[ TIP OF THE DAY ] Thin Disk. vs Thick Lazy Zeroed Disk. vs Thick Eager Zeroed Disk.

(1) Thin Disk. Uses the space as needed for the initial function. It can be greater than the real space, an over-subscription is possible. The total space for the VM disks on the datastore can be greater than the actual size.

(2) Thick Lazy Zeroed Disk. All the space given, is taken when the VM is created. The blocks containing older data on the storage are cleared when the VM writes new data to the disk for the first time. 

(3) Thick Eager Zeroed Disk. Takes much longer to create a disk than other types of disks and increasing the size takes too much time. All disk space is taken at the time of creation, and all storage blocks that was there are wiped out .       

Conclusion: Eager zeroed thick-provisioned got the best for performance and security. Lazy zeroed thick-provision are much better for short creation times, but faster than eager zeroed & less secure. Thin-provisioned disks are the best choice to save datastore space. 

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware’s Fault Tolerance (FT) and High Availability (HA) protect virtual machine (VM).

VMware FT vs VMware HA. Fault Tolerance guarantee zero downtime but HA still comes with some downtime. HA load balancer or hypervisor, to detect a problem and restart the VMs can add up to minutes or even hours. FT keeps VM copies on a separate host machine. With only HA configured, the hypervisor attempts to restart the VM on the same host cluster. With FT, the VM workload is moved to a separate host.   

VMware’s Fault Tolerance (FT) and High Availability (HA) protect virtual machine (VM) operation in the event of an ESX/ESXi host failure. Fault-tolerant instantly move to a new host but high-availability HA cannot prevent VM failure it will see the VMs fail with the host before restarting on another host. Fault tolerance mean you don't lose the in-memory application state in the event of a failure such as a host crash. Fault Tolerance is much harder than high availability in a virtual environment.

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware Horizon Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

An Introduction to VMware Horizon Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). What is VMware Horizon VDI? 1_ VMware Horizon Suite is all about end-user computing, or EUC. 2_ VDI allows IT administrators to host and administer end-user desktops in a virtual machine running on a server in a data center. End users can access their virtual desktop — running in the data center — using VMware Horizon clients such as zero client hardware devices and Mac, Android, and iPad clients.

VMware Horizon (formerly called Horizon View) is a commercial desktop and app virtualization product developed by VMware, Inc for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS Operating Systems. Horizon supports hybrid and multi-cloud architectures that allow organizations to scale flexibly across public and private clouds such as VMware Cloud on AWS and Microsoft Azure – now also with support for Google Cloud and VMware Cloud on Dell EMC.

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] VMware vSphere Virtual Standard Switch (vSS).

An Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Standard Switch (vSS). What is vSS? When you install ESXi, the default management port group is attached to the first vSphere Standard Switch that is created by the installation – vSwitch0. vSS can be connected to physical switches by using physical Ethernet adapters called Uplinks, and their important function is to connect the virtual network into a physical network as they are connected to a physical switch.

vSS provide network connectivity:
- Between VMS within the same ESXi host.
- Between VMS on different ESXi hosts.
- Between virtual and physical machines on the network.
- For VMkernel access to networks for vMotion, iSCSI, NFS, FT & ESXi management.

vSphere Standard Switch Properties:
- You can change the Size of the MTU on a vSS
- You can change the Speed of a Physical Adapter
- You can Add and Team Physical Adapters in a vSS
- You can View the Topology Diagram of a vSS

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Monitor a vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) Resource Use of Services.

With what tool do you monitor a vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) Resource Use of Services?

A. vmstat
B. esxcli
C. esxtop
D. vimtop
E. NONE
F. B & C

Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] "CPU, MEMORY, HDD" an Introduction to Virtualization.

An Introduction to Virtualization. What is virtualization? Virtualization uses software that simulates hardware functionality "CPU, MEMORY, HDD" to create a Virtual Machine (VM). OS virtualization is the use of software "ESXi" to allow a piece of hardware "Physical Server" to run multiple operating system images at the same time. A hypervisor and the hardware let you split one physical system into separate VMs. The virtualization Layer is an additional abstraction layer between network and storage hardware, computing, and the application running on it.

Hypervisors have been split into two classes:
- Type I
Bare-metal hypervisors "ESXi" that run guest virtual machines directly on a system’s hardware.

- Type II
Hosted hypervisors "WorkStation" that abstract guest operating systems from the host operating system.

TYPES OF VIRTUALIZATION
- Desktop Virtualization
- Application Virtualization
- Server Virtualization
- Network Virtualization
- Storage Virtualization

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Other TCP/IP stack support management traffic.

Custom TCP/IP stacks can be used to handle the network traffic of other applications and services, which may require separate DNS and default gateway configurations. Which other TCP/IP stack support management traffic, IP storage, vSphere vMotion and vSphere Fault Tolerance? (Choose 1)

A. Provisioning TCP/IP stack
B. VXLAN TCP/IP stack
C. Default TCP/IP stack
D. vSphere vMotion TCP/IP stack
Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware vCenter inventory objects.

VMware vCenter monitors and manages the following inventory objects:
(1) Data Centers.
- Virtual machines (and templates)
- Hosts (and clusters)
- Networks
- Datastores

(2) Clusters. Collect ESXi hosts and their VMs to work together as a unit.

(3) Datastores. Is the storage location for virtual machine files.
- Local SCSI disk of the ESXi host
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) arrays
- vSAN datastores

(4) Folders. Group objects of the same type so you can easily manage them.

(5) Hosts. Is the physical computer hardware to install vSphere ESXi.

(6) Networks.
- Virtual network interface cards (virtual NICs)
- vSphere Standard Switches (vSS)
- vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS)

(7) Resource pools. Separate the CPU and memory resources of a host or cluster.

(8) Templates. Is a copy of a virtual machine with O/S & apps that can be used to create new VMs.

(9) Virtual machines. VMs allow you to run an O/S and apps that behaves like a full computer.

(10) vApps. vSphere vApp can have multiple virtual machines.

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Requirement to enable vCenter High Availability (HA).

How many host do you need to enable vCenter High Availability (HA)?

A. 4
B. 6
C. 3
D. 12

Comment Your Suggested Answer!

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VMware ESXi is an enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware for deploying and serving virtual computers. As a type-1 hypervisor, ESXi is not a software application that is installed on an operating system; instead, it includes and integrates vital OS components, such as a kernel.
 

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] VLAN ID to which component in ESXi .

ESXi provides VLAN support by assigning a VLAN ID to which component? (Choose the best answer.)

A. Virtual standard switch
B. Physical network interface card (NIC)
C. Virtual distributed switch
D. Port group

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] VMware virtual disk option minimum storage capacity.

Which virtual disk option allows a virtual machine to consume the minimum storage capacity? (Choose the best answer.)

A. Independent persistent
B. Lazy-zeroed thick-provisioned
C. Eager-zeroed thick-provisioned
D. Thin-provisioned

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Content library named ‘VDI’ is published at corporate headquarters "New York City".

ITSA has part of the vSphere environment with the following characteristics: A content library named ‘VDI’ is published at corporate headquarters "New York City" on a vCenter Server named ‘ITSA-VC1’. A regional data center contains a set of hosts managed by a vCenter Server named ITSA-VC7. ITSA-VC7 subscribes to the ‘VDI’ content library. You want to create a new virtual machine image to use on ITSA-VC7. What are two possible ways you can accomplish this task? (Choose two.)

A. Configure ITSA-VC7 to download all library content immediately.
B. Upload the new image to the ‘VDI’ library on ITSA-VC7.
C. Publish the ‘VDI’ content library on ITSA-VC7.
D. Upload the new image to the ‘VDI’ library on ‘ITSA-VC1’.
E. Upload the new image to a local content library on ITSA-VC7.

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware vSphere virtual switches "vSS" & "vDS".

Both types of VMware vSphere virtual switches "vSS" & "vDS" let you control vSphere virtual machine (VM) traffic. (1) vSS: When you install ESXi, the default management port group is attached to the first vSphere Standard Switch that is created by the installation – vSwitch0. It'S used to provide network connectivity to hosts and virtual machines. No matter how many hosts you have running in your cluster, you will need to configure the same vSS for each host. For two or three ESXi hosts is ok but if you have hundreds of ESXi hosts to configure between multiple clusters, it can become very tedious.

(2) vDS: Is part of the vCenter Server, You will not be able to use the vSphere Distributed Switch if you are running standalone hosts. vDS is a single virtual switch across all ESXi hosts and allows virtual machines to keep consistent network configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts. vDS is only available as part of vSphere Enterprise plus licensing and it’s not created by default.

[ INTERVIEW QUESTION ] Name what components or features of VMware are you familiar with.

Impressive Answer! Quest: Can you name what components or features of VMware are you familiar with. Please, explain one of them. Ans:

Hypervisor
Fault Tolerance
Virtual Networking
vCenter Server
Virtual Storage (datastore)
New elements in vSphere 7
Content Libraries
vSAN
vApp
Miscellaneous

It is important to make a good impression on whoever is interviewing you. You can also explain... A virtualization layer that enables multiple operating systems to share a single Hardware "host" is called Hypervisor. The host allocates physical resources like memory, storage, CPU, etc. to the Virtual Machine or operating system "Windows".

There are two types of hypervisors:
(1) Hosted Hypervisor, it works as a "VMware Workstation" application installed in Windows O/S. (2) Bare-metal, it includes virtualization software "vSphere ESXi" is directly installed into the hardware and controls all physical resources.

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Two single sign-on (SSO)-related options presented.

When deploying a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), which two single sign-on (SSO)-related options are presented to you? (Choose two.)

A. Create a vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode group
B. Create a vCenter Single Sign-On domain
C. Join an existing vCenter Single Sign-On domain
D. Repoint to another domain
E. Reset Single Sign-On password

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware vSphere, vCenter and ESXi. (Explained)

(1) VMware vSphere is a product suite. It isn’t a single product, or a single entity. vSphere consists of two main components: ESXi and vCenter, when you talk about vSphere, you are talking about the combination of these two products. (2) VMware vSphere ESXi is the software that runs on your physical server to allow virtual machines to run on it. This software is a special type of software called a hypervisor. (3) VMware vCenter is the management component of VMware vSphere, it's the brains of your vSphere environment. It brings features like DRS, HA, and more to vSphere.

For large enterprises, there are:
vSphere Standard
vSphere Enterprise Plus
vSphere Platinum

For smaller environments:
VMware vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus

To deploy vSphere in more distributed:
VMware vSphere Remote Branch Office Editions.

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] Things to Check When Troubleshooting DRS.

The Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) ESXi cluster became unbalanced. Things to Check When Troubleshooting DRS. * A Cluster is Red Because of an Inconsistent Resource Pool. * DRS doesn’t move any virtual machines from a host. * A Virtual Machine Power On Fails. * Load Imbalances on a Cluster. I’ve listed a few reasons of an unbalanced cluster.

- VM/VM or VM/Host DRS rules prevent virtual machines to move.

- DRS is disabled for the machine.

- CD/iso files mounted that are local to a host.

- vMotion is not enabled or setup.

The Main DRS clustering features are Load Balancing, Distributed Power Management, and Affinity Rules. Three automation levels are available:

Manual — vCenter will only recommend moving resources.

Partially Automated — vCenter will automatically place the VM on the best host.

Fully Automated — vCenter is in control of initial placement and VM migrations.

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] Virtual Machines CPU performance issues running in the ESXi Hosts.

You're experiencing some of the following performance issues in the Virtual Machine (VM).

- The guest operating system boots slowly
- Applications running in VMs perform poorly
- Applications running in VMs take a long time to launch
- Applications running in VMs frequently become unresponsive
- Multi-user services can handle less simultaneous users than expected

These might be caused by virtual machines CPU performance issues running in the ESXi Hosts. To test the performance of an ESXi host in the form of memory, CPU, and network utilization, ESXTOP tool is used. It is a very good tool available for VMware administrators to troubleshoot the performance issues. For configuring ESXTOP, you’ll need vSphere Client and putty and SSH session should be enabled.

For CPU performance testing, %RDY, %MLMTD, and %CSTP counters are used.

Check the virtual machine's virtual hardware settings and make sure that you have provided enough resources to the virtual machine, including memory and CPU resources.

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] Does Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Make Sense for Small Businesses.

Any industry that wants to provide a digital workspace for their employees across multiple locations can benefit from VDI. But which VDI is right for you depends on the exact type of work your employees will be doing. Increasing the productivity of employees and allowing secure access for both in-house and remote workers can allow for great collaborations and teamwork with your staff. So Why (VDI) Make Sense?

✔ 80% of Fortune 500 businesses already include VDI

✔ Admin and operating costs were reduced by 70%

✔ Energy bills were reduced by 97%

✔ Productivity was increased by about 98%

✔ 70% of professionals worked via smart mobile devices

✔ The U.S alone has a 62% VDI adoption rate 

Employees are empowered to work from wherever they are. Now, they can work from home, on the train, at the doctor’s office, or wherever life may take them. Being out of the office is no longer a barrier to teams collaborating and moving projects forward. So Who Can Use VDI?

VDI for Law Firms

VDI for CPA Firms

VDI for Service Industry

VDI for Real Estate

VDI for Government

VDI for Startups

VDI for Small Business

VDI for Manufacturers

VDI for Remote Teams

VDI for Personal Use

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] A VM unexpectedly powered off. Which VM logs files should be considered to troubleshoot.

If a VM is unexpectedly powered off. Which VM logs files should be considered to troubleshoot the issue? By default, ESXi hosts store virtual machine-specific logging in the same directory as the virtual machine's configuration files. The default log file name is vmware.log. The vmware.log file is located in virtual machine folder along with the vmx file. SSH a session to your host for example: To identify the location of vmware.log files of all VMs:

find /vmfs -name "vmware.log*"

If a VM unexpectedly powered off, you should check vmware.log and hostd.log files to troubleshoot the issue. Also, when the vmware.log file is next archived, the existing vmware-1.log file is renamed vmware-2.log & so on. Virtual machine logs can be reconfigured to archive at different intervals, with different names, in different volumes, or when the log reaches a specific size. Optional: Skyline Health Diagnostics (SHD) is a tool that analyses log files to detect known issues and recommend solutions/KBs.

[ INTERVIEW QUESTION ] Before upgrading virtual machine (VM) hardware.

Impressive Answer! What you should do before upgrading virtual machine (VM) hardware? Ans: Before upgrading a VM hardware, I should create a backup or snapshot of the VM, upgrade VMware Tools to the latest version, and verify that the VM is stored in a VMFS or NFS datastore. Upgrading a Virtual Machine to the latest hardware version is the same physical of swapping the drive out of one system and putting it into a new one.

It is important to make a good impression on whoever is interviewing you. You can also explain... If a virtual machine is created on a specific virtual hardware version and is then migrated to a another that does not support this level of virtual hardware, it does not power on. If the VM power on with a virtual hardware version that is lower than what it supports, the menu items will be grayed out and unavailable.

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Deploying the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)

Which two storage technologies can you use to deploy the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)? (Choose two.)

A. Fibre Channel storage
B. vSAN storage
C. Virtual Volumes storage
D. NFS storage
E. iSCSI storage

New to virtualization, interested in improving your chances to Get Hired - Be Promoted, earn certifications.

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[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) - 2 clusters & two domain controller VMs.

You run a two-node vSphere cluster, which contains two domain controller virtual machines (VMs). You want to ensure that VMs run on separate hosts without interfering with normal maintenance operations. How should you configure Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)? (Choose the best answer.) Comment Your Suggested Answer!

A. Create a ‘Must run Virtual Machines to Hosts’ anti-affinity rule.
B. Create a ‘Virtual Machines to Virtual Machines’ anti-affinity rule.
C. Create a ‘Virtual Machines to Virtual Machines’ dependency rule.
D. Create a ‘Should run Virtual Machines to Hosts’ anti-affinity rule.

👽 Affinity and anti-affinity rules determine whether or not VMs are kept together as they are moved around within your environment.

-- Affinity rules keep VMs together on the same host

-- Anti-affinity rules ensure that VMs are distributed across different hosts

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] VMware clone vs VMware template: what is the difference.

VMware clone vs VMware template: what is the difference? Cloning a virtual machine creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the original. The new virtual machine is configured with the same virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that were configured for the original virtual machine. If you clone an encrypted virtual machine, you cannot change the storage policy.

A vSphere template is also a copy of a VM with ordered folders, applications, and a specific configuration, along with permissions to access it. It is a protected version of the VM model that, for example, can be used to create a new VM. Thus, it cannot be run as a standalone VM.

ITSA provides training for those who are new to virtualization.

With us, you get the perfect blend of both concepts and real-world experience. ITSA provides training for those who are new to virtualization, interested in improving their chances to Get Hired - Be Promoted, earn certifications and who may either be in school currently, searching for a new job or simply trying to gain more knowledge. ▶ ITSA Tutorials

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] NSX for vSphere and NSX-T is the vCenter integration--NSX-T .

VMware's NSX hypervisor is the platform to manage virtualized network deployments. NSX is best known for the ability to provide zero-trust security between virtual machines, many tech analysts believe the time of the software-defined network (SDN) has arrived. In the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), all aspects of operations depend on NSX.

The primary difference between NSX for vSphere and NSX-T is the vCenter integration--NSX-T doesn't have the tight vCenter integration of NSX for vSphere. VMware has has two tracks for the VMware NSX platform: NSX for vSphere and NSX-T.