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4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING VMWARE VSPHERE 4

virtual machine. Figure 1.2 identiﬁes the differences between multiple processors in the ESX/ESXi

host system and multiple virtual processors.

Figure 1.2

VMware Virtual SMP

allows virtual machines

to be created with two

or four processors.

Linux VMsWindows VMs

Virtual SMP

With VMware Virtual SMP, applications that require and can actually use multiple CPUs can

be run in virtual machines conﬁgured with multiple virtual CPUs. This allows organizations to

virtualize even more applications without negatively impacting performance or being unable to

meet service-level agreements (SLAs).

In Chapter 7, ‘‘Creating and Managing Virtual Machines,’’ I’ll discuss how to build virtual

machines with multiple virtual processors.

VMware vCenter Server

Stop for a moment to think about your current network. Does it include Active Directory? There

is a good chance it does. Now imagine your network without Active Directory, without the ease

of a centralized management database, without the single sign-on capabilities, and without the

simplicity of groups. That is what managing VMware ESX/ESXi hosts would be like without

using VMware vCenter Server. Now calm yourself down, take a deep breath, and know that

vCenter Server, like Active Directory, is meant to provide a centralized management utility for

all ESX/ESXi hosts and their respective virtual machines. vCenter Server is a Windows-based,

database-driven application that allows IT administrators to deploy, manage, monitor, auto-

mate, and secure a virtual infrastructure in an almost effortless fashion. The back-end database

(Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle) that vCenter Server uses stores all the data about the hosts and

virtual machines.

vCenter Server for Linux

At the time this book was written, VMware had j ust released a technology preview of a Linux ver-

sion of vCenter Server. A Linux version of vCenter Server would remove the requirement to have a

Windows-based server present in the e nvironment in order to support VMware vSphere, something

that Linux- and UNIX-heavy organizations have long desired.

In addition to its conﬁguration and management capabilities—which include features such as

virtual machine templates, virtual machine customization, rapid provisioning and deployment

of virtual machines, role-based access controls, and ﬁne-grained resource allocation controls—

vCenter Server provides the tools for the more advanced features of VMware VMotion, VMware

Distributed Resource Scheduler, VMware High Availability, and VMware Fault Tolerance.