The Hardware:
3 – Dell R710 Servers with 2-Quad Core Xeon CPUs, 32GB RAM, 3-SAS HDs, and 8 NIC ports.
2 – Cisco 2960G Switches.
1 – Dell Equallogic PS6000x 7.2TB with 16 SAS Drives and Dual Controllers.
The Software:
VMware vSphere vCenter Standard
VMware vSphere ESX Enterprise Plus
Initial Server Configuration:
Enable Intel Virtual Technology in Dell BIOS.
Configure Power Management for High Performance.
Configure Dell DRAC username, password, and IP.
Configure local RAID for RAID 1 + 1 Hot Spare.
Switch Configuration:
Enable Jumbo Frame support:
2970(config)# system mtu jumbo 9000
2970(config)# exit
2970# reload
Verify:
2970# show system mtu
System MTU size is 1998 bytes
System Jumbo MTU size is 9000 bytes
Configure STP or RSTP.
Enable Port Fast on all access ports if using STP.
Configure Link Aggregation for LAN Uplinks.
Switch1:
interface Port-channel1
switchport mode trunk
interface GigabitEthernet0/22
description Up-Link to LAN
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 1 mode auto
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/23
description Up-Link to LAN
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 1 mode auto
Switch2:
interface Port-channel1
switchport mode trunk
interface GigabitEthernet0/22
description Up-Link to LAN
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 1 mode desirable
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/23
description Up-Link to LAN
switchport mode trunk
channel-group 1 mode desirable
ESX 4 Update 1 Installation:
Select Advanced setup during Installation:
Create the following custom partitions:
|
Mount Point |
Type |
Size |
| / | ext3 | 5GB |
| Swap | Swap | 1.6GB |
| /Home | ext3 | 512MB |
| /tmp | ext3 | 2GB |
| /vmimages | ext3 | 512MB |
| /var | ext3 | 2GB |
Name the Local Datastore. (e.g. esx#-localstorage)
Document ESX Host password.
Finish ESX Installation.
vCenter Installation and Configuration:
Install vCenter using the SQL Express Database. The Database will be moved to a SQL server later in the process.
Create a new Datacenter and HA/DRS cluster.
Add the ESX Hosts to the HA/DRS cluster.
Install Licenses.
Configure HA:
Enable Host monitoring.
Select Advanced Options under VMware HA.
Configure Isolation Addresses and Detection Time.
Follow this as a guideline (HA Deep Dive) for HA.
Enable Virtual Machine monitoring.
Set DRS to Fully automated, Level 2.
Configure NTP Server – north-america.pool.ntp.org
Set ESX Service Console to – 800MB
Reboot ESX Host.
Create Standard vSwitches for iSCSI and Service Console:
Configure vSwitch0 as the vSwitch for Service Console only.
Configure vSwitch0 NIC Teaming:
Assign vmnic0 as the Active Adapter.
Assign vmnic4 as the Standby Adapter.
Connect to the ESX Host Console:
Create a new Standard vSwitch.
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –a vSwitch#
Enable Jumbo Frames on the new vSwitch:
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –m 9000 vSwitch#
VMkernel Port Names – (examples)
iSCSI1-VLAN20
ISCSI2-VLAN20
Add VMkernel Ports with Jumbo Frame support:
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –A iSCSI1-VLAN20 vSwitch#
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –A iSCSI2-VLAN20 vSwitch#
Command: esxcfg-vmknic –a –i 192.168.2.2 –n 255.255.255.0 –m 9000 iSCSI1-VLAN20
Command: esxcfg-vmknic –a –i 192.168.2.22 –n 255.255.255.0 –m 9000 iSCSI2-VLAN20
Verify Jumbo Frame MTU and new VMkernel Ports:
Command: esxcfg-vmknic –l
MTU should read 9000
Add physical NICs to the new vSwitch:
From the vSphere Client add vmnic3 and vmnic7 to the new vSwitch. Both NICs will be Active Adapters on the vSwitch.
Associate the VMkernel Ports to the Physical Adapters:
From the ESX Host Console –
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –p iSCSI1-VLAN20 –N vmnic3 vSwitch#
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –p iSCSI2-VLAN20 –N vmnic7 vSwitch#
Verify VMkernel Port assignment:
Command: esxcfg-vswitch –l
Each Port Group should only have on Uplink listed.
From the vSphere client. Go to the properties of the new vSwitch.
Go to the properties of first Port Group and select the NIC Teaming tab.
Select Override vSwitch failover order.
Assign only one active vmnic. The rest will be unused.
Repeat the same steps for the second Port Group.
Go to the properties of the vSwitch. Select the NIC Teaming tab.
Set Failback: NO
Click the Security tab and set all settings to Reject.
Create and Configure Distributed Virtual Switches:
Create the new Distributed Switches
Edit the settings for dvSwitch-vMotion. Click Edit dvUplink port.
Name the uplinks something descriptive.
Click OK.
Select Advanced.
Set the Max MTU to 9000.
Enable CDP if wanted.
Click OK.
Repeat these steps for any other Distributed Switch.
The following will need to be completed for each Host.
From the vSphere client. Select a Host, Configuration tab, Networking, and click Distributed Virtual Switch.
Click Manage Virtual Adpaters and add a new VMkernel port.
Click the “i” next to each VMk port and make note of each Port ID number.
From the CLI, delete the VMkernel ports that were just created in the GUI.
Example: “esxcfg-vmknic -d -s ‘<your dv switch name>’ -v <dv port number>”
- esxcfg-vmknic -d -s ‘dvSwitch-vMotion’ -v 133
Re-add the VMkernel ports (using the port numbers you just deleted) with jumbo frames enabled.
Example: “esxcfg-vmknic -a -s ‘<your dv switch name>’ -i <ip addr> -n <subnet> -m 9000 -v <dv port number>”
- esxcfg-vmknic -a -s ‘dvSwitch-vMotion’ -i 192.168.x.x -n 255.255.255.0 -m 9000 -v 133
Repeat the steps above for each ESX Host and VMkernel port that requires jumbo frames.
Enable the iSCSI software initiator.
Configure Dynamic Discovery Send Targets.
Bind the new VMkernel ports to the iSCSI HBA: “esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk# -d vmhba33″
Example:
- esxcli swiscsi nic add -n vmk1 -d vmhba33
Repeat the steps above for each ESX Host.
Add Datastores:
Name examples: “SANName or Model” “Connection Type” – Volume Number – Size
EQLOGIC iSCSI – VOL1-400GB
Configure Datastore for Round Robin multipath:
These steps will need to be completed on each datastore on each ESX host and whenever a new datastore is added.
From the vSphere client. Select the ESX Host, Storage, select the datastore, right click and select properties.
Click Manage Paths…
Change Path Selection to Round Robin.
Click Close.
Configure Alerts/Alarms:
Enable email alerts on SAN.
Enable email alerts for vCenter.
From the vSphere Client. Click the Administration Menu.
Select Mail.
Configure Mail settings.
Configure Alarm Actions (Examples: SNMP Traps, Send Email)
Create custom Alarms to monitor Snapshot Size.
Configure Custom Alarm for monitoring Datastores with thin provisioned servers.
First disable the default Datastore alarm.
Create a new custom Alarm.
Configure Update Manager:
Install Update Manager.
Configure Patch Download Settings and Schedule.
Attach Baselines to ESX Hosts.
Convert Physical Servers:
http://my-technet.com/index.php/vmware/cleanup-steps-for-post-p2v/
Create Templates for new Servers: For 2008 or 2003
Configure Time settings for Windows Virtual Machines:
http://my-technet.com/index.php/vmware/vi3-best-practices-for-virtualizing-active-directory-2/