Specifications

Basic System Administration
118 VMware, Inc.
About Hosts
Ahostisavirtualizationplatform,anESXServersystem,thatsupportsvirtual
machines.AVirtualCentermanagedhostisanESXServerhostthatisregisteredwith
VirtualCenter.ThetaskofmanagingahostisaccomplishedthroughtheVMware
InfrastructureClient.ThisVIClientcanbeconnectedeitherdirectlytoan
ESXServer
hostorindirectlytohoststhroughaconnectiontoaVirtualCenterServer.
WhenESXServerhostsareconnectedtotheVIClientdirectly,youmanagethem
individuallyasstandalonehosts.Mostofthehostconfigurationandvirtualmachine
configurationfeaturesstillapply.Featuresthatrequiremultiplehosts,such
as
migrationwithVMotionofavirtualmachinefromonehosttoanother,arenotavailable
throughthestandalonehostconnection.
WhenESXServerhostsaremanagedbyVirtualCenter,theyareaddedtotheVMware
InfrastructureenvironmentthroughaVIClientconnectedtoaVirtualCenterServer.
Managedhostsarehierarchicallyplaced
indatacenters,folders,orclustersunderthe
rootnodefolder.
Allvirtualmachinesonmanagedhostsarediscoveredandimportedinto
VirtualCenter.Whenyouaddmultiplemanagedhosts,theVirtualCenterServer
identifiesanynamingconflictsthatexistbetweenvirtualmachinesandalertsthe
systemadministrator,whocanthenrenamevirtual
machinesasnecessary.Configure
thevirtualmachinedisplaynames.Thenamecanbeupto80characterslongandmay
containalphanumericcharactersandtheunderscore(_)andhyphen(‐)characters.The
namemustalsobeuniqueacrossallvirtualmachineswithinavirtualmachinegroup.
Namesarecase‐insensitive:
thenameʺmy_vmʺisidenticaltoʺMy_Vmʺ.
WhentheVirtualCenterServerconnectstoamanagedhost,itdoessoasaprivileged
user.TheindividualVMwareInfrastructureClientuserdoesnotnecessarilyneedtobe 
anadministrativeuseronthemanagedhost.See“AssigningAccessPermissions”on
page 275forinformation
onsettingupVMwareInfrastructureClientusers.
CAUTIONIfanESXServerhostisconnectedwithaVirtualCenterServerandyou
attachedaVIClienttomanagetheESXServerhostdirectly,youreceiveanerror
messagebutareallowedtoproceed.Thismightresultinconflictsonthehost,especially
ifthehostispartofa
cluster.Thisactionisstronglydiscouraged.