As the basic network connectivity is finished, we can now leave the local configuration in the serverroom and continue from the comfort of a desk and iMac. For this I’ll use the VMWare fat client. (yes yes, I can use vCenter and the spiffy new Webclient but like I said, call me old-fashioned but I have a certain order for things 🙂 )
- Install VMWare vSphere Client on Windows 7 (straight forward stuff)
- I’m using version 5.5 here, doesn’t really matter as we will move to vCenter Appliance in the end
- Start the vSphere Client and enter the IP address of the host you’re connecting to, and the username/password
- The first time you start the client, it will ask to store the new certificate so you will not see this certificate warning again.
And there it is.
Next steps
This page consists of three parts:
- Configure networking
- Configure storage
- Time Configuration
- License information
1 Configure networking
The basic network connectivity is in-place however we need to change/add network settings to get the networking we truly want.
- First, check if all the NIC’s are present
- Go to the Configuration tab, click on Network Adapters
- In the previous versions (5.5 and 5.0), my on-board NIC was not automatically detected and this page only showed two network adapters. Check this page if your on-board NIC is not visible.
- On the Configuration Tab, select Networking
This is the default network, there are two switches defined: vSwitch0 and iScsiBootvSwitch. The latter is connected to the storage network and used to boot the node from. As we will use vMotion on the cluster, we have to make a small change to this virtual switch.
- Click on Proporties for the IScsiBootvSwitch
- Select “IscsiBootPG” and click on Edit
- I’ve renamed the label to include a reference, in my case “iScsiBootPG – Yellow” as the cabling is yellow.
- Put a tickmark on vMotion Enabled and click OK
- Click Close
- On vSwitch0 click properties
- Select VM Network from the list and click Remove
- Select Management Network and click Edit
- I’ve renamed the label to include a reference, in my case “Management Network – Blue” as the cabling is blue.
- Click Close
Now to add the final bit to networking:
- In the top-right corner of the page, Click Add Networking
- Ensure the radiobutton is on Virtual Machine and click Next
- Ensure the tickmark is in the box vmnic0 and click Next
- I will deploy VM’s in four possible networks: Servers, Clients, DMZ or Public and here you’ll define those placements
- Rename the network label to “VM Server LAN – Green” as this network will hold the server VMs and the cabling is green
- As I’ve segregated my network into VLANs I will add the correct VLAN ID here (in this case 34) and click next
- Click Finish
The networking page should look like this, you see that the on-board NIC is now visible here as well.
- I still have to add the three remaining placements, so click on Properties for vSwitch1
- Ensure vSwitch is selected and Click Add
- Now just repeat the previous steps. Ensure Virtual Machine is selected and Click Next
- Rename the network label to “VM Client LAN – Green” as this network will hold the server VMs and the cabling is green
- As I’ve segregated my network into VLANs I will add the correct VLAN ID here (in this case 33, and click next
- Click Close
- Rinse and repeat for as many placements as you need
This is what my finished networking page looks like.
2 Configure Storage
As I’ve outlined in the storage design, I am using a couple of LUN’s specifically for each purpose. Two main storage LUN’s to hold all the VM’s, a boot LUN for each node and two smaller LUN’s for the sources and filesharing.
You could opt for a LUN dedicated for each VM but I don’t see the (performance) benefit and it just adds a lot of paths when you have 3-nodes and vMotion.
The screenshot shows the starting point, the iSCSI Software Adapter and only the boot LUN is mapped. First I will configure the HyperStorage LUN.
- Go to Configuration -> Storage Adapters
- Select vmhba37 under iSCSI Software Adapter
- In the Detail Area, Click Properties
- Select the Network Configuration tab, Click the Add button
- Select the iScsiBootPG line and Click OK
- I use unique names for each LUN CHAP authentication so I can’t use Dynamic Discovery for which the CHAP name must be the same to inherit from parent.
- Select the Static Discovery tab, Click Add
- Fillout the IP address of your storage and Target Name
- As I’ve explained in the Storage Design post, I’m using CHAP and Mutual CHAP to further secure the connection. Click the CHAP button if you also use this, otherwise skip this part
- Click on the CHAP button
- Remove the tickmarks from both “Inherit from parent” boxes
- In the pulldown menus, select “Use CHAP”
- Fill-out the name and secrets you used when creating the mapped LUN on your NAS
- Note: both the secret and the name are case-sensitive!
- Click OK, Click OK
- Click Close
The screen should look like this.
- Now click “Close” on this window
The following message popups to rescan the storage adapter, Click Yes. The task area should have an event stating that it is rescanning the HBA.
The HyperStorage LUN has been added to the the node. Now rinse and repeat for the additional LUN’s you need.
It’s good practice to rename the datastores so they’re easier to tell apart. You can do this from the Configuration tab -> Storage however there are more ways to achieve the same result. This time, I take another road:
- Go to the Summary page
- Rightclick the datastore you’d like to rename and Select Rename
- I give the boot datastore the same name as the QNAP LUN Target Alias. In this case, TTGBOOTN1
Note: if you run into the following error message: ‘Call “HostStorageSystem.ComputeDiskPartitionInfo” for object “storageSystem” on ESXi “172.16.12.14” failed’ , click here for the solution
3 Time Configuration
We need to have all 3 nodes in perfect time sync, not only for cluster management and troubleshooting but more importantly for tracking security events 🙂
- Go to the Configuration Tab, select Time Configuration
- Put a tickmark in the box “NTP Client Enabled”
- Click on “Options”
- Select “NTP Settings” and click the “Add” button
- Enter the IP Address of your time source and click OK
- Select “General”
- Put the radiobutton in “Start and stop with host”
- Click on the “Start” button to start the time services
- Click OK
If all went well, you see the NTP Client running and the correct time displayed.
4 License information
Last but not least, add your license information for ESXi.
- Go to the Configuration tab, select “License Features”
- In the top-right corner, click on “Edit”
- Enter your license key
Depending on your license model you will either keep the list of features or it will be shortened.
Now to repeat these steps for the remaining nodes.