Chapter 1 Scripted Installation p. 1
Introduction p. 2
Setting Up the Scripted Installation p. 2
Creating the Script p. 2
Remote Network Installation p. 10
Summary p. 11
Chapter 2 An Introduction to ESX Native Tools and How to Use Them p. 13
Introduction p. 14
Esxtop p. 14
Esxtop Overview p. 14
The Virtual Machine World p. 16
System World p. 18
The Service Console World p. 18
Some Other Helpful Esxtop Metrics p. 18
%USED p. 18
%Ready p. 18
%EUSED p. 18
%MEM p. 19
vmkfstools p. 19
Viewing Contents VMFS Partition p. 19
Import/Export Files p. 20
Adding a New Virtual Disk, Blank Virtual Disk, and Extending Existing Virtual Disks p. 20
vmware-cmd p. 21
vmkusage p. 23
Summary p. 24
Chapter 3 Scripting and Programming for the Virtual Infrastructure p. 25
Introduction p. 26
VMware Scripting APIs p. 26
What Are the VMware Scripting APIs? p. 28
Installing the VMware Scripting APIs p. 30
Putting the VMware Scripting APIs to Work for You p. 31
Working with the VmCOM API p. 32
Working with the VmPerl API p. 46
Putting It All Together p. 53
VMware Virtual Infrastructure SDK p. 61
What Is the VMware Virtual Infrastructure SDK? p. 61
The VI SDK Architecture p. 62
Overview of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Web Service p. 64
Operations Available Using the Virtual Infrastructure SDK p. 66
Developing with the Virtual Infrastructure SDK 1.1 p. 68
Preparing the Virtual Infrastructure Web Service p. 69
Working with the VMware WSDL p. 73
Virtual Infrastructure SDK 1.1 Concepts and Terminology p. 76
Developing Your Management Application p. 81
Developing with the Virtual Infrastructure SDK 2.0 p. 96
Features Added to Virtual Infrastructure 2.0 p. 96
Preparing the Virtual Infrastructure 2.0 Web Service p. 98
Working with the VMware VI SDK 2.0 WSDLs p. 100
Virtual Infrastructure SDK 2.0 Concepts and Terminology p. 102
Developing Your Management Application p. 112
Performing Advanced Operations p. 128
Power Operations p. 128
Virtual Machine Migration p. 129
Working with Snapshots p. 130
Working with Scheduled Tasks p. 131
Other VMware SDKs p. 132
VMware Guest SDK p. 133
VMware CIM SDK p. 134
Summary p. 137
Chapter 4 Building a VM p. 139
Introduction p. 140
Creation of Virtual Machines Utilizing Command-Line Tools p. 140
Creation of a Virtual Machine Configuration File p. 141
Creating Your Virtual Machine Configuration File p. 143
Creation of a Virtual Machine Disk File p. 147
Registering Virtual Machines with ESX Server p. 149
Scripting Creation of Virtual Machines in ESX Shell p. 150
Scripting Creation of Virtual Machines in Perl Scripts p. 157
Modifying Scripted VM Creation with Perl p. 166
Perl Script Components p. 168
VmPerl Commands p. 171
Cloning Virtual Machines Utilizing ESX Shell Scripts p. 171
Cloning Virtual Machines Utilizing VmPerl Scripts p. 176
Summary p. 187
Chapter 5 Modifying VMs p. 189
Introduction p. 190
The Virtual Machine VMDK File p. 190
VMDK Components p. 192
Version=1 p. 192
CID=2af6d34d p. 193
parentCID=ffffffff p. 193
file.createType="twoGbMaxExtentSparse" p. 193
The Size in Sectors Value p. 193
The Disk Data Base Command p. 194
The Virtual Machine Configuration vmx File p. 196
vmx File Components p. 198
Floppy Drives and CD-ROMs for Virtual Machines p. 202
Graphics Emulation, Unique Identifiers p. 202
Priority, VMware Tools Settings, and Suspend p. 204
Autostart, Autostop, and Time Sync Options p. 204
Virtual Machine Conversion from IDE to SCSI p. 205
ddb.adapterType = "buslogic" p. 207
ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic" p. 207
Scripted Disconnect of IDE Devices p. 210
Dynamic Creation of Virtual Machines p. 213
Summary p. 221
Chapter 6 Instant Disk: How to P2V for Free p. 223
Introduction p. 224
What Is a P2V? p. 224
P2V Techniques p. 225
VMware P2V Tool p. 225
Platespin PowerConvert p. 226
Barts/Ghost p. 227
The "Big Secret" of P2V p. 227
Instant Disk Overview p. 228
The Bad News p. 228
Prepping the ESX Host: Setting Up FTP on ESX Host p. 228
Prepping the Source Machine: Install the SCSI Driver p. 232
Installing the SCSI Driver in Windows 2000/2003 p. 233
Installing the SCSI Driver in Windows NT p. 240
Continue Prepping the Source Machine: Validate p. 242
The Linux Rescue CD p. 242
Booting the Rescue CD p. 243
At the Command Prompt p. 247
Finding the Hard Drives and Storage p. 249
Linux and Hardware p. 251
Virtual Disk Files on the VMFS p. 251
Starting the FTP Process p. 253
Creating a New Virtual Machine and Pointing It to a New VMDK File p. 255
Windows VMs p. 255
Post-P2V p. 257
Summary p. 258
Chapter 7 Scripting Hot Backups and Recovery for Virtual Machines p. 259
Introduction p. 260
Anatomy of a VM Backup p. 260
Limitations p. 263
Layered REDO Logs p. 265
Hot VM Backup Sample Script p. 268
Choosing the Target for VM Backups p. 272
NFS p. 273
Attributes of NFS for VM Backups p. 273
CIFS p. 274
Attributes of CIFS for VM Backups p. 274
FTP p. 275
Attributes of FTP for VM Backups p. 275
VMFS p. 276
Attributes of Copies to VMFS for VM Backups p. 277
Existing VM Backup Tools p. 278
vmsnap.pl, vmsnap_all, and vmres.pl p. 278
vmbk.pl p. 279
Commercial Options p. 280
VMX File Backups p. 281
Incorporating Hot VM Backups into Your Recovery Plan p. 285
Crash Consistent State p. 288
Replication p. 289
Hot VM Backups as Part of the Recovery Plan p. 290
Hybrid Backup Strategy p. 294
Summary p. 296
Chapter 8 Other Cool Tools and Tricks p. 297
Introduction p. 298
Configuring PowerChute Network Shutdown in ESX p. 298
Creating the PowerChute Package p. 298
Configuring Your ESX Host''s PowerChute p. 303
Configure PCNS Shutdown Settings on the UPS p. 304
Centralized User Management for ESX Server p. 306
Extending a Cloned (Deployed) Windows VM''s Root Partition p. 324
Deploying a Windows VM with an Expanded Root Partition p. 327
Summary p. 330
Appendix A All Scripts and Program Source p. 331
Index p. 389
