This chapter will cover the configurations required by ESXi and vCenter Server to operate in a healthy status in order to provide services and resources to a VM. It will explain how to properly set up the hypervisor, assign the correct IP address, and configure a time-synced network in order to have a working infrastructure.

This chapter will also walk-through the configuration of vCSA main parameters and features, such as Single Sign-On (SSO), Active Directory (AD), roles, permissions, and so on, and how to efficiently manage data centers, clusters, and hosts using the new vSphere Client (HTML5 client).

The use of PowerCLI and vSphere CLI (vCLI) is another important topic covered in this chapter, because time-consuming tasks can be automated and executed in seconds using scripts, reducing the workload for the IT staff.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Configuring the main ESXi options, understanding the partition layout, and how to configure the scratch partition
• Using the vSphere Host Profile feature to get a consistent configuration of your hosts and setting up a configuration backup using CLI commands to quickly restore a failed host
• Configuring a vCSA and understanding the correct license model to apply
• Configuring and managing data centers, clusters, and hosts
• Automating some tasks using PowerCLI, vCLI scripts, and the vCenter REST API