Module 2: Introduction to vSphere and the Software-Defined Data Center

Hybrid cloud

-Build a true hybrid cloud with common infrastructure and consistent operational model, connecting your on-premise and off-premise data center that is compatible, stretched, and distributed

Virtual CD/DVD drive or floppy drive can point to these devices

-CD/DVD drive on ESXi host -CD/DVD ISO image (.iso) or floppy (.flp) images -CD/DVD or floppy drive on your local system note: ISO file is a byte-for-byte copy of a CD or DVD that has been ripped

VMware Host Client, vSphere Web Client, and vSphere Client benefits

-Clean, modern UI -no browser plug-ins to install or manage -Integrated into vCenter Server and ESXi

VM consists of these files

-Configuration file (.vmx), converted to template it becomes (.vmtx) -one or more virtual disk files. first virtual disk has files (VM_name.vmdk and VM_nameflat.vmdk) -file containing VM's BIOS settings (.nvram) -VM's current log file (.log) and a set of files used to archive old log entries (-#.log), up to 6 archive log files are maintained at one time -Swap files (.vswp) used to reclaim memory during periods of contention -snapshot description file (vmsd). file is empty if VM has no snapshots, can be raw device mappings or if one or more snapshots were taken

types of communication exist

-Datagrams: Connectionless and similar to UDP queue pairs -Connection oriented: Similar to TCP

vSphere Web Client no longer depends on these functions

-Datastore file upload/download -OVF Export/Deploy -Content Library Import/Export -remaining function that it depends on is Windows Session Authentication

desktop Virtualization

-Deploying desktops as a managed service -enables you to respond more quickly o changing needs and opportunities

Physical Machines obstructs

-Difficult to move or copy -Bound to a specific set of hardware components -often have a short lifecycle -require personal contact to upgrade hardware

NIC types are supported

-E1000E -E1000 -Flexible -Vlance -VMXNET2 (Enhanced) -VMXNET3

E1000E

-Emulated version of Intel 82574 Gigabit Ethernet NIC -default adapter for windows 8 and windows server 2012

business Continuity

-Fault Tolerance and Disaster Recovery -Backup and Restore -Replication

2-22: About vSphere Client

-HTML5-based and has no dependence on adobe flex -uses same java server as vSphere Web Client -can manage vCenter Server Appliance through a web browser, but adobe flex does not have to be enabled in browser -can access at https://your_vCenter_Server_Appliance/ui

2-23: About VMware Host Client

-HTML5-based thin client that you can use to manage hosts directly when vCenter Server is unavailable -can access at https://your_ESXi_host/ui -provides direct management access to indicidual ESXi hosts

2-16: Physical and Virtualized Host Memory Usage

-In a physical environment, OS assumes ownership of all physical memory in system -Memory virtualization emphasizes performance and runs directly on available RAM

Virtual NVMe

-Intel specification for attaching and accessing flash storage devices to PCI Express bus -an alternative to existing block-based sever storage I/O access protocols

LSI Logic Parallel

-LSI Logic LSI53C10xx Ultra320 SCSI I/o controller is supported

LSI Logic SAS

-LSI Logic SAS adapter has a serial interface

ESXi supports these different classes of adapters

-SCSI -iSCSI -RAID -Fibre Channel -Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) -Ethernet -accesses adapters directly through device drivers in VMkernel

Different types of Virtualization

-Server virtualization -network virtualization -storage virtualization -desktop virtualization

software-defined data center components

-Service Management -Cloud Management Layer -Virtual infrastructure layer -physical layer -security

2-29: About Thick-Provisioned Virtual Disks

-Thick provisioning uses all defined disk space at creation of virtual disk -VM disks consume all capacity, as defined at creation, regardless of amount data in guest OS file system

vSphere DirectPath I/O

-VM access to physical PCI network functions on platforms with an I/O memory management unit features unavailable for VMs configured with vSphere DirectPath I/O: -Hot adding and removing of virtual devices -Suspend and resume -Record and replay -Fault tolerance -High availability -VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler: Limited availability. VM can be part of a cluster, but cannot migrate across hosts -Snapshots

types of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors

-VM compatibility level (or hardware version), which depends on host that created or most recently updated it -Whether or not VM compatibility is updated to latest version for current host -Guest OS

2-24: about Virtual Machine Files

-VM includes a set of related files

2-34: about miscellaneous device

-VM must have a vCPU and virtual memory additional virtual devices makes VM more useful: -CD/DVD drive: connect to a CD, DVD, or ISO image -USB 3.0: Supported with host-connected and client-connected devices on Linux or Windows 8/Server 2012 -Floppy drive: connect a VM to a floppy drive or a floppy image -Generic SCSI devices: VM can be connected to additional SCSI adapters -vGPUs: enable a VM to use GPUs on physical host for high-computation activities

2-17: Physical and Virtual Networking

-Virtual Ethernet adapters and virtual switches are key virtual networking components

VMXNET3

-a paravirtualized NIC designed for performance -offers all features available in VMXNET2 and adds several new features like multiqueue support (also known as receive side scaling in windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery

guest OS failure has no effect on following items

-ability of users to access other virtual machines -ability of operational virtual machines to access resources hat they must have -performance of other virtual machines

2-27: about CPU and Memory

-add, change, or configure CPU and memory resources to improve VM performance -VM running on an ESXi 6.x host can have up to 128 vCPUs -maximum memory size of a VM depends on VM's compatibility setting maximum number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) that you can assign to a VM depends of these factors -number of logical CPUs on host -type of installed guest OS

Server Virtualization

-addresses these inefficiencies by allowing multiple OSs to run on a single physical server as VMs -each with access to underlying server's computing resources

Software-defined data center

-all infrastructure is virtualized -control of data center is entirely automated by software -vSphere is foundation of software-defined data center -deployed with isolated computing, storage, networking, and security resources that are faster then the traditional, hardware-based data center -resources (CPU, memory, disk and network etc.) abstracted into files thereby enabling all benefits of virtualization at all levels of infrastructure, independent of physical infrastructure below

2-12: Virtual Machine: Guest and Consumer of ESXi Host

-any application in any OS can run in a virtual machine (guest) and consume CPU, memory, disk, and network from host-based resources -VM is an abstraction in software of a physical machine turning components into files that act like physical components

IT automation

-automate infrastructure and application delivery with self-service capabilities

VMXNET2 (Enhanced)

-based on VMXNET adapter but provides high-performance features commonly used on modern networks like jumbo frames and hardware offloads -available only for some guest OSs on ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later -not supported for ESXi 6.7 and later

VMware vSphere Web Client

-browser-based -fully extensible -platform-independent user interface -based on Adobe Flex -has an HTML5-based client also in vSphere Client -provides a complete set of functionally to enable you to manage VMware vCenter Server Appliance through a web browser

Network Virtualization

-complete reproduction of a physical network in software -Applications run on virtual network just like if on a physical network

vSphere Web Client UI features

-custom attributes -object tabs -live refresh -presented with other performance and usability improvements

Security

-customers use this layer of platform to meet demanding compliance requirements for virtualized workloads and manage business risk -Governance -Risk -Compliance

memory resource settings for a VM

-determines how much of host's memory is allocated to VM -reconfigure amount of memory allocated to a VM to enhance performance

Virtual machines benefits

-easy to move or copy: Encapsulated into files, Independent of physical hardware -Easy to manage: isolated from other virtual machines running on same physical hardware, Insulated from physical hardware changes

Vlance

-emulated version of AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, an older 10 Mbps NIC with drivers available in 32-bit legacy guest OSs -VM configured with this network adapter can use its network immediately

Virtual Switches

-enable VMs on same ESXi host to communicate with one another by using same protocols that are used over physical switches, without need for additional hardware -support VLANs that are compatible with standard VLAN implantations from other networking equipment vendors -like a physical ethernet switch, forwards frames at data link layer -capable of binding multiple vmnics together like NIC teaming on a traditional server, offering greater availability and bandwidth to VMs using virtual switch -similar to modern physical ethernet switches in many ways -isolated and has its own forwarding table -do not require Spanning Tree Protocol, bc a single-tier networking topology is enforced -provide all ports that you need in one switch -do not need to be cascaded bc virtual switches do not share physical ethernet adapters and leaks do not occur between virtual switches

Virtual memory

-enables OSs to present more memory to applications than they physically have access to -creates a uniform virtual address space applications and enables OS and hardware to handle address translation between virtual address space and physical address space

2-31: about virtual networks

-enables communication between VMs and physical machines when you configure networking for a VM, you select or change following items: -network adapter type -port group to connect to -network connection state -whether or not to connect to network when VM powers on

software emulator

-enables programs to run on a computer system other than one for which they were originally written

Virtual Infrastructure Layer

-establishes a robust virtualized environment into which all other solutions integrate -includes virtualization platform for Hypervisor, pools of resources, and virtualization control -additional processes and technologies build on infrastructure to enable infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) -hypervisor -pools of resources -virtualization control

Cloud Infrastructure

-exploit high performance, availability, scalability of VMware software-defined data center to run mission-critical applications like databases, web apps, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

Cloud Computing

-exploits efficient pooling of an on-demand, self-managed, and virtual infrastructure -model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, and on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources

vSphere

-foundation of technology that enables shared and configurable resource pools -abstracts physical resources of data center of separate workload from physical hardware

VMware Paravirtual SCSI

-high-performance storage adapter -provide greater throughput and lower CPU use

Flexible

-identifies itself as a vlance adapter when a VM boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver initializes it -with VMware tools installed, VMXNET driver changes vlance adapter to higher performance VM<XNET adapter

2-15: CPU Virtualization

-in a physical environment, OS assumes ownership of all physical CPUs in system -emphasizes performance and runs directly on available CPUs -not emulation -when many VMs are running on an ESXi host, those VMs might compete for CPU resources

Cloud Management Layer

-includes service catalog -houses facilities to be deployed, orchestration, provides workflows to deploy catalog items, and self-service portal that allows end users to use SDDC -Service catalog -self-service portal -orchestration

VMware Host Client

-introduced in vSphere 6.0 U2 -provides direct management of individual ESXi hosts -generally used only when management through VMware vCenter Server is not possible

BusLogic Parallel

-latest Mylex (BusLogic) BT/KT-958 compatible host bus adapter

datastores

-logical containers that hide specifics of physical storage from VMs -provide a uniform model for storing VM files -ESXi uses this to store virtual disk

Physical Layer

-lowest layer of solution -includes compute, storage, and network components -compute -storage -network

virtual CPU

-max number of vCPUs that can assign to a VM depends on number of logical CPUs on host and type of guest OS that is installed on VM -cannot be more vCPUs than number of logical CPUs on host

2-14: Physical Resource Sharing

-multiple VMs, running a physical host, share compute, memory, network, and storage resources of host -VMs sharing resources of one physical computer across multiple environments -VMs share access to CPUs and are scheduled to run by hypervisor -when multiple VMs run on an ESXi host, each VM is allocated a portion of physical resources

Virtualization

-process of creating a software-based representation of something physical -like a server, desktop, network, or storage device -single most effective wat to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility for all business sizes -technology that abstracts physical components into software components and provides solutions for many problems that IT staff faces -enables you to consolidate and run multiple workloads as VMs on a single computer

storage virtualization

-process of creating software-based representation of network storage devices into what appears to be a single unit

storage adapter

-provide connectivity for your ESXi host to a specific storage unit or network

VDI

-provides a complete solution for VDI deployment at scale -simplifies planning and design with standardized and tested solutions fully optimized for VDI workloads

Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI)

-provides a high-speed communication channel between a virtual machine and hypervisor -cannot add or remove VMCI devices -infrastructure that provides fast and efficient communication between a virtual machine and host OS -provides socket APIs that are very similar to APIs that are already used for TCP/UDP applications -IP addresses are replaced with VMCI ID numbers

AHCI SATA controller

-provides access to virtual disks and CD/DVD devices -SATA virtual controller appears to a VM as an AHCI SATA controller -available only for VMs with ESXi 5.5 and later compatibility

SATA controller

-provides access to virtual disks and CD/DVD devices -SATA virtual controller appears to a virtual machine as an AHCI SATA controller

PVRDMA (paravirtualized remote direct memory access)

-provides an RDMA-like interface for vSphere guests -allows multiple guests to access RDMA device by using verbs API, an industry-standard interface PVRDMA supports RDMA, providing these functions: -OS bypass -Zero-copy -Low latency and high bandwidth -Less power usage and faster data access

VMware Cloud Foundation

-provides integrated cloud infrastructure (Compute, Storage, Networking and Security) -cloud management services to run enterprise applications in both private and public environments -extends vSphere core hypervisor with integrated software-defined storage, networking, and security capabilities that can be consumed flexibly on premises or as a service in public cloud (VMware Cloud on AWS or VMware cloud providers)

optional enhanced authentication plug-in

-provides integrated windows authentication and windows-based smart-card functionally

2-35: about the Virtual Machine Console

-provides mouse, keyboard, and screen features to control VMs -use standalone VMware Remote Console Application (VMRC) to connect to client devices

Emulation

-provides portability, but might negatively affect performance

SR-IOV pass-through

-representation of a virtual function on a physical NIC with SR-IOV support -suitable for VMs that require more CPU resources or where latency might cause failure -provide direct access to virtual functions of supported physical NICs, bypassing virtual switches and hence reducing overhead -VM and physical adapter exchange data without using VMkernel as an intermediary: Limited guest OS support -available in ESXi 5.5 and later for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and later, and windows server 2008 R2 with SP2

virtual machine

-software representation of a physical computer and components -includes a set of specification and configuration files and backed by physical resources of a host -have an OS, VMware tools, virtual resources like CPU and memory, network adapters, disks and controllers, Parallel and serial ports

Thick Provision Lazy-Zeroed

-space required for virtual disk is allocated during creation -data remaining on physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on first write from VM -type is default disk type -every block in this provisioned disk is filled with a zero when data is written to block -when you create a virtual disk, this is one of the types that are available Creation time: fast block allocation: fully preallocated virtual disk layout: higher chance of contiguous file blocks Zeroing out of allocated file blocks : file blocks are zeroed out when each block is first written to

Thick Provision Eager-Zeroed

-space required for virtual disk is allocated during creation -data remaining on physical device is zeroed out when disk is created -every block in this provision disk is prefilled with a zero -when you create a virtual disk, this is one of the types that are available Creation time: slow and proportional to disk size block allocation: fully preallocated virtual disk layout: higher chance of contiguous file blocks Zeroing out of allocated file blocks : file blocks are allocated and zeroed out when disk is created

VMware vSphere VMFS format

-special high-performance file system format that is optimized for storing VMs -provides an interface to storage resources so that several storage protocols (Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over ethernet, iSCSI) can be used to access datastores on which VMs can reside -forges link between VM and underlying storage resources

VMware tools

-suite of utilities that you install in OS of a virtual machine -improves performance and management of VM

Service Management

-use service management to track and analyze operation of multiple data sources in multiregional SDDC -Deploy vRealize Operations Manager and vRealize Log Insight across in multiple nodes for continued availability and increased log ingestion rates -Portfolio management -operations management

change block tracking file (.ctk)

-used to track changes for differential backups if it is backed up with VMware vSphere Data Protection appliance or other backup software that has enabled CDP feature

Thin Provision

-uses only as much datastore space as disk initially needs -if thin disk needs more space later, it can expand to maximum capacity allocated to it Creation time: fastest block allocation: Allocated and zeroed out on demand upon first write to block. virtual disk layout: Layout varies according to dynamic state of volume at time of block allocation. Zeroing out of allocated file blocks : File blocks are zeroed out when blocks are allocated.

2-18: Comparison of Physical File Systems and Datastores

-vSphere VMFS enables a distributed storage architecture, allowing multiple ESXi hosts to read or write to shared storage concurrently

2-20: About vSphere Clients

-vSphere Web Client, vSphere client, and VMware Host Client is use to interact with vSphere environment

2-19: Virtual Machine Encapsulation

-vSphere encapsulates each VM into a set of virtual machine files, making files and objects smaller and easier to manage and migrate -VM files are stored in directories on a VMFS, NFS, VMware vSAN, or VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes datastore -files and objects for each VM are stored in a separate folder on a datastore

2-26: Virtual Hardware Versions

-version determines OS functions that a VM supports -Do not use a later version that is not supported by VMware product

2-28: about virtual storage

-virtual disks are connected to virtual storage adapters ESXi host offers several choices in storage adapters to a VM -BusLogic Parallel -LSI Logic Parallel -LSI Logic SAS -VMware Paravirtual SCSI -AGCI SATA controller -Virtual NVMe

vmnics

-virtual switch connects to external network through outbound ethernet adapters

Virtualization layer/Hypervisor

-virtualized host interacts with installed hardware through a thin layer of software -provides physical hardware resources dynamically to VMs as needed to support operation f VMs -enables VMs to operate with a degree of independence from underling physical hardware

2-32: about virtual network adapters (1)

-when you configure a VM, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify adapter type supported network adapter types: -Flexible: can function as either a Vlance or VMXNET adapter -E1000-E1000E: high-performance adapter available for only some guest OSs -VMXNET3 is available only with VMware Tools

E1000

Emulated version of Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC, with drivers available in most newer guest OS like Windows XP and later and Linux versions 2.4.19 and later

2-25: about Virtual Machine Virtual Hardware

VM hardware can have -up to 128 vCPUs -up to 6 TB of RAM -Hardware 3D -up to 10 NICs -2 IDE controller devices -Up to 3 Parallel Ports -Up to 32 Serial/Com ports -Up to 4 AHCI SATA controllers, 30 Devices per controller -1 USB Controller 20 devices -1 floppy controller 2 devices -up to 4 SCSI Adapters -64 devices per adapter (PVSCSI only)

2-30: about thin-provisioned virtual disks

enables VMs to use storage space as needed: -consume only capacity needed to hold current files -virtual machine sees full allocated disk size at all times -run unmap command to reclaim unused space from array -can mix thick and thin formats -full reporting and alerts help manage allocations and capacity more efficient use of storage: -Virtual disk allocation: 140 GB -Available datastore capacity: 100 GB -Used storage capacity: 80 GB

2-21: About vSphere Web Client

following components -adobe flex client application running in a browser -java server embedded in vCenter Server Appliance and vCenter Server -a thin client, requires only a browser with adobe flash plug-in installed -can access at https://your_vCenter_Server_Appliance/vsphere-client

2-33: about virtual network adapters (2)

supported network adapter types -SR-IOV pass-through -VMware VSphere DirectPath I/O -PVRDMA