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vSphere Virtual Machine
Administration
Update 1
ESXi 6.0
vCenter Server 6.0
This document supports the version of each product listed and
supports all subsequent versions until the document is
replaced by a new edition. To check for more recent editions
of this document, see http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
EN-001887-03
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
2 VMware, Inc.
You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on the VMware Web site at:
http://www.vmware.com/support/
The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.
If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to:
docfeedback@vmware.com
Copyright © 2009–2016 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright and trademark information.
VMware, Inc.
3401 Hillview Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
www.vmware.com
Contents
About vSphere Virtual Machine Administration 7
Updated Information 9
1Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual Machines 11
What Is a Virtual Machine? 11
Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure 12
Virtual Machine Lifecycle 13
Virtual Machine Components 13
Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines 13
Virtual Machine Options and Resources 15
vSphere Web Client 16
Introduction to VMware Tools 17
Where to Go From Here 17
2Deploying Virtual Machines 19
About Provisioning Virtual Machines 19
Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone 20
Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template 26
Clone a Virtual Machine 32
Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client 38
Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client 42
Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine 45
Customizing Guest Operating Systems 47
3Deploying OVF Templates 63
OVF File Format and OVF Templates 63
Deploy an OVF Template in the vSphere Web Client 64
Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace 67
Export an OVF Template 68
4Using Content Libraries 71
Create a Library 73
Synchronize a Subscribed Library 74
Edit the Settings of a Local Library 74
Edit the Settings of a Subscribed Library 75
Delete a Content Library 76
Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries 76
Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries 78
Populating Libraries with Content 78
Working with Items in a Library 81
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Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content Library 84
5Installing the Microsoft Sysprep Tool 87
Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from a Microsoft Web Site 87
Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from the Windows Operating System CD 88
6Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware 89
Virtual Machine Compatibility 89
Virtual CPU Configuration 95
Virtual Memory Configuration 101
Network Virtual Machine Configuration 103
Parallel and Serial Port Configuration 107
Virtual Disk Configuration 115
SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility 125
Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration 130
Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual machines with 3D graphics Option 139
USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine 139
USB Configuration from a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine 146
Add a Shared Smart Card Reader to Virtual Machines 152
7Configuring Virtual Machine Options 153
Virtual Machine Option Overview 153
Change the Virtual Machine Name 154
View the Virtual Machine Configuration and Working File Location 155
Change the Configured Guest Operating System 155
Configuring User Mappings on Guest Operating Systems 155
Change the Virtual Machine Console Options for Remote Users 157
Configure the Virtual Machine Power States 157
Configure Virtual Machines to Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools 158
Manage Power Management Settings for a Virtual Machine 159
Delay the Boot Sequence 160
Disable Virtual Machine Acceleration 160
Enable Virtual Machine Logging 160
Configure Virtual Machine Debugging and Statistics 161
Change the Swap File Location 161
Edit Configuration File Parameters 162
Configure Fibre Channel NPIV Settings 162
8Managing Multi-Tiered Applications with vSphere vApp 165
Create a vApp 165
Create a Virtual Machine, Resource Pool, or Child vApp Inside a vApp 167
Add Virtual Machine or Child vApp to a vApp 167
Edit vApp Settings 167
Clone a vApp 172
Perform vApp Power Operations 173
Edit vApp Notes 174
Add a Network Protocol Profile 174
Virtual Machine vApp Options 178
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9Monitoring Solutions with the vCenter Solutions Manager 183
View Solutions and vServices 183
Monitoring Agents 184
Monitoring vServices 184
10 Managing Virtual Machines 185
Edit Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown Settings 185
Install the Client Integration Plug-In 187
Using a Virtual Machine Remote Console 187
Open the HTML 5 Remote Console 188
Install the VMware Remote Console Application 188
Using the VMware Remote Console Application 189
Adding and Removing Virtual Machines 189
Change the Template Name 191
Deleting Templates 191
Using Snapshots To Manage Virtual Machines 192
11 VMware Tools Components, Configuration Options, and Security
Requirements 203
Components of VMware Tools 203
Repairing, Changing, and Uninstalling VMware Tools Components 207
Security Considerations for Configuring VMware Tools 209
Using vmwtool to Configure VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine 212
Using the VMware Tools Configuration Utility 213
12 Upgrading Virtual Machines 225
Upgrading VMware Tools 226
Installing VMware Tools 227
Planning Downtime for Virtual Machines 229
Downtime for Upgrading Virtual Machines 229
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine 230
Automate VMware Tools Installation for Multiple Windows Virtual Machines 232
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine 236
Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems 238
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Mac OS X Virtual Machine 239
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Solaris Virtual Machine 240
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine 241
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Virtual Machine 243
Upgrade VMware Tools 244
Perform an Automatic Upgrade of VMware Tools 245
Upgrade the Compatibility for Virtual Machines 246
Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for Virtual Machines 247
13 Required Privileges for Common Tasks 249
Index 253
Contents
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About vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration describes how to create, configure, and manage virtual machines in
the VMware vSphere® environment.
In addition, this information provides introductions to the tasks that you can do within the system as well as
cross-references to the information that describes the tasks.
This information focuses on managing virtual machines in the VMware vSphere Web Client and includes
the following information.
nCreating and deploying virtual machines, templates, and clones
nDeploying OVF templates
nConfiguring virtual machine hardware and options
nManaging multitiered applications with VMware vSphere vApp
nMonitoring solutions with the vCenter Solution Manager
nManaging virtual machines, including using snapshots
nConfiguring and installing VMware tools
nUpgrading virtual machines
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration covers VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server™.
Intended Audience
This information is written for experienced Windows or Linux system administrators who are familiar with
virtualization.
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Updated Information
This vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide is updated with each release of the product or when
necessary.
This table provides the update history of the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration guide.
Revision Description
EN-001887-03 Added information about the guest Introspection drivers. See “VMware Tools Device Drivers,”
on page 204 and “Names of VMware Tools Components Used in Silent Installations,” on page 234.
EN-001887-02 nAdded a new topic about the HTML 5 Remote console to a virtual machine. See “Open the HTML 5
Remote Console,” on page 188.
nUpdated information about the virtual machine remote consoles. See “Using a Virtual Machine
Remote Console,” on page 187.
nUpdated requirements for upgrading the virtual machine compatibility. See “Upgrade the
Compatibility for Virtual Machines,” on page 246.
EN-001887-01 nRemoved Datastore.Allocate space privilege from privileges required to take a virtual machine
snapshot. See Chapter 13, “Required Privileges for Common Tasks,” on page 249.
nUpdated procedure for using the VMware Remote Console. See “Using the VMware Remote Console
Application,” on page 189.
nEnhanced the topic about using content libraries to reflect that a published and a subscribed library
do not necessarily need to belong to vCenter Server instances that are in the same vCenter Single-
Sign On domain. See Chapter 4, “Using Content Libraries,” on page 71.
EN-001887-00 Initial release.
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Introduction to VMware vSphere
Virtual Machines 1
Before you start creating and managing virtual machines, you benefit from some background information,
for example, the virtual machine lifecycle, components, and VMware Tools.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“What Is a Virtual Machine?,” on page 11
n“Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure,” on page 12
n“Virtual Machine Lifecycle,” on page 13
n“Virtual Machine Components,” on page 13
n“Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines,” on page 13
n“Virtual Machine Options and Resources,” on page 15
n“vSphere Web Client,” on page 16
n“Introduction to VMware Tools,” on page 17
n“Where to Go From Here,” on page 17
What Is a Virtual Machine?
A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and
applications. The virtual machine consists of a set of specification and configuration files and is backed by
the physical resources of a host. Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same
functionality as physical hardware are more portable, more secure, and easier to manage.
A virtual machine consists of several files that are stored on a storage device. The key files are the
configuration file, virtual disk file, NVRAM setting file, and log file. You configure virtual machine settings
through the vSphere Web Client, one of the vSphere command-line interfaces (PowerCLI, vCLI) or the
vSphere Web Services SDK.
CAUTION Do not change, move, or delete virtual machine files without instructions from a VMware
Technical Support representative.
Table 1‑1. Virtual Machine Files
File Usage Description
.vmx vmname.vmx Virtual machine configuration file
.vmxf vmname.vmxf Additional virtual machine configuration files
.vmdk vmname.vmdk Virtual disk characteristics
-flat.vmdk vmname-flat.vmdk Virtual machine data disk
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Table 1‑1. Virtual Machine Files (Continued)
File Usage Description
.nvram vmname.nvram or nvram Virtual machine BIOS or EFI configuration
.vmsd vmname.vmsd Virtual machine snapshots
.vmsn vmname.vmsn Virtual machine snapshot data file
.vswp vmname.vswp Virtual machine swap file
.vmss vmname.vmss Virtual machine suspend file
.log vmware.log Current virtual machine log file
-#.log vmware-#.log (where # is a number
starting with 1)
Old virtual machine log files
Virtual Machines and the Virtual Infrastructure
The infrastructure that supports virtual machines consists of at least two software layers, virtualization and
management. In vSphere, ESXi provides the virtualization capabilities that aggregate and present the host
hardware to virtual machines as a normalized set of resources. Virtual machines can run on ESXi hosts that
vCenter Server manages.
vCenter Server lets you pool and manage the resources of multiple hosts and lets you effectively monitor
and manage your physical and virtual infrastructure. You can manage resources for virtual machines,
provision virtual machines, schedule tasks, collect statistics logs, create templates, and more. vCenter Server
also provides vSphere vMotion ™, vSphere Storage vMotion, vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler
(DRS), vSphere High Availability (HA), and vSphere Fault Tolerance. These services enable efficient and
automated resource management and high availability for virtual machines.
The VMware vSphere Web Client is the interface to vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines. With
the vSphere Web Client, you can connect remotely to vCenter Server. The vSphere Web Client is the
primary interface for managing all aspects of the vSphere environment. It also provides console access to
virtual machines.
NOTE For information about running virtual machines on an isolated ESXi host, see the vSphere Single Host
Management documentation.
The vSphere Web Client presents the organizational hierarchy of managed objects in inventory views.
Inventories are the hierarchal structure used by vCenter Server or the host to organize managed objects.
This hierarchy includes the monitored objects in vCenter Server.
In the vCenter Server hierarchy, a data center is the primary container of ESXi hosts, folders, clusters,
resource pools, vSphere vApps, virtual machines, and so on.
Datastores are virtual representations of underlying physical storage resources in the data center. A
datastore is the storage location (for example, a physical disk or LUN on a RAID, or a SAN) for virtual
machine files. Datastores hide the idiosyncrasies of the underlying physical storage and present a uniform
model for the storage resources required by virtual machines.
For some resources, options, or hardware to be available to virtual machines, the host must have the
appropriate vSphere license. Licensing in vSphere is applicable to ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and solutions.
Licensing can be based on different criteria, depending on the specifics of each product. For details about
vSphere licensing, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.
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Virtual Machine Lifecycle
You create and deploy virtual machines into your datacenter in a several ways. You can create a single
virtual machine and install a guest operating system and VMware Tools on it. You can clone or create a
template from an existing virtual machine, or deploy OVF templates.
The vSphere Web Client New Virtual Machine wizard and Virtual Machine Properties editor let you add,
configure, or remove most of the virtual machine's hardware, options, and resources. You monitor CPU,
memory, disk, network, and storage metrics using the performance charts in the vSphere Web Client.
Snapshots let you capture the state of the virtual machine, including the virtual machine memory, settings,
and virtual disks. You can roll back to the previous virtual machine state when needed.
With vSphere vApps, you can manage multitiered applications. You use vSphere Update Manager to
perform orchestrated upgrades to upgrade the virtual hardware and VMware Tools of virtual machines in
the inventory at the same time.
When a virtual machine is no longer needed, you can remove it from the inventory without deleting it from
the datastore, or you can delete the virtual machine and all its files.
Virtual Machine Components
Virtual machines typically have an operating system, VMware Tools, and virtual resources and hardware
that you manage in much the same way as you would manage a physical computer.
You install a guest operating system on a virtual machine the same way as you install an operating system
on a physical computer. You must have a CD/DVD-ROM or ISO image containing the installation files from
an operating system vendor.
VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating
system and improves management of the virtual machine. With VMware Tools, you have more control over
the virtual machine interface.
In the vSphere Web Client, you assign each virtual machine to a compatible ESXi host version, cluster, or
datacenter by applying a compatibility setting. The compatibility setting determines which ESXi host
versions the virtual machine can run on and the hardware features available to the virtual machine.
The hardware devices listed in the Virtual Machine Properties editor complete the virtual machine. Not all
devices are configurable. Some hardware devices are part of the virtual motherboard and appear in the
expanded device list of the Virtual Machine Properties editor, but you cannot modify or remove them. For a
list of hardware devices and their functions, see “Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual
Machines,” on page 13.
Access to a virtual machine is controlled by the vSphere administrator.
Virtual Machine Hardware Available to vSphere Virtual Machines
VMware provides devices, resources, profiles, and vServices that you can configure or add to your virtual
machine.
Virtual Machine Hardware
Not all hardware devices are available to every virtual machine. The host that the virtual machine runs on
and the guest operating system must support devices that you add or configurations that you make. To
verify support for a device in your environment, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility or the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at
http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.
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In some cases, the host might not have the required vSphere license for a resource or device. Licensing in
vSphere is applicable to ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, and solutions and can be based on different criteria,
depending on the specifics of each product. For information about vSphere licensing, see the vCenter Server
and Host Management documentation.
The PCI and SIO virtual hardware devices are part of the virtual motherboard, but cannot be configured or
removed.
Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions
Hardware Device Description
CPU You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host to have one or
more virtual processors. A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than
the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. You can change the number of
CPUs allocated to a virtual machine and configure advanced CPU features,
such as the CPU Identification Mask and hyperthreaded core sharing.
Chipset The motherboard uses VMware proprietary devices based on the following
chips:
nIntel 440BX AGPset 82443BX Host Bridge/Controller
nIntel 82371AB (PIIX4) PCI ISA IDE Xcelerator
nNational Semiconductor PC87338 ACPI 1.0 and PC98/99 Compliant
SuperI/O
nIntel 82093AA I/O Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
DVD/CD-ROM Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine. You can
configure DVD/CD-ROM devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or
datastore ISO files. You can add, remove, or configure DVD/CD-ROM devices.
Floppy Drive Installed by default when you create a new vSphere virtual machine. You can
connect to a floppy drive located on the ESXi host, a floppy (.flp) image, or the
floppy drive on your local system. You can add, remove, or configure floppy
devices.
Hard Disk Stores the virtual machine's operating system, program files, and other data
associated with its activities. A virtual disk is a large physical file, or a set of
files, that can be copied, moved, archived, and backed up as easily as any other
file.
IDE 0, IDE 1 By default, two Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interfaces are presented to
the virtual machine. The IDE interface (controller) is a standard way for storage
devices (Floppy drives, hard drives and CD-ROM drives) to connect to the
virtual machine.
Keyboard Mirrors the keyboard that is connected to the virtual machine console when you
first connect to the console.
Memory The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory applications
that are running inside the virtual machine have available to them. A virtual
machine cannot benefit from more memory resources than its configured
virtual hardware memory size.
Network Adapter ESXi networking features provide communication between virtual machines on
the same host, between virtual machines on different hosts, and between other
virtual and physical machines. When you configure a virtual machine, you can
add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.
Parallel port Interface for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual parallel
port can connect to a file. You can add, remove, or configure virtual parallel
ports.
PCI controller Bus on the virtual machine motherboard that communicates with components
such as hard disks and other devices. One PCI controller is presented to the
virtual machine. You cannot configure or remove this device.
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Table 1‑2. Virtual Machine Hardware and Descriptions (Continued)
Hardware Device Description
PCI Device You can add up to 16 PCI vSphere DirectPath devices to a virtual machine. The
devices must be reserved for PCI passthrough on the host on which the virtual
machine runs. Snapshots are not supported with DirectPath I/O passthrough
devices.
Pointing device Mirrors the pointing device that is connected to the virtual machine console
when you first connect to the console.
Serial Port Interface for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual serial
port can connect to a physical serial port, to a file on the host computer, or over
the network. You can also use it to establish a direct connection between two
virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application
on the host computer. You can configure a virtual machine with up to 32 serial
ports. You can add, remove, or configure virtual serial ports.
SATA controller Provides access to virtual disks and DVD/CD-ROM devices. The SATA virtual
controller appears to a virtual machine as an AHCI SATA Controller.
SCSI controller Provides access to virtual disks. The SCSI virtual controller appears to a virtual
machine as different types of controllers, including LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic
SAS, and VMware Paravirtual. You can change the SCSI controller type, allocate
bus sharing for a virtual machine, or add a paravirtualized SCSI controller.
SCSI device By default, a SCSI device interface is available to the virtual machine. The SCSI
interface is a typical way to connect storage devices (floppy drives, hard drives,
and DVD/CD-ROMs) to a virtual machine. You can add, remove, or configure
SCSI devices.
SIO controller Provides serial and parallel ports, floppy devices, and performs system
management activities. One SIO controller is available to the virtual machine.
You cannot configure or remove this device.
USB controller The USB hardware chip that provides USB function to the USB ports that it
manages. The virtual USB Controller is the software virtualization of the USB
host controller function in the virtual machine.
USB device You can add multiple USB devices, such as security dongles and mass storage
devices, to a virtual machine. The USB devices can be connected to an ESXi host
or a client computer.
VMCI Virtual Machine Communication Interface device. Provides a high-speed
communication channel between a virtual machine and the hypervisor. You
cannot add or remove VMCI devices.
Virtual Machine Options and Resources
Each virtual device performs the same function for the virtual machine as hardware on a physical computer
does.
A virtual machine might be running in any of several locations, such as ESXi hosts, datacenters, clusters, or
resource pools. Many of the options and resources that you configure have dependencies on and
relationships with these objects.
Every virtual machine has CPU, memory, and disk resources. CPU virtualization emphasizes performance
and runs directly on the processor whenever possible. The underlying physical resources are used whenever
possible. The virtualization layer runs instructions only as needed to make virtual machines operate as if
they were running directly on a physical machine.
All recent operating systems provide support for virtual memory, allowing software to use more memory
than the machine physically has. Similarly, the ESXi hypervisor provides support for overcommitting
virtual machine memory, where the amount of guest memory configured for all virtual machines might be
larger than the amount of the host's physical memory.
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You can add virtual disks and add more space to existing disks, even when the virtual machine is running.
You can also change the device node and allocate shares of disk bandwidth to the virtual machine.
VMware virtual machines have the following options:
General Options View or modify the virtual machine name, and check the location of the
configuration file and the working location of the virtual machine.
VMware Tools Manage the power controls for the virtual machine and run VMware Tools
scripts. You can also upgrade VMware Tools during power cycling and
synchronize guest time with the host.
Advanced Options Disable acceleration and enable logging, configure debugging and statistics,
and change the swap file location. You can also change the latency sensitivity
and add configuration parameters.
Power Management Manage guest power options. Suspend the virtual machine or leave the
virtual machine powered on when you put the guest operating system into
standby.
CPUID Mask Hide or expose the NX/XD flag. Hiding the NX/XD flag increases vMotion
compatibility between hosts.
Memory/CPU Hotplug Enable or disable CPU and memory hotplug. You can add Memory or CPU
resources to a virtual machine while the virtual machine is running. You can
disable Memory or CPU hotplug to avoid adding memory or CPUs while the
virtual machine is running. Memory hotplug is supported on all 64 bit
operating systems, but to use the added memory, the guest operating system
must also support this feature. See the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
Boot Options Set the boot delay when powering on virtual machines or to force BIOS setup
and configure failed boot recovery.
Fibre Channel NPIV Control virtual machine access to LUNs on a per-virtual machine basis. N-
port ID virtualization (NPIV) provides the ability to share a single physical
Fibre Channel HBA port among multiple virtual ports, each with unique
identifiers.
vApp Options Enable or disable vApp functionality. When you select the checkbox, you can
view and edit vApp properties, vApp Deployment options, and vApp
Authoring options. For example, you can configure an IP allocation policy or
a network protocol profile for the vApp. A vApp option that is specified at
the level of a virtual machine overrides the settings specified at the level of
the vApp.
vSphere Web Client
All administrative functions are available through the vSphere Web Client.
The vSphere Web Client is a cross platform application that can connect only to vCenter Server. It has a full
range of administrative functionality and an extensible plug-in-based architecture. Typical users are virtual
infrastructure administrators, help desk, network operations center operators, and virtual machine owners.
Users can use the vSphere Web Client to access vCenter Server through a Web browser. The
vSphere Web Client uses the VMware API to mediate the communication between the browser and the
vCenter Server.
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Introduction to VMware Tools
VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that you install in the operating system of a virtual machine.
VMware Tools enhances the performance of a virtual machine and makes possible many of the ease-of-use
features in VMware products. For example, the following features are just some of the features that are
available only if VMware Tools is installed:
nSignificantly faster graphics performance and Windows Aero on operating systems that support Aero
nThe Unity feature, which enables an application in a virtual machine to appear on the host desktop like
any other application window
nShared folders between host and guest file systems
nCopying and pasting text, graphics, and files between the virtual machine and the host or client desktop
nImproved mouse performance
nSynchronization of the clock in the virtual machine with the clock on the host or client desktop
nScripting that helps automate guest operating system operations
nRuns pre-freeze and post-thaw quiescing scripts
nEnables capturing quiesced snapshots of guest operating systems
nPeriodically collects network, disk, and memory usage information from the guest operating system
and sends it to ESXi hosts.
nSends a heartbeat to each virtual machine every second and collects guest heartbeat information from
guest operating systems. VMware HA uses the heartbeat information to determine virtual machine
availability.
nTransports the OVF environment to guest operating systems using the guest OS environment variable
guestinfo.ovfEnv that contains the XML document.
Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, many VMware features are not
available until you install VMware Tools. For example, if you do not have VMware Tools installed in your
virtual machine, you cannot get heartbeat information from guest operating systems or cannot use the
shutdown or restart options from the toolbar. You can only use the power options and you have to shut
down your guest operating systems from each virtual machine console. You cannot use VMware Tools for
connecting and disconnecting virtual devices, and shrinking virtual disks.
VMware highly recommends that you always run the latest version of VMware Tools. You can configure
your virtual machines to automatically check for and apply VMware Tools upgrades each time you power
on your virtual machines. For information about enabling automatic upgrade of VMware Tools on your
virtual machines, see the “Configure Virtual Machines to Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools,”
on page 158 topic.
The installation procedure varies, depending on the operating system. For information about installing or
upgrading VMware Tools on your guest operating systems, see the Upgrading Virtual Machines chapter. For
general instructions about installing VMware Tools, see the VMware Knowledge base article at
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014294.
Where to Go From Here
You must create, provision, and deploy your virtual machines before you can manage them.
To begin provisioning virtual machines, determine whether to create a single virtual machine and install an
operating system and VMware tools, work with templates and clones, or deploy virtual machines, virtual
appliances, or vApps stored in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF).
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After you provision and deploy virtual machines into the vSphere infrastructure, you can configure and
manage them. You can configure existing virtual machines by modifying or adding hardware or install or
upgrade VMware Tools. You might need to manage multitiered applications with VMware vApps or
change virtual machine startup and shutdown settings, use virtual machine snapshots, work with virtual
disks, or add, remove, or delete virtual machines from the inventory.
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Deploying Virtual Machines 2
To deploy virtual machines in the vCenter Server inventory, you can deploy from a template, create a
virtual machine, or clone an existing virtual machine.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“About Provisioning Virtual Machines,” on page 19
n“Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone,” on page 20
n“Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template,” on page 26
n“Clone a Virtual Machine,” on page 32
n“Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 38
n“Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 42
n“Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine,” on page 45
n“Customizing Guest Operating Systems,” on page 47
About Provisioning Virtual Machines
VMware provides several methods to provision vSphere virtual machines. The optimal method for your
environment depends on factors such as the size and type of your infrastructure and the goals that you want
to achieve.
Create a single virtual machine if no other virtual machines in your environment have the requirements you
are looking for, such as a particular operating system or hardware configuration. For example, you might
need a virtual machine that is configured only for testing purposes. You can also create a single virtual
machine and install an operating system on it, and then use that virtual machine as a template from which
to clone other virtual machines. See “Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone,” on page 20.
Deploy and export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps stored in Open Virtual Machine Format
(OVF) to use a preconfigured virtual machine. A virtual appliance is a virtual machine that typically has an
operating system and other software installed. You can deploy virtual machines from local file systems,
such as local disks (for example, C:), removable media (for example, CDs or USB keychain drives), and
shared network drives. See Chapter 3, “Deploying OVF Templates,” on page 63.
Create a template to deploy multiple virtual machines from. A template is a master copy of a virtual
machine that you can use to create and provision virtual machines. Use templates to save time. If you have a
virtual machine that you will clone frequently, make that virtual machine a template. See “Deploy a Virtual
Machine from a Template,” on page 26.
Cloning a virtual machine can save time if you are deploying many similar virtual machines. You can create,
configure, and install software on a single virtual machine. You can clone it multiple times, rather than
creating and configuring each virtual machine individually. See “Clone a Virtual Machine,” on page 32.
VMware, Inc. 19
Cloning a virtual machine to a template preserves a master copy of the virtual machine so that you can
create additional templates. For example, you can create one template, modify the original virtual machine
by installing additional software in the guest operating system, and create another template. See Clone a
Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client.
Create a Virtual Machine Without a Template or Clone
You can create a single virtual machine if no other virtual machines in your environment have the
requirements you are looking for, such as a particular operating system or hardware configuration. When
you create a virtual machine without a template or clone, you can configure the virtual hardware, including
processors, hard disks, and memory.
During the creation process a default disk is configured for the virtual machine. You can remove this disk
and add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM disk on the Customize hardware page of
the wizard.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Inventory.Create new on the destination folder or datacenter.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are
adding a new disk.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Add existing disk on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are
adding an existing disk.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Raw device on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are using a
RDM or SCSI pass-through device.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Host USB device on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are
attaching a virtual USB device backed by a host USB device.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Advanced on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are
configuring advanced virtual machine settings.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Swapfile placement on the destination folder or datacenter, if you are
configuring swapfile placement.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Disk change tracking on the destination folder or datacenter, if you
are enabling change tracking on the virtual machine's disks.
nResource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
nDatastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.
nNetwork.Assign network on the network that the virtual machine will be assigned to.
To verify the privileges assigned to your role, see the Required Privileges for Common Tasks topic in the
vSphere Security documentation.
Procedure
1Start the New Virtual Machine Creation Process on page 21
If you need a single virtual machine with a particular operating system and hardware configuration,
you create a new virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in
the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine.
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20 VMware, Inc.
2Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 22
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes
it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up
to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on
your organizational needs.
3Select a Resource on page 22
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
4Select a Datastore on page 22
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all
of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other
properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected.
5Select the Virtual Machine Compatibility on page 23
You can accept the default ESXi host version for this virtual machine or select a different version,
depending on the hosts in your environment.
6Select a Guest Operating System on page 23
The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs
available for the virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine wizard does not install the guest
operating system. The wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the
amount of memory needed.
7Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 24
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware.
When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device
drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or
add an RDM disk.
8Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 24
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
9Installing a Guest Operating System on page 24
A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools.
Installing a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a
physical computer.
Start the New Virtual Machine Creation Process
If you need a single virtual machine with a particular operating system and hardware configuration, you
create a new virtual machine. You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the
inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a datacenter,
folder, cluster, resource pool, or host, and select New Virtual Machine.
2 Select Create a new virtual machine and click Next.
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Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it
from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80
characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your
organizational needs.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set
permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter
and organize them a different way.
The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For
example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk,
win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do
not change.
Procedure
1 Type a name for the virtual machine.
2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.
If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take
advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.
If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the
problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
Select a Datastore
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of
the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The
available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected.
On the Customize hardware page, you can configure the storage. For example, you can add a new hard
disk, apply a Virtual machine storage policy, or place the configuration and disk files on separate storage
devices.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
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22 VMware, Inc.
Procedure
uSelect the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files.
Option Action
Store all virtual machine files in the
same location on a datastore.
Select a datastore and click Next.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a Select a datastore cluster.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
c Click Next.
Select the Virtual Machine Compatibility
You can accept the default ESXi host version for this virtual machine or select a different version, depending
on the hosts in your environment.
The default compatibility for this virtual machine is determined by the host on which the virtual machine is
created or by the default compatibility settings on the host, cluster, or datacenter. You can select a different
compatibility from the default.
Only host versions that are in your environment appear in the Compatible with drop-down menu. For
information about choices and compatibility strategies, see “Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 89.
Procedure
uSelect the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click Next.
Select a Guest Operating System
The guest operating system that you select affects the supported devices and number of virtual CPUs
available for the virtual machine. The New Virtual Machine wizard does not install the guest operating
system. The wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the amount of
memory needed.
For details, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
When you select a guest operating system, BIOS or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is selected by
default, depending on the firmware supported by the operating system. Mac OS X Server guest operating
systems support only EFI. If the operating system supports BIOS and EFI, you can change the default from
the Options tab of the Virtual Machine Properties editor after you create the virtual machine and before you
install the guest operating system. If you select EFI, you cannot boot an operating system that supports only
BIOS, and the reverse.
IMPORTANT Do not change the firmware after the guest operating system is installed. The guest operating
system installer partitions the disk in a particular format, depending on which firmware the installer was
booted from. If you change the firmware, you will not be able to boot the guest.
The Mac OS X Server must run on Apple hardware. You cannot power on a Mac OS X Server if it is running
on other hardware.
Procedure
1 Select the guest operating system family from the Guest OS Family drop-down menu.
2 Select a guest operating system version from the Guest OS Version drop-down menu.
3 If you selected Other as the guest operating system family, and Other (32-bit) or Other (64-bit) for the
version, type a name for the operating system in the text box.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
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4 Click Next.
Customize Virtual Machine Hardware
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you
create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down
menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM
disk.
For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks,
see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware,” on page 89.
Procedure
1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down
menu and click Add.
2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.
3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.
This icon appears only for virtual hardware that you can safely remove.
4 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Creation
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Procedure
1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
Installing a Guest Operating System
A virtual machine is not complete until you install the guest operating system and VMware Tools. Installing
a guest operating system in your virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it in a physical
computer.
The basic steps for a typical operating system are described in this section. See the Guest Operating System
Installation Guide at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.
Using PXE with Virtual Machines
You can start a virtual machine from a network device and remotely install a guest operating system using a
Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). You do not need the operating system installation media. When you
turn on the virtual machine, the virtual machine detects the PXE server.
PXE booting is supported for Guest Operating Systems that are listed in the VMware Guest Operating
System Compatibility list and whose operating system vendor supports PXE booting of the operating
system.
The virtual machine must meet the following requirements:
nHave a virtual disk without operating system software and with enough free disk space to store the
intended system software.
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24 VMware, Inc.
nHave a network adapter connected to the network where the PXE server resides.
For details about guest operating system installation, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at
http://partnerweb.vmware.com/GOSIG/home.html.
Install a Guest Operating System from Media
You can install a guest operating system from a CD-ROM or from an ISO image. Installing from an ISO
image is typically faster and more convenient than a CD-ROM installation.
If the virtual machine’s boot sequence progresses too quickly for you to open a console to the virtual
machine and enter BIOS or EFI setup, you might need to delay the boot order. See “Delay the Boot
Sequence,” on page 160.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the installation ISO image is present on a VMFS datastore or network file system (NFS)
volume accessible to the ESXi host.
nVerify that you have the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.
Procedure
1 Log in to the vCenter Server system or host on which the virtual machine resides.
2 Select an installation method.
Option Action
CD-ROM Insert the installation CD-ROM for your guest operating system into the
CD-ROM drive of your ESXi host.
ISO image a Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. The virtual
machine Edit Settings dialog box opens. If the Virtual Hardware tab is
not preselected, select it.
b Select Datastore ISO File from the CD/DVD drop-down menu, and
browse for the ISO image for your guest operating system.
3 Right-click the virtual machine and select Power On.
A green right arrow appears next to the virtual machine icon in the inventory list.
4 Follow the installation instructions that the operating system vendor provides.
What to do next
Install VMware Tools. VMware highly recommends running the latest version of VMware Tools on your
guest operating systems. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose
important functionality and convenience without them. See Chapter 12, “Upgrading Virtual Machines,” on
page 225 for instructions on installing and upgrading VMware Tools.
Upload ISO Image Installation Media for a Guest Operating System
You can upload an ISO image file to a datastore from your local computer. You can do this when a virtual
machine, host, or cluster does not have access to a datastore or to a shared datastore that has the guest
operating system installation media that you require.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the Client Integration Plug-In is installed. See “Install the Client Integration Plug-In,” on
page 187. The installation process requires you to close any open browsers.
nRequired privileges:
nDatastore.Browse datastore on the datastore.
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nDatastore.Low level file operations on the datastore.
Procedure
1 In the inventory, click Datastores and on the Objects tab, select the datastore to which you will upload
the file.
2Click the Navigate to the datastore file browser icon ( ).
3 (Optional) Click the Create a new folder icon.
4Select the folder that you created or select an existing folder, and click the Upload a File icon ( ).
5 If the Client Integration Access Control dialog box appears, click Allow to allow the plug-in to access
your operating system and proceed with the file upload.
6 On the local computer, find the file and upload it.
ISO upload times vary, depending on file size and network upload speed.
7 Refresh the datastore file browser to see the uploaded file in the list.
What to do next
After you upload the ISO image installation media, you can configure the virtual machine CD-ROM drive to
access the file.
Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template
Deploying a virtual machine from a template creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the template. The
new virtual machine has the virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that are configured
for the template.
Prerequisites
You must have the following privileges to deploy a virtual machine from a template:
nVirtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder. Required
only if you customize the original hardware by adding a new virtual disk.
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Deploy template on the source template.
nResource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
nDatastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore.
nNetwork.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned. Required only
if you customize the original hardware by adding a new network card.
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Customize on the template or template folder if you are customizing the
guest operating system.
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are
customizing the guest operating system.
Procedure
1Start the Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template Task on page 28
To save time, you can create a virtual machine that is a copy of a configured template. You can open
the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a
virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and
deploying virtual machines and templates.
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26 VMware, Inc.
2Select a Template on page 28
After you select the template from which to deploy the virtual machine, you can optionally select to
customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn
on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of
the guest operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps
prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a
CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual
machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.
3Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 29
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes
it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up
to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on
your organizational needs.
4Select a Resource on page 29
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
5Select a Datastore on page 29
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all
of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other
properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You
can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.
6Select Clone Options on page 30
You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's
hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can
customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network
and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with
identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or
you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual
machine.
7Customize the Guest Operating System on page 31
When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you
deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change
the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems
when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
8Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System on page 31
In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the
virtual machine.
9Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 32
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware.
When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device
drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or
add an RDM disk.
10 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 32
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
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Start the Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template Task
To save time, you can create a virtual machine that is a copy of a configured template. You can open the
New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying
virtual machines and templates.
If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.
Procedure
uSelect to deploy a virtual machine from a template.
Option Description
Open the New Virtual Machine
wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,
and select New Virtual Machine.
b Select Deploy from template and click Next.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Open the Deploy From Template
wizard from a template
Right-click the template and select Deploy VM from this Template.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Select a Template
After you select the template from which to deploy the virtual machine, you can optionally select to
customize the guest operating system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the
virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest
operating system, such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent
conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device
such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such
as storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.
This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a inventory object that is not a
template.
NOTE If you start the deploy operation from a template, you select the customization and power options on
a later page in the wizard.
Procedure
1 Search for or browse to the template.
2 (Optional) Select Customize the operating system to customize the guest operating system of the
virtual machine.
3 (Optional) Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware to configure the virtual machine's
hardware before deployment.
4 (Optional) Select Power On Virtual Machine after creation to power on the virtual machine after
creation is complete.
5 Click Next.
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28 VMware, Inc.
Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it
from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80
characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your
organizational needs.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set
permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter
and organize them a different way.
The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For
example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk,
win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do
not change.
Procedure
1 Type a name for the virtual machine.
2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.
If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take
advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.
If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the
problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
Select a Datastore
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of
the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The
available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format
for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows
the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill the datastore. If the
datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to
stop functioning.
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Procedure
1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.
Option Action
Same format as source Use the same format as the source virtual machine.
Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the
physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand
at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining
on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer
to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only
as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs
more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.
2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.
Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.
3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.
Option Action
Store the virtual disk and virtual
machine configuration files in the
same location on a datastore.
Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down
menu.
Store the disk in a separate
datastore location.
Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore
for the disk.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a
datastore cluster for the disk.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
4 Click Next.
Select Clone Options
You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's
hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize
the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license
settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings.
You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the
virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.
NOTE If you opened the wizard from an object other than a virtual machine or template, the Select Clone
Options page does not appear. These options are available on a different page of the wizard.
Procedure
1 Select Customize the Operating System.
2 Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware.
3 Select Power on virtual machine after creation.
4 Click Next.
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30 VMware, Inc.
Customize the Guest Operating System
When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy
virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer
name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a
virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
Prerequisites
To access customization options for Windows guest operating systems, Microsoft Sysprep tools must be
installed on the vCenter Server system. The Sysprep Tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008
and later operating systems. For details about this and other customization requirements, see “Guest
Operating System Customization Requirements,” on page 47.
Procedure
1 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.
Option Description
Select an existing specification Select a customization specification from the list.
Create a specification Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the
wizard.
Create a specification from an
existing specification
a Select a customization specification from the list.
b Click the Create a spec from an existing spec icon, and complete the
steps in the wizard.
2 Click Next.
Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System
In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the
virtual machine.
The User Settings screen appears when you apply a customization specification for which at least one of the
following conditions is true.
nThe option Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard was selected during the creation of the
customization specification.
nThe option Prompt the user for an address when the specification is used was selected for IPv4 and
IPv6 during the creation of the customization specification.
See “Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment,” on page 49 and “Customize Linux During
Cloning or Deployment,” on page 52.
Procedure
1 Enter a NetBIOS name for the computer.
2 Enter Network Adapter Settings for each network interface.
3 Click Next.
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Customize Virtual Machine Hardware
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you
create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down
menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM
disk.
For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks,
see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware,” on page 89.
Procedure
1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down
menu and click Add.
2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.
3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.
This icon appears only for virtual hardware that you can safely remove.
4 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Creation
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Procedure
1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
Clone a Virtual Machine
Cloning a virtual machine creates a virtual machine that is a copy of the original. The new virtual machine is
configured with the same virtual hardware, installed software, and other properties that were configured
for the original virtual machine.
NOTE When heavily loaded applications, such as load generators, are running in the guest operating system
during a clone operation, the virtual machine quiesce operation can fail and VMware Tools might be denied
CPU resources and time out. It is recommended that you quiesce the virtual machines running lower I/O
disk operation.
Prerequisites
If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.
You must have the following privileges to clone a virtual machine:
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Clone virtual machine on the virtual machine you are cloning.
nVirtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk on the datacenter or virtual machine folder.
nResource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
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32 VMware, Inc.
nDatastore.Allocate space on the destination datastore or datastore folder.
nNetwork.Assign network on the network to which the virtual machine will be assigned.
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Customize on the virtual machine or virtual machine folder if you are
customizing the guest operating system.
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Read customization specifications on the root vCenter Server if you are
customizing the guest operating system.
Procedure
1Start the Clone an Existing Virtual Machine Task on page 34
To make an original copy of a virtual machine, you can clone an existing virtual machine. You can
open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of
a virtual machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the virtual machine that you are going
to clone.
2Select a Virtual Machine to Clone on page 34
You select a virtual machine to clone, and you can optionally select to customize the guest operating
system and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when
you complete the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system,
such as the computer name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can
result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an
ISO file to install the guest operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as
storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.
3Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder on page 35
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes
it from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up
to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on
your organizational needs.
4Select a Resource on page 35
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
5Select a Datastore on page 35
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all
of the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other
properties. The available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You
can select a format for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.
6Select Clone Options on page 36
You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's
hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can
customize the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network
and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with
identical settings. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or
you can reconfigure the virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual
machine.
7Customize the Guest Operating System on page 37
When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you
deploy virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change
the computer name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems
when you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 33
8Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System on page 37
In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the
virtual machine.
9Customize Virtual Machine Hardware on page 38
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware.
When you create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device
drop-down menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or
add an RDM disk.
10 Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 38
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Start the Clone an Existing Virtual Machine Task
To make an original copy of a virtual machine, you can clone an existing virtual machine. You can open the
New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine. You can also open the wizard directly from the virtual machine that you are going to clone.
If you open the wizard from a virtual machine, the Select a creation type page does not appear.
Procedure
uSelect to clone a virtual machine.
Option Description
Open the New Virtual Machine
wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,
and select New Virtual machine > New Virtual Machine....
b Select Clone an existing virtual machine and click Next.
The Select a virtual machine page opens.
Open the Clone Existing Virtual
Machine wizard from a virtual
machine
Right-click the virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Virtual
Machine.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Select a Virtual Machine to Clone
You select a virtual machine to clone, and you can optionally select to customize the guest operating system
and the virtual machine hardware. You can also select to turn on the virtual machine when you complete
the creation procedure. You can change the properties of the guest operating system, such as the computer
name, and network and license settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines
with identical settings are deployed. You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest
operating system, or reconfigure the virtual machines' hardware, such as storage or networking, before you
deploy the virtual machine.
This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a inventory object that is not a
template.
NOTE If you start the deploy operation from a template, you select the customization and power options on
a later page in the wizard.
Procedure
1 Search for or browse to the virtual machine, and select it.
2 (Optional) Select Customize the operating system to customize the guest operating system of the
virtual machine.
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34 VMware, Inc.
3 (Optional) Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware to configure the virtual machine's
hardware before deployment.
4 (Optional) Select Power On Virtual Machine after creation to power on the virtual machine after
creation is complete.
5 Click Next.
Select the Virtual Machine Name and Folder
When you create a virtual machine, you provide a unique name for it. The unique name distinguishes it
from existing virtual machines in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can contain up to 80
characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine, depending on your
organizational needs.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines for different groups in an organization, and you can set
permissions on them. For a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and templates in a datacenter
and organize them a different way.
The virtual machine name determines the name of the virtual machine files and folder on the disk. For
example, if you name the virtual machine win8, the virtual machine files are named win8.vmx, win8.vmdk,
win8.nvram, and so on. If you change the virtual machine name, the names of the files on the datastore do
not change.
Procedure
1 Type a name for the virtual machine.
2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the virtual machine.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.
If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take
advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.
If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the
problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
Select a Datastore
Select the datastore or datastore cluster in which to store the virtual machine configuration files and all of
the virtual disks. Each datastore might have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties. The
available datastores are accessible from the destination resource that you selected. You can select a format
for the virtual machine's disks and assign a storage policy.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 35
Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows
the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill the datastore. If the
datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to
stop functioning.
Procedure
1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.
Option Action
Same format as source Use the same format as the source virtual machine.
Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the
physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand
at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining
on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer
to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only
as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs
more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.
2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.
Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.
3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.
Option Action
Store the virtual disk and virtual
machine configuration files in the
same location on a datastore.
Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down
menu.
Store the disk in a separate
datastore location.
Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore
for the disk.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a
datastore cluster for the disk.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
4 Click Next.
Select Clone Options
You can optionally select to customize the guest operating system, customize the virtual machine's
hardware, and turn on the virtual machine when you complete the creation procedure. You can customize
the guest operating system to change properties, such as the computer name, and network and license
settings, which helps prevent conflicts that can result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings.
You can add a CD device such as an ISO file to install the guest operating system or you can reconfigure the
virtual machine storage or networking, before you deploy the virtual machine.
NOTE If you opened the wizard from an object other than a virtual machine or template, the Select Clone
Options page does not appear. These options are available on a different page of the wizard.
Procedure
1 Select Customize the Operating System.
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36 VMware, Inc.
2 Select Customize this virtual machine's hardware.
3 Select Power on virtual machine after creation.
4 Click Next.
Customize the Guest Operating System
When you customize a guest operating system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy
virtual machines with identical settings, such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer
name, network settings, and license settings. You can customize guest operating systems when you clone a
virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template.
Prerequisites
To access customization options for Windows guest operating systems, Microsoft Sysprep tools must be
installed on the vCenter Server system. The Sysprep Tool is built into the Windows Vista and Windows 2008
and later operating systems. For details about this and other customization requirements, see “Guest
Operating System Customization Requirements,” on page 47.
Procedure
1 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.
Option Description
Select an existing specification Select a customization specification from the list.
Create a specification Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the
wizard.
Create a specification from an
existing specification
a Select a customization specification from the list.
b Click the Create a spec from an existing spec icon, and complete the
steps in the wizard.
2 Click Next.
Enter Additional Customization Parameters for the Guest Operating System
In the User Settings screen, you can enter the NetBIOS name and configure the network settings of the
virtual machine.
The User Settings screen appears when you apply a customization specification for which at least one of the
following conditions is true.
nThe option Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy wizard was selected during the creation of the
customization specification.
nThe option Prompt the user for an address when the specification is used was selected for IPv4 and
IPv6 during the creation of the customization specification.
See “Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment,” on page 49 and “Customize Linux During
Cloning or Deployment,” on page 52.
Procedure
1 Enter a NetBIOS name for the computer.
2 Enter Network Adapter Settings for each network interface.
3 Click Next.
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VMware, Inc. 37
Customize Virtual Machine Hardware
Before you deploy a new virtual machine, you have the option to configure the virtual hardware. When you
create a virtual machine, the virtual disk is selected by default. You can use the New device drop-down
menu on the Customize Hardware page to add a new hard disk, select an existing disk, or add an RDM
disk.
For information about virtual disk configuration, including instructions for adding different types of disks,
see “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
For help configuring other virtual machine hardware, see Chapter 6, “Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware,” on page 89.
Procedure
1 (Optional) To add a new virtual hardware device, select the device from the New device drop-down
menu and click Add.
2 (Optional) Expand any device to view and configure the device settings.
3 To remove a device, move your cursor over the device and click the Remove icon.
This icon appears only for virtual hardware that you can safely remove.
4 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Creation
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Procedure
1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client
After you create a virtual machine, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual
machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as
installing additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the original virtual machine.
You cannot modify templates after you create them. To alter an existing template, you must convert it to a
virtual machine, make the required changes, and convert the virtual machine back to a template. To
preserve the original state of a template, clone the template to a template.
Prerequisites
If a load generator is running in the virtual machine, stop it before you perform the clone operation.
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Create template from virtual machine on the source virtual machine.
nVirtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on virtual machine folder where the template is
created.
nResource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the destination host, cluster, or resource pool.
nDatastore.Allocate space on all datastores where the template is created.
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38 VMware, Inc.
Procedure
1Start the Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template Task on page 39
To make a master copy of a virtual machine, you can clone the virtual machine to a template. You can
open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of
a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and
deploying virtual machines and templates.
2Select a Virtual Machine to Clone to a Template on page 40
To clone a virtual machine to a template, you must select an existing virtual machine to clone. You
cannot modify a template after you create it. To change the template, you must convert it back to a
virtual machine.
3Select a Name and Location for the Template on page 40
When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The
unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The
name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template,
depending on your organizational needs.
4Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template on page 40
When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The
template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must
be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.
5Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template on page 41
Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks
and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory,
select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of
the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.
6Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation on page 42
Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.
Start the Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template Task
To make a master copy of a virtual machine, you can clone the virtual machine to a template. You can open
the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and deploying
virtual machines and templates.
If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.
Procedure
uSelect an option to clone a virtual machine to a template.
Option Description
Open the New Virtual Machine
wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,
and select New Virtual Machine.
b Select Clone Virtual Machine to Template and click Next.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Open the Clone Virtual Machine to
Template wizard from a template
Right-click the virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Template .
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 39
Select a Virtual Machine to Clone to a Template
To clone a virtual machine to a template, you must select an existing virtual machine to clone. You cannot
modify a template after you create it. To change the template, you must convert it back to a virtual machine.
This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than
a virtual machine, such as a host or cluster. If you opened the wizard from a virtual machine, this page does
not appear.
Procedure
1 Browse or search for the virtual machine and select it.
2 Click Next.
Select a Name and Location for the Template
When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique
name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can
contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on
your organizational needs.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization and
you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and
templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.
The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the
template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you change
the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.
Procedure
1 Type a name for the template.
2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the template.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template
When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template
must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running
when you create a virtual machine from the template.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host or cluster and select it.
Any Compatibility problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
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40 VMware, Inc.
Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template
Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files.
When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore
or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each
datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows
the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill the datastore. If the
datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to
stop functioning.
Procedure
1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.
Option Action
Same format as source Use the same format as the source virtual machine.
Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the
physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand
at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining
on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer
to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only
as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs
more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.
2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.
Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.
3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.
Option Action
Store the virtual disk and virtual
machine configuration files in the
same location on a datastore.
Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down
menu.
Store the disk in a separate
datastore location.
Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore
for the disk.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a
datastore cluster for the disk.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
4 Click Next.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 41
Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation
Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.
Procedure
1 Review the template settings and make any necessary changes by clicking Back to go back to the
relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The progress of the clone task appears in the Recent Tasks pane. When the task completes, the template
appears in the inventory.
Clone a Template to a Template in the vSphere Web Client
After you create a template, you can clone it to a template. Templates are master copies of virtual machines
that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can make changes to the template, such as installing
additional software in the guest operating system, while preserving the state of the original template.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Clone template on the source template.
nVirtual machine .Inventory.Create from existing on the folder where the template is created.
nDatastore.Allocate space on all datastores where the template is created.
Procedure
1Start the Clone a Template to a Template Task on page 43
To make changes to a template and preserve the state of the original template, you clone the template
to a template.
2Select a Template to Clone in the vSphere Web Client on page 43
If you started the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than a template, you
select a template to clone.
3Select a Name and Location for the Template on page 43
When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The
unique name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The
name can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template,
depending on your organizational needs.
4Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template on page 44
When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The
template must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must
be running when you create a virtual machine from the template.
5Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template on page 44
Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks
and files. When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory,
select a datastore or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of
the virtual disks. Each datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.
6Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation on page 45
Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.
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42 VMware, Inc.
Start the Clone a Template to a Template Task
To make changes to a template and preserve the state of the original template, you clone the template to a
template.
You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object
of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and
deploying virtual machines and templates.
If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.
Procedure
uSelect to clone a template to a template.
Option Description
Open the New Virtual Machine
wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,
and select New Virtual Machine.
b Select Clone Template to Template and click Next.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Open the Clone Template to
Template wizard from a template
a Search or browse for a template.
b Right-click the template and select Clone.
The Select a name and folder page opens.
Select a Template to Clone in the vSphere Web Client
If you started the New Virtual Machine wizard from an inventory object other than a template, you select a
template to clone.
This page appears only if you opened the wizard from a nontemplate inventory object, such as a host or
cluster. If you opened the Convert Template to Virtual Machine wizard from a template, this page does not
appear.
Procedure
1 Accept the default template, the template from which you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard, or
select a different template.
2 Click Next.
Select a Name and Location for the Template
When you deploy a template to the vCenter Server inventory, you provide a unique name for it. The unique
name distinguishes it from existing templates in the virtual machine folder or datacenter. The name can
contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the template, depending on
your organizational needs.
Folders provide a way to store virtual machines and templates for different groups in an organization and
you can set permissions on them. If you prefer a flatter hierarchy, you can put all virtual machines and
templates in a datacenter and organize them a different way.
The template name determines the name of the files and folder on the disk. For example, if you name the
template win8tmp, the template files are named win8tmp.vmdk, win8tmp.nvram, and so on. If you change
the template name, the names of the files on the datastore do not change.
Chapter 2 Deploying Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 43
Procedure
1 Type a name for the template.
2 Select or search for the datacenter or folder in which to deploy the template.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource for a Virtual Machine Template
When you deploy a virtual machine template, select a host or cluster resource for the template. The template
must be registered with an ESXi host. The host handles all requests for the template and must be running
when you create a virtual machine from the template.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host or cluster and select it.
Any Compatibility problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
Select a Datastore for the Virtual Machine Template
Each virtual machine or virtual machine template requires a folder or directory for its virtual disks and files.
When you create a virtual machine or template to deploy to the vCenter Server inventory, select a datastore
or datastore cluster for the virtual machine's configuration and other files and all of the virtual disks. Each
datastore can have a different size, speed, availability, and other properties.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows
the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill the datastore. If the
datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to
stop functioning.
Procedure
1 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks.
Option Action
Same format as source Use the same format as the source virtual machine.
Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the
physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand
at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining
on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take longer
to create disks in this format than to create other types of disks.
Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only
as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs
more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.
2 (Optional) Select a storage policy from the VM Storage Policy drop-down menu.
Storage policies specify storage requirements for applications that run on the virtual machine.
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44 VMware, Inc.
3 Select a datastore location for the virtual disk.
Option Action
Store the virtual disk and virtual
machine configuration files in the
same location on a datastore.
Select Store with the virtual machine from the Location drop-down
menu.
Store the disk in a separate
datastore location.
Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu, and select a datastore
for the disk.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a Select Browse from the Location drop-down menu and select a
datastore cluster for the disk.
b (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
4 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Template Creation
Before you deploy the template, you can review the template settings.
Procedure
1 Review the template settings and make any necessary changes by clicking Back to go back to the
relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The progress of the clone task appears in the Recent Tasks pane. When the task completes, the template
appears in the inventory.
Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine
Converting a template to a virtual machine changes the template. This action does not make a copy. You
convert a template to a virtual machine to edit the template. You might also convert a template to a virtual
machine if you do not need to preserve it as a master image for deploying virtual machines.
Prerequisites
Verity that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Provisioning.Mark as virtual machine on the source template.
nResource.Assign virtual machine to resource pool on the resource pool where the virtual machine will
run.
Procedure
1Start the Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine Task on page 46
To reconfigure a template with new or updated hardware or applications, you must convert the
template to a virtual machine and clone the virtual machine back to a template. In some cases, you
might convert a template to a virtual machine because you no longer need the template.
2Select a Template from Which to Deploy the Virtual Machine on page 46
On the Select a template page of the wizard, you select a template to deploy from the list.
3Select a Resource on page 46
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
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4Finish Virtual Machine Creation on page 47
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Start the Convert a Template to a Virtual Machine Task
To reconfigure a template with new or updated hardware or applications, you must convert the template to
a virtual machine and clone the virtual machine back to a template. In some cases, you might convert a
template to a virtual machine because you no longer need the template.
You can open the New Virtual Machine wizard from any object in the inventory that is a valid parent object
of a virtual machine, or directly from the template. The wizard provides several options for creating and
deploying virtual machines and templates.
If you open the wizard from a template, the Select a creation type page does not appear.
This task provides steps to convert a template to a virtual machine. To clone a virtual machine back to a
template, see Clone a Virtual Machine to a Template in the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
uSelect how to convert a template to a virtual machine.
Option Description
Open the New Virtual Machine
wizard from any object in the
inventory
a Right-click any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual
machine, such as a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host,
and select New Virtual Machine.
b Select Convert template to virtual machine and click Next.
The Select a resource page opens.
Open the Convert Template to
Virtual Machine wizard from a
template
a Search or browse for a template.
b Right-click the template and select Convert to Virtual Machine.
The Select a resource page opens.
Select a Template from Which to Deploy the Virtual Machine
On the Select a template page of the wizard, you select a template to deploy from the list.
This page appears only if you opened the New Virtual Machine wizard from a nontemplate inventory
object, such as a host or cluster. If you opened the Convert Template to Virtual Machine wizard from a
template, this page does not appear.
Procedure
1 Browse or search to locate a template.
2 Select the template.
3 Click Next.
Select a Resource
When you deploy a virtual machine, you select the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual
machine to run in. The virtual machine will have access to the resources of the selected object.
For example, a virtual machine has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it resides.
If you select a cluster for the virtual machine, and the administrator has configured the cluster to take
advantage of HA and DRS, the virtual machine will have a greater level of availability.
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46 VMware, Inc.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool for the virtual machine.
If deploying the virtual machine to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the
problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
Finish Virtual Machine Creation
Before you deploy the virtual machine, you can review the virtual machine settings.
Procedure
1 Review the virtual machine settings and make changes by clicking Back to go back to the relevant page.
2 Click Finish.
The virtual machine appears in the vSphere Web Client inventory.
Customizing Guest Operating Systems
When you clone a virtual machine or deploy a virtual machine from a template, you can customize the guest
operating system of the virtual machine to change properties such as the computer name, network settings,
and license settings.
Customizing guest operating systems can help prevent conflicts that can result if virtual machines with
identical settings are deployed, such as conflicts due to duplicate computer names.
You can specify the customization settings by launching the Guest Customization wizard during the cloning
or deployment process. Alternatively, you can create customization specifications, which are customization
settings stored in the vCenter Server database. During the cloning or deployment process, you can select a
customization specification to apply to the new virtual machine.
Use the Customization Specification Manager to manage customization specifications you create with the
Guest Customization wizard.
Guest Operating System Customization Requirements
To customize the guest operating system, you must configure the virtual machine and guest to meet
VMware Tools and virtual disk requirements. Other requirements apply, depending on the guest operating
system type.
VMware Tools Requirements
The latest version of VMware Tools must be installed on the virtual machine or template to customize the
guest operating system during cloning or deployment. For information about VMware Tools support
matrix, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php.
Virtual Disk Requirements
The guest operating system being customized must be installed on a disk attached as SCSI node 0:0 in the
virtual machine configuration.
Windows Requirements
Customization of Windows guest operating systems requires the following conditions:
nMicrosoft Sysprep tools must be installed on the vCenter Server system. See Chapter 5, “Installing the
Microsoft Sysprep Tool,” on page 87.
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nThe ESXi host that the virtual machine is running on must be 3.5 or later.
Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Windows operating systems.
Linux Requirements
Customization of Linux guest operating systems requires that Perl is installed in the Linux guest operating
system.
Guest operating system customization is supported on multiple Linux distributions.
Verifying Customization Support for a Guest Operating System
To verify customization support for Windows operating systems or Linux distributions and compatible
ESXi hosts, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. You can
use this online tool to search for the guest operating system and ESXi version. After the tool generates your
list, click the guest operating system to see whether guest customization is supported.
Create a vCenter Server Application to Generate Computer Names and IP
Addresses
As an alternative to entering computer names and IP addresses for virtual NICs when you customize guest
operating systems, you can create a custom application and configure it so that vCenter Server can generate
the names and addresses.
The application can be an arbitrary executable binary or script file appropriate for the corresponding
operating system in which vCenter Server is running. After you configure an application and make it
available to vCenter Server, each time you initiate a guest operating system customization for a virtual
machine, vCenter Server executes the application.
The application must comply with the reference XML file in the VMware knowledge base article at
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2007557.
Prerequisites
Verify that Perl is installed on vCenter Server.
Procedure
1 Create the application and save it on the vCenter Server system's local disk.
2 Select a vCenter Server instance in the inventory.
3 Click the Manage tab, click Settings, and click Advanced Settings.
4 Click Edit and enter the configuration parameters for the script.
a In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.arg1.
b In the Value text box, type c:\sample-generate-name-ip.pl and click Add.
c In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.arg2.
d In the Value text box, type the path to the script file on the vCenter Server system and click Add.
For example, type c:\sample-generate-name-ip.pl.
e In the Key text box, type config.guestcust.name-ip-generator.program.
f In the Value text box, type c:\perl\bin\perl.exe and click Add.
5 Click OK.
You can select the option to use an application to generate computer names or IP addresses during guest
operating system customization.
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Customize Windows During Cloning or Deployment
You can customize Windows guest operating systems for the virtual machine when you deploy a new
virtual machine from a template or clone an existing virtual machine. Customizing the guest helps prevent
conflicts that can result if virtual machines with identical settings are deployed, such as duplicate computer
names.
You can prevent Windows from assigning new virtual machines or templates with the same Security IDs
(SIDs) as the original virtual machine. Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of
a domain and only domain user accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or
local user accounts are used, duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see
the documentation for your Microsoft Windows operating system.
IMPORTANT The default administrator password is not preserved for Windows Server 2008 after
customization. During customization, the Windows Sysprep utility deletes and recreates the administrator
account on Windows Server 2008. You must reset the administrator password when the virtual machine
starts the first time after customization.
Prerequisites
Verify that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements,” on page 47.
To perform this procedure, start the Guest Customization wizard when you clone a virtual machine or
deploy one from a template.
Procedure
1 On the Select clone options page of the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard, select Customize the
operating system and click Next.
2 Type the virtual machine owner’s name and organization and click Next.
3 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.
The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the
host name.
Option Action
Enter a name a Type a name.
The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-)
character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be
made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.
b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a
numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen
followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is
truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric
value.
Use the virtual machine name The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of
the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the
name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.
Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy
wizard
The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or
deployment is complete.
Generate a name using the custom
application configured with vCenter
Server
Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.
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4 Provide licensing information for the Windows operating system and click Next.
Option Action
For non-server operating systems Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.
For server operating systems a Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.
b Select Include Server License Information.
c Select either Per seat or Per server.
d If you selected Per server, enter the maximum number of
simultaneous connections for the server to accept.
5 Configure the administrator password for the virtual machine and click Next.
a Type a password for the administrator account and confirm the password by typing it again.
NOTE You can change the administrator password only if the administrator password on the
source Windows virtual machine is blank. If the source Windows virtual machine or template
already has a password, the administrator password does not change.
b (Optional) To log users into the guest operating system as Administrator, select the check box, and
select the number of times to log in automatically.
6 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.
7 (Optional) On the Run Once page, specify commands to run the first time a user logs into the guest
operating system and click Next.
See the Microsoft Sysprep documentation for information about RunOnce commands.
8 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.
Option Action
Typical settings Select Typical settings and click Next.
vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server
using default settings.
Custom settings a Select Custom settings and click Next.
b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis
button (...) .
c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.
d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.
9 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.
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10 Select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.
Note that the virtual machine can retain the IP address allocated from the network as well as IPv6
addresses. Microsoft supports IPv6 for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or
later, and Windows CE .NET 4.1 or later. However, these operating systems have limited IPv6 support
for built-in applications, system services, and are not recommended for IPv6 deployment.
a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts
you to enter either IPv4 or IPv6 address.
b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.
nClick the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or
shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one
IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6
addresses.
nEnter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default
value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.
11 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and click OK.
12 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.
13 Select how the virtual machine will participate in the network and click Next.
Option Action
Workgroup Type a workgroup name. For example, MSHOME.
Windows Server Domain a Type the domain name.
b Type the user name and password for a user account that has
permission to add a computer to the specified domain.
14 Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.
A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems
and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual
machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.
15 Save the customized options as an .xml file.
a Select Save this customization specification for later use.
b Specify the filename for the specification and click Next.
16 Click Finish to save your changes.
You return to the Deploy Template or to the Clone Virtual Machine wizard. The customization is finished
after you complete the Deploy Template or the Clone Virtual Machine wizard.
When the new virtual machine starts for the first time, the guest operating system runs finalization scripts to
complete the customization process. The virtual machine might restart several times during this process.
If the guest operating system pauses when the new virtual machine starts, it might be waiting for you to
correct errors, such as an incorrect product key or an invalid user name. Open the virtual machine’s console
to determine whether the system is waiting for information.
What to do next
After you deploy and customize versions of Windows XP or Windows 2003 that are not volume licensed,
you might need to reactivate your operating system on the new virtual machine.
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If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is starting, the errors are logged to
%WINDIR%\temp\vmware-imc. To view the error log file, click the Windows Start button and select Programs >
Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.
Customize Linux During Cloning or Deployment
In the process of deploying a new virtual machine from a template or cloning an existing virtual machine,
you can customize Linux guest operating systems for the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements,” on page 47.
To perform this procedure, start the Customization wizard when you clone a virtual machine or deploy one
from a template.
Procedure
1 On the Select clone options page of the Clone Existing Virtual Machine wizard, select Customize the
operating system and click Next.
2 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.
The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the
host name.
Option Action
Enter a name a Type a name.
The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-)
character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be
made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.
b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a
numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen
followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is
truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric
value.
Use the virtual machine name The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of
the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the
name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.
Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy
wizard
The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or
deployment is complete.
Generate a name using the custom
application configured with vCenter
Server
Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.
3 Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next.
4 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.
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5 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.
Option Action
Typical settings Select Typical settings and click Next.
vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server
using default settings.
Custom settings a Select Custom settings and click Next.
b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis
button (...) .
c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.
d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.
6 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.
7 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.
Note that the virtual machine can retain the IP address allocated from the network as well as IPv6
addresses.
a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompt
you to enter IPv6 address.
b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.
nClick the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or
shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one
IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6
addresses.
nEnter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default
value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.
8 Enter DNS and domain settings information. The Primary DNS, Secondary DNS, and Tertiary DNS
fields accept both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
9 Save the customized options as an .xml file.
a Select Save this customization specification for later use.
b Specify the filename for the specification and click Next.
10 Click Finish to save your changes.
You return to the Deploy Template or to the Clone Virtual Machine wizard. The customization is finished
after you complete the Deploy Template or the Clone Virtual Machine wizard.
When the new virtual machine starts for the first time, the guest operating system runs finalization scripts to
complete the customization process. The virtual machine might restart several times during this process.
If the guest operating system pauses when the new virtual machine starts, it might be waiting for you to
correct errors, such as an incorrect product key or an invalid user name. Open the virtual machine’s console
to determine whether the system is waiting for information.
What to do next
If the new virtual machine encounters customization errors while it is starting, the errors are reported using
the guest’s system logging mechanism. View the errors by opening /var/log/vmware-
imc/toolsDeployPkg.log.
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Apply a Customization Specification to a Virtual Machine
You can add guest OS specification to an existing virtual machine. When you customize a guest operating
system, you can prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings,
such as duplicate computer names. You can change the computer name, network settings, and license
settings.
When you clone an existing virtual machine, or deploy a virtual machine from a VM template in a folder,
you can customize the guest operating system of the resulting virtual machine during the clone or the
deployment tasks.
When you deploy a virtual machine from a template in a content library, you can customize the guest
operating system only after the deployment task is complete.
Prerequisites
nVerify the guest operating system is running.
nVerify that VMware Tools is installed and running.
nPower off the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the vSphere inventory, and select Guest OS > Customize Guest OS.
The Customize Guest OS wizard opens.
2 Apply a customization specification to the virtual machine.
Option Description
Select an existing specification Select a customization specification from the list.
Create a specification Click the Create a new specification icon, and complete the steps in the
wizard.
Create a specification from an
existing specification
a Select a customization specification from the list.
b Click the Create a new specification from existing one icon, and
complete the steps in the wizard.
3 Click Finish.
What to do next
Power on the virtual machine.
Creating and Managing Customization Specifications
You can create and manage customization specifications for Windows and Linux guest operating systems.
Customization specifications are XML files that contain guest operating system settings for virtual
machines. When you apply a specification to the guest operating system during virtual machine cloning or
deployment, you prevent conflicts that might result if you deploy virtual machines with identical settings,
such as duplicate computer names.
vCenter Server saves the customized configuration parameters in the vCenter Server database. If the
customization settings are saved, the administrator and domain administrator passwords are stored in
encrypted format in the database. Because the certificate used to encrypt the passwords is unique to each
vCenter Server system, if you reinstall vCenter Server or attach a new instance of the server to the database,
the encrypted passwords become invalid. You must reenter the passwords before you can use them.
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54 VMware, Inc.
Create a Customization Specification for Linux
Use the Guest Customization wizard to save guest operating system settings in a specification that you can
apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates.
Prerequisites
Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements,” on page 47.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Click the Create a New specification icon.
3 Select Linux from the Target VM Operating System drop-down menu, and enter a name and
description for the specification.
4 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.
The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the
host name.
Option Action
Enter a name a Type a name.
The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-)
character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be
made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.
b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a
numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen
followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is
truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric
value.
Use the virtual machine name The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of
the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the
name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.
Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy
wizard
The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or
deployment is complete.
Generate a name using the custom
application configured with vCenter
Server
Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.
5 Enter the Domain Name for the computer and click Next.
6 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.
7 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.
Option Action
Standard settings Select Use standard network settings and click Next.
vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server
using default settings.
Custom settings a Select Manually select custom settings.
b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the pencil icon.
8 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.
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9 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.
a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts
you to enter IPv6 address.
b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.
nClick the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or
shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one
IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6
addresses.
nEnter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default
value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.
10 Enter DNS and domain settings information. The Primary DNS, Secondary DNS, and Tertiary DNS
fields accept both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
11 Click Finish to save your changes.
The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You
can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.
Create a Customization Specification for Windows
Use the Guest Customization wizard to save Windows guest operating system settings in a specification
that you can apply when cloning virtual machines or deploying from templates.
NOTE The default administrator password is not preserved for Windows Server 2008 after customization.
During customization, the Windows Sysprep utility deletes and recreates the administrator account on
Windows Server 2008. You must reset the administrator password when the virtual machine starts the first
time after customization.
Prerequisites
Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements,” on page 47.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Click the Create a new specification icon to open the New VM Guest Customization Spec wizard.
3 Select Windows from the Target VM Operating System drop-down menu, and enter a name and
optional description for the specification and click Next.
4 On the Set Registration Information page, type the virtual machine owner’s name and organization and
click Next.
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5 Enter the guest operating system's computer name.
The operating system uses this name to identify itself on the network. On Linux systems, it is called the
host name.
Option Action
Enter a name a Type a name.
The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the hyphen (-)
character. It cannot contain periods (.) or blank spaces and cannot be
made up of digits only. Names are not case-sensitive.
b (Optional) To ensure that the name is unique, select Append a
numeric value to ensure uniqueness. This action appends a hyphen
followed by a numeric value to the virtual machine name. The name is
truncated if it exceeds 63 characters when combined with the numeric
value.
Use the virtual machine name The computer name that vCenter Server creates is identical to the name of
the virtual machine on which the guest operating system is running. If the
name exceeds 63 characters, it is truncated.
Enter a name in the Clone/Deploy
wizard
The vSphere Web Client prompts you to enter a name after the cloning or
deployment is complete.
Generate a name using the custom
application configured with vCenter
Server
Enter a parameter that can be passed to the custom application.
6 Provide licensing information for the Windows operating system and click Next.
Option Action
For nonserver operating systems Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.
For server operating systems a Type the Windows product key for the new guest operating system.
b Select Include Server License Information.
c Select either Per seat or Per server.
d If you select Per server, enter the maximum number of simultaneous
connections for the server to accept.
7 Configure the administrator password for the virtual machine and click Next.
a Type a password for the administrator account and confirm the password by typing it again.
NOTE You can change the administrator password only if the administrator password on the
source Windows virtual machine is blank. If the source Windows virtual machine or template
already has a password, the administrator password does not change.
b (Optional) To log users into the guest operating system as Administrator, select the check box, and
select the number of times to log in automatically.
8 Select the time zone for the virtual machine and click Next.
9 (Optional) On the Run Once page, specify commands to run the first time a user logs into the guest
operating system and click Next.
See the Microsoft Sysprep documentation for information about RunOnce commands.
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10 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.
Option Action
Standard settings Select Use standard network settings and click Next.
vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server
using default settings.
Custom settings a Select Manually select custom settings.
b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the pencil icon.
11 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.
12 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.
a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts
you to enter IPv6 address.
b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.
nClick the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or
shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one
IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6
addresses.
nEnter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default
value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you select Do not use IPv6.
13 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and click OK.
14 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.
15 Select how the virtual machine will participate in the network and click Next.
Option Action
Workgroup Type a workgroup name. For example, MSHOME.
Windows Server Domain a Type the domain name.
b Type the user name and password for a user account that has
permission to add a computer to the specified domain.
16 (Optional) Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.
A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems
and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual
machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.
Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of a domain and only domain user
accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or local user accounts are used,
duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see the documentation for
your Microsoft Windows operating system.
17 Click Finish to save your changes.
The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You
can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.
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Create a Customization Specification for Windows Using a Custom Sysprep
Answer File in the vSphere Web Client
A custom sysprep answer file is a file that stores a number of customization settings such as computer
name, licensing information, and workgroup or domain settings. You can supply a custom sysprep answer
file as an alternative to specifying many of the settings in the Guest Customization wizard.
Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP use a text file called sysprep.inf. Windows Server 2008, Windows
Vista, and Windows 7 use an XML file called sysprep.xml. You can create these files using a text editor, or
use the Microsoft Setup Manager utility to generate them. For more information about how to create a
custom sysprep answer file, see the documentation for the relevant operating system.
You can prevent Windows from assigning new virtual machines or templates with the same Security IDs
(SIDs) as the original virtual machine. Duplicate SIDs do not cause problems when the computers are part of
a domain and only domain user accounts are used. However, if the computers are part of a Workgroup or
local user accounts are used, duplicate SIDs can compromise file access controls. For more information, see
the documentation for your Microsoft Windows operating system.
Prerequisites
Ensure that all requirements for customization are met. See “Guest Operating System Customization
Requirements,” on page 47.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Click the Create New Specification icon.
3 In the Guest Customization wizard, select Windows from the Target Virtual Machine OS menu.
4 (Optional) Select Use Custom Sysprep Answer File.
5 Under Customization Specification Information, enter a name for the specification and an optional
description and click Next.
6 Select the option to import or create a sysprep answer file and click Next.
Option Description
Import a Sysprep answer file Click Browse and browse to the file.
Create a Sysprep answer file Type the contents of the file in the text box.
7 Select the type of network settings to apply to the guest operating system.
Option Action
Typical settings Select Typical settings and click Next.
vCenter Server configures all network interfaces from a DHCP server
using default settings.
Custom settings a Select Custom settings and click Next.
b For each network interface in the virtual machine, click the ellipsis
button (...) .
c Enter IP address and other network settings and click OK.
d When all network interfaces are configured, click Next.
8 To specify IPv4 related settings, select IPv4 and enter IP address and other network settings.
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9 To specify IPv6 related settings, select IPv6 to configure the virtual machine to use IPv6 network.
a Select Prompt user for an address when the specification is used. Selecting this option prompts
you to enter IPv4 or IPv6 address.
b Select Use the following IPv6 addresses to choose an IPv6 address from the list.
nClick the pencil icon to enter additional IPv6 addresses. You can specify the full address or
shorten it by using zero compression and zero suppression. You should specify at least one
IPv6 address. You can edit an existing address, but should not duplicate existing IPv6
addresses.
nEnter subnet mask prefix. The prefix length should be between 1 to 128 where the default
value is 64. Gateway is enabled by default, except when you choose Do not use IPv6.
10 Select DNS and specify DNS server address and OK.
11 Select WINS and specify primary and secondary WINS information.
12 Select Generate New Security ID (SID) and click Next.
A Windows Security ID (SID) is used in some Windows operating systems to uniquely identify systems
and users. If you do not select this option, the new virtual machine has the same SID as the virtual
machine or template from which it was cloned or deployed.
13 Click Finish to save your changes.
The customization specification that you created is listed in the Customization Specification Manager. You
can use the specification to customize virtual machine guest operating systems.
Edit a Customization Specification
You can edit existing specifications using the Customization Specification Manager.
Prerequisites
You must have at least one customization specification.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Right-click a specification and select Edit.
3 Proceed through the Guest Customization wizard to change specification settings.
Remove a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client
You can remove customization specifications from the Customization Specification Manager.
Prerequisites
You must have at least one customization specification.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Right-click a specification and select Remove.
3 In the confirmation dialog box, select Yes.
The specification is deleted from the disk.
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Copy a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client
If you need a customization specification that is only slightly different from an existing specification, you
can use the Customization Specification Manager to create a copy of the existing specification and modify it.
For example, you might need to change the IP address or the administrator password.
Prerequisites
You must have at least one customization specification.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Right-click a specification and select Duplicate.
A new specification is created. If the specification does not appear in the Name column, refresh the
vSphere Web Client.
Export a Customization Specification in the vSphere Web Client
You can export customization specifications and save them as .xml files. To apply an exported specification
to a virtual machine, import the .xml file using the Customization Specification Manager.
Prerequisites
You must have at least one customization specification.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Right-click a specification and select Export.
3 Select a location for the file and click Save.
The specification is saved as an .xml file to the location you specified.
Import a Customization Specification
You can import an existing specification using the Customization Specification Manager, and use the
specification to customize the guest operating system of a virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, you must have at least one customization specification saved as an xml file located on a
file system accessible from the vSphere Web Client.
Procedure
1 From the vSphere Web Client Home inventory page, select Policies and Profiles > Customization
Specification Manager.
2 Click the Import specification from a file icon.
3 From the Open dialog, browse to the .xml to import and click Open.
The imported specification is added to the list of customization specifications.
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Deploying OVF Templates 3
You can export virtual machines, virtual appliances, and vApps in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF).
You can then deploy the OVF template in the same environment or in a different environment.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“OVF File Format and OVF Templates,” on page 63
n“Deploy an OVF Template in the vSphere Web Client,” on page 64
n“Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace,” on page 67
n“Export an OVF Template,” on page 68
OVF File Format and OVF Templates
OVF is a file format that supports exchange of virtual appliances across products and platforms.
The OVF format offers the following advantages:
nOVF files are compressed, allowing for faster downloads.
nThe vSphere Web Client validates an OVF file before importing it, and ensures that it is compatible
with the intended destination server. If the appliance is incompatible with the selected host, it cannot be
imported and an error message appears.
nOVF can encapsulate multi-tiered applications and more than one virtual machine.
Exporting OVF templates allows you to create virtual appliances that can be imported by other users. You
can use the export function to distribute pre-installed software as a virtual appliance, or to distributing
template virtual machines to users. You can make the OVF file available to users who cannot access your
vCenter Server inventory.
Deploying an OVF template allows you to add pre-configured virtual machines or vApps to your
vCenter Server or ESXi inventory. Deploying an OVF template is similar to deploying a virtual machine
from a template. However, you can deploy an OVF template from any local file system accessible from the
vSphere Web Client, or from a remote Web server. The local file systems can include local disks (such as C:),
removable media (such as CDs or USB keychain drives), and shared network drives.
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Deploy an OVF Template in the vSphere Web Client
You can deploy an OVF template from a local file system accessible to the vSphere Web Client, or from a
URL.
Prerequisites
Install the Client Integration plug-in before you deploy an OVF template. This plug-in enables OVF
deployment from your local filesystem. See “Install the Client Integration Plug-In,” on page 187.
NOTE Depending on the security settings of your browser, you might have to explicitly approve the plug-in
when you use it the first time.
Procedure
1 Select any inventory object that is a valid parent object of a virtual machine, such as a datacenter, folder,
cluster, resource pool, or host.
2 Select Actions > Deploy OVF Template.
Select the OVF Source Location
Specify the location where the source of OVF template resides.
Procedure
1 Specify the source location.
Option Action
URL Type a URL to an OVF template located on the Internet. Supported URL
sources are HTTP and FTP.
Example: http://vmware.com/VMTN/appliance.ovf.
Local file Click Browse and select an OVF or OVA template from the local file
system.
2 Click Next.
Review the OVF Details
The OVF template details display available information about the file.
Procedure
1 Review the OVF template details and
Option Description
Product Product name, as specified in the OVF template file.
Version Version, if the version is specified in the OVF template file.
Vendor Version, if the vendor is specified in the OVF template file.
Publisher Publisher of the OVF template, if a certificate included in the OVF template
file specifies a publisher.
Download size Size of the OVF file.
Size on disk Size on disk after you deploy the OVF template.
Description Description, as provided by the distributor of the OVF template.
2 Click Next.
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Accept the OVF License Agreements
This page appears only if license agreements are packaged with the OVF template.
Procedure
uAgree to accept the terms of the end user license agreements, and click Next.
Select OVF Name and Location
When you deploy an OVF template, you provide a unique name for the virtual machine or vApp. The name
can contain up to 80 characters. You can select a datacenter or folder location for the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 (Optional) Specify the name that the virtual machine or vApp will have when it is deployed at the
target location.
The name must be unique within each vCenter Server virtual machine folder.
2 Select or search for a datacenter or folder for the virtual machine or vApp.
3 Click Next.
Select OVF Deployment Configuration
The deployment configuration typically controls the memory settings, number of CPUs and reservations,
and application-level configuration parameters.
This page appears only if the OVF template contains deployment options.
Procedure
uSelect the deployment configuration from the drop-down menu and click Next.
Select a Resource for the OVF Template
When you deploy an OVF template, you select the host, cluster, or resource pool. The virtual machine or
vApp will have access to the resources of the selected object.
For example, a virtual appliance has access to the memory and CPU resources of the host on which it
resides.
If you start the wizard from a resource such as a host, this wizard screen does not appear. But if you start
the wizard from a container such as a datacenter of folder, the wizard screen appears.
Procedure
1 Search or browse for the host, cluster, vApp, or resource pool on which you want to deploy the OVF
template.
If deploying the OVF template to the selected location might cause compatibility problems, the
problems appear at the bottom of the window.
2 Click Next.
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Select Storage for OVF Template
Select the location to store the files for the deployed template.
Procedure
1 Select the disk format to store the virtual machine virtual disks.
Format Description
Thick Provisioned Lazy Zeroed Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated when the virtual disk is created data remaining on
the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on
demand at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed A type of thick virtual disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the flat format the data remaining on the physical device is
zeroed out when the virtual disk is created. it might take much longer to
create disks in this format than to create other types o disks.
Thin Provision Use this format to save storage space. For the thin disk, you provision as
much datastore space as the disk would require based on the value that
you enter for the disk size. However, the thin disk starts small and at first,
uses only as much datastore space as the disk needs for its initial
operations.
2 (Optional) Select a VM Storage Policy.
This option is available only if storage policies are enabled on the destination resource.
3 Select a datastore to store the deployed OVF template.
The configuration file and virtual disk files are stored on the datastore. Select a datastore large enough
to accommodate the virtual machine or vApp and all associated virtual disk files.
4 (Optional) Disable Storage DRS if you do not want to use it for this virtual machine or vApp.
5 Click Next.
Configure Networks for OVF Template
Set up and configure the networks the deployed OVF templates use.
The Setup networks wizard screen allows you to map source networks to target networks, and to specify
settings for those networks.
For each network, you can perform the mapping and optional customizations explained in the procedure.
Procedure
1 Select a Source network in the table and map it to a Destination network.
The Source column lists all networks that are defined in the OVF template. The Destination column
allows you to select a target network.
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2 If the OVF template is set up to allow network customization, you can select the IP protocol, the IP
allocation, or both.
Option Description
Static - Manual You will be prompted to enter the IP addresses in the Appliance Properties
page.
Transient - IP Pool IP addresses are allocated from a specified range when the appliance is
powered on. The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered
off.
If you select this option, and no IP pool exists, a Network Protocol Profile
that contains an IP pool is automatically created and associated with the
destination networks.
DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. Select this option only
if a DHCP server is available in your environment.
Static - IP Pool IP addresses are automatically allocated from the managed IP network
range of vCenter Server at power-on, and remain allocated at power-off.
If you select this option, and no IP pool exists, a Network Protocol Profile
that contains an IP pool is automatically created and associated with the
destination networks.
3 Specify network protocol information.
This option appears only if the OVF template that you deploy contains network properties. The
network protocol settings might be for the DNS servers, gateway, netmask, or subnet. You can type IP
addresses that match the chosen IP protocol (IPv4 or IPv6). For DNS servers, you can type a comma-
separated list of addresses.
4 Click Next.
Customize the OVF Template
Customize the deployment properties of the template.
Procedure
1 Customize the deployment properties.
All required properties must have a valid value before you can continue.
2 Click Next.
Configure vService Dependency
Select a binding service for the template's vService dependency.
This page appears if the appliance you are deploying has one or more vService dependency.
Procedure
1 Select a binding service provider.
2 Click Next.
Browse VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace
The Virtual Appliance Marketplace contains a variety of virtual appliances packaged in OVF format that
you can download and deploy in your vSphere environment.
Procedure
1 Go to the Virtual Appliance Marketplace, which is part of the VMware Solution Exchange.
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2 Search the Marketplace to find a prepackaged application. download it.
3 Log in and download the appliance.
4 Deploy the appliance in your vSphere environment.
Export an OVF Template
An OVF template captures the state of a virtual machine or vApp into a self-contained package. The disk
files are stored in a compressed, sparse format.
Required privilege: vApp.Export
Prerequisites
Power off the virtual machine or vApp.
Procedure
1 From the Actions menu in the vSphere Web Client, navigate to a virtual machine or vApp and select
Export OVF Template .
2 In the Name field, type the name of the template.
For example, type MyVm.
NOTE When you export an OVF template with a name that contains asterisk (*) characters, those
characters turn into underscore (_) characters.
3 Click Choose to browse to the folder location where you want to save the template.
4 Click Overwrite existing files to overwrite files with the same name in that folder.
5 In the Format field, determine how you want to store the files.
nSelect Folder of files (OVF) to store the OVF template as a set of files (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf). Use
this format if you plan to publish the OVF files on a Web server or image library. You can import
the package, for example into the vSphere Web Client by specifying the URL to the OVF file.
nSelect Single file (OVA) to package the OVF template into a single .ova file. Use this format if the
OVF template will be downloaded from a Web site or moved around using a USB key.
6 (Optional) In the Annotation field, type a description.
7 Select the Enable advanced options checkbox if you want to include BIOS UUID, MAC address, or
extra configuration information in the exported template.
These options limit portability.
8 Click OK.
Example: Folder Locations for OVF and OVA Files
If you type OvfLib for a new OVF folder, the following files might be created:
nC:\OvfLib\MyVm\MyVm.ovfI
nC:\OvfLib\MyVm.mf
nC:\OvfLib\MyVm-disk1.vmdk
If you type C:\NewFolder\OvfLib for a new OVF folder, the following files might be created:
nC:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm\MyVm.ovfI
nC:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm.mf
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nC:\NewFolder\OvfLib\MyVm-disk1.vmdk
If you choose to export into the OVA format, and type MyVm, the file C:\MyVm.ova is created.
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Using Content Libraries 4
Content libraries are container objects for VM templates, vApp templates, and other types of files. vSphere
administrators can use the templates in the library to deploy virtual machines and vApps in the vSphere
inventory. Sharing templates and files across multiple vCenter Server instances in same or different
locations brings out consistency, compliance, efficiency, and automation in deploying workloads at scale.
You create and manage a content library from a single vCenter Server instance, but you can share the library
items to other vCenter Server instances if HTTP(S) traffic is allowed between them.
If a published and a subscribed library belong to vCenter Server systems that are in the same vCenter Single
Sign-On domain, and both the libraries use datastores as backing storage, you can take advantage of
optimized transfer speed for synchronization between these libraries. The transfer speed optimization is
made possible if the libraries can store their contents to datastores managed by ESXi hosts that are directly
connected to each other. Therefore the synchronization between the libraries is handled by a direct ESXi
host to ESXi host transfer. If the datastores have VMware vSphere Storage APIs - Array Integration (VAAI)
enabled, the library content synchronization between the published and the subscribed library is further
optimized. In this case the contents are synchronized by a direct datastore to datastore transfer.
Each VM template, vApp template, or another type of file in a library is a library item. An item can contain a
single file or multiple files. In the case of VM and vApp templates, each item contains multiple files. For
example, because an OVF template is a set of multiple files, when you upload an OVF template to the
library, you actually upload all the files associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf), but in the
vSphere Web Client you see listing only of the .ovf file in the content library.
You can create two types of libraries: local or subscribed library.
Local Libraries
You use a local library to store items in a single vCenter Server instance. You can publish the local library so
that users from other vCenter Server systems can subscribe to it. When you publish a content library
externally, you can configure a password for authentication.
VM templates and vApps templates are stored as OVF file formats in the content library. You can also
upload other file types, such as ISO images, text files, and so on, in a content library.
Subscribed Libraries
You subscribe to a published library by creating a subscribed library. You can create the subscribed library
in the same vCenter Server instance where the published library is, or in a different vCenter Server system.
In the Create Library wizard you have the option to download all the contents of the published library
immediately after the subscribed library is created, or to download only metadata for the items from the
published library and later to download the full content of only the items you intend to use.
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To ensure the contents of a subscribed library are up-to-date, the subscribed library automatically
synchronizes to the source published library on regular intervals. You can also manually synchronize
subscribed libraries.
You can use the option to download content from the source published library immediately or only when
needed to manage your storage space.
Synchronization of a subscribed library that is set with the option to download all the contents of the
published library immediately, synchronizes both the item metadata and the item contents. During the
synchronisation the library items that are new for the subscribed library are fully downloaded to the storage
location of the subscribed library.
Synchronization of a subscribed library that is set with the option to download contents only when needed
synchronizes only the metadata for the library items from the published library, and does not download the
contents of the items. This saves storage space. If you need to use a library item you need to synchronize
that item. After you are done using the item, you can delete the item contents to free space on the storage.
For subscribed libraries that are set with the option to download contents only when needed, synchronizing
the subscribed library downloads only the metadata of all the items in the source published library, while
synchronizing a library item downloads the full content of that item to your storage.
If you use a subscribed library, you can only utilize the content, but cannot contribute with content. Only the
administrator of the published library can manage the templates and files.
Table 4‑1. Source Objects to Which You Can Subscribe By Creating a Subscribed Library in The
vSphere Web Client .
Source Object
Create a subscribed library in the
vSphere Web Client by using the
option to Download all library
content immediately
Create a subscribed library in the
vSphere Web Client by using the
option to Download library content
only when needed
A library running in a vCenter Server
6.0 instance.
Supported Supported
A catalog running in a vCloud
Director 5.5 instance.
Supported Not supported
A third-party library. Supported for third-party libraries
that require authentication, if the
username of the third-party library is
vcsp. If the username of the source
third-party library is different than
vcsp, you can subscribe to it by using
VMware vCloud Suite API.
Supported for third-party libraries that
require authentication, if the username
of the third-party library is vcsp. If the
username of the source third-party
library is different than vcsp, you can
subscribe to it by using VMware
vCloud Suite API.
Libraries store content on a file system or a datastore. To ensure optimal performance, use file systems for
libraries that are published, and use datastores for local and subscribed libraries.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“Create a Library,” on page 73
n“Synchronize a Subscribed Library,” on page 74
n“Edit the Settings of a Local Library,” on page 74
n“Edit the Settings of a Subscribed Library,” on page 75
n“Delete a Content Library,” on page 76
n“Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries,” on page 76
n“Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries,” on page 78
n“Populating Libraries with Content,” on page 78
n“Working with Items in a Library,” on page 81
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n“Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content Library,” on page 84
Create a Library
You can create a content library in the vSphere Web Client, and populate it with templates, which you can
use to deploy virtual machines or vApps in your virtual environment.
Prerequisites
Required privileges: Content library. Create local library or Content library. Create subscribed library on
the vCenter Server instance where you want to create the library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Click the Objects tab.
3Click the Create a New Library icon ( ).
4 Enter a name for the content library, and in the Notes text box, enter a description for the library, and
click Next.
5 Select the type of content library you want to create.
Option Description
Local content library Creates a content library that is accessible only in the vCenter Server
instance where you create it.
To make the contents of the library available for other users, publish the
library. If you want users to use a password when accessing the library,
enable authentication for the library, and enter a password.
Subscribed content library Creates a content library, which is subscribed to a published content
library. You can only sync the subscribed library with the published
library to see up-to-date content, but you cannot add or remove content
from the subscribed library. Only an administrator of the published library
can add, modify, and remove contents from the published library.
Provide the following settings to subscribe to a library:
a In the Subscription URL text box, enter the URL address of the
published library.
b If authentication is enabled on the published library, enter the
publisher password.
c Select a download method for the contents of the subscribed library.
nIf you want to download a local copy of all the templates and files
in the published library immediately after subscribing to it, select
Download all library content immediately.
nIf you want to save storage space, select Download library
content only when needed. You download only the metadata for
the templates and files in the published library.
When you need to use a particular template, synchronize the item
to download a full copy.
d When prompted, accept the SSL certificate thumbprint.
The SSL certificate thumbprint is stored on your system until you
delete the subscribed content library from the inventory.
6 Click Next.
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7 Enter the path to a storage location where to keep the contents of this library.
Option Description
Enter a local file system path or an
NFS URL
Enter the path to the local file system of the Windows machine where
vCenter Server runs, or enter a path to an NFS storage if you are using
vCenter Server Appliance.
If you use a vCenter Server instance that runs on a Windows system, you
can store your templates on the local storage or the mapped shared storage
on the Windows machine.
If you use vCenter Server Appliance, you can store your templates on an
NFS storage that is mounted to the appliance. After the operation to create
a new library is complete, the vCenter Server Appliance automatically
mounts the shared storage to the host OS.
Select a datastore Select a datastore from your vSphere inventory.
8 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish.
Synchronize a Subscribed Library
To ensure that your subscribed library displays the latest content of the published library, you can manually
initiate a synchronization task.
You can also have subscribed libraries automatically synchronize with the content of the published library.
To enable automatic synchronization of the subscribed library, select the option to Enable automatic
synchronization with the external library in the subscribed library settings. Take into account that the
automatic synchronization requires a lot of storage space, because you download full copies of all the items
in the published library.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Content library. Sync subscribed library on the library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Right-click a subscribed library from the list and select Synchronize Library.
A new task for synchronizing the subscribed library appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is
complete, you can see the updated list with library items in the Related Objects tab under Templates and
Other Types.
Edit the Settings of a Local Library
You can change the settings of a content library.
As an administrator of a content library, you can publish a local library from your vCenter Server instance
to share its contents across multiple vCenter Server systems. From the Edit Setting dialog box, you can
obtain the URL of your library and send it to other users to subscribe. If the library is already published, you
can change its password for authentication. Users who are subscribed to your library must update the
password to keep access to the published library.
Prerequisites
Required privileges: Content library. Update library and Content library. Update local library on the
library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
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2 Right-click a content library and select Edit Settings.
3 Edit the settings for the library.
Type of Content Library Action
Content library that is local You can publish a local library to share its contents with other users.
a Select the Publish this library externally check box.
b Select whether to set a password for authentication to the library. If
you password protect the library, you must provide both the URL and
the password to users who want to subscribe to your library.
Content library that is published You can change the following settings of a library that is published:
nYou can unpublish the library by deselecting the Publish this library
externally check box. Users who are currently subscribed to this
library can no longer use the library contents.
nYou can enable or disable authentication for the library, and change
the password for authentication.
nYou can copy the subscription URL to your library and send it to other
users to subscribe.
4 Click OK.
Edit the Settings of a Subscribed Library
You can edit the settings of a subscribed library to optimize storage space and network bandwidth by
switching between the options to download content from the published library. You might also need to
update the password for authentication to the library if the administrator of the published library changes
the password.
Prerequisites
Required privileges: Content library. Update subscribed library and Content library. Probe subscription
information on the subscribed library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Right-click a subscribed library and select Edit Settings.
3 Edit the settings of the subscribed library.
nEnable or disable the automatic synchronization with the published library.
nUpdate the password for authentication to the published library.
nSelect a download method. You can either download all library content immediately or download
library content only when needed.
If you switch from the option to download content only when needed to the option to immediately
download all library content, after confirming the dialog a synchronization task starts and content
starts to download. The number and size of items in the published library determine the amount of
time and network bandwidth that the task requires.
4 Click OK.
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Delete a Content Library
You can delete a content library that you no longer want to use.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Content library. Delete subscribed library or Content library. Delete local library on
the type of library you want to delete.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Right-click a content library from the list and select Delete.
3 In the Delete library confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
The content library and all its contents are deleted.
Hierarchical Inheritance of Permissions for Content Libraries
vSphere objects inherit permissions from a parent object in the hierarchy. Content libraries work in the
context of a single vCenter Server instance. However, content libraries are not direct children of a
vCenter Server system from an inventory perspective.
The direct parent for content libraries is the global root. This means that if you set a permission at a
vCenter Server level and propagate it to the children objects, the permission applies to data centers, folders,
clusters, hosts, virtual machines, and so on, but does not apply to the content libraries that you see and
operate with in this vCenter Server instance. To assign a permission on a content library, an Administrator
must grant the permission to the user as a global permission. Global permissions support assigning
privileges across solutions from a global root object.
The figure illustrates the inventory hierarchy and the paths by which permissions can propagate.
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Figure 4‑1. vSphere Inventory Hierarchy
template host VDS datastore
cluster
vApp
vApp
vApp
virtual
machine
virtual
machine
resource
pool
resource
pool
virtual
machine
virtual
machine
resource
pool
standard
switch
datastore
cluster
distributed
port group
VM folder host folder
data center
vCenter Server
(vCenter Server instance level)
network
folder
datastore
folder
data center
folder
root object
(global permissions level)
tag category
tag
content library
library item
To let a user manage a content library and its items, an Administrator can assign the Content Library
Administrator role to that user as a global permission. The Content Library Administrator role is a sample
role in the vSphere Web Client.
Users who are Administrators can also manage libraries and their contents. If a user is an Administrator at a
vCenter Server level, they have sufficient privileges to manage the libraries that belong to this
vCenter Server instance, but cannot see the libraries unless they have a Read-Only role as a global
permission.
For example, a user has an Administrator role that is defined at a vCenter Server level. When the
Administrator navigates to Content Libraries in the object navigator, he sees 0 libraries despite there are
existing libraries in the vSphere inventory of that vCenter Server instance. To see the libraries, the
Administrator needs a Read-Only role assigned as a global permission.
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Administrators whose role is defined as a global permissions can see and manage the libraries in all
vCenter Server instances that belong to the global root.
Because content libraries and their children items inherit permissions only from the global root object, when
you navigate to a library or a library item and click Manage tab, you can see there is no Permissions tab. An
Administrator cannot assign individual permissions on different libraries or different items within a library.
Sample User Role for Working with Content Libraries
vSphere Web Client provides a sample role that lets you be an administrator of content libraries. You can
modify the role or use it as an example to create custom roles for specific tasks you want to allow other users
to perform.
Content Library Administrator
Content Library Administrator role is a predefined role that gives a user privileges to monitor and manage a
library and its contents.
A user who has this role can perform the following tasks:
nCreate, edit, and delete local or subscribed libraries.
nSynchronize a subscribed library and synchronize items in a subscribed library.
nView the item types supported by the library.
nConfigure the global settings for the library.
nImport items to a library.
nExport library items.
Populating Libraries with Content
You can populate a content library with OVF templates that you can use to provision new virtual machines.
You can also add other files to a content library such as ISO images, scripts, and text files.
There are multiple ways to populate a library with items.
nImporting Items to a Content Library on page 79
You can import items such as VM templates and vApps to a content library from your local machine
or from a Web server, and use them to create virtual machines and vApps. You can also import ISO
images, certificates, and other files, which you want to keep in the library and share with other users
across multiple vCenter Server systems.
nClone a vApp to a Template in Content Library on page 80
You can clone existing vApps to vApp templates in a content library. You can use the vApp templates
later to provision new vApps on a cluster or a host in your vSphere inventory. The vApp is exported
to a content library in the OVF format.
nClone a Virtual Machine or a VM Template to a Template in Content Library on page 80
You can clone existing virtual machines or VM templates to templates in the content library, and use
them later to provision virtual machines on a cluster or a host.
nClone Library Items from One Library to Another Library on page 81
You can clone a template from one content library to another in the same vCenter Server instance. The
cloned template is an exact copy of the original template.
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Importing Items to a Content Library
You can import items such as VM templates and vApps to a content library from your local machine or from
a Web server, and use them to create virtual machines and vApps. You can also import ISO images,
certificates, and other files, which you want to keep in the library and share with other users across multiple
vCenter Server systems.
Import Items to a Library from a URL
You can add an item that resides on a Web server to a content library.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Content library. Add library item and Content library. Update files on the library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Right-click a content library and select Import Item.
The Import Library Item dialog box opens.
3 Under Source section, select the option to import an item from a URL, and enter the path to a Web-
server where the item is.
4 Under Destination section, enter a name and a description for the item, and click OK.
In the Recent Tasks pane you see two tasks, one about creating a new item in the library, and the second
about uploading the contents of the item to the library. After the task is complete, the item appears on the
Related Objects tab under Templates or Other Types.
Import Items to a Library from a Local File on Your System
You can add items to a content library by importing files from your local system. You can import an OVF
package to use as a template for deploying virtual machines and vApps. You can also import other types of
files, such as scripts, ISO files, and so on, that you want to use in your vCenter Server instance, or you want
to share across multiple vCenter Server systems.
Prerequisites
nVerify you have the vCenter Client Integration Plug-in installed on the system. See “Install the Client
Integration Plug-In,” on page 187.
nRequired privilege: Content library. Add library item and Content library. Update files on the library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Right-click a content library and select Import Item.
The Import Library Item dialog box opens.
3 Under Source section, select the option to import an item from a local file, and click Browse to navigate
to the file that you want to import from your local system.
You can use theFiles of Type drop-down menu to filter files in your local system.
4 Under Destination section, enter a name and description for the item, and click OK.
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In the Recent Tasks pane you see two tasks, one about creating a new item in the library, and the second
about uploading the contents of the item to the library. After the task is complete, the item appears on the
Related Objects tab under Templates or Other Types.
Clone a vApp to a Template in Content Library
You can clone existing vApps to vApp templates in a content library. You can use the vApp templates later
to provision new vApps on a cluster or a host in your vSphere inventory. The vApp is exported to a content
library in the OVF format.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, click vCenter Inventory Lists > vApps.
2 Right-click a vApp and select Clone > Clone to Template in Library
3 Type a name and description for the template.
4 From the list of available libraries, select the content library to which you want to add the template.
5 (Optional) Include or exclude vApp related configurations in the template you are cloning.
You can select to preserve the MAC-addresses on the network adapters and include extra configuration.
6 Click OK.
A new task for exporting an OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the
vApp template appears on the Templates tab under Related Objects tab for the content library.
What to do next
Use the template to provision vApps on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory. See “Create New
vApp on a Host or a Cluster from a Template in a Content Library,” on page 84
Clone a Virtual Machine or a VM Template to a Template in Content Library
You can clone existing virtual machines or VM templates to templates in the content library, and use them
later to provision virtual machines on a cluster or a host.
Templates are master copies of virtual machines that let you create ready-for-use virtual machines. You can
make changes to the template, such as installing additional software in the guest operating system, while
preserving the state of the original template. For more information, see “VM Templates and vApp
Templates in Content Libraries,” on page 82
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the object you want to clone, and start the cloning task.
Option Action
Clone a virtual machine to a
template in a library
a Select vCenter Inventory Lists > Virtual Machines.
b Right-click a virtual machine and select Clone > Clone to Template in
Library.
Clone a VM Template to a template
in a library
a Select vCenter Inventory Lists > VM Templates in Folders.
b Right-click a VM Template and select Clone to Library.
The Clone to Template in Library dialog box opens.
2 Enter a name and description for the template.
3 From the list with content libraries, select the library in which you want to add the template.
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4 (Optional) Select configuration data that you want to include in the template.
You can select to preserve the MAC-addresses on the network adapters and include extra configuration.
5 Click OK.
A new task for exporting an OVF package appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the
template appears in the Templates tab of the Related Objects tab for the content library.
What to do next
Use the template to create virtual machines on hosts or clusters in the vSphere inventory.
Clone Library Items from One Library to Another Library
You can clone a template from one content library to another in the same vCenter Server instance. The
cloned template is an exact copy of the original template.
When cloning a template between libraries, in the clone wizard you can select the source library to also be a
destination library.
A subscribed library can be the source of an item you want to clone, but you cannot clone items to a
subscribed library. The subscribed libraries are filtered out from the list with destination libraries in the
Clone Library Item dialog box. When the source library of an item you want to clone is a subscribed library
with the setting to download items only when needed, the item is first downloaded to the source subscribed
library and then cloned to the destination library.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a content library and click the Related Objects tab.
3 Right-click a library item and select Clone Item.
4 (Optional) Change the name and notes for the item you clone.
5 From the list of content libraries, select the library in which you want to clone the template.
You can select the destination library to be the same as the source library if you want to have identical
copy of the template in the same library.
6 Click OK.
A new task for cloning the template appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, a clone of
the template appears on the Templates tab under the Related objects tab of the destination content library.
What to do next
Deploy a virtual machine from template on a host or a cluster in your vSphere inventory.
Working with Items in a Library
You can perform various tasks with the items in a content library. You can synchronize an item from a
subscribed library to download all its contents and use the item to deploy a virtual machine for example.
You can delete items you no longer need to use, and so on.
Each VM template, vApp template, or another type of file in a library is a library item. An item can contain a
single file or multiple files. In the case of VM and vApp templates, each item contains multiple files. For
example, because an OVF template is a set of multiple files, when you upload an OVF template to the
library, you actually upload all the files associated with the template (.ovf, .vmdk, and .mf), but in the
vSphere Web Client you see listing only of the .ovf file in the content library.
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VM Templates and vApp Templates in Content Libraries
In a content library you can store VM and vApp templates. You can use the VM and vApp templates to
deploy virtual machines and vApps in the vSphere inventory.
A VM template is a template of a virtual machine. The VM templates that exist in a VM template folder
differentiate from the VM templates that exist in a content library. A VM template that resides in a content
library is in OVF format and if you export it to your local system it is saved as an .ovf file. The VM
templates that exist in a VM template folder are not in OVF format but if you clone them to content library,
the resulting template is in an OVF format.
A vApp template is a template of a vApp, which can contain multiple virtual machines or multiple vApps.
A vApp template that resides in a content library is in OVF format, and if you export the template to your
local system it is saved as an .ovf file. vApp templates are inventory objects that exist only in content
libraries.
You can use VM templates and vApp templates to deploy virtual machines and vApps to a destination
object such as a host or a cluster.
Synchronize a Library Item in a Subscribed Library
To update or download the content of a library item you can synchronize it.
When creating the subscribed library, if you selected the option to download library content only when
needed, only metadata for the library contents is downloaded to the associated storage. When you need to
use the item, you synchronize it to download its content to your local storage. When you no longer need the
item, to free space on your storage you can delete the content of the item. You continue to see the item in
your subscribed library, but it no longer takes up space on your storage because only the items metadata
remains on the storage.
Prerequisites
nRequired privilege: Content library. Sync library item on the library item.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.
3 Synchronize the item you need to use.
nOn the Templates tab, right-click a VM or a vApp template, and select Synchronize Item.
nOn the Other Types tab, right-click an item, and select Synchronize Item.
After synchronization completes, the item content and metadata are downloaded to the backing storage of
the subscribed library, and in the Related Objects tab the value for the item in the Stored Content Locally
column changes to Yes.
Export Item from a Content Library to Your Local Computer
You might need to export an item from a content library to your local system.
Prerequisites
nRequired privilege: Content library. Download files on the library.
nVerify you have the Client Integration Plug-in installed on the system.
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Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a content library and click the Related Objects tab.
3 Select the type of file you want to export.
nFrom the Templates tab, right-click a template from the library, and select Export Item.
nFrom the Other Types tab, right-click a file from the library that is not a template, and select Export
Item.
The Export Library Item dialog box opens.
4 Browse to a destination folder where you want to save the item, and click OK.
A folder with the same name as the item is created in the destination folder on your local computer to store
the item contents.
Delete the Contents of a Library Item
If a subscribed library is created with the option to download library content only when needed, only
metadata for the library items is stored in the associated with the library storage. For example, when you
want to use a VM template to deploy a virtual machine, you have to synchronize the item so the entire
content is downloaded to the associated storage. After you are done using the template, you can delete the
item contents to free space on the storage. The template remains visible in the subscribed library because the
metadata for it remains on the storage that is associated with the library. This also applies for vApp
templates, and other file that exist in the subscribed library.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Content library. Evict library item
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.
3 On the Related Objects tab, right-click an item from the list, and select Delete Item Content.
The content of the item is deleted to free space on the storage. Only the item metadata remains on the
storage.
Delete Library Item
You can delete an item you no longer need to use.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Content library. Delete library item on the library item.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a subscribed library from the list, and click the Related Objects tab.
3 Right-click an item from the Templates or Other Types lists in the Related Objects tab, and select
Delete.
4 In the dialog box, confirm that you want to delete the item.
The content and the metadata of the library item are deleted.
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Creating Virtual Machines and vApps from Templates in a Content
Library
From VM or from vApp templates stored in a content library, you can deploy virtual machines and vApps
on hosts or clusters in your vSphere inventory.
The library can be a local library to the vCenter Server instance where you want to deploy the VM or the
vApp template, or can be a subscribed library to that vCenter Server instance.
The use of templates brings about consistency, compliance, and efficiency when deploying virtual machines
and vApps in your vCenter Server instance.
Deploy Virtual Machine on a Host or a Cluster from a VM Template in the
Content Library
You can use a VM template from a content library to deploy a virtual machine to a host or a cluster in your
vSphere inventory.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a content library, click the Related Objects tab, and click Templates.
3 Right-click a VM Template and select New VM from This Template.
The New Virtual Machine from Content Library into Host or Cluster wizard opens.
4 Enter a name, select a location for the virtual machine, and click Next.
5 On the Select a resource page, select a host, a cluster, a resource pool, or a vApp where to deploy the
VM template.
6 On the Review details page, verify the template details and click Next.
7 On the Select Storage page, select the location to store the files of the VM template, and click Next.
8 Select a network for each network adapter in the template, and click Next.
9 Review the page and click Finish.
A new task for creating the virtual machine appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the
new virtual machine is created on the selected resource.
What to do next
Customize the guest operating system of the virtual machine. For more information, see “Apply a
Customization Specification to a Virtual Machine,” on page 54.
Create New vApp on a Host or a Cluster from a Template in a Content Library
You can use a vApp template from a content library to create new vApp on a host or a cluster in your
vSphere inventory.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Web Client navigator, select vCenter Inventory Lists > Content Libraries.
2 Select a content library, click the Related Objects tab, and click Templates.
3 Right-click a vApp template and select New vApp from This Template.
The New vApp from Content Library into Host or Cluster wizard opens.
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4 Enter a name and select a location for the vApp, and click Next.
5 On the Select a resource page, select a host, a cluster, a resource pool, or a vApp to deploy the vApp to.
6 On the Review details page, verify the template details and click Next.
7 Select disk format and a storage resource for the vApp.
8 On the Customize template page, you can customize the deployment properties for the vApp.
9 On the Ready to Complete page, review the configurations you made for the vApp, and click Finish.
A new task for creating the vApp appears in the Recent Tasks pane. After the task is complete, the new
vApp is created.
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Installing the Microsoft Sysprep Tool 5
Install the Microsoft Sysprep tool so that you can customize Windows guest operating systems when you
clone virtual machines.
The guest operating system customization feature in vCenter Server uses the functions of the Sysprep tool.
Verify that your vCenter Server meets the following requirements before you customize your virtual
machine’s Windows guest operating systems:
nInstall the Microsoft Sysprep tool. Microsoft includes the system tool set on the installation CD-ROM
discs for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003. The Sysprep tool is built into the Windows
Vista and Windows 2008 operating systems.
nThe correct versions of the Sysprep tool is installed for each guest operating system that you want to
customize.
nThe password for the local administrator account on the virtual machines is set to blank ("").
NOTE Customization operations will fail if the correct version of the Sysprep tool is not found.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from a Microsoft Web Site,” on page 87
n“Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from the Windows Operating System CD,” on page 88
Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from a Microsoft Web Site
You can download and install the Microsoft Sysprep tool from the Microsoft Web site.
Prerequisites
Verify that you download the correct version for the guest operating system to customize. Microsoft has a
different version of Sysprep for each release and service pack of Windows. You must use the version of
Sysprep specific to the operating system that you are deploying.
The vCenter Server installer creates a Sysprep directory in ALLUSERSPROFILE. The ALLUSERSPROFILE location is
usually \Documents And Settings\All Users\. The vpxd.cfg file is also in this location. On Windows 2008,
the file location is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\.
Procedure
1 Download the Sysprep files from the Microsoft Download Center and save them to your local system.
2 Open and expand the .cab file.
The contents of the .cab file vary, depending on the operating system.
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3 Extract the files to the appropriate directory for your guest operating system.
The following Sysprep support directories are created during the vCenter Server installation:
C:\ALLUSERSPROFILE\Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep
...\1.1\
...\2k\
...\xp\
...\svr2003\
...\xp-64\
...\svr2003-64\
4 Select the subdirectory that corresponds to your operating system.
5 Click OK to expand the files.
What to do next
Customize a new virtual machine with a supported Windows guest operating system when you clone an
existing virtual machine.
Install the Microsoft Sysprep Tool from the Windows Operating
System CD
You can install the Microsoft Sysprep tool from a CD.
The vCenter Server installer creates a Sysprep directory in ALLUSERSPROFILE. The ALLUSERSPROFILE
location is usually \Documents and Settings\All Users\. The vpxd.cfg file is also in this location. On
Windows 2008, the file location is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep\.
Procedure
1 Insert the Windows operating system CD into the CD-ROM drive, often the D: drive.
2 Locate the DEPLOY.CAB file in the \Support\Tools directory on the CD.
3 Open and expand the DEPLOY.CAB file.
The contents of the .cab file vary, depending on the operating system.
4 Extract the files to the directory appropriate for your guest operating system.
The following Sysprep support directories are created during the vCenter Server installation:
C:\ALLUSERSPROFILE\Application Data\Vmware\VMware VirtualCenter\sysprep
...\1.1\
...\2k\
...\xp\
...\svr2003\
...\xp-64\
...\svr2003-64\
5 Select the subdirectory that corresponds to your operating system.
6 Click OK to expand the files.
7 Repeat this procedure to extract Sysprep files for each of the Windows guest operating systems that you
plan to customize using vCenter Server.
What to do next
Customize a new virtual machine with a supported Windows guest operating system when you clone an
existing virtual machine.
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Configuring Virtual Machine
Hardware 6
You can add or configure most virtual machine properties during the virtual machine creation process or
after you create the virtual machine and install the guest operating system.
You configure the virtual machine hardware and can change nearly every characteristic that you selected
when you created the virtual machine. You can view the existing hardware configuration and add or
remove hardware. You can configure CPUs, CPU hyperthreading resources, memory, and disks.
Not all hardware devices are available to every virtual machine. The host that the virtual machine runs on
and the guest operating system must support devices that you add or configurations that you make.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n“Virtual Machine Compatibility,” on page 89
n“Virtual CPU Configuration,” on page 95
n“Virtual Memory Configuration,” on page 101
n“Network Virtual Machine Configuration,” on page 103
n“Parallel and Serial Port Configuration,” on page 107
n“Virtual Disk Configuration,” on page 115
n“SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125
n“Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration,” on page 130
n“Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual machines with 3D graphics Option,” on page 139
n“USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine,” on page 139
n“USB Configuration from a Client Computer to a Virtual Machine,” on page 146
n“Add a Shared Smart Card Reader to Virtual Machines,” on page 152
Virtual Machine Compatibility
When you create a virtual machine or upgrade an existing virtual machine, you use the virtual machine
compatibility setting to select the ESXi host versions that the virtual machine can run on.
The compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine, which
corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. Virtual hardware includes BIOS and EFI,
available virtual PCI slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other
characteristics. New virtual hardware capabilities are typically released once a year with major or minor
releases of vSphere.
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Each virtual machine compatibility level supports at least five major or minor vSphere releases. For
example, a virtual machine with ESXi 3.5 and later compatibility can run on ESXi 3.5, ESXi 4.0, ESXi 4.1,
ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0.
Table 6‑1. Virtual Machine Compatibility Options
Compatibility Description
ESXi 6.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 11) is compatible with ESXi 6.0.
ESXi 5.5 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 10) is compatible with ESXi 5.5 and 6.0.
ESXi 5.1 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 9) is compatible with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and
ESXi 6.0.
ESXi 5.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 8) is compatible with ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, ESXi
5.5, and ESXi 6.0.
ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 7) is compatible with ESX/ ESXi 4.0, ESX/ ESXi
4.1, ESXi 5.0, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0.
ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later This virtual machine (hardware version 4) is compatible with ESX/ESXi 3.5, ESX/ ESXi
4.0, ESX/ ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, and ESXi 6.0. It is also compatible with VMware
Server 1.0 and later. ESXi 5.0 does not allow creation of virtual machines with ESX/ESXi
3.5 and later compatibility, but you can run such virtual machines if they were created
on a host with different compatibility.
ESX Server 2.x and later This virtual machine (hardware version 3) is compatible with ESX Server 2.x, ESX/ESXi
3.5, ESX/ESXi 4.x, and ESXi 5.0. You cannot create, edit, turn on, clone, or migrate virtual
machines with ESX Server 2.x compatibility. You can only register or upgrade them.
The compatibility setting that appears in the Compatible with drop-down menu is the default for the
virtual machine that you are creating. The following factors determine the default virtual machine
compatibility:
nThe ESXi host version on which the virtual machine is created.
nThe inventory object that the default virtual machine compatibility is set on, including a host, cluster, or
datacenter.
You can accept the default compatibility or select a different setting. It is not always necessary to select the
latest ESXi host version. Selecting an earlier version can provide greater flexibility and is useful in the
following situations:
nTo standardize testing and deployment in your virtual environment.
nIf you do not need the capabilities of the latest host version.
nTo maintain compatibility with older hosts.
When you create a virtual machine, consider the environment that the virtual machine will run in and
weigh the benefits of different compatibility strategies. Consider your options for these scenarios, which
demonstrate the flexibility inherent with each virtual machine compatibility selection.
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Objects in Environment Compatibility Results
Cluster with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5,
and ESXi 6.0 hosts
ESXi 5.1 and later Preserves the ability of the virtual machine to run on other hosts in
the cluster, such as ESXi 5.0.
You might not have access to the latest virtual hardware features.
Cluster with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5,
and ESXi 6.0 hosts
ESXi 5.5 and later Gives you access to virtual hardware features that are not available
with ESXi 5.1.
nYou cannot migrate this virtual machine to an ESXi 5.1 host.
nThis virtual machine does not have all the capabilities available
to virtual machines that run on ESXi 6.0, for example, you
cannot configure a virtual machine to use 128 virtual CPUs.
Cluster with ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5,
and ESXi 6.0 hosts
ESXi 6.0 and later Provides access to the latest virtual hardware features, but but
cannot run on ESXi 5.1 or ESXi 5.5.
Set the Default Compatibility for Virtual Machine Creation
You can set the default compatibility for virtual machine creation on the host, cluster, or data center. These
options ensure that when virtual machines are added to an existing vSphere environment, they will be
compatible with the host versions that reside there.
The following conditions apply:
nTo set the default compatibility on the cluster, the cluster must contain hosts that are connected and not
in maintenance mode.
nA default compatibility setting on the host overrides a default cluster or datacenter setting.
nA default compatibility setting on the cluster overrides a default datacenter setting.
Prerequisites
Required privileges:
nOn the host or cluster: Host.Inventory.Modify cluster
nOn the datacenter: Datacenter.Reconfigure datacenter
Procedure
uSelect a host, cluster, or data center in the inventory.
Option Action
Host a Click the Manage tab, and click Settings.
b In the Virtual Machines section, select Default VM Compatibility and
click Edit.
c Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.
NOTE You can set the compatibility only on hosts that are not part of a
cluster.
Cluster a Click the Manage tab and click Settings.
b In the Configuration section, select General and click the Edit button
next to Default VM Compatibility.
c Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.
When you change the compatibility for a cluster, the compatibility for all
hosts in the cluster changes as well.
Datacenter a Right-click the datacenter and select Edit Default VM Compatibility.
b Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu and click OK.
When you create a virtual machine on one of these objects, the default compatibility setting is used.
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Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for a Single Virtual Machine
The compatibility level determines the virtual hardware available to a virtual machine, which corresponds
to the physical hardware available on the host machine. You can upgrade the compatibility to make the
virtual machine compatible with the latest version of the host.
To schedule an upgrade for multiple virtual machines, see “Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for Virtual
Machines,” on page 247.
Prerequisites
nCreate a backup or snapshot of the virtual machines.
nUpgrade to the latest version of VMware Tools. On Microsoft Windows virtual machines, if you
upgrade the compatibility level before you upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine might lose its
network settings.
nVerify that all .vmdk files are available to the ESX/ESXi host on a VMFS-3, VMFS-5, or NFS datastore.
nVerify that the virtual machine is stored on VMFS-3, VMFS-5 or NFS datastores.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Upgrade and select Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade.
3 Select the compatibility from the drop-down menu.
The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded the next time you restart the virtual machine.
4 (Optional) To upgrade the compatibility when you do regularly scheduled guest maintenance, select
Only upgrade after normal guest OS shutdown.
The virtual machine compatibility is upgraded and the new version appears on the virtual machine
Summary tab.
Determine the Default Virtual Machine Compatibility Setting in the
vSphere Web Client
The compatibility setting for a virtual machine provides information about the hosts, clusters, or data center
that the virtual machine is compatible with.
The virtual machine Summary tab displays the compatibility for the virtual machine. You can set and view
the default compatibility that is used for virtual machine creation at the host, cluster, or datacenter level.
Procedure
uSelect an inventory object and display the virtual machine compatibility.
Option Action
Virtual machine Select a virtual machine and click Actions > Compatibility. You can select
Upgrade VM Compatibility or Schedule VM Compatibility Upgrade.
Host, Cluster, Datacenter Right-click the object and select Actions > Edit Default VM Compatibility.
If a host is in a cluster, it has the virtual machine compatibility set on the
cluster, and the menu item is grayed out.
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Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings
The virtual machine compatibility setting determines the virtual hardware available to the virtual machine,
which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the host. You can review and compare the
hardware available for different compatibility levels to help you determine whether to upgrade the virtual
machines in your environment.
Table 6‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility
Feature ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later
ESXi 5.1 and
later
ESXi 5.0
and later
ESX/ESXi
4.x and
later
ESX/ESXi
3.5 and
later
Hardware
version
11 10 9 8 7 4
Maximum
memory (GB)
4080 1011 1011 1011 255 64
Maximum
number of
logical
processors
128 64 64 32 8 4
Maximum
number of
cores (virtual
CPUs) per
socket
128 64 64 32 8 1
Maximum
SCSI
adapters
4 4 4 4 4 4
Bus Logic
adapters
Y Y Y Y Y Y
LSI Logic
adapters
Y Y Y Y Y Y
LSI Logic
SAS adapters
Y Y Y Y Y N
VMware
Paravirtual
controllers
Y Y Y Y Y N
SATA
controllers
4 4 N N N N
Virtual SCSI
disk
Y Y Y Y Y Y
SCSI
passthrough
Y Y Y Y Y Y
SCSI hot plug
support
Y Y Y Y Y Y
IDE nodes Y Y Y Y Y Y
Virtual IDE
disk
Y Y Y Y Y N
Virtual IDE
CD-ROMs
Y Y Y Y Y Y
IDE hot plug
support
N N N N N N
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Table 6‑2. Supported Features for Virtual Machine Compatibility (Continued)
Feature ESXi 6.0 and later ESXi 5.5 and later
ESXi 5.1 and
later
ESXi 5.0
and later
ESX/ESXi
4.x and
later
ESX/ESXi
3.5 and
later
Maximum
NICs
10 10 10 10 10 4
PCNet32 Y Y Y Y Y Y
VMXNet Y Y Y Y Y Y
VMXNet2 Y Y Y Y Y Y
VMXNet3 Y Y Y Y Y N
E1000 Y Y Y Y Y Y
E1000e Y Y Y Y N N
USB 1.x and
2.0
Y Y Y Y Y N
USB 3.0 Y Y Y Y N N
Maximum
video
memory
(MB)
2 GB 512 512 128 128 128
SVGA
displays
10 10 10 10 10 1
SVGA 3D
hardware
acceleration
Y Y Y Y N N
VMCI Y Y Y Y Y N
PCI
passthrough
16 6 6 6 6 0
PCI Hot plug
support
Y Y Y Y Y N
Nested HV
support
Y Y Y N N N
vPMC
support
Y Y Y N N N
Serial ports 32 4 4 4 4 4
Parallel ports 3 3 3 3 3 3
Floppy
devices
2 2 2 2 2 2
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Virtual CPU Configuration
You can add, change, or configure CPU resources to improve virtual machine performance. You can set
most of the CPU parameters when you create virtual machines or after the guest operating system is
installed. Some actions require that you power off the virtual machine before you change the settings.
VMware uses the following terminology. Understanding these terms can help you plan your CPU resource
allocation strategy.
CPU The CPU or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the
instructions of a computer program and is the primary element carrying out
the computer's functions. CPUs contain cores.
CPU Socket A physical connector on a computer motherboard that accepts a single
physical CPU. Many motherboards can have multiple sockets that can in
turn accept multicore processors (CPUs). The vSphere Web Client computes
the total number of virtual sockets from the number of cores and the cores
per socket that you select.
Core Comprises a unit containing an L1 cache and functional units needed to run
programs. Cores can independently run programs or threads. One or more
cores can exist on a single CPU.
Corelet An AMD processor corelet is architecturally equivalent to a logical processor.
Certain future AMD processors will comprise a number of compute units,
where each compute unit has a number of corelets. Unlike a traditional
processor core, a corelet lacks a complete set of private, dedicated execution
resources and shares some execution resources with other corelets such as an
L1 instruction cache or a floating-point execution unit. AMD refers to
corelets as cores, but because these are unlike traditional cores, VMware uses
the nomenclature of corelets to make resource sharing more apparent.
Thread Some cores can run independent streams of instructions simultaneously. In
existing implementations, cores can run one or two software threads at one
time by multiplexing the functional units of the core between the software
threads, as necessary. Such cores are called dual or multithreaded.
Resource sharing Shares specify the relative priority or importance of a virtual machine or
resource pool. If a virtual machine has twice as many shares of a resource as
another virtual machine, it is entitled to consume twice as much of that
resource when these two virtual machines are competing for resources.
Resource allocation You can change CPU resource allocation settings, such as shares, reservation,
and limit, when available resource capacity does not meet demands. For
example, if at year end, the workload on accounting increases, you can
increase the accounting resource pool reserve.
vSphere Virtual
Symmetric
Multiprocessing (Virtual
SMP)
Feature that enables a single virtual machine to have multiple processors.
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Virtual CPU Limitations
The maximum number of virtual CPUs that you can assign to a virtual machine is 128. The number of
virtual CPUs depends on the number of logical CPUs on the host, and the type of guest operating system
that is installed on the virtual machine.
Be aware of the following limitations:
nA virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the number of logical cores on the host. The
number of logical cores is equal to the number of physical cores if hyperthreading is disabled or two
times that number if hyperthreading is enabled.
nNot every guest operating system supports Virtual SMP, and guest operating systems that support this
functionality might support fewer processors than are available on the host. For information about
Virtual SMP support, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
nHyperthreaded hosts might affect virtual machine performance, depending on the workload. The best
practice is to test your workload to determine whether to enable or disable hyperthreading on your
hosts.
Configuring Multicore Virtual CPUs
VMware multicore virtual CPU support lets you control the number of cores per virtual socket in a virtual
machine. This capability lets operating systems with socket restrictions use more of the host CPU's cores,
which increases overall performance.
IMPORTANT When you configure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU settings, you must ensure
that your configuration complies with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.
Using multicore virtual CPUs can be useful when you run operating systems or applications that can take
advantage of only a limited number of CPU sockets.
You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.0 and later to have up to 128 virtual CPUs.
A virtual machine cannot have more virtual CPUs than the actual number of logical CPUs on the host. The
number of logical CPUs means the number of physical processor cores or two times that number if
hyperthreading is enabled. For example, if a host has 128 logical CPUs, you can configure the virtual
machine for 128 virtual CPUs.
You configure how the virtual CPUs are assigned in terms of cores and cores per socket. Determine how
many CPU cores you want in the virtual machine, then select the number of cores you want in each socket,
depending on whether you want a single core CPU, dual-core CPU, tri-core CPU, and so on. Your selection
determines the number of sockets that the virtual machine has.
For more information about multicore CPUs, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.
Change CPU Hot Plug Settings
By default, you cannot add CPU resources to a virtual machine when the virtual machine is turned on. The
CPU hot plug option lets you add CPU resources to a running virtual machine.
The following conditions apply:
nFor best results, use virtual machines that are compatible with ESXi 5.0 or later.
nHot-adding multicore virtual CPUs is supported only with virtual machines that are compatible with
ESXi 5.0 or later.
nNot all guest operating systems support CPU hot add. You can disable these settings if the guest is not
supported.
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nTo use the CPU hot plug feature with virtual machines that are compatible with ESXi 4.x and later, set
the Number of cores per socket to 1.
nAdding CPU resources to a running virtual machine with CPU hot plug enabled disconnects and
reconnects all USB passthrough devices that are connected to that virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Required privileges: Virtual Machine.Configuration.Settings
Verify that the virtual machine is running and is configured as follows.
nLatest version of VMware Tools installed.
nGuest operating system that supports CPU hot plug.
nVirtual machine compatibility is ESX/ESXi 4.x or later.
nVirtual machine is turned off.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select Enable CPU Hot Add.
3 Click OK.
You can now add CPUs even if the virtual machine is turned on.
Change the Number of Virtual CPUs
You can configure a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi host 6.0 and later to have up to 128 virtual CPUs.
You can change the number of virtual CPUs while your virtual machine is powered off. If virtual CPU
hotplug is enabled, you can increase the number of virtual CPUs while the virtual machine is running.
Virtual CPU hot add is supported for virtual machines with multicore CPU support and ESXi 5.0 and later
compatibility. When the virtual machine is turned on, and CPU hot add is enabled, you can hot add virtual
CPUs to the running virtual machine. You can add only multiples of the number of cores per socket.
IMPORTANT When you configure your virtual machine for multicore virtual CPU settings, you must ensure
that your configuration complies with the requirements of the guest operating system EULA.
Prerequisites
nIf CPU hot add is not enabled, turn off the virtual machine before adding CPUs.
nTo hot add multicore CPUs, verify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.0 and later.
nRequired privilege: Virtual Machine.Configuration.Change CPU Count on the virtual machine
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 Expand CPU, and select the number of cores from the CPU drop-down menu.
3 Select the number of cores per socket from the Cores Per Socket drop-down menu.
4 Click OK.
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Allocate CPU Resources
To manage workload demands, you can change the amount of CPU resources allocated to a virtual machine
by using the shares, reservations, and limits settings.
A virtual machine has the following user-defined settings that affect its CPU resource allocation.
Limit Places a limit on the consumption of CPU time for a virtual machine. This
value is expressed in MHz or GHz.
Reservation Specifies the guaranteed minimum allocation for a virtual machine. The
reservation is expressed in MHz or GHz.
Shares Each virtual machine is granted a number of CPU shares. The more shares a
virtual machine has, the more often it gets a time slice of a CPU when there is
no CPU idle time. Shares represent a relative metric for allocating CPU
capacity.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and allocate the CPU capacity for the virtual machine.
Option Description
Reservation Guaranteed CPU allocation for this virtual machine.
Limit Upper limit for this virtual machine’s CPU allocation. Select Unlimited to
specify no upper limit.
Shares CPU shares for this virtual machine in relation to the parent’s total. Sibling
virtual machines share resources according to their relative share values
bounded by the reservation and limit. Select Low, Normal, or High, which
specify share values respectively in a 1:2:4 ratio. Select Custom to give each
virtual machine a specific number of shares, which express a proportional
weight.
3 Click OK.
Configure Processor Scheduling Affinity
The Scheduling Affinity option gives you detailed control over how virtual machine CPUs are distributed
across the host's physical cores. The option supports hyperthreading if hyperthreading is enabled. ESXi
generally manages processor scheduling well, even when hyperthreading is enabled. These settings are
useful only for fine-tuning critical virtual machines.
Using CPU affinity, you can assign a virtual machine to a specific processor. This assignment allows you to
restrict the assignment of virtual machines to a specific available processor in multiprocessor systems.
This setting does not appear for virtual machines in a DRS cluster or when the host has only one processor
core and no hyperthreading.
For potential issues with CPU affinity, see the vSphere Resource Management documentation.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned off.
nVerify that the virtual machine does not reside in a DRS cluster.
nVerify that the host has more than one physical processor core.
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nPrivileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Change resource
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and enter a comma-separated list of hyphenated processor
ranges in the Scheduling Affinity text box.
For example, "0,4-7" would indicate affinity with CPUs 0,4,5,6, and 7. Selecting all processors is identical
to selecting no affinity. You must provide at least as many processor affinities as you have virtual
CPUs.
3 Click OK.
Change CPU Identification Mask Settings in the vSphere Web Client
CPU identification (CPU ID) masks control the CPU features visible to the virtual machine's guest operating
system. Masking or hiding CPU features can make a virtual machine widely available to ESXi hosts for
migration. vCenter Server compares the CPU features available to a virtual machine with the CPU features
of the destination host to determine whether to allow or disallow migration with vMotion.
For example, masking the AMD No eXecute (NX) and the Intel eXecute Disable (XD) bits prevents the
virtual machine from using these features, but provides compatibility that allows you to migrate virtual
machines to ESXi hosts that do not include this capability. When the NX/XD bit is visible to the guest
operating system, the virtual machine can use this feature, but you can migrate the virtual machine only to
hosts on which the feature is enabled.
CAUTION Changing the CPU compatibility masks can result in an unsupported configuration. Do not
manually change the CPU compatibility masks unless instructed to do so by VMware Support or a VMware
Knowledge base article.
Prerequisites
Turn off the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and in the CPUID Mask drop-down menu, select an NX/XD
option.
Option Description
Hide the NX/XD flag from guest Increases vMotion compatibility.
Hiding the NX/XD flag increases vMotion compatibility between hosts, but
might disable certain CPU security features.
Expose the NX/XD flag to guest Keeps all CPU security features enabled.
Keep current Advanced setting
values for the NX/XD flag
Uses the NX/XD flag settings specified in the CPU Identification Mask
dialog box. Enabled only when current settings specify something other
than what is specified in the other NX/XD flag options, for example, if the
NX/XD flag bit setting varies with processor brand.
3 Click OK.
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Expose VMware Hardware Assisted Virtualization
You can expose full CPU virtualization to the guest operating system so that applications that require
hardware virtualization can run on virtual machines without binary translation or paravirtualization.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.1 and later.
nIntel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3
(Greyhound) or later processors.
nVerify that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS so that hardware assisted virtualization is
possible.
nRequired Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Settings set on the vCenter Server system.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select Expose hardware-assisted virtualization to
guest OS.
3 Click OK.
The Manage tab refreshes, and the Nested Hypervisor CPU option shows Enabled.
Enable Virtual CPU Performance Counters
You can use performance tuning tools in the guest operating system for software profiling. You can identify
and improve processor performance problems. This capability is useful for software developers who
optimize or debug software that runs in the virtual machine.
The following conditions apply:
nIf virtual CPU performance counters are enabled, you can migrate the virtual machine only to hosts that
have compatible CPU performance counters.
nIf an ESXi host's BIOS uses a performance counter or if Fault Tolerance is enabled, some virtual
performance counters might not be available for the virtual machine to use.
NOTE If a virtual machine resides on an ESXi host in an EVC cluster, CPU counters are not supported for
virtual machine creation or editing. You must disable CPU performance counters.
For a list of virtualized Model-Specific Registers (MSRs), see the VMware knowledge base article at
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2030221.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.1 and later.
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned off.
nVerify that Intel Nehalem Generation (Xeon Core i7) or later processors or AMD Opteron Generation 3
("Greyhound") or later processors are installed.
nVerify that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS so that hardware-assisted virtualization is
possible.
nRequired Privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Settings is set on the vCenter Server system.
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Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU and enable virtualized CPU performance counters.
3 Click OK.
Change CPU/MMU Virtualization Settings
ESXi can determine whether a virtual machine should use hardware support for virtualization. ESXi makes
this determination based on the processor type and the virtual machine. Overriding the automatic selection
can provide better performance for some use cases.
You can use software MMU when your virtual machine runs heavy workloads, such as, Translation
Lookaside Buffers (TLBs) intensive workloads that has significant impact on the overall system
performance. However, software MMU has a higher overhead memory requirement than hardware MMU.
Hence, in order to support software MMU, the maximum overhead supported for virtual machine limit in
the VMkernel needs to be increased. You can configure your virtual machine with up to 128 CPUs, if your
virtual machine host has ESXi 6.0 and later compatibility (hardware version 11).
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CPU, and select an instruction set from the CPU/MMU
Virtualization drop-down menu.
3 Click OK.
Virtual Memory Configuration
You can add, change, or configure virtual machine memory resources or options to enhance virtual machine
performance. You can set most of the memory parameters during virtual machine creation or after the guest
operating system is installed. Some actions require that you power off the virtual machine before changing
the settings.
The memory resource settings for a virtual machine determine how much of the host's memory is allocated
to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size determines how much memory is available to
applications that run in the virtual machine. A virtual machine cannot benefit from more memory resources
than its configured virtual hardware memory size. ESXi hosts limit the memory resource use to the
maximum amount useful for the virtual machine, so that you can accept the default of Unlimited memory
resources.
Change the Memory Configuration
You can reconfigure the amount of memory allocated to a virtual machine to enhance performance.
Minimum memory size is 4MB for virtual machines that use BIOS firmware. Virtual machines that use EFI
firmware require at least 96MB of RAM or they cannot power on.
Maximum memory size for a virtual machine depends on the host's physical memory and the virtual
machine's compatibility setting.
If the virtual machine memory is greater than the host memory size, swapping occurs, which can have a
severe effect on virtual machine performance. The maximum for best performance represents the threshold
above which the host’s physical memory is insufficient to run the virtual machine at full speed. This value
fluctuates as conditions on the host change, for example, as virtual machines are powered on or off.
The memory size must be a multiple of 4MB.
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Table 6‑3. Maximum Virtual Machine Memory
Introduced in Host Version Virtual Machine Compatibility Maximum Memory Size
ESXi 6.0 ESXi 6.0 and later 4080GB
ESXi 5.5 ESXi 5.5 and later 1011GB
ESXi 5.1 ESXi 5.1 and later 1011GB
ESXi 5.0 ESXi 5.0 and later 1011GB
ESX/ESXi 4.x ESX/ESXi 4.0 and later 255GB
ESX/ESXi 3.x ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later 65532MB
The ESXi host version indicates when support began for the increased memory size. For example, the
memory size of a virtual machine with ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later compatibility running on ESXi 5.0 is restricted
to 65,532MB.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Memory privilege on the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory.
3 In the RAM text box, type the amount of RAM to assign to the virtual machine or select one of the
suggested values from the drop-down menu.
4 Select whether the memory is specified in MB or GB.
5 Click OK.
Allocate Memory Resources
You can change the amount of memory resources allocated to a virtual machine by using the shares,
reservations, and limits settings. The host determines the appropriate amount of physical RAM to allocate to
virtual machines based on these settings. You can assign a high or low shares value to a virtual machine,
depending on its load and status.
The following user-defined settings affect the memory resource allocation of a virtual machine.
Limit Places a limit on the consumption of memory for a virtual machine. This
value is expressed in megabytes.
Reservation Specifies the guaranteed minimum allocation for a virtual machine. The
reservation is expressed in megabytes. If the reservation cannot be met, the
virtual machine will not turn on.
Shares Each virtual machine is granted a number of memory shares. The more
shares a virtual machine has, the greater share of host memory it receives.
Shares represent a relative metric for allocating memory capacity. For more
information about share values, see the vSphere Resource Management
documentation.
You cannot assign a reservation to a virtual machine that is larger than its configured memory. If you give a
virtual machine a large reservation and reduce its configured memory size, the reservation is reduced to
match the new configured memory size.
Prerequisites
Verify that the virtual machine is turned off.
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Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory, and allocate the memory capacity for the virtual
machine.
Option Description
Reservation Guaranteed memory allocation for this virtual machine.
Limit Upper limit for this virtual machine’s memory allocation. Select Unlimited
to specify no upper limit.
Shares The values Low, Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of
all shares of all virtual machines on the server.
3 Click OK.
Change Memory Hot Add Settings
Memory hot add lets you add memory resources for a virtual machine while that virtual machine is turned
on.
Enabling memory hot add produces some extra memory overhead on the ESXi host for the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
nPower off the virtual machine.
nEnsure that the virtual machine has a guest operating system that supports memory hot add
functionality.
nEnsure that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 4.x and later.
nEnsure that VMware Tools is installed.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Memory, and select Enable to enable adding memory to the
virtual machine while it is turned on.
3 Click OK.
Network Virtual Machine Configuration
ESXi networking features provide communication between virtual machines on the same host, between
virtual machines on different hosts, and between other virtual and physical machines. The networking
features also allow management of ESXi hosts and provide communication between VMkernel services
(NFS, iSCSI, or vSphere vMotion) and the physical network. When you configure networking for a virtual
machine, you select or change an adapter type, a network connection, and whether to connect the network
when the virtual machine powers on.
Network Adapter Types
When you configure a virtual machine, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.
The type of network adapters that are available depend on the following factors:
nThe virtual machine compatibility, which depends on the host that created or most recently updated it.
nWhether the virtual machine compatibility has been updated to the latest version for the current host.
nThe guest operating system.
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The following NIC types are supported:
E1000E Emulated version of the Intel 82574 Gigabit Ethernet NIC. E1000E is the
default adapter for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
E1000 Emulated version of the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet NIC, with drivers
available in most newer guest operating systems, including Windows XP
and later and Linux versions 2.4.19 and later.
Flexible Identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but
initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter,
depending on which driver initializes it. With VMware Tools installed, the
VMXNET driver changes the Vlance adapter to the higher performance
VMXNET adapter.
Vlance Emulated version of the AMD 79C970 PCnet32 LANCE NIC, an older 10
Mbps NIC with drivers available in 32-bit legacy guest operating systems. A
virtual machine configured with this network adapter can use its network
immediately.
VMXNET Optimized for performance in a virtual machine and has no physical
counterpart. Because operating system vendors do not provide built-in
drivers for this card, you must install VMware Tools to have a driver for the
VMXNET network adapter available.
VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) Based on the VMXNET adapter but provides high-performance features
commonly used on modern networks, such as jumbo frames and hardware
offloads. VMXNET 2 (Enhanced) is available only for some guest operating
systems on ESX/ESXi 3.5 and later.
VMXNET 3 A paravirtualized NIC designed for performance. VMXNET 3 offers all the
features available in VMXNET 2 and adds several new features, such as
multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6
offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery. VMXNET 3 is not related to
VMXNET or VMXNET 2.
SR-IOV passthrough Representation of a virtual function (VF) on a physical NIC with SR-IOV
support. The virtual machine and the physical adapter exchange data
without using the VMkernel as an intermediary. This adapter type is suitable
for virtual machines where latency might cause failure or that require more
CPU resources.
SR-IOV passthrough is available in ESXi 5.5 and later for guest operating
systems Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and later, and Windows Server 2008 R2
with SP2. An operating system release might contain a default VF driver for
certain NICs, while for others you must download and install it from a
location provided by the vendor of the NIC or of the host.
For information about assigning an SR-IOV passthrough network adapter to
a virtual machine, see the vSphere Networking documentation.
For network adapter compatibility considerations, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
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Network Adapters and Legacy Virtual Machines
Legacy virtual machines are virtual machines that are supported by the product in use, but are not current
for that product. The default network adapter types for all legacy virtual machines depend on the adapters
available and compatible to the guest operating system and the version of virtual hardware on which the
virtual machine was created.
If you do not upgrade a virtual machine to correspond with an upgrade to a newer version of an ESXi host,
your adapter settings remain unchanged. If you upgrade your virtual machine to take advantage of newer
virtual hardware, your default adapter settings will likely change to be compatible with the guest operating
system and upgraded host hardware.
To verify the network adapters that are available to your supported guest operating system for a particular
version of vSphere ESXi, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
Change the Virtual Machine Network Adapter Configuration
To change the way the virtual machine communicates with the host or other virtual machines over the
network, you can change the power-on connection setting, the MAC address, and the network connection
for the virtual network adapter configuration for a virtual machine.
For information about configuring the networking for virtual machine network adapters, see the vSphere
Networking documentation.
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Network.Assign network on a network if you are changing the network the virtual
machine connects to.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Network adapter, and select the port group to connect to from
the drop-down menu.
The menu lists all standard and distributed port groups that are available for virtual machine use on the
host.
If you want to provision bandwidth to the network adapter from a reserved quota by using vSphere
Network I/O Control version 3, select a port group that is associated with the network resource pool
that provides the quota.
If the virtual machine runs on a Cisco UCS server, the drop-down menu also shows the port profiles
that are available on the Cisco UCS Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) distributed switch.
3 (Optional) Change the Status settings.
Option Description
Connected Select or deselect this option while the virtual machine is running to
connect or disconnect the virtual network adapter. This check box is not
available when the virtual machine is turned off.
Connect at power on Select this option for the virtual network adapter to connect to the network
when the virtual machine turns on. If you do not check this option, you
must manually connect the adapter in order for the virtual machine to
access the network.
4 Select the network adapter type to use from the Adapter Type drop-down menu.
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5 (Optional) Select how to assign the MAC address from the drop-down menu.
nSelect Automatic to automatically assign a MAC address.
nSelect Manual to manually enter the MAC address that you want.
6 If the network adapter is connected to a distributed port group of a distributed switch that has vSphere
Network I/O Control version 3 enabled, allocate bandwidth to the adapter.
NOTE You cannot allocate bandwidth to SR-IOV passthrough network adapters.
a From the Shares drop-down menu, set the relative priority of the traffic from this virtual machine
as shares from the capacity of the connected physical adapter.
b In the Reservation text box, reserve a minimum bandwidth that must be available to the VM
network adapter when the virtual machine is powered on.
c In the Limit text box, set a limit on the bandwidth that the VM network adapter can consume.
7 If the virtual machine is connected to a port profile on a Cisco UCS Virtual Machine Fabric Extender
(VM-FEX) distributed switch, to enable vSphere DirectPath I/O with vMotion, under DirectPath I/O
click Enable.
8 Click OK.
Add a Network Adapter to a Virtual Machine
You can add a network adapter (NIC) to a virtual machine to connect to a network, to enhance
communications, or to replace an older adapter. When you add a NIC to a virtual machine, you select the
adapter type, network connection, whether the device should connect when the virtual machine is turned
on, and the bandwidth allocation.
For information about configuring the networking for virtual machine network adapters, see the vSphere
Networking documentation
Prerequisites
Required privilege: Network.Assign network on a network.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 From the New device drop-down menu, select Network and click Add.
The new network adapter appears at the bottom of the device list.
3 (Optional) Expand New Network, and change the Status settings.
Option Description
Connected Select this option while the virtual machine is running to connect or
disconnect the virtual network adapter. This check box is not available
when the virtual machine is turned off.
Connect at power on Select this option for the virtual network adapter to connect to the network
when the virtual machine turns on. If you do not check this option, you
must manually connect the adapter for the virtual machine to access the
network.
4 Select the network adapter type to use from the Adapter Type drop-down menu.
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5 (Optional) Select how to assign the MAC address from the drop-down menu.
nSelect Automatic to automatically assign a MAC address.
nSelect Manual to manually enter the MAC address that you want.
6 From the drop-down menu next to the New Network label, select the standard or distributed port
group to connect to.
The menu lists all standard and distributed port groups that are available for virtual machine use on the
host.
If you want to provision bandwidth to the network adapter from a reserved quota by using vSphere
Network I/O Control version 3, select a port group that is associated with the network resource pool
that provides the quota.
If the virtual machine runs on a Cisco UCS server, the drop-down menu also shows the port profiles
that are available on the Cisco UCS Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) distributed switch.
7 If the network adapter is connected to a distributed port group of a distributed switch that has vSphere
Network I/O Control version 3 enabled, allocate bandwidth to the adapter.
NOTE You cannot allocate bandwidth to SR-IOV passthrough network adapters.
a From the Shares drop-down menu, set the relative priority of the traffic from this virtual machine
as shares from the capacity of the connected physical adapter.
b In the Reservation text box, reserve a minimum bandwidth that must be available to the VM
network adapter when the virtual machine is powered on.
c In the Limit text box, set a limit on the bandwidth that the VM network adapter can consume.
8 If the virtual machine is connected to a port profile on a Cisco UCS Virtual Machine Fabric Extender
(VM-FEX) distributed switch, to enable vSphere DirectPath I/O with vMotion, under DirectPath I/O
click Enable.
9 Click OK.
Parallel and Serial Port Configuration
Parallel and serial ports are interfaces for connecting peripherals to the virtual machine. The virtual serial
port can connect to a physical serial port or to a file on the host computer. You can also use it to establish a
direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an
application on the host computer. You can add parallel and serial ports and change the serial port
configuration.
Using Serial Ports with vSphere Virtual Machines
You can set up virtual serial port connections for vSphere virtual machines in several ways. The connection
method that you select depends on the task that you need to accomplish.
You can set up virtual serial ports to send data in the following ways.
Physical serial port on
the host
Sets the virtual machine to use a physical serial port on the host computer.
This method lets you use an external modem or a hand-held device in a
virtual machine.
Output to file Sends output from the virtual serial port to a file on the host computer. This
method lets you capture the data that a program running in the virtual
machine sends to the virtual serial port.
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Connect to a named
pipe
Sets a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection
between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. With
this method, two virtual machines or a virtual machine and a process on the
host can communicate as if they were physical machines connected by a
serial cable. For example, use this option for remote debugging of a virtual
machine.
Connect over the
network
Enables a serial connection to and from a virtual machine's serial port over
the network. The Virtual Serial Port Concentrator (vSPC) aggregates traffic
from multiple serial ports onto one management console. vSPC behavior is
similar to physical serial port concentrators. Using a vSPC also allows
network connections to a virtual machine's serial ports to migrate seamlessly
when you use vMotion to migrate the virtual machine. For requirements and
steps to configure the Avocent ACS v6000 virtual serial port concentrator, see
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022303.
Server and Client Connections for Named Pipe and Network Serial Ports
You can select a client or server connection for serial ports. Your selection determines whether the system
waits for a connection or initiates it. Typically, to control a virtual machine over a serial port, you select a
server connection. This selection lets you control the connections, which is useful if you connect to the
virtual machine only occasionally. To use a serial port for logging, select a client connection. This selection
lets the virtual machine connect to the logging server when the virtual machine starts and to disconnect
when it stops.
Supported Serial Ports
When you use a physical serial port for serial port passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine,
serial ports that are integrated into the motherboard are supported. A virtual machine can use up to 32 serial
ports.
Unsupported Serial Ports
When you use a physical serial port for serial port passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, the
serial ports connected through USB are not supported for serial port passthrough. They might be supported
by USB passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine. See “USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a
Virtual Machine,” on page 139.
In addition, you cannot use Migration with VMotion when you use a physical serial port for serial
passthrough.
Adding a Firewall Rule Set for Serial Port Network Connections
If you add or configure a serial port that is backed by a remote network connection, ESXi firewall settings
can prevent transmissions.
Before you connect network-backed virtual serial ports, you must add one of the following firewall rule sets
to prevent the firewall from blocking communication:
nVM serial port connected to vSPC. Use to connect the serial port output through a network with the
Use virtual serial port concentrator option enabled to allow only outgoing communication from the
host.
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nVM serial port connected over network. Use to connect the serial port output through a network
without the virtual serial port concentrator.
IMPORTANT Do not change the allowed IP list for either rule set. Updates to the IP list can affect other
network services that might be blocked by the firewall.
For details about allowing access to an ESXi service through the firewall, see the vSphere Security
documentation.
Configure Virtual Machine Communication Interface Firewall
You can configure the virtual machine Communication Interface firewall (VMCI) to restrict virtual machines
accessing the hypervisor based services and VMCI based services.
You can restrict VMCI usage to a subset of VMCI-based services on each virtual machine. For example, you
can allow certain virtual machines to access VMCI services and deny access to others for security reasons.
Currently, VMCI devices support guest to host communication. A virtual machine can communicate with
VMCI services through the following means:
nESXi hypervisor
nServices installed on the host operating system in the form of a vmkernel module
nApplications installed by a verified vSphere Installation Bundle
Change the Serial Port Configuration
You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical serial port or to a file on the host computer. You can also
use a host-side named pipe to set up a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection
between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. In addition, you can use a port or vSPC
URI to connect a serial port over the network. You can add up to 32 serial ports to a virtual machine.
Virtual machines can be in a powered-on state during configuration.
Prerequisites
nCheck that you know the correct media types for the port to access, vSPC connections, and any
conditions that might apply. See “Using Serial Ports with vSphere Virtual Machines,” on page 107.
nTo connect a serial port over a network, add a Firewall rule set. See “Adding a Firewall Rule Set for
Serial Port Network Connections,” on page 108.
nTo use authentication parameters with network serial port connections, see “Authentication Parameters
for Virtual Serial Port Network Connections,” on page 111.
nRequired privileges:
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings on the virtual machine.
nVirtual machine.Interaction.Device connection on the virtual machine to change the device
connection status.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
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2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Serial port, and select a connection type.
Option Action
Use physical serial port Select this option to have the virtual machine use a physical serial port on
the host computer. Select the serial port from the drop-down menu.
Use output file Select this option to send output from the virtual serial port to a file on the
host computer. Browse to select an output file to connect the serial port to.
Use named pipe Select this option to set a direct connection between two virtual machines
or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host
computer.
a Type a name for the pipe in the Pipe Name field.
b Select the Near end and Far end of the pipe from the drop-down
menus.
Connect over the network Select Use network to connect through a remote network.
a Select the network backing.
nSelect Server to have the virtual machine monitor incoming
connections from other hosts.
nSelect Client to have the virtual machine initiate a connection to
another host.
b Enter a Port URI.
The URI is the remote end of the serial port to which the virtual
machine's serial port should connect.
c If vSPC is used as an intermediate step to access all virtual machines
through a single IP address, select Use Virtual Serial Port
Concentrator and enter the vSPC URI location.
Printer Select Printer to connect to a remote printer.
3 (Optional) Select Yield on CPU poll.
Select this option only for guest operating systems that use serial ports in polled mode. This option
prevents the guest from consuming excessive CPUs.
4 Select Connect at power on to connect the serial port when the virtual machine powers on.
5 Click OK.
Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server
Without Authentication Parameters
If you do not use vSPC and you configure your virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with
a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows
operating system.
telnet yourESXiServerIPAddress 12345
Similarly, if you run the Telnet Server on your Linux system on port 23 (telnet://yourLinuxBox:23), you
configure the virtual machine as a client URI.
telnet://yourLinuxBox:23
The virtual machine initiates the connection to your Linux system on port 23.
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Authentication Parameters for Virtual Serial Port Network Connections
When you establish serial port connections over the network, you can use authentication parameters to
secure the network. These parameters can support an encrypted connection with a remote system using SSL
over Telnet or Telnets, or an encrypted connection with a concentrator using SSL over Telnet or Telnets.
URI Forms
If you do not use virtual serial port network connection (vSPC) and you configure your virtual machine
with a serial port connected as a server with a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual
machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows operating system. You use one of the following formats:
nTelnet over TCP.
telnet://host:port
The virtual machine and remote system can negotiate and use SSL if the remote system supports the
Telnet authentication option. If not, the connection uses unencrypted text (plain text).
nTelnets over SSL over TCP.
telnets://host:port
SSL negotiation begins immediately, and you cannot use the Telnet authentication option.
Authentication Parameters
For an encrypted connection, the URI includes a set of authentication parameters. Enter the parameters as
key words or key/value pairs. You can enter authentication parameters for secure Telnet (telnets), or for
Telnet (telnet) as shown in the following syntax:
telnet://host:port #key[=value] [&key[=value] ...]
The first parameter must have a number sign (#) prefix. Additional parameters must have an ampersand (&)
prefix. The following parameters are supported.
thumbprint=value Specifies a certificate thumbprint against which the peer certificate
thumbprint is compared. When you specify a thumbprint, certificate
verification is enabled.
peerName=value Specifies the peer name that is used to validate the peer certificate. When you
specify a peer name, certificate verification is enabled.
verify Forces certificate verification. The virtual machine will verify that the peer
certificate subject matches the specified peerName and that it was signed by
a certificate authority known to the ESXi host. Verification is enabled if you
specify a thumbprint or peerName
cipherList=value Specifies a list of SSL ciphers. The ciphers are specified as a list separated by
colons, spaces, or commas.
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Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server
Simple Server
Connection
To connect to a virtual machine's serial port from a Linux or Windows
operating system if you do not use vSPC, configure the virtual machine with
a serial port connected as a server with a telnet://:12345 URI. To access a
virtual serial port from a client, use telnet yourESXiServerIPAddress 12345.
Secure Server
Connection
To enforce an encrypted connection to the virtual machine's serial port from
a Linux operating system, you can configure Telnet to enforce encryption by
configuring the virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with
a telnet://:12345#verify URI.
To access a virtual serial port from a client, use telnet-ssl
yourESXServerName 12345. This connection will fail if the Telnet program you
are using does not support SSL encryption.
Simple Client
Connection
If you are running a Telnet server on your system and you want the virtual
machine to automatically connect to it, you can configure the virtual machine
as a client using telnet://yourLinuxBox:23.
The Virtual machine keeps initiating the Telnet connection to port 23 on
yourLinuxBox.
Secure Client
Connection
Additional URI options allow you to enforce a specific server certificate and
restrict the ciphers being used. Virtual machines with a serial port configured
as a client with telnet://ipOfYourLinuxBox:23#cipherList=DHE-RSA-AES256-
SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA&peerName=myLinuxBoxName.withDomain will
connect to ipOfYourLinuxBox only if the system supports one of two listed
ciphers, and if it presents a trusted certificate issued to
myLinuxBoxName.withDomain. Replace .withDomain with the full domain
name, for example, example.org.
Add a Serial Port to a Virtual Machine
You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical serial port or to a file on the host computer. You can also
use a host-side named pipe to set up a direct connection between two virtual machines or a connection
between a virtual machine and an application on the host computer. In addition, you can use a port or vSPC
URI to connect a serial port over the network. A virtual machine can use up to 32 serial ports.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is powered off.
nCheck that you known the correct media types for the port to access, vSPC connections, and any
conditions that might apply. See “Using Serial Ports with vSphere Virtual Machines,” on page 107.
nTo connect a serial port over a network, add a Firewall rule set. See “Adding a Firewall Rule Set for
Serial Port Network Connections,” on page 108.
nTo use authentication parameter with network serial port connections, see “Authentication Parameters
for Virtual Serial Port Network Connections,” on page 111.
nRequired privilege: Virtual Machine .Configuration.Add or Remove Device
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Serial Port from the New device drop-down menu, and click Add.
The serial port appears at the bottom of the virtual device list.
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3 Expand New Serial Port.
4 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Serial port, and select a connection type.
Option Action
Use physical serial port Select this option to have the virtual machine use a physical serial port on
the host computer. Select the serial port from the drop-down menu.
Use output file Select this option to send output from the virtual serial port to a file on the
host computer. Browse to select an output file to connect the serial port to.
Use named pipe Select this option to set a direct connection between two virtual machines
or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on the host
computer.
a Type a name for the pipe in the Pipe Name field.
b Select the Near end and Far end of the pipe from the drop-down
menus.
Connect over the network Select Use network to connect through a remote network.
a Select the network backing.
nSelect Server to have the virtual machine monitor incoming
connections from other hosts.
nSelect Client to have the virtual machine initiate a connection to
another host.
b Enter a Port URI.
The URI is the remote end of the serial port to which the virtual
machine's serial port should connect.
c If vSPC is used as an intermediate step to access all virtual machines
through a single IP address, select Use Virtual Serial Port
Concentrator and enter the vSPC URI location.
Printer Select Printer to connect to a remote printer.
5 (Optional) Select Yield on poll.
Select this option only for guest operating systems that use serial ports in polled mode. This option
prevents the guest from consuming excessive CPUs.
6 Select Connect at power on to connect the serial port when the virtual machine powers on.
7 Click OK.
Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server
Without Authentication Parameters
If you do not use vSPC and you configure your virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with
a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows
operating system.
telnet yourESXiServerIPAddress 12345
Similarly, if you run the Telnet Server on your Linux system on port 23 (telnet://yourLinuxBox:23), you
configure the virtual machine as a client URI.
telnet://yourLinuxBox:23
The virtual machine initiates the connection to your Linux system on port 23.
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Change the Parallel Port Configuration
You can change the output file for peripheral device output and schedule the parallel port to connect when
the virtual machine powers on.
NOTE If you are changing the parallel port on a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host, you
can send output to a physical parallel port on the host or to an output file on the host. This option is not
available with ESXi 5.0 and later.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings on the virtual machine.
nVirtual machine.Interaction.Device connection on the virtual machine to change the device connection
status.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Parallel port.
3 For virtual machines running on ESXi 4.1 and earlier hosts, select the type of media for the parallel port
to access.
4 Click Browse to navigate to the file location.
5 Type a name for the file in the Save As text box and click OK.
The file path appears in the Connection text box.
6 Select whether to connect the device whenever you power on the virtual machine.
You can change this setting when the virtual machine is either powered on or powered off.
7 Click OK.
Add a Parallel Port to a Virtual Machine
To connect peripheral devices to virtual machines, such as printers or scanners, you can use a parallel port.
You send the output of such devices to a file on the host computer.
NOTE If you are adding a parallel port to a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host, you can
also select to send output to a physical parallel port on the host. This option is not available with ESXi 5.0
and later host versions.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned off. You cannot add or remove parallel ports if the virtual
machine is turned on.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Parallel Port from the New device drop-down menu, and click
Add.
The parallel port appears at the bottom of the virtual device list.
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3 Expand New Parallel port, and click Browse to locate a folder to create the file in.
4 Type a name for the file in the Save As text box and click OK.
The file path appears in the Connection text box.
5 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine powers on.
6 Click OK.
Output from the attached peripheral device is read to the newly created file.
Virtual Disk Configuration
You can add large-capacity virtual disks to virtual machines and add more space to existing disks, even
when the virtual machine is running. You can set most of the virtual disk parameters during virtual
machine creation or after you install the guest operating system.
You can store virtual machine data in a new virtual disk, an existing virtual disk, or a mapped SAN LUN. A
virtual disk, which appears as a single hard disk to the guest operating system, is composed of one or more
files on the host file system. You can copy or move virtual disks on the same hosts or between hosts.
For virtual machines running on an ESXi host, you can store the virtual machine data directly on a SAN
LUN instead of storing it in a virtual disk file. This ability is useful if you are running applications in your
virtual machines that must detect the physical characteristics of the storage device. Additionally, mapping a
SAN LUN allows you to use existing SAN commands to manage storage for the disk.
To accelerate virtual machine performance, you can configure virtual machines to use vSphere Flash Read
Cache™. For details about Flash Read Cache behavior, see the vSphere Storage documentation.
When you map a LUN to a VMFS volume, vCenter Server or the ESXi host creates a raw device mapping
(RDM) file that points to the raw LUN. Encapsulating disk information in a file allows vCenter Server or the
ESXi host to lock the LUN so that only one virtual machine can write to it. This file has a .vmdk extension,
but the file contains only disk information that describes the mapping to the LUN on the ESXi system. The
actual data is stored on the LUN. You cannot deploy a virtual machine from a template and store its data on
a LUN. You can store only its data in a virtual disk file.
The amount of free space in the datastore is always changing. Ensure that you leave sufficient space for
virtual machine creation and other virtual machine operations, such as growth of sparse files, snapshots,
and so on. To review space utilization for the datastore by file type, see the vSphere Monitoring and
Performance documentation.
Thin provisioning lets you create sparse files with blocks that are allocated upon first access, which allows
the datastore to be over-provisioned. The sparse files can continue growing and fill the datastore. If the
datastore runs out of disk space while the virtual machine is running, it can cause the virtual machine to
stop functioning.
About Virtual Disk Provisioning Policies
When you perform certain virtual machine management operations, such as creating a virtual disk, cloning
a virtual machine to a template, or migrating a virtual machine, you can specify a provisioning policy for the
virtual disk file.
NFS datastores with Hardware Acceleration and VMFS datastores support the following disk provisioning
policies. On NFS datastores that do not support Hardware Acceleration, only thin format is available.
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You can use Storage vMotion or cross-host Storage vMotion to transform virtual disks from one format to
another.
Thick Provision Lazy
Zeroed
Creates a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the virtual
disk is allocated when the disk is created. Data remaining on the physical
device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand at a later
time on first write from the virtual machine. Virtual machines do not read
stale data from the physical device.
Thick Provision Eager
Zeroed
A type of thick virtual disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time. In
contrast to the thick provision lazy zeroed format, the data remaining on the
physical device is zeroed out when the virtual disk is created. It might take
longer to create virtual disks in this format than to create other types of
disks.
Thin Provision Use this format to save storage space. For the thin disk, you provision as
much datastore space as the disk would require based on the value that you
enter for the virtual disk size. However, the thin disk starts small and at first,
uses only as much datastore space as the disk needs for its initial operations.
If the thin disk needs more space later, it can grow to its maximum capacity
and occupy the entire datastore space provisioned to it.
Thin provisioning is the fastest method to create a virtual disk because it
creates a disk with just the header information. It does not allocate or zero
out storage blocks. Storage blocks are allocated and zeroed out when they
are first accessed.
NOTE If a virtual disk supports clustering solutions such as Fault Tolerance,
do not make the disk thin.
You can manually inflate the thin disk, so that it occupies the entire
provisioned space. If physical storage space is exhausted and the thin
provisioned disk cannot grow, the virtual machine becomes unusable.
Large Capacity Virtual Disk Conditions and Limitations
Virtual machines with large capacity virtual hard disks, or disks greater than 2TB, must meet resource and
configuration requirements for optimal virtual machine performance.
The maximum value for large capacity hard disks is 62TB. When you add or configure virtual disks, always
leave a small amount of overhead. Some virtual machine tasks can quickly consume large amounts of disk
space, which can prevent successful completion of the task if the maximum disk space is assigned to the
disk. Such events might include taking snapshots or using linked clones. These operations cannot finish
when the maximum amount of disk space is allocated. Also, operations such as snapshot quiesce, cloning,
Storage vMotion, or vMotion in environments without shared storage, can take significantly longer to finish.
Virtual machines with large capacity disks have the following conditions and limitations:
nThe guest operating system must support large capacity virtual hard disks.
nYou can move or clone disks that are greater than 2TB to ESXi 5.5 or later hosts or to clusters that have
such hosts available.
nThe datastore format must be VMFS5 or later or an NFS volume on a Network Attached Storage (NAS)
server.
nVirtual Flash Read Cache supports a maximum hard disk size of 16TBs.
nVMFS3 volumes are not supported. You cannot move disks greater than 2TB from a VMFS5 datastore
to a VMFS3 datastore.
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nYou cannot hot-extend virtual SATA disks, or any virtual disk if the capacity after extension is equal to
or greater than 2TB.
nFault Tolerance is not supported.
nVirtual SAN is not supported.
nBusLogic Parallel controllers are not supported.
Change the Virtual Disk Configuration
If you run out of disk space, you can increase the size of the disk. You can change the virtual device node
and the persistence mode for virtual disk configuration for a virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings on the virtual machine.
nVirtual machine.Configuration.Extend virtual disk on the virtual machine.
nDatastore.Allocate space on the datastore.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk to view the disk options.
3 (Optional) To change the size of the disk, type a new value in the Provisioned Size text box and select
the units from the drop-down menu.
4 (Optional) To change the way that disks are affected by snapshots, select a disk mode option.
Option Description
Dependent Dependent disks are included in snapshots.
Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical
computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written
permanently to the disk.
Independent - Nonpersistent Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you turn off
or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you can restart the
virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state every time. Changes
to the disk are written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when
you turn off or reset the virtual machine.
5 Click OK.
Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
When you create a virtual machine, a default virtual hard disk is added. You can add another hard disk if
you run out of disk space, if you want to add a boot disk, or for other file management purposes. When you
add a hard disk to a virtual machine, you can create a virtual disk, add an existing virtual disk, or add a
mapped SAN LUN.
You can add a virtual hard disk to a virtual machine before or after you add a SCSI or SATA storage
controller. The new disk is assigned to the first available virtual device node on the default controller, for
example (0:1). Only device nodes for the default controller are available unless you add additional
controllers.
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The following ways to add disks can help you plan your disk configuration. These approaches show how
you can optimize controller and virtual device nodes for different disks. For storage controller limitations,
maximums, and virtual device node behavior, see “SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions,
Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
Add an existing hard
disk that is configured
as a boot disk during
virtual machine
creation.
To ensure that the virtual machine can boot, remove the existing disk before
you add the boot disk. After you add a new hard disk to the virtual machine,
you might need to go into the BIOS setup to ensure that the disk you were
using to boot the virtual machine is still selected as the boot disk. You can
avoid this problem by not mixing adapter types, and by using device node 0
on the first adapter as the boot disk.
Keep the default boot
disk and add a new disk
during virtual machine
creation.
The new disk is assigned to the next available virtual device node, for
example (0:1) You can add a new controller and assign the disk to a virtual
device node on that controller, for example (1:0) or (1:1).
Add multiple hard disks
to an existing virtual
machine.
If you add multiple hard disks to a virtual machine, you can assign them to
several SCSI or SATA controllers to improve performance. The controller
must be available before you can select a virtual device node. For example, if
you add controllers 1, 2, and 3, and add four hard disks, you might assign
the fourth disk to virtual device node (3:1).
nAdd a New Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine on page 118
You can add a virtual hard disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add a hard disk when you
customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process. For example,
you might need to provide additional disk space for an existing virtual machine with a heavy work
load. During virtual machine creation, you might want to add a hard disk that is preconfigured as a
boot disk.
nAdd an Existing Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine on page 120
You can add an existing virtual hard disk to a virtual machine when you customize the virtual
machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process or after the virtual machine is created.
For example, you might want to add an existing hard disk that is preconfigured as a boot disk.
nAdd an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine on page 121
You can use a raw device mapping (RDM) to store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN,
instead of storing it in a virtual disk file. You can add an RDM disk to an existing virtual machine, or
you can add the disk when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine
creation process.
Add a New Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can add a virtual hard disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add a hard disk when you
customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process. For example, you
might need to provide additional disk space for an existing virtual machine with a heavy work load. During
virtual machine creation, you might want to add a hard disk that is preconfigured as a boot disk.
During virtual machine creation, a hard disk and a SCSI or SATA controller are added to the virtual
machine by default, based on the guest operating system that you select. If this disk does not meet your
needs, you can remove it and add a new hard disk at the end of the creation process.
If you add multiple hard disks to a virtual machine, you can assign them to several controllers to improve
performance. For controller and bus node behavior, see “SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions,
Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
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Prerequisites
nEnsure that you are familiar with configuration options and caveats for adding virtual hard disks. See
“Virtual Disk Configuration,” on page 115.
nBefore you add disks greater than 2TB to a virtual machine, see “Large Capacity Virtual Disk
Conditions and Limitations,” on page 116.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add new disk privilege on the destination
folder or datastore.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove icon.
The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files are
not deleted.
3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select New Hard Disk from the New device drop-down menu and click
Add.
The hard disk appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.
4 Expand New hard disk.
5 (Optional) Type a value for the hard disk and select the units from the drop-down menu.
6 Select the datastore location where you want to store the virtual machine files.
Option Action
Store all virtual machine files in the
same location on a datastore.
a (Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual
machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy
drop-down menu.
The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are
incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage policy.
b Select a datastore and click Next.
Store all virtual machine files in the
same datastore cluster.
a (Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy for the virtual
machine home files and the virtual disks from the VM storage policy
drop-down menu.
The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are
incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage profile.
b Select a datastore cluster.
c (Optional) If you do not want to use Storage DRS with this virtual
machine, select Disable Storage DRS for this virtual machine and
select a datastore within the datastore cluster.
d Click Next.
Store virtual machine configuration
files and disks in separate
locations.
a Click Advanced.
b For the virtual machine configuration file and for each virtual disk,
click Browse and select a datastore or datastore cluster.
c (Optional) Apply a virtual machine storage policy from the VM
storage profile drop-down menu.
The list shows which datastores are compatible and which are
incompatible with the selected virtual machine storage policy.
d (Optional) If you selected a datastore cluster and do not want to use
Storage DRS with this virtual machine, select Disable Storage DRS for
this virtual machine and select a datastore within the datastore
cluster.
e Click Next.
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7 Select the format for the virtual machine's disks and click Next.
Option Action
Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed Create a virtual disk in a default thick format. Space required for the
virtual disk is allocated during creation. Any data remaining on the
physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on demand
at a later time on first write from the virtual machine.
Thick Provision Eager Zeroed Create a thick disk that supports clustering features such as Fault
Tolerance. Space required for the virtual disk is allocated at creation time.
In contrast to the flat format, the data remaining on the physical device is
zeroed out during creation. It might take much longer to create disks in
this format than to create other types of disks.
Thin Provision Use the thin provisioned format. At first, a thin provisioned disk uses only
as much datastore space as the disk initially needs. If the thin disk needs
more space later, it can grow to the maximum capacity allocated to it.
8 In the Shares drop-down menu, select a value for the shares to allocate to the virtual disk.
Shares is a value that represents the relative metric for controlling disk bandwidth. The values Low,
Normal, High, and Custom are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the host.
9 If you selected Custom, type a number of shares in the text box.
10 In the Limit - IOPs box, enter the upper limit of storage resources to allocate to the virtual machine, or
select Unlimited.
This value is the upper limit of I/O operations per second allocated to the virtual disk.
11 Accept the default or select a different virtual device node.
In most cases, you can accept the default device node. For a hard disk, a nondefault device node is
useful to control the boot order or to have different SCSI controller types. For example, you might want
to boot from an LSI Logic controller and share a data disk with another virtual machine that is using a
Buslogic controller with bus sharing turned on.
12 (Optional) Select a disk mode and click OK.
Option Description
Dependent Dependent disks are included in snapshots.
Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical
computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written
permanently to the disk.
Independent - Nonpersistent Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power off
or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you can restart the
virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state every time. Changes
to the disk are written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when
you power off or reset.
Add an Existing Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can add an existing virtual hard disk to a virtual machine when you customize the virtual machine
hardware during the virtual machine creation process or after the virtual machine is created. For example,
you might want to add an existing hard disk that is preconfigured as a boot disk.
During virtual machine creation, a hard disk and a SCSI or SATA controller are added to the virtual
machine by default, based on the guest operating system that you select. If this disk does not meet your
needs, you can remove it and add an existing hard disk at the end of the creation process.
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Prerequisites
nMake sure that you are familiar with controller and virtual device node behavior for different virtual
hard disk configurations. See “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
nBefore you add disks greater than 2TB to a virtual machine, see “Large Capacity Virtual Disk
Conditions and Limitations,” on page 116.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add existing disk privilege on the destination
folder or datastore.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove icon.
The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files are
not deleted.
3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Existing Hard Disk from the New device drop-down menu and
click Add.
4 In the Datastores column, expand a datastore, select a virtual machine folder, and select the disk to add.
The disk file appears in the Contents column. The File Type drop-down menu shows the compatibility
file types for this disk.
5 Click OK.
What to do next
n(Optional) Change the virtual disk configuration. See “Change the Virtual Disk Configuration,” on
page 117.
n(Optional) Use disk shares to prioritize virtual machine access to this disk. See “Use Disk Shares to
Prioritize Virtual Machines,” on page 123.
Add an RDM Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can use a raw device mapping (RDM) to store virtual machine data directly on a SAN LUN, instead of
storing it in a virtual disk file. You can add an RDM disk to an existing virtual machine, or you can add the
disk when you customize the virtual machine hardware during the virtual machine creation process.
When you give a virtual machine direct access to an RDM disk, you create a mapping file that resides on a
VMFS datastore and points to the LUN. Although the mapping file has the same .vmdk extension as a
regular virtual disk file, the mapping file contains only mapping information. The virtual disk data is stored
directly on the LUN.
During virtual machine creation, a hard disk and a SCSI or SATA controller are added to the virtual
machine by default, based on the guest operating system that you select. If this disk does not meet your
needs, you can remove it and add an RDM disk at the end of the creation process.
Prerequisites
nEnsure that you are familiar with SCSI controller and virtual device node behavior for different virtual
hard disk configurations. See “Add a Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 117.
nBefore you add disks greater than 2TB to a virtual machine, see “Large Capacity Virtual Disk
Conditions and Limitations,” on page 116.
nRequired privilege: Virtual machine.Configuration.Raw device
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Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 (Optional) To delete the existing hard disk, move your cursor over the disk and click the Remove icon.
The disk is removed from the virtual machine. If other virtual machines share the disk, the disk files are
not deleted.
3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select RDM Disk from the New device drop-down menu and click Add.
4 Select the target LUN for the raw device mapping and click OK.
The disk appears in the virtual device list.
5 Select the location for the mapping file.
nTo store the mapping file with the virtual machine configuration file, select Store with the virtual
machine.
nTo select a location for the mapping file, select Browse and select the datastore location for the disk.
6 Select a compatibility mode.
Option Description
Physical Allows the guest operating system to access the hardware directly.
Physical compatibility is useful if you are using SAN-aware applications
on the virtual machine. However, a virtual machine with a physical
compatibility RDM cannot be cloned, made into a template, or migrated if
the migration involves copying the disk.
Virtual Allows the RDM to behave as if it were a virtual disk, so that you can use
such features as taking snapshots, cloning, and so on. When you clone the
disk or make a template out of it, the contents of the LUN are copied into
a .vmdk virtual disk file. When you migrate a virtual compatibility mode
RDM, you can migrate the mapping file or copy the contents of the LUN
into a virtual disk.
7 Accept the default or select a different virtual device node.
In most cases, you can accept the default device node. For a hard disk, a nondefault device node is
useful to control the boot order or to have different SCSI controller types. For example, you might want
to boot from an LSI Logic controller and share a data disk with another virtual machine using a
BusLogic controller with bus sharing turned on.
8 (Optional) If you selected virtual compatibility mode, select a disk mode to change the way that disks
are affected by snapshots.
Disk modes are not available for RDM disks using physical compatibility mode.
Option Description
Dependent Dependent disks are included in snapshots.
Independent - Persistent Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical
computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode are written
permanently to the disk.
Independent - Nonpersistent Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power off
or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you can restart the
virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state every time. Changes
to the disk are written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when
you power off or reset.
9 Click OK.
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Use Disk Shares to Prioritize Virtual Machines
You can change the disk resources for a virtual machine. If multiple virtual machines access the same VMFS
datastore and the same logical unit number (LUN), use disk shares to prioritize the disk accesses from the
virtual machines. Disk shares distinguish high-priority from low-priority virtual machines.
You can allocate the host disk's I/O bandwidth to the virtual hard disks of a virtual machine. Disk I/O is a
host-centric resource so you cannot pool it across a cluster.
Shares is a value that represents the relative metric for controlling disk bandwidth to all virtual machines.
The values are compared to the sum of all shares of all virtual machines on the server.
Disk shares are relevant only within a given host. The shares assigned to virtual machines on one host have
no effect on virtual machines on other hosts.
You can select an IOP limit, which sets an upper bound for storage resources that are allocated to a virtual
machine. IOPs are the number of I/O operations per second.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk to view the disk options.
3 In the Shares drop-down menu, select a value for the shares to allocate to the virtual machine.
4 If you selected Custom, enter a number of shares in the text box.
5 In the Limit - IOPs box, enter the upper limit of storage resources to allocate to the virtual machine, or
select Unlimited.
6 Click OK.
Configure Flash Read Cache for a Virtual Machine
You can configure Flash Read Cache for a virtual machine compatible with ESXi 5.5 or later.
Enabling Flash Read Cache lets you specify block size and cache size reservation.
Block size is the minimum number of contiguous bytes that can be stored in the cache. This block size can be
larger than the nominal disk block size of 512 bytes, between 4KB and 1024KB. If a guest operating system
writes a single 512 byte disk block, the surrounding cache block size bytes will be cached. Do not confuse
cache block size with disk block size.
Reservation is a reservation size for cache blocks. There is a minimum number of 256 cache blocks. If the
cache block size is 1MB, then the minimum cache size is 256MB. If the cache block size is 4K, then the
minimum cache size is 1MB.
For more information about sizing guidelines, search for the Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache in
VMware vSphere white paper on the VMware web site.
Prerequisites
nSet up virtual flash resource.
nVerify that the virtual machine is compatible with ESXi 5.5 or later.
Procedure
1 To locate a virtual machine, select a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, host, or vApp.
2 Click the Related Objects tab and click Virtual Machines.
3 Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
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4 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk to view the disk options.
5 To enable Flash Read Cache for the virtual machine, enter a value in the Virtual Flash Read Cache text
box.
6 Click Advanced to specify the following parameters.
Option Description
Reservation Select a cache size reservation.
Block Size Select a block size.
7 Click OK.
Converting Virtual Disks from Thin to Thick
You can determine whether a virtual disk is in the thin provision format and if required, convert it to the
thick provision format.
For more information on thin provisioning and available disk formats, see the vSphere Storage
documentation.
Determine the Disk Format of a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client
You can determine whether your virtual disk is in thick or thin format.
If you have thin provisioned disks, you can change them to thick by selecting Flat pre-initialized disk
provisioning. You change thick provisioned disks to thin by selecting Allocate and commit space on
demand.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk.
The disk type is displayed in the Disk Provisioning field.
3 Click OK.
What to do next
If your virtual disk is in the thin format, you can inflate it to its full size using the vSphere Web Client.
Convert a Virtual Disk from Thin to Thick in the vSphere Web Client
When the disk space is exhausted and a thin-provisioned disk cannot expand, the virtual machine cannot
boot. If you created a virtual disk in the thin provision format, you can convert it to the thick provision
format.
The thin provisioned disk starts small and at first, uses just as much storage space as it needs for its initial
operations. After you convert the disk, it grows to its full capacity and occupies the entire datastore space
provisioned to it during the disk’s creation.
Procedure
1 Locate the virtual machine.
a Select a datacenter, folder, cluster, resource pool, host, or vApp.
b Click the Related Objects tab and click Virtual Machines.
2 Double-click the virtual machine, click the Related Objects tab and click Datastores.
The datastore that stores the virtual machine files is listed.
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3 Click the datastore link to open the datastore management panel.
4 Click the Manage tab and click Files.
5 Open the virtual machine folder and browse to the virtual disk file that you want to convert.
The file has the .vmdk extension.
6 Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate.
The inflated virtual disk occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it.
SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and
Compatibility
To access virtual disks, CD/DVD-ROM, and SCSI devices, a virtual machine uses storage controllers, which
are added by default when you create the virtual machine. You can add additional controllers or change the
controller type after virtual machine creation. You can make these changes while you are in the creation
wizard. If you know about node behavior, controller limitations, and compatibility of different types of
controllers before you change or add a controller, you can avoid potential boot problems.
How Storage Controller Technology Works
Storage controllers appear to a virtual machine as different types of SCSI controllers, including BusLogic
Parallel, LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual SCSI. AHCI SATA controllers are also
available.
When you create a virtual machine, the default controller is optimized for best performance. The controller
type depends on the guest operating system, the device type, and in some cases, the virtual machine's
compatibility. For example, when you create virtual machines with Apple Mac OS X guests and ESXi 5.5
and later compatibility, the default controller type for both the hard disk and the CD/DVD drive is SATA.
When you create virtual machines with Windows Vista and later guests, a SCSI controller is the default for
the hard disk and a SATA controller is the default for the CD/DVD drive.
Each virtual machine can have a maximum of four SCSI controllers and four SATA controllers. The default
SCSI or SATA controller is 0. When you create a virtual machine, the default hard disk is assigned to the
default controller 0 at bus node (0:0).
When you add storage controllers, they are numbered sequentially 1, 2, and 3. If you add a hard disk, SCSI,
or CD/DVD-ROM device to a virtual machine after virtual machine creation, the device is assigned to the
first available virtual device node on the default controller, for example (0:1).
If you add a SCSI controller, you can reassign an existing or new hard disk or device to that controller. For
example, you can assign the device to (1:z ), where 1 is SCSI controller 1 and z is a virtual device node from 0
to 15. For SCSI controllers, z cannot be 7. By default, the virtual SCSI controller is assigned to virtual device
node (z:7), so that device node is unavailable for hard disks or other devices.
If you add a SATA controller, you can reassign an existing or new hard disk or device to that controller. For
example, you can assign the device to (1:z ), where 1 is SATA controller 1 and z is a virtual device node from
0 to 29. For SATA controllers, you can use device nodes 0 through 29, including 0:7.
Storage Controller Limitations
Storage controllers have the following requirements and limitations:
nLSI Logic SAS and VMware Paravirtual SCSI are available for virtual machines with ESXi 4.x and later
compatibility.
nAHCI SATA is available only for virtual machines with ESXi 5.5 and later compatibility.
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nBusLogic Parallel controllers do not support virtual machines with disks larger than 2TB.
CAUTION Changing the controller type after the guest operating system is installed will make the disk and
any other devices connected to the adapter inaccessible. Before you change the controller type or add a new
controller, make sure that the guest operating system installation media contains the necessary drivers. On
Windows guest operating systems, the driver must be installed and configured as the boot driver.
Storage Controller Compatibility
Adding different types of storage controllers to virtual machines that use BIOS firmware can cause
operating system boot problems. In the following cases, the virtual machine might fail to boot correctly and
you might have to enter the BIOS setup and select the correct boot device:
nIf the virtual machine boots from LSI Logic SAS or VMware Paravirtual SCSI, and you add a disk that
uses BusLogic, LSI Logic, or AHCI SATA controllers.
nIf the virtual machine boots from AHCI SATA, and you add BusLogic Parallel or LSI Logic controllers.
Adding additional disks to virtual machines that use EFI firmware does not cause boot problems.
Table 6‑4. VMware Storage Controller Compatibility
Existing
Controller Added Controller
BusLogic
Parallel LSI Logic
LSI Logic
SAS
VMware
Paravirtual
SCSI AHCI SATA IDE
BusLogic
Parallel
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LSI Logic Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LSI Logic SAS Requires BIOS
setup
Requires BIOS
setup
Usually
Works
Usually
Works
Requires BIOS
setup
Yes
VMware
Paravirtual
SCSI
Requires BIOS
setup
Requires BIOS
setup
Usually
Works
Usually
Works
Requires BIOS
setup
Yes
AHCI SATA Requires BIOS
setup
Requires BIOS
setup
Yes Yes Yes Yes
IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A
Add a SATA Controller
If a virtual machine has multiple hard disks or CD/DVD-ROM devices, you can add up to three additional
SATA controllers to assign the devices to. When you spread the devices among several controllers, you can
improve performance and avoid data traffic congestion. You can also add additional controllers if you
exceed the thirty-device limit for a single controller.
You can boot virtual machines from SATA controllers and use them for large-capacity virtual hard disks.
Not all guest operating systems support AHCI SATA controllers. Typically, when you create virtual
machines with ESXi 5.5 and later compatibility and Mac OS X guest operating systems, a SATA controller is
added by default for the virtual hard disk and CD/DVD-ROM devices. Most guest operating systems,
including Windows Vista and later have a default SATA controller for CD/DVD-ROM devices. To verify
support, see the VMware Compatibility Guides at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.5 and later.
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nVerify that you are familiar with storage controller behavior and limitations. See “SCSI and SATA
Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 Click the Virtual Hardware tab, and select SATA Controller from the New device drop-down menu.
3 Click Add.
The controller appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.
4 Click OK.
What to do next
You can add a hard disk or CD/DVD drive to the virtual machine and assign it to the new controller.
Add a SCSI Controller in the vSphere Web Client
Many virtual machines have a SCSI controller by default, depending on the guest operating system. If you
have a heavily loaded virtual machine with multiple hard disks, you can add up to three additional SCSI
controllers to assign the disks to. When you spread the disks among several controllers, you can improve
performance and avoid data traffic congestion. You can also add additional controllers if you exceed the 15-
device limit for a single controller.
Prerequisites
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the virtual
machine.
nVerify that you are familiar with storage controller behavior and limitations. See “SCSI and SATA
Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select SCSI Controller from the New device drop-down menu and click
Add.
The controller appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.
3 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand New SCSI Controller, and select the type of sharing in the SCSI
Bus Sharing drop-down menu.
Option Description
None Virtual disks cannot be shared by other virtual machines.
Virtual Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on the same ESXi host.
Select Thick provision eager zeroed when you create the disk.
Physical Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on any ESXi host. Select
Thick provision eager zeroed when you create the disk.
4 Select the controller type from the drop-down menu.
Do not select a BusLogic Parallel controller for virtual machines with disks larger than 2TB. This
controller does not support large capacity hard disks.
5 Click OK.
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What to do next
You can add a hard disk or other SCSI device to the virtual machine and assign it to the new SCSI controller.
Change the SCSI Bus Sharing Configuration in the vSphere Web Client
You can set the type of SCSI bus sharing for a virtual machine and indicate whether the SCSI bus is shared.
Depending on the type of sharing, virtual machines can access the same virtual disk simultaneously if the
virtual machines reside on the same ESXi host or on a different host.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand SCSI controller, and select the type of sharing in the SCSI Bus
Sharing drop-down menu.
Option Description
None Virtual disks cannot be shared by other virtual machines.
Virtual Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on the same ESXi host.
Physical Virtual disks can be shared by virtual machines on any ESXi host.
For virtual or physical bus sharing, select Thick provision eager zeroed when you create the disk.
3 Click OK.
Change the SCSI Controller Type in the vSphere Web Client
You configure virtual SCSI controllers on your virtual machines to attach virtual disks and RDMs to.
The choice of SCSI controller does not affect whether your virtual disk is an IDE or SCSI disk. The IDE
adapter is always ATAPI. The default for your guest operating system is already selected.
CAUTION Changing the SCSI controller type might result in a virtual machine boot failure.
Prerequisites
nVerify that you are familiar with the limitations and conditions for configuring SCSI controllers. See
“SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings privilege on the
virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand SCSI controller, and select a SCSI controller type from the
Change Type drop-down menu.
The vSphere Web Client displays information about what will happen if you change the controller type.
If you have selected a controller type that is not recommended for the virtual machine's guest operating
system, a warning is displayed.
3 Select whether to change the controller type.
nClick Change Type to change the controller type.
nClick Don't change to cancel the change and keep the original controller type.
Do not select a BusLogic Parallel controller for virtual machines with disks larger than 2TB. This
controller does not support large capacity hard disks.
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4 Click OK.
About VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers
VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are high performance storage controllers that can result in greater
throughput and lower CPU use. These controllers are best suited for high performance storage
environments.
VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are available for virtual machines with ESXi 4.x and later
compatibility. Disks on such controllers might not experience optimal performance gains if they have
snapshots or if memory on the ESXi host is over committed. This behavior does not mitigate the overall
performance gain of using VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers as compared to other SCSI controller
options.
If you have virtual machines with VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers, those virtual machines cannot be
part of an MSCS cluster.
For platform support for VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
Add a Paravirtualized SCSI Adapter in the vSphere Web Client
You can add a VMware Paravirtual SCSI high performance storage controller to a virtual machine to
provide greater throughput and lower CPU use.
VMware Paravirtual SCSI controllers are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments,
running I/O-intensive applications.
For information about SCSI controller maximums and virtual device assignments, see “SCSI and SATA
Storage Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine has a guest operating system with VMware Tools installed.
nVerify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 4.x and later.
nEnsure that you are familiar with VMware Paravirtual SCSI limitations. See “About VMware
Paravirtual SCSI Controllers,” on page 129.
nTo access boot disk devices attached to a VMware Paravirtual SCSI controller, verify that the virtual
machine has a Windows 2003 or Windows 2008 guest operating system.
nIn some operating systems, before you change the controller type, create a virtual machine with an LSI
Logic controller, install VMware Tools, and then change to paravirtual mode.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select SCSI Controller from the New device drop-down menu and click
Add.
The controller appears at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware device list.
3 Expand SCSI controller and select VMware Paravirtual from the Change Type drop-down menu.
4 Click OK.
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Other Virtual Machine Device Configuration
In addition to configuring virtual machine CPU and Memory and adding a hard disk and virtual NICs, you
can also add and configure virtual hardware, such as DVD/CD-ROM drives, floppy drives, and SCSI
devices. Not all devices are available to add and configure. For example, you cannot add a video card, but
you can configure available video cards and PCI devices.
Change the CD/DVD Drive Configuration in the vSphere Web Client
You can configure DVD or CD devices to connect to client devices, host devices, or Datastore ISO files.
nConfigure a Datastore ISO File for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client on page 130
To install a guest operating system and its applications on a new virtual machine, you can connect the
CD/DVD device to an ISO file that is stored on a datastore accessible to the host.
nConfigure a Host Device Type for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client on page 131
You can configure the virtual machine’s CD/DVD drive to connect to a physical CD or DVD device on
the host so that you can install a guest operating system, VMware Tools, or other applications.
nConfigure a Client Device Type for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client on page 131
To install a guest operating system and its applications or other media on a virtual machine, you can
connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device on the system from which you access the
vSphere Web Client
Configure a Datastore ISO File for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client
To install a guest operating system and its applications on a new virtual machine, you can connect the
CD/DVD device to an ISO file that is stored on a datastore accessible to the host.
If an ISO image is not available on a local or shared datastore, upload the file to a datastore from your local
system by using the datastore file browser. See “Upload ISO Image Installation Media for a Guest Operating
System,” on page 25.
To avoid performance issues and possible conflicts between virtual machines that might try to
simultaneously access the ISO image, unmount and disconnect the ISO file when the installation finishes.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
nVirtual machine.Interaction.Configure CD media on the virtual machine.
nDatastore.Browse datastore on the datastore to which you upload the installation media ISO image.
nDatastore.Low level file operations on the datastore to which you upload the installation media ISO
image.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 Expand CD/DVD drive, and select Datastore ISO File from the drop-down menu.
3 Browse to select the file and click OK.
4 In the Virtual Device Node drop-down menu, select the node that the drive uses in the virtual
machine.
5 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine powers on.
6 Click OK.
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7 Turn on the virtual machine.
8 Click Edit and select Connected next to the datastore ISO file to connect the device.
9 Click OK.
Configure a Host Device Type for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client
You can configure the virtual machine’s CD/DVD drive to connect to a physical CD or DVD device on the
host so that you can install a guest operating system, VMware Tools, or other applications.
When you create a virtual machine, a controller is added by default and the CD/DVD drive is attached to
that controller. The controller and driver type depend on the guest operating system. Typically, virtual
machines with newer guest operating systems have a SATA controller and CD/DVD drive. Other guests use
an IDE controller and CD/DVD drive.
If you connect to media that does not require you to turn off the virtual machine, you can select the media to
connect to from the CD/DVD drive connection icon on the virtual machine Summary tab.
When you add a CD/DVD drive that is backed by a USB CD/DVD drive on the host, you must add the drive
as a SCSI device. Hot adding and removing SCSI devices is not supported.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned off.
nVerify that the host is turned off before you add USB CD/DVD devices.
nYou cannot use vMotion to migrate virtual machines that have CD drives that are backed by the
physical CD drive on the host. Disconnect these devices before you migrate the virtual machine.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Interaction.Configure CD media privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand CD/DVD and select Host Device from the drop-down menu.
3 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine powers on.
4 If more than one type of CD/DVD media is available on the host, select the media.
5 In the Virtual Device Node drop-down menu, select the node the drive uses in the virtual machine.
The first available node is selected by default. You do not typically need to change the default.
6 Click OK.
7 Turn the virtual machine on and click the Summary tab.
The connected CD/DVD device appears in the VM Hardware list.
Configure a Client Device Type for the CD/DVD Drive in the vSphere Web Client
To install a guest operating system and its applications or other media on a virtual machine, you can
connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device on the system from which you access the
vSphere Web Client
By default, passthrough IDE mode is used for remote client device access. You can write or burn a remote
CD only through passthrough mode access.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned on.
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nVerify that the Client Integration Plug-In is installed.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and click the Summary tab.
2 In the VM Hardware pane, click the CD/DVD drive connection icon, select an available drive to
connect to, and browse for the CD/DVD media.
An Access Control dialog box opens. Click allow to proceed. To change your selection, click the
connection icon, select Disconnect, and select a different option.
Add a CD or DVD Drive to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client
You can use a physical drive on a client or host or you can use an ISO image to add a CD/DVD drive to a
virtual machine. CD/DVD drives are necessary for installing a guest operating system and VMware Tools.
The following conditions exist:
nIf you add a CD/DVD drive that is backed by a USB CD/DVD drive on the host, you must add the drive
as a SCSI device. Hot adding and removing SCSI devices is not supported.
nYou must disconnect virtual machines that have CD drives that are backed by the physical CD drive on
the host, before you migrate the virtual machine.
nYou access the host CD-ROM device through emulation mode. Passthrough mode is not functional for
local host CD-ROM access. You can write or burn a remote CD only through passthrough mode access,
but in emulation mode you can only read a CD-ROM from a host CD-ROM device.
Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is turned off.
nTo connect to a client device, verify that Client Integration Plug-in is installed.
nIf an ISO image file is not available on a local or shared datastore, upload an ISO image to a datastore
from your local system by using the datastore file browser. See “Upload ISO Image Installation Media
for a Guest Operating System,” on page 25.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 From the New device drop-down menu, select CD/DVD Drive and click Add .
The new drive appears at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware list.
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3 Expand New CD/DVD Drive and select the device type.
Option Action
Client Device a Select to connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device
on the system from which you access the vSphere Web Client.
b From the Device Mode drop-down menu, select Passthrough IDE.
Host Device a Select to connect the CD/DVD device to a physical DVD or CD device
on the host.
b From the CD/DVD Media drop-down menu, select the media to
connect to .
c From the Device Mode drop-down menu, select Emulate IDE.
Datastore ISO File a Select to connect the CD/DVD device to an ISO file that is stored on a
datastore accessible to the host.
b Browse to the file containing the ISO image to connect to and click OK.
When you turn on the virtual machine, you select the media to connect to from the VM Hardware
panel on the virtual machine Summary tab.
4 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine turns on.
5 (Optional) To change the device node from the default, select a new mode from the Virtual Device
Node drop-down menu.
6 Click OK.
What to do next
Turn on the virtual machine, select the media to connect to, and install the guest operating system or other
applications.
Change the Floppy Drive Configuration in the vSphere Web Client
You can configure a virtual floppy drive device to connect to a client device or to an existing or new floppy
image.
ESXi does not support floppy drives that are backed by a physical floppy drive on the host.
NOTE You cannot use vMotion to migrate virtual machines that have floppy drives backed by a physical
floppy drive on ESX 3.5, 4. 0, and 4.x hosts that vCenter Server 5.0 manages. You must disconnect these
devices before you migrate the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Interaction.Configure floppy media privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Floppy drive.
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3 Select the device type to use for this virtual device.
Option Action
Client Device Select this option to connect the floppy device to a physical floppy device
or a .flp floppy image on the system from which you access the
vSphere Web Client.
Use existing floppy image a Select this option to connect the virtual device to an existing floppy
image on a datastore accessible to the host.
b Click Browse and select the floppy image.
Create new floppy image a Select this option to create a floppy image on a datastore accessible to
the host.
b Click Browse and browse to the location for the floppy image.
c Enter a name for the floppy image and click OK.
4 (Optional) Select or deselect the Connected check box to connect or disconnect the device.
5 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine powers on.
6 Click OK.
Add a Floppy Drive to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client
Use a physical floppy drive or a floppy image to add a floppy drive to a virtual machine.
ESXi does not support floppy drives that are backed by a physical floppy drive on the host.
NOTE You cannot use vMotion to migrate virtual machines that have floppy drives backed by a physical
floppy drive on ESX 3.5, 4. 0, and 4.x hosts that vCenter Server 5.0 manages. You must disconnect these
devices before you migrate the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the virtual
machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Floppy Drive from the New device drop-down menu, and click
Add.
3 Expand New Floppy drive and select the device type to use for this virtual device.
Option Description
Client Device Select this option to connect the floppy device to a physical floppy device
or a .flp floppy image on the system from which you access the
vSphere Web Client.
Use existing floppy image a Select this option to connect the virtual device to an existing floppy
image on a datastore accessible to the host.
b Click Browse and select the floppy image.
Create new floppy image a Select this option to create a floppy image on a datastore accessible to
the host.
b Click Browse and browse to the location for the floppy image.
c Enter a name for the floppy image and click OK.
4 (Optional) Select or deselect the Connected check box to connect or disconnect the device.
5 (Optional) Select Connect At Power On to connect the device when the virtual machine powers on.
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6 Click OK.
Change the SCSI Device Configuration in the vSphere Web Client
You can change the physical device and configure the virtual device node. This is useful if you no longer
need an existing device and want to connect to another device.
To prevent data congestion, you can assign a SCSI device to a SCSI controller and virtual device node other
than the default. The new device is assigned to the first available virtual device node on the default SCSI
controller, for example (0:1). Only device nodes for the default SCSI controller are available unless you add
additional controllers.
For SCSI controller and virtual device node behavior, see “SCSI and SATA Storage Controller Conditions,
Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
Prerequisites
nPower off the virtual machine.
nRequired privilege: Virtual machine.Configuration.Raw device
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand SCSI device.
3 From the Connection drop-down menu, select the physical SCSI device to connect to.
4 (Optional) From the Virtual Device Node drop-down menu, select the virtual device node.
5 Click OK.
Add a SCSI Device to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Web Client
To use peripheral SCSI devices, such as printers or storage devices, you must add the device to the virtual
machine. When you add a SCSI device to a virtual machine, you select the physical device to connect to and
the virtual device node.
The SCSI device is assigned to the first available virtual device node on the default SCSI controller, for
example (0:1). To avoid data congestion, you can add another SCSI controller and assign the SCSI device to a
virtual device node on that controller. Only device nodes for the default SCSI controller are available unless
you add additional controllers. If the virtual machine does not have a SCSI controller, a controller is added
when you add the SCSI device.
For SCSI controller and virtual device node assignments and behavior, see “SCSI and SATA Storage
Controller Conditions, Limitations, and Compatibility,” on page 125.
Prerequisites
Required privileges: Virtual machine.Configuration.Raw device
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select SCSI Device from the New device drop-down menu and click
Add.
The SCSI device appears in the Virtual Hardware devices list.
3 Expand New SCSI device to change the device options.
4 (Optional) From the Virtual Device Node drop-down menu, select the virtual device node.
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5 Click OK.
The virtual machine can access the device.
Add a PCI Device in the vSphere Web Client
vSphere DirectPath I/O allows a guest operating system on a virtual machine to directly access physical PCI
and PCIe devices connected to a host. This action gives you direct access to devices such as high-
performance graphics or sound cards. You can connect each virtual machine to up to six PCI devices.
You configure PCI devices on the host to make them available for passthrough to a virtual machine. See the
vSphere Networking documentation. However, PCI passthroughs should not be enabled for ESXi hosts that
are configured to boot from USB devices.
When PCI vSphere DirectPath I/O devices are available to a virtual machine, you cannot suspend, migrate
with vMotion, or take or restore Snapshots of such virtual machines.
Prerequisites
nTo use DirectPath, verify that the host has Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) or
AMD I/O Virtualization Technology (IOMMU) enabled in the BIOS.
nVerify that the PCI devices are connected to the host and marked as available for passthrough.
However, if your ESXi host is configured to boot from a USB device, you should disable the USB
controller for passthrough. VMware does not support USB controller passthrough for ESXi hosts that
boot from USB devices or SD cards connected through USB channels. For more information, see
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2068645.
nVerify that the virtual machine is compatible with ESXi 4.x and later.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, select PCI Device from the New Device drop-down menu, and click
Add.
3 Expand New PCI device and select the passthrough device to connect to the virtual machine from the
drop-down list and click Next.
4 Click OK.
Configuring 3D Graphics
When you create or edit a virtual machine, you can configure 3D graphics to take advantage of Windows
AERO, CAD, Google Earth, and other 3D design, modeling, and multimedia applications. Before you enable
3D graphics, become familiar with the available options and requirements.
You can enable 3D on virtual machines that have Windows desktop or Linux guest operating systems. Not
all guests support 3D graphics. To verify 3D support for a guest operating system, see the VMware
Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.
Prerequisites
VMware supports AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. See the vendor Web site for supported cards. To use
the graphics card or GPU hardware, download the appropriate VMware graphics driver from the vendor
Web site.
nGo to the NVIDIA Web site for information about the VMware graphics driver for your NVIDIA
graphics card.
nGo to the AMD Web site for information about the VMware graphics driver for your AMD graphics
card.
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Linux distributions must have a 3.2 or later kernel. If 3D is not available on a Linux guest, verify that the
driver is available in the Linux kernel. If it is not available, upgrade to a more recent Linux distribution. The
location of the kernel depends on whether the distribution is based on deb or rpm.
Table 6‑5. Linux Driver Location
VMware Linux Guest Kernel
Drivers Debian Format RPM Format
vmwgfx.ko dpkg -S vmwgfx.ko rpm -qf vmwgfx.ko
vmwgfx_dri.so dpkg -S vmwgfx_dri rpm -qf vmwgfx_dri
vmware_drv.so dpkg -S vmware_drv rpm -qf vmware_drv
libxatracker.so.1 dpkg -S libxatracker rpm -qf libxatracker
3D Rendering Options
You can select the 3D rendering options for each virtual machine to be Hardware, Software, or Automatic.
Table 6‑6. 3D Rendering Options
Rendering Option Description
Hardware The virtual machine must have access to a physical GPU. If
the GPU is not available, the virtual machine cannot power
on.
Software The virtual machine's virtual device uses a software
renderer and will not attempt to use a GPU, even if one if
present.
Automatic The default setting. The virtual device selects whether to
use a physical GPU or software-based rendering. If a GPU
is available on the system and has the resources required
by the virtual machine, the virtual machine uses the GPU.
Otherwise software rendering is used.
How Enabling 3D Graphics Affects the Virtual Machine
You can use vMotion to migrate virtual machines that have 3D graphics enabled. If the 3D Renderer is set to
Automatic, virtual machines use either the GPU on the destination host or a software renderer, depending
on GPU availability. To migrate virtual machines with the 3D Renderer set to Hardware, the destination
host must have a GPU.
You can set a group of virtual machines to use only Hardware rendering. For example, if you have virtual
machines that run CAD applications or have other complex engineering capabilities, you might require that
those virtual machines have persistent high-quality 3D capability present. When you migrate such virtual
machines, the destination host must also have GPU capability. If the host does not have GPU, the migration
cannot proceed. To migrate such virtual machines, you must turn them off and change the renderer setting
to Automatic.
Configure 3D Graphics and Video Cards
When you enable 3D graphics, you can select a hardware or software graphics renderer and optimize the
graphics memory allocated to the virtual machine. You can increase the number of displays in multi-
monitor configurations and change the video card settings to meet your graphics requirements.
The default setting for total video RAM is adequate for minimal desktop resolution. For more complex
situations, you can change the default memory. Typically, 3D applications require a video memory of 64–
512MB.
Fault Tolerance and HA are not supported for virtual machines that have 3D graphics enabled.
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Prerequisites
nVerify that the virtual machine is powered off.
nVerify that the virtual machine compatibility is ESXi 5.0 and later.
nTo enable 3D graphics in virtual machines with Windows 8 guest operating systems, the virtual
machine compatibility must be ESXi 5.1 or later.
nTo use a Hardware 3D renderer, ensure that graphics hardware is available. See “Configuring 3D
Graphics,” on page 136.
nIf you update the virtual machine compatibility from ESXi 5.1 and later to ESXi 5.5 and later, reinstall
VMware Tools to get the latest SVGA virtual graphics driver and Windows Display Driver Model
driver.
nVerify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings privilege on the
virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Video Card.
3 Select custom or automatic settings for your displays from the drop-down menu.
Option Description
Auto-detect settings Applies common video settings to the guest operating system.
Specify custom settings Lets you select the number of displays and the total video memory.
4 Select the number of displays from the drop-down menu.
You can set the number of displays and extend the screen across them.
5 Enter the required video memory.
6 (Optional) Click Video Memory Calculator to calculate the required video memory based on the
maximum number of displays and resolution that the guest operating system must support, and click
OK.
7 (Optional) Click Enable 3D support.
This check box is active only for guest operating systems on which VMware supports 3D.
8 (Optional) Select a 3D Renderer.
Option Description
Automatic Selects the appropriate option (software or hardware) for this virtual
machine.
Software Uses normal CPU processing for 3D calculations.
Hardware Requires graphics hardware (GPU) for faster 3D calculations.
NOTE The virtual machine will not power on if graphics hardware is not
available.
9 Click OK.
Sufficient memory allocation is set for this virtual machine's graphics.
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Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual machines with 3D graphics
Option
Virtual machines with the 3D graphics option enabled can have higher memory consumption than other
virtual machines. You can reduce the memory overhead by editing the configuration file (.vmx file) of your
virtual machines and disabling certain memory related settings. Reducing the memory overhead of virtual
machines can help you increase the number of virtual machines per host.
Prerequisites
Verify that your virtual machines are using hardware version 10 or later.
Procedure
1 Shut down the virtual machine on which the 3D graphics option is enabled.
2 Disable the Accelerate 3D Graphics option.
3 Upgrade your ESXi host to use the features available in hardware version 10 or later.
4 Set the maximum size of your display to the size you need.
5 Locate the configuration file (.vmx) of your virtual machine.
6 Open the virtual machine configuration file in a text editor and add the line, vga.vgaOnly=TRUE.
This option removes all graphics and SVGA functionality from your SVGA device, but does not remove
the settings that allow BIOS to enter VGA mode.
7 Save the changes and exit the text editor.
8 Power on your virtual machine and check the display console.
9 Verify the memory reservation settings in the vmware.log file.
USB Configuration from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine
You can add multiple USB devices to a virtual machine when the physical devices are connected to an ESXi
host. USB passthrough technology supports adding USB devices, such as security dongles and mass storage
devices to virtual machines that reside on the host to which the devices are connected.
How USB Device Passthrough Technology Works
When you attach a USB device to a physical host, the device is available only to virtual machines that reside
on that host. The device cannot connect to virtual machines that reside on another host in the datacenter.
A USB device is available to only one virtual machine at a time. When a device is connected to a powered-on
virtual machine, it is not available to connect to other virtual machines that run on the host. When you
remove the active connection of a USB device from a virtual machine, it becomes available to connect to
other virtual machines that run on the host.
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Connecting a USB passthrough device to a virtual machine that runs on the ESXi host to which the device is
physically attached requires an arbitrator, a controller, and a physical USB device or device hub.
USB Arbitrator Manages connection requests and routes USB device traffic. The arbitrator is
installed and enabled by default on ESXi hosts. It scans the host for USB
devices and manages device connection among virtual machines that reside
on the host. It routes device traffic to the correct virtual machine instance for
delivery to the guest operating system. The arbitrator monitors the USB
device and prevents other virtual machines from using it until you release it
from the virtual machine it is connected to.
USB Controller The USB hardware chip that provides USB function to the USB ports that it
manages. The virtual USB Controller is the software virtualization of the USB
host controller function in the virtual machine.
USB controller hardware and modules that support USB 3.0, 2.0, and USB 1.1
devices must exist on the host. Eight virtual USB controllers are available to
each virtual machine. A controller must be present before you can add USB
devices to the virtual computer.
The USB arbitrator can monitor a maximum of 15 USB controllers. Devices
connected to controllers numbered 16 or greater are not available to the
virtual machine.
USB Devices You can add up to 20 USB devices to a virtual machine. This is the maximum
number of devices supported for simultaneous connection to one virtual
machine. The maximum number of USB devices supported on a single ESXi
host for simultaneous connection to one or more virtual machines is also 20.
For a list of supported USB devices, see the VMware knowledge base article
at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021345. You can add USB 3.0 devices to Mac
OSX guest operating system for VMware Fusion.
USB Autoconnect Feature
When you add a USB device connection from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, the autoconnect feature is
enabled for the device connection. It is not disabled until you remove the device connection from the virtual
machine.
With autoconnect enabled, the device connection re-establishes in the following cases:
nThe virtual machine is cycling through power operations, such as Power Off/Power On, Reset,
Pause/Resume.
nThe device is unplugged from the host then plugged back in to the same USB port.
nThe device is power cycled but has not changed its physical connection path.
nThe device is mutating identity during usage.
nA new virtual USB device is added
The USB passthrough autoconnect feature identifies the device by using the USB path of the device on the
host. It uses the physical topology and port location, rather than the device identity. This feature can seem
confusing if you expect the autoconnect feature to match the connection target by device ID.
If the same device is plugged back in to the host through a different USB port, it cannot re-establish
connection with the virtual machine. If you unplug the device from the host and plug in a different device to
the same USB path, the new device appears and is connected to the virtual machine by the autoconnect
feature that the previous device connection enabled.
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Autoconnect is useful in cases where devices mutate during usage. For example, for iPhones and other such
devices, the device VID:PID changes during software or firmware upgrades. The upgrade process
disconnects and reconnects the devices to the USB port.
The USB port is speed-specific. The autoconnect feature assumes that devices do not transition from USB 1.1
(low-full speed) to USB 2.0 (high speed) or the reverse. You cannot interchange USB 2.0 high-speed devices
with USB 1.1 devices. For example, you might connect a USB 2.0 high-speed device to a port and connect
that device to the virtual machine. If you unplug the device from the host and plug a USB 1.1 device into the
same port, the device does not connect to the virtual machine.
For a list of supported USB devices for passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, see the VMware
knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021345.
vSphere Features Available with USB Passthrough
Migrations with vMotion and DRS are supported with USB device passthrough from an ESXi host to a
virtual machine.
Table 6‑7. vSphere Features Available for USB Passthrough from an ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine
Feature Supported with USB Device Passthrough
vSphere Distributed Power Management (DPM) No
vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) Yes
vSphere Fault Tolerance No
vSphere vMotion Yes
For details about migration with vMotion, see “Configuring USB Devices for vMotion,” on page 141.
If a host with connected USB devices resides in a DRS cluster with DPM enabled, you must disable DPM for
that host. Otherwise DPM might turn off the host with the device, which disconnects the device from the
virtual machine.
Configuring USB Devices for vMotion
With USB passthrough from a host to a virtual machine, you can migrate a virtual machine to another ESXi
host in the same datacenter and maintain the USB passthrough device connections to the original host.
If a virtual machine has USB devices attached that pass through to an ESXi host, you can migrate that virtual
machine with the devices attached.
For a successful migration, review the following conditions:
nYou must configure all USB passthrough devices connected to a virtual machine for vMotion. If one or
more devices is not configured for vMotion, the migration cannot proceed. For troubleshooting details,
see the vSphere Troubleshooting documentation.
nWhen you migrate a virtual machine with attached USB devices away from the host to which the
devices are connected, the devices remain connected to the virtual machine. However, if you suspend
or power off the virtual machine, the USB devices are disconnected and cannot reconnect when the
virtual machine is resumed. The device connections can be restored only if you move the virtual
machine back to the host to which the devices are attached.
nIf you resume a suspended virtual machine that has a Linux guest operating system, the resume process
might mount the USB devices at a different location on the file system.
nIf a host with attached USB devices resides in a DRS cluster with distributed power management
(DPM) enabled, disable DPM for that host. Otherwise DPM might turn off the host with the attached
device. This action disconnects the device from the virtual machine because the virtual machine
migrated to another host.
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nRemote USB devices require that the hosts be able to communicate over the management network
following migration with vMotion, so the source and destination management network IP address
families must match. You cannot migrate a virtual machine from a host that is registered to vCenter
Server with an IPv4 address to a host that is registered with an IPv6 address.
Avoiding Data Loss with USB Devices
When a virtual machine connects to a physical UBS device on an ESXi host, virtual machine functions can
affect USB device behavior and connections.
nBefore you hot add memory, CPU, or PCI devices, you must remove any USB devices. Hot adding these
resources disconnects USB devices, which might result in data loss.
nBefore you suspend a virtual machine, make sure that a data transfer is not in progress. During the
suspend or resume process, USB devices behave as if they have been disconnected, then reconnected.
For information about suspend and resume behavior after migration with vMotion, see “Configuring
USB Devices for vMotion,” on page 141.
nBefore you change the state of the arbitrator, make sure that USB devices residing on the host are not
attached to a virtual machine. If USB devices become unavailable to a virtual machine, a host
administrator might have disabled the arbitrator. When an administrator stops or disconnects the
arbitrator for troubleshooting or other purposes, USB devices attached to that host become unavailable
to the virtual machine. If a data transfer is taking place at this time, you might lose the data. To
reestablish the arbitrator, you must restart the host.
Connecting USB Devices to an ESXi Host
You can connect and chain multiple USB hubs and devices to an ESXi host. Careful planning and
knowledge of hub behavior and limitations can help ensure that your devices work optimally.
USB physical bus topology defines how USB devices connect to the host. Support for USB device
passthrough to a virtual machine is available if the physical bus topology of the device on the host does not
exceed tier seven. The first tier is the USB host controller and root hub. The last tier is the target USB device.
You can cascade up to five tiers of external or internal hubs between the root hub and the target USB device.
An internal USB hub attached to the root hub or built into a compound device counts as one tier.
The quality of the physical cables, hubs, devices, and power conditions can affect USB device performance.
To ensure the best results, keep the host USB bus topology as simple as possible for the target USB device,
and use caution when you deploy new hubs and cables into the topology. The following conditions can
affect USB behavior:
nCommunication delay between the host and virtual machine increases as the number of cascading hubs
increases.
nConnecting or chaining multiple external USB hubs increases device enumeration and response time,
which can make the power support to the connected USB devices uncertain.
nChaining hubs together also increases the chance of port and hub error, which can cause the device to
lose connection to a virtual machine.
nCertain hubs can cause USB device connections to be unreliable, so use care when you add a new hub
to an existing setup. Connecting certain USB devices directly to the host rather than to a hub or
extension cable might resolve their connection or performance issues.
NOTE To prevent additional problems, be aware of the physical constraints of long-term deployment in a
machine room environment. Small devices are easily damaged by being stepped on or knocked loose.
In some cases, you must hard reset the device and hub to restore the device to a working state.
For a list of supported USB devices for passthrough from an ESXi host to a virtual machine, see the VMware
knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021345.
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USB Compound Devices
For compound devices, the virtualization process filters out the USB hub so that it is not visible to the virtual
machine. The rem