Basic VMWare Question

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
Posts
20,179
In the future we are looking at changing to VMWare and using vSphere, with maybe 4 servers with ESXi on. At the moment I am just about to test VMWare and know very little about it other than the following (which may or may not be 100% correct)...

VMware ESXi - Install this onto a blank server. Acts as resources

vCenter Server - Central administrator for ESX/ESXi hosts connected on
a network. Used to created a cluster of ESXi hosts where the resources are linked

vSphere Client - Installs on a Windows machine and is the primary method of interaction with VMware vSphere. The vSphere Client acts as a console to operate virtual machines and as an administration interface into the vCenter Server systems
and ESX hosts.


At the moment my test setup is as follows...

HP Proliant DL120, 4GB RAM. VMware vSphere Client and vCenter server installed
I planned on putting ESXi on an old dell workstation but I now see it needs at least 2gb ram amongst other hardware. So I will move ESXi to the DL120 and install vCenter Server and vSphere on a workstation if possible

Can vSphere be installed and work correctly on the same machine as vCenter Server?

I have just been reading the following documentation

"After you install vCenter Server and the vSphere Client, you can configure communication between them. This chapter includes the following topics:..."
 
Thanks for the help.

Thats where i'm getting confused, I installed vSphere on the Server and presumed it was just vSphere client. When it really is vCenter too, right?

HA and DRS on enabled on the cluster i have created. My next stage is to get a hypervisitor setup, but i think i might have to put the hypervisitor on the server and install vShere on an old workstation (which probably wont install anyway as it will need 2gb ram % other hardware)

I was reading this article yesterday. Seems you can just about do anything on virtual hardware. This is where it gets even more complicated...

VMware ESX 4 can even virtualize itself

http://www.vcritical.com/2009/05/vmware-esx-4-can-even-virtualize-itself/
 
Yep on vSphere client i can see VMWare vCenter server 4.0.0.
When I right click on the cluster and go to edit settings I have HA and DRS both ticket.

Next step is to get ESXi on a machine I suppose. I'll report back when this is done

Because I am working with little resources here, I will probably go down the router you mentioned. I.e - Wipe the DL120 machine with vSphere on, install ESXi on the Proliant DL120 then setup a virtual machine for vSphere, then put the client on another machine.

Or do you also run the client from the virtual machine with the ESXi machine?

Thanks for the help
 
Last edited:
Really?

Looking my mates setup at his work, hes got the main vCenter then 4 ESX servers linked to make one cluster. Then hanging off the 4 ESX servers are another 12 odd virtual servers.

I thought you just need to setup the ESX/ESXi servers on the same network as the vSphere/vCenter installed then add a host from the wizard and select the ESXi server. Whats all this about SAN and vMotion?

On vSphere...

Select cluster > add a host > enter ip address of host to add to vCenter > press Next...???
 
I thought the cluster is just a group of hosts where the hosts resources become part of the cluster. So if we have 4 servers we need to pool their resources for the VMs to share.

I read that it enables HA and DRS but cant find anything about vMotion or SAN mentioned, at least in the wazard and cluster options

Ta
 
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