Q .1) what is Virtualization?

Virtualization is use to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility not just for
large enterprises, but for small and midsize businesses too. VMware virtualization lets you
(Run multiple Operating System & applications on a single computer, Consolidate h/w to get
vastly productivity from fewer servers. Save 50%/ more overall IT costs Speedup and
simply I Management. Maintenance and the deployment of new Application)
Virtualization is creation of virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as
hardware platform, Operating system, a storage device or network resources.
Q) What is Hypervisor?
Hypervisor is also called as Virtual machine manger.is a program that allows multiple O.S.
to share a single H/w Host. Each O.S. has the host processor, memory and other
resources. Control the host processor and resources. Make us sure that each vm / guests
cant disturb each other.
Q) What is Hyper v ?
Hyper v is Microsoft enterprise server virtualization platform. Hyper v is a feature of server
2008 and required to run 64-bit CPU.
Q. 2) what is Cluster..?
In Computer System a cluster is a group of servers & Other Resources. Acts like a single
system & enable High availability. And in some cases Load balancing & parallel processing.
Cluster is a logical unit of file storage on H.D. Connecting two or more computers together in a
way that they behave like single computer .Use for parallel processing load balancing & Fault
Tolerance.
Q .3) what is VI Client..?
vSphere Client is the interface for administering vCenter Server and ESXi . When the server is
a vCenter Server system, the vSphere Client displays all the options available to the vSphere
environment according to the licensing configuration and the user permissions. When the server
is an ESXi host, the vSphere Client displays only the options appropriate to single host
management.
Q .4) What is vcenter Server..?
Vmware (Vcenter Server ) provides a centralized platform for managing your Vmware
Vsphere.environment . By this you can manage all ESX servers,vm storage, vm storage vm
networks and more.Quickly and easily deploy servers ,allocate and optimize resources simplify
powerful management tool. Administer your entire vsphere infrastructure from single location.

Q .5) Vmware Virtual infrastructure (VI) Web Access to the ESX Server ?
This is Web access interface.benifit is you can get GUI client for your ESX server without having
to install a client on your local machine. You can perform basic ESX functions .But you cant add
new VMs, or cant work with vm network. Just for check status of your ESX VMs.
Q .6) What is Cluster ?
A cluster is a group of hosts. When host is added to cluster host become part of cluster
resource. Cluster manages all its hosts.(Cluster enable H.A. & D.R.S., We can enable SAN on
cluster).in computer system cluster is a group of servers & other resources .it act as a single
system, and enable H.A. and in Some cases Load Balancing and Parallel processing . cluster is
a logical unit of file storage on H.D. or connecting two/more computers together in such way
that they behave like a single computer. 1 goto inventoary > Right click on Data Center > New
Cluster > Name > Select (H.A, D.R.S,VMOTION)>Enable virtual SAN.>ok. [Add Hosts and
resource pool to cluster.
Q .7 ) what is High Availability?
H.A Monitor Vms and Hosts. If any single ESX server fails, virtual guests on that server will
move to other server and restart ,within seconds. On which they run. Provide scalability
,reliability and usability.
Q .8) What is VMHA? How it work? What are the features of VMHA?
In event of physical server failure affected virtual machines are automatically restarted on other
production servers with spare capacity. Vmware HA allows IT Organization to minimize
unplanned down time, provide affordable H.A.
Q .9) What is the Background process of H.A.?
it continuously monitors all physical servers in a resource pool and detects physical server and
o.s. failures. If a 15-second period elapses without the receipt of heartbeats from a host, and the
host cannot be pinged, it is declared as failed.
VMware HA continuously monitors all ESX Server hosts in a cluster and detects failures. An
agent placed on each host maintains a heartbeat with the other hosts in the cluster and loss of
a heartbeat initiates the process of restarting all affected virtual machines on other hosts. You
create and manage clusters using Virtual Center. When you use DRS. Vmware HA automates
the Optimal placement of virtual machines on other servers and resource pool. After server
failure. Vmware HA monitor Provided by heartbeat info. Provided by VMware Tools Package
installed in each vm.Vmware HA. Cluster.failures are detected when no Heartbeat is received
from given virtual machine.

Q .10) What is Vmotion ?

VMware vSphere vMotion enables the live migration of virtual machines from one VMware
vSphere 5 host to another, with no perceivable(interrupt) impact to the end user. vMotion is a
key enabler of a number of VMware. technologies, including vSphere Distributed Resource
Scheduler (DRS) and vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM). vMotion brings
invaluable benefits to administratorsit helps prevent server downtime,
enables troubleshooting and provides flexibility .. VM guests are be able to move from 1 ESX
server to another ESX with no downtime for the users.(we require shared SAN storage system
between the ESX servers and Vmotion) license. VMOTION moves live running virtual
machines from one host to another while maintaining continues service availability (I.M.P) at
the time of maintenance of esx box we could move Vm/guest from 1 host to other.
Maintenance Activity( we can power off the Vm & perform activity).
Q .11) How does VMwre Vmotion work?
a) First Entire state of VM is encapsulated by set of files stored on Shared Storage such as
Fiber Channel or ISCSI ,SAN or NAS .Vmware Storage allow Multiple installation of VMware
ESX to access the same VM files.
b) Second Active Memory & Precise (accurate) execution state of virtual machine is rapidly
transferred over a high speed network. allow VM to instantaneously switch from source to
destination. Vmotion Keep transfer of on-going memory transaction in a bitmap. Once done
with it it will suspend the source VM. Final copies of bitmap image to target ESX host. Resume
VM to target host.(Entire process takes less than two seconds.)
c) Third Network s being used by VM are also virtualized by the underlying ESX host. The VM
network identity & network connection s are preserved (maintain). Vmotion manages the virtual
MAC address as a part of the process. Once destination Machine activated Vmotion pings the
router to ensure that it is aware of new Physical location of Virtual MAC address.
Q .12) What are the Requirements (Prerequisite for Vmotion) ?
-ESX Server must be configured with VMKernel ports enable for Vmotion and on the same
network segment.
-ESX Server must be managed by same Virtual Center Server.
-ESX must have compatible CPUs.& Must have Consistent Network labels.
-VMs must be stored on shared storage ISCSI or FC SAN or NAS/NFS.

Q) Vmotion is failing .what are the things that you check where it is failing?
* check the port 8000 is open / not.
*Ensure VMkernel port, Vmotion Option is enabled
*Mkping<vmkernel ip>
Telne 8000
Open console -> vpxa agent is running or not (grer vpxa)
Ensure CD ROM is not Mounted
Ensure VM direct path is disabled.

.
Q .13) what is Fault Tolerance [FT]?
FT provide continuous availability for applications in the event of server failures by creating a
live shadow copy of virtual machine that is always up to date. With the primary virtual machine.
In event of Hardware Outage Vsphere FT automatically triggers-ensure that Zero down time &
preventing data loss. After failure FT automatically creates a new, secondary virtual machine to
deliver continuous protection for that application.

How Fault Tolerance Works

VMware Fault Tolerance provides continuous availability for virtual machines by creating and maintaining a
Secondary VM that is identical to, and continuously available to replace, the Primary VM in the event of a failover
situation.
You can enable Fault Tolerance for most mission critical virtual machines. A duplicate virtual machine, called the
Secondary VM, is created and runs in virtual lockstep with the Primary VM. VMware vLockstep captures inputs and
events that occur on the Primary VM and sends them to the Secondary VM, which is running on another host. Using
this information, the Secondary VM's execution is identical to that of the Primary VM. Because the Secondary VM is
in virtual lockstep with the Primary VM, it can take over execution at any point without interruption, thereby providing
fault tolerant protection.
Primary VM and Secondary VM in Fault Tolerance Pair

The Primary and Secondary VMs continuously exchange heartbeats. This exchange allows the virtual machine pair
to monitor the status of one another to ensure that Fault Tolerance is continually maintained. A transparent failover
occurs if the host running the Primary VM fails, in which case the Secondary VM is immediately activated to replace
the Primary VM. A new Secondary VM is started and Fault Tolerance redundancy is reestablished within a few
seconds. If the host running the Secondary VM fails, it is also immediately replaced. In either case, users experience
no interruption in service and no loss of data.A fault tolerant virtual machine and its secondary copy are not allowed
to run on the same host. This restriction ensures that a host failure cannot result in the loss of both virtual machines.
You can also use VM-Host affinity rules to dictate which hosts designated virtual machines can run on. If you use
Features

Standard Switch

Distributed Switch

Management

Standard switch needs to managed at each

individual
host level

Provides centralized management and

monitoring of the network configuration
of all the ESXi hosts that are
associated with the dvswitch.

Licensing

Standard Switch is available for all

Licensing Edition

Distributed switch is only available for

enterprise edition of licensing

Creation & configuration

Standard switch can be created and

configured at ESX/ESXi host level

Distributed switch can be created and configured

at the vCenter server level

Layer 2 Switch

Yes, can forward Layer 2 frames

Yes, can forward Layer 2 frames

VLAN segmentation

Yes

Yes

802.1Q tagging

Can use and understand 802.1q

VLAN tagging

Can use and understand 802.1q

VLAN tagging

NIC teaming

Yes, can utilize multiple uplink to

form NIC teaming

Yes, can utilize multiple uplink to form

NIC teaming

Outbound Traffic Shaping

Can be achieved using standard switch

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Inbound Traffic Shaping

Not available as part of standard

switches

Only possible at distributed switch

VM port blocking

Not available as part of standard

switches

Only possible at distributed switch

Private VLAN

Not available

PVLAN can be created as part of dvswitch. 3

types of PVLAN(Promiscuous,
Community and Isolated)

Load based Teaming

Not available

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Network vMotion

Not available

Can be achieved using distributed switch

Per Port policy setting

Policy can be applied at switch

and port group

Policy can be applied at switch, port group and

even per port level

NetFlow

Not available

Yes

Port Mirroring

Not available

Yes

Q .15) What is difference between Hypervisor Layer-1 & Layer -2..?

In virtualization, the hypervisor (also called a virtual machine monitor) is the

low-level program that allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently
on a single host computer. Hypervisors use a thin layer of code in software or
firmware to allocate resources in real-time. You can think of the hypervisor as
the traffic cop that controls I/O and memory management
Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the system hardware. They are often
referred to as a "native" or "bare metal" or "embedded" hypervisors in vendor
literature. Type 2 hypervisors run on a host operating system. When the
virtualization movement first began to take off, Type 2 hypervisors were most
popular. Administrators could buy the software and install it on a server they
already had.
Type 1 hypervisors are gaining popularity because building the hypervisor into
the firmware is proving to be more efficient. According to IBM, Type 1
hypervisors provide higher performance, availability, and security than

Type 2 Hypervisors . (IBM recommends that Type 2 hypervisors be used

mainly on client systems where efficiency is less critical or on systems where
support for a broad range of I/O devices is important and can be provided by
the host operating system.)

Q .16) What is Snapshot in Virtualization?

A disk snapshot is a copy of the virtual machine disk file at a certain point in time. It
preserves the disk file system and system memory of your virtual machine.
Snapshot is use for image level backup of Virtual machines. without Shutting them
Down Before doing any activity we do take a snapshot for our precaution. If anything goes
wrong then we can rollback / revert back the snapshot as it was before.(if we are not sure
about any action/activity we should take a snapshot for our safer side. If anything goes
wrong we can rollback the snapshot ). snapshot is created in the delta file and

updated as changes are made. overhead disk space that contains information
used to manage the snapshots.The maximum overhead disk space varies; it's
based on the Virtual Machine Files System (VMFS) block size:
Block size Maximum VMDK size Maximum overhead
1 MB

256 GB

2 GB

2 MB

512 GB

4 GB

4 MB

1024 GB

8 GB

8 MB

2048 GB

16 GB

Different types of snapshot files

*--delta.vmdk file: This is the differential file created when you take a snapshot of a VM. It
is also known as the redo-log file. The delta file is a bitmap of the changes to the base
VMDK, thus it can never grow larger than the base VMDK (except for snapshot overhead
space). A delta file will be created for each snapshot that you create for a VM. These files

are automatically deleted when the snapshot is deleted or reverted in

snapshot manager
*.vmsd file: This file is used to store metadata and information about snapshots. This file is
in text format and will contain information such as the snapshot display name, unique
identifier (UID), disk file name, etc.

.vmsn file: This is the snapshot state file, which stores the exact running state of a virtual
machine at the time you take that snapshot. This file will either be small or large depending
on if you select to preserve the VM's memory as part of the snapshot. If you do choose to
preserve the VM's memory, then this file will be a few megabytes larger than the maximum
RAM memory allocated to the VM.This file is similar to the VMware suspended state
(.vmss) file. A .vmsn file will be created for each snapshot taken on the VM; these files are
automatically deleted when the snapshot is removed.
Creating snapshots
You can create snapshots either through the Snapshot Manager in the vSphere Client or
using the vmware-cmd command line utility directly on the ESX Service Console or through
the vSphere CLI. With this command, a VM can be either powered on or off. It can also be
suspended when creating a snapshot. If the VM is powered off you will not have the option
to snapshot the virtual machine's memory.
Snapshots can be managed using the vSphere Client by connecting either directly to an
ESX server or by connecting to vCenter Server. If you choose to use the command line
interface (CLI) instead, the syntax for creating snapshots is vmware-cmd createsnapsho
You can Delete or revert to snapshots using either the vSphere Client or the vmware-cmd
command line utility. Snapshot Manager in the vSphere Client offers more flexibility and is
easier to use than the vSphere CLI. One important distinction between the "Revert to
Snapshot" option in the vSphere Client and the Snapshot Manager is that revert simply

takes you back to the last snapshot taken, while Snapshot Manager gives you the flexibility
to choose a specific snapshot to revert to. This is called "Go To" in Snapshot Manager.
If you use vmware-cmd, the syntax is vmware-cmd removesnapshots, which removes all
snapshots, or vmware-cmd revertsnapshot.
Q .17) What is Template` in Virtualization?

If we want to build a new server we cant take from template.(we can create by right clicking
on installed server ).Templates are nothing but a Server Clones. If any server goes crash &
Suddenly we have to Migrate the clone from Template. A VMware template (also callled
a golden image) is a perfect, model copy of a virtual machine (VM) from which an
administrator can clone, convert or deploy more virtual machines.Templates save time and
avoid errors when configuring settings and other choices to create new Windows or Linux
server VM. A clone is a copy of a virtual machine. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be
used to create many clones

Q.18) What are the Types of Files in Vmware?

1) .nvram file: This small file contains the BIOS that is used when the VM
boots. Whatever changes are made to the hardware configuration of the VM
are then saved in the NVRAM file. This file is in binary format and if deleted it
will be automatically re-created when a VM is powered on[Bios can be
access F2 ].
2) .vmx file: This file contains all of the configuration information and
hardware settings of the virtual machine.it contain RAM size, network
interface card info, hard drive info and serial/parallel port info), advanced
power and resource settings, VMware tools options, and power management
options. While you can edit this file directly to make changes to a VM's
configuration.
3).VMDK files:

1) Large data = size of the virtual disk

2) Small text disk descriptor =size and geometry of the virtual disk file & also
contain pointer to the large data file as well as information on the virtual disks
drive sectors, heads, cylinders and disk adapter type.
The different types of virtual disk data files
a) The -flat.vmdk file: Default large virtual disk data file that is created when
you add a virtual hard drive to your VM that is not an RDM
b) The -delta.vmdk file: When a snapshot is created, all writes to the original
-flat.vmdk are halted and it becomes read-only; changes to the virtual disk are
then written to these -delta files instead. The initial size of these files is 16 MB
c) The -rdm.vmdk file: Mapping file for the raw device mapping.The
metadata in the mapping file includes the location of the mapped device
(name resolution) and the locking state of the mapped device.
4) .vswp file: When you power on a VM, a memory swap file is created.
These files can take up quite a large amount of disk space on your VMFS
volumes,, As virtual machine memory that is read/written to disk is not as fast
as physical host RAM, your VMs will have degraded performance. These files
are deleted when a VM is powered off or suspended
5) .vmss file: This file is used when virtual machines are suspended and is
used to preserve the memory contents of the VM so it can start up again
where it left off
6) . vmsd file. This file is used with snapshots to store metadata and other
information about each snapshot that is active on a VM. This text file is initially
0 bytes in size until a snapshot is created. The snapshot information in a

VMSD file consists of the name of the VMDK and VMSN file used by each
snapshot, the display name and description, and the UID of the snapshot.
7) .vmsn file. This file is used with snapshots to store the state of a virtual
machine when a snapshot is taken
8) .log file. LOG files are created to log information about the virtual machine
and are often used for troubleshooting purposes. A new log file is created
either when a VM is powered off and back on or if the log file reaches the
maximum defined size limit. The amount of log files that are retained and the
maximum size limits are both defined as VM advanced configuration
parameters (log.rotateSize and log.keepOld).
9) vmxf file. This file is a supplemental configuration file, VM teaming where
multiple VMs can be assigned to a team so they can be powered on or off, or
suspended and resumed as a single object.
10) .ctk file. VMware CTK files list any changes made to the VM between
backups, The CTK file stores information about what VM information blocks
changed, avoiding unnecessary block backups [.vmem virtual machine paging
file and the .vmtm configuration file for team data].

Q .19) What is Difference between ESX and GSX?

Esx is bare metal virtualization product and runs directly on the h/w.Esx offers Central
mgmt.,Resource mgmt..ESX is oriented to production environment,GSX run on host Operating
System.GSX for development (mainly).
GSX requires an operative system to run (either windows or linux). ESX is installed directly on the
hardware because it *has* its own OS (based on redhat 7.3), which is tuned for VMWare kernel. This
feature improves the performance of the virtual machines

Q .20) What re the benefits of Virtualization?

Virtualization is being used by a growing number of organizations to reduce power consumption and
air conditioning needs and trim the building space and land requirements that have always been
associated with server farm growth. Virtualization also provides high availability for critical
applications, and streamlines application deployment and migrations. Virtualization can simplify IT
operations and allow IT organizations to respond faster to changing business demands.

1. Hardware Abstraction
Hardware abstraction reduces human effort and downtime associated with
hardware changes, breaks, modifications, etc. This also keeps you from locking
into specific hardware or vendors. Need to upgrade RAM or CPU.

2. Ease of Migration
This plays on the first statement. Not being tied down to particular hardware allows
you to easily and quickly move a virtual machine (or a copy of the machine) to
another physical host or hosting location. This is a huge bonus for maintenance,
load balancing or disaster recovery.

3. Encapsulation of Storage
Encapsulation of storage enables massively simplified total system backup and
restore, enabling extremely rapid bare metal restores. Your entire machine is a set
of files. It can't get much easier than that.

4. Snapshots
Snapshots allow for simplified testing and protection from bad changes. If you mess
up your physical machine you might be stuck fixing your issue for hours, days, or
worse. If you mess up your VM just roll the snapshot back to the previous state.
Done! This alone is invaluable.

5. Ease of Archiving
Ease of archiving old systems (zip and store) is a huge asset. Once you are done
with a machine you can power it down and copy the files off to stale storage. Need
that machine again? Copy it back over and fire it up in minutes.

6. Ease of Growth
Virtualization eases you into figure growth with options for "pay for" add-ons like
HA, vMotion, etc. Some of these features are free depending on selection platform
(Hyper-V, Xen). With many hypervisors it is as easy as applying a new license key
to unlock new features that can greatly improve your datacenter's functionality.
Start small and work your way up as you grow. Virtualization allows you to be
flexible in implementations.

7. Improved Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Most hypervisor solutions allow management of all physical hosts through a central
console where you can easily compare resource usage and see a history of tasks
and events. You can easily make comparisons between physical and virtual

servers and perform in-depth analysis and troubleshooting.

8. Workload Consolidation
~2-100 workloads can be placed on a single piece of hardware reducing physical
purchases and consumed rack space dramatically, as well as lowering energy and
cooling costs. Rather than needing to put in a purchase order for a new server, you
can have a new virtual machine spun up in minutes.Most physical boxes are
incredibly under-used because of software limitations (such as the need to
separate applications or roles from each other). You can keep these separated
while running them on the same hardware.

9. Ease of Environment Segmentation

This plays on the above statement. Need something separated? Spin off a new VM
on the same hardware. Minimal change in hardware usage while meeting your
needs plus you didnt need to buy a new box. This changes what could have
been a huge inconvenience to a minor one maybe even an advantage instead.

10. Improved Remote Management

Remote Management capabilities allow you to completely manage a machine from
a remote location. You can address what would have typically been an on-site visit
through a remote console, including resource upgrades, network troubleshooting,
power on/off operations, and more. This can greatly increase the efficiency of
server management while cutting travel costs and downtime.

Q .21) What is Host Profile?

A host profile is composed of two parts:
Configuration details Describes policies that govern how a host configuration should look, including details about
each
specific configuration setting.
Compliance details Describes a set of checks that are performed to ensure that the host is configured as specified
in the profile.
These configuration policies are grouped into subprofiles designated by functional groups (e.g., storage, networking,
security, etc.).The HostProfile managed object provides access to profile data and it defines methods to
manipulate the profile. A host profile is a combination of subprofiles, each of which contains
configuration data for a specific capability. Some examples of host capabilities are authentication,
memory, networking, and security. For access to individual subprofiles, see the HostApplyProfile data
object (HostProfile.config.applyProfile).

Q .22) What are host, guest, and virtual Machine?

A HOST SYSTEM (Operating System would be) would be the primary and first installed
Operating System. If You are Using a bare metal Virtualization platform like Hyper-v /ESX

.There really is not a host operating system beside the Hypervisor. If you are using Type -2
Hypervisor like VMware server / virtual server.
Guest System [Guest Operating Systems] is virtual guest/ VM. That is installed under the host
Operating System. Is whatever operating system. The guests are the VMs that run on your
virtualization platform.

Q .23) What` is difference between Esx & Esxi Version?

ESX (Elastic Sky X) is the VMwares enterprise server virtualization platform. In ESX, VMkernel is
the virtualization kernel which is managed by a console operating system which is also called as
Service console. Which is linux based and its main purpose is it to provide a Management interface
for the host and lot of management agents and other thrid party software agents are installed on the
service console to provide the functionalists like hardware management and monitoring of ESX
hypervisor.
ESXi (Elastic sky X Integrated) is also the VMwares enterprise server virtualization platform. In
ESXi, Service console is removed. All the VMware related agents and third party agents such as
management and monitoring agents can also run directly on the VMkernel. ESXi is ultra-thin
architecture which is highly reliable and its small code-base allows it to be more secure with less
codes to patch. ESXi uses Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) instead of a service console to
perform management of ESXi server. ESXi installation will happen very quickly as compared to
ESX installatio
Q .24) How memory is allocated to virtual machine?
Example assume 4 GB of physical RAM avail to run the virtual machine. Requirements: Need to
create the 4 virtual machine with 1 GB RAM each. First virtual machine will run with 1 GB and
leaving the 3GB to the other virtual machines. After configured 3 more virtual machine with 1GB
each. Upto now all the machines will run as normal.What happens when we launch a fifth
machine will it run ? ANSWER is YES
There are 3 Technologies used to manage the memory.
1) Idle Page Reclamation.
2) Transparent Page Sharing: identical memory pages are shared among VM to reduce
total number os memory pages need.
3) Balloon Driver This driver comes with VM tools. By this technology the driver forces a
VM to use less memory than its configured maximum. The Balloon driver requests
Memory from the guest Operating system within Virtual machine and then passes that
memory back to Hyper-visor for use Other VM.
Using these technologies ESX/ESXI will reclaim memory pages that are not being actively used
by VM, clean-up the reclaimed pages are reallocate those memory pages to other VM

Q .25) How Ballon Driver Works?

This Driver is a part of VM Tools. Linux = linux balloon driver Winows = wind balloon driver.
When ESX /ESXi Host is running low physical memory, the hyper-visor will signal the balloon
driver to grow. To do this balloon driverll request memory for the guest O.S. this The memory
that is granted to balloon driver then pass back to Hyper- visor .Hyper visor will passes these
memory pages to other VMs. Which minimiza the performance impact of memory.

Q .26) What is D.R.S, How does D.R.S. Works ? & What are the requirements to confg it?
A VMware DRS cluster is a collection of ESX/ESXi hosts and associated virtual machines
with shared resources and a shared management interface. Before you can obtain the
benefits of cluster-level resource management you must create a DRS cluster. When you
add a host to a DRS cluster, the hosts resources become part of the clusters resources. In
addition to this aggregation of resources, a DRS cluster supports cluster-wide resource
pools and enforces cluster-level resource allocation policies.
Load Balancing: DRS spreads the virtual machine workloads across vSphere hosts inside a cluster and
onitors available resources for you. Based on your automation level DRS will migrate
VMware vSphere vMotion) virtual machines to other hosts within the cluster to maximize Performance.
Distributed Power Management: VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM) is a pioneering
new feature of VMware DRS that continuously monitors resource
requirements in a VMware DRS cluster. When resource
requirements of the cluster decrease during periods of low
usage, VMware DPM consolidates workloads to reduce power
consumption by the cluster. When resource requirements of
workloads increase during periods of higher usage, VMware DPM
brings powered-down hosts back online to ensure service levels
are met.
VMware DPM allows IT organizations to:
Cut power and cooling costs in the datacenter
Automate management of energy efficiency in the datacenter

irtual Machine Placement: You can control the placement of virtual machines on hosts within a cluster,
by assigning DRS affinity or antiaffinity rules.
Resource Pool:

A VMware resource pool is the aggregated physical compute hardware --CPU and memory,
as well as other components -- allocated to virtual machines (VMs) in a VMware virtual
infrastructure
The VMware resource pool manages and optimizes these physical resources for virtual
systems within a VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster.
Administrators use VMware vCenter, third-party tools, or command-line interfaces (CLI) like
esxtop to monitor resource pools, gathering detailed CPU and memory statistics. End users
should not make changes to the resource pools.

Working of DRS?
How Does VMware DRS Work?
VMware DRS aggregates computing capacity across a collection of servers into logical
resource pools and intelligently allocates available resources among the virtual machines
based on pre-defined rules that reflect business needs and changing priorities.VMware DRS
allows users to define the rules and policies that decide how virtual machines share resources
and how these resources are prioritized among multiple virtual machines.

what is the default invocation period for DRS. Can we change this. If yes then how?
Ans: The default invocation period is 300 seconds (5 minutes). But this can be changed via the
configuration file vpxd.cfg. We have to change the value of <pollperiodsec> as shown below:
<config>
<drm>
<pollperiodsec>
300
</pollperiodsec>
</drm>
</config>
Just change the value 300 to a custom value defined by you. The range of supported value is 60
secs to 3600 secs.

Q2: What is the role of VPXA in DRS?

Ans: VPXA is the vCenter agent that runs inside Esxi hosts and it enables a 2 way communication
between Esxi hosts and vCenter Server. VPXA is responsible for:
1. Keeping the status of Esxi and VMs in sync
2. It sends info to vCenter server when a VMs power state is changed or a VM is vMotioned from one host to
other.

DRS uses this information which is presented by Esxi hosts to vCenter server for calculating the
load balance and proposed migrations in case of cluster imbalance.

Q .27)
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Q .31)
Q .32)
Q .33)
Q .34)
Q .35)
Q .36)
Q .37)
Q .38)
Q .39)
Q .40)
Q .41)
Q .42)