5.0
Table Of Contents
- vSphere Management Assistant Guide
- Contents
- About This Book
- Introduction to vMA
- Getting Started with vMA
- Hardware Requirements
- Software Requirements
- Required Authentication Information
- Deploy vMA
- Configure vMA at First Boot
- vMA Console and Web UI
- Configure vMA for Active Directory Authentication
- Configure Unattended Authentication for Active Directory Targets
- Enable the vi-user Account
- vMA User Account Privileges
- Add Target Servers to vMA
- Running vSphere CLI for the Targets
- Reconfigure a Target Server
- Remove Target Servers from vMA
- Modifying Scripts
- Configure vMA to Use a Static IP Address
- Configure vMA to Use a DHCP Server
- Setting the Time Zone
- Shut Down vMA
- Delete vMA
- Troubleshooting vMA
- Update vMA
- Configure Automatic vMA Updates
- vMA Interfaces
- Index
VMware, Inc. 7
1
ThevSphereManagementAssistant(vMA)isaSUSELinuxEnterpriseServer11‐basedvirtualmachinethat
includesprepackagedsoftwaresuchasthevSpherecommand‐lineinterface,andthevSphereSDKforPerl.
vMAallowsadministratorstorunscriptsoragentsthatinteractwithESXihostsandvCenterServersystems
withouthaving
toauthenticateeachtime.
Thechapterincludesthefollowingtopics:
“vMACapabilities”onpage 7
“vMAComponentOverview”onpage 8
“vMAUseCases”onpage 9
TogetstartedwithvMArightaway,goto“GettingStartedwithvMA”onpage 11.
vMA Capabilities
vMAprovidesaflexibleandauthenticatedplatformforrunningscriptsandprograms.
Asadministrator,youcanaddvCenterServersystemsandESXihostsastargetsandrunscriptsand
programsonthesetargets.Onceyouhaveauthenticatedwhileaddingatarget,youneednotloginagain
whilerunningavSphereCLIcommandoragentonanytarget.
Asadeveloper,youcanusetheAPIsprovidedwiththeVmaTargetLiblibrarytoprogrammatically
connecttovMAtargetsbyusingPerlorJava.
vMAenablesreuseofserviceconsolescriptsthatarecurrentlyusedforESXiadministration,though
minormodificationstothescriptsareusuallynecessary.
vMAcomespreconfiguredwithtwouseraccounts,namely,vi‐adminandvi‐user.
Asvi‐admin,youcanperformadministrativeoperationssuchasadditionandremovaloftargets.
You canalsorunvSphereCLIcommandsandagentswithadministrativeprivilegesonthe
added targets.
Asvi‐user, youcanrunthevSphereCLIcommandsandagentswithread‐onlyprivilegesonthe
target.
YoucanmakevMAjoinanActiveDirectorydomainandloginasanActiveDirectoryuser.Whenyourun
commandsfromsuchauseraccount,theappropriateprivilegesgiventotheuseronthevCenterServer
systemortheESXihostwouldbeapplicable.
vMAcanrunagentcodethatmakeproprietaryhardwareorsoftwarecomponentscompatiblewith
VMwareESX.ThesecodecurrentlyrunintheserviceconsoleofexistingESXhosts.Youcanmodifymost
oftheseagentcodetoruninvMA,bycallingthevSphereAPI,ifnecessary.Developersmustmoveany
agentcodethatdirectlyinterfaceswithhardwareintoaprovider.
Introduction to vMA
1