VMWare

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Overview

Currently, the physical components of the RCC VMWare cluster are composed of 3 servers, 2 Arch nodes in RCC Rack 12 using ESXi 4.1 and a single Arch node, also in Rack 12, running the vCenter Management Agent.

Support

Hardware Support

  • Arch node Hardware Information
  • VMWare Information
    • Licensing and license serial numbers requires a login
    • Licensing: https://www.vmware.com/accounts/ (choose Find Serial Numbers from the drop down menu while logging in)
    • http://www.vmware.com/support/ for support information
    • Support Phone Number: 877-486-9273
    • Downloads (requires login): http://downloads.vmware.com/
      • RCC licenses the Enterprise (not Enterprise Plus) product
      • vCenter can be downloaded under "VMWare vSphere 4"
      • ESXi is directly under downloads

Management

All of the management operations for a VMWare cluster are managed by a physical machine that runs software named vCenter. vCenter is composed of an application, the Virtual Infrastructure Client, and an MSSQL Express database. Access to vCenter is provided through Remote Desktop which is running on the Arch node with the DNS address vcenter.rcc.uga.edu.

Access Methods

Remote Desktop to vcenter.rcc.uga.edu

Procedures

Running the VIC

  1. Log into Virtual Center using Remote Desktop
    1. Linux clients can use the rdesktop command to access vcenter.rcc.uga.edu
    2. Windows clients can use the standard Remote Desktop program from Accessories
    3. vCenter uses MyID authentication. Your MyID username will take the form "MYID\<uga-myid-username>"
      1. New MyIDs can be granted access by using an existing account to add the "MYID\<uga-myid-username>" to the local Administrators group.
      2. Note: This must be done before any new MyIDs will be granted access
  2. Start the Virtual Infrastructure Client, also known as VMware vSphere Client
  3. Use the VIC to manage Hosts, Virtual Machines or Updates

Creating a new Virtual machine

  1. Right-click on the "RCC" cluster
  2. Choose "New Virtual Machine"
  3. Use the wizard to compose a basic Virtual Machine
    1. Note: Not much configuration is needed at this point, but it is necessary to choose the correct "Guest Operating System"
    2. Note: Be sure not to create all of your units on the same Equalogic iSCSI LUN
    3. Note: Since VMWare supports thin provisioning, increasing the size of the initial disk is essential. Be sure to check "Allocate and commit space on demand (Thin Provisioning)". 8 GB is far too small for modern operating systems. With thin provisioning, 30GB is a good choice for a standard size.
  4. Your basic VM is complete, but other configuration procedures are necessary.
  5. From this point, you must customize the Virtual Machine to meet the required specifications. What follows is the procedure for a typical RCC configuration.
  6. Remember, in VMWare all resources are abstracted and used efficiently, including RAM and CPU
  7. After vCenter completes the basic virtual machine, locate it under "Hosts and Clusters" or "VMs and Templates" and right-click on it. Choose "Edit Settings"
  8. Set the Memory size to 2GB
  9. Set the CPSs number to 2
  10. Attach an ISO
    1. Choose "CD/DVD Drive 1"
    2. Click "Datastore ISO File"
    3. Browse to the ISOs Datastore
    4. Select the ISO for the operating system that you would like to install
    5. Check the "Connected" and "Connect at power on" check boxes to allow the VM to boot to the CD/DVD
  11. Remove the Network Adapter 1
  12. Remove the Floppy (unless you need it)
  13. Click the Add button at the top
  14. Add an Ethernet Adapter
    1. Choose vmxnet3 from the drop down menu under "Adapter Type"
    2. Select the appropriate network for the adapter under "Network Connection"
    3. Repeat for every network that the VM needs access to.
  15. Right-click on the Virtual Machine and choose "Open Console" or hit the "Open Console" icon in the menu
  16. From the Console window, choose VM->Power->Power On or hit the green play button
  17. Follow the operating system's installation wizard to complete the installation
  18. After OS installation, configure it according to your needs.

Performing Host Updates

Overview

Since the RCC uses Virtual Machines that are Linux-based, the Guest updates feature of VMWare is not used. Updates for hosts are utilized, however. Update functionality for hosts is provided as a plugin in VMWare. These updates are downloaded and cached on vcenter.rcc.uga.edu as a function of vCenter Update Manager. The ESXi hosts download patches and updates from vCenter's private network IP address via HTTP. If this HTTP service is faulted or not available for any reason, network or otherwise, updates will fail.

vCenter has a sheduled task to handle checking and downloading for updates. This Scheduled Task is managed through the vSphere Client under Inventory->Management->Scheduled Tasks

Updating, also called Remediating, a host requires that the host be in "Maintenance mode". "Baselines" of upgrades are "attached" to entities in VMWare and the RCC attaches a baseline of "All Host Patches" and "All host updates"; this baseline is attached to the RCC cluster, which is the default.

The baselines can be viewed by clicking on the RCC cluster icon in the left frame of the VIC and in the right frame choosing the Update Manager tab on the far right.

Hosts must be checked and updated one at a time to prevent downtime.

Updating a host:

  1. From the menus in the VIC, choose "Hosts and Clusters" and select a host to patch or update
  2. Right-click the host and choose Enter maintenance mode. You'll be prompted to "Move powered off or paused VMs". Usually it's fine and it saves time to not move powered down or paused hosts.
  3. Migrate any Powered On Virtual Machines that were not automatically migrated to another host.
    1. Right click any of the remaining Virtual Machines
    2. Choose Migrate
    3. Choose "Change host" and Next
    4. Choose another host
    5. Leave the priority settings at the default
  4. When all of the Virtual Machines that are on that host finish migrating, the host will enter "Maintenance mode", indicated by a yellow and black stripe on it
  5. Right click the host and choose "Scan for Updates"
  6. Choose to scan the selected hosts for either or both "Patches and Extensions" or "Upgrades"
  7. After the scan finishes, right-click the host and choose "Remediate"
  8. Follow the wizard to complete.
  9. Depending on how many updates and extensions there are, the host will reboot and install the updates
  10. Right click the host and choose "Exit maintenance mode"
  11. Allow DRS to evenly distribute the Virtual Machines back or migrate them, manually, by right-clicking each one and choosing migrate.
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