Module 7: Virtual Machine Management
A template is a master copy of a virtual machine used to create and provision new virtual machines (it actually rename the vmx file to vmtx file, and set it read only).
It is recommend to specify the customized configuration during cloning or deploying from template.
Virtual hardware v7 or later supports CPU hot-plug and memory hot-plug (VMware tools have to be installed)
RDM: physical mode & virtual mode (supports snapshot)
Migration: Cold, Suspend, vMotion and Storage vMotion
A maximum of 8 simultaneous vMotion, cloning, deployment or storage vMotion accesses to single VMFS-5 datastore is supported
Virtual Machine Requirements for vMotion Migration: no internal vSwitch connection, no local image mounted, no CPU affinity, swap file and RDM must be on shared storage
1Gbps 4 concurrent vMotion, 10Gbps 8 concurrent vMotion
CPU constraints: Hide or Expose the NX/XD flag to guest
VMware CPU identification utility for ESXi host
Storage vMotion: I/O mirroring architecture, data mover or vSphere Storage APIs – Array Integration (VAAI)
Storage vMotion limitations:
– Virtual machine must be powered off to concurrently migrate to another host and storage
– Virtual machine disks must be in persistent mode or be RDMs
Virtual machine snapshot includes: Setting state (.nvram and .vmx) and power state, Disk state and Memory state (optional)
A snapshot consists of a set of files:
– the memory state (.vmsn)
– the description file (-00000#.vmdk)
– the delta file (-00000#-delta.vmdk)
– the snapshot list file (.vmsd)
The .vmss file (suspend state file) is not deleted automatically. Instead of you must power off the virtual machine to delete the file.
Virtual machine snapshots employ a copy-on-write mechanism, and it expands in 16MB increments
A vApp is a container for holding one or more virtual machines.
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