Mastering VMware vSphere 5

Scott Lowe, VCDX, has been in IT for more than 17 years and is a VMware vExpert, an honor granted by VMware to individuals whose work in the VMware community has made a significant impact. He is currently the Chief Technology Officer for the vSpecialist team at EMC Corporation, where he specializes in the integration of VMware, Cisco, and EMC solutions, products, and technologies. Scott is the author of Mastering VMware vSphere 4 and coauthor of VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference and VMware vSphere Design. He is also a former contributor to SearchVMware.com and SearchServerVirtualization.com, and a former columnist for Virtualization Review magazine. Scott's top-rated VMware/virtualization blog is blog.scottlowe.org.

Introductionxxi

Chapter 1Introducing VMware vSphere 51

Exploring VMware vSphere 5 1

Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite 3

Examining the Features in VMware vSphere 8

Why Choose vSphere? 20

The Bottom Line 22

Chapter 2Planning and Installing VMware ESXi 23

Planning a VMware vSphere Deployment 23

Selecting ESXi Installable or ESXi Embedded 24

Choosing a Server Platform 25

Determining a Storage Architecture 26

Integrating with the Network Infrastructure 27

Deploying VMware ESXi 29

Installing VMware ESXi Interactively 29

Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi 35

Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy 40

Deploying VMware ESXi Embedded 46

Performing Post-installation Confi guration 47

Installing the vSphere Client 47

Reconfi guring the Management Network 50

Confi guring Time Synchronization 52

The Bottom Line 53

Chapter 3Installing and Confi guring vCenter Server55

Introducing vCenter Server 55

Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Server 57

Providing an Extensible Framework 59

Choosing the Version of vCenter Server 60

Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deployment 61

Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server 62

Choosing a Database Server for vCenter Server 63

Planning for vCenter Server Availability 65

Running vCenter Server in a VM 67

Installing vCenter Server 68

Confi guring the vCenter Server Backend Database Server 69

Running the vCenter Server Installer 75

Installing vCenter Server in a Linked Mode Group 80

Deploying the vCenter Server Virtual Appliance 84

Accepting the End-User License Agreement 87

Confi guring the Database 88

Starting the vCenter Server Services 88

Exploring vCenter Server 88

Whats in the vCenter Server Home Screen? 89

Using the Navigation Bar 90

Creating and Managing a vCenter Server Inventory 90

Understanding Inventory Views and Objects 91

Creating and Adding Inventory Objects 93

Exploring vCenter Server's Management Features 97

Understanding Basic Host Management 97

Examining Basic Host Confi guration 99

Using Scheduled Tasks 101

Using Events View in vCenter Server 103

Using vCenter Server's Maps 104

Working with Host Profiles 106

Managing vCenter Server Settings 108

Custom Attributes 109

vCenter Server Settings 111

Roles 116

Sessions 116

Edit Message of the Day 116

Export System Logs 116

The Bottom Line 118

Chapter 4Installing and Confi guring vSphere Update Manager121

Overview of vSphere Update Manager 121

Installing vSphere Update Manager 123

Defi ning the Requirements 124

Confi guring VUMs Database 125

Creating the Open Database Connectivity Data Source Name 128

Installing VUM 129

Installing the Update Manager Download Service (Optional) 132

Installing the vSphere Update Manager Plug-in 133

Reconfi guring the VUM or UMDS Installation with the Update Manager Utility 134

Upgrading VUM from a Previous Version 1...