VCP6-DCV Exam Cram Notes: Section 10 of 10

Section 10: Administer and Manage vSphere Virtual Machines

When deploying multiple Windows 2003 virtual machines from the same template, to avoid network conflicts...
... Customize the guest operating system
... Copy the Microsoft Sysprep tools onto the vCenter Server system

Objective 10.1 - Configure Advanced vSphere Virtual Machine Settings

Identify available virtual machine configuration settings:
- VM Hardware (pure vSphere 6 environment, upgrade to version 11)
- Guest Operating System
- VMware Tools: upgrade automatically or not
- Virtual CPU
-- up to 128 cores
-- specify hot-add or not
-- set Hyperthreading Sharing Mode (Any, None or Internal)
-- set limits, reservations and shares
- Virtual Memory
-- up to 4TB of RAM
-- specify hot-add or not
-- specify memory allocation with a NUMA node
-- set limits, reservations and shares
- Swap file location (Default, Virtual machine directory, Datastore specified by host)
- Network Adapters
- Parallel and Serial Port devices
- Fibre Channel NPIV settings
- Hard Disks
-- different types of SCSI controllers
-- 3 provisioning types (thin, lazy zeroed and eager zeroed)
-- Raw Device Mappings (RDMs)
-- Disk shares
- CD/DVD drives
- Floppy drives

Two options for changing the virtual machine swap file location...
... Store in the host’s swapfile datastore
... Always store with the virtual machine

Interpret virtual machine configuration files:
.vmx - Virtual machine configuration file
.vmxf - Additional configuration file
.nvram - Stores the BIOS state
.log - Log file for the VM
.vmdk - Descriptor file for a virtual disk
-flat.vmdk - Data disk file
-delta.vmdk - Snapshot data disk files
.vswp - Memory swap file
.vmss - Stores state when the vm is suspended
.vmsd - Snapshot file; stores metadata
.vmsn - Stores state of the vm during snapshot
.ctk - used for changed block tracking

Identify virtual machine DirectPath I/O feature:
DirectPath I/O allows a VM to access the physical PCI functions
- you can have up to 6 PCI devices that a VM can access
- DirectPath I/O does not support:
-- can’t hot-add to the VM
-- no HA support
-- no FT support
-- snapshots are not supported
-- no vMotion
- DirectPath I/O is enabled on the VM by selecting the PCI device that you want to pass through

Objective 10.2 - Create and Manage a Multi-Site Content Library

Configure Content Library to work across sites:
vCenter Inventory lists -> Content Libraries
Content Library -> Actions -> Edit Settings... -> Tick “Publish this library externally”

Content Library authentication:
vCenter Inventory lists -> Content Libraries
Content Library -> Actions -> Edit Settings... -> Tick “Enable user authentication for access to this library” -> Enter password
Note: Error - The “Sync Library” operation failed ... Any sites subscribed to this content prior to enabling authentication, will need to be re-configured.

Set/Configure Content Library roles:
- To control permissions/roles on a content library you need to set the permission on the root level
Administration -> Global permissions -> + -> Add...
Assigned Role: Content Library Administrator

Content Library Administrator can:
- Create, edit and delete local or subscribed libraries
- Synchronize a subscribed library and synchronize items in a subscribed library
- View the item types supported by the library
- Configure the global settings for the library
- Import items to a library
- Export library items

Types of Content Library:
- Local content library
- Subscribed content library

Storage for your content library can be:
- local system path
- location to an NFS share
- an existing datastore

Objective 10.3 - Configure and Maintain a vCloud Air Connection

Identify vCenter Server and vCloud Air connection requirements:
- To connect vCenter Server and vCloud Air you’ll need vCloud Connector (VCC)
- VCC provides you with a single interface to manage many public and private “clouds”
- VCC lets you sync your content library to vCloud Air
- VCC provides offline data transfer from your private datacenter to vCloud Air
- VCC allows for datacenter extension
- VCC user interface comes in the form of a vCenter plugin and is available in the Web Client
- VCC server is an appliance deployed in the private datacenter and handles communication to vCloud Air
- VCC nodes are responsible for data transfer between private datacenter and vCloud Air instance

Requirements before you can install VCC in your private datacenter:
Note: VCC is already in your vCloud Air instance (taken care of by VMware)
- vSphere and vSphere Client 4.0 U3 or higher
- For datacenter extension with VCC, need vShield Manager 5.1.2 or higher
- IE 8 or 9, or Chrome 22 or 23
- Ports: 80, 443, 8190, 5480

Configure vCenter Server connection to vCloud air:
- Deploy the VCC OVA
- Navigate to https://VCC_NAME_or_IP:5480
- Default login is admin / vmware
- via vCenter tab configure vSphere Web Client extension*
*registers VCC extension in vSphere Web client
- deploy VCC node in your vSphere environment (same OVA as for VCC)
- via Nodes tab configure connection to the deployed Nodes

Connection types to vCloud Air network:
- Standard Connection: over internet and IPsec VPN, point-to-point
- Dedicated Connection: secure private link, point-to-point or multi-point

Configure replicated objects in vCloud Air Disaster Recovery services:
- requires vSphere Replication
- need to connect vSphere Replication to a Cloud provider*
*requires the address for your cloud provider
Note: Ensure the ‘Cloud Connection State’ shows Connected
- complete configuration in the vSphere Web Client -> Replicate to a cloud provider

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