1>What are the major differences between ESX 3.5 and Vsphere?

The diffrence between ESX 3.5 and ESX 4 is substantially the arch they use.
ESX 3.5 is x86 based (32bit) while ESX 4 is based on x86_64 (64bit).

At least ESX 4 is the newer version that fits into the VMware vSphere environment, the
older ESX 3.x products are part of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VI).

with ESX 4 you will gain improved performance as well as new features - such as increased memory for the
VMs increased to 256 GB, up to 8 virtual CPUs, upto 10 virtual NIcs with the new virtual hardware just to
name a few -

2 What are the major differences between ESX and ESXi

The VMWare ESXi does not have the Linux kernel that is used by the VMWare ESX.

The ESXi has a much smaller disk footprint compared to the ESX. It can run on 32mb of
Ram whereas ESX needed 2GB Ram

The ESXi is often sold as a built-in hypervisor, unlike the the ESX.

The ESXi requires much fewer updates compared to the ESX.

The ESXi lacks the console that most ESX users

2> What is the procedure to upgrade from ESX 3.5 to Vsphere?

3> Will HA and DRS work if Vcenter goes down?

HA will still work if its been configured vcenter is not required for HA to function, only required to configue
HA.

DRS requires vmotion which is a vcenter function so it will stop functioning.

FT im not 100% but i belive its the same as HA once configured through vcenter it will still function if vcenter
was to go down. The primary and secondary vm exchange heartbeats to make sure both are available and if
not then it fails over without the need of vcenter. but if vcenter is unavailable and and FT has failed to the
secondary i believe you will need vcenter up and available to set it back up.

5> What is Vmotion?

VMware VMotion enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one
physical server to another with zero downtime, continuous service availability, and
complete transaction integrity. It is transparent to users.

VMotion lets you:

 • Automatically optimize and allocate entire pools of resources for maximum
hardware utilization and availability.
• Perform hardware maintenance without any scheduled downtime.
• Proactively migrate virtual machines away from failing or underperforming
servers.

6> What are the prerequisites to enable Vmotion?

• The VM cannot be connected to a CD-ROM or floppy drive that is using an ISO

or floppy image stored on a drive that is local to the host server.
• The VM's affinity must not be set (aka, bound to physical CPUs).
• The VM must not be clustered with another VM (using a cluster service like the
Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS)).
• The two ESX servers involved must use (the same) shared storage.
• The two ESX servers involved must be connected via Gigabit Ethernet (or better).
• The two ESX servers involved must have access to the same physical networks.
• The two ESX servers involved must have compatible CPUs.

7> Where do configure Vmotion-- Cluster Level, Host level....?

Cluster Level

6> What are port groups?

port groups is a network hubs connected to a single vswitch port. This

actually makes sense for multiple reasons:

All members of a port group share common attributes like a VLAN tag

All members of a port group can see all of the packets sent by other
members of this port group

A port group is always connected to a single vswitch

7> How many default ports are created on installation of ESX 3.5?

Vi client(Direct) to ESX server - 443

Vi client(Direct) to VM remote console - 902,903
VI client(Via VC) to VM remote console - 902,903
VI client(Via VC) to virtual center - 443
virtual center to ESX server - 443
ESX server to Virtual center Agent Heartbeat - 902(UDP)
Vmotion from one ESX to another ESX - 8000
ESX communications - 902 TCP+UDP
VMHA to VMHA - 2050-2250 8042-8045 TCP+UDP
ESX to ISCSI - 3260
ESX to NFS - 2049
License Server to ESx server - 27010 & 27000

6> What is default port number for iSCSI?

3260

8> What are templates?

A template is a "golden" copy of a virtual machine (VM) organized by folders and

managed with permissions. They're useful because they act as a protected version of a
model VM which can be used to create new VMs. As a template is the original and
perfect image of a particular VM, it cannot be powered on or run.

9> What are differences between convert to template and clone to a template options, for a VM?

Cloning - to make a complete copy of the VM/Template with a new name somewhere else.

Clone to Template - to make a complete copy of a VM into a Template

Convert to Template - take a VM and turn it into a Template.

10> What could be the maximum host failure in a cluster?

maximum nodes in a cluster for HA was 16 while it is 32 when only using DRS

11> what is the difference between Vsphere( VI Client) client and Vcenter ?

VCenter is the management application and licensing server. It's the

vSphere replacement for the Virtual Infrastructure Client/VMware
license server.They did away with the separate license server for
version 4, and now vCenter has all the licensing built in. vCenter does
NOT provide you with the ability to host virtual machines, you need
vSphere for that. vCenter has two parts, the server and the client.
The server has the databse and does all the work, the client can be
installed on several machines and connects to the vCenter server to
manage your hosts/clusters/VMs

12> What are the requirements to install Vcenter?

Windows server Sp1 or XP sp2,Should be in domain,

13> What is minimum hardware configurations to install Vcenter?

Component Requirement
2.0GHz or greater Intel or AMD x86 based processor. It is a best practice to
Processor
use a faster processor if the vCenter Database runs on the same server.
2GB of RAM. Again, it is a best practice to use more RAM if the database is
running on the same server.
Memory
The VMware vCenter Management Webservices require from 128MB to
1.5GB of additional memory. The memory is allocated at system startup.
A minimum of 1GB of additional storage is required in addition to the
storage required for the operating system installation. If the VMware vCenter
Update Manager service is installed on the same system, an additional 22GB
Database of space is required to accommodate storage of patches.
If Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express is installed as the database, 2GB of
disk space is required during the installation, with 1.5GB reclaimed after the
installation is complete.
A 100MB network connection can be used, but a 1GB network connection is
Networking
recommended.

14> When you deploy 10 Virtual Machines from a template, and power up all the Virtual
Machines simultaneously, will there be a IP conflict?

If yes how to resolve this | What if DHCP server is disabled | Are there anything we can do to
prevent an ip conflict on deploying Virtual machines?

Yes if we sysprep we can get rid of this issue.

15> What is Service Console? Why do you need Service Console?

Service console is for managing ESX hosts communication

16> Does service console work on Linux OS?

17> What is VMkernel? Is Vmkernel based on Linux ?

The VMkernel is the kernel used by VMware ESX. It provides basic operating system services needed
to support virtualization: hardware abstraction, hardware drivers, scheduler, memory
allocator, filesystem (vmfs), and virtual machine monitor (vmm).

18> What are different interfaces available to access an ESX host?

Web access,VI client and Vcenter

VMware VI Web Access interface. The benefit to using this is that you get a GUI client
for your ESX server without having to install a client on your local machine. The
downside to the web interface is that you can only perform basic ESX functions like
controlling existing machines (start/stop/pause) and console remote access. You cannot
add new VMs, work with VM storage, or VM networks. Still, this is a great interface if
you just need to check the status of your ESX VMs, restart a VM, or use console remote
control.

VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) : The benefits to the VI client are that
you have full access to do whatever is needed on the ESX Server and you get a GUI
client to do it in. The only downside is that you must install the VI client application to
do this. However, the installation is negligible and the VI client is the absolute best way
to administer your ESX Server. Even better, the VI client can be used with the VMware
Virtual Center Server

VC Server : From this VI VC interface, you can manage all ESX servers, VM storage,
VM networks, and more. Virtual Center, of course, is an optional product that requires
additional licenses and hardware.

19> When you access an ESX Host through VCenter or VI client, does it contact service console
or Vmkernel?

Service console

20> Are the changes we make through Vcenter or VI client, on service console or VMkernel?

Yes

22> What do you mean be resource pools? Explain

A VMware ESX Resource pool is a pool of CPU and memory resources. Inside the pool,
resources are allocated based on the CPU and memory shares that are defined. This pool
can have associated access control and permissions.

23> What is NIC teaming, explain in brief the options it provides?

A NIC team can share the load of traffic between physical and virtual networks among some or all
of its members, as well as provide passive failover in the event of a hardware failure or a network
outage.

24> What are different types of Converstions?

VMware standalone Converter

VMware vCenter Converter
25> What do you mean by consolidate backup?
VMware Consolidated Backup is a proxy server that assisted with local area network-free
backups of virtual machines (VMs). This configuration eliminates the backup traffic from
a network, freeing up ESX server resources for VM performance.

Here are the benefits of this,

• Centralize backups of VMware ESX Virtual Servers

• Provide file-level backups of VMware ESX Virtual Servers - both full and
incremental (file level backup available to only Windows guests)
• Provide image-level backups
• Prevent you from having to load a backup agent on every Virtual Machine
• Prevent you from having to shutdown Virtual Machines to get a backup
• Provides LAN-Free backup because the VCB server is connected to the SAN
through your fibre channel adaptor
• Provides centralized storage of Virtual Server backups on the VCB server, that is
then moved to your backup tapes through the 3rd party backup agent you install
• Reduces the load on the VMware ESX servers by not having to load a 3rd party
backup agent on either the VMware ESX service console or on each virtual
machine.
• Utilizes VMware Snapshots

26> What are the disaster recovery options available in Vsphere or ESX 3.5?

27> what is Thin Provisioning?

29> What are the maximum number of extents that can added to a LUN?

Max number of extents - 32

30> What is DPM, DRS, VMotion and HA ?

DPM - VMware’s Distributed Power Manager (DPM) is part of VMware’s Distributed

Resource Scheduler (DRS). Just as DRS works to optimize the resource load across
multiple ESX host servers, DPM can fit into that by migrating VM guests off of servers
that are not in use and shut the host system down.

DRS - DRS is a service or feature that will dynamically allocate and balance computing resources across the
hosts in a cluster

HA - VMware HA (High Availability) is a utility that eliminates the need for dedicated
standby hardware and software in a virtualized environment. The utility is part of a
virtualization suite called VMware Infrastructure 3. In IT (information technology), the
term high availability refers to a system or component that is continuously operational for
long periods.
Key features of VMware HA include:

• Proactive monitoring of all physical servers and virtual machines

• Automatic detection of server failure
• Rapid restart of virtual machines affected by server failure
• Optimal placement of virtual machines after server failure
• Scalable availability up to 32 nodes across multiple servers

33. What are resource pools & whats the advantage of implementing them?

A VMware ESX Resource pool is a pool of CPU and memory resources. Inside the pool,
resources are allocated based on the CPU and memory shares that are defined. This pool
can have associated access control and permissions.

34. Explain why VMware ESX Server is preferred over Virtual Server or Workstation for
enterprise implementation?

37. Explain advantages or features of Vmware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) ?

VMware's VMFS is a file system that will allow multiple nodes or multiple VMware ESX
servers to read and write to the same LUN or VMFS partition concurrently.

VMware VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) is a cluster file system that facilitates
storage virtualization for multiple installations of VMware ESX Server, a hypervisor that
partitions physical servers into multiple virtual machines. VMFS is part of the
virtualization suite called VMware Infrastructure 3.

With VMFS, new virtual machines can be created without the oversight of a storage
administrator. The size of a volume can be changed as needed without disrupting network
operations. Multiple installations of VMware ESX Server can be used to simultaneously
write and read data to and from a single storage location. VMware ESX servers can be
added or removed from a VMFS volume without affecting other hosts. The file and block
sizes can be adjusted to optimize the I/O (input/output) functionality of each virtual
machine. In the event of a server failure, a distributed journaling file system allows for
rapid system recovery and prevents catastrophic loss of data.

38. What are the types of datastores supported in ESX3.0 ?

• Local
• Fibre Channel (FC)
• ISCSI (Hardware iniatiated)
• ISCSI (software iniatiated)
• NFS (NFS client is built-in into ESX server)
40.What is Vmware Consolidate Backup (VCB) ? Explain your work exposure in this area ?

• Centralize backups of VMware ESX Virtual Servers

• Provide file-level backups of VMware ESX Virtual Servers - both full and
incremental (file level backup available to only Windows guests)
• Provide image-level backups
• Prevent you from having to load a backup agent on every Virtual Machine
• Prevent you from having to shutdown Virtual Machines to get a backup
• Provides LAN-Free backup because the VCB server is connected to the SAN
through your fibre channel adaptor
• Provides centralized storage of Virtual Server backups on the VCB server, that is
then moved to your backup tapes through the 3rd party backup agent you install
• Reduces the load on the VMware ESX servers by not having to load a 3rd party
backup agent on either the VMware ESX service console or on each virtual
machine.
• Utilizes VMware Snapshots

41.How do you configure Vmware Virtual Centre Management Server for HA & DRS ? What
are the conditions to be satisfied for this setup ?

42.Explain your work related to below terms :

VM Provisioning:
Alarms & Even Management:
Task Scheduler:
Hardware Compatibility List:

43.What SAN or NAS boxes have you configured VMware with ? How did you do that ?

44. What kind of applications or setups you have on you Virtual Machines?

45.Have you ever faced ESX server crashing and Virtual Centre Server crash? How do you
know the cause of these crashes in these cases ?