VMware vSphere Introduction

         VMware vSphere Introduction

VMware vSphere leverages the power of virtualization to transform datacenters into simplified cloud

computing infrastructures and enables IT organizations to deliver flexible and reliable IT services. VMware vSphere virtualizes and aggregates the underlying physical hardware resources across multiple systems andprovides pools of virtual resources to the data center.VMware vSphere manages large collections of infrastructure (such as CPUs,storage, and networking) as a seamless and dynamic operating environment, and also manages the complexity of a datacenter. The following component layers make up VMware vSphere.

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 Infrastructure Services:-

          Infrastructure Services are the set of services provided to abstract, aggregate,

       and allocate hardware or infrastructure resources. Infrastructure Services can

       be categorized into:

•  What is storage virtualization?           

                               >      If you can virtualize your servers, why not virtualized your storage?

                 >  Removes the physical mapping of storage & moves storage into logical objects.

·                                       These logical (or virtual objects are much more easily managed)

·                            >   Many benefits are achieved from the virtualization of storage –lower cost                      of storage,ease. Data migration & less administrative burden.                

•    What is network virtualization?
               Internal network virtualization provides network functionality in software.          ExampleVMware ESX  &Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual networks.
     External network virtualization provides multiple network function in one unit.      Example A Cisco switch with VLAN capabilities or integrated applications.

• What is application virtualization?

·                              Virtualization of application so that they are encapsulated & are able to run on other 

                  system  without actually installing them.

·                             This allows any application to run without conflicts, usually via streaming.

·                                  Example – VMware Thin app, Xen app & Ms softgrid.

               

• What is Desktop virtualization?       

·                          Desktop virtualization is also called VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)

·                          Desktop virtualization is the consolidation of desktop computers into virtualized                                                              server Systems.  

·                             Example – VMware VDM/View, Citrix – Xen Desktop

•  Note:

1                       VMware Vsphere Hypervisor (Free edition) only support ram up to 32GB not  more                                      than   this.

2           VMware Vsphere Hypervisor (Free edition) is not managed by vCenter server.

  

• What is Application Services:-

              Application Services are the set of services provided to ensure availability,

           security, and scalability for applications. Examples include HA and Fault

            Tolerance.

• What is VMware vCenter Server:-

            VMware vCenter Server provides a single point of control of the datacenter. It

            provides essential datacenter services such as access control, performance

           monitoring, and configuration.

• What is Clients:-

           Users can access the VMware vSphere datacenter through clients such as the

           vSphere Client or Web Access through a Web browser.

                                              VSPHERE STRICTURE

                  
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           VMware vSphere Components & Features

      An introduction to the components and features of VMware vSphere helps you   to                  understand the parts and how they interact.

     VMware vSphere includes the following components and features.

        

    1:-     VMware ESX and ESXi:

 

       A visualization layer runs on physical servers that abstract processor,  Memory ,Storage

       in to multiple virtual machines. 

                     

 Versions of ESX are available:-

      A.  VMware ESX 4.1 contains a built-in service console. It is available as an                                      installable  CD-ROM boot image. 

      B.  VMware ESXi 4.1 does not contain a service console. It is available in two 

           forms: VMware ESXi 4.1 Embedded and VMware ESXi 4.1 Installable. ESXi                              4.1Embedded  is firmware that is built into a server’s physical hardware.
           ESXi 4.1 Installable is software that  is available as an installable CD-ROM   boot                       image. You install the ESXi 4.1 Installable software on to a server’s hard drive. 

     C.  In VMware ESXi 5 a virtualization layer run on physical servers that abstracts                        processor, memory, storage, and resources into multiple virtual machines.

2:-   VMware vCenter Server:

The central point for configuring, provisioning, and managing virtualized IT environments. It provides essential datacenter services such as access control, performance monitoring, and alarm management.

            

3:-       VMware vSphere Client:

       An interface that allows users to connect remotely to vCenter Server or                              ESX/ESXi  from any Windows PC.

See the below screen of vShpere client

                

4:-       VMware vSphere Web Client:

     A Web interface that enables users to connect remotely to vCenter Server from a             variety of Web browsers and operating systems.
See the below screen of vShphere login 

                   

5:-     VMware vSphere SDKs:

Feature that provides standard interfaces for VMware and third-party solutions to access VMware vSphere.

6:- vSphere Virtual Machine File System (VMFS):  

VM File System	VM File System Versions
VMFS 5	V5
VMFS 3	V4
VMFS 2	V3

  

A high performance cluster files system for ESX/ESXi virtual machines.

 

7:-    vSphere virtual SMP:

Enables a single virtual machine to use multiple physical processors simultaneously.

8:-             vSphere vMotion:

Live migration of VM from 1 ESXi host to ESXi host 2.

Enables the migration of powered-on virtual machines from one physical server to another with zero down time, continuous service availability, and complete transaction integrity.

Migration with vMotion cannot be used to move virtual machines from one datacenter to another.

 

9:-   vSphere  Storage vMotion (svMotion):

Live migration of virtual machine storage from 1 storage to storage 2.

Enables the migration of virtual machine files from one datastore to another without service interruption. You can place the virtual machine and all its disks in a single location, or select separate locations for the virtual machine configuration file and each virtual disk. The virtual machine remains on the same host during Storage vMotion.

Migration with Storage vMotion lets you move the virtual disks or configuration file of a virtual machine to a new datastore while the virtual machine is running. Migration with Storage vMotion enables you to move a virtual machine's storage without any interruption in the availability of the virtual machine.

10:-             vSphere High Availability (HA):

Auto restart of VM on any other ESXi host within the same cluster. Down Time = Restart Time.

A feature that provides high availability for virtual machines. If a server fails, affected virtual machines are restarted on other available servers that have spare capacity.

11:-        vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS):

It is nothing but auto load balancer across the cluster with respect of CPU & Memory. It is also work with cluster level.Allocates and balances computing capacity dynamically across collections of hardware resources

12:-Distributed Power Management (DPM)

Distributed power management (DPM) capabilities that enable a datacenter to significantly reduce its                                   power consumption.

13:- vSphere Storage DRS:

Allocates and balances storage capacity and I/O dynamically across collections of datastores. This feature includes management capabilities that minimize the risk of running out of space and the risk of I/O bottlenecks slowing the performance of virtual machines.

14:-   vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT):
Provides continuous availability by protecting a virtual machine with a copy. When this feature is enabled for a virtual machine, a secondary copy of the original, or primary, virtual machine is created. All actions completed on the primary virtual machine are also applied to the secondary virtual machine. If the primary virtual machine becomes unavailable, the secondary machine becomes immediately active, providing continuous availability.

15:-    vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS):

It is distributed switch & also called as advanced switch.

A virtual switch that can span multiple ESXi hosts, enabling significant reduction of on-going network maintenance activities and increasing network capacity. This increased efficiency enables virtual machines to maintain consistent network configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts.

16:-   vSphere Host Profile:

Standardizing Configuration of your ESXi Host across the data center & this feature is included in VMware Vsphere Enterprise License.

A feature that simplifies host configuration management through user-defined configuration policies. The host profile policies capture the blueprint of a known, validated host configuration and use this configuration to configure networking, storage, security, and other settings across multiple hosts. The host profile policies also monitor compliance to standard host configuration settings across the datacenter. Host profiles reduce the manual steps that are involved in configuring a host and can help maintain consistency and correctness across the datacenter.

           Host profiles are also a component of vSphere Auto Deploy. The concept of an auto deployed host means that vCenter Server owns the entire host configuration and it is captured within a host profile. Certain policies require user input to provide host-specific values. To support Auto Deploy for host profiles, an answer file is created that contains the definitions for those policies.