VSICM51_M03_VirtualMachines_

© 2012 VMware Inc. All rights reserved

Creating Virtual Machines

Module 3

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VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage – Revision A

Course Introduction

Introduction to Virtualization

Creating Virtual Machines

VMware vCenter Server

Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks

Configuring and Managing vSphere Storage

Virtual Machine Management

Data Protection

Access and Authentication Control

Resource Management and Monitoring

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

Host Scalability

Patch Management

Installing VMware vSphere Components

You Are Here

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A virtual machine is a set of virtual hardware on which a supported

guest operating system and its applications run.

You can create a virtual machine in a number of ways. Choosing the

correct method can help you save time and make the deployment

process manageable and scalable.

Importance

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Lesson 1: Virtual Machine Concepts

Lesson 2: Creating a Virtual Machine

Module Lessons

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Lesson 1:

Virtual Machine Concepts

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After this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Describe a virtual machine.

Display a virtual machine’s files.

Discuss virtual machine hardware.

Learner Objectives

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A virtual machine is:

A set of virtual hardware on which a supported guest operating system and its applications run

A set of discrete files

A virtual machine’s configuration

file describes the virtual

machine’s configuration,

including its virtual hardware.

Avoid using special characters and spaces in the virtual machine’s name.

What Is a Virtual Machine?

…

guestOS = “winnetstandard”

…

displayName = “MyVM”

(etc.)

MyVM.vmx

virtual machine

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Files That Make Up a Virtual Machine

VM

folder

Configuration file (<VM_name>.vmx)

Swap files (<VM_name>.vswp)

(vmx-<VM_name>.vswp)

BIOS file (<VM_name>.nvram)

Log files (vmware.log)

Template file (<VM_name>.vmtx)

Raw device map file (<VM_name>-rdm.vmdk)

Disk descriptor file (<VM_name>.vmdk)

Disk data file (<VM_name>-flat.vmdk)

Suspend state file (<VM_name>.vmss)

Snapshot data file (<VM_name>.vmsd)

Snapshot state file (<VM_name>.vmsn)

Snapshot disk file (<VM_name>-delta.vmdk)

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Click a virtual machine. On

the Summary tab, right-click

the datastore in the

Resources pane.

Click Browse Datastore to

browse its files.

Displaying a Virtual Machine’s Files

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Select the virtual machine in the inventory and click the Storage Views

tab.

Select Show All Virtual Machine Files from the menu.

Using the Storage Views Tab to Display Files

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Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine Hardware

hardware

3D

1 IDE

controller

4 devices

up to 3 parallel ports

up to 4 serial/com ports HD audio

1 USB

controller

20 Devices

1 floppy controller

2 Devices

1-10

NICs

15 devices

per adapter

up to

1TB of RAM

up to 4 SCSI

adapters

up to

64 vCPUs

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Up to 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs):

Depends on the number of licensed CPUs on a host and the number of processors supported by a guest operating system

Up to 1TB maximum memory

size:

Depends on the amount of memory that the guest operating system is told that it has

CPU and Memory

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Virtual Disk

Sample virtual disk definition: Virtual disk size: 4GB

Datastore: MyVMFS

Virtual disk node: 0:0

Virtual storage adapter: LSI Logic SAS Virtual disk files: Server1.vmdk and Server1-flat.vmdk

Default disk mode: Snapshots allowed

Optional disk mode: Independent – persistent or nonpersistent

Disk provisioning policy: Thick provision lazy zeroed, thick provision

eager zeroed, or thin provision

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Network adapters that might be available for your

virtual machine:

Flexible – Can function as either a vlance or

vmxnet adapter:

• vlance – Also called PCNet32, supported by

most 32-bit guest operating systems

• vmxnet – Provides significantly better

performance than vlance

e1000 – e1000e:

• High-performance adapter available for only some

guest operating systems

vmxnet, vmxnet2, and vmxnet3 are VMware® drivers

that are only available with VMware® Tools™:

• vmxnet2 (Enhanced vmxnet) – vmxnet adapter with

enhanced performance

• vmxnet3 – Builds on the vmxnet2 adapter

Virtual Network Interface Card

Whenever possible,

choose vmxnet3.

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CD/DVD drive:

Connect to CD-ROM, DVD, or ISO

image.

USB 3.0:

Smart-card readers

Floppy drive:

Connect to floppy or floppy image.

Generic SCSI devices (such as tape

libraries):

Can be connected to

additional SCSI adapters

NVIDIA GPUs (VMware® View™)

Use hardware-accelerated

graphics with View

Other Devices

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Send power changes to the virtual machine.

Access the virtual machine’s guest operating system.

Send Ctrl+Alt+Del to the guest operating system.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Ins in the virtual machine console.

Press Ctrl+Alt to release the pointer from the virtual machine console.

Virtual Machine Console

VM

console

icon

VM

console

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You should be able to do the following:

Describe a virtual machine.

Display a virtual machine’s files.

Discuss virtual machine hardware.

Review of Learner Objectives

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Lesson 2:

Creating a Virtual Machine

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After this lesson, you should be able to do the following:

Create a virtual machine:

• Configure the virtual machine options

• Install the guest operating system into the virtual machine

• Install VMware Tools into the guest operating system

Describe how to import a virtual appliance.

Learner Objectives

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Methods for creating virtual machines:

Use the Create New Virtual Machine wizard.

Import a virtual appliance.

Provisioning a Virtual Machine

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Start the Create New Virtual

Machine wizard.

Perform a “typical” or “custom” configuration.

Create New Virtual Machine Wizard

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Information needed for a typical configuration:

Virtual machine name and inventory location

Datastore on which to store the virtual machine’s files

Guest operating system and version

Disk parameters for creating a new virtual disk:

• Disk size

• Disk-provisioning:

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

Thin Provision

Choosing the Typical Configuration

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Storage Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning

More efficient storage utilization:

Virtual disk allocation140GB

Available datastore capacity 100GB

Used storage capacity 80GB

Virtual machine disks consume only

the amount of capacity needed to

hold the current files.

A virtual machine sees the full

allocated disk size at all times.

You can mix thick and thin formats.

Full reporting and alerts help

manage allocations and capacity.

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Other information needed for a custom configuration:

Virtual machine version (version 9 is the latest)

Number of CPUs, number of cores per CPU and size of memory

Number of NICs, network to connect to, and network adapter type

SCSI controller type

Whether to create a disk, use an existing disk, use a raw device mapping (RDM), or use no disk

Other disk-provisioning settings:

• Whether to store the virtual disk with the virtual machine or in a different datastore

• Virtual device node (for example, SCSI(0:0))

• Mode-independent (persistent and nonpersistent)

For both the typical and the custom configurations:

You can edit virtual machine settings before completing the task.

• For example, attach an ISO image to the virtual CD/DVD drive.

Choosing the Custom Configuration

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Raw Device Mapping

RDM enables you to store virtual machine data directly on a logical unit number (LUN).

The mapping file is stored on a VMware vSphere® VMFS datastore that points to the raw LUN.

-flat.vmdk .vmdk

virtual disk

VMFS or NFS

-rdm.vmdk

.vmdk

RDM

VMFS

Raw

LUN

NTFS or ext3

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Install the guest operating system into the virtual machine.

Installing the Guest Operating System

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Features of VMware Tools include:

Device drivers:

• SVGA display

• vmxnet/vmxnet3

• Balloon driver for memory management

• Sync driver for quiescing I/O

• Improved mouse

Virtual machine heartbeat

Time synchronization

Ability to shut down virtual machine

Adds additional choices to Perfmon DLL.

VMware Tools

VMware

Tools

icon

Install VMware Tools into the guest

operating system.

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Virtual appliances are reconfigured

virtual machines:

Usually designed for a single purpose (for example, a safe browser or firewall)

Deployed as an OVF template

Available from the VMware Virtual

Appliance Marketplace:

http://www.vmware.com/appliances

Use the VMware vSphere® Client™

to upload appliances into VMware

vCenter Server™ or a VMware

vSphere® ESXi™ host.

Virtual Appliances

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Another way to deploy a virtual

appliance or any virtual machine stored

in OVF format:

Deploy from an OVF template.

Deploying an OVF Template

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In this lab, you will create and prepare virtual machines for use.

1. Create a virtual machine.

2. Install a guest operating system in a virtual machine.

3. Identify a virtual machine’s disk format and usage statistics.

4. Install VMware Tools on a virtual machine installed with a Windows operating system.

5. Prepare your virtual machine for upcoming labs.

Lab 3

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You should be able to do the following:

Create a virtual machine:

• Configure the virtual machine options

• Install the guest operating system into the virtual machine

• Install VMware Tools into the guest operating system

Describe how to import a virtual appliance.

Review of Learner Objectives

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Virtual machines can be provisioned using different methods.

You can use the vSphere Client to create virtual machines using the Add Virtual Machine wizard or by deploying an OVF template.

Questions?

Key Points

VSICM51_M03_VirtualMachines_

Documents

virtual machine files

virtual machines files

virtual networks

rights reserved vmware

virtual machines module

set of virtual hardware

vmware vsphere components

virtual machine module