VMware VirtualCenter Technical Best Practices
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9. Platform Hardware Requirements VC Client e Windows Application e Windows 2003 all versions e Windows 2000 all versions e Windows XP Pro e Windows NT 4 SP6 256 MB RAM min e 512 MB Ram recommended e Requires Net framework V1 1 auto installed if needed Network traffic to the VC Mgmt Server encrypted via SSL e Http Https also supported for access to the VC Mgmt Server through firewalls Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VC Management Server e Windows Service e Windows 2003 Web Std Enterprise e Windows 2000 Server Advanced Server e Windows XP Pro e Single 2 0 GHz CPU min e 2 Gb RAM min e 10 100 Mbps NIC GigE recommended e Can run in a Virtual Machine e Local storage required for VM template repository network shares not supported VC Management Server Additional Notes e Scalability e A single Management Server with minimum hardware requirements is recommended for supporting up to 20 concurrent client connections 50 ESX GSX Servers amp 1000 VMs e Increasing the hardware requirement to dual CPUs and 3 Gb RAM can scale the Management Se
10. Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VirtualCenter Authentication amp Authorization e VirtualCenter Roles e VirtualCenter Administrators super users who have all privileges on all systems e Virtual Machine Administrators administrators on a subset of servers can perform all operations on their servers including VM provisioning resource allocation and VMotion e Virtual Machine User access to a subset of VMs can use remote console perform power operations view performance graphs but cannot create delete VMs set resources or move VMs e Read Only User can only view information on a subset of VMs Privilege Management e Administrators on the Windows system running the Management Server are automatically assigned VirtualCenter Administrator privileges e VirtualCenter Administrators can delegate privileges to other users by accessing an existing ActiveDirectory or Domain Controller Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved Templates Storage amp Deployment Store templates on a shared VMFS volume on the SAN dedicated LUN Enable access to the SAN based template volume from all ESX servers SAN templates may only be provisioned to target hosts connected to SAN The VC Mgmt Server s local template repository can be used to provision VMs onto ESX Servers that are not connected to the SAN If templat
11. VMware VirtualCenter Technical Best Practices Updated June 2005 Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VirtualCenter Product Components GSX 00 ActiveDirectory Domain ESX 01 ESX 02 VirtualCenter Mgmt Server ESX 03 FC Switch C VirtualCenter VM Template User MeS Database Repository LEN VirtualCenter Clients Win32 Client Networks Green Management Network Blue VMotion Network Storage Area Network Red SAN Paths optional Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved
12. appropriate virtual NICs based on network labels eVMs must have access to the necessary subnets on the target ESX Server Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved Networks Minimum Network 2 NICs with at least one GigE NIC for VMotion For best security dedicate the GigE NIC to VMotion and use VLANs to divide the VM amp Mgmt traffic on the other NIC For best availability combine both NICs into a bond and use VLANS to divide traffic into at least 3 networks 1 or more for VMs 1 for COS and 1 for VMotion VMotion Management Network Best Practice Network 1 dedicated NIC for Console OS 10 100 or GigE 1 dedicated NIC for VMotion GigE 1 or more NICs for VMs 10 100 or GigE VMotion Requirements Server CPU Compatibility Requirements e Clock speeds and cache sizes may vary e Source Destination must have same vendor class Intel vs AMD e Source Destination must have same CPU family See note e Note Versions within a processor family can be distinguished by comparing CPU models stepping levels and extended features In most cases different versions within the same family are similar enough to maintain compatibility In some cases significant architectural changes appeared within the same CPU family such as 64 bit extensions and SSE3 By default VMware identifies these exceptions as incompatible with respect to guaranteeing and supporting a successful migra
13. Application Data VMware VMware VirtualCenter SSL directory e If VC WebService is enabled both should use the same config file located at C DocumentsAndSeitings AllUsers ApplicationData VMware VMwarevVirtualCe nter VMA vmaConfig xml Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VirtualCenter Database Requirements e Oracle 8i Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server 2000 SQL 7 e Microsoft Access default for demo eval purposes only Size of the database will vary depending on the number of hosts amp VMs managed frequency of performance data collection and type of database eEach stat sample collected is about 60 bytes for SQL 100 bytes for Oracle and each event stored is 1600 bytes for SQL 600 bytes for Oracle Using default settings the statistical data for 25 hosts running 8 16 VMs per host will plateau around 40 60 MB in a year 80 140 MB if set to full Each month the average number of events generated will also consume about 190 MB in SQL and 70 MB in Oracle Total DB size after a year is expected
14. e deployments to a LUN fail due to SCSI reservations increase the Scsi ConflictRetries parameter to a value of 10 through the Advanced Settings menu in the ESX MUI Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved SAT san Virtual Machines vmfs2 Templates vmfs1 Local Template Repository LUN1 LUN4 LUN3 LUN2 VMotion Storage Configuration amp Setup e VM disks including boot drive must be stored on the SAN in a VMFS volume Target and source ESX Servers must have access to the VM s VMES volume gt VMFS volumes must be in public mode and have volume names VMs must use volume names for specifying virtual disks e Configuration files can be local to ESX Server or stored on SAN VMotion is not supported on clustered VMs clustered VMs must be stored on a VMFS volume in shared mode Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved LUN1 Templates vmfs1 vmfs2 LUN2 LUN3 LUN4 LUN5 LUNG VMotion Best Practice for Large Environments gt No more than 16 ESX Servers connected to a single VMFS volume For added scalability VMs should be divided into multiple VMFS volumes each of which can still be accessible to all ESX Servers SAN gt No more than 32 I O intensive VMs or 100 non lO intensive VMs sharing a single VMFS volume Mm N SZ Ra ee A ee T A RAA I Pa A Virtual Machines
15. mfs3 Templates v vmfs1 Also recommend increasing the maximum queue depth for the Fiber Channel adapter and increasing the Disk SchedNumReqOutstanding parameter See ESX docs In situations where the VMs are not IlO intensive CPU memory and or network resources constrains the number of VMs and the threshold for acceptable performance of a single SAN based VMFS volume appears to be around 100 VMs Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VMotion LUN Masking and Zoning Farm 1 Farm 2 Cannot perform VMotion migrations between source and target ESX servers if the LUN is masked or zoned away from the target Best Practice Recommendation Apply LUN masking or zoning across separate farms Templates Virtual Machines Virtual Machines vmfs1 vmfs2 3 LUM LUN2 LUNS LUN4 LUN5 LUN6 Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VMotion Requirements Networking VMotion requires a Gigabit Ethernet network to ensure rapid migrations eA dedicated network is recommended to keep VM memory state secure e2 hosts with cross connected GigE cards can be used for demos VirtualCenter and ESX console management operations flow through the management network eIncluding VM deployment and cloning eNetwork labels for each virtual NIC must be created through the ESX server MUI eNetwork labels are global across farms VMotion automatically maps VMs to
16. rver to support up to 50 concurrent client connections 100 ESX GSX Servers amp 2000 VMs e High Availability e Availability of the managed ESX GSX Servers amp VMs unaffected by availability of the Management Server Data stored in external database and VM templates should be backed up periodically e Networking e The Management Server can reside on a network separated from VC Clients and or ESX GSX Servers but a single port needs to be configured to permit access through firewalls see user manual e Event Management e Management Server includes SNMP MIBs for generating alerts Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved VC Mgmt Server Clustering for Availability e VC Management Server windows service can be clustered using industry Standard solutions and only 1 license is required when only one instance is active at any given time e Active Passive clustered configurations can be installed and configured to point to the same VC database but only one instance should be active at any given time e Active Passive instances of the VC Management server will also require the following configuration settings to be equivalent e Both should point to the same database same ODBC connection setup e Both should be set to the same VC Server ID configured through the File gt VC settings menu e Both should use the same public private SSL keys contained in the C Documents and Settings All Users
17. tion with VMotion e VMware in partnership with CPU and hardware vendors is working to maintain VMotion compatibility across the widest range of processors For current information contact your VMware representative e Heterogeneous support for all other underlying hardware devices abstracted by the virtual hardware layer Copyright 2005 VMware Inc All rights reserved
18. to be around 2 20 Gb in SQL and 1 0 Gb in Oracle Using default settings the statistical data for 75 hosts running 8 16 VMs per host will plateau around 90 150 MB in a year 200 330 MB if set to full Each month the average number of events generated will also consume about 190 MB in SQL and 70 MB in Oracle Total DB size after a year is expected to be around 2 40 Gb in SQL and 1 2 Gb in Oracle
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