Microsoft Remote Desktop Services [RDS] allows users to access centralized applications and workstations in the data center remotely. Microsoft RDS is the new expanded and renamed Microsoft Terminal Services. In this post I will document the implementation of RDS in my home lab using an ‘all-in-one’ configuration.
vBoring Blog Series:
VMware I/O Analyzer is a virtual appliance designed to provide storage performance in a virtual environment. It is offered as a SUSE appliance that provides a web GUI to interact with.
I deployed I/O Analyzer in my vSphere 6.0 environment to see the performance of VSAN 6 compared to my Synology NAS. With this post you should be able to deploy I/O Analyzer in its simplest form and perform performance testing on your storage.
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) is a hypervisor-converged storage solution for your vSphere environment. It was built to be extremely easy to use and administrator, high performance and expandable. In this post I will go over the requirements and how to prepare your environment for VSAN.
vBoring VSAN Series:
VSAN Requirements:
Here are the minimum requirements to build out a VSAN environment.
Refer to VMware KB article 2106708 for an in depth breakdown of all requirements.
In this post I will go through enabling and configuring VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6 cluster within vSphere. Virtual SAN is embedded directly in the hypervisor and does not require any additional software to be installed.
vRealize Operations Manager (vROM/vROPS) gives you visibility into the performance and health of your virtual infrastructure. The bad thing about virtualization is how easy it is to accumulate over-provisioned virtual machines. When your environment grows the numbers can really be staggering. With vROM you can find these VMs and really tweak your environment making it more lean and resource efficient. vROM also has the ability to ensure compliance with IT policies, regulatory requirements, and smart alerting. Basically vRealize Operations Manager will take your structure data like performance metrics and give you a unified interface of analytics. Here is my documented deployment of vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1 in my lab environment.
Planning and Reading:
For this post I will go through upgrading my Windows based vCenter from 5.5 to vCenter 6. VMware has really made the installer process lean. I would even go out on a limb and say “easy”! vCenter 6 introduces the Platform Services Controller which changes the architecture of vCenter down to two components. The graphic below shows my environment before the upgrade and after:
My setup is very simple as I have all vCenter 5.5 components on a single Server 2012 virtual machine. I have ran through the upgrade multiple times and have yet to run into anything major. To find what your environment will look like check out the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 Deployment Guide.
The upgrade process of vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) version 5.x to 6.0 isn’t truly a upgrade but more of a migration. You are basically deploying a second vCSA that will migrate the hosts/inventory/IP address from the old to the new. You can only upgrade vCSA versions 5.1U3 and 5.5. The 6.0 vCSA is still based on SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and now has the the same mins/max as the Windows installed version.
Before You Start:
There is some prep work you need to perform before doing the migration:
The VMware vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) is a security hardened SUSE Enterprise 11 operating system baked with the vCenter server function. With vSphere 6.0 the appliance now has the same mins/max as the Windows installed version. This makes it very appealing to move over to the appliance!
Before You Start:
PluralSight:
PluralSight has amazing video courses on VMware vSphere. If you haven’t checked out PluralSight it’s an amazing service! Highly recommended!
The VCSA is no longer a .OVA but instead a .ISO image so burn/extract/mount it on your computer. First we need to install the VMware Client Integration 6.0 Plugin. In the vcsa folder there is the executable named VMware-ClientIntegrationPlugin-6.0.0.exe. The installation is simple, once installed proceed to the next step:
Now the plugin is installed, open the vcsa-setup.html in the root of the ISO. This will launch the vCSA installer splash screen:
Click Install:
Accept the EULA and click Next:
Enter the FQDN or IP address and root credentials of the ESXi host for the VCSA to be deployed on. Click Next:
Enter the name that you want to call your appliance and set a root account password. Click Next:
For a small environment/lab, you will want to stay with the embedded platform services controller. If you are in a large environment that has multiple vCenters you may want to separate vCenter from the platform services controller. If you want to read more about separating them read about it in the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 Deployment Guide. Click Next:
If you have a SSO domain already enter the information below. Otherwise create a new SSO domain. Click Next:
Note: Do not use the same Active Directory domain name as your SSO domain. You will have major issues!
Here you can pick how much resources your vCSA will get.
Tiny: 2 vCPU , 8 GB memory , 120 GB disk space
Small: 4 vCPU , 16 GB memory , 150 GB disk space
Medium: 8 vCPU , 24 GB memory , 300 GB disk space
Large: 16 vCPU , 32 GB memory , 450 GB disk space
Pick your appliance size and click Next:
Pick a datastore to deploy the appliance to, click Next:
The vCSA supports using a external Oracle database. I want to continue using the embedded Postgres database. Click Next:
Select the standard switch network you want to use, enter the IP address, FQDN, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS server. Check the box if you want to enable SSH (you can enable this later if you don’t check it now). Click Next:
Look over the summary page. If everything looks correct click Finish:
Once the VM is created you can monitor the console while it works. Nothing really happened but was neat comparing the console progress bar with the installation.
And it’s finished! Click Close:
VCSA is ready for configuration!
Below is how to configure the VCSA to use Active Directory users and groups. First access the VCSA web client via https://FQDN or IP ADDRESS/vsphere-client/
Log in using the administrator SSO domain you configured above and password.
On the home page click System Configuration
Click Nodes -> Your Node Name (LABVC01.virtuallyBoring.com) -> Manage -> Active Directory -> Join
Enter your domain name and a user name/password that has at least SystemConfiguration.Administrators domain permissions
(More information about this step can be found here in the vSphere 6.0 Documentation: https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.vcsa.doc%2FGUID-08EA2F92-78A7-4EFF-880E-2B63ACC962F3.html?src=vmw_so_vex_sbori_1079)
Once you click OK and do not see an error, reboot your VCSA. It will not give you a success message.
To reboot right click your node name and click Reboot
Once reboot log back into the web client. On the left menu click Administration. Now in Active Directory you should see your domain showing up with the Leave button enabled.
Now the VCSA is talking to the domain we need to configure it as a Identity Source. Click Home then on the left menu click Administration
Click Configuration -> Identity Sources -> then the green + sign
Since we are configured the VCSA for Active Directory use the first option Active Directory (Integrated Windows Authentication)
Enter your domain name
Select Use Machine Account then click Ok
(More information about this step can be found here in the vSphere 6.0 Documentation:https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc%2FGUID-B23B1360-8838-4FF2-B074-71643C4CB040.html?src=vmw_so_vex_sbori_1079)
Select your domain in the list and click Set as Default Domain
(Default) will show up beside your domain. If your domain isn’t selected as the default I have had issues with the “Use Windows Session Credentials” option.
Now that we have the Identity Source configured we are ready to assign permissions to a domain user.
On the left menu click Global Permissions -> Manage -> click the green + sign
Click the Add button
Change the drop down menu to your domain, you can search or browse for users and groups, select them then click Add. Once finished click Ok
On the drop down menu select which role you want to assign the users/groups. Click Ok when finished.
You now have a fresh install of the VCSA and configured it to use Active Directory users and groups for permissions.
If you did not deploy the latest version check out my post on Upgrading to Update 2!
VMware vCenter Server 6.0 Deployment Guide: https://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10453
One important thing you need for your virtual environment is storage. If you have a single ESXi host then using local storage is just fine but if you have multiple hosts and want to use features such as vMotion, High Availability (HA) , and DRS you need shared storage. In my quest to find a storage solution I started out using my Synology DS411slim. It works fantastically but I am very limited with speed and drive size due to the 2.5″ drive limitation. With the cost very high for a new Synology unit it left me seeking an alternative solution, that is where StarWind Virtual SAN steps in. StarWind Virtual SAN presents a servers local storage as a iSCSI LUN and even performs VMware VAAI functions.
There is a free edition StarWind offers that is perfect for home labs, test and dev environments. You can download and receive your license key here: http://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-free
Prerequisites:
At a minimum all you need is some local storage and a network connection as you will be presenting it out as iSCSI. Luckily I have a Dell PowerEdge R520 that will become my virtual SAN server. For better performance, you should have storage running on a RAID (5,10, etc) and multiple network connection that will be dedicated for iSCSI traffic. I have eight 300GB 10k SAS drives using RAID 5, I carved 300GB for my boot drive which left 1.6 TB for my D:\ drive.
Installation:
Installation and setup of Starwind Virtual SAN is super easy. You can have it installed and presenting storage in roughly 5 minutes! The install process is pretty much straight forward but is documented below:
Agree and click Next:
Read through the information, click Next:
Pick your installation directory, click Next:
Recommend doing a full install (only 108.4 MB), click Next:
Pick if you want a desktop icon, click Next:
Review and click Install:
Storage Management Initiative – Specification (SMI-S) is a management standard for SANs. You can read more about it here. Go ahead and click Yes:
Only thing you should do is set a password. Type a password of your choosing, click Ok:
Leave the check in the box to launch the Management Console, click Finish:
Installation is complete!
Configuration and Setup:
It is asking you what drive and location you want to store the virtual SAN hard drive files. In my case it’s the D:\ drive. Change yours if applicable:
Welcome to the StarWind Management Console. We only have two more things to do before we have a operational virtual SAN.
If you have multiple network connections you can dedicate some of them only for iSCSI traffic.
In my case I have four connection and will dedicate two NICs (well, once I plug in my second cable) :). Each of my two ESXi hosts will have their own dedicated NIC for storage traffic:
Back on the Management Console, click on the Configuration tab, then Network. If you are dedicating iSCSI traffic go ahead and remove the IP address of the server. Then only your iSCSI NICs will be listed. If you aren’t going this approach then ignore this step.
Now, let’s create the disk that will be the storage of your virtual SAN. Click on Add Device, you can change the name if you want or leave the default Storage1, type in how much space to make the disk and click Next:
Now click Create:
Finished! Click Close:
We now have virtual SAN storage!!
Configuring ESXi Host for iSCSI:
Now we can configure the host to find our virtual disk. Go to your host, Configuration tab, then Storage Adapters. If you have a iSCSI card you can use it or you can add a software iSCSI Adapter. Right click your iSCSI adapter and click Properties:
Click on Dynamic Discovery then click Add:
Enter the IP address of your StarWind Virtual SAN server then click Ok:
You will see the entry, now click Close:
Click on Yes for it to perform a scan:
You should now see the Starwind disk appear!!
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 Series:
In this series I will be installing ESXi and vCenter using Microsoft Server 2012 R2 virtual machines.
Part 1: Introduction and ESXi Installation
Part 2: Microsoft SQL 2012 Installation
Part 3: Creating the vCenter Database & ODBC Setup
Part 4: vCenter 5.5 Installation
Part 5: Initial Setup (Accessing vCenter, Configure Basic Permissions, Add Host)
Downloading ESXi: If you will be running ESXi from a physical server you will want to use the ESXi image provider by the hardware manufacture such as Dell, HP, Cisco. Their ESXi image has the drivers and software specific for the hardware. If you will be running ESXi in a nested environment, then the ESXi image from VMware is what you want. Here are the download links for each manufacturer:
HP: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/esxi-image.html
Dell: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=5YC4T
Cisco: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/release/notes/OL_26617.html
VMware: http://www.vmware.com/go/download-vspherehypervisor
ESXi Installation: First boot your server from the ESXi ISO. Depending on your hardware you should mount the ISO using iLo/iDRAC/etc. Another nice way is to boot it from a USB thumb drive. You can make your USB bootable by using this tool: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ . Of course you can do it the old fashion way and burn the ISO to a disc. The first screen that pops up should look like this. It has a timer that will count down and automatically take you into the installer unless you hit a button on your keyboard.
ESXi Installer Load Screen:
Welcome to the ESXi 5.5 Installation. Hit Enter:
Accept the license agreement and hit F11:
Here you select where you want to install ESXi. You will have already configured your hard drives with a RAID if applicable (if not go do that and start over). The installation of ESXi is very small, you could use a thumb drive and install to it. Once you select your install location hit Enter:
Pick your keyboard layout and hit Enter:
Enter a password for the root account. Hit Enter:
ESXi is ready to begin the installation. Hit F11:
ESXi Install Progress Screen:
Installation is complete. Hit Enter to reboot:
Here is what the ESXi screen looks like after booting. Lets do some basic configuration such as setting a static IP, naming this host and ensuring the correct uplinks are selected. Hit F2 to bring up the login menu:
Enter the password that was set during the install, hit Enter:
Scroll down to Configure Management Network, hit Enter:
Go to Network Adapters and hit Enter:
This is where you can select what uplinks the management network has. This screen might be different depending on your environment. Hit space bar on the vmnics that you want to use, when finished hit Enter:
Now scroll down to IP Configuration, hit Enter:
In my lab I want to set a static IP address, once finished hit Enter:
If you are not using IPv6, go to IPv6 Configuration and disable it:
Now go to DNS Configuration and hit Enter:
Set your DNS information and host name, hit Enter:
Now hit ESC to exit, you will be prompted to reboot thehost for the changed to take affect. Hit Y to reboot:
Now your ESXi host is ready for use:
Continue to Part 2: https://boring.wpengine.com/installing-vmware-esxi-and-vcenter-5-5-part-2/