Installing and configuring VMware vCenter 4.1
This chapter provides information about how to install and configure VMware vCenter and perform basic administration activities. It includes the following topics:
6.1 VMware vCenter 4.1 overview
VMware vCenter is a central console that enables the most valuable virtualization features. These features include vMotion, High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), Storage vMotion, Fault Tolerance (FT), and Cloning, to name only the most common.
It is implemented as a service running on a Windows server. On vCenter 4.1, it requires a 64-bit operating system. So, if you are installing a server to perform that role, ensure that it can run a 64-bit OS. Some examples include Windows 2003 64-bit on any version (Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter), Windows 2008 64-bit on any version, or Windows 2008 R2.
VMware vCenter uses a database to store all the configuration of its elements, such as hosts, virtual machines, datastores, and clusters. When installing a small environment (up to five hosts), it is acceptable to use a light version of Microsoft SQL Server or IBM DB2. These versions are free but have limited capacities. For larger environments, use of a full database bundle is required.
For more information about compatibility, requirements, patch level and specific configuration, check the ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide, at the following website:
Because our environment has less than five hosts, we use SQL 2005 Express, which is included on the VMware vSphere installation image.
For management purposes and authentication separation from the OS, we created a user (which we named VCadmin) to run the vCenter Server service. This user must be an administrator of the server where vCenter is intended to run.
6.2 Installing VMware vCenter 4.1
In this book, we are using VMware vCenter version 4.1 Update 1. We consider that you have a VMware registration with enough rights to perform that task. To install it, perform the following steps:
1. Mount the vCenter installation image with your preferred image software.
2. If the autorun loads the installation panel, close it. Browse the image, right-click the file autorun.exe while holding the Shift key, and select Run as different user, as shown in Figure 6-1.
Figure 6-1 Running the installer as a different user
3. Type the credentials and click OK.
4. When the installation panel is displayed, select vCenter Server, as in Figure 6-2.
Figure 6-2 Selecting vCenter to be installed
5. Select the language that you are going to use and click OK.
6. Click Next on the Welcome panel.
7. Click Next on the End-User Patent Agreement panel.
8. In the License Agreement, change the radio button to “I agree to the terms in the license agreement” and click Next.
9. In the next panel, enter your company information and the vCenter Server license. You can type it later also, which sets it to evaluation mode of 60 days. Click Next.
10. On Database Options, choose between the included version of SQL for small deployments or “Use an existing supported database “. We are going the use the SQL Express, as in Figure 6-3, but in a real environment, use a full bundle database. Click Next.
Figure 6-3 Selecting the database
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Attention: The DSN (Database Source Name) must be 64-bit capable. Otherwise, it does not work.
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11. Because the installation was started with the VCadmin user, it is the one intended to run the vCenter Server service (see Figure 6-4). Type its password and click Next.
Figure 6-4 vCenter account during the installation
12. To facilitate administration, it is a best practice to keep the OS data separated from the application. So we install vCenter on another partition, as shown in Figure 6-5, and click Next.
Figure 6-5 Installing vCenter in a different partition than the OS
13. Because this vCenter is the first one of the structure, it must be a stand-alone instance, as shown in Figure 6-6. (If it happens to be the second or any other, we can install it as linked to the first instance, which is called a Linked Mode instance.) Click Next.
Figure 6-6 Creating a stand-alone instance
14. On the Configure Ports panel, leave the default ports if they not in conflict with any application that you can have on the vCenter server. Click Next.
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Important: vCenter uses ports 80 and 443. So if you are installing it over a web server, you must change those ports when installing vCenter to change your web server configuration. Otherwise, the vCenter Server service fails to start.
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15. On the vCenter Server JVM Memory panel, select the option that best describes your environment according the number of hosts you are intending to run. Then click Next.
16. On the Ready to Install the Program, click Install to start the installation.
6.3 Basic administration with VMware vCenter
This section explains how to perform a basic configuration of vCenter for a quick start. For more details, see the VMware Datacenter Administration Guide at the following website:
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_dc_admin_guide.pdf
This topic includes the following sections:
•Creating a cluster
6.3.1 Creating a datacenter
To perform a basic configuration in vCenter, create a datacenter object to group the other objects created below it:
1. Open vCenter and log in.
2. Right-click the vCenter object and select New Datacenter, as in Figure 6-7. Set its name accordingly.
Figure 6-7 Creating a Datacenter
6.3.2 Creating a cluster
A cluster is an entity which defines the boundaries of actions of both HA and DRS, so only the hosts and virtual machines included on clusters take advantage of those features.
To create a clone:
Figure 6-8 Creating a new cluster
2. On the next panel, provide a name to the cluster as in Figure 6-9. Select the options related to HA and DRS if you want to implement those features. Then click Next.
Figure 6-9 Naming the cluster and features available: HA and DRS
3. On the VMware EVC panel, whenever possible, enable EVC to facilitate vMotion between hosts with a slightly different version of processors, as shown in Figure 6-10. Click Next.
Figure 6-10 Enabling EVC
4. Select to leave the pagefiles in the same directory as the virtual machine for ease of management and recovery of them. Click Next.
5. Review the information and click Finish.
6.3.3 Adding hosts to a cluster
Before adding a host, you must have an ESX or ESXi host already installed and set up in the network. For more information about this task, see Chapter 5, “Installing the VMware ESXi 4.1 using N series storage” on page 61.
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Tip: Create a manual entry on your DNS zone for your ESXi hosts, because they do not create that automatically.
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Important: Ensure that your DNS infrastructure is working correctly before adding servers to vCenter. If DNS cannot resolve the hosts, HA service can be affected.
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After you set up the host, add it as follows:
Figure 6-11 Adding a host to a cluster
2. Type the host’s full qualified domain name, then root user, and its password, in the authentication box, as in Figure 6-12.
Figure 6-12 Adding the host name, root user, and its password
3. Accept the RSA key by clicking OK.
4. Select a placeholder where you want to store the virtual machines and click Next. The purpose here is for ease of administration only. You can create folders to divide the VM structure, as Windows and Linux VMs, or divide them by tier of applications. It really depends on your design.
5. In the Ready to Complete panel, review the information and click Finish.
6.3.4 Templates
A template is an image of a virtual machine (VM). You want to ease the administration and deployment of new VMs. So you generally install the operating system on the template image with all the basic software features that do not require special configuration, such as antivirus. A template is useful when you need to quickly deploy a large number of guests. You need only to set up a single guest and load its operating system, while the other machines are created as copies from that template.
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Prerequisites: Before creating a template, it is a good idea to perform the disk block alignment before you load the operating system into the guest. For more information, see 7.9, “Partition alignment” on page 136.
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To create a template:
1. Just create a normal virtual machine, install the OS, and the basic applications. Then remove the IP if manually assigned and shut down the VM. Right-click it, go to Template and then click Convert to Template, as in Figure 6-13.
Figure 6-13 Converting a VM to a template
To see your template options, right-click one of your guests. Click Inventory. Select Virtual Machines And Templates., as in Figure 6-14, and you see a panel like this one.
Figure 6-14 Changing view to VMs and Templates
You see all your templates as shown in Figure 6-15.
Figure 6-15 Viewing VMs and Templates
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