Page 3 - Deployment Guide
w w w . d e l l . c o m | s u p p o r t . d e l l . c o m VMware ® ESX Server ™ 2.1.2 Software for Dell ™ PowerEdge ™ Servers Deployment Guide X6320bk0.book Page 1 Friday, August 27, 2004 1:35 PM
Page 5 - Contents
Contents 3 Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Understanding Dell Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Understanding ESX Server Components . . . . . . . . 11 Understanding VirtualCenter Components . . . . . . . 11 Current Hardware and Software Qualificat...
Page 7 - Introduction
Deployment Guide 5 Introduction VMware ® ESX Server ™ software provides the rapid creation of multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server. These VMs each run in a resource-isolated, secure environment and include a Microsoft ® Windows, Linux™, or Novell ® NetWare ® operating system (...
Page 9 - Understanding Dell Configurations; The following tables list Dell's recommended configurations.
Deployment Guide 7 Understanding Dell Configurations For this release, Dell has qualified a base server configuration for use with ESX Server 2.1.2 software. A single server can be used in a "stand-alone" mode, or one or more servers can be connected to a shared SAN through a switch. VMotion...
Page 11 - shows the configuration when using VirtualCenter and
Deployment Guide 9 Figure 1-2 shows the Dell qualified base server configuration when not using VirtualCenter. Figure 1-2. Non-VirtualCenter Configuration, One or More PowerEdge Servers with Optional SAN Dell's qualified configuration with VMware VirtualCenter is: VMware ESX Server 2.1.2 software on...
Page 13 - Understanding ESX Server Components; Understanding VirtualCenter Components
Deployment Guide 11 Understanding ESX Server Components • ESX Server – VMware virtualization software infrastructure installed on PowerEdge Servers for partitioning and consolidating systems, providing a platform for VMs. • Service Console – a management interface for VMware virtualization layer, wh...
Page 14 - Installation of ESX Server 2.1.2 Software
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 12 Deployment Guide • Template Repository - is a persistent storage location that maintains VM templates. These are run-able images of OSs, optionally including applications. The images can be rapidly cloned for use by ESX Server systems. NOTE: Cloning is deployment ...
Page 15 - ESX Server 2.1 Installation Guide; Before Installation; Planning; Size the resource requirements for the Service Console.; VirtualCenter
Deployment Guide 13 ESX Server 2.1 Installation Guide from VMware. This document comes with the installation CD and can also be found at: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx/esx21install.pdf . Before Installation Planning Planning is an important phase in the installation of the ESX Server software. A wel...
Page 16 - Utility Partition; Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD -ROM; Recommended Local Disk Partitioning; Manual Partitioning
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 14 Deployment Guide Utility Partition New Dell Servers ship with the Dell Utility Partition (UP) pre-installed. The UP is a bootable disk partition that contains Dell diagnostic utilities and other software useful in maintaining the hardware. It is accessed by pressi...
Page 17 - Service Console Configuration
Deployment Guide 15 NOTE: The /vmimages partition can hold ISO9660 images of CD-ROMs as well as Template Exported Virtual Disks. This space can also be used as temporary or transient storage to assist in relocating Virtual Disk images. For example, the Virtual Disks can be moved to this partition, a...
Page 18 - After Installation; swap
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 16 Deployment Guide After Installation After the installation of the ESX Server software in graphics mode, execute the following steps to complete the installation. • Create and activate a swap file for the VMkernel. The swap file helps in over-provisioning of the me...
Page 19 - EMC Navisphere Manager:
Deployment Guide 17 In order to create and use Storage Groups in Navisphere, the Access Logic TM option must be enabled. NOTE: Access Logic is a software component of Navisphere® which needs to be installed at the storage system. Zoning: Zoning controls access between fiber channel devices. Zoning a...
Page 20 - Initiator Type; Setting Up Manual Load Balancing; Configuring redundancy and load balancing in Dell | EMC; OpenManage Software Overview; managed system
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 18 Deployment Guide 3 Select the following options: • Initiator Type : CLARiiON Open • Failover Mode :1 • Array CommPath : Enabled • Unit Serial Number : Array 4 Enter the required Hostname and IP address for the server and select OK . Repeat the steps for all the WW...
Page 21 - OpenManage Product
Deployment Guide 19 include Server Administrator, and remote access controller (RAC) software. Server Administrator provides a comprehensive, one-to-one systems management solution in two ways: from an integrated, Web browser-based GUI (the Server Administrator home page) and from a command line int...
Page 22 - Using the Dell Remote Access Card III (DRAC III) on PE 6650; package before installing the
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 20 Deployment Guide NOTE: Managed system applications such as Server Administrator, and remote access controller (RAC) software are not used inside the virtual machines because the software would only see the virtualized hardware and not the physical hardware. NOTE: ...
Page 23 - ESX Server Installation CD -ROM; Starting Your Server Administrator Session; Guest Operating Systems; Guest OS Installation; Guest Operating System Installation Guide
Deployment Guide 21 Installing OpenManage Server Administrator and Remote Management Use the following steps to install Dell OpenManage 4.1 on the ESX Server system. The ESX Server Installation CD -ROM and OpenManage CD -ROM are required for the installation. 1 Log on with administrator privileges (...
Page 24 - Guest OS Performance Tuning Tips; for scheduling
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 22 Deployment Guide Guest OS Performance Tuning Tips The following tuning tips significantly improve performance over the Guest OS and VMTools default installations and are highly recommended for Dell qualified configurations. NOTE: The actual results of the tuning t...
Page 25 - Options
Deployment Guide 23 • Tradeoffs between memory and CPU resources:• If VMs are CPU-bound and RAM is under-utilized, then turn off page sharing. You can achieve this from the ESX Server Management User Interface (MUI): • Choose Options tab. • Next, click on Advanced Settings. • Set Mem.ShareScanTotal ...
Page 26 - Microsoft Windows Tuning Tips; Isolate or limit sharing to each VM's key resource.
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 24 Deployment Guide Microsoft Windows Tuning Tips • Use Perfmon to profile the Windows application and identify its key resource, then:• Isolate or limit sharing to each VM's key resource. • Save perfmon-tuned, gold images for cloning. For example:• Install Windows, ...
Page 27 - for instructions on how to enable; Linux Tuning Tips; Additional Resources; Product Documentation Resources; under the Product and
Deployment Guide 25 Microsoft NT4 Tuning Tips • Virtual disks support DMA transfers for better performance. See www.vmware.com/support/esx21 for instructions on how to enable this feature. • Service Pack 6a is highly recommended for performance and compatibility. Linux Tuning Tips • At the end of Li...
Page 28 - Technical Support Resources; VMware support website at; Newsgroups; VMware Newsgroups at
www .dell.com | support.dell.com 26 Deployment Guide • VMware VirtualCenter 1.1• Features: www.vmware.com/products/vmanage/vc_features.html • Documents: www.vmware.com/support/vc/ • Troubleshooting: www.vmware.com/support/vc/doc/releasenotes_vc.html • VMware ESX Server 2.1.2• Features, Documentation...
Page 29 - Index
I n d e x 27 Index A agent VirtualCenter, 12 C CD-ROM ESX Server installation, 21OpenManage, 21OpenManage documentation, 19 OpenManage server assistant, 21 client interface VirtualCenter Server, 11 components ESX, 11VirtualCenter, 11 configuration Dell, 7, 9ESX Server RAID, 13Server Console, 15Virtu...
Page 31 - See
I n d e x 29 operating systems guest OS, 21guest OS installation, 21guest OS performance, 22Linux performance, 25NT4 performance, 25Windows 2000 performance, 24Windows 2003 performance, 24Windows performance, 24 P partitions local disk, 14utility, 14 performance guest OS tuning tips, 22Linux, 25NT4 ...