Contents Foreword ntroduction Chapter 1. Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 Exploring VMware vSphere 6.7 Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite Examining the Features in VMware vSphere Licensing VMware vSphere Why Choose vSphere The bottom line Chapter 2. Planning and Installing VMware ESXi ...23 VMware ESXi Architecture Understanding the ESXi Hyperviso Examining the ESXi Components Planning a VMware vSphere Deployment Choosing a Server Platform 26 Determining a Storage Architecture. Integrating with the Network Infrastructure Deploying VMware ESXi stalling VMware ESXi Interactively Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi. Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy Performing Post-installation Configuration Reconfiguring the Management Network Using the vSphere Host Client Configuring Time Synchronization 43 Configuring Name Resolution The bottom li Chapter 3. Installing and Configuring vCenter Server ucin Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Single Sign-On Understanding the Platform Services Controller 52 Using the vSphere Web Client for Administration Providing an Extensible Framework Choosing the Version of vCenter Serve Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deploymen zing Hardware for v Center Serve anning for v Center SerContents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv Chapter 1 • Introducing VMware vSphere 6.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Exploring VMware vSphere 6.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Examining the Products in the vSphere Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Examining the Features in VMware vSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Licensing VMware vSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Why Choose vSphere? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Chapter 2 • Planning and Installing VMware ESXi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 VMware ESXi Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Understanding the ESXi Hypervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Examining the ESXi Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Planning a VMware vSphere Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Choosing a Server Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Determining a Storage Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Integrating with the Network Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Deploying VMware ESXi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Installing VMware ESXi Interactively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Performing an Unattended Installation of VMware ESXi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Deploying VMware ESXi with vSphere Auto Deploy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Performing Post-installation Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Reconfiguring the Management Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Using the vSphere Host Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Configuring Time Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Configuring Name Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Chapter 3 • Installing and Configuring vCenter Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Introducing vCenter Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Centralizing User Authentication Using vCenter Single Sign-On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Understanding the Platform Services Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Using the vSphere Web Client for Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Providing an Extensible Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Choosing the Version of vCenter Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Planning and Designing a vCenter Server Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Sizing Hardware for vCenter Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Planning for vCenter Server Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58