ESX and ESXi Configuration

 

 

ESX and ESXi installable must be installed on supported hardware. Where you have have to install ESX depends on which version of the software you have. If you have ESX or ESXi installable, you must install the software. If you have ESXi Embedded, the software is preinstalled for you by the hardware vendor.

During the ESX installation procedure, you can configure some aspects of the host, such as its host name and IP settings. You can also choose the disk device on which to install the software. During the ESXi installable installation procedure, you can choose the disk device on which to install the software. Further configuration is usually necessary for ESX,ESXi installable and ESXi Embedded.

The administrator username for ESXi host is root. By default, the administrative password is null. If you do not set a root password, you will be unable to log in to the ESXi host with the vsphere client. To set the root password, select “configure password” and press enter. If you receive an error when setting the root password, the password is probably not complex enough. In general, choose a password that is more than eight characters long and that has at least once upper character one lower character and one digit.

Lockdown mode disables all direct root access to ESXi machines. Subsequent local changes to the host much be made using a fully editable AD user account that is logged into vcenter server with the vsphere client or vcli. You can also create a local user account that is defined but the host. By default, no local user accounts exist on the ESXi system. Such accounts can be created only before enabling lockdown mode in vsphere cluent session directly on the ESXi system. The changes to the host are limited to the privileges granted to that user locally on that host. To enable or disable lockdown mode, select Configure Lockdown Mode and press Enter. Choose to enable or disable.

You must setup your ip address before your ESXi host is perational. By default, a DHCP assigned address is configured the ESXi host. To change or configure Basic network settings, use the DCUI or vsphere client. The direct console allow you to change the keyboard layout and the default is English., view support information such as the host’s license serial number and view system logs.

The troubleshooting options allow you to enable you to enable or disable troubleshooting services. By default, they are disabled. The troubleshooting services areL

It’s a good practice to keep troubleshooting services disabled until they are necessary, for example, when you are working with VMware technical support to troubleshoot a problem. The last two setttings on this screen allow you to reset the system configuration to their defaults and remove custom extensions or packages that you added to the host.

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vSphere client allows direct access to an ESX/ESXi host. To login to an ESXi host, provide the hostname, a user account and a password. In most cases, you will logon using ESXi host as the user root. You can also choose “use windows session credentials” check box when you configure AD as the service and you want to login to your ESXi host with AD account. After you login, the vpshere client shows the ESXi host in the left pane. Click the configuration tab to view or configure the host’s hardware and software settings. On the configuration tab, you can view the host’s processor and memory configuration and configure a host’s networking and storage. You can also:

You may view the health of your host’s hardware. If a component is functioning normally, the status indicator is green. The status indicator changes to yellow or red if system component violates a performance threshold or is not functioning properly. Generally, a yellow indicator signifies degraded performance. A red indicator signifies that a component stopped operating or exceeded the highest threshold. If the status is blank, then the health monitoring service cannot determine the status of the component.  In the hardware list of the configuration tab, the processors link allows you to view information about your CPU’s host, such as model, processor speed and number of sockets, cores and more..

Click Memory to view information about the physical memory, such as total size, the amount used for system overhead and amount used for virtual machine overhead. On an ESX host only, you will also see the amount used the service console. On an ESX host, you can change the memory size of the service console is necessary, for example, if you will run one or more management agents. The change takes effect on the next system reboot. The amount of additional memory necessary for the service console depends on the agent software to be run. The maximum size of the service console RAM allocation is 800MB. It is a good practice to configure the service console’s swap partition to 1600MB.

The network time protocol is an internet standard protocol that is used to synchronize computer clock times in a network. The benefits to synchronizing an ESXi host time include:

NTP is a client-server protocol. When you configure the ESXi host to be an NTP client, the host synchronizes its time with an NTP server, which can be a server on the internet.

To configure DNS and routing, click host’s configuration tab and click on the DNS and routing link. The host’s DNS and Routing link allows you to change:

To view ESXi system logs, in the vSphere client menu bar, select View > Administration > system logs.

ESXi have log files hostd.log and messages. These log files contain entries made during the bootup sequence and while the system is up and running. ESX has additional log files vmkernel, vmksummary.txt and vmkwarning. These logs track service console availability : VMkernel alerts, warnings, and messages; and ESX host availability. The log file contents are especially useful to VMware support.

 

 

Managing ESXi from Command-Line

To manage your ESXi host from remote command line, you can use vCLI or vmware vsphere management assistant. vCLI is an application that provides a set of commands that allow you to manage your ESXi host. vCLI commands can connect directly to ESXi host or vcenter system. When vCLI command connects through the vCenter server system, authentication is done using vcenter server system. You may download vMA and vCLI from vmware website.