Datasheet

VMware ManageMent SOlutiOnS

vSphere Host Update Utility

vSphere also includes the vSphere Host Update Utility to enable you to remotely upgrade ESX

hosts (versions 3.0 and newer) to ESX 4.0. It upgrades the virtual machine kernel (VMkernel) and

the Service Console, if present, but does not upgrade VMFS data stores or virtual machine guest

operating systems. vSphere Host Update Utility comes as a stand-alone Microsoft Windows appli-

cation that provides real-time status of a remote upgrade as well as allows you to specify custom

post-upgrade scripts. The utility performs an automated host compatibility check as a pre-upgrade

step to verify that each host is compatible with ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0. The Host Update utility also

includes a new rollback feature to back out failed upgrades. It is recommended for smaller deploy-

ments with fewer than 10 ESX/ESXi hosts, without vCenter Server or Update Manager.

vSphere Command-Line Interfaces: vCLI and PowerCLI

vSphere provides two key command-line interfaces to automate vSphere administration and

management tasks:

vSphere CLI The VMware vSphere CLI (vCLI) provides command-line interface tools for

managing vSphere ESX and ESXi servers. You can use this with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

4 systems as well as with ESX/ESXi versions 3.5 Update 2 and newer. vCLI includes more than

30 command-line utilities to help you provision, conﬁgure, and maintain your ESX and ESXi

hosts.

vSphere PowerCLI Based on Microsoft PowerShell technology, VMware vSphere PowerCLI

is a powerful command-line tool that lets you automate all aspects of vSphere management,

including network, storage, ESX, VM, guest OS, and more. PowerCLI is distributed as a

Windows PowerShell snap-in, and it includes more than 150 PowerShell cmdlets, along with

documentation and samples.

VMware vApp

VMware vSphere includes support for vApp, a single logical entity that encapsulates an n-tier

application comprising one or more virtual machines. vApp uses the industry-standard Open

Virtualization Format (OVF) to specify and encapsulate all components of a multitier applica-

tion as well as the operational policies and service levels associated with it. Along with virtual

machines, vApps also captures the dependencies between these virtual machines as well as the

resource allocations associated with these virtual machines. Deﬁning all this information in one

logical entity makes it very convenient, often in a single step, to power off/on, clone, deploy, and

monitor an entire application. vCenter Server can create and run vApps, as well as import and

export them in compliance with the OVF 1.0 standard.

VMware Management Solutions

Complementing vCenter Server and its management services, VMware also provides several

virtualization management solutions. Here are a few of these products:

VMware vCenter AppSpeed to monitor and troubleshoot the performance of applications

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virtualized in a VMware vSphere environment

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ to perform capacity sizing and management of virtual

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machines, clusters, and data centers

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