Knowledge

• Understand virtual machine hardware maximums
  A virtual machines can handle the values as described in the following table. Please note that these maximums can depend on the VMware version you are using.

• Create a virtual machine
  • Determine appropriate SCSI adapter
    When creating or editing a VM you can choose from several types of SCSI adaptors. Those are:
    • Buslogic Parallel
      Older guest operating systems default to the BusLogic adapter.
    • LSI Logic Parallel
      This is the default adaptor when a VM is created (for most OSes).
    • LSI Logic SAS
      LSI Logic SAS is available only for virtual machines with hardware version 7. Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on LSI Logic SAS and LSI Logic Parallel adapters.
    • Paravirtual SCSI adaptor
      Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. Paravirtual SCSI adapters are best suited for high performance storage environments. Paravirtual SCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments. VMware recommends that you create a primary adapter (LSI Logic by default) for use with a disk that will host the system software (boot disk) and a separate PVSCSI adapter for the disk that will store user data, such as a database.
  • Determine Virtual Disk type
    When creating a Virtual Machine there are the following options in regard to disk types:
    • Create a Virtual Disk
      The standard option is to create a new vDisk that you can use in the VM. When you have created
    • Use an existing Virtual Disk
      This option allows you to attach a previously created virtual disk to the VM.
    • Create a RAW Device Mapping
      This allows you to directly connect to a SAN / NAS LUN. The format of the disk in not VMFS but OS specific and allows for clustering across boxes (both a physical and virtual node participate in a OS level cluster).
    • Do not create a disk
  • Install/Upgrade/Configure VMware Tools
    When you have a running VM best practice is to install the VMware tools. These tools provide you with the optimal driver set for the virtualized hardware. The most recent virtual hardware, for example the VMXnet 3 adaptor needs those  tools to be installed before it is usable in the OS (driver). To install VMware tools:
    • Right click a VM in the vCenter client
    • Choose “Guest”, “Install/Upgrade VMware Tools”
      
      Another option is to use the Update Manager to upgrade VMware tools

• Create/Convert templates
  It is possible to create template from VMs. Those templates can be used to VMs from. To create a template:
  • Create a VM like you normally would but use general settings (no specific hardware etc.)
  • When you have installed the OS and the VMware tools and other general software shutdown the VM
  • Right click the VM and choose “Template”, “Clone to Template” (can be done when VM is powered on, source VM stays as a VM) or “Convert to Template”  (only available when VM is off, VM will be converted to template.).
• Customize Windows/Linux virtual machines
  When using supported MS Windows or Linux guest OSes you can use a wizard to create a VM from a template. This wizard assists you in some basic configuration steps like assigning a IP, changing the name of the VM, changing the SID, etc.
  
  Before you can use those tools some OSes (like 2003) need the sysprep tools installed on the vCenter server.
  
  To start the customization wizard:
  • Right click a template and select “Deploy a Virtual Machine from the template”
  • Follow the wizard that appears.
    
  • One of the last steps of the wizard allows you to save the customization specification you have just created. Those saved specifications allow you to reuse those settings when deploying other VMs later on.
• Manage Customization Specifications
  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.
• Deploy a virtual machine from a template
  Explained two bullets above.
• Deploy a virtual machine using VMware vCenter Converter Enterprise
  VMware Converter is available in two editions; VMware Converter Standalone and VMware Converter Integrated (I could not find a “Enterprise” version for vSphere… So let’s presume that the Integrated version is meant here). The Standalone version is free, the integrated version is free only when you have valid vSphere licences.
  • Perform a Hot Clone
  • Perform a Cold Clone
  • Perform System Reconfiguration
• Deploy a virtual machine using Guided Consolidation
  a module within vCenter Server, walks you step by step through the consolidation process  including automatic discovery of up to 500 servers, performance analysis, conversion and intelligent placement on the right host
  • Perform Discovery
  • Analyze discovered virtual machines
  • Consolidate selected virtual machines
• Clone a virtual machine
  To clone a VM:
  • Right click a VM in the vSphere client
  • Select “Clone”
    
  • Follow the wizard to create a clone of the selected VM
• Import a virtual machine from a file/folder
  You can import VMs that all ready exist on a datastore:
  • Select an ESX host
  • Select the tab “Configuration”
  • Select the Hardware option “Storage”
  • Right click a datastore and select “Browse Datastore…”
  • Select a VMX file to import a VM
  • Follow the wizard

Tools

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