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VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials

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VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials

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VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials
May, 2015 | 228 pages
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Table of Contents (20 chapters)
VMware vSphere Essentials
VMware vSphere Essentials
Credits
Credits
Foreword
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to VMware vSphere
Introduction to VMware vSphere
Need and use of VMware vSphere
Differences between VMware vSphere and other hypervisors
Understanding ESXi and modes of management
Different types of vSphere installations
Introduction to virtual infrastructure – virtual machines, disks, CPUs, memory, switches, network, and storage
Summary
2
VMware vCenter Server
VMware vCenter Server
Introduction to vCenter Server
vCenter Server architecture
Communication between vCenter Server and ESXi hosts
Additional vCenter Server components
Comparison of vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance
Preparing and installing vCenter Server on Microsoft Windows
Importing, starting, and configuring the vCenter Server Appliance
Configuring and managing vCenter Server
Managing inventory, hosts, VMs, and templates via vCenter
vCenter Server licensing
Backing up vCenter Server
Summary
3
Creating Virtual Machines
Creating Virtual Machines
Overview of virtual machines
Creating a virtual machine
Thick and thin provisioning of virtual disks
Installing a guest operating system
Creating templates and clones
Summary
4
Managing Virtual Network
Managing Virtual Network
Virtual network
Basic network operations using vSphere
An overview of VLANs
Network security policies
Load Balancing with vSphere
Summary
5
Network Virtualization with VMware NSX
Network Virtualization with VMware NSX
NSX components
Deploying NSX Manager
Data center access layer deployment
Logical routing
Logical switching
Logical firewalls
Logical load balancing
Summary
6
Managing Virtual Storage
Managing Virtual Storage
Understanding virtual storage, datastores, and file systems
Managing and configuring datastores
vSphere Data Protection Appliance
Summary
7
Working with VSAN
Working with VSAN
An overview of Virtual SAN
Installing and configuring VSAN
Failure resilience with VSAN
Summary
8
Managing Virtual Machines
Managing Virtual Machines
Deploying virtual machines across data centers
Modifying the virtual machine settings
Migrating virtual machines
Virtual machine snapshots
Summary
9
Resource Management and Performance Monitoring
Resource Management and Performance Monitoring
Virtual memory management
Understanding resource controls and resource pools
Creating a resource pool
Expandable reservation
Implementing shares, limits, and reservations on resource pools
Monitoring resource usage
Alarms and notifications
Summary
10
Incorporating vSphere High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and DRS
Incorporating vSphere High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and DRS
Understanding High Availability
Fault Tolerance
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
Using HA and DRS together
Summary
11
Securing and Updating vSphere
Securing and Updating vSphere
Configuring ESXi firewall
Understanding security profile services and lockdown mode
Microsoft Active Directory integration with vSphere
Using vCloud Networking and Security
Access controls and configuring roles and permissions
Getting started with vSphere Update Manager
Maintenance mode
Summary
12
vSphere 6.0 Overview
vSphere 6.0 Overview
Introduction to vSphere 6.0
vCenter Server features
Virtual desktop infrastructure
NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology
Instant Clone
Long-distance vMotion
Multi-CPU Fault Tolerance (SMP-FT)
Content library
vSphere Web Client
Storage in vSphere 6.0
vSphere Data Protection
VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO)
vCloud Air Disaster Recovery
Summary
Index
Index

Comparison of vCenter Server and vCenter Server Appliance

In order to manage your virtualized data center, you are provided with some alternatives to install vCenter Server:

  • Installation on a supported Windows-based operating system

  • Deployment as a Linux-based virtual appliance (vCSA)

Both variants are quite similar as they both offer a wide range of management functionality, including:

  • Deployment and management of virtual machines, templates, and OVF appliances

  • Management of multiple ESXi hosts

  • Centralized network and storage provisioning

  • Statistics and performance data collection

  • Advanced cluster features including DRS, high availability, and fault tolerance

Beginning with vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server and the appliance alternative have the same limitations and features. Previous versions were intended for smaller setups, as they missed support for multiple linked (Linked Mode) or clustered (vCenter Heartbeat) vCenter Server instances.

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