VMware Official Training Update

Hi All,

This is to inform you that we do not support any institute or organization or training school for undergoing VMware or any other training. We work independently and do not recommend any organization or training school.

  If you have any questions regarding the same please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
Team Manishanized

Virtual Machine Maximums: Simplify (Manishanize) your Server environment..

Virtual Machine Maximums
Item	Maximum
Concurrent remote console connections to a virtual machine	40
Floppy controllers per virtual machine	1
Floppy devices per virtual machine	2
IDE controllers per virtual machine	1
IDE devices per virtual machine	4
Parallel ports per virtual machine	3
RAM per virtual machine	1 TB
Serial ports per virtual machine	4
USB devices connected to a virtual machine	20
USB host controllers per virtual machine	1
Video memory per virtual machine	512 MB
Virtual CPUs per virtual machine (Virtual SMP)	64 VCPU
Virtual disk size	62 TB
Virtual Disks per virtual machine (PVSCSI)	60
Virtual machine swap file size	1 TB
Virtual NICs per virtual machine	10
Virtual SATA adapters per virtual machine	4
Virtual SATA devices per virtual SATA adapter	30
Virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine	4
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual machine	60
Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter	15

• VMFS3 with 1MB block maximum swap size is 255GB. Recommended solution is VMFS5, not VMFS3 with bigger block size.
• BIOS is configured for one floppy device.
• Any combination of supported virtual NICs.
• USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x supported. One USB host controller of each version 1.x, 2.x, or 3.x can be added at the same time.
• Guest operating systems might have lower limits than allowed by vSphere.

Create a customized Virtual Machine in 13 easy steps …

Step 1) Select the icon or from keyboard press Ctrl + N

OR right click on your host and select “New Virtual Machine…”

Step 2) A wizard will open, select “Custom” and click next

Step 3) Give  your VM a name and then click next..

Step 4) Select a datastore for your VM and click next…

Step 5)  Select Virtual Machine Version 8 and click next

Step 6) Select Number of virtual sockets and cores per virtual sockets for your VM and click next..

Step 7) Select the amount of RAM that you want to provision for your VM…

Step 8) Select the number of Virtual NIC’s, the Network you want to connect your Virtual NIC and the type of adaptor and click next…

Step 9) Do not make any changes to the type of scsi adapter click next

Step 10) Select “Create new Virtual Disk” and click next

Step 11) Select the amount of HDD you want to provision and also the disk provisioning  (generally I make it thin to use the HDD to max.” click next….

Step 12) Click Next..  (Do not change the disk node, If you select Independent then in that case you’ll not able to take snapshot of this hard disk)

Step 13) Click Finish and it’s done J

Here is your customized VM...

VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) features and benefits

The VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) provides an alternative option for organizations that chose not to run the Windows vCenter Server but still require centralised management of VMware vSphere deployments in the enterprise.

It provides exactly the same functionality as the traditional Windows vCenter Server but packaged in a Linux distribution. I know that some of my pure UNIX and LINUX customers have been asking for this for a while.

It’s been available as a technology preview since 2009 as “vCenter 2.5 on Linux” but has finally arrived with vSphere 5 to give customers’ an alternative to the Windows vCenter Server. Expect to see it available for download when vSphere 5 goes GA.

*UPDATE* vSphere5 is now GA, and the vCSA is available to download here.

I’ve been using it for a while now in the lab and have found it very easy to deploy and use. vCenter services start a lot quicker and the user experience with the VMware vSphere Client is exactly the same.

vCenter Server Virtual Appliance features and benefits

• Installed on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 x64.
• OVF when deployed is configured with 2vCPUs and 8Gb memory, LSI Logic Parallel, VMXNET 3, 15Gb and 60Gb VMDKs and VMware Tools.
• Includes embedded DB2 database that is suitable for evaluation or for environments with less than 5 ESXi hosts or 50 virtual machines (equivalent to Windows vCenter Server + MSSQL Express).
• Supports external Oracle database for large environments.
• Includes Active Directory (AD) and Network Information Services (NIS) authentication.
• vSphere Web Client support is built into the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance. vSphere Web Client is OS agnostic and the interface is highly customisable.
• Windows vSphere Client is still supported.
• Includes a pre-configured Auto Deploy server therefore reducing operational costs with the installation of Auto Deploy.
• Can use NFS mounts to store vCenter Server Virtual Appliance core and log files.
• vCSA can act as a syslog server for ESXi system logs.
• Can be used as a network collector for ESXi kernel core dumps.
• Simplified and rapid deployment, approximately 15 minutes deployment time.
• Lower TCO by eliminating Windows OS dependency and licenses.
• Reduces operational costs – vCSA is easier to upgrade – just deploy a new appliance and connect to the external Oracle database or
• Import configuration data from previous installation.
• Patches can be installed using the vCSA web interface.

Not yet feature parity with Windows vCenter Server

vCenter Server Virtual Appliance provides all features as the Windows vCenter Server but does not support the following features:

• Microsoft SQL as the database for vCenter.
• vCenter Server Linked Mode.
• vCenter Server Heartbeat.
• IPv6.

What is Vmotion...

VMotion allows live migration of virtual machines which are running on one physical server to another such that you dont have any downtime with continuous service availability.

Benifits Of VMotion

It improve availability by conducting maintenance without disrupting business operations Moves virtual machines within server resource pools to continuously align the allocation of resources to business priorities

VMware VMotion allows users to the following tasks...

• Perform hardware maintenance without scheduled downtime.
• Proactively migrate virtual machines away from failing or underperforming servers.
• Automatically optimize and allocate entire pools of resources for optimal hardware utilization and alignment with business priorities.

How Does VMware VMotion Work?

Live migration of a virtual machine or Vmotion of a VM from one physical server to another with VMotion is described below:

Step 1:
The entire state of a virtual machine is encapsulated by set of files stored on shared storage such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS). VMware vStorage VMFS allows multiple installations of VMware ESXi to access the same virtual machine files concurrently.

Step 2:
The active memory and precise execution state of the virtual machine is rapidly transferred over a high speed network, allowing the virtual machine to instantaneously switch from running on the source ESXi host to the destination ESXi host.

VMotion keeps the transfer period imperceptible to users by keeping track of on-going memory transactions in a bitmap.

Once the entire memory and system state has been copied over to the target ESXi host, VMotion suspends the source virtual machine, copies the bitmap to the target ESXi host, and resumes the  virtual machine on the target ESXi host.

Step 3:
The networks being used by the virtual machine are also virtualized by the underlying ESXi host, ensuring that even after the migration, the virtual machine network identity and network connections are preserved. VMotion manages the virtual MAC address as part of the process.

Once the destination machine is activated, VMotion pings the network router to ensure that it is aware of the new physical location of the virtual MAC address.

Since the migration of a virtual machine with VMotion preserves the precise execution state, the network identity, and the active network connections, the result is zero downtime and no disruption to users.

How to Deploy the VMware vCenter Server Appliance ?

The best  alternative to install vCenter Server rather than on a Windows machine, you can download the VMware vCenter Server Appliance. The vCenter Server Appliance is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Server and associated services.

The vCenter Server Appliance has the default user name root and password vmware.

Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2 are not supported for the vCenter Server Appliance.

Important

The embedded database is not configured to manage an inventory that contains more than 5 hosts and 50 virtual machines. If you use the embedded database with the vCenter Server Appliance, exceeding these limits can cause numerous problems, including causing vCenter Server to stop responding.

Prerequisites

■	Verify that vSphere Client is installed.
■	You can deploy the vCenter Server Appliance only on hosts that are running ESX version 4.x or ESXi version 4.x or later.
■	The vCenter Server Appliance requires at least 7GB of disk space, and is limited to a maximum size of 80GB. The vCenter Server Appliance can be deployed with thin-provisioned virtual disks that can grow to the maximum size of 80GB. If the host machine does not have enough free disk space to accommodate the growth of the vCenter Server Appliance virtual disks, vCenter Server might cease operation, and you will not be able to manage your vSphere environment. Steps to install vCenter Server appliance  1 From the vSphere 5 download page on the VMware Web site, download the .VMDK and .OVF files for the vCenter Server appliance onto your system. Save the .VMDK and .OVF files in the same folder. 2 Login into your Host using vSphere Client 3 In the vSphere Client, select File > Deploy OVF Template and enter the path to the .OVF file on your system. Deploy Select the path of OVF to get deployed Path of OVF template Details of OVF template Follow the prompts in the Deploy OVF Template wizard to create the vCenter Server Appliance. If you do not want to commit to using the maximum 80GB of disk space at deployment, deploy the OVF with thin provisioning. In the Disk Format panel of the wizard, select Thin provisioned format. Deploy vCenter server Appliance ready to complete Deployment Appliance deployed successfully when started you will get to this window

What is vCloud and vSphere ?

vCloud

vCloud is a cloud computing Platform made by VMware(EMC) which allows customers to migrate their working server on demand from their "internal cloud" of cooperating VMware hypervisors to a remote cloud of VMware hypervisors. The goal of the initiative is to provide the power of cloud computing with the flexibility allowed by virtualization.
The initiative was announced at the 2008 VMworld conference in Las Vegas and garnered significant press attention.
At the 2009 VMworld conference in San Francisco vCloud was featured in the vCloud Pavilion. vCloud was also a subject at the 2010 conference. The vCloud initiative has grown with many public service providers and multiple supporting applications.
vCloud architecture relies on vShield edge for its operation, routed networks in vCloud needs a VM running vShield-edge software, acting as the default gateway of that network. This virtual gateway is implemented on a free host on the system and provides its services to VMs on that host and on other hosts.

vSphere

VMware vSphere is a platform for virtualization to transform datacenters into simplified cloud computing infrastructures and enables IT organizations to deliver flexible and reliable IT services. VMware vSphere virtualizes and aggregates the underlying physical hardware resources across multiple systems and provides pools of virtual resources to the datacenter.

As a cloud operating system, VMware vSphere manages large collections of infrastructure (such as CPUs, storage, and networking) as a seamless and dynamic operating environment, and also manages the complexity of a datacenter. The following component layers make up VMware vSphere:

Key Technology Products of Microsoft and Vmware.

Product Difference

What is a Virtual Appliance ?

By Matthew Leib, for VMwareSimplified.com 

Following is a post as a guest contributor to VMwareSimplified, where our goals will be to instruct on the basics of VMware.

Virtualization as a concept has enabled the IT community a number of fantastic options. Among those amazing options are the ability to deliver a limited level of downtime to the user community by the use of VMotion, brand new dynamics of backup, virtual desktops and virtualization began the first steps to “The Cloud.” I’m sure that even if you’re unaware of all the feature sets, and capacities of VMware, Citrix Xen, OpenStack, and other virtualization platforms, these abilities are apparent. Our community has embraced these, expanded on them, and the ecosystem of vendors offering solutions based on them is massive, growing and the attendance of last year’s VMworld surpassing 20,000 attendees in San Francisco only serve to validate the importance of these technologies.

Another quite powerful tool that has been added to the arsenal of assets for virtualization professionals is that of a Virtual Appliance. This posting will discuss the utility of Virtual Appliances, and some of the viability of these unique pieces of software, how they get implemented and some aspects of how they may be used within the virtual environment.

What is a Virtual Appliance? Essentially, a Virtual Appliance is a disc file that’s been purpose built to perform a specific task. Usually, these will involve the operating system, and the requisite components or applications to perform as a packaged entity. You will be able to download this as one file either packaged up as a ZIP, RAR, TAR, or the virtual appliance format OVA or OVF.

The purposes range from Linux distributions, test functionalities, free/demo/paid deployments of Virtual Storage Appliances, security servers and firewalls, web servers with many different functions, like your very own WordPress server, etc.

Once you download the file, import into your VMware environment. These should easily be functional in ESX(vSphere), Fusion or in Workstation. In many cases, they work as-is in Player as well.

In future posts, I’ll delve into some of the functions of distinct Virtual Appliances, and assist on the creation, deployment, and installation of these. 

Unable to power on VM..?

Unable to power on the Virtual Machine, How to fix it?

If the virtual machine is running in a cluster of esx hosts, some times it won’t power on. Why because, the files that are associated with that VM are locked by the host at the time of running. So when you try to vmotion the vm from one host to another host, the first host releases those files and again locked by the second host.
So what is meant by locking here, and why it is happening?
Locking is nothing but, the registration of a vm with a host. this happens everytime when the vm is hosted on a host. this is helpful to prevent the access to the same vm for remaining hosts in the cluster.
Why the vm fails when trying to power it on?
When the files associated with that VM are locked by a host it won’t powered on. At that time, you must unregister the vm from the host using vmware-cmd utility.

What is VMware for the world of IT professionals?

Organizations all over the world are in a need of virtualization experts who can help run and manage their business’ virtualization programs. As of present, VMware vSphere is one of the most popular virtualization systems for businesses and corporations, not only in desktop virtualization but also server virtualization. Many companies are paying good money for even an entry-level VMware professional.
For those reasons, there is ample evidence to say that becoming a VMware Professional Certifiaction, or VCP certification, will ensure you that your services will always be in demand and money will not be an issue anytime soon. VCP-Data Center Virtualization certification is in demand, and it pays very well. Other than this, VMware Certification has some other benefits…
 It proves your competency and commitment to the IT business, it also develops your personal growth by providing you with good IT professional connections that can help advance your job. Becoming a VMware Certified Professional is an excellent decision, no matter how you look at it.

Still not convinced??
Here are some more reasons that could change your mind…

Trustworthiness and Credibility
Above all else, VMware is a name that is trusted in IT services. Thousands of companies avail of their products every day, and many of them are in desperate need of trained professionals who can service the products. Becoming a VMware Certified Professional makes sure that you join the short-list of top priority servicers, should you wish to apply for a job as a servicer for a company.  Once certified the industry will be more interested in you, since your certification is proof that you take IT and the IT industry seriously.
Your own Identity
Once certified, you are entitled to utilize the VMware logo and trademarks on your business cards, websites, or anywhere you would like people to know that you are a VCP. Being certified is an honor unto itself, but being able to be identified as a certified professional is a little bonus as it earns the respect of fellow colleagues. Being able to install, deploy and troubleshoot a program as complex and ingenious as the VMware vSphere is nothing to be sneezed at, especially in the IT industry.

Complementary License of the VmWare Workstation 9
Every technical professional deserves an easy-to-use system support that can be accessed at any time and at any place. It also needs to have enough power behind it to meet the high-maintenance operating system needs of a working IT professional. The VMware Workstation 9 is a cutting-edge system that ensures high-quality system support for anybody’s possible needs. It is a name trusted across the world for operating system performance and excellent features – and it can be yours for absolutely free. Becoming a VMware Certified Professional automatically entitle you to usage of this amazing product that has won scores of awards in the industry for its quality.

Other VMware Perks
VMware also gives you several benefits and incentives for passing their certification exam. As a VCP, you can immediately access the VCP Portal and store for all your VCP needs. The company will also offer you money-saving discounts at any VMware event that you attend, and will give you invitations to try out beta exam programs.
Finally, passing the VCP qualifies you for higher forms of certification and training in VMware vSphere virtualization. The VCP certification program is an entry-level certification in which introduces the VCAP, or VMware Certified Advanced Professional, and the VCDX, or VMware Certified Design Expert. Becoming a Vmware Certified Professional can be a step on your way to advanced IT professional work, higher salaries, and even more opportunities for you to exploit.

How to Create a Virtual Machine?

In order to create a virtual machine Start the vSphere Client by opening Start > All Programs > VMware > VMware Sphere Client. This will open up the vSphere Client login page, shown in the figure below. On this page, provide the IP address for your ESXi  host and also provide the root user name and password that you specified during the setup of your server

Once you’ve granted access to the vSphere Client it will look like this in the figure given below

Now right click your server IP address and choose New Virtual Machine or there is another option under basic task “Create a virtual machine”.

The first step do you want to use Custom settings for your new virtual machine or do you want to use settings that typically work well based on the operating system you use? I’m choosing the Custom option as it will elaborate more options inside.

The second step it will ask you to provide the name of the virtual machine.

Files that make a Virtual Machine........

A virtual machine consists of many types of files(depending on the configuration of the Virtual Machine), that are stored on a storage device. These files are recognized by their extension.

The important files that make up a virtual machine are:

• The Configuration File (.vmx)
• Virtual Disk file (.vmdk)
• NVRAM File (.nvram)
• log file (vmware#.log)

You can configure virtual machine settings using the vSphere Web Client or the vSphere Client. 

List of other common files...

.

File	Usage	Description
.vmx	server1.vmx	Virtual Machine Configuration File
.vmxf	server1.vmxf	Additional Virtual Machine Configuration File
.vmdk	server1.vmdk	Virtual disk Characteristics File
-flat.vmdk	server1-flat.vmdk	Pre-allocated virtual disk File
.nvram	server1.nvram	Virtual Machine BIOS File
.vmsd	server1.vmsd	Virtual Machine snapshot File
.vmsn	server1.vmsn	Virtual Machine Snapshot Data File
.vswp	server1.vswp	Virtual Machine swap File
.vmss	server1.vmss	Virtual Machine Suspend State File
.log	server1.log	Current Virtual Machine log File
-#.log	vmware-#.log (where # is a number starting with 1)	Old virtual Machine log entry File