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.
Tutorials
Deployment of VMware vRealize Operations Manager
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:
- VMware vRealize Operations Manager – This is all the documentation in one place!
- vRealize Operations Manager Sizing Guidelines – VMware KB2093783
- vRealize Operations Manager vApp Deployment and Configuration Guide
- Exploring New vRealize Operations Capabilities – VMware Blog, David Davis
- If you are deploying vROM in your lab and need a license I highly recommend you check out the VMUG Advantage subscription.
Upgrading Windows based vCenter 5.x to 6
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.
vCenter Server Appliance Upgrade from 5.x to 6.0
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:
- Pick a host and ensure it has a standard switch with a vmnic uplink. Because Distributed Switches is a vCenter function it wants to perform the upgrade on a standard switch.
- Rename your current vCenter VM in the inventory so the new VM can be created as the same name. Otherwise the vCSA folders on the LUNs will not match.
- Have at least two available LUNs, one for your current vCSA and one for the new vCSA. Since you will want to deploy the new one with the same name they have to be on different LUNs
- The installation media is a .ISO instead of a .OVA. You will need to burn it to a disc, extract it, or mount it.
vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 – A Fresh Install
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: Pick a host and ensure it has a standard switch with a vmnic uplink. Because Distributed Switches is a vCenter function it wants to perform the upgrade on a standard switch. The installation media is a .ISO instead of a .OVA. You will need to burn it to a disc, extract it, or mount it. If you want to upgrade your environment instead of fresh deployment, check out my posts Upgrading Windows based vCenter 5.x to 6 and vCenter Server Appliance Upgrade from 5.x to 6.0 PluralSight: PluralSight has amazing video courses on VMware vSphere. If you haven’t checked out PluralSight it’s an amazing service! Highly recommended! What’s New in VMware vSphere 6 vSphere 6 Foundations: Install and Configure vCenter and ESXi vSphere 6 Foundations: Configure vSphere Storage Installation: 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 …
StarWind Virtual SAN: A Storage Solution for your virtual environment
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 …
Installing VMware ESXi and vCenter 5.5 [Part 1]
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 …
Installing VMware ESXi and vCenter 5.5 [Part 2]
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 Series: 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) I am installing Microsoft SQL 2012 on a Microsoft Server 2012 R2 virtual machine. In this walk through I am installing SQL and vCenter on separate virtual machines. Microsoft SQL 2012 Installation: 1. Go to the Installation tab and click on the New SQL Server stand-alone installation: 2. Setup Support Rules – It will run a quick preinstall scan. Click Next: 3. Product Key – You can proceed with an 180 day Evaluation, Express or enter your product key, click Next with your selection: 4. License Terms – Check the box to accept the license terms, check the box if you want to send usage data to Microsoft (who wouldn’t? 🙂 ) now click Next: 5. Product Updates – Go ahead and install the updates, click Next: 6. Setup Support Rules – It will run another test, click Next: 7. Setup Role – Ensure SQL Server Feature Installation is selected, click Next: 8. Feature Selection – Check the following options: a. Database Engine Services b. Client Tools Connectivity c. Integration Services d. Management Tools – Basic …
Installing VMware ESXi and vCenter 5.5 [Part 3]
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 Series: 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) Now that we have SQL installed its time to setup the vCenter database and ODBC connections. Creating the vCenter Database If you are experienced in SQL you can set the database up manually or use the provided schema SQL script from VMware vCenter installation media. In this install i’ll be using the VMware provided DB schema. This can be obtained in the \\vCenter Installation Media\vCenter-Server\dbschema\DB_and_schema_creation_scripts_MSSQL.txt To make it easier below is a copy/paste of the script. You will have to change the database name, username, password and database location to match your setup. use [master] go CREATE DATABASE [VCDB] ON PRIMARY (NAME = N’vcdb’, FILENAME = N’C:\VCDB.mdf’ , SIZE = 3000KB , FILEGROWTH = 10% ) LOG ON (NAME = N’vcdb_log’, FILENAME = N’C:\VCDB.ldf’ , SIZE = 1000KB , FILEGROWTH = 10%) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS go use VCDB go sp_addlogin @loginame=[vpxuser], @passwd=N’vpxuser’, @defdb=’VCDB’, @deflanguage=’us_english’ go ALTER LOGIN [vpxuser] WITH CHECK_POLICY = OFF go CREATE USER [vpxuser] for LOGIN [vpxuser] go CREATE SCHEMA [VMW] go ALTER USER [vpxuser] WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA =[VMW] go Open SQL Server Management Studio and login using an account that has access: Now click on …
Installing VMware ESXi and vCenter 5.5 [Part 4]
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 Series: 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) Now we are ready to start installing vCenter! VMware vCenter 5.5 Installation: A simple install will install all components on the same box. On our install we will have everything running on the same box however we will run through each component manually just to see the full install process. There is a specific order in which vCenter needs to be installed. The order is as follows: Single Sign-On Web Client Inventory Service vCenter Server First we will start out with Single Sign-On (SSO), click Install: Click Next: Accept the terms and click Next: This will perform a check, if the server is on a domain check the box, click Next: Since this is our first vCenter installation, use the first option and click Next: Enter a password for the SSO admin account. Make sure you don’t lose this password! Click Next: Enter your site name, click Next: Port 7444 will need to be open on the Windows Firewall, click Next: Change directories/drive if you need to, click Next: Review Install Options – Once you are satisfied click Install: SSO is now installed. Click Finish: Next …