foreword
As mentioned earlier, the overall VMware vSphere solution, and the configuration and operation of TrueNas storage, let's talk about VMware vCenter
Introduction to vCenter
1. Why do we need vCenter?
vCenter Server provides a centralized platform for the management, operation, resource provisioning and performance evaluation of virtual machines and hosts (ESXI servers).
We also mentioned above that VMware vSphere has two most important products: ESXI and vCenter. The previous articles have explained the ESXI server, which is a stand-alone server, that is to say, it can only manage the virtual machines on this server, so what should I do if the virtual machine on this ESXI server is down or damaged? Then the corresponding service must be finished, and it will not be found.
Therefore, we need a technology for failover. For example, if a virtual machine of an ESXI server is down, we can directly use another ESXI virtual machine as the service function of this virtual machine, and the lost data can be recovered in the backend. The stored server is uploaded for recovery. The above implementation method vCenter can achieve.
Under normal circumstances, each ESXI server does not affect each other, that is to say, two ESXIs will not failover for no reason, but requires a technology: the two ESXI servers in the vCenter future are related to each other, so as to perform a failover. series of operations.
2. The relationship between vCenter and ESXI servers
It can be said that if there is no vCenter, each ESXI server is an independent server, no matter how many ESXI servers or virtual machines in ESXI, it is actually a stand-alone environment. There is no relationship between each other. But with vCenter, we can manage all ESXI servers and all virtual machines on them and all resources on them in a unified manner. vCenter is the big brother of ESXI servers. Unified management is the only way to achieve many advanced features through external storage, such as: virtual machine dynamic migration (vMotion), vCenter HA, and so on.
3. Components of vCenter
vCenter is composed of many components, and each component provides corresponding services. There are two major components:
(1) Authentication group: It is dedicated to authentication. Due to the large number of components in the cluster, each component needs to call each other, which is very complicated.
Authentication services include vCenter Single Sign-On, License Service, Lookup Service and VMware, Certificate Authority.
(2) The vCenter Server service group includes vCenter Server.ySphere Client, vSphere Auto Deploy, and vSphere ESXi Dump Collector. The vCenter Server Appliance also includes VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Extended Services and VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager.
Installation instructions and add-on instructions for vCenter
When installing vCenter Server, these additional components will be installed silently. The default method means: these components cannot be installed separately, and will be installed together with vCenter. There is no need to manually install them one by one, the system will automatically Install it for us.
Components that require additional installation:
(1) PostgreSQL:
The bundled version of the PostgreSQL database distributed by VMware for vSphere and vCloud Hybrid Service.
(2) VSphere Client:
Through the HTML5-based user interface, you can use a web browser to connect to the vCenter Server instance. This vSphereClient replaces the Flex-based vSphere Web Client in vSphere 7.0.
(3) vSphere ESXi Dump Collector
vCenter Server support tool. ESXi can be configured to save VMkernel memory to the network server instead of disk in the event of a critical system failure. vSphere ESXi Dump Collector will collect these memory dumps over the network.
(4) vSphere Auto Deploy
vCenter Server support tool, which can use ESXi software to provision a large number of physical hosts. You can specify the image to deploy and the hosts to provision with this image. You can also specify a host profile to apply to the host, and specify a vCenter Server location (folder or cluster) for each host.
(5) VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager extension
vSphere Lifecycle Manager enables VMware vSphere to perform centralized automated patch and version management and provides support for VMware ESXi hosts, virtual machines and virtual appliances. The VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager extension is an optional service for the vCenter Server Appliance.
(6) VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
vCenter Lifecycle Manager automates the virtual machine management process and removes virtual machines from service when appropriate. vCenter Lifecycle Manger automatically places servers based on their location, organization, environment, service level or performance level. Computers are automatically deployed when a solution is found based on a set of criteria.
download mirror
Let's talk about the noun first: vCenter Server Application, usually what we call vCenter, abbreviated as: VCSA.
Therefore, we will use VCSA when downloading the image.
vCenter hardware requirements
The minimum 12G memory + 2VCPU, this condition is only the minimum installation of vCenter, which can only manage 10 ESXI servers and 100 virtual machines.
Install Topology
Prepare to install vCenter in a virtual machine on the ESXI server, so the ESXI server needs 12G memory (for installing vCenter) + 4G memory (for ESXI itself) + 1G memory (for creating a CentOS virtual machine), total: 18G memory + 8VCPU.
Moreover, the installation of vCenter cannot be installed locally, it needs to be installed remotely, and a "springboard machine" is needed. We choose Win as the springboard machine here, that is to say, remotely install vCenter in Win.
1. First download the image to the local, and then decompress the image:
2. After decompressing the image:
3. Click the directory of the graphical installation, enter, and select the appropriate "springboard machine" here, because we are in Win, so We choose: "win32" (64-bit is also OK).
If it is a mac system, choose the second one, and if it is a Linux system, choose the first one.
4. Find the installer and click to install it
