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
vSphere Management Assistant Guide
8 VMware, Inc.
vMA Component Overview
WhenyouinstallvMA,youarelicensedtousethevirtualmachinethatincludesallvMAcomponents.
vMAincludesthefollowingcomponents.
SUSELinuxEnterpriseServer11SP1–vMArunsSUSELinuxEnterpriseServeronthevirtualmachine.
YoucanmovefilesbetweentheESXihostandthevMAconsolebyusingthevifsvSphereCLIcommand.
VMwareTools–Interfacetothehypervisor.
vSphereCLI–CommandsformanagingvSpherefromthecommandline.SeethevSphereCommand‐Line
InterfaceInstallationandReferenceGuide.
vSphereSDKforPerl–Client‐sidePerlframeworkthatprovidesascriptinginterfacetothevSphereAPI.
TheSDKincludesutilityapplicationsandsamplesformanycommontasks.
JavaJREversion1.6–RuntimeengineforJava‐basedapplicationsbuiltwithvSphereWebServicesSDK.
vi‐fastpass‐Authenticationcomponent.
vSphere Authentication Mechanism
vMA’sauthenticationinterfaceallowsusersandapplicationstoauthenticatewiththetargetserversusing
vi‐fastpassorActiveDirectory.Whileaddingaserverasatarget,theAdministratorcandetermineifthetarget
needstousevi‐fastpassorActiveDirectoryauthentication.Forvi‐fastpassauthentication,thecredentialsthat
auser
hasonthevCenterServersystemorESXihostarestoredinalocalcredentialstore.ForActiveDirectory
authentication,theuserisauthenticatedwithanActiveDirectoryserver.
WhenyouaddanESXihostasafastpasstargetserver,vi‐fastpasscreatestwouserswithobfuscated
passwordsonthetarget
serverandstoresthepasswordinformationonvMA:
vi‐adminwithadministratorprivileges
vi‐userwithread‐onlyprivileges
Thecreationofvi‐adminandvi‐userdoesnotapplyforActiveDirectoryauthenticationtargets.Whenyouadd
asystemasanActiveDirectorytarget,vMAdoesnotstoreanyinformationaboutthecredentials.Tousethe
ActiveDirectoryauthentication,theadministratormustconfigure
vMAforActiveDirectory.Formore
informationonhowtoconfigurevMAforActiveDirectory,see“ConfigurevMAforActiveDirectory
Authentication”onpage 14.
Afteraddingatargetserver,youmustinitializevi‐fastpasssothatyoudonothavetoauthenticateeachtime
yourunvSphereCLIcommands.Ifyou
runavSphereCLIcommandwithoutinitializingvi‐fastpass,youwill
beaskedforusernameandpassword.
Youcaninitializevi‐fastpassbyusingoneofthefollowingmethods:
Runvifptarget.Formoreinformationaboutthisscript,see“vifptargetCommandforvi‐fastpass
Initialization”onpage 27.
CalltheLoginmethodinaPerlorJavaprogram.Formoreinformationaboutthismethod,see
“VmaTargetLibReference”onpage 33.
Aftersettingupatargetusingthevifptargetcommand,youcanrunvSphereCLIcommandsorscriptsthat
usevSphereSDKforPerlwithoutprovidinganyauthenticationinformation.Torun
commandsagainstan
ESXihostthatismanagedbyavCenterServer ,youcanusethe--vihostoption.
EachtimeyoulogintovMA,youmustrunthevifptargetcommandortheLoginmethodonce.Thetarget
thatyouspecifyinthevifptargetcommandisthedefaulttarget.Targetservers
remaintargetsacross
reboots.Youcanoverrideitbyusingthe--serveroptionofthevSphereCLIcommandsasshowninthe
followingexample:
vifptarget -s esx1.foo.com
vicfg-nics -l #lists the nics on esx1.foo.com
vicfg-nics -l --server esx2.foo.com #lists the nics on esx2.foo.com