Mastering VMware vSphere 6. Marshall Nick

From the System Customization menu, select Configure Management Network and press Enter.

      4. From the Configure Management Network menu, select Network Adapters and press Enter.

      5. Use the spacebar to toggle which network adapter or adapters will be used for the system’s management network, as shown in Figure 2.14. Press Enter when finished.

      6. Press Esc to exit the Configure Management Network menu. When prompted to apply changes and restart the management network, press Y.

      After the correct NIC has been assigned to the ESXi management network, the System Customization menu provides a Test Management Network option to verify network connectivity.

      7. Press Esc to log out of the System Customization menu and return to the ESXi home screen.

Figure 2.13 The ESXi home screen provides options for customizing the system and restarting or shutting down the server.

Figure 2.14 In the event the incorrect NIC is assigned to ESXi’s management network, you can select a different NIC.

      The other options within the DCUI for troubleshooting management network issues are covered in detail in Chapter 5.

      At this point, you should have management network connectivity to the ESXi host, and from now on you can use the vSphere Client to perform other configuration tasks, such as configuring time synchronization and name resolution.

      Configuring Time Synchronization

      Time synchronization in ESXi is an important configuration because the ramifications of incorrect time run deep. Although ensuring that ESXi has the correct time seems trivial, time-synchronization issues can affect features such as performance charting, SSH key expirations, NFS access, backup jobs, authentication, and more.

      After the installation of ESXi or during an unattended installation of ESXi using an installation script, the host should be configured to perform time synchronization with a reliable time source. This source could be another server on your network or a time source located on the Internet. For the sake of managing time synchronization, it is easiest (and most secure) to synchronize all your servers against one reliable internal time server and then synchronize the internal time server with a reliable external Internet time server. ESXi provides a Network Time Protocol (NTP) implementation to provide this functionality.

      Automating basic Configuration

      Although configuring Time Synchronization or Name Resolution is quite simple, if your environment has a large number of hosts, configuration can become tedious. These kinds of changes can be scripted. You can find a number of examples on VMware community member blogs.

      The simplest way to configure time synchronization for ESXi involves the vSphere Client. Perform the following steps to enable NTP using the vSphere Desktop Client:

      1. Use the vSphere Desktop Client to connect directly to the ESXi host (or use the vSphere Web Client, if you have vCenter Server running at this point).

      2. Select the hostname from the inventory tree on the left, and then click the Configuration tab in the details pane on the right.

      3. Select Time Configuration from the Software menu.

      4. Click the Properties link.

      5. In the Time Configuration dialog box, select NTP Client Enabled.

      6. Still in the Time Configuration dialog box, click the Options button.

      7. Select the NTP Settings option in the left side of the NTP Daemon (ntpd) Options dialog box, and add one or more NTP servers to the list, as shown in Figure 2.15.

      8. Check the box marked Restart NTP Service To Apply Changes; then click OK.

      9. Click OK to return to the vSphere Client. The Time Configuration area will update to show the new NTP servers.

Figure 2.15 Specifying NTP servers allows ESXi to automatically keep time synchronized.

      You’ll note that using the vSphere Client to enable NTP this way also automatically enables NTP traffic through the firewall. You can verify this by noting an Open Firewall Ports entry in the Tasks pane or by clicking Security Profile under the Software menu and seeing an entry for NTP Client listed under Outgoing Connections.

      Windows as a Reliable Time Server

      You can configure an existing Windows server as a reliable time server by performing these steps:

      1. Use the Group Policy Object Editor to navigate to Administrative Templates System Windows Time Service Time Providers.

      2. Select the Enable Windows NTP Server Group Policy option.

      3. Navigate to Administrative Templates System Windows Time Service.

      4. Double-click the Global Configuration Settings option, and select the Enabled radio button.

      5. Set the AnnounceFlags option to 4.

      6. Click the OK button.

      Configuring Name Resolution

      Just as time synchronization is important for your vSphere environment, so is name resolution. Although the vSphere dependency on name resolution is less than it was, there is still some functionality that may not work as expected without proper name resolution.

      Configuring name resolution is a simple process in the vSphere Client:

      1. Use the vSphere Desktop Client to connect directly to the ESXi host (or the vSphere Web Client, if you have vCenter Server running at this point).

      2. Select the hostname from the inventory tree on the left, and then click the Configuration tab in the details pane on the right.

      3. Select DNS And Routing from the Software menu.

      4. Click the Properties link.

      5. In the DNS And Routing dialog box, add the IP address(s) of your DNS server(s).

      In this chapter I’ve discussed some of the decisions that you’ll have to make as you deploy ESXi in your datacenter, and I’ve shown you how to deploy these products using both interactive and unattended methods. In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to deploy VMware vCenter Server, a key component in your virtualization environment.

      The Bottom Line

      Understand ESXi compatibility requirements. Unlike traditional operating systems like Windows or Linux, ESXi has much stricter hardware compatibility requirements. This helps ensure a stable, well-tested product line that can support even the most mission-critical applications.

      Master It You have some older servers onto which you’d like to deploy ESXi. They aren’t on the Compatibility Guide. Will they work with ESXi?

      Plan an ESXi deployment. Deploying ESXi will affect many different areas of your organization – not only the server team but also the networking team, the storage team, and the security team. There are many issues to consider, including server hardware, storage hardware, storage protocols or connection types, network topology, and network connections. Failing to plan properly could result in an unstable and unsupported implementation.

      Master It Name three areas of networking that must be considered in a vSphere design.

      Master It What are some of the different types of storage that ESXi can be installed on?

      Deploy ESXi. ESXi