VMware ESXI - 6.7 Instruction Manual

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vCenter Server and Host Management

17 APR 2018 VMware vSphere 6.7 VMware ESXi 6.7 vCenter Server 6.7

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vCenter Server and Host Management

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

https://docs.vmware.com/

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

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About VMware vCenter Server and Host Management 10

vSphere Concepts and Features 11

Virtualization Basics 11

Physical Topology of vSphere Data Center 12

vSphere Software Components 13

Client Interfaces for vSphere 16

vSphere Managed Inventory Objects 17

Optional vCenter Server Components 19

vCenter Server Plug-Ins 21

Using the vSphere Client 22

Use the vSphere Client Navigator 23

Customize the User Interface 24

Rearrange the Components of the User Interface 25

Customize the User Interface by Using the Layout Settings Menu 25

Disable the vSphere Web Client Customizable User Interface Feature 25

Disable the Related Objects Tabs 26

Install the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 26

Pause and Resume a Task in Progress in the vSphere Web Client 27

Refresh Data 27

Searching the Inventory 28

Perform a Quick Search 28

Perform a Simple Search 29

Perform an Advanced Search 29

Save a Search 30

Load a Saved Search 30

Use Quick Filters 31

Quick Filters Available for vSphere Objects 31

View Recent Objects 33

Configure the vSphere Web Client Timeout Value 34

Remove Stored User Data 34

Drag Objects 35

Export Lists 35

Attach File to Service Request 36

Keyboard Shortcuts 36

Inventory Keyboard Shortcuts 36

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Create a Scheduled Task with a Keyboard Shortcut 37

Configuring vCenter Server 38

Configure License Settings for vCenter Server 39

Configuring Statistics Settings 39

Configure Statistics Collection Intervals in the vSphere Web Client 40

Estimate the Effect of Statistics Collection on the Database in the vSphere Web Client 41

Data Collection Levels 41

Configure Runtime Settings for vCenter Server 42

Configure User Directory Settings 43

Configure Mail Sender Settings 44

Configure SNMP Settings 45

View Port Settings 45

Configure Timeout Settings 46

Configure Logging Options 46

Configure Database Settings 47

Verifying SSL Certificates for Legacy Hosts 48

Configure Advanced Settings 48

Send a Message to Other Logged In Users 49

Edit the Settings of Services 50

Start, Stop, and Restart Services 50

Configuring Services in the vSphere Web Client 51

Auto Deploy Service 53

Content Library Service 53

Transfer Service Properties 55

VMware Open Virtualization Format Service 56

Image Builder Service 56

VMware Performance Charts Service 56

VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy 57

VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector 58

VMware vSphere Update Manager 58

vAPI Endpoint 58

Using Enhanced Linked Mode 62

Configuring Communication Among ESXi , vCenter Server, and the

vSphere Web Client 63

Configuring Hosts and vCenter Server 64

Host Configuration 64

Configure the Boot Device on an ESXi Host 64

Configure Agent VM Settings 65

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Set Advanced Host Attributes 65

Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network 66

Edit Time Configuration for a Host 66

Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program 68

Categories of Information That VMware Receives 68

Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the vSphere Web Client 68

Organizing Your Inventory 69

Create Data Centers 70

Add a Host 71

Create a Folder 72

Create Clusters 72

vSphere Tags and Attributes 74

Migrate Custom Attributes to Tags 75

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag Category 76

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag 77

Assign a Tag to an Object 78

Remove a Tag from an Object 78

Add Permissions for Tags and Tag Categories 79

Tagging Best Practices 79

Custom Attributes in the vSphere Web Client 80

Add and Edit Custom Attributes 80

License Management and Reporting 82

Licensing Terminology and Definitions 83

The License Service in vSphere 6.7 84

Licensing for Environments with vCenter Server Systems 6.0 and Later, and 5.5 85

Licensing for Products in vSphere 85

Licensing for ESXi Hosts 85

Licensing for vCenter Server 87

Licensing for Clusters with Enabled vSAN 87

Suite Licensing 88

Licensing for VMware vCloud® Suite 88

Licensing for vSphere® with Operations Management 89

Managing Licenses 89

Create New Licenses 89

Configuring License Settings for Assets in the vSphere Web Client 90

Set Assets to Evaluation Mode 94

Rename a License 95

Remove Licenses 95

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Viewing Licensing Information 96

View Licensing Information About the vSphere Environment 96

View Available Licenses and Features About a Product 97

View the Features that an Asset Uses 97

View the License Key of the License 98

View the Licensed Features for an Asset 98

Generating Reports for License Use in the vSphere Web Client 99

View the License Usage for Multiple Products in the vSphere Web Client 99

View License Usage Details for a Single Product in the vSphere Web Client 100

Export a License Usage Report in the vSphere Web Client 100

Synchronizing Licenses with Your My VMware Account 101

Synchronize Licenses 101

Using CSV files 107

Using Generated Recommendation Reports 108

vCenter Server Domain Repoint License Considerations 110

Working with Tasks 111

View Tasks 111

Schedule Tasks 111

Create a Scheduled Task 112

Change or Reschedule a Task 114

Remove a Scheduled Task 115

Managing Hosts in vCenter Server 116

Disconnecting and Reconnecting a Host 116

Disconnect a Managed Host 116

Reconnect a Managed Host 117

Reconnecting Hosts After Changes to the vCenter Server SSL Certificate 117

Remove a Host from a Cluster 117

Remove a Managed Host from vCenter Server 118

Reboot or Shut Down an ESXi Host 118

Migrating Virtual Machines 120

Cold Migration 122

Migration with vMotion 123

Host Configuration for vMotion 124

Encrypted vSphere vMotion 127

Virtual Machine Conditions and Limitations for vMotion 129

Migration with vMotion in Environments Without Shared Storage 130

Migration Between vCenter Server Systems 131

Migration with Storage vMotion 133

Storage vMotion Requirements and Limitations 133

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CPU Compatibility and EVC 134

CPU Compatibility Scenarios 135

CPU Families and Feature Sets 136

About Enhanced vMotion Compatibility 136

EVC Requirements for Hosts 137

Create an EVC Cluster 137

Enable EVC on an Existing Cluster 138

Change the EVC Mode for a Cluster 139

Determine the EVC Mode of a Virtual Machine 140

Determine the EVC Mode that a Host Supports 141

Prepare Clusters for AMD Processors Without 3DNow! 141

CPU Compatibility Masks 142

View CPUID Details for an EVC Cluster 143

Migrate a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client 143

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a New Compute Resource 146

Migrate a Virtual Machine to a New Compute Resource and Storage in the vSphere Web Client 148

Migrate a Virtual Machine to New Storage in the vSphere Web Client 151

Place vMotion Traffic on the vMotion TCP/IP Stack of an ESXi Host 152

Place Traffic for Cold Migration, Cloning, and Snapshots on the Provisioning TCP/IP Stack 154

Limits on Simultaneous Migrations 156

About Migration Compatibility Checks 157

Automating Management Tasks Using vRealize Orchestrator 159

Concepts of Workflows 159

Performing Administration Tasks on the vSphere Objects 160

Configure the Default vRealize Orchestrator 161

Managing Associations of Workflows with vSphere Inventory Objects 162

Associate Workflows with vSphere Inventory Object Types 162

Edit the Associations of Workflows with vSphere Objects 163

Export the Associations of Workflows with vSphere Objects 163

Import the Association of Workflows with vSphere Objects 164

Working with Workflows 165

Run Workflows on vSphere Inventory Objects 165

View Information About Workflow Runs 166

View Information About the Runs of a Specific Workflow 167

View Workflows That Are Waiting for User Interaction 167

Searching for Workflows 168

Scheduling Workflows 169

Workflows for Managing Inventory Objects 172

Cluster and Compute Resource Workflows 172

Guest Operation Files Workflows 173

Guest Operation Processes Workflows 174

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Custom Attributes Workflows 174

Data Center Workflows 174

Datastore and Files Workflows 175

Data Center Folder Management Workflows 175

Host Folder Management Workflows 176

Virtual Machine Folder Management Workflows 176

Basic Host Management Workflows 176

Host Power Management Workflows 177

Host Registration Management Workflows 177

Networking Workflows 177

Distributed Virtual Port Group Workflows 178

Distributed Virtual Switch Workflows 178

Standard Virtual Switch Workflows 179

Resource Pool Workflows 179

Storage Workflows 180

Storage DRS Workflows 180

Basic Virtual Machine Management Workflows 181

Clone Workflows 183

Linked Clone Workflows 183

Linux Customization Clone Workflows 184

Tools Clone Workflows 184

Windows Customization Clone Workflows 185

Device Management Workflows 185

Move and Migrate Workflows 186

Other Workflows 186

Power Management Workflows 187

Snapshot Workflows 188

VMware Tools Workflows 189

About Headless Systems 190

Detecting a Headless System 190

About Serial Mode Dynamic Switching 190

ESXi Serial Port Modes 191

Dynamic Switching Keystrokes 191

Serial Port Dynamic Switching Using the CLI 191

Controlling the Serial DCUI 192

Troubleshooting Overview 193

Troubleshooting vCenter Server 193

Guidelines for Troubleshooting 194

Identifying Symptoms 194

Defining the Problem Space 194

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Testing Possible Solutions 195

Troubleshooting with Logs 195

vCenter Server Upgrade Fails When Unable to Stop Tomcat Service 197

Microsoft SQL Database Set to Unsupported Compatibility Mode Causes vCenter Server

Installation or Upgrade to Fail 198

Troubleshooting the vSphere Web Client 198

vCenter Server System Does Not Appear in vSphere Web Client Inventory 198

Unable to Start the Virtual Machine Console 199

Troubleshooting vCenter Server and ESXi Host Certificates 200

New vCenter Server Certificate Does Not Appear to Load 200

vCenter Server Cannot Connect to Managed Hosts 200

Cannot Configure vSphere HA When Using Custom SSL Certificates 200

Troubleshooting Hosts 201

Troubleshooting vSphere HA Host States 201

Troubleshooting vSphere Auto Deploy 206

Authentication Token Manipulation Error 213

Active Directory Rule Set Error Causes Host Profile Compliance Failure 214

Unable to Download VIBs When Using vCenter Server Reverse Proxy 214

Troubleshooting Licensing 216

Troubleshooting Host Licensing 216

Unable to Power On a Virtual Machine 217

Unable to Configure or Use a Feature 218

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About VMware vCenter Server and Host Management

vCenter Server and Host Management describes how to use the VMware® vSphere Web Client components, configure and manage hosts, migrate virtual machines, and manage licenses in your vCenter Server environment.

vCenter Server and Host Management also provides brief introductions to the various tasks you can perform within the system, and it cross-references to the documentation that describes the tasks in detail.

vCenter Server and Host Management covers ESXi and vCenter Server.

Intended Audience

vCenter Server and Host Management is intended for system administrators who are experienced Windows or Linux system administrators and who are familiar with virtual machine technology and data center operations.

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vSphere Concepts and Features 1

VMware vSphere® uses the power of virtualization to transform data centers into simplified cloud computing infrastructures, enabling IT organizations to deliver flexible and reliable IT services.

The two core components of vSphere are VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server®. ESXi is the hypervisor on which you create and run virtual machines. vCenter Server is a service that acts as a central administrator for ESXi hosts that are connected on a network. With vCenter Server, you can pool and manage the resources of multiple hosts. vCenter Server allows you to monitor and manage your physical and virtual infrastructure.

Additional vSphere components are available as plugins that extend the functionality of the vSphere product.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Virtualization Basics

Physical Topology of vSphere Data Center

vSphere Software Components

Client Interfaces for vSphere

vSphere Managed Inventory Objects

Optional vCenter Server Components

vCenter Server Plug-Ins

Virtualization Basics

A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications. The hypervisor serves as a platform for running virtual machines and allows for the consolidation of computing resources.

Each virtual machine contains its own virtual, or software-based, hardware, including a virtual CPU, memory, hard disk, and network interface card.

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ESXi is the hypervisor in a vSphere environment. The hypervisor is installed on physical or virtual hardware in a virtualized data center, and acts as a platform for virtual machines. The hypervisor provides physical hardware resources dynamically to virtual machines to support the operation of the virtual machines. The hypervisor allows virtual machines to operate with a degree of independence from the underlying physical hardware. For example, a virtual machine can be moved from one physical host to another, or its virtual disks can be moved from one type of storage to another, without affecting the functioning of the virtual machine.

Because virtual machines are decoupled from the underlying physical hardware, virtualization allows you to consolidate physical computing resources such as CPUs, memory, storage, and networking into pools of resources. These resources can be dynamically and flexibly made available to virtual machines. With the vCenter Server management platform, you can increase the availability and security of your virtual infrastructure.

Physical Topology of vSphere Data Center

A typical VMware vSphere data center consists of physical building blocks such as x86 virtualization servers, storage networks and arrays, IP networks, a management server, and desktop clients.

The vSphere data center includes the following components.

ESXi Hosts Industry standard x86 servers that run ESXi on the bare metal. ESXi

software provides resources for and runs the virtual machines. You can group a number of similarly configured x86 servers with connections to the same network and storage subsystems. This grouping creates an aggregate set of resources in the virtual environment, called a cluster.

Storage networks and

arrays

IP networks Each compute server can have multiple physical network adapters to

vCenter Server vCenter Server provides a single point of control to the data center. It

VMware vSphere uses Fibre Channel SAN arrays, iSCSI SAN arrays, and NAS arrays to meet different data center storage needs. With storage area networks, you can connect and share storage arrays between groups of servers. This arrangement allows aggregation of the storage resources and provides more flexibility in provisioning them to virtual machines.

provide high bandwidth and reliable networking to the entire VMware vSphere data center.

provides essential data center services such as access control, performance monitoring, and configuration. It unifies the resources from the individual computing servers to be shared among virtual machines in the entire data center. It manages the assignment of virtual machines to the ESXi hosts and the assignment of resources to the virtual machines within a given computing server. These assignments are based on the policies that the system administrator sets.

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Compute servers continue to function even if vCenter Server becomes unreachable (for example, if the network is severed). The ESXi hosts can be managed separately and continue to run the virtual machines assigned to them based on the resource assignment that was last set. After connection to vCenter Server is restored, it can manage the data center as a whole again.

Management clients VMware vSphere provides several interfaces for data center management

and virtual machine access. These interfaces include vSphere Web Client for access through a web browser, vSphere Client, or vSphere CommandLine Interface (vSphere CLI).

vSphere Software Components

VMware vSphere is a suite of software components for virtualization. These include ESXi, vCenter Server, and other software components that fulfill several different functions in the vSphere environment.

Note Starting with vSphere 6.5, all vCenter Server services and some Platform Services Controller

services run as child processes of the VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service.

vSphere includes the following software components:

ESXi The hypervisor runs virtual machines. Each virtual machine has a set of

configuration and disk files that together perform all the functions of a physical machine.

Through ESXi, you run the virtual machines, install operating systems, run applications, and configure the virtual machines. Configuration includes identifying the virtual machine’s resources, such as storage devices.

The server provides bootstrapping, management, and other services that manage your virtual machines.

vCenter Server A service that acts as a central administrator for VMware ESXi hosts that

are connected on a network. vCenter Server directs actions on the virtual machines and the ESXi hosts.

vCenter Server is a single Windows or Linux Service and is installed to run automatically. The vCenter Server service runs continuously in the background. It performs its monitoring and managing activities even when no vSphere Web Clients are connected and when no one is logged on to the computer where it resides. It must have network access to all the hosts it manages.

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You can install vCenter Server on a Windows virtual machine or physical server, or deploy the vCenter Server Appliance. The vCenter Server Appliance is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Server and the vCenter Server components. You can deploy the vCenter Server Appliance on ESXi hosts 5.5 or later, or on vCenter Server instances 5.5 or later.

Starting with vSphere 6.0, all prerequisite services for running vCenter Server and the vCenter Server components are bundled in the VMware Platform Services Controller. You can deploy vCenter Server with an embedded or external Platform Services Controller, but you must always install or deploy the Platform Services Controller before installing or deploying vCenter Server. See the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation for details about setting up this configuration.

vCenter Single Sign-On A service that is part of the vCenter Server management infrastructure. The

vCenter Single Sign-On authentication service makes the VMware cloud infrastructure platform more secure by allowing the various vSphere software components to communicate with each other. The vCenter Single Sign-On authentication service uses a secure token exchange mechanism instead of requiring each component to authenticate a user separately with a directory service like Active Directory.

When you install vCenter Single Sign-On, the following components are deployed.

STS (Security

Token Service)

STS certificates enable a user who has logged on through vCenter Single Sign-On to authenticate to any vCenter service that vCenter Single Sign-On supports. The STS service issues Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens. These security tokens represent the identity of a user in each of the vCenter Single Sign-On identity sources.

Administration

server

The administration server allows users with vCenter Single Sign-On administrator privileges to configure the vCenter Single Sign-On service and manage users and groups from the vSphere Client. Initially, only the user administrator@vsphere.local has these privileges.

vCenter Lookup

Service

vCenter Lookup Service contains topology information about the vSphere infrastructure, enabling vSphere components to connect to each other securely. Unless you are using Simple Install,

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you are prompted for the Lookup Service URL when you install other vSphere components. For example, the Inventory Service and the vCenter Server installers ask for the Lookup Service URL and then contact the Lookup Service to find vCenter Single Sign-On. After installation, the Inventory Service and vCenter Server system are registered with the vCenter Lookup Service so other vSphere components, like the vSphere Client, can find them.

VMware

Client Interfaces for vSphere

You can access vSphere components through the vSphere Client, the vSphere Web Client, the VMware Host Client, and the vSphere Command-Line Interface.

vSphere Client The vSphere Client, introduced in vSphere 6.5, is an HTML5-based client

and is included with vCenter Server alongside the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Client is the primary interface for connecting to and managing vCenter Server instances.

Instructions in this guide reflect the vSphere Client (an HTML5-based GUI). You can also use the instructions to perform most of the tasks by using the vSphere Web Client (a Flex-based GUI).

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Tasks for which the workflow differs significantly between the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client have duplicate procedures that provide steps according to the respective client interface. The procedures that relate to the vSphere Web Client, contain vSphere Web Client in the title.

vSphere Web Client The vSphere Web Client is a web application installed on a machine with

network access to your vCenter Server installation.

VMware Host Client

The VMware Host Client is a Web-based application that you can use to manage individual ESXi hosts that are not connected to a vCenter Server system.

For more information about the VMware Host Client, see vSphere Single Host Management - VMware Host Client.

vSphere Command-

Line Interfaces

vSphere supports multiple command-line interfaces for configuring virtual machines, ESXi hosts, and vCenter Server.

Note In vSphere 6.7, most of the vSphere Web Client functionality is implemented in the vSphere Client.

For an up-to-date list of the unsupported functionality, see Functionality Updates for the vSphere Client.

vSphere Managed Inventory Objects

In vSphere, the inventory is a collection of virtual and physical objects on which you can place permissions, monitor tasks and events, and set alarms. You can group most inventory objects by using folders to more easily manage them.

All inventory objects, with the exception of hosts, can be renamed to represent their purposes. For example, they can be named after company departments or locations or functions.

Note Managed object names cannot exceed 214 bytes (UTF-8 encoded).

vCenter Server monitors and manages the following inventory objects:

Data Centers Unlike folders, which are used to organize specific object types, a data

center is an aggregation of all the different types of objects used to work in virtual infrastructure.

Within each data center, there are four separate hierarchies.

Virtual machines (and templates)

Hosts (and clusters)

Networks

Datastores

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The data center defines the namespace for networks and datastores. The names for these objects must be unique within a data center. You cannot have two datastores with the same name within a single data center, but you can have two datastores with the same name in two different data centers. Virtual machines, templates, and clusters need not be unique within the data center, but must be unique within their folder.

Objects with the same name in two different data centers are not necessarily the same object. Because of this, moving objects between data centers can create unpredictable results. For example, a network named networkA in data_centerA might not be the same network as a network named networkA in data_centerB. Moving a virtual machine connected to networkA from data_centerA to data_centerB results in the virtual machine changing the network it is connected to.

Clusters A collection of ESXi hosts and associated virtual machines intended to

work together as a unit. When you add a host to a cluster, the host’s resources become part of the cluster’s resources. vCenter Server manages the resources of all hosts in a cluster as one unit.

If you enable VMware EVC on a cluster, you can ensure that migrations with vMotion do not fail because of CPU compatibility errors. If you enable vSphere DRS on a cluster, the resources of the hosts in the cluster are merged to allow resource balancing for the hosts in the cluster. If you enable vSphere HA on a cluster, the resources of the cluster are managed as a pool of capacity to allow rapid recovery from host hardware failures.

Datastores A virtual representation of physical storage resources in the data center. A

datastore is the storage location for virtual machine files. In an on-premises SDDC, these physical storage resources can come from the local SCSI disk of the ESXi host, the Fibre Channel SAN disk arrays, the iSCSI SAN disk arrays, or Network Attached Storage (NAS) arrays. For both onpremises and cloud SDDCs, vSAN datastores hide the idiosyncrasies of the underlying physical storage and present a uniform model for the storage resources required by virtual machines.

Folders Folders allow you to group objects of the same type so you can easily

manage them. For example, you can use folders to set permissions across objects, to set alarms across objects, and to organize objects in a meaningful way.

A folder can contain other folders, or a group of objects of the same type: data centers, clusters, datastores, networks, virtual machines, templates, or hosts. For example, one folder can contain hosts and a folder containing hosts, but it cannot contain hosts and a folder containing virtual machines.

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Data center folders form a hierarchy directly under the root vCenter Server and allow users to group their data centers. Within each data center is one hierarchy of folders with virtual machines and templates, one with hosts and clusters, one with datastores, and one with networks.

Hosts The physical computer on which ESXi is installed. All virtual machines run

on hosts or clusters.

Networks A set of virtual network interface cards (virtual NICs), distributed switches

or vSphere Distributed Switches, and port groups or distributed port groups that connect virtual machines to each other or to the physical network outside of the virtual data center. All virtual machines that connect to the same port group belong to the same network in the virtual environment, even if they are on different physical servers. You can monitor networks and set permissions and alarms on port groups and distributed port groups.

Resource pools Resource pools are used to compartmentalize the CPU and memory

resources of a host or cluster. Virtual machines run in, and draw their resources from, resource pools. You can create multiple resource pools as direct children of a standalone host or cluster and then delegate control over each resource pool to other individuals or organizations.

If DRS is enabled, vCenter Server provides various options for monitoring the status of the resources and adjusting or suggesting adjustments to the virtual machines using the resources. You can monitor resources and set alarms on them.

Templates A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create

and provision new virtual machines. Templates can have a guest operating system and application software installed. They can be customized during deployment to ensure that the new virtual machine has a unique name and network settings.

Virtual machines A virtualized computer environment in which a guest operating system and

associated application software can run. Multiple virtual machines can operate on the same managed host machine concurrently.

vApps vSphere vApp is a format for packaging and managing applications. A vApp

can contain multiple virtual machines.

Optional vCenter Server Components

Optional vCenter Server components are packaged and installed with the base product, but might require a separate license.

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Optional vCenter Server features include:

vMotion Enables you to move running virtual machines from one ESXi host to

another ESXi host without service interruption. It requires licensing on both the source and target host. vCenter Server centrally coordinates all vMotion activities.

Storage vMotion Allows you to move the disks and configuration file of a running virtual

machine from one datastore to another without service interruption. It requires licensing on the virtual machine's host.

vSphere HA Enables a cluster with High Availability. If a host fails, all virtual machines

that were running on the host are promptly restarted on different hosts in the same cluster.

When you enable the cluster for vSphere HA, you specify the number of hosts you want to be able to recover. If you specify the number of host failures allowed as 1, vSphere HA maintains enough capacity across the cluster to tolerate the failure of one host. All running virtual machines on that host can be restarted on remaining hosts. By default, you cannot turn on a virtual machine if doing so violates required failover capacity.

vSphere DRS Helps improve resource allocation and power consumption across all hosts

and resource pools. vSphere DRS collects resource use information for all hosts and virtual machines in the cluster and gives recommendations (or migrates virtual machines) in one of two situations:

Initial placement – When you power on a virtual machine in the cluster for the first time, DRS either places the virtual machine or makes a recommendation.

Load balancing – DRS attempts to improve resource use across the cluster by performing automatic migrations of virtual machines (vMotion) or by providing a recommendation for virtual machine migrations.

vSphere DRS includes distributed power management (DPM) capabilities. When DPM is enabled, the system compares cluster-level and host-level capacity to the demands of virtual machines that are running in the cluster. Based on the results of the comparison, DPM recommends (or implements) actions that can reduce the power consumption of the cluster.

Storage DRS Allows you to manage multiple datastores as a single resource, called a

datastore cluster. A datastore cluster is an aggregation of multiple datastores into a single logical, load-balanced pool. You can treat the datastore cluster as a single flexible storage resource for resource management purposes. You can assign a virtual disk to a datastore cluster, and Storage DRS finds an appropriate datastore for it. The load balancer

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takes care of initial placement and future migrations based on workload measurements. Storage space balancing and I/O balancing minimize the risk of running out of space and the risk of I/O bottlenecks slowing the performance of virtual machines.

vSphere Fault

Tolerance

vSphere Fault Tolerance provides continuous availability for virtual machines by creating and maintaining a Secondary VM that is identical to the Primary VM. This Secondary VM is continuously available to replace the Primary VM in a failover situation.

vCenter Server Plug-Ins

vCenter Server plug-ins extend the capabilities of vCenter Server by providing additional features and functions.

Some plug-ins are installed as part of the base vCenter Server product.

vCenter Storage

Monitoring

vCenter Hardware

Status

vCenter Service Status Displays the status of vCenter services.

Some plug-ins are packaged separately from the base product and require separate installation. You can update plug-ins and the base product independently of each other. VMware modules include:

Allows you to review information on storage use and to map relationships visually between all storage entities available in vCenter Server.

Uses CIM monitoring to display the hardware status of hosts that vCenter Server manages.

vSphere Update

Manager (VUM)

vRealize Orchestrator A workflow engine that enables you to create and run automated workflows

Enables administrators to apply updates and patches across ESXi hosts and all managed virtual machines. Administrators can create user-defined security baselines that represent a set of security standards. Security administrators can compare hosts and virtual machines against these baselines to identify and remediate systems that are not in compliance.

in your vSphere environment. vRealize Orchestrator coordinates workflow tasks across multiple VMware products and third-party management and administration solutions through its open plug-in architecture. vRealize Orchestrator provides a library of workflows that are extensible. You can use any operation available in the vCenter Server API to customize vRealize Orchestrator workflows.

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Using the vSphere Client 2

Use the vSphere Client to connect to vCenter Server systems and manage vSphere inventory objects.

Use of the vSphere Client requires a supported Web browser.

VMware has tested and supports the following guest operating systems and browser versions for the vSphere Client.

Table 2‑1. Supported Guest Operating Systems and Browser Versions for the vSphere Client .

Operating system Browser

Windows 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 and later.

Mozilla Firefox: 56 and later.

Google Chrome: 62 and later.

Mac OS Mozilla Firefox: 56 and later.

Google Chrome: 62 and later.

Later versions of these browsers are likely to work, but have not been tested.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Use the vSphere Client Navigator

Customize the User Interface

Install the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in

Pause and Resume a Task in Progress in the vSphere Web Client

Refresh Data

Searching the Inventory

Use Quick Filters

View Recent Objects

Configure the vSphere Web Client Timeout Value

Remove Stored User Data

Drag Objects

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Export Lists

Attach File to Service Request

Keyboard Shortcuts

Log in to vCenter Server by Using the vSphere Client

In vSphere 6.5 and later, the vSphere Client is installed as part of the vCenter Server on Windows or the vCenter Server Appliance deployment. This way, the vSphere Client always points to the same vCenter Single Sign-On instance.

Procedure

1 Open a Web browser and enter the URL for the vSphere Client:

https://vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn/ui. To use the vSphere Web Client, enter the URL: https://vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn/vsphere-client.

2 Enter the credentials of a user who has permissions on vCenter Server, and click Login.

3 If a warning message about an untrusted SSL certificate appears, select the appropriate action based

on your security policy.

Option Action

Ignore the security warning for this

certificate so that the warning does not

appear again.

Cancel and install a signed certificate

before proceeding.

Click Ignore.

Select Install this certificate and do not display any security warnings for this server and click Ignore.

Select this option only if using the default certificate does not present a security problem in your environment.

Click Cancel and ensure that a signed certificate is installed on the vCenter Server system before you attempt to connect again.

4 To logout, click the user name at the top of the vSphere Client window and select Logout.

The vSphere Client connects to all the vCenter Server systems on which the specified user has permissions, allowing you to view and manage your inventory.

Use the vSphere Client Navigator

You can use the navigator to browse and select objects in the vSphere Client inventory as an alternative to the hierarchical inventory tree.

Unlike the inventory tree, which presents hierarchical arrangements of parent and child objects arranged in the Hosts and Clusters, VMs and Templates, Storage, and Networking views, the navigator presents a graph-based view of the inventory. You can navigate from an object to its related objects, regardless of type.

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Procedure

1 From the vSphere Client Home, click Global Inventory Lists.

2 Under Global Inventory Lists, click one of the object categories to view objects of that type.

For example, click Hosts to view hosts in the vSphere Client inventory.

3 Click an object in the list once to display information about the object in the center pane of the

vSphere Client.

4 (Optional) Click the object again to open it.

Opening an object brings it to the top of the navigator and displays related object categories beneath it.

For example, opening a host allows you to see the child resource pools, virtual machines, vApps, datastores, standard networks, distributed switches, and distributed port groups associated with this host.

5 To access additional information and actions, click one of the tabs in the center pane.

Option Description

Getting Started View introductory information and access basic actions.

Summary View basic status and configuration for an object.

Monitor View alarms, performance data, resource allocation, events, and other status

information for an object.

Configure Configure settings, alarm definitions, tags, and permissions.

Related Objects tabs Tabs with lists of the objects related to the object that you selected. For example,

if you select a host, the tabs that you see are VMs, Resource Pools, Datastores, and Networks.

Customize the User Interface

You can customize the look and feel of vSphere Client to improve your experience while you perform your tasks.

After you customize the user interface, vSphere Client saves the individual user interface customization.

Rearrange the Components of the User Interface

You can rearrange the panes in the vSphere Web Client user interface. You can move the panes and Navigator sidebar around the content area to enhance your personal experience by customizing the vSphere Web Client user interface. You change the interface at any time.

Customize the User Interface by Using the Layout Settings Menu

You can customize the user interface of vSphere Web Client by choosing to hide or display different panes.

Disable the vSphere Web Client Customizable User Interface Feature

You can disable the vSphere Web Client customizable user interface feature by changing the webclient.properties file of vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance.

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Disable the Related Objects Tabs

You can disable the related object tabs by changing the webclient.properties file.

Rearrange the Components of the User Interface

Procedure

1 In a Web browser, log in to vSphere Web Client.

2 Drag the pane you want to move to an appropriate place.

While you drag the pane, you see two types of arrows. Single arrows move as you drag from one part of the UI to another. Both single and double arrows indicate the target position of the pane you want to move.

Customize the User Interface by Using the Layout Settings Menu

You can customize the user interface of vSphere Web Client by choosing to hide or display different panes.

Procedure

1 In a Web browser, log in to vSphere Web Client.

2 Click the user name at the top of the vSphere Web Client window and select Layout Settings.

3 In the Layout Settings window, select the panes that you want the UI to display.

4 Click OK to save the changes.

Disable the vSphere Web Client Customizable User Interface Feature

You can disable the vSphere Web Client customizable user interface feature by changing the webclient.properties file of vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance.

Procedure

1 Connect to the vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance by using any remote console, and

optionally use SSH.

2 Navigate to the webclient.properties file and open it in a text editor.

Option Description

vCenter Server

vCenter Server Appliance

installation_directory\VMware\CIS\cfg\vsphere-

client\webclient.properties

/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties

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3 On a new line, enter docking.disabled=true and save the file.

Disable the Related Objects Tabs

You can disable the related object tabs by changing the webclient.properties file.

Procedure

1 Connect to the vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance by using any remote console, and

optionally use SSH.

2 Navigate to the /etc/vmware/vsphere-client/webclient.properties file and open it in a text

editor.

3 Edit the file to include the line show.relations.in.categorized.tabs=false.

If the line is present but commented out, remove the comment indicator.

4 Restart the vSphere Web Client service.

Install the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in

The VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in provides Integrated Windows Authentication and Windows-based smart card functionality.

In the vSphere 6.5 release, the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in replaced the Client Integration Plug-in from vSphere 6.0 releases and earlier. The Enhanced Authentication Plug-in provides Integrated Windows Authentication and Windows-based smart card functionality. These are the only two features carried over from the previous Client Integration Plug-in. The Enhanced Authentication Plug-in can function seamlessly if you already have the Client Integration Plug-in installed on your system from vSphere 6.0 or earlier. There are no conflicts if both plug-ins are installed.

Install the plug-in only once to enable all the functionality the plug-in delivers.

If you install the plug-in from an Internet Explorer browser, you must first disable Protected Mode and enable pop-up windows on your Web browser. Internet Explorer identifies the plug-in as being on the Internet instead of on the local intranet. In such cases, the plug-in is not installed correctly because Protected Mode is enabled for the Internet.

For information about supported browsers and operating systems, see the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation.

Prerequisites

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, disable Protected Mode.

Procedure

1 Open a Web browser and type the URL for the vSphere Client.

2 At the bottom of the vSphere Client login page, click Download Enhanced Authentication Plug-in.

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3 If the browser blocks the installation either by issuing certificate errors or by running a pop-up blocker,

follow the Help instructions for your browser to resolve the problem.

4 Save the plug-in to your computer, and run the executable.

5 Step through the installation wizard for both the VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in and the

VMware Plug-in Service which are run in succession.

6 When the installations are complete, refresh your browser.

7 On the External Protocol Request dialog box, click Launch Application to run the Enhanced

Authentication Plug-in.

The link to download the plug-in disappears from the login page.

Pause and Resume a Task in Progress in the vSphere Web Client

You can pause many tasks in the vSphere Web Client and later resume them from the Work in Progress pane.

Procedure

1 In a dialog box or wizard, click the minimize button.

The task is paused and minimized to the Work in Progress pane. Any changes that you have made in the dialog box or wizard are saved, but not yet applied to the object you are working with.

2 When you are ready to resume the task, click it in the Work in Progress pane.

The dialog box or wizard opens and you can resume the task from where you left off.

Refresh Data

You must manually refresh the data in the vSphere Client to see changes made to objects by other users during your session.

For performance reasons, the vSphere Client does not continuously refresh data on all objects in the inventory. All changes that you make during your current session are immediately reflected in the client user interface. Change made by other users or in other sessions are not reflected until you manually refresh the data.

Procedure

To update all data in the current vSphere Client view, click the refresh icon (

The client view is updated.

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Searching the Inventory

With vSphere Client, you can search the inventory for objects that match specified criteria. You can search the inventories of all vCenter Server systems connected to the same Platform Services Controller or to Platform Services Controllers.

You can only view and search for inventory objects that you have permission to view.

Note If your permissions change while you are logged in, the search service might not immediately

recognize these changes. To ensure that your search is performed with up-to-date permissions, log out of all your open sessions and log in again before you perform the search.

Perform a Quick Search

A quick search checks all types of objects for the specified search term within the name or other properties of the object.

Perform a Simple Search

A simple search checks all types of objects for a specified search term within the object name.

Perform an Advanced Search

You can conduct an advanced search in the vSphere Web Client to search for managed objects that meet multiple criteria.

Save a Search

You can save search queries in the vSphere Web Client so that you can retrieve them to rerun later.

Load a Saved Search

You can load a saved search query to rerun the search.

Perform a Quick Search

A quick search checks all types of objects for the specified search term within the name or other properties of the object.

Procedure

1 Type the search term in the search box at the top of the vSphere Client window.

Multiple search terms in a quick or simple search are treated as if they are connected by ORs. For example, searching for example machine finds all objects with names containing either "example" or "machine".

The search results appear below the search box as you type. The number of items displayed is limited to 10.

2 (Optional) To display an item in the inventory, click that item in the search results.

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3 (Optional) To see more search results or more details about the search results, click All Results.

a (Optional) To see additional information about the object, select an object in the results table.

b (Optional) To display that item in the inventory, double-click any item in the search results.

The search results are listed in a table. If differing types of objects are found, the table contains tabs for each type of object. For example, if a search finds hosts and virtual machines, the following tabs appear: Hosts, showing only host results and Virtual Machines, showing only virtual machine results.

Perform a Simple Search

A simple search checks all types of objects for a specified search term within the object name.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Client Home screen sidebar menu, click New Search

2 Type the search term in the search box and press Enter.

3 (Optional) To see additional information about the object, select the object in the results table.

4 (Optional) To display an item in the inventory, double-click that item in the search results.

Perform an Advanced Search

You can conduct an advanced search in the vSphere Web Client to search for managed objects that meet multiple criteria.

For example, you can use specific strings to search for virtual machines residing on a particular host.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home, click New Search and then click Advanced Search.

2 Select the type of object to search for from the Search for drop-down menu.

3 Select how to combine the search criteria.

Option Description

any The search returns results that match any of the specified criteria.

all The search returns only results that match all the specified criteria.

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4 Select a property to search for from the drop-down menu.

The properties available depend on the type of object you are searching for.

5 Select the relationship between the search term and the property from the drop-down menu.

The options available in this step depend on the property selected in the previous step. For example, if you select a Name property, the options available are contains, is, and is not.

6 Type or select the search term.

7 (Optional) To add additional search criteria, click Add new criteria and repeat step 4 to step 6.

8 (Optional) To add an additional search, click Add another object type and repeat step 2 to step 7.

9 Click Search.

Search results are displayed in the details pane and in the navigator.

10 (Optional) To see item details without leaving the context of the search, click on the item in the

navigator.

11 (Optional) To display an item in the inventory, double-click on the item in the details pane.

Save a Search

You can save search queries in the vSphere Web Client so that you can retrieve them to rerun later.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, enter a query for either a simple or advanced search.

2 Click Save.

3 Type a name for the search and click OK.

The search query you entered is saved. You can reload that query later and repeat the search.

Load a Saved Search

You can load a saved search query to rerun the search.

The vSphere Web Client saves search queries, not search results. When you load a saved search, the search query is run again and new results are displayed.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client Home, click Saved Searches.

2 Click the saved search.

The search runs and the results are displayed.

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Use Quick Filters

You can use quick filters to find an object or a set of objects in your vSphere Web Client inventory that fit certain criteria.

Quick filters are available in the list views, which appear in the Objects tab of an inventory list and in search results.

For example, you can use the quick filter options for virtual machines to find all virtual machines in your vSphere inventory that are powered on but do not have VMware Tools running.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client, open a list view.

You can access list views of objects from the Inventory Lists and the search results.

Click Show and hide quick filters ( ) next to the filter box, and select from the available options.

A list of inventory objects that meet your selection criteria is displayed.

What to do next

To clear the filtered list of vSphere inventory objects, deselect the filter criteria or click Clear next to the filter group name.

Quick Filters Available for vSphere Objects

Various types of quick filters are available for the vSphere objects in your inventory. No quick filters are available for linked vCenter Server systems, host profiles, and extensions.

Tags are a quick filter option available for all types of vSphere objects, except for linked vCenter Server systems, host profiles, and extensions. You can filter data centers, vApps, and resource pools only by using the tags that are assigned to them. For datastores, clusters, hosts, virtual machines, and VM templates, you can use a number of different quick filters.

Quick Filters for Datastores

You can filter datastores by the following criteria:

Tags

Type

Belongs to Datastore Cluster

Accessibility

Maintenance Mode

Drive Type

% Free Space

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Storage I/O Control

Quick Filters for Clusters

You can filter clusters by the following criteria:

Tags

vSphere DRS

vSphere HA

vSAN

Quick Filters for Hosts

You can filter hosts by the following criteria:

Tags

Connection State

Type

Maintenance Mode

Standalone or Clustered

Power State

CPUs

NICs

ESX/ESXi Version

vSphere vMotion

Host Compliance

HA State

vSphere Fault Tolerance

EVC Mode

Quick Filters for Virtual Machines

You can filter virtual machines by the following criteria:

Tags

State

Needs Consolidation

Blocked by Question

Encryption

vSphere FT Role

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Has Snapshot

VMware Tools Version Status

VMware Tools Running Status

EVC Mode

Guest OS

Compatibility

CPUs

NICs

Quick Filters for VM Templates

You can filter virtual machine templates by the following criteria:

Tags

VMware Tools Version Status

Guest OS

Compatibility

CPUs

NICs

View Recent Objects

You can quickly navigate to the objects that you visited during your vSphere Web Client session. You can switch between objects you last visited without having to search for the objects in the object navigator or in the inventory tree.

In the Recent Objects pane, you can see a history of the most recent objects that you visited in your environment. You can see the most recent objects that you visited and the latest objects that you created. The recent objects list is persistent between vSphere Web Client sessions, but the new objects list is not persistent between vSphere Web Client sessions.

Procedure

1 In the Recent Objects pane, select the tab that you want to view.

Objects are listed in two tabs depending on whether you visited or created the object.

Tab Description

Viewed The last objects that you visited in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

Created The latest objects that you created in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

2 Click the object that you want to view.

The object displays in the center pane of the vSphere Web Client

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You have navigated to the object that you selected in the Recent Objects pane.

Conﬁgure the vSphere Web Client Timeout Value

By default, vSphere Web Client sessions close after 120 minutes of idle time, requiring the user to log in again to resume using the client. You can change the timeout value by editing the webclient.properties file.

Procedure

1 On the computer where the vSphere Web Client is installed, locate the webclient.properties file.

The location of this file depends on the operating system on which the vSphere Web Client is installed.

Operating System File path

Windows 2008

vCenter Server Appliance

2 Edit the file to include the line session.timeout = value where value is the timeout value in

minutes. Uncomment the line, if necessary.

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vsphere-client

/etc/vmware/vsphere-client/

To set the client to never timeout, specify a negative or 0 value for the timeout.

For example, to set the timeout value to 60 minutes, include the line session.timeout = 60.

3 Restart the vSphere Web Client service.

On Windows operating systems, restart the VMware vSphere Web Client service.

On the vCenter Server Appliance, restart the vSphere-client service.

Remove Stored User Data

The vSphere Web Client stores user data including saved searches, Work In Progress items, and Getting Started Pages preferences. You can remove this stored data to reset these items to the initial defaults and remove stored data that you no longer need.

You can remove data only for the currently logged-in user. Data stored by other users is not affected.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client, click the name of the currently logged-in user and select Remove Stored

Data.

2 Select the data to remove.

Option Description

"Work in progress" items Removes all current Work In Progress items for this user.

Getting Started Pages preferences Removes all Getting Started pages preferences for this user. All Getting Started

pages are displayed in the vSphere Web Client.

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Option Description

Saved Searches Removes all Saved Searches for this user.

User preferences for Update Manager

views

User preferences for columns in list

views

Removes all Update Manager view preferences for this user.

Removes all list view column preferences for this user.

3 Click Clear Selected Data

Drag Objects

You can select an inventory object, and while holding the left mouse button you can drag it to another object. Drag is an alternative way to initiate operations that are available in the context menu, such as Move To and Migrate.

For completing some drag operations, you do not need to perform any additional actions. For completing others, you might have to go through a wizard.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client inventory tree or in a list view, select an inventory object group.

You can drag objects within the vSphere Client inventory tree, or within a list view to the inventory tree.

You can access list views from the Global Inventory Lists and search results.

2 Drag an object to a destination object.

The mouse pointer changes depending on whether you can drop the object to the object you currently point to.

Table 2‑2. Mouse Icons Indicating Possible Drag Operations

Icon Description

You can drop the object that you are dragging into this object.

You cannot drop the object that you are dragging into this object.

3 Drop the object on the destination object.

A task starts in the Recent Tasks panel.

4 (Optional) If a wizard opens, follow the prompts to complete the drag operation.

The object is moved to the destination object you selected.

Export Lists

You can export the contents of an inventory list view to a CSV file.

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Procedure

1 From the vSphere Client, open a list view.

You can access list views of objects from the Global Inventory Lists and the search results.

Click Export List ( ) at the bottom right corner of a list view.

The Export List Contents dialog box opens and lists the available options for inclusion in the CSV file.

3 Select whether you want all rows or your current selection of rows to be listed in the CSV file.

4 From the available options, select the columns you want listed in the CSV file.

5 Click Export.

Attach File to Service Request

You can attach files, such as log files or screenshots, to VMware Service Requests directly from the vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites

The file upload occurs from the machine on which vCenter Server is running, so that machine must have connectivity to the VMware site on ports 443 and 21.

Procedure

1 From the vSphere Web Client home, click Administration.

2 In the Administration panel, click Upload File to Service Request.

3 Click the Upload File to Service Request button.

4 Enter the Service Request ID.

5 Click Choose File and browse to select the file to attach.

6 Click OK.

You can monitor the Recent Tasks pane to see when the upload is complete, or if an error occurred.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts allow you to navigate quickly or perform a task in the vSphere Web Client.

Inventory Keyboard Shortcuts

With inventory keyboard shortcuts you can quickly navigate to different inventories in the vSphere Web Client.

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Table 2‑3. Inventory Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Combination Action

Ctrl+Alt+s Quick search

Ctrl+Alt+Home or Ctrl+Alt+1 Home

Ctrl+Alt+2 Hosts and Clusters

Ctrl+Alt+3 VMs and Templates

Ctrl+Alt+4 Storage

Ctrl+Alt+5 Networking

Ctrl+Alt+6 Content Libraries

Ctrl+Alt+7 Global Inventory Lists

Create a Scheduled Task with a Keyboard Shortcut

You can use a keyboard shortcut to create a scheduled task.

For more information about how to schedule tasks, see Schedule Tasks.

Procedure

1 Select the Actions menu, point to an action, and press Ctrl.

The clock icon ( ) appears next to the action that you can schedule.

2 Select the action and configure the scheduling options.

3 Navigate to the object in the inventory.

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Conﬁguring vCenter Server 3

You can configure vCenter Server from the vSphere Client and from the vSphere Web Client.

What you can do depends on your deployment.

On-premises

vCenter Server

vCenter Server in

VMware Cloud on AWS

You can change many of the vCenter Server settings, including licensing, statistics collection, logging, and more.

VMware preconfigures vCenter Server instances when you create an SDDC. You can view configuration settings and advanced settings, and you can set a Message of the Day.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Configure License Settings for vCenter Server

Configuring Statistics Settings

Configure Runtime Settings for vCenter Server

Configure User Directory Settings

Configure Mail Sender Settings

Configure SNMP Settings

View Port Settings

Configure Timeout Settings

Configure Logging Options

Configure Database Settings

Verifying SSL Certificates for Legacy Hosts

Configure Advanced Settings

Send a Message to Other Logged In Users

Edit the Settings of Services

Start, Stop, and Restart Services

Configuring Services in the vSphere Web Client

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Conﬁgure License Settings for vCenter Server

You must assign a license to a vCenter Server system before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires. If you upgrade, combine, or divide vCenter Server licenses in My VMware, you must assign the new licenses to vCenter Server systems and remove the old licenses.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vCenter Server system.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select Licensing.

4 Click Assign License.

5 In the Assign License dialog box, select a licensing method.

In the vSphere Client, select an existing license and click OK.

In the vSphere Web Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.

Task Steps

Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.

Select a newly created license a

Click the Create New License ( ) icon.

b In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and

click Next.

c On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as appropriate

and click Next.

d Click Finish.

e In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click

OK.

The license is assigned to the vCenter Server system, and one instance from the license capacity is allocated for thevCenter Server system.

Conﬁguring Statistics Settings

To set up how statistical data is recorded, you configure collection intervals for statistics. You can access the stored statistical information through command-line monitoring utilities or by viewing performance charts in the vSphere Web Client.

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Conﬁgure Statistics Collection Intervals in the vSphere Web Client

Statistic collection intervals determine the frequency at which statistic queries occur, the length of time statistical data is stored in the database, and the type of statistical data that is collected. You can view the collected statistics through the performance charts in the vSphere Web Client or through command-line monitoring utilities.

Note Not all interval attributes are configurable.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Performance.ModifyIntervals

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 From Statistics intervals, click a statistics interval attribute to edit its value.

a In Interval duration, select the time interval in which statistics data is collected.

b In Save for, select for how long the archived statistics are kept in the database.

c In Statistics level, select a new level for collecting statistics.

The lower the level is, the fewer number of statistic counters are used. Level 4 uses all statistics counters. Use it only for debugging purposes.

The statistics level must be less than or equal to the statistics level that is set for the preceding statistics interval. This is a vCenter Server dependency.

6 (Optional) In Database Size, estimate the effect of the statistics settings on the database.

a Enter the number of Physical Hosts.

b Enter the number of Virtual Machines.

The estimated space required and number of database rows required are calculated and displayed.

c If necessary, make changes to your statistics collection settings.

7 Click OK.

Example: Relationships Between the Default Settings for Statistics Intervals

Samples that are collected every 5 minutes are stored for 1 day.

Samples that are collected every 30 minutes are stored for 1 week.

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Samples that are collected every 2 hours are stored for 1 month.

Samples that are collected on 1 day are stored for 1 year.

For all statistics intervals, the default level is 1. It uses the Cluster Services, CPU, Disk, Memory, Network, System, and Virtual Machine Operations counters.

Estimate the Eect of Statistics Collection on the Database in the vSphere Web Client

The impact of the statistics collection on your vCenter Server database depends on the current inventory size of vCenter Server.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 (Optional) If necessary, configure the statistics intervals.

2 In Database Size, estimate the effect of the statistics settings on the database.

a Enter the number of Physical Hosts.

b Enter the number of Virtual Machines.

The estimated space required and number of database rows required are calculated and displayed.

c If necessary, make changes to your statistics collection settings.

3 Click OK.

Data Collection Levels

Each collection interval has a default collection level that determines the amount of data gathered and which counters are available for display in the charts. Collection levels are also referred to as statistics levels.

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Table 3‑1. Statistics Levels

Level Metrics Best Practice

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Cluster Services (VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler) – all metrics

CPU – cpuentitlement, totalmhz, usage (average), usagemhz

Disk – capacity, maxTotalLatency, provisioned, unshared, usage (average), used

Memory – consumed, mementitlement, overhead, swapinRate, swapoutRate, swapused, totalmb, usage (average), vmmemctl (balloon)

Network – usage (average), IPv6

System – heartbeat, uptime

Virtual Machine Operations – numChangeDS, numChangeHost, numChangeHostDS

Level 1 metrics

CPU – idle, reservedCapacity

Disk – All metrics, excluding numberRead and numberWrite.

Memory – All metrics, excluding memUsed and maximum and minimum rollup values.

Virtual Machine Operations – All metrics

Level 1 and Level 2 metrics

Metrics for all counters, excluding minimum and maximum rollup values.

Device metrics

Use for long-term performance monitoring when device statistics are not required.

Level 1 is the default Collection Level for all Collection Intervals.

Use for long-term performance monitoring when device statistics are not required but you want to monitor more than the basic statistics.

Use for short-term performance monitoring after encountering problems or when device statistics are required.

Because of the large quantity of troubleshooting data retrieved and recorded, use level 3 for the shortest time period (Day or Week collection interval).

Level 4 All metrics supported by the vCenter Server, including minimum and

maximum rollup values.

Use for short-term performance monitoring after encountering problems or when device statistics are required.

Because of the large quantity of troubleshooting data retrieved and recorded, use level 4 for the shortest amount of time.

Note When you increase the collection level, the storage and system requirements might change. You

might need to allocate more system resources to avoid a decrease in the performance.

Conﬁgure Runtime Settings for vCenter Server

You can change the vCenter Server ID, managed address, and name. Usually, you do not need to change these settings, but you might need to make changes if you run multiple vCenter Server systems in the same environment.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

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Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 In the Edit vCenter Server Settings dialog box, select Runtime Settings.

5 In vCenter Server unique ID, enter a unique ID.

You can change this value to a number from 0 through 63 to identify each vCenter Server system running in a common environment. By default, an ID value is generated randomly.

6 In vCenter Server managed address, enter the vCenter Server system address.

The address can be IPv4, IPv6, a fully qualified domain name, an IP address, or another address format.

7 In vCenter Server name, enter the name of the vCenter Server system.

If you change the DNS name of the vCenter Server, you can use this text box to modify the vCenter Server name to match.

8 Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

What to do next

If you made changes to the vCenter Server system unique ID, you must restart the vCenter Server system for these changes to take effect.

Conﬁgure User Directory Settings

You can configure some of the ways vCenter Server interacts with the user directory server that is configured as an identity source.

For vCenter Server versions before vCenter Server 5.0, these settings apply to an Active Directory associated with vCenter Server. For vCenter Server 5.0 and later, these settings apply to vCenter Single Sign-On identity sources.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select User directory.

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6 In User directory timeout, type the timeout interval in seconds for connecting to the directory server.

7 In Query Limit, type the number of users and groups for which you can associate permissions on the

child inventory objects of the vCenter Server system.

You can associate permissions with users and groups from the Add Permissions dialog box that displays when you click Add permissions in Manage > Permissions for a vSphere inventory object.

8 Select the Enabled check box next to Validation to have vCenter Server periodically check its known

users and groups against the user directory server.

9 In Validation Period, enter the number of minutes between instances of synchronization.

10 Click OK.

Conﬁgure Mail Sender Settings

You must configure the email address of the sender account if you want to enable vCenter Server operations, such as sending email notifications as alarm actions.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select Mail.

6 In Mail server, type the SMTP server information.

The SMTP server is the DNS name or IP address of the SMTP gateway to use for sending email messages.

7 In Mail sender, type the sender account information.

The sender account is the email address of the sender.

Note You must type the full email address, including the domain name.

For example, mail_server@example.com.

8 Click OK.

What to do next

To test the mail settings, create an alarm that can be triggered by a user action, such as by powering off a virtual machine, and verify that you receive an email when the alarm is triggered.

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Conﬁgure SNMP Settings

You can configure up to four receivers to receive SNMP traps from vCenter Server. For each receiver, specify a host name, port, and community.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select SNMP receivers.

6 In Receiver URL, type the host name or IP address of the SNMP receiver.

7 Select the Enabled check box next to Enable receiver.

8 In Receiver port, type the port number of the receiver.

The port number must be a value between 1 and 65535.

9 In Community string, type the community identifier.

10 Click OK.

View Port Settings

You can view the ports used by the Web service to communicate with other applications. You cannot configure these port settings.

The Web service is installed as part of the VMware vCenter Server installation. The Web service is a required component for third-party applications that use the VMware SDK application programming interface (API). For information about installing the Web service, see the vCenter Server Installation and Setup documentation.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select Ports.

The ports used by the Web service are displayed.

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6 Click OK.

Conﬁgure Timeout Settings

You can configure the timeout intervals for vCenter Server operations. These intervals specify the amount of time after which the vSphere Web Client times out.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select Timeout settings.

6 In Normal operations, type the timeout interval in seconds for normal operations.

Do not set the value to zero (0).

7 In Long operations, enter the timeout interval in minutes for long operations.

Do not set the value to zero (0).

8 Click OK.

9 Restart the vCenter Server system for the changes to take effect.

Conﬁgure Logging Options

You can configure the amount of detail that vCenter Server collects in log files.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select Logging settings.

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6 Select the logging options.

Option Description

None (Disable logging) Turns off logging

Error (Errors only) Displays only error log entries

Warning (Errors and warnings) Displays warning and error log entries

Info (Normal logging) Displays information, error, and warning log entries

Verbose (Verbose) Displays information, error, warning, and verbose log entries

Trivia (Extended verbose) Displays information, error, warning, verbose, and trivia log entries

7 Click OK.

Changes to the logging settings take effect immediately. You do not need to restart vCenter Server system.

Conﬁgure Database Settings

You can configure the maximum number of database connections that can occur simultaneously. To limit the growth of the vCenter Server database and save storage space, you can configure the database to discard information about tasks or events periodically.

Note Do not use the database retention options if you want to keep a complete history of tasks and

events for your vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select Database.

6 In Maximum connections, type a number.

Increase this number if your vCenter Server system performs many operations frequently and performance is critical. Decrease this number if the database is shared and connections to the database are costly. Do not change this value unless one of these issues pertains to your system.

7 Select the Enabled check box next to Task cleanup to have vCenter Server periodically delete the

retained tasks.

8 (Optional) In Tasks retained for, type a value in days.

Information about tasks that are performed on this vCenter Server system is discarded after the specified number of days.

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9 Select the Enabled check box next to Event cleanup to have vCenter Server periodically clean up the

retained events.

10 (Optional) In Events retention, type a value in days.

Information about events for this vCenter Server system is discarded after the specified number of days.

11 Click OK.

Verifying SSL Certiﬁcates for Legacy Hosts

You can configure vCenter Server to check the SSL certificates of hosts to which it connects. If you configure this setting, vCenter Server and the vSphere Web Client check for valid SSL certificates before connecting to a host for operations such as adding a host or making a remote console connection to a virtual machine.

vCenter Server 5.1 and vCenter Server 5.5 always connect to ESXi hosts using SSL thumbprint certificates. Starting with vCenter Server 6.0, the SSL certificates are signed by VMware Certificate Authority by default. You can instead use certificates from a third-party CA. Thumbprint mode is supported only for legacy hosts.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select General.

4 Click Edit.

5 Select SSL settings.

6 Determine the host thumbprint for each legacy host that requires validation.

a Log in to the direct console.

b Select View Support Information on the System Customization menu.

The thumbprint is displayed in the column on the right.

7 Compare the thumbprint you obtained from the host with the thumbprint listed in the vCenter Server

Settings dialog box.

8 If the thumbprints match, select the check box for the host.

Hosts that are not selected will be disconnected after you click OK.

9 Click OK.

Conﬁgure Advanced Settings

In Advanced Settings, you can modify the vCenter Server configuration file, vpxd.cfg.

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You can use Advanced Settings to add entries to the vpxd.cfg file, but not to edit or delete them. VMware recommends that you change these settings only when instructed to do so by VMware technical support or when you are following specific instructions in VMware documentation.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: Global.Settings

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Select Advanced Settings.

4 Click Edit.

5 In the Key, type a key.

6 In the Value field, type the value for the specified key.

7 Click Add.

8 Click OK.

Newly added advanced settings have config. appended to the setting keys in the vpxd.cfg file. For example:

config.example.setting = exampleValue

What to do next

Many advanced settings changes require that the vCenter Server system be restarted before they take effect. Consult VMware technical support to determine if your changes require a restart.

Send a Message to Other Logged In Users

Administrators can send messages to users who are currently logged in to a vCenter Server system. The message might announce maintenance or ask users to log out temporarily.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.

2 Click Configure.

3 Select Settings > Message of the Day and click Edit.

4 Type a message and click OK.

The message appears at the top of the vSphere Client in each active user session.

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Edit the Settings of Services

The vSphere Web Client lists all manageable services running on vCenter Server. You can edit the settings for some of the services.

The vSphere Web Client displays information about all manageable services running in vCenter Server and the vCenter Server Appliance. A list of the default services is available for each vCenter Server instance.

Note Starting with vSphere 6.5, all vCenter Server services and some Platform Services Controller

services run as child processes of the VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service.

Prerequisites

Verify that the user you use to log in to the vCenter Server instance is a member of the SystemConfiguration.Administrators group in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

Procedure

1 Log in as administrator@your_domain_name to the vCenter Server instance by using the

vSphere Web Client.

2 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, under Administration, click System Configuration.

3 Under System Configuration, click Nodes and select a node from the list.

4 Click the Related Objects tab.

You see the list of services running in the node you selected. Editable settings are not available for all manageable services.

5 Right-click a service from the list and click Settings.

Editable settings are not available for all manageable services.

6 On the Manage tab, click the Edit button.

7 Edit the service configuration properties.

8 Click OK to save the settings.

9 (Optional) From the Actions menu, select Restart.

Restart the service only if a restart is required to apply the configuration changes.

Start, Stop, and Restart Services

In the vSphere Web Client, you can start, stop, and restart services that are running on vCenter Server. You can restart services upon a configuration change or in case of suspected functional or performance issues.

Note Starting with vSphere 6.5, all vCenter Server services and some Platform Services Controller

services run as child processes of the VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service.

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Prerequisites

Verify that the user you use to log in to the vCenter Server instance is a member of the SystemConfiguration.Administrators group in the vCenter Single Sign-On domain.

Procedure

1 Log in to the vCenter Server by using the vSphere Web Client.

2 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click System Configuration.

3 Under System Configuration click Services.

4 From the Services list select a manageable service.

5 From the Actions menu select an operation name.

Restart

Start

Stop

Note Restarting the Content Library Service also restarts the Transfer Service and the OVF Service.

The Content Library Service, the Transfer Service, and the OVF Service run on the same Tomcat server.

Conﬁguring Services in the vSphere Web Client

You can monitor and manage services by using the vSphere Web Client. You can change the settings of only a few services.

There are slight differences between the services available for a vCenter Server instance that runs on a Windows system and those available for vCenter Server Appliance on Linux.

Note Only the default values of the service properties have undergone all product testing cycles. Avoid

the usage of nondefault values without guidance from VMware.

Note Starting with vSphere 6.5, all vCenter Server services and some Platform Services Controller

services run as child processes of the VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service.

Services that You Can Conﬁgure in vCenter Server Appliance

You can use vSphere Web Client to configure the following services in vCenter Server Appliance:

Service Description

Auto Deploy Lets you perform stateless ESXi caching. See Auto Deploy Service.

Content Library Service Manages OVF templates, ISO images, and scripts for vSphere administrators. See Content Library

Service.

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Service Description

Transfer Service Provides support for moving content, such as VM templates, scripts, and ISO images across sites

and vCenter Server instances.

Note Runs as a child service of the Content Library Service.

For a list of settings you can configure for this service, see Transfer Service Properties.

Ovf Service Supports the provisioning of OVF based virtual machines.

Note Runs as a child service of the Content Library Service.

For a list of settings you can configure for this service, see VMware Open Virtualization Format

Service.

ImageBuilder Service Lets you manage and customize Image Profiles. See Image Builder Service.

VMware Performance Charts Service

VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy

VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector Service

VMware vSphere Update Manager Extension

vAPI Endpoint Provides a single point of access to vAPI services. For a list of general settings that you can configure

Collects and processes statistical performance data for managed entities into reports in image format that it provides to the vSphere Web Client. See VMware Performance Charts Service.

Provides support for joining unattended ESXi hosts to an Active Directory domain by using an account with delegated privileges, enhancing security for PXE-booted hosts and hosts that are provisioned using Auto Deploy. See VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy.

Collects core dumps from remote hosts. See VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector.

Provides centralized, automated patch and version management for ESXi hosts, virtual machines, and virtual appliances. See VMware vSphere Update Manager.

for this service, see vAPI Endpoint.

Services that you can conﬁgure in vCenter Server

You can configure the following services on a vCenter Server instance that runs on a Windows machine:

Service Name Description

Auto Deploy Lets you perform stateless ESXi caching. See Auto Deploy Service.

Content Library Service Manages OVF templates, ISO images, and scripts for vSphere administrators. See Content Library

Service.

Transfer Service Provides support for moving content, such as VM templates, scripts, and ISO images across sites

and vCenter Server instances.

Note Runs as a child service of the Content Library Service.

For a list of settings you can configure for this service, see Transfer Service Properties.

Ovf Service Supports the provisioning of OVF based virtual machines.

Note Runs as a child service of the Content Library Service.

For a list of settings you can configure for this service, see VMware Open Virtualization Format

Service.

ImageBuilder Service Lets you manage and customize Image Profiles.

VMware Performance Charts Service

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Service Name Description

VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy

VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector Service

vAPI Endpoint Provides a single point of access to vAPI services. For a list of general settings that you can configure

Collects core dumps from remote hosts. See VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector.

for this service, see vAPI Endpoint.

Auto Deploy Service

vSphere Auto Deploy uses the Auto Deploy Service for stateless ESXi caching. You can change the default configuration properties of the Auto Deploy service.

Auto Deploy and the Auto Deploy Service are installed as part of the vCenter Server installation.

Property Default Value Description

cachesize_GB 2 Auto Deploy cache size in gigabytes. The

maximum size of an ESXi image or host profile uploads.

loglevel INFO The default Auto Deploy log level.

Includes information, warnings, errors, and fatal errors.

managementport 6502 Auto Deploy management port. The port

on which interfaces that create rules for Auto Deploy, such as vSphere PowerCLI, communicate.

serviceport 6501 Auto Deploy service port. Auto Deploy

uses this port to power on ESXi hosts.

Content Library Service

The Content Library service provides simple and effective management of OVF templates, ISO images, and scripts for vSphere administrators. The Content Library service lets you synchronize content across vCenter Server instances.

Property Default Value Description

Download Session Expiration Timeout (milliseconds)

Force HTTP for Library Sync false Forces data transfers to go through HTTP

300000 Download session expiry timeout in

milliseconds. The download session indicates the time for downloading content from a content library item.

instead of HTTPS, regardless of the subscription URL protocol. The usage of HTTP improves the speed of file transfer but might cause problems if content libraries contain sensitive information.

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Property Default Value Description

Garbage Collect Interval (minutes) 60 Interval in minutes for Content library

garbage collection. Garbage collection cleans content library data and files that are no longer used.

Garbage Collect Max Retries 5 Number of attemts to clean the content

library after the deletion of files fails. Garbage collection cleans content library data and files that are no longer used.

Garbage Collection Start Hour 22 The time of the day when the content

library garbage collection starts.

Garbage Collection Stop Hour 8 The time of the day when the content

library garbage collection stops.

Library Auto Sync Enabled true Enables automatic synchronization of

subscribed content libraries.

Library Auto Sync Refresh Interval (minutes)

240 Interval between two consequent

automatic synchronizations of the subscribed content library. Measured in minutes.

Library Auto Sync Setting Refresh Interval (seconds)

600 Refresh interval for the automatic

synchronization settings of the subscribed library. Measured in seconds. If you change the refresh interval, you must restart vCenter Server

Library Auto Sync Start Hour 20 The time of the day when the automatic

synchronization of a subscribed content library starts.

Library Auto Sync Stop Hour 7 The time of the day when the automatic

synchronization of a subscribed content library stops. Automatic synchronization stops until the start hour.

Library File Preparation No-Progress Timeout (minutes)

30 Timeout for file preparation of the

subscribed content library, measured in minutes.

Library HTTP Connection Timeout (milliseconds)

500000 The HTTP connection timeout for

subscribed library, measured in milliseconds.

Library HTTP Socket Connection Timeout (milliseconds)

300000 Subscribed library HTTP connection

socket timeout, measured in milliseconds.

Library Maximum Concurrent Sync Items 5 Maximum number of concurrently

synchronizing library items for each subscribed library.

Update Session Expiration Timeout (milliseconds)

300000 Update session expiration timeout,

measured in milliseconds. Update session is for uploading content to library item.

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Note You must log in as a user with an Administrator or a Content library administrator role to change

the settings of the Content Library service.

Transfer Service Properties

The Transfer Service lets you move content, such as VM templates, scripts, and ISO images across sites and vCenter Server instances. The Transfer Service has a set of configurable properties that you can change to meet the needs of your virtual environment.

Property Default Value Description

Forced Flush to Output Interval 45 Interval between forced flushes to output

stream, measured in seconds.

Http Client Buffer Size 262144 Buffer size of the HTTP client input stream

during transfers, measured in bytes.

Http Client Socket Timeout 180 Socket timeout of the HTTP client,

measured in seconds.

Http Request-handling Timeout 120 Request handling timeout for HTTP

transfers, after which service unavailable status is returned to client, measured in seconds.

Http Socket Buffer Size 2048 Buffer size of the HTTP client socket,

measured in bytes.

Intermediary I/O Stream Buffer Size 131072 Maximum size of buffer sitting between

input and output streams during a transfer, measured in bytes.

Maximum Bandwidth Consumption 0 Bandwidth usage threshold across all

transfers, measured in megabits per second Mbps. 0 means unlimited bandwidth.

Maximum Number of Concurrent Priority Transfers

Maximum Number of Concurrent Transfers

NFC Connection Socket Timeout 120 Socket timeout for an NFC connection,

NFC Eager-zeroed Thick Disk Write Timeout

5 Concurrent transfer limit for priority files. If

exceeded, transfers are queued. This threadpool is used only to transfer priority objects.

20 Concurrent transfer limit. If exceeded,

transfers are queued.

measured in seconds. An NFC connection is opened only when interacting with a datastore.

5400 Eager-zeroed thick disk write timeout for

an NFC connection, measured in seconds. This timeout must be larger than the socket timeout of NFC connection. An NFC connection is opened only when interacting with datastore.

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VMware Open Virtualization Format Service

The Open Virtualization Format Service enables OVF based provisioning of virtual machines. You can change the configuration properties of this service.

Property Default Value Description

OVF Export Session Timeout 5 The amount of time after which the OVF

export session times out. Measured in minutes.

OVF Import Session Timeout 10 Waiting time before the OVF import

session times out. Measured in minutes.

Image Builder Service

The Image Builder service lets you manage and customize Image Profiles.

Property Default Value Description

cachesize_GB 2 Image Builder cache size in gigabytes.

httpPort 8099 Image Builder depot web service port.

Cannot be changed.

loglevel INFO The default Image Builder log level.

Includes information, warnings, errors, and fatal errors.

vmomiPort 8098 Image Builder service API endpoint.

Cannot be changed.

VMware Performance Charts Service

The Overview Performance Charts service is a vCenter Server service that collects and processes statistical performance data for managed entities into reports in image format that it provides to the vSphere Web Client.

Property Default Value Description

log4j.additivity.com.vmware.vim.common FALSE Specifies if the log output from the

"com.vmware.vim.common" module should go to its parent appenders.

log4j.additivity.com.vmware.vim.srs FALSE Specifies if the log output from the

"com.vmware.vim.srs" module should go to its parent appenders.

log4j.additivity.com.vmware.vim.stats FALSE Specifies if the log output from the

"com.vmware.vim.stats" module should go to its parent appenders.

log4j.appender.CONSOLE1 org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender Defines the "CONSOLE1" appender.

log4j.appender.CONSOLE1.layout org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout Specifies the log layout type for the

"CONSOLE1" appender.

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Property Default Value Description

log4j.appender.CONSOLE1.layout.Conver sionPattern

log4j.appender.LOGFILE com.vmware.log4j.appender.NonAppend

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.Append true Specifies if the "LOGFILE" appender

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.File ${vim.logdir}/stats.log Configures the path to the file where the

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.layout org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout Specifies the log layout type for the

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.layout.Conversio nPattern

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.MaxBackupIndex10 Sets the maximum number of backup log

log4j.appender.LOGFILE.MaxFileSize 5MB Controls the maximum file size that the log

%d{yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX} [%t %x %-5p %c] %m%n

ingRollingFileAppender

%d{yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX} [%t %x %-5p %c] %m%n

Configures the format of the log messages sent to the "CONSOLE1" appender.

Defines the "LOGFILE" appender.

output file should be opened in append or truncate mode. True=append, False=truncate.

"LOGFILE" appender messages should go.

"LOGFILE" appender.

Configures the format of the log messages sent to the "LOGFILE" appender.

files to keep.

file is allowed to reach before being rolled over to backup files.

log4j.logger.com.vmware.vim.common INFO, LOGFILE Configures the logging level and

appenders for the "com.vmware.vim.common" module.

log4j.logger.com.vmware.vim.srs INFO, LOGFILE Configures the logging level and

appenders for the "com.vmware.vim.srs" module.

log4j.logger.com.vmware.vim.stats INFO, LOGFILE Configures the logging level and

appenders for the "com.vmware.vim.stats" module.

log4j.logger.org.apache WARN Configures the logging level and

appenders for the "org.apache" module.

log4j.rootLogger ERROR, LOGFILE Configures the logging level and

appenders for the "log4j.rootLogger" module.

VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy

The VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy service provides support for joining unattended ESXi hosts to an Active Directory domain by using an account with delegated privileges, enhancing security for PXEbooted hosts and hosts that are provisioned using Auto Deploy.

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Property Default Value Description

Domain - Active Directory domain to which to join

the ESXi hosts.

Domain User - Active Directory account with delegated

domain join privileges used to join ESXi hosts.

Domain User Password - Password for the account specified in

Domain User.

VMware vSphere ESXi Dump Collector

The vSphere ESXi Dump Collector service collects core dumps from remote hosts.

Property Default Value Description

Coredump Server UDP Port (1025-9999) 6500 The default port on which the core dump

server communicates.

Repository max size (1-10 GB) 2 The maximum size of the core dump

repository in gigabytes.

VMware vSphere Update Manager

Provides centralized, automated patch and version management for ESXi hosts and virtual machines.

Property Default Value Description

Download patches on service start true Controls whether to download patches on

service start or not.

This option does not take effect when the service starts for the first time after the deployment. This option takes effect on subsequent service starts and restarts.

Log level INFO Controls the log messages that vSphere

Update Manager will write to its log files.

SOAP Port 8084 The port used by vSphere Update

Manager client plug-in to connect to the vSphere Update Manager SOAP server.

Web Server Port 9084 The HTTP port used by ESXi hosts to

access host patch files from vSphere Update Manager server.

Web SSL Port 9087 The HTTPS port used by vSphere Update

Manager Client plug-in to upload host upgrade files to vSphere Update Manager server.

vAPI Endpoint

The vAPI endpoint provides a single point of access to vAPI services. You can change the properties of the vAPI Endpoint service.

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Property Default Value Description

[default] endpoint maximum number of execution threads

[default] endpoint minimum number of spare threads

300 The maximum number of execution

threads for the vAPI endpoint.

10 The minimum number of threads that are

always kept alive for the vAPI endpoint.

[default] endpoint queue size 50 The maximum number of tasks that can

queue up for the vAPI endpoint.

[router] Broadcast execution timeout 30 The duration after which vAPI broadcast

routing queries time out, measured in seconds.

[router] Federated IS queries timeout 30 Timeout of federated inventory service

queries, measured in seconds.

[router] Maximum size of the in-memory cache

10 The maximum size of the identifier cache

that is used for routing vAPI calls between management nodes. Measured in megabytes.

[router] Number of broadcast timeout threads

[router] Number of control threads for federated IS queries

3 The number of threads that handle vAPI

broadcast time outs.

10 The number of threads that control the

federated Inventory Service queries for vAPI routing.

[router] Number of execution threads for federated IS queries

20 The number of threads that perform the

federated Inventory Service queries for vAPI routing.

Bearer token usage allowance Enabled You can use Bearer SAML tokens in

addition to Holder of Key (HoK) tokens.

Bearer tokens do not have cryptographic verification of the client identity. Their security is sufficient only when used over a secure encrypted connection.

CloudVM Components authz,com.vmware.cis,com.vmware.cont

ent, com.vmware.transfer,com.vmware.vapi,c om.vmware.vapi.rest.navigation, com.vmware.vapi.vcenter,com.vmware.v

A comma-separated list of VMware components that require the use of identifiers. Identifiers must be qualified with a management node ID.

The list must not contain spaces.

center.inventory

Caution Editing the list might result in

system failures. Edit this setting only as part of VMware maintenance procedure.

Cookie authentication Enabled Enables or disables cookie authentication.

If you enable the cookie authentication, the session ID is returned in cookie. If you disable it, the cookie is returned in the header.

Credentials login allowance Enabled vAPI users can authenticate with a user

name and password in addition to using a SAML token.

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Property Default Value Description

Enables REST basic authentication Enabled Enables login service for simple

authentication with user name and password.

Global request rate 180 Global request rate. Set to 0 to disable.

Global request rate interval 1 Global request rate interval, measured in

seconds. This is the time frame in which only http.request.rate.count requests are allowed. Set to 0 to disable.

If you enable this interval, the default value is 1.

Maximum allowed request size 204800 The maximum allowed request size,

measured in bytes. Set to 0 to disable.

Maximum number of in-flight requests. 2000 The maximum allowed number of in-flight

requests. Set to 0 to disable.

Note In-flight requests take up memory.

If you increase this setting, you must increase the memory of the endpoint component.

Maximum number of simultaneous connections to the VIM service

10 The max number of simultaneous

connections allowed to the VIM service.

Maximum request age 14400 The maximum request age in seconds.

Maximum session count 1000 The maximum number of allowed

sessions. If you leave the value empty, the maximum number of sessions allowed is 10,000.

Maximum session idle time 3600000 The maximum time between requests that

a session can remain idle, measured in milliseconds.

Maximum session lifespan 172800000 The maximum session lifespan, measured

in milliseconds. Used to capture long sessions.

Minimum session lifespan 86400000 Minimum session lifespan in milliseconds,

used for renewable tokens.

Reconfiguration interval 240 Interval between reconfiguration attempts,

measured in seconds.

Request rate for anonymous calls 3000 Maximum request rate for anonymous

calls. Set to 0 to disable.

Request rate for authorized requests 3800 Maximum request rate for authorized

calls. Set to 0 to disable.

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Property Default Value Description

Request rate interval for anonymous calls 60 Request rate interval for anonymous calls,

measured in seconds. This is the time frame in which only request rates for anonymous calls are allowed.

Set to 0 to disable.

Note The vAPI endpoint limits the

number of incoming requests to Request rate for anonymous calls per Request rate interval for anonymous calls. For example if the rate is set to 50 seconds and interval is set to 60 seconds, the system allows up to 50 calls per minute.

Any calls exceeding the limit return a server busy error.

Request rate interval for authorized calls 60 The request rate interval for authorized

calls, measured in seconds. This is the time frame in which only http.authorized.request.rate.count authorized requests are allowed. Set to 0 to disable.

The socket timeout 0 The socket timeout (SO_TIMEOUT),

measured in milliseconds, that is used when executing a method. A timeout value of 0 is interpreted as an infinite timeout.

Timeout for the HTTP connections to vAPI providers

300000 Timeout for the HTTP connections to vAPI

providers, measured in milliseconds.

Token clock tolerance 1000 Clock tolerance for authentication tokens,

measured in seconds.

URL Deserialization (POST-as-GET) Enabled Enables or disables URL deserialization

(POST-as-GET).

vAPI Endpoint solution user Generated at the time of installation vAPI Endpoint solution user.

Caution Do not modify this value.

Changing only this setting without updating the related settings, might lead to a failure of the component.

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Using Enhanced Linked Mode 4

Enhanced Linked Mode links multiple vCenter Server systems by using one or more Platform Services Controllers. With Enhanced Linked Mode, you can view and search across all linked vCenter Server systems. This mode replicates roles, permissions, licenses, and other key data across systems.

Enhanced Linked Mode provides the following features for both vCenter Server on Windows and vCenter Server Appliance systems:

You can log in to all linked vCenter Server systems simultaneously with a single user name and password.

You can view and search the inventories of all linked vCenter Server systems within the vSphere Web Client.

Roles, permission, licenses, tags, and policies are replicated across linked vCenter Server systems.

To join vCenter Server systems in Enhanced Linked Mode, connect them to the same Platform Services Controller, or to Platform Services Controllers that share the same vCenter Single SignOn domain.

Enhanced Linked Mode requires the vCenter Server Standard licensing level, and is not supported with vCenter Server Foundation or vCenter Server Essentials.

In vSphere 5.5 and earlier, Linked Mode relied on Microsoft ADAM to provide replication functionality. Starting in vSphere 6.0, the Platform Services Controller provides replication and ADAM is no longer required. Because of the change in architecture, you must isolate vCenter Server 5.5 systems from any Linked Mode groups before upgrading these systems to vCenter Server 6.0. For more information, see the vSphere Upgrade documentation.

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Conﬁguring Communication Among ESXi , vCenter Server,

and the vSphere Web Client 5

By default, the vSphere Web Client uses ports 80 and 443 to communicate with vCenter Server and ESXi hosts.

Configure your firewall to allow communication between the vSphere Web Client and vCenter Server by opening ports 80 and 443.

vCenter Server acts as a web service. If your environment requires the use of a web proxy, vCenter Server can be proxied like any other web service.

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Conﬁguring Hosts and vCenter

Server 6

Configuring ESXi hosts, vCenter Server systems, and the vSphere Web Client involves several tasks.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Host Configuration

Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network

Host Conﬁguration

Before you create virtual machines on your hosts, you must configure the hosts to ensure that they have correct licensing, network and storage access, and security settings.

For information on configuring a host, see the configuration information for the specific vSphere component in the vSphere Security documentation, the vSphere Storage documentation, and the vSphere Networking documentation.

Conﬁgure the Boot Device on an ESXi Host

On servers running ESXi, you can select the device that the server boots from.

Procedure

1 Select a host in the inventory.

2 Click the Configure tab.

3 Select Processors and click Boot Options.

4 Select a boot device from the drop-down menu.

5 (Optional) To reboot immediately from the device you have selected, select Apply and Reboot on

OK.

If you do not select Apply and Reboot on OK, the new setting takes effect when the host is next rebooted.

6 Click OK.

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Conﬁgure Agent VM Settings

You can configure the datastore and network settings for the ESX agent virtual machines that you deploy on a host.

An ESX agent is a virtual machine, or a virtual machine and a vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB), that extend the functions of an ESXi host to provide additional services that a vSphere solution requires.

For example, a solution might require a particular network filter or firewall configuration to function. A solution can use an ESX agent to connect to the vSphere Hypervisor and extend the host with functions specific to that solution. For example, the ESX agent can filter network traffic, act as a firewall, or gather other information about the virtual machines on the host.

When you configure the datastore and network settings for ESX agents on a host, all of the ESX agents that you deploy on the host use that datastore and network configuration.

Important ESX agents are not deployed if you do not configure the network and datastore settings.

Procedure

1 Select a host in the vSphere Client inventory.

2 Click the Configure tab.

3 Select Agent VM Settings.

The current settings for the ESX agents on the host, if any, appear.

4 Click Edit.

5 From the Datastore drop-down menu, select a datastore in which to deploy the ESX agent virtual

machines.

6 From the Network drop-down menu, select a network to connect the ESX agents.

7 Click OK.

What to do next

For information about ESX agents and ESX Agent Manager, see Developing and Deploying vSphere Solutions, vServices, and ESX Agents.

Set Advanced Host Attributes

You can set advanced attributes for a host.

Caution Changing advanced options is considered unsupported. Typically, the default settings produce

the optimum result. Change the advanced options only when you get specific instructions from VMware technical support or a knowledge base article.

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Procedure

1 Browse to the host in the vSphere Client.

2 Click the Configure tab.

3 Under System, click Advanced System Settings.

4 In Advanced System Settings, select the appropriate item.

5 Click the Edit button and change the value.

6 Click OK.

Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network

Verify that all components on the vSphere network have their clocks synchronized. If the clocks on the machines in your vSphere network are not synchronized, SSL certificates, which are time-sensitive, might not be recognized as valid in communications between network machines.

Unsynchronized clocks can result in authentication problems, which can cause the installation to fail or prevent the vCenter Server Appliance vpxd service from starting.

Verify that any Windows host machine on which vCenter Server runs is synchronized with the Network Time Server (NTP) server. See the Knowledge Base article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1318.

To synchronize ESXi clocks with an NTP server, you can use the VMware Host Client. For information about editing the time configuration of an ESXi host, see vSphere Single Host Management.

Edit Time Conﬁguration for a Host

You can configure the time settings on a host manually, or you can synchronize the time and date of the host by using an NTP server.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the host in the vSphere inventory.

2 Select Configure.

3 Under System, select Time Configuration and click Edit.

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4 Select an option for setting the time and date of the host.

Option Description

Manually configure the date and time

Set the time and date for the host manually.

on this host

Use Network Time Protocol (Enable

NTP client)

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

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

servers that you want to use.

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

starting and stopping the NTP service on the host.

Start and stop with port usage - Starts or stops the NTP service when the NTP client port is enabled or disabled for access in the security profile of the host.

Start and stop with host - Starts and stops the NTP service when the host powers on or shuts down.

Start and stop manually - Enables manual starting and stopping of the NTP service.

You can use the Start, Stop, or Restart buttons to control the status of the NTP service on the host manually at any time. This manual process bypasses the selected startup policy for the NTP service. For the Start and stop manually policy, you always use the buttons to control the status of the NTP service.

5 Click OK.

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Conﬁguring Customer Experience Improvement

Program 7

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

This chapter includes the following topics:

Categories of Information That VMware Receives

Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the vSphere Web Client

Categories of Information That VMware Receives

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

Details regarding the data collected through CEIP and the purposes for which it is used by VMware are set forth at the Trust & Assurance Center at http://www.vmware.com/trustvmware/ceip.html. To join or leave the CEIP for this product, see .

Join the Customer Experience Improvement Program in the vSphere Web Client

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

Prerequisites

Verify that you are a member of the Administrators@vsphere.local group.

Procedure

1 Log in to the vCenter Server instance as a member of Administrators@vsphere.local group by using

the vSphere Web Client.

2 On the vSphere Web Client Home page, under Administration, click Customer Experience

Improvement Program.

3 Click Join to enable the CEIP or Leave to disable the Program.

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Organizing Your Inventory 8

Plan how you will set up your virtual environment. A large vSphere implementation might contain several virtual data centers with a complex arrangement of hosts, clusters, resource pools, and networks. It might involve multiple vCenter Server systems connected using Enhanced Linked Mode. Smaller implementations might require a single virtual data center with a much less complex topology. Regardless of the scale of your virtual environment, consider how the virtual machines it will support are going to be used and administered.

Here are the questions to answer as you create and organize an inventory of virtual objects:

Will some virtual machines require dedicated resources?

Will some virtual machines experience periodic spikes in workload?

Will some virtual machines need to be administered as a group?

Do you want to use multiple vSphere Standard Switches, or you want to have a single vSphere Distributed Switch per data center?

Do you want to use vMotion and Distributed Resource Management with certain virtual machines but not others?

Will some virtual objects require one set of system permissions, while other objects will require a different set of permissions?

The left pane of the vSphere Web Client displays your vSphere inventory. You can add and arrange objects in any way with the following restrictions:

The name of an inventory object must be unique with its parent.

vApp names must be unique within the Virtual Machines and Templates view.

System permissions are inherited and cascade.

Tasks for Organizing Your Inventory

Populating and organizing your inventory involves the following activities:

Create data centers.

Add hosts to the data centers.

Organize inventory objects in folders.

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Set up networking by using vSphere Standard Switches or vSphere Distributed Switches. To use services such as vMotion, TCP/IP storage, VMware vSAN™, and Fault Tolerance, setup VMkernel networking for these services. For more information, see vSphere Networking.

Configure storage systems and create datastore inventory objects to provide logical containers for storage devices in your inventory. See vSphere Storage.

Create clusters to consolidate the resources of multiple hosts and virtual machines. You can enable vSphere HA and vSphere DRS for increased availability and more flexible resource management. See vSphere Availability for information about configuring vSphere HA and vSphere Resource Management for information about configuring vSphere DRS.

Create resource pools to provide logical abstraction and flexible management of the resources in vSphere. Resource pools can be grouped into hierarchies and used to hierarchically partition available CPU and memory resources. See vSphere Resource Management for details.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Create Data Centers

Add a Host

Create a Folder

Create Clusters

Create Data Centers

A virtual data center is a container for all the inventory objects required to complete a fully functional environment for operating virtual machines. You can create multiple data centers to organize sets of environments. For example, you might create a data center for each organizational unit in your enterprise or create some data centers for high-performance environments and others for less demanding virtual machines.

Prerequisites

In the vSphere Client, verify that you have sufficient permissions to create a data center object.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server object.

2 Select Actions > New Datacenter.

3 Rename the data center and click OK.

What to do next

Add hosts, clusters, resource pools, vApps, networking, datastores, and virtual machines to the data center.

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Add a Host

You can add hosts under a data center object, folder object, or cluster object. If a host contains virtual machines, those virtual machines are added to the inventory together with the host.

You can also add hosts to a DRS cluster, for details see vSphere Resource Management.

Prerequisites

Verify that a data center, folder, or cluster exists in the inventory.

Obtain the user name and password of the root user account for the host.

Verify that hosts behind a firewall are able to communicate with the vCenter Server system and all other hosts through port 902 or other custom-configured port.

Verify that all NFS mounts on the host are active.

If you want to add a host with more than 512 LUNs and 2,048 paths to the vCenter Server inventory, verify that the vCenter Server instance is suitable for a large or x-large environment.

Required privileges:

Host.Inventory.Add host to cluster

Resource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool

System.View on the virtual machines folder where you want to place the virtual machines of the host.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, navigate to a data center, cluster, or folder within a data center.

2 Right-click the data center, cluster, or folder and select Add Host.

3 Type the IP address or the name of the host and click Next.

4 Type administrator credentials and click Next.

5 Review the host summary and click Next.

6 License the host through one of the following methods.

Assign an already existing license.

Assign a new license.

a Click Create New Licenses. The Add Host wizard minimizes in Work in Progress and the

New Licenses wizard appears.

b Type of copy and paste the new license key from My VMware and click Next.

c Enter a new name for the license and click Next.

d Review the new license and click Finish.

7 In the Add Host wizard click Next.

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8 (Optional) Select a lockdown mode option to disable the remote access for the administrator account

after vCenter Server takes control of this host.

9 (Optional) If you add the host to a data center or a folder, select a location for the virtual machines

that reside on the host and click Next.

10 Review the summary and click Finish.

A new task for adding the host appears in the Recent Tasks pane. It might take a few minutes for the task to complete.

Create a Folder

You can use folders to group objects of the same type for easier management. For example, permissions can be applied to folders, allowing you to use folders to group objects that should have a common set of permissions.

A folder can contain other folders, or a group of objects of the same type. For example, a single folder can contain virtual machines and another folder containing virtual machines, but it cannot contain hosts and a folder containing virtual machines.

You can create these types of folders: Host and Cluster folders, Network folders, Storage folders, and VM and Template folders.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, select either a data center or another folder as a parent object for the folder.

2 Right-click the parent object and select the menu option to create the folder.

Option Description

The parent object is a data center. If the parent object is a data center, you can select the type of folder to create:

Select New Folder > New Host and Cluster Folder.

Select New Folder > New Network Folder.

Select New Folder > New Storage Folder.

Select New Folder > New VM and Template Folder.

The parent object is a folder. If the parent object is a folder, the new folder is of the same type as the parent

folder.

Select New Folder.

3 Type the name for the folder and click OK.

What to do next

Move objects into the folder by right-clicking the object and selecting Move To. Select the folder as the destination. You can also move objects by dragging the object to the destination.

Create Clusters

You create a new and empty cluster, and enable services to work with that cluster by using the vSphere Client.

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Prerequisites

Verify that you have sufficient permissions to create a cluster object.

Verify that a data center, or folder within a data center, exists in the inventory.

Verify that hosts have the same ESXi version and patch level.

Obtain the user name and password of the root user account for the host.

Procedure

1 Browse to a data center in the vSphere Client.

2 Right-click the data center and select New Cluster.

3 Enter a name for the cluster.

4 Select DRS and vSphere HA cluster features.

Option Description

To use DRS with this cluster a Select the DRS Turn ON check box.

b Select an automation level and a migration threshold.

To use HA with this cluster a Select the vSphere HA Turn ON check box.

b Select whether to enable host monitoring and admission control.

c If admission control is enabled, specify a policy.

d Select a VM Monitoring option.

e Specify the virtual machine monitoring sensitivity.

5 Select an Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) setting.

EVC ensures that all hosts in a cluster present the same CPU feature set to virtual machines, even if the actual CPUs on the hosts differ. This prevents migrations with vMotion from failing due to incompatible CPUs.

6 Select the vSAN cluster feature.

a Select the vSAN Turn ON check box.

b Specify whether to add disks automatically or manually to the vSAN cluster.

7 Click OK.

The cluster is added to the inventory

What to do next

Add hosts to the cluster.

For information about configuring vSphere HA, see vSphere Availability, and for information about configuring vSphere DRS see vSphere Resource Management. For information about vSAN, see Administering VMware vSAN .

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vSphere Tags and Attributes 9

Tags and attributes allow you to attach metadata to objects in the vSphere inventory to make it easier to sort and search for these objects.

A tag is a label that you can apply to objects in the vSphere inventory. When you create a tag, you assign that tag to a category. Categories allow you to group related tags together. When you define a category, you can specify the object types for its tags, and whether more than one tag in the category can be applied to an object.

For example, if you wanted to tag your virtual machines by guest operating system type, you can create a category called operating system. You can specify that it applies to virtual machines only and that only a single tag can be applied to a virtual machine at any time. The tags in this category might be Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

Tags and categories can span multiple vCenter Server instances:

If multiple on-premises vCenter Server instances are configured to use Enhanced Linked Mode, tags and tag categories are replicated across all these vCenter Server instances.

When you use Hybrid Linked Mode, tags and tag categories are maintained across your linked domain. That means the on-premises SDDC and the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC share tags and tag attributes.

For vSphere Tags and Attributes, VMware Cloud on AWS supports the same set of tasks as an onpremises SDDC.

This chapter includes the following topics:

Migrate Custom Attributes to Tags

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag Category

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag

Assign a Tag to an Object

Remove a Tag from an Object

Add Permissions for Tags and Tag Categories

Tagging Best Practices

Custom Attributes in the vSphere Web Client

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Migrate Custom Attributes to Tags

Tags replace the custom attributes functionality found in previous versions of vSphere. If you have existing custom attributes, you can migrate them to tags.

During the migration, the custom attribute names are converted to categories. Custom attribute values are converted to tag names.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client object navigator, browse to any object that has custom attributes.

2 Click the object's Summary tab.

3 Select Actions > Tags & Custom Attributes > Edit Custom Attributes...

4 In the Migrate Custom Attributes dialog box, click Migrate.

The Migrate Custom Attributes to Tags wizard appears.

5 Read the instructions and click Next.

6 Select the custom attributes to migrate and click Next.

The Create Tag Categories page displays the name of each custom attribute as a new tag category.

7 (Optional) Select a category to edit its options.

Option Description

Category Name The category name must be unique to the currently selected vCenter Server

system.

Description You can provide text in the description to describe the purpose or use of the

category.

Cardinality

Associable Object Types Select whether tags in this category can be assigned to all objects or only to a

Select One tag per object to allow only one tag from this category to be applied to an object at any one time.

Use this option for categories whose tags are mutually exclusive. For example, a category called Priority with tags High, Medium, and Low should allow one tag per object, because an object should have only one priority.

Select Many tags per object to allow multiple tags from the category to be applied to an object at any one time.

Use this option for categories whose tags are not mutually exclusive.

After you have set the cardinality of a category, you can change the cardinality from One tag per object to Many tags per object, but not from Many tags per object to One tag per object.

specific type of managed object, such as virtual machines or datastores.

After you have set the associable object types for a category, you can change a category that is associable with a single object type to be associable with all object types. You cannot restrict a category that is associable to all object types to being associable to a single object type.

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8 (Optional) Select a tag to edit its attributes.

Option Description

Name The tag name must be unique across all linked vCenter Server systems.

Description You can provide text in the description to describe the purpose or use of the tag.

9 Click Finish.

The selected custom attributes are converted to categories and tags.

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag Category

You use categories to group tags together and define how tags can be applied to objects. You create, edit, and delete a tag category from the vSphere Client.

You can create a tag category explicitly, as explained here, or as part of the tag creation process. Each tag has to belong to at least one tag category.

Prerequisites

The required privilege depends on the task that you want to perform.

Task Privilege

Create a tag category vSphere Tagging.Create vSphere Tag Category on the root

vCenter Server

Edit a tag category vSphere Tagging.Edit vSphere Tag Category on the root

vCenter Server.

Delete a tag category vSphere Tagging.Delete vSphere Tag Category on the root

vCenter Server.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, click Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes.

2 Click the Tags tab and click Categories.

3 Start the task that you want to perform.

Option Description

Create a tag category Click the New Category icon.

Edit a tag category Select a category and click the Edit Category icon.

Delete a tag category Select a category from the list and click the Delete Category icon.

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4 Edit the category options.

Option Description

Category Name The category name must be unique to the currently selected vCenter Server

system.

Description You can provide text in the description to describe the purpose or use of the

category.

Tags Per Object

Associable Object Types Select whether tags in this category can be assigned to all objects or only to a

If you select One Tag, you can apply only one tag from this category to an object.

Use this option for categories whose tags are mutually exclusive. For example, if you have a category called Priority with tags High, Medium, and Low, then each object should have only one tag because an object can have only one priority.

If you select Many tags, you can apply more than one tag from the category to an object.

Use this option for categories whose tags are not mutually exclusive.

After you have set Tags Per Object, you can change from One Tag to Many Tags, but not from Many Tags to One Tag.

specific type of object, such as a virtual machine or a datastore.

Changes to the associable object type are limited.

If you initially selected a single object type, you can later change the category to work for all object types.

If you initially selected All Objects, you cannot restrict the category later.

5 Click OK or Yes to confirm.

Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag

You use tags to add metadata to inventory objects. You can record information about your inventory objects in tags, and you can use the tags in searches.

Prerequisites

The required privilege depends on the task that you want to perform.

Task Privilege

Create a tag vSphere Tagging.Create vSphere Tag on the root vCenter

Server

Edit a tag vSphere Tagging.Edit vSphere Tag on the root vCenter Server

Delete a tag vSphere Tagging.Delete vSphere Tag on the root vCenter

Server

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, click Menu > Tags & Custom Attributes.

2 Click Tags.

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3 Perform the task.

Option Description

Create a tag a Click the New Tag icon.

b Specify the Name and an optional Description.

c In the Category drop-down menu, select an existing category or create a

category.

If you select [New Category], the dialog box expands to show the options for creating a category. See Create, Edit, or Delete a Tag Category.

Edit a tag Select a category and click the Edit Category icon.

Delete a tag Select a category from the list and click the Delete Category icon.

4 Click OK.

Assign a Tag to an Object

After you have created tags, you can apply them as metadata to objects in the vCenter Server inventory.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: vSphere Tagging.Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on the root vCenter Server instance

Procedure

1 Browse to the object in the vSphere Client inventory.

2 Right-click the object and select Tags and Custom Attributes > Assign.

To filter the tags that are displayed, select a category from the Categories drop-down menu.

3 Select a tag from the list and click OK.

You can later use the same process to remove a tag.

Remove a Tag from an Object

You can remove a tag that has been applied to an object.

Prerequisites

Required privilege: vSphere Tagging.Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on the root vCenter Server instance.

Procedure

1 Browse to the object in the vSphere Web Client inventory.

2 From the Actions menu, select Tags & Custom Attributes > Remove Tag.

3 In the Remove Tag dialog box, select the tag to remove.

4 Click Remove to confirm the removal of the tag.

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Add Permissions for Tags and Tag Categories

You can manage the user privileges for working with tags and categories. The procedure for assigning permission to tags is the same as the procedure for tag categories.

You can set permissions on common tag operations to manage the operations over the inventory objects. You must have vSphere administrator credentials to set and manage permissions for tags. When you create a tag, you can specify which users and groups can operate with that tag. For example, you can grant administrative rights only to administrators and set read-only permissions for all other users or groups.

Permissions for tags work similar to permissions for vCenter Server inventory objects. See vSphere Security for more background information.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Tasks & Custom Attributes.

2 Select a tag from the list, right-click the tag, and select Add Permission.

You see a list with all default permissions for the selected tag.

3 Click the Add icon to add a permission to the existing list.

The Add permission dialog box appears.

4 In the Users and Groups pane, click Add, select all the users and groups you want to add, and click

OK.

5 (Optional) Select a user or a group from the list and select a role from the Assigned Role list.

6 (Optional) Select Propagate to children to propagate the privileges to the children of the assigned

inventory object.

7 Click OK to save the new tag permission.

Tagging Best Practices

Incorrect tagging can lead to replication errors. To avoid these errors, diligently follow best practices when tagging objects.

When working with tags in multiple node situations, expect replication delays between the nodes (generally 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on your setup). Follow these best practices to avoid replication errors:

After creating a tag, if you immediately assign that tag to a local object, assign it from the management node where you created the tag.

After creating a tag, if you immediately assign that tag to a remote object, assign it from the management node to which the object is local. Depending on your environment setup, allow for replication time to propagate the new tag before you use the tag.

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Avoid simultaneously creating categories and tags from different management nodes before categories and tags across nodes can finish the replication process. If duplicate categories or tags are created from different nodes at the same time, the duplicates might not be detected and will appear. If you see these results, manually delete duplicates from one management node.

Custom Attributes in the vSphere Web Client

You can use custom attributes in the vSphere Web Client to assign user-specific values for each object of the custom attribute type.

After you create the attributes, set the value for the attribute on each virtual machine or managed host, as appropriate. This value is stored with vCenter Server and not with the virtual machine or managed host. Use the new attribute to filter information about your virtual machines and managed hosts. If you no longer need the custom attribute, remove it. A custom attribute is always a string.

For example, suppose that you have a set of products and you want to sort them by sales representative. Create a custom attribute for the sales person's name, Name. Add the custom attribute, Name, column to one of the list views. Add the appropriate name to each product entry. Click the column title Name to sort alphabetically.

The custom attributes feature is available only when you are connected to a vCenter Server system.

Add and Edit Custom Attributes

You can create custom attributes in the vSphere Client and associate the attribute with an object, such as a host, virtual machine, cluster, or network. You can also edit custom attributes.

After you create the attributes, set an appropriate value for the attribute on each virtual machine. This value is stored with vCenter Server and not with the virtual machine. Use the new attribute to filter your virtual machines. If you no longer need the custom attribute, remove it. A custom attribute is always a string.

For example, suppose that you have a set of products and you want to sort them by sales representative.

1 Create a Name custom attribute for the sales person's name.

2 Add the Name custom attribute column to one of the list views and add a name to each product entry.

3 You can now click the Name column to sort alphabetically by sales person.

Note Tags and tag categories support a finer-grained mechanism for tagging your object. Consider

using tags and tag categories instead of custom attributes.

Prerequisites

Required privileges: Global.Manage custom attributes,Global.Set custom attribute.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Tags and Custom Attributes.

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2 Click Custom Attributes.

All currently defined custom attributes for vCenter Server are displayed.

3 Click Add.

4 Enter the values for the custom attribute.

a Type the name of the attributes in the Attribute text box.

b Select the attribute type from the Type drop-down menu.

c Click OK.

After you have defined an attribute on an object, it is available to all objects of that type in the inventory. However, the value you specify is applied only to the currently selected object.

5 You can later edit a custom attribute.

a Select the attribute and click Edit.

b Change the Name.

c Change the type if it's available.

d Click OK.

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License Management and

Reporting 10

vSphere provides a centralized license management and reporting system that you can use to manage licenses for ESXi hosts, vCenter Server systems, vSAN clusters, and solutions. Solutions are products that integrate with vSphere such as VMware Site Recovery Manager, vCloud Networking and Security, vRealize Operations Manager, and others.

Licensing Terminology and Definitions

The licensing system in vSphere uses specific terminology and definitions to refer to different licensing-related objects.

The License Service in vSphere 6.7

In vSphere 6.7, the License Service is part of the Platform Services Controller. The License Service delivers centralized license management and reporting functionality to vSphere and to products that integrate with vSphere.

Licensing for Environments with vCenter Server Systems 6.0 and Later, and 5.5

If your vSphere 6.0 or later environment consists of vCenter Server 6.0 or later, and 5.5 systems, consider the differences in the license management and reporting between vSphere 6.0 and later, and vSphere 5.5.

Licensing for Products in vSphere

ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and vSAN clusters are licensed differently. To apply their licensing models correctly, you must understand how the associated assets consume license capacity. You must also understand how the evaluation period for each product works, what happens when a product license expires, and so on.

Suite Licensing

Suite products combine multiple components to provide a certain set of capabilities. Suite products have a single license that you can assign to all suite components. When participating in a suite, suite components have different licensing models than their standalone versions. Examples of suite products are vCloud Suite and vSphere with Operations Management.

Managing Licenses

To license an asset in vSphere, you must assign it a license that holds an appropriate product license key. You can use the license management functionality in the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client to license multiple assets at a time from a central place. Assets are vCenter Server systems, hosts, vSAN clusters, and solutions.

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Viewing Licensing Information

You can view the licensing state of the vSphere environment from a central place by using the license management functionality in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client. You can view the licenses that are available in vSphere, current license assignments and usage, available license capacity, licensed features in use, and so on.

Generating Reports for License Use in the vSphere Web Client

You can track the license use of your vSphere environment by generating reports for the license use of assets for a certain time period. Assets are hosts, vCenter Server systems, vSAN clusters, and solutions.

Synchronizing Licenses with Your My VMware Account

With vSphere 6.5 and later, VMware starts offering the Synchronize Licenses feature that you can use to import license keys and license key data from My VMware to your vSphere environment.

vCenter Server Domain Repoint License Considerations

Domain repointing copies license keys to a new domain. Copying the license keys ensures that valid licensing of all assets is maintained after repointing.

Licensing Terminology and Deﬁnitions

The licensing system in vSphere uses specific terminology and definitions to refer to different licensingrelated objects.

License Key A license key encodes details about the product it is associated with, the

license expiration date, the license capacity, and other information. The license key is assigned to an object to activate the functionality of its associated product.

License A container for a license key of a VMware product. To use a license key,

you create a license object in the vSphere Web Client or the vSphere Client, and insert the license key into the license. After the license is created, you can assign it to assets.

Product Edition A set of specific features that are associated with a unique license key.

When assigned, the license key unlocks the features in the product edition. Examples of product editions are vSphere Enterprise, vSphere Standard, vCenter Server Essentials, and so on.

Feature Enabled or disabled functionality by a license that is associated with a

specific product edition. Examples of features are vSphere DRS, vSphere vMotion, and vSphere High Availability.

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Solution

Asset Any object in vSphere that requires licensing. If the license has sufficient

License Capacity The number of units that you can assign to assets. The units of a license

License use The number of units that an asset uses from the capacity of a license. For

A product that is packed and distributed independently from vSphere. You install a solution in vSphere to take advantage of certain functionality. Every solution has a licensing model specific for the solution, but uses the License Service for license management and reporting. Examples of solutions are VMware Site Recovery Manager, vRealize Operations Manager, vCloud Network and Security, and so on.

capacity, the license administrator in vSphere can assign one license to one or multiple assets of the same type. Suite licenses can be assigned to all assets that are part of the suite. Assets are vCenter Server systems, ESXi hosts, and products that integrate with vSphere such as VMware Site Recovery Manager, vRealize Operations Manager, and others.

capacity can be of different types depending on the product that the license is associated with. For example, a license for vCenter Server determines the number of vCenter Server systems that you can license.

example, if you assign a per-virtual-machine license to VMware Site Recovery Manager, the license use for VMware Site Recovery Manager is the number of protected virtual machines.

The License Service in vSphere 6.7

You can use the License Service with newly installed vSphere 6.0 and later environments. You can also use the License Service with environments that are upgraded from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 and later. For details about upgrading the license management in vCenter Server 5.x to the License Service in vSphere 6.0 and later, see the vSphere Upgrade guide.

The License Service provides an inventory of licenses in the vSphere environment, and manages the license assignments for ESXi hosts, vCenter Server systems, and clusters with enabled vSAN. The License Service also manages the license assignments for products that integrate with vSphere, such as vRealize Operations Manager, and VMware Site Recovery Manager.

If your vSphere environment has several Platform Services Controllers that are joined through one vCenter Single Sign-on domain, the licensing inventory is replicated across all Platform Services Controllers. This way, the licensing data for each asset and all available licenses are replicated across all the Platform Services Controllers. Each individual Platform Services Controller contains a copy of that data and licenses for all the Platform Services Controllers.

Note Licensing data is replicated across multiple Platform Services Controllers on a 10-minute interval.

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For example, suppose that your environment consists of two Platform Services Controllers that are connected to four vCenter Server systems each, and every vCenter Server system has 10 hosts connected to it. The License Service stores information about the license assignments and uses for all eight vCenter Server systems, and the 80 hosts that are connected to those systems. The License Service also lets you manage the licensing for all eight vCenter Server systems and the 80 hosts that are connected to them through the vSphere Web Client.

Licensing for Environments with vCenter Server Systems

6.0 and Later, and 5.5

5.5.

The License Service in vSphere 6.0 and later manages the licensing data for all ESXi hosts, vSAN clusters, and solutions that are associated with the vCenter Server 6.0 and later systems in the vSphere environment. However, every standalone vCenter Server 5.5 system manages the licensing data only for the hosts, solutions, and vSAN clusters that are associated with that system. Licensing data for linked vCenter Server 5.5 systems is replicated only for the vCenter Server 5.5 systems in the group.

Due to the architectural changes in vSphere 6.0 and later, you can either manage the licensing data for all assets that are associated with all vCenter Server 6.0 and later systems in vSphere, or manage the licensing data for individual vCenter Server 5.5 systems or a group of linked vCenter Server 5.5 systems. The licensing interfaces in the vSphere Client 6.7 and the vSphere Web Client 6.0 and later allow you to select between all vCenter Server 6.0 and later systems and vCenter Server 5.5 systems.

Licensing for Products in vSphere

Licensing for ESXi Hosts

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

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

The license must have sufficient CPU capacity to license all physical CPUs on the host. For example, to license two ESXi hosts that have four CPUs each, you need a vSphere license with a minimum capacity of 8 CPUs to the hosts.

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The license must support all the features that the host uses. For example, if the host is associated with a vSphere Distributed Switch, the license that you assign must support the vSphere Distributed Switch feature.

If you attempt to assign a license that has insufficient capacity or does not support the features that the host uses, the license assignment fails.

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

Five 2-CPU hosts

Three 2-CPU hosts and one 4-CPU host

Two 4-CPU hosts and one 2-CPU host

One 8-CPU host and one 2-CPU host

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

Evaluation Mode

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

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

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

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

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

Licensing ESXi Hosts After Upgrade

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

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

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vSphere Desktop

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

Licensing for vCenter Server

vCenter Server systems are licensed with vCenter Server licenses that have per-instance capacity.

To license a vCenter Server system, you need a vCenter Server license that has the capacity for at least one instance.

Evaluation Mode

When you install a vCenter Server system, it is in evaluation mode. An evaluation mode license of a vCenter Server system expires 60 days after the product is installed no matter whether you assign a license to vCenter Server or not. You can set vCenter Server back to evaluation mode only within 60 days after its installation.

For example, suppose that you install a vCenter Server system and use it in evaluation mode for 20 days and assign the system an appropriate license. The evaluation mode license of vCenter Server will expire after the remaining 40 days of the evaluation period.

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

When the license or evaluation period of a vCenter Server system expires, all hosts disconnect from that vCenter Server system.

Licensing vCenter Server After Upgrade

If you upgrade vCenter Server to a version that starts with the same number, you can keep the same license. For example, if you upgrade a vCenter Server system from vCenter Server 5.1 to 5.5., you can keep the same license on the system.

If you upgrade vCenter Server to a version that starts with a different number, you must apply a new license. For example, if you upgrade a vCenter Server system from 5.x to 6.x, you must license the system with a vCenter Server 6 license.

If you upgrade the edition of the license, for example, from vCenter Server Foundation to vCenter Server Standard, replace the existing license on the system with the upgraded license.

Licensing for Clusters with Enabled vSAN

After you enable vSAN on a cluster, you must assign the cluster an appropriate vSAN license.

Similar to vSphere licenses, vSAN licenses have per CPU capacity. When you assign a vSAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts participating in the cluster. For example, if you have a vSAN cluster that contains 4 hosts with 8 CPUs each, assign the cluster a vSAN license with a minimum capacity of 32 CPUs.

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The license use of the vSAN is recalculated and updated in one of the following cases:

If you assign a new license to the vSAN cluster

If you add a new host to the vSAN cluster

If a host is removed from the cluster

If the total number of CPUs in a cluster changes

You must maintain the vSAN clusters in compliance with the vSAN licensing model. The total number of CPUs of all hosts in the cluster must not exceed the capacity of the vSAN license that is assigned to the cluster.

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

When the license or the evaluation period of a vSAN expires, you can continue to use the currently configured vSAN resources and features. However, you cannot add SSD or HDD capacity to an existing disk group or create new disk groups.

vSAN for Desktop

vSAN for Desktop is intended for use in VDI environments, such as vSphere for Desktop or Horizon ™ View™. The license use for vSAN for Desktop equals the total number of powered on VMs in a cluster with enabled vSAN.

To remain EULA compliant, the license use for vSAN for Desktop must not exceed the license capacity. The number of powered on desktop VMs in a vSAN cluster must be less than or equal to the license capacity of vSAN for Desktop.

Suite Licensing

Licensing for VMware vCloud® Suite

VMware vCloud® Suite combines multiple components into a single product to cover the entire set of cloud infrastructure capabilities. When used together, the vCloud Suite components provide virtualization, software-defined data center services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, application management, and operations management.

A vCloud Suite edition combines components such as vSphere, vCloud Director, vCloud Networking and Security, and others, under a single license. vCloud Suite editions are licensed on per-CPU basis. Many of the vCloud Suite components are also available as standalone products licensed on per-virtual machine basis. However, when these components are obtained through vCloud Suite, they are licensed on per-CPU basis.

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The components from a vCloud Suite edition are activated with a single license key. For example, if you have a license key for vCloud Suite Standard, you assign the same key to all assets that will run vCloud Suite. For example, such assets include ESXi hosts, vCloud Automation Center, vCloud Director, and others.

All virtual machines running on a CPU licensed with a vCloud Suite edition can use all components included in that vCloud Suite edition. You can run unlimited number of virtual machines on the CPUs that are licensed with a vCloud Suite edition. To run virtual machines on CPUs that are not licensed for vCloud Suite, you need individual licenses for the products that you want to use.

For more information about the licensing model of vCloud Suite, see the vCloud Suite documentation.

Licensing for vSphere® with Operations Management

VMware vSphere® with Operations Management™ combines vSphere and vCenter™ Operations Management Suite™ Standard under a single suite with a single license. vSphere with Operations Management lets you gain operational insight in vSphere and optimize resource allocation by providing monitoring, performance, and capacity information about the vSphere environment.

vSphere with Operations Management is licensed on a per-CPU basis. To run vSphere with Operations Management, you must assign ESXi hosts a vSphere with Operations Management license. You can run unlimited number of virtual machines on the hosts that are licensed for vSphere with Operations Management.

Managing Licenses

In vSphere, you can assign one license to multiple assets of the same type if the license has enough capacity. You can assign a suite license to all components that belong to the suite product edition. For example, you can assign one vSphere license to multiple ESXi hosts, but you cannot assign two licenses to one host. If you have a vCloud Suite license, you can assign the license to ESXi hosts, vCloud Networking and Security, vCenter Site Recovery Manager, and so on.

Create New Licenses

When you purchase, divide, or combine license keys in My VMware, you must use the new keys to license assets in your vSphere environment. You must go to the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client and create a new license object for every license key. A license is a container for a license key of a VMware product. After you create the new licenses, you can assign them to assets.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

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Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 On the Licenses tab, click Add New Licenses.

4 On the Enter licenses keys page, enter one license key per line, and click Next.

The license key is a 25-symbol string of letters and digits in the format XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. You can enter a list of keys in one operation. A new license will be created for every license key that you enter.

5 On the Edit license names page, rename the new licenses as appropriate and click Next .

6 On the Ready to complete page, review the new licenses and click Finish.

A new license is created for every license key that you entered.

What to do next

Assign the new licenses to hosts, vCenter Server systems, or other products that you use with vSphere. You must not keep unassigned licenses in the inventory.

Conﬁguring License Settings for Assets in the vSphere Web Client

To continue using product functionality, you must assign appropriate licenses to assets in evaluation mode, or assets with expiring licenses. When you upgrade a license edition, combine, or split licenses in My VMware, you must assign the new licenses to assets. You can assign licenses that are already available, or create new licenses and assign them to the assets in a single workflow. Assets are vCenter Server systems, ESXi hosts, Virtual SAN clusters, and other products that integrate with vSphere .

Assign a License to Multiple Assets

To continue using product functionality, you must assign appropriate licenses to assets in evaluation mode, or assets with expiring licenses. When you upgrade a license edition, combine, or split licenses in My VMware, you must assign the new licenses to assets. You can assign licenses that are already available, or create licenses and assign them to the assets in a single workflow. Assets are vCenter Server systems, ESXi hosts, vSAN clusters, and other products that integrate with vSphere .

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Assets tab.

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4 On the Assets tab, click the vCenter Server systems, Hosts, Clusters, or Solutions tab.

5 Select the assets to license.

Note In the vSphere Client, use Shift+click to select multiple assets.

6 Click Assign License.

7 In the Assign License dialog box, select a licensing method.

In the vSphere Client, select an existing license and click OK.

In the vSphere Web Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.

Task Steps

Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.

Select a newly created license a

Click the Create New License ( ) icon.

b In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and

click Next.

c On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as appropriate

and click Next.

d Click Finish.

e In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click

OK.

The license is assigned to the assets. Capacity from the license is allocated according to the license use of the assets. For example, if you assign the license to 3 hosts with 4 CPUs each, the consumed license capacity is 12 CPUs.

Conﬁgure License Settings for an ESXi Host

You must assign a license to an ESXi host before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires. If you upgrade, combine, or divide vSphere licenses in My VMware, you must assign the new licenses to ESXi hosts and remove the old licenses.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the host in the inventory.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under System, select Licensing.

4 Click Assign License.

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5 In the Assign License dialog box, select a licensing method.

In the vSphere Client, select an existing license and click OK.

In the vSphere Web Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.

Task Steps

Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.

Select a newly created license a

Click the Create New License ( ) icon.

b In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and

click Next.

c On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as appropriate

and click Next.

d Click Finish.

e In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click

OK.

The license is assigned to the host. Capacity from the license is allocated according to the license use of the host.

Conﬁgure License Settings for vCenter Server

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vCenter Server system.

2 Select the Configure tab.

3 Under Settings, select Licensing.

4 Click Assign License.

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5 In the Assign License dialog box, select a licensing method.

In the vSphere Client, select an existing license and click OK.

In the vSphere Web Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.

Task Steps

Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.

Select a newly created license a

Click the Create New License ( ) icon.

b In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and

click Next.

c On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as appropriate

and click Next.

d Click Finish.

e In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click

OK.

The license is assigned to the vCenter Server system, and one instance from the license capacity is allocated for thevCenter Server system.

Conﬁgure License Settings for a vSAN Cluster

You must assign a license to a vSAN cluster before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires.

If you upgrade, combine, or divide vSAN licenses, you must assign the new licenses to vSAN clusters. When you assign a vSAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity that used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts participating in the cluster. The license use of the vSAN cluster is recalculated and updated every time you add or remove a host from the cluster. For information about managing licenses and licensing terminology and definitions, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.

When you enable vSAN on a cluster, you can use vSAN in evaluation mode to explore its features. The evaluation period starts when vSAN is enabled, and expires after 60 days. To use vSAN, you must license the cluster before the evaluation period expires. Just like vSphere licenses, vSAN licenses have per CPU capacity. Some advanced features, such as all-flash configuration and stretched clusters, require a license that supports the feature.

Prerequisites

To view and manage vSAN licenses, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server systems, where the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Navigate to your vSAN cluster.

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2 Click the Configure tab.

Option Description

vSphere Client a Right-click your vSAN cluster, and choose menu Assign License.

b Select a licensing option.

Select an existing license and click OK.

Create a vSAN license.

a TO BE ADDED

b TO BE ADDED

c TO BE ADDED

d TO BE ADDED

e TO BE ADDED

vSphere Web Client a Under Configuration, select Licensing, and click Assign License.

b Select a licensing option.

Select an existing license and click OK.

Create a vSAN license.

Click the Create New License ( ) icon.

b In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a vSAN

license key and click Next.

c On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as

appropriate and click Next.

d Click Finish.

e In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license,

and click OK.

Set Assets to Evaluation Mode

To explore the complete set of features available for an asset, you can set it to evaluation mode.

Different products have different terms for using their evaluation mode. Before you set an asset to evaluation mode, you should consider the specifics for using the evaluation mode of its associated product. For details, see the licensing model documentation for the relevant product at Licensing for

Products in vSphere

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Assets tab.

4 Select the vCenter Server systems, Hosts, Clusters, or Solutions tab.

5 Select the asset that you want to set to evaluation mode.

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6 Click the Assign License icon.

7 Select Evaluation License and click OK to save your changes.

The asset is in evaluation mode. You can explore the entire set of features that are available for the asset.

Note You must assign an appropriate license to the asset before its evaluation period expires. Otherwise

the asset will get into unlicensed state and certain functionality will be blocked.

Rename a License

After you create a license, you can change its name.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Licenses tab.

4 Select the license to rename, and click Rename License.

5 Type the new license name and click OK.

Remove Licenses

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

For example, suppose that you have upgraded a vSphere license from 6.5 to 6.7 in My VMware. You assign the license to ESXi 6.7 hosts. After assigning the new vSphere 6.7 licenses, you must remove the old vSphere 6.5 license from the inventory.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Licenses tab.

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4 Use the filters to display only the unassigned licenses.

Client Options

vSphere Client

vSphere Web Client From the Show drop-down menu, select Unassigned to display only the

Click the filter icon ( ) in the State column.

A text box appears.

Type what licenses you want to display (unassigned or assigned).

unassigned licenses.

5 Select a license to remove or press Ctrl+A to select all licenses.

6 Click Remove Licenses, review the confirmation message, and click Yes.

Viewing Licensing Information

View Licensing Information About the vSphere Environment

You can view the available licenses in vSphere along with their expiration dates, available capacity, and usage. You can also view the available products and assets.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select a tab for the licensing information that you want to view.

Tab Description

Licenses Lists all licenses that are available in the vSphere environment. For every license,

you can view the associated license key, license usage, license capacity, and expiration date.

Products Lists the products that have licenses available in the vSphere environment. You

can view the licenses that are available for every product, licensed features, license usage, and license capacity.

Assets Displays licensing information about the assets that are available in the vSphere

environment. Assets are vCenter Server systems, hosts, vSAN clusters, and other products that you use with vSphere that are listed under Solutions.

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What to do next

To comply with the EULA of vSphere and the products that you use with vSphere, you should not keep unassigned licenses in the inventory.

If any unassigned licenses exist, assign these licenses to assets.

Remove all expired licenses or licenses that you do not intend to assign. For example, if you have upgraded, divided, or combined any licenses in My VMware, you must remove the old licenses from the inventory.

View Available Licenses and Features About a Product

You can view information about a product, such as the available licenses, features, and license capacity in the vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Click the Products tab and select the product for which you want to view information.

4 Select the task that you want to perform.

Task Description

View the licenses that are available for

the selected product

View the licensed features for the

product

In the vSphere Client, click the Licenses subtab below the list of products.

In the vSphere Web Client, click the arrow next to the product name to expand the row and see a list of all licenses for the respective product.

In the vSphere Client, click the Features subtab below the list of products.

In the vSphere Web Client, click the View Features toolbar icon.

View the Features that an Asset Uses

You can view the features that an asset uses before you assign it a license. For example, if an ESXi host is in evaluation mode, you can view which features the hosts uses and then assign an appropriate license to it.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

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2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Assets tab.

4 Select the vCenter Server systems, Hosts, Clusters or the Solutions option.

5 Select an asset and view the associated features.

In the vSphere Client, click the Features subtab below the list of assets.

In the vSphere Web Client, click the View Licensed Features toolbar icon

View the License Key of the License

In vSphere, a license holds a license key for a product. You can view the associated license key for every license.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Click Menu > Administration.

2 Expand Licensing and click Licenses.

3 Select the Licenses tab.

4 Select a license from the list and view the license key.

In the vSphere Client, click the Summary subtab that is below the list of licenses. Under General, you can see the llicense name, the expiration date, the state of the license, and the license key.

In the vSphere Web Client, click the View License Key toolbar icon.

View the Licensed Features for an Asset

Before you start to use a feature on an asset, you can check whether the asset is licensed to use this feature. For example, to use vSphere HA, you should check whether all hosts in a vSphere HA cluster are licensed for this feature.

Prerequisites

To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 Navigate to the vCenter Server system, host, or cluster whose licensed features you want to view.

2 Click the Configure tab.

3 Under System, select Licensing.

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The list of features that you can configure on the asset appears on the right.

Generating Reports for License Use in the vSphere Web Client

You can use the license reporting in vSphere for the following tasks:

View statistics about the license use and capacity for all products that have been assigned licenses in vSphere for a certain time period.

Export license use reports in CSV format for further analysis and processing.

The License Service takes snapshots of the license use in the vSphere environment every day. A license use snapshot contains data about the current license assignment and use. The license use information that you can view in the license reporting interface contains aggregated statistics from the snapshots that are collected in the period that you select.

The license use reports that you can export in CSV format contain the raw data from the license use snapshots that are collected during the selected period. You can analyze the data from CSV reports by aggregating it with third-party tools or scripts.

View the License Usage for Multiple Products in the vSphere Web Client

Tracking the license usage for products helps you to estimate the overall license requirements for your environment and to keep it correctly licensed. You can filter the license usage data by time period.

Prerequisites

To view and generate license use reports for the products in vSphere, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select Administration, and under Licensing select Reports.

2 On the Products tab, use the Time period drop-down menu to select a preconfigured or a custom

time period for which you want to generate license use data.

3 If you select a custom time period, select the start and end dates, and click Go.

The Report Summary shows the license usage for each product as a percentage of the license capacity for the product over the selected period.

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View License Usage Details for a Single Product in the vSphere Web Client

You can view details about the license usage and capacity of a certain product. You can filter the license usage data by time period.

Prerequisites

To view and generate license use reports for the products in vSphere, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select Administration, and under Licensing select Reports.

2 On the Products tab, use the Time period drop-down menu to select a preconfigured or a custom

time period for which you want to generate license use data.

3 If you select a custom time period, specify the start and end dates, and click Go.

4 Select a product from the Report Summary pane.

Details about the license usage for the selected product appear. The Usage Breakdown table lists all the licenses for the product that are assigned to assets in the selected period. The table can list licenses that are not used currently but were assigned to assets in the selected period.

The License Service collects license usage snapshots every day. The license usage on the Usage Breakdown table is an aggregated value from the raw data in the license usage snapshots that are collected within the selected time period.

Export a License Usage Report in the vSphere Web Client

You can export a report for the license usage of products for a certain time period. The report is exported in a CSV file that you can later open with third-party applications.

Important A tamper-detection feature in the License Service protects the license usage information. If

the licensing data in the License Service database has been edited, you cannot export a license usage report.

Prerequisites

To export license usage reports, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select Administration, and under Licensing select Reports.

2 On the Products tab, Click Export License Usage Report.

The Export Licene Usage Report dialog box appears.

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