vSphere vMotion Overview and Issues
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What occurs during a vSphere vMotion migration when errors are present?

  • The migration breakdown initiates a diagnostic process.
  • The VM reverts to a previous state automatically.
  • The VM is migrated with limited functionality.
  • The VM continues to run on the source host. (correct)

    • What must be resolved before continuing with a vSphere vMotion migration after encountering errors?

  • All errors must be fixed. (correct)
  • Only warnings can be ignored.
  • Compatibility issues can be overlooked.
  • The source host needs to be powered off.

    • Which setting allows encrypted vSphere vMotion to be utilized only if the source and destination hosts support it?

  • Opportunistic (correct)
  • Automatic
  • Required
  • Disabled

    • What is the consequence of selecting 'Required' for encrypted vSphere vMotion if one host does not support it?

    <p>The migration will fail.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the three types of VM Migrations in a vCenter instance?

    <p>Compute resource only</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere vMotion is a cold migration technique.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main purpose of the vMotion network?

    <p>To transfer the VM's memory state from one host to another</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the capabilities of vMotion?

    <p>It provides performance improvements</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which two CPU-based requirements must be met for a host to be part of an EVC cluster?

    <p>Be activated for hardware virtualization</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a VM-level EVC CPU mode?

    <p>VM-level EVC CPU Mode allows the migration of VMs across clusters and data centers. It supports seamless migration between two data centers that have different processors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Enhanced vMotion Compatibility for vSGA GPUs is configured at the virtual machine level.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main purpose of vSphere Storage vMotion?

    <p>vSphere Storage vMotion allows a powered-on VM to be migrated from one datastore to another.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In what VM-level power states can you perform a vMotion migration?

    <p>Powered on</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the main use cases for vSphere Storage vMotion?

    <p>vSphere Storage vMotion can be used to move off of arrays for maintenance or upgrades, change disk provisioning types, or migrate VMs to different datastores to help balance the workload.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Storage vMotion copies the VM from the source datastore to the destination datastore in a single pass.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Storage vMotion is only supported on NFS and VMFS datastores.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of a Cross vCenter Server export Migration?

    <p>A Cross vCenter Server export moves the VM to a host and datastore managed by a different vCenter instance.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The source and destination vCenters must be time-synchronized for a Cross vCenter Migration.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The source and destination hosts do not need to be in the same Enhanced Linked Mode group for a Cross vCenter migration.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    A VM with a snapshot has a directory full of files. Which of the following is a file type that is typically created when you create a new snapshot?

    <p>-delta. vmdk</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the three steps for managing VM snapshots?

    <p>Edit, delete, revert</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Snapshots of virtual machines are a good backup strategy.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the steps for consolidating VM snapshots?

    <p>To consolidate snapshots, you must check the Monitor tab in the vSphere Client under All Issues for the VM. VCenter will notify you when storage consolidation needs to be performed. The VM snapshot descriptor may be deleted but the delta disk files remain on the datastore.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main purpose of memory virtualization?

    <p>All of the above</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Memory is overcommitted if the combined configured memory footprint of all powered-on VMs exceeds that of the host.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the four memory overcommit techniques ESXi host uses?

    <p>Transparent page sharing, Ballooning, Memory compression, VM memory paging to disk</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary purpose of hyperthreading?

    <p>Hyperthreading provides more logical CPUs on which virtual CPUs can be scheduled.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of the CPU scheduler?

    <p>The CPU scheduler uses each logical processor independently to execute VMs. It uses a socket-core-thread topology to balance the workload.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VMkernel balances processor time to guarantee the load is spread smoothly across processor cores in the system.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the three resource settings that control how a VM consumes resources?

    <p>Reservations, limits, shares</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does a reservation guarantee?

    <p>A reservation will guarantee that the VM is never placed in a CPU ready state.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a limitation of setting a resource limit?

    <p>Setting a limit can result in wasted resources. The host will not allow the VM to consume more resources, even when the system is underused and there are idle resources available.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does a share setting guarantee?

    <p>Shares ensure that a VM is given a certain amount of a resource.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The VM restart priority determines the order in which vSphere HA restarts VMs on a running host.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Orchestrated restart is a common restart procedure for vSphere HA, but it only uses VM restart priority settings.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere HA uses admission control to guarantee that sufficient resources are available in the cluster to provide failover protection.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What are the four main admission control settings?

    <p>Disabled, Slot Policy, Cluster Resource Percentage, Dedicated Failover Hosts</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of VMCP?

    <p>VMCP protects against storage failures by detecting datastore accessibility failures and providing automated recovery for affected VMs.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VMCP is only available when the vSphere HA cluster is turned on.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    The first step to configure vSphere HA on an existing cluster is to place the hosts in maintenance mode.

    <p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the name of the service that is assigned to each host in a vSphere HA cluster?

    <p>The Fault Domain Manager</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the role of the heartbeat network in vSphere HA?

    <p>The heartbeat network is used by the hosts in a cluster to communicate and determine if any of the hosts have failed. It allows vSphere HA to perform a failover process if a heartbeat network failure occurs.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the role of datastore heartbeating?

    <p>Datastore heartbeating is used when there is a communication failure between a primary host and a secondary host. This happens when a primary host is unable to communicate with a secondary host over a heartbeat network. The primary host can use the datastores to determine if the secondary host is in a network isolation state or if the secondary host has failed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the main purpose of vSphere Fault Tolerance?

    <p>vSphere Fault Tolerance is a technology that protects mission-critical. high-performance applications, regardless of the operating system.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Fault Tolerance is designed to protect a VM's operating system.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Fault Tolerance requires the ESXi hosts to use a shared datastore.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere vMotion can be used to migrate VMs between hosts that are using different VM Hardware versions.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere HA can be used to migrate VMs between hosts that are using different VM Hardware versions.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Fault Tolerance is a backup solution.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    VSphere Fault Tolerance can be used to migrate VMs to the same host.

    <p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Module 8: Managing Virtual Machines

    • Managing VMs effectively involves migrating, snapshotting, and resource management.

    Module Lessons

    • Migrating VMs with vSphere vMotion: Moves VMs between hosts without interruption.
    • Configuring Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC): Enables migration between various CPU generations.
    • Migrating VMs with vSphere Storage vMotion: Migrates VM files/objects to another datastore.
    • Cross vCenter Migrations: Enables VM movement between vCenter instances.
    • Creating Virtual Machine Snapshots: Captures VM configurations, memory (optional), and disks at a point in time.
    • Virtual CPU and Memory Concepts: Explains how VMs utilize host resources.
    • Resource Controls: Discusses reservations, limits, and shares for CPU and memory allocation.

    Lesson 1: Migrating VMs with vSphere vMotion

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Recognize VM migration types in a vCenter instance.
      • Explain vSphere vMotion's functionality.
      • Verify vSphere vMotion requirements.
      • Perform VM migration using vSphere vMotion.

    About VM Migration

    • Migration moves a VM between hosts, datastores, or vCenter instances.
    • Types of migration:
      • Cold: Moves a powered-off or suspended VM.
      • Hot: Moves a powered-on VM.
    • vCenter performs compatibility checks before migrating.

    Migration Types

    • Compute resource only: Moves the VM to another host without migrating its storage.
    • Storage only: Moves the VM's files (VMDKs) to another data store.
    • Compute resource and storage: Moves both compute and storage (VMDKs to a new datastore) to another host.
    • Cross vCenter export: Moves a VM from one vCenter instance to another.

    About vSphere vMotion

    • Moves a powered-on VM from one ESXi host to another.
    • Improves hardware utilization.
    • Allows for scheduled ESXi host downtime without VM interruption.
    • Utilizes vSphere DRS balancing across hosts.
    • Copies current memory and relevant VM data.

    Configuring vSphere vMotion Networks

    • Requires VMkernel adapters on source and destination hosts.
    • Configure VMkernel adapters for vSphere vMotion service activation on hosts.

    vSphere vMotion Migration Workflow

    • Creating a shadow VM on the destination host.
    • Copying VM memory state over the vSphere vMotion network.
    • Quiescing the VM on the source host to complete data transfer.
    • Initializing and running VM on destination host
    • Accessing VM on destination host and freeing memory on source host.

    VM Requirements for vSphere vMotion Migration

    • RDM disk access on the destination host (required RDM file & LUN)
    • No host-local virtual devices (CD/DVD/floppy) connected

    Host Requirements for vSphere vMotion Migration (1)

    • Access to all VM storage.
    • 128 concurrent migrations possible per datastore.
    • Swap file copying or relocation if destinations differ from sources.
    • Matching management network IP address families (IPv4 or IPv6).

    Host Requirements for vSphere vMotion Migration (2)

    • Number of concurrent active vSphere vMotion tasks dependant on vSphere vMotion network speed (250 Mbps minimum for a single active task).
    • Concurrent migrations are limited to 4 on a 1 Gbps network and 8 on a 10 Gbps network or faster.
    • Dedicated VMkernel ports for vSphere vMotion traffic.
    • Compatible CPUs between source and destination hosts(SSE4.1 for ex. ).

    Performing a vSphere vMotion Migration

    • The Migrate wizard allows migration of a VM based on various parameters
      • Change compute resource
      • Change compute resource and storage
      • Cross vCenter export

    Checking Migration Errors

    • Source and destination hosts undergo validation checks before initiating the process.
    • Errors/Warnings are displayed and resolution is necessary before continuing.
    • Migration fails if errors/warnings exist prior to the process.

    Migrating Encrypted VMs

    • Encrypted vMotion is automatically used when migrating powered-on VMs.
    • For VMs not encrypted, Disabled/Opportunistic/Required encrypted vMotion options can be selected.

    Lab 20: vSphere vMotion Migrations

    • Configures vSphere vMotion networking
    • Prepares VMs for migration
    • Migrates VMs using vSphere vMotion.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Identify various VM migrations
    • Understand vSphere vMotion functionality
    • Recognize vSphere vMotion requirements
    • Execute vSphere vMotion migrations

    Lesson 2: Configuring Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Describe role of EVC in migrations.
      • Configure EVC CPU mode on clusters.
      • Explain per-VM EVC CPU mode operation.
      • Configure EVC graphics mode on clusters/VMs.

    CPU Constraints on vSphere vMotion Migration

    • Exact CPU matching isn't always required, and VMs can work across systems without exact CPU matches, dependent on virtual characteristics.
    • Different vMotion behaviors based on instruction set/SSE/CPU technology variations

    About Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

    • EVC enables vMotion migration among various CPU generations.
    • Ensures compatible CPU feature sets across all hosts in the cluster even when CPUs on hosts might differ.
    • CPU baseline configurations across the entire host cluster.
    • Automatic Configuration

    EVC Cluster Requirements for CPU Mode

    • ESXi hosts must support Intel's or AMD's CPU.
    • Hardware virtualization (AMD-V or Intel VT).
    • Execution disable technology (AMD-NX or Intel XD).
    • Support for vSphere vMotion migration.
    • Ensure correct CPU IDs are used within VMs.

    Configuring EVC CPU Mode on an Existing Cluster

    • Activating EVC on an existing cluster requires putting all hosts and VMs into maintenance mode.
    • Alternatives involve creating a new empty cluster.
    • Consult vSphere Knowledge Base article 1003212 for detailed support information

    Changing the EVC CPU Mode

    • Modifying EVC mode requires VMs to be in correct power states.
    • Upgrading CPU baseline is possible, but VMs require a restart before new modifications are supported.

    Virtual Machine EVC CPU Mode

    • EVC mode is a VM-level attribute defining GPU compatibility on a per-VM basis.
    • Facilitates VM migrations between different vSphere systems and data centers.
    • Independent from cluster-level EVC configuration.

    Enhanced vMotion Compatibility for VSGA GPUs

    • EVC defines a common GPU feature set across a cluster.
    • Applied baseline masks unsupported features, to guarantee that VMs are compatible.

    EVC Cluster Requirements for Graphics Mode

    • All ESXi hosts within a cluster must support the defined GPU baseline.
    • VM compatibility on ESXi 7.0 update 1 or newer is required.

    Configuring EVC Graphics Mode

    • EVC graphics are configured at cluster level.
    • Configure EVC graphics settings similar to CPU mode setup.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Understand EVC and its relation to VM migrations
    • Configure EVC CPU mode.
    • Explain EVC CPU mode operation
    • Configure EVC graphics on clusters/VMs.

    Lesson 3: Migrating VMs with vSphere Storage vMotion

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Explain vSphere Storage vMotion's functionality.
      • Recognize guidelines for using vSphere Storage vMotion
      • Migrate VMs using vSphere Storage vMotion
      • Migrate compute resource and storage of a VM

    About vSphere Storage vMotion

    • Moves powered-on VMs to another datastore.
    • Allows for VM movement without impacting running VMs.
    • Modifies disk provisioning types
    • Renames files on destination datastore to match VM inventory.

    vSphere Storage vMotion In Action

    • The process involves copying disk blocks from source to destination storage, via hardware acceleration and virtual disk integration.
    • Steps in the process include initiation, data transfer, mirroring, and transition to destination.

    Identifying Storage Arrays That Support vSphere Storage APIs-Array Integration

    • Identify and check that storage arrays support hardware acceleration and vSphere Storage APIs
    • Datastores on the same array are needed

    vSphere Storage vMotion Guidelines and Limitations

    • Plan carefully and coordinate VM migration.
    • Perform during off-peak hours.
    • VMs' data disks (independent disks) are necessary to use persistent mode.
    • Ensure consistency/proper state of VMs throughout the VM migration.

    Changing Both Compute Resource and Storage During Migration

    • Combines vSphere vMotion and Storage vMotion for host and datastore migrations.
    • Allows migration across vCenter clusters, data centers, and instance boundaries.

    Use Cases for Changing Both Compute Resource and Storage

    • Migrating VMs localized to local storage to a host with shared storage.
    • Migrating to a new cluster with limited storage access
    • Moving VMs to different data centers or vCenters.

    Lab 21: vSphere Storage vMotion Migrations

    • Real-world VM datastore migration practical application.
    • Migrate VMs and virtual disks from one datastore to another.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Explain the functionality of vSphere Storage vMotion.
    • Recognize guidelines or limitations.
    • Migrate VMs with vSphere Storage vMotion
    • Real-world or practical examples.

    Lesson 4: Cross vCenter Migrations

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Identify VM migration types across vCenter instances.

    About Cross vCenter Migrations

    • Allows VM movement between vCenter instances (within or outside linked modes).
    • Use cases: Load balancing across clusters within a site, migration between environments (e.g. dev to prod), and diverse SLA needs, such as performance or storage space.

    Cross vCenter Migration Requirements

    • Time synchronization between vCenter instances.
    • May exist in same/different SSO domain.
    • Hosts must be connected to same shared storage.

    Performing a Cross vCenter vMotion

    • Select Cross vCenter Server export in the Migrate wizard.
    • Specify credentials for the target vCenter instance.
    • Configure compute resource, datastore, and network on the target vCenter instance.

    Network Checks for Cross vCenter Migrations

    • Ensure vCenter verifies network compatibility (MAC address, switches).

    Lesson 5: Creating Virtual Machine Snapshots

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Take a snapshot of a VM.
      • Manage multiple snapshots.
      • Delete virtual machine snapshots.
      • Consolidate snapshots

    About VM Snapshots

    • Preserves VMs' state for reverting after changes (patching/upgrading).
    • Snapshots are not reliable backups for VMs..

    Taking Snapshots

    • Snapshots capture VM configuration, memory (optional), and disk states at a specific point in time.
    • Snapshots do not include independent virtual disks.

    Types of Snapshots

    • Delta disks are sparse disks (space-efficient) created as differences between the current state and the snapshot.
    • Formats depend on the datastore type (VMFSsparse/SEsparse for example)

    VM Snapshot Files

    • Snapshot file names contain info/details about the snapshot.
    • Snapshots organized in a tree structure with parent-child relationships for easy management.

    Managing Snapshots

    • Editing snapshot details, deleting snapshots merging or consolidating into base disks.
    • Revert to a particular snapshot state and restore to the previous state from the snapshot.

    Deleting VM Snapshots

    • Deleting snapshots removes unnecessary delta data files, freeing up space
    • Data is consolidated and committed to the base disk.

    About Snapshot Consolidation

    • Consolidates delta disks to the base disk when no more snapshots exist.
    • Ensures that snapshot descriptor file is corrected and snapshot window shows deletion

    Discovering when to consolidate Snapshots

    • vCenter issues a warning notification when descriptor and snapshot files don't match.
    • Enables usage of vSphere Client to commit and consolidate snapshots.

    Consolidating Snapshots

    • VMWare consolidates snapshot delta disks to the base-disk.
    • Snapshot files are committed up to the base-disk.

    Lab 22: Working with Snapshots

    • Practical application of snapshot creation, reverting, and deletion.
    • Take, add, revert, delete, and consolidate snapshots of a virtual machine.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Describe how snapshots of a virtual machine function.
    • Define management of multiple snapshots.
    • Detail the deletion of a virtual machine snapshot.
    • Recognize snapshot consolidation procedures.

    Lesson 6: Virtual CPU and Memory Concepts

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Describe CPU and memory concepts in VMs.
      • Recognize VM memory overcommitment techniques
      • Identify additional memory improvement technologies.
      • Describe VMkernel virtual SMP.
      • Explain VMkernel hyperthreading

    Memory Virtualization Basics

    • ESXi host provides contiguous memory for VMs.
    • VM hardware mapping to the host
    • Guest OS memory management
    • Memory translation from guest to host.

    VM Memory Overcommitment

    • Combined configured memory exceeds physical host memory.
    • Memory is not always fully utilized by all VMs.
    • ESXi host reclaims memory from idle/inactive VMs.
    • Pages can be swapped out to .vswp files.

    Memory Overcommit Techniques

    • Transparent page sharing: Identifies identical page content to reduce memory usage
    • Ballooning: Deallocates memory from VMs under resource pressure.
    • Host-level SSD swapping: Swaps memory to SSD drives for better performance.
    • VM memory paging to disk: Swaps memory to disk.

    Configuring Multicore VMs

    • vCPUs can be adapted based on ESXi/host architecture.
    • Consider guest OS, application scalability, and use case.
    • VMkernel scheduler ensures intelligent vCPU scheduling on the physical CPUs

    About Hyperthreading

    • Hyperthreading allows a core to handle two threads at once (increased performance).
    • Activating hyperthreading is often a default in modern CPUs.
      • Check your host system BIOS and documentation for setup options and supported hyperthreading features

    CPU Load Balancing

    • The VMkernel schedules vCPUs across physical CPU cores to manage load and performance.
    • Keeps CPU usage balanced across all cores.
    • Efficient resource allocation avoids bottlenecking and keeps performance consistent.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Understand concepts of VM CPU & memory function.
    • Describe techniques to manage and overcome memory overcommitment.
    • Explain technologies that enhance memory utilization in a virtualized environment.
    • Understand concepts of VMware Virtual SMP and VMkernel hyperthreading.

    Lesson 7: Resource Controls

    • Learner Objectives:
      • Assign share values for CPU and memory resources.
      • Describe competition for resources between VMs.
      • Define CPU and Memory reservations and limits.

    Reservations, Limits, and Shares

    • Reservation: Guaranteed minimum CPU/RAM, preventing swapping or ballooning
    • Limits: Upper bound on CPU/RAM consumption
    • Shares: Relative priority for resources (higher share = more access).

    Resource Allocation: RAM

    • Reserved memory never swaps out to disk
    • Insufficient host RAM can prevent VM startup
    • Reservation sizes measured in MB, GB, or TB with a default of 0 MB

    Resource Allocation: CPU

    • CPUs reserved for VMs are immediately scheduled on physical cores
    • Prevents VMs from queuing in the CPU ready state.
    • Insufficient host CPU can prevent VM startup.
    • Reservation sizes are measured in MHz/GHz, with a default of 0 MHz.

    Resource Allocation: Limits

    • Limits prevent VMs consuming more than specified amount of resources.
    • Memory limits prevent VMs from using more than allocated memory.
    • Helps to predictably manage resource usage.

    Viewing VM Resource Allocation Settings

    • Access and observe reservation, limit, and share settings for VMs in a cluster.

    Lab 23: Controlling VM Resources

    • Practically apply understanding of CPU and Memory share settings for virtual machines.
    • Observe effects on VM performance with different settings
    • Observe VM behavior if contention occurs.

    Review of Learner Objectives

    • Recognize resource allocation settings
    • Describe the principles of resource consumption and handling between different virtual machines in a system.
    • Define CPU, memory reservation, and limit parameters.
    • Note and highlight relevant key takeaways

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    Related Documents

    VMware ICM v8 Module 8 PDF
    Module 9: Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters PDF

    Description

    This quiz covers key concepts and potential issues related to vSphere vMotion migrations, including encryption settings, error handling, and Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC). Test your knowledge on how misconfigurations and hardware compatibility impact vMotion operations.

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