Administering ESX 4

By gunnalagVMware
  1. Requirements
    1. With x64 bit x86 processor (i.e., x86-64).  x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. Examples: AMD Opteron’s and Intel Xenon and Nehalem processors. With VT enabled.
    2. Minimum of 2 GB RAM
    3. One or More network adapter.  The ESX installer needs a live network connection to properly detect certain network settings, such as the host name under DHCP.
    4. IPv4 static IP address. Create the DNS entry for the static IP with host A record entry. IPv6 is not supported for ESX installation.
    5. Hardware Storage Controllers (SCSI Adapter, FC Adapter, or Internal RAID Controller)
    6. Storage/Disk space
      1. SCSI disk, FC LUN, or RAID LUN with unpartitioned space.
      2. A hardware iSCSI, a disk attached to an iSCSI controller, such as the QLogic qla405x. Software iSCSI is not supported for booting or installing ESX.
      3. The service console must be installed on a VMFS datastore that is resident on a host’s local disk or on a SAN disk that is masked and zoned to that particular host only. The datastore cannot be shared between hosts.
      4. ESX at least requires 1.25 GB. If the service console is installed on the same machine at least 9.5 GB is required.
      5. Must be at least 10GB if you install the components on a single disk.
    7. Download ESX bootable image (ISO/DVD) (Note that it’s a DVD image not a CD, if you have to burn it use DVD only)
  2. Installation
    1. Insert the ESX bootable CD or connect the ISO via server remote management applications like
      1. HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO),
      2. Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC),
      3. IBM management module (MM), and IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II (RSA II), etc.,
    2. Boot the server to start the ESX bootable device
    3. Choose the install mode from below options
      1. Install ESX in graphical mode
      2. Install ESX in text mode
      3. ESX Scripted Install using USB ks.cfg file
      4. ESX Scripted Install to first disk
      5. ESX Scripted Install to first disk (overwrite VMFS)
      6. Boot from first hard disk
      7. F2 to other options
    4. Choose the Keyboard layout (Required)
    5. Install Custom drivers (Optional).  In case, if you have any hardware that is not on VMware’s hardware compatibility list, then you should install the respective device drivers provided by the device vendor for ESX platform. You can install the custom drivers via CLI later.
    6. ESX will load the default and specified drivers
    7. vSphere license key (Optional).  Primarily for Host based Licensing.  For centralized licensing select later and activate the host via vSphere. If not provided ESX will be installed in Eval mode and you need to activate the host by valid license within 60 days period.
    8. Choose the Network Adapter.  (Required)
    9. Specify VLAN ID (Optional) if you want the host to be in a specific vLAN.  Use MAC address to verify which adapter it’s referring to.
    10. Configure Network Adapter.  You can allow DHCP to configure the network  during installation. After installation, you can change the network settings. Thus below details are Optional if you use DHCP.
      1. IP address
      2. Subnet mask
      3. Gateway
      4. Primary DNS
      5. Secondary DNS
      6. Host name (provide a FQDN )
    11. Use “Test these settings” tab to verify the network accessibility
    12. Choose the Setup type
      1. Standard Setup  (Setup ESX on a single hard drive or LUN)
      2. Advanced Setup
        1. Virtual disk partitions.  View and customize the individual ESX partitions
        2. The installer creates three basic partitions: /boot, vmkcore, and VMFS.
        3. The service console VMDK file (The name of this file is esxconsole-<system-uuid>/esxconsole.vmdk) resides on  the VMFS partition. The service console VMDK file contains /, swap, and /var/ log, by default, and any other partitions that you specify.
        4. Configure bootloader automatically (leave checked if unsure)
          1. Bootloader kernel options
          2. Bootloader password
    13. Select the Install location (Required)
      1. By default lists Local Storage
      2. If you have hardware iSCSI target attached disk then you will see the Remote Storage Location
    14. Choose Datastore. Specify if you already have a datastore created for the host or let the installer create the new Datastore by specifying the name for the new datastore to be created.
    15. Create on the same device as ESX
    16. Then configure the Service Console virtual disk image
    17. Increase the /var/log partition size to a good number say 5 GB instead of default 2 GB
    18. Time zone
    19. Configure Date and Time
      1. Use Automatically and specify the NTP server.
        1. Specify your internal NTP server name
        2. You can use the global NTP server pool.ntp.org
        3. Then click Synchronize to get the date and time automatically set
      2. Manually. Specify the right time
    20. Set Administrator (Root) password. Password must be at least 6 character long
    21. Additional user accounts. This is required if you want to immediately REMOTE into the ESX host via ssh since default root account will be denied for remote ssh.
    22. Review the Summary of Installation Settings
    23. Click Finish to reboot the server and start ESX
    24. Use URL via browser to manage the server
    25. After the server boot up, verify that all the boot checks  passed with status OK
    26. Press ‘I’ to enter the interactive startup
    27. Press Alt+F1 for console login and Alt+F11 to return back to standard server console
  3. Patching
  4. Upgrading
  5. Retiring
  6. G

By gunnalag

You might also like:

VMWare Internals: Understanding how vMotion works

Setting up NetScaler lab environment from the scratch

Sequence of steps that takes places on VMware vCenter System when Citrix XenDesktop 7 Machine Catalog creation process copies over the Base Image VM.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *