Datasheet

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING VMWARE VSPHERE 5

The Bottom Line

Identify the role of each product in the vSphere product suite. The VMware vSphere

product suite contains VMware ESXi and vCenter Server. ESXi provides the base virtualiza-

tion functionality and enables features like Virtual SMP. vCenter Server provides manage-

ment for ESXi and enables functionality like vMotion, Storage vMotion, vSphere Distributed

Resource Scheduler (DRS), vSphere High Availability (HA), and vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT).

Storage I/O Control (SIOC) and Network I/O Control (NetIOC) provide granular resource

controls for VMs. The vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) provide a backup

framework that allows for the integration of third-party backup solutions into a vSphere

implementation.

Master It Which products are licensed features within the VMware vSphere suite?

Master It Which two features of VMware ESXi and VMware vCenter Server together

aim to reduce or eliminate downtime due to unplanned hardware failures?

Recognize the interaction and dependencies between the products in the vSphere

suite VMware ESXi forms the foundation of the vSphere product suite, but some features

require the presence of vCenter Server. Features like vMotion, Storage vMotion, vSphere DRS,

vSphere HA, vSphere FT, SIOC, and NetIOC require both ESXi as well as vCenter Server.

Master It Name three features that are supported only when using vCenter Server

along with ESXi.

Master It Name two features that are supported without vCenter Server but with a li-

censed installation of ESXi.

Understand how vSphere differs from other virtualization products. VMware vSphere’s

hypervisor, ESXi, uses a type 1 bare-metal hypervisor that handles I/O directly within the

hypervisor. This means that a host operating system, like Windows or Linux, is not required

in order for ESXi to function. Although other virtualization solutions are listed as “type 1 bare-

metal hypervisors,” most other type 1 hypervisors on the market today require the presence of

a “parent partition” or “dom0,” through which all VM I/O must travel.

Master It One of the administrators on your team asked whether he should install

Windows Server on the new servers you purchased for ESXi. What should you tell him,

and why?

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