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Table Of Contents
- vSphere Host Profiles
- Contents
- About vSphere Host Profiles
- Introduction To vSphere Host Profiles
- Using Host Profiles
- Access Host Profiles
- Create a Host Profile
- Attach Entities to a Host Profile
- Detach Entities from a Host Profile
- Check Compliance
- Remediate a Host
- Edit a Host Profile
- Duplicate a Host Profile
- Copy Settings from Host
- Host Profiles and vSphere Auto Deploy
- Import a Host Profile
- Export a Host Profile
- Copy Settings to Host Profile in the vSphere Web Client
- Configuring Host Profiles
- Recommended Host Profiles Upgrade Workflows
- vCenter Server Upgrade from 6.0 to 6.7 With Stateful ESXi Hosts Version 6.0 or Earlier
- vCenter Server Upgrade from 6.5 to 6.7 With Stateful ESXi Hosts Version 6.5 or Earlier
- vCenter Server Upgrade from 6.0 to 6.7 in Environment With Stateless ESXi 6.0 Hosts Only
- vCenter Server Upgrade from 6.5 to 6.7 in Environment With Stateless ESXi 6.5 Hosts Only
- Answer File Field and Host Profile Extraction
- Troubleshooting Host Profiles
Introduction To vSphere Host
Profiles 1
The Host Profiles feature creates a profile that encapsulates the host configuration and helps to manage
the host configuration, especially in environments where an administrator manages multiple hosts or
clusters in vCenter Server.
Host Profiles provide an automated and centrally managed mechanism for host configuration and
configuration compliance. Host Profiles can improve efficiency by reducing reliance upon repetitive,
manual tasks. Host Profiles capture the configuration of a pre-configured and validated reference host,
store the configuration as a managed object and use the catalog of parameters contained within to
configure networking, storage, security, and other host-level parameters. Host Profiles can be applied to
individual hosts, a cluster, or all the hosts and clusters associated to a host profile. Applying a Host Profile
to a cluster affects all hosts in the cluster and result in a consistent configuration across the applied hosts.
Host Profiles can be used to validate the configuration of a host by checking compliance of a host or
cluster against the Host Profile that is associated with that host or cluster.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
Host Profiles Usage Model
n
Reference Host Independence
Host Profiles Usage Model
The Host Profiles workflow starts with the concept of a reference host. The configuration of the reference
host, which is extracted as a host profile, serves as a configuration template for configuring other hosts.
The reference host does not have to be related or associated with the host profile extracted from it.
Before you begin, ensure that you have an existing vSphere environment installation with at least one
properly and completely configured ESXi host.
The sequence required to create a host profile from a reference host, apply the host profile to a host or
cluster and check compliance against the host profile is as follows:
1 Set up and configure the reference host.
2 Create a host profile from the reference host.
3 Attach hosts or clusters to the host profile.
4 Check the compliance to the host profile. If all hosts are compliant with the reference host, they are
correctly configured.
VMware, Inc.
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