Vmware Host Profile

Host Profile is one of the automation feature use by vSphere for managing multiple ESXi host. As virtualization is growing, it becomes difficult and time consuming to configure multiple host in similar way. As a result VMware has developed a new feature called as host profile through which we can configure multiple servers at a same time.

Host Profile eliminates per-host, manual host based configuration and maintains configuration consistency and correctness across the datacenter. Host profile policies are created in vCenter server which act as blueprint which store configuration settings like networking, storage, security, etc. You can use this profile to automate host configuration across multiple host/cluster and monitor host for configuration errors/deviations. With host profile you minimize the rise of downtime for application, misconfigured systems, reduced labor cost and time, etc.

Host profiles are like Group policy used in Active directory to apply policies to multiple ESXi host. A host profile can be applied to single ESXi Host or Entire Cluster. A host profile should be created with the help of reference computer.

A host profile is composed of two parts:

•        Configuration details – Describes policies that govern how a host configuration should look, including details about each specific configuration setting.

•        Compliance details – Describes a set of checks that are performed to ensure that the host is configured as specified in the profile.

Consideration for Creating host profile

•        Determining how many host profiles to create

•        Determining which reference host to use

•        Determining which entities to attach to the profile