[ QUICK TIP ] Top 4 techniques used by an ESXi Host (Hypervisor) to reclaim memory.

Top 4 techniques used by an ESXi Host (Hypervisor) to reclaim memory. 

_1_ Transparent Page Sharing (TPS) - When multiple VMs got an identical set of memory content so the hypervisor reclaim the redundant copies and keep only one. This single copy can be shared by multiple virtual machines in the host physical memory, saving memory.  

 

_2_ Ballooning – Requests VMware tools to (inflate a memory balloon) in the VM until excess memory is released back to the ESXi.

_3_ Memory Compression - When an ESXi host’s memory got overcommitted, the ESXi compresses memory pages & stores them in memory.

_4_ Swapping – If the ESXi host cache is full, the Hypervisor will reclaim memory from the Virtual Machine by swapping out pages to a regular swap file. 

[ QUICK TIP ] Top 10 important benefits of installing VMware Tools.

Top 10 important benefits of installing VMware Tools on a Virtual Machine (VM). (1) Improves mouse response and video performance. 

(2) Synchronise time with the ESXi host. 

(3) Enables Guest Introspection for NSX/agentless antivirus. 

(4) Installs the VMXNET3 driver for improved network performance. 

(5) Allows copy and paste between the VM and desktop.    

(6) Virtual Machine (VM) heartbeat.

(7) Shared folders between host and guest file systems.

(8) Provides the ability to take quiesced snapshots.

(9) Allows shutdown or restart options from the toolbar.

(10) Enables the option to take quiesced snapshots of the guest O/S.

The VM guest Operating System O/S "Windows" can run without VMware Tools, but many features will be missing, it is always good that you run the latest version of VMware Tools.

[ QUICK TIP ] Explain the difference between vpxd and vpxa.

Explain the difference between vpxd and vpxa. HOSTD- This is the agent of ESX server, where VPXA pass the information to the HOSTD and hostd pass the information to ESXi server. When an ESXi host is added to the vCenter server vpxa agent gets initiated and talk to vpxd service which runs in VCSA. So vpxd talks to vpxa & vpxa to hostd, this is how vpxd (vCenter) talks to hostd via vpxa. I will explain the difference, If you didn't get it.

 ___vpxd is a service that runs on vCenter Server. It’s the main vCenter service, without it, vCenter server does not function.

___vpxa is a service that runs on ESXi hosts which are connected to vCenter Server. vpxa is the link between vpxd and hostd (which processes ESXi related tasks). 

[ QUICK TIP ] Type 1 and Type 2 EXPLAIN!

What is the difference between a Type 1 and Type 2 VMware hypervisors. Type 1 and Type 2 EXPLAIN! 

Type 1 hypervisors are those which run directly on hardware Ex: "Servers, Desktops or Laptops for labs" this is the most powerful O/S VMware’s vSphere ESXi hypervisors. 

Type 2 hypervisors run on software, or more specifically are typically installed as an application on top of Ex: Windows O/S. This would include VMware Workstation and Fusion.

[ QUICK TIP ] One of your ESXi Hosts (Hypervisor) just failed so what will happen to the VMs.

One of your ESXi Hosts (Hypervisor) just failed so what will happen to the Virtual Machines running on it? Okay, the VMs will definitely power off and if vSphere High Availability (HA) was correctly configured in the cluster nothing should happen to the VMs. The VMs will try to restart on another host, but there are things that will stop a Virtual Machine from being restarted on another Hypervisor like “restart policy”. 

If HA is enabled but the Virtual Machine restart policy is disabled then the VM will not be restarted on another host ignoring the HA master election process. Also, an incorrect Admission Control settings & resource availability on the host will stop the VMs to restart on another ESXi. Hey guys, the key thing to remember is that HA will not trigger a vMotion.

Internal storage solution on all the ESXi hosts that will allow them to group HDD or SSD.

A company contacted ITSA.Cloud for a storage implementation. They're urgent for an internal storage solution on all the ESXi hosts that will allow them to group HDD or SSD (physical) disks into a logical unit to be used across Datastores. They also mentioned that HCS (Hyper-Converged Software) with "All Flash Configuration was a must. What could ITSA.CLOUD engineers implement?

(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer!

A. Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP)
B. Common Internet File System (CIFS)
C. Network File System (NFS)
D. IBM's SAN Volume Controller (SVC)
E. VMware vSAN software-defined

This is an official ITSA practice question.

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Easy deployment, simple point for configuration, no Windows O/S or database server license.

A small- to mid-size enterprise (SME) business contacted ITSA.Cloud for consulting because they're looking for a management tool that will allow them an easy deployment, simple point for configuration, no Windows O/S or database server license & full control to the virtualized IT environment. What vSphere component ITSA.CLOUD engineers would recommend?

(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer!

A. vSphere Update Manager (VUM)
B. vSphere HA with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
C. Just the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)
D. At least 4 ESXi Hosts in a cluster & one datacenter
E. Two vCenter Server for Windows with Failover Clustering

This is an official ITSA practice question.

Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question. Running virtual machine (VM) from one storage device to another.

A company contacted ITSA.Cloud for consulting because they're looking for a product that will let them move a running virtual machine (VM) from one storage device to another with no downtime to the VM, disruption to end users, or any loss of data. What product ITSA.CLOUD engineers would recommend?

(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer!

A. Software-Defined Storage (SDS)
B. VMware Storage DRS
C. VMware App volume Ver. 4 only
D. VMware vCenter with HR ad DRS
E. Load balanced Fiber Channel (FC)

This is an official ITSA practice question.

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] The Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions.

Having sold & implemented VMware HORIZON the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions for customers for many years, there are definitely benefits in deploying VDI in a small- to mid-size enterprise (SME) businesss. Huge benefits. The cost benefit just usually isn't there. Build a VDI Environment for Your Organization and Architect Your Workplace of the Future.  

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Moving from physical to a virtual environment.

An organization contacted ITSA.Cloud for consulting because they're moving from physical to a virtual environment. Their manager asked for a solution that would let them create clusters and migrate virtual server from one virtual datacenter to another without interruption. What solution ITSA.CLOUD engineers would recommend?

(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer!

A. vCloud Suite Advanced
B. VMware Hybrid Cloud
C. VMware vSphere
D. Server virtualization

This is an official ITSA practice question.

[ TIP OF THE DAY ] Virtualization =

Cost and space savings, Hardware reducing, Energy saving, High availability, Disaster recovery, Better return on investment, Better scalability, Faster redeployment, Easier backups, No vendor lock-in, Easier migration to cloud, Less heat buildup, Increased Security, Business Continuity, Testing environment, Increase uptime, Isolate applications, Faster server provisioning and more. It’s clear to see the benefits of virtualization in general, are numerous.

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] (VM) in the cluster must be connected with direct access to the LUNs

An ITSA.Cloud client requires that all the Virtual Machine (VM) in the cluster must be connected with direct access to the LUNs on the physical storage. What could the ITSA admin use to accomplish this?

A. The VMFS

B. MS iSCSI initiator

C. SMB/CIFS

D. NFS

E. RDM mapping

(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer! This is an official ITSA practice question.

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] This is an official ITSA practice question.

 ITSA.Cloud deployed a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) for a client and during the installation they selected the "Medium" deployment size option. What would be the client's vSphere deployment requirements? 

(Choose one)
A. 4 vCPUs, 19GB RAM, 480GB Storage, 100 ESXi and 1000 VMs
B. 2 vCPUs, 12GB RAM, 415GB Storage, 10 ESXi and 100 VMs
C. 24 vCPUs, 56GB RAM, 1805GB Storage, 2000 ESXi and 3500 VMs
D. 8 vCPUs, 28GB RAM, 700GB Storage, 400 ESXi and 4000 VMs
Comment Your Suggested Answer!

VMware vSphere Standard Switch (vSS) - TIP!

What is VMware vSphere Standard Switch (vSS)? - TIP!
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[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Which Affinity Rule would ITSA.Cloud Admins create.

An organization contacted ITSA.Cloud for consulting because they were concerned about some virtual machine (VM) running tier 3 apps “talking” heavily with each other from different ESXi in the same cluster. Their manager asked ITSA.Cloud how to keep the VMs together on the same host to avoid network traffic during fail-over actions. Which Affinity Rule would ITSA.Cloud Admins create on the cluster to kept the VMs together? This is an official ITSA practice question.

(Choose one)
A. VM-Host affinity rules
B. vSphere HA advanced rules
C. VM anti-affinity rules
D. VM Affinity rules
E. Only A and C are correct
Comment Your Suggested Answer!

SOON! We're hosting a YouTube LIVE on Virtualization & Cloud Computing.

If you're new to virtualization, interested in improving your 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. We're hosting a YouTube LIVE on Virtualization & Cloud Computing.

LET'S CONNECT.
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Raul & Mr. TechieTips!

We're thankful to all who have supported us on social media by truly reading our posts and visiting our website. Keep reading, keep liking, keep commenting, and help us to improve. Also, Heartiest thanks to all our connections - followers; we’re highly appreciative of your comments. Thank you all for the ideas, opinion, help, and sharing our posts with others. Keep participating!

LET'S CONNECT.
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[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] ITSA created 3 VMs with 3 vCPU and 6GB memory each for multiple users to log on.

ITSA.Cloud is giving away a free trial of virtual desktop to see how it performs. If ITSA created 3 VMs with 3 vCPU and 6GB memory each for multiple users to log on but 5GB of memory RAM was reserved for each VM. What .vswp file size the ESXi created on a datastore for each virtual machine when they powered on. This is an official ITSA practice question.

(Choose one)
A. created 3GB .vswp file size for each VM
B. created 5GB .vswp file size for each VM
C. created 1GB .vswp file size for each VM
D. created 6GB .vswp file size for each VM
Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Hosts 3 and 5 got plenty of vCPUs and RAM available.

In the ITSA.Cloud vSphere environment with dedicated failover hosts admission control enabled on the management cluster. There are 6 ESXi hosts with 40 core VMs but after host #2 failed! VMs 1, 2, 3 were unable to restart on hosts 1, 4, and 6 due to insufficient resources. Hosts 3 and 5 got plenty of vCPUs and RAM available, what would happen next?

A. vSphere HA will restart the 3 VMs after host #2 reboots.
B. DRS will give more resources to host 1, 4 and 6 to restart the 3 VMs.
C. VMware EVC Mode will migrate the VMs between ESXi with the same resources.
D. vSphere HA will attempt to restart VMs 1, 2, 3 on the 3 and 5 failover hosts.
E. DRS will use failover on hosts 1, 4 & 6 for load balancing and restart the 3 VMs.
(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer! This is an official ITSA practice question.

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Their manager asked ITSA.Cloud how to keep the VMs together.

An organization contacted ITSA.Cloud for consulting because they were concerned about some virtual machine (VM) running tier 3 apps “talking” heavily with each other from different ESXi in the same cluster.

Their manager asked ITSA.Cloud how to keep the VMs together on the same host to avoid network traffic during fail-over actions. Which Affinity Rule would ITSA.Cloud Admins create on the cluster to keep the VMs together?

A. VM-Host affinity rules
B. vSphere HA advanced rules
C. VM anti-affinity rules
D. VM Affinity rules
E. Only A and C are correct
(Choose one) Comment Your Suggested Answer! This is an official ITSA practice question.

1 MINUTE TIP: VMware Virtual Machine (VM) - with Raul & Mr. TechieTips!

 

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] Small-Medium Sized Companies vSphere Data Center.

This is a high level architecture design for a new or redesigned Small-Medium Sized Companies vSphere Data Center, that details a cluster of 4 ESXi hosts, connected to a vCenter Server that has 150+ VM’s balanced across the hosts. There are 2 network switches vSS-1 & vDS-2 and ESXi servers are connected to for VM & management traffic via VLAN’s. The hosts are connected to four 500 GB shared storage LUN’s that are presented via fiber channel.

 

Visit Raul & Mr. TechieTips! YouTube Channel.

Visit Raul & Mr. TechieTips! YouTube Channel. LINK: https://www.youtube.com/c/RaulMrTechieTips For a quick-and-easy reference, here are the top VMware Cloud and Virtualization 1 Minute tips. New Tips coming soon!!!

We're thankful to all who have supported us on social media by truly reading our posts and visiting our website. ITSA is SOOO close to 4 million YouTube views with 17.3K subscribers! Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/ITSystemsAdmin/about - much obliged to you. 

Keep reading, keep liking, keep commenting, and help us to improve. Also, Heartiest thanks to all our LINKEDIN connections - followers; we’re highly appreciative of your comments. Thank you all for the ideas, opinion, help, and sharing our posts with others. Keep participating! 

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] If you must have a highly-secured environment, how do you.

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Your company is concerned about virtual machines encryption. Your boss wants all VM files that contain sensitive information to be encrypted to secures confidentiality and integrity of the data that is transferred. If you must have a highly-secured environment, how do you ensure that unencrypted VMs can be migrated securely? (Choose one)

A. Use SSL/TLS
B. Implement KMIP
C. Secure Boot with UEFI
D. Set encrypted vSphere vMotion
E. All VMs are encrypted by default
Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ Raul & Mr. TechieTips! Challenge Question ] Your company is moving from physical to virtual desktops.

Your company is moving from physical to virtual desktops but your boss's budget is tight to buy new servers. He is concerned and asked you what version of vSphere will handle instant clones to create VDI pools. What Ver would you tell your boss?

A. vSphere 5.5 & 6.0 are supported
B. vSphere 5.0 Update 3b & 6.0 are supported
C. vSphere 6.0 Update 1 & 7.0 are supported
D. vSphere 5.5 & 6.0 Update 2 are supported
E. Only options A and D are correct

Comment Your Suggested Answer! 

1 MINUTE TIP: VMware vSphere ESXi (Hypervisor) - With Raul & Mr. TechieTips!

LET'S CONNECT  
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[ Mr. TechieTips Challenge Question ] If the IT department needs larger amounts of CPU and memory, what can you create to delegate control.

Let's Pretend, an ESXi has 20 VMs. The HR dept uses 10 of the virtual machines and the IT department uses 10 virtual machines. If the IT department needs larger amounts of CPU and memory, what can you create to delegate control over resources of a host (or a cluster)?

A. Enable vMotion only for a set of VMs
B. Configure DRS only for 10 VMs in IT
C. Disable HA only for 10 VMs in HR
D. Create resource pools & set CPU/RAM
E. Add more ESXis to the cluster.

(Choose One) - Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ Mr. TechieTips Challenge Question ] after rebooting it a few times, you noted that the clock on the guest O/S falls behind.

[ Mr. TechieTips Challenge Question ] You just created a new VM on a ESXi host and after rebooting it a few times, you noted that the clock on the guest O/S falls behind the clock on the Hypervisor even if you vMotion the VM to another ESXi. What is missing or should be installed on a VM for time synchronization?

A. VM-to-host time Sync
B. VM guest agent
C. BIOS time Sync
D. The VMware Tools
E. ESXi host agent

(Choose One) - Comment Your Suggested Answer!

[ CHALLENGE QUESTION ] Prioritize the disk access level of those 3 noisy VMs to use resources.

If 3 virtual machines running on the same VMFS datastore and the same logical unit number (LUN) on an ESXi host are negatively affecting the I/O bandwidth of the most important VMs. How do you prioritize the disk access level of those 3 noisy VMs to use resources?

A. Use SSD Disk Type
B. Use SSD Disk Mode
C. Set Disk Shares
D. Options A, B
E. Recreate the LUN

(Choose One) - Comment Your Suggested Answer!

1 MINUTE TIP: VMware vSphere - With Raul & Mr. TechieTips.

LET'S CONNECT.

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▶ YouTube channel @ https://www.youtube.com/user/ITSystemsAdmin/videos

[ MULTI-CLOUD EXPERTISE ] (VM) storage activity are negatively affecting 2 ESXi Hosts.

If 3 Virtual Machine (VM) storage activity are negatively affecting 2 ESXi Hosts accessing the same Storage, what would you do to control the storage activity of those VMs? Just enable Storage IO Control (SIOC). SIOC is supported on Fibre Channel, NFS, and iSCSI  connected storage in ESXi. Raw device mappings (RDM) are not supported. When you enable Storage I/O Control, ESXi monitors datastore latency and throttles the I/O load if the datastore average latency exceeds the threshold.

Storage IO Control (SIOC) only come into use when there is contention to ensure that every VM gets its fair share. A Storage Policy is applied to a VM or VMDK. By default, all virtual machines have the same number of shares and IOPS limit. By default, IOPS are unlimited. If these defaults are not changed, then I/O control does not arrange virtual machines. Before enabling SIOC, ensure that datastores are managed by a single vCenter Server.

1 MINUTE TIP: VMware High Availability (HA) with Raul & Mr. Techie.

LET'S FOLLOW - CONNECT.

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