Specifications

Basic System Administration
22 VMware, Inc.
 VirtualCenterServer–TheworkingcoreofVirtualCenter.VirtualCenterServerisa
singleWindowsServiceandisinstalledtorunautomatically.AsaWindows
Service,theVirtualCenterServerrunscontinuouslyinthebackground,
performingitsmonitoringandmanagingactivitiesevenwhennoVIClientsare
connectedandevenifnobodyis
loggedontothecomputerwhereitresides.It
musthavenetworkaccesstoallthehostsitmanagesandbeavailablefornetwork
accessfromanymachinewheretheVIClientisrun.
VirtualCenterServercanbeinstalledinaWindowsvirtualmachineonanESX
Serverhost,allowing
ittotakeadvantageofthehigh‐availabilityaffordedby
VMwareHA.SeetheInstallationGuidefordetailsonsettingupthisconfiguration.
 VirtualCentermodules–Applicationsthatprovideadditionalfeaturesand
functionalitytoVirtualCenter.Typically,modulesconsistofaservercomponent
andaclientcomponent.Aftertheservercomponentofamoduleisinstalled,itis
registeredwiththeVirtualCenterserverandtheclientcomponentisavailableto
VirtualCenterclientsfordownload(see
“ManagingVirtualCenterModules”on
page 67).AfteramoduleisinstalledonaVirtualCenterclient,itmightalterthe
interfacebyaddingviews,tabs,toolbarbuttons,ormenuoptionsrelatedtothe
addedfunctionality.
ModulesleveragecoreVirtualCentercapabilities,suchasauthenticationand
permissionmanagement,butcanhavetheirowntypesof
events,tasks,metadata,
andprivileges.
ModulesrequireVirtualCenter,buttheycanbeinstalledanytimeafter
VirtualCenterhasbeeninstalled.ModulesandVirtualCentercanbeupgraded
independentofeachother.
 VirtualCenterdatabase–Apersistentstorageareaformaintainingstatusofeach
virtualmachine,host,andusermanagedintheVirtualCenterenvironment.The
VirtualCenterdatabasecanberemoteorlocaltotheVirtualCenterServermachine.
ThedatabaseisinstalledandconfiguredduringVirtualCenterinstallation.
IfyouareaccessingyourESXServer
hostdirectlythroughaVIClient,andnot
throughaVirtualCenterServerandassociatedVIClient,youdonotusea
VirtualCenterdatabase.
 Datastore–Thestoragelocationsforthevirtualmachinefilesspecifiedwhen
creatingvirtualmachines.Datastoreshidetheidiosyncrasiesofvariousstorage
options(suchasVMFSvolumesonlocalSCSIdisksoftheserver,the FibreChannel
SANdiskarrays,theiSCSISANdiskarrays,orNetworkAttachedStorage(NAS)
arrays)
andprovideauniformmodelforvariousstorageproductsrequiredby
virtualmachines.