CONFIGURING AND MANAGING VM'S

                                              Configuring and managing VM

What are virtual machine files-?

.VMX  –Configuration File

.VMFX -Additional Configuration File

.VMTX –Template File

.NVRAM  -BIOS/EFI Configuration

.VSWP   -Swap file

.LOG    -Current Log file

##.LOG  -Old log file

.VMDK  -Virtual Disk Descriptor

-FLAT.VMDK  -Data Disk

-RDM.VMDK  -Raw Device Mapping File

-DELTA.VMDK –Snapshot Disk

.VMSD  -Snapshot Description File

.VMSN  -Snapshot State

.VMSS  -Suspand File

What is the size limit of virtual hard disk for a VM-

6.x, 5.5  -62TB

5.1 , 5   -2TB

What are the virtual NIC types in VMware  vSphare 5-

E1000         –Intel GigaBit Ethernet        Modern

Vlance Flexable - Emulated AMD PCnet32 10 Mbps NIC,  for 32bit OS

VMXNET2     -Jumbo Frames, Hardware Offlods

VMXNET3     -Latest paravirtualized driver, multiqueue support, IPv6 

                 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery

What are the Virtual Machine SCSI Controllers supported in windows-

(i)           Bus Logic Parallel –Windows 2000

(ii)          LSI Logic Parallel –Windows 2003

(iii)         LSI Logic SAS   -Windows 2008

What is the disk provisioning option available when creating VM-

A.    Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed

B.    Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

C.    Thin Provision

Describe disk provisioning-

Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed:-  All space allocated at creation but not pre-zeroed. A 40 GB virtual disk means a 40 GB VMDK flat file.

Thick Provision Eager Zeroed:-  All space allocated at creation and pre-zeroed. Required in Fault Tolerance (FT). A 40 GB virtual disk means a 40 GB VMDK flat file.

Thin Provision:-  Space allocated on demand. The VMDK flat file will grow depending on the amount of data actually stored in it, up to the maximum size specified for the virtual hard disk.

What are the ways a VM can handle optical media file-

X)    Client Devices attached CD/DVD

Y)    Host Devices attached CD/DVD

Z)    Datastore ISO File

What is the number of cores available in VM hardware versions 7, 8 and 9-

VM-hardware 10    Esxi-5.5x      64

VM-hardware 9     Esxi-5.1x       32

VM-hardware 8     Esxi-5.0x       8  

What are the advantages of installing VMware tools-

      l Optimized SCSI driver

      l Enhanced video and mouse drivers

      l VM heartbeat (HA)

l VM quiescing for snapshots and backups

l Enhanced memory management (Memory Ballooning etc.)

lVM focus- you are able to move into and out of VM consoles easily

                                         without using the Ctrl+Alt.

Where are VMware tools ‘ISO’ found-In ESXi host check “/vmimages/toolsisoimages” directory by using ESXi shell only.

What is Virtual Machine Snapshots- Ability to create point-in-time checkpoints of a VM. Snapshot preserve captured state of a VM at a specific point in time so that we can revert back.

Why VMDK file is known as deltadisk- Every time you take a snapshot a new .vmdk file is created and when you add data to the VM..... not the original vmdk but the new vmdk file that is created after snapshot... grows. That’s why it is called a 'delta disk' or a 'differencing disk' because it does not stores entire hard disk of the VM. It stores only the changes or differencing disk space after creating snapshot.

Common issues why snapshot fails-If you configure mapped LUN’s as physical then you need to remove it to take snapshot. Physical mode RDM not supported in snapshot.

Snapshots of powered-on or suspended virtual machines with independent disks are not supported.

What are the settings that are taken in to consideration when we initiate snapshot-

VM configuration (what hardware is attached to)

State of VM’s hard disk file (To revert back if needed)

State of VM.s memory (If it is On)