VMware Virtualization Basics - Part-1.pptx

© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.
VMwareVirtualization
Basics(Part-1)
By
Sakshi Mediratta

Agenda–
1 - What is Virtualization 5 - VM’s Resource Monitoring
1.1 Why we use Virtualization 5.1 VM’s CPU concepts and settings
2 - Using vSphere 5.0 5.2 VM’s Memory concepts and settings
2.1 Components of vSphere 5.0 5.3 Resource Pools
a. ESXi and comparison to ESX 5.4 VM’s Performance Charts
b. Configuring ESXi
c. Virtual Center Server Installation 6 - Host’s Performance Monitoring
d. Installing vSphere Client 6.1 Host’s CPU Monitoring
3- Navigating vSphere 6.2 Host’s Memory Monitoring
3.1 Adding Host to vSphere 7 - High Availability
3.2 vCenter License Overview 7.1 vMotion Concepts
3.3 vCenter Tasks/Events 7.2 HA Basic Concepts
3.4 vCenter Alarms 7.3 DRS Basic Concepts
4- Virtual Machine 8 - Other important points to remember
4.1 What is VM and its files 9 - Basic Troubleshooting
4.2 Creating Virtual Machine
4.3 VMware Tools
4.4 Template
4.5 Cloning
4.6 Snapshot

Virtualization

4
• Virtualization is the creation of virtual (rather than actual) version of something
such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources.
• There are three areas of IT where virtualization is making head-roads:
• 1. Network Virtualization: is a method of combining the available resources in a network by splitting
up the available bandwidth into channels, each of which is independent from others, and each of
which can be assigned to a particular server or device in real time.
• 2. Storage Virtualization: is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices
into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. It is
commonly used in Storage Area Networks (SANs).
• 3. Server Virtualization: is the masking of server resources (including the number and identity of
individual physical servers, processors, and operating systems) from server users. The intention is
to spare the user from having to understand and manage complicated details of server resources
while increasing resource sharing and utilization and maintaining the capacity to expand later.
What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a technology that transforms hardware into
software. It allows you to run multiple operating systems as
virtual machines on a single computer.
Virtualization is not a Simulation,
its Emulation..!!
bare-metal
architecture
How does it work ?
A virtualization layer is installed .
A bare-metal hypervisor architecture is used.

6
Why we use Virtualization?

Using vSphere 5.0

8
Using vSphere 5.0
vSphere provides the foundation for any
virtual datacenter – small, medium, or
large:
Management services:
• VMware vCenter™ Suite
Application services:
• For availability, security, scalability
Infrastructure services:
• VMware ESX™/ESXi

9
 ESXi Host
VMware states that the ESX product runs on bare metal. In contrast to other VMware
products, it does not run on top of a third-party operating system,but instead includes its
own kernel.
It is not an operating system, its an hypervisor.
* Hypervisor is a program that allows multiple operating systems to share a single hardware
host.
Virtual Center Server
Virtual Center allowed administrators to manage VMware vSphere® environments.
vSphere Client
vSphere™ Client refers to an application that enables management of a vSphere installation.
A vSphere Client can operate a Windows® desktop PC
Components of vSphere 5.0

10
ESX comes in two main versions prior to vSphere 5.0 :
ESXi
• Managed through either a BIOS-like direct console or the vSphere
Command-Line Interface (vCLI)
• A high-security, small disk footprint
ESX
• Managed through either a built-in service console or vCLI
• Available as an installable DVD boot image
ESX / ESXi Host
The major benefit of ESXi is the fact
that it is light-weight under 100 MB
versus 2 GB for ESX
It also eliminates the need to
manage a separate Linux console
(and the Linux skills needed to
manage it)……
Smaller means
fewer patches

11
ESXi 5.0 Host
64-bit x86 CPUs
Two cores
All AMD Opteron
and Intel Xeon
SCSI/RAID
controller
One or more
Gigabit ethernet
controller
2 GB RAM SCSI/SATA Disk
Boot from SAN
supported
Requirements to install ESXi 5.0 Maximums of ESXi 5.0
Logical CPUs per Host 160
Virtual Machines per Host 512
Virtual CPUs per host 2048
RAM per Host 2 TB
LUNs per server 256

12
The CUI is similar to the BIOS of a
computer with a key-board only user
interface.
Configuring ESXi

13
This allows an administrator to:
 Set a root password
 Enable or disable lockdown mode (to
prevent user access to host as root)
Configuring ESXi contd…
 Set host name, IP Address and DNS
Server
 Configure keyboard layout, view
support information, view system logs,
enable troubleshooting services when
required.

14
Connecting to ESXi
• The vSphere client is used to connect remotely to an
ESX/ESXi host from a Windows PC.
• On the vSphere Client login screen, enter:
 Host Name or IP Address of ESX/ESXi Host
 User Name : root
 Password for user root
While we connect to ESX using
vSphere client; we will be able to
manage only one ESX host at a time
To manage multiple hosts at
one time, we require Virtual
Center Server.

15
Hardware Requirements
 Number of CPUs – Two 64-bit CPUs or one 64-bit dual-core processor
 Processor – 2.0GHz or higher Intel or AMD processor*
 Memory – 3GB RAM minimum*
 Disk storage – 3GB minimum*
 Networking – Gigabit connection recommended
* Higher if database runs on the same machine
Software Requirements
 64-bit operating system is required.
Examples of guest operating systems supported:
Windows XP Pro 64-bit, SP2, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2,
Windows 2008 R2 64-bit
 See “vSphere Compatibility Matrixes.”
VMware vCenter Server allows you to centrally manage multiple VMware ESX/ESXi hosts and
their virtual machines.
Virtual Center Server
Database Requirements
Each vCenter Server instance must have a
connection to a database to organize all the
configuration data.
Supported databases:
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Oracle 10g and 11g
IBM DB2 9.5
Default Database – MS SQL Server 2008
Express
Bundled with vCenter Server
Used for product evaluations and demos

16
The vCenter Server installation wizard asks for the following data:
vCenter Server Installation Wizard

17
vCenter Server Installation Screenshots
1. The VMware vSphere 5.0 Installation Menu should appear.
The first component that we are going to install is vCenter Server.
2. You will first have to select the language for the installation.
3. It is important to note that the installer has detected that IIS web
server is installed on this host and could be using common ports (
Port 80 ) that vCenter Server will use.
4. Click Yes to continue

18
5. At the Welcome to the Installation wizard for VMware vCenter
Server click Next
6. You will
then be asked
to accept the
End-User
Patent
Agreement.
Click Next.
7. Select I agree to
the terms in the
license agreement
and click Next.
8. Enter the
appropriate
details and
click Next.

19
9. Select
Install a
Microsoft
SQL Server
2008
Express
instance
10. Enter
the vCenter
Name
11. Select
Destination
Folder
12. Select Create
a standalone
VMware vCenter
Server instance.

20
13. On the Configure Ports screen,
we will have to change the HTTP
Port. If you remember at the start of
the installation process, the installer
detected that Port 80 was in use.
So we will change the HTP Port to
Port 81. The rest of the Ports are
Ok.
14. A
warning
message

21
15. At the vCenter Server JVM Memory
screen, select the Small Inventory Size
and click Next to continue.
16. At the installation Completed
screen, click the Finish button.

22
• vCenter is installed on a Windows System
• After it is installed, vCenter Server services can be managed from the Windows Control Panel
(Administrative Tools  Services)
vCenter Server Services

23
• The vSphere client is an interface used to
connect remotely to vCenter Server from a
Windows System.
• Two ways to install the vSphere Client:
 Use the VMware vCenter installer
 Download the client from the main Web
Page of the main vCenter Server System
Installing the vSphere Client
To log in to the vSphere Client, enter:
Host name or IP address of the vCenter Server system
Windows user and password
(Optional) Use your Windows session
credentials.

Navigating vSphere 5.0

25
Navigating the vSphere Client
Home page
search box
navigation bar

26
vCenter Server Views
Hosts and Clusters inventory view
VMs and Templates inventory view
Datastores inventory view
Networking inventory view

27
Adding a Host to the vCenter Server inventory
To add an ESX/ESXi host to the
vCenter Server inventory, use the
Add Host wizard.

28
vCenter License Overview
• Licenses are managed and monitored from vCenter Server.
• Licensing consists of:
• Product: License to use a vSphere software component or feature
• License Key: 25-character key that corresponds to a product
• Asset: Machine on which a product is installed
product
license
key
assets

29
vCenter Server Tasks/Events

30
vCenter Server Alarms
An alarm is a notification that occurs in
response to selected events or conditions
that occur with an object in the inventory.
Default alarms exist for various inventory
objects:
 Many default alarms for hosts and virtual
machines
You can create custom alarms for a wide range
of inventory objects:
 Virtual machines, hosts, clusters,
datacenters, datastores, networks,
distributed switches, and distributed port
groups

31
vCenter Server Alarms contd…
To create an alarm, right-click the inventory object and select Alarm > Add Alarm.
An alarm requires a trigger. Types of triggers:
Condition or state trigger – Monitors the current condition or state.
Example:
• A virtual machine’s current snapshot is above 2GB in size.
• A host is using 90 percent of its total memory.
• A datastore has been disconnected from all hosts.
Event – Monitors events. Example:
• The health of a host’s hardware has changed.
• A license has expired in the datacenter.
• A host has left the vNetwork distributed switch.

32
Condition
triggers
for a
virtual
machine
Use the Reporting pane to
avoid needless re-alarms.

33
In the menu bar, select Administration > vCenter Server Settings.
Select Mail to set SMTP
parameters.
Select SNMP to specify
trap destinations.

34
vCenter Server System Logs
Select ESX
and then
File 
Export 
Export
System
Logs

Virtual Machine

36
What is Virtual Machine ?
• A Virtual Machine is :
• A set of virtual hardware on which a
supported guest operating system and its
applications run
• A set of discrete files
A Virtual Machine’s configuration file describes
the virtual machine’s configuration including
its virtual hardware
• Avoid using special characters and spaces in
the virtual machine’s name
…
guestOS = “winnetstandard”
…
displayName = “MyVM”
(etc.)
MyVM.vmx
From the user’s perspective, a virtual
machine is a software platform that, like
a physical computer, runs an operating
system and applications.
From the hypervisor’s perspective, a
virtual machine is a discrete set of files.
Main files:
 Configuration file
 Virtual disk file
 NVRAM settings file
 Log file

37
What files make up a Virtual Machine ?

38
Creating a Virtual Machine
Information needed for a typical
configuration:
Virtual machine name and inventory location
Location in which to place the virtual machine
(cluster, host, resource pool)
Datastore on which to store the virtual machine’s
files
Guest operating system and version
Disk parameters for creating a new virtual disk:
• Disk size
• Disk-provisioning settings:
− Allocate and commit space on demand (Thin
Provisioning)
− Support clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance
On the Configuration tab, click the
Storage link.
Right-click a datastore to browse its
files.
Displaying a Virtual Machine’s Files

vSphere 5.0 supports the industry’s most capable virtual machines

40
VMware Tools
Features of VMware
Tools include:
Device drivers:
• SVGA display
• vmxnet/vmxnet3
• Balloon driver for memory
management
• Sync driver for quiescing I/O
• Improved mouse
• Time synchronization

41
Template
A master copy of
a virtual machine
used to create
and provision
new virtual
machines
An image that
typically includes
a guest operating
system, a set of
applications, and
a specific virtual
machine
configuration
Clone the virtual machine to a
template.
A template will be created from that Virtual
Machine and Virtual Machine will remain
intact.
The virtual machine can either be powered on or powered off.
Convert the virtual machine to a
template.
The virtual machine will be converted to
template.
The virtual machine must be powered off.

42
Using Template
Deploying a Virtual
Machine from Template
To deploy a virtual machine, provide
such information as virtual machine
name, inventory location, host,
datastore, and guest operating
system customization data.
Convert to Virtual Machine
Template will be converted to Virtual
Machine

43
Cloning a Virtual Machine
 Cloning is an alternative to
deploying a virtual machine.
 A clone is an exact copy of the
virtual machine.
 The virtual machine being
cloned can either be powered on or
powered off.

44
Snapshot
Snapshots allow you to preserve the state of the virtual machine so that you
can return to the same state repeatedly.
For example, if you are testing software, snapshots allow you to back
out of these changes.
*
•You can take a snapshot while a virtual machine
is powered on, powered off, or suspended
*
•A snapshot captures the entire state of the
virtual machine
*
•Memory state, settings state, and disk state
The Snapshot Manager lets
you review all snapshots for
the active virtual machine
and act on them directly:
-- Revert to a snapshot.
-- Delete one or all
snapshots.

45
Virtual Machine Snapshot Files
A snapshot consists of a set of files: the memory state (.vmsn), the description
file (-00000#.vmdk), and the delta file (-00000#-delta.vmdk).
The snapshot list file (.vmsd) keeps track of the virtual machine’s snapshots.

46
Removing a Virtual Machine
Two ways to remove a virtual machine:
Remove a virtual machine from the inventory.
• The virtual machine’s files remain on disk.
• The virtual machine can later be re-added to the
inventory.
Delete a virtual machine from disk.
• The virtual machine is removed from the inventory,
and its files are permanently deleted from disk.

47
Modifying Virtual Machine Settings
You can modify a
virtual machine’s
configuration in its
Properties dialog box:
Add virtual hardware.
• Some hardware can be added
while the virtual machine is
powered on.
Remove virtual hardware.
Set virtual machine
options.
Control a virtual
machine’s CPU and memory
resources.

48
Dynamically increasing a Virtual Disk’s Size
Format the new space
within the guest operating
system.
Dynamically increase a
virtual disk from, for
example, 2GB to 20GB.

49
Virtual Machine’s Advanced : Boot Options
Advanced options rarely need to be set.
Delay power on
Boot into BIOS
Retry after failed
boot

Resource Monitoring

51
Resource Management
Resource management is the allocation of resources from
providers (hosts, clusters, and resource pools) to consumers
(virtual machines).
Resolves
resource
over-
commitment
Prevents
virtual
machine from
monopolizing
resources
Controls the
relative
importance of
virtual
machine
Exploits
under-
committed
resources
Since Virtual Machines
simultaneously use the
resources of a physical
server, they should know how
to respond when the virtual
machines are competing for
resources.

52
Virtual Machine CPU Concepts

53
Virtual Machine CPU Concepts contd…
Hyperthreading enables a core to execute two
threads, or sets of instructions, at the same
time.
To enable hyperthreading:
1. Verify that system supports
hyperthreading.
2. Enable hyperthreading in the system
BIOS.
3. Ensure that hyperthreading for the
VMware ESX™/ESXi host is turned on.

54
Virtual Machine CPU Resource Settings
Limit :
Consumption of CPU cycles
Reservation (MHz):
A certain number of CPU cycles reserved
for this virtual machine
Shares:
A value that specifies the relative priority
or importance of a virtual machine

55
Virtual Machine Memory Concepts
The VMkernel manages a machine’s entire memory.
Part of this memory is used by the VMkernel.
The rest is available for use by virtual machines:
• Configured memory, plus overhead
Virtual machines can use more memory than the physical machine has
available.
This is called memory over-commitment.
Memory compression improves virtual machine performance when memory is
overcommitted.
When memory becomes overcommitted, virtual pages are compressed and stored in memory.
Compressed memory is faster to access than memory swapped to disk.

56
Transparent Page Sharing
The VMkernel detects identical
pages in the memory of virtual
machines and maps them to the
same underlying physical page:
No changes to guest operating system
required
The VMkernel treats the shared
pages as copy-on-write:
Read-only when shared
Private copies after write

57
vmmemctl : Balloon-driver mechanism
Deal locate memory from selected virtual machines when RAM is scarce

58
VMkernel Swap
Each powered-on virtual machine needs
its own VMkernel swap file:
Created when the virtual machine is powered on.
Deleted when the virtual machine is powered off.
Default location: same VMware vStorage VMFS volume
as virtual machine’s boot disk.
Size is equal to the difference between the memory
guaranteed to it, if any, and the maximum it can use.
Allows the VMkernel to swap out the virtual machine
entirely if memory is scarce.
Use of VMkernel swap is a last resort.
Performance will be noticeably slow.

59
Virtual Machine Memory Resource Settings
Available memory:
Memory size defined when the virtual machine was
created
Limit (MB):
A cap on the consumption of physical memory by
this virtual machine
Reservation (MB):
A certain amount of physical memory reserved for
this virtual machine
Shares:
A value that specifies the relative priority or
importance of a virtual machine
A virtual machine swap file covers the
range between available memory and
reservation.

60
Resource Pools
A resource pool is a logical abstraction for
hierarchically managing CPU and memory
resources.
It is used on standalone hosts or clusters
enabled for VMware Distributed Resource
Scheduler.
It provides resources for virtual machines and
child pools.

61
VMware vCenter Server Performance Charts
The Performance tab
displays two kinds of charts
for hosts and virtual
machines:
Overview charts:
• Display the most common metrics
for an object
Advanced charts:
• Display data counters not shown in
the overview charts
The key to interpreting data is
to observe the range of data
from the Guest OS, the VM and
the Host’s perspective

62
CPU constrained
If CPU usage is continuously high, the virtual machine is constrained by CPU.
But the host might have enough CPU for other virtual machines to run.
Multiple virtual machines are constrained by CPU if:
There is high CPU use in the guest operating system
There are relatively high CPU ready values for the virtual machines
The amount of time a virtual machine waits in the queue in a ready-to-run state
before it can be scheduled on a CPU is known as ready time.
The higher the ready time is, the slower the virtual machine is performing. The ready time
should preferably be as low as possible. Virtual machines that are allocated multiple CPUs or
have high timer interrupts are more frequently seen with high ready time values.

63
Memory constrained
Check the virtual machine’s
ballooning activity:
If ballooning activity is high, this
might not be a problem if all
virtual machines have sufficient
memory.
If ballooning activity is high and
the guest operating system is
swapping, then the virtual
machine is constrained for
memory.

High Availability

65
High Availability
Level of
availability
Downtime
per year
99%
87 hours
(3.5 days)
99.9% 8.76 hours
99.99% 52 minutes
99.999% 5 minutes
What level of
virtual machine
availability is
important to
you?
A highly available system is one that is continuously operational for a desirably
long length of time.
A fault-tolerant system is designed so that, in the event of an unplanned outage, a
backup component can immediately take over with no loss of service.

66
VMware Availability and Fault Tolerance Solutions
Availability features in VMware vSphere™:
Storage availability using multipathing
Network availability using network interface card (NIC)
teaming
VMware vMotion™ and Storage vMotion
VMware HA
VMware Fault Tolerance (FT)
Support for MSCS clustering
VMware availability product:
VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager:
• Decreases planned and unplanned downtime. SRM
protects all of your important systems and applications
with disaster recovery.

67
VMware HA
VMware HA:
 Provides automatic restart of virtual
machines in case of physical host failures
 Provides high availability while reducing
the need for passive standby hardware
and dedicated administrators
 Provides support for virtual machine
failures with virtual machine monitoring
and FT
 Is configured, managed, and monitored
through vCenter Server

68
VMware vMotion
Migration of Virtual Machines between Datastores is
called Storage vMotion.
vSphere vMotion enables the live migration of
running virtual machines from one physical server to
another with zero downtime, continuous service
availability and complete transaction integrity.
It eliminates application downtime from planned server
maintenance.
The hosts should have vMotion Network configured with similar network
labels and should have shared Datastores.

69
VMware DRS
VMware HA is integrated with VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). If a host
has failed and Virtual Machines have been restarted on other hosts, DRS can use Virtual Machine
migration to balance workloads.
DRS is a utility that balances the computing workloads with available resources in a
virtualized environment.

70
Storage DRS

71
Other important points
Firmware and drivers plays an important part in the functioning of the system.
Always make sure that you ESX servers are upgraded with latest firmware version.
The connected peripherals should also have the latest drivers and firmware:
- Attached storage
- HBA cards
- Attached Network Devices
- NIC Cards
NTP settings on the ESXi host do play an
important role in the functioning of the VMs.
The NTP settings should be accurate.

BasicTroubleshooting
◆ Monitor virtual machine performance with a combination of tools inside the virtual machine and the tools
in vSphere. For example, use Task Manager inside a virtual machine and the performance reports from
vCenter Server to monitor CPU utilization and to identify bottlenecks.
◆ Regularly review the levels of the CPU Ready and Ballooning counters in the performance charts provided
by vCenter Server. Abnormally high values of either counter would indicate an issue with CPU or memory,
respectively.
◆ Create virtual machine benchmarks as a standard of comparison when changes are made.
◆ Create email-based performance alarms for key virtual machines. Allow administrators to be notified of
system problems for virtual machines that provide core network services such as mail, databases, and
authentication.
Make sure VMware Tools are installed on the VM.

BasicTroubleshooting
To troubleshoot memory-related issues,
check the guest operating system, and then
check the ESX/ESXi host .
High guest OS memory usage with no
ballooning or virtual machine swap indicates
the need
to add more memory to the virtual machine.
High balloon usage or high virtual machine
swap usage indicates a physical contention
issue.
To troubleshoot CPU-related issues,
check the guest operating system CPU usage
and %RDY on the ESX/ESXi host. High guest
CPU usage and low %RDY on the host
indicates the need to add an additional vCPU.
High guest CPU usage and high %RDY
indicates a physical contention issue.

74

75
Links to refer:
Virtualization Overview
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/virtualization.pdf
Resource Management
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-resource-management-guide.pdf
Configuration Maximums
https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r50/vsphere-50-configuration-maximums.pdf

Thankyou

VMware Virtualization Basics - Part-1.pptx

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