to an OVF or OVA to be imported into another VMware vSphere environment. Virtual infrastructure management VMware vCenter Server provides a centralized management interface to manage and configure groups of ESXi hosts in the virtualized data center. The vCenter Server is required to configure and control many advanced features, such as the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), Storage DRS, and VMware High Availability (HA). The vCenter Server management Graphical User Interface (GUI) is accessed using the browser-based vSphere Client. Many vendors provide plugins that can be installed to allow third-party storage, network, and compute resources to be managed using the vSphere Client. vCenter access using the C#, or Windows vSphere Client, is only available in versions prior to 6.5. Since the release of vSphere 5.5, however, access to, and the configuration of, new features is only available using the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Web Client can be accessed at https://FQDN_or_IP_of_vCenter_Server:9443/. vCenter Server 6.7 must use a 64-bit architecture if installed on a Windows Server. It can be run on dedicated physical hardware or as a virtual machine. When the vCenter Server is deployed on Windows, it requires either the embedded PostgreSQL database, a Microsoft SQL database, or an Oracle database to store configuration and performance information. IBM DB2 databases are supported with vSphere 5.1, but this support was removed in vSphere 5.5. With the release of vCenter 6.0, the Microsoft SQL Express database is no longer used as the embedded database. Embedded PostgreSQL is now used as the embedded database for small deployments. The PostgreSQL database on a Windows Server can be used to support environments of less than 20 hosts and 200 virtual machines. When upgrading to vCenter 6.7, if the previous version was using the Microsoft SQL Express database, the database will be converted to the embedded PostgreSQL as part of the upgrade. The embedded PostgreSQL database is suitable for almost all deployments, but using an external database is still supported
The virtual data center Another option for deploying the vCenter Server is the vCenter Server Appliance(VCSA). The VCSA is a preconfigured, Linux-based virtual machine preinstalled with the vCenter Server components. The appliance includes an embedded PostgreSQL database that supports the configuration maximums of 2,000 hosts and 25,000 powered-on virtual machines Several other management and automation tools are available to aid the day-to-day administration of a vSphere environment: the v Sphere Command-Line Interface(vCLI); vSphere PowerCLI provides a Windows Power Shell interface vRealize Orchestrator can be used to automate tasks; and the vSphere Management Assistant (VMA)is a Linux-based virtual appliance that is used to run management and automation scripts against hosts. VMA was deprecated, and its final release only supports vSphere 6.5. These tools allow an administrator to use command-line utilities to manage hosts from remote workstations. VMware provides a suite of other products that benefit the virtualized data center. Site Recovery Manager(SRM), and VMware vRealize Automation(vRA), can each G These data center products, such as VMware vRealize Operations(vROps), VMwar be leveraged in the virtual data center to meet specific requirements related to management, disaster recovery, and cloud services. At the core of these products is the vSphere suite, which includes ESXi, the vCenter Server, and the core supporting components Understanding the benefits of virtualization The following table provides a matrix of some of the core VMware technologies and the benefits that can be realized by using them VMware technology Primary benefits Descr ESXi is VMware's bare-metal hypervisor that hosts vSphere esxi rtual machines, also known as guests, and schedules virtual hardware access to physical HA restarts virtual machines in the event of a host Sphere ha Failure. It also monitors and restarts the virtual machines in the event of a guest operating system [15]
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 15 ] Another option for deploying the vCenter Server is the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). The VCSA is a preconfigured, Linux-based virtual machine preinstalled with the vCenter Server components. The appliance includes an embedded PostgreSQL database that supports the configuration maximums of 2,000 hosts and 25,000 powered-on virtual machines. Several other management and automation tools are available to aid the day-to-day administration of a vSphere environment: the vSphere Command-Line Interface (vCLI); vSphere PowerCLI provides a Windows PowerShell interface; vRealize Orchestrator can be used to automate tasks; and the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) is a Linux-based virtual appliance that is used to run management and automation scripts against hosts. vMA was deprecated, and its final release only supports vSphere 6.5. These tools allow an administrator to use command-line utilities to manage hosts from remote workstations. VMware provides a suite of other products that benefit the virtualized data center. These data center products, such as VMware vRealize Operations (vROps), VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), and VMware vRealize Automation (vRA), can each be leveraged in the virtual data center to meet specific requirements related to management, disaster recovery, and cloud services. At the core of these products is the vSphere suite, which includes ESXi, the vCenter Server, and the core supporting components. Understanding the benefits of virtualization The following table provides a matrix of some of the core VMware technologies and the benefits that can be realized by using them: VMware technology Primary benefits Description vSphere ESXi Server consolidation Resource efficiency ESXi is VMware's bare-metal hypervisor that hosts virtual machines, also known as guests, and schedules virtual hardware access to physical resources. vSphere HA Increased availability HA restarts virtual machines in the event of a host failure. It also monitors and restarts the virtual machines in the event of a guest operating system failure
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 Motion allows virtual machines to be live- migrated between hosts in a virtual data center Motion and vSphere ff DRS determines the initial placement of the virtual achine on the host resources within a cluster and availability kes recommendations, or automatically migrate the virtual machines to balance resources across a hosts in a cluster. These are used to guarantee, reserve, or lim esource Resource pools efficiency virtual machine,'s CPU, memory, and disk it the esources T provides 100 percent uptime for a virtual machine in the event of a host hardware failure. It VMware Fault creates a secondary virtual Tolerance(FT) ty achine that mirrors all the operations of the primary. In the event of a hardware failure,the condary virtual machine becomes the primary and a new secondary is created This allows for storage to be over provisioned by esource Thin provisioning presenting the configured space to a virtual fficiency achine, but only consuming the space on the disk that the Hot add CPU and This allows for the addition of CPU and memory ffic resources to a virtual machine while the virtual mem machine is running. Resource This moves virtual machine configuration files and Storage vMotion ks between storage locations that have been presented to a host Sphere rage Application VM backups and /Allows third parties to build agentless backup and Programming Interface isaster recovery solutions that integrate with the disaster recovery lv sphere platform (APIs); data protection Sphere replication Disaster recover / This features provides the ability to replicate virtua This provides a single management interface to v Center server figure and monitor the resources available to rtual data centers vCenter server linked This links multiple vCenter Servers together to mode allow This maintains consistent configuration and Host profiles management onfiguration compliance across all the hosts in the environment This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all VMware technologies and features, but it does provide an insight into many of the technologies commonly deployed in the enterprise virtual data center
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 16 ] vMotion and vSphere DRS Resource efficiency Increased availability vMotion allows virtual machines to be livemigrated between hosts in a virtual data center. DRS determines the initial placement of the virtual machine on the host resources within a cluster and makes recommendations, or automatically migrates the virtual machines to balance resources across all hosts in a cluster. Resource pools Resource efficiency These are used to guarantee, reserve, or limit the virtual machine's CPU, memory, and disk resources. VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Increased availability FT provides 100 percent uptime for a virtual machine in the event of a host hardware failure. It creates a secondary virtual machine that mirrors all the operations of the primary. In the event of a hardware failure, the secondary virtual machine becomes the primary and a new secondary is created. Thin provisioning Resource efficiency This allows for storage to be over provisioned by presenting the configured space to a virtual machine, but only consuming the space on the disk that the guest actually requires. Hot add CPU and memory Resource efficiency scalability This allows for the addition of CPU and memory resources to a virtual machine while the virtual machine is running. Storage vMotion Resource efficiency This moves virtual machine configuration files and disks between storage locations that have been presented to a host. vSphere Storage Application Programming Interface (APIs); data protection VM backups and disaster recovery Allows third parties to build agentless backup and disaster recovery solutions that integrate with the vSphere platform vSphere replication Disaster recovery This features provides the ability to replicate virtual machines between sites. vCenter server Simplified management This provides a single management interface to configure and monitor the resources available to virtual data centers. vCenter server linked mode Simplified management This links multiple vCenter Servers together to allow them to be managed from a single client. Host profiles Simplified management This maintains consistent configuration and configuration compliance across all the hosts in the environment. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all VMware technologies and features, but it does provide an insight into many of the technologies commonly deployed in the enterprise virtual data center
The Virtual Data Center There are many others, and each technology or feature may also have its own set of show how features or technologies can be mapped to benefits that can then be o requirements that must be met in order to be implemented. The purpose here mapped to requirements and ultimately mapped into a design. This is helpful in ensuring that the benefits and technologies that virtualization provides satisfy design requirements Identifying when not to virtualize Not all applications or server workloads are good candidates for virtualization. It is important that these workloads are identified early on in the design process There are a number of reasons why a server or application may not be suitable for virtualization. Some of these include the following: Vendor support · Licensing issues Specialized hardware dependencies · High resource demand Lack of knowledge or skillsets A common reason to not virtualize an application or workload is the reluctance of a vendor to support their application in a virtual environment. As virtualization has become more common in the enterprise data center, this has become uncommon; but, there are still application vendors that will not support their products once virtualized Software and operating system licensing in a virtual environment can also be a challenge, especially when it comes to physical server to virtual machine conversions Many physical servers are purchased with Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) licenses, and these licenses, in most cases, cannot be transferred to a virtual environment. Also, many licenses are tied to hardware-specific information, such as interface MAC addresses or drive signatures. Licensing issues can usually be overcome. Many times, the primary risk becomes the cost to upgrade or acquire new licensing. As with other potential design risks, it is important that any issues and potential impacts licensing may have on the design be identified early on in the design process [17]
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 17 ] There are many others, and each technology or feature may also have its own set of requirements that must be met in order to be implemented. The purpose here is to show how features or technologies can be mapped to benefits that can then be mapped to requirements and ultimately mapped into a design. This is helpful in ensuring that the benefits and technologies that virtualization provides satisfy design requirements. Identifying when not to virtualize Not all applications or server workloads are good candidates for virtualization. It is important that these workloads are identified early on in the design process. There are a number of reasons why a server or application may not be suitable for virtualization. Some of these include the following: Vendor support Licensing issues Specialized hardware dependencies High resource demand Lack of knowledge or skillsets A common reason to not virtualize an application or workload is the reluctance of a vendor to support their application in a virtual environment. As virtualization has become more common in the enterprise data center, this has become uncommon; but, there are still application vendors that will not support their products once virtualized. Software and operating system licensing in a virtual environment can also be a challenge, especially when it comes to physical server to virtual machine conversions. Many physical servers are purchased with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) licenses, and these licenses, in most cases, cannot be transferred to a virtual environment. Also, many licenses are tied to hardware-specific information, such as interface MAC addresses or drive signatures. Licensing issues can usually be overcome. Many times, the primary risk becomes the cost to upgrade or acquire new licensing. As with other potential design risks, it is important that any issues and potential impacts licensing may have on the design be identified early on in the design process
The virtual data center Some applications may require the use of specialized hardware. Fax boards, serial ports, and security dongles are common examples. There are ways to provide solutions for many of these, but often, given the risks associated with the ability to support the application, or the loss of one or more of the potential benefits of virtualizing the application, the better solution may be to leave the application on dedicated physical hardware. Again, it is important that these types of applications be identified very early on in the design process Physical servers configured with a large amount of CPU and memory resources where applications are consuming a large amount of these resources may not be good candidates for virtualization. This also holds true for applications with high network configured with up to 128 virtual CPUs(vCPUs)and 6 TB of memory, but the high utilization and large storage Iyo requirements. VSphere 6.7 supports virtual machine utilization of these configured resources can have a negative impact on other workloads in the virtual environment. These high-utilization workloads will also require more resources to be reserved for failover. The benefits of virtualizing resource-intensive applications must be weighed against the impact placed on the irtual environment. In some cases, it may be better to leave these applications on dedicated physical hardware Many administrators may lack knowledge of the benefits or skills to manage a virtualized data center. The administrator of a virtual environment must be wel versed with storage, networking, and virtualization in order to successfully configure, maintain,and monitor a virtual environment. Though this may not necessarily be a reason not to leverage the benefits of a virtualized environment, it can be a substantial risk to the acceptance of a design and the implementation. This is especially true with smaller If departments, where the roles of the server, application, storage, and network administrators are combined Becoming a virtual data center architect The virtual data center architect, or simply the architect, is someone who identifies requirements, designs a virtualization solution to meet those requirements, and then oversees the implementation of the solution. Sounds easy enough, right? [18]
The Virtual Data Center Chapter 1 [ 18 ] Some applications may require the use of specialized hardware. Fax boards, serial ports, and security dongles are common examples. There are ways to provide solutions for many of these, but often, given the risks associated with the ability to support the application, or the loss of one or more of the potential benefits of virtualizing the application, the better solution may be to leave the application on dedicated physical hardware. Again, it is important that these types of applications be identified very early on in the design process. Physical servers configured with a large amount of CPU and memory resources where applications are consuming a large amount of these resources may not be good candidates for virtualization. This also holds true for applications with high network utilization and large storage I/O requirements. vSphere 6.7 supports virtual machines configured with up to 128 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 6 TB of memory, but the high utilization of these configured resources can have a negative impact on other workloads in the virtual environment. These high-utilization workloads will also require more resources to be reserved for failover. The benefits of virtualizing resource-intensive applications must be weighed against the impact placed on the virtual environment. In some cases, it may be better to leave these applications on dedicated physical hardware. Many administrators may lack knowledge of the benefits or skills to manage a virtualized data center. The administrator of a virtual environment must be wellversed with storage, networking, and virtualization in order to successfully configure, maintain, and monitor a virtual environment. Though this may not necessarily be a reason not to leverage the benefits of a virtualized environment, it can be a substantial risk to the acceptance of a design and the implementation. This is especially true with smaller IT departments, where the roles of the server, application, storage, and network administrators are combined. Becoming a virtual data center architect The virtual data center architect, or simply the architect, is someone who identifies requirements, designs a virtualization solution to meet those requirements, and then oversees the implementation of the solution. Sounds easy enough, right?