Basic about VCSA

Basic about VCSA

Industry term for vCenter server appliance is vCSA. VCSA is pre-configured Linux appliance based on SUSE Linux enterprise version 11. A default credentials for VCSA is username/Password: root/vmware.

Good Things

You can deploy vCenter on ESX4.x/ESXi4.x or later

Installation is easy, needs no additional software e.g. AV

License for Windows OS and VC Database is saved

Tuning of OS is not needed

Other agents which run on OS it’s CAPEX and OPEX is saved

Can be easily integrated with AD

vSphere web client is built into it, so no separate installation needed

Te syslog collector is bundled with the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and requires no extra setup

Bad Things

IBM DB2 and SQL Server are not supported for VCSA

Linked mode not supported

VSA not supported

IPv6 not supported

vCenter heartbeat not supported

No plug-in support

Embedded database is limited to small inventory

Software and Hardware Requirements

Platform	vSphere4.x or later
Hosts	ESX4.x/ESXi4.x or later
Disk Space	Minimum 7 GB and maximum 80 GB
Memory	8 GB (not sure why this is default memory picked when it is deployed)
CPU	2 vCPU

Network is automatically selected and it is VMXNET3. SCSI controller is LSI logic. All these options are automatically selected. VM hardware is base d on version 7.0 to make it compatible with vSphere 4.x

Memory requirements

4 GB

is the minimum needed for 10 hosts & 100 VM’s –very small inventory

8 GB

is the minimum needed for 100 hosts & 1000 VM’s –small inventory

13 GB

is the minimum needed for 400 hosts & 4,000 VM’s –medium inventory

17 GB

for anything above than 400 hosts and 4,000 VM’s –large inventory

Up to small inventory you can use embedded database but anything other than i.e. medium & large inventory you have only one choice which is Oracle.

VCSA can be configured using web interface which runs as 5480 port

https://FQDN:5480 (Remember https)

Likely Questions for exam

What is the hardware version used for VCSA?

What is the memory that gets default configured on VCSA?

What is disk requirement for VCSA?

VCSA embedded database is recommended to which inventory size?

What is the SCSI controller selected for VCSA?

What is the network type selected for VCSA?

How many vCPU are by default configured for VCSA?

Which database is supported for remote installation?

Which features are not supported by VCSA

Which features are supported by VCSA

What is the port number VCSA webserver runs?

What are default credentials for VCSA?

Reference

Vmwire.com

vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-host-management-guide.pdf

vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-installation-setup-guide.pdf

vSphere offline demos

If you are VMware partner, please use offline demos file. It is one of the best way to understand new features without installation webclient. For VSA offline demo is available for every one here

vSPhere 5.0 new features

For every person preparing for VCP510 below blog link is must

http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/08/vsphere-50-features.html

Thank you, Hope it helps

performing scripted installation of esxi by pxe booting the installer

 

Of course internet community is full of blogs on how to do ESXi4.1 scripted installation. Based on those materials I’m here to show how to integrate both ESXi4.1 and ESXi5.0 under same PXE server. Trust me very simple (No Big Deal), nothing too much different. All you need to know what is changed I ESXi5.0.

PRE-REQUISITE

1. WebServer – I prefer IIS
2. TFTP Server – I Prefer SolarWinds
3. PXE I prefer pxelinux.0
4. DHCP Server – I Prefer Microsoft DHCP

A. WebServer Configurations:

1.Install IIS webserver using next next .

2.Configure MIME Type as shown below

3. Create folders ESXi and ESXi5 under C:\Inetpub\wwwroot

4. Extract ESXi 5.0 ISO here as shown here  and 4.1U1 as shown below

B. TFTP Server Configuration

Download free TFTP server from SolarWinds

Installation is pretty straight forward. SolarWinds all products are very simple to install and configure. I love their syslog server and had blog about it in the past here

Once installed, there is no configuration needed, just ensure you PXE directory defined as per your requirement C:\PXE (where all files for PXE booting will reside)

Under PXEboot folder create folder structure shown below

Download pxelinux.0 from http://ping.windowsdream.com/dl/pxelinux.0 and copy it in C:\PXEboot directory as shown below also copy menu.c32. This file helps us boot the server, no modification is needed in this file. Just copy it there.

Open pxelinux.cfg folder and create a file without extension as default, as shown below

Open default file in wordpad(not notepad) and copy below text into it.Changes highlighted in yellow below

DEFAULT menu.c32
MENU TITLE ESXi Installation
NOHALT 1
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 80
LABEL install
  MENU LABEL ESXi5 ^Installer
  KERNEL ESXi5/mboot.c32
  APPEND -c ESXi5/boot.cfg

label ESXi4.1U1 Installer
menu label ^ESXi4.1U1 Installer
kernel ESXi/mboot.c32
append ESXi/vmkboot.gz ks=http://192.168.73.168/ESXi/ks.cfg — ESXi/vmkernel.gz — ESXi/sys.vgz — ESXi/cim.vgz — ESXi/ienviron.vgz — ESXi/install.vgz

 

LABEL hddboot
  LOCALBOOT 0×80
  MENU LABEL ^Boot from local disk

Copy following 8 files in to C:\PXEboot\ESXi shown below. These files are copied from C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ESXi, these files are needed only for ESXi4.1U1 installation and should be copied in ESXi folder only

Similar copy all files from C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ESXi5 to C:\PXEboot\ESXi5 as shown below.

Only for ESXi5.0 you have to edit boot.cfg file in C:\PXEboot\ESXi5 and that also only one line you need to modify (just to capture screen capture I have opened this file in notepad)

C. DHCP Server – Configuration

Define the scope in DHCP as per your requirements

Add following two options to DHCP server and done

All done and now time to test

Install ESXi5.0 from a CD or DVD Using a Script

In the previous post we saw how to interactively install ESXi, here I will show you how to install using script. Only difference between this method and interactive method is you do not need provide any inputs. Just one simple line pointing to ks.cfg file and all done.

What you need? i.e. pre-requisites

1. IIS or any Webserver
2. ISO image to burn it on CD/DVD (assuming you do not have ILO)

Configuration of IIS Server

1. Install IIS using standard next next method. Nothing special there.
2. Extract ESXi5.0 ISO image using ISO Buster
3. Below is what it might look after extracting the image
4. Create a folder by name e.g. ESXi5 under C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ as shown below and copy the above files or entire content of the CD
5. Create a answer file with name ks.cfg as shown below

#
# Sample scripted installation file
#
# Accept the VMware End User License Agreement
vmaccepteula
# Set the root password for the DCUI and Tech Support Mode
rootpw mypassword
# Install on the first local disk available on machine
install –firstdisk –overwritevmfs
# Set the network to DHCP on the first network adapater
network –bootproto=dhcp –device=vmnic0

# Reboot the OS but do not eject CD.

reboot –-noeject

1. Copy the ks.cfg file into C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ESXi5
2. Start the server, ensure it boots from the CD as shown below and press enter

3. When you see below screen press SHIFT + O

4. You get below screen, remove run runweasel by press backspace

5. Type the webserver address as shown below
6. Press Enter and watch the stuff.

vRAM entitlement excel sheet

Hello All,

I have created vRAM calculation excel sheet here. It will help you calculate the total vRAM entitlements you are eligible

There are only three field editable those are Server (E,8), CPU(F,8) and Edition(H,8). Otherwise entire sheet is protected.

Hope it helps.

Comments are welcomed

Thank you