VMware ESXI - 6.0 User Manual

vSphere Single Host Management -

VMware Host Client

vSphere 6.0

ESXi 6.0

This document supports the version of each product listed and supports all subsequent versions until the document is replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

EN-002210-00

vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

You can ﬁnd the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:

hp://www.vmware.com/support/

The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.

If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to:

docfeedback@vmware.com

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3401 Hillview Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com

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About vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client 5

VMware Host Client Overview 7

VMware Host Client System Requirements 7

Using the VMware Host Client 8

Host Management with the VMware Host Client 11

Managing System Seings in the VMware Host Client 11

Managing Hosts in vCenter Server 21

Reboot or Shut Down an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client 22

Using the ESXi Shell 23

Place a Host in Maintenance Mode in the VMware Host Client 24

Managing Permissions in the VMware Host Client 24

Generate a Support Bundle in the VMware Host Client 26

Monitoring an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client 26

Lockdown Mode 28

Administering CPU Resources by Using the VMware Host Client 30

Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client 33

Creating a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client 33

Deploying a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client 37

Registering Existing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client 39

Using Consoles in the VMware Host Client 41

Managing a Guest Operating System in the VMware Host Client 42

Conguring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client 46

Managing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client 71

Monitoring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client 80

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Managing Storage in the VMware Host Client 83

Working with Datastores in the VMware Host Client 83

Managing Storage Adapters in the VMware Host Client 95

Managing Storage Devices in the VMware Host Client 103

Monitoring Storage in the VMware Host Client 104

Performing Storage Refresh and Rescan Operations in the VMware Host Client 104

Networking in the VMware Host Client 107

Managing Port Groups in the VMware Host Client 107

Managing Virtual Switches in the VMware Host Client 112

Managing Physical Network Adapters in the VMware Host Client 117

Managing VMkernel Network Adapters in the VMware Host Client 117

View TCP/IP Stack Conguration on a Host in the VMware Host Client 119

vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

Change the Conguration of a TCP/IP Stack on a Host in the VMware Host Client 120

Conguring ESXi Firewall in the VMware Host Client 120

Monitoring Networking Events and Tasks in the VMware Host Client 122

Index 125

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About vSphere Single Host Management VMware Host Client

vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client provides information about managing single hosts with the VMware Host Client.

The VMware Host Client can be utilized to conduct emergency management when vCenter Server is unavailable. You can use the VMware Host Client to perform administrative tasks and basic troubleshooting tasks, as well as advanced administrative tasks.

Intended Audience

This information is intended for anyone who wants to use the VMware Host Client to manage single ESXi hosts. The information is wrien for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtual machine technology and datacenter operations.

VMware Technical Publications Glossary

VMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For denitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to

hp://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.

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VMware Host Client Overview 1

The VMware Host Client is an HTML5-based client that is used to connect to and manage single ESXi hosts.

You can use the VMware Host Client to perform administrative and basic troubleshooting tasks, as well as advanced administrative tasks on your target ESXi host. You can also use the VMware Host Client to conduct emergency management when vCenter Server is not available.

It is important to know that the VMware Host Client is dierent from the vSphere Web Client, regardless of their similar user interfaces. You use the vSphere Web Client to connect to vCenter Server and manage multiple ESXi hosts, whereas you use the VMware Host Client to manage a single ESXi host.

VMware Host Client functions include, but are not limited to the following operations:

Basic virtualization operations, such as deploying and conguring virtual machines of various

complexity

Creating and managing networking and datastores

Advanced tuning of host level options to improve performance

This chapter includes the following topics:

“VMware Host Client System Requirements,” on page 7

“Using the VMware Host Client,” on page 8

VMware Host Client System Requirements

Make sure that your browser supports the VMware Host Client.

The following guest operating systems and Web browser versions are supported for the VMware Host Client.

Table 1‑1. Supported Guest Operating Systems and Browser Versions for the VMware Host Client

Supported Browsers Mac OS Windows Linux

Google Chrome 25+ 25+ 25+

Mozilla Firefox 20+ 15+ 15+

Internet Explorer N/A 10+ N/A

Safari 5.1+ 5.1+ -

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Using the VMware Host Client

The embedded VMware Host Client is an HTML5-based client that has a similar interface to the vSphere Web Client but is only used to manage single ESXi hosts. You use the VMware Host Client to conduct emergency management when vCenter Server is temporarily unavailable.

Start the VMware Host Client and Log In

You can use the VMware Host Client to manage single ESXi hosts and perform various administrative and troubleshooting tasks on your virtual machines.

N The VMware Host Client only works for administrative users.

Procedure

1 In a Web browser enter the target host name or IP address using the form http://host-name/ui or

http://host-IP-address/ui.

A log in screen appears.

2 Enter your user name and your password.

3 Click Login to continue.

4 Review the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page and choose whether you

want to join the program.

To learn about the program and how to congure it at any time, see “Conguring Customer Experience

Improvement Program,” on page 9.

5 Click OK.

You are now logged in to your target ESXi host.

Log Out of the VMware Host Client

When you no longer need to view or manage your target ESXi host, log out of the VMware Host Client.

N Closing a VMware Host Client session does not stop the host.

Procedure

To log out of the ESXi host, click the user name at the top of the VMware Host Client window and select

Log out from the drop-down menu.

You are now logged out of the VMware Host Client. Your target ESXi host continues to run all its normal activities.

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Chapter 1 VMware Host Client Overview

Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program

When you choose to participate in the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), VMware receives anonymous information to improve the quality, reliability, and functionality of VMware products and services.

Categories of Information That VMware Receives

This product participates in VMware's Customer Experience Improvement Program ("CEIP").

Details regarding the data collected through CEIP and the purposes for which it is used by VMware are set forth at the Trust & Assurance Center at hp://www.vmware.com/trustvmware/ceip.html. To join or leave the CEIP for this product, see “Leave and Rejoin the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the

VMware Host Client,” on page 9.

Leave and Rejoin the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the VMware Host Client

You can choose to leave the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), or rejoin the CEIP at any time.

Procedure

1 To leave and rejoin the CEIP, click the user name at the top of the VMware Host Client page.

2 Point to Client > Send usage statistics, to leave or rejoin the CEIP.

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Host Management with the

VMware Host Client 2

With the VMware Host Client, you can manage single ESXi hosts during vCenter Server upgrades or when vCenter Server stops responding or becomes unavailable.

The VMware Host Client has a crucial set of troubleshooting functions, which allow you to perform tasks on the ESXi host that you are logged in to if vCenter Server is unavailable. These functions include but are not limited to conguring advanced host seings, licensing, managing certicates, using the ESXi Shell, enabling Lockdown mode, and so on.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Managing System Seings in the VMware Host Client,” on page 11

“Managing Hosts in vCenter Server,” on page 21

“Reboot or Shut Down an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client,” on page 22

“Using the ESXi Shell,” on page 23

“Place a Host in Maintenance Mode in the VMware Host Client,” on page 24

“Managing Permissions in the VMware Host Client,” on page 24

“Generate a Support Bundle in the VMware Host Client,” on page 26

“Monitoring an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client,” on page 26

“Lockdown Mode,” on page 28

“Administering CPU Resources by Using the VMware Host Client,” on page 30

Managing System Settings in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client, you can manage advanced host seings, assign or remove licenses to your host, congure start and stop policies for host services, and manage time and date conguration for the host.

Manage Advanced Settings in the VMware Host Client

You can change the seings of a host by using the VMware Host Client.

C Changing advanced options is considered unsupported unless VMware technical support or a KB article instruct you to do so. In all other cases, changing these options is considered unsupported. In most cases, the default seings produce the optimum result.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Advanced .

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2 Right-click the appropriate item from the list and select Edit option from the drop-down menu.

The Edit option dialog box is displayed.

3 Edit the value and click Save to apply your changes.

4 (Optional) Right-click the appropriate item from the list and select Reset to default to go back to the

original seings of the item.

Change Autostart Configuration in the VMware Host Client

Congure autostart options for the ESXi host to set up when the host starts and stops.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click System.

2 Click Autostart.

3 Click Edit .

4 Select Yes to enable changing the autostart conguration.

5 Change the seings as appropriate and click Save.

Edit Time Configuration of an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

You can congure the time seings on a host manually, or you can synchronize the time and date of the host by using an NTP server.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Time & Date.

2 Click Edit .

3 Select an option for seing the time and date of the host.

Option Description

Manually configure the date and time on this host

Use Network Time Protocol (Enable NTP client)

Set the time and date for the host manually.

Synchronize the time and date of the host with an NTP server. The NTP service on the host periodically takes the time and date from the NTP server.

a In the NTP Servers text box, type the IP addresses or host names of the

NTP servers that you want to use.

b From the NTP Service Startup Policy drop-down list, select an option

for starting and stopping the NTP service on the host.

Start and stop with port usage - Starts or stops the NTP service

when the NTP client port is enabled or disabled for access in the security prole of the host .

Start and stop with host - Starts and stops the NTP service when

the host powers on or shuts down.

Start and stop manually - Enables manual starting and stopping

of the NTP service.

You can use the Start, Stop, or Restart buons to control the status of the NTP service on the host manually at any time regardless of the selected startup policy for the NTP service. If you select the Start and stop manually policy, the status of the NTP service only changes when you use the UI controls. .

4 Click Save .

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Managing Hardware for an ESXi Host by Using the VMware Host Client

When you log in to an ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, you can manage PCI devices and congure power management seings.

Host Power Management Policies

You can apply several power management features in ESXi that the host hardware provides to adjust the balance between performance and power. You can control how ESXi uses these features by selecting a power management policy.

Selecting a high-performance policy provides more absolute performance, but at lower eciency and performance per wa. Low-power policies provide less absolute performance, but at higher eciency.

ESXi provides ve power management policies. If the host does not support power management, or if the BIOS seings specify that the host operating system is not allowed to manage power, only the Not Supported policy is available.

You can select a policy for the host that you manage by using the VMware Host Client. If you do not select a policy, ESXi uses Balanced by default.

Table 2‑1. CPU Power Management Policies

Power Management Policy Description

High Performance Do not use any power management features.

Balanced (Default) Reduce energy consumption with minimal performance

compromise

Low Power Reduce energy consumption at the risk of lower

performance

Custom User-dened power management policy. Advanced

conguration becomes available.

When a CPU runs at lower frequency, it can also run at lower voltage, which saves power. This type of power management is typically called Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). ESXi aempts to adjust CPU frequencies so that virtual machine performance is not aected.

When a CPU is idle, ESXi can apply deep halt states, also known as C-states. The deeper the C-state, the less power the CPU uses, but it also takes longer for the CPU to start running again. When a CPU becomes idle, ESXi applies an algorithm to predict the idle state duration and chooses an appropriate C-state to enter. In power management policies that do not use deep C-states, ESXi uses only the shallowest halt state for idle CPUs, C1.

Change Power Management Policies in the VMware Host Client

Change the power management policies of the host that you are managing to control the energy consumption of your host.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Hardware.

2 Click Power Management and click Change policy.

The available power management policies are displayed.

3 Select the radio buon next to the policy that you want to apply.

4 Click OK.

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Licensing for ESXi Hosts

ESXi hosts are licensed with vSphere licenses. Each vSphere license has a certain CPU capacity that you can use to license multiple physical CPUs on ESXi hosts. When you assign a vSphere license to a host, the amount of CPU capacity that is consumed is equal to the number of physical CPUs in the host. vSphere Desktop that is intended for VDI environments is licensed on per virtual machine basis.

To license an ESXi host, you must assign it a vSphere license that meets the following prerequisites:

The license must have sucient CPU capacity to license all physical CPUs on the host. For example, to

license two ESXi hosts that have four CPUs each, you need to assign a vSphere license with a minimum capacity of 8 CPUs to the hosts.

The license must support all the features that the host uses. For example, if the host is associated with a

vSphere Distributed Switch, the license that you assign must support the vSphere Distributed Switch feature.

If you aempt to assign a license that has insucient capacity or does not support the features that the host uses, the license assignment fails.

You can assign and reassign the CPU capacity of a vSphere license to any combination of ESXi hosts. . You can assign a vSphere license for 10 CPUs to any of the following combinations of hosts:

Five 2-CPU hosts

Three 2-CPU hosts and one 4-CPU host

Two 4-CPU hosts and one 2-CPU host

One 8-CPU host and one 2-CPU host

Dual-core and quad-core CPUs, such as Intel CPUs that combine two or four independent CPUs on a single chip, count as one CPU.

Evaluation Mode

When you install ESXi, its default license is evaluation mode. Evaluation mode licenses expire after 60 days. An evaluation mode license provides the set of features that equals the highest vSphere product edition.

If you assign a license to an ESXi host before its evaluation period expires, the time available in the evaluation period is decreased by the time already used. To explore the entire set of features that are available for the host, you can set it back to evaluation mode, and use it for the remaining evaluation period.

For example, if you use an ESXi host in evaluation mode for 20 days and then assign a vSphere Standard license to the host and then set the host back to evaluation mode, you can explore the entire set of features that are available for the host for the remaining evaluation period of 40 days.

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

For ESXi hosts, license or evaluation period expiry leads to disconnection from vCenter Server. All powered on virtual machines continue to work, but you cannot power on virtual machines after they are powered o. You cannot change the current conguration of the features that are in use. You cannot use the features that remained unused while the host was in evaluation mode.

Licensing ESXi Hosts After Upgrade

If you upgrade an ESXi host to a version that starts with the same number, you do not need to replace the existing license with a new one. For example, if you upgrade a host from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5, you can use the same license for the host.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

If you upgrade an ESXi host to a version that starts with a dierent number, you must apply a new license. For example, if you upgrade an ESXi host from 5.x to 6.x, you need to license the host with a vSphere 6 license.

vSphere Desktop

vSphere Desktop is intended for VDI environments such as Horizon View. The license usage for vSphere Desktop equals the total number of powered on desktop virtual machines running on the hosts that are assigned a vSphere Desktop license.

View Licensing Information About the VMware Host Client Environment

You can view the available licenses in the VMware Host Client along with their expiration dates, license key, and various features. You can also view the available products and assets.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Licensing.

2 Click a license from the list to view the license key, expiration date, and the available features and

assets.

Assign a License Key to an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

By using the VMware Host Client, you can assign an existing or new license key to an ESXi host.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the Global.Licenses privilege.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Licensing.

2 Click Assign license, enter a license key in the form XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, and click Check

license.

3 Click Assign license to save your changes.

Remove a License from an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

To remain in compliance with the licensing models of products that you use with vSphere, you must remove all unassigned licenses from the inventory. If you have divided, combined, or upgraded licenses in My VMware, you must remove the old licenses.

For example, suppose that you have upgraded a vSphere license from 5.5 to 6.0 in My VMware. You assign the license to ESXi 6.0 hosts. After assigning the new vSphere 6.0 licenses, you must remove the old vSphere

5.5 license from the inventory.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Licensing.

2 Right-click a license from the list, click Remove license, and click Remove.

Update Your VMware Host Client Environment to the Latest Version

To evaluate whether you are using the latest version of the VMware Host Client, check what VIBs are installed to your environment and examine the VIBs version information. You can update your VMware Host Client environment by entering a URL to a VIB or an ESX update metadata.zip le.

If you provide a VIB, an existing VIB that is installed to your VMware Host Client environment is updated to the new VIB.

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If a link to a metadata.zip le is provided, the entire ESXi system is updated to the version described by the

metadata.zip le.

C If the host is managed by vSphere Update Manager, updating the host via this message might cause Update Manager to report the host as non-compliant.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client and click Packages.

2 Click Install update and enter the URL of the VIB or a metadata.zip le.

3 Click Update.

4 Click Refresh to make sure that the update is successful.

Manage Services in the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can start, stop, and restart services that are running on the host that you are logged in to, and you can congure host service policy. You can restart services when you change host congurations or in case of suspected functional or performance issues.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Services.

2 From the Services list, select a service.

3 From the Actions drop-down menu, select an operation.

Restart

Start

Stop

4 (Optional) From the Actions drop-down menu, select Policy and select an option for the service from

the menu.

Start and stop with  ports

Start and stop with host

Start and stop manually

Managing Security and Users for an ESXi Host by Using the VMware Host Client

The ESXi hypervisor architecture has many built-in security features that you can congure to enhance security. By using the VMware Host Client, you can congure features, such as active directory, and you can also manage certicates.

Managing Host Authentication by Using the VMware Host Client

When you log in to an ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, you can check whether active directory and smart card authentication are enabled, and you can also join the host to a directory service domain.

Join an ESXi Host to a Directory Service Domain by Using the VMware Host Client

To use a directory service for your host, you must join the host to the directory service domain.

You can enter the domain name in one of two ways:

name.tld (for example, domain.com): The account is created under the default container.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

name.tld/container/path (for example, domain.com/OU1/OU2): The account is created under a particular

organizational unit (OU).

To use the vSphere Authentication Proxy service, see vSphere Security.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Authentication and click Join domain.

3 Enter a domain name.

Use the form name.tld or name.tld/container/path.

4 Enter the user name and password of a directory service user account that has permissions to join the

host to the domain and click Join domain.

5 (Optional) If you intend to use an authentication proxy, enter the proxy server IP address and click Join

domain.

Using Active Directory to Manage ESXi Users

You can congure ESXi to use a directory service such as Active Directory to manage users.

Creating local user accounts on each host presents challenges with having to synchronize account names and passwords across multiple hosts. Join ESXi hosts to an Active Directory domain to eliminate the need to create and maintain local user accounts. Using Active Directory for user authentication simplies the ESXi host conguration and reduces the risk for conguration issues that could lead to unauthorized access.

When you use Active Directory, users supply their Active Directory credentials and the domain name of the Active Directory server when adding a host to a domain.

Using vSphere Authentication Proxy

When you use the vSphere Authentication Proxy, you do not need to transmit Active Directory credentials to the host . Users supply the domain name of the Active Directory server and the IP address of the authentication proxy server when they add a host to a domain.

vSphere Authentication Proxy is especially useful when used with Auto Deploy. You can set up a reference host that points to Authentication Proxy and set up a rule that applies the reference host's prole to any ESXi host provisioned with Auto Deploy. Even if you use vSphere Authentication Proxy in an environment that uses certicates that are provisioned by VMCA or third-party certicates, the process works seamlessly as long as you follow the instructions for using custom certicates with Auto Deploy. See the vSphere Security guide.

N You cannot use vSphere Authentication Proxy in an environment that supports only IPv6.

Managing Host Certificates by Using the VMware Host Client

When you log in to an ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, you can view the certicate details of your host, such as the issuer and the validity period, and you can also import new certicates

View Certificate Details for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

For ESXi 6.0 and later, hosts that are in VMCA mode or custom mode, you can view certicate details when you are logged in to the host with the VMware Host Client. The certicate information can be useful for debugging.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

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2 Click .

You can view the following certicate details.

Field Description

Issuer

Not valid after

Not valid before

Subject

Import a New Certificate for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

You can import a certicate from a trusted certicate authority when you are logged in to an ESXi host with the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click  and click Import new .

3 Generate a certicate signing request, which is either an FQDN signing request or an IP signing request.

The certicate signing request is then passed to the certicate authority to generate the ocial

certicate.

The issuer of the certicate.

Date on which the certicate expires.

Date on which the certicate is generated.

The subject used during certicate generation.

An FQDN request has the fully qualied hostname of the host in the resulting common name eld of the certicate. The IP signing request has the current IP address of the host in the common name eld.

4 Paste a PEM formaed certicate in the certicate text box and click Import.

You do not have to import the certicate immediately but you cannot reboot the host between generating the certicate signing request and importing the certicate.

Managing Users with the VMware Host Client

Manage users to control who is authorized to log in to ESXi.

Users and roles control who has access to the ESXi host components and what actions each user can perform.

In vSphere 5.1 and later, ESXi user management has the following caveats .

The users created when you connect directly to an ESXi host are not the same as the vCenter Server

users. When the host is managed by vCenter Server, vCenter Server ignores users created directly on the host.

You cannot create ESXi users by using the vSphere Web Client. You must log in to the host directly with

the VMware Host Client to create ESXi users .

ESXi 5.1 and later does not support local groups. However, Active Directory groups are supported.

To prevent anonymous users, such as root, from accessing the host with the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) or ESXi Shell, remove the user's administrator privileges on the root folder of the host. This applies to both local users and Active Directory users and groups.

Add an ESXi User in the VMware Host Client

Adding a user to the users table updates the internal user list that the host maintains.

Prerequisites

Review the password requirements in the vSphere Security documentation.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

Procedure

1 Log in to ESXi with the VMware Host Client.

You cannot create ESXi users with the vSphere Web Client. You must directly log in to the host with the VMware Host Client to create ESXi users.

2 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

3 Click Users.

4 ClickAdd user.

5 Enter a user name, and a password.

N Do not create a user named ALL. Privileges associated with the name ALL might not be available to all users in some situations. For example, if a user named ALL has Administrator privileges, a user with the ReadOnly privileges might be able to log in to the host remotely. This is not the intended behavior.

Do not include any spaces in the user name.

Do not include any non-ASCII characters in the user name.

Create a password that meets the length and complexity requirements. The host checks for

password compliance using the default authentication plug-in, pam_passwdqc.so. If the password is not compliant, an error message indicates password requirements.

6 Click Add.

Update an ESXi User in the VMware Host Client

You can change the user name, description, and password for an ESXi user in the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Users.

3 Select a user from the list and click Edit user.

4 Update the user details and click Save.

Remove a Local ESXi User from a Host in the VMware Host Client

You can remove a local ESXi user from the host.

C Do not remove the root user.

If you remove a user from the host, they lose permissions to all objects on the host and cannot log in again.

N Users who are logged in and are removed from the domain keep their host permissions until you restart the host.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Users.

3 Select the user that you want to remove from the list, click Remove user, and click Yes.

Do not remove the root user for any reason.

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Managing ESXi Roles in the VMware Host Client

ESXi grants access to objects only to users who are assigned permissions for the object. When you assign a user permissions for the object, you do so by pairing the user with a role. A role is a predened set of privileges.

ESXi hosts provide three default roles, and you cannot change the privileges associated with these roles. Each subsequent default role includes the privileges of the previous role. For example, the Administrator role inherits the privileges of the Read Only role. Roles that you create do not inherit privileges from any of the default roles.

You can create custom roles by using the role-editing dunctions in the VMware Host Client to create privilege sets that match your user needs. Also, the roles you create directly on a host are not accessible in vCenter Server. You can work with these roles only if you log in to the host directly from the VMware Host Client.

N When you add a custom role and do not assign any privileges to it, the role is created as a read-only role with the System.Anonymous, System.View, and System.Read system-dened privilege.

If you manage an ESXi host through vCenter Server, maintaining custom roles in the host and vCenter Server can result in confusion and misuse. In this type of conguration, maintain custom roles only in vCenter Server.

You can create host roles and set permissions through a direct connection to the ESXi host with the VMware Host Client.

Add a Role in the VMware Host Client

You can create roles to suit the access control needs of your environment.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges, such as root or vpxuser.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Roles.

3 Click Add role.

4 Enter a name for the new role.

5 Select privileges from the list to associate with the new role and click Add.

Update a Role in the VMware Host Client

When you edit a role, you can change the privileges selected for that role. When complete, these privileges are applied to any user or group that is assigned the edited role.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges, such as root or vpxuser.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Roles.

3 Select a role from the list and click Edit role.

4 Update the role details and click Save.

20 VMware, Inc.

Remove a Role in the VMware Host Client

When you remove a role that is not assigned to any users or groups, the denition is removed from the list of roles. When you remove a role that is assigned to a user or group, you can remove assignments or replace them with an assignment to another role.

C You must understand how users will be aected before removing all assignments or replacing them. Users who have no permissions granted to them cannot log in.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges, such as root or vpxuser.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Roles.

3 Select the name of the role that you want to remove from the list.

4 Click Remove role, select Remove only if unused, and click Yes.

Managing Hosts in vCenter Server

Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

To access the full capabilities of the host that you are managing, connect the host to a vCenter Server system.

For information about conguration management of ESXi hosts, see the vSphere Networking documentation, the vSphere Storage documentation, and the vSphere Security documentation.

Unable to Connect from the VMware Host Client to an ESXi Host after Upgrading to ESXi 6.0 or Later

After you upgrade your host from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 or later, your browser console might display an error message when you aempt to access your ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, and your connection might fail.

Problem

After you upgrade your ESXi host from 5.5 to 6.0 or later, aempting to navigate to http://host-name/ui or

http://host-IP-address/ui might result in the following error:

503 Service Unavailable (Failed to connect to endpoint: [N7Vmacore4Http16LocalServiceSpecE:

0xffa014e8] _serverNamespace = /ui _isRedirect = false _port = 8308)

Cause

A change to /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf remains after an upgrade and causes the /ui endpoint to override the VMware Host Client.

When the /ticket is missing from the endpoint.conf le on your 6.0 or later ESXi host, your in-browser virtual machine console displays a Failed to connect error message but the VMware Remote Console continues to work.

Solution

1 Log in to your ESXi host either by using SSH or ESXi Shell.

If you use SSH, you might need to enable SSH rst. You can enable SSH by using DCUI.

2 Back up the endpoints.conf le.

/etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf /tmp

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3 Open the /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf le in an editor and add the following line.

/ui local 8308 redirect

allow

4 Restart the reverse Web proxy .

/etc/init.d/rhttpproxy restart

5 Try to access the VMware Host Client at http://host-name/ui or http://host-IP-address/ui.

Switch to the vSphere Web Client

To access the full set of capabilities, and advanced administrative and troubleshooting functions of the ESXi host, connect the ESXi host to vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Manage with vCenter Server from the

drop-down menu.

The vCenter Server login page opens in a new window.

2 Enter your credentials and click Login.

Disconnect an ESXi Host from vCenter Server by Using the VMware Host Client

If you no longer want to use the advanced set of capabilities available throughvCenter Server for host management, or if vCenter Server has failed and you must perform emergency operations on the host, you can disconnect your ESXi host from vCenter Server.

Disconnecting an ESXi host might take up to several minutes.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Disconnect from vCenter Server from

the pop-up menu.

N Disconnecting a host signals vCenter Server that this host is not responding.

2 Click Disconnect from vCenter Server.

Reboot or Shut Down an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

You can power o or restart any ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client. Powering o a managed host disconnects it from vCenter Server, but does not remove it from the inventory.

Prerequisites

To be able to reboot or shut down a host, you need these privileges.

Host..Maintenance

Global.Log event

Always perform the following tasks before you reboot or shut down a host:

Power o all virtual machines on the host.

Place the host in maintenance mode.

22 VMware, Inc.

Procedure

1 Right-click the host, select Shut down host or Reboot host.

N If the host is not in maintenance mode, shuing down or rebooting it does not stop the virtual

machines that are running on this host safely and unsaved data may be lost. If the host is part of a Virtual SAN cluster, you might lose access to the Virtual SAN data on the host.

2 Click Shut down or Reboot to complete the procedure.

Using the ESXi Shell

The ESXi Shell, which was formerly referred to as Tech Support Mode or TSM, is disabled by default on ESXi. You can enable local and remote access to the shell if necessary.

Enable the ESXi Shell for troubleshooting only. The ESXi Shell can be enabled or disabled when the host is running in lockdown mode. The host running in lockdown mode does not prevent you from enabling or disabling the ESXi Shell. See vSphere Security.

Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

ESXi Shell

SSH

The root user and users with the Administrator role can access the ESXi Shell. Users who are in the Active Directory group ESX Admins are automatically assigned the Administrator role. By default, only the root user can execute system commands (such as vmware -v) by using the ESXi Shell.

N Do not enable the ESXi Shell until you actually need access.

Enable this service to access the ESXi Shell locally.

Enable this service to access the ESXi Shell remotely by using SSH. See vSphere Security.

Enable the Secure Shell (SSH) in the VMware Host Client

Enable the Secure Shell (SSH) to access the ESXi Shell remotely by using SSH.

Procedure

1 To enable or disable the Secure Shell (SSH), right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select Services from the drop-down menu and select Secure Shell (SSH).

3 Select a task to perform.

If SSH is enabled, click Disable to disable it.

If SSH is disabled, click Enable to enable it.

Enable the ESXi Console Shell in the VMware Host Client

When you enable this service while running in lockdown mode, you can log in locally to the direct console user interface as the root user and disable lockdown mode. You can then access the host using a direct connection to the VMware Host Client or by enabling the ESXi Shell.

Procedure

1 To enable or disable the Console Shell, right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select Services from the drop-down menu and select Console Shell.

3 Select a task to perform.

If the Console Shell is enabled, click Disable to disable it.

If the Console Shell is disabled, click Enable to enable it.

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Place a Host in Maintenance Mode in the VMware Host Client

You place a host in maintenance mode when you need to service it, for example, to install more memory. A host enters or leaves maintenance mode only as the result of a user request.

The host is in a state of Entering Maintenance Mode until all running virtual machines are powered o or migrated to dierent hosts. You cannot power o virtual machines or migrate virtual machines to a host that is entering or in maintenance mode.

To place a host in maintenance mode, all virtual machines that are running on the host must be powered o or migrated to dierent hosts. If you aempt to place a host that has running virtual machines on it in maintenance mode, DRS must power o or migrate the running virtual machines for the task to complete. If a time out occurs before the virtual machines are powered o or migrated, an error message appears.

When all virtual machines on the host are inactive, the host's icon displays under maintenance and the host's Summary panel indicates the new state. While in maintenance mode, the host does not allow you to deploy or power on a virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Before you place a host in maintenance mode, power o all virtual machines that are running on that host or migrate them to another host either manually or automatically by DRS.

Procedure

Right-click the host and select Enter maintenance mode.

The host is in maintenance mode until you select Exit maintenance mode.

Managing Permissions in the VMware Host Client

For ESXi, permissions are dened as access roles that consist of the roles assigned to a user for dierent objects such as a virtual machine or ESXi host. Permissions grant users the right to perform the activities specied by the role on the object to which the role is assigned.

For example, to congure memory for the host, a user must be granted a role that includes the Host..Memory  privilege. By assigning dierent roles to users for dierent objects, you can control the tasks that users can perform by using the VMware Host Client.

When connecting directly to a host with the VMware Host Client, the root and vpxuser user accounts have the same access rights as any user assigned the Administrator role on all objects.

All other users initially have no permissions on any object, which means the users cannot view or perform tasks on these objects. A user with Administrator privileges must assign permissions to these users to allow them to perform tasks.

Many tasks require permissions on more than one object. The following rules can help you determine which roles to assign to users to allow particular tasks:

Any task that consumes hard disk space, such as creating a virtual disk or taking a snapshot, requires

the Datastore.Allocate Space privilege on the target datastore and the privilege to perform the operation itself.

Each host and cluster has its own implicit resource pool that contains all the resources of that host or

cluster. Deploying a virtual machine directly to a host or cluster requires the Resource.Assign Virtual Machine to Resource Pool privilege.

The list of privileges is the same for both ESXi and vCenter Server.

You can create roles and set permissions through a direct connection to the ESXi host.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

Permission Validation

vCenter Server and ESXi hosts that use Active Directory regularly validate users and groups against the Windows Active Directory domain. Validation occurs whenever the host system starts and at regular intervals specied in the vCenter Server seings.

For example, if user Smith was assigned permissions and in the domain the user’s name was changed to Smith2, the host concludes that Smith no longer exists and removes permissions for that user when the next validation occurs.

Similarly, if user Smith is removed from the domain, all permissions are removed when the next validation occurs. If a new user Smith is added to the domain before the next validation occurs, the new user Smith receives all the permissions the old user Smith was assigned.

Assign Permissions to a User for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

In order to perform particular activities on an ESXi host, a user must have permissions that are associated with a particular role. In the VMware Host Client you can assign roles to users and give the users the permissions necessary to perform various tasks on the host.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Permissions.

2 Click Add user.

3 Click the arrow next to the Select a user text box and select the user that you would like to assign a role

to.

4 Click the arrow next to the Select a role text box and select a role from the list.

5 (Optional) Select Propagate to all children.

If you set a permission at a vCenter Server level and propagate it to the children objects, the permission applies to data centers, folders, clusters, hosts, virtual machines, and other objects in the vCenter Server instance.

6 Click Add and click Close.

Remove Permissions for a User in the VMware Host Client

Removing a permission for a user does not remove the user from the list of users available. It also does not remove the role from the list of available items. It removes the user and role pair from the selected inventory object.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Permissions.

2 Select a user from the list and click Remove user.

3 Click Close.

Assign a User Permissions for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Assign a role to a particular user to give that user permissions to perform specic tasks on a virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list and select Permissions.

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vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

3 Click Add user.

4 Click the arrow next to the Select a user text box and select the user that you want to assign a role for.

5 Click the arrow next to the Select a role text box and select a role from the list.

6 (Optional) Select Propagate to all children.

7 Click Add and click Close.

Remove Permissions for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

To make a user unable to perform tasks on a particular virtual machine, remove the permissions of the user for that virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list and select Permissions.

3 Select a user from the list and click Remove user.

4 Click Close.

Generate a Support Bundle in the VMware Host Client

You can generate a support bundle for the ESXi host that you are logged in on. The support bundle contains the log les and system information that you can use to diagnose and resolve problems.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Generate support bundle from the

drop-down menu.

A dialog that contains a link to download the bundle pops up when the support bundle is created.

2 (Optional) Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory, click Tasks and click a log bundle from

the list.

You can view the link to the log bundle under the table.

Monitoring an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

When you connect to a host using the VMware Host Client, you can monitor the host health status, and view performance charts, events, tasks, system logs, and notications.

View Charts in the VMware Host Client

When you are logged in to the VMware Host Client, you can view information about resource usage of the ESXi host that you are managing in line chart form.

To reduce memory consumption, the VMware Host Client only contains statistics for the last hour.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

Procedure

1 Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client and click Performance.

2 (Optional) To view the host usage for the last hour, select an option from the drop-down menu.

To view the percentage of CPU that the host used during the last hour, select CPU.

To view the percentage of memory that the host consumed during the last hour, select Memory.

To view the memory and CPU composite that the host consumed during the last hour, select CPU +

memory composite.

To view the percentage of network that the host consumed during the last hour, select Network.

To view the disk usage that the host consumed during the last hour, select Disk.

Monitor Hardware Health Status in the VMware Host Client

When you are logged in to the VMware Host Client, you can monitor the health status of the ESXi host hardware.

N Hardware health status is only available when the underlying hardware supports it.

Procedure

1 Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Hardware.

2 Select the type of information to view.

3 (Optional) Use the lter controls above the list to lter the list.

4 (Optional) Click a column heading to sort the list.

View Events in the VMware Host Client

Events are records of user actions or system actions that occur on an ESXi host. When you are logged in the VMware Host Client, you can view all events associated with the host that you are managing.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Read-only.

Procedure

Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Events.

a (Optional) Select an event to see event details.

b (Optional) Use the lter controls above the list to lter the list.

c (Optional) Click a column heading to sort the list.

View Tasks in the VMware Host Client

When you are logged in to the VMware Host Client, you can view tasks that are related to the ESXi host. You can view information about task initiator, task state, task result, task description, and so on.

Procedure

Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Tasks.

a (Optional) Select a task to see task details.

b (Optional) Use the lter controls above the list to lter the list.

c (Optional) Click a column heading to sort the list.

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vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

View System Logs in the VMware Host Client

When you are logged in to an ESXi host with the VMware Host Client, you can view log entries to get information such as who generated an event, when the event was created, and the type of event.

Procedure

1 Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Logs.

The list of logs is displayed.

2 (Optional) Click on a log to view log details.

3 (Optional) Right-click a log and select one of the following options:

Open in new window

Generate support bundle

View Notifications in the VMware Host Client

When you are logged in the VMware Host Client, you can view host notications and recommendations for related tasks that you should perform.

Procedure

1 Click Monitor in the VMware Host Client inventory and click .

2 Select a notication from the list to view the recommended action.

A message with a recommended action and a description is displayed under the notications list.

Lockdown Mode

To increase the security of your ESXi hosts, you can put them in lockdown mode. In lockdown mode, operations must be performed through vCenter Server by default.

Normal Lockdown Mode and Strict Lockdown Mode

With vSphere 6.0, you can select normal lockdown mode or strict lockdown mode.

Normal Lockdown Mode

In normal lockdown mode, the DCUI service remains active. If the connection to the vCenter Server system is lost, and access through the vSphere Web Client is unavailable, privileged accounts can log in to the ESXi host's Direct Console Interface and exit lockdown mode. Only the following accounts can access the Direct Console User Interface:

Accounts in the Exception User list for lockdown mode who have

administrative privileges on the host. The Exception Users list is meant for service accounts that perform specic tasks. Adding ESXi administrators to this list defeats the purpose of lockdown mode.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

Users dened in the DCUI.Access advanced option for the host. This

option is for emergency access to the Direct Console Interface in case the connection to vCenter Server is lost. These users do not require administrative privileges on the host.

Strict Lockdown Mode

In strict lockdown mode, which is new in vSphere 6.0, the DCUI service is stopped. If the connection to vCenter Server is lost and the vSphere Web Client is no longer available, the ESXi host becomes unavailable, unless the ESXi Shell and SSH services are enabled and Exception Users are dened. If you cannot restore the connection to the vCenter Server system, you must reinstall the host.

Lockdown Mode and the ESXi Shell and SSH Services

Strict lockdown mode stops the DCUI service. However, the ESXi Shell and SSH services are independent of lockdown mode. For lockdown mode to be an eective security measure, ensure that ESXi Shell and SSH services are also disabled. These services are disabled by default.

When a host is in lockdown mode, users on the Exception Users list can access the host from the ESXi Shell and through SSH if they have the Administrator role on the host. This access is possible even in strict lockdown mode. Leaving the ESXi Shell service and the SSH service disabled is the most secure option.

N The Exception Users list is meant for service accounts that perform specic tasks such as host backups, and not for administrators. Adding administrator users to the Exception Users list defeats the purpose of lockdown mode.

Put an ESXi Host in Normal Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

You can use the VMware Host Client to enter normal lockdown mode.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory, select Lockdown mode from the drop-down

menu, and select Enter normal lockdown.

A warning message appears.

2 Click Enter normal lockdown.

Put an ESXi Host in Strict Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

You can use the VMware Host Client to enter strict lockdown mode.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory, select Lockdown mode from the drop-down

menu, and select Enter strict lockdown.

The warning message appears.

2 Click Enter strict lockdown.

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vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

Exit Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

If you have entered normal or strict lockdown mode on an ESXi host, you can exit lockdown by using the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

Right-click Host in theVMware Host Client inventory, select Lockdown mode from the drop-down

menu, and select Exit lockdown.

Specify Lockdown Mode Exception Users in the VMware Host Client

Starting with vSphere 6.0, you can add users to the exception users list by using the VMware Host Client. These users do not lose their permissions when the host enters lockdown mode. You can add service accounts, such as a backup agent to the exception users list.

Exception users are host local users or Active Directory users with privileges dened locally for the ESXi host. They are not members of an Active Directory group and are not vCenter Server users. These users are allowed to perform operations on the host based on their privileges. That means, for example, that a readonly user cannot disable lockdown mode on a host.

N The exception users list is useful for service accounts that perform specic tasks, such as host backups, and not for administrators. Adding administrator users to the exception users list defeats the purpose of lockdown mode.

Procedure

1 Click Manage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Security & Users.

2 Click Lockdown mode.

3 Click Add user exception, enter the name of the user, and click Add exception.

4 (Optional) Select a name from the exception users list, click Remove user exception, and click .

Administering CPU Resources by Using the VMware Host Client

When you connect to an ESXi host with the VMware Host Client, you have access to a limited number of resource management seings.

View Processor Information by Using the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can access information about the current CPU conguration of the ESXi host that you are logged in to.

Procedure

1 Click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Expand Hardware and expand CPU.

You can view the information about the number and type of physical processors, and the number of logical processors.

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Chapter 2 Host Management with the VMware Host Client

Assign a Virtual Machine to a Specific Processor in the VMware Host Client

By using CPU anity, you can assign a virtual machine to a specic processor. This way, you can assign a virtual machine only to a particular available processor in multiprocessor systems.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Right-click the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Edit .

2 Under Virtual Hardware, expand CPU.

3 Under Scheduling , select physical processor anity for the virtual machine.

Use a hyphen to indicate ranges and a comma to separate values.

For example, 0, 2, 4-7 would indicate processors 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

4 Click Save to apply your changes.

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vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

32 VMware, Inc.

Virtual Machine Management with the

VMware Host Client 3

Virtual machines can be congured like physical computers and can perform the same tasks as physical computers. Virtual machines also support special features that physical computers do not support.

You can use the VMware Host Client to create, register, and manage virtual machines, and to conduct daily administrative and troubleshooting tasks.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Creating a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client,” on page 33

“Deploying a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client,” on page 37

“Registering Existing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client,” on page 39

“Using Consoles in the VMware Host Client,” on page 41

“Managing a Guest Operating System in the VMware Host Client,” on page 42

“Conguring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client,” on page 46

“Managing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client,” on page 71

“Monitoring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client,” on page 80

Creating a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Virtual machines are the key component in a virtual infrastructure. You can create virtual machines to add to the host inventory.

When you create a virtual machine, you associate it with a particular datastore and select an operating system and virtual hardware options . After you power on the virtual machine, it consumes resources dynamically as the workload increases, or returns resources dynamically as the workload decreases.

Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same function as physical hardware. A virtual machine gets CPU and memory, access to storage, and network connectivity from the host it runs on.

1 Start the Virtual Machine Creation Process in the VMware Host Client on page 34

You use the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a virtual machine to place in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select a Method for Adding a New Virtual Machine on the Host with the VMware Host Client on

page 35

You use the Select creation type page of the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual machine, deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA le, or register an existing virtual machine.

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vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

3 Select a Name and a Guest Operating System for the Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client on

page 35

When you create a new virtual machine, provide a unique name for the virtual machine to distinguish it from existing virtual machines on the host you are managing. After you select a guest operating system, the wizard provides the appropriate defaults for the operating system installation.

4 Select a Storage for Your Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client on page 35

Select the datastore or datastore cluster to store the virtual machine conguration les and all of the virtual disks in. You can select the datastore that has the most suitable properties, such as size, speed, and availability, for your virtual machine storage.

5 Customize the Virtual Machine Seings in the VMware Host Client on page 36

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to congure the virtual machine hardware and the virtual machine options.

6 Complete Virtual Machine Creation in the VMware Host Client on page 37

In the Ready to complete page, you review the conguration selections that you made for the virtual machine.

Start the Virtual Machine Creation Process in the VMware Host Client

You use the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a virtual machine to place in the VMware Host Client inventory.

The selections you make in the New Virtual Machine wizard are not saved until you click Finish on the Ready to Complete page. If you close the wizard without completing all tasks, you cannot resume the wizard where you left o. You must start a new creation task.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create privileges.

Depending on the properties of the virtual machine you want to create, you might need the following additional privileges:

VirtualMachine..AddExistingDisk if including a virtual disk device that refers to an existing

virtual disk le (not RDM).

VirtualMachine..AddNewDisk if including a virtual disk device that creates a new virtual disk

le (not RDM).

VirtualMachine..RawDevice if including a raw device mapping (RDM) or SCSI passthrough

device.

VirtualMachine..HostUSBDevice if including a VirtualUSB device backed by a host USB device.

VirtualMachine.. if seing values in ConfigSpec.extraConfig.

VirtualMachine..SwapPlacement if seing swapPlacement.

VirtualMachine..ChangeTracking if seing changed block tracking for the virtual machine

disks.

Datastore.AllocateSpace required on all datastores where the virtual machine and its virtual disks are

created.

Network.Assign required on the network which is assigned to the new virtual machine that is being

created.

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Procedure

Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM.

The New Virtual Machine wizard opens.

Select a Method for Adding a New Virtual Machine on the Host with the VMware Host Client

You use the Select creation type page of the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual machine, deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA le, or register an existing virtual machine.

Procedure

Select a creation type and click Next.

Option Description

Create a new virtual machine

Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file

Creates a new virtual machine. You can customize processors, memory, network connections, and storage. You will need to install a guest operating system after you create the VM.

Deploys a virtual machine from an OVF and VMDK les.

OVA deployment is currently limited to les under 1 gigabyte in size due to Web browser limitations.

If you want to deploy an OVA greater than 1 gigabyte, extract the OVA using tar and provide the OVF and VMDK les separately.

Registers a virtual machine that already exists on a datastore.

Select a Name and a Guest Operating System for the Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

The following procedure applies if you want to create a new virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Enter a name for your virtual machine.

2 Select the virtual machine compatibility from the Compatibility drop-down menu.

3 Select the guest operating system family from the Guest OS family drop-down menu.

4 Select a guest operating system version from the Guest OS version drop-down menu.

5 Click Next.

Select a Storage for Your Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Procedure

1 In the list of accessible datastores, on the Select storage page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, click

the destination datastore that you want to store the virtual machine conguration les and all of the virtual disks in.

2 Click Next.

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Customize the Virtual Machine Settings in the VMware Host Client

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to congure the virtual machine hardware and the virtual machine options.

For information about virtual machine options and virtual disk conguration, including instructions for adding dierent types of devices, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.

Procedure

1 Congure the virtual machine hardware seings on the Virtual Hardware tab of the Customize seings

page in the New Virtual Machine wizard.

2 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the Add other device drop-

down menu on the Customize seings page of the New Virtual Machine wizard.

3 (Optional) Expand any device to view and congure device seings.

Option Description

CPU

Memory

Hard disk

SCSI controller

SATA controller

The CPU or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. CPUs contain cores. The number of virtual CPUs that are available to a virtual machine depends on the number of licensed CPUs on the host, and the number of CPUs supported by the guest operating system. To use the VMware multicore virtual CPUs feature, you must comply with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.

You can add, change, or congure virtual machine memory resources or options to enhance virtual machine performance. You can set most of the memory parameters during virtual machine creation or after the guest operating system is installed. The memory resource seings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine.

You can add large-capacity virtual disks to virtual machines and add more space to existing disks, even when the virtual machine is running. You can set most of the virtual disk parameters during virtual machine creation or after you install the guest operating system.

Storage controllers appear to a virtual machine as dierent types of SCSI controllers, including BusLogic Parallel, LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual SCSI. You can set the type of SCSI bus sharing for a virtual machine and indicate whether the SCSI bus is shared. Depending on the type of sharing, virtual machines can access the same virtual disk simultaneously on the same server or on any server. You can change the SCSI controller conguration for a virtual machine on an ESXi host only.

If a virtual machine has multiple hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM devices, you can add up to three additional SATA controllers to assign the devices to. When you spread the devices among several controllers, you can improve performance and avoid data trac congestion. You can also add additional controllers if you exceed the thirty-device limit for a single controller. You can boot virtual machines from SATA controllers and use them for large-capacity virtual hard disks.

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Chapter 3 Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client

Option Description

Network adapter

CD/DVD drive

When you congure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type. The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors:

The virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that

created or most recently updated it.

Whether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the

latest version for the current host.

The guest operating system.

You can congure DVD or CD devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or Datastore ISO les.

To remove a device, click the delete buon next to the device.

This option appears only for virtual hardware that you can remove safely.

5 Congure the virtual machine options on the VM Options tab of the Customize seings page in the

New Virtual Machine wizard.

6 Click Next.

Complete Virtual Machine Creation in the VMware Host Client

In the Ready to complete page, you review the conguration selections that you made for the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 On the Ready to complete page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, review the conguration seings

for the virtual machine.

2 (Optional) Click Back to go back and review the wizard seings.

3 (Optional) Click Cancel to discard the creation task and close the wizard.

4 Click Finish to complete the creation task and close the wizard.

The virtual machine appears in the VMware Host Client inventory under Virtual Machines.

What to do next

Before you can use the new virtual machine, you must partition and format the virtual drive, install a guest operating system, and install VMware Tools. Typically, the operating system's installation program handles partitioning and formaing the virtual drive.

You can map the virtual machine's CDROM/DVD to an ISO le and start the virtual machine. This triggers the operating system install.

Deploying a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client

When you connect to an ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, you can deploy virtual machines from OVF and VMDK les, and from OVA les.

1 OVF and OVA Limitations for the VMware Host Client on page 38

You can create a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client by using OVF and VMDK les, or OVA les. However, several limitations are applicable to this deployment method .

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2 Deploy a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client on page 38

Use the New Virtual Machine wizard to deploy virtual machines from OVF and VMDK les, or from OVA les.

3 Select OVF and VMDK, or OVA Files to Deploy in the VMware Host Client on page 39

Select the OVF and VMDK les, or OVA le for the virtual machine that you would like to deploy.

4 Select Storage in the VMware Host Client on page 39

Select the datastore in which to store the virtual machine conguration les and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a dierent size, speed, availability, and other properties.

5 Complete the Deployment of a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client

on page 39

In the Ready to complete page, review the conguration selections that you made for the virtual machine.

OVF and OVA Limitations for the VMware Host Client

You can create a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client by using OVF and VMDK les, or OVA les. However, several limitations are applicable to this deployment method .

OVA Limitations

You can upload OVA les by using either a Web browser or a client. The memory requirements are signicant and might cause the Web browser to stop responding or make the system unstable. The size of

the OVA le that can be uploaded depends on how much memory is available on your system. VMware tests show that Google Chrome can upload OVA les of about 1 gigabyte. Mozilla Firefox can extract larger OVA les, but might become unresponsive.

To deploy a large OVA le, VMware recommends to rst extract the OVA on your system by running the command tar -xvf <file.ova>. Then you can provide the deployment wizard with the OVF and VMDKs as separate les.

OVF Limitations

The size of OVF les that a Web browser can upload are also limited. Dierent Web browsers have dierent le size limits. Recent versions of Internet Explorer can upload OVF les up to 4 gigabytes in size. Mozilla Firefox also has a 4 gigabyte limit. Google Chrome can handle larger les and there is no documented limit.

Deploy a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client

Use the New Virtual Machine wizard to deploy virtual machines from OVF and VMDK les, or from OVA les.

OVA deployment is limited to les under 1 gigabyte in size due to Web browser limitations. If you want to deploy an OVA le greater than 1 gigabyte, extract the OVA le using tar and provide the OVF and VMDK les separately.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM .

The New Virtual Machine wizard opens.

2 On the Select creation type page of the wizard, select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA

 and click Next.

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Chapter 3 Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client

Select OVF and VMDK, or OVA Files to Deploy in the VMware Host Client

Select the OVF and VMDK les, or OVA le for the virtual machine that you would like to deploy.

Procedure

1 Enter a name for your virtual machine.

Virtual machine names can contain up to 80 characters and must be unique within each ESXi instance.

2 Click the blue pane to select an OVF and a VMDK, or an OVA le to deploy.

Your local system storage opens.

3 Select the le that you want to deploy your virtual machine from and click Open.

The le you selected is displayed in the blue pane.

4 Click Next.

Select Storage in the VMware Host Client

Select the datastore in which to store the virtual machine conguration les and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a dierent size, speed, availability, and other properties.

Procedure

1 Click a datastore from the list of accessible datastores on the Select storage page of the New Virtual

Machine wizard.

2 Click Next.

Complete the Deployment of a Virtual Machine from an OVF or OVA File in the VMware Host Client

In the Ready to complete page, review the conguration selections that you made for the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 On the Ready to complete page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, review the conguration seings

for the virtual machine.

2 (Optional) Click Back to go back and review the wizard seings.

3 (Optional) Click Cancel to discard the creation task and close the wizard.

4 Click Finish to complete the creation task and close the wizard.

The virtual machine appears in the VMware Host Client inventory under Virtual Machines.

Registering Existing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client

If you unregister a virtual machine from a host but you do not delete the virtual machine from the datastore, you can re-register the virtual machine by using the VMware Host Client. Re-registering a virtual machine makes it appear in the inventory once again.

1 Register an Existing Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client on page 40

The New virtual machine wizard allows you to select one or more virtual machines that you would like to register.

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2 Select a Virtual Machine to Register in the VMware Host Client on page 40

If you remove a virtual machine from a datastore but you do not delete the virtual machine from the host that you are managing, you can register the virtual machine on the datastore.

3 Complete Virtual Machine Registration in the VMware Host Client on page 40

Review your selections for virtual machine registration and complete the registration.

Register an Existing Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

The New virtual machine wizard allows you to select one or more virtual machines that you would like to register.

Use the datastore browser to select either a datastore, a directory, or a .vmx le to add to the list of virtual machines that you register. Selecting a datastore or directory searches for all .vmx les in that location. You can browse more than once to append virtual machines to the list.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM.

The New virtual machine wizard opens.

2 Select Register an existing virtual machine and click Next.

Select a Virtual Machine to Register in the VMware Host Client

If you remove a virtual machine from a datastore but you do not delete the virtual machine from the host that you are managing, you can register the virtual machine on the datastore.

The New virtual machine wizard allows you to select one or more virtual machines that you would like to register. By selecting a datastore or a directory, you choose to register all virtual machines on that datastore or in that directory.

Procedure

1 Click Select one or more virtual machines, a datastore, or a directory, locate the virtual machine or

virtual machines that you would like to register, and click Select.

2 (Optional) To remove a virtual machine from the list, select the name of the le and click Remove

selected.

3 (Optional) To clear your selection and start again, click Remove all.

4 Click Next.

Complete Virtual Machine Registration in the VMware Host Client

Review your selections for virtual machine registration and complete the registration.

Procedure

Review your selections in the Ready to complete page of the New Virtual Machine wizard and click

Finish to register your virtual machine.

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Chapter 3 Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client

Using Consoles in the VMware Host Client

You can access a virtual machine through a browser console or through VMware Remote Console (VMRC) in the VMware Host Client and perform dierent tasks on the virtual machine.

Using Browser Console

N The browser console is not supported for any version of ESXi prior to 6.0. You must use VMRC in order to access the browser console.

You can use a browser console to gain access to the guest operating system without installing additional software. For additional console functionalities, such as aaching local hardware, install VMware Remote Console.

N Currently browser consoles support only US, Japanese and German keyboard layouts. You must select the desired keyboard layout before opening the console.

Using VMware Remote Console

For a full set of console features, you can download and install VMRC. You can perform a variety of tasks on the virtual machine, such as restarting and shuing down the virtual machine guest operating system, resuming and suspending the virtual machine, conguring VMware Tools updates, conguring and managing the virtual machine and dierent devices, and so on. VMware Workstation™, VMware Fusion™ or VMware Player™ work as VMRC clients so you do not need to download and install VMRC if you have any of the three installed on your system.

Open a Virtual Machine Console in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client, you can access the desktop of a virtual machine by launching a console to the virtual machine. From the console, you can perform tasks in the virtual machine, such as conguring operating system seings, running applications, monitoring performance, and so on.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select a powered-on virtual machine from the list.

3 Click Console and select an option from the drop-down menu.

Select Open browser console to view the virtual machine console in a pop-up window.

Select Open console in new window to view the virtual machine console in a separate window.

About VMware Remote Console

VMware Remote Console, also referred to as VMRC, provides access to virtual machines on remote hosts and performs console and device operations, such as conguring operating system seings and monitoring the virtual machine console for VMware vSphere. VMware Remote Console can also modify virtual machine seings such as RAM, CPU cores, and disks.

For a complete set of console features, download VMware Remote Console.

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Install the VMware Remote Console Application in the VMware Host Client

The VMware Remote Console (VMRC) is a stand-alone console application for Windows that enables you to connect to client devices and launch virtual machine consoles on remote hosts.

Procedure

1 Click on Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

The list of virtual machines available on the host is displayed.

2 Select a virtual machine from the list.

3 Click Actions, select Console from the drop-down menu, and click Download VMRC.

Launch Remote Console for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can access virtual machines in the VMware Host Client by using VMware Remote Console. You can launch one or more consoles to access several remote virtual machines at the same time.

Prerequisites

Verify that VMware Remote Console is installed on your local system.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory and select a virtual machine from the list.

2 Click Console and select Launch remote console from the drop-down menu.

The VMware Remote Console opens as a stand-alone application for the selected virtual machine.

Managing a Guest Operating System in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client, you can manage the guest operating system of the virtual machine. You can install and upgrade VMware Tools, and you can also shut down, reboot, and change the congured guest operating system.

Shut Down and Restart a Guest Operating System by Using the VMware Host Client

Install VMware Tools on a virtual machine to be able to shut down and restart the guest operating system on that virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory and click a virtual machine in the list.

The virtual machine is displayed in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 To shut down a virtual machine, right click the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory,

select Guest OS from the pop-up menu, and select Shut down.

3 To restart a virtual machine, right-click the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory, select

Guest OS from the drop-down menu, and select Restart.

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Chapter 3 Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client

Change the Guest Operating System in the VMware Host Client

When you change the guest operating system type in the virtual machine seings, you change the seing for the guest operating system in the conguration le of the virtual machine. To change the guest operating system itself, you must install the new operating system in the virtual machine.

When you set the guest operating system type for a new virtual machine, vCenter Server applies conguration defaults based on the type of guest operating system. Changing the guest operating system type seing aects the available ranges and recommendations of the virtual machine seings.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 In the VMware Host Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit .

2 Click the VM Options tab and expand General Options.

3 Select a guest operating system type and version.

4 Click Save to apply your changes.

The virtual machine conguration parameters for the guest operating system are changed. You can now install the guest operating system.

Introduction to VMware Tools

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that you install in the operating system of a virtual machine.

VMware Tools enhances the performance of a virtual machine and makes possible many of the ease-of-use features in VMware products. For example, the following features are just some of the features that are available only if VMware Tools is installed:

Signicantly faster graphics performance and Windows Aero on operating systems that support Aero

The Unity feature, which enables an application in a virtual machine to appear on the host desktop like

any other application window

Shared folders between host and guest le systems

Copying and pasting text, graphics, and les between the virtual machine and the host or client desktop

Improved mouse performance

Synchronization of the clock in the virtual machine with the clock on the host or client desktop

Scripting that helps automate guest operating system operations

Runs pre-freeze and post-thaw quiescing scripts

Enables capturing quiesced snapshots of guest operating systems

Periodically collects and sends network, disk, and memory usage information from guest operating

systems to ESXi hosts.

Sends heartbeat information to each virtual machine every second and collects guest heartbeat

information from guest operating systems. VMware HA uses the heartbeat information to determine virtual machine availability.

Transports the OVF environment to guest operating systems using the guest OS environment variable

guestinfo.ovfEnv that contains the XML document.

Enables guest customization for virtual machines.

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Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, many VMware features are not available until you install VMware Tools. For example, if you do not have VMware Tools installed in your virtual machine, you cannot get heartbeat information from guest operating systems or cannot use the shutdown or restart options from the toolbar. You can only use the power options and you have to shut down your guest operating systems from each virtual machine console. You cannot use VMware Tools for connecting and disconnecting virtual devices, and shrinking virtual disks.

The installation procedure varies, depending on the operating system. For information about installing or upgrading VMware Tools on your guest operating systems, see the Upgrading Virtual Machines chapter. For instructions about installing VMware Tools, see the VMware Knowledge base article at

hp://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014294.

VMware highly recomments that you always run the latest version of VMware Tools. You can congure your virtual machine to automatically check for and apply VMware Tools upgrades each time you power on your virtual machines. For information about enabling automatic upgrade of VMware Tools on your virtual machines, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.

Installing VMware Tools

Although you can use guest operating systems without VMware Tools, many VMware features are not available unless you install VMware Tools. VMware Tools enhances the performance of the guest operating system of your virtual machines.

Installing VMware Tools is part of the process of creating new virtual machines. It is important to upgrade VMware Tools as updates become available. For information about creating virtual machines, see the Virtual Machine Administration Guide.

The installers for VMware Tools are ISO image les. An ISO image le looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. Each type of guest operating system, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetWare, has an ISO image le. When you install or upgrade VMware Tools, the rst virtual CD-ROM disk drive of the virtual machine temporarily connects to the VMware Tools ISO le of your guest operating system.

For information about installing or upgrading VMware Tools in Windows virtual machines, Linux virtual machines, Mac OS X virtual machines, Solaris virtual machines, NetWare virtual machines, or FreeBSD virtual machines, see Virtual Machine Administration Guide.

Install VMware Tools from the VMware Host Client

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that you install in the operating system of a virtual machine. VMware Tools enhances the performance and management of the virtual machine.

You can install VMware Tools in one or more virtual machines by using the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select a virtual machine from the list.

The virtual machine must be powered on to install VMware Tools.

3 Click Actions, select Guest OS from the drop-down menu, and select Install VMware Tools.

Upgrading VMware Tools

You can upgrade VMware Tools manually, or you can congure virtual machines to check for and install newer versions of VMware Tools.

The guest operating system checks the version of VMware Tools when you power on a virtual machine. The status bar of your virtual machine displays a message when a new version is available.

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In Windows virtual machines, you can set VMware Tools to notify you when an upgrade is available. If this notication option is enabled, the VMware Tools icon in the Windows taskbar includes a yellow caution icon when a VMware Tools upgrade is available.

To install a VMware Tools upgrade, you can use the same procedure that you used for installing VMware Tools the rst time. Upgrading VMware Tools means installing a new version.

For Windows and Linux guest operating systems, you can congure the virtual machine to automatically upgrade VMware Tools. Although the version check is performed when you power on the virtual machine, on Windows guest operating systems, the automatic upgrade occurs when you power o or restart the virtual machine. The status bar displays the message Installing VMware Tools ... when an upgrade is in progress.

I After you upgrade VMware Tools on Linux guest operating systems, new network modules are available but are not used until you either restart the guest operating system or stop networking, unload and reload the VMware networking kernel modules, and restart networking. This behavior means that even if VMware Tools is set to automatically upgrade, you must restart or reload network modules to make new features available.

This strategy avoids network interruptions and allows you to install VMware Tools over SSH.

Upgrading VMware Tools on Windows guest operation systems automatically installs the WDDM graphics drivers. The WDDM graphics driver makes the sleep mode available in guest OS power seings to adjust the sleep options. For example, you can use the sleep mode seing Change when the computer sleeps to congure your guest OS to automatically go to sleep mode after a certain time or prevent your guest OS from automatically switching to sleep mode after being idle for some time.

For vSphere virtual machines, you can use one of the following processes to upgrade multiple virtual machines at the same time.

You can use one of the following processes to upgrade multiple virtual machines at the same time.

machines on which to perform a VMware Tools upgrade.

Use Update Manager to perform an orchestrated upgrade of virtual machines at the folder or

datacenter level.

Some features in a particular release of a VMware product might depend on installing or upgrading to the version of VMware Tools included in that release. Upgrading to the latest version of VMware Tools is not always necessary, however, VMware highly recommends that you upgrade to the most updated version of the VMware Tools. Newer versions of VMware Tools are compatible with several ESXi host versions. To avoid unnecessary upgrades, evaluate whether the added features and capabilities are necessary for your environment. See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration. However, VMware highly recommends installing and using the latest version of VMware Tools.

Some features in a particular release of a VMware product might depend on installing or upgrading to the version of VMware Tools included in that release. Upgrading to the latest version of VMware Tools is not always necessary. Newer versions of VMware Tools are compatible with several host versions. To avoid unnecessary upgrades, evaluate whether the added features and capabilities are necessary for your environment.

Table 3‑1. Virtual Machine Compatibility Options

Compatibility Description

ESXi 6.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 11) is compatible with ESXi 6.0 and later.

ESXi 5.5 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 10) is compatible with ESXi 5.5 and later.

ESXi 5.1 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 9) is compatible with ESXi 5.1 and later.

ESXi 5.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 8) is compatible with ESXi 5.0 and 5.1.

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Table 3‑1. Virtual Machine Compatibility Options (Continued)

Compatibility Description

ESX/ESXi 4.x and later This virtual machine (hardware version 7) is compatible with ESX/ ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0,

and ESXi 5.1.

ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 4) is compatible with ESX/ESX 3.5. ESX/ESX 4.x,

and ESXi 5.1. It is also compatible with VMware Server 1.0 and later. You cannot create a virtual machine with ESX/ESXi 3.5 compatibility on ESXi 5.0.

For more information, see the documentation for your specic VMware product.

Upgrade VMware Tools in the VMware Host Client

You can upgrade VMware Tools on a virtual machine by using the VMware Host Client.

Prerequisites

Power on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Select a virtual machine from the list.

3 Click Actions, select Guest OS from the drop-down menu, and select Upgrade VMware Tools.

Configuring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can add or congure most virtual machine properties during the virtual machine creation process or after you create the virtual machine and install the guest operating system.

You can congure three types of virtual machine properties.

Hardware

Options

Resources

Check the Hardware Version of a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can check the hardware version of a virtual machine by looking at the virtual machine summary page.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

The hardware version appears under the virtual machine name.

View existing hardware conguration and add or remove hardware.

View and congure a number of virtual machine properties such as power management interaction between the guest operating system and the virtual machine, and VMware Tools seings.

Congure CPUs, CPU hyperthreading sources, memory, and disks.

Change the Name of a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can change the name of a virtual machine after you nish the creation process. Changing the name does not change the name of any virtual machine les or the name of the directory that the les are located in.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

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Chapter 3 Virtual Machine Management with the VMware Host Client

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 Click VM Options.

4 In the VM Name text box, enter a new name for the virtual machine.

5 Click Save.

View the Location of the Virtual Machine Configuration File in the VMware Host Client

You can view the location of the conguration les and the working les of a virtual machine by using the VMware Host Client.

This information is useful when you congure backup systems.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit .

3 Click the VM Options tab and expand General Options.

4 Record the location of the conguration les and the working les.

5 Click Cancel to exit the screen.

Configure the Virtual Machine Power States in the VMware Host Client

Changing virtual machine power states is useful when you do maintenance on the host. You can use the system default seings for the virtual machine power controls, or you can congure the controls to interact with the guest operating system. For example, you can congure the Power  control to power o the virtual machine or shut down the guest operating system.

You can modify many virtual machine congurations while the virtual machine is running, but you might need to change the virtual machine power state for some congurations.

You cannot congure a Power on ( starts a virtual machine and runs a script if the virtual machine is suspended and VMware Tools is installed and available. If VMware Tools is not installed, it starts the suspended virtual machine and does not run a script.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have privileges to perform the intended power operation on the virtual machine.

) action. This action powers on a virtual machine that is stopped, or

To set optional power functions, install VMware Tools on the virtual machine.

Power o the virtual machine before editing the VMware Tools options.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list and select Edit  from the drop-down menu.

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3 On the VM Options tab, expand VMware Tools.

Select an option for the virtual machine Power  ( ) control from the drop-down menu.

Option Description

Power Off

Shut Down Guest

Default

Select an option for the Suspend ( ) control from the drop-down menu.

Option Description

Suspend

Default

Select an option for the Reset (

Immediately stops the virtual machine. A Power O action shuts down the guest operating system or powers o the virtual machine. A message indicates that the guest operating system might not shut down properly. Use this power o option only when necessary.

Uses VMware Tools to initiate an orderly system shut down of the virtual machine. Soft power operations are possible only if the tools are installed in the guest operating system.

Follows system seings. The current value of the system seings appears in parentheses.

Pauses all virtual machine activity. When VMware Tools is installed and available, a suspend action runs a script and suspends the virtual machine. If VMware Tools is not installed, a Suspend action suspends the virtual machine without running a script.

Follows system seings. The current value of the system seings appears in parentheses.

) control from the drop-down menu.

Option Description

Reset

Restart Guest

Default

Shuts down and restarts the guest operating system without powering o the virtual machine. If VMware Tools is not installed, a Reset action resets the virtual machine.

Uses VMware Tools to initiate an orderly restart. Soft power operations are possible only if the tools are installed in the guest operating system.

Follows system seings. The current value of the system seings appears in parentheses.

7 Click Save.

Edit the Configuration File Parameters in the VMware Host Client

To x certain problems with your system, VMware documentation or a VMware Technical Support representative might instruct you to change or add virtual machine conguration parameters.

I Changing or adding parameters when a system does not have problems might lead to decreased system performance and instability.

The following conditions apply:

To change a parameter, you must change the existing value for the keyword/value pair. For example, if

the existing pair is keyword/value, and you change it to keyword/value2, the new keyword is value2.

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You cannot delete a conguration parameter entry.

C You must assign a value to conguration parameter keywords. If you do not assign a value, the keyword might receive a value of 0, false, or disable, which might result in a virtual machine that cannot power on.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the VM Options tab, expand Advanced.

4 Click Edit .

5 (Optional) To add a parameter, click Add Parameter and enter a name and value for the parameter.

6 (Optional) To change a parameter, type a new value in the Value text box for that parameter.

7 Click Save.

Configure Autostart for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Congure auto start options for a virtual machine to set up the virtual machine to start before or after the other virtual machines on the host.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Select Autostart from the pop-up menu and click an option to congure the auto start options for this

virtual machine.

Option Description

Increase priority

Decrease priority

Increase the start priority of this virtual machine so it starts before other virtual machines.

Decrease the start priority of this virtual machine so it starts after other virtual machines.

Upgrade Virtual Machine Compatibility by Using the VMware Host Client

The virtual machine compatibility determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host machine. You can upgrade the compatibility level to make a virtual machine compatible with the latest version of ESXi running on the host.

For information about virtual machine hardware versions and compatibility, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.

Prerequisites

Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machines. See “Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual

Machines,” on page 72.

Upgrade VMware Tools. On virtual machines that run Microsoft Windows, if you upgrade the

compatibility before you upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine might lose its network seings.

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Verify that all .vmdk les are available to the ESXi host on a VMFS3, VMFS5, or NFS datastore.

Verify that the virtual machine is stored on VMFS3, VMFS5 or NFS datastores.

Verify that the compatibility seings for the virtual machines are not set to the latest supported version.

Determine the ESXi versions that you want the virtual machines to be compatible with. See vSphere

Virtual Machine Administration.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list and select Upgrade VM Compatibility from the pop-up

menu.

3 Select the latest supported version and click Upgrade.

Virtual CPU Configuration

You can add, change, or congure CPU resources to improve virtual machine performance. You can set most of the CPU parameters when you create virtual machines or after the guest operating system is installed. Some actions require that you power o the virtual machine before you change the seings.

VMware uses the following terminology. Understanding these terms can help you plan your strategy for CPU resource allocation.

CPU

CPU Socket

Core

Corelet

Thread

Resource sharing

The CPU or processor is the component of a computer system that performs the tasks required for computer programs to run, and is the primary element that performs the computer functions. CPUs contain cores.

A CPU socket is a physical connector on a computer motherboard that connects to a single physical CPU. Some motherboards have multiple sockets and can connect multiple multicore processors (CPUs).

A core contains a unit containing an L1 cache and functional units needed to run programs. Cores can independently run programs or threads. One or more cores can exist on a single CPU.

An AMD processor corelet is architecturally equivalent to a logical processor. Certain future AMD processors contain a number of compute units, each of which has a number of corelets. Unlike a traditional processor core, a corelet lacks a complete set of private, dedicated execution resources and shares some execution resources with other corelets such as an L1 instruction cache or a oating-point execution unit. AMD refers to corelets as cores, but because these are unlike traditional cores, are referred to as corelets in VMware documentation to make resource sharing more apparent.

Some cores can run independent streams of instructions simultaneously. In existing implementations, cores can run one or two software threads at one time by multiplexing the functional units of the core between the software threads, as necessary. Such cores are called dual or multithreaded.

Shares specify the relative priority or importance of a virtual machine or resource pool. If a virtual machine has twice as many shares of a resource as another virtual machine, it is entitled to consume twice as much of that resource when the two virtual machines are competing for resources.

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Resource allocation

You can change CPU resource allocation seings, such as shares, reservation, and limit, when available resource capacity does not meet demands. For example, if at year end, the workload on accounting increases, you can increase the accounting resource pool reserve.

vSphere Virtual Symmetric

Virtual SMP or vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessingis a feature that enables a single virtual machine to have multiple processors.

Multiprocessing (Virtual SMP)

Virtual CPU Limitations

The maximum number of virtual CPUs that you can assign to a virtual machine depends on the hardware version number of the virtual machine, the number of logical CPUs on the host, and the type of guest operating system that is installed on the virtual machine.

Be aware of the following limitations:

A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the number of logical cores on the host. The

number of logical cores is equal to the number of physical cores if hyperthreading is disabled. The number of logical cores is equal to twice the number of physical cores if hyperthreading is enabled.

Not every guest operating system supports Virtual SMP, and guest operating systems that support this

function might support fewer processors than are available on the host. For information about Virtual SMP support, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at hp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Hyperthreaded hosts might aect virtual machine performance, depending on the workload. The best

practice is to test your workload to determine whether to enable or disable hyperthreading on your hosts.

Configuring Multicore Virtual CPUs

VMware multicore virtual CPU support lets you control the number of cores per virtual socket in a virtual machine. This capability lets operating systems with socket restrictions use more of the host CPU's cores, which increases overall performance.

I When you congure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU seings, you must ensure that your conguration complies with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.

Using multicore virtual CPUs can be useful when you run operating systems or applications that can take advantage of only a limited number of CPU sockets.

You can congure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.0 and later to have up to 128 virtual CPUs. A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. The number of logical CPUs means the number of physical processor cores or two times that number if hyperthreading is enabled. For example, if a host has 128 logical CPUs, you can congure the virtual machine for 128 virtual CPUs.

You congure how the virtual CPUs are assigned in terms of cores and cores per socket. Determine how many CPU cores you want in the virtual machine, then select the number of cores you want in each socket, depending on whether you want a single core CPU, dual-core CPU, tri-core CPU, and so on. Your selection determines the number of sockets that the virtual machine has.

For more information about multicore CPUs, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.

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Change the Number of Virtual CPUs in the VMware Host Client

You can change the number of virtual CPUs while your virtual machine is powered o. If virtual CPU hotplug is enabled, you can increase the number of virtual CPUs while the virtual machine is running.

Virtual CPU hot add is supported for virtual machines with multicore CPU support and ESXi 5.0 and later compatibility. When the virtual machine is turned on and CPU hot add is enabled, you can hot add virtual CPUs to running virtual machines. The number of CPUs that you add must be a multiple of the number of cores that exist on each socket.

Prerequisites

If virtual CPU hot add is not enabled, turn o the virtual machine before adding virtual CPUs.

To hot add multicore CPUs, verify that the virtual machine is compatible with ESXi 5.0 and later.

Verify that you have the Virtual Machine..Change CPU Count privilege.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select the number of cores from the CPU drop-down

menu.

4 Select the number of cores per socket from the Cores Per Socket drop-down menu.

5 Click Save.

Allocate CPU Resources in the VMware Host Client

To manage workload demands, you can change the amount of CPU resources allocated to a virtual machine by using the shares, reservations, and limits seings.

A virtual machine has the following user-dened seings that aect its CPU resource allocation.

Limit

Reservation

Prerequisites

Places a limit on the consumption of CPU time for a virtual machine. This value is expressed in MHz or GHz.

Species the guaranteed minimum allocation for a virtual machine. The reservation is expressed in MHz or GHz.

Each virtual machine is granted CPU shares. The more shares a virtual machine has, the more often it receives a time slice of a CPU when there is no CPU idle time. Shares represent a relative metric for allocating CPU capacity.

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

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3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and allocate CPU capacity for the virtual machine.

Option Description

Reservation

Limit

Guaranteed CPU allocation for this virtual machine.

Upper limit for this virtual machine’s CPU allocation. Select Unlimited to specify no upper limit.

CPU shares for this virtual machine in relation to the parent’s total. Sibling virtual machines share resources according to their relative share values bounded by the reservation and limit. Select Low, Normal, or High, which specify share values respectively in a 1:2:4 ratio. Select Custom to give each virtual machine a specic number of shares, which express a proportional weight.

4 Click Save.

Virtual Memory Configuration

The memory resource seings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual machine. A virtual machine cannot benet from more memory resources than its congured virtual hardware memory size. ESXi hosts limit the memory resource use to the maximum amount useful for the virtual machine, so that you can accept the default of Unlimited memory resources.

Change the Memory Configuration of a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can recongure the amount of memory allocated to a virtual machine to enhance performance.

Minimum memory size is 4MB for virtual machines that use BIOS rmware. Virtual machines that use EFI rmware require at least 96MB of RAM or they cannot power on.

Maximum memory size for a virtual machine depends on the host's physical memory and the virtual machine's compatibility seing.

If the virtual machine memory is greater than the host memory size, swapping occurs, which can have a severe eect on virtual machine performance. The maximum for best performance represents the threshold above which the host’s physical memory is insucient to run the virtual machine at full speed. This value uctuates as conditions on the host change, for example, as virtual machines are powered on or o.

The memory size must be a multiple of 4MB.

Table 3‑2. Maximum Virtual Machine Memory

Introduced in Host Version Virtual Machine Compatibility Maximum Memory Size

ESXi 6.0 ESXi 6.0 and later 4080GB

ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 and later 1011GB

ESXi 5.1 ESXi 5.1 and later 1011GB

ESXi 5.0 ESXi 5.0 and later 1011GB

ESX/ESXi 4.x ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later 255GB

ESX/ESXi 3.x ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later 65532MB

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The ESXi host version indicates when support began for the increased memory size. For example, the memory size of a virtual machine with ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later compatibility running on ESXi 5.0 is restricted to 65,532MB.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Memory privilege on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory.

4 In the RAM text box, type the amount of RAM to assign to the virtual machine or select one of the

suggested values from the drop-down menu.

5 Select whether the memory is specied in MB or GB.

6 Click Save.

Allocate Memory Resources to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can change the amount of memory resources allocated to a virtual machine by using the shares, reservations, and limits seings. The host determines the appropriate amount of physical RAM to allocate to virtual machines based on these seings. You can assign a high or low shares value to a virtual machine, depending on its load and status.

The following user-dened seings aect the memory resource allocation of a virtual machine.

Limit

Places a limit on the consumption of memory for a virtual machine. This value is expressed in megabytes.

Reservation

Species the guaranteed minimum allocation for a virtual machine. The reservation is expressed in megabytes. If the reservation cannot be met, the virtual machine will not turn on.

Each virtual machine is granted a number of memory shares. The more shares a virtual machine has, the greater share of host memory it receives. Shares represent a relative metric for allocating memory capacity. For more information about share values, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.

You cannot assign a reservation to a virtual machine that is larger than the virtual machine's congured memory. If you give a virtual machine a large reservation and reduce the virtual machine's congured memory size, the reservation is reduced to match the new congured memory size.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

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3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory, and allocate the memory capacity for the virtual

machine.

Option Description

Reservation

Limit

Guaranteed memory allocation for this virtual machine.

Upper limit for this virtual machine’s memory allocation. Select Unlimited to specify no upper limit.

The values Low, Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server.

4 Click Save.

Change Memory Hot Add Settings in the VMware Host Client

With memory hot add, you can add memory resources for a virtual machine while that virtual machine is turned on.

Enabling memory hot add produces extra memory overhead on the ESXi host for the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Verify that the virtual machine has a guest operating system that supports memory hot add capabilities.

Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 4.x and later.

Verify that VMware Tools is installed.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory, and select Enable to enable adding memory to the

virtual machine while it is turned on.

4 Click Save.

Network Virtual Machine Configuration

ESXi networking features enable communication between virtual machines on the same host, between virtual machines on dierent hosts, and between other virtual and physical machines.

The networking features also allow management of ESXi hosts and enable communication between VMkernel services, such as NFS, iSCSI, or vSphere vMotion, and the physical network. When you congure networking for a virtual machine, you select or change an adapter type, a network connection, and whether to connect the network when the virtual machine powers on.

Network Adapter Types

When you congure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.

The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors:

The virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that created or most recently updated it.

Whether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the latest version for the current host.

The guest operating system.

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The following NIC types are supported:

E1000E

E1000

Flexible

Vlance

VMXNET

VMXNET 2 (Enhanced)

Emulated version of the Intel 82574 Gigabit Ethernet NIC. E1000E is the default adapter for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

Emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC, with drivers available in most newer guest operating systems, including Windows XP and later and Linux versions 2.4.19 and later.

Identies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the VMXNET driver changes the Vlance adapter to the higher performance VMXNET adapter.

Emulated version of the AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, an older 10 Mbps NIC with drivers available in 32-bit legacy guest operating systems. A virtual machine congured with this network adapter can use its network immediately.

Optimized for performance in a virtual machine and has no physical counterpart. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the VMXNET network adapter available.

Based on the VMXNET adapter but provides high-performance features commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware ooads. VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) is available only for some guest operating systems on ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later.

VMXNET 3

A paravirtualized NIC designed for performance. VMXNET 3 oers all the features available in VMXNET 2 and adds several new features, such as multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6 ooads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery. VMXNET 3 is not related to VMXNET or VMXNET 2.

SR-IOV passthrough

Representation of a virtual function (VF) on a physical NIC with SR-IOV support. The virtual machine and the physical adapter exchange data without using the VMkernel as an intermediary. This adapter type is suitable for virtual machines where latency might cause failure or that require more CPU resources.

SR-IOV passthrough is available in ESXi 5.5 and later for guest operating systems Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and later, and Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP2. An operating system release might contain a default VF driver for certain NICs, while for others you must download and install it from a location provided by the vendor of the NIC or of the host.

For information about assigning an SR-IOV passthrough network adapter to a virtual machine, see the vSphere Networking documentation.

For network adapter compatibility considerations, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

hp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

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Network Adapters and Legacy Virtual Machines

Legacy virtual machines are virtual machines that are supported by the product in use, but are not current for that product. The default network adapter types for all legacy virtual machines depend on the adapters available and compatible to the guest operating system and the version of virtual hardware on which the virtual machine was created.

If you do not upgrade a virtual machine to correspond with an upgrade to a newer version of an ESXi host, your adapter seings remain unchanged. If you upgrade your virtual machine to take advantage of newer virtual hardware, your default adapter seings will likely change to be compatible with the guest operating system and upgraded host hardware.

To verify the network adapters that are available to your supported guest operating system for a particular version of vSphere ESXi, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

hp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Change the Configuration of the Virtual Network Adapter in the VMware Host Client

You can congure the power-on connection seing, the MAC address, and the network connection of the virtual network adapter of a virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Required privileges:

Virtual Machine..Modify device  for editing the MAC address and network.

Virtual Machine.Interaction.Device connection for changing Connect and Connect at power on.

Network.Assign network

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 Click the Virtual Hardware tab and select the appropriate Network Adapter (NIC) from the hardware

list.

4 (Optional) To connect the virtual NIC when the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power

on.

5 Select an option for MAC address conguration.

Option Description

Automatic

Manual

vSphere assigns a MAC address automatically.

Enter the MAC address to use.

6 Click Save.

Add a Network Adapter to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

When you add a network adapter (NIC) to a virtual machine, you must select the adapter type, the network connection, and whether the device connects when the virtual machine is powered on.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

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3 Click the Virtual Hardware tab and click Add network adapter.

4 In the network connection panel, select either a network with a specic label or a legacy network.

5 (Optional) To congure the virtual NIC to connect when the virtual machine is powered on, select

Connect at power on.

6 Click Save.

Virtual Disk Configuration

You can store virtual machine data in a new virtual disk, an existing virtual disk, or a mapped SAN LUN. A virtual disk, which appears as a single hard disk to the guest operating system, is composed of one or more les on the host le system. You can copy or move virtual disks on the same hosts or between hosts.

For virtual machines running on an ESXi host, you can store the virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN instead of storing it in a virtual disk le. This ability is useful if you are running applications in your virtual machines that must detect the physical characteristics of the storage device. Additionally, mapping a SAN LUN allows you to use existing SAN commands to manage storage for the disk.

To accelerate virtual machine performance, you can congure virtual machines to use vSphere Flash Read Cache™. For details about Flash Read Cache behavior, see the vSphere Storage documentation.

When you map a LUN to a VMFS volume, vCenter Server or the ESXi host creates a raw device mapping (RDM) le that points to the raw LUN. Encapsulating disk information in a le allows vCenter Server or the ESXi host to lock the LUN so that only one virtual machine can write to it. This le has a .vmdk extension, but the le contains only disk information that describes the mapping to the LUN on the ESXi system. The actual data is stored on the LUN. You cannot deploy a virtual machine from a template and store its data on a LUN. You can store only its data in a virtual disk le.

The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sucient space for virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse les, snapshots, and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by le type, see the vSphere Monitoring and Performance documentation.

Thin provisioning lets you create sparse les with blocks that are allocated upon rst access, which allows the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse les can continue growing and ll the datastore. If the datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to stop functioning.

About Virtual Disk Provisioning Policies

When you perform certain virtual machine management operations, such as creating a virtual disk, cloning a virtual machine to a template, or migrating a virtual machine, you can specify a provisioning policy for the virtual disk le.

NFS datastores with Hardware Acceleration and VMFS datastores support the following disk provisioning policies. On NFS datastores that do not support Hardware Acceleration, only thin format is available.

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You can use Storage vMotion or cross-host Storage vMotion to transform virtual disks from one format to another.

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated when the disk is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on rst write from the virtual machine. Virtual machines do not read stale data from the physical device.

A type of thick virtual disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out when the virtual disk is created. It might take longer to create virtual disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

Use this format to save storage space. For the thin disk, you provision as much datastore space as the disk would require based on the value that you enter for the virtual disk size. However, the thin disk starts small and at rst, uses only as much datastore space as the disk needs for its initial operations. If the thin disk needs more space later, it can grow to its maximum capacity and occupy the entire datastore space provisioned to it.

Thin provisioning is the fastest method to create a virtual disk because it creates a disk with just the header information. It does not allocate or zero out storage blocks. Storage blocks are allocated and zeroed out when they are rst accessed.

N If a virtual disk supports clustering solutions such as Fault Tolerance, do not make the disk thin.

Change the Virtual Disk Configuration in the VMware Host Client

If you run out of disk space, you can increase the size of the disk. You can change the virtual device node and the persistence mode of virtual disk conguration of a virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Verify that you have the following privileges:

Virtual machine..Modify device  on the virtual machine.

Virtual machine..Extend virtual disk on the virtual machine.

Datastore.Allocate space on the datastore.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the hard disk to view all disk options.

4 (Optional) To change the size of the disk, enter a new value in the text box and select the units from the

drop-down menu.

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5 (Optional) To change the way that disks are aected by snapshots, select a disk mode from the Disk

Mode drop-down menu.

Option Description

Dependent

Independent-Persistent

Independent-Nonpersistent

6 Click Save.

Add a New Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can add a virtual hard disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add a hard disk when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process. For example, you might need to provide additional disk space for an existing virtual machine with a heavy work load. During virtual machine creation, you might want to add a hard disk that is precongured as a boot disk.

Dependent disks are included in snapshots.

Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer. All data wrien to a disk in persistent mode are wrien permanently to the disk.

Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you turn o or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you can restart the virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state every time. Changes to the disk are wrien to and read from a redo log le that is deleted when you turn o or reset the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that you are familiar with conguration options and caveats for adding virtual hard disks. See

“Virtual Disk Conguration,” on page 58.

Before you add disks larger than 2TB in size to a virtual machine, see vSphere Virtual Machine

Administration.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Add new disk privilege on the destination

folder or datastore.

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 (Optional) To delete an existing hard disk, move your pointer over the disk and click the Remove icon

(X).

The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk les are not deleted.

4 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add hard disk and select New hard disk from the drop-down

menu.

The hard disk appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.

5 Expand New Hard disk.

6 (Optional) Enter a value for the hard disk size and select the units from the drop-down menu.

7 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine les.

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8 Select the format for the virtual machine disk.

Option Description

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later time on rst write from the virtual machine.

Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In contrast to the at format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take much longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

Use the thin provisioned format. At rst, a thin provisioned disk uses only as much datastore space as the disk initially requires. If the thin disk needs more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.

9 In the Shares drop-down menu, select a value for the shares to allocate to the virtual disk.

Shares is a value that represents the relative metric for controlling disk bandwidth. The values Low, Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the host.

10 If you selected Custom, enter a number of shares in the text box.

11 In the Limit IOPs box, enter the upper limit of storage resources to allocate to the virtual machine, or

select Unlimited.

This value is the upper limit of I/O operations per second allocated to the virtual disk.

12 Accept the default or select a dierent virtual device node.

In most cases, you can accept the default device node. For a hard disk, using a nondefault device node makes controlling the boot order or having dierent SCSI controller types easier. For example, you might want to boot from an LSI Logic controller and share a data disk with another virtual machine that is using a Buslogic controller with bus sharing turned on.

13 (Optional) Select a disk mode.

Option Description

Dependent

Independent-Persistent

Independent-Nonpersistent

Dependent disks are included in snapshots.

Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional physical computer disks. All data wrien to a disk in persistent mode are wrien permanently to the disk.

Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power o or reset the virtual machine. The virtual disk returns to the same state every time you restart the virtual machine. Changes to the disk are wrien to and read from a redo log le that is deleted when you power o or reset.

14 Click Save.

Add an Existing Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can add an existing virtual hard disk to a virtual machine when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process or after the virtual machine is created. For example, you might want to add an existing hard disk that is precongured as a boot disk.

During virtual machine creation, a hard disk and a SCSI or SATA controller are added to the virtual machine by default, based on the guest operating system that you select. If this disk does not meet your needs, you can remove it and add an existing hard disk at the end of the creation process.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you are familiar with controller and virtual device node behavior for dierent virtual hard

disk congurations.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Add existing disk privilege on the destination

folder or datastore.

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add hard disk and select Existing hard disk from the drop-down

menu.

4 (Optional) To delete an existing hard disk, move your pointer over the disk and click the Remove icon

(X).

The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk les are not deleted.

5 In the Datastore column, expand a datastore, select a virtual machine folder, and select the disk to add.

The disk le appears in the Contents column. The File type menu shows the compatibility le types for this disk.

6 Click Select and click Save to add the existing hard disk.

Use Disk Shares to Prioritize Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client

You can change the disk resources for a virtual machine. If multiple virtual machines access the same VMFS datastore and the same logical unit number (LUN), use disk shares to prioritize the level of access that virtual machines have to resources. Disk shares distinguish high-priority from low-priority virtual machines.

You can allocate the I/O bandwidth of the host to the virtual hard disks of a virtual machine. You cannot pool disk I/O across a cluster.

The shares value represents the relative metric for controlling disk bandwidth to all virtual machines.

Disk shares are relevant only within a given host. The shares assigned to virtual machines on one host have no eect on virtual machines on other hosts.

You can select an IOP limit, which sets an upper limit for storage resources that are allocated to a virtual machine. IOPs are the number of I/O operations per second.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the hard disk to view the disk options.

4 In the Shares drop-down menu, select a value for the shares to allocate to the virtual machine.

5 If you selected Custom, enter a number of shares in the text box.

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6 In the Limit - IOPs text box, enter the upper limit of storage resources to allocate to the virtual machine,

or select Unlimited.

7 Click Save.

Virtual Machine Controller Configuration in the VMware Host Client

In the VMware Host Client, you can add various controllers to virtual machines, such as USB controllers, SCSI controllers, Paravirtual SCSI controllers, and SATA controllers. You can also change the SCSI Bus sharing conguration and the SCSI controller type.

Add a USB Controller to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

USB controllers can be added to virtual machines to support USB passthrough from an ESXi host or from a client computer to a virtual machine.

You can add one virtual xHCI controller, one virtual EHCI controller, and one virtual UHCI controller per virtual machine. With Hardware Version 11, the supported number of root hub ports per xHCI controller is eight (four logical USB 3.0 ports and four logical USB 2.0 ports).

The conditions for adding a controller vary, depending on the device version, the type of passthrough (host or client computer), and the guest operating system.

Table 3‑3. USB Controller Support

Supported USB Device

Controller type

EHCI+UHCI 2.0 and 1.1 Yes Yes

xHCI 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1 Yes (USB 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1

Version

Supported for Passthrough from ESXi Host to VM

devices only)

Supported for Passthrough from Client Computer to VM

Yes (Linux, Windows 8 and later, and Windows Server 2012 and later guests)

For Mac OS X systems, the EHCI+UHCI controller is enabled by default and is required for USB mouse and keyboard access.

For virtual machines with Linux guests, you can add one or both controllers, but 3.0 superspeed devices are not supported for passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine. You cannot add two controllers of the same type.

For USB passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, the USB arbitrator can monitor a maximum of 15 USB controllers. If your system includes controllers that exceed the 15 controller limit and you connect USB devices to them, the devices are not available to the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

ESXi hosts must have USB controller hardware and modules that support USB 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1 devices

present.

Client computers must have USB controller hardware and modules that support USB 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1

devices present.

To use the xHCI controller on a Linux guest, ensure that the Linux kernel version is 2.6.35 or later.

Verify that the virtual machine is powered on.

Required Privilege (ESXi host passthrough): Virtual Machine..Add or Remove Device

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

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3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, click Add other device, and click USB Controller from the drop-down

menu.

The new USB controller appears at the boom of the Virtual Hardware device list.

4 Expand New USB Controller to change the USB controller type.

If compatibility errors appear, x them before you add the controller.

5 Click Save.

What to do next

Add one or more USB devices to the virtual machine.

Add SCSI Controllers in the VMware Host Client

You can add SCSI controllers to an existing virtual machine by adding hard disks on unused SCSI Bus numbers.

Adding a new hard disk on an unused SCSI Bus number creates a new SCSI controller.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add hard disk and select New hard disk from the drop-down

menu.

4 Expand the hard disk to view all options.

5 In the Virtual Device Node section, select an unused SCSI Bus number from the drop-down menu.

For example, bus and device numbers 0:0 - 0:15 are used by the initial SCSI controller. The second SCSI controller uses bus and device numbers 1:0 - 1:15.

6 Click Save.

The new hard disk and new SCSI controller are simultaneously created.

Change the SCSI Bus Sharing Configuration in the VMware Host Client

You can set the type of SCSI bus sharing for a virtual machine and indicate whether to share the SCSI bus. Depending on the type of sharing, virtual machines can access the same virtual disk simultaneously on the same server or on any server.

You can change the SCSI controller conguration for a virtual machine only if the virtual machine is on an ESXi host.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the SCSI Controller that you want to edit.

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4 Select the type of sharing in the SCSI Bus Sharing list.

Option Description

None

Virtual

Physical

Virtual disks cannot be shared by other virtual machines.

Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on the same server.

Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on any server.

5 Click Save.

Change the SCSI Controller Type in the VMware Host Client

You can aach virtual disks and RDMs to virtual machines by conguring virtual SCSI controller on the virtual machines.

The choice of SCSI controller does not aect whether your virtual disk is an IDE or SCSI disk. The IDE adapter is always ATAPI. The default for your guest operating system is already selected. Older guest operating systems have BusLogic adapter as their default controller.

If you create an LSI Logic virtual machine and add a virtual disk that uses BusLogic adapters, the virtual machine boots from the BusLogic adapters disk. LSI Logic SAS is available only for virtual machines with hardware version 7 or later. Disks with snapshots might not experience performance gains when used on LSI Logic SAS, VMware Paravirtual, and LSI Logic Parallel adapters.

C Changing the SCSI controller type might result in a virtual machine boot failure.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 Click the Virtual Hardware tab and expand a SCSI controller.

4 Select a SCSI controller type from the drop-down menu.

5 Click Save.

About VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers

VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are high performance storage controllers that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU use. These controllers are best suited for high performance storage environments.

VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are available for virtual machines with ESXi 4.x and later compatibility. Disks on such controllers might not experience optimal performance gains if they have snapshots or if memory on the ESXi host is over commied. This behavior does not mitigate the overall performance gain of using VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers as compared to other SCSI controller options.

If you have virtual machines with VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers, those virtual machines cannot be part of an MSCS cluster.

For platform support for VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

hp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

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Add a Paravirtual SCSI Controller in the VMware Host Client

You can add a VMware Paravirtual SCSI high performance storage controller to provide greater throughput and lower CPU utilization.

VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments, that run I/O-intensive applications.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine has a guest operating system with VMware Tools installed.

Verify that the virtual machine has hardware version 7 or later.

Familiarize yourself with VMware Paravirtual SCSI limitations. See vSphere Virtual Machine

Administration .

To access boot disk devices aached to a VMware Paravirtual SCSI controller, verify that the virtual

machine has a Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 guest operating system.

In some operating systems, before you change the controller type you must create a virtual machine

with an LSI Logic controller and install VMware Tools.

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, click Add other device and select SCSI Controller from the drop-down

menu.

The new SCSI Controllers appears in the Hardware list.

4 Click on the New SCSI Controller and select VMware Paravirtual from the drop-down menu.

5 Click Save.

Add a SATA Controller to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

If a virtual machine has multiple hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM devices, you can add up to three additional SATA controllers to assign the devices to. When you assign the devices to dierent controllers, you can improve performance and avoid data trac congestion. You can also add controllers if you need to exceed the thirty-device limit for a single controller.

You can boot virtual machines from SATA controllers and use them for large-capacity virtual hard disks.

Not all guest operating systems support AHCI SATA controllers. Typically, when you create virtual machines with ESXi 5.5 and later compatibility and Mac OS X guest operating systems, a SATA controller is added by default for the virtual hard disk and CD/DVD-ROM devices. Most guest operating systems, including Windows Vista and later, have a default SATA controller for CD/DVD-ROM devices. For

verication, see the appropriate VMware Compatibility Guide at

hp://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.5 and later.

Verify that you are familiar with storage controller behavior and limitations. See vSphere Virtual Machine

Administration.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Add or remove device privilege on the virtual

machine.

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Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device, and select SATA Controller from the drop-

down menu.

The SATA controller appears in the hardware list.

4 Click Save.

Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration in the VMware Host Client

In addition to conguring virtual machine CPU and Memory, and adding hard disks and virtual network adapters, you can also add and congure virtual hardware, such as DVD/CD-ROM drives, oppy drives, and SCSI devices.

Add a CD or DVD Drive to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can use a physical drive on a client or host, or you can use an ISO image to add a CD/DVD drive to a virtual machine.

If you want to add a CD/DVD drive that is backed up by USB CD/DVD drive on the host, you must add the drive as a SCSI device. Hot adding or removing SCSI devices from an ESXi host is not supported.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select CD/DVD Drive from the drop-down

menu.

4 Expand CD/DVD drive and select an option.

Option Description

Use physical drive

Use ISO Image

a Select Client Device as the location.

b From the Device Mode drop-down menu, select Emulate CD-ROM or

Passthrough CD-ROM.

a Select Datastore ISO File as the location.

b Enter the path and lename for the image le, or click Browse to

navigate to the le.

5 If you do not want the CD-ROM drive to connect when the virtual machine starts, deselect Connect at

power on.

6 Select the virtual device node that the drive uses in the virtual machine.

7 Click Save.

Add a Floppy Drive to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Use a physical oppy drive or a oppy image to add a oppy drive to a virtual machine.

ESXi does not support oppy drives that are backed up by a physical oppy drive on the host.

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Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Add or remove device privilege on the virtual

machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select Floppy Drive from the drop-down

menu.

The Floppy drive appears in the hardware list.

4 Expand Floppy drive and select the type of device you want to use.

Option Description

Client Device

Use existing floppy image

5 (Optional) Select Connect at power on to congure the device to connect when the virtual machine

powers on.

Select this option to connect the oppy device to a physical oppy device or a .flp oppy image on the system from which you access the VMware Host Client .

a Select this option to connect the virtual device to an existing image of a

oppy drive on a datastore accessible to the host .

b Click Browse and select the oppy image.

6 Click Save.

Parallel and Serial Port Configuration in the VMware Host Client

Parallel and serial ports are interfaces for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual serial port can connect to a physical serial port or to a le on the host computer. You can also use it to establish a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. You can add parallel and serial ports and change the serial port

conguration.

Add a Serial Port to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

A virtual machine can use up to four virtual serial ports. You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical serial port or to a le on the host computer. You can also use a host-side-named pipe to set up a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. In addition, you can use a port or a Virtual Serial Port Concentrator (vSPC) URI to connect a serial port over the network.

Prerequisites

Familiarize yourself with the dierent media types that the port can access, vSPC connections, and any

conditions that might apply. See vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.

To connect a serial port over a network, add a Firewall rule set. See vSphere Virtual Machine

Administration.

Required privilege: Virtual Machine ..Add or Remove Device

Power o the virtual machine.

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Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select Serial Port.

The Serial Port appears in the hardware list.

4 In the hardware list, expand the serial port and select the type of media port to access.

Option Description

Use output file

Use physical serial port

Use named pipe

Use network

Browse to the location of the le on the host to store the output of the virtual serial port.

Select the port from the drop-down menu.

a Type a name for the pipe in the Pipe name eld

b Select the Near End and Far End of the pipe from the drop-down

menus.

a From the Direction drop-down menu, select Server or Client.

b Type the port URI.

The URI is the remote end of the serial port to which the serial port of the virtual machine should connect.

c If vSPC is used as an intermediate step to access all virtual machines

through a single IP address, select Use Virtual Serial Port Concentrator and enter the vSPC URI location.

5 (Optional) Deselect Connect at power on if you do not want the parallel port device to connect when

the virtual machine powers on.

6 Click Save.

Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server Without Authentication Parameters

If you do not use vSPC and you congure your virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows operating system.

telnet yourESXiServerIPAddress 12345

Similarly, if you run the Telnet Server on your Linux system on port 23 (telnet://yourLinuxBox:23), you congure the virtual machine as a client URI.

telnet://yourLinuxBox:23

The virtual machine initiates the connection to your Linux system on port 23.

Add a Parallel Port to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

To connect peripheral devices to virtual machines, such as printers and scanners, you can use a parallel port. You send the output of such devices to a le on the host computer.

N To add a parallel port to a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host, you can also select to send output to a physical parallel port on the host. This option is not available with ESXi 5.0 and later host versions.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

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Verify that you have the Virtual machine..Add or remove device privilege on the virtual

machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select Parallel Port.

The parallel port appears in the hardware list.

4 In the virtual hardware list, expand the parallel port and click Browse to locate a folder to create the le

in.

5 Choose a folder from the list and click Select.

The le path appears in the Connection text box.

6 (Optional) Select Connect at power on to congure the device to connect when the virtual machine

powers on.

7 Click Save.

Add a Sound Controller to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client 1.4 and later you can add a sound controller to a virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select Sound controller from the drop-down

menu.

You can see the sound controller in the list of available devices for the virtual machine.

4 In the Sound card section, select an option for the sound controller from the drop-down menu.

5 Click Save.

Add a USB Device to a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client 1.4 and later, you can add a USB device to a virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Assign a USB device to the ESXi host where the virtual machine is located by plugging the USB device into the host.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the pop-up menu.

3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add other device and select USB device from the drop-down

menu.

You can see the USB device in the list of available devices for the virtual machine.

4 Select the USB device that you want to add from the drop-down stack that appears in the list of

available devices for the virtual machine.

5 Click Save.

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Managing Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client

After creating a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client, you can perform dierent management tasks on the virtual machine, including deleting the virtual machine from the host, remove the virtual machine from a datastore, registering it back on a datastore, and so on. You can also return the virtual machine to the host.

Access a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can access the virtual machines on the host that you are logged in to, to congure the virtual machine hardware and options, to perform administrative tasks, and to perform basic troubleshooting tasks.

To display a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory, power on the virtual machine.

Procedure

To access the virtual machines that are available on the host that you are logged in to, click Virtual

Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

The list of available virtual machines is displayed under Virtual Machines.

You can now edit the virtual machine seings and perform dierent administrative and troubleshooting tasks on the virtual machines in the list.

Use Virtual Machine Column Configuration in the VMware Host Client

When you view virtual machines in the VMware Host Client, you can congure what information is displayed by including and excluding columns such as status, provisioned space, host name, host CPU, and so on.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click Columns and select the information that you want to display or hide in the virtual machine panel.

Remove Virtual Machines from a Host in the VMware Host Client

You can unregister a virtual machine if you want to keep it on the datastore, but you no longer want the VMware Host Client inventory to display the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine from the list and select Unregister.

3 To conrm that you want to remove the virtual machine from the inventory, click Yes.

The host removes the virtual machine from the inventory and no longer tracks its condition.

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Remove Virtual Machines from the Datastore in the VMware Host Client

Remove unnecessary virtual machines from the VMware Host Client inventory to free space on the datastore. Removing a virtual machine from the host deletes all virtual machine les from the datastore, including the conguration le and virtual disk les.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Verify that the virtual machine does not share the disk with another virtual machine. If two virtual

machines are sharing the same disk, the disk les are not deleted.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine from the list and select Delete from the drop-down menu.

3 Click Delete.

Register a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

If you remove a virtual machine or template from a host but do not remove it from the host datastore, you can return it to the host's inventory.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a datastore from the list and click Register a VM.

3 Select the virtual machine you want to register from the list and click Register.

Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual Machines

Snapshots preserve the state and data of a virtual machine at the time you take the snapshot. When you take a snapshot of a virtual machine, the virtual machine is not aected and only an image of the virtual machine in a given state is copied and stored. Snapshots are useful when you must revert repeatedly to the same virtual machine state, but you do not want to create multiple virtual machines.

You can take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine to create restoration positions in a linear process. With multiple snapshots, you can save many positions to be able to perform many types of work processes. Snapshots operate on individual virtual machines. Taking snapshots of multiple virtual machines, for example, taking snapshots for all members of a team, requires that you take a separate snapshot of each team member's virtual machine.

Snapshots are useful as a short term solution for testing software with unknown or potentially harmful eects. For example, you can use a snapshot as a restoration point during a linear or iterative process, such as installing update packages, or during a branching process, such as installing dierent versions of a program. Using snapshots ensures that each installation begins from an identical baseline.

With snapshots, you can preserve a baseline before making changes to a virtual machine in the snapshot tree.

Several operations for creating and managing virtual machine snapshots and snapshot trees are available in the Snapshot Manager of the VMware Host Client. These operations enable you to create snapshots, restore any snapshot in the snapshot hierarchy, delete snapshots, and more. You can create extensive snapshot trees that you can use to save the state of a virtual machine at any specic time and restore the virtual machine state later. Each branch in a snapshot tree can have up to 32 snapshots.

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A snapshot preserves the following information:

Virtual machine seings. The virtual machine directory, which includes the disks added or changed

after you take the snapshot.

Power state. The virtual machine can be powered on, powered o, or suspended.

Disk state. State of all the virtual machine's virtual disks.

(Optional) Memory state. The contents of the virtual machine's memory.

The Snapshot Hierarchy

The Snapshot Manager presents the snapshot hierarchy as a tree with one or more branches. Snapshots in the hierarchy have parent to child relationships. In linear processes, each snapshot has one parent snapshot and one child snapshot, except for the last snapshot, which has no child snapshot. Each parent snapshot can have more than one child. You can revert to the current parent snapshot or restore any parent or child snapshot in the snapshot tree and create more snapshots from that snapshot. Each time you restore a snapshot and take another snapshot, a branch, or child snapshot, is created.

Parent Snapshots

The rst virtual machine snapshot that you create is the base parent snapshot. The parent snapshot is the most recently saved version of the current state of the virtual machine. Taking a snapshot creates a delta disk

le for each disk aached to the virtual machine and optionally, a memory le. The delta disk les and memory le are stored with the base .vmdk le.

The parent snapshot is always the snapshot that appears immediately above the You are here icon in the Snapshot Manager. If you revert or restore a snapshot, that snapshot becomes the parent of the You are here current state.

N The parent snapshot is not always the snapshot that you took most recently.

Child Snapshots

A snapshot of a virtual machine taken after the parent snapshot. Each child snapshot contains delta les for each aached virtual disk, and optionally a memory le that points from the present state of the virtual disk (You are here). Each child snapshot's delta les merge with each previous child snapshot until reaching the parent disks. A child disk can later be a parent disk for future child disks.

The relationship of parent and child snapshots can change if you have multiple branches in the snapshot tree. A parent snapshot can have more than one child. Many snapshots have no children.

I Do not manually manipulate individual child disks or any of the snapshot conguration les because doing so can compromise the snapshot tree and result in data loss. This restriction includes disk resizing and making modications to the base parent disk by using vmkfstools.

Snapshot Behavior

Taking a snapshot preserves the disk state at a specic time by creating a series of delta disks for each aached virtual disk or virtual RDM and optionally preserves the memory and power state by creating a

memory le. Taking a snapshot creates a snapshot object in the Snapshot Manager that represents the virtual machine state and seings.

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Each snapshot creates an additional delta .vmdk disk le. When you take a snapshot, the snapshot mechanism prevents the guest operating system from writing to the base .vmdk le and instead directs all writes to the delta disk le. The delta disk represents the dierence between the current state of the virtual disk and the state that existed at the time that you took the previous snapshot. If more than one snapshot exists, delta disks can represent the dierence between each snapshot. Delta disk les can expand quickly and become as large as the entire virtual disk if the guest operating system writes to every block of the virtual disk.

Snapshot Files

When you take a snapshot, you capture the state of the virtual machine seings and the virtual disk. If you are taking a memory snapshot, you also capture the memory state of the virtual machine. These states are saved to les that reside with the virtual machine's base les.

Snapshot Files

A snapshot consists of les that are stored on a supported storage device. A Take Snapshot operation creates .vmdk, -delta.vmdk, .vmsd, and .vmsn les. By default, the rst and all delta disks are stored with the base .vmdk le. The .vmsd and .vmsn les are stored in the virtual machine directory.

Delta disk files

Flat file

Database file

A .vmdk le to which the guest operating system can write. The delta disk represents the dierence between the current state of the virtual disk and the state that existed at the time that the previous snapshot was taken. When you take a snapshot, the state of the virtual disk is preserved, which prevents the guest operating system from writing to it, and a delta or child disk is created.

A delta disk has two les, including a descriptor le that is small and contains information about the virtual disk, such as geometry and childparent relationship information, and a corresponding le that contains the raw data.

The les that make up the delta disk are referred to as child disks or redo logs. A child disk is a sparse disk. Sparse disks use the copy-on-write mechanism, in which the virtual disk contains no data in places, until copied there by a write operation. This optimization saves storage space. A grain is the unit of measure in which the sparse disk uses the copy-on-write mechanism. Each grain is a block of sectors that contain virtual disk data. The default size is 128 sectors or 64KB.

A -flat.vmdk le that is one of two les that comprises the base disk. The at disk contains the raw data for the base disk. This le does not appear as a separate le in the Datastore Browser.

A .vmsd le that contains the virtual machine's snapshot information and is the primary source of information for the Snapshot Manager. This le contains line entries, which dene the relationships between snapshots and between child disks for each snapshot.

Memory file

A .vmsn le that includes the active state of the virtual machine. Capturing the memory state of the virtual machine lets you revert to a turned on virtual machine state. With nonmemory snapshots, you can only revert to a turned o virtual machine state. Memory snapshots take longer to create than nonmemory snapshots. The time the ESX host takes to write the memory onto the disk is relative to the amount of memory the virtual machine is congured to use.

A Take Snapshot operation creates .vmdk, -delta.vmdk, vmsd, and vmsn les.

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File Description

vmname-number.vmdk and vmnamenumber-delta.vmdk

vmname.vmsd

vmname.Snapshotnumber.vmsn

Snapshot le that represents the dierence between the current state of the virtual disk and the state that existed at the time the previous snapshot was taken.

The lename uses the following syntax, S1vm-000001.vmdk where S1vm is the name of the virtual machine and the six-digit number, 000001, is based on the les that already exist in the directory. The number does not consider the number of disks that are aached to the virtual machine.

Database of the virtual machine's snapshot information and the primary source of information for the Snapshot Manager.

Memory state of the virtual machine at the time you take the snapshot. The le name uses the following syntax, S1vm.snapshot1.vmsn, where S1vm is the virtual machine name, and snapshot1 is the rst snapshot.

N A .vmsn le is created each time you take a snapshot, regardless of the memory selection. A .vmsn le without memory is much smaller than one with memory.

Snapshot Limitations

Snapshots can aect virtual machine performance and do not support some disk types or virtual machines congured with bus sharing. Snapshots are useful as short-term solutions for capturing point-in-time virtual

machine states and are not appropriate for long-term virtual machine backups.

VMware does not support snapshots of raw disks, RDM physical mode disks, or guest operating

systems that use an iSCSI initiator in the guest.

Virtual machines with independent disks must be powered o before you take a snapshot. Snapshots of

powered-on or suspended virtual machines with independent disks are not supported.

Snapshots are not supported with PCI vSphere Direct Path I/O devices.

VMware does not support snapshots of virtual machines congured for bus sharing. If you require bus

sharing, consider running backup software in your guest operating system as an alternative solution. If your virtual machine currently has snapshots that prevent you from conguring bus sharing, delete (consolidate) the snapshots.

Snapshots provide a point-in-time image of the disk that backup solutions can use, but Snapshots are

not meant to be a robust method of backup and recovery. If the les containing a virtual machine are lost, its snapshot les are also lost. Also, large numbers of snapshots are dicult to manage, consume large amounts of disk space, and are not protected in the case of hardware failure.

Snapshots can negatively aect the performance of a virtual machine. Performance degradation is based

on how long the snapshot or snapshot tree is in place, the depth of the tree, and how much the virtual machine and its guest operating system have changed from the time you took the snapshot. Also, you might see a delay in the amount of time it takes the virtual machine to power-on. Do not run production virtual machines from snapshots on a permanent basis.

If a virtual machine has virtual hard disks larger than 2TBs, snapshot operations can take signicantly

longer to nish.

Taking Snapshots of a Virtual Machine

You can take one or more snapshots of a virtual machine to capture the seings state, disk state, and memory state at dierent specic times. When you take a snapshot, you can also quiesce the virtual machine les and exclude the virtual machine disks from snapshots.

When you take a snapshot, other activity that is occurring in the virtual machine might aect the snapshot process when you revert to that snapshot. The best time to take a snapshot from a storage perspective, is when you are not incurring a large I/O load. The best time to take a snapshot from a service perspective is when no applications in the virtual machine are communicating with other computers. The potential for

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problems is greatest if the virtual machine is communicating with another computer, especially in a production environment. For example, if you take a snapshot while the virtual machine is downloading a le from a server on the network, the virtual machine continues downloading the le and communicating its progress to the server. If you revert to the snapshot, communications between the virtual machine and the server are confused and the le transfer fails. Depending on the task that you are performing, you can create a memory snapshot or you can quiesce the le system in the virtual machine.

Memory Snapshots

The default selection for taking snapshots. When you capture the virtual machine's memory state, the snapshot retains the live state of the virtual machine. Memory snapshots create a snapshot at a precise time, for example, to upgrade software that is still working. If you take a memory snapshot and the upgrade does not complete as expected, or the software does not meet your expectations, you can revert the virtual machine to its previous state.

When you capture the memory state, the virtual machine's les do not require quiescing. If you do not capture the memory state, the snapshot does not save the live state of the virtual machine and the disks are crash consistent unless you quiesce them.

Quiesced Snapshots

When you quiesce a virtual machine, VMware Tools quiesces the le system of the virtual machine. A quiesce operation ensures that a snapshot disk represents a consistent state of the guest le systems. Quiesced snapshots are appropriate for automated or periodic backups. For example, if you are unaware of the virtual machine's activity, but want several recent backups to revert to, you can quiesce the les.

If the virtual machine is powered o or VMware Tools is not available, the

Quiesce parameter is not available. You cannot quiesce virtual machines that

have large capacity disks.

I Do not use snapshots as your only backup solution or as a long-term backup solution.

Take a Snapshot in the VMware Host Client

Snapshots capture the entire state of the virtual machine at the time you take the snapshot. You can take a snapshot when a virtual machine is powered on, powered o, or suspended. To take a snapshot of a suspended virtual machine, wait until the suspend operation nishes before you take a snapshot.

When you create a memory snapshot, the snapshot captures the state of the virtual machine's memory and the virtual machine power seings. When you capture the virtual machine's memory state, snapshots that capture the memory state of a virtual machine take longer to complete. You might also see a momentary lapse in response over the network.

When you quiesce a virtual machine, VMware Tools quiesces the le system in the virtual machine. The quiesce operation pauses or alters the state of running processes on the virtual machine, especially processes that might modify information stores on the disk during a restore operation.

Application-consistent quiescing is not supported for virtual machines with IDE or SATA disks.

N Do not use VMware snapshots to backup dynamic disks on Windows. If you take a snapshot of a dynamic disks on Windows you cannot revert to the snapshot. Snapshot technology does not have visibility in dynamic disks and cannot preserve the quiesced state of the disk les.

Prerequisites

If you are taking a memory snapshot of a virtual machine that has multiple disks in dierent disk

modes, verify that the virtual machine is powered o. For example, if you have a special purpose conguration that requires you to use an independent disk, you must power o the virtual machine

before taking a snapshot.

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To capture the memory state of the virtual machine, verify that the virtual machine is powered on.

To quiesce the virtual machine les, verify that the virtual machine is powered on and that VMware

Tools is installed.

Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Snapshot management. Create snapshot privilege on the

virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click a virtual machine from the list, select Snapshots, and select Take snapshot from the pop-up

menu.

3 Enter a name for the snapshot.

4 (Optional) Type a description for the snapshot.

5 (Optional) Select the Snapshot the virtual machine's memory check box to capture the memory of the

virtual machine.

6 (Optional) Deselect Snapshot the virtual machine's memory and select Quiesce guest  system

(needs VMware Tools installed) check box to pause running processes on the guest operating system so that le system contents are in a known consistent state when you take the snapshot.

Quiesce the virtual machine les only when the virtual machine is powered on and you do not want to capture the virtual machine's memory.

7 Click OK.

Restoring Snapshots

To return a virtual machine to its original state, or to return to another snapshot in the snapshot hierarchy, you can restore a snapshot.

When you restore a snapshot, you return the virtual machine's memory, seings, and the state of the virtual machine disks to the state they were in at the time you took the snapshot. If you want the virtual machine to be suspended, powered on, or powered o when you start it, make sure that it is in the correct state when you take the snapshot.

You can restore snapshots in the following ways:

Revert to Latest Snapshot

Revert To

Restoring snapshots has the following eects:

The current disk and memory states are discarded, and the virtual machine reverts to the disk and

memory states of the parent snapshot.

Restores the parent snapshot, one level up in the hierarchy from the You are Here position. Revert to Latest Snapshot activates the parent snapshot of the current state of the virtual machine.

Lets you restore any snapshot in the snapshot tree and makes that snapshot the parent snapshot of the current state of the virtual machine. Subsequent snapshots from this point create a new branch of the snapshot tree.

Existing snapshots are not removed. You can restore those snapshots at any time.

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If the snapshot includes the memory state, the virtual machine will be in the same power state as when

you created the snapshot.

Table 3‑4. Virtual Machine Power State After Restoring a Snapshot

Virtual Machine State When Parent Snapshot Is Taken Virtual Machine State After Restoration

Powered on (includes memory) Reverts to the parent snapshot, and the virtual machine is

Powered on (does not include memory) Reverts to the parent snapshot and the virtual machine is

Powered o (does not include memory) Reverts to the parent snapshot and the virtual machine is

Virtual machines running certain kinds of workloads can take several minutes to resume responsiveness after reverting from a snapshot.

N vApp metadata for virtual machines in vApps does not follow the snapshot semantics for virtual machine conguration. vApp properties that are deleted, modied, or dened after a snapshot is taken remain intact (deleted, modied, or dened) after the virtual machine reverts to that snapshot or any previous snapshots.

powered on and running.

powered o.

Revert to a Snapshot in the VMware Host Client

Revert to a snapshot to restore the virtual machine to the state of the snapshot.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Snapshot management.Revert to snapshot privilege on the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine in the list, select Snapshots, and select Revert to snapshot from the pop-

up menu.

N The current state of the virtual machine will be lost unless you save it in a snapshot.

3 Click Revert to revert the virtual machine to the most recent snapshot.

Deleting Snapshots

Deleting a snapshot removes the snapshot from the Snapshot Manager. The snapshot les are consolidated and wrien to the parent snapshot disk and merge with the virtual machine base disk.

Deleting a snapshot does not change the virtual machine or other snapshots. Deleting a snapshot consolidates the changes between snapshots and previous disk states and writes all the data from the delta disk that contains the information about the deleted snapshot to the parent disk. When you delete the base parent snapshot, all changes merge with the base virtual machine disk.

To delete a snapshot, a lot of information needs to be read and wrien to a disk. This can reduce virtual machine performance until consolidation is complete. Consolidating snapshots removes redundant disks, which improves virtual machine performance and saves storage space. The time it takes to delete snapshots and consolidate the snapshot les depends on the amount of data that the guest operating system writes to the virtual disks after you take the last snapshot. The required time is proportional to the amount of data the virtual machine is writing during consolidation if the virtual machine is powered on.

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Failure of disk consolidation can reduce the performance of virtual machines. You can check whether any virtual machines require separate consolidation operations by viewing a list. For information about locating and viewing the consolidation state of multiple virtual machines and running a separate consolidation operation, see vSphere Virtual Machine Administration.

Delete

Use the Delete option to remove a single parent or child snapshot from the snapshot tree. Delete writes disk changes that occur between the state of the snapshot and the previous disk state to the parent snapshot.

You can also use the Delete option to remove a corrupt snapshot and its les from an abandoned branch of the snapshot tree without merging them with the parent snapshot.

Delete All

Use the Delete All option to delete all snapshots from the Snapshot Manager. Delete all consolidates and writes the changes that occur between snapshots

and the previous delta disk states to the base parent disk and merges them with the base virtual machine disk.

To prevent snapshot les from merging with the parent snapshot if, for example, an update or installation fails, rst use the Restore command to restore to a previous snapshot. This action invalidates the snapshot delta disks and deletes the memory le. You can then use the Delete option to remove the snapshot and any associated les.

Delete a Snapshot in the VMware Host Client

You can use the Snapshot Manager to delete a single snapshot or all snapshots in a tree.

Be careful not to accidentally delete a snapshot that you need. You cannot restore a deleted snapshot. For example, you might want to install several browsers, a, b, and c, and capture the virtual machine state after you install each browser. The rst, or base snapshot, captures the virtual machine with browser a and the second snapshot captures browser b. If you restore the base snapshot that includes browser a and take a third snapshot to capture browser c and delete the snapshot that contains browser b, you cannot return to the virtual machine state that includes browser b.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine in the list, select Snapshots from the pop-up menu and click Manage

Snapshots.

3 Click the snapshot that you want to delete and click Delete.

4 Click Remove.

5 Click Close to navigate out of the Snapshot Manager.

Managing Snapshots with the VMware Host Client

You can review all snapshots for your virtual machines and use the Snapshot Manager to manage the snapshots.

After you take a snapshot, you can right-click a virtual machine and click Revert to snapshot to restore the virtual machine to the state of the snapshot at any time.

If you have a series of snapshots, you can use the Snapshot Manager to restore any parent or child snapshot. Subsequent child snapshots that you take from the restored snapshot create a branch in the snapshot tree. Use the Snapshot Manager to delete a snapshot from the tree.

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Table 3‑5. Snapshot Manager

Option Description

Snapshot tree Displays all snapshots for the virtual machine.

You are here icon The You are here icon represents the current and active state of the virtual machine.

The Restore, Delete, and Edit actions are disabled for the You are here state.

Take, Restore, Delete, Edit

Details Shows the snapshot name and description, the date you created the snapshot. The Console

Snapshot options.

shows the power state of the virtual machine when a snapshot was taken. The Name, Description, and Created text boxes are blank if you do not select a snapshot.

Monitoring a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

You can monitor various performance aspects and keep track of the actions that take place on virtual machines that you create in the VMware Host Client.

View Virtual Machine Performance Charts in the VMware Host Client

You can view line charts with information about the resource usage of virtual machines that you create in the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Expand the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Monitor.

4 Click Performance.

5 To view the virtual machine resource usage for the last hour, select an option from the drop-down

menu.

To view the percentage of CPU that the virtual machine used during the last hour, select CPU

usage.

To view the memory that the host consumed during the last hour, select Memory usage.

View Virtual Machine Events in the VMware Host Client

Events are records of the actions that a user performs on a virtual machine. When you create a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client, you can view the events associated with the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Read only.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Expand the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Monitor.

4 Click Events.

A list of all virtual machine events is displayed.

5 (Optional) Click an event from the list to view event details.

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6 (Optional) Use the lter controls above the list to lter the list.

7 (Optional) Click a column heading to sort the list.

View Virtual Machine Tasks in the VMware Host Client

When you create a virtual machine in the VMware Host Client, you can view all virtual machine tasks and information about the task target, initiator, queue time, start time, result, and time of completion.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Expand the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Monitor.

4 Click Tasks.

5 (Optional) Click on a task from the list to view task details.

6 (Optional) Use the lter controls above the list to lter the list.

7 (Optional) Click a column heading to sort the list.

View Virtual Machine Log Browser in the VMware Host Client

Generate and monitor logs for the host that you are managing by using the VMware Host Client. Use the logs to diagnose and troubleshoot various issues with your host environment.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Expand the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Monitor.

4 Click Logs.

5 (Optional) Click Generate support bundle to consolidate all the logs for troubleshooting.

6 Right-click a log from the list and select Open in new window to view the log.

View Virtual Machine Notifications in the VMware Host Client

You can view virtual machine notications and information about related tasks, which you can perform, for virtual machines that you create in the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Click a virtual machine from the list.

3 Expand the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Monitor.

4 Click .

A list with all virtual machine notications is displayed.

5 (Optional) Click on a notication to view details.

6 (Optional) Click on a notication and click Actions to view suggested tasks.

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Managing Storage in the

VMware Host Client 4

When you connect to an ESXi host by using the VMware Host Client, you can perform dierent storage management tasks on the ESXi host, including conguring adapters, creating datastores, and viewing storage device information.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Working with Datastores in the VMware Host Client,” on page 83

“Managing Storage Adapters in the VMware Host Client,” on page 95

“Managing Storage Devices in the VMware Host Client,” on page 103

“Monitoring Storage in the VMware Host Client,” on page 104

“Performing Storage Refresh and Rescan Operations in the VMware Host Client,” on page 104

Working with Datastores in the VMware Host Client

Datastores are logical containers, similar to le systems, that contain specic information of each storage device and provide a uniform model for storing virtual machine les . You can also use datastores to store ISO images, virtual machine templates, and oppy images.

Depending on the type of storage you use, datastores can be of the following types:

Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)

Network File System (NFS)

You can increase datastore capacity after you create a datastore but only if it is a VMFS datastore.

View Datastore Information in the VMware Host Client

Use the VMware Host Client to display the datastores available to the hosts and analyze their properties.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 To view the details for a specic datastore, select the datastore from the list.

Creating a VMFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

VMFS datastores serve as repositories for virtual machines. You can set up VMFS datastores on any SCSIbased storage devices that your host detects, including Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and local storage devices.

1 Start the VMFS Datastore Creation Process in the VMware Host Client on page 84

You can use the New datastore wizard to create datastores in the VMware Host Client.

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2 Select a Method for Adding a New Datastore to the Host in the VMware Host Client on page 84

You can use the Select creation type page of the New datastore wizard to choose whether you want to create a new VMFS datastore, extend an existing one, or mount an NFS datastore.

3 Select a Device on Which to Add a VMFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client on page 84

Select where to create a VMFS datastore in the VMware Host Client.

4 Select Partitioning Options in the VMware Host Client on page 85

Use the Select partitioning options page of the New datastore wizard to select how you would like to partition the device.

5 Complete Datastore Creation Process in the VMware Host Client on page 85

In the Ready to complete page of the New datastore wizard, you can review your conguration selections for the new datastore.

Start the VMFS Datastore Creation Process in the VMware Host Client

You can use the New datastore wizard to create datastores in the VMware Host Client.

Prerequisites

Install and congure any adapters that your storage requires. Rescan the adapters to discover newly added storage devices.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click New datastore.

The New datastore wizard opens.

Select a Method for Adding a New Datastore to the Host in the VMware Host Client

You can use the Select creation type page of the New datastore wizard to choose whether you want to create a new VMFS datastore, extend an existing one, or mount an NFS datastore.

Procedure

Select a creation type for the new datastore and click Next.

Option Description

Create new VMFS datastore

Increase the size of an existing datastore

Mount NFS datastore

Creates a new VMFS datastore on a local disk device.

Increases the size of an existing datastore by adding a new extent on another disk.

Creates a new datastore by mounting a remote NFS volume.

Select a Device on Which to Add a VMFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

Select where to create a VMFS datastore in the VMware Host Client.

The following procedure applies if you want to create a new VMFS datastore.

Procedure

1 Enter a name for the new datastore.

2 Select a device to add the datastore to and click Next.

The list contains only devices that have enough available space.

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Select Partitioning Options in the VMware Host Client

Use the Select partitioning options page of the New datastore wizard to select how you would like to partition the device.

Procedure

1 Click the Select partitioning scheme drop-down menu and select an option.

Option Description

Use Full Disk

Custom

It shows you all the free space that is available on the device.

Click the Free space bar and use the horizontal scroller to partition the device.

2 Click Next.

Complete Datastore Creation Process in the VMware Host Client

In the Ready to complete page of the New datastore wizard, you can review your conguration selections for the new datastore.

Procedure

Review the conguration selections summary and click Finish.

Increasing VMFS Datastore Capacity

If your VMFS datastore requires more space, increase the datastore capacity. You can dynamically increase the capacity by growing a datastore extent or by adding a new extent.

Use one of the following methods to increase a datastore capacity:

Dynamically grow any expandable datastore extent, so that it lls the available adjacent capacity. The

extent is considered expandable when the underlying storage device has free space immediately after the extent.

Dynamically add a new extent. The datastore can span over up to 32 extents with the size of each extent

of more than 2TB, yet appear as a single volume. The spanned VMFS datastore can use any or all of its extents at any time. It does not need to ll up a particular extent before using the next one.

N Datastores that only support hardware assisted locking, also called atomic test and set (ATS) mechanism cannot span over non-ATS devices. For more information, see vSphere Storage.

Increase an Existing VMFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

When you need to add virtual machines to a datastore, or when the virtual machines running on a datastore require more space, you can dynamically increase the capacity of a VMFS datastore.

If a shared datastore has powered on virtual machines and becomes 100% full, you can increase the datastore's capacity only from the host that the powered on virtual machines are registered on.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click New datastore.

3 Click Increase the size of an existing VMFS datastore and click Next.

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Select the Datastore You Want to Increase in the VMware Host Client

Review the capacity and the available space on your datastores and choose which datastore you want to increase.

Procedure

From the list of datastores, click the datastore that you want to increase and click Next.

Select a Device on Which to Create a New VMFS Partition in the VMware Host Client

Before you can increase an existing datastore in the VMware Host Client, select a device to create the new VMFS partition on.

Procedure

Select a device from the list of unclaimed devices and click Next.

Select Partitioning Options in the VMware Host Client

Use the Select partitioning options page of the New datastore wizard to select how you would like to partition the device.

Procedure

1 Click the Select partitioning scheme drop-down menu and select an option.

Option Description

Use Full Disk

Custom

2 Click Next.

It shows you all the free space that is available on the device.

Click the Free space bar and use the horizontal scroller to partition the device.

Complete Datastore Increase Process in the VMware Host Client

In the Ready to complete page of the New datastore wizard, you can review your conguration selections for the datastore that you want to increase.

Procedure

Review the conguration selections summary and click Finish.

Mounting Network File System a Datastore in the VMware Host Client

With the VMware Host Client, you can create a Network File System (NFS) datastore to store virtual disks and to use as a central repository for ISO images, virtual machines, and so on.

1 Understanding Network File System Datastores on page 87

An NFS client built into ESXi uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS volume that is located on a NAS server. The ESXi host can mount the volume and use it for its storage needs. vSphere supports versions 3 and 4.1 of the NFS protocol.

2 NFS Storage Guidelines and Requirements on page 87

When using NFS storage, you must follow specic conguration, networking, and NFS datastore guidelines.

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3 Mount an NFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client on page 88

Use the New datastore wizard to mount a Network File System (NFS) datastore in the VMware Host Client.

4 Provide NFS Details on page 89

Before you mount an NFS datastore in the VMware Host Client, you must specify a name, a server, and a share.

5 Complete the NFS Datastore Mounting Process in the VMware Host Client on page 89

In the Ready to complete page you can review your conguration selections for your NFS datastore.

Understanding Network File System Datastores

Typically, the NFS volume or directory is created by a storage administrator and is exported form the NFS server. The NFS volume is not required to be formaed with a local le system, such as VMFS. You can mount the volume directly on ESXi hosts and use it to store and boot virtual machines in the same way that you use VMFS datastores.

In addition to storing virtual disks on NFS datastores, you can use NFS as a central repository for ISO images, virtual machine templates, and so on. If you use the datastore for ISO images, you can connect the virtual machine's CD-ROM device to an ISO le on the datastore and install a guest operating system from the ISO le.

ESXi supports the following storage capabilities on most NFS volumes:

vMotion and Storage vMotion

High Availability (HA) and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

Fault Tolerance (FT) and Host Proles

N NFS 4.1 does not support legacy Fault Tolerance.

ISO images, which are presented as CD-ROMs to virtual machines

Virtual machine snapshots

Virtual machines with large capacity virtual disks, or disks greater than 2TB. Virtual disks created on

NFS datastores are thin-provisioned by default, unless you use hardware acceleration that supports the Reserve Space operation. NFS 4.1 does not support hardware acceleration. For information, see vSphere Storage.

NFS Storage Guidelines and Requirements

When using NFS storage, you must follow specic conguration, networking, and NFS datastore guidelines.

NFS Server Configuration Guidelines

Make sure that NFS servers you use are listed in the VMware HCL. Use the correct version for the server

rmware.

When conguring NFS storage, follow the recommendation of your storage vendor.

Ensure that the NFS volume is exported using NFS over TCP.

Make sure that the NFS server exports a particular share as either NFS 3 or NFS 4.1, but does not

provide both protocol versions for the same share. This policy needs to be enforced by the server because ESXi does not prevent mounting the same share through dierent NFS versions.

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NFS 3 and non-Kerberos NFS 4.1 do not support the delegate user functionality that enables access to

NFS volumes using nonroot credentials. If you use NFS 3 or non-Kerberos NFS 4.1, ensure that each host has root access to the volume. Dierent storage vendors have dierent methods of enabling this functionality, but typically this is done on the NAS servers by using the no_root_squash option. If the NAS server does not grant root access, you might still be able to mount the NFS datastore on the host. However, you will not be able to create any virtual machines on the datastore.

If the underlying NFS volume, on which les are stored, is read-only, make sure that the volume is

exported as a read-only share by the NFS server, or congure it as a read-only datastore on the ESXi host. Otherwise, the host considers the datastore to be read-write and might not be able to open the

les.

NFS Networking Guidelines

For network connectivity, the host requires a standard network adapter.

ESXi supports Layer 2 and Layer 3 Network switches. If you use Layer 3 switches, ESXi hosts and NFS

storage arrays must be on dierent subnets and the network switch must handle the routing information.

A VMkernel port group is required for NFS storage. You can create a new VMkernel port group for IP

storage on an already existing virtual switch (vSwitch) or on a new vSwitch when it is congured. The vSwitch can be a vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) or a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS).

If you use multiple ports for NFS trac, make sure that you correctly congure your virtual switches

and physical switches. For information, see the vSphere Networking documentation.

NFS 3 and non-Kerberos NFS 4.1 support IPv4 and IPv6.

NFS Datastore Guidelines

To use NFS 4.1, upgrade your vSphere environment to version 6.x. You cannot mount an NFS 4.1

datastore to hosts that do not support version 4.1.

You cannot use dierent NFS versions to mount the same datastore. NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 clients do not

use the same locking protocol. As a result, accessing the same virtual disks from two incompatible clients might result in incorrect behavior and cause data corruption.

NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 datastores can coexist on the same host.

vSphere does not support datastore upgrades from NFS version 3 to version 4.1.

When you mount the same NFS 3 volume on dierent hosts, make sure that the server and folder

names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match, the hosts see the same NFS version 3 volume as two dierent datastores. This error might result in a failure of such features as vMotion. An example of such discrepancy is entering filer as the server name on one host and filer.domain.com on the other. This guideline does not apply to NFS version 4.1.

If you use non-ASCII characters to name datastores and virtual machines, make sure that the

underlying NFS server oers internationalization support. If the server does not support international characters, use only ASCII characters, or unpredictable failures might occur.

Mount an NFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

Use the New datastore wizard to mount a Network File System (NFS) datastore in the VMware Host Client.

Prerequisites

Because NFS requires network connectivity to access data on remote servers, before conguring NFS, you must rst congure VMkernel networking.

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Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click New datastore.

The New datastore wizard opens.

3 Click Mount NFS datastore and click Next.

Provide NFS Details

Before you mount an NFS datastore in the VMware Host Client, you must specify a name, a server, and a share.

Procedure

1 Enter a name for the NFS datastore.

2 Enter the NFS server name.

For the server name, you can enter an IP address, a DNS name, or an NFS UUID.

N When you mount the same NFS volume on dierent hosts, make sure that the server and folder names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match, the hosts detect the same NFS volume as two dierent datastores. This might result in a failure of features such as vMotion. An example of such discrepancy is if you enter filer as the server name on one host and filer.domain.com on the other.

3 Specify the NFS share.

4 Click Next

Complete the NFS Datastore Mounting Process in the VMware Host Client

In the Ready to complete page you can review your conguration selections for your NFS datastore.

Procedure

Review the seings for the NFS datastore and click Finish.

Unmount a Datastore in the VMware Host Client

When you unmount a datastore in the VMware Host Client, it remains intact, but you can no longer view it in the inventory of the host that you manage. The datastore continues to appear on other hosts that it remains mounted on.

Do not perform any conguration operations that might result in I/O to the datastore while the unmount is in progress.

Prerequisites

N Make sure that the datastore is not used by vSphere HA heartbeating. vSphere HA heartbeating does not prevent you from unmouting the datastore. However, if the datastore is used for heartbeating, unmounting it might cause the host to fail and restart all active virtual machines.

Before unmounting a datastore, also make sure that the following prerequisites are met:

No virtual machines reside on the datastore.

The datastore is not managed by Storage DRS.

Storage I/O control is disabled for this datastore.

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Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Right-click the datastore to unmount from the list and click Unmount.

3 Conrm that you want to unmount the datastore.

Unmounting or Removing Datastore Fails

When you try to unmount or remove a datastore, the operation fails.

Problem

The operation to unmount or remove a datastore fails if the datastore has any opened les. For these user operations, the vSphere HA agent closes all of the les that it has opened, for example, heartbeat les. If the agent is not reachable by vCenter Server or the agent cannot ush out pending I/Os to close the les, a The

HA agent on host '{hostName}' failed to quiesce file activity on datastore '{dsName} fault is

triggered.

Cause

If the datastore to be unmounted or removed is used for heartbeating, vCenter Server excludes it from heartbeating and chooses a new one. However, the agent does not receive the updated heartbeat datastores if it is not reachable, that is, if the host is isolated or in a network partition. In such cases, heartbeat les are not closed and the user operation fails. The operation can also fail if the datastore is not accessible because of storage failures such as all paths down.

N When you remove a VMFS datastore, the datastore is removed from all the hosts in inventory. So if there are any hosts in a vSphere HA cluster that are unreachable or that cannot access the datastore, the operation fails.

Solution

Ensure that the datastore is accessible and the aected hosts are reachable.

Using Datastore File Browser in the VMware Host Client

Use the datastore le browser to manage the contents of your datastore. You can perform a number of tasks that include uploading les to the datastore, downloading datastore les to your system, moving and copying datastore folders or les, and creating new datastore directories.

Upload Files to a Datastore in the VMware Host Client

Use the datastore le browser to upload les to datastores on your host.

N Virtual Volumes do not support uploading les directly to the virtual datastores. You must rst create a folder on the virtual datastore, and then upload the les into the folder.

In addition to their traditional use as a storage for virtual machine les, datastores can serve to store data or les related to virtual machines. For example, you can upload ISO images of operating systems from a local computer to a datastore on the host. You then use these images to install guest operating systems on the new virtual machines.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

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2 Click File browser.

3 Select the datastore that you want to store the le on.

4 (Optional) Create a new datastore directory to store the le.

5 Select the target folder and click Upload

6 Locate the item that you want to upload from your local computer and click Open.

The le uploads to the datastore that you selected.

7 (Optional) Refresh the datastore le browser to see the uploaded le on the list.

8 Click Close to exit the le browser.

Download Files from a Datastore to Your System in the VMware Host Client

Use the datastore le browser to download les from the datastores available on the host that you are managing to your local system.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click File browser.

3 Select the target datastore.

4 Click the folder that contains the le that you want to download.

The available les in the folder are displayed.

5 Click the le that you want to download.

6 Click Download.

The le is downloaded to your system.

7 Click Close to exit the le browser.

Delete Files from a Datastore in the VMware Host Client

You can permanently remove les from any datastore if you no longer need them.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click File browser.

3 Select the target datastore.

4 Select the folder that contains the le that you want to delete.

The available les in the folder are displayed.

5 Click the le that you want to remove from the datastore, click Delete, and click Delete again.

6 Click Close to exit the le browser.

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Move Datastore Folders or Files in the VMware Host Client

Use the datastore le browser to move les or folders to a new location, either on the same datastore or on a dierent datastore.

N Virtual disk les are moved and copied without format conversion. If you move a virtual disk to a datastore on a type of host that is dierent from the type of the source host, you might need to convert the virtual disks before you can use them.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click File browser.

3 Select the target datastore.

4 Select the le or folder that you want to move to another location and click Move.

5 Select your target destination and click Move.

6 Click Close to exit the le browser.

Copy Datastore Folders or Files in the VMware Host Client

Use the datastore le browser to copy folders or les to a new location, either on the same datastore or on a dierent datastore.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click File browser.

3 Select the target datastore.

4 Select the le or folder that you want to move to another location and click Copy.

5 Select your target destination and click Copy.

6 Click Close to exit the le browser.

Create a New Datastore Directory in the VMware Host Client

You can create new datastore directories if you want to store les in a particular location.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Datastore.Browse Datastore

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Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Click File browser.

3 Click Create directory.

4 Select the target datastore.

5 (Optional) Enter a name for the new directory.

6 Click Create directory.

7 Click Close to exit the le browser.

Rename a Datastore in the VMware Host Client

You can change the display name of a datastore in the VMware Host Client.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Right-click a datastore in the list and select Rename from the drop-down menu.

3 Enter a new name for the datastore and click Save to apply your changes.

4 (Optional) Click Refresh to see the new name of the datastore in the list of available datastores.

Delete a VMFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

You can delete any type of VMFS datastore, including copies that you have mounted without resignaturing. When you delete a datastore, the datastore and all the les associated to the datastore are removed from the host.

N The datastore delete operation permanently deletes all les associated with virtual machines on the datastore. Although you can delete the datastore without unmounting, it is preferable that you unmount the datastore rst

Prerequisites

Remove all virtual machines from the datastore.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.

2 Right-click the datastore from the list and select Delete from the drop-down menu.

3 Click  to delete the datastore.

Storage Hardware Acceleration

The hardware acceleration functionality enables the ESXi host to integrate with compliant storage arrays and ooad specic virtual machine and storage management operations to storage hardware. With the storage hardware assistance, your host performs these operations faster and consumes less CPU, memory, and storage fabric bandwidth.

The hardware acceleration is supported by block storage devices, Fibre Channel and iSCSI, and NAS devices.

For additional details, see the VMware knowledge base article at hp://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021976.

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Disable Hardware Acceleration for Block Storage Devices in the VMware Host Client

Host hardware acceleration for block storage devices is enabled by default on all hosts. You can use the VMware Host Client advanced seings to disable hardware acceleration.

Changing advanced seings is considered unsupported unless VMware Technical Support instructs you to do so.

Prerequisites

Power o the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Click Virtual Machines in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Right-click the virtual machine in the list and select Edit  from the drop-down menu.

3 On the VM Options tab, expand Advanced.

4 Under , select Disable acceleration.

5 Click Save.

Storage Thin Provisioning in the VMware Host Client

With ESXi, you can use two models of thin provisioning, array-level and virtual-disk level thin provisioning.

Thin provisioning is a method that optimizes storage utilization by allocating storage space in a exible ondemand manner. Thin provisioning contrasts with the traditional model, called thick provisioning. With thick provisioning, a large amount of storage space is provided in advance in anticipation of future storage needs. However, the space might remain unused causing underutilization of storage capacity.

The VMware thin provisioning features help you eliminate storage underutilization problems at the datastore and storage array level.

Create Thin Provisioned Virtual Disks in the VMware Host Client

To save storage space, you can create thin provisioned virtual disks. The thin provisioned virtual disk starts small and grows as more disk space is required. You can create thin disks only on the datastores that support disk-level thin provisioning.

The following procedure assumes that you are creating a new virtual machine. For more information, see

“Creating a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client,” on page 33.

Procedure

1 Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Create/Register VM.

The New Virtual Machine wizard opens.

2 Select a method for adding a new virtual machine on the host and click Next.

3 Enter a name for your virtual machine.

4 Select the virtual machine compatibility from the Compatibility drop-down menu.

5 Select a guest operating system version from the Guest OS version drop-down menu and click Next.

6 From the list of accessible datastores on the Select storage page of the New Virtual Machine wizard,

select the destination datastore for the virtual machine conguration les and all of the virtual disks.

7 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk.

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8 Under Disk Provisioning, select the Thin provisioned radio buon and click Next.

9 On the Ready to complete page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, review the conguration seings

for the virtual machine and click Finish to save your seings.

View Virtual Machine Storage Resources in the VMware Host Client

You can view how datastore storage space is allocated for your virtual machines in the VMware Host Client.

Resource Consumption shows how much datastore space is occupied by virtual machine les, including conguration les, log les, snapshots, virtual disks, and so on. When the virtual machine is running, the used storage space also includes swap les.

For virtual machines with thin disks, the actual storage usage value might be less than the size of the virtual disk.

Procedure

1 Click the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory.

2 Review the Resource Consumption information in the lower right area of the virtual machine summary

page.

Determine the Disk Format of a Virtual Machine in VMware Host Client

You can determine whether your virtual disk is provisioned in thick or thin format.

Procedure

1 Right-click the virtual machine in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Edit .

2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk.

The Type text box shows the format of your virtual disk.

Managing Storage Adapters in the VMware Host Client

When you connect to a host or to vCenter Server by using the VMware Host Client, you can perform various tasks on your storage adapters, such as conguring various iSCSI components .

When you enable iSCSI on the host that you are managing in your VMware Host Client environment, you can congure and add new network port bindings, static and dynamic targets, you can manage CHAP authentication, and congure various advanced seings on your host storage.

View Storage Adapters in the VMware Host Client

View the storage adapters that your host uses and related information.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Adapters.

All storage adapters available to the host are listed under Adapters.

2 To view details for a specic adapter, select the adapter from the list.

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Configuring Software iSCSI Adapters in the VMware Host Client

With the software-based iSCSI implementation, you can use standard NICs to connect your host to a remote iSCSI target on the IP network. The software iSCSI adapter that is built into ESXi communicates with the physical NICs through the network stack.

N Before you can use the software iSCSI adapter, you must set up networking, activate the adapter, and congure parameters such as CHAP.

The iSCSI adapter conguration workow includes the following procedures:

Enabling iSCSI on your host. See“Enable iSCSI for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client,” on

page 99

Adding a port binding. See “Add Port Binding in the VMware Host Client,” on page 99

Removing port binding. See“Remove Port Binding in the VMware Host Client,” on page 100

Setting Up iSCSI Network

Software and dependent hardware iSCSI adapters depend on VMkernel networking. If you use the software or dependent hardware iSCSI adapters, you must congure connections for the trac between the iSCSI component and the physical network adapters.

Conguring the network connection involves creating a virtual VMkernel adapter for each physical network adapter. You then associate the VMkernel adapter with an appropriate iSCSI adapter. This process is called port binding.

For specic considerations on when and how to use network connections with software iSCSI, see the VMware knowledge base article at hp://kb.vmware.com/kb/2038869.

Multiple Network Adapters in iSCSI Configuration

If your host has more than one physical network adapter for software and dependent hardware iSCSI, use the adapters for multipathing.

You can connect the software iSCSI adapter with any physical NICs available on your host. The dependent iSCSI adapters must be connected only to their own physical NICs.

N Physical NICs must be on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage system they connect to.

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Figure 4‑1. Networking with iSCSI

physical NICs

vmnic1 vmnic2 vmnic1 vmnic2

physical NICs

with iSCSI

offload

capabilities

Host1

Host2

virtual

adapters

software iSCSI adapter dependent hardware iSCSI adapters

vSwitch

vmk1 vmk2 vmk1

vmhba33vmhba# vmhba34

vmk2

vSwitch

virtual

physical

Two physical NICs connected to

the software iSCSI adapter

Two physical NICs with iSCSI

offload capabilities

IP network

iSCSI storage iSCSI storage

Chapter 4 Managing Storage in the VMware Host Client

The iSCSI adapter and physical NIC connect through a virtual VMkernel adapter, also called virtual network adapter or VMkernel port. You create a VMkernel adapter (vmk) on a vSphere switch (vSwitch) using 1:1 mapping between each virtual and physical network adapter.

One way to achieve the 1:1 mapping when you have multiple NICs, is to designate a separate vSphere switch for each virtual-to-physical adapter pair.

N If you use separate vSphere switches, you must connect them to dierent IP subnets. Otherwise, VMkernel adapters might experience connectivity problems and the host will fail to discover iSCSI LUNs.

The following examples show congurations that use vSphere standard switches, but you can use distributed switches as well. For more information about vSphere distributed switches, see the vSphere Networking documentation.

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VMkernel adapters

Physical adapters

vmnic1

iSCSI1

vmk1

vSwitch1

VMkernel adapters

Physical adapters

vmnic2

iSCSI2

vmk2

vSwitch2

VMkernel adapters

Physical adapters

vmnic2

vmnic1

iSCSI2

vmk2

iSCSI1

vmk1

vSwitch1

vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client

Figure 4‑2. 1:1 adapter mapping on separate vSphere standard switches

An alternative is to add all NICs and VMkernel adapters to a single vSphere standard switch. In this case, you must override the default network setup and make sure that each VMkernel adapter maps to only one corresponding active physical adapter.

N You must use the single vSwitch conguration if VMkernel adapters are on the same subnet.

Figure 4‑3. 1:1 adapter mapping on a single vSphere standard switch

The following table summarises the iSCSI networking conguration discussed in this topic.

Table 4‑1. Networking configuration for iSCSI

iSCSI Adapters VMkernel Adapters (Ports) Physical Adapters (NICs)

Software iSCSI

vmhba32 vmk1 vmnic1

vmk2 vmnic2

Dependent Hardware iSCSI

vmhba33 vmk1 vmnic1

vmhba34 vmk2 vmnic2

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Chapter 4 Managing Storage in the VMware Host Client

Enable iSCSI for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Enable iSCSI for your host in your VMware Host Client environment to congure storage adapters parameters, such as CHAP authentication, network port bindings, static and dynamic targets, and various advanced seings.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory, click Adapters, and click  iSCSI.

2 Select the Enabled radio buon.

3 (Optional) Congure the parameters and components that you want to change.

4 Click Save .

Guidelines for Using iSCSI Port Binding in ESXi

You can use multiple VMkernel adapters bound to iSCSI to have multiple paths to an iSCSI array that broadcasts a single IP address.

When you use port binding for multipathing, follow these guidelines:

iSCSI ports of the array target must reside in the same broadcast domain and IP subnet as the VMkernel

adapters.

All VMkernel adapters used for iSCSI port binding must reside in the same broadcast domain and IP

subnet.

All VMkernel adapters used for iSCSI connectivity must reside in the same virtual switch.

Port binding does not support network routing.

Do not use port binding when any of the following conditions exist:

Array target iSCSI ports are in a dierent broadcast domain and IP subnet.

VMkernel adapters used for iSCSI connectivity exist in dierent broadcast domains, IP subnets, or use

dierent virtual switches.

Routing is required to reach the iSCSI array.

Add Port Binding in the VMware Host Client

Use the VMware Host Client to bind an iSCSI adapter with a VMkernel adapter on your host.

Prerequisites

Create a virtual VMkernel adapter for each physical network adapter on your host. If you use multiple

VMkernel adapters, set up the correct network policy.

Required privilege:Host..Storage Partition 

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory, click Adapters, and click  iSCSI.

2 In the Network port bindings section, click Add port binding.

3 Select a VMkernel adapter to bind with the iSCSI adapter.

N Make sure that the network policy for the VMkernel adapter is compliant with the binding requirements.

You can bind the software iSCSI adapter to one or more VMkernel adapters. For a dependent hardware iSCSI adapter, only one VMkernel adapter associated with the correct physical NIC is available.

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4 Click Select.

5 Click Save .

Remove Port Binding in the VMware Host Client

Edit the iSCSI conguration on your host to remove a port binding.

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory, click Adapters, and click  iSCSI.

2 In the Network port bindings section, select a VMkernel NIC from the list.

3 Click Remove port binding.

4 Click Save .

Configuring Discovery Addresses for iSCSI Adapters

You need to set up target discovery addresses, so that the iSCSI adapter can determine which storage resource on the network is available for access.

The ESXi system supports these discovery methods:

Dynamic Discovery

Static Discovery

Set Up a Static Target in the VMware Host Client

With iSCSI initiators, you can use static discovery to manually enter information for the targets.

When you set up Static Discovery, you can only add new iSCSI targets. You cannot change the IP address, DNS name, iSCSI target name, or port number of an existing target. To make changes, remove the existing target and add a new one.

Also known as SendTargets discovery. Each time the initiator contacts a specied iSCSI server, the initiator sends the SendTargets request to the server. The server responds by supplying a list of available targets to the initiator. The names and IP addresses of these targets appear on the Static Discovery tab. If you remove a static target added by dynamic discovery, the target might be returned to the list the next time a rescan happens, the iSCSI adapter is reset, or the host is rebooted.

N With software and dependent hardware iSCSI, ESXi lters target addresses based on the IP family of the iSCSI server address specied. If the address is IPv4, IPv6 addresses that might come in the SendTargets response from the iSCSI server are ltered out. When DNS names are used to specify an iSCSI server, or when the SendTargets response from the iSCSI server has DNS names, ESXi relies on the IP family of the rst resolved entry from DNS lookup.

In addition to the dynamic discovery method, you can use static discovery and manually enter information for the targets. The iSCSI adapter uses a list of targets that you provide to contact and communicate with the iSCSI servers.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Host..Storage Partition 

Procedure

1 Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory, click Adapters, and click  iSCSI.

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VMware ESXI - 6.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

VMware Host Client Overview 1

VMware Host Client System Requirements

Using the VMware Host Client

Start the VMware Host Client and Log In

Log Out of the VMware Host Client

Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program

Categories of Information That VMware Receives

Leave and Rejoin the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the VMware Host Client

Managing System Settings in the VMware Host Client

Manage Advanced Settings in the VMware Host Client

Change Autostart Configuration in the VMware Host Client

Edit Time Configuration of an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Managing Hardware for an ESXi Host by Using the VMware Host Client

Host Power Management Policies

Change Power Management Policies in the VMware Host Client

Licensing for ESXi Hosts

View Licensing Information About the VMware Host Client Environment

Assign a License Key to an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Remove a License from an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Update Your VMware Host Client Environment to the Latest Version

Manage Services in the VMware Host Client

Managing Security and Users for an ESXi Host by Using the VMware Host Client

Managing Host Authentication by Using the VMware Host Client

Join an ESXi Host to a Directory Service Domain by Using the VMware Host Client

Using Active Directory to Manage ESXi Users

Using vSphere Authentication Proxy

Managing Host Certificates by Using the VMware Host Client

View Certificate Details for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Import a New Certificate for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Managing Users with the VMware Host Client

Add an ESXi User in the VMware Host Client

Update an ESXi User in the VMware Host Client

Remove a Local ESXi User from a Host in the VMware Host Client

Managing ESXi Roles in the VMware Host Client

Add a Role in the VMware Host Client

Update a Role in the VMware Host Client

Remove a Role in the VMware Host Client

Managing Hosts in vCenter Server

Unable to Connect from the VMware Host Client to an ESXi Host after Upgrading to ESXi 6.0 or Later

Switch to the vSphere Web Client

Disconnect an ESXi Host from vCenter Server by Using the VMware Host Client

Reboot or Shut Down an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Using the ESXi Shell

Enable the Secure Shell (SSH) in the VMware Host Client

Enable the ESXi Console Shell in the VMware Host Client

Place a Host in Maintenance Mode in the VMware Host Client

Managing Permissions in the VMware Host Client

Permission Validation

Assign Permissions to a User for an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

Remove Permissions for a User in the VMware Host Client

Assign a User Permissions for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Remove Permissions for a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Generate a Support Bundle in the VMware Host Client

Monitoring an ESXi Host in the VMware Host Client

View Charts in the VMware Host Client

Monitor Hardware Health Status in the VMware Host Client

View Events in the VMware Host Client

View Tasks in the VMware Host Client

View System Logs in the VMware Host Client

View Notifications in the VMware Host Client

Lockdown Mode

Put an ESXi Host in Normal Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

Put an ESXi Host in Strict Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

Exit Lockdown Mode by Using the VMware Host Client

Specify Lockdown Mode Exception Users in the VMware Host Client

Administering CPU Resources by Using the VMware Host Client

View Processor Information by Using the VMware Host Client

Assign a Virtual Machine to a Specific Processor in the VMware Host Client

Creating a Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Start the Virtual Machine Creation Process in the VMware Host Client

Select a Method for Adding a New Virtual Machine on the Host with the VMware Host Client

Select a Name and a Guest Operating System for the Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Select a Storage for Your Virtual Machine in the VMware Host Client

Customize the Virtual Machine Settings in the VMware Host Client

Complete Virtual Machine Creation in the VMware Host Client