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Master your virtual environment with the ultimate vSphere guide
Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 is the fully updated edition of the bestselling guide to VMware's virtualization solution. With comprehensive coverage of this industry-leading toolset, this book acts as an informative guide and valuable reference. Step-by-step instruction walks you through installation, configuration, operation, security processes, and much more as you conquer the management and automation of your virtual environment. Written by certified VMware vExperts, this indispensable guide provides hands-on instruction and detailed conceptual explanations, anchored by practical applications and real-world examples.


This book is the ultimate guide to vSphere, helping administrators master their virtual environment. Learn to:





Install, configure, and manage the vCenter Server components

Leverage the Support Tools to provide maintenance and updates

Create and configure virtual networks, storage devices, and virtual machines

Implement the latest features to ensure compatibility and flexibility

Manage resource allocation and utilization to meet application needs

Monitor infrastructure performance and availability

Automate and orchestrate routine administrative tasks



Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 is what you need to stay up-to-date on VMware's industry-leading software for the virtualized datacenter.

Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7

Contents





Foreword xxiii





Introduction xxv





Chapter 1 * Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 1





Exploring VMware vSphere 6.7 1





Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite 3





Examining the Features in VMware vSphere 8





Licensing VMware vSphere 17





Why Choose vSphere? 20





The Bottom Line 22





Chapter 2 * Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 23





VMware ESXi Architecture 23





Understanding the ESXi Hypervisor 23





Examining the ESXi Components 24





Planning a VMware vSphere Deployment 25





Choosing a Server Platform 26





Determining a Storage Architecture 28





Integrating with the Network Infrastructure 29





Deploying VMware ESXi 30





Installing VMware ESXi Interactively 31





Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi 35





Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy 38





Performing Post-installation Configuration 40





Reconfiguring the Management Network 40





Using the vSphere Host Client 42





Configuring Time Synchronization 43





Configuring Name Resolution 45





The Bottom Line 46





Chapter 3 * Installing and Configuring vCenter Server .47





Introducing vCenter Server 47





Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Single Sign-On 49





Understanding the Platform Services Controller 52





Using the vSphere Web Client for Administration 53





Providing an Extensible Framework 54





Choosing the Version of vCenter Server 55





Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deployment 56





Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server 56





Planning for vCenter Server Availability 58





Running vCenter Server and Its Components as VMs 60





Installing vCenter Server and Its Components 63





Installing vCenter Server in an Enhanced Linked Mode Group 74





Exploring vCenter Server 77





The vSphere Web Client Home Screen 78





Using the Navigator 80





Creating and Managing a vCenter Server Inventory 80





Understanding Inventory Views and Objects 80





Creating and Adding Inventory Objects 83





Exploring vCenter Server's Management Features 86





Understanding Basic Host Management 86





Examining Basic Host Configuration 89





Using Scheduled Tasks 93





Using the Events and Events Consoles in vCenter Server 95





Working with Host Profiles 95





Tags and Custom Attributes 99





Managing vCenter Server Settings 102





General vCenter Server Settings 102





Licensing 105





Message of the Day 106





Advanced Settings 106





Auto Deploy 106





vCenter HA A 106





Key Management Servers 106





Storage Providers 106





vSphere Web Client Administration 106





Roles 107





Licensing 107





vCenter Solutions Manager 107





System Configuration 107





VMware Appliance Management Administration 109





Summary 110





Monitor 111





Access 113





Networking 113





Time 113





Services 113





Update 114





Administration 114





Syslog 114





Backup 115





The Bottom Line 115





Chapter 4 * vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Support Tools .117





vSphere Update Manager 117





vSphere Update Manager and the vCenter Server Appliance 120





Installing the Update Manager Download Service (Optional) 121





The vSphere Update Manager Plug-in 122





Reconfiguring the VUM or UMDS Installation with the Update Manager Utility 123





Upgrading VUM from a Previous Version 124





Configuring vSphere Update Manager 124





Creating Baselines 130





Routine Updates 134





Attaching and Detaching Baselines or Baseline Groups 135





Performing a Scan 137





Staging Patches 141





Remediating Hosts 142





Upgrading VMware Tools 145





Upgrading Host Extensions 148





Upgrading Hosts with vSphere Update Manager 148





Importing an ESXi Image and Creating the Host Upgrade Baseline 148





Upgrading a Host 151





Upgrading VM Hardware 152





Performing an Orchestrated Upgrade 154





Investigating Alternative Update Options 155





Using vSphere Update Manager PowerCLI 155





Upgrading and Patching without vSphere Update Manager 156





vSphere Auto Deploy 157





Deploying Hosts with Auto Deploy 157





vCenter Support Tools 172





ESXi Dump Collector 172





Other vCenter Support Tools 175





The Bottom Line 176





Chapter 5 * Creating and Configuring a vSphere Network .179





Putting Together a vSphere Network 179





Working with vSphere Standard Switches 182





Comparing Virtual Switches and Physical Switches 183





Understanding Ports and Port Groups 184





Understanding Uplinks 186





Configuring the Management Network 189





Configuring VMkernel Networking 192





Enabling Enhanced Multicast Functions 197





Configuring TCP/IP Stacks 198





Configuring Virtual Machine Networking 200





Configuring VLANs 202





Configuring NIC Teaming 207





Using and Configuring Traffic Shaping 219





Bringing It All Together 220





Working with vSphere Distributed Switches 224





Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch 224





Removing an ESXi Host from a Distributed Switch 229





Removing a Distributed Switch 230





Managing Distributed Switches 231





Working with Distributed Port Groups 234





Managing VMkernel Adapters 240





Using NetFlow on vSphere Distributed Switches 245





Enabling Switch Discovery Protocols 247





Enabling Enhanced Multicast Functions 248





Setting Up Private VLANs 249





Configuring LACP 252





Configuring Virtual Switch Security 256





Understanding and Using Promiscuous Mode 257





Allowing MAC Address Changes and Forged Transmits 258





The Bottom Line 262





Chapter 6 * Creating and Configuring Storage Devices .265





Reviewing the Importance of Storage Design 265





Examining Shared Storage Fundamentals 267





Comparing Local Storage with Shared Storage 269





Defining Common Storage Array Architectures 271





Explaining RAID 273





Understanding vSAN 278





Understanding Midrange and External Enterprise Storage Array Design 282





Choosing a Storage Protocol 284





Making Basic Storage Choices 299





Implementing vSphere Storage Fundamentals 301





Reviewing Core vSphere Storage Concepts 302





Understanding Virtual Volumes 318





SCs vs LUNs 320





Storage Policies 320





Virtual Volumes 321





Working with VMFS Datastores 322





Working with Raw Device Mappings 337





Working with NFS Datastores 339





Working with vSAN 347





Working with Virtual Machine-Level Storage Configuration 349





Leveraging SAN and NAS Best Practices 361





The Bottom Line 366





Chapter 7 * Ensuring High Availability and Business Continuity .369





Understanding the Layers of High Availability 369





Clustering VMs 371





Introducing Network Load Balancing Clustering 371





Introducing Windows Server Failover Clustering 372





Implementing vSphere High Availability 384





Understanding vSphere High Availability Clusters 384





Understanding vSphere High Availability's Core Components 385





Enabling vSphere HA 389





Configuring vSphere High Availability 393





Configuring vSphere HA Groups, Rules, Overrides, and





Orchestrated VM Restart 409





Managing vSphere High Availability 413





Introducing vSphere SMP Fault Tolerance 415





Using vSphere SMP Fault Tolerance with vSphere High Availability 421





Examining vSphere Fault Tolerance Use Cases 421





Planning for Business Continuity 422





Providing Data Protection 422





Recovering from Disasters 426





Using vSphere Replication 427





The Bottom Line 432





Chapter 8 * Securing VMware vSphere .433





Overview of vSphere Security 433





Securing ESXi Hosts 434





Working with ESXi Authentication 434





Controlling Access to ESXi Hosts 439





Keeping ESXi Hosts Patched 447





Managing ESXi Host Permissions 447





Configuring ESXi Host Logging 455





Securing the ESXi Boot Process 456





Reviewing Other ESXi Security Recommendations 459





Securing vCenter Server 459





Managing vSphere Certificates 460





Working with Certificate Stores 460





Getting Started with Certificate Management 463





Authenticating Users with Single Sign-On 465





Understanding the vpxuser Account 469





Managing vCenter Server Permissions 470





Configuring vCenter Server Appliance Logging 482





Securing Virtual Machines 483





Configuring a Key Management Server for VM and VSAN Encryption 483





Virtual Trusted Platform Module 2.0 490





Configuring Network Security Policies 491





Keeping VMs Patched 492





The Bottom Line 492





Chapter 9 * Creating and Managing Virtual Machines .495





Understanding Virtual Machines 495





Examining Virtual Machines from the Inside 495





Examining Virtual Machines from the Outside 498





Creating a Virtual Machine 503





Choosing Values for Your New Virtual Machine 513





Sizing Virtual Machines 514





Naming Virtual Machines 516





Sizing Virtual Machine Hard Disks 516





Virtual Machine Graphics 518





Installing a Guest Operating System 518





Working with Installation Media 519





Using the Installation Media 521





Working in the Virtual Machine Console 523





Installing VMware Tools 524





Installing VMware Tools in Windows 525





Installing VMware Tools in Linux 529





Managing Virtual Machines 532





Adding or Registering Existing VMs 532





Changing VM Power States 534





Removing VMs 535





Deleting VMs 535





Modifying Virtual Machines 536





Changing Virtual Machine Hardware 536





Using Virtual Machine Snapshots 541





The Bottom Line 546





Chapter 10 * Using Templates and vApps .549





Cloning VMs 549





Creating a Customization Specification 550





Cloning a Virtual Machine 555





Introducing vSphere Instant Cloning 558





Creating Templates and Deploying Virtual Machines 561





Cloning a Virtual Machine to a Template 563





Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template 564





Using OVF Templates 566





Deploying a VM from an OVF Template 567





Exporting a VM as an OVF Template 569





Examining OVF Templates 571





Using Content Libraries 573





Content Library Data and Storage 573





Content Library Synchronization 574





Creating and Publishing a Content Library 574





Subscribing to a Content Library 575





Operating Content Libraries 577





Working with vApps 579





Creating a vApp 580





Editing a vApp 581





Changing a vApp's Power State 586





Cloning a vApp 586





Importing Machines from Other Environments 587





The Bottom Line 588





Chapter 11 * Managing Resource Allocation .591





Reviewing Virtual Machine Resource Allocation 591





Working with Virtual Machine Memory 594





Understanding ESXi Advanced Memory Technologies 595





Controlling Memory Allocation 599





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





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