VMware ESXi 4 on Dell PowerEdge Systems Deployment Guide
Notes and Cautions NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. ____________________ © 2009–2012 Dell Inc. Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL logo, PowerEdge™, and PowerVault™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel® and Xeon® are registered trademarks and Core™ is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VMware License Offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 ESXi Architecture Overview Important Information 5 . . . . . . . . . . vSphere 4 Architecture Overview Supported Configurations 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . 23 Configuring vSphere 4 Using Dell Fibre Channel SAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Creating the ESXi Recovery Media . . . . . . . . . . . . Image Recovery for ESXi Embedded Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 . . . . 33 . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Configuration Backup and Restore Procedures . Backing Up the Configuration of Your ESXi Host . . . . . . . Restoring the Configuration of Your ESXi Host . . . . . . Troubleshooting Related Information 4 Contents . . . . . .
Introduction This document is a companion guide to the VMware ESXi 4 guides. This document helps you to deploy ESXi 4 and provides specific information on recommended configurations, best practices, and additional resources. NOTE: For information on deploying ESX 4, see the VMware ESX 4 on Dell PowerEdge Systems Deployment Guide at support.dell.com/manuals.
If you have ordered ESXi hypervisor-based vSphere Essentials Plus, Standard, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus, replace the Single Server edition license key with the purchased one. vSphere 4 Architecture Overview Figure 1.
for advanced management capabilities such as VMware VMotion, Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS), and High Availability (HA). For more information, see "Deploying vCenter Server" on page 33. • vCenter Server Database — Stores all the configuration data about a VMware infrastructure environment. It is recommended that you use a production database such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for the vCenter Server database. • License Server — Required if vCenter Server manages ESX 3.0.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts.
Figure 2. ESXi 4 Architecture Supported Configurations For complete information about all the supported Dell PowerEdge systems with ESXi, see VMware ESX/ESXi 4.x on Dell PowerEdge Systems and Storage Compatibility Matrix at support.dell.com/manuals. NOTE: SAS/SATA drives mentioned under Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3 also include SSDs.
Table 1 lists the currently shipping modular-based Dell PowerEdge systems that support ESXi Embedded. Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems PowerEdge M820 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-4600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to four 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M520 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to two 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M915 Configuration Processors AMD Opteron 6100/6200 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Two 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M710HD Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to four 2.
Table 1. Modular-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge M610x Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Two 2.
Table 2 lists the currently shipping rack-based Dell PowerEdge systems that support ESXi Embedded. Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems PowerEdge R820 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-4600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to sixteen 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R720xd Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to twenty-six 2.5 inch or twelve 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R520 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to eight 3.5 inch or 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R320 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to eight 2.5 inch or four 3.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R815 Configuration Processors AMD Opteron 6100/6200 series Minimum Memory 8 GB Internal Storage Up to six 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R715 Configuration Processors AMD Opteron 6100/6200 series Minimum Memory 8 GB Internal Storage Up to six 2.
Table 2. Rack-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge R610 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500 /5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to six 2.
Table 3 lists the currently shipping tower-based PowerEdge systems that support ESXi Embedded. Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems PowerEdge T620 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2600 product family Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to twenty-four 2.5 inch or twelve 3.
Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge T320 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon E5-2400 product family Minimum Memory 2 GB Internal Storage Up to sixteen 2.5 inch or eight 3.
Table 3. Tower-Based PowerEdge Systems (continued) PowerEdge T610 Configuration Processors Intel Xeon 5500/5600 series Minimum Memory 4 GB Internal Storage Up to eight 2.5 inch or 3.
Important Information 24 • PowerEdge systems shipped with BCM 5709 LOMs (with iSCSI offload enabled through the hardware key) support iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT). • PowerEdge systems shipped with Intel Xeon 5600 series processor and later support Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) with the latest shipping BIOS. • While installing ESXi on a PowerEdge system, ensure that iDRAC vFlash is disabled.
• On some systems under heavy networking and processor load, the network adapter stops functioning. This leads to communication failure between the external network and the corresponding port group(s). • The VM, VMkernel, or Management Network traffic configured for the port group(s) fails. To resolve this issue, download the file ESXi400201002001 from support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/. For more information, see kb.vmware.com/kb/1017465.
Supported vSphere 4 Configuration Solutions This section discusses the vSphere 4 configurations with PowerEdge systems using Fibre Channel SAN and iSCSI SAN. Configuring vSphere 4 Using Dell Fibre Channel SAN Figure 3 shows vSphere 4 configuration using Fibre Channel SAN. If you use Fibre Channel storage, you can connect a single Fibre Channel HBA to a Fibre Channel switch that provides paths to both storage processors (SPs) on the Fibre Channel storage unit.
Configuring vSphere 4 Using iSCSI SAN Figure 4 shows a vSphere 4 configuration using iSCSI SAN. The iSCSI SAN provides a cost-effective solution. It is recommended to use two iSCSI initiators on the ESXi host connected to two separate ethernet switches to provide redundant paths to the storage processors on the storage system. Figure 4.
ESXi and vCenter Deployment Guidelines for Deploying ESXi Before deploying ESXi: • Determine the licensing mode that best suits the deployment environment and design the licensing infrastructure accordingly. • Determine the kind of storage (local SCSI/SAS/SATA, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel SAN) for hosting VMs that suits the deployment environment and design your storage infrastructure accordingly. • Determine the number of LUNs, size of the LUNs, RAID level of the LUNs, and the number of storage groups.
c Optionally, connect your iSCSI-based network connection to the third onboard network adapter (if applicable). For systems with only two onboard network adapters and not purchased with a network adapter, it is recommended that you add a supported network adapter. 3 Turn on your system and follow the steps below: a To enter the system setup, press when you turn on the system. For more information, see the documentation that shipped with your system.
Booting ESXi This section describes how to perform the basic setup of your system based on the following assumptions: • You have already connected a keyboard, monitor, and mouse. • You have connected the first onboard NIC to your management network. • Ensure that the infrastructure between the two systems is working correctly prior to working with your system and the VMware management software. To set up your system: 1 Turn on your system.
If a warning is displayed, the ESXi host was unable to obtain an IP address from your DHCP system. For information on configuring the setting, see "Configuring the Password" on page 32. NOTE: By default, ESXi does not have a password. It is recommended that you set a keyboard language and a system password. For more information on configuring these settings, see "Configuring the Password" on page 32. Figure 5. ESXi (Running With DHCP) Figure 6.
Configuring the Password You can use DCUI to set the password for the administrator account. The administrative user name for the ESXi 4 host is root. By default, the administrative password is not set. To set the password: 1 Press in the main ESXi Server host screen that is displayed after your system boots. The main DCUI configuration screen is displayed. 2 Select Configure Password and then press . By default, the old password field is grayed out and the new password field is enabled.
Configuring, Restarting, Testing, or Disabling the Management Network Services The ESXi 4 kernel supports IPv4, IPv6, and IEEE 802.1Q (VLAN tagging) for all management network connections; configuration of these parameters including IP address, gateway, subnet mask, host name, and DNS systems occurs through the DCUI. All VM network configuration is performed from the VMware management software. VM networks configurations from the DCUI is not supported.
vSphere Client is available free of charge with ESXi (and ESX) products. You may download and use the trial version of vCenter Server. To continue using vCenter Server beyond the trial period, you must purchase a vCenter Server license. For more information on vCenter Server and configuring the one-to-many management, see the vCenter Server documentation at vmware.com/support/pubs/. Installing vSphere Client 1 Download vSphere Client directly from your ESXi server host.
Image Recovery The procedure described in this section restores your system to a bootable state, but does not restore the per-system licensing activation information. If you have a valid support subscription, Dell Support can help you with the reimaging process and any licensing issues. Contact Dell Support through your typical support channels or through support.dell.com.
2 Remove all the USB-based storage devices on the system except the device (USB key/SD card) where ESXi is installed. NOTE: ESXi recovery process fails if more than one USB storage devices are present in the system. 3 Turn on the system and press (one-time boot menu) during the POST. The system displays Entering Boot Menu… in the upper right corner of the screen. Continue with the POST process. After the initial boot is complete, a text menu of all bootable storage devices is displayed.
• vSphere CLI package — vSphere CLI package can be installed on either Linux or on Microsoft Windows operating systems. • vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) — vMA can be deployed on an ESX/ESXi host. Both the packages are available for download at vmware.com. For information about setting up and running the vSphere CLI, see the VMware vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Reference Guide and VMware ESXi Embedded and vCenter Server Setup Guide at vmware.com/support/pubs.
2 Optionally, restore the host to the ESXi build number used when the backup file was created. The backup process does not support restoring to later builds; though, this requirement can be overridden by using the –f option. 3 Start the vSphere CLI on a host other than the host you want to restore and log in. 4 Run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the –l flag to load and restore the backup file to the host.
Purple or Pink Screen While Booting or Running Your ESXi This is a sign of a serious misconfiguration or system error, similar to a blue screen for a Windows operating system or a core dump for a Linux-based system. Contact Dell Support for technical assistance. Related Information NOTE: For Dell VMware documentation and Dell systems management documentation for VMware, see support.dell.com/manuals. Navigate to Software, select Virtualization Solutions, and then VMware Software.
• For information on ESXi, other Dell VMware products, technical publications including white papers, articles, and case studies, see dell.com/vmware. Technical Support Resources • vmware.com/support • dell.com/support • dell.com/services for Dell deployment and professional services Discussion Forums • vmware.com/communities/content • dellcommunity.com Knowledge Base vmware.com/support/kb Dell Wiki delltechcenter.
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