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VMware vCenter Cookbook

By : Kostantin Kuminsky
Book Image

VMware vCenter Cookbook

By: Kostantin Kuminsky

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VMware vCenter Cookbook
Kostantin Kuminsky
May, 2015 | 302 pages
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Table of Contents (15 chapters)
VMware vCenter Cookbook
VMware vCenter Cookbook
Credits
Credits
Foreword
Foreword
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
vCenter Basic Tasks and Features
vCenter Basic Tasks and Features
Introduction
Choosing the right vSphere and vCenter editions
Booting a VM from a virtual CD-ROM
Using hosts with different CPUs in one cluster
Fixing VMware tools to autostart after Linux updates
Running vCenter on a VM
Managing several vCenter Servers from one client
Accessing new vCenter features
Accessing hosts via SSH
Securing host management access
Storing host logs on a shared datastore
Configuring remote logging
2
Increasing Environment Availability
Increasing Environment Availability
Introduction
Configuring the HA feature
Prioritizing VMs for recovery
Tuning up vSphere HA
Ensuring 100 percent uptime for critical VMs
Protecting host redundancy for equally sized hosts
Protecting host redundancy for significantly different hosts
Protecting host redundancy with failover hosts
Backing up/restoring .vmdk files
Restoring VM backup without vCenter
Configuring the backup retention policy
Protecting the vCenter VM
3
Increasing Environment Scalability
Increasing Environment Scalability
Introduction
Delivering new VMs faster with templates
Delivering new VMs faster with customizations
Troubleshooting customizations
Keeping templates up to date
Utilizing host local storage
Automating VM deployments
Deploying new hosts faster with scripted installation
Deploying new hosts faster with auto deploy
Keeping host configuration consistent
Increasing a VM's RAM and CPU online
4
Improving Environment Efficiency
Improving Environment Efficiency
Introduction
Meeting higher I/O needs with the VMware Paravirtual controller
Improving network performance with the VMXNET 3 network adapter
Using new virtual hardware
Controlling storage space used by virtual disks
Managing the space used by snapshots
Improving host productivity with Flash Read Cache
Speeding up VMs with Flash Read Cache
Optimizing host power consumption
Considering NUMA when configuring RAM
vCPU versus pCPU and time slots
5
Optimizing Resource Usage
Optimizing Resource Usage
Introduction
Prioritizing VMs with shares
Ensuring VMs have enough resources to run
Limiting resources used by VMs
Grouping VMs by resource usage
Balancing loads between hosts
Balancing loads between datastores
Configuring storage load balancing thresholds
Limiting VM storage I/O consumption
Limiting VM network I/O consumption
6
Basic Administrative Tasks
Basic Administrative Tasks
Introduction
Improving visibility with email alerts
Controlling the space used by snapshots
Controlling datastore space utilization
Automating VM placement with storage profiles
Automating VM placement with VM affinity
Automating VM placement with storage affinity
Automating tasks with a scheduler
Keeping hosts up to date
7
Improving Environment Manageability
Improving Environment Manageability
Introduction
Categorizing objects in the environment
Scheduling the VM clone
Redirecting VMkernel dumps to another server
Gathering network traffic
VDS configuration backup and restore
Management network configuration recovery
Choosing a MAC address prefix
Getting familiar with new CLI
Configuring the firewall from CLI
Bypassing "hostd" when it's unresponsive with CLI
Index
Index

Delivering new VMs faster with customizations

Customizations allow the automating of post-deployment tasks such as:

  • Changing the local administrator password

  • Changing the computer name

  • Changing the Windows product key

  • Configuring IP, DNS, and other network settings

  • Joining a domain

  • Changing the time zone

  • Running custom bat, PowerShell, or bash scripts

How to do it...

To create a customization:

  1. Go to the Home view.

  2. Click on Customization Specifications Manager.

  3. Click on New, which will open vSphere Client Windows Guest Customization.

The wizard will ask you a series of questions related to post-deployment tasks that need to be performed:

  • Registration information: owner's name and organization

  • Computer name

  • Windows license key

  • Local administrator password

  • Time zone

  • Network settings

  • Workgroup or domain name

  • Whether a new SID has to be generated

  • Whether there are any commands that need to be run once after deployment

Using customization

If you are deploying a VM from a template, customization options are available...

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