Module 3: Virtual Machines

© 2020 VMware, Inc.

Importance
You can create a virtual machine in several ways. Choosing the correct method can save you
time and make the deployment process manageable and scalable.

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Module Lessons
1. Creating Virtual Machines
2. Virtual Machine Hardware Deep Dive
3. Introduction to Containers

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Virtual Beans: Virtualizing Workloads
Virtual Beans uses internally developed applications that run in an environment with Windows
and Linux systems.
Virtual Beans requires that 100% of their workloads be virtualized:
• Business-critical applications
• Nonbusiness-critical applications
In addition, Virtual Beans application developers are creating and testing a new order-fulfillment
system based on container technology.
As a Virtual Beans administrator, you must familiarize yourself with the components of a virtual
machine and the virtual devices that are supported. You also want to learn about containers
because future applications will use this technology.

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Lesson 1: Creating Virtual Machines

© 2020 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Create and provision a virtual machine
• Describe how to import a virtual appliance OVF template
• Explain the importance of VMware Tools
• Install VMware Tools

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About Provisioning Virtual Machines
You can create VMs in several ways:
• Use the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a single VM using:
— The vSphere Client
— VMware Host Client
• Use the vSphere Client to deploy VMs in the following formats:
— New VMs from existing templates or clones
— VMs, virtual appliances, and vApps stored in OVF format

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Creating VMs with the New Virtual Machine Wizard (1)
You can use the New Virtual Machine wizard in the vSphere Client to create a VM.

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Creating VMs with the New Virtual Machine Wizard (2)
You can use the New Virtual Machine wizard in VMware Host Client to create a VM.

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New Virtual Machine Wizard Settings
VM configuration settings are based on prior choices that you made about the operating system.

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Installing the Guest Operating System
Installing a guest operating system in your VM is similar to installing it on a physical computer.

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Deploying OVF Templates
You can deploy any VM or
virtual appliance stored in OVF
format.
Virtual appliances are
preconfigured VMs:
• They are usually designed for
a single purpose.
• They are also available from
VMware Solution Exchange.

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About VMware Tools
VMware Tools is a set of features that enhance the performance of a VM’s guest operating
system.
Benefits and features include:
• Device drivers
— SVGA display
— VMXNET/VMXNET3
— Balloon driver for memory management
— Sync driver for quiescing I/O
• Increased graphics performance
• Improved mouse performance
• Guest OS heartbeat service
• Time synchronization
• Ability to shut down the VM

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Installing VMware Tools
Ensure that you select the correct version of VMware Tools for your guest operating system.
To find out which VMware Tools ISO images are bundled with vSphere 7, see the vSphere 7
Release Notes.
The method for installing VMware Tools depends on the guest operating system type.

Guest Operating VMware Tools Installation Method

System Type
Microsoft Windows Install from windows.iso for Vista and later guests.
Linux To allow vSphere to manage the installation, install from linux.iso.
To allow the guest OS to manage the installation, use open-vm-tools,
available in various Linux package management systems, such as yum, apt,
or rpm.
MacOS Install from darwin.iso for Mac OS X versions 10.11 and later.
Solaris Install from solaris.iso for Solaris versions 10 and later.

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Downloading VMware Tools
You can download a specific version of VMware Tools from the VMware vSphere product
download page.

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Lab 3: Creating a Virtual Machine
Use VMware Host Client to create and delete a virtual machine:
1. Create a Virtual Machine
2. Delete the Virtual Machine
3. Power On and Open a Console to the VM
4. Install VMware Tools

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Review of Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Create and provision a virtual machine
• Describe how to import a virtual appliance OVF template
• Explain the importance of VMware Tools
• Install VMware Tools

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Lesson 2: Virtual Machine Hardware Deep
Dive

© 2020 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Identify the files that make up a VM
• Compare VM hardware versions
• Recognize the components of a VM
• Navigate the vSphere Client and examine VM settings
• Identify methods for accessing a VM console
• Identify virtual network adapters, including the enhanced VMXNET3
• Distinguish between types of virtual disk provisioning

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Virtual Machine Encapsulation
vSphere encapsulates each VM
into a set of VM files.
VM files are stored in directories
on a VMFS, NFS, vSAN, or
vSphere Virtual Volumes
datastore.

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About Virtual Machine Files
A VM includes a set of related files.

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About VM Virtual Hardware
A VM uses virtual hardware.

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Virtual Hardware Versions
The virtual hardware version, or VM compatibility level, determines the operating system
functions that a VM supports.
Do not use a later version that is not supported by the VMware product.

Compatibility Virtual Hardware Version

ESXi 7.0 17
ESXi 6.7 U2 and later 15
ESXi 6.7 and later 14
ESXi 6.5 and later 13
ESXi 6.0 and later 11
Virtual hardware versions 12 and 16 are specific to Workstation and Fusion Pro.

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About CPU and Memory
You can add, change, or configure CPU and memory resources to improve VM performance.
The maximum number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) that you can assign to a VM depends on the
following factors:
• The number of logical CPUs on the host
• The type of installed guest operating system
A VM running on an ESXi 7.0 host can have up to 256 vCPUs.
The maximum memory size of a VM depends on the VM’s compatibility setting.
The maximum memory size of a VM with ESXi 7.0 compatibility running on ESXi 7.0 is 6 TB.

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About Virtual Storage
Virtual disks are connected to virtual storage adapters.
The ESXi host offers VMs several choices in storage adapters:
• BusLogic Parallel
• LSI Logic Parallel
• LSI Logic SAS
• VMware Paravirtual SCSI
• AHCI SATA controller
• Virtual NVMe

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About Thick-Provisioned Virtual Disks
Thick provisioning uses all the defined disk
space at the creation of the virtual disk.
VM disks consume all the capacity, as defined
at creation, regardless of the amount of data in
the guest operating system file system.
Thick-provisioned disk types are eager zeroed
or lazy zeroed:
• In an eager-zeroed thick-provisioned disk,
every block is prefilled with a zero.
• In a lazy-zeroed thick-provisioned disk, every
block is filled with a zero when data is written
to the block.

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About Thin-Provisioned Virtual Disks
With thin provisioning, VMs use storage space
as needed:
• Virtual disks consume only the capacity
needed to hold the current files.
• The VM always sees the full allocated disk
size.
Run the unmap command to reclaim unused
space from the array.
Reporting and alerts help manage allocations
and capacity.
You can mix thick and thin formats.
More efficient use of storage, for example:
• Provisioned space for virtual disks: 140 GB
• Available datastore capacity: 100 GB
• Used datastore capacity: 80 GB

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Thick-Provisioned and Thin-Provisioned Disks
Virtual disk options differ in terms of creation time, block allocation, layout, and zeroing out of
allocated file blocks.
Thick Provisioned Thick Provisioned Thin
Lazy-Zeroed Eager-Zeroed Provisioned
Creation time Fast. Slow and proportional to Fastest.
disk size.
Block allocation Fully preallocated. Fully preallocated. Allocated and zeroed out
on demand at first write
to block.
Virtual disk layout Higher chance of Higher chance of Layout varies according
contiguous file blocks. contiguous file blocks. to the dynamic state of
the volume at time of
block allocation.
Zeroing out of File blocks are zeroed out File blocks are allocated File blocks are zeroed
allocated file when each block is first and zeroed out when disk is out when blocks are
blocks written to. created. allocated.

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About Virtual Networks
VMs and physical machines communicate through a virtual network.
When you configure networking for a VM, you select or change the following settings:
• Network adapter type
• Port group to connect to
• Network connection state
• Whether to connect to the network when the VM powers on

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About Virtual Network Adapters
When you configure a VM, you can add network adapters (NICs) and specify the adapter type.
Whenever possible, select VMXNET3.
Network Adapter Type Description
E1000-E1000E Emulated version of an Intel Gigabit Ethernet NIC, with drivers available in
most newer guest operating systems.
VMXNET3 Available only with VMware Tools.
Flexible Can function as either a Vlance or VMXNET adapter.
SR-IOV pass-through Allows VM and physical adapter to exchange data without using the VMkernel
as an intermediary.
vSphere DirectPath I/O Allows VM access to physical PCI network functions on platforms with an I/O
memory management unit.
PVRDMA Paravirtualized device that provides improved virtual device performance. It
provides an RDMA-like interface for vSphere guests.

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Other Virtual Devices
A VM must have a vCPU and virtual memory.
The addition of other virtual devices makes the
VM more useful:
• CD/DVD drive: For connecting to a CD, DVD,
or ISO image.
• USB 3.0 and 3.1: Supported with host-
connected and client-connected devices.
• Floppy drive: For connecting a VM to a floppy
drive or a floppy image.
• Generic SCSI devices: A VM can be
connected to additional SCSI adapters.
• vGPUs: A VM can use GPUs on the physical
host for high-computation activities.

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About the Virtual Machine Console
The VM console provides the mouse, keyboard, and screen features to control the VM.
You can use the standalone VMware Remote Console Application (VMRC) to connect to client
devices.

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Review of Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Identify the files that make up a VM
• Compare VM hardware versions
• Recognize the components of a VM
• Navigate the vSphere Client and examine VM settings
• Identify methods for accessing a VM console
• Identify virtual network adapters, including the enhanced VMXNET3
• Distinguish between types of virtual disk provisioning

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Lesson 3: Introduction to Containers

© 2020 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Describe the benefits and use cases for containers
• Identify the parts of a container system
• Differentiate between containers and virtual machines

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Traditional Application Development
In data centers, traditional applications are enhanced with modern application capabilities and
models. But traditional application development is different from modern application development.
Traditional Application Development
Waterfall development Development cycles are relatively long (several months).
Requirements can change over time.
Handover to the operations The operations team is responsible for the code in production.
team Training is not provided.
Monolithic applications All functionality is handled by a single large application.
Typically, monolithic applications can only be scaled vertically, not
horizontally.
Separate development, Inconsistencies between environments occur.
staging, and production Issues in production do not occur during staging.
environments

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Modern Application Development
Modern application development is transforming modern business.

Modern Application Development

Typically use microservices style Monolithic applications are broken into many smaller standalone
architectures. modular functions or services that make it easier for developers to be
innovative when producing and changing code.
Minimize time to market. Streamline the process of deploying new code into a staging
environment for testing.
Identify and address bugs almost immediately.
Quickly deploy small, incremental changes in the production
environment and easily withdraw if problems arise.
Deliver updates and features Minimize the time it takes to build, test, and release new features.
quickly.
Increase product quality and Automate tests, get user feedback, and improve software iteratively.
avoid risk.
Fewer resource requirements Apply continuous development and continuous integration in small
and more productivity. iterations to reduce labor.
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Benefits of Microservices and Containerization
Containers are an ideal technology for supporting microservices because the goals of containers
(lightweight, easily packaged, can run anywhere) align well with the goals of a microservices
architecture.

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Container Terminology
Several terms and concepts apply to containers.

Term Definition
Container An application packaged with dependencies
Container engine A runtime engine that manages the containers
Docker The most recognized runtime engine for container support, and it is often
used as a synonym for many aspects of container technologies
Container host A virtual machine or physical machine on which the containers and
container engine run
Kubernetes Google-developed orchestration for containers

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About Containers
A container is an encapsulation of an application and dependent binaries and libraries. The
application is decoupled from the operating system and becomes a serverless function.
Among the reasons that containers were
popularized by software developers are:
• They make coding easier, locally and
anywhere.
• You can deploy and test applications quickly
in a staging environment. No operating
system or load is required.

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Rise of Containers
Application developers are quickly adopting container technology as their tool of choice.

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About Container Hosts
The container host runs the operating system on which the containers run.

Container hosts can be of the following types:

• Standard OS with a container engine
installed:
— Ubuntu with Docker
• OS developed specifically with containers in
mind:
— Photon OS
— Fedora CoreOS
• Virtual machine or physical machine:
— Among the many benefits of using VMs
are easy management and scalability.

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Containers at Runtime
Containers have the following characteristics:
• A container can run on any container host with the same operating system kernel that is
specified by that container.
• A running container is accessed using its FQDN or its unique IP address.
• Each container can access only its own resources in the shared environment.
When you log into a container using a remote terminal (such as SSH), you see no indication
that other containers are running on the same container host.

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Container Engines
A container engine is a control plane that is installed on each container host. The control plane
manages the containers on that host.
Container engines perform several functions:
• Build container images from source code (for
example, Dockerfile). Alternatively, load
container images from a repository.
• Create running containers based on a
container image.
• Commit a running container to an image.
• Save an image and push it to a repository.
• Stop and remove containers.
• Suspend and restart containers.
• Report container status.

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Virtual Machines and Containers (1)
VMs provide virtual hardware that the guest OS uses to run applications. Multiple applications run
on a single VM but they are logically separated and isolated.
With containers, developers take a streamlined base OS file system and layer on only the
required binaries and libraries that the application depends on.

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Virtual Machines and Containers (2)
VMs and containers work in different ways.

Virtual Machines Containers

Encapsulation of an entire operating system Encapsulation of an application and dependent
binaries or libraries
Scheduled by the hypervisor Scheduled by the container host OS
Run on the hypervisor Run on the container host OS
Starting a VM means starting an operating system Starting a container means starting the application
(seconds to minutes) process (milliseconds to seconds)

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About Kubernetes
Containers are managed on a single container host. Managing multiple containers across multiple
container hosts creates many problems:
• Managing large numbers of containers
• Restarting failed containers
• Scaling containers to meet capacity
• Networking and load balancing
Kubernetes provides an orchestration layer to solve these problems.
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of
containerized applications.

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Challenges of Running Kubernetes in Production
The top challenges of running Kubernetes are reliability, security, networking, scaling, logging,
and complexity.

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Architecting with Common Application Requirements

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Review of Learner Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Describe the benefits and use cases for containers
• Identify the parts of a container system
• Differentiate between containers and virtual machines

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Virtual Beans: Virtualizing Workloads
As a Virtual Beans administrator, you want to start creating VMs with different configurations and
testing your applications.
Your key takeaways are:
• The VMware Compatibility Guide can help you determine what versions of Windows and Linux
guest operating systems are supported in ESXi 7.0.
• Virtual machines support a wide selection of virtual hardware devices, for example, vGPUs and
NVME adapters.
• vSphere provides the underlying infrastructure on which containers and Kubernetes run.

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Key Points
• A VM is a set of files that are encapsulated into a folder and placed on a datastore.
• VMs can be provisioned using the vSphere Client and VMware Host Client.
• VMware Tools increases the overall performance of the VM's guest operating system.
• The virtual hardware version, or VM compatibility level, determines the operating system
functions that a VM supports.
• Containers are the ideal technology for microservices because the goals of containers align
with the goals and benefits of the microservices architecture.
Questions?

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