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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 13
Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Lab Manager
KeepinmindthefollowingrecommendationsforusingESXhostsinaLab Manager
environment:
Forguidelinesaboutareassuchasmemoryuse,readthePerformanceTuningBest
PracticesforESX Server3technicalwhitepaperontheVMwareWebsite.
ThehostCPUisthesameacrossallhostsintheLab Managerenvironment.
CPUhomogeneitymakesvirtualmachinesmoremobileforLab Manager
deploymentandallowsLab Managertoderivebenefitsfromfeaturessuchas
VMotion,VMwareDRS,andVMwareHA.
IfyoudonothaveahomogenousCPUsetupacrosshosts,ESX Serverpreventsyou
fromdeployingsuspendedvirtualmachinesononehosttoanotherhostthatisnot
compatiblewiththevirtualmachineCPU.(Toresolvetheissue,discardthe
suspendedstate.)Forinformationaboutvirtualmachinesinasuspendedstate,see
theLab ManagerUser’sGuide.
Totakeadvantageofvirtualmachinemigration,VMwarerecommendsthatall
hostshavemoreCPUsthanthenumberofvirtualCPUsonatypicalvirtual
machineinLab Manager.
UseSANstorage.
TheminimumrequirementisalocalSCSIdrivewithasupportedSCSIadapter,but
thishardwaresetupdoesnotallowyoutosharevirtualmachinesacrosssystems.
Haveaminimumof500MBavailableinthe/varpartition.
Have120MBavailableinthe/usrpartition.
MultiplephysicalNICsgroupedtogether.
ThisallowstheNICteamtoincreaseperformancebydistributingthetrafficacross
thosephysicalnetworkadaptersandprovidepassivefailoverintheeventof
hardwarefailureornetworkoutage.
Forbestperformanceandsecurity,usedifferentvirtualswitchesfortheESX
serviceconsoleandvirtualmachine
portgroups.
VMwarerecommendsallocatingatleast1GBofRAMtotheVirtualCenterServer.
Lab ManagergeneratesmoreactivitywithintheVirtualCenterServerthanthe
dailyinteractionbetweentheVirtualCenterServerandtheVIClient.
SetuptheVMkernelnetworkforNFSvirtualmachineandmediadatastores,and
forusingVMotionandDRS.SeeVMware Infrastructure3documentationat
http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35.html.
Forbestperformance,usedifferentvirtualswitchesfortheVMkernelportgroup
andvirtualmachineportgroups.