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 421
VM Design 423
VMware Datacenter Design 423
Security Architecture 424
Monitoring and Capacity Planning 424
Summary 425
Chapter 12 • vCloud Design 427
Differences between Cloud and Server Virtualization 428
Role of vCloud Director in Cloud Architecture 429
vCloud Director Use Cases 430
Use Case #1 432
Use Case #2 432
Use Case #3 432
Use Case #4 433
Components of the vCloud Management Stack 433
vCloud Cell and NFS Design Considerations 435
Management vs Consumable Resources 437
Database Concepts 438
vCenter Design 439
vCloud Management: Physical Design 442
The Physical Side of Provider Virtual Datacenters 444
The Logical Side of Provider Virtual Datacenters 449
Network Pool Decisions 455
External Networks 456
Designing Organizations, Catalogs, and Policies 461
Correlating Organizational Networks to Design 464
End Users and vApp Networking 466
Designing Organization Virtual Datacenters 470
Multiple Sites 476
Backup and Disaster Recovery 477
Summary 478
Index 479
