1/14: vSphere Overview, Components, and Requirements Flashcards
What are the five areas or diminsions of a solution architecture?
Availability
Managability
Performance
Recoverability
Security
What is definition of VMware’s Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC)?
SDDC includes compute virtualization (vSphere), network virtualization (NSX), and software-defined storage (vSAN or vVols) to deliver abstraction, pooling, and automation of the compute, networking, and storage infrastructure services. It includes vRealize Automation and vRealize Operations to deliver policy-based automated management of the data center, services, and applications.
What are the five layers of VMware’s datacenter virtualization (DCV) solution architecture?
Virtual Datacenter Management
Virtual Machine
Compute
Network
Storage
The Platform Services Controller Administration publication has been replaced with what new documentation?
vSphere Authentication publication
Describe the ESXi 7.0 boot device storage partitions?
System boot - Stores boot loader and EFI modules
Type: FAT16
Boot-banks (x2) - System space to store ESXi boot modules
Type: FAT16
ESX-OSData - Provides legacy “/scratch” partition functionality, locker partition for VMware Tools, and core dump destination
Type: VMFS-L
Describe the datasets that reside on ROM and RAM portions of the ESX-OSDATA partition?
ESX-OSData is new partition to store ESXi configuration, system state, and system or agent virtual machines.
The OSData partition is divided into two sections:
ROM-data
RAM-data
ROM-data is NOT read/only as a name can implied, but it is a section for data written to the disk infrequently like VMtools ISOs, ESXi configurations, core dumps, etc.
RAM-data is for frequently written data like logs, VMFS global traces, vSAN EPD and traces, and live system state files.
What is the default capacity size of the ESX-OSDATA partition?
Official support for specifying the size of ESX-OSData has been added to the release of ESXi 7.0 Update 1c
New ESXi kernel boot option called systemMediaSize which takes one of four values [4]:
min = 25GB
small = 55GB
default = 138GB (default behavior)
max = Consumes all available space
What is the acronym DCUI abbreviation of?
Direct Console User Interface
What are the no execute CPU BIOS indicator settings for varying processor manufacturers?
AMD No eXecute (NX)
Intel eXecute Disable (XD)
ARM eXecute Never (XN)
A method for specifying areas of memory that cannot be used for execution. Supported by the CPU’s virtual memory function, the bit is a flag (an indicator) in a virtual memory page. It can be used to isolate memory for storage versus instructions, as well as a security measure to ensure that malware instructions are not executed in memory areas where only data are expected to reside.
What is the minimum storage requirements for an ESXi 7.0 boot disk?
Installing ESXi 7.0 requires a boot device that is a minimum of 8 GB for USB or SD devices, and 32 GB for other device types.
When booting from a local disk, SAN or iSCSI LUN, a 32 GB disk is required to allow for the creation of system storage volumes, which include a boot partition, boot banks, and a VMFS-L based ESX-OSData volume.
The ESX-OSData volume takes on the role of the legacy /scratch partition, locker partition for VMware Tools, and core dump destination.
What is the minimum number of CPU cores required for ESXi 7.0?
At least two (2) CPU cores
What are the minimum network interface requirements for ESXi 7.0?
One or more Gigabit or faster Ethernet controllers.
What CPU BIOS settings must be enabled for the installation of ESXi 7.0?
AMD’s No eXecute (NX)
Intel eXecute Disabled (XD)
What additional storage requirements and limits are imposed in support of deploying VMs with ESXi 7.0?
SCSI disk or a local, non-network, RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for the virtual machines.
For Serial ATA (SATA), a disk connected through supported SAS controllers or supported on-board SATA controllers. SATA disks are considered remote, not local. These disks are not used as a scratch partition by default because they are seen as remote.
What hardware CPU virtualization feature must be enabled to support 64-bit VMs on x64 CPUs?
To support 64-bit virtual machines, support for hardware virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD RVI) must be enabled on x64 CPUs.
True or False? Does ESXi enable a roll back to an earlier version of ESXi after upgrading?
FALSE - ESXi does NOT enable a roll back to an earlier version after upgrading.
How many vCPUs are supported by Fault Tolerance (FT) in both the STD and ENT+ editions of ESXi 7.0?
Standard: Two (2) vCPUs
Enterprise Plus: Eight (8) vCPUs
What is the acronym VIB an abbreviation of?
vSphere Installation Bundle
What is the minimum memory requirements for ESXi 7.0?
ESXi 7.0 requires a minimum of 4 GB of physical RAM.
Provide at least 8 GB of RAM to run virtual machines in typical production environments.
Describe the SSO Administration Server service?
The administration server allows users with administrator privileges to vCenter Single Sign-On to configure the vCenter Single Sign-On server and manage users and groups from the vSphere Client. Initially, only the user administrator@ your_domain_name has these privileges. You can change the vSphere domain when you install vCenter Server. Do not name the domain name with your Microsoft Active Directory or OpenLDAP domain name.
What are the major services that comprise vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)?
Security Token Service (STS)
Administrator Server
VMware Directory Service (vmdir)
Identity Management Service
Describe the Identity Management Service component of the vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)?
Handles identity sources and STS authentication requests.
Describe the Security Token Service (STS) component of the vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)?
The STS service issues Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens.
These security tokens represent the identity of a user in one of the identity source types supported by vCenter Server.
The SAML tokens allow interactive, scripted, and service users (including solution users) who authenticate successfully to vCenter Single Sign-On to use any vCenter service that vCenter Single Sign-On supports without authenticating again to each service.
Describe the Directory Service (vmdir) component of the vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO)?
A VMware Directory Service (vmdir) is associated with the domain you specify during installation and is included in each vCenter Server deployment.
This service is a multi-tenanted, peer-replicating directory service that makes an LDAP directory available on port 389.
It also stores and manages vCenter Single Sign-On user accounts and passwords, which are secured by the SHA-512 hashing algorithm.
The VMware Directory Service stores not only vCenter Single Sign-On information but also certificate information.
