Datasheet

ManageMent SerViceS

vCenter Server 4 also includes a new inventory search ﬁeld to simplify locating virtual machines

hosts, data stores, networks, and folders based on the criteria you specify. You can perform simple

searches based on keywords entered in the search ﬁeld at the top right of vSphere Client. You

can also perform advanced searches by specifying multiple search criteria—for example, virtual

machines that need an update to VM Tools or data stores that have less than 10 GB of free space

remaining.

ho S t Pr o F i l e S

vCenter Server 4 introduces host proﬁles that can simplify host conﬁguration management through

user-deﬁned conﬁguration policies (Figure 1.17). You can use proﬁle policies to eliminate any man-

ual, single-host, ad hoc ESX host conﬁguration and efﬁciently maintain conﬁguration consistency

and correctness across the entire data center.

Using host proﬁle policies, you capture the blueprint of a known, validated “golden” conﬁgu-

ration and use this to quickly conﬁgure networking, storage settings, security settings, and so

on, across a large population of hosts. For example, you can quickly update DNS and NTP set-

tings for several ESX hosts or conﬁgure multiple ESX hosts to use a new vNetwork Distributed

Switch. Note that ESX hosts need to be in maintenance mode to apply a host proﬁle.

You can also use host proﬁle policies to monitor and report on compliance to standard host

conﬁguration settings across the data center (Figure 1.18). The proﬁle compliance information

displayed on the Proﬁle Compliance tab depends upon the object selected in the vCenter inven-

tory panel. For example, if you select a cluster in the vCenter inventory panel, you will see pro-

ﬁle compliance information for all hosts within the selected cluster. vCenter generates a base set

Figure 1.16

VMware vCenter

inventory search

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