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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Deploy and manage VMware vSphere 6.5 components with ease.
Key Features
- Simplified and to-the-point theory and practical recipes to deploy and manage vSphere 6.5
- Discover the best ways to deploy stateless and stateful ESXi hosts and upgrade them
- Storage and network resource management
- Certificate management using VMCA
- Monitor the performance of a vSphere environment.
Book Description
VMware vSphere is a complete and robust virtualization product suite that helps transform data centers into simplified on-premises cloud infrastructures, providing for the automation and orchestration of workload deployment and life cycle management of the infrastructure. This book focuses on the latest release of VMware vSphere and follows a recipe-based approach, giving you hands-on instructions required to deploy and manage a vSphere environment.
The book starts with the procedures involved in upgrading your existing vSphere infrastructure to vSphere 6.5, followed by deploying a new vSphere 6.5 environment. Then the book delves further into the procedures involved in managing storage and network access to the ESXi hosts and the virtual machines running on them. Moving on, the book covers high availability and fair distribution/utilization of clustered compute and storage resources.
Finally, the book covers patching and upgrading the vSphere infrastructure using VUM, certificate management using VMCA, and finishes with a chapter covering the tools that can be used to monitor the performance of a vSphere infrastructure.
What you will learn
- Upgrade your existing vSphere environment or perform a fresh deployment
- Automate the deployment and management of large sets of ESXi hosts in your vSphere Environment
- Configure and manage FC, iSCSI, and NAS storage, and get more control over how storage resources are allocated and managed
- Configure vSphere networking by deploying host-wide and data center-wide switches in your vSphere environment
- Configure high availability on a host cluster and learn how to enable the fair distribution and utilization of compute resources
- Patch and upgrade the vSphere environment
- Handle certificate request generation and renew component certificates
- Monitor performance of a vSphere environment
Who this book is for
If you are a system administrator, support professional, or anyone interested in learning how to install, configure, and manage a vSphere environment, then this book is for you. This task-oriented reference guide will also benefit consultants or infrastructure architects who design and deploy vSphere 6.5 environments.
Abhilash G B (@abhilashgb) is a virtualization specialist, author, designer, and a VMware vExpert 2014-2017 who specializes in the areas of data center virtualization and cloud computing. He has been in the IT industry for more than a decade and working on VMware products and technologies since the start of 2007. He holds several VMware certifications including VCIX6-DCV, VCAP4/5 -DCA, VCP3/4/5/6-DCV, VCP-Cloud, and VCP6-NV. He is also the author of the five other books. Cedric Rajendran is a senior staff engineer in technical support with VMware. He has around 13 years of experience covering a wide spectrum of technologies. He holds a master’s degree specializing in International Business. He has served in the fields of Network Ops, Technical Support, and Consulting. His core strengths are on the server and storage virtualization. He has authored a book on VMware Virtual SAN, holds advanced certifications with VMware, and is also a TOGAF certified Enterprise Architect.Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 370
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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VMware vSphere 6.5 Cookbook Third Edition
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Vijin BorichaAcquisition Editor: Heramb BhavsarContent Development Editor: Sharon RajTechnical Editor: Vishal K. MewadaCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator: Virginia DiasProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Francy PuthiryGraphics: Kirk D'PenhaProduction Coordinator: Melwyn Dsa
First published: October 2016 Second edition: October 2017 Third edition: January 2018
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ISBN 978-1-78712-741-8
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Contributors
About the authors
Abhilash G B (@abhilashgb) is a virtualization specialist, author, designer, and a VMware vExpert 2014-2017 who specializes in the areas of data center virtualization and cloud computing.
He has been in the IT industry for more than a decade and working on VMware products and technologies since the start of 2007. He sold several VMware certifications including VCIX6-DCV, VCAP4/5 -DCA, VCP3/4/5/6-DCV, VCP-Cloud, and VCP6-NV. He is also the author of the five other books.
Cedric Rajendran is a senior staff engineer in technical support with VMware. He has around 13 years of experience covering a wide spectrum of technologies.
He holds a master’s degree specializing in International Business. He has served in the fields of Network Ops, Technical Support, and Consulting. His core strengths are on the server and storage virtualization.
He has authored a book on VMware Virtual SAN, holds advanced certifications with VMware, and is also a TOGAF certified Enterprise Architect.
About the reviewer
Mathias Meyenburg is an accomplished business unit manager, solution architect, and senior consultant with more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry.
From a system administrator to large-scale data center operations and administration, his career has evolved through constantly updating and expanding his know-how as well as acquiring advancing certifications, CCNA, MCP, and VCP to name a few.
In 2016, he was recruited by vleet GmbH as a solution architect and senior consultant for server and desktop virtualization specializing in vSphere, vROPS, NSX, and vSAN.
Packt is searching for authors like you
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Table of Contents
Upgrading to vSphere 6.5
Introduction
vSphere 6.5 core components
Hypervisor – VMware ESXi 6.5
Core management layer – VMware vCenter 6.5
Authentication and core services layer – vSphere Platform Services Controller
Upgrade and patch management layer – vCenter Update Manager 6.5
Planning vSphere upgrade
How to do it...
How it works...
Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 or 6.0 to vSphere 6.5
How to do it...
How it works...
Upgrading vCenter Server running Microsoft Windows
How to do it...
How it works...
Using the vCenter 6.5 Migration Assistant
How to do it...
Upgrading vCenter Server – Migrating from Microsoft Windows to VCSA
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance
Getting ready
How to do it...
Upgrading ESXi Hypervisor
Getting ready
How to do it...
There is more...
Greenfield Deployment of vSphere 6.5
Introduction
Deploying vSphere ESXi 6.5
Getting ready
Downloading ESXi 6.5 and mapping it to the server
How to do it...
Configuring ESXi Management Network
Getting ready
How to do it...
There is more...
Deploying vCenter Server Appliance 6.5
How to do it...
Deploying External Platform Services controllers
Getting ready
How to do it...
Part 1 – Deploying a PSC for a new SSO domain
Part 2 – Joining a PSC to an existing SSO domain
How it works...
VMware Certificate Authority
VMware Single Sign-On
VMware licensing service
Deploying vCenter Servers in Enhanced Linked Mode
How to do it...
Configuring SSO identity sources
How to do it...
Assigning users and groups to vCenter Server
Getting ready
How to do it...
Using vSphere Host Profiles
Introduction
Preparing a reference host
How to do it...
Creating Host Profiles
Getting ready
How it works...
How it works...
Attaching/detaching ESXi hosts to/from a Host Profile
How to do it...
Performing host customizations
Getting ready
How to do it...
Checking Host Profile compliance of ESXi host(s)
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Scheduling Host Profile compliance checks
Getting ready
How to do it...
Remediating non-compliant ESXi hosts
Getting ready
How to do it...
Using Host Profiles to push a configuration change
How to do it...
Copying settings between Host Profiles
How to do it...
Exporting Host Profiles
How to do it...
Importing Host Profiles
How to do it...
Duplicating Host Profiles
How to do it...
Using ESXi Image Builder
Introduction
vSphere ESXi Image Builder architecture
Enabling ESXi Image Builder service for vSphere Web Client GUI
How to do it...
Preparing an ESXi Image Builder CLI environment
Getting ready
How to do it...
Downloading an ESXi offline bundle
How to do it...
Importing a software depot
How to do it...
There's more...
Creating an online software depot
Getting ready
How to do it...
There's more...
Creating a custom depot
How to do it...
Creating image profiles using an existing image profile
Getting ready
How to do it...
There's more....
Creating image profiles from scratch
Getting ready
How to do it...
There's more...
Comparing image profiles
How to do it...
Moving image profiles between software depots
How to do it...
Exporting image profiles
How to do it...
There's more...
Using vSphere Auto Deploy
Introduction
vSphere auto deploy architecture
Enabling vSphere auto deploy service
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring TFTP server with the files required to PXE boot
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring the DHCP server to work with auto deploy
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Preparing vSphere environment – create host profile, configure the deploy rules and activate them
How to do it...
How it works...
Enabling stateless caching
How to do it...
How it works...
Enabling stateful install
How to do it...
How it works...
Using vSphere Standard Switches
Introduction
Creating a vSphere Standard Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
There is more...
Creating VMkernel interfaces on a vSphere Standard Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
There is more...
Creating custom VMkernel TCP/IP stacks
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating virtual machine port groups on a vSphere Standard Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
There is more...
Managing the physical uplinks of a vSwitch
There is more...
Configuring security, traffic shaping, teaming, and failover on a vSphere Standard Switch
How to do it...
Using vSphere Distributed Switches
Introduction
Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Connecting hosts to a vSphere Distributed Switch
How to do it...
Creating a vSphere Distributed port group
How to do it...
How it works...
Port binding
Port allocation
Network resource pools
Managing physical adapter (vmnic) to dvUplink mappings
How to do it...
Migrating a virtual machine network from a vSphere Standard Switch (vSwitch ) to a vSphere Distributed Switch (dvSwitch)
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Migrating VMkernel interfaces between vSphere Standard (vSwitch) and vSphere Distributed Switches (dvSwitch)
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating additional VMkernel interfaces on a vSphere Distributed Switch (dvSwitch)
Getting ready
How to do it...
Creating a vSphere Distributed Switch backup
How to do it...
How it works...
Restoring dvSwitch from a backup
How to do it...
Creating or importing a dvSwitch from a backup
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring security, traffic shaping, teaming, and failover on a dvSwitch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Security
Promiscuous mode
MAC address changes and forged transmits
Traffic shaping
Teaming and failover
Network failure detection
Notify switches
Failback
Failover order
Configuring VLANs on a vSphere Standard or Distributed Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
External switch tagging
Virtual Switch Tagging
Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT)
Configuring private VLANs on a dvSwitch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring LAGs on a vSphere Distributed Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating user-defined network resource pools
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Using port mirroring on a vSphere Distributed Switch
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Enabling NetFlow on a vSphere Distributed Switch
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating and Managing VMFS Datastore
Introduction
Viewing the LUNs presented to an ESXi host
How to do it...
Viewing datastores available on an ESXi host
How to do it...
Creating a VMFS datastore
Getting ready
How to do it...
Managing multipathing configuration of a VMFS datastore
How to do it...
How it works...
Expanding or growing a VMFS datastore
Getting ready
How to do it...
Extending a VMFS datastore
Getting ready
How to do it...
Unmounting and detaching VMFS volumes
Getting ready
How to do it...
Re-mounting a VMFS datastore
Getting ready
How to do it...
Deleting VMFS datastores
Getting ready
How to do it...
Upgrading from VMFS 5 to VMFS 6
How to do it...
There is more...
Managing VMFS volumes detected as snapshots
Getting ready
How to do it...
Masking paths to a LUN
How to do it...
Unmasking paths to a LUN
How to do it...
Managing Access to the iSCSI and NFS Storage
Introduction
iSCSI fundamentals
NFS fundamentals
Adding the software iSCSI adapter
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring iSCSI multipathing using port binding
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring access to an iSCSI target server
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating NFSv3 datastores
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating NFSv4.1 datastores with Kerberos authentication
Getting ready
How to do it...
Storage IO Control, Storage DRS, and Profile Driven Storage
Introduction
Settings disk shares on virtual machine disks
How to do it...
Enabling Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
How to do it...
How it works...
Integrating a VASA provider with the vCenter Server
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Using vCenter tags to define storage capabilities
How to do it...
Creating VM storage policies
How to do it...
How it works...
Assigning VM storage policies
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating and Managing Virtual Machines
Introduction
Virtual machine components
Files that make up a virtual machine
Creating a virtual machine
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating a new hard disk for a virtual machine
How to do it...
How it works...
Adding an existing disk to a virtual machine
How to do it...
Attaching a Raw Device Mapping to a virtual machine
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Mapping a virtual machine's vNIC to a different port group
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating virtual machine snapshots
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Deleting a virtual machine snapshot
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Restoring a snapshot in linear snapshot tree
How to do it...
How it works...
Switching to an arbitrary virtual machine snapshot
How to do it...
How it works...
Consolidating snapshots
How to do it...
How it works
Converting a virtual machine to a template
How to do it...
How it works...
Cloning a virtual machine to template
How to do it...
Exporting to an OVF template
How to do it...
How it works...
Deploying a virtual machine from an OVF template
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There is more...
Creating a local content library
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating a subscribed content library
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring vSphere 6.5 High Availability
Introduction
Enabling vSphere HA on a cluster
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring vSphere HA Admission Control
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Setting the host isolation response for a HA cluster
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Setting the VM restart priority for a HA cluster
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring VM monitoring
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring datastore heartbeating
How to do it...
How it works...
Disabling host monitoring
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring vCenter Native High Availability
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Configuring vSphere DRS, DPM, and VMware EVC
Introduction
Enabling vSphere DRS on a cluster
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works
Configuring VMware Enhanced vMotion compatibility
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it work...
See also
Choosing a DRS automation level
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Overriding the cluster automation level for a VM
Getting ready
How to do it...
Setting a migration threshold
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating DRS VM or host groups
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating VMs to host affinity rules
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating VM affinity or anti-affinity rules
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring Distributed Power Management
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring Predictive DRS
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Upgrading and Patching using vSphere Update Manager
Introduction
Installing vSphere Update Manager on Windows
Getting ready
How to do it...
Activating vSphere Update Manager in vCenter Server Appliance
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Installing the Update Manager download service
Getting ready
How to do it...
Configuring VUM with a download source
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating a custom baseline
How to do it...
How it works...
Creating a baseline group
How to do it...
How it works...
Importing an ESXi image and updating a host
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Leveraging a VM/VA baseline to remediate a VM/VA
How to do it...
How it works...
Using vSphere Certificate Manager Utility
Introduction
Regenerating a new VMCA Root Certificate and replacing all certificates
Getting ready
How to do it...
Generating certificate signing requests with the vSphere Certificate Manager
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Replacing all certificates with custom certificate
Getting ready
How to do it...
Reverting the last performed operation by republishing old certificates
How to do it...
How it works...
Resetting all certificates
How to do it...
How it works
Using vSphere Management Assistant
Introduction
Deploying the vMA appliance
Getting ready
How to do it...
Preparing VMware vMA for first use
How it works...
Configuring VMware vMA to join an existing domain
How to do it...
Adding vCenter to vMA with AD authentication
How to do it...
How it works...
Adding vCenter to vMA with fastpass (fpauth) authentication
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Adding an ESXi host to vMA
How to do it...
How it works...
Changing the authentication policy
How to do it...
Running CLI commands on target servers
How to do it…
Method 1 – Issuing commands on the default target
Method 2 – Issuing commands by specifying a target server
Method 3 – Issuing commands against a vCenter added as the target
Performance Monitoring in a vSphere Environment
Introduction
Using esxtop to monitor performance
Getting ready
How to do it...
Exporting and importing esxtop configurations
How to do it...
How it works...
Running esxtop in the batch mode
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Gathering VM I/O statistics using vscsiStats
Getting ready
How to do it...
Using vCenter performance graphs
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
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Preface
With more and more data centers being virtualized using its technologies, VMware is still the undisputed leader in providing virtualization solutions ranging from server virtualization to storage and network virtualization. Despite the efforts from Citrix and Microsoft, VMware's vSphere product line is still the most feature-rich and futuristic in the virtualization industry. Knowing how to install and configure the latest vSphere components is important to give yourself a head start toward virtualization using VMware. This book covers the installation and upgrade of the vSphere environment and also the administration tasks that one would commonly need to handle when managing a VMware infrastructure.
VMware vSphere 6.5 Cookbook is a task-oriented, fast-paced, practical guide to installing and configuring vSphere 6.5 components. It will take you through all of the steps required to accomplish various configuration tasks with less reading. Most of the tasks are accompanied by relevant screenshots and flowcharts with the intention to provide visual guidance as well. The book concentrates more on the actual task rather than the theory around it, making it easier to understand what is really needed to achieve the task. However, most of the concepts have been well-described to help you understand the background and working.
Who this book is for
This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to install and configure VMware vSphere components. It is an excellent handbook for administrators or for anyone looking for a head start in learning how to upgrade, install, and configure vSphere 6.5 components. It is also a good task-oriented reference guide for consultants who design and deploy vSphere.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Upgrading to vSphere 6.5, will teach you how to upgrade your existing environment to the vSphere 6.5, and you will also learn how to migrate vCenter running on Windows to appliance.
Chapter 2, Greenfield Deployment of vSphere 6.5, will show you how to perform a fresh deployment of VCSA 6.5 and installation of ESXi 6.5. You will also learn how to deploy External Platform Services Controller.
Chapter 3, Using vSphere Host Profiles, will show you how to use Host Profiles to push a configuration change, performing host customizations, remediating noncompliant hosts. You will also learn how to copy settings between host profiles.
Chapter 4, Using ESXi Image Builder, you will learn how to use ESXi Image Builder using both the new vSphere Web Client GUI and CLI. You will learn how to create image profiles from either an existing image profile and fresh profile from scratch.
Chapter 5, Using vSphere Auto Deploy, you will learn how to deploy stateless and stateful ESXi host without the need to have to run the ISO installation on the server hardware.
Chapter 6, Using vSphere Standard Switches, you will learn how to set up vSphere Networking using the standard Switches.
Chapter 7, Using vSphere Distributed Switches, will teach you how to set up vSphere Networking using vSphere Distributed Switches. You will also learn how to migrate networking from standard vSwitches to the Distributed Switches. You will also learn configuring advanced features, such as NetFlow, Port Mirroring, and Private VLANs.
Chapter 8, Creating and Managing VMFS Datastore, will show how to create VMFS Datastores.
Chapter 9, Managing Access to the iSCSI and NFS Storage, will show how to configure and manage access to the iSCSI and NFS storage.
Chapter 10, Storage IO Control, Storage DRS, and Profile-Driven Storage, will show methods to consume storage resource effectively, by controlling queue depths, reacting space and latency thresholds, and automating the usage of tiered storage.
Chapter 11, Creating and Managing Virtual Machines, will teach how to create virtual machines, configure its settings, create and manage templates, and also export them to OVFs. You will also learn how to create content libraries.
Chapter 12, Configuring vSphere 6.5 High Availability, will discuss how to configure High Availability on a cluster on ESXi hosts. You will also learn how to configure native high availability for vCenter Servers.
Chapter 13, Configuring vSphere DRS, DPM, and VMware EVC, will discuss how to pool compute resources from a cluster of ESXi hosts to enable efficient virtual machine placement and automate mitigation of resource imbalance in a cluster. You will also learn how to reduce power consumption of a cluster by changing the power state of underutilized hosts.
Chapter 14, Upgrading and Patching using vSphere Update Manager, will teach how to manage the life cycle of ESXi Hosts by patching and updating the environment.
Chapter 15, Using vSphere Certificate Manager Utility, will show how to generate certificate signing requests and replace certificates for a vSphere Environment.
Chapter 16, Using vSphere Management Assistant, will show how to deploy and configure vMA to run commands/scripts remotely on ESXi.
Chapter 17, Performance Monitoring in a vSphere Environment, will describe how to use esxtop and vCenter Performance Graphs to monitor the performance of a vSphere environment.
To get the most out of this book
You will learn about the software requirements for every vSphere component covered in this book in their respective chapters, but to start with a basic lab setup, you will need at least two ESXi hosts, a vCenter Server, a Domain Controller, a DHCP server, a DNS server, and a TFTP Server. For learning purposes, you don't really need to run ESXi on physical machines. You can use VMware Workstation to set up a hosted lab on your desktop PC or laptop, provided the machine has adequate compute and storage resources. For shared storage, you can use any of the free virtual storage appliances listed as follows:
OpenFiler can be downloaded at
https://www.openfiler.com
.
HP StoreVirtual Storage can be downloaded at
http://www8.hp.com/in/en/products/data-storage/storevirtual.html
.
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it from http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/VMwarevSphere65CookbookThirdEdition_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Browse the ISO ROM contents and navigate to the migration-assistant folder."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "On the Configure Ports screen—you are not allowed to make any changes. Click on the Next button to continue."
Sections
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There's more..., and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, use these sections as follows:
Getting ready
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.
How to do it…
This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe.
How it works…
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
There's more…
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make you more knowledgeable about the recipe.
See also
This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe.
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: Email [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message. If you have questions about any aspect of this book, please email us at [email protected].
Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.
Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.
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Upgrading to vSphere 6.5
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
vSphere 6.5 core components
Planning vSphere upgrade
Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 or 6.0 to vSphere 6.5
Upgrading vCenter Server on Microsoft Windows
Using the vCenter 6.5 Migration Assistant
Upgrading vCenter Server - Migrating from Microsoft Windows to VCSA
Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance
Upgrading ESXi Hypervisor
Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to help you understand and execute the process of upgrading your core vSphere infrastructure to VMware vSphere 6.5. The core includes your ESXi Hypervisor, vCenter Server, and vCenter Server's components. The upgrade of the third layer products that leverage the core vSphere infrastructure, such as vCloud Director and VMware Horizon View, are not covered in this chapter as they are beyond the scope and purpose of this book.
Before we begin, let me introduce you to the core infrastructure components that will beupgraded:
VMware vCenter Server
: The viability of an upgrade or the need for a new build will depend on the current version of vCenter and the supported upgrade path.
vCenter Single Sign-On
: These are authentication components. They will come into the picture if you are upgrading from vSphere 5.5 to 6.5.
vCenter Inventory Service
: This is no longer a separate service in vCenter 6.5.
vSphere Web Client
: This can be upgraded if the current version is 5.5; if not, it will be a new installation of this component.
vSphere Platform Service Controller
(
PSC
): If you are upgrading from vSphere 6.0 to 6.5, you will need to review the current deployment model and apply an apt strategy to upgrade PSC.
vSphere Update Manager
: VUM should be updated to the latest version before it can be used to upgrade ESXi hosts managed by the vCenter VUM is integrated with. VUM components are now built-in to the vCenter Appliance.
vSphere Auto Deploy
: This is a requirement to upgrade vSphere Auto Deploy to the same version of vCenter Server.
VMware ESXi
: This can be upgraded by booting the server using the ISO image, using vSphere Update Manager, or updating the image profile if the existing servers are auto-deployed.
vSphere 6.5 core components
The following components form the foundation of vSphere 6.5 environment and its management:
Hypervisor
: VMware ESXi 6.5
Core management layer
: VMware vCenter Server 6.5
Authentication and core services layer
: VMware Platform Services Controller
Upgrade and patch management layer
: VMware Update Manager 6.5
Hypervisor – VMware ESXi 6.5
ESXi Hypervisor is the abstraction layer that enables running of different virtual machines sharing the same physical hardware resources. VMware ESXi 6.5 has significant scalability enhancements. Let's compare and contrast the scalability improvements since ESXi 5.5:
FeaturevSphere 5.5vSphere 6.0vSphere 6.5Logical processors (CPUs)320480576Physical memory4 TB6 TB – 12 TB12 TBNUMA nodes161616vCPUs4,0964,0964,096Storage LUNs per host256256512VMFS datastore per host256256512Virtual machines per host5121,0241,024
Refer to the VMware vSphere 6.5 Configuration Maximums guide for more information regarding the scalability maximums at https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere6/r65/vsphere-65-configuration-maximums.pdf.
A brief insight into all the new features made available with vSphere 6.5 has been put together in the VMware's technical whitepaper What's New in VMware vSphere® 6.5 at http://bit.ly/vSphere65WhatsNew. Although I have shortened the URL for your benefit, you can always Google for the title text to find this whitepaper.
As the whitepaper introduces the components pretty neatly, we will not be doing the same in this book. This book will introduce you to the new changes in the respective chapters.
Core management layer – VMware vCenter 6.5
Unlike the previous releases wherein although the appliance was a neater solution, it still lacked something in terms of features and functionalities. Not every aspect of the vSphere management element layer was integrated into the appliance, but that is about to change with vSphere 6.5. VMware vCenter 6.5 Appliance (vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA)) is the new king. It has features that are not available with the Windows version of vCenter. Features such as Native High Availability (NHA) and Native Backup and Restore (NBR) are only available with the appliance version of vCenter Server. We will cover NHA and NBR in Chapter 2, Greenfield Deployment of vSphere 6.5.
One component that always stayed out of the box was vCenter Update Manager (VUM). It was always required to have it installed on a Windows machine. VUM is now available as a component integrated into vCSA.
The vCSA Management has also been greatly improved, especially providing more insight into the built-in PostgreSQL database and its usage. VMware is slowly moving away from its dependence on Microsoft SQL and Oracle database instances.
Authentication and core services layer – vSphere Platform Services Controller
VMware has bundled the essential services, such as the Single Sign-On (SSO), Inventory Service, and certificate management, into a single manageable solution named the Platform Services Controller (PSC). The PSC can be installed on the same machine as the vCenter, installed on a separate supported Windows machine, or run as an integrated component of the vCSA. Refer VMware KB Article 2147672 for supported topologies(https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2147672).
SSO is an authentication gateway, which takes the authentication requests from various registered components and validates the credential pair against the identity sources added to the SSO server. The components are registered to the SSO server during their installation. We will delve deeper into PSC, and its components inChapter 2, Greenfield Deployment of vSphere 6.5.
Upgrade and patch management layer – vCenter Update Manager 6.5
vCenter Update Manager (VUM) is a solution that is used to upgrade or patch your vSphere environment. Keep in mind though that it can only be used to patch/upgrade ESXi hosts and perform some additional tasks, such as VMware tools and virtual machine hardware upgrade. Starting with vSphere 6.5, VUM is no longer required to be installed on Windows machines. It is now fully integrated into the vCenter Appliance and is enabled by default. Also, its reliance on the vSphere C#-based client has been removed. It can now be fully operated using the vSphere Web Client. You will learn more about VUM in Chapter 14, Upgrading and Patching Using vSphere Update Manager.
Planning vSphere upgrade
A vSphere upgrade will require careful assessment of the existing infrastructure. You will need to ensure that the server hardware is compatible with ESXi 6.5. If the existing infrastructure has vCenter components on Microsoft Windows, then you will need to verify whether the current Windows Servers versions are supported for the installation of vCenter 6.5 and its components. If the existing environment has other third layer components, such as the VMware NSX, vRealize Automation, vRealize Operations Manager, vCenter Site Recovery Manager, then it becomes essential to verify whether upgrading the core vSphere components will leave the third layer components unsupported/incompatible. In this section of the chapter, you will learn how to check the hardware compatibility of the existing server hardware, check Windows Server operating system compatibility with the vSphere 6.5 components, and verify third layer product interoperability with the core vSphere 6.5 management components. We will also review various upgrade paths available based on the existing vSphere environment's version and deployment models.
How to do it...
The following procedure walks you through the steps involved in planning a vSphere upgrade:
Hardware capacity and software requirements check
: As with any new vSphere version, vSphere 6.5 does come with revised hardware capacity and software requirements. It is important to understand these requirements during the planning phase. VMware provides access to more than one form of reference material that would help you understand the hardware and software requirements to deploy a vSphere environment. One of the primary reference sources is the
product documentation
and in this case, the
vSphere 6.5 Installation and Configuration
guide (
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-installation-setup-guide.pdf
). Another source that is always kept up to date is
VMware Knowledge Base
(
https://kb.vmware.com/s/
).
Hardware compatibility check
: The existing server hardware should be verified for its compatibility with ESXi 6.5. It is done by looking up the current server hardware's make and model in the
VMware Compatibility Guide
, which can be accessed at
https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility
.
vCenter component compatibility checks
: The existing Microsoft Windows Servers hosting the vCenter components should be verified for its supportability with vCenter 6.5 and its components.
Product interoperability check
: vCenter being the core management layer, there are other solutions that connect with vCenter through APIs to provide its services. Therefore, it becomes critical to verify whether the solution vendors, be it VMware or third party, has a vCenter 6.5 compatible solution yet. Also, consider upgrading the solutions and its plugins before you upgrade to vCenter 6.5. For instance, the first release of vSphere 6.5 did not add support for NSX. It was vSphere 6.5.0a that added support for NSX 6.3.
Upgrade paths
: Depending on the current vSphere version and its deployment model, the process of upgrading to vSphere 6.5 could differ. Hence, it is important to understand the upgrade paths available. The oldest possible version that supports a direct upgrade is vSphere 5.5.
Download vSphere 6.5 components
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/downloads
:
Download the vCenter Appliance or vCenter for Windows based on the platform decision that you have arrived at. Here is what you will need to download:
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi ISO) with VMware Tools
VMware vCenter and modules for Windows (ISO) or VMware vCenter Server Appliance (ISO)
How it works...
The chances of successfully upgrading your vSphere environment without affecting the supportability and compatibility of your existing components will completely depend on how you plan and execute the upgrade. Once you have taken care of the hardware and software dependencies discussed in this section, you can safely execute the upgrade scripts to perform the upgrade. We will cover vSphere 5.5 to 6.5 and vSphere 6.0 to 6.5 upgrades in separate sections.
Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 or 6.0 to vSphere 6.5
vSphere 5.5 is the oldest supported version of an upgrade to vSphere 6.5. Before we begin, let's review vSphere 5.5 component architecture so that we have a clear understanding of what needs to be upgraded. vSphere 5.5 had separate components.
If you have environments running versions older than vSphere 5.5, you will either need to update the components to vSphere 5.5 first or perform a fresh installation of vSphere 6.5 and then move the workloads to the new environment. In such cases, it is quite possible that the older hardware is no longer supported to host vSphere 6.5 or its components. Use the steps provided in the Planning vSphere upgrade section to review your current environment.
How to do it...
In this section, we will cover the steps involved in upgrading a vSphere 5.5 environment to vSphere 6.5:
Backup the current configuration
:
Take snapshots of SSO, vCenter, and database VM before you start the upgrade. Also, take backups of the database if vCenter is running on a physical machine
and
using an external database.
Upgrade SSO servers to vSphere 6.5 PSC
: Regardless of the platform (Windows or vCSA), the Single Sign-On component servers should be upgraded from 5.5/6.0 to vSphere 6.5 before the vCenter upgrade.
Upgrade vCenter to VCSA 6.5
: For instructions on how to migrate from Windows to VCSA 6.5, read the section
Upgrading vCenter Server - Migrating from Microsoft Windows to VCSA
of this chapter. Single Sign-On and other services will be migrated. vCenter 6.5 can also be installed on a Windows Server, so upgrading vCenter can also be performed without having to rebuild a new machine. Read the section
Upgrading vCenter Server on Microsoft Windows
for instructions. In either case, a database upgrade will be performed.
Upgrade vSphere Update Manager
: VUM will be upgraded and made part of the vCenter Server if the current vCenter system being upgraded also has VUM installed on it. If VUM is installed on a separate machine, which is mostly the case in enterprise infrastructures, then you will need to run the vCenter Migration Assistant on the VUM machine as well.
Use vSphere Update Manager to upgrade the hosts to ESXi 6.5
: Read the
Chapter 14
,
Upgrading and Patching using vSphere Update Manager
for instructions on how to use VUM to upgrade ESXi hosts by scheduling upgrades/updates.
Use vSphere Update Manager to upgrade the virtual machine hardware and VMware tools
:
Read
Chapter 14
,
Upgrading and Patching using vSphere Update Manager
,
for instructions.
