cloud_cw.docx

School of Engineering and Built Environment

Cloud Systems and Security

MHI122335-13-A

Prof H. Tianfield

Technical Report on Selected Key Issues of vSphere

Kevin Twigg

Matric No: 200305777

ContentsIntroduction (Q1,2,3,4)..............................................................................................................3

Question 1..................................................................................................................................4

VMs Storage Management.....................................................................................................4

Addition of a Local Disk, Creation, Management and Extension Datastore...................10

Add, Change, or Alter the Size of an Existing Virtual Machine......................................12

Question 2................................................................................................................................13

VMs Creation.......................................................................................................................13

VM Cloning.........................................................................................................................16

Hot Cloning......................................................................................................................17

VM Modification.................................................................................................................18

VM Migrations.....................................................................................................................20

Question 3................................................................................................................................22

VM Access Control..............................................................................................................22

VMs Performance Monitoring.............................................................................................27

Question 4................................................................................................................................29

Resource Pooling.................................................................................................................29

Distributed Resource Scheduling.........................................................................................32


Introduction (Q1,2,3,4)The purpose of this report is to provide StudyPlatform® (SP) IT engineers technical instructions and discussions on installation, management and use of the vSphere platform prior to conversion from local server farms to the Cloud IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). This report will provide a technical report on key selected issues of vSphere. This report will provide a technical guide relevant to VM Storage Management, creation, cloning, modification and migrations. It will also provide a technical guide to access controls, VM Performance monitoring, resource pooling and distributed resource scheduling. This report will also explain providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and discuss the advantages of each service within the report.

The screenshots above show the login virtual topology screen and client access screens and the for the lab sessions used to create this technical report. The default username and password for this technical are root, vmware. To access ESXi Hosts the username, password is root, vmware123. Default passwords for StudyPlatform's systems may be different. If you do not already have usernames and passwords to access your cloud systems, please see the network manager.

To allow users to complete these configurations both ESXi hosts should be powered on and logged in using the correct authentication details. These servers will always be powered in a real-life business environment unless experiencing network downtime or planned downtime such as scheduled maintenance or upgrades. This ensures constant availability to network infrastructure wherever an internet connection is available to authorised users. This allows StudyPlatform employees to work from many locations, including mobile internet connections available through laptops and internet ready devices. You can check the status by clicking the status tab on the lab access screen shown above.


Question 1

VMs Storage ManagementThis section will illustrate and describe how to use, manage and install storage management facilities, and many of their features, within a cloud based virtual machine. It will provide a step by step guide to configuring, managing and assigning storage volumes to a virtual machine. This section will cover IP storage, hard disk provision and storage management.

Advantages of using VM storage is that cloud providers can provide seemingly endless amounts of storage (elasticity). This can be extended if and when needed on a pay as you use basis providing an easily scalable solution for StudyPlatform. This has time and cost saving benefits as it is easier to acquire new storage. Another advantage is you only use what you need. There are also strict guarantees known as Service Level Agreements which guarantee a minimum level of service. If this guarantee is broken it will result in compensation to StudyPlatform. This increases reliability and reduces cost, waste and inefficiency. Data will be protected by Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems(IDS/IDP). Security also forms part of SLAs and sensitive data can be isolated from other data within the multi tenant platform.

The information this section will cover is as follows:

Configuring a VMkernal port on a standard virtual switch Configure the iSCSI software adapter Configure access to an NFS datastore Viewing and accessing of iSCSI and NFS storage information and datastores

Access the vClient by clicking the vClient icon and entering a valid username and password. as detailed in the introduction section. This will allow access to the following screens and configuration options:


1. Navigate to the hosts and clusters section as shown above. Use the navigation bar by selecting Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters.

2. In the Harware Panel select the Networking link as highlighed in the above screenshot.

3. Within the Networking section, you will find vSwitch0. Click the properties link next to this icon to view the screenshot below. Click add to launch add network wizard.

4. On the Connections page enter VMkernal and click Next. On the VMkernal Connections Settings page, change Network Label to IP Storage. Leave all other settings as default, click Next.

5. On the VMkernal - IP Connections settings page select Use the following IP settings and enter valid IP address as provided by your IP cloud provider or network manager. For this guide we are using the IP address 172.16.1.100 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0. The default gateway is set to 172.16.1.99. Once these details are entered click Next.


6. To verify and view these settings click the Networking link within the Hardware panel as performed in Step 1.

7. The next step is to configure the iSCSI software adapter. In the Hardware Panel, select the Storage Adapters link. Click Add as shown in screenshot on the storage adapters table. On the next two screen click OK to complete.

8. Verify that the storage initiator has been created as highlighted in the above screenshot. Click on this newly created iSCSI initiator and click Properties in the details section. Ensure the software initiator properties status is Enabled. This should have been automatically enable as the default setting when added.

9. Click the Dynamic Discovery tab and enter your IP address of the iSCSI target (172.16.1.99) and leave the default port setting 3260. Click OK.

10. Once the SCSI send target task completes. You can verify the settings by viewing the Dynamic Discovery pane as shown in the above screenshot.

11. Click Close on the properties box window. It will prompt you that a rescan of the host bus adapter is recommended. Select Yes.


12. Once the scan has completed. The new iSCSI will show in the Storage Adapter list as highlighted in the screenshot below. Once highlighted, you can view the configuration settings in the detail pane below, as shown in screenshot below.

13. The next step is to configure access to an NFS datastore. In the Configuration tab, click the Storage link as shown in the screenshot below.

14. Above the Datastores table click the Add Storage link to launch the add storage wizard.


15. On the next screen select Network File System as shown below. Click Next. A local Disk or LUN can also be added in this section by selecting DISK/LUN. As shown in the screenshot above.

16. On the next screen enter the location of the storage option. Enter server IP and folder locations. This may differ depending on desired data locations and IP addresses. For the purpose of this guide we are using 172.16.1.99 and folder location mnt/vg-99-1/nfslib991/nfs_library. Enter a chosen datastore name and click Next.

17. On the next screen click finish to complete the addition of an IP datastore.18. You can view verify the configuration iSCSI and NFS storage information by clicking

the host server's (ESXI) storage views tab and selecting show all SCSI Adapters from the drop-down menu as shown in the screenshot below.


19. To view information about the SCSI storage select Show all SCSI targets (array ports) from the drop down menu. As shown in the screenshot below. You can also view all storage volumes by selecting Show all SCSI volumes (LUNS).

20. To browse a selected datastore you right click on the selected datastore and click Browse Datastore. As shown in the screenshot below.


Addition of a Local Disk, Creation, Management and Extension Datastore.This section will cover the creation, management and extension of a datastore. In this section we will create and then show how to check the status of the new drive. We will also demonstrate how to extend the size of the new drive.

1. Select your hosts (ESXi-1 in this guide) configuration tab and click storage in the hardware pane as shown in the screenshot above. Click Add Storage above the datastores table and select DISK/LUN. As shown in the screenshot below

2. On the next screen select the datastore from the list which you would like to add and click Next.

3. There is a choice of storage options available depending on the required specifications (speed, size etc). For guide purposes we will select VMFS-1 and click next. Enter a name of the new disk, leaving the default setting of Maximum available space and click Next. Then Finish. This should add a new datastore to the list of datastores. As shown in the screenshot below.


4. You can change the name of a datastore by right clicking on the selected datastore and clicking rename from the drop down menu, as shown in the above screenshot.

5. To create a VMFS datastore right click the datacentre icon (marked Training in the guide screenshots). Select Add Datastore from the menu.

6. On the select storage type window, select Disk/LUN. There are several options to choose difference being the LUN number and storage size.

7. For the purposes of this technical guide we will select LUN 0, 10gb, opnifiler iSCSI disk.

8. The following pages allow configuration of Disk layout and an option to limit or use maximum available space for creation of the new VMFS datastore. Enter chosen configuration choices and click next. For this guide we will limit storage size to 5gb.

9. On the Ready to complete window, click Finish and wait for the task to complete.


Add, Change, or Alter the Size of an Existing Virtual Machine

1. You can also alter add, change, or alter the size of an existing device as shown in the screenshot above. To do this, right click on the virtual machine you wish to change by selecting Edit Settings from the drop down menu. This will display the screenshot above.

2. To change the settings select the hard disk as highlighted in the above screenshot. In this screen you can see the provision size on the right hand pane. To change this to a desired value enter a value using the keyboard and click OK and Finish.

3. This can be done at any point. It is not necessary to power down virtual machine before configuration. A restart may be required depending on what task has been performed.

4. These changes can be confirmed within the Hardware section, under the Storage link.


Question 2

VMs CreationThis section will cover the creation of Virtual Machines. Log in to an authenticated user with sufficient user rights as detailed in the introduction to begin this technical guide. This section will cover the basics of creating a new virtual machine within a cloud systems environment.

1. Sign in to the vClient icon as described in the introduction section, if not currently logged in.

2. Navigate to the location Home > Inventory > VMs and Templates using the navigation bar. As shown in the above screenshot, right click your desired location and click New Virtual Machine from the drop down menu. This will launch the virtual machine creation wizard, as shown below.

3. On the configuration page, enter a name for the new virtual machine, choose a location to save the virtual machine and click Next.

4. On the Host and Cluster screen select your host (in this case ESXi-1) and click Next.5. On the next screen, select the virtual machine version. For this example we are using

the default, Virtual Machine Version 8. Click Next.


6. The next page allows you to configure CPU allocation and assignment. For this example we are using the default settings and clicking Next. StudyPlatform may require different specifications to this guide. Simply enter chosen details where we have left the default.

7. The next screen in the wizard is the Memory screen. This screen allows you to assign RAM to the created virtual machine. We have chosen 4Gb as shown in the screenshot above. Click Next to continue to the network screen.

8. To connect to the network we must configure NIC options to allow network connection for virtual machines. Enter the Chosen number of NICs (1). Enter NIC 1 Network, select Production. Under adapter we will use the default (E1000). Leave Connect at Power On selected (as is default) and click Next.

9. On the SCSI controller page, leave the default selection of LSI logic parallel. Click Next.

10. On the Create a disk, select chosen disk size and disk provisioning. In the chosen example and screenshot above we have selected 40Gb, thin provisioning and Store with the virtual machine.


11. On the Advanced Options enter the chosen settings (we chose default for this example) and select Edit the virtual machine settings before completion.

12. In the Hardware list, select New CD/DVD (adding). Select the location of the chosen operating system(OS). Click Browse and navigate to the chosen OS. for this example we are installing windows 2000 Server. The location for this is nfs_library/Windows/win2ksrv.iso. The default location will vary depending on local settings within the StudyPlatform network environment. Use this guide and enter corresponding network locations and chosen operating systems.

13. In the Properties ensure Connect at power on is selected and click Finish.

14. To complete creation of your virtual machine right click the virtual machine, Power On and select Open Console from the drop down menu. As shown in the above screenshot. Upon start up, complete OS installation as according to StudyPlatform's chosen option and configuration settings. These configuration settings are beyond the scope of this technical report. Please follow OS and technical manuals to complete installation of your chosen OS.

15. Install VMware tools by using the navigation bar to VM > Guest > Install > Upgrade VMware Tools. Follow instructions to complete installation. This will ensure better compatibility and ease of use for users.

16. To enable time synchronisation between virtual machines and Host Servers, open the newly downloaded VMtools. Select Time and synchronisation between the virtual machine and ESX server check box and click OK.

17. Click the Time Configuration tab and enter relevant settings.18. This completes basic Creation and initial set-up of Virtual Machines.


VM CloningThis section will cover the cloning of existing Virtual Machines. We will detail cloning to a template and also cloning from a virtual machine while powered on (hot cloning). You require authorised user credentials with sufficient user privileges to perform cloning of virtual machines.

An advantage of using clones in a cloud environment is that you can quickly replicate existing users. This can be advantageous as it saves time and ultimately money.

1. Initially we will create a template for which to use to create cloned virtual machines. We will use the existing virtual machine as a the template for cloned machines created. To continue ensure virtual machine is powered off before selecting Template, Clone to Template.... (As shown in the drop down menu in the above screen shot). The Template wizard will guide you through the creation of the template. Choose a name for the template (kevin in this example)

2. On the Host/Cluster page, select your chosen ESXi host as shown in the above screenshot.

3. On the Storage page ensure Same format as source is selected.4. Select a datastore from the list, we chose VMFS-1 in this example, click next.5. On the Ready to Complete page, click finish to begin cloning to a template.6. To create a cloned virtual machine from this template, right click on the newly created

template and select Deploy Virtual Machine from this template. This will open the Deploy Template Wizard which will guide you through the creation of a new virtual machine based on the chosen template.


Hot Cloning1. The next Section will detail cloning of a virtual machine that is powered on (Hot

Cloning). To begin right click the powered on virtual machine which you would like to clone. As shown in the previous screenshot. This will bring up the clone virtual machine wizard as shown below.

2. The first screen is the Name and Location screen. Select your chosen name and location for the new virtual machine you would like to create. Click Next.

3. The next screen is the Host and Cluster screen as shown in the above screenshot. Select your chosen host on which to create the new virtual machine. Click Next.

4. The next page is the Datastore page. In this example we chose VMFS-1.5. On the disk format page, leave the default to create an exact copy of the virtual

machine template. If desired you may change disk format options depending on the scenario.

6. On the Guest Customisation page, select Customise using an existing custom specification and select your previously created custom specification. As shown in the screenshot on the next page. Click Next.

7. To complete configuration click Finish to begin cloning of the virtual machine while powered on. This completes cloning of virtual machines.


VM ModificationThis section will cover the modifications of Virtual Machines once they have been created. This will show you how to modify an existing virtual machine once it has been created. This scenario may occur if StudyPlatform wish to upgrade or add a new device to an existing virtual machine. In a cloud computing environment upgrading and adding new devices is much easier and is done remotely without having to purchase new physical devices. To perform this configuration guide sign in using authorised details with sufficient privileges to perform the desired tasks. Log in to the vSphere platform as detailed in the introduction to begin this technical guide. A virtual machine in most instances should be powered down during modification. If not a restart may be required before new settings take effect.

1. The first step is to navigate to Home > Inventory > VMs and Templates using the navigation bar as seen in the screenshot below. Right click on the chosen virtual machine you would like to edit and select Edit Settings from the popup menu. In this example we have chosen the SP virtual machine.

2. This will display the Add Hardware window as shown in the screenshot below. This displays a list of devices you can add. This step will vary depending on the task StudyPlatform wish to complete. For this example we will modify the hard disk and memory. Select your choice of device and click Next.


3. To change to size of the storage device you can use the keyboard to enter your desired size. You can see in the screenshot above we have chosen to increase the size of the virtual machine hard drive to 40Gb. Click OK.

4. Next, select the Memory from the list of hardware. This will bring up the sliding bar and Memory size box as shown in the above screenshot.

5. To modify the amount of memory assigned to the virtual machine, enter the desired amount or use the sliding bar. For this example we have chosen 4Gb of memory. Click OK once you have completed this task.

6. To rename a virtual machine, right click ok it at any point and select Rename.7. To inflate a virtual machine to take up all available space it was provisioned, right

click on it and select .vmdk file and select Inflate.8. To delete a virtual machine, right click on it and select Delete from Disk from the

menu. You will be asked to confirm deletion.


VM MigrationsThis section will cover the migration of data and virtual machines from one server to another. For this example you will need an authenticated user credentials with the appropriate privileges to perform the desired actions. Once you have added a host StudyPlatform can simply drag and drop existing virtual machines between different hosts.

The following section technical guide will detail the addition and configuration of a new host, the migration of active (powered on) hosts and the use of the vMotion utility. To perform this guide within StudyPlatform's cloud environment you will require authorised user credientials as discussed in the introduction. You will also require relevant user priviliges to peform the task, as discuessed in the Access Control chapter.

1. The first step of live data migration is to add a second host. Power on the Virtual Machines by right clicking on them and selecting Power On.

2. To add a second host, navigate to Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters using the navigation bar. Right click on the folder containing your first host as shown in the screenshot above and click Add Host.

3. This will launch the add host wizard. You will asked to enter the configuration data for the new host. This will vary depending on the scenario being performed by StudyPlatform. Ensure the new host is on the same network and IP details are correctly configured. These details will be available from your network manager if you do not already possess them. After this you will have to configure hardware properties, including adding storage locations, networking and iSCSI as described in the Storage Management chapter. Care must be taken to ensure you use a different datastore from where you store the initial ESXi host and hypervisor. If you get an error message select a different disk.

4. Once you have completed the configuration of your new host you will be asked to rescan the adapter before continuing. Click Yes to complete.


5. The next step is to configure a port group for the vMotion migration. Select your initial host and click the Networking tab. Click Add Networking.

6. This will open the Add Network Wizard. Click VMkernel and select vmnic2 or the appropriate adapter within StudyPlatform local network environment.

7. Enter the network label and select Use this port for vMotion.8. Enter the ESXi host IP details and subnet mask and click Finish.9. You can verify successful creation of this virtual switch within the networking pane.10. Repeat step 5-9 for your second host to ensure both hosts meet vMotion requirements.11. The next step is to perform the migration of a live virtual machine. Navigate to Home

> Inventory > Hosts and Clusters. Ensure that virtual machines are powered on before performing the next steps by right clicking them and selecting Power On.

12. Right click on the virtual machine you wish to migrate and select Migrate.13. This will launch the Migrate Host Wizard.14. Select Change Host and select the host you wish to transfer to from the inventory.

Click Next.15. On the vMotion priority page, leave the recommended settings (High). Click Finish.16. This completes the migration of a live virtual machine. To verify this task has been

completed successfully. You can view the inventory page to show the screenshot below. This screenshot shows the John-2 virtual machine having been successfully migrated from esxi-1 to esxi-2 hosts.


Question 3

VM Access ControlThis section will cover the addition, deletion and policy settings of users within a cloud systems environment. As StudyPlatform have 1000 staff and 23,000 registered users worldwide, there will have to be strict policy settings in place to ensure security and efficient running of the business. These access policies can also be applied to groups of users saving vast amounts of time for the business. It is important to ensure effective policy control so users have access to the relevant files and possess the relevant privileges to perform the desired task. Poor configuration of this section will create a potential security risk for StudyPlatform intellectual material, data and infrastructure.

Access control is an essential component of StudyPlatform's Infrastructure as a Service model. It helps provide security and added control over data and intellectual material. This will help to provide access to software on a need by need basis. This can also be provided by cloud providers (Software as a Service).

1. The first step is to sign in to the vCenter host from the initial introduction topology screen as shown in this report's introduction section. Click on the vCenter icon on this topology screen. This will produce the above screenshot. Press return to log in and enter valid username and password as shown in the screenshot below.


2. Once logged in to an authorised account, you can create new users by typing the command <useradd -n example>.

3. You can then choose a password for a user by typing <passwd example>. This will prompt you to enter a new password as shown in the screenshot above. You will be asked to re-enter and confirm your password before it is accepted and validated.

4. Now we have created our users we can apply policy settings (in this example we are using Windows Server). The next section details how to apply these policy settings and also group policy settings using preconfigured custom roles.

5. The first step is to access the vClient as detailed in the introduction section of this report. Ensure you are signing in with a user with the desired privileges to perform the desired task (normally the administrator account). Using the navigation bar, navigate to Home > Administration > Roles. This screen also allows StudyPlatform the option to alter the privileges of other roles in the right hand pane. As shown in the above screenshot.

6. To create a new custom role, click the Add Role link in the top left as shown in the above screenshot. This will allow roles, privileges and access to specific data or software to be added to specific roles that exist within the cloud environment.

7. The next screen asks you to provide your custom role specifications and privileges. For this example we entered the follow details, this may vary depending on the type of user and policies StudyPlatform wish to add. Care must be taken during the planning and implementation of this task to ensure accurate configuration.

Datastore - allocate Space Network - Assign Network Resource - Assign virtual machine to pool Virtual machine - Add new disk, add or remove device, memory Virtual machine - Interaction, select chosen privileges for this technical report

we selected all Virtual machine > inventory, select create new Click ok to complete privilege configuration


8. To add permissions navigate to Home > Inventory > VMs And Templates using the navigation bar. Right click within this window and select Add Permission, as show in the above screenshot.

9. Select the chosen users and groups from the list as shown in the screenshot above. Care must be taken by StudyPlatform during this section as potential security and accessibility issues can occur with poor planning and poor configuration. Click Next when you have selected the relevant users and groups.

10. In the assignment role, select the chosen policy group and apply to the users or groups by clicking next. The permission can be review in the permissions tab as shown in the screenshot below.


The above screenshot shows the roles within the virtual machines.

The screenshot below shows the assigned roles within the storage locations associated with the virtual machines.

11. To assign access privileges to storage locations, navigate to Home > Inventory > Datastores. Select the chosen datastore and click the permissions tab as shown in the above screenshot.

12. Permissions can be added to storage locations as performed with the users and groups in step 8.


13. To add networking privileges, navigate to Home > Inventory > Networking. Select the chosen network. Select StudyPlatform's network and as the relevant permissions as performed in step 8.

14. To remove or alter a user group right click on it and select the relevant option from the popup menu. The screenshot below shows the warning message displayed before removing the user root. This is often done as a security procedure and is common practice within an enterprise and cloud environment.

15. To verify configurations attempt a forbidden task with a user who does not possess adequate privileges. An error message should be produced and the user prevented from proceeding. It is also worth testing all privileges settings changes before using them in a live environment.


VMs Performance MonitoringThis section will give a technical guide to using and configuring the performance monitoring utility within vCenter Server. Performance monitoring is a useful tool as it allows us to understand the efficiency and potential drawbacks of our cloud platform. It then allows us to optimize and remedy and potential problems such as suboptimal resource allocation that may have occurred. This application can monitor many performance issues such as bandwidth, RAM and individual virtual machine performance. In this example we will demonstrate how to use to utility and how to monitor CPU performance. StudyPlatform may wish to perform different tasks depending what is relevant to the current scenario. This can be varied in step 4.

1. You can view the performance details of virtual machines by highlighting them in the left pane and selecting the Performance tab in the right pane. As shown in the above screenshot.

2. Click the Advanced button in the top right to view the current, real-time data being generated live.

3. The drop down menu in the top right of the above screenshot can be changed to show different objects to monitor depending on the scenario or problems encountered. For the purpose of this demonstration we have selected CPU.

4. To change the data captured and shown on your graph select the Chart Options link. This section is where you can define the boundaries such as time scale for monitoring of performance and producing the graph.


5. To produce the graph in a separate screen ready for saving or printing, click the Popup Chart button. As seen in the screenshot below.

6. Exit this screen to return to the performance tab. StudyPlatform have the ability to perform diagnostic and optimization tasks from this area. To select a different virtual machine or server you can simply select your choice from the left hand panel as seen in the screenshot below. To produce a performance report on another component within a virtual machine or server select an option from within the drop down menu in the top right of the performance tab as seen in the screenshot below.


Question 4

Resource PoolingThis section will cover creation and use of resource pools. Resource pools can be created to assign resources to a specific group of devices or users. Effective use of resources is important as in a cloud computing platform. It is often on a 'pay as you go' service. The more effective use of available resources will lead to cost savings. This can be useful for StudyPlatform to assign resources to their higher priority user groups or devices. This will allow network managers to control their available resources and assign them where they are needed. This gives them better control of the allocation of the available resources. Follow instructions to sign in as detailed in the introduction to begin this technical guide. Ensure you are signed in with an authenticated user with sufficient user privileges.

1. The first step is navigate to Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters using the navigation bar. Right click on your ESXi host and select New Resource Pool... from the popup menu as shown in the screenshot below.

2. This will bring up the create resource pool window as shown in the screenshot below. Here you can configure CPU and memory reservation. Select your chosen


configurations, name your resource pool and click OK to complete. For the purpose of this lab we have configured a low CPU share and named it SP - TEST.

3. Once you have created your resource pool you can grad and drop virtual machines in to the new resource pool. This will assign resources to the virtual machines within the pool as configured in the previous step.

4. You can view the summary by left clicking the resource pool and clicking the Summary tab as shown in the screenshot below. This screen will allow StudyPlatform to verify configuration and status of the resource pool.


5. The above screenshot shows configuration of a production group with high (8000) CPU share. To modify a resource pool right click on it and select edit settings. This completes the creation and use of resource pools. This section also shows memory and resource pool basic information.

6. The screenshot below shows successful configuration virtual machines as part of the SP-prod resource pool with low CPU share (2000) assigned.


Distributed Resource SchedulingThis section will cover creation and use of Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS). Distributed Resource Scheduling can be used to apply rules based on resources and apply them automatically. This section provides a guide how to configure and use DRS within a live environment.

Advantages of DRS include added control over hardware parameters. This can leads to optimisation of hardware resources dependant on the current resource requirements. This allows for downtime free server maintenance, optimization of energy efficiency and ultimately cost savings.

1. The first step is to navigate to Home > Inventory > Hosts and Clusters using the navigation bar. Right click on the lab cluster and click Edit Settings.

2. Name your lab cluster and select to Turn on vSphere HA and Turn on vSphere DRS. Click Next.


3. Click vSphere DRS as shown in the screenshot below...

4. This screen allows you to select the power management options for your DRS. Select manual and use your mouse to slide the DRM Threshold bar to your chosen configuration. In the above screenshot it is at the default (medium) setting.


5. The next section allows you to apply riles to the DRS. This can be done at any time by right clicking the DRS cluster and selecting edit settings from the drop down menu.

6. This next screen will bring up the screenshot shown above.

7. The screenshot above shows the alternate configuration for the other host.


1. To add a rule click add. As shown in the above screenshot.2. On this screen you can choose to separate or keep virtual machines together and also

name your rule. Configure two virtual machines with opposite settings (one separate, one together) to contrast DRS operation.

3. Once you have added your chosen rules click OK. Click on the lab cluster DRS tab and click the Run DRS link. This will generate a recommendation based on the rules entered.

4. This rule setting will separate virtual machines so that they are running on different ESXi hosts. Many other rules can be created by following this guide and altering the rule added depending on the scenario and required configuration of StudyPlatform's requirements.


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