Q2 Sirius Lunch & Learn - vSphere 6 & Windows 2003 EoL

Editor's Notes

• #4: Anybody out here approaching any of these maximums? More at https://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere6/r60/vsphere-60-configuration-maximums.pdf vSphere6 only supports processors available after June 2006… If you try to use any processors made prior it will PSOD during the install. If your Server is older than 1 January 2012 there is a high likelihood it may not be on the HCL.
• #5: Lots have worked for a while but is now finally supported AOAG – Huge! https://www.edge-cloud.net/2015/03/ipv6-in-vsphere-6/
• #6: 10X # of hosts More than 3X the # of VMs vCSA is also an interactive installer now rather than an OVF Still no embedded VUM :( Limited to vSphere HA
• #8: PSC takes up about 30 GB on External deployment
• #9: Command Line Tool Is anyone using 3rd party certs? Probably not… VMware certificates are terrible to replace. Well now it’s better. Mostly. 30 vCenters with separate certificates oh god… heck even the VCAP DCA was a pain. VMCA Default: VMCA uses a self-signed root certificate. It issues certificates to vCenter, ESXi, etc and manages these certificates. These certificates have a chain of trust that stops at the VMCA root certificate. VMCA is not a general purpose CA and its use is limited to VMware components. VMCA Enterprise: VMCA is used as a subordinate CA and is issued subordinate CA signing certificate. It can now issue certificates that trust up to the enterprise CA’s root certificate. If you have already issued certs using VMCA Default and replace VMCA’s root cert with a CA signing cert then all certificates issued will be regenerated and pushed out to the components. Custom: In this scenario VMCA is completely bypassed. This scenario is for those customers that want to issue and/or install their own certificates. You will need to issue a cert for every component, not unlike you do today for 5.5 when using 3rd party certs. And all of those certs (except for host certs) need to be installed into VECS.
• #10: VMware Endpoint Certificate Store (VECS) serves as a local (client-side) repository for certificates, private keys, and other certificate information that can be stored in a keystore. You can decide not to use VMCA as your certificate authority and certificate signer, but you must use VECS to store all vCenter certificates, keys, and so on. ESXicertificates are stored locally on each host and not in VECS. VECS runs as part of the VMware Authentication Framework Daemon (VMAFD). VECS runs on every embedded deployment, Platform Services Controller node, and management node and holds the keystores that contain the certificates and keys. VECS polls VMware Directory Service (vmdir) periodically for updates to the TRUSTED_ROOTS store. You can also explicitly manage certificates and keys in VECS usingvecs-cli commands. See vecs-cli Command Reference. VECS includes the following stores.
• #11: Can even run mixed linked mode – thanks to PSC Enabled by default (called enhanced linked mode)
• #12: Useful during datacenter migrations when you are moving between clusters
• #13: Imagine eventually SSO limitation will be removed from GUI option
• #14: Used to be 10ms CAB vMotion is a big deal
• #16: Simple concept, a bit clunky to administer
• #17: Can run 2 or 3 but cannot go back 3 does not support CoS tagging or user defined resource pools
• #18: Changing policies on a per VM basiss allows for the array to sleect the correct storage container to meet those capabilities be they performance related, availability related, or otherwise. Capabilities exposed via VASA, could include dedupe, compression, encryption, flash acceleration, replication, more. Limited array support thus far VASA provider, or a Virtual Volume Storage Provider (let’s call it the VP) is a software component that acts as a storage Awareness Service for vSphere and mediates out-of-band communication between vCenter and a storage system. The VP can take different forms; some array vendors have it embedded in the storage controller while others run it in an appliance. An administrator needs to add details of the VP to vCenter server. This is usually something as simple as providing a URL to the VP, along with some credentials. This information should come from the array vendor documentation. Protocol Endpoint is a logical I/O proxy presented to a host to communicate with Virtual Volumes stored on a Storage Container. When a virtual machine on the host performs an I/O operation,the protocol endpoint directs the I/O to the appropriate virtual volume. This is a LUN on block storage arrays, and a mount point on NAS arrays. These must be pre-configured on the array, and then presented to all the ESXi hosts that wish to use VVols. These are discovered ‘or’ mounted to the ESXi hosts just like a datastore. However they are not used for storage, just communication. Storage Container is a pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage capabilities that a storage system can provide to virtual volumes. It is not a LUN! However, this is where the Virtual Volumes are created. Storage Policy Based Management, through VM Storage Policies, is used for virtual machine provisioning to match storage capabilities to application requirements. The location, layout and storage capabilities of a VM depends on the storage policy associated with the VM. Virtual Volume Datastore is a vSphere representation of a Storage Container. When setting up Virtual Volumes, a Virtual Volume datastore is created to introduce the Storage Container to vSphere. Virtual Volumes (VVols) are stored natively inside a storage system that is connected through block or file protocols. They are exported as objects by a compliant storage system and are managed entirely by hardware on the storage array. Virtual Volumes are an encapsulation of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives.
• #19: Changing policies on a per VM basiss allows for the array to sleect the correct storage container to meet those capabilities be they performance related, availability related, or otherwise. Capabilities exposed via VASA, could include dedupe, compression, encryption, flash acceleration, replication, more. Limited array support thus far VASA provider, or a Virtual Volume Storage Provider (let’s call it the VP) is a software component that acts as a storage Awareness Service for vSphere and mediates out-of-band communication between vCenter and a storage system. The VP can take different forms; some array vendors have it embedded in the storage controller while others run it in an appliance. An administrator needs to add details of the VP to vCenter server. This is usually something as simple as providing a URL to the VP, along with some credentials. This information should come from the array vendor documentation. Protocol Endpoint is a logical I/O proxy presented to a host to communicate with Virtual Volumes stored on a Storage Container. When a virtual machine on the host performs an I/O operation,the protocol endpoint directs the I/O to the appropriate virtual volume. This is a LUN on block storage arrays, and a mount point on NAS arrays. These must be pre-configured on the array, and then presented to all the ESXi hosts that wish to use VVols. These are discovered ‘or’ mounted to the ESXi hosts just like a datastore. However they are not used for storage, just communication. Storage Container is a pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage capabilities that a storage system can provide to virtual volumes. It is not a LUN! However, this is where the Virtual Volumes are created. Storage Policy Based Management, through VM Storage Policies, is used for virtual machine provisioning to match storage capabilities to application requirements. The location, layout and storage capabilities of a VM depends on the storage policy associated with the VM. Virtual Volume Datastore is a vSphere representation of a Storage Container. When setting up Virtual Volumes, a Virtual Volume datastore is created to introduce the Storage Container to vSphere. Virtual Volumes (VVols) are stored natively inside a storage system that is connected through block or file protocols. They are exported as objects by a compliant storage system and are managed entirely by hardware on the storage array. Virtual Volumes are an encapsulation of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives.
• #20: Changing policies on a per VM basiss allows for the array to sleect the correct storage container to meet those capabilities be they performance related, availability related, or otherwise. Capabilities exposed via VASA, could include dedupe, compression, encryption, flash acceleration, replication, more. Limited array support thus far VASA provider, or a Virtual Volume Storage Provider (let’s call it the VP) is a software component that acts as a storage Awareness Service for vSphere and mediates out-of-band communication between vCenter and a storage system. The VP can take different forms; some array vendors have it embedded in the storage controller while others run it in an appliance. An administrator needs to add details of the VP to vCenter server. This is usually something as simple as providing a URL to the VP, along with some credentials. This information should come from the array vendor documentation. Protocol Endpoint is a logical I/O proxy presented to a host to communicate with Virtual Volumes stored on a Storage Container. When a virtual machine on the host performs an I/O operation,the protocol endpoint directs the I/O to the appropriate virtual volume. This is a LUN on block storage arrays, and a mount point on NAS arrays. These must be pre-configured on the array, and then presented to all the ESXi hosts that wish to use VVols. These are discovered ‘or’ mounted to the ESXi hosts just like a datastore. However they are not used for storage, just communication. Storage Container is a pool of raw storage capacity or an aggregation of storage capabilities that a storage system can provide to virtual volumes. It is not a LUN! However, this is where the Virtual Volumes are created. Storage Policy Based Management, through VM Storage Policies, is used for virtual machine provisioning to match storage capabilities to application requirements. The location, layout and storage capabilities of a VM depends on the storage policy associated with the VM. Virtual Volume Datastore is a vSphere representation of a Storage Container. When setting up Virtual Volumes, a Virtual Volume datastore is created to introduce the Storage Container to vSphere. Virtual Volumes (VVols) are stored natively inside a storage system that is connected through block or file protocols. They are exported as objects by a compliant storage system and are managed entirely by hardware on the storage array. Virtual Volumes are an encapsulation of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives.
• #21: Anyone using VSAN? Why… why not?
• #23: Anyone encountered APD? How big are your clusters?
• #24: No vVol Support Conflicting reports on SMP-FT for vCenter server. Your mileage may vary.
• #25: Anyone encountered APD? How big are your clusters?
• #26: Anyone encountered APD? How big are your clusters?
• #34: Microsoft quote about custom support: “Custom Support costs can vary, depending on specific customer needs, such as the number of server instances requiring continued support. We recommend customers work with their Microsoft Account Representative to determine applicable pricing for their environment.“” Price reportedly ~$600 / device / year, could be a lot more. The register article: “One running several thousand Windows Server 2003 machines will pay “high single-digit millions” for the first year and "high double digit millions" in year two, our source - who wished to remain anonymous - said.”
• #35: This is example is from a blog article, http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2014/06/25/are-you-ready-to-migrate-windows-server-2003-end-of-life-is-coming-on-the-july-14th-2015.aspx
• #36: PCI article: https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/microsoft-ending-support-for-windows-server-2003/ PCI Security Standards Council: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
• #37: PCI article: https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/microsoft-ending-support-for-windows-server-2003/ PCI Security Standards Council: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
• #38: PCI article: https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/microsoft-ending-support-for-windows-server-2003/ PCI Security Standards Council: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/