VMware ESXI - 6.0.1 Administrator’s Guide

vSphere Virtual Machine

Administration

Update 1

ESXi 6.0

vCenter Server 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-001887-03

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

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

http://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

VMware, Inc.

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

2 VMware, Inc.

About vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration describes how to create, configure, and manage virtual machines in the VMware vSphere® environment.

In addition, this information provides introductions to the tasks that you can do within the system as well as cross-references to the information that describes the tasks.

This information focuses on managing virtual machines in the VMware vSphere Web Client and includes the following information.

Creating and deploying virtual machines, templates, and clones

n

Deploying OVF templates

n

Configuring virtual machine hardware and options

n

Managing multitiered applications with VMware vSphere vApp

n

Monitoring solutions with the vCenter Solution Manager

n

Managing virtual machines, including using snapshots

n

Configuring and installing VMware tools

n

Upgrading virtual machines

n

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration covers VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server™.

Intended Audience

This information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with virtualization.

VMware, Inc.

7

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

8 VMware, Inc.

Updated Information

This vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.

This table provides the update history of the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide.

Revision Description

EN-001887-03 Added information about the guest Introspection drivers. See “VMware Tools Device Drivers,”

on page 204 and “Names of VMware Tools Components Used in Silent Installations,” on page 234.

EN-001887-02

EN-001887-01

EN-001887-00 Initial release.

Added a new topic about the HTML 5 Remote console to a virtual machine. See “Open the HTML 5

n

Remote Console,” on page 188.

Updated information about the virtual machine remote consoles. See “Using a Virtual Machine

n

Remote Console,” on page 187.

Updated requirements for upgrading the virtual machine compatibility. See “Upgrade the

n

Compatibility for Virtual Machines,” on page 246.

Removed Datastore.Allocate space privilege from privileges required to take a virtual machine

n

snapshot. See Chapter 13, “Required Privileges for Common Tasks,” on page 249.

Updated procedure for using the VMware Remote Console. See “Using the VMware Remote Console

n

Application,” on page 189.

Enhanced the topic about using content libraries to reflect that a published and a subscribed library

n

do not necessarily need to belong to vCenter Server instances that are in the same vCenter SingleSign On domain. See Chapter 4, “Using Content Libraries,” on page 71.

VMware, Inc. 9

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

10 VMware, Inc.

Introduction to VMware vSphere

Virtual Machines 1

Before you start creating and managing virtual machines, you benefit from some background information, for example, the virtual machine lifecycle, components, and VMware Tools.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“What Is a Virtual Machine?,” on page 11

n

“Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure,” on page 12

n

“Virtual Machine Lifecycle,” on page 13

n

“Virtual Machine Components,” on page 13

n

“Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines,” on page 13

n

“Virtual Machine Options and Resources,” on page 15

n

“vSphere Web Client,” on page 16

n

“Introduction to VMware Tools,” on page 17

n

“Where to Go From Here,” on page 17

n

What Is a Virtual Machine?

A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications. The virtual machine consists of a set of specification and configuration files and is backed by the physical resources of a host. Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same functionality as physical hardware are more portable, more secure, and easier to manage.

A virtual machine consists of several files that are stored on a storage device. The key files are the configuration file, virtual disk file, NVRAM setting file, and log file. You configure virtual machine settings through the vSphere Web Client, one of the vSphere command-line interfaces (PowerCLI, vCLI) or the vSphere Web Services SDK.

CAUTION Do not change, move, or delete virtual machine files without instructions from a VMware Technical Support representative.

Table 1‑1. Virtual Machine Files

File Usage Description

.vmx vmname.vmx

.vmxf vmname.vmxf

.vmdk vmname.vmdk

-flat.vmdk vmname-flat.vmdk

Virtual machine configuration file

Additional virtual machine configuration files

Virtual disk characteristics

Virtual machine data disk

VMware, Inc. 11

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Table 1‑1. Virtual Machine Files (Continued)

File Usage Description

.nvram vmname.nvram or nvram

.vmsd vmname.vmsd

.vmsn vmname.vmsn

.vswp vmname.vswp

.vmss vmname.vmss

.log vmware.log

-#.log vmware-#.log (where # is a number

starting with 1)

Virtual machine BIOS or EFI configuration

Virtual machine snapshots

Virtual machine snapshot data file

Virtual machine swap file

Virtual machine suspend file

Current virtual machine log file

Old virtual machine log files

Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure

The infrastructure that supports virtual machines consists of at least two software layers, virtualization and management. In vSphere, ESXi provides the virtualization capabilities that aggregate and present the host hardware to virtual machines as a normalized set of resources. Virtual machines can run on ESXi hosts that vCenter Server manages.

vCenter Server lets you pool and manage the resources of multiple hosts and lets you effectively monitor and manage your physical and virtual infrastructure. You can manage resources for virtual machines, provision virtual machines, schedule tasks, collect statistics logs, create templates, and more. vCenter Server also provides vSphere vMotion ™, vSphere Storage vMotion, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), vSphere High Availability (HA), and vSphere Fault Tolerance. These services enable efficient and automated resource management and high availability for virtual machines.

The VMware vSphere Web Client is the interface to vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines. With the vSphere Web Client, you can connect remotely to vCenter Server. The vSphere Web Client is the primary interface for managing all aspects of the vSphere environment. It also provides console access to virtual machines.

NOTE For information about running virtual machines on an isolated ESXi host, see the vSphere Single Host Management documentation.

The vSphere Web Client presents the organizational hierarchy of managed objects in inventory views. Inventories are the hierarchal structure used by vCenter Server or the host to organize managed objects. This hierarchy includes the monitored objects in vCenter Server.

In the vCenter Server hierarchy, a data center is the primary container of ESXi hosts, folders, clusters, resource pools, vSphere vApps, virtual machines, and so on.

Datastores are virtual representations of underlying physical storage resources in the data center. A datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk or LUN on a RAID, or a SAN) for virtual machine files. Datastores hide the idiosyncrasies of the underlying physical storage and present a uniform model for the storage resources required by virtual machines.

For some resources, options, or hardware to be available to virtual machines, the host must have the appropriate vSphere license. Licensing in vSphere is applicable to ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and solutions. Licensing can be based on different criteria, depending on the specifics of each product. For details about vSphere licensing, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.

12 VMware, Inc.

Virtual Machine Lifecycle

You create and deploy virtual machines into your datacenter in a several ways. You can create a single virtual machine and install a guest operating system and VMware Tools on it. You can clone or create a template from an existing virtual machine, or deploy OVF templates.

The vSphere Web Client New Virtual Machine wizard and Virtual Machine Properties editor let you add, configure, or remove most of the virtual machine's hardware, options, and resources. You monitor CPU, memory, disk, network, and storage metrics using the performance charts in the vSphere Web Client. Snapshots let you capture the state of the virtual machine, including the virtual machine memory, settings, and virtual disks. You can roll back to the previous virtual machine state when needed.

With vSphere vApps, you can manage multitiered applications. You use vSphere Update Manager to perform orchestrated upgrades to upgrade the virtual hardware and VMware Tools of virtual machines in the inventory at the same time.

When a virtual machine is no longer needed, you can remove it from the inventory without deleting it from the datastore, or you can delete the virtual machine and all its files.

Virtual Machine Components

Virtual machines typically have an operating system, VMware Tools, and virtual resources and hardware that you manage in much the same way as you would manage a physical computer.

Chapter 1 Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines

You install a guest operating system on a virtual machine the same way as you install an operating system on a physical computer. You must have a CD/DVD-ROM or ISO image containing the installation files from an operating system vendor.

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine. With VMware Tools, you have more control over the virtual machine interface.

In the vSphere Web Client, you assign each virtual machine to a compatible ESXi host version, cluster, or datacenter by applying a compatibility setting. The compatibility setting determines which ESXi host versions the virtual machine can run on and the hardware features available to the virtual machine.

The hardware devices listed in the Virtual Machine Properties editor complete the virtual machine. Not all devices are configurable. Some hardware devices are part of the virtual motherboard and appear in the expanded device list of the Virtual Machine Properties editor, but you cannot modify or remove them. For a list of hardware devices and their functions, see “Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual

Machines,” on page 13.

Access to a virtual machine is controlled by the vSphere administrator.

Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines

VMware provides devices, resources, profiles, and vServices that you can configure or add to your virtual machine.

Virtual Machine Hardware

Not all hardware devices are available to every virtual machine. The host that the virtual machine runs on and the guest operating system must support devices that you add or configurations that you make. To verify support for a device in your environment, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility or the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.

VMware, Inc. 13

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

In some cases, the host might not have the required vSphere license for a resource or device. Licensing in vSphere is applicable to ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and solutions and can be based on different criteria, depending on the specifics of each product. For information about vSphere licensing, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.

The PCI and SIO virtual hardware devices are part of the virtual motherboard, but cannot be configured or removed.

Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions

Hardware Device Description

CPU You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host to have one or

Chipset The motherboard uses VMware proprietary devices based on the following

DVD/CD-ROM Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine. You can

Floppy Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine. You can

Hard Disk Stores the virtual machine's operating system, program files, and other data

IDE 0, IDE 1 By default, two Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interfaces are presented to

Keyboard Mirrors the keyboard that is connected to the virtual machine console when you

Memory The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory applications

Network Adapter ESXi networking features provide communication between virtual machines on

Parallel port Interface for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual parallel

PCI controller Bus on the virtual machine motherboard that communicates with components

more virtual processors. A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. You can change the number of CPUs allocated to a virtual machine and configure advanced CPU features, such as the CPU Identification Mask and hyperthreaded core sharing.

chips:

Intel 440BX AGPset 82443BX Host Bridge/Controller

n

Intel 82371AB (PIIX4) PCI ISA IDE Xcelerator

n

National Semiconductor PC87338 ACPI 1.0 and PC98/99 Compliant

n

SuperI/O

Intel 82093AA I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller

n

configure DVD/CD-ROM devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or datastore ISO files. You can add, remove, or configure DVD/CD-ROM devices.

connect to a floppy drive located on the ESXi host, a floppy (.flp) image, or the floppy drive on your local system. You can add, remove, or configure floppy devices.

associated with its activities. A virtual disk is a large physical file, or a set of files, that can be copied, moved, archived, and backed up as easily as any other file.

the virtual machine. The IDE interface (controller) is a standard way for storage devices (Floppy drives, hard drives and CD-ROM drives) to connect to the virtual machine.

first connect to the console.

that are running inside the virtual machine have available to them. A virtual machine cannot benefit from more memory resources than its configured virtual hardware memory size.

the same host, between virtual machines on different hosts, and between other virtual and physical machines. When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.

port can connect to a file. You can add, remove, or configure virtual parallel ports.

such as hard disks and other devices. One PCI controller is presented to the virtual machine. You cannot configure or remove this device.

14 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 1 Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines

Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions (Continued)

Hardware Device Description

PCI Device You can add up to 16 PCI vSphere DirectPath devices to a virtual machine. The

devices must be reserved for PCI passthrough on the host on which the virtual machine runs. Snapshots are not supported with DirectPath I/O passthrough devices.

Pointing device Mirrors the pointing device that is connected to the virtual machine console

when you first connect to the console.

Serial Port Interface for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual serial

port can connect to a physical serial port, to a file on the host computer, or over the network. 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 configure a virtual machine with up to 32 serial ports. You can add, remove, or configure virtual serial ports.

SATA controller Provides access to virtual disks and DVD/CD-ROM devices. The SATA virtual

controller appears to a virtual machine as an AHCI SATA Controller.

SCSI controller Provides access to virtual disks. The SCSI virtual controller appears to a virtual

machine as different types of controllers, including LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual. You can change the SCSI controller type, allocate bus sharing for a virtual machine, or add a paravirtualized SCSI controller.

SCSI device By default, a SCSI device interface is available to the virtual machine. The SCSI

interface is a typical way to connect storage devices (floppy drives, hard drives, and DVD/CD-ROMs) to a virtual machine. You can add, remove, or configure SCSI devices.

SIO controller Provides serial and parallel ports, floppy devices, and performs system

management activities. One SIO controller is available to the virtual machine. You cannot configure or remove this device.

USB controller The USB hardware chip that provides USB function to the USB ports that it

manages. The virtual USB Controller is the software virtualization of the USB host controller function in the virtual machine.

USB device You can add multiple USB devices, such as security dongles and mass storage

devices, to a virtual machine. The USB devices can be connected to an ESXi host or a client computer.

VMCI Virtual Machine Communication Interface device. Provides a high-speed

communication channel between a virtual machine and the hypervisor. You cannot add or remove VMCI devices.

Virtual Machine Options and Resources

Each virtual device performs the same function for the virtual machine as hardware on a physical computer does.

A virtual machine might be running in any of several locations, such as ESXi hosts, datacenters, clusters, or resource pools. Many of the options and resources that you configure have dependencies on and relationships with these objects.

Every virtual machine has CPU, memory, and disk resources. CPU virtualization emphasizes performance and runs directly on the processor whenever possible. The underlying physical resources are used whenever possible. The virtualization layer runs instructions only as needed to make virtual machines operate as if they were running directly on a physical machine.

All recent operating systems provide support for virtual memory, allowing software to use more memory than the machine physically has. Similarly, the ESXi hypervisor provides support for overcommitting virtual machine memory, where the amount of guest memory configured for all virtual machines might be larger than the amount of the host's physical memory.

VMware, Inc. 15

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

You can add virtual disks and add more space to existing disks, even when the virtual machine is running. You can also change the device node and allocate shares of disk bandwidth to the virtual machine.

VMware virtual machines have the following options:

General Options

VMware Tools

Advanced Options

Power Management

CPUID Mask

Memory/CPU Hotplug

Boot Options

View or modify the virtual machine name, and check the location of the configuration file and the working location of the virtual machine.

Manage the power controls for the virtual machine and run VMware Tools scripts. You can also upgrade VMware Tools during power cycling and synchronize guest time with the host.

Disable acceleration and enable logging, configure debugging and statistics, and change the swap file location. You can also change the latency sensitivity and add configuration parameters.

Manage guest power options. Suspend the virtual machine or leave the virtual machine powered on when you put the guest operating system into standby.

Hide or expose the NX/XD flag. Hiding the NX/XD flag increases vMotion compatibility between hosts.

Enable or disable CPU and memory hotplug. You can add Memory or CPU resources to a virtual machine while the virtual machine is running. You can disable Memory or CPU hotplug to avoid adding memory or CPUs while the virtual machine is running. Memory hotplug is supported on all 64 bit operating systems, but to use the added memory, the guest operating system must also support this feature. See the VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Set the boot delay when powering on virtual machines or to force BIOS setup and configure failed boot recovery.

Fibre Channel NPIV

vApp Options

vSphere Web Client

All administrative functions are available through the vSphere Web Client.

The vSphere Web Client is a cross platform application that can connect only to vCenter Server. It has a full range of administrative functionality and an extensible plug-in-based architecture. Typical users are virtual infrastructure administrators, help desk, network operations center operators, and virtual machine owners.

Users can use the vSphere Web Client to access vCenter Server through a Web browser. The vSphere Web Client uses the VMware API to mediate the communication between the browser and the vCenter Server.

Control virtual machine access to LUNs on a per-virtual machine basis. Nport ID virtualization (NPIV) provides the ability to share a single physical Fibre Channel HBA port among multiple virtual ports, each with unique identifiers.

Enable or disable vApp functionality. When you select the checkbox, you can view and edit vApp properties, vApp Deployment options, and vApp Authoring options. For example, you can configure an IP allocation policy or a network protocol profile for the vApp. A vApp option that is specified at the level of a virtual machine overrides the settings specified at the level of the vApp.

16 VMware, Inc.

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:

Significantly faster graphics performance and Windows Aero on operating systems that support Aero

n

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

n

any other application window

Shared folders between host and guest file systems

n

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

n

Improved mouse performance

n

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

n

Scripting that helps automate guest operating system operations

n

Runs pre-freeze and post-thaw quiescing scripts

n

Enables capturing quiesced snapshots of guest operating systems

n

Chapter 1 Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines

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

n

and sends it to ESXi hosts.

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

n

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

n

guestinfo.ovfEnv that contains the XML document.

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.

VMware highly recommends that you always run the latest version of VMware Tools. You can configure your virtual machines 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 the “Configure Virtual Machines to Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools,” on page 158 topic.

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 general instructions about installing VMware Tools, see the VMware Knowledge base article at

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014294.

Where to Go From Here

You must create, provision, and deploy your virtual machines before you can manage them.

To begin provisioning virtual machines, determine whether to create a single virtual machine and install an operating system and VMware tools, work with templates and clones, or deploy virtual machines, virtual appliances, or vApps stored in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF).

VMware, Inc. 17

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

After you provision and deploy virtual machines into the vSphere infrastructure, you can configure and manage them. You can configure existing virtual machines by modifying or adding hardware or install or upgrade VMware Tools. You might need to manage multitiered applications with VMware vApps or change virtual machine startup and shutdown settings, use virtual machine snapshots, work with virtual disks, or add, remove, or delete virtual machines from the inventory.

18 VMware, Inc.

Deploying Virtual Machines 2

To deploy virtual machines in the vCenter Server inventory, you can deploy from a template, create a virtual machine, or clone an existing virtual machine.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“About Provisioning Virtual Machines,” on page 19

n

“Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone,” on page 20

n

“Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template,” on page 26

n

“Clone a Virtual Machine,” on page 32

n

“Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 38

n

“Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 42

n

“Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine,” on page 45

n

“Customizing Guest Operating Systems,” on page 47

n

About Provisioning Virtual Machines

VMware provides several methods to provision vSphere virtual machines. The optimal method for your environment depends on factors such as the size and type of your infrastructure and the goals that you want to achieve.

VMware, Inc.

Create a single virtual machine if no other virtual machines in your environment have the requirements you are looking for, such as a particular operating system or hardware configuration. For example, you might need a virtual machine that is configured only for testing purposes. You can also create a single virtual machine and install an operating system on it, and then use that virtual machine as a template from which to clone other virtual machines. See “Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone,” on page 20.

Deploy and export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps stored in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) to use a preconfigured virtual machine. A virtual appliance is a virtual machine that typically has an operating system and other software installed. You can deploy virtual machines from local file systems, such as local disks (for example, C:), removable media (for example, CDs or USB keychain drives), and shared network drives. See Chapter 3, “Deploying OVF Templates,” on page 63.

Create a template to deploy multiple virtual machines from. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that you can use to create and provision virtual machines. Use templates to save time. If you have a virtual machine that you will clone frequently, make that virtual machine a template. See “Deploy a Virtual

Machine from a Template,” on page 26.

Cloning a virtual machine can save time if you are deploying many similar virtual machines. You can create, configure, and install software on a single virtual machine. You can clone it multiple times, rather than creating and configuring each virtual machine individually. See “Clone a Virtual Machine,” on page 32.

19

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Cloning a virtual machine to a template preserves a master copy of the virtual machine so that you can create additional templates. For example, you can create one template, modify the original virtual machine by installing additional software in the guest operating system, and create another template. See Clone a

Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client.

Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone

You can create a single virtual machine if no other virtual machines in your environment have the requirements you are looking for, such as a particular operating system or hardware configuration. When you create a virtual machine without a template or clone, you can configure the virtual hardware, including processors, hard disks, and memory.

During the creation process a default disk is configured for the virtual machine. You can remove this disk and add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk on the Customize hardware page of the wizard.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the following privileges:

Virtual machine.Inventory.Create new on the destination folder or datacenter.

n

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are

n

adding a new disk.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add existing disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are

n

adding an existing disk.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Raw device on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are using a

n

RDM or SCSI pass-through device.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Host USB device on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are

n

attaching a virtual USB device backed by a host USB device.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Advanced on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are

n

configuring advanced virtual machine settings.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Swapfile placement on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are

n

configuring swapfile placement.

Virtual machine.Configuration.Disk change tracking on the destination folder or datacenter, if you

n

are enabling change tracking on the virtual machine's disks.

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.

n

Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.

n

Network.Assign network on the network that the virtual machine will be assigned to.

n

To verify the privileges assigned to your role, see the Required Privileges for Common Tasks topic in the vSphere Security documentation.

Procedure

1 Start the New Virtual Machine Creation Process on page 21

If you need a single virtual machine with a particular operating system and hardware configuration, you create a new virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine.

20 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

2 Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 22

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

3 Select a Resource on page 22

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

4 Select a Datastore on page 22

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected.

5 Select the Virtual Machine Compatibility on page 23

You can accept the default ESXi host version for this virtual machine or select a different version, depending on the hosts in your environment.

6 Select a Guest Operating System on page 23

The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs available for the virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine wizard does not install the guest operating system. The wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the amount of memory needed.

7 Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 24

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

8 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 24

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

9 Installing a Guest Operating System on page 24

A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools. Installing a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a physical computer.

Start the New Virtual Machine Creation Process

If you need a single virtual machine with a particular operating system and hardware configuration, you create a new virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a datacenter,

folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.

2 Select Create a new virtual machine and click Next.

VMware, Inc. 21

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.

The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk, win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.

Procedure

1 Type a name for the virtual machine.

2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides. If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.

If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

Select a Datastore

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected.

On the Customize hardware page, you can configure the storage. For example, you can add a new hard disk, apply a Virtual machine storage policy, or place the configuration and disk files on separate storage devices.

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

22 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Procedure

Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files.

u

Option Action

Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore.

Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.

Select a datastore and click Next.

a Select a datastore cluster.

b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual

machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster.

c Click Next.

Select the Virtual Machine Compatibility

You can accept the default ESXi host version for this virtual machine or select a different version, depending on the hosts in your environment.

The default compatibility for this virtual machine is determined by the host on which the virtual machine is created or by the default compatibility settings on the host, cluster, or datacenter. You can select a different compatibility from the default.

Only host versions that are in your environment appear in the Compatible with drop-down menu. For information about choices and compatibility strategies, see “Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 89.

Procedure

Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click Next.

u

Select a Guest Operating System

The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs available for the virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine wizard does not install the guest operating system. The wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the amount of memory needed.

For details, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

When you select a guest operating system, BIOS or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is selected by default, depending on the firmware supported by the operating system. Mac OS X Server guest operating systems support only EFI. If the operating system supports BIOS and EFI, you can change the default from the Options tab of the Virtual Machine Properties editor after you create the virtual machine and before you install the guest operating system. If you select EFI, you cannot boot an operating system that supports only BIOS, and the reverse.

IMPORTANT Do not change the firmware after the guest operating system is installed. The guest operating system installer partitions the disk in a particular format, depending on which firmware the installer was booted from. If you change the firmware, you will not be able to boot the guest.

The Mac OS X Server must run on Apple hardware. You cannot power on a Mac OS X Server if it is running on other hardware.

Procedure

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

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

3 If you selected Other as the guest operating system family, and Other (32-bit) or Other (64-bit) for the

version, type a name for the operating system in the text box.

VMware, Inc. 23

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

4 Click Next.

Customize Virtual Machine Hardware

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks, see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.

For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine

Hardware,” on page 89.

Procedure

1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down

menu and click Add.

2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.

3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.

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

4 Click Next.

Finish Virtual Machine Creation

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Procedure

1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

Installing a Guest Operating System

A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools. Installing a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a physical computer.

The basic steps for a typical operating system are described in this section. See the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.

Using PXE with Virtual Machines

You can start a virtual machine from a network device and remotely install a guest operating system using a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). You do not need the operating system installation media. When you turn on the virtual machine, the virtual machine detects the PXE server.

PXE booting is supported for Guest Operating Systems that are listed in the VMware Guest Operating System Compatibility list and whose operating system vendor supports PXE booting of the operating system.

The virtual machine must meet the following requirements:

Have a virtual disk without operating system software and with enough free disk space to store the

n

intended system software.

24 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Have a network adapter connected to the network where the PXE server resides.

n

For details about guest operating system installation, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.

Install a Guest Operating System from Media

You can install a guest operating system from a CD-ROM or from an ISO image. Installing from an ISO image is typically faster and more convenient than a CD-ROM installation.

If the virtual machine’s boot sequence progresses too quickly for you to open a console to the virtual machine and enter BIOS or EFI setup, you might need to delay the boot order. See “Delay the Boot

Sequence,” on page 160.

Prerequisites

Verify that the installation ISO image is present on a VMFS datastore or network file system (NFS)

n

volume accessible to the ESXi host.

Verify that you have the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.

n

Procedure

1 Log in to the vCenter Server system or host on which the virtual machine resides.

2 Select an installation method.

Option Action

CD-ROM

ISO image

Insert the installation CD-ROM for your guest operating system into the CD-ROM drive of your ESXi host.

a Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. The virtual

machine Edit Settings dialog box opens. If the Virtual Hardware tab is not preselected, select it.

b Select Datastore ISO File from the CD/DVD drop-down menu, and

browse for the ISO image for your guest operating system.

3 Right-click the virtual machine and select Power On.

A green right arrow appears next to the virtual machine icon in the inventory list.

4 Follow the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.

What to do next

Install VMware Tools. VMware highly recommends running the latest version of VMware Tools on your guest operating systems. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality and convenience without them. See Chapter 12, “Upgrading Virtual Machines,” on page 225 for instructions on installing and upgrading VMware Tools.

Upload ISO Image Installation Media for a Guest Operating System

You can upload an ISO image file to a datastore from your local computer. You can do this when a virtual machine, host, or cluster does not have access to a datastore or to a shared datastore that has the guest operating system installation media that you require.

Prerequisites

Verify that the Client Integration Plug-In is installed. See “Install the Client Integration Plug-In,” on

n

page 187. The installation process requires you to close any open browsers.

Required privileges:

n

Datastore.Browse datastore on the datastore.

n

VMware, Inc. 25

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Datastore.Low level file operations on the datastore.

n

Procedure

1 In the inventory, click Datastores and on the Objects tab, select the datastore to which you will upload

the file.

2

Click the Navigate to the datastore file browser icon (

3 (Optional) Click the Create a new folder icon.

4

Select the folder that you created or select an existing folder, and click the Upload a File icon ( ).

5 If the Client Integration Access Control dialog box appears, click Allow to allow the plug-in to access

your operating system and proceed with the file upload.

6 On the local computer, find the file and upload it.

ISO upload times vary, depending on file size and network upload speed.

7 Refresh the datastore file browser to see the uploaded file in the list.

What to do next

After you upload the ISO image installation media, you can configure the virtual machine CD-ROM drive to access the file.

).

Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template

Deploying a virtual machine from a template creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the template. The new virtual machine has the virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that are configured for the template.

Prerequisites

You must have the following privileges to deploy a virtual machine from a template:

Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.

n

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder. Required

n

only if you customize the original hardware by adding a new virtual disk.

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Deploy template on the source template.

n

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.

n

Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore.

n

Network.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned. Required only

n

if you customize the original hardware by adding a new network card.

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Customize on the template or template folder if you are customizing the

n

guest operating system.

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are

n

customizing the guest operating system.

Procedure

1 Start the Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template Task on page 28

To save time, you can create a virtual machine that is a copy of a configured template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

26 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

2 Select a Template on page 28

After you select the template from which to deploy the virtual machine, you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

3 Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 29

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

4 Select a Resource on page 29

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

5 Select a Datastore on page 29

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.

6 Select Clone Options on page 30

You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

7 Customize the Guest Operating System on page 31

When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.

8 Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System on page 31

In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the virtual machine.

9 Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 32

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

10 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 32

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

VMware, Inc. 27

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Start the Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template Task

To save time, you can create a virtual machine that is a copy of a configured template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.

Procedure

Select to deploy a virtual machine from a template.

u

Option Description

Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory

Open the Deploy From Template wizard from a template

a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual

machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.

b Select Deploy from template and click Next.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

Right-click the template and select Deploy VM from this Template.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

Select a Template

After you select the template from which to deploy the virtual machine, you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a inventory object that is not a template.

NOTE If you start the deploy operation from a template, you select the customization and power options on a later page in the wizard.

Procedure

1 Search for or browse to the template.

2 (Optional) Select Customize the operating system to customize the guest operating system of the

virtual machine.

3 (Optional) Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware to configure the virtual machine's

hardware before deployment.

4 (Optional) Select Power On Virtual Machine after creation to power on the virtual machine after

creation is complete.

5 Click Next.

28 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.

The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk, win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.

Procedure

1 Type a name for the virtual machine.

2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides. If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.

If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

Select a Datastore

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.

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

Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill 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.

VMware, Inc. 29

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Procedure

1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.

Option Action

Same format as source

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.

Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.

3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.

Use the same format as the source virtual machine.

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 first 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 thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

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

Option Action

Store the virtual disk and virtual machine configuration files in the same location on a datastore.

Store the disk in a separate datastore location.

Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.

Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down menu.

Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore for the disk.

a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a

datastore cluster for the disk.

b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual

machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster.

4 Click Next.

Select Clone Options

You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

NOTE If you opened the wizard from an object other than a virtual machine or template, the Select Clone Options page does not appear. These options are available on a different page of the wizard.

Procedure

1 Select Customize the Operating System.

2 Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware.

3 Select Power on virtual machine after creation.

4 Click Next.

30 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Customize the Guest Operating System

When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.

Prerequisites

To access customization options for Windows guest operating systems, Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. The Sysprep Tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 and later operating systems. For details about this and other customization requirements, see “Guest

Operating System Customization Requirements,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.

Option Description

Select an existing specification

Create a specification

Create a specification from an existing specification

2 Click Next.

Select a customization specification from the list.

Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the wizard.

a Select a customization specification from the list.

b Click the Create a spec from an existing spec icon, and complete the

steps in the wizard.

Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System

In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the virtual machine.

The User Settings screen appears when you apply a customization specification for which at least one of the following conditions is true.

The option Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard was selected during the creation of the

n

customization specification.

The option Prompt the user for an address when the specification is used was selected for IPv4 and

n

IPv6 during the creation of the customization specification.

See “Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment,” on page 49 and “Customize Linux During

Cloning or Deployment,” on page 52.

Procedure

1 Enter a NetBIOS name for the computer.

2 Enter Network Adapter Settings for each network interface.

3 Click Next.

VMware, Inc. 31

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Customize Virtual Machine Hardware

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks, see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.

For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine

Hardware,” on page 89.

Procedure

1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down

menu and click Add.

2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.

3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.

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

4 Click Next.

Finish Virtual Machine Creation

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Procedure

1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

Clone a Virtual Machine

Cloning a virtual machine creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the original. The new virtual machine is configured with the same virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that were configured for the original virtual machine.

NOTE When heavily loaded applications, such as load generators, are running in the guest operating system during a clone operation, the virtual machine quiesce operation can fail and VMware Tools might be denied CPU resources and time out. It is recommended that you quiesce the virtual machines running lower I/O disk operation.

Prerequisites

If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.

You must have the following privileges to clone a virtual machine:

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Clone virtual machine on the virtual machine you are cloning.

n

Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.

n

Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.

n

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.

n

32 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Datastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.

n

Network.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned.

n

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Customize on the virtual machine or virtual machine folder if you are

n

customizing the guest operating system.

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are

n

customizing the guest operating system.

Procedure

1 Start the Clone an Existing Virtual Machine Task on page 34

To make an original copy of a virtual machine, you can clone an existing virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the virtual machine that you are going to clone.

2 Select a Virtual Machine to Clone on page 34

You select a virtual machine to clone, and you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

3 Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 35

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

4 Select a Resource on page 35

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

5 Select a Datastore on page 35

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.

6 Select Clone Options on page 36

You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

7 Customize the Guest Operating System on page 37

When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.

VMware, Inc. 33

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

8 Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System on page 37

In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the virtual machine.

9 Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 38

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

10 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 38

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Start the Clone an Existing Virtual Machine Task

To make an original copy of a virtual machine, you can clone an existing virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the virtual machine that you are going to clone.

If you open the wizard from a virtual machine, the Select a creation type page does not appear.

Procedure

Select to clone a virtual machine.

u

Option Description

Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory

Open the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard from a virtual machine

a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual

machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,

and select New Virtual machine > New Virtual Machine....

b Select Clone an existing virtual machine and click Next.

The Select a virtual machine page opens.

Right-click the virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Virtual Machine.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

Select a Virtual Machine to Clone

You select a virtual machine to clone, and you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a inventory object that is not a template.

NOTE If you start the deploy operation from a template, you select the customization and power options on a later page in the wizard.

Procedure

1 Search for or browse to the virtual machine, and select it.

2 (Optional) Select Customize the operating system to customize the guest operating system of the

virtual machine.

34 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

3 (Optional) Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware to configure the virtual machine's

hardware before deployment.

4 (Optional) Select Power On Virtual Machine after creation to power on the virtual machine after

creation is complete.

5 Click Next.

Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder

When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your organizational needs.

Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.

The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk, win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.

Procedure

1 Type a name for the virtual machine.

2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides. If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.

If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

Select a Datastore

Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.

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

VMware, Inc. 35

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill 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.

Procedure

1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.

Option Action

Same format as source

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.

Use the same format as the source virtual machine.

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 first 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 thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

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

Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.

3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.

Option Action

Store the virtual disk and virtual machine configuration files in the same location on a datastore.

Store the disk in a separate datastore location.

Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.

Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down menu.

Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore for the disk.

a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a

datastore cluster for the disk.

b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual

machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster.

4 Click Next.

Select Clone Options

You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.

NOTE If you opened the wizard from an object other than a virtual machine or template, the Select Clone Options page does not appear. These options are available on a different page of the wizard.

Procedure

1 Select Customize the Operating System.

36 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

2 Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware.

3 Select Power on virtual machine after creation.

4 Click Next.

Customize the Guest Operating System

When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.

Prerequisites

To access customization options for Windows guest operating systems, Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. The Sysprep Tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 and later operating systems. For details about this and other customization requirements, see “Guest

Operating System Customization Requirements,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.

Option Description

Select an existing specification

Create a specification

Create a specification from an existing specification

Select a customization specification from the list.

Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the wizard.

a Select a customization specification from the list.

b Click the Create a spec from an existing spec icon, and complete the

steps in the wizard.

2 Click Next.

Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System

In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the virtual machine.

The User Settings screen appears when you apply a customization specification for which at least one of the following conditions is true.

The option Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard was selected during the creation of the

n

customization specification.

The option Prompt the user for an address when the specification is used was selected for IPv4 and

n

IPv6 during the creation of the customization specification.

See “Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment,” on page 49 and “Customize Linux During

Cloning or Deployment,” on page 52.

Procedure

1 Enter a NetBIOS name for the computer.

2 Enter Network Adapter Settings for each network interface.

3 Click Next.

VMware, Inc. 37

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Customize Virtual Machine Hardware

Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk.

For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks, see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.

For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine

Hardware,” on page 89.

Procedure

1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down

menu and click Add.

2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.

3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.

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

4 Click Next.

Finish Virtual Machine Creation

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Procedure

1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client

After you create a virtual machine, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the original virtual machine.

You cannot modify templates after you create them. To alter an existing template, you must convert it to a virtual machine, make the required changes, and convert the virtual machine back to a template. To preserve the original state of a template, clone the template to a template.

Prerequisites

If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.

Verify that you have the following privileges:

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Create template from virtual machine on the source virtual machine.

n

Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on virtual machine folder where the template is

n

created.

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.

n

Datastore.Allocate space on all datastores where the template is created.

n

38 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Procedure

1 Start the Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template Task on page 39

To make a master copy of a virtual machine, you can clone the virtual machine to a template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

2 Select a Virtual Machine to Clone to a Template on page 40

To clone a virtual machine to a template, you must select an existing virtual machine to clone. You cannot modify a template after you create it. To change the template, you must convert it back to a virtual machine.

3 Select a Name and Location for the Template on page 40

When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on your organizational needs.

4 Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template on page 40

When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.

5 Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template on page 41

Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.

6 Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation on page 42

Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.

Start the Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template Task

To make a master copy of a virtual machine, you can clone the virtual machine to a template. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.

Procedure

Select an option to clone a virtual machine to a template.

u

Option Description

Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory

Open the Clone Virtual Machine to Template wizard from a template

a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual

machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.

b Select Clone Virtual Machine to Template and click Next.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

Right-click the virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Template .

The Select a name and folder page opens.

VMware, Inc. 39

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Select a Virtual Machine to Clone to a Template

To clone a virtual machine to a template, you must select an existing virtual machine to clone. You cannot modify a template after you create it. To change the template, you must convert it back to a virtual machine.

This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than a virtual machine, such as a host or cluster. If you opened the wizard from a virtual machine, this page does not appear.

Procedure

1 Browse or search for the virtual machine and select it.

2 Click Next.

Select a Name and Location for the Template

When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on your organizational needs.

Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization and you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.

The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you change the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.

Procedure

1 Type a name for the template.

2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the template.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template

When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host or cluster and select it.

Any Compatibility problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

40 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template

Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.

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

Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill 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.

Procedure

1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.

Option Action

Same format as source

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.

Use the same format as the source virtual machine.

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 first 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 thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

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

Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.

3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.

Option Action

Store the virtual disk and virtual machine configuration files in the same location on a datastore.

Store the disk in a separate datastore location.

Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.

Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down menu.

Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore for the disk.

a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a

datastore cluster for the disk.

b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual

machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster.

4 Click Next.

VMware, Inc. 41

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation

Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.

Procedure

1 Review the template settings and make any necessary changes by clicking Back to go back to the

relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The progress of the clone task appears in the Recent Tasks pane. When the task completes, the template appears in the inventory.

Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client

After you create a template, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the state of the original template.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the following privileges:

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Clone template on the source template.

n

Virtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the folder where the template is created.

n

Datastore.Allocate space on all datastores where the template is created.

n

Procedure

1 Start the Clone a Template to a Template Task on page 43

To make changes to a template and preserve the state of the original template, you clone the template to a template.

2 Select a Template to Clone in the vSphere Web Client on page 43

If you started the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than a template, you select a template to clone.

3 Select a Name and Location for the Template on page 43

When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on your organizational needs.

4 Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template on page 44

When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.

5 Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template on page 44

Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.

6 Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation on page 45

Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.

42 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Start the Clone a Template to a Template Task

To make changes to a template and preserve the state of the original template, you clone the template to a template.

You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.

Procedure

Select to clone a template to a template.

u

Option Description

Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory

Open the Clone Template to Template wizard from a template

a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual

machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.

b Select Clone Template to Template and click Next.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

a Search or browse for a template.

b Right-click the template and select Clone.

The Select a name and folder page opens.

Select a Template to Clone in the vSphere Web Client

If you started the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than a template, you select a template to clone.

This page appears only if you opened the wizard from a nontemplate inventory object, such as a host or cluster. If you opened the Convert Template to Virtual Machine wizard from a template, this page does not appear.

Procedure

1 Accept the default template, the template from which you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard, or

select a different template.

2 Click Next.

Select a Name and Location for the Template

When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on your organizational needs.

Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization and you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.

The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you change the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.

VMware, Inc. 43

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Procedure

1 Type a name for the template.

2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the template.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template

When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host or cluster and select it.

Any Compatibility problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template

Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.

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

Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill 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.

Procedure

1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.

Option Action

Same format as source

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

Use the same format as the source virtual machine.

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 first 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 thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.

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

2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.

Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.

44 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.

Option Action

Store the virtual disk and virtual machine configuration files in the same location on a datastore.

Store the disk in a separate datastore location.

Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster.

Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down menu.

Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore for the disk.

a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a

datastore cluster for the disk.

b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual

machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore cluster.

4 Click Next.

Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation

Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.

Procedure

1 Review the template settings and make any necessary changes by clicking Back to go back to the

relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The progress of the clone task appears in the Recent Tasks pane. When the task completes, the template appears in the inventory.

Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine

Converting a template to a virtual machine changes the template. This action does not make a copy. You convert a template to a virtual machine to edit the template. You might also convert a template to a virtual machine if you do not need to preserve it as a master image for deploying virtual machines.

Prerequisites

Verity that you have the following privileges:

Virtual machine.Provisioning.Mark as virtual machine on the source template.

n

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the resource pool where the virtual machine will

n

run.

Procedure

1 Start the Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine Task on page 46

To reconfigure a template with new or updated hardware or applications, you must convert the template to a virtual machine and clone the virtual machine back to a template. In some cases, you might convert a template to a virtual machine because you no longer need the template.

2 Select a Template from Which to Deploy the Virtual Machine on page 46

On the Select a template page of the wizard, you select a template to deploy from the list.

3 Select a Resource on page 46

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

VMware, Inc. 45

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

4 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 47

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Start the Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine Task

To reconfigure a template with new or updated hardware or applications, you must convert the template to a virtual machine and clone the virtual machine back to a template. In some cases, you might convert a template to a virtual machine because you no longer need the template.

You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying virtual machines and templates.

If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.

This task provides steps to convert a template to a virtual machine. To clone a virtual machine back to a template, see Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client.

Procedure

Select how to convert a template to a virtual machine.

u

Option Description

Open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory

Open the Convert Template to Virtual Machine wizard from a template

a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual

machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.

b Select Convert template to virtual machine and click Next.

The Select a resource page opens.

a Search or browse for a template.

b Right-click the template and select Convert to Virtual Machine.

The Select a resource page opens.

Select a Template from Which to Deploy the Virtual Machine

On the Select a template page of the wizard, you select a template to deploy from the list.

This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a nontemplate inventory object, such as a host or cluster. If you opened the Convert Template to Virtual Machine wizard from a template, this page does not appear.

Procedure

1 Browse or search to locate a template.

2 Select the template.

3 Click Next.

Select a Resource

When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.

For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides. If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.

46 VMware, Inc.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.

If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

Finish Virtual Machine Creation

Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.

Procedure

1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.

2 Click Finish.

The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

Customizing Guest Operating Systems

When you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template, you can customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine to change properties such as the computer name, network settings, and license settings.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Customizing guest operating systems can help prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed, such as conflicts due to duplicate computer names.

You can specify the customization settings by launching the Guest Customization wizard during the cloning or deployment process. Alternatively, you can create customization specifications, which are customization settings stored in the vCenter Server database. During the cloning or deployment process, you can select a customization specification to apply to the new virtual machine.

Use the Customization Specification Manager to manage customization specifications you create with the Guest Customization wizard.

Guest Operating System Customization Requirements

To customize the guest operating system, you must configure the virtual machine and guest to meet VMware Tools and virtual disk requirements. Other requirements apply, depending on the guest operating system type.

VMware Tools Requirements

The latest version of VMware Tools must be installed on the virtual machine or template to customize the guest operating system during cloning or deployment. For information about VMware Tools support matrix, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php.

Virtual Disk Requirements

The guest operating system being customized must be installed on a disk attached as SCSI node 0:0 in the virtual machine configuration.

Windows Requirements

Customization of Windows guest operating systems requires the following conditions:

Microsoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. See Chapter 5, “Installing the

n

Microsoft Sysprep Tool,” on page 87.

VMware, Inc. 47

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

The ESXi host that the virtual machine is running on must be 3.5 or later.

n

Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Windows operating systems.

Linux Requirements

Customization of Linux guest operating systems requires that Perl is installed in the Linux guest operating system.

Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Linux distributions.

Verifying Customization Support for a Guest Operating System

To verify customization support for Windows operating systems or Linux distributions and compatible ESXi hosts, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. You can use this online tool to search for the guest operating system and ESXi version. After the tool generates your list, click the guest operating system to see whether guest customization is supported.

Create a vCenter Server Application to Generate Computer Names and IP Addresses

As an alternative to entering computer names and IP addresses for virtual NICs when you customize guest operating systems, you can create a custom application and configure it so that vCenter Server can generate the names and addresses.

The application can be an arbitrary executable binary or script file appropriate for the corresponding operating system in which vCenter Server is running. After you configure an application and make it available to vCenter Server, each time you initiate a guest operating system customization for a virtual machine, vCenter Server executes the application.

The application must comply with the reference XML file in the VMware knowledge base article at

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2007557.

Prerequisites

Verify that Perl is installed on vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 Create the application and save it on the vCenter Server system's local disk.

2 Select a vCenter Server instance in the inventory.

3 Click the Manage tab, click Settings, and click Advanced Settings.

4 Click Edit and enter the configuration parameters for the script.

a In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.arg1.

b In the Value text box, type c:\sample-generate-name-ip.pl and click Add.

c In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.arg2.

d In the Value text box, type the path to the script file on the vCenter Server system and click Add.

For example, type c:\sample-generate-name-ip.pl.

e In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.program.

f In the Value text box, type c:\perl\bin\perl.exe and click Add.

5 Click OK.

You can select the option to use an application to generate computer names or IP addresses during guest operating system customization.

48 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment

You can customize Windows guest operating systems for the virtual machine when you deploy a new virtual machine from a template or clone an existing virtual machine. Customizing the guest helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed, such as duplicate computer names.

You can prevent Windows from assigning new virtual machines or templates with the same Security IDs (SIDs) as the original virtual machine. Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of a domain and only domain user accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or local user accounts are used, duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see the documentation for your Microsoft Windows operating system.

IMPORTANT The default administrator password is not preserved for Windows Server 2008 after customization. During customization, the Windows Sysprep utility deletes and recreates the administrator account on Windows Server 2008. You must reset the administrator password when the virtual machine starts the first time after customization.

Prerequisites

Verify that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization

Requirements,” on page 47.

To perform this procedure, start the Guest Customization wizard when you clone a virtual machine or deploy one from a template.

Procedure

1 On the Select clone options page of the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard, select Customize the

operating system and click Next.

2 Type the virtual machine owner’s name and organization and click Next.

3 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.

The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name.

Option Action

Enter a name

Use the virtual machine name

Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard

Generate a name using the custom application configured with vCenter Server

a Type a name.

The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.

b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a

numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric value.

The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.

The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or deployment is complete.

Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.

VMware, Inc. 49

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

4 Provide licensing information for the Windows operating system and click Next.

Option Action

For non-server operating systems

For server operating systems

5 Configure the administrator password for the virtual machine and click Next.

a Type a password for the administrator account and confirm the password by typing it again.

NOTE You can change the administrator password only if the administrator password on the source Windows virtual machine is blank. If the source Windows virtual machine or template already has a password, the administrator password does not change.

b (Optional) To log users into the guest operating system as Administrator, select the check box, and

select the number of times to log in automatically.

6 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.

Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.

a Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.

b Select Include Server License Information.

c Select either Per seat or Per server.

d If you selected Per server, enter the maximum number of

simultaneous connections for the server to accept.

7 (Optional) On the Run Once page, specify commands to run the first time a user logs into the guest

operating system and click Next.

See the Microsoft Sysprep documentation for information about RunOnce commands.

8 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.

Option Action

Typical settings

Custom settings

Select Typical settings and click Next.

vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings.

a Select Custom settings and click Next.

b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis

button (...) .

c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.

d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.

9 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.

50 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

10 Select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.

Note that the virtual machine can retain the IP address allocated from the network as well as IPv6 addresses. Microsoft supports IPv6 for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later, and Windows CE .NET 4.1 or later. However, these operating systems have limited IPv6 support for built-in applications, system services, and are not recommended for IPv6 deployment.

a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts

you to enter either IPv4 or IPv6 address.

b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.

Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or

n

shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6 addresses.

Enter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default

n

value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.

11 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and click OK.

12 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.

13 Select how the virtual machine will participate in the network and click Next.

Option Action

Workgroup

Windows Server Domain

Type a workgroup name. For example, MSHOME.

a Type the domain name.

b Type the user name and password for a user account that has

permission to add a computer to the specified domain.

14 Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.

A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.

15 Save the customized options as an .xml file.

a Select Save this customization specification for later use.

b Specify the filename for the specification and click Next.

16 Click Finish to save your changes.

You return to the Deploy Template or to the Clone Virtual Machine wizard. The customization is finished after you complete the Deploy Template or the Clone Virtual Machine wizard.

When the new virtual machine starts for the first time, the guest operating system runs finalization scripts to complete the customization process. The virtual machine might restart several times during this process.

If the guest operating system pauses when the new virtual machine starts, it might be waiting for you to correct errors, such as an incorrect product key or an invalid user name. Open the virtual machine’s console to determine whether the system is waiting for information.

What to do next

After you deploy and customize versions of Windows XP or Windows 2003 that are not volume licensed, you might need to reactivate your operating system on the new virtual machine.

VMware, Inc. 51

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is starting, the errors are logged to

%WINDIR%\temp\vmware-imc. To view the error log file, click the Windows Start button and select Programs >

Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

Customize Linux During Cloning or Deployment

In the process of deploying a new virtual machine from a template or cloning an existing virtual machine, you can customize Linux guest operating systems for the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization

Requirements,” on page 47.

To perform this procedure, start the Customization wizard when you clone a virtual machine or deploy one from a template.

Procedure

1 On the Select clone options page of the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard, select Customize the

operating system and click Next.

2 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.

The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name.

Option Action

Enter a name

Use the virtual machine name

Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard

Generate a name using the custom application configured with vCenter Server

a Type a name.

The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.

b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a

numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric value.

The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.

The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or deployment is complete.

Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.

3 Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next.

4 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.

52 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

5 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.

Option Action

Typical settings

Custom settings

Select Typical settings and click Next.

vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings.

a Select Custom settings and click Next.

b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis

button (...) .

c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.

d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.

6 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.

7 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.

Note that the virtual machine can retain the IP address allocated from the network as well as IPv6 addresses.

a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompt

you to enter IPv6 address.

b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.

Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or

n

shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6 addresses.

Enter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default

n

value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.

8 Enter DNS and domain settings information. The Primary DNS, Secondary DNS, and Tertiary DNS

fields accept both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

9 Save the customized options as an .xml file.

a Select Save this customization specification for later use.

b Specify the filename for the specification and click Next.

10 Click Finish to save your changes.

You return to the Deploy Template or to the Clone Virtual Machine wizard. The customization is finished after you complete the Deploy Template or the Clone Virtual Machine wizard.

When the new virtual machine starts for the first time, the guest operating system runs finalization scripts to complete the customization process. The virtual machine might restart several times during this process.

If the guest operating system pauses when the new virtual machine starts, it might be waiting for you to correct errors, such as an incorrect product key or an invalid user name. Open the virtual machine’s console to determine whether the system is waiting for information.

What to do next

If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is starting, the errors are reported using the guest’s system logging mechanism. View the errors by opening /var/log/vmware-

imc/toolsDeployPkg.log.

VMware, Inc. 53

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Apply a Customization Specification to a Virtual Machine

You can add guest OS specification to an existing virtual machine. When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license settings.

When you clone an existing virtual machine, or deploy a virtual machine from a VM template in a folder, you can customize the guest operating system of the resulting virtual machine during the clone or the deployment tasks.

When you deploy a virtual machine from a template in a content library, you can customize the guest operating system only after the deployment task is complete.

Prerequisites

Verify the guest operating system is running.

n

Verify that VMware Tools is installed and running.

n

Power off the virtual machine.

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the vSphere inventory, and select Guest OS > Customize Guest OS.

The Customize Guest OS wizard opens.

2 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.

Option Description

Select an existing specification

Create a specification

Create a specification from an existing specification

Select a customization specification from the list.

Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the wizard.

a Select a customization specification from the list.

b Click the Create a new specification from existing one icon, and

complete the steps in the wizard.

3 Click Finish.

What to do next

Power on the virtual machine.

Creating and Managing Customization Specifications

You can create and manage customization specifications for Windows and Linux guest operating systems. Customization specifications are XML files that contain guest operating system settings for virtual machines. When you apply a specification to the guest operating system during virtual machine cloning or deployment, you prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names.

vCenter Server saves the customized configuration parameters in the vCenter Server database. If the customization settings are saved, the administrator and domain administrator passwords are stored in encrypted format in the database. Because the certificate used to encrypt the passwords is unique to each vCenter Server system, if you reinstall vCenter Server or attach a new instance of the server to the database, the encrypted passwords become invalid. You must reenter the passwords before you can use them.

54 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Create a Customization Specification for Linux

Use the Guest Customization wizard to save guest operating system settings in a specification that you can apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates.

Prerequisites

Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization

Requirements,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Click the Create a New specification icon.

3 Select Linux from the Target VM Operating System drop-down menu, and enter a name and

description for the specification.

4 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.

The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name.

Option Action

Enter a name

Use the virtual machine name

Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard

Generate a name using the custom application configured with vCenter Server

a Type a name.

The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.

b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a

numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric value.

The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.

The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or deployment is complete.

Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.

5 Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next.

6 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.

7 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.

Option Action

Standard settings

Custom settings

Select Use standard network settings and click Next.

vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings.

a Select Manually select custom settings.

b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the pencil icon.

8 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.

VMware, Inc. 55

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

9 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.

a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts

you to enter IPv6 address.

b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.

Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or

n

shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6 addresses.

Enter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default

n

value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.

10 Enter DNS and domain settings information. The Primary DNS, Secondary DNS, and Tertiary DNS

fields accept both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

11 Click Finish to save your changes.

The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.

Create a Customization Specification for Windows

Use the Guest Customization wizard to save Windows guest operating system settings in a specification that you can apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates.

NOTE The default administrator password is not preserved for Windows Server 2008 after customization. During customization, the Windows Sysprep utility deletes and recreates the administrator account on Windows Server 2008. You must reset the administrator password when the virtual machine starts the first time after customization.

Prerequisites

Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization

Requirements,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Click the Create a new specification icon to open the New VM Guest Customization Spec wizard.

3 Select Windows from the Target VM Operating System drop-down menu, and enter a name and

optional description for the specification and click Next.

4 On the Set Registration Information page, type the virtual machine owner’s name and organization and

click Next.

56 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

5 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.

The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the host name.

Option Action

Enter a name

Use the virtual machine name

Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard

Generate a name using the custom application configured with vCenter Server

a Type a name.

The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-) character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.

b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a

numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric value.

The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.

The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or deployment is complete.

Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.

6 Provide licensing information for the Windows operating system and click Next.

Option Action

For nonserver operating systems

For server operating systems

Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.

a Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.

b Select Include Server License Information.

c Select either Per seat or Per server.

d If you select Per server, enter the maximum number of simultaneous

connections for the server to accept.

7 Configure the administrator password for the virtual machine and click Next.

a Type a password for the administrator account and confirm the password by typing it again.

NOTE You can change the administrator password only if the administrator password on the source Windows virtual machine is blank. If the source Windows virtual machine or template already has a password, the administrator password does not change.

b (Optional) To log users into the guest operating system as Administrator, select the check box, and

select the number of times to log in automatically.

8 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.

9 (Optional) On the Run Once page, specify commands to run the first time a user logs into the guest

operating system and click Next.

See the Microsoft Sysprep documentation for information about RunOnce commands.

VMware, Inc. 57

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

10 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.

Option Action

Standard settings

Custom settings

11 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.

12 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.

a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts

you to enter IPv6 address.

b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.

Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or

n

shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6 addresses.

Enter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default

n

value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you select Do not use IPv6.

Select Use standard network settings and click Next.

vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings.

a Select Manually select custom settings.

b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the pencil icon.

13 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and click OK.

14 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.

15 Select how the virtual machine will participate in the network and click Next.

Option Action

Workgroup

Windows Server Domain

Type a workgroup name. For example, MSHOME.

a Type the domain name.

b Type the user name and password for a user account that has

permission to add a computer to the specified domain.

16 (Optional) Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.

A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.

Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of a domain and only domain user accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or local user accounts are used, duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see the documentation for your Microsoft Windows operating system.

17 Click Finish to save your changes.

The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.

58 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Create a Customization Specification for Windows Using a Custom Sysprep Answer File in the vSphere Web Client

A custom sysprep answer file is a file that stores a number of customization settings such as computer name, licensing information, and workgroup or domain settings. You can supply a custom sysprep answer file as an alternative to specifying many of the settings in the Guest Customization wizard.

Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP use a text file called sysprep.inf. Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 use an XML file called sysprep.xml. You can create these files using a text editor, or use the Microsoft Setup Manager utility to generate them. For more information about how to create a custom sysprep answer file, see the documentation for the relevant operating system.

You can prevent Windows from assigning new virtual machines or templates with the same Security IDs (SIDs) as the original virtual machine. Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of a domain and only domain user accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or local user accounts are used, duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see the documentation for your Microsoft Windows operating system.

Prerequisites

Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization

Requirements,” on page 47.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Click the Create New Specification icon.

3 In the Guest Customization wizard, select Windows from the Target Virtual Machine OS menu.

4 (Optional) Select Use Custom Sysprep Answer File.

5 Under Customization Specification Information, enter a name for the specification and an optional

description and click Next.

6 Select the option to import or create a sysprep answer file and click Next.

Option Description

Import a Sysprep answer file

Create a Sysprep answer file

Click Browse and browse to the file.

Type the contents of the file in the text box.

7 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.

Option Action

Typical settings

Custom settings

Select Typical settings and click Next.

vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server using default settings.

a Select Custom settings and click Next.

b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis

button (...) .

c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.

d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.

8 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.

VMware, Inc. 59

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

9 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.

a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts

you to enter IPv4 or IPv6 address.

b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.

Click the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or

n

shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6 addresses.

Enter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default

n

value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.

10 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and OK.

11 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.

12 Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.

A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.

13 Click Finish to save your changes.

The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.

Edit a Customization Specification

You can edit existing specifications using the Customization Specification Manager.

Prerequisites

You must have at least one customization specification.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Right-click a specification and select Edit.

3 Proceed through the Guest Customization wizard to change specification settings.

Remove a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client

You can remove customization specifications from the Customization Specification Manager.

Prerequisites

You must have at least one customization specification.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Right-click a specification and select Remove.

3 In the confirmation dialog box, select Yes.

The specification is deleted from the disk.

60 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines

Copy a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client

If you need a customization specification that is only slightly different from an existing specification, you can use the Customization Specification Manager to create a copy of the existing specification and modify it. For example, you might need to change the IP address or the administrator password.

Prerequisites

You must have at least one customization specification.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Right-click a specification and select Duplicate.

A new specification is created. If the specification does not appear in the Name column, refresh the vSphere Web Client.

Export a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client

You can export customization specifications and save them as .xml files. To apply an exported specification to a virtual machine, import the .xml file using the Customization Specification Manager.

Prerequisites

You must have at least one customization specification.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Right-click a specification and select Export.

3 Select a location for the file and click Save.

The specification is saved as an .xml file to the location you specified.

Import a Customization Specification

You can import an existing specification using the Customization Specification Manager, and use the specification to customize the guest operating system of a virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must have at least one customization specification saved as an xml file located on a file system accessible from the vSphere Web Client.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization

Specification Manager.

2 Click the Import specification from a file icon.

3 From the Open dialog, browse to the .xml to import and click Open.

The imported specification is added to the list of customization specifications.

VMware, Inc. 61

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

62 VMware, Inc.

Deploying OVF Templates 3

You can export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF). You can then deploy the OVF template in the same environment or in a different environment.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“OVF File Format and OVF Templates,” on page 63

n

“Deploy an OVF Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 64

n

“Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace,” on page 67

n

“Export an OVF Template,” on page 68

n

OVF File Format and OVF Templates

OVF is a file format that supports exchange of virtual appliances across products and platforms.

The OVF format offers the following advantages:

OVF files are compressed, allowing for faster downloads.

n

The vSphere Web Client validates an OVF file before importing it, and ensures that it is compatible

n

with the intended destination server. If the appliance is incompatible with the selected host, it cannot be imported and an error message appears.

VMware, Inc.

OVF can encapsulate multi-tiered applications and more than one virtual machine.

n

Exporting OVF templates allows you to create virtual appliances that can be imported by other users. You can use the export function to distribute pre-installed software as a virtual appliance, or to distributing template virtual machines to users. You can make the OVF file available to users who cannot access your vCenter Server inventory.

Deploying an OVF template allows you to add pre-configured virtual machines or vApps to your vCenter Server or ESXi inventory. Deploying an OVF template is similar to deploying a virtual machine from a template. However, you can deploy an OVF template from any local file system accessible from the vSphere Web Client, or from a remote Web server. The local file systems can include local disks (such as C:), removable media (such as CDs or USB keychain drives), and shared network drives.

63

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Deploy an OVF Template in the vSphere Web Client

You can deploy an OVF template from a local file system accessible to the vSphere Web Client, or from a URL.

Prerequisites

Install the Client Integration plug-in before you deploy an OVF template. This plug-in enables OVF deployment from your local filesystem. See “Install the Client Integration Plug-In,” on page 187.

NOTE Depending on the security settings of your browser, you might have to explicitly approve the plug-in when you use it the first time.

Procedure

1 Select any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a datacenter, folder,

cluster, resource pool, or host.

2 Select Actions > Deploy OVF Template.

Select the OVF Source Location

Specify the location where the source of OVF template resides.

Procedure

1 Specify the source location.

Option Action

URL

Local file

Type a URL to an OVF template located on the Internet. Supported URL sources are HTTP and FTP.

Example: http://vmware.com/VMTN/appliance.ovf.

Click Browse and select an OVF or OVA template from the local file system.

2 Click Next.

Review the OVF Details

The OVF template details display available information about the file.

Procedure

1 Review the OVF template details and

Option Description

Product

Version

Vendor

Publisher

Download size

Size on disk

Description

2 Click Next.

Product name, as specified in the OVF template file.

Version, if the version is specified in the OVF template file.

Version, if the vendor is specified in the OVF template file.

Publisher of the OVF template, if a certificate included in the OVF template file specifies a publisher.

Size of the OVF file.

Size on disk after you deploy the OVF template.

Description, as provided by the distributor of the OVF template.

64 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 3 Deploying OVF Templates

Accept the OVF License Agreements

This page appears only if license agreements are packaged with the OVF template.

Procedure

Agree to accept the terms of the end user license agreements, and click Next.

u

Select OVF Name and Location

When you deploy an OVF template, you provide a unique name for the virtual machine or vApp. The name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 (Optional) Specify the name that the virtual machine or vApp will have when it is deployed at the

target location.

The name must be unique within each vCenter Server virtual machine folder.

2 Select or search for a datacenter or folder for the virtual machine or vApp.

3 Click Next.

Select OVF Deployment Configuration

The deployment configuration typically controls the memory settings, number of CPUs and reservations, and application-level configuration parameters.

This page appears only if the OVF template contains deployment options.

Procedure

Select the deployment configuration from the drop-down menu and click Next.

u

Select a Resource for the OVF Template

When you deploy an OVF template, you select the host, cluster, or resource pool. The virtual machine or vApp will have access to the resources of the selected object.

For example, a virtual appliance has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.

If you start the wizard from a resource such as a host, this wizard screen does not appear. But if you start the wizard from a container such as a datacenter of folder, the wizard screen appears.

Procedure

1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool on which you want to deploy the OVF

template.

If deploying the OVF template to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the problems appear at the bottom of the window.

2 Click Next.

VMware, Inc. 65

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Select Storage for OVF Template

Select the location to store the files for the deployed template.

Procedure

1 Select the disk format to store the virtual machine virtual disks.

Format Description

Thick Provisioned Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

2 (Optional) Select a VM Storage Policy.

Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated when the virtual 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 first write from the virtual machine.

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 flat format the data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out when the virtual disk is created. it might take much longer to create disks in this format than to create other types o 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 disk size. However, the thin disk starts small and at first, uses only as much datastore space as the disk needs for its initial operations.

This option is available only if storage policies are enabled on the destination resource.

3 Select a datastore to store the deployed OVF template.

The configuration file and virtual disk files are stored on the datastore. Select a datastore large enough to accommodate the virtual machine or vApp and all associated virtual disk files.

4 (Optional) Disable Storage DRS if you do not want to use it for this virtual machine or vApp.

5 Click Next.

Configure Networks for OVF Template

Set up and configure the networks the deployed OVF templates use.

The Setup networks wizard screen allows you to map source networks to target networks, and to specify settings for those networks.

For each network, you can perform the mapping and optional customizations explained in the procedure.

Procedure

1 Select a Source network in the table and map it to a Destination network.

The Source column lists all networks that are defined in the OVF template. The Destination column allows you to select a target network.

66 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 3 Deploying OVF Templates

2 If the OVF template is set up to allow network customization, you can select the IP protocol, the IP

allocation, or both.

Option Description

Static - Manual

Transient - IP Pool

DHCP

Static - IP Pool

You will be prompted to enter the IP addresses in the Appliance Properties page.

IP addresses are allocated from a specified range when the appliance is powered on. The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered off.

If you select this option, and no IP pool exists, a Network Protocol Profile that contains an IP pool is automatically created and associated with the destination networks.

A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. Select this option only if a DHCP server is available in your environment.

IP addresses are automatically allocated from the managed IP network range of vCenter Server at power-on, and remain allocated at power-off.

If you select this option, and no IP pool exists, a Network Protocol Profile that contains an IP pool is automatically created and associated with the destination networks.

3 Specify network protocol information.

This option appears only if the OVF template that you deploy contains network properties. The network protocol settings might be for the DNS servers, gateway, netmask, or subnet. You can type IP addresses that match the chosen IP protocol (IPv4 or IPv6). For DNS servers, you can type a commaseparated list of addresses.

4 Click Next.

Customize the OVF Template

Customize the deployment properties of the template.

Procedure

1 Customize the deployment properties.

All required properties must have a valid value before you can continue.

2 Click Next.

Configure vService Dependency

Select a binding service for the template's vService dependency.

This page appears if the appliance you are deploying has one or more vService dependency.

Procedure

1 Select a binding service provider.

2 Click Next.

Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace

The Virtual Appliance Marketplace contains a variety of virtual appliances packaged in OVF format that you can download and deploy in your vSphere environment.

Procedure

1 Go to the Virtual Appliance Marketplace, which is part of the VMware Solution Exchange.

VMware, Inc. 67

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

2 Search the Marketplace to find a prepackaged application. download it.

3 Log in and download the appliance.

4 Deploy the appliance in your vSphere environment.

Export an OVF Template

An OVF template captures the state of a virtual machine or vApp into a self-contained package. The disk files are stored in a compressed, sparse format.

Required privilege: vApp.Export

Prerequisites

Power off the virtual machine or vApp.

Procedure

1 From the Actions menu in the vSphere Web Client, navigate to a virtual machine or vApp and select

Export OVF Template .

2 In the Name field, type the name of the template.

For example, type MyVm.

NOTE When you export an OVF template with a name that contains asterisk (*) characters, those characters turn into underscore (_) characters.

3 Click Choose to browse to the folder location where you want to save the template.

4 Click Overwrite existing files to overwrite files with the same name in that folder.

5 In the Format field, determine how you want to store the files.

Select Folder of files (OVF) to store the OVF template as a set of files (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf). Use

n

this format if you plan to publish the OVF files on a Web server or image library. You can import the package, for example into the vSphere Web Client by specifying the URL to the OVF file.

Select Single file (OVA) to package the OVF template into a single .ova file. Use this format if the

n

OVF template will be downloaded from a Web site or moved around using a USB key.

6 (Optional) In the Annotation field, type a description.

7 Select the Enable advanced options checkbox if you want to include BIOS UUID, MAC address, or

extra configuration information in the exported template.

These options limit portability.

8 Click OK.

Example: Folder Locations for OVF and OVA Files

If you type OvfLib for a new OVF folder, the following files might be created:

C:\OvfLib\MyVm\MyVm.ovfI

n

C:\OvfLib\MyVm.mf

n

C:\OvfLib\MyVm-disk1.vmdk

n

If you type C:\NewFolder\OvfLib for a new OVF folder, the following files might be created:

C:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm\MyVm.ovfI

n

C:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm.mf

n

68 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 3 Deploying OVF Templates

C:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm-disk1.vmdk

n

If you choose to export into the OVA format, and type MyVm, the file C:\MyVm.ova is created.

VMware, Inc. 69

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

70 VMware, Inc.

Using Content Libraries 4

Content libraries are container objects for VM templates, vApp templates, and other types of files. vSphere administrators can use the templates in the library to deploy virtual machines and vApps in the vSphere inventory. Sharing templates and files across multiple vCenter Server instances in same or different locations brings out consistency, compliance, efficiency, and automation in deploying workloads at scale.

You create and manage a content library from a single vCenter Server instance, but you can share the library items to other vCenter Server instances if HTTP(S) traffic is allowed between them.

If a published and a subscribed library belong to vCenter Server systems that are in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain, and both the libraries use datastores as backing storage, you can take advantage of optimized transfer speed for synchronization between these libraries. The transfer speed optimization is made possible if the libraries can store their contents to datastores managed by ESXi hosts that are directly connected to each other. Therefore the synchronization between the libraries is handled by a direct ESXi host to ESXi host transfer. If the datastores have VMware vSphere Storage APIs - Array Integration (VAAI) enabled, the library content synchronization between the published and the subscribed library is further optimized. In this case the contents are synchronized by a direct datastore to datastore transfer.

Each VM template, vApp template, or another type of file in a library is a library item. An item can contain a single file or multiple files. In the case of VM and vApp templates, each item contains multiple files. For example, because an OVF template is a set of multiple files, when you upload an OVF template to the library, you actually upload all the files associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf), but in the vSphere Web Client you see listing only of the .ovf file in the content library.

You can create two types of libraries: local or subscribed library.

Local Libraries

You use a local library to store items in a single vCenter Server instance. You can publish the local library so that users from other vCenter Server systems can subscribe to it. When you publish a content library externally, you can configure a password for authentication.

VM templates and vApps templates are stored as OVF file formats in the content library. You can also upload other file types, such as ISO images, text files, and so on, in a content library.

Subscribed Libraries

You subscribe to a published library by creating a subscribed library. You can create the subscribed library in the same vCenter Server instance where the published library is, or in a different vCenter Server system. In the Create Library wizard you have the option to download all the contents of the published library immediately after the subscribed library is created, or to download only metadata for the items from the published library and later to download the full content of only the items you intend to use.

VMware, Inc.

71

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

To ensure the contents of a subscribed library are up-to-date, the subscribed library automatically synchronizes to the source published library on regular intervals. You can also manually synchronize subscribed libraries.

You can use the option to download content from the source published library immediately or only when needed to manage your storage space.

Synchronization of a subscribed library that is set with the option to download all the contents of the published library immediately, synchronizes both the item metadata and the item contents. During the synchronisation the library items that are new for the subscribed library are fully downloaded to the storage location of the subscribed library.

Synchronization of a subscribed library that is set with the option to download contents only when needed synchronizes only the metadata for the library items from the published library, and does not download the contents of the items. This saves storage space. If you need to use a library item you need to synchronize that item. After you are done using the item, you can delete the item contents to free space on the storage. For subscribed libraries that are set with the option to download contents only when needed, synchronizing the subscribed library downloads only the metadata of all the items in the source published library, while synchronizing a library item downloads the full content of that item to your storage.

If you use a subscribed library, you can only utilize the content, but cannot contribute with content. Only the administrator of the published library can manage the templates and files.

Table 4‑1. Source Objects to Which You Can Subscribe By Creating a Subscribed Library in The vSphere Web Client .

Source Object

A library running in a vCenter Server

6.0 instance.

A catalog running in a vCloud Director 5.5 instance.

A third-party library. Supported for third-party libraries

Create a subscribed library in the vSphere Web Client by using the option to Download all library content immediately

Supported Supported

Supported Not supported

that require authentication, if the username of the third-party library is vcsp. If the username of the source third-party library is different than vcsp, you can subscribe to it by using VMware vCloud Suite API.

Create a subscribed library in the vSphere Web Client by using the option to Download library content only when needed

Supported for third-party libraries that require authentication, if the username of the third-party library is vcsp. If the username of the source third-party library is different than vcsp, you can subscribe to it by using VMware vCloud Suite API.

Libraries store content on a file system or a datastore. To ensure optimal performance, use file systems for libraries that are published, and use datastores for local and subscribed libraries.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Create a Library,” on page 73

n

“Synchronize a Subscribed Library,” on page 74

n

“Edit the Settings of a Local Library,” on page 74

n

“Edit the Settings of a Subscribed Library,” on page 75

n

“Delete a Content Library,” on page 76

n

“Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries,” on page 76

n

“Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries,” on page 78

n

“Populating Libraries with Content,” on page 78

n

“Working with Items in a Library,” on page 81

n

72 VMware, Inc.

“Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content Library,” on page 84

n

Create a Library

You can create a content library in the vSphere Web Client, and populate it with templates, which you can use to deploy virtual machines or vApps in your virtual environment.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Content library. Create local library or Content library. Create subscribed library on the vCenter Server instance where you want to create the library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Click the Objects tab.

3

Click the Create a New Library icon ( ).

4 Enter a name for the content library, and in the Notes text box, enter a description for the library, and

click Next.

5 Select the type of content library you want to create.

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

Option Description

Local content library

Subscribed content library

Creates a content library that is accessible only in the vCenter Server instance where you create it.

To make the contents of the library available for other users, publish the library. If you want users to use a password when accessing the library, enable authentication for the library, and enter a password.

Creates a content library, which is subscribed to a published content library. You can only sync the subscribed library with the published library to see up-to-date content, but you cannot add or remove content from the subscribed library. Only an administrator of the published library can add, modify, and remove contents from the published library.

Provide the following settings to subscribe to a library:

a In the Subscription URL text box, enter the URL address of the

b If authentication is enabled on the published library, enter the

c Select a download method for the contents of the subscribed library.

d When prompted, accept the SSL certificate thumbprint.

6 Click Next.

published library.

publisher password.

If you want to download a local copy of all the templates and files

n

in the published library immediately after subscribing to it, select Download all library content immediately.

If you want to save storage space, select Download library

n

content only when needed. You download only the metadata for the templates and files in the published library.

When you need to use a particular template, synchronize the item to download a full copy.

The SSL certificate thumbprint is stored on your system until you delete the subscribed content library from the inventory.

VMware, Inc. 73

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

7 Enter the path to a storage location where to keep the contents of this library.

Option Description

Enter a local file system path or an NFS URL

Select a datastore

Enter the path to the local file system of the Windows machine where vCenter Server runs, or enter a path to an NFS storage if you are using vCenter Server Appliance.

If you use a vCenter Server instance that runs on a Windows system, you can store your templates on the local storage or the mapped shared storage on the Windows machine.

If you use vCenter Server Appliance, you can store your templates on an NFS storage that is mounted to the appliance. After the operation to create a new library is complete, the vCenter Server Appliance automatically mounts the shared storage to the host OS.

Select a datastore from your vSphere inventory.

8 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish.

Synchronize a Subscribed Library

To ensure that your subscribed library displays the latest content of the published library, you can manually initiate a synchronization task.

You can also have subscribed libraries automatically synchronize with the content of the published library. To enable automatic synchronization of the subscribed library, select the option to Enable automatic synchronization with the external library in the subscribed library settings. Take into account that the automatic synchronization requires a lot of storage space, because you download full copies of all the items in the published library.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Sync subscribed library on the library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Right-click a subscribed library from the list and select Synchronize Library.

A new task for synchronizing the subscribed library appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, you can see the updated list with library items in the Related Objects tab under Templates and Other Types.

Edit the Settings of a Local Library

You can change the settings of a content library.

As an administrator of a content library, you can publish a local library from your vCenter Server instance to share its contents across multiple vCenter Server systems. From the Edit Setting dialog box, you can obtain the URL of your library and send it to other users to subscribe. If the library is already published, you can change its password for authentication. Users who are subscribed to your library must update the password to keep access to the published library.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Content library. Update library and Content library. Update local library on the library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

74 VMware, Inc.

2 Right-click a content library and select Edit Settings.

3 Edit the settings for the library.

Type of Content Library Action

Content library that is local

Content library that is published

You can publish a local library to share its contents with other users.

a Select the Publish this library externally check box.

b Select whether to set a password for authentication to the library. If

you password protect the library, you must provide both the URL and the password to users who want to subscribe to your library.

You can change the following settings of a library that is published:

You can unpublish the library by deselecting the Publish this library

n

externally check box. Users who are currently subscribed to this library can no longer use the library contents.

You can enable or disable authentication for the library, and change

n

the password for authentication.

You can copy the subscription URL to your library and send it to other

n

users to subscribe.

4 Click OK.

Edit the Settings of a Subscribed Library

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

You can edit the settings of a subscribed library to optimize storage space and network bandwidth by switching between the options to download content from the published library. You might also need to update the password for authentication to the library if the administrator of the published library changes the password.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Content library. Update subscribed library and Content library. Probe subscription information on the subscribed library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Right-click a subscribed library and select Edit Settings.

3 Edit the settings of the subscribed library.

Enable or disable the automatic synchronization with the published library.

n

Update the password for authentication to the published library.

n

Select a download method. You can either download all library content immediately or download

n

library content only when needed.

If you switch from the option to download content only when needed to the option to immediately download all library content, after confirming the dialog a synchronization task starts and content starts to download. The number and size of items in the published library determine the amount of time and network bandwidth that the task requires.

4 Click OK.

VMware, Inc. 75

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Delete a Content Library

You can delete a content library that you no longer want to use.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Delete subscribed library or Content library. Delete local library on the type of library you want to delete.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Right-click a content library from the list and select Delete.

3 In the Delete library confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

The content library and all its contents are deleted.

Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries

vSphere objects inherit permissions from a parent object in the hierarchy. Content libraries work in the context of a single vCenter Server instance. However, content libraries are not direct children of a vCenter Server system from an inventory perspective.

The direct parent for content libraries is the global root. This means that 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 so on, but does not apply to the content libraries that you see and operate with in this vCenter Server instance. To assign a permission on a content library, an Administrator must grant the permission to the user as a global permission. Global permissions support assigning privileges across solutions from a global root object.

The figure illustrates the inventory hierarchy and the paths by which permissions can propagate.

76 VMware, Inc.

Figure 4‑1. vSphere Inventory Hierarchy

template

host

VDS datastore

cluster

vApp

virtual

machine

virtual

machine

resource

pool

resource

pool

virtual

machine

virtual

machine

resource

pool

standard

switch

datastore

cluster

distributed port group

VM folder host folder

data center

vCenter Server

(vCenter Server instance level)

network

folder

datastore

folder

data center

folder

root object

(global permissions level)

tag category

tag

content library

library item

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

To let a user manage a content library and its items, an Administrator can assign the Content Library Administrator role to that user as a global permission. The Content Library Administrator role is a sample role in the vSphere Web Client.

Users who are Administrators can also manage libraries and their contents. If a user is an Administrator at a vCenter Server level, they have sufficient privileges to manage the libraries that belong to this vCenter Server instance, but cannot see the libraries unless they have a Read-Only role as a global permission.

For example, a user has an Administrator role that is defined at a vCenter Server level. When the Administrator navigates to Content Libraries in the object navigator, he sees 0 libraries despite there are existing libraries in the vSphere inventory of that vCenter Server instance. To see the libraries, the Administrator needs a Read-Only role assigned as a global permission.

VMware, Inc. 77

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Administrators whose role is defined as a global permissions can see and manage the libraries in all vCenter Server instances that belong to the global root.

Because content libraries and their children items inherit permissions only from the global root object, when you navigate to a library or a library item and click Manage tab, you can see there is no Permissions tab. An Administrator cannot assign individual permissions on different libraries or different items within a library.

Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries

vSphere Web Client provides a sample role that lets you be an administrator of content libraries. You can modify the role or use it as an example to create custom roles for specific tasks you want to allow other users to perform.

Content Library Administrator

Content Library Administrator role is a predefined role that gives a user privileges to monitor and manage a library and its contents.

A user who has this role can perform the following tasks:

Create, edit, and delete local or subscribed libraries.

n

Synchronize a subscribed library and synchronize items in a subscribed library.

n

View the item types supported by the library.

n

Configure the global settings for the library.

n

Import items to a library.

n

Export library items.

n

Populating Libraries with Content

You can populate a content library with OVF templates that you can use to provision new virtual machines. You can also add other files to a content library such as ISO images, scripts, and text files.

There are multiple ways to populate a library with items.

Importing Items to a Content Library on page 79

n

You can import items such as VM templates and vApps to a content library from your local machine or from a Web server, and use them to create virtual machines and vApps. You can also import ISO images, certificates, and other files, which you want to keep in the library and share with other users across multiple vCenter Server systems.

Clone a vApp to a Template in Content Library on page 80

n

You can clone existing vApps to vApp templates in a content library. You can use the vApp templates later to provision new vApps on a cluster or a host in your vSphere inventory. The vApp is exported to a content library in the OVF format.

Clone a Virtual Machine or a VM Template to a Template in Content Library on page 80

n

You can clone existing virtual machines or VM templates to templates in the content library, and use them later to provision virtual machines on a cluster or a host.

Clone Library Items from One Library to Another Library on page 81

n

You can clone a template from one content library to another in the same vCenter Server instance. The cloned template is an exact copy of the original template.

78 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

Importing Items to a Content Library

You can import items such as VM templates and vApps to a content library from your local machine or from a Web server, and use them to create virtual machines and vApps. You can also import ISO images, certificates, and other files, which you want to keep in the library and share with other users across multiple vCenter Server systems.

Import Items to a Library from a URL

You can add an item that resides on a Web server to a content library.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Add library item and Content library. Update files on the library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Right-click a content library and select Import Item.

The Import Library Item dialog box opens.

3 Under Source section, select the option to import an item from a URL, and enter the path to a Web-

server where the item is.

4 Under Destination section, enter a name and a description for the item, and click OK.

In the Recent Tasks pane you see two tasks, one about creating a new item in the library, and the second about uploading the contents of the item to the library. After the task is complete, the item appears on the Related Objects tab under Templates or Other Types.

Import Items to a Library from a Local File on Your System

You can add items to a content library by importing files from your local system. You can import an OVF package to use as a template for deploying virtual machines and vApps. You can also import other types of files, such as scripts, ISO files, and so on, that you want to use in your vCenter Server instance, or you want to share across multiple vCenter Server systems.

Prerequisites

Verify you have the vCenter Client Integration Plug-in installed on the system. See “Install the Client

n

Integration Plug-In,” on page 187.

Required privilege: Content library. Add library item and Content library. Update files on the library.

n

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Right-click a content library and select Import Item.

The Import Library Item dialog box opens.

3 Under Source section, select the option to import an item from a local file, and click Browse to navigate

to the file that you want to import from your local system.

You can use theFiles of Type drop-down menu to filter files in your local system.

4 Under Destination section, enter a name and description for the item, and click OK.

VMware, Inc. 79

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

In the Recent Tasks pane you see two tasks, one about creating a new item in the library, and the second about uploading the contents of the item to the library. After the task is complete, the item appears on the Related Objects tab under Templates or Other Types.

Clone a vApp to a Template in Content Library

You can clone existing vApps to vApp templates in a content library. You can use the vApp templates later to provision new vApps on a cluster or a host in your vSphere inventory. The vApp is exported to a content library in the OVF format.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, click vCenter Inventory Lists > vApps.

2 Right-click a vApp and select Clone > Clone to Template in Library

3 Type a name and description for the template.

4 From the list of available libraries, select the content library to which you want to add the template.

5 (Optional) Include or exclude vApp related configurations in the template you are cloning.

You can select to preserve the MAC-addresses on the network adapters and include extra configuration.

6 Click OK.

A new task for exporting an OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the vApp template appears on the Templates tab under Related Objects tab for the content library.

What to do next

Use the template to provision vApps on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory. See “Create New

vApp on a Host or a Cluster from a Template in a Content Library,” on page 84

Clone a Virtual Machine or a VM Template to a Template in Content Library

You can clone existing virtual machines or VM templates to templates in the content library, and use them later to provision virtual machines on a cluster or a host.

Templates are master copies of virtual machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the state of the original template. For more information, see “VM Templates and vApp

Templates in Content Libraries,” on page 82

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the object you want to clone, and start the cloning task.

Option Action

Clone a virtual machine to a template in a library

Clone a VM Template to a template in a library

The Clone to Template in Library dialog box opens.

a Select vCenter Inventory Lists > Virtual Machines.

b Right-click a virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Template in

Library.

a Select vCenter Inventory Lists > VM Templates in Folders.

b Right-click a VM Template and select Clone to Library.

2 Enter a name and description for the template.

3 From the list with content libraries, select the library in which you want to add the template.

80 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

4 (Optional) Select configuration data that you want to include in the template.

You can select to preserve the MAC-addresses on the network adapters and include extra configuration.

5 Click OK.

A new task for exporting an OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the template appears in the Templates tab of the Related Objects tab for the content library.

What to do next

Use the template to create virtual machines on hosts or clusters in the vSphere inventory.

Clone Library Items from One Library to Another Library

You can clone a template from one content library to another in the same vCenter Server instance. The cloned template is an exact copy of the original template.

When cloning a template between libraries, in the clone wizard you can select the source library to also be a destination library.

A subscribed library can be the source of an item you want to clone, but you cannot clone items to a subscribed library. The subscribed libraries are filtered out from the list with destination libraries in the Clone Library Item dialog box. When the source library of an item you want to clone is a subscribed library with the setting to download items only when needed, the item is first downloaded to the source subscribed library and then cloned to the destination library.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a content library and click the Related Objects tab.

3 Right-click a library item and select Clone Item.

4 (Optional) Change the name and notes for the item you clone.

5 From the list of content libraries, select the library in which you want to clone the template.

You can select the destination library to be the same as the source library if you want to have identical copy of the template in the same library.

6 Click OK.

A new task for cloning the template appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, a clone of the template appears on the Templates tab under the Related objects tab of the destination content library.

What to do next

Deploy a virtual machine from template on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory.

Working with Items in a Library

You can perform various tasks with the items in a content library. You can synchronize an item from a subscribed library to download all its contents and use the item to deploy a virtual machine for example. You can delete items you no longer need to use, and so on.

Each VM template, vApp template, or another type of file in a library is a library item. An item can contain a single file or multiple files. In the case of VM and vApp templates, each item contains multiple files. For example, because an OVF template is a set of multiple files, when you upload an OVF template to the library, you actually upload all the files associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf), but in the vSphere Web Client you see listing only of the .ovf file in the content library.

VMware, Inc. 81

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

VM Templates and vApp Templates in Content Libraries

In a content library you can store VM and vApp templates. You can use the VM and vApp templates to deploy virtual machines and vApps in the vSphere inventory.

A VM template is a template of a virtual machine. The VM templates that exist in a VM template folder differentiate from the VM templates that exist in a content library. A VM template that resides in a content library is in OVF format and if you export it to your local system it is saved as an .ovf file. The VM templates that exist in a VM template folder are not in OVF format but if you clone them to content library, the resulting template is in an OVF format.

A vApp template is a template of a vApp, which can contain multiple virtual machines or multiple vApps. A vApp template that resides in a content library is in OVF format, and if you export the template to your local system it is saved as an .ovf file. vApp templates are inventory objects that exist only in content libraries.

You can use VM templates and vApp templates to deploy virtual machines and vApps to a destination object such as a host or a cluster.

Synchronize a Library Item in a Subscribed Library

To update or download the content of a library item you can synchronize it.

When creating the subscribed library, if you selected the option to download library content only when needed, only metadata for the library contents is downloaded to the associated storage. When you need to use the item, you synchronize it to download its content to your local storage. When you no longer need the item, to free space on your storage you can delete the content of the item. You continue to see the item in your subscribed library, but it no longer takes up space on your storage because only the items metadata remains on the storage.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Sync library item on the library item.

n

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.

3 Synchronize the item you need to use.

On the Templates tab, right-click a VM or a vApp template, and select Synchronize Item.

n

On the Other Types tab, right-click an item, and select Synchronize Item.

n

After synchronization completes, the item content and metadata are downloaded to the backing storage of the subscribed library, and in the Related Objects tab the value for the item in the Stored Content Locally column changes to Yes.

Export Item from a Content Library to Your Local Computer

You might need to export an item from a content library to your local system.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Download files on the library.

n

Verify you have the Client Integration Plug-in installed on the system.

n

82 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a content library and click the Related Objects tab.

3 Select the type of file you want to export.

From the Templates tab, right-click a template from the library, and select Export Item.

n

From the Other Types tab, right-click a file from the library that is not a template, and select Export

n

Item.

The Export Library Item dialog box opens.

4 Browse to a destination folder where you want to save the item, and click OK.

A folder with the same name as the item is created in the destination folder on your local computer to store the item contents.

Delete the Contents of a Library Item

If a subscribed library is created with the option to download library content only when needed, only metadata for the library items is stored in the associated with the library storage. For example, when you want to use a VM template to deploy a virtual machine, you have to synchronize the item so the entire content is downloaded to the associated storage. After you are done using the template, you can delete the item contents to free space on the storage. The template remains visible in the subscribed library because the metadata for it remains on the storage that is associated with the library. This also applies for vApp templates, and other file that exist in the subscribed library.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Evict library item

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.

3 On the Related Objects tab, right-click an item from the list, and select Delete Item Content.

The content of the item is deleted to free space on the storage. Only the item metadata remains on the storage.

Delete Library Item

You can delete an item you no longer need to use.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Content library. Delete library item on the library item.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.

3 Right-click an item from the Templates or Other Types lists in the Related Objects tab, and select

Delete.

4 In the dialog box, confirm that you want to delete the item.

The content and the metadata of the library item are deleted.

VMware, Inc. 83

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content Library

From VM or from vApp templates stored in a content library, you can deploy virtual machines and vApps on hosts or clusters in your vSphere inventory.

The library can be a local library to the vCenter Server instance where you want to deploy the VM or the vApp template, or can be a subscribed library to that vCenter Server instance.

The use of templates brings about consistency, compliance, and efficiency when deploying virtual machines and vApps in your vCenter Server instance.

Deploy Virtual Machine on a Host or a Cluster from a VM Template in the Content Library

You can use a VM template from a content library to deploy a virtual machine to a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a content library, click the Related Objects tab, and click Templates.

3 Right-click a VM Template and select New VM from This Template.

The New Virtual Machine from Content Library into Host or Cluster wizard opens.

4 Enter a name, select a location for the virtual machine, and click Next.

5 On the Select a resource page, select a host, a cluster, a resource pool, or a vApp where to deploy the

VM template.

6 On the Review details page, verify the template details and click Next.

7 On the Select Storage page, select the location to store the files of the VM template, and click Next.

8 Select a network for each network adapter in the template, and click Next.

9 Review the page and click Finish.

A new task for creating the virtual machine appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the new virtual machine is created on the selected resource.

What to do next

Customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine. For more information, see “Apply a

Customization Specification to a Virtual Machine,” on page 54.

Create New vApp on a Host or a Cluster from a Template in a Content Library

You can use a vApp template from a content library to create new vApp on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.

2 Select a content library, click the Related Objects tab, and click Templates.

3 Right-click a vApp template and select New vApp from This Template.

The New vApp from Content Library into Host or Cluster wizard opens.

84 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 4 Using Content Libraries

4 Enter a name and select a location for the vApp, and click Next.

5 On the Select a resource page, select a host, a cluster, a resource pool, or a vApp to deploy the vApp to.

6 On the Review details page, verify the template details and click Next.

7 Select disk format and a storage resource for the vApp.

8 On the Customize template page, you can customize the deployment properties for the vApp.

9 On the Ready to Complete page, review the configurations you made for the vApp, and click Finish.

A new task for creating the vApp appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the new vApp is created.

VMware, Inc. 85

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

86 VMware, Inc.

Installing the Microsoft Sysprep Tool 5

Install the Microsoft Sysprep tool so that you can customize Windows guest operating systems when you clone virtual machines.

The guest operating system customization feature in vCenter Server uses the functions of the Sysprep tool. Verify that your vCenter Server meets the following requirements before you customize your virtual machine’s Windows guest operating systems:

Install the Microsoft Sysprep tool. Microsoft includes the system tool set on the installation CD-ROM

n

discs for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003. The Sysprep tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008 operating systems.

The correct versions of the Sysprep tool is installed for each guest operating system that you want to

n

customize.

The password for the local administrator account on the virtual machines is set to blank ("").

n

NOTE Customization operations will fail if the correct version of the Sysprep tool is not found.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from a Microsoft Web Site,” on page 87

n

“Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from the Windows Operating System CD,” on page 88

n

Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from a Microsoft Web Site

You can download and install the Microsoft Sysprep tool from the Microsoft Web site.

Prerequisites

Verify that you download the correct version for the guest operating system to customize. Microsoft has a different version of Sysprep for each release and service pack of Windows. You must use the version of Sysprep specific to the operating system that you are deploying.

The vCenter Server installer creates a Sysprep directory in ALLUSERSPROFILE. The ALLUSERSPROFILE location is usually \Documents And Settings\All Users\. The vpxd.cfg file is also in this location. On Windows 2008, the file location is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\.

Procedure

1 Download the Sysprep files from the Microsoft Download Center and save them to your local system.

2 Open and expand the .cab file.

The contents of the .cab file vary, depending on the operating system.

VMware, Inc.

87

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

3 Extract the files to the appropriate directory for your guest operating system.

The following Sysprep support directories are created during the vCenter Server installation:

C:\ALLUSERSPROFILE\Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep ...\1.1\ ...\2k\ ...\xp\ ...\svr2003\ ...\xp-64\ ...\svr2003-64\

4 Select the subdirectory that corresponds to your operating system.

5 Click OK to expand the files.

What to do next

Customize a new virtual machine with a supported Windows guest operating system when you clone an existing virtual machine.

Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from the Windows Operating System CD

You can install the Microsoft Sysprep tool from a CD.

The vCenter Server installer creates a Sysprep directory in ALLUSERSPROFILE. The ALLUSERSPROFILE location is usually \Documents and Settings\All Users\. The vpxd.cfg file is also in this location. On Windows 2008, the file location is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\.

Procedure

1 Insert the Windows operating system CD into the CD-ROM drive, often the D: drive.

2 Locate the DEPLOY.CAB file in the \Support\Tools directory on the CD.

3 Open and expand the DEPLOY.CAB file.

The contents of the .cab file vary, depending on the operating system.

4 Extract the files to the directory appropriate for your guest operating system.

The following Sysprep support directories are created during the vCenter Server installation:

C:\ALLUSERSPROFILE\Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep ...\1.1\ ...\2k\ ...\xp\ ...\svr2003\ ...\xp-64\ ...\svr2003-64\

5 Select the subdirectory that corresponds to your operating system.

6 Click OK to expand the files.

7 Repeat this procedure to extract Sysprep files for each of the Windows guest operating systems that you

plan to customize using vCenter Server.

What to do next

Customize a new virtual machine with a supported Windows guest operating system when you clone an existing virtual machine.

88 VMware, Inc.

Configuring Virtual Machine

Hardware 6

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

You configure the virtual machine hardware and can change nearly every characteristic that you selected when you created the virtual machine. You can view the existing hardware configuration and add or remove hardware. You can configure CPUs, CPU hyperthreading resources, memory, and disks.

Not all hardware devices are available to every virtual machine. The host that the virtual machine runs on and the guest operating system must support devices that you add or configurations that you make.

This chapter includes the following topics:

“Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 89

n

“Virtual CPU Configuration,” on page 95

n

“Virtual Memory Configuration,” on page 101

n

“Network Virtual Machine Configuration,” on page 103

n

“Parallel and Serial Port Configuration,” on page 107

n

“Virtual Disk Configuration,” on page 115

n

“SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125

n

“Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration,” on page 130

n

“Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual machines with 3D graphics Option,” on page 139

n

“USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine,” on page 139

n

“USB Configuration from a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine,” on page 146

n

“Add a Shared Smart Card Reader to Virtual Machines,” on page 152

n

Virtual Machine Compatibility

When you create a virtual machine or upgrade an existing virtual machine, you use the virtual machine compatibility setting to select the ESXi host versions that the virtual machine can run on.

The compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. Virtual hardware includes BIOS and EFI, available virtual PCI slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other characteristics. New virtual hardware capabilities are typically released once a year with major or minor releases of vSphere.

VMware, Inc.

89

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Each virtual machine compatibility level supports at least five major or minor vSphere releases. For example, a virtual machine with ESXi 3.5 and later compatibility can run on ESXi 3.5, ESXi 4.0, ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0.

Table 6‑1. Virtual Machine Compatibility Options

Compatibility Description

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

ESXi 5.5 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 10) is compatible with ESXi 5.5 and 6.0.

ESXi 5.1 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 9) is compatible with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and

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

ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 7) is compatible with ESX/ ESXi 4.0, ESX/ ESXi

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

ESX Server 2.x and later This virtual machine (hardware version 3) is compatible with ESX Server 2.x, ESX/ESXi

ESXi 6.0.

5.5, and ESXi 6.0.

4.1, ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0.

4.0, ESX/ ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0. It is also compatible with VMware Server 1.0 and later. ESXi 5.0 does not allow creation of virtual machines with ESX/ESXi

3.5 and later compatibility, but you can run such virtual machines if they were created on a host with different compatibility.

3.5, ESX/ESXi 4.x, and ESXi 5.0. You cannot create, edit, turn on, clone, or migrate virtual machines with ESX Server 2.x compatibility. You can only register or upgrade them.

The compatibility setting that appears in the Compatible with drop-down menu is the default for the virtual machine that you are creating. The following factors determine the default virtual machine compatibility:

The ESXi host version on which the virtual machine is created.

n

The inventory object that the default virtual machine compatibility is set on, including a host, cluster, or

n

datacenter.

You can accept the default compatibility or select a different setting. It is not always necessary to select the latest ESXi host version. Selecting an earlier version can provide greater flexibility and is useful in the following situations:

To standardize testing and deployment in your virtual environment.

n

If you do not need the capabilities of the latest host version.

n

To maintain compatibility with older hosts.

n

When you create a virtual machine, consider the environment that the virtual machine will run in and weigh the benefits of different compatibility strategies. Consider your options for these scenarios, which demonstrate the flexibility inherent with each virtual machine compatibility selection.

90 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware

Objects in Environment Compatibility Results

Cluster with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0 hosts

ESXi 5.1 and later Preserves the ability of the virtual machine to run on other hosts in

the cluster, such as ESXi 5.0.

You might not have access to the latest virtual hardware features.

ESXi 5.5 and later Gives you access to virtual hardware features that are not available

with ESXi 5.1.

You cannot migrate this virtual machine to an ESXi 5.1 host.

n

This virtual machine does not have all the capabilities available

n

to virtual machines that run on ESXi 6.0, for example, you cannot configure a virtual machine to use 128 virtual CPUs.

ESXi 6.0 and later Provides access to the latest virtual hardware features, but but

cannot run on ESXi 5.1 or ESXi 5.5.

Set the Default Compatibility for Virtual Machine Creation

You can set the default compatibility for virtual machine creation on the host, cluster, or data center. These options ensure that when virtual machines are added to an existing vSphere environment, they will be compatible with the host versions that reside there.

The following conditions apply:

To set the default compatibility on the cluster, the cluster must contain hosts that are connected and not

n

in maintenance mode.

A default compatibility setting on the host overrides a default cluster or datacenter setting.

n

A default compatibility setting on the cluster overrides a default datacenter setting.

n

Prerequisites

Required privileges:

On the host or cluster: Host.Inventory.Modify cluster

n

On the datacenter: Datacenter.Reconfigure datacenter

n

Procedure

Select a host, cluster, or data center in the inventory.

u

Option Action

Host

Cluster

Datacenter

a Click the Manage tab, and click Settings.

b In the Virtual Machines section, select Default VM Compatibility and

click Edit.

c Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.

NOTE You can set the compatibility only on hosts that are not part of a cluster.

a Click the Manage tab and click Settings.

b In the Configuration section, select General and click the Edit button

next to Default VM Compatibility.

c Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.

When you change the compatibility for a cluster, the compatibility for all hosts in the cluster changes as well.

a Right-click the datacenter and select Edit Default VM Compatibility.

b Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.

When you create a virtual machine on one of these objects, the default compatibility setting is used.

VMware, Inc. 91

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for a Single Virtual Machine

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

To schedule an upgrade for multiple virtual machines, see “Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for Virtual

Machines,” on page 247.

Prerequisites

Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machines.

n

Upgrade to the latest version of VMware Tools. On Microsoft Windows virtual machines, if you

n

upgrade the compatibility level before you upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine might lose its network settings.

Verify that all .vmdk files are available to the ESX/ESXi host on a VMFS-3, VMFS-5, or NFS datastore.

n

Verify that the virtual machine is stored on VMFS-3, VMFS-5 or NFS datastores.

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Upgrade and select Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade.

3 Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu.

The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded the next time you restart the virtual machine.

4 (Optional) To upgrade the compatibility when you do regularly scheduled guest maintenance, select

Only upgrade after normal guest OS shutdown.

The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded and the new version appears on the virtual machine Summary tab.

Determine the Default Virtual Machine Compatibility Setting in the vSphere Web Client

The compatibility setting for a virtual machine provides information about the hosts, clusters, or data center that the virtual machine is compatible with.

The virtual machine Summary tab displays the compatibility for the virtual machine. You can set and view the default compatibility that is used for virtual machine creation at the host, cluster, or datacenter level.

Procedure

Select an inventory object and display the virtual machine compatibility.

u

Option Action

Virtual machine

Host, Cluster, Datacenter

Select a virtual machine and click Actions > Compatibility. You can select Upgrade VM Compatibility or Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade.

Right-click the object and select Actions > Edit Default VM Compatibility.

If a host is in a cluster, it has the virtual machine compatibility set on the cluster, and the menu item is grayed out.

92 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware

Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings

The virtual machine compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. You can review and compare the hardware available for different compatibility levels to help you determine whether to upgrade the virtual machines in your environment.

Table 6‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility

ESX/ESXi

ESXi 5.1 and

Feature ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later

Hardware version

Maximum memory (GB)

Maximum number of logical processors

Maximum number of cores (virtual CPUs) per socket

Maximum SCSI adapters

Bus Logic adapters

LSI Logic adapters

LSI Logic SAS adapters

VMware Paravirtual controllers

SATA controllers

Virtual SCSI disk

SCSI passthrough

SCSI hot plug support

IDE nodes Y Y Y Y Y Y

Virtual IDE disk

Virtual IDE CD-ROMs

IDE hot plug support

11 10 9 8 7 4

4080 1011 1011 1011 255 64

128 64 64 32 8 4

128 64 64 32 8 1

4 4 4 4 4 4

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y Y N

4 4 N N N N

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Y Y Y Y Y N

Y Y Y Y Y Y

N N N N N N

later

ESXi 5.0 and later

4.x and later

ESX/ESXi

3.5 and later

VMware, Inc. 93

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Table 6‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility (Continued)

ESX/ESXi

Feature ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later

Maximum

10 10 10 10 10 4

ESXi 5.1 and later

ESXi 5.0 and later

4.x and later

NICs

PCNet32 Y Y Y Y Y Y

VMXNet Y Y Y Y Y Y

VMXNet2 Y Y Y Y Y Y

VMXNet3 Y Y Y Y Y N

E1000 Y Y Y Y Y Y

E1000e Y Y Y Y N N

USB 1.x and

Y Y Y Y Y N

2.0

USB 3.0 Y Y Y Y N N

Maximum

2 GB 512 512 128 128 128 video memory (MB)

SVGA

10 10 10 10 10 1 displays

SVGA 3D

Y Y Y Y N N hardware acceleration

VMCI Y Y Y Y Y N

PCI

16 6 6 6 6 0 passthrough

PCI Hot plug

Y Y Y Y Y N support

Nested HV

Y Y Y N N N support

vPMC

Y Y Y N N N support

Serial ports 32 4 4 4 4 4

Parallel ports 3 3 3 3 3 3

Floppy

2 2 2 2 2 2 devices

ESX/ESXi

3.5 and later

94 VMware, Inc.

Virtual CPU Configuration

You can add, change, or configure 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 off the virtual machine before you change the settings.

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

Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware

CPU

CPU Socket

Core

Corelet

Thread

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.

A physical connector on a computer motherboard that accepts a single physical CPU. Many motherboards can have multiple sockets that can in turn accept multicore processors (CPUs). The vSphere Web Client computes the total number of virtual sockets from the number of cores and the cores per socket that you select.

Comprises 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 will comprise a number of compute units, where each compute unit 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 floating-point execution unit. AMD refers to corelets as cores, but because these are unlike traditional cores, VMware uses the nomenclature of corelets 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.

Resource sharing

Resource allocation

vSphere Virtual Symmetric Multiprocessing (Virtual SMP)

VMware, Inc. 95

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 these two virtual machines are competing for resources.

You can change CPU resource allocation settings, 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.

Feature that enables a single virtual machine to have multiple processors.

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Virtual CPU Limitations

The maximum number of virtual CPUs that you can assign to a virtual machine is 128. The number of virtual CPUs depends on 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

n

number of logical cores is equal to the number of physical cores if hyperthreading is disabled or two times that number if hyperthreading is enabled.

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

n

functionality might support fewer processors than are available on the host. For information about Virtual SMP support, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.

Hyperthreaded hosts might affect virtual machine performance, depending on the workload. The best

n

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.

IMPORTANT When you configure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU settings, you must ensure that your configuration 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 configure 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 configure the virtual machine for 128 virtual CPUs.

You configure 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.

Change CPU Hot Plug Settings

By default, you cannot add CPU resources to a virtual machine when the virtual machine is turned on. The CPU hot plug option lets you add CPU resources to a running virtual machine.

The following conditions apply:

For best results, use virtual machines that are compatible with ESXi 5.0 or later.

n

Hot-adding multicore virtual CPUs is supported only with virtual machines that are compatible with

n

ESXi 5.0 or later.

Not all guest operating systems support CPU hot add. You can disable these settings if the guest is not

n

supported.

96 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware

To use the CPU hot plug feature with virtual machines that are compatible with ESXi 4.x and later, set

n

the Number of cores per socket to 1.

Adding CPU resources to a running virtual machine with CPU hot plug enabled disconnects and

n

reconnects all USB passthrough devices that are connected to that virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Virtual Machine.Configuration.Settings

Verify that the virtual machine is running and is configured as follows.

Latest version of VMware Tools installed.

n

Guest operating system that supports CPU hot plug.

n

Virtual machine compatibility is ESX/ESXi 4.x or later.

n

Virtual machine is turned off.

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select Enable CPU Hot Add.

3 Click OK.

You can now add CPUs even if the virtual machine is turned on.

Change the Number of Virtual CPUs

You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.0 and later to have up to 128 virtual CPUs. You can change the number of virtual CPUs while your virtual machine is powered off. 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 the running virtual machine. You can add only multiples of the number of cores per socket.

IMPORTANT When you configure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU settings, you must ensure that your configuration complies with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.

Prerequisites

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

n

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

n

Required privilege: Virtual Machine.Configuration.Change CPU Count on the virtual machine

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2 Expand CPU, and select the number of cores from the CPU drop-down menu.

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

4 Click OK.

VMware, Inc. 97

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Allocate CPU Resources

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

A virtual machine has the following user-defined settings that affect its CPU resource allocation.

Limit

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

Reservation

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

Shares

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

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

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

Option Description

Reservation

Limit

Shares

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 specific number of shares, which express a proportional weight.

3 Click OK.

Configure Processor Scheduling Affinity

The Scheduling Affinity option gives you detailed control over how virtual machine CPUs are distributed across the host's physical cores. The option supports hyperthreading if hyperthreading is enabled. ESXi generally manages processor scheduling well, even when hyperthreading is enabled. These settings are useful only for fine-tuning critical virtual machines.

Using CPU affinity, you can assign a virtual machine to a specific processor. This assignment allows you to restrict the assignment of virtual machines to a specific available processor in multiprocessor systems.

This setting does not appear for virtual machines in a DRS cluster or when the host has only one processor core and no hyperthreading.

For potential issues with CPU affinity, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine is turned off.

n

Verify that the virtual machine does not reside in a DRS cluster.

n

Verify that the host has more than one physical processor core.

n

98 VMware, Inc.

Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware

Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Change resource

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and enter a comma-separated list of hyphenated processor

ranges in the Scheduling Affinity text box.

For example, "0,4-7" would indicate affinity with CPUs 0,4,5,6, and 7. Selecting all processors is identical to selecting no affinity. You must provide at least as many processor affinities as you have virtual CPUs.

3 Click OK.

Change CPU Identification Mask Settings in the vSphere Web Client

CPU identification (CPU ID) masks control the CPU features visible to the virtual machine's guest operating system. Masking or hiding CPU features can make a virtual machine widely available to ESXi hosts for migration. vCenter Server compares the CPU features available to a virtual machine with the CPU features of the destination host to determine whether to allow or disallow migration with vMotion.

For example, masking the AMD No eXecute (NX) and the Intel eXecute Disable (XD) bits prevents the virtual machine from using these features, but provides compatibility that allows you to migrate virtual machines to ESXi hosts that do not include this capability. When the NX/XD bit is visible to the guest operating system, the virtual machine can use this feature, but you can migrate the virtual machine only to hosts on which the feature is enabled.

CAUTION Changing the CPU compatibility masks can result in an unsupported configuration. Do not manually change the CPU compatibility masks unless instructed to do so by VMware Support or a VMware Knowledge base article.

Prerequisites

Turn off the virtual machine.

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2

On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and in the CPUID Mask drop-down menu, select an NX/XD option.

Option Description

Hide the NX/XD flag from guest

Expose the NX/XD flag to guest

Keep current Advanced setting values for the NX/XD flag

Increases vMotion compatibility. Hiding the NX/XD flag increases vMotion compatibility between hosts, but

might disable certain CPU security features.

Keeps all CPU security features enabled.

Uses the NX/XD flag settings specified in the CPU Identification Mask dialog box. Enabled only when current settings specify something other than what is specified in the other NX/XD flag options, for example, if the NX/XD flag bit setting varies with processor brand.

3 Click OK.

VMware, Inc. 99

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration

Expose VMware Hardware Assisted Virtualization

You can expose full CPU virtualization to the guest operating system so that applications that require hardware virtualization can run on virtual machines without binary translation or paravirtualization.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.1 and later.

n

Intel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3

n

(Greyhound) or later processors.

Verify that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS so that hardware assisted virtualization is

n

possible.

Required Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Settings set on the vCenter Server system.

n

Procedure

1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.

2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select Expose hardware-assisted virtualization to

guest OS.

3 Click OK.

The Manage tab refreshes, and the Nested Hypervisor CPU option shows Enabled.

Enable Virtual CPU Performance Counters

You can use performance tuning tools in the guest operating system for software profiling. You can identify and improve processor performance problems. This capability is useful for software developers who optimize or debug software that runs in the virtual machine.

The following conditions apply:

If virtual CPU performance counters are enabled, you can migrate the virtual machine only to hosts that

n

have compatible CPU performance counters.

If an ESXi host's BIOS uses a performance counter or if Fault Tolerance is enabled, some virtual

n

performance counters might not be available for the virtual machine to use.

NOTE If a virtual machine resides on an ESXi host in an EVC cluster, CPU counters are not supported for virtual machine creation or editing. You must disable CPU performance counters.

For a list of virtualized Model-Specific Registers (MSRs), see the VMware knowledge base article at

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2030221.

Prerequisites

Verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.1 and later.

n

Verify that the virtual machine is turned off.

n

Verify that Intel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3

n

("Greyhound") or later processors are installed.

Verify that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS so that hardware-assisted virtualization is

n

possible.

Required Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Settings is set on the vCenter Server system.

n

100 VMware, Inc.