Transitioning to ESXi

Spencer Cuffe, Sr. Escalation Engineer

2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved

Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

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Why ESXi?
Next generation of VMwares Hypervisor Architecture
Full-featured hypervisor

Superior consolidation and scalability Same performance as VMware ESX architecture

More secure and reliable

Small code base thanks to OS-Independent, thin architecture

No Service console means smaller attack footprint

Streamlined deployment and configuration

Fewer configuration items making it easier to maintain consistency Automation of routine tasks through scripting environments such as vCLI or PowerCLI

Simplified hypervisor Patching and Updating

Smaller code base = fewer patches Eliminates patch drifting due to single image update The dual-image approach lets you revert to prior image if desired VMware components and third party components can be updated independently

New and Improved ESX Management

Service Console (COS) Management Agents Hardware Agents Agentless vAPI-based

Agentless CIM-based
vCLI, PowerCLI, vMA

Commands for configuration and diagnostics

Local Support Console Remote Support Console

CIM API
vSphere API

Infrastructure Service Agents Classic VMware ESX

Native Agents: hostd, vpxa, NTP, Syslog, SNMP, etc. VMware ESXi

Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

Confidential

Hardware Monitoring with CIM

Common Information Model (CIM) Agent-less, standards based monitoring of hardware resources Output readable by 3rd party management tools via standard APIs VMware and Partner CIM providers for specific hardware devices

Management Server Management Client

CIM Broker

VMkernel

VMware Providers

Partner Providers

Hardware

Platform CPU

Memory

Network

WS-MAN

Storage

Monitor and Manage Health of Server Hardware with vCenter

New CIM Interface Detailed hardware health monitoring Physical and virtual visibility on server health vCenter alarms alert when hardware failures occur
Host hardware fan status Host hardware power status Host hardware system board status Host hardware temperature status

New vCenter Alarms for Hardware

Third Party Hardware Monitoring

OEMs HW Monitoring through their Management Consoles HP SIM 5.3.2+ Dell Open Manager Server Administrator 6.1

view server and storage asset data view server and storage health information view alert and command logs configure hardware (e.g. storage, BIOS)

Monitoring of Installed Software Component

In vCenter Server In ESXi 4.1 directly

ESXi OEM Versions

VMware, Dell, IBM, HP versions available at www.vmware.com/go/get-freeesxi (requires registration)

Majority of Systems Management and Back Up Vendors Support ESXi

BPM for Virtual Servers BPA for Virtual Servers Capacity Mgmt Essentials Atrium Orchestrator Bladelogic Operations Manager ProactiveNet v7.7 * Client Automation Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping v7.4 *

CA Virtual Performance Manager (VPM) Spectrum Automation Management Spectrum eHealth Cohesion ARCserve

Operations Orchestration VI SPI Client Automation DDM Operations Agent UCMDB SiteScope Performance Agent DataProtector HP Operations

ITM for Virtual Servers v6.1.2 * TPM ITUAM ITLCM Tivoli Storage Manager

Smarts ESM v1.1 ADM v6.2 ControlCenter Avamar Networker

Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

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Information on Migration to ESXi

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-ESXi41-MigrationGuide.pdf Provides an overview of differences between ESX Classic and ESXi Provides examples of tasks and how to complete them on ESXi Vs. ESX Classic

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Installation methods for ESXi 4.1

Details Numerous choices for installation
Installer booted from
- CD-ROM (default)

- Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)

ESXi Installation image on

- CD-ROM (default), HTTP/S, FTP, NFS

Script can be stored and accessed

- Within the ESXi Installer ramdisk(Default Script) - On the installation CD-ROM - HTTP / HTTPS, FTP, NFS , USB

Config script (ks.cfg) can include

- Preinstall

- Postinstall
- First boot

ESXi 4.1 Installer

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ESXi 4.1 Installer

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ESXi 4.1 Installer

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ESXi 4.1 Installer

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ESXi 4.1 Installer

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ESXi 4.1 Installer

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Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

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Infrastructure Services for Production Environments

Function Time synchronization Centralized log collection SNMP monitoring Persistent Logging Local access authentication Large-Scale Deployment ESX NTP agent in COS Syslog agent in COS SNMP agent in COS Filesystem of the COS AD agent in COS, Built-in Active Directory service Boot from SAN, PXE Install, Kickstart ESXi Built-in NTP service Built-in Syslog service Built-in SNMP service Log to files on datastore Built-in Active Directory service Boot from SAN, PXE Install, Scripted Installation

New in vSphere 4.1

New Feature: Boot from SAN

Details Fully supported in ESXi 4.1
Only experimentally supported in ESXi 4.0

Boot from SAN supported for FC, iSCSI, and FCoE

ESX and ESXi have different requirement:

iBFT (Boot Firmware Table) required The host must have an iSCSI boot capable NIC that supports the iSCSI iBFT
format.

iBFT is a method of communicating parameters about the iSCSI boot device to

an OS

Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

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vCLI and PowerCLI: primary scripting interfaces

vCLI

Other utility scripts

vSphere PowerCLI

Other languages vSphere Client

vSphere SDK vSphere Web Service API

vCLI and PowerCLI built on same API as vSphere Client Same authentication (e.g. Active Directory), roles and privileges, event logging API is secure, optimized for remote environments, firewall-friendly, standardsbased

New Feature: Additional vCLI commands

Storage Configuration esxcli swiscsi session: Manage iSCSI sessions esxcli swiscsi nic: Manage iSCSI NICs esxcli swiscsi vmknic: List VMkernel NICs available for binding to particular
iSCSI adapter

esxcli swiscsi vmnic: List available uplink adapters for use with a specified
iSCSI adapter

esxcli vaai device: Display information about devices claimed by the VMware
VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration) Filter Plugin.

esxcli corestorage device: List devices or plugins. Used in conjunction with

hardware acceleration.

Host Operations vicfg-hostops: Perform operations on ESX/ESXi hosts: enter/exit

maintenance mode shutdown/reboot host

Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

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Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

ESXi Troubleshooting Options vCLI commands DCUI-based troubleshooting Browser-based troubleshooting Tech Support Mode

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Diagnostic Commands for ESXi: vCLI

Familiar set of esxcfg-* commands available in vCLI Names mapped to vicfg-* Also includes
vmkfstools vmware-cmd resxtop esxcli: suite of diagnostic tools

New Feature: Additional vCLI troubleshooting commands

Network esxcli network: List active connections or list active ARP table entries.
Storage NFS statistics available in resxtop VM esxcli vms vm kill: Forcibly stop VMs that do not respond to normal stop
operations, by using kill commands.
# esxcli vms vm kill --type <kill_type> --world-id <ID>

NOTE: designed to kill VMs in a reliable way (not dependent upon wellbehaving system)

Eliminates one of the most common reasons for wanting to use COS.

DCUI-based Troubleshooting

Menu item to restart all management agents, including - Hostd - vpxa Menu item to reset all configuration settings - Fix a misconfigured vNetwork
Distributed Switch

- Reset all configurations

Browser-based access of config files

https://<hostname>/host

Browser-based access of log files

https://<hostname>/host/messages

Browser-based access of datastore files

Disk Descriptor

https://<hostname>/folder

New Feature: Full Support of Tech Support Mode

Two ways to access Local: on console of host (press Alt-F1) Remote: via SSH

New Feature: Full Support of Tech Support Mode

Toggle on DCUI
Disable/Enable Both Local and Remote

Optional timeout
automatically disables TSM (local and remote)
Running sessions are not terminated. New sessions are rejected

All commands issued in

Tech Support Mode are sent to syslog

New Feature: Full Support of Tech Support Mode

Can also enable in vCenter Server and Host Profiles

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New Feature: Full Support of Tech Support Mode

Recommended uses Support, troubleshooting, and break-fix Scripted deployment preinstall, postinstall, and first boot scripts
Discouraged uses Any other scripts Running commands/scripts periodically (cron jobs) Leaving open for routine access or permanent SSH connection Admin will be notified when active

New Feature: Additional commands in Tech Support Mode

Additional commands for troubleshooting vscsiStat nc (netcat) tcpdump-uw

Summary of ESXi Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

During normal operations: Browser If things go wrong:
DCUI: misconfigs / restart mgmt agents

vCLI

vSphere APIs

TSM: Advanced troubleshooting

API Access

ESXi

Direct Access

New Feature: Total Lockdown

Ability to totally control local access via vCenter Server Lockdown Mode (prevents all access except root on DCUI) DCUI can additionally disable If both configured, then no local activity possible (except pull the plugs)

Access Mode vSphere API (e.g., vSphere Client, PowerCLI, vCLI, etc) CIM DCUI Tech Support Mode (Local) Tech Support Mode (Remote)

Normal Any user, based on local roles/privileges Any user, based on local role/privilege Root and users with Admin privileges Root and users with Admin privileges Root and users with Admin privileges

Lockdown None (except vCenter vpxuser)

None (except via vCenter ticket) Root only None None

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Agenda
Overview of ESXi Hardware Monitoring and Systems Management Upgrading/Migrating to ESXi Infrastructure Services Command Line Interfaces Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Next Steps

42

Confidential

Summary of new ESXi features in vSphere 4.1

Capability Admin/config CLIs Advanced troubleshooting Scripted installation Boot from SAN
ESX i 4.0 PowerCLI + vCLI Tech Support Mode (restricted) Not supported Not supported

ESX i 4.1 PowerCLI + vCLI Tech Support Mode Supported Supported

ESX 4.1 COS + vCLI + PowerCLI COS Supported Supported

SNMP
Active Directory HW monitoring Jumbo frames Serial port host management Web Access Total Lockdown

Supported (limited)
Not supported CIM providers Supported Not supported Not supported Not available

Supported (limited)
Integrated CIM providers Supported Not supported Not supported Supported

Supported
Integrated 3rd party agents in COS Supported Supported Not Supported Not available

Planning the transition

Start Testing ESXi
All the functionality of vSphere is supported on both ESX and ESXi architectures

Familiarize Yourself with Remote Command Lines

vCLI and PowerCLI can also be used to manage ESX hosts Start using them even before you fully migrate to the ESXi architecture

Ensure Your Backup and Systems Management Products Integrate with ESXi.
If you are using an agent-based partner solution to integrate with vSphere, please check with
your vendor to see if a newer version of the product supports the ESXi architecture

Plan an ESXi Migration as Part of Your vSphere Upgrade

During the upgrade process, prior versions of VMware ESX can be replaced with the latest
version of VMware ESXi.

Testing of ESXi architecture can be incorporated into overall vSphere testing

We Are Converging on the ESXi Architecture

VMware will converge on the ESXi architecture in mid 2011.

End-of-Sale End of Support: ESX 4.0 (with Service Console) will

be supported at least through May 2014 according to the VMware vSphere Support Life Cycle (HW enablement is limited to first 2 years):

Years After Release General Availability 1st Minor Rel.

3
General

Extended General Extended

Please Look up the Details on vmware.com

Questions?

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Thank You
Spencer Cuffe scuffe@vmware.com

2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved