Introduction xxi Chapter 1 * An Introduction to Designing VMware Environments 1 What is Design? 1 The Facets of vSphere Design 5 The Technical Facet 6 The Organizational Facet 7 The Operational Facet 8 The Principles of Design 9 Availability 9 Manageability 10 Performance 10 Recoverability 10 Security 11 The Process of Design 11 Gathering and Defining Functional Requirements 11 Assessing the Environment 13 Performing a Gap Analysis 14 Assembling the Design 15 Documenting the Design 16 Performing the Implementation 17 Summary 17 Chapter 2 * The ESXi Hypervisor 19 Evolution of the vSphere Hypervisor 19 The ESXi Concept 21 ESXi Design 22 ESXi Components 22 ESXi Agents 23 ESXi System Image 24 ESXi Customized Images 25 ESXi Disk Layout 27 Tardisks and Ramdisks 29 ESXi Deployment 29 Hardware Requirements 29 ESXi Flavors: Installable, Embedded, and Stateless 29 Auto Deploy Infrastructure 36 Comparing Deployments Options 38 Upgrading ESXi 41 Migrating from ESX 42 Testing 42 Deployment 43 Management 44 Postinstallation Design Options 45 Management Tools Overview 51 Host-Management Tools 51 Centralized Management Tools 54 Hardware Monitoring 56 Logging 57 Summary 58 Chapter 3 * The Management Layer 59 Reviewing the Components of the Management Layer 59 VMware vCenter Server 59 vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client 62 vSphere Update Manager 63 Management Applications 64 Examining Key Management Layer Design Decisions 69 Virtual or Physical vCenter Server? 70 vCenter Server on Windows or vCenter Server Appliance? 72 Local or Remote Database Server? 73 Which Operating System for vCenter Server? 75 Creating the Management Layer Design 76 Availability 76 Manageability 82 Performance 86 Recoverability 92 Security 92 Summary 94 Chapter 4 * Server Hardware 95 Hardware Considerations 95 Factors in Selecting Hardware 96 Computing Needs 99 Server Constraints 101 Differentiating among Vendors 104 Server Components 106 CPU 107 RAM 110 NUMA 117 Motherboard 118 Storage 118 Network 119 PCI 119 Preparing the Server 121 Configuring the BIOS 122 Other Hardware Settings 122 Burn-in 123 Preproduction Checks 123 Scale-Up vs Scale-Out 123 Advantages of Scaling Up 125 Advantages of Scaling Out 126 Scaling is a Matter of Perspective 127 Risk Assessment 127 Choosing the Right Size 128 CPU to Memory Design Ratio 129 Sizing the Hosts 130 Blade Servers vs Rack Servers 131 Blade Servers 132 Rack Servers 135 Form-Factor Conclusions 136 Alternative Hardware Approaches 136 Cloud Computing 136 Converged Hardware 138 Summary 139 Chapter 5 * Designing Your Network 141 Examining Key Network Components 141 Physical Connectivity 142 Network Traffic Types 142 Software Components 144 Exploring Factors Influencing the Network Design 144 Physical Switch Support 145 vSwitches and Distributed vSwitches 152 IP-Based Storage 154 10Gb Ethernet 156 I/O Virtualization 158 SR-IOV and DirectPath I/O 159 Server Architecture 160 Crafting the Network Design161 Availability 161 Manageability 168 Performance 171 Recoverability 173 Security 174 Design Scenarios 177 Two NICs 177 Four NICs 178 Six NICs 178 Eight NICs 179 Looking to the Future 180 Summary 180 Chapter 6 * Storage 181 Dimensions of Storage Design 181 Storage Design Factors 182 Storage Efficiency 183 vSphere Storage Features 186 Designing for Capacity 186 RAID Options 187 Estimating Capacity Requirements 189 VMFS Capacity Limits 190 Large or Small Datastores? 191 Thin Provisioning 193 Data Deduplication 195 Array Compression 196 Downside of Saving Space 197 Designing for Performance197 Measuring Storage Performance 197 How to Calculate a Disk''s IOPS 197 What Can Affect a Storage Array''s IOPS? 198 Measuring Your Existing IOPS Usage 206 Local Storage vs Shared Storage 207 Local Storage 207 What about Local Shared Storage? 209 Shared Storage 212 Choosing a Protocol 212 Fibre Channel 215 iSCSI 218 NFS 221 Protocol Choice 224 Multipathing 225 SAN Multipathing 225 NAS Multipathing 229 vSphere Storage Features 229 vSphere Storage APIs 230 Performance and Capacity 233 Storage Management 242 Summary 247 Chapter 7 * Virtual Machines 249 Components of a Virtual Machine 249 Base Virtual Machine Hardware 251 Hardware Versions 251 Virtual Machine Maximums 253 Hardware Choices 253 Removing or Disabling Unused Hardware 259 Virtual Machine Options 259 SDRS Rules 263 vApp Options 263 vServices 263 Naming Virtual Machines 263 VMware Tools 264 Notes, Custom Attributes, and Tagging 264 Sizing Virtual Machines 265 Virtual Machine CPU Design 265 Cores per Socket 267 CPU Hot Plug 267 Resources 268 Additional CPU Settings 269 Virtual Machine Memory Design 270 Resources 271 Additional Memory Settings 272 Virtual Machine Storage Design 272 Disks 273 Disk Types 274 Disk Shares and IOPS Limits 275 Disk Modes 275 SCSI Controllers 276 RDMs 277 Storage vMotion 279 Cross-Host vMotion 279 VM Storage Profile 280 Virtual Machine Network Design 280 vNIC Drivers 281 MAC Addresses 284 VLAN Tagging 284 Guest Software 285 Selecting an OS 285 Guest OS and Application Licensing 286 Disk Alignment 287 Defragmentation 288 Optimizing the Guest for the Hypervisor 289 Clones, Templates, and vApps 291 Clones 291 Templates 292 Preparing a Template 293 Virtual Appliances 294 OVF Standard 295 vApps 295 Virtual Machine Availability 295 vSphere VM Availability 296 Third-Party VM Clustering 298 vCenter Infrastructure Navigator 302 Summary 303 Chapter 8 * Datacenter Design 305 vSphere Inventory Structure 305 Inventory Root 306 Folders 307 Datacenters 307 Clusters 309 Resource Pools 309 Hosts 309 Virtual Machines 309 Templates 309 Storage 309 Networks 310 Why and How to Structure 310 Clusters 311 EVC 313 Swapfile Policy 313 Cluster Sizing 314 Resource Pools 315 Resource Pool Settings 317 Admission Control 319 Distributed Resource Scheduling 319 Load Balancing 319 Affinity Rules 324 Distributed Power Management 327 High Availability and Clustering 331 High Availability 331 Fault Tolerance 347 Summary 355 Chapter 9 * Designing with Security in Mind 357 Why is Security Important? 357 Separation of Duties 358 Risk Scenario 358 Risk Mitigation 359 vCenter Server Permissions 360 Risk Scenario 360 Risk Mitigation 360 Security in vCenter Linked Mode 363 Risk Scenario 363 Risk Mitigation 363 Command-Line Access to ESXi Hosts 365 Risk Scenario 365 Risk Mitigation 366 Managing Network Access 368 Risk Scenario 368 Risk Mitigation 369 The DMZ 371 Risk Scenario 371 Risk Mitigation 372 Firewalls in the Virtual Infrastructure 375 The Problem 375 The Solution 376 Change Management 378 Risk Scenario 378 Risk Mitigation 378 Protecting the VMs 379 Risk Scenario 379 Risk Mitigation 380 Protecting the Data 381 Risk Scenario 382 Risk Mitigation 382 Cloud Computing 383 Risk Scenario 383 Risk Mitigation 384 Auditing and Compliance 385 The Problem 385 The Solution 385 Summary 387 Chapter 10 * Monitoring and Capacity Planning 389 Nothing is Static 389 Building Monitoring into the Design 390 Determining the Tools to Use 390 Selecting the Items to Monitor 396 Selecting Thresholds 398 Taking Action on Thresholds 399 Alerting the Operators 400 Incorporating Capacity Planning in the Design 400 Planning before Virtualization 401 Planning during Virtualization 405 Summary 408 Chapter 11 * Bringing a vSphere Design Together 411 Sample Design 411 Business Overview for XYZ Widgets 411 Hypervisor Design 413 vSphere Management Layer 413 Server Hardware 413 Networking Configuration 414 Shared Storage Configuration 414 VM Design 415 VMware Datacenter Design 415 Security Architecture 415 Monitoring and Capacity Planning 416 Examining the Design 416 Hypervisor Design 416 vSphere Management Layer 417 Server Hardware 418 Networking Configuration 419 Shared Storage Configuration.