Specifications

160 IBM System z Personal Development Tool: Volume 3 Additional Topics
An application named vSphere VCenter or vSphere VCenter Client (both run on Microsoft
Windows
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) must be downloaded (from VMWare) and used to define and manage virtual
machines on the server.
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This is a requirement; it is not possible to manage the virtual
machines by using the console on the server. The vCenter application (either the full or Client
version) is used to define virtual machines (Linux1 and Linux2 in our example) and to operate
them.
Among other functions, vCenter provides a virtual console for each virtual machine. This
virtual console may be used to manage the guest systems. For example, if the guest is SLES
the virtual console is used to run YaST. The virtual console may be used for all the functions
that the physical console performs on a “real” system.
vCenter is used to logically “power on” each virtual guest, which results in booting the
operating system on that guest.
Additionally, the guest systems may start a vncserver and be managed by vncviewer
applications on external systems. How well this works depends on the qualities of the
particular vnc components involved. Assuming acceptable vnc operation, this interface may
be used to manage individual guest systems.
zPDT (under the guest Linux systems) works with TN3270 interfaces and these connections
are illustrated in Figure 15-1 on page 159.
vCenter is required to start (boot) a guest system; this cannot be done through vnc. vCenter
controls all the virtual machines, and some care must be exercised in using it. Once booted, a
guest could be managed through either vCenter (via the console function) or through vnc or
through simple ssh or telnet windows.
15.1.1 Usage notes
Following are a few notes we made during our initial VMWare usage. (The author had no
previous VMWare experience, so these notes may or may not be useful to others.)
򐂰 By default (accepted during installation) VMWare treats the server disks as a datastore.
With a single server disk,
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it was named datastore1. VMWare itself is installed on the disk
(so as to be bootable) and the remaining space is datastore1.
򐂰 The default VMWare userid is root and a password must be set. The userid and password
are needed to connect the vCenter application. The password must be at least seven
characters.
򐂰 After booting VMWare on the server, a small amount of customization is possible by using
the F2 key.
– We used the Configure Management Network option as follows:
Hostname: localhost
IP address: 192.168.0.199 (vmnic0 interface)
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 Defalt Gateway: 192.168.0.1
VLAN not used DNS not set
– We then restarted the management network and eventually connected to the vCenter
Client.
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An optional form of vSphere vClient that is already embedded in a base Linux system may be downloaded from
VMWare as a complete virtual package. This can negate the need for a Microsoft Windows environment.
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vSphere vCenter is a priced product that offers many advanced tuning and reporting mechanisms. vSphere
vCenter Client is a free offering from VMWare that offers lesser functionality. For our purposes, we used the Client
version.
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Which might be a large RAID array.