Specifications

VMware, Inc. 27
Chapter 1 VMware Infrastructure Components
 Folders–Containersusedtogroupobjectsandorganizethemintohierarchies.
Thisisnotonlyconvenientbutalsoprovidesanaturalstructureuponwhichto
applypermissions.
Therearethreetypesoffolders,eachofwhichcancontainotherfolders(ofthe
sametype)andexactlyoneothertypeof
object.Theseobjectsare:
 Datacenters
 Virtualmachines(whichincludetemplates)
 Computeresources(whichincludehostsandclusters)
Thedatacenterfoldersformahierarchydirectlyundertherootnodeandallow
userstogrouptheirdatacentersinanyconvenientway.Withineachdatacenteris
onehierarchyoffolderswithvirtualmachinesandtemplatesandonehierarchyof
folderswithhostsandclusters.
 Datacenters–Unlikeafolder,whichisusedtoorganizeaspecificobjecttype,a
datacenterisanaggregationofallthedifferenttypesofobjectsneededtodowork
invirtualinfrastructure:hosts,virtualmachines,networks,anddatastores.
Withinadatacentertherearefourseparatehierarchies.
 Virtualmachines(andtemplates)
 Hosts(andclusters)
 Networks
 Datastores
Becauseitisnotpossibletoputnetworksordatastoresintofolders,theNetworks
andDatastoreshierarchiesarealwaysflatlists
Datacentersactasthenamespaceboundaryfortheseobjects.Youcannothavetwo
objects(forexample,twohosts)withthesamenameinthesamedatacenter,but
youcanhave
twoobjectswiththesamenameindifferentdatacenters.
Functional Components
ThefunctionalcomponentsmonitorandmanagetasksintheVMwareInfrastructure
environment.Thefunctionalcomponentsareavailablethroughanavigationbuttonbar
intheVIClient.Theoptionsare:
 Inventory–AviewofallthemonitoredobjectsinVirtualCenter .Monitored
objectsincludedatacenters,resourcepools,clusters,networks,datastores,
templates,hosts,andvirtualmachines.
 Scheduledtasks–Alistofactivitiesandameanstoschedulethoseactivities.This
isavailablethroughVirtualCenterServeronly.