VMWare Basic things to start with

Those who already know basics about VM Ware or already working on this technology can skip reading this article. But if you are aspirant to learn this technology and want to make your careers then here are few basic things.

It is very important that one should be comfortable with networking, subnetting type of storage and should have worked System Engineer on windows, Linux platforms. Though these are not the madatory requirements but these will make learning easier. If you are comfortable with above mentioned things then it will be very much helpful to do your homework before enrolling for classroom training. Because VMWare Certification is not possible without minimum 5 days of classroom training from an authorised VMWare training partner. As 5 days classroom training is approx. 45000/- (US $ 1000), so home work before going for classroom training become very important. The first thing you can do is join VM Ware community http://communities.vmware.com/. The community will let you know what experts are talking about. The next thing you can do is little hands on. The trial software can be downloaded from VM Ware website. http://www.vmware.com/support. You will find Various products listed on VM Ware's official website but the one we will be discussing about is Esxi 4.x, the one which will be used in data center. All relevant documents can be found on VM ware website.

VMWare vSpher Introduction

VMWare vSphere leverages the power of virtualisation to transform datacenters into simplified cloud computing infrastructures and enables IT organisations to deliver flexible and reliable IT services. VMWare vSphere virtualises and aggregates the underlying physical hardware resources across multiple systems and provides pools of virtual resources to the datacenter. As a cloud oprating system. VMWare vSphere manages large collections of infrastructure, such as CPUs, Storage and networking, as a seamless and dynamic oprating environment and also manages the complexity of a datacenter. The following component layers make up VMWare vSphere

---->>Infrastructure Services,

---->>Application Services,

---->>VMware vCenter Server

---->>Clients

The very important thing about VMWare esxi 4.x is that this is plateform independent which means it is directly installed on baremetal. The previously VMware had ESX which came with service console but with lauch of esxi 4.x VMware had obselete the ESX which means no more service console. The ESXi 4.1 foot print is as small as 32 mb. You initiate the installation and no keyboard input required. The hardware vendors like Dell (I will talk about Dell because am skilled on Dell PE servers) has esxi 4.1 embedded. You create vritual machines running Services like DC, AD. Exchange servers, file/print servers, db server on top of this 32 mb footprint.

Creating of VMs on ESXi Host

To start with process of creating first virtual machine, launch VM ware vSphere Client. Log-in with the credentials which were set while configuration. One you are successfully logged in, you will see your ESXi host name on the left pan. On the right pan click on Configuration tab and go through all sub tab which is very important to understand. Another important thing to do upon first login is to add license to your host.

Once you have gone through all settings, click on getting started tab and click on 'Create a New Virtual Machine'. Wizard will launch where you can choose require CPUs, RAM, Storage and all other hardware requirement for the VM by following wizard. As there will be requirement to create several VMs on your ESXi host, so naming convention should be pre-decided to name all VMs on your host. Please remember Virtual Machines are very important component of Virtual Infrastructure so choose correct resources as per requirement of that VM. All virtual devices attached to a VM will function like physical hardware on a machine. Once 'Create a new Virtual Machine' wizard complete you will see complete page. It is recommend to review configuration at this point. If you need to see stepe by step configuration/selection of CPU/RAM/DATA store/Networking etc. then please refere 'vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide ESXi 4.1'. Though we have completed the VM creation part but it is still incomplete until we install an Operating System. You know, what operating system you had selected during the VM creation wizards (e.g. windows server 2008), so please insert respective disk or make sure ISO is present in datastore and start your VM. The OS installation process is as simple as installing it on physical machine. If some one want detailed explaination about this then please refer http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html and select appropriate OS. Once installation is complete, please do install vm ware tools. If you are installing your OS from ISO image then please make slight changes on your VM configuration as below but rest of the proces is as installing from a CD/DVD:

a) Right-click the virtual machine in the inventory list and select Edit Settings.
b) Click the Hardware tab and select CD/DVD Drive.
c) In the Device Type panel, select Datastore ISO File and browse for the ISO image for your guest operating system.

A virtual machine consists of several types of files that you store on a supported storage device. The key files that make up a virtual machine are the configuration file, virtual disk file, NVRAM setting file, and the log file. You configure virtual machine settings through the vSphere Client and should not need to touch these files. Below is overview of these important files of a Virtual machine:

File , Usage , Description

.vmx , vmname.vmx , Virtual machine configuration file
.vmxf , vmname.vmxf , Additional virtual machine configuration files
.vmdk , vmname.vmdk , Virtual disk characteristics
-flat.vmdk, vmname-flat.vmdk, Preallocated virtual disk
.nvram , vmname.nvram or nvram, Virtual machine BIOS

.vmsd , vmname.vmsd , Virtual machine snapshots
.vmsn, vmname.vmsn , Virtual machine snapshot data file
.vswp , vmname.vswp Virtual machine swap file
.vmss , vmname.vmss , Virtual machine suspend file
.log, vmware.log , Current virtual machine log file
-#.log , vmware-#.log , Old virtual machine log entries (where # is a number starting with 1)

Cloning and creating Templates

So far we have discuss how to create one VM but in some time we might have to create 100 VMs. So creating that number of VMs manually is tidious and boring task. This is time when Cloning or creating Template comes into picture. Cloning and template serves common purpose to certain extent but these are entirely different things. Clining is a copy of existing VMs with all installed softwares, OS etc. but we have option to edit few things while Cloning which are computer name , networking settings etc. Cloning a virtual machine can save time if you are deploying many similar virtual machines. You can create,configure, and install software on a single virtual machine, and then clone it multiple times, rather than creating
and configuring each virtual machine individually.

If you create a virtual machine that you want to clone frequently, make that virtual machine a template. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create and provision virtual machines. Templates cannot be powered on or edited, and are more difficult to alter than ordinary virtual machine. A template offers a more secure way of preserving a virtual machine configuration that you want to deploy many times.

CLONING OR CREATING TEMPLATES ARE DONE WHEN CONNECTED TO vCENTER. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE WHILE CONNECTING DIRECTLY TO ESXi HOST

The resultant machines which are copied by clone or template are independent from original. Any changes done on original are not refletected on its copies. The pocedure to clone a machine as below:

Steps to Clone a machine

Connect to vCenter and Right click the VM to be cloned >> click clone >> Enter Vm name and follow all the steps as per wizard>>> at the end you can click finish and power on this VM or select Edit this VM as necessary. We can schedule to clone a machine but from vCenter.

Steps to Create a Template

To create a Template your ESXi host should be managed from vCenter. Template can't be created by connecting to ESXi host directly. Create a VM and turn it off. Right Click >> Convert to template and vCenter will convert that machine to template. You can't edit or power on this template until it is converted back to a VM.

Cloning a Virtual Machine to a Template

This process will create a copy of the virtual machine while leaving the original virtual machine in place. Here is the procedure:

1 Right-click the virtual machine and select Template > Clone to Template.
2 Give the new template a name, select its inventory location, and click Next.
3 Pass through the target location page and click Next.
4 Specify in which format to store the template’s virtual disks (same format/thin/thick provisioning) and click Next.
5 Click Finish. vCenter Server displays the Tasks inventory panel for reference and adds the cloned template to the list in the information panel.

Clone a Template

Connect to vCenter server and right click the Template >> select clone. Give this cloned template a unique name >> choose cluster or host this to reside on >> select data store >> choose disk formate (same/thin/thick) >> review and/or finish.

How to Delpoy Virtual Machine from Template

Make sure you are connected to vCenter server >> right click the template >> Deploy Virtaul machine from this template >> Select Host or Cluster to run this machine on (stand alone host/on a cluster with DRS/on a Cluster without DRS) >> Resource pool >> Data store (same or different locations) >> disk format (same/thin/thick)>>Guest OS >> finish to turn on this VM or edit.

There are few other things while playing around with Cloning, Templates etc. are Deleting Templates from vCenter inventory which means a template is deleted from inventory but still remain on the disk which can be re-registered, Deleting Templates from Disk means it is deleted permanently, Re-registering Templates is for the templates which were deleted from vCenter inventory.