Just got back from the VMWare Fast Track training and I am feeling virtually ready for the VCP exam. While I was on site I took a lot of notes and did a lot of surfing to find information about VMWare VCP and VMWare resources.

VMWARE Infrastructure 3 Fast Track 3:

If you see any command line – that is not testable. From a test perspective it is not on the test. The last four modules are not testable.

Four food groups:

CPU,
Memory
Network
Disk

Four things for testing:

Installation of ESX and Virtual Center and the plugins

Perform configuration of networking, storage, datastores, and services, using both the GUI and command-line utilities.

Lots of information on networking and storage *local scsi*.

LOCAL SCSI

Managing virtual machines access to resources using shares, resources, VMotion, VMware DRS.

Download the datasheet from each product.
** Infrastructure optimization
** Virtual center
** Converter
** Capacity planner
** Site Recovery Manager

Page 14:Slide 2-5

VMware Concepts

VMKernal / Hypervisor
A hypervisor translates something from physical to virtual and back.

Four files of interest.

VMX-Config – Hardware based attributes, virtual hardware configuration file.
VMDK-Virtual Disk – This is the actual virtual disk- Virtual machines look at Virtual Disks as a local SCSI file (this is on the test) It always thinks it has local SCSI storage. IMPORTANT….
NVRAM- BIOS of the Virtual Machine
VMWare Log- VMWARE.LOG

(Encapsulation)

The service console is based on red hat enterprise 3 baseline 10. Gives us ssh, and other services.

ESX Server Installation

ESX Requirements:

Embedded for ESX – In the DMZ good for opsec.
Processor Two 1500 or Higher x86 based processors
Memory 1- 256 GB supported
Networking – 4 or More Ethernet Interfaces
Supports up to 10 GB
Supports booting from IDE/ATA disk drive or a (SATA) disk drive provided they are booted through supported controllers.
SCSI Drives
Storage networks

Note: For security and performance, use separate interfaces for the service console and the virtual machines.

Disk Storage

A SCSI adapter, Fiber Channel adapter, iSCSI adapter or internal RAID controller.
A SCSI disk, FIBER Channel LUN, iSCSI disk or RAID LUN with unpartioned space.

*infiniband? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfiniBand 10 GB

Note: The reason why you increase memory in the service console is due to agents.

^{The service console by defaults gets 272mb You can only change this from the virtual infrastructure client after ESX is installed and then you will need to reboot.

It can max out at 800 MB

You can increase swap to 1600MB}

Installation hard disk configuration

/ Boot 100MB ext3
/ 5GB ext3
no mount point / 544 *SWAP*
/var/log 2GB ext3
/100MB COREDUMP VMKCORE

Best practice:
3 Primary partitions- VMWare suggests 3 primary partitions.

Boot,
Swap
Root

3 logical partitions-

VMFS
VMCORE
VMLOG

For

Need to setup (It is a requirement).
Casablanca is a good choice for GMT in military envionments.

FYI not on TEST

‘how to install and configure NTP on VMware ESX host’

1. SSH on to VMware ESX host service console as the root user
2. Make a backup copy of existing files.
[root@esxhost]#cp /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.orig
[root@esxhost]#cp /etc/ntp/step-tickers etc/ntp/step-tickers.orig

3. Edit /etc/ntp.conf
[root@esxhost]#vi /etc/ntp.conf
#Insert the following details as example below:
restrict ntp1.planetmy.com kod nomodify notrap server
restrict ntp2.planetmy.com kod nomodify notrap server
server ntp1.planetmy.com
server ntp2.planetmy.com
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift
authenticate yes

Please refer to here for a full description of these access control commands. The driftfile line indicates the name of the file where the value for the system’s clock drift (frequency error) is stored. For a more complete definition of driftfile, see here.

4. Edit /etc/ntp/step-tickers
[root@esxhost]#vi /etc/ntp/step-tickers
#Insert the following ntp server as example below:
ntp1.planetmy.com
ntp1.planetmy.com

5. Edit /etc/hosts
[root@esxhost]#vi /etc/hosts
#Insert the following details as example below:
10.10.10.1 ntp1.planetmy.com ntp1
10.10.10.2 ntp2.planetmy.com ntp2

#Adding this list of NTP servers minimizes the impact of DNS lookup failures during NTP synchronization.

6. Firewall – opens the appropriate ports and enables the NTP daemon to talk with the external server.
[root@esxhost]#esxcfg-firewall –enableService ntpClient

7. Restarting and Monitoring the NTP Service
#To restart the service now, run:
[root@esxhost]#service ntpd restart

#To enable the NTP daemon to autostart when the server is rebooted, run:
[root@esxhost]#chkconfig ntpd on

#Set the local hardware clock to the NTP synchronized local system time, run:
[root@esxhost]#hwclock –systohc

#Monitor the NTP service
#See the offset (in seconds) between the local clock and the source clock, run:
[root@esxhost]#ntpdate -q NTP_time_server_name_or_ip_address

#To watch the status of the ntpd process, run:
[root@esxhost]#watch “ntpq -p”
#Press Ctrl-c to stop watching the process.

#start time synchronization without rebooting, run:
[root@esxhost]#/etc/rc.d/init.d/ntpd start
#The time drift corrects after a while.

#please wait few minutes andlist the current status
[root@esxhost]#ntpq -p

8. Manually synchronization
[root@esxhost]#/etc/init.d/ntpd stop
[root@esxhost]#/etc/init.d/ntpd status
ntpd is stopped
[root@esxhost]#ntpdate -u ntp1.planetmy.com
17 Jul 20:20:12 ntpdate[22944]: step time server 10.10.10.1 offset -8671.09148 sec

9. Adjust Time Zone
[root@esxhost]#cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kuala_Lumpur /etc/localtime
[root@esxhost]#date

Networking:

*IMPORTANT* What are the basics behind networking in the ESX server?

Virtual switch

Each Virtual Nic has its own mac address
Up to 1016 Ports per Virtual Switch

VMkernal is the heart of the system and has all the device drivers to bridge the virtual hardware and the physical hardware.

VMKernal network traffic

ISCSI – ISCSI uses VMKernal Ports.
VMotion
NAS storage

NicTeaming when you bond or put two teams together.

VM Network
If you want to connect a virtual machine to a virtual switch you need to have a VMport group.

Service Console is VSWIF0

There are thee connection types for virtual switches

Virtual machine, Vmkernel, Service console

VLAN:

Virtual Subnets
“tag” packets with a VLAN ID
0<ID<4096
IEEE 8021QVLan Tagging
Assigns VLans per port group
Requires trunking

The “switchport trunk native vlan 4094″ command is what fixes the problem I had last time I worked with ESX Server and VLAN trunks; namely, that most switches don’t tag traffic from the native VLAN across a VLAN trunk. By setting the native VLAN for the trunk to something other than VLAN 1 (the default native VLAN), we essentially force the switch to tag all traffic across the trunk. This allows ESX Server to handle VMs that are assigned to the native VLAN as well as other VLANs.

On the ESX Server side, we just need to edit the vSwitch and create a new port group. In the port group, specify the VLAN ID that matches the VLAN ID from the physical switch. After the new port group has been assigned, you can place your VMs on that new port group (VLAN) and—assuming you have a router somewhere to route between the VLANs—you should have full connectivity to your newly segregated virtual machines.

Trunking

VLANs are local to each switch’s database, and VLAN information is not passed between switches.
Trunk links provide VLAN identification for frames traveling between switches.
Cisco switches have two Ethernet trunking mechanisms: ISL and IEEE 802.1Q.
Certain types of switches can negotiate trunk links.
Trunks carry traffic from all VLANs to and from the switch by default but can be configured to carry only specified VLAN traffic.
Trunk links must be configured to allow trunking on each end of the link.

Enabling Trunking

Trunk links are required to pass VLAN information between switches. A port on a Cisco switch is either an access port or a trunk port. Access ports belong to a single VLAN and do not provide any identifying marks on the frames that are passed between switches. Access ports also carry traffic that comes from only the VLAN assigned to the port. A trunk port is by default a member of all the VLANs that exist on the switch and carry traffic for all those VLANs between the switches. To distinguish between the traffic flows, a trunk port must mark the frames with special tags as they pass between the switches. Trunking is a function that must be enabled on both sides of a link. If two switches are connected together, for example, both switch ports must be configured for trunking, and they must both be configured with the same tagging mechanism (ISL or 802.1Q).

Preferred way- Run physical connection to the trunk port and tag these VLans on the virtual switch.

Load balancing method:

Vswitch port based Page 124 All the I/O goes one specific path. Each comes on and generates a port and then chooses a nic for that. If you are configured for the port based approach.

Mac Based is similar it uses the mac address as opposed to the port number. All the I/O goes one specific path.

IP-Based- takes IP from the client and bases traffic on this. This has to be supported by a physical switch. Etherchannel 802.3ad

EtherChannel is a port trunking (link aggregation is Cisco‘s term) technology used primarily on Cisco switches. It allows grouping several physical Ethernet links to create one logical Ethernet link for the purpose of providing fault-tolerance and high-speed links between switches, routers and servers. An EtherChannel can be created from between two and eight active Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, with an additional one to eight inactive (failover) ports which become active as the other active ports fail. EtherChannel is primarily used in the backbone network, but can also be used to connect end user machines. A former limitation of EtherChannel was that all the physical ports in the aggregation group must reside on the same switch. The SMLT protocol removes this limitation by allowing the physical ports to be split between two switches. Cisco’s Virtual Switching System allows the creation of a Multichassis Etherchannel (MEC) allowing ports to be aggregated towards different physical chassis that conform a single “virtual switch” entity.

Know Lessons 1 and 5 to pass the VCP.

Service Console is esxcfg-firewall

When we use that command it puts a lock on the main config file and safely changes the firewall rules.

Storage:

Fiber Channel Storage Area Networks-

Fiber Channel high speed transport protocol used for SANS. Uses encapsulated SCSI. Uses “Fiber Channel” is the protocol.

LUN is a “logical disk”

Fiber Channel SAN is the network and the disk array. Disk array is configured by the “storage administrator”

Fiber access ports are called Storage Processors (storage access ports).

VMWare recommends 16 LUNS per host.

256 LUNS in ESX
128 scanned on install
rescan once installed.

When you have 128 GB of RAM you have to change force 64 bit recognition because the service console only sees 64GB.

esxcfg-advcfg configuration recommended by the vendor.

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/support/I733-009R-2008.pdf

ISCSI SAN Storage

Hardware and Software Inititated:

What is ISCSI?

It is block level access in an IP packet.
Similar to mapping SCSI over Fiber Channel.

Initiators are iscsi hba. You need a physical HBA card to boot from ISCSI to ESX.
ISCSI LUNS are the same as Fiber Channel.

RDM Raw device mapping Virtual Machines can access a raw ISCSI LUN. This is a NON VMFS volume.

Allow VMotion migration of a VM whose files reside on an ISCSI LUN. VMotion does not care if you are using ISCSI or FIBER.

More than one HBA for redundancy. ** Fault tolerance. The VMKernal (VMWare- has a software inititator.) The software initiator uses regular physical NICs.

VMHBA32-Software Inititator is what will show up as the software ISCSI. It may not be exactly 32 it may be something in the 30 series.

Addressing in an ISCSI SAN is a little different we have a DNS derivitive naming convention that is NOT DNS but something like it. You can use EUI or IQN naming convention. VMWare chose to use IQN. If you were to build the IQN yourself the name shouldn’t matter but to follow the naming convention you want to use the data you registered your domain.

Storage processor is the “target”

For the software initiator (which is the VMKernal) it only uses SENDTARGETS only (on the test).

There is SENDTARGETS and STATIC that you can use with hardware ISCSI.

SENDTARGETS is SOFTWARE ONLY.

The only way to authenticate with iscsi is CHAP.
This is a ONE way relationship. The ESX Server logs into the storage device. It only logs into the storage array. IT IS ONE WAY (this is on the test).

They only support two hardware HBA’s Qlogic 4050 and 4060 series. What about the performance difference in a hardware solution as opposed to the software ISCSI. The sofware initiator is not a problem. There is not enough overhead to cause a problem. It is fine to do software using the cpu. Unless you are running the esx server over 80% utilized on CPU time.

The service console has to first
do discovery which is “sendtargets”
then it does CHAP with is the authentication.

Understand the five steps in order for the test *setup software initiated.

1: Networking setup- need two nics for redundancy and two ports one for the iscsi application and the other for the service console.

You need another service console port if it does not have access to the management network. AS LONG as you have access to the management network you don’t need another service console port.

2: Firewall- outgoing port 3260 needs to be configured to communicate with the iscsi appliance.

3:Configure the ISCSI software inititiator click configure and then click enabled. Then “Sendtargets” that is the discovery method.

4:DISCOVERY Choose a storage processor and enter the ip address of the iscsi device. click add then discover.

5: CHAP
Make sure that the ISCSI appliance will advertise all of the targets.

For scripted installations you will need to know how to add the commands on command line.

If the disc I/O is substantial ISCSI may not be a good solution unless you are using 10G or better.

VMFS came up with their own file system because of the VMDK file. The reason why is because a VMDK can grow up to 2 TB. It is possible to have large VMDK’s. File systems do not handle VMDK’s well so they came up with VMFS. You can store VMDK’s and Templates in the VMDK. Templates are VM’s that you baseline.

Maximum block size asks what is the largest virtual disk that you plan on building. If you are building something greater than 256GB you have to change the block size. That is the Max virtual disk size. – Testable.

You can span 32 VMFS Spans together which equals a 64TB SPAN

One path to any LUN at anytime is active. ONE PATH with fiber channel or storage. On the test.

Adapter/ Target/ Lun/Partition

ATLP

Type t to set the partition information.
When you create a VMFS disk you will need to type FB to set the value.

type esx-info -s |less to find out what the block size is.

Disk alignment for performance. Inside the vm data drives to align block size and enhance performance. There is a white paper on it.

RGE- Resume Generating Event.

NFS Setup no_root_squash,sync this is testable.

NFS version 3

Hardware requirements for Virtual Center
2cubed
2 ghz processor
2ghz of Memory
2Gb of storage
10/100 ethernet a GB is recommended.
May be run in a virtual machine

32 Bit os Only.
W2k2000 SP4 with update rollup 1
XP Pro SP2
2003 Server SP1
2003 Server R2

Clusters allow you to do High Availability and Distributed Resource Scheduling.
A cluster is a singular object in the virtual infrastructure.

HA gives you the ability to “RESTART” the virtual machine as long as you have SPARE CAPACITY.

Scheduled tasks Change the powerstate of a virtual machine

Administration Sessions TAB – allows administrator to see who is logged in. Depending on your role administrators can kill sessions. Session based message of the day. ROLES
Sessions
Events
System Logs-There are 10 logs in a circular rotation. You can search logs or change the order.

Maps- Shows relationships between VM’s and other resources on the network.

Consolidation Button-
Consolidation planner that is built from capacity planner. It is a way to do a simple assessment of your physical infrastructure prior to consolidating servers.

Plugin Manager-

Install or manage plugins that you download and install into the “client”. The plugins need to be installed on the client from the virtual server. You grab them from what is “available”.

FILE EDIT VIEW INVENTORY ADMINISTRATION PLUGIN

Client Settings

VM Virtual Hardware

Up to 4 Cdroms IDE
Up to 3 ports / Parallel
Up to 4 ports / Serial/Com
1 to 2 Floppy Drives
Video
Up to 64 GB of RAM
Up to 4 CPU’s
1-4 adapters / PCI Slots
1-15 devices each for SCSI

Anyware USB is the way to get around USB.

Independent mode – persistent and non-persistent cannot take a snapshot.

Template- The only way to store a template in a compact way is to “clone to template”

RDM- RAW Device Mapping.

Virtual compatibility mode- allows for the VM to by Proxy read or write to the RDM.
Physical compatibility mode- For Microsoft clusters or SAN software in VM’s.

VMX entry to lower keyboard latency.
Keyboard.Typematicmindelay 1500000

Access Control:

Role Based permissions
User/Group
Role- Set of one or more privileges
Privilege-specific task that a user or group can perform.
Permission-The pairing of a user/group with a role.

Administrators Group is a windows account.
You cannot modify default accounts / roles

Read-only
Virtual Machine User
Virtual Machine Administrator
No-Access

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vc_roles.pdf

Role User Capabilities

Virtual Machine User
(equivalent to the role with the same name in VirtualCenter 1.x)
Perform actions on virtual machines only.

Interact with virtual machines, but not change the virtual machine configuration. This includes:
• All privileges for the scheduled tasks privileges group.
• Selected privileges for the global items and virtual machine privileges groups.
• No privileges for the folder, datacenter, datastore, network, host, resource, alarms, sessions, performance, and permissions privileges groups.

Virtual Machine Power User
Perform actions on the virtual machine and resource objects.
Interact and change most virtual machine configuration settings, take snapshots, and schedule tasks. This includes:
• All privileges for scheduled task privileges group.
• Selected privileges for global items, datastore, and virtual machine privileges groups.
• No privileges for folder, datacenter, network, host, resource, alarms, sessions, performance, and permissions privileges groups.

Resource Pool Administrator
Perform actions on datastores, hosts, virtual machines, resources, and alarms.
Provides resource delegation and is assigned to resource pool inventory objects. This includes:
• All privileges for folder, virtual machine, alarms, and scheduled task privileges groups.
• Selected privileges for global items, datastore, resource, and permissions privileges groups.
• No privileges for datacenter, network, host, sessions, or performance privileges groups.

Datacenter Administrator
Perform actions on global items, folders, datacenters, datastores, hosts, virtual machines, resources, and alarms.
Set up datacenters, but with limited ability to interact with virtual machines. This includes:
• All privileges for folder, datacenter, datastore, network, resource, alarms, and scheduled task privileges groups.
• Selected privileges for global items, host, and virtual machine privileges groups.
• No privileges for session, performance, and permission privileges groups.

Virtual Machine Administrator
(equivalent to the role with the same name in VirtualCenter 1.x)
Perform actions on global items, folders, datacenters, datastores, hosts, virtual machines, resources, alarms, and sessions. This includes:
• All privileges for all privilege groups, except permissions.

Resource settings:

How VM’s use and share the CPUs’ ?

VCPUS’s mapped to pCPUs
One pCPU to many vCPU’s
Ready Time – Bottleneck Indicators (When a cpu has to wait it is dealing with “ready time”)
Rebalanced Every 20 Milliseconds
Hyperthreading
VMs using multi-vCPU scheduled simultaneously

Service console always stays on CPU 0.

The standard approach is to build the server with one vCPU. If the end user needs more then and only then would you give them more.

Three user defined settings for CPU resource allocation:

CPU limit – Is the capacity of the hardware. You could slow it down but not speed it up because it is a physical limitation. If you limit a CPU that is the amount of time the CPU will get and that is IT.
CPU reservation – Reservation or guarantee of a certain amount of CPU time. When CPU contention occurs you can RESERVE the CPU time. A reservation could prevent other VM’s from loading or lock up CPU time.
CPU Shares – More shares means “this CPU will win more competitions for time more often.” Means Priority under contention. Systems could get a higher priority.

Memory:

Limit: The maximum amount of physical RAM that the VM can use by default. We can only LOWER the limit.
Reservation: A certain amount of RAM preallocated or reserved for the system.
Share: Will win more competitions once the priority is set.

.Vswp that is the swap file created for the VMachine. **** When the vm is powered off the swap file goes away.

Memorize VMotion requirements:

Migrating a VM with the following conditions produces an ERROR.
Migrating a VM with the following conditions produces a warning.

Storage VMotion-

Takes a snapshot of the guestOS because the OS is in a locked state, it moves the snapshot using VMotion and then it makes the changes and updates the guest OS.

It performs a VMmotion within the host.

Storage motion is a hot migration that you can use to move OS files with the OS is working.

http://lycos.dropcode.net/VMware/Documentations/vmworld2008/

Resource pools –

VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) – Automatic load balancing.

DRS Clusters
A cluster is a set of hosts put together for DRS, HA or both.

32 Hosts per cluster.

Automation level

Manual- Makes recommendations to move a VM and it does this by a rating system.
Partially- when you power on a server it places it on the best suitable host (like round-robin) if the server is already on it will RECOMMEND a move for the VM.
Fully Automate- When you power on a vm it places the vm on the best host and then if the loads become unbalanced the vm’s will move automatically.

Migration threshold

Level 1 most conservative
Level 2 moderately conservative
Level 3 the default midpoint
Level 4 Moderately aggressive
Level 5 Aggressive

VM swap location

Host based cluster they like us to know for the test PAGE 490

Lexicon:

CFS – Clustered file system
CVM – Clustered volume manager
DRS – Distributed Resource Scheduler
ESX server – The hardware on which the VI3 software is loaded and running.
Extent – Part of a larger allocation of a resource or an appendage to an existing resource.
Fibre Channel – An ANSI-standard, gigabit-speed network technology used to build storage area networks and transmit data. Fibre Channel components include HBAs, switches, and cabling.
HA – High Availability.
iSCSI – Internet Small Computer Serial Interface.
LUN – Logical Unit Number, what the server sees as a single disk resource.
MSCS – Microsoft Cluster Services.
P2V – Physical to Virtual conversion utility. Like VMware Converter.
RAID – Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
RDM – Raw disk map.
SAN – Storage area network.
SCSI – Small Computer Serial Interface.
VCP – VMware Consolidated Backup.
VI Client – Virtual Infrastructure Client, a browser-based management access point.
VI3 – Virtual Infrastructure 3.
Virtual Center – Centralized management utility for ESX Server (or rather say servers…)
VM – Virtual Machine.
VMDK – Virtual Machine Disk.
VMFS-3 – Version 3 of the Virtual Machine File System.
vmkernel – Core management component of the ESX server system.
Vmotion – A means by which the virtual machine can be moved from one ESX server to another without any
downtime.
HEC- Hardware Execution Context is a physical CPU

*****************Testable
Shares for resource pools
Low: Normal: High
1 2 4

Vmotion requirements
Warning vs Errors

When adding hosts to clusters
choose one of these options:

Delete the host based resource pool.
Convert the resource pool to cluster based.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_resource_mgmt.pdf

CPU balances the load every 20 millisecs.

Transparent Page Sharing

Identifies identical pages in VM’s memory and maps them to the same underlying page. If there is a straight line in a graph it is normailizing the page file.

****THE BALLON driver mechanism VMMEMCTL ****

Instead of going to the swap file right away the VM will try to go to a VM that is claiming RAM the VMKernal will try to reclaim that ram and redistribute it back to system for use. You need VMWare tools installed for this to work.

Balloning is more efficient than swapping and this is an indication of memory issues.

Worst case it uses the VMswap file.
The VMswap file is the same size as the ram configured for it.

CPU Ready shows if there is actual cpu contention.

High Availability:

A cluster can be 32 servers.

http://www.vmware.com/pdfg/vi3_301_201_mscs.pdf
MS Cluster in a box
Cluster across boxes
Physical to virtual clusters

This version of HA from VMWare is not zero downtime.
It is an automatic restart of the virtual machine.

AAM – EMC autostart manager. This gets installed on the ESX server. When you bring up the first five ESX host server they become 5 primary agents. All other past the first 5 become secondary agents.

How do you create HA accessibility?

Create a cluster then check the HA box.
There is a new section once you do that called VMWare HA. We can setup the cluster for how WE want it to run.

You can only reserver up to 4 full servers of full capacity.
Isolation response is another way of saying

Admission control

If you do not have enough resources it will not allow you to start virtual machines.
Allow virtual machines as long you can restart them.

Advanced Options:

HA Pool Cluster Settings

Restarting Priority on the cluster
High
Medium
Low

In Virtual Machine Options
and options for resource priority are on a per vm basis.

You start the high priority first then the mediums come up after.

What if a host finds itself ISOLATED?
You can chose if you want to power on or off the VM.
The heartbeat is only on the service console.

Best practices but use nic team approach.

Enable portfast on portfast capable switches.

Troubleshooting for HA

Name Resolution
IP connectivitly
/etc/vmware/aam

VCB does NOT require an agent.

You don’t need the network at all for back up.

It does not backup anything.

requires a physical windows 2003 server and FC-SAN connectivity or any storage.

What type of guests can you backup file wise? Windows.

What kind of guests full? Any guest.

It is agentless

Title: slide:ology The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations

Vmware Update Manager is patch management.

It will update ESX.
It will not update the VMware tools. It will not update Virtual Center.
To Scan and Remediate

http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2008/04/patching-esx-server-with-update-manager.html
https://shavlik.com
Download the information from VMware that you need to update. Burn to DVD / CD.
Copy it over

http://vmtoday.com/tag/esx/

VMware Security Resources

VMware Security Utilities

VI3.5 Security Hardening Whitepaper

Defense Informaion Systems Agency (DISA) ESX Server Security Technical Implementation Guide

DISA ESX Server Checklist

As a side note, DISA publishes many STIG’s at http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/. Your tax dollars paid for these, so you might as well check them out.

NSA VMware ESX Server 3 Configuration Guide

There are also numerous tips and scripts for locking down your virtual infrastructure in the VMware Community Forums (Start here: http://communities.vmware.com/message/941372).

So back to the question of second super user accounts: It seems that best practices are to create a second user account with sufficient access to the console, granting that user SUDO privledges, and then disabling the default root account.
To scan the virtual machines you need to install an agent.

Backups:
Virtual Machine Backup Guide – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_vm_backup.pdf
Consolidated Backup in Vmware Infrastructure 3 – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf
Vmware Consolidated Backup Best Practices, Tips and Tricks – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4540.pdf
Backup and Recovery of Virtual Servers – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/mdc9870.pdf
Hot Backups and Restores – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9816.pdf
Non-disruptive Backups of Vmware Environments Using Veritas Netbackup – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9912.pdf
Perl Backup Script for Vmware ESX 2.x – vmbk.pl ( free ) – http://www.vmts.net/vmbk.htm
Perl Backup Script for Vmware ESX 3.x – vmbk.pl ( free ) – http://www.vmts.net/vmbk3.htm
Backup scripts – http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=23+and+http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=156
Shell script – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=475244
Perl script – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=70253&start=0&tstart=0
Oracle backups – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=76746&messageID=601703#601703
Vmware Consolidated Backup Technology: Today and Future – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4539.pdf
Implementing VMware VCB – http://www.vmware-tsx.com/download.php?asset_id=19
Virtual Infrastructure Scripted Backup Utility (VISBU) – http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fileinfo&id=7

Blogs:
The Console (Vmware management) – http://blogs.vmware.com/console/
VMTN (Technical Community) – http://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/
Vroom! (Performance team) – http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/
Virtually There (Steve Herrod) – http://blogs.vmware.com/sherrod/
Run-virtual (Richard Garsthagen) – http://www.run-virtual.com/
Blog.scottlowe.org (Scott Lowe) – http://blog.scottlowe.org/category/virtualization/
Infoworld Virtualization Report (David Marshall) – http://weblog.infoworld.com/virtualization/
VMwarewolf (Richard Blythe) – http://www.vmwarewolf.com/

Books/Documentation/Learning Resources:
RapidApp’s Quick Start guide to ESX 3.0 – http://www.lulu.com/content/712361
VMware ESX Server 2.5 Advanced Technical Guide – http://rapidapp.com/publications/VMware%20ESX%20Server%20Book.pdf
Vmware VI3 documentation – http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html
Vmware TSX 2007 presentations – http://www.vmware-tsx.com/index.php?page_id=10
Vmworld 2006 presentations – http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld/
VCP Study Online Quiz – http://vcpquiz.awardspace.com/
VCP Quiz – http://www.vmuser.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_joomlaquiz&Itemid=7
Rob Scmidt’s VMware VCP Study Questions – http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=15947

Citrix:
Optimizing Citrix Presentation Server on Vmware ESX Server – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/med0115.pdf
Citrix and Vmware – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9728.pdf
Best practices for deploying Citrix on ESX – http://virtrix.blogspot.com/2007/03/vmware-best-practices-for-deploying.html
Improving Scalability for Citrix Presentation Server – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_citrix_scalability.pdf
To virtualize or not Citrix and Terminal Server – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=671864
Citrix and VMware: Oil and Water? – http://redmondmag.com/features/article.asp?EditorialsID=718

Cloning:
Newsid – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Security/NewSid.mspx
Sysprep – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/duplication.mspx
Sysprep – http://www.vernalex.com/guides/sysprep/
Clone VM script for ESX – http://www.pgregg.com/projects/vmclone/

Clustering:
Setup for Microsoft Cluster Service – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_and_mscs.pdf
Guide to creating a vmotion-able Microsoft cluster with VI3 – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=625404
MSCS Limitations – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=83511&tstart=0

CPU:
ESX Server 2 Best Practices Using Vmware Virtual SMP – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsmp_best_practices.pdf
ESX Server 3 Ready Time Observations – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_ready_time.pdf
A Performance Comparison of Hypervisors – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/hypervisor_performance.pdf
ESX Server CPU Scheduling – http://www.vmware-tsx.com/download.php?asset_id=39
To vSMP or not to vSMP – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=298150
Evaluation of ESX Server under CPU Intensive Workloads – http://www.windley.com/docs/2006/OIT%20Report%20Sept06.pdf
AMD vs. Intel for VMware – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=27838&start=0&tstart=0
AMD & Intel Servers Compete for Ultimate Virtuality – http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/29/amd_and_intel_servers_compete_for_ultimate_virtuality/
What to choose, Intel or AMD? – http://blog.baeke.info/blog/_archives/2006/9/18/2338562.html
Dell Intel vs. AMD – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=522714

Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity:
Vmware users explore disaster recover options – http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid94_gci1253386,00.html
Vmware ESX Server and Storage Architecture Best Practices for Performance, Backup, and Disaster Recovery – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9591.pdf
Using Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning to Drive Virtualization in the Production Data Center – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9732.pdf
An Aggressive Approach Using P2V to Address Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9938.pdf
How Management Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Virtualization: A Brush with Disaster Leads to a Virtualization-Based Disaster Recovery Plan at the Las Vegas Valley Water District – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0046.pdf
Leveraging VMware ESX Server in Disaster Recovery Solutions – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct5070.pdf
Implementing Effective Backup Strategies For Disaster Recovery – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9502.pdf
VMware Infrastructure 3 Capabilities for Improving Disaster Recovery – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9552.pdf
Using Virtual Infrastructure as a High Availability Platform for Physical Production Servers – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9560.pdf
RepliStor: Disaster Recovery and Data Migration Solution for VMware Environments – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9636.pdf
VMware ESX Server as a Foundation for High Availability and Disaster Recovery for the Microsoft Server Platform – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0107.pdf
Migrating Server Operations from Remote Sites to the Data Center for Disaster Recovery and Protection – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct0893.pdf
Innovative Approaches for High Availability and Disaster Recovery in Your VMware Infrastructure Environment – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9708.pdf
Vmware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab01-VCB-PRESENTATION.pdf
HA/DR of Physical and Virtual Environments Using VMware ESX Server and Double-Take for Virtual Systems – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9468.pdf
Platespin P2V DR – http://www.platespin.com/p2vdr/
Double-Take for virtual systems – http://www.doubletake.com/products/virtual-systems/default.aspx
Double-Take Replication in the VMware Environment – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_doubletake.pdf
Replistor – http://software.emc.com/products/software_az/replistor.htm
ESX 3 Disaster Recovery site options – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=473674
Disaster Recovery Plans – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=517701
Disaster recovery site VM Startup – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=514046
Disaster Recovery for Vms – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=502276

Domain Controllers/Active Directory:
Virutalization of Active Directory – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=352424
Considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794
Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9710.pdf
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2003 Server: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885875/
How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2000 Server: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875495/
P2Ving Domain Controllers – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=390630
Virtualize Domain Controllers or not? – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=81928&messageID=630985#630985

Exchange:
Deploying Microsoft Exchange in VMware Infrastructure – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/exchange_best_practices.pdf

Licensing:
Vmware licensing page – http://www.vmware.com/download/licensing.html
Server-based License File Checker – http://www.vmware.com/checklicense/
Pricing, Packaging & Licensing Overview – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_pricing.pdf
Install License File – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=76518
Guest Licensing – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=81345&messageID=627156#627156
Microsoft Virtual Machine Technology FAQ – http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/virtualization/faq.mspx
Windows Server Virtualization Calculator – http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calculator.mspx
Licensing Microsoft Server Products with Virtual Machine Technologies – http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/9/68964284-864d-4a6d-aed9-f2c1f8f23e14/virtualization_whitepaper.doc
Microsoft Server Version Feature Comparison – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/evaluate/features/compare.mspx
ESX single-CPU multi-core licensing – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=648327
Splitting 2 processor license between 2 single CPU servers – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=87871&messageID=669665#669665

Linux:
Getting a DHCP Address in a Red Hat Linux Virtual Machine – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/977
Windows to Linux roadmap – http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-roadmap.html
Windows to Linux roadmap post on Vmtn – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=77279
Install Vmware Tools in a Linux VM under ESX Server 3.x – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/5242329
From DOS/Windows to Linux HowTo – http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DOS-Win-to-Linux-HOWTO.html
Universal Command Guide for Operating Systems – http://www.allcommands.com/
Linux knowledge required? – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=625255 and http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=628551

Performance:
VMware ESX Server guest performance tips Pt .1 – http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1231666,00.html
VMware ESX Server guest performance tips Pt. 2 – http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1231917,00.html
VMware ESX Server guest performance tips Pt. 3 – http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1235138,00.html
Top 12 ways to Improve Guest Server Performance under VMware ESX Server – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/mdc9700.pdf
Tuning Windows Server 2003 – http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp3943.pdf
Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2003 – http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/8/0/2800a518-7ac6-4aac-bd85-74d2c52e1ec6/tuning.doc
Linux Performance and Tuning Guidelines – http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/redp4285.pdf
Performance Tuning for VI3 – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9872.pdf
Performance Troubleshooting – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab04-PERFORMANCE-MANUAL.pdf
Performance Tuning Best Practices for ESX Server 3 – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_performance_tuning.pdf
ESX Server 3.0 Tips and Tricks – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9567.pdf
Performance Monitoring and Capacity Planning – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc0199.pdf
A Performance Comparison of Hypervisors – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/hypervisor_performance.pdf
Using esxtop to troubleshoot performance problems – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2_using_esxtop.pdf
ESX Workload Analysis: Lessons Learned – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc9398.pdf
ESX Server 2 Architecture and Performance Implications – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx2_performance_implications.pdf
ESX Server 2 Performance and Resource Management for CPU-Intesive Workloads – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ESX2_CPU_Performance.pdf
ESX Server 2 Performance Tips and Tricks – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_performance_tips_tricks.pdf
ESX Server 2 Storage Subsystem Performance in ESX Server: Buslogic vs. LSI Logic – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ESX2_Storage_Performance.pdf

RTFM Guides:
Upgrade Guide to ESX 3 and VirtualCenter 2 – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/esx3.x-vc2-upgradeguide.pdf
Guide to ESX 3 Service Console – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/esx3.x-vc2.x-serviceconsole-guide.pdf
Guide to ESX 2.x Administration I – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/admin-01-esx2.x.pdf
Guide to ESX 2.x Administration II – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/admin-02-esx2.x.pdf
Beyond the Manual – VMware ESX 2.x – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/esx2.x-beyondthemanual.pdf
ESX 2.x Service Console Quick Command-Line Guide – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/esx2.x-serviceconsolecommands.pdf
Guide to vCenter 1.x Administration – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/admin-vcenter1.2.pdf

Scripting:
Simplifying Administration with Scripting APIs – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab12-Scripting.VI3-MANUAL.pdf

Service Console:
Common Linux commands on the service console – http://www.vmts.net/article/linuxcommand.htm
Command Line Interface Tips and Tricks for Vmware ESX Server 2 and 3 – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9685.pdf
Third-Party Software in the Service Console – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_3p_scvcons.pdf
Locking server console – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=383046
Send mail from Service Console – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=575650
Working with the new ESX 3 Service Console – http://www.vmware-tsx.com/download.php?asset_id=22
Accessing VMware ESX Server 3 securely using SSH and SUDO – http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=fileinfo&id=10
B2V Guide to VMware ESX Server3 – http://www.b2v.co.uk/b2vguide2vmware3.htm

Links to Vette

Ultimate VMware link guide
Ultimate VMware link guide
How to Articles
How to troubleshoot VMWare system problems
How to configure Citrix Metaframe on VMWare ESX
How to Compare the MUI, Virtual Center, and vmkusahe performance statistics
ESX performance tips and tricks
How to verify SAN compatibility with ESX Server
How to plan your ESX and virtual guest backups
How to convert a machine from Virtual to Physical
How to use CRON to scheduled jobs..another guide..and another guide

Backups: Virtual Machine Backup Guide – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf
Consolidated Backup in Vmware Infrastructure 3 – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_consolidated_backup.pdf
Vmware Consolidated Backup Best Practices, Tips and Tricks – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4540.pdf
Backup and Recovery of Virtual Servers – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/mdc9870.pdf
Hot Backups and Restores – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9816.pdf
Non-disruptive Backups of Vmware Environments Using Veritas Netbackup – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9912.pdf
Vmware Consolidated Backup for Disaster Recovery –

http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab01-VCB-PRESENTATION.pdf
Perl Backup Script for Vmware ESX – vmbk.pl ( free ) – http://www.vmts.net/vmbk.htm
ESX Ranger ( not free ) – http://vizioncore.comesXpress ( not free ) – http://esxpress.com
Backup scripts – http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=23 and http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=156
Shell script – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=475244䁬
Perl script – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=70253&start=0&tstart=0
Oracle backups – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=76746&messageID=601703#601703
Vmware Consolidated Backup Technology: Today and Future – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct4539.pdf
Implementing Effective Backup Strategies for Disaster Recover – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/bct9502.pdf
Books/Documentation/Learning Resources: http://www.lulu.com/content/712361http://www.vi3book.comhttp://www.vmguru.com/
Vmware VI3 documentation – http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html
Configuration Maximums for VMware Infrastructure 3 – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_301_201_config_max.pdf
Vmworld presentations – http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vmworld/
ESX on non-supported hardware to learn with – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=77560
Citrix Optimizing Citrix Presentation Server on Vmware ESX Server – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/med0115.pdf
Citrix and Vmware – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9728.pdf
Cloning: Newsid – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Security/NewSid.mspx
Sysprep – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/duplication.mspx
Sysprep – http://www.vernalex.com/guides/sysprep/
Clustering: Setup for Microsoft Cluster Service – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_and_mscs.pdf
Converter/P2V: Boot.ini file – http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/mbr/bootini.htm
Guide to P2V 2.x – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/admin-p2v-2.0.pdf
Vmware P2V Assistant Best Practices – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9886.pdf
Converter tutorial – http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_convert_physical_machines_to_virtual_machines_with_vmware_converter.htm
Introducing the Next Generation of P2V: Vmware Converter 3.0 – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9453.pdf
Converter FAQ – http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/faqs.html
Converter Manual – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual.pdf
Converter Release Notes – http://www.vmware.com/support/converter/doc/releasenotes_conv3.html
Converter Data Sheet – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/converter_datasheet.pdf
Converter download – http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/
Import of physical machine fails – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=567860ꨴ
Ultimate P2V – http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?page_id=174

EZ P2V – http://www.ezp2v.net/
VMware P2V and Virtual Machine Importer – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab09-P2V.VMImporter-MANUAL.pdf
What machines should not be converted – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73357
Remove non-present devices from converted system

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/tips/w2mem.mspx
Operating System Extensions to Support Host Based Virtual Machines – http://www.eecs.umich.edu/techreports/cse/2002/CSE-TR-465-02.pdf
Memory performance – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=65293
Memory Shares/Limits/Reservations – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=73411
RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff – http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555223
Understanding the Impact of RAM on Overall System Performance – http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Understanding-Impact-RAM-Overall-System-Performance.html
RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff – http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm
Pagefile thread – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=79080&messageID=617876#617876
Resizing Memory With Balloons and Hotplug – https://ols2006.108.redhat.com/reprints/schopp-reprint.pdf
Networking: VMware ESX Server 3 802.1Q VLAN Solutions – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_vlan_wp.pdf
Networking Virtual Machines – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/TAC9689-A.pdf
Networking Scenarios & Troubleshooting – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9689-b.pdf
Duplex Mismatch Primer – http://www.happyrouter.com/content/view/32/1/
3rd party software and the new Service Console Firewall – http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/302/2143_f.SAL_Public.html
Firewall and Netbackup – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=477399䣗

DMZ & VLANs – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=347532䶌
ESX & DMZ – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=233918醾ESX & DMZ – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=344471䆗
ESX VM’s in the DMZ – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=21&threadID=19402&messageID=222399#222399

Second Service Console NIC – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=536518⿆

NIC teaming and VLAN trunking – http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/12/04/esx-server-nic-teaming-and-vlan-trunking/
Which NIC is used in cold migration – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=555404򇦌
Esxcfg-firewall – http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:do0cm-wxcWsJ:download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab05-SECURITY-MANUAL-APPENDIX.pdf+esxcfg–

Guide to vCenter 1.x Administration – http://www.rtfm-ed.eu/docs/vmwdocs/admin-vcenter1.2.pdf
Scripting: Simplifying Administration with Scripting APIs – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/labs2006/vmworld.06.lab12-Scripting.VI3-MANUAL.pdf
Security: Vmware as a secure and leak resistant sandbox environment – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=66085&tstart=0

Unofficial list of SATA controllers that will work with ESX – http://vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=sata_faq
Running Vmware ESX on SATA disks – http://www.virtualization.info/2006/02/tech-running-vmware-esx-server-on-sata.html
Install ESX on SATA – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=554936瞸
Fibre channel paths – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?

threadID=76763&messageID=601390#601390http://www.vmware.com/support/esx2/doc/esx20admin_multipath_disks.htmlhttp://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_multipath_disks.html
VMFS volume symblic links/uuid – http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-3-Manual/sysadmin-guide/ch-devlabel.html
VMFS volume symblic links/uuid – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=606588䅼
Choosing and Architecting Storage for your Environment – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/adc0135.pdf
Using multi-pathing in ESX Server – http://www.vmware.com/support/esx21/doc/esx21admin_multipath_disks.html
Vmware Infrastructure 3, HP StorageWorks best practices – http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/downloads/VMware3_StorageWorks_BestPractice.pdfT
ime sync: Configuring windows time service (not in ESX) – http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Configuring-Windows-Time-Service.html
Vmware time sync and windows time service (understand windows time first) – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1318
Time sync – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=21&threadID=16115&messageID=186017
Timekeeping in VMware virtual machines – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf
Clock in a Linux guest runs more slowly or quickly than real time – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1420
Troubleshooting: Troubleshooting Vmware ESX Server 3 and Vmware VirtualCenter 2 – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/mdc9694.pdf
Kernrate viewer – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d6e95259-8d9d-4c22-89c4-fad382eddcd1&displaylang=en
VI3 Network Scenarios and Troubleshooting – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac9689-b.pdfVirtualCenter 2 Diagnostics – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac4096.pdf
Tips for Troubleshooting Vmware ESX Server Faults – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/tac0028.pdfVm-support options – http://www.vmug.nl/modules.php?

SQL Server virtualization and multi-instancing –

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/virtualization.mspx
How to virtualize SQL Server on Virtual server – http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/events/vs/add-62.mspxConfiguring swap files on Windows 2003 VM –

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=326236
Deploying Microsoft Exchange in Vmware Infrastructure – http://www.vmware.com/pdf/exchange_best_practices.pdfC
hange vswp file location – http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=530426
Vmware Server: 10 ways to increase performance on a Vmware system – http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_increase_vmware_performance.htm
Vmware Server Tips and Tricks – http://download3.vmware.com/vmworld/2006/dvt4696.pdfWebsites: Mike Laverick’s RTMF Education – http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk
Vmware Technology Center – http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/technology/
VM Professional – http://vmprofessional.com/
Virtual Tricks – http://virtrix.blogspot.com/http://www.vmweekly.com/http://x86virtualization.com/http://sanbarrow.com/http://www.virtualization.info/http://www.run-vrtual.com/http://www.vmwareprofessional.com/
Vmwarez – http://www.vmwarez.com/
Virtual Strategy Magazine – http://www.virtual-strategy.com/en/homehttp://blog.scottlowe.org/http://trivore.com/vmware/esx25.html

Virtual Infrastructure 411 – http://www.vi411.org/

http://vmwarevirtualmachine.wordpress.com/category/virtual-centre/

Virtual Update Manager PDF

Study Guide Information:

VI3 VCP-310 Exam Preperation Questions > Section 1 – Virtual Infrastructure

Identify the characteristics of the products in the VMware product line and when to use each product

1. Which VMware virtualisation product supports Microsoft Cluster Service within the virtual machines and gives you the ability to cluster across virtual hosts ?

VMware Server

VMware ESX server

VMware VirtualCenter
2. What is the maximum amount of memory that you can run in a virtual machine on ESX server

64GB

2400MB

16GB

8GB
3. Which guest operating systems does VMware server support

VMware server supports 64 Bit guest operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Solaris

VMware server supports Windows, Linux and Solaris but not 64 bit guest operating systems

VMware server supports all Windows operating systems as guests
4. Does VMware server support virtual SMP

Yes

No
5. Which product is distributed resource sheduling available in ?

VMware ESX server

VMware Server

VMware VirtualCenter
6. Why would you want to use VMware’s VI3 suite of products over VMware server ?

VI3 runs as an application on windows so it is easier to use

You want to take advantage of features like High Availability and Distributed Resource Scheduling

You want to install it on old hardware that is not supported by VMware server

You want to spend less money on the software and VI3 is cheaper
**

1. Diane Greene wants to install ESX server on two IBM HS20 Blades. Each blade has two dual core CPU’s. How many ESX server processor licenses will be needed for this setup ?

2. Diane Greene wants to install ESX server on an old HP DL380 G1 that is in the office. It has dual 1gig processors, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 1 gig network connection and 146GB of internal disk space. Which hardware spec on this machine does not meet the minimum requirement ?

The Ram

The Disk Space

The Memory

The processor speed

3. Diane Greene is installing ESX server and keeps getting prompted to initialise the disks more than once. He knows that there is only one set of internal disks in the ESX server, so what could be the problem ?

There is a bug in the ESX server installation

He has not unplugged the SAN or correctly zoned the SAN before installing ESX

It is not prompting to initialise the disk, it is actually prompting for each partition

ESX is performing multiple initalisations to make sure the disk is totally clean before install

Disconnecting a host from the SAN is always the first thing that should be done before an ESX server is built. That is unless there is an immediate requirement to boot from SAN or access SAN resources straight away. In the latter case then correct SAN zoning should be applied before the build commences. This is on page 16 of the course manual in module 2 – install ESX server.

4. What tests should Diane Greene perform on his hardware before installing ESX server ?

He should run disk I/O tests and the cpu compatibility checker

He should test the memory for 72 hours and install a dummy operating system

He should test the memory for 72 hours and test install the media.

5. If Diane Greene builds an ESX server and does not have a virtual center installation how does he license the ESX server ?

Connect the virtual infrastructure client to the ESX server and upload a host based license

Connect the virtual infrastructure client to the ESX server and upload a server based license

The license key is entered during installation so it is already licensed

An ESX server that does not have access to virtualcenter or a license server needs to use a host based license. This is achieved by uploading a host based license through the Virtual Infrastructure client connected to the host.

6. Is it possible to connect more than one physical nic to a virtual switch ?

yes

VI3 VCP-310 Exam Preperation Questions > Section 3 – Networking

3.1 Given a set of requirements and a particular hardware requirement, create and configure a virtual switch 3.2 Modify the virtual switch for advanced switch capabilities including VLAN, NIC team, traffic shaping, and layer 2 security policies

1. If Diane Greene has two virtual machines attached to a virtual switch with one physical adapter. How do the virtual machines talk to each other and other machines on the network?

The virtual machines will route all traffic via the physical network

The virtual machines will route all traffic locally

The virtual machines will route all traffic via the service console

The virtual machines will route traffic to the vm’s on the same switch locally and to other machines via physical network

2. What is required under the networking configuration to enable vmotion ?

create a vmkernel port group and assign an ip address to it

you dont need to do anything if there is a virtual switch already

edit the service console to enable vmotion

you configure vmotion by editing the properties of vswitch0

3. What operations use the vmkernel port group ?

vmkernel port group is used solely by vmotion

vmkernel port group is used by vmotion, nfs and iscsi

vmkernel port group us used by vmotion, nfs, iscsi and san operations

4. What are the three layer 2 security policy exceptions available on a port group configuration ?

Mac Address changes, Forged Transmittals, and Promiscuous mode

Mac Address changes, Forged Transmits, and Promiscuous mode

Mac Address changes, Forged transmits, and non-promiscuous mode

5. What number needs to be entered in the vlan field on the port group configuration so it can see traffic on any vlan ?

4095

4096

100

6. On the traffic shaping tab of the port group properties what three options are available?

Average Bandwidth, Burst Bandwidth and Peak Size

Average Burst, Peak Burst and Bandwidth Size

Average Bandwidth, Peak Bandwidth and Burst size
***

1. ESX can boot from iSCSI using ?

a static initiator

any initiator

a software initiator

a hardware initiator

2. iSCSI can use both hardware and software initiatiors ?

True

false

3. SANS use ______ to restrict access to specific areas of the SAN

mapping

masking

zoning

blanking

VI3 VCP-310 Exam Preperation Questions > Section 4 – Storage

4. What sort of authentication does iSCSI use?

CHAP

IPSEC

SSL

SSH

5. What is a benefit of a SAN over iSCSI ?

SANS are much cheaper than iSCSI

SANS are much more secure as they are on a fibre channel fabric

You can use a software initiator in a SAN

You can use a hardware initiator in a SAN

6. how many luns does iSCSI support

256

254

128

126

***

1. Is it possible to install virtualcenter on a different server to the license server ?

Yes

2. What is the address for the vmware web interface ?

http://servername.domain.com/ui

http://servername.domain.com/web

http://servername.domain.com/wi

http://servername.domain.com/vcenter

3. How is sysprep configured with virtualcenter to enable the guest customisation wizard ?

it is specified during the virtualcenter installation

it is copied or extracted to C:\\\\\\\\Application Data\\\\VMware\\\\VMware VirtualCenter\\\\sysprep\\\\1.1 on the virtualcenter server

sysprep.exe is run on the virtualcenter server
4. When using the vi client to connect to the virtualcenter server, what username and password do you need to enter ?

Your ESX root password

your windows domain account assuming it has rights

the account specified during installation of virtualcenter

an account set up on ESX but not the root password

5. how many license files are required on the license server ?

one for every host

only one license file for everything

a seperate license file for every component but not for each host

6. Once you have added an ESX server into virtualcenter how do you license it ?

do nothing, it will acquire a license

select the license that the ESX host uses from the licensed features of the configuration tab

go to the admin button up the top of virtualcenter, select the licensing tab and license it from there

******
VI3 VCP-310 Exam Preperation Questions > Section 6 – Creating and Managing virtual machines

1. Diane Greene has two templates in virtualcenter that he needs to update with the latest Microsoft patches. What is the easiest way for him to do this ?

Convert the template to a vm, start the vm, patch the vm and convert back to a template

Build a new patched template

He cannot do this, templates are static

Power on the template, patch it and then power it off

2. Diane Greene wants to build a new virtual machine from a bootable cd. Which one of these is not a valid option to build the vm from the media ?

Mount your local cd drive to the vm

Use the local cd rom drive of the ESX host

Mount an .iso file stored on the ESX host

Mount a .bin .cue image stored on the ESX host

3. What is the difference between a vmotion and a migration ?

A vmotion is a live powered on vm move between hosts and a migration is a cold powered off move between hosts/luns

A vmotion is a live powered on vm move between hosts/luns and a migration is a cold powered off move between hosts/luns

A vmotion is a cold powered off vm move between hosts/luns and a migration is a live powered on move between hosts

A vmotion is a cold powered off vm move between hosts/luns and a migration is a live powered on move between hosts/luns

4. What tool can you use to check the cpu compatibility between hosts for vmotion ?

cpu tool

cpu compatibility checker

cpu checker

cpu compatibility tool

5. Diane Greene has a DRS cluster, one of the virtual machines on the hosts does not appear to want to migrate off host A even after it has been put into maintenance mode. What is the most likely reason stopping it migrating with vmotion ?

The virtual machine’s memory bitmap is too large

The virtual machine has an attached cdrom or floppy drive

The virtual machine does not have vmware tools installed

someone is on the console of the virtual machine

6. Diane Greene needs to create a 2tb data volume and attach it to his file server which is a virtual machine. What should he do to get best performance from this data volume ?

Create a 2tb virtual disk and format it with NTFS

Make sure the 2tb disk is a RAW device using a RDM

Change the SCSI type from BUSLOGIC to LSI LOGIC

***********************************

QUESTION 206:What are the network services provided by the VMKernel? (Select all that apply)
A. iSCSI
B. VMotion
C. NFS
D. SAN based
E. Local Storage
Answer: A, B, C
VLANs enable a single physical LAN segment to be further segmented so that groups of ports are isolated from one another as if they were on physically different segments. ________ is the standard.
A. 802.1Q
B. 801.2Q
C. 802.2Q
D. 801.1Q
Answer: A
QUESTION 203:

When two or more virtual machines are connected to the same vSwitch, network traffic between them is _______________
A. routed externally
B. routed locally
C. not routed
D. routed internally
Answer: B

QUESTION 128:

You have a Windows virtual machine (VM) that is performing poorly. You suspect high CPU utilization is the culprit.
To definitively ascertain the cause of the performance problem, you should look for a _________.
A. high CPU Usage % value in Windows Task Manager
B. low CPU Ready value in VirtualCenter
C. high CPU Usage % in a third-party monitoring tool installed in the VM
D. high CPU Ready value in VirtualCenter
Answer: D

QUESTION 129:

What are two characteristics of VMware Consolidation Backup? Select two.
A. It requires backup agents in virtual machines.
B. It allows the use of Fibre Channel tape froma gents within the virtual machines.
C. It performs image level backups for Windows virtual machines.
D. It performs file level backups for Windows virtual machines
Answer: C, D

Study questions`

http://www.ozvms.com/component/option,com_quiz/Itemid,34/

VCP Notes for Validation:

Systems compatibility guide for ESX http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pubs.html

Maximum Config for ESX Server 16 HBA’s w/ 15 Targets 128 LUN per array 255 LUN per ESX Server. 32 paths to a LUN Max LUN ID 255 64 GM RAM 128 Virtual Procs Disconnect HBA’s during

Install SSE3 & CPU Vendor are required for VMotion & consistently labeled networks

Max Config for VMFS 128 VMFS Volumes per ESX Serv 32 Physical Storage Extents 2TB per Extent (8mb blocks)

Max Config misc 1024 ports per virtual machine 20 NIC 64 Adapters

ESX Requirements 1GB Ram 2 1.5GHZ Procs 1 Network Adapter A basic SCSI controller, Fiber Channel LUN, iSCSi adapter or internal RAID controller with Unpartitioned space.

Max / Min LUN 256 Max LUN 128 Max LUN (Install) 1.2GB Min LUN capacity Do not install ESX on Shared LUN (Boot from SAN)

VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor) virtualizes CPU

Shares tell you how much resources a machine can get. Shares default is Normal High 2000

Shares per vCPU (20 Shares per MB of Virtual Memory Normal 1000 Shares, 10 Shares per MB

Low 500 Shares, 5 Shares per MB

Data Center Management Services: Task Scheduler VM Provisioning Host and VM Configuration Resources and Virtual Machine Inventory Statistics and Logging Alarms and Event Management

Servers connected to same vSwitch are routed locally

NFS needs IP Storage Port and VMotion

Resource Pools can benefits include: Flexible hierarchial orginization isolation between pools, sharing within pools access control and delegation seperation of resources from hardware management of sets of virtual machines running a multi-tier service

Resource Pool Attributes: Memory Shares CPU Shares Reservation Expandable Reservationi Limit

Network Load Balancing policies Router based on ip hash based on source mac hash use explicit failover routebased on originating virtual port id

NIC Teaming Requirements: vSwitches must have more then 1 uplink

Memory sample period specifies the time interval in seconds of the vm’s execution time over which memory activity is monitored to estimate working sizes. Default is 60

Memory share scan controls the rate which the system scans memory to identify opportunities for sharing memory default is 50 LUN Masking done on Host or SP

Network Adapter Panel Provides Device Speed Configured vSwitch Networks

Local Only, Virtual Center and Priviledges are not privileges within roles

Virtual Infrastructure Web Access can access remote console, change virtual hardware and view inventory of the virtual machines in VI

vmmemctl = balloon driver & reclaims unused memory from the guest OS Provides least negative effect on performance of running VM’s

Memory Idle Tax specifies the idle memory tax rate as a percentage. A tax rate of 0 defines an allocation policy that ignores working sets and allocates memory based on shares. A high tax rate results in an allocation policy that allows idle memory to be reallocated away from virtual machines that are hoarding it. Default is 75 (Remember MemTax = 75)

Memory Tax prevents virtual machines from hoarding idle memory

Memory Virtualization does not provide contiguous physical memory

Swap is size between memory and reservation

Type is for resource pools Resource pools manage host memory and cpu

Recommendation: Use dedicated switch when using Software Initiators

VMWare Server 1.x does not support dynamic resource management

You can add hardware to virtual machines through Web Access

Increasing the memory shares for a virtual machines has no effect on the physical memory resources used for virtualization overhead

vmkcore is a required partition for storing core dumps when debugging vmware w/ Tech Support

HA supports a MAX of 4 host failures

vSwitch policies consist of Layer 2 Security, Traffic Shaping, Load Balancing and Failover

Maximum # of vSwitches is 127

Virtualization layer schedules both service console and VM’s OS, this layer manages how the OS access physical resources.

VirtualCenter Server Requirements 2.0GHz 560MB Disk 2GB Ram or More Windows 2003, XP, 2000 SP4 Update 1

Network Adapter Panel shows: Device Speed Configured vSwitch Networks

3260 is the defailt port used by iSCSI

During ESX installation VMFS3 partition must be 600MB or more.

Memory Balance Period specifies the time interval in seconds for automatic memory reallocations. Default is 15

Ports 902, 27000 and 27010 need to be opened in FW for full use of VC

3 Configurable security policy exceptions for a virtual switch are promiscuous mode, MAC address change and Forged transmits

Distributed Services have 4 key interfaces: ESX Server Management, VMWare Infrastructure API,

Database Interface, Active Directory Interface

When configuring vswitch for NIC teaming, “Notify Switches” notifies the Physical Switch when a virtual NIC changes locations

You can have a maximum of 512 port groups on a single host

Load Balancing Policies: Route based on the originating virtual port ID Route based on ip hash Route based on source MAC hash Use explicit failover

Core Service are basic management services for a datacenter, they include: Task Scheduler VM Provisioning Host and VM Configuration Resource and Virtual Machine Inventory Management

Statistics and Logging Alarms and Event Management

Virtual Machines can run in 2 different modes: Direct execution Virtualization Mode

The 2 options in Promiscuous Mode are Reject and Accept

4 Benefits of Virtualization: Isolation Encapsulation Compatibility Hardware Independence

ESX uses short-lived SCSI reservations as part of its distributed locking protocol

LUN Masking is done on the host and storage processor

Server manages network and disk resources on a per-host basis

MRU is recommended policy for Active / Passive Fixed is recommended policy for Active / Active

Mem.ShareScanVM controls the rate at which the system scans memory to identify opportunities for sharing memory (default 50)

3 physical implmentation alternatives for SCSI devices .vmdk file stored on a VMFS volume Local SCSI device passed through directly Device mapping to a SAN LUN

MRU and Fixed are 2 possible storage multipathin policies

Affinity is ignored as a part of VMotion

Shares Value is the number of shares allocated to a Machine

VMKernel controls memory, physical processor, storage controllers, networking, keyboard / video / periphrials

3 pre-defined ESX Server Roles are Administrator, Read Only and No Access

A characteristic of a mapped SAN LUN set to Virtual Compatibility mode is to allow the virtual machines to use VMWare Snapshots

Max iSCSI targets is 64

The default number of ports for a vSwitch is 56 however it can be created with up to 1016 ports.

Check High CPU ready value for CPU performance problems

Direct Excecution & Virtualization mode are 2 modes that Virtual Machines run

When virtual machines crash they leave a dump in the same directory as the VM

2 thoughts on “VMWare Training Fast Track”

Gary Serencsa says:

March 13, 2009 at 2:06 pm

I had know idea that you were into VMWare! Very cool bud! We should talk. :?)

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it solutions says:

March 20, 2010 at 5:17 pm

the web needs more great web sites like this.

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