VMware® Infrastructure 3 FOR DUMMIES®

VMware® Infrastructure 3 FOR DUMMIES®

by William Lowe
Released September 2008
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470277935

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Book description

VMware Infrastructure 3 for Dummies will help you understand, design, and deploy a reliable and fault tolerant Virtual Infrastructure 3 environment. Virtualization can save your business a lot of money! You’ll find an introduction to the technology and learn from the key topics covered in each chapter. You will have enough information to design and deploy your first system without being overwhelmed by extensive technical details. You can also use this book as a reference for maintenance and troubleshooting.

You will find out what you need to do before you virtualize your machines. Learn about ESX servers, how to install them and their anatomy. Hook up your ESX servers with storage and data networks and understand what you need to know about networking and external storage. You’ll be able to make everything fault tolerant with cluster technology. Find out how to:

  • Make the most of VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3

  • Design and deploy your system

  • Handle installation, configuration, and troubleshooting

  • Virtualize servers, storage and networking

  • Discover how to assure fault tolerance with clusters and the VirtualCenter database

  • Use resource pools, set them up, and secure them

  • Explore new options for disaster preparedness, including a virtual consolidated backup

    • Complete with lists of VMware products, the world of virtual appliances, and more information about VI3, VMware Infrastructure 3 For Dummies is your one-stop guide to virtualizing your machines.

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. About the Author
    3. Author's Acknowledgments
    4. Introduction
      1. About This Book
      2. Conventions Used in This Book
      3. What You're Not to Read
      4. Foolish Assumptions
      5. How This Book Is Organized
        1. Part I: Ready, Set, Go with VMware Infrastructure 3
        2. Part II: Setting Up ESX Hosts
        3. Part III: Connecting the Physical to Your Virtual Environment
        4. Part IV: Fault Tolerance and Data Centers
        5. Part V: Playing Virtual Administrator
        6. Part VI: The Part of Tens
      6. Icons Used in This Book
      7. Where to Go from Here
    5. I. Ready, Set, Go with VMware Infrastructure 3
      1. 1. Exploring VMware Infrastructure 3 as Your Virtual Solution
        1. 1.1. Knowing What You Must About Virtual Machines
          1. 1.1.1. Virtual machines: The non-physical workhorses
          2. 1.1.2. Virtual machine pluses and minuses
          3. 1.1.3. Symmetrical multiprocessing and why you care
        2. 1.2. Understanding the Role That VMkernel Plays
        3. 1.3. VMware Infrastructure 3
          1. 1.3.1. Benefitting from VMware Infrastructure 3
          2. 1.3.2. Meeting the pieces and parts of VMware Infrastructure 3
        4. 1.4. Planning Your VMware Solution
          1. 1.4.1. Stage 1: Capacity planning and return on investment
          2. 1.4.2. Stage 2: Designing and building your virtual infrastructure
          3. 1.4.3. Stage 3: Virtualizing your physical machines
          4. 1.4.4. Stage 4: New ways to protect your data
      2. 2. Getting the Scoop on Capacity Planning
        1. 2.1. Planning: Why You Have to Do It
          1. 2.1.1. What you need to know about tightly coupled systems
          2. 2.1.2. Where you are today
          3. 2.1.3. Where you want to be tomorrow
          4. 2.1.4. What can happen if you don't plan ahead
        2. 2.2. Capturing the Right Stuff
          1. 2.2.1. Sizing up storage needs
          2. 2.2.2. Knowing networking needs
          3. 2.2.3. Counting on processor power
          4. 2.2.4. Utilizing memory
            1. 2.2.4.1. Assessing memory needs: Averaging method
            2. 2.2.4.2. Assessing memory needs: Monitor method
            3. 2.2.4.3. After you measure: Now what?
        3. 2.3. Finding Data-Gathering Tools
          1. 2.3.1. Freebies
          2. 2.3.2. Not for free
        4. 2.4. Where the Money Hits the Pavement: Hardware
      3. 3. Knowing Your Storage Options
        1. 3.1. SCSI Anatomy 101
          1. 3.1.1. Files, blocks, and protocols
          2. 3.1.2. To boot or not to boot from a SAN: That is the question
        2. 3.2. Using Local SCSI: Why It Works Well
        3. 3.3. Fibre Channel: The Speed Demon
          1. 3.3.1. The first SAN on the block
          2. 3.3.2. Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of Fibre Channel SANs
        4. 3.4. Considering Whether to Use iSCSI
          1. 3.4.1. The new SAN on the block
            1. 3.4.1.1. Communications in an iSCSI SAN
          2. 3.4.2. Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of iSCSI
        5. 3.5. Network Attached Storage: The Good and the Bad
          1. 3.5.1. Understanding NAS
          2. 3.5.2. Comparing advantages and disadvantages of NAS
        6. 3.6. SAN and NAS Best Practices
    6. II. Setting Up ESX Hosts
      1. 4. ESX: The Brawn Behind the Brains
        1. 4.1. Checking Out ESX Host Anatomy
          1. 4.1.1. One host is never enough
          2. 4.1.2. Big host or small host: It all depends
        2. 4.2. Getting Two Operating Systems in One
          1. 4.2.1. VMkernel
          2. 4.2.2. Service Console
        3. 4.3. ESX is Like an Octopus
          1. 4.3.1. How ESX touches your network
          2. 4.3.2. ESX controls your storage
        4. 4.4. Disk Partitions: Please No More Than Four
          1. 4.4.1. Primary partitions
          2. 4.4.2. Extended partitions
      2. 5. ESX Installation — Now the Fun Begins
        1. 5.1. What You Need to Know Before You Install
          1. 5.1.1. ESX shares memory and CPU resources
          2. 5.1.2. ESX wears a different red hat
          3. 5.1.3. Play nice with your HCL
          4. 5.1.4. Using mount points versus drive letters
          5. 5.1.5. Default partitions
        2. 5.2. Stepping Through the Install
          1. 5.2.1. Hardware preparation
          2. 5.2.2. Installing ESX
          3. 5.2.3. Installing ESXi
        3. 5.3. Installing VI Client Sure Beats Typing
          1. 5.3.1. Installing VI Client
          2. 5.3.2. Connecting to the server's Service Console
          3. 5.3.3. A few other handy ways to connect to your server
    7. III. Connecting the Physical to Your Virtual Environment
      1. 6. Embracing the Look and Feel of VMware Infrastructure Client
        1. 6.1. Introducing the VMware Infrastructure Client
        2. 6.2. Installing VMware Infrastructure Client
        3. 6.3. Understanding the VIC Interface
          1. 6.3.1. Using the Inventory window
          2. 6.3.2. Understanding the Admin window
          3. 6.3.3. A glimpse at the other sections
      2. 7. Virtual Networking
        1. 7.1. Virtual Switch Options
        2. 7.2. Hardware Out of Nowhere: Virtual Switches
          1. 7.2.1. Functions of virtual switches
          2. 7.2.2. Creating a virtual switch
        3. 7.3. Configuring Port Groups and Their Properties
          1. 7.3.1. Changing the number of switch ports
          2. 7.3.2. Modifying security
          3. 7.3.3. Traffic-shaping policies
          4. 7.3.4. NIC teaming
        4. 7.4. Following Networking Best Practices
      3. 8. Connecting to Storage
        1. 8.1. The VMware Infrastructure 3 Layered Storage Model
        2. 8.2. How ESX Sees Disk Partitions
          1. 8.2.1. Addressing LUNs and partitions
          2. 8.2.2. Scanning for LUNs
        3. 8.3. Understanding Multipathing
          1. 8.3.1. Multipathing with Fibre Channel
          2. 8.3.2. Multipathing with iSCSI
        4. 8.4. Understanding VMware File System
          1. 8.4.1. Designing your VMFS
          2. 8.4.2. Using Raw Device Mapping
          3. 8.4.3. Creating VMFS data stores
          4. 8.4.4. Browsing VMFS data stores
          5. 8.4.5. Extending VMFS data stores
          6. 8.4.6. Connecting to NAS
    8. IV. Fault Tolerance and Data Centers
      1. 9. Getting VMware VirtualCenter Running
        1. 9.1. VMware VirtualCenter: The Brains Behind the System
          1. 9.1.1. What VirtualCenter can do for you
          2. 9.1.2. Understanding your virtual center's components
          3. 9.1.3. Windows services you see
        2. 9.2. VirtualCenter Housekeeping: You Need a Database
          1. 9.2.1. A tale of two databases
          2. 9.2.2. Finding a home for your database
          3. 9.2.3. Calculating your database size
          4. 9.2.4. Installing the database
        3. 9.3. Licensing Your Virtual Infrastructure
          1. 9.3.1. Two ways to handle licenses
          2. 9.3.2. What happens if your license server is unavailable
          3. 9.3.3. Know your two types of licenses
        4. 9.4. Installing VirtualCenter Server
          1. 9.4.1. Installation checklist
          2. 9.4.2. Installing VirtualCenter
        5. 9.5. Adding Data Centers and ESX Hosts to Your Virtual Center
      2. 10. Making Virtual Machines
        1. 10.1. Understanding Virtual Machine Makeup
          1. 10.1.1. Virtual machine file structure
          2. 10.1.2. Tricking the guest OS into thinking it has its own hardware
          3. 10.1.3. VMware Tools: A must-have
          4. 10.1.4. Memory management and your virtual machines
        2. 10.2. VMware Infrastructure Client and VM Consoles: A Window into Windows
          1. 10.2.1. Creating a virtual machine
          2. 10.2.2. Installing a guest operating system
          3. 10.2.3. Connecting to a virtual machine
        3. 10.3. Using the Web Management Interface
          1. 10.3.1. Managing things from the Web
          2. 10.3.2. Creating URLs to specific virtual machines
      3. 11. Managing Virtual Machines
        1. 11.1. Creating a New Server in 15 Minutes
          1. 11.1.1. Preparing for virtual machine templates
          2. 11.1.2. Creating virtual machine templates
          3. 11.1.3. Deploying virtual machines from templates
        2. 11.2. Freezing Time with Snapshots
          1. 11.2.1. Snapshots and their uses
          2. 11.2.2. Working with snapshots
        3. 11.3. Converting Physical Machines to Virtual Machines
      4. 12. Keeping Things Running with Virtual Clusters
        1. 12.1. Reducing Single Points of Failure
          1. 12.1.1. Preparing for fault tolerance at many levels
          2. 12.1.2. Using clusters to provide fault tolerance
          3. 12.1.3. Creating an ESX cluster with DRS and HA
        2. 12.2. Using VMotion to Move Virtual Machines from One Host to Another
          1. 12.2.1. Migrating virtual machines with VMotion
          2. 12.2.2. What you need for VMotion to work
          3. 12.2.3. Performing a VMotion migration
    9. V. Playing Virtual Administrator
      1. 13. Securing Your System
        1. 13.1. Dissecting VMware's Security Model
          1. 13.1.1. Built-in roles
          2. 13.1.2. Creating your own roles
          3. 13.1.3. Combining users, roles, and objects for security
        2. 13.2. Several Examples of Applied Rights
          1. 13.2.1. Inheriting security roles
          2. 13.2.2. Roles and users in multiple groups
          3. 13.2.3. Conflicting user and group roles
          4. 13.2.4. Role conflicts and inheritance
      2. 14. Swimming in Resource Pools
        1. 14.1. Sharing and Playing Nicely with Resource Pools
          1. 14.1.1. Understanding what resource pools do
          2. 14.1.2. Examining how resource pools work
          3. 14.1.3. Sharing memory resources
          4. 14.1.4. Sharing CPU resources
          5. 14.1.5. Divvying resources with resource pools
        2. 14.2. Expandable Resource Pools: Borrowing from Your Parents
        3. 14.3. Setting Up Resource Pools: Which Machine Do You Love More?
          1. 14.3.1. Creating a resource pool
          2. 14.3.2. Securing resource pools
          3. 14.3.3. Moving machines into resource pools
      3. 15. Monitoring Your System
        1. 15.1. Monitoring VMware Infrastructure 3
          1. 15.1.1. Monitoring metrics
          2. 15.1.2. Creating a baseline
        2. 15.2. Many Levels of Monitoring Performance
          1. 15.2.1. The hosts and cluster level
          2. 15.2.2. The datacenter level
          3. 15.2.3. The cluster level
          4. 15.2.4. The server level
          5. 15.2.5. The resource pool level
          6. 15.2.6. The virtual machine level
        3. 15.3. Proactive Monitoring with Alarms
      4. 16. Preparing for Disaster
        1. 16.1. Same Systems, New Choices
          1. 16.1.1. The old ways to backup servers
          2. 16.1.2. Virtual Consolidated Backup: A new option
          3. 16.1.3. Dissecting VCB: How it works
        2. 16.2. Setting Up Virtual Consolidated Backup
          1. 16.2.1. Verifying that backup software isn't altering the file systems
          2. 16.2.2. Disabling automatic drive letter assignment
          3. 16.2.3. Installing the Virtual Consolidated Backup Framework
          4. 16.2.4. Adding your software interoperability module
          5. 16.2.5. Customizing your config file
          6. 16.2.6. Setting up your backup scripts
          7. 16.2.7. Restoring from backups
      5. 17. Troubleshooting
        1. 17.1. Asking Murphy What Can Go Wrong
          1. 17.1.1. Identifiying internal problems
          2. 17.1.2. Understanding external problems
        2. 17.2. Examining Some Problem Scenarios
          1. 17.2.1. Virtual machine will not power on
          2. 17.2.2. A virtual machine blue-screens
          3. 17.2.3. Problems with VMware Infrastructure Client (VIC)
          4. 17.2.4. ESX host problems
          5. 17.2.5. VirtualCenter service problems
        3. 17.3. In Summary
          1. 17.3.1. The troubleshooting process
          2. 17.3.2. Maintaining a proactive stance
    10. VI. The Part of Tens
      1. 18. Ten Places to Discover More
        1. 18.1. VMware Resources Page
        2. 18.2. VMware Education Services
        3. 18.3. VMware Product Index
        4. 18.4. VMware Support
        5. 18.5. VMX File Settings
        6. 18.6. General Virtualization Information
        7. 18.7. Mike Laverick's Web site/Blog
        8. 18.8. EMC2
        9. 18.9. Search ServerVirtualization.com at Techtarget
        10. 18.10. SearchVMware.com at TechTarget
      2. 19. Ten Other VMware Products
        1. 19.1. VMware ACE
        2. 19.2. VMware Fusion
        3. 19.3. VMware Player
        4. 19.4. VMware Server
        5. 19.5. VMware ESXi
        6. 19.6. VMware Update Manager
        7. 19.7. VMware Storage VMotion
        8. 19.8. VMware Capacity Planner
        9. 19.9. VMware Converter
        10. 19.10. VMware Workstation
      3. 20. Ten Cool Virtual Appliances
        1. 20.1. PostPath Server
        2. 20.2. Akorri BalancePoint
        3. 20.3. Ubuntu JeOS with VMware Drivers
        4. 20.4. VMware Infrastructure Perl Toolkit 1.5
        5. 20.5. VKernel
        6. 20.6. vmSight
        7. 20.7. JumpBox for SugarCRM 4.5.1h
        8. 20.8. Proficient Software
        9. 20.9. JumpBox for Twiki 4.2
        10. 20.10. MindTouch Deki Wiki

    Product information

    • Title: VMware® Infrastructure 3 FOR DUMMIES®
    • Author(s): William Lowe
    • Release date: September 2008
    • Publisher(s): For Dummies
    • ISBN: 9780470277935