29 Jul 2023
vSphere is VMware’s virtualization platform, which transforms data centers into aggregated computing infrastructures that include CPU, storage, and networking resources. vSphere manages these infrastructures as a unified operating environment, and provides you with the tools to administer the data centers that participate in that environment. - VMware vSphere Documentation
The two core components of vSphere are ESXi and vCenter Server.
vSphere is a sophisticated product with multiple components to install and set up.
Install ESXi on at least one host
Setup ESXi
The server hardware being used within this installation are three DELL PowerEdge R630 servers with a solid state drive.
The CPUs used within these servers are not listed on the compatibility list and only support TPM 1.2, and therefore I will need to force the installation. - vSphere 8 Compatibility
The diagram below shows a crude physical topology, this will create the basis of my network configuration.
Securing the ESXi Configuration (vmware.com)
Secrets
TPM
Network Traffic
vmnic0
for management traffic.VMware ESXi Installation and Setup - VMware vSphere 8.0
Login to VMware Customer Connect and download the appropriate files, I will be installing Essentials Plus.
Download VMware vSphere - VMware Customer Connect
Format a USB Flash Drive to Boot the ESXi Installation
VMware have provided instructions on how to create a bootable USB using Linux.
To create a bootable USB in Windows, its recommended to use a piece of software, such as; Rufus or UNetbootin.
The example screenshot below is using Rufus. When the warning for an obsolete version of menu.c32
appears you want to select ‘No’ and use the VMware provided version.
The acutal installation is incredibly simple, and I do not feel this needs to be covered.
After installation, restart the host.
Set an administrative password, as the administrative password is not set by default.
No boot device available
: Host fails to boot after installing in UEFI modeWhile installing I made note of all the networking information, such as NIC MAC addresses, port layout and connections. This is to make the network configuration section easier, as I will not be physically in the same location, and again this is useful information for documentation.
After the initial installation and configuration was complete, the rest of the steps can be performed via the web console.
Set the Time & Date to utilise NTP servers, this can be found under “Manage” > “System” > “Time & Date”.
Because these servers will be only used for a few non-mission critical services I can set the Power Management to “Low power”, this combined with the UEFI power setting “Dense Configuration”, will ensure that I am saving energy compared to the default values.
The power management option can be found under the “Hardware” tab.
On our DELL storage switches I needed to enable Jumbo packets, this could be verified by using show system mtu
and to change use system jumbo mtu 9216
, which is the maximum allowed.
Next I will configure the networking elements. I will be creating the following:
The screenshot below shows overriding the failover order, to ensure that one vmnic is marked as un-used. If this is not completed, adding the iSCSI block storage will fail.
Add your storage, I will be adding an iSCSI block storage. Start by creating a new software iSCSI.
Take note of the IQN, as this will be required for configuring our storage.
I will be using a HPE Nimble to offer a block of iSCSI storage to my ESXi hosts. First I will create a new initiator group, limited down to my three ESXi hosts and their IQNs.
Then I will create a new CHAP account for authentication.
Next, I will create a new volume, using the access policy and CHAP account.
Lastly I will create a new data protection policy, this is a basic 30 days, daily.
This can then be applied to the newly created volume.
Now we can go back to our ESXi hosts and finish the iSCSI configuration.
In the “Devices” tab, you should now see the iSCSI block storage that we previously created.
Select the 5 TB block and create a new data store. - Follow the wizard through to completion.
I will be using the full disk in VMFS version 6, which is the latest available to me.
The new data store is available to my ESXi host, which means I can setup the vCenter appliance directly on my centralised storage.
Download the VCSA iso file and mount it.
Run the VCSA-UI-Installer, I will be using the Win32 version.
I will be selecting the “Install” option for a new installation, but as the screenshot shows we can also upgrade, migrate and restore using this application.
Progress through the wizard until the 3rd step.
Provide the ESXi host information and root credentials.
Give the vCenter appliance a name and set the root password.
In this setup the “Tiny” deployment will be good enough.
I will now select our iSCSI datastore, which is located on the network and available to all of the ESXi hosts.
I have also enabled Thin Disk mode, as my storage will support it.
Lastly configure the vCenter network information.
And now sit back and wait for the installation to complete. - This process can take some time, up to 30 minutes roughly depending on your equipment.
Once the installation has completed we move onto Stage 2.
I will sychronise my time and date with the ESXi hosts, as I have already configured NTP on them.
I will also enable SSH, this is required for vCenter HA.
As this is a new installation I will create a new vCenter server SSO domain.
Lastly I will join the CEIP and complete Stage 2.
Now you are able to log into the vSphere Client.
Lastly I enabled ‘autostart’ for the host and the vCenter appliance, as shown in the screenshot.
Visit the web interface for VCSA via https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5480/ and log in using the root credentials.
Click the “Backup” menu option and configure a new schedule.
Supported protocols include: FTPS, HTTPS, SFTP, FTP, NFS, SMB and HTTP.
How to configure a Windows Server for SFTP - Get started with OpenSSH for Windows
Lets start by creating a new datacenter, right clicking the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) select “New Datacenter”.
Then give it a name or stay with the default of “Datacenter”.
Then right click the datacenter and create a “New Cluster”.
Provide a name for this cluster and set whether you want to enable DRS, HA, vSAN.
Please bare in mind that some of these features are enterprise edition license only, such as DRS.
Now set the ESXi version you want to use for your image.
Once the cluster has been created, we can now add hosts to it.
Using the Quickstart section, after the cluster has been created, we can move onto step 2 adding hosts.
Click the “Add” button to start the wizard.
Populate the fields with your other ESXi hosts, I can use the same credentials for all hosts as I have set them up identical to one another.
As the other hosts are using self-assigned certificates I have to accept them manually.
Edit: I forgot to add my first ESXi host, which was hosting the VCSA. I added this after the fact.
I will not import an image from these hosts.
The final review also mentions about the hosts being placed into maintenance mode before they are moved into the cluster.
A new VM will be created called “vCLS”, this was introduced in vSphere 7 and is for the vSphere Clustering Service.
With the ESXi hosts in maintenance mode, we can now continue onto Step 3 within the Quickstart, configuring the cluster.
As I do not have a real enterprise license I will not be using distributed switches, therefore I will configure networking later.
Within the advanced options there are a few options; vSphere HA, Host Options and Enhanced vMotion Compatibility.
In vSphere HA I have enabled Virtual Machine monitoring.
In host options I have provided a list of NTP servers for the cluster to use.
And lastly I have enabled enhanced vMotion compatibility (EVC) for my server’s CPU generation.
The minimum number of ESXi heartbeat data stores is 2, therefore I needed to create another volume on the Nimble to act as a dummy data store.
Later I will not require this extra data store as I will implement Veeam replicas, with its own data store.
At this point we have a fully working VMware vSphere cluster.
There are three ways to migrate, either:
Advanced Cross vCenter vMotion
Or lastly the manual approach, which I will be performing due to license restrictions.
Add the new storage to the old vSphere
Stop the VMs and Migrate the VM storage per VM
We only need to migrate the storage only.
Move the VM files to the new storage
Register the new VM using the migrated storage
Select the new datacenter and keep the existing VM name.
Select an appropriate ESXi host for the new compute resource.
Note: in the screenshot my ESXi hosts are complaining about only running on a single PSU, this is only a temporary measure.
Review the VM, then start and verify everything is working and then consider removing VM from the old vSphere environment.
As we also run Veeam replication to the DR vSphere cluster, I need to ensure this job has been updated with the new vSphere cluster.
I have already created another block storage and presented it to the vSphere environment.
First step is to add the vCenter Server, this can be completed via the “Inventory” tab, under “Virtual Infrastructure” > “VMware vSphere” and “vCenter Servers”. Right click and “Add Server”, progress through the wizard until completion.
Disable the existing job and create a new Replication job.
Add the virtual machines you wish to replicate.
Next select the new vSphere cluster, resource pool, VM folder and datastore.
Select the repository replica metadata, and I have changed the restore points down to 1.
I have selected a direct transfer, using automatic proxy selection for both the source and target.
To enable application-aware processing we need to provide valid credentials to access the selected virtual machines.
I followed this up with a “Test Now” to verify the success.
Lastly I configured the schedule, which will occur every 3 hours, Monday-Friday and retry upon failure.
Everything that I set out to achieve was completed, and therefore is the end of this article. I hope this helps someone, somehow.