Tag Archives: vSphere

Aug 16

vSphere 6.0 Foundations – Exam Blueprint

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With 6.0 VCP you now have to take TWO tests. This Blueprint is for the FIRST of these called Foundations. It is an online, non-proctored test of the fundamentals. Here is the exam blueprint with links, all expanded.  First, here are the two exams; 2V0-620 (Foundations) and 2V0-621 (DCV)
cert-2v0-621-DCV cert-2v0-620-Foundations
+ Objective 1.1: Identify vSphere Architecture and Solutions for a given use casevSphere_6

Knowledge

  • Explain available vSphere editions and features
  • Explain the various data center solutions that interact with vSphere
  • Explain ESXi and vCenter Server architectures
  • Explain new solutions offered in the current version
  • Determine appropriate vSphere edition based on customer requirements

Tools

+ Objective 1.2: Install and configure vCenter Server

Knowledge

  • Deploy the vCenter Appliance (vCSA)
  • Install vCenter Server onto a virtual machine
  • Create an ODBC Connection to a vCenter Server
  • Given a scenario, size the vCenter Database based on requirements
  • Install additional vCenter Server Components
  • Install and configure vSphere Client / vSphere Web Client
  • Install/Remove vSphere Client plug-ins
  • Enable/Disable vSphere Client plug-ins
  • License vCenter Server
  • Determine availability requirements for a vCenter Server in a given vSphere implementation

Tools

+ Objective 1.3: Install and configure ESXi

Knowledge

  • Given a scenario, validate if an ESXi configuration meets given requirements
  • Perform a scripted installation of ESXi
  • Perform an interactive installation of ESXi using media or PXE
  • Configure NTP on an ESXi Host
  • Configure DNS and routing on an ESXi Host
  • Configure SSH and Shell access on an ESXi Host
  • Configure logs to be sent to a syslog server
  • License an ESXi host

Tools

+ Section 2: Configure vSphere Networking
+ Objective 2.1: Configure vSphere Standard Switches (vSS)

Knowledge

  • Explain vSphere Standard Switch (vSS) capabilities
  • Create/Delete a vSphere Standard Switch
  • Add/Configure/Remove vmnics on a vSphere Standard Switch
  • Configure vmkernel ports for network services
  • Add/Edit/Remove port groups on a vSphere Standard Switch
  • Determine use case for a vSphere Standard Switch

Tools

+ Objective 2.2: Configure vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS)

Knowledge

  • Explain vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) capabilities
  • Create/Delete a vSphere Distributed Switch
  • Add/Remove ESXi Hosts from a vSphere Distributed Switch
  • Add/Configure/Remove dvPort groups
  • Add/Remove uplink adapters to dvUplink groups
  • Configure vSphere Distributed Switch general and dvPort group settings
  • Create/Configure/Remove virtual adapters
  • Migrate virtual adapters to/from a vSphere Standard Switch
  • Migrate virtual machines to/from a vSphere Distributed Switch
  • Configure LACP on Uplink port groups
  • Determine use case for a vSphere Distributed Switch

Tools

+ Objective 2.3: Configure vSS and vDS Features

Knowledge

  • Explain common vSS and vDS policies
  • Describe vDS Security Polices/Settings
  • Configure dvPort group blocking policies
  • Configure load balancing and failover policies
  • Configure VLAN/PVLAN settings
  • Configure traffic shaping policies
  • Enable TCP Segmentation Offload support for a virtual machine
  • Enable Jumbo Frames support on appropriate components
  • Given a scenario, determine appropriate VLAN configuration for a vSphere implementation

Tools

+ Section 3: Configure vSphere Storage
+ Objective 3.1: Connect Shared Storage Devices to vSphere

Knowledge

  • Explain storage naming conventions
  • Explain hardware/dependent hardware/software iSCSI initiator requirements
  • Configure FC/iSCSI/FCoE storage devices
  • Describe zoning and LUN masking practices
  • Create an NFS share for use with vSphere
  • Configure/Edit hardware/dependent hardware initiator
  • Connect/Configure NFS 3.x and 4.1 NAS devices
  • Enable/Disable software iSCSI initiator
  • Configure/Edit software iSCSI initiator settings
  • Configure iSCSI port binding
  • Enable/Configure/Disable iSCSI CHAP

Tools

+ Objective 3.2: Configure Software Defined Storage

Knowledge

  • Explain Virtual SAN (VSAN) Architecture
  • Create/Delete VSAN Cluster
  • Manage VSAN disk groups
  • Monitor VSAN storage
  • Add/Remove VSAN Nodes
  • Explain benefits of NFS 4.1
  • Determine use cases for Virtual SAN configurations

Tools

+ Objective 3.3: Create and Configure VMFS and NFS Datastores

Knowledge

  • Compare/Contrast supported NFS versions
  • Configure NFS storage for VMDK formatting
  • Configure storage multi-pathing
  • Compare/Contract VMFS3 and VMFS5
  • Configure Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS)
  • Extend/Expand VMFS Datastores
  • Place a VMFS Datastore in Maintenance Mode

Tools

+ Section 4: Deploy and Administer Virtual Machines and vApps
+ Objective 4.1: Create and Deploy Virtual Machines

Knowledge

  • Place virtual machines in selected ESXi Hosts/Clusters/Resource Pools
  • Configure and deploy a Guest OS into a new virtual machine
  • Configure/Modify virtual hardware:
    • CPU
    • RAM
    • Disk
    • vNIC
  • Create/Convert thin/thick provisioned virtual disks
  • Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware
  • Configure PCI Pass-through and Direct I/O
  • Configure virtual machine time synchronization

Tools

+ Objective 4.2: Create and Deploy vApps

Knowledge

  • Create/Deploy/Clone a vApp
  • Add objects to an existing vApp
  • Edit vApp settings
  • Configure IP pools
  • Suspend/Resume a vApp

Tools

+ Objective 4.3: Manage Virtual Machine Clones and Templates

Knowledge

  • Explain Cloning and Template options
  • Clone an existing virtual machine
  • Create a template from an existing virtual machine
  • Deploy a virtual machine from a template
  • Update existing virtual machine templates
  • Deploy virtual appliances and/or vApps from an OVF template
  • Import an OVF template
  • Create a Local Library
  • Create a Remote Library with/without external storage
  • Publish/Subscribe/Share Content Library
  • Deploy a virtual machine from a content library

Tools

+ Objective 4.4: Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

Knowledge

  • Explain files used by virtual machines
  • Explain common practices for securing virtual machines
  • Hot Extend a virtual disk
  • Configure virtual machine options
  • Configure virtual machine power settings
  • Configure virtual machine boot options
  • Administer virtual machine snapshots
  • Assign a Storage Policy to a virtual machine
  • Verify Storage Policy compliance for virtual machines
  • Adjust virtual machine resources
  • Differentiate between stop/shutdown/reboot/restart of a virtual machine

Tools

+ Section 5: Establish and Maintain Availability and Resource Management Features
+ Objective 5.1: Create and Configure VMware Clusters

Knowledge

  • Determine how DRS and HA are applicable to an environment
  • Create/Delete a DRS/HA Cluster
  • Add/Remove ESXi Hosts from a DRS/HA Cluster
  • Add/Remove virtual machines from a DRS/HA Cluster
  • Configure Storage DRS
  • Configure Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
  • Monitor a DRS/HA Cluster
  • Configure migration thresholds for DRS and virtual machines
  • Configure automation levels for DRS and virtual machines
  • Enable/Configure/Disable Host Power Management/Distributed Power Management
  • Enable/Disable Host Monitoring
  • Enable/Configure/Disable virtual machine and application monitoring

Tools

+ Objective 5.2: Plan and Implement VMware Fault Tolerance

Knowledge

  • Configure VMware Fault Tolerance networking
  • Given a scenario, determine an appropriate VMware Fault Tolerance configuration
  • Enable/Disable VMware Fault Tolerance on a virtual machine
  • Test a Fault Tolerant configuration
  • Determine use case for enabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a virtual machine

Tools

+ Objective 5.3: Create and Administer Resource Pools

Knowledge

  • Explain vFlash architecture
  • Explain use cases for Resource Pools
  • Create/Remove a Resource Pool
  • Configure Resource Pool attributes
  • Add/Remove virtual machines from a Resource Pool
  • Create/Delete vFlash Resource Pool
  • Assign vFlash resources to VMDKs
  • Determine Resource Pool requirements for a given vSphere implementation

Tools

+ Objective 5.4: Migrate Virtual Machines

Knowledge

  • Explain Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
  • Explain Long Distance vMotion
  • Explain process for vMotion/Storage vMotion migrations
  • Configure virtual machine swap file location
  • Migrate a powered-off or suspended virtual machine
  • Migrate virtual machines using vMotion/Storage vMotion

Tools

+ Objective 5.5: Backup and Restore Virtual Machines

Knowledge

  • Explain VMware Data Protection sizing Guidelines
  • Describe vSphere Replication architecture
  • Install and Configure VMware Data Protection
  • Create a backup job with VMware Data Protection
  • Perform a live full/file-level restore with VMware Data Protection
  • Create/Delete/Consolidate virtual machine snapshots
  • Perform a failback operation using vSphere Replication
  • Determine appropriate backup solution for a given vSphere implementation

Tools

+ Objective 5.6: Update ESXi and Virtual Machines

Knowledge

  • Create/Edit/Remove a Host Profile from an ESXi host
  • Attach/Apply a Host Profile to an ESXi host or cluster
  • Perform compliance scanning and remediation of an ESXi host using Host Profiles
  • Install and Configure vCenter Update Manager
  • Configure patch download options
  • Create/Edit/Delete an Update Manager baseline
  • Attach an Update Manager baseline to an ESXi host or cluster
  • Scan and remediate ESXi Hosts and virtual machines using Update Manager

Tools

+ Section 6: Perform Basic Troubleshooting
+ Objective 6.1: Perform Basic Troubleshooting of ESXi and vCenter Server

Knowledge

  • Troubleshoot common installation issues
  • Monitor status of ESXi management agents
  • Determine ESXi host stability issues and gather diagnostics information
  • Export diagnostic information
  • Monitor status of the vCenter Server service
  • Perform basic maintenance of a vCenter Server database

Tools

+ Objective 6.2: Perform Basic Troubleshooting of ESXi and vCenter Operations

Knowledge

  • Verify network configuration
  • Troubleshoot common storage issues
  • Troubleshoot common virtual machine issues
  • Given a scenario, verify a virtual machine is configured with the correct network resources
  • Troubleshoot virtual switch and port group configuration issues
  • Troubleshoot physical network adapter configuration issues
  • Recognize and detect common knowledge base article solutions

Tools

+ Objective 6.3: Perform Basic Troubleshooting of Virtual Machine Operations

Knowledge

  • Troubleshoot virtual machine resource contention issues
  • Recognize and detect:
    • Fault Tolerant network latency issues
    • VMware Tools installation issues
    • Virtual machines states
    • Virtual machine constraints
    • Guest OS installation issues
  • Given a scenario, determine root cause of a storage issue based on troubleshooting information
  • Explain common virtual machine boot disk errors

Tools

+ Objective 6.4: IIdentify and Troubleshoot Basic Misconfigurations

Knowledge

  • Troubleshoot:
    • Virtual switch and distributed switches port group configuration issues
    • Physical network adapter configuration issues
    • NFS networking configuration issues
    • iSCSI software initiator configuration issues
    • HA configuration and redundancy issues
    • DRS Resource Distribution Graph
    • vMotion/Storage vMotion migration issues
  • Interpret vMotion Resource Maps
  • Given a scenario, verify a virtual machine is configured with the correct network resources

Tools

+ Section 7: Monitor a vSphere Implementation
+ Objective 7.1: Monitor ESXi, vCenter Server and Virtual Machines

Knowledge

  • Explain:
    • Common memory metrics
    • Common CPU metrics
    • Common network metrics
    • Common storage metrics
  • Configure SNMP for vCenter Server
  • Configure SMTP settings for vCenter Server
  • Create a log bundle
  • Create/Edit/Delete a Scheduled Task
  • Configure/View/Print/Export resource maps
  • Start/Stop/Verify vCenter Server service status
  • Start/Stop/Verify ESXi host agent status
  • Configure vCenter Server timeout settings
  • Identify vCenter Server connection object status
  • Create an Advanced Chart

Tools

+ Objective 7.2: Create and Administer vCenter Server Alarms

Knowledge

  • List vCenter Server default utilization alarms
  • List vCenter Server default connectivity alarms
  • List possible actions for utilization and connectivity alarms
  • Create a vCenter Server utilization alarm
  • Create a vCenter Server connectivity alarm
  • Configure alarm triggers
  • Configure alarm actions
  • For a given alarm, identify the affected resource in a vSphere implementation

Tools

+ Objective 7.3: Install, Configure, and Manage vCenter Operations Manager

Knowledge

  • Differentiate Major/Minor vRealize Operations Manager badges
  • Explain vRealize Operations Manager architecture
  • Deploy and Configure vRealize Operations Manager appliance
  • Upgrade vRealize Operations Manager
  • Understand metrics used by Major/Minor vRealize Operations Manager badges
  • Monitor vSphere environment
  • For a given alarm, identify the affected resource in a vSphere implementation

Tools

Nov 27

VMware vCenter 6.0 VCSA – Where is the .OVA?

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Um, Yeah, there is no OVA with vCenter Server Appliance 6.0

We take a quick look at setting up vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.0 since it’s a bit different with no .OVA option. In fact, there is a VMware KB article they created because so many people were asking where to find the .ova download. With 6.0, there is ONLY an .ISO.  That’s the only option to download. You should be able to download VCSA 6.0 or VCSA 6.0U1 here.

If you remember the old process, you could set up one host, connect to the host with vSphere Client, and then import the .OVA and you’d be up and running in mere minutes.

Fortunately, the new process is almost as simple, as long as you get a couple of pieces right up front. Please watch the video from our YouTube Channel and we walk through the process. Essentially, you 1) download the .iso, 2) install the Client Integration Plugin and 3) install / push / import the VCSA to a host.

Jun 24

How to create RDM mappings for SQL Clustering with MSCS on VMware 6.0

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How to create RDM mappings for SQL Clustering with MSCS on VMware 6.0

Using vSphere 6.0

For the sake of this discussion, we’re building two VMs for use in a two node failover MSCS cluster for SQL 2012.  We’ll simply call them A and B.

We will be using the Web Client for this, since that’s the direction VMware is pushing. However, the Fat (C#) client is faster for this task as it takes fewer steps.  For example, on the fat client, when you create the first RDM mapping, it will automatically create a new, second SCSI controller. When on the web client, you have to manually create the SCSI controller first, then start building the RDM drives.

The documentation in the 6.0 documents is very sparse, and I don’t think it’s even complete or accurate so this took a bit of effort to figure out and get set up.

Add a new SCSI Controller (we had issues with other “types” and use VMware Paravirtual exclusively now)
mscs2mscs1

Add a new disk;
mscs3Select the target LUN by LUN ID;
mscs4

Choose your new SCSI controller 1 (not like picture) and pick an unused SCSI ID.
mscs5

 

This shows the proper SCSI controller and ID selection.
mscs6

After creating this, go to the Windows OS on A, bring disk online, initialize, format, name, label, etc.

Now go to server Node B and add a RDM pointing to that exact same file.
mscs7

You told it to store the VMDK pointer “with the server” so go to that datastore and fine the VMDK that was created by the new drive creation on A. When you create this drive in VMware on B, then you can go into the OS on the B node and the drive should show up there labeled and formatted and drive lettered.

If you keep track of it as you go, you can add several drives at once on A (2,3,4,5,6,7…) and it will create them all at once, then go over to B and add/create them all at once. But you have to keep your VMDK names and LUN IDs straight so you know which one is which. Doing one at a time is slower but less confusing.

 

How to tell (after it’s created) which VMDK file a new RDM is using on A, so you can find the correct VMDK when you create B;

Go to “Edit Settings” then at the top there is a “Manage other disks”
mscs8

Open that button, then drop down the details on the disk you’re looking at and it will show you the VMDK and datastore. This VMDK is just a “pointer” or “mapping” file to the LUN.
mscs9

mscs10

mscs11

Pick the SAME SCSI controller and port that you did on A;
mscs6
ISSUES ENCOUNTERED;

Set LUNS as “perennially reserved”.  If this is not set right, the ESX HOST will take HOURS to boot, depending on how many RDMs it has to scan. Ours took 2.75 to boot. When this was set right via esxcli, they would boot in about 6 minutes, counting the HP specific boot processes. This is addressed in this KB, scroll down to the “perennially reserved” section. ESXi/ESX hosts with visibility to RDM LUNs being used by MSCS nodes with RDMs may take a long time to start or during LUN rescan (1016106)

 

EXPANDING RDM sizes. 

PARAVIRTUAL driver

Jan 23

What’s new in VMware vSphere 5.5

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What’s new in VMware vSphere 5.5

With the release of vSphere 5.5 it might be time to take a quick look at what is new, and determine if there are compelling reasons to pursue 5.5.  vSphere 5.5 is being called vSphere 2x because many of the configuration maximums have doubled.

  • Increased Maximum RAM and vCPUs per Host
    • Increased maximum supported RAM from 2TB to 4TB
    • Increased logical CPUs per host from 160 to 320
  • Increased vCPU per host
    • Increased from 2,048 to 4,096
  • Increased VMDK file size
    • Increased from 2TB to 62TB for both VMS-5 and NFS

vmware-wallpaper

Other advancements include;

  • Increased NUMA support
  • Support for CPU C-States
  • Scalability Enhancements for the free vSphere Hypervisor
  • Improved network performance
  • Expanded GPU support
  • APP HA
  • Latency Sensitivity
  • vCenter SSO
  • BDE (Big Data Extensions) to allow deployment and management of Hadoop clusters. Yayy!
  • Traffic filtering enhancements

 

For more detail on these enhancements, please refer to the following links;
Summary of what’s new from VMware Blogs
Windows IT Pro – top 10 features
VMware KB on 5.5 – what’s new