Book Image

Mastering VMware vSphere Storage

By : Victor Wu, Eagle Huang
Book Image

Mastering VMware vSphere Storage

By: Victor Wu, Eagle Huang

Overview of this book

<p>vSphere Storage is one of the three main infrastructure components of a vSphere deployment (Compute, Storage, and Network).</p> <p>Mastering VMware vSphere Storage begins with an insightful introduction to virtualization and creating your own virtual machines. We then talk about VMware vCenter Server and virtual machine management, as well as managing vSphere 5 using vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) and esxcli and vmware-cmd commands. We then swiftly move on to a very interesting topic, reviewing the vSphere performance and troubleshooting methodology. We then configure VM storage profiles, Storage DRS, and Storage I/O control. More significantly, we will troubleshoot and analyze storage using the VMware CLI and learn how to configure iSCSI storage.</p> <p>By the end of the book, you will be able to identify useful information to make virtual machine and virtual data center design decisions.</p>

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Mastering VMware vSphere Storage
Victor Wu | Eagle Huang
Jul, 2015 | 246 pages
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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Mastering VMware vSphere Storage
Mastering VMware vSphere Storage
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with vSphere 5.x and vCenter 5.x
Getting Started with vSphere 5.x and vCenter 5.x
Physical and virtual architecture
A comparison between physical and virtual machines
Installing the VMware ESXi host
Installing VMware vCenter Server
Installing the VMware vCenter Server Appliance
Connecting to vCenter Server with vSphere Client
Connecting to vCenter Server with vSphere Web Client
Summary
2
Getting Started with vSphere Management Assistant
Getting Started with vSphere Management Assistant
Deploying vMA
Configuring ESXi technical support mode
Using the VMware commands
Reviewing ESXi and vCenter Server logs
Summary
3
Using the Virtual Machine Monitor
Using the Virtual Machine Monitor
The VMware vSphere ESXi architecture
Understanding the VMM
Software and hardware virtualization techniques
Using vSphere performance monitoring tools
Summary
4
Storage Scalability
Storage Scalability
vSphere storage APIs for array integration and storage awareness
Virtual machine storage profile
VMware vSphere Storage DRS
VMware vSphere Storage I/O Control
Summary
5
Optimizing Storage
Optimizing Storage
Concepts of storage virtualization
Monitoring vSphere storage
vSphere storage management using the command line
Troubleshooting vSphere storage performance problems
Summary
6
vSphere Storage Configuration Settings
vSphere Storage Configuration Settings
vSphere storage components
LUN masking
vSphere 5 storage maximums
Identifying the vSphere log used to troubleshoot a storage problem
Summary
7
Analyzing vSphere Storage by CLI
Analyzing vSphere Storage by CLI
Analyzing PSA and multipathing using esxcli
Applying VMFS volume copies resignaturing
Troubleshooting VMware snapshots and VMFS resignaturing
VMFS DataStore volume unmounting
Identifying and tagging SSD devices
Summary
8
Troubleshooting vSphere FC Storage
Troubleshooting vSphere FC Storage
The vSphere Fibre Channel storage component
A vSphere Fibre Channel storage troubleshooting example
Summary
9
Troubleshooting vSphere iSCSI Storage
Troubleshooting vSphere iSCSI Storage
vSphere iSCSI storage components
vSphere iSCSI storage troubleshooting examples
Summary
10
Troubleshooting vSphere NFS Storage
Troubleshooting vSphere NFS Storage
vSphere NFS storage components
A vSphere NFS storage case study
A vSphere NFS storage troubleshooting example
Summary
11
vSphere Storage Design
vSphere Storage Design
Storage design key points
The vSphere storage architecture
Getting started with vSphere storage design
Summary
12
ESXi Host Design
ESXi Host Design
ESXi host design key points
Host naming conventions
An ESXi host design example
Summary
13
Virtual Machine Design
Virtual Machine Design
Virtual machine design key points
A virtual machine design example
Summary
14
vSphere Virtual Datacenter Design
vSphere Virtual Datacenter Design
vSphere virtual datacenter design key points
A vSphere virtual datacenter design example
Summary
Index
Index

A comparison between physical and virtual machines

The following table is a comparison of physical and virtual machines:

 

Physical machine

Virtual machine

Relocation

Difficult to relocate.

Requires service downtime.

Specific to physical hardware.

Easy to relocate.

Encapsulated into files.

Independent of physical hardware.

Management

Difficult to manage.

Hardware failures cause service downtime.

Easy to manage.

Isolated from other virtual machines.

Cost

High.

Virtualizing physical system saves cost.

Hardware limitations

Changes in hardware limit application support.

Changes in hardware cannot affect application support.

Resource sharing

This is not supported.

Virtualization can share multiple virtual machines on a single physical host.

Memory usage

Operating system assumes that it owns all of the physical memory in the system.

Allow the hypervisor to run multiple virtual machines simultaneously.

Virtual networking

This is not supported.

A virtual machine can be configured with one or more virtual Ethernet adapters (vSwitch or dvSwitch).

Filesystems

NTFS and ext3.

VMFS3 and VMFS5.

Operating system deployment

This is a time-consuming task.

It is easy to deploy virtual machines from the VM template.

Backup

Use third-party backup software.

It is easy to create a VM snapshot or clone the virtual machine.

According to the preceding table, you know that virtual architecture is more flexible than traditional architecture, for example, with OS deployment, management, and relocation.

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