6.5.1

vSphere Auto Deploy Load Management Best Practices
Simultaneously booting large numbers of hosts places a significant load on the vSphere Auto Deploy
server. Because vSphere Auto Deploy is a Web server at its core, you can use existing Web server
scaling technologies to help distribute the load. For example, one or more caching reverse proxy servers
can be used with vSphere Auto Deploy. The reverse proxies serve up the static files that make up the
majority of an ESXi boot image. Configure the reverse proxy to cache static content and pass all requests
through to the vSphere Auto Deploy server. For more information, watch the video "Using Reverse Web
Proxy Servers for vSphere Auto Deploy Scalability":
Using Reverse Web Proxy Servers for vSphere Auto Deploy Scalability
(http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2296383276001?
bctid=ref:video_reverse_web_proxy_for_auto_deploy_scalability)
Use multiple TFTP servers to point to different proxy servers. Use one TFTP server for each reverse
proxy server. After that, set up the DHCP server to send different hosts to different TFTP servers.
When you boot the hosts, the DHCP server redirects them to different TFTP servers. Each TFTP server
redirects hosts to a different server, either the vSphere Auto Deploy server or a reverse proxy server,
significantly reducing the load on the vSphere Auto Deploy server.
After a massive power outage, bring up the hosts on a per-cluster basis. If you bring multiple clusters
online simultaneously, the vSphere Auto Deploy server might experience CPU bottlenecks. All hosts
might come up after a delay. The bottleneck is less severe if you set up the reverse proxy.
vSphere Auto Deploy Logging and Troubleshooting Best Practices
To resolve problems that you encounter with vSphere Auto Deploy, use the vSphere Auto Deploy logging
information from the vSphere Web Client and set up your environment to send logging information and
core dumps to remote hosts.
vSphere Auto Deploy
Logs
Download the vSphere Auto Deploy logs by going to the vSphere Auto
Deploy page in the vSphere Web Client. See, Download vSphere Auto
Deploy Logs.
Setting Up Syslog Set up a remote syslog server. See the vCenter Server and Host
Management documentation for syslog server configuration information.
Configure the first host you boot to use the remote syslog server and apply
that host's host profile to all other target hosts. Optionally, install and use
the vSphere Syslog Collector, a vCenter Server support tool that provides a
unified architecture for system logging, enables network logging, and lets
you combine logs from multiple hosts.
Setting Up ESXi Dump
Collector
Hosts provisioned with vSphere Auto Deploy do not have a local disk to
store core dumps on. Install ESXi Dump Collector and set up your first host
so that all core dumps are directed to ESXi Dump Collector, and apply the
host profile from that host to all other hosts. See Configure ESXi Dump
Collector with ESXCLI.
vSphere Installation and Setup
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