VCAP6-DCV Deploy Objective 5.2

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Objective 5.2 of VCAP6-Deploy exam covers following topics:

  • Use Profile Editor to edit and / or disable policies
  • Create and apply host profiles
  • Use Host Profiles to deploy vDS
  • Use Host Profiles to deploy vStorage policies
  • Import / Export Host Profiles
  • Manage Answer Files
  • Configure stateful caching and installation for host deployment

                                            Use Profile Editor to Edit and/or Disable Policies

I am not going to cover basics of host profile as I have already wrote an article on what is host profile and what it does. 

Host Profiles can be managed via vSphere Web Client. To edit an existing Host Profile login to vSphere Web Client and navigate to Policies and Profiles > Host Profiles and select an existing profile and right click on it and select Edit Settings.

From here you can add/remove individual configuration items as per your requirements.

                                                          Create and apply host profiles

To create a new Host Profile login to Web Client and and navigate to Policies and Profiles > Host Profiles and click on green (+) botton to add a new profile. … Read More

VCAP6-DCV Deploy Objective 5.1

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Objective 5.1 of VCAP6-Deploy exam covers following topics:

  • Install and configure vSphere PowerCLI
  • Use basic and advanced PowerCLI Cmdlets to manage a vSphere deployment
  • Analyze a sample script, then modify the script to perform a given action
  • Use PowerCLI to configure and administer Auto Deploy (including Image Builder)
  • Create a report from a PowerCLI script

Lets walk through each topic one by one.

                                           Install and configure vSphere PowerCLI

Installation of PowerCLI is pretty straight forward. Just run the installer and hit Next..Next.

Once the installation is completed, we will need to set the Execution Policy prior to executing any command via PowerCLI. 

Set the Execution Policy by running comamnd: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Current execution policy can be checked by running command: Get-ExecutionPolicy

             Use basic and advanced PowerCLI Cmdlets to manage a vSphere deployment

It is not possible to show all PowerCLI commands here as the list is very long. … Read More

Virtual Machine Automation Level in a DRS Cluster

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By default when you enable DRS on a cluster, the automation level selected at cluster level is applicable on all VM’s that resides in that cluster. But if you wish then you can configure the automation level per VM to satisfy your environment requirements.

Remember: The more individual changes you make, the more management overhead you add, as well as potentially reducing the effectiveness of DRS.

There 3 automation levels which we have with DRS is:

  • Manual: vCenter will only recommend moving resources.
  • Partially Automated : When a VM is created or powered on, vCenter will automatically place the VM on to a best host so as to maintain clutser balance. Once the VM is powered on, vCenter will present migration recommendation to vSphere administrator to approve when a cluster imbalance occurs.
  • Fully Automated: In this mode, vCenter take full control of initial placement and VM migrations and do not provide any recommendation to administrator to approve. 
… Read More

DRS Automation Level and Migration Threshold

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DRS migration threshold allows you to specify which recommendations are generated and then applied (when the virtual machines involved in the recommendation are in fully automated mode) or shown (if in manual mode). This threshold is also a measure of how much cluster imbalance across host (CPU and memory) loads is acceptable.

Migration threshold is a measure of how much cluster imbalance is acceptable based on CPU and memory loads. The slider is used to select one of five settings that range from the most conservative (1) to the most aggressive (5). The further the slider moves to the right, the more aggressive DRS will work to balance the cluster.

These threshold values determines which recommendations will be generated when DRS senses an imbalance of cluster. The Conservative setting generates only priority-one recommendations, the next level to the right generates priority-two recommendations and higher, and so on, down to the Aggressive level which generates priority-five recommendations.… Read More

Configuring EVC in vSphere 6

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The evolution of vSphere has forced the hardware vendors to add more enhanced functionalities in server hardware in order to bring the best out of virtualization.  Enhanced vMotion Compatibility comes into picture when a all Esxi hosts in a cluster are not identical i.e some hosts are from older generation and some from newer generations.

With time an environment grows and vSphere admins keep adding new Esxi hosts in a cluster as per virtual machine resource demands and this is when the mismatch occurs. When a cluster have Esxi hosts from different CPU generations, configuring EVC on cluster ensures that virtual machine migrations between hosts in the cluster do not fail because of CPU feature incompatibilities.

When EVC is enabled for a cluster, all hosts in that cluster are configured to present identical CPU features and ensure CPU compatibility for vMotion. The features presented by each host are determined by selecting a predefined EVC baseline.… Read More

Configuring DPM in vSphere 6

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What is vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM)

Consolidation of physical servers into virtual machines that share host physical resources can result in significant reductions in the costs associated with hardware maintenance and power consumption.

vSphere Distributed Power Management provides additional power savings by dynamically consolidating workloads even further during periods of low resource utilization. Virtual machines are migrated onto fewer hosts and the unneeded ESX hosts are powered off. 

When a virtual machine is idle (after business hours) and Esxi host utilization is very low, vCenter suspends the server to save power and, when the workload warrants additional resources, resumes it. VMware DPM is an optional feature of VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).

How does DPM actually work?

When you enable DPM on a cluster, the vCenter Server can suspend an Esxi host when during period of low utilization, but bringing back that Esxi host back in business when resource demand increases can only be done by another Esxi host .… Read More

Esxi Host Power Management Policies in vSphere 6

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One of the advantages which virtualization brought with itself was “POWER SAVINGS” as it enabled administrators to consolidate workloads on fewer number of physical servers and thus save some power and reduce carbon footprint in the datacenter. Sunny Dua rightly mentioned in his blog that “Even before you start realizing the other benefits of virtualization, power bills is the first Opex savings which makes that return on investment on virtualization speak for itself”

Esxi can take advantage of several power management features that the host hardware provides to adjust the trade-off between performance and power use. One obvious question that comes in mind that if I can save more power by using the BIOS features and the hypervisor features to throttle down the CPU frequency, then why should not I go for it?

The answer for this is  “selecting a high-performance policy provides more absolute performance, but at lower efficiency (performance per watt).… Read More

VCAP6-DCV Deploy Objective 4.1

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Objective 4.1 of VCAP6-Deploy exam covers following topics:

  • Configure a HA Cluster to Meet Resource and Availability Requirements
  • Configure Custom Isolation Response Settings
  • Configure VM Component Protection (VMCP)
  • Configure HA Redundant Settings:
    • Management Network
    • Datastore Heartbeats
    • Network Partitions
  • Configure HA related Alarms and Analyze a HA Cluster
  • Configure Fault Tolerance for Single/Multi-vCPU Virtual Machines

We will have a look on these topics one by one

                             Configure a HA Cluster to Meet Resource and Available Requirements

vSphere HA provides high availability for virtual machines by pooling the virtual machines and the hosts they reside on into a cluster. Hosts in the cluster are monitored and in the event of a failure, the virtual machines on a failed host are restarted on alternate hosts. When HA is configured on a cluster, an election process takes place and master/slave host is determined via election.

The host which is elected as master host communicates with vCenter and monitors the state of all protected VMs and other hosts in the cluster.… Read More

VCAP6-DCV Deploy Objective 8.1

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Objective 8.1 of VCAP6-Deploy exam covers following topics:

  • Add/Edit/Remove Users on an ESXi Host
  • Configure vCenter Roles and Permissions
  • Configure and Manage Active Directory Integration
  • Analyze Logs for Security-Related Messages
  • Enable and Configure an ESXi Pass-Phrase
  • Disable the Managed Object Browser (MOB) to reduce attack surface

We will have a look on these topics one by one

                                            Add/Edit/Remove Users on an ESXi Host

The default built-in accounts that are baked with a new Esxi installation are:

  • root user: Each Esxi host has a single root user with an admin role. This account can be used for local administration and used to connect to vCenter.
  • vpxuser: vCenter Server uses this account when interacting with the hosts. vCenter Server has Administrator privileges on the host that it manages. The vCenter Server administrator can perform most of the same tasks on the host as the root user, however, he cannot directly create, delete, or edit local users and groups for hosts.
… Read More

Password Policy for vSphere 6.0 Hosts

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A complex password is a firstmost requirement for any system that simply uses username/password (no RSA, 2Factor authentication kinda thing) for authentication. For a windows or unix/linux based systems, system administrators used to push complex password requirements via AD/LDAP.

A complex password ensures that system is least vulnerable to any unauthorized attempt to login to your system and vSphere is no different than any other system in this regard. 

With release of vSphere 6, VMware enahnced their password policy and enforced to use more complex passwords with Esxi hosts and SSO. Esxi host enforces password requirements for direct access from the DCUI, Esxi Shell, SSH and vSphere web Client.  

ESXi uses the pam_passwdqc.so plug-in to set the password policy/rules. ESXi doesn’t place any complexity restrictions on the root account’s password. However, non-root accounts will be subject to the default rules defined in pam_passwdqc.so.

In previous release of vSphere, Esxi host password complexity changes were made by editing the /etc/pam.d/passwd… Read More