Knowledge

• Identify the vCenter Server managed ESX Hosts and Virtual Machine maximums
  Here we go again, another list of figures that made the VCP 3 exam so famous.
  

  Item	Max.
  ESX hosts on 32 bit vSphere	200
  VMs on 32 bit vSphere (powered on / registered)	2000 / 3000
  ESX hosts on 64 bit vSphere	300
  VMs on 64 bit vSphere (powered on / registered)	3000 / 4500
  Linked vCenters	10
  Concurrent vSphere Clients (32 / 64 bit)	15 / 30
  ESX hosts / datacenter	100
  Concurrent (storage) VMotions (Host / Datastore)	2 / 4
  Concurrent operations per vCenter	96

  
  

Read more about the configuration maximums of vCenter here on page 6.

• Join ESX/ESXi Hosts to vCenter Server
  When you have installed an ESX host you can add this to the vSphere environment by adding it to the vCenter Server. To do so:
  • Go to the vSphere client and right click on your cluster
    
    
  • In the menu that pop’s up click “Add Cluster”
    
  • Follow the wizard to add a ESX host.
• Configure Guest OS Customization
  When deploying OSes from a template you can use a Customization file to quickly deploy VMs in the same way. Remember that you need the MS sysprep files for Windows Server 2003 / XP /2000 customization.  In general there are two ways to start the wizard:
  • Deploy from template
    When you right click a template en choose “Deploy Virtual Machine from this template…” you automatically start a wizard to deploy a VM from template. A part of this wizard is a separate wizard to start the customization of the OS.
    
    
  • Customization Specifications Manager
    After you have created a VM specification and saved this you can view and edit those, and create complete new ones, using the Customization Specifications Manager. To open the Customization Specifications Manager select the menu as displayed below.
    
    Here you can create new specifications, manage existing ones and import specifications.
• Use datacenters and folders to organize the environment
  In vCenter there are quite some possibilities to organize your environment. In the “Hosts and Clusters” and the “VMs and Templates” view you can create data-centers. These can represent physical data-centers in your IT environment. Please note that you cannot use VMotion to live migrate VMs from onw DC to another You must use Clusters or a smaller instance to separate VMs if you need VMotion.
  Folders are visible only in the “VMs and Templates” view. You can create nested folder structures you separate VMs. Folders are created within Data-centers.
  For both folders and datacenters it is possible to set user rights to allow of disallow certain users certain actions.
• Configure/Use Scheduled Tasks
  You can create scheduled tasks to automate certain tasks in you vSphere environment. To do so:
  • Goto “Management”, “Scheduled Tasks” to open the Scheduled tasks
  • Right click “New” in the upper left corner of the window
    
    
  • Choose a task that fits your needs.
  • Follow the per task wizard that pops up.
• Configure/Use Resource Maps
  A resource map shows how different resources are connected to each other. To open Maps choose:
  • “Management”
  • “Maps”
  • Example output:
    
    
• Use Storage Reports/Storage Maps
  To open storage information including Maps choose:
  • “Inventory”
  • “Datastores”
  • goto the tab Maps to see the connections between ESX hosts, VM and storage
  • goto the tab datastores to see the datastores on the ESX hosts and the amount of storage that is used.
• View/Manage Events
  In the event log all events are logged including the person who initiated the event (another reason for decent delegation of control!). To open the events:
  • “Management”
  • “Events”
• Configure vCenter Server settings
  vCenter Server settings can be viewed and edited via the vSphere client. Go to:
  • “Administration” in the menu bar
  • Select “vCenter Server Settings…”
    
    
• Configure vSphere Client settings
  vCenter Client settings can be viewed and edited via the vSphere client. Go to:
  • “Edit” in the menu bar
  • Select “Client Settings…”
    
    

Tools

• vSphere Basic System Administration Guide
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client