vSphere Fault Tolerance Part I : Introduction

introduction
In our conclusion of High Availability article , we have mentioned one disadvantage of HA : which downtime We said that downtime normally 5 minutes and could be  extended to 10 minutes  , which could be acceptable for some VMs But unfortunately  In some high critical application VM , it’s NOT acceptable >> so we have to find  a solution that could decreRead More…

vSphere High Availability HA Part III : advanced HA

introduction
in previous article : we have seen how to configure and test HA  in this  article : we will advanced feature of HA and expert recommendation  just to mention
you are NOT obligated to practice all advanced HA features below
just try practice whatever you see important for your environment
HA considerations Recovery time Object RTO 5 minutes :  when host down thRead More…

vSphere High Availability HA Part II: configure HA

introduction
in this article we will see how to configure HA and verify it by power off ESXI153 to see  what will happen  so please back to part I of HA to understand the concept before configure HA effectively
HA network Diagram HA network Diagram to beter understand HA situation : please look to diagram above  we have clluster16 contain three ESXI host : ERead More…

vSphere High Availability HA Part I: introduction

introduction
In IT world :  administrators looking to achieve high availability with different ways,  including but NOT limited to  : HA applications, redundant NICs, server clusters, redundant power supplies, etc. redundant HDD with SAN storage VMware provide high availability at the virtualization layer with  a feature called vSphere High Availability 
Read More…

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Part I I

introduction
DRS configuration is based on cluster level  in pioneers.lab L we have created cluster called cluster16 , which include three ESXI host : ESXI151 ,ESXI152,and ESXI153  please back to previous articles DRS introduction here before  configure DRS 
DRS Network Diagram
as we usual do in all  our configuration , it;s better to understand network diagram to ease Read More…

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Part I

DRS introduction
in previous article : we have used vMotion to Manually migrate VM from ESXI host to another and from Datastore to another  its good feature : the bad thing it’s Manually  let us to suppose ESXI151 get overloaded in CPU or RAM > then some VM will stop working , unless we Manually migrate VM to another ESXI  we need some feature that  automatically  moRead More…

vSphere Networking : Virtual Distributed Switch

VDS introduction  Vswitch [which was configured previously on three ESXI ] was standard VSS è which require us to do same settings on three ESXI HostsAnd change on one ESXI host à should be done also on same ESXI host à to avoid error configurationVDS [Virtual Distribution Switch ] is centralized management  of VswitchAn Enterprise Plus license is required to add a host to a v Network DiRead More…

vSphere Networking : VSS Advanced Settings

introduction in previous articles here  : we have discuussed how to create  VSS  virtual standard switch and how to create port group to manage multi network traffic types this article considered as complementary to that article so please make sure you have understand previous article before diving here today we will talk about some advanced topic of VSS : Switch network security poRead More…

vSphere Networking : Virtual Switch VLAN

VLANs intro
 VLANs (Virtual LANs) are logical groupings of devices in the same broadcast domain.  They are usually configured on switches by placing some ports into one broadcast domain and other ports into another. VLANs can spread across multiple switches, enabling communications as if all virtual machines or ports in a VLAN are on the same physical LAN segment. Here in networkRead More…

Connect ESXI to NFS storage Part III :Configure NFS Client

NFS network Diagram ESXI NFS network diagram as we do always in networks pioneers : it’s better to have a a look to network diagram above to understand the concept  we have Suse Linux Enterprise Server as NFS Server  name SLES123.pioneers.lab  management ip address 172.16.100.123 connected to DMZ called [server farm ] another NIC connected to DMZ witRead More…

Connect ESXI to NFS storage Part I :Introduction

NAS vs NFS
before diving inside , we have to  differentiate between NAS and NFS. NAS is a type of network design. NFS is a type of Protocol used to connect to a NAS. Network Attached Storage (NAS) is a device that allows users to access files through a network. It allows users to access and share files from their individual stations through a central server.  NFS (Network File SystemRead More…

Connect ESXI to ISCSI storage Part I :Introduction

ISCSI introduction
ISCSI stand for Internet Small Computer System Interface   iSCSI is an industry standard protocol which allows sharing of block storage over Ethernet. It is a protocol for communicating with I/O devices, chiefly storage devices. iSCSI is an IP-based standard for connecting data storage devices over a network and moving data by carrying SCSI commands over IP netwRead More…

ESXI Storage introduction Part II

What is a datastore?
DataStores in VMware vSphere are storage containers for files. They could be located on a local server hard drive or across the network on a SAN.  DataStores hide the specifics of each storage device and provide a uniform model for storing virtual machine files. DataStores are used to hold: virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.  They can Read More…

ESXI Storage introduction Part I

ESXI storage introduction
 ESXi hosts support host-level storage virtualization, which logically abstracts the physical storage layer from virtual machines. The following storage technologies are supported by ESXi: Direct-attached storage  internal hard disks or external storage systems attached to the ESXi host through a direct connection using protocols such as SAS or SATA. ThisRead More…

vSphere Networking : Virtual Switch VSS

Standard Virtual Switch VSS introduction standard switch (sometimes called vSwitch) is created by default when ESXi is installed. Like its physical Ethernet counterpart, a standard switch works at layer 2, forwards frames to other switch ports based on the MAC address, and supports features such as VLANs and port channels. Standard switches have to be connected to the ESXi host’s phRead More…

vSphere Networking : introduction

introduction For Better View > Open Image in different TAB in previous articles [ ESXI best practice ] , we have mentioned that there so many network traffic between ESXI host , including but NOT limited to : network traffic to manage ESXI host it self : either by web client or by vcenter application network traffic to move VM from host to another , which called [ vMotion ] netwRead More…

vCenter Deployment : Post installation

introduction After we install vCenter Server, we have to access vcenter and Consider these post installation options before adding inventory for the vCenter Server to manage , like licensing vCenter create Datacenter Create Cluster vCenter License When you install a vCenter Server system, it is in evaluation mode. An evaluation mode license of a vCenter Server system expiresRead More…

vCenter Deployment : Best Practice Vs Basic installation

introduction before start vcEnter installation : I found it ‘s better to make some comparison between vcenter as basic installation  and best practice deployment this article aim to give you an overview about new concept in vcenter in advanced mode , if you can understand about 50:% of these advanced concept : it’s more than enough because we will fully cover these features in next cRead More…

vCenter Deployment : Basic installation

introduction in previous article  : we have got some brief intro about vCenter and we differentiate between [basic installation] VS [best practice deployment ] in this article we will start installation vCenter 6.7 as VCSA it’s good idea to look at network diagram below For Better View > Open Image in different TAB we have 3 ESXI servers as the following ESX151 with IP 172.Read More…

vCenter Deployment : introduction

introduction previously : we have discussed how to manage ESXI server and we mentioned that the good tool is vsphere web client like https://172.16.100.151 but also we mentioned that the great and magic tool is to use Vcenter so … what is Vcenter ? vCenter Server is an application that enables you to manage your vSphere infrastructure from a centralized location. It acts as a ceRead More…

Virtual Machine Files Structure

introduction
When you create a virtual machine, ESXI creates a set of files for that specific virtual machine. Virtual machine files are stored in either the virtual machines directory or the working directory : Both directories are typically on the host system. this is small article that will give you some details about VM file structure 
Where VM files located
in previous article : we haRead More…

ESXI Storage : local DataStore

introduction Datastores in VMware vSphere are storage containers for files. They could be located on a local server hard drive or across the network on a [ SAN ISCSI. NAS ] Datastores hide the specifics of each storage device and provide a uniform model for storing virtual machine files. Datastores are used to hold virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images. They can be formatted withRead More…

Post ESXI installation

After Install and Set Up ESXi After ESXi is installed and set up, you can manage the host by using the vSphere Web Client and vCenter Server, license the host, and back up your ESXi configuration.You can also use the VMware Host Client to connect directly to the ESXi host and to manage itpost ESXI installation include tasks :Licensing ESXi HostsView System Logsenable quick boot  Read More…

vSphere :ESXI 6.7 Installation

Introduction vsphere installation is straight forward process VMware has released ESXI version 7.0 ,which is good news but here in networks pioneers currently we w ill install previous version ESXI-6.7 which released in 2019 for upgrading purpose and to make comparison between both versionbefore starting installation : VMware has many training course ,and this course vSphere ICM refer to : Read More…