vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) VS5ICM_VATCLabSetupGuideV1.docx Copyright © 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) i Contents Introduction 3 ESXi 5.0 Host Requirements 3 Networking Requirements . 4 Storage Requirements . 6 Private LUNs on Shared Storage . 6 Shared Datastore for Virtual Machines 6 Infrastructure Datastore (optional) 6 NFS Datastore 6 VAAI‐Compliant Storage 6 Infrastructure Host Requirements (optional) 7 vCenter Server System Requirements 8 Student Desktop Machine Requirements . 9 Active Directory Requirements . 11 Software Requirements 11 vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) ii Introduction This guide provides information that VATCs need to set up the lab environment for the vSphere 5.0 Install, Configure, Manage course. The lab environment should be set up to accommodate some number of student teams. A student team consists of 1 or 2 students. Each student team is assigned a preinstalled ESXi 5.0 host, a system on which to deploy the vCenter Server appliance, and a desktop system for each student. This guide lists the hardware requirements, software requirements, and any special configuration instructions for the ESXi 5.0 hosts, vCenter Server systems, and desktop systems. It also explains how to deploy the required virtual machines that should be located on each ESXi 5.0 host. ESXi 5.0 Host Requirements Each student or student team must be assigned a preinstalled ESXi 5.0 host. Each ESXi 5.0 host must meet the minimum hardware requirements: CPU: Minimum of two 64‐bit processors Memory: Minimum of 4GB NICs: 3 Ethernet NICs (1Gbps is recommended.) 1 NIC connected to the Management LAN; 1 NIC (optionally 2 NICs) connected to the ProdVMs LAN. 1 NIC connected to the vMotion LAN. (The LANs are described in further detail in the Networking Requirements section.) Local storage: Minimum of 5GB; to store a single thin‐provisioned virtual machine and 2 ISO files. NOTE: The local storage should be formatted with VMFS and the local datastore on each ESXi 5.0 host should have a unique name, for example, ESXi01/datastore1 and ESXi02/datastore2. The unique names prevent datastore names from clashing when the ESXi 5.0 hosts are added to a single vCenter Server instance. If both datastores were named “datastore1” then after the students added their ESXi 5.0 host to the vCenter Server inventory, the Datastores and Datastore Clusters view would show: datastore1 and datastore1 (1). vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 3 Shared storage: Minimum of 8GB per student ESXi 5.0 host (Shared storage is described in further detail in the Storage Requirements section.) There is no fault tolerance (FT) lab for this course. However, it is recommended for the ESXi 5.0 hosts to be FT‐compatible in the case that revisions of the course include an FT lab. Each ESXi 5.0 host must be preinstalled with ESXi 5.0 version 5.0. The lab exercises assume that a preinstalled ESXi 5.0 host is used. Each ESXi 5.0 host must also have access to an NTP server. Students will configure their ESXi 5.0 host to be an NTP client. Networking Requirements Each ESXi 5.0 host must be connected to 3 different LANs using 3 different physical network adapters in the following manner: 1. The Management LAN ‐ This LAN is used for the VMkernel management connections on the student ESXi 5.0 hosts. In addition, the default port group, VM Network, must be present on this LAN. 2. The ProdVMs LAN ‐ This LAN is used for student virtual machines to simulate production traffic. Optionally, you can make a second vmnic available so that students can create a NIC team. 3. The vMotion LAN – This LAN is used for vMotion migrations of student virtual machines. The networks mentioned above do not require isolation from other VATC components. Also, the use of VLANs within physical network switches is permitted. If you do use VLANs, ensure that the Management LAN and the ProdVMs LAN are within the same broadcast domain. The network speed for all classroom LANs should be a minimum of 1 Gbps. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 4 Firewall Port Requirements Software Firewall Ports Needed HTTP: 80 vSphere Web HTTPS: 443 Client Heartbeat (UDP): 902 Web Services HTTP: 8080 Web Services HTTPS: 8443 Inventory Service HTTP: 10080 Inventory Service HTTPS: 10443 Inventory Service Database: 10109 vCenter Server appliance** HTTP: 80 vCenter Update SOAP: 8084 Manager Web: 9084 SSL: 9087 Software vCenter Server** (Windows install) Firewall Ports Needed HTTP: 9090 HTTPS: 9443 Web Services Change Notification: 60099 LDAP: 389 SSL: 636 Linked Mode: 10111 **Combine ports for vCenter Server appliance and Windows install to ensure operation of both vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 5 Storage Requirements Each student team’s ESXi 5.0 host must be assigned a shared storage area. The storage protocol can be either Fibre Channel, iSCSI or NFS. Only a single HBA on each ESXi 5.0 host is required for use with the shared storage although you can have two if you would like to illustrate storage multipathing. This shared storage does not need to be isolated from other classes. Each ESXi 5.0 host has a local datastore named “datastore1”. This datastore will be used to hold the ISO images used during the course: 1) ISO image of the Windows operating system installation media 2) ISO image named Classfiles‐vSphere.iso. For further details on these files, see the Software Requirements section. Private LUNs on Shared Storage Each student must be assigned 1 LUN accessible by their ESXi 5.0 host only. This LUN must be a minimum of 2GB. Shared Datastore for Virtual Machines There must be two LUNs accessible by each student ESXi 5.0 host. There must be at least 12GB (2 x 4GB LUNs) for each student ESXi 5.0 host. For example, if you have 6 student ESXi 5.0 hosts, then there must be at least 48GB of shared datastore space. Infrastructure Datastore (optional) There should be at least 70GB of space for the infrastructure host. This space is used to hold master templates of the various virtual machines that are deployed for this course, such as the vCenter Server virtual machines, the student virtual machines, the student desktop virtual machines, and the iSCSI virtual appliance. This space is not necessary if you are going to hold the master templates in a different location. NFS Datastore There must be an NFS server with 2 NFS shares accessible from each ESXi 5.0 host. These NFS shares should be named LUN1 and LUN2. Students will create an NFS datastore by pointing to the NFS server and NFS share. VAAICompliant Storage If you are using a VAAI‐compliant storage array (for example, Clariion with proper Flare code), then note the following: VAAI is used automatically with ESXi 5.0 for disk operations such as virtual machine copies or moves. The array will automatically offload these disk operations to the storage controller and therefore free up the VMkernel. During the lab exercises, when students perform operations that access VAAI‐compliant storage, these operations might cause the storage controller to become a performance bottleneck. If this is a concern, you can disable VAAI. To disable VAAI, use the vSphere Client. Select the ESXi vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 6 5.0 host in the inventory and click the Configuration tab. In the Software panel, click Advanced Settings. Change the following DataMover parameters from 1 to 0: DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove and DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit. Infrastructure Host Requirements (optional) The infrastructure host is used to host the student vCenter Server virtual appliances and the iSCSI virtual appliance and NFS virtual appliance if you use them. If you deploy the iSCSI storage, or the NFS storage on physical machines rather than virtual machines, then the infrastructure host is not necessary. The infrastructure host must meet the minimum hardware requirements: CPU: Minimum of two 64‐bit processors Memory: Minimum of 16GB This is the amount of memory to support 6 student vCenter Server system virtual machines and 1 iSCSI virtual appliance. Extra memory is needed if you want this host to support the student desktop virtual machines (see the Student Desktop Machine Requirements section.) NICs: 3 Ethernet NICs (1Gbps is recommended) 1 NIC connected to the Management LAN; 1 NIC connected to the ProdVMs LAN. 1 NIC connected to the vMotion LAN. (The LANs are described in further detail in the Networking Requirements section.) Local storage: Minimum of 200GB This is the amount of storage to support 6 student vCenter Server system virtual machines and 1 iSCSI virtual appliance. The infrastructure host should be installed with either ESX 4.1 or higher. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 7 vCenter Server Appliance Requirements Each student team must be assigned a vCenter Server appliance. For example, if you have 12 students, then there will be 6 student teams and therefore, you must have 6 vCenter Server appliances. Place the vCenter Server virtual appliances on the infrastructure host (see the Infrastructure Host Requirements section). You will need a vSphere Enterprise Plus license key and a vCenter Server Standard license key Evaluation license keys are available at http://vatc.vmeduc.com. vCenter Server and Update Manager Installation Requirements Each student will install vCenter Update Manager and vCenter Server. There are three options available to VATC organizations to address this requirement. Students can install Update Manager and vCenter Server on virtual machines that students create in class. Students can install both pieces of software onto virtual machines designated specifically for this purpose Students can install both pieces of software onto their desktop system. The VDC uses this option. For the vCenter Server and Update Manager database, you can use either the default database (Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008) or a remote Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database. The vCenter Server installation lab includes a task to configure an ODBC connection if you use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as the remote database. In addition, any host that will be installed with vCenter Server or vCenter Update Manager should be preinstalled with: Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 Windows Installer 4.5 Installing this prerequisite software ensures that the respective labs will run as written. The vSphere 5 installer provides this software for you as an option for installation. The preferred configuration is to install this software for the students before class. Since students will upload a small 282KB patch, the 120GB space requirement requested by Update Manger during installation can be ignored. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 8 Student Desktop Machine Requirements Each individual student must be assigned a student desktop machine. For example, if you have 12 students, then you must have 12 student desktop machines. The desktop machine is the main point from which students access their ESXi 5.0 hosts, vCenter Server appliances and install software. Any name can be used for the student desktop system. On this desktop machine, students must be able to install: vSphere Client vSphere Web Client Depending on your environment, you can also configure enough space on the student desktop system (minimum 16GB) to also install: vCenter Update Manager (with plug‐in) vCenter Server The student desktop machine can be deployed as either a physical machine or virtual machine. If the student desktop machine is deployed as a virtual machine, then it is recommended to place the student desktop virtual machine on the infrastructure server, provided you have enough resources on this host to support these virtual machines. Do not place the desktop virtual machine on the assigned ESXi 5.0 host! The student desktop machine must meet the minimum hardware requirements: CPU: Memory: Minimum of 384MB NICs: 1, connected to the ProdVMs LAN Disk space: Minimum of 20GB 1 The student desktop machine must be installed with the following software: A Windows operating system that supports the vSphere Client, such as Windows Server 2003 VMware Tools WinSCP PuTTY Mozilla Firefox or IE browser vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 9 Adobe Flash 10.1 or later. Required for Web Client. Microsoft Visual J# 2.0 SE (if you will install Update Manager and vCenter Server on this desktop) Windows Installer 4.5 (if you will install Update Manager and vCenter Server on this desktop) Disable security settings on the web browser on the student desktop system. The process will differ depending on the web browser and/or operating system that you use, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, various Windows versions and so on. This guide describes removal of enhanced security in Internet Explorer. Start the Control Panel and select Add or Remove Programs Click Add/Remove Windows Components. Deselect the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration checkbox.: This will cause the software to be uninstalled. A folder named “Lab Files” should be placed on the student Desktop. Place the following items in this folder: vSphere 5 installer files to install vSphere Client, vSphere Web Client, vCenter Server and Update Manager w/plug‐in. o Microsoft Visual J# 2.0 SE is also required for vSphere Client installation. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 10 ESXi 5.0500.zip (patch archive) A folder that contains the individual sysprep files. Not the CAB file! These sysprep files will be uploaded to the vCenter Server appliance using WinSCP during lab. Active Directory Requirements An Active Directory (AD) domain is required in order for students to integrate their ESXi 5.0 host with Active Directory. The following setup is required: For each student, create a nonprivileged (nonadministrative) account. For example, if you have 12 students, 2 per ESXi 5.0 host, you can name the accounts student01a, student01b through student06a, student06b. This account is a simple user with no special privileges. For each student, create a domain administrator account, using a naming convention similar to the nonprivileged accounts described above. This account requires domain join privileges. Create an AD group named “ESX Admins”. Add to this group the domain administrator accounts that you created for each student. Do not add the nonprivileged accounts to this group. Software Requirements The following software must be available for this class: An ISO image of a supported Windows guest operating system : This is used by the students to create their first virtual machine. It is possible to use a Linux operating system, but keep in mind that the lab exercises assume that a Windows virtual machine will be created and customized using sysprep tools. Classfiles‐vSphere.iso : This is an ISO image that includes the ZIP file containing the extpart utility. (Note that the extpart application will not work on a 64‐bit operating system.) Classfiles.iso also contains the script, cpubusy.vbs. Classfiles.iso can be obtained from the trainer community forum under the topic, VMware vSphere : Install, Configure, Manage. vCenter Server installation files : The vCenter Server software must be available for students to install vCenter Server. There are two ways to make the software available : 1) As a network share, 2) Copied onto the desktop of the vCenter Server virtual machine into a folder called for example, Lab Files. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 11 Sample ESXi 5.0 patches : The vCenter Update Manager lab allows the student to upload ESXi 5.0 patches from their desktop to the Update Manager server. You must place the patch ZIP file on the student’s Desktop. Sample ESXi 5.0 patches can be downloaded from http://vatc.vmeduc.com. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 12 ... vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) ii Introduction This guide provides information that VATCs need to set up the lab environment for the vSphere 5.0 Install, Configure, Manage course. The lab environment should be set up to accommodate some number of student teams. A ... into a folder called for example, Lab Files. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 11 Sample ESXi 5.0 patches : The vCenter Update Manager lab allows the student to upload ... The network speed for all classroom LANs should be a minimum of 1 Gbps. vSphere 5.0: Install, Configure, Manage VATC Lab Setup Guide (Rev A) 4 Firewall Port Requirements Software Firewall Ports Needed HTTP: 80