Intel S5520HC, Server Board S5520UR, VMware vSphere 4.1 Installation Manual

VMware vSphere* 4.1
Installation Guide for
ESX*/ESXi* 4.1

Intel® Server Board S5520HC
Intel® Server Board S5520UR

Intel® Enabled Solutions Acceleration Alliance (Intel® ESAA)

Copyright© 2011 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its

subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Recipe ID: 40VMWR860000000000-02

41VMWR860000000000-02

18 February 2011

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

www.intel.com/go/esaa

The information contained in this document is provided for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Intel Corporation (“Intel”) and its

contributors ("Contributors") on, as of the date of publication. Intel and the Contributors make no commitment to update the information contained in this

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Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

VMware is a registered trademark of VMware Corporation and/or its affiliates.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Copyright © 2011, Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

2

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 5

VMware vSphere Essentials* Editions ...................................................................................................................... 5

Maximize Virtualization Benefits .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Server Configuration Options and Selection Criteria ........................................................................................ 8

Hardware Components ...................................................................................................................................................... 9

Intel® I/O Expansion Module Support Matrix ....................................................................................................... 11

Software Components .................................................................................................................................................... 11

Related Intel® ESAA Solutions ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Recipe Overview ................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Server Configuration Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 14

Basic Network Configurations .................................................................................................................................... 14

Volume Setup and Storage Layout .......................................................................................................................... 16

Configure Access to Storage .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Hardware RAID BIOS Configuration ................................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Hardware Trusted Execution Technology Configuration (Optional) .................................................................................................. 17

Hardware RAID Configuration .................................................................................................................................... 21

Intel® Server Boards RAID Options and Accessories ...................................................................................... 22

Hardware RAID Controller Options and Setup ......................................................................................................................................................... 22

Get Started with ESX* 4.1 ............................................................................................................................................ 24

Initial Tasks ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 24

VMware ESX* 4.1 Installation ..................................................................................................................................... 25

Install ESX* 4.1........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 25

Standard Setup ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Install ESXi 4.1 Installable Using the Interactive Mode ................................................................................ 27

Prerequisites .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 27

Installation Procedure ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Set Up VMware ESXi Installable* .............................................................................................................................. 28

Set the Password for the Administrator Account ................................................................................................................................................ 29

Configure IP Settings for ESXi*.................................................................................................................................. 29

Configure IP Settings from the Direct Console ....................................................................................................................................................... 29

Configure DNS Settings from the Direct Console ................................................................................................................................................ 29

Managing ESX* Hosts ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30

vSphere* Client Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................................ 30

vSphere* Client Software Requirements ............................................................................................................. 30

Download the vSphere* Client ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 30

Install the vSphere* Client ............................................................................................................................................ 31

Manage Multiple Hosts with vCenter Server* ................................................................................................... 31

vSphere* and vCenter Server* .................................................................................................................................. 32

vCenter Server* Installation ........................................................................................................................................ 33

vCenter Server* and the vSphere* Client Hardware Requirements ................................................................................................... 33

Minimum Requirements for vCenter Server* ............................................................................................................................................................ 33

vCenter Server* Software Requirements .................................................................................................................................................................... 33

vCenter Server* Prerequisites .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 34

Install vCenter Server* ................................................................................................................................................... 35

3

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Running the Software ..................................................................................................................................................... 39

Setup a Basic Inventory with the Getting Started Tabs ................................................................................................................................ 39

Start the vSphere* Client and Log into vCenter Server* ............................................................................................................................... 40

Create a Datacenter .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 41

Adding Hosts ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 41

Set Up VMkernal Port for VMotion* (Optional) ........................................................................................................................................................ 42

Configure Datastores ....................................................................................................................................................... 43

Create Local VMFS Datastores ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 43

Create an External Datastore (Optional) ....................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Create a Virtual Machine ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 56

Loading an OS on a Virtual Machine ................................................................................................................................................................................... 58

Create a Cluster and Setup Flex Migration (Optional) ................................................................................... 58

Appendix A: ESXi* Support Configuration for Intel® TXT (Optional) ..................................................... 60

Confirm the PCR Values Import to vCenter* Server ........................................................................................................................................... 62

through the VMware MOB. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 62

Where to Go Next .............................................................................................................................................................. 67

Technical and Marketing Reference Documentation..................................................................................... 67

The vSphere* Tutorial ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 67

VMware vSphere* Documentation ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 67

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Online Training ............................................................................................................................................................................. 67

VMware* Knowledge Base ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 67

Support Information ......................................................................................................................................................... 68

Intel® ESAA – Your Recipe for Success ................................................................................................................... 69

4

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Executive Summary

Intel® Server Platforms and VMware* virtualization solutions together help reduce the cost
and complexity of virtualization deployments. The Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series yield
higher performance than the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series and cut costs by requiring
less servers to perform the same tasks. They also enable secure platforms through new
security technologies such as Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) and Intel®
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). VMware virtualization improves server utilization and
reduces power and server management costs. The Intel® Server Board platforms have the
flexibility to support VMware capabilities such as High Availability, DRS, DPM and VMware
VMotion* with external storage. A variety of server platforms provides flexibility in
delivering virtualization solutions to meet computing needs. Affordable platforms are
available to deploy small business solutions or higher-performance servers can be deployed
for meeting highly-scalable virtualization solutions for the data center and cloud computing.

With VMware vSphere Essential* editions, customers can deploy easily managed servers
while providing an affordable business continuity solution. Customers can take advantage of
data center capabilities with vSphere* standard, advanced and enterprise plus editions to
provide high availability, automated resource management and simplified operations.
VMware virtualization software certified on Intel® Server platforms makes it easier to bring
fully-tested products to market faster and at a lower cost.

VMware vSphere Essentials* Editions

Figure 1 - VMware vSphere Essentials* Editions

Designed especially for small IT environments with fewer than 20 physical servers, the VMware vSphere
Essentials* Editions deliver enterprise-class capabilities in a cost-effective solution package for
organizations wanting to optimize and protect their IT assets with minimal up-front investment. It is an all­in-one solution for small offices that want to consolidate and manage many application workloads while
reducing hardware and operating costs with a low up-front investment.

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus* adds live migration high application availability and data protection for a

complete server consolidation and business continuity solution for the small office IT environment. Both
editions are all-inclusive packages that enable many application workloads to be virtualized and consolidated
onto three physical servers running vSphere and to be centrally managed. VMware vSphere also comes in
Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise plus editions that are appropriate for larger data center or cloud
deployments:

Figure 2 - VMware vSphere* Versions

 Standard: Provides an entry solution for basic consolidation of applications to greatly reduce hardware

costs while accelerating application deployment.

 Advanced: Provides a strategic consolidation solution that protects all applications against planned and

unplanned downtime to provide superior application availability and data protection.

 Enterprise Plus: Includes the full range of vSphere* features for transforming datacenters into

dramatically simplified cloud computing environments that can provide the next generation of flexible,
reliable IT services to their businesses.

 vCenter Server* Foundation: Provides users the benefits of vCenter Server*, but is designed to serve

the needs of a smaller IT environment with the ability to manage three or fewer physical server hosts
running vSphere*.

Maximize Virtualization Benefits

Intel is also building a better physical platform with unique hardware assist features to enhance the virtual
datacenter and help tame server sprawl. The Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series, built on Intel®
microarchitecture, codenamed Westmere, expands the benefits of virtualization with innovations that boost
performance, increase consolidation ratios, and enable servers of different generations to be combined in
the same virtualized server pool, improving virtual machine failover, load balancing, and disaster recovery
capabilities.

Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) continues to offer investment protection and infrastructure
flexibility with multigeneration VM migration across the full range of 32-bit and 64-bit configurations,
enabling bigger VM pools.

 Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (Intel® VT-c) provides hardware-assisted I/O that

accelerates network performance and simplifies VM migration.

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

 Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d) helps speed data movement and

eliminates much of the performance overhead by giving designated VMs their own dedicated I/O
devices, reducing the overhead of the VM migration in managing I/O traffic.

Application performance is critical for day-to-day business operations, as well as creating new products and
reaching new customers. But many data centers are now at capacity, and new data centers are expensive
to build. By refreshing data center infrastructure with more efficient servers, additional performance and
scalability can be delivered within the same energy and space footprint. The Intel® Xeon® processor 5600
series brings intelligent performance to the most trusted server architecture. The Intel® Xeon® processor
5600 series is the world’s most adaptable server platform, adjusting performance and power usage in real
time to meet the exact requirements of computing workloads, while allowing manual adjustment for IT
control. The Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series brings together a number of innovative technologies to
deliver intelligent performance:

 Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, together with Intel® Intelligent Power Technology, delivers

performance on demand, letting processors operate above the rated frequency to speed specific
workloads and reduce power consumption during low utilization periods.

 Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology benefits from larger caches and massive memory bandwidth,

delivering greater throughput and responsiveness for multi-threaded applications.

 Intel® QuickPath Technology and an integrated memory controller speed traffic between processors

and I/O controllers for bandwidth-intensive applications, delivering up to 3.5 times the bandwidth for
technical computing.

 Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) for safer computing is a versatile set of hardware

extensions to enhance the platform security capabilities. The Intel® Trusted Execution Technology
requires a TPM module on the server platform. Refer to the Intel® Server Boards Product Page at

http://www.intel.com/products/server/motherboard/index.htm#s1=all&s2=S5520HC&s3=all to see

which Intel® Server Boards support Intel® TXT.

 Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a hardware-based security device that addresses the growing

concern on boot process integrity and offers better data protection. TPM protects the system start-up
process by ensuring it is tamper-free before releasing system control to the operating system. A TPM
device provides secured storage to store data, such as security keys and passwords. In addition, a TPM
device has encryption and hash functions. A pre-boot environment, such as the BIOS and operating
system loader, uses the TPM to collect and store unique measurements from multiple factors within the
boot process to create a system fingerprint. This unique fingerprint remains the same unless the pre­boot environment is tampered with. Therefore, it is used to compare to future measurements to verify
the integrity of the boot process. Refer to the Intel® Server Boards Product Page at

http://www.intel.com/products/server/motherboard/index.htm#s1=all&s2=S5520HC&s3=all to see

which Intel® Server Boards support Intel® TXT.

 Intel® Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) - These instructions enable fast and secure data

encryption and decryption, using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

The breakthrough performance, energy efficiency and reliability of the new Intel® Xeon® processor-based
systems make them the best choice for virtualization and business critical applications, enabling IT to
become more efficient and responsive. For information on virtualization performance, refer to the Intel®
website for more information.

The Intel® Xeon® processor 3400 Series provides a lower-cost solution for virtualization solutions. The
processor provides an entry-level cost point for customers deploying small business virtualization solutions.

7

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Customers deploying simple server solutions can consolidate 5-10 servers on a single platform to lower
operating costs while delivering good performance.

Server Configuration Options and Selection Criteria

The Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 Series performance benefits provide improved performance on
virtualization solutions compared to the previous generation Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 Series.
Intel® Server Boards provide sufficient memory for running virtual machines. Maximizing the amount of
memory on the board will provide more memory for each virtual machine. To enhance performance, VMware*
recommends installinig ESX* on a robust system with more RAM than the minimum required and with
multiple physical disks. Consider the following recommendations for enhanced performance:

 RAM: ESX* 4.1 hosts require more RAM than typical servers. An ESX 4.1 host must be equipped with

sufficient RAM to run concurrent virtual machines. Running these four virtual machines with 512 MB
RAM requires that the ESX 4.1 host be equipped with approximately 4 GB RAM, which includes 2,048
MB for the virtual machines.

 Dedicated Fast Ethernet Adapters for Virtual Machines: Place the management network and virtual

machine networks on different physical network cards. Dedicated Gigabit Ethernet cards for virtual
machines improve throughput to virtual machines with high network traffic.

It is also recommended to purchase a quad-port Network Internet Card for improved networking and I/O
performance while providing redundancy in case of failure. With virtualization applications, it is important to
provide redundancy when consolidating server applications on a single system because multiple applications
will fail with a single point-of-failure. With the addition of a quad-port NIC for the server, there are four
additional ports available to each VMware* host for either additional networking bandwidth for virtual
machines as well as redundant paths.

Typical deployments would dedicate two ports for the management interface, two ports for the storage
interface and two ports for the VM network. Additional ports may be needed for the vm network depending
on the network load. Customers with high network bandwidth requirements for their application would want
to consider InfiniBand* or 10GE interfaces for even more network capacity. The server board and platform
options depend on the number of Virtual Machines that will run on an ESX* server:

 Intel® Server Board S5520UR and Intel® Server Board S5520HC are ideal for scalable high-

performance virtualization. The increased memory supported on each server board allows for more
virtualization machines to be deployed because more memory can be allocated for each Virtual Machine.

Intel® Server Board S5520UR is rack-mounted for data centers and Enterprise IT. Intel® Server Board
S5520HC is ideal for customers wanting a pedestal chassis virtualization solution for office

environments. Intel® Server Board S5520UR and Intel® Server Board S5520HC each has up-to 96
GB of memory and expansion for I/O cards, making them ideal for virtualization. For maximizing the
number of Virtual Machines and supporting more I/O, these server options provide the best possible
performance and scalability for virtualization. Intel® Server Board S5520URT and Intel® Server Board
S5520HCT are required for support of Intel® TXT. Refer to the Intel® Server Boards Product Page at

http://www.intel.com/products/server/motherboard/index.htm#s1=all&s2=S5520HC&s3=all to see

which Intel® Server Boards support Intel® TXT.

8

Hardware Components

Quantity

Item

Intel® Server Board

S5520HC

S5520HCT

S5520UR

S5520URT

1

Intel® Server Chassis

SC5600
SC5650

SR1600 (1U) 3.5” disk drive
SR1625 (1U) 2.5” disk drive
SR2600 (2U) 3.5” disk drives
SR2625 (2U) 2.5” disk drives

Memory

4 GB or more

Memory modules

Refer to the tested memory list at

http://www.intel.com/support/mo
therboards/server/s5520hc/sb/C
S-030221.htm

http://www.intel.com/support/moth
erboards/server/s5520ur/sb/CS-

030026.htm

Processors

2

Intel® Xeon® Processors

Refer to the tested processor list at

http://www.intel.com/support/mo
therboards/server/s5520hc/sb/C
S-030221.htm

http://www.intel.com/support/moth
erboards/server/sb/CS-

030213.htm

Storage

3 minimum

hardware RAID

SATA/SAS hard drives or

SSD

Refer to the tested hardware list at

http://www.intel.com/support/mo
therboards/server/s5520hc/sb/C
S-030220.htm

http://www.intel.com/support/moth
erboards/server/s5520ur/sb/CS-

030027.htm

2 Minimum Non

RAID SAS or

SATA

SAS/SATA hard drives or

SSD

Refer to the tested hardware list at

http://www.intel.com/support/mo
therboards/server/s5520hc/sb/C
S-030220.htm

http://www.intel.com/support/moth
erboards/server/s5520ur/sb/CS-

030027.htm

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Table 1 – Hardware Bill of Materials

9

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Quantity

Item/Model #

Intel® Server Board

S5520HC

S5520UR

Internal RAID Options – Intel® RAID Controllers

1 Optional

AXXROMBSASMR Internal 4 Port SAS RAID ROC
Module (lsi1064E)





1 Optional

AXX4SASMOD Internal 4 Port SAS Module (lsi1078)





1 Optional

AXX4SASIOMOD External 4 Port SAS Module
(lsi1064e)





1 Optional

AXXRMS2MH080
8-port 6Gb Integrated RAID (LSI2108)



1 Optional

AXXRMS2LL040 / AXXRMS2LL080
4-port/8-port 6Gb RAID (LSI21008)





1 Optional

AXXRMS2AF040 / AXXRMS2AF080 4-port/8-port 6Gb
RAID (LSI2008)





1 Optional

SAS RAID ROC Midplane in the chassis

Refer to RAID and Storage Options Available

on Intel® Server Boards and Systems based on
Intel® 5500/5520 Chipset at

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards
/server/sb/raid_options_on_s5500_s5520_serv
er_products_v1_0.pdf

Networking

1 Optional

Dual Port GbE I/O Module AXXGBIOMOD



1 Optional

Quad Port GbE I/O Module AXX4GBIOMOD2



1 Optional

Dual Port 10GbE I/O Module AXX10GBIOMOD



1 Optional

InfiniBand* (QDR) I/O Module AXXIBQDRIOMOD



1 Optional

Single-port InfiniBand* (QDR) AXXIBQDRSR169X

10

Table 1 Continued – Hardware Bill of Materials

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Intel® I/O Expansion Module

Product Code

S5520UR

S5520HC

Single Connector

Dual-port Intel 82571EB GbE

AXXGBIOMOD



External 4-port SAS (LSI1064e)

AXXSASIOMOD



Single-port InfiniBand* (SDR)

AXXIBIOMOD



Double Connector

Dual-port Intel 82598EB 10GbE*

AXX10GBIOMOD



4-port Intel 82576EB GbE*

AXX4GBIOMOD2



Single-port InfiniBand (QDR)

AXXIBQDRIOMOD



Single-port InfiniBand (QDR)

AXXIBQDRSR169X

SAS Controllers

4-port Internal SAS (LSI1064e)*

AXX4SASMOD





4-port Internal SAS HW RAID (LSI1078)*

AXXROMBSASMR





8-port 6Gb Integrated RAID (LSI2108)

AXXRMS2MH080



4-port/8-port 6Gb RAID (LSI2008)

AXXRMS2LL040 /
AXXRMS2LL080





4-port/8-port 6Gb RAID (LSI2008)

AXXRMS2AF040 /
AXXRMS2AF080





Item

Version

Manufacturer

Comment

VMware ESX* 4.1

VMware ESX 4.1

http://downloads.VMware.com/
d/info/datacenter_downloads/V
Mware_vsphere_4/4

VMware*
vCenter Server* 4.1

VMware vCenter Server 4.1

http://downloads.VMware.com/
d/info/datacenter_downloads/V
Mware_vsphere_4/4

VMware*

VMware ESXi* 4.1
Installable

VMware ESXi 4.1 Installable

http://downloads.VMware.com/
d/info/datacenter_downloads/V
Mware_vsphere_4/4

VMware*

Intel® I/O Expansion Module Support Matrix

Table 2 - Intel® I/O Expansion Module Support Matrix

Software Components

Table 3 – Installation Software BOM

VMware vSphere* is available as an accessory to Intel® Server Boards and Intel® Server Systems. An Intel®
Authorized Distributor can provide VMware vSphere as an add-on to eligible Intel® Server Product purchases.
Most Intel® Server Products are certified to run with VMware vSphere* and are listed on the VMware

Hardware Compatibility List. For more information, including ordering information and sales tools, please click

this link: http://www3.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/436106.htm

11

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Related Intel® ESAA Solutions

There are several solutions available to provide disaster recovery or iSCSI/NAS storage. The following recipes
may provide an alternative storage solution for a vSphere 4.1 host depending on storage needs. If deploying
a large number of VMs, the disk I/O capability or IOPS provided by local drives may be exceeded. External
storage is a viable option when deploying disk-intensive applications or when the number of virtual
machines deployed need more disk I/O. This can also be loaded onto the SAS/SAN to provide higher-end
storage functions such as backup and high availability.

 DataCore SANmelody* (High Availability) on Microsoft Windows Server* 2008 :

This storage virtualization SAN solution for iSCSI combines Intel® Modular Server Compute Module
MFS5000SI with DataCore* SANmelody* software (in a two disk server configuration for auto failover,
high availability configuration) and is the perfect companion to server and desktop virtualization.
SANmelody* software virtualizes, manages, and thin provisions storage, and provides disaster recovery,
while optimizing storage utilization, manageability, and performance. This solution provides enterprise­class performance and functionality at an SMB-affordable price.

http://www.esaa-members.com/index.php/recipes/recipeSummary/1160

 Open-E* Data Storage Server* : This recipe uses Open-E* Data Storage Server* to create a storage

system for applications that is fast, flexible and reliable. Open-E DSS is already pre-installed on a USB
flash module (disk on module) and with the unique Web interface, no special knowledge is required even
for the configuration of the most eccentric storage strategy.

http://www.esaa-members.com/index.php/recipes/recipeSummary/617

 Hytrust Appliance* Installation and Configuration: This recipe explains how to install and configure

the Hytrust Appliance*. HyTrust Appliance delivers enterprise-class controls for access, accountability,
and visibility for VMware virtualization infrastructure.

http://www.esaa-members.com/recipes/recipeSummary/1589

Recipe Overview

This Intel® ESAA recipe covers the installation steps required to setup a basic virtualization infrastructure
environment. An outline of the recipe is shown in Figure 3. The steps are outlined below. The primary focus
of this recipe is to guide the user in storage setup and networking to support installation of both vSphere
ESX* 4.1 hosts and vCenter*. The first part configures RAID and virtual disks to support the install of both
the vSphere ESX 4.1 and vCenter. Setup of the vSphere client software, connecting to the vCenter Server,
and managing the datacenter is also covered. The recipe also covers:

 Setting up an external data store and networking requirements to provide shared external storage to

support VMotion*

 Setting up a cluster, adding hosts and enabling enhanced VMotion compatibility or Intel® VT

FlexMigration.

Once complete, a basic virtualization infrastructure that can be expanded by adding more hosts or enabling
higher-end features is created. Refer to vSphere* documentation for more detailed information, including

12

VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Setup RAID

And Configure

BIOS Settings

Create

Virtual Disks

Create

Virtual Disks

Install VMware

ESX 4

Install

vSphere Client

Install vCenter

Server

Create a

DataCenter

Configure

Local and External

Data Stores

Setup VmKernel

Ports

Setup

Networking for

VM Traffic

Create a VM

And Load an OS

Create a Cluster
And Enable Flex

Migration

information about how to set up more advanced features or capabilities, additional requirements and Best
Known Methods, such as:

 Configure RAID and setup virtual disks for vSphere ESX* 4.1 and vCenter* – Sets up the storage

needed for VMware* vSphere*.

 Install VMware ESX* 4.1 – Installs VMware ESX* 4.1 on each of the servers.
 Install the vSphere* client – Loads the client software that enables access to the vCenter* Server and

ESX* hosts.

 Install vCenter Server* – Installs the vCenter Server* to manage the datacenter.
 Create a datacenter and add hosts – Creates a datacenter and adds the hosts.
 Setup VMkernel ports to support VMotion* – Sets up the networking to enable VMotion*.
 Configure datastores – Covers the steps required to setup a datastore for virtual machine storage

using the external iSCSI storage.

 Setup networking to support VM traffic – Configures a network port separate from the management

and storage network port to support virtual machine traffic.

 Create a VM and load an OS – Guides the user to set up a virtual machine and to load a sample

operating system from a USB CD.

 Create a cluster and enable Intel® VT FlexMigration – Covers creating a cluster in the datacenter and

adding hosts to the cluster. Intel® VT FlexMigration is enabled but Distributed Resource Scheduling,
Distributed Power Management and High Availability is disabled. These features can be enabled in the
setup if needed. A license is required to enable DRS, DPM and HA.

Figure 3 - Recipe Steps Outline (from left to right)

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Server Configuration Recommendations

Recommended for enhanced performance:

 RAM: ESX* 4.1 hosts require more RAM than typical servers. An ESX* 4.1 host must be equipped with

sufficient RAM to run concurrent virtual machines. For example, running four virtual machines with 512
MB RAM requires that the ESX 4.1 host be equipped with approximately 4 GB RAM, which includes
2,048 MB for the virtual machines. Typical server deployments require at least 2-4 GB of memory per
virtual machine. This depends on the application needs for each server. These calculations do not take
into account possible memory savings from using variable overhead memory for each virtual machine.
See links in the appendix of the VMware Resource Management Guide for more information.

 BIOS Settings: For Intel® Xeon® Processor systems, the processors must include support for Intel® VT.

Consult individual BIOS settings to ensure that Intel® VT is enabled. Many servers that include CPUs with
Intel® VT support might ship with Intel® VT disabled by default, so it must be enabled. Also enable
“Execute Disable Bit” in the BIOS to allow vSphere* to run. Please check both settings before installing
vSphere ESX* 4.1.

 Processor Selection: When creating virtual machines it is recommended each virtual machine be

assigned a single virtual CPU or core. Multiple cores may be needed if an application requires more
performance or if running multi-threaded applications. However, there is overhead associated with
setting up to run with multiple vCPUs per VM. Performance is impacted when a virtual machine has to
wait until the cores are available. There is also more memory overhead required with multiple vCPUs.
Given these considerations, a single virtual CPU or core may be used and assigned to each VM. The
quantity of VMs running on each server depends on the CPU, disk I/O or networking loads for the
applications. Take into account the application workloads to determine not only the number of virtual
CPUs needed but also the networking and disk I/O requirements.

 Hard Disk Sizing: The size of the hard disks for virtual machines depends on loading requirements and

the disk sizes required by the application. For the vSphere ESX* 4.1 installation, allocate at least 50 GB
of storage space. In the installation setup instructions for this recipe, 50 GB of storage space is setup.
Calculate or determine if the virtual machines running on a LUN are sufficient to meet the demands for
the applications. In addition, reduce the number of VMs residing on a single LUN or virtual disk to avoid
SCSI reservation issues. SCSI reservations are made by the host when changes are made to the VMFS
metadata. When a host holds a reservation, the other hosts will report a SCSI reservation conflict when
I/O is requested from the LUN.

For more BIOS, CPU, memory and hard disk recommendations refer to the Performance Best Practices for
VMware vSphere® 4.1 available online at:

http://www.VMware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere4.1.pdf

Basic Network Configurations

For VMware* vSphere ESX* 4.1, adding the additional network cards provides extra bandwidth and
redundancy for service console and virtual machine network ports. It is recommended to use static IP
addresses for the ESX servers.

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Server

IP address

Netmask

VCenter Server*

192.168.1.30

255.255.255.0

ESX* 4.1 Srv 1

192.168.1.10

255.255.255.0

ESX* 4.1 Srv 1 Vmkernel port

192.168.1.11`

255.255.255.0

ESX* 4.1 Srv 1

192.168.1.20

255.255.255.0

ESX* 4.1 Srv 1 Vmkernel port

192.168.1.21

255.255.255.0

In this recipe the two network ports on the server module are used on each of the servers with the
following network setup for ESX Server:

Figure 4 - VMware* vSphere* 2 Servers Network Configuration

For VMware* vSphere*, there are three network connections or ports that need to be configured:

 VMkernel, to handle storage traffic.
 Service Console, to handle host management traffic.
 Virtual Machine, to handle VM network traffic.

Table 4 shows a summary of the IP addresses that will be assigned to each server for this example.

Table 4 – IP Addresses Assigned to Each Server

The first NIC on the server is used for the management and storage traffic. The second NIC is used
specifically for virtual machine traffic. Additional ports can be added to handle more network traffic or
provide redundancy by adding a mezzanine card. Depending on the network I/O requirements for the
application, it is recommended to purchase the additional card.

VMware* uses designated ports for communication. Additionally, the managed hosts are listening for data
from the vCenter Server* system on designated ports. If a firewall exists between any of these elements
and Windows* firewall service is in use, the installer opens the ports during the installation. For custom
firewalls, the required ports must be manually opened. If a firewall is between two managed hosts and to
perform source or target activities, such as migration or cloning, the managed hosts must be configured to
receive data. Refer to the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide for more detailed information on

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

setting up firewall ports and installing ESX* Server:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_esx_vc_installation_guide.pdf

Volume Setup and Storage Layout

Configure Access to Storage

An ESX Server* virtual machine uses a virtual hard disk to store its operating system, program files, and
other data associated with its activities. A virtual disk is a large physical file, or a set of files, that can be
copied, moved, archived, and backed up as easily as any other file. To store virtual disk files and be able to
manipulate the files, ESX Server 4.1 requires specialized dedicated storage space. ESX Server uses storage
space on a variety of physical storage devices, including the host’s internal and external storage devices, or
networked storage devices. The storage device is a physical disk or disk array dedicated to the specific tasks
of storing and protecting data. ESX Server can discover storage devices it has access to, and use them as
datastores. The datastore is a special logical container, analogous to a file system on a logical volume, where
ESX Server places virtual disk files and other files that encapsulate essential components of a virtual
machine. Deployed on different devices, the datastores hide specifics of each storage product and provide a
uniform model for storing virtual machine files. Using the VI Client, datastores can be set-up in advance on
any storage device that the ESX Server 4.1 discovers.

It is recommended to create separate virtual disks and datastores for each virtual machine. This improves
performance by storing multiple VMs on different LUNs or virtual disks as opposed to a single LUN and
avoids SCSI reservation issues. After creating the datastores, they can be used to store virtual machine files.
The next sections provide steps to install ESX* Server and to setup ESX Server hosts to store and run virtual
machines from internal and external storage. The recipe will show how to setup hardware RAID to install
the ESX server and how to connect to an external iSCSI storage solution.

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Hardware RAID BIOS Configuration

The following steps show how to setup for the Intel® RAID Controller AXX4SASMOD.

1) Power-on the server and enter the BIOS by pressing the F2 key.

2) Select the “Advanced” option on the top menu.

3) Select “Processor or CPU Configuration”.

4) Ensure “Intel® Virtualization Technology” and “Execute Disable Bit” are set to “Enable”.

5) Select “Mass Storage Configuration”.

6) Disable the Onboard SATA Controller.

7) Enable the Intel® SAS Entry Raid Module.

8) Save the changes by pressing the F10 key, then select “Yes”.

Hardware Trusted Execution Technology Configuration (Optional)

Intel® Server Board S5520URT and Intel® Server Board S5520HCT are required to support Intel® Trust
Execution Technology (Intel® TXT). Execute the following steps to enable Intel® TXT to work with VMware
on these motherboards.

1) Ensure that steps 1-4 have been executed in the previous section before proceeding with these steps.

2) Power-on the system and press the F2 key to enter the BIOS.

3) Move to the “Main” tab, then disable “Quiet Boot”.

Figure 5 – Disable Quiet Boot in BIOS

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

4) Move to the “Advanced” tab and select “Processor Configuration”.

Figure 6 – Processor Configuration in BIOS

5) Ensure the following are enabled:

– Intel® Virtualization Technology
– Intel® VT for Directed I/O (leave sub-categories at their defaults)
– Intel® TXT

Figure 7 – Intel Features Enabled in BIOS

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

6) Move to the “Security” tab and select “Set Administrator Password”.

Figure 8 – Set Administrator Password in BIOS

7) Scroll to the “Exit” tab and select “Save Changes and Exit”. It is important to save the changes and

reboot to ensure the TPM is activated properly.

Figure 9 – Save Changes and Exit BIOS

8) Return to BIOS when the reboots using the Administrative password to access BIOS.

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX/ESXi* 4.1

Figure 10 – Enter Administrator Password

9) Move to the “Security” tab, then select “TPM Administrative Control”. Change the setting to “Turn On”.

Figure 11 – Turn On TPM Administrative Control in BIOS

10) Scroll to the “Exit” tab and select “Save Changes and Exit”.

Figure 12 – Save Changes and Exit BIOS

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VMware vSphere* 4.1 Installation Guide for ESX*

Storage
Controller

RAID Types and Levels

VMware* vSphere
ESX* 4.1 Installation
RAID

VMware vSphere ESX*

4.1 Installation
Single SATA/SAS Drive

On-board Intel®
82801JR I/O
Controller Hub
(ICH10R)

Software RAID 0/1/10 standard
Software RAID 5 with Intel® RAID

Activation Key AXXRAKSW5

No Support for
Software RAID

Supported

Optional Intel® SAS
Entry RAID Module
AXX4SASMOD

Entry Hardware RAID 0/1/1E/10E

Hardware RAID Levels
Supported

Supported

Software RAID 0/1/10 standard
Software RAID 5 with Intel® RAID

Activation Key AXXRAKSW5

No Support for
Software RAID

Supported

Optional Intel®
Integrated RAID
Controller
SROMBSASMR
(AXXROMBSASMR)

Intelligent Hardware RAID
0/1/10/5/50/6/60

Hardware RAID Levels
Supported

Hardware RAID
Recommended

SAS/SATA
Active midplane 2
(FALSASMP2)

Entry Hardware RAID 0/1/1E/10E
standard

Intelligent Hardware RAID
0/1/10/5/50/6/60 with Intel® RAID
Activation Key

Hardware RAID Levels
Supported

Hardware RAID
Recommended

Intel® TXT and the Trusted Platform Module on the system should now be properly configured for use with
VMware TXT environments. Refer to Appendix A: ESXi* Support Configuration for Intel® TXT (Optional) on
page 60 for information regarding Trusted Execution setup for VMware ESXi*.

Hardware RAID Configuration

There are two options when setting up VSphere 4.1 on Intel® Server Boards and Systems based on Intel®
5500/5520/5600 Chipset: The ESX* 4.1 image can be loaded onto either a single SATA or SAS drive or use
a hardware RAID solution. The optional hardware RAID module cards or RAID controllers for the server can
be used to provide data protection on the ESX 4.1 installation or for your virtual machines if running VMs off
local storage. This type of configuration is ideal for small businesses running single server virtualization
solutions. Separate LUNS are set-up to run the ESX Software and Virtual Machines. To provide multiple
server virtualization deployments in enterprise or data center scenarios, a single-drive installation can be
used with external storage solutions. Host profiles would be used to save ESX 4.1 configuration settings in
case of host failure. Host profiles can be used in the data center environment to rapidly deploy new hosts or
recover failed ones. Virtual machines are then stored on external storage. Table 5 summarizes the options
available for Intel® Server Boards and Systems based on Intel® 5500/5520/5600 Chipset. Not all options are
available for different server boards and systems. For additional information regarding RAID support see

RAID and Storage Options Available on Intel® Server Boards and Systems based on Intel® 5500/5520
Chipset at http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/raid_

options_on_s5500_s5520_server_products_v1_0.pdf

Table 5 – RAID options available for Intel® Server Boards and Systems based on Intel® 5500/5520/5600 Chipset

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