vSphere 5

I’m about to kick of the first VMware vSphere 5 What’s New training for a full class.  If you’re interested in attending this training there are more slots available here. I can assure you it’s two days of awesomeness. This hands-on training course explores new features in VMware vCenter Server 5.0 and VMware ESXi 5.0. Topics include VMware vSphere 5 installation and how to upgrade from vSphere 4.x to vSphere 5.0. vSphere 5.0 is the first version of vSphere to include only the ESXi hypervisor.

After this course, you should be able to do the following:

 - List and describe key enhancements in vSphere 5.0.
 - Upgrade a VMware deployment from vSphere 4.1 to vSphere 5.0.
 - Use the vSphere Web Client to manage a version 8 virtual machine.
 - Upgrade and manage a VMware vSphere VMFS-5 datastore.
 - Understand and configure profile-driven storage.
 - Create a datastore cluster and configure Storage DRS.
 - Monitor VMware vSphere High Availability.
 - Use the Linux-based VMware vCenter Server™ Appliance.
 - Use Image Builder to modify and export an image profile.
 - Use VMware vSphere Auto Deploy to install a stateless ESXi host.
 - List and describe key networking enhancements, including the VMware ESXi firewall and new features in distributed virtual switches.

If you don’t have that much experience there’s also a 5 days vSphere 5.0 Install Configure and Manage training course available. I’ve also recorded a lot of video tutorials while vSphere 5 was still in beta. Here’s a list with all my vSphere 5 articles and videos. Have fun with it!

vSphere 5 Video - Direct Console User Interface Access through SSH
Video - vSphere 5 User Defined Network Resource Pools
Video - Enabling NetFlow on vSphere 5 Distributed Switches
Video - How to setup a vSphere 5 Port Mirror
Video - vSphere Storage Appliance - How does it work?
Video - What's New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
Video - What's New in vSphere 5 and vCenter Heartbeat 6.4
Video - What's New in VMware vShield 5.0 - Trust Your Cloud
vSphere 5 Video - ESXi Firewall Configuration
vSphere 5 Video - iSCSI User Interface support
vSphere 5 Video – The vSphere Web Client
What's New in VMware vSphere 5 - Technical Whitepapers
vSphere 5 Video - Storage DRS
What's New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
vSphere 5 – New Training Courses: What's New [V5.0] and VCP5
vSphere 5 video - Migrating from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.0
What's New in VMware vShield 5
vSphere 5 Video - EFI the Extensible Firmware Interface
vSphere 5 What's New - Profile Driven Storage
vSphere 5 What's New - High Availability (HA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Image Builder and Auto Deploy
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage Appliance (VSA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage DRS
New Book - VMware vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical Deepdive (video)
What's New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5

This video will show you an new vSphere 5 feature which enables you to get access to the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) through SSH instead of the ESXi physical console. Only users that are assigned the Administrator role can log in to the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). To allow access to the direct console, add the user to the local administrators group. Enabling or disabling lockdown mode affects which types of users are authorized to access host services, but it does not affect the availability of those services. In other words, if the ESXi Shell, SSH, or Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) services are enabled, they will continue to run whether or not the host is in lockdown mode.

Configure Lockdown Mode

To increase the security of your ESXi hosts, you can put them in lockdown mode. When you enable lockdown mode, no users other than vpxuser have authentication permissions, nor can they perform operations against the host directly. Lockdown mode forces all operations to be performed through vCenter Server.

When a host is in lockdown mode, you cannot run vSphere CLI commands from an administration server,vfrom a script, or from vMA against the host. External software or management tools might not be able to retrieve or modify information from the ESXi host.



The root user is still authorized to log in to the direct console user interface when lockdown mode is enabled. Enabling or disabling lockdown mode affects which types of users are authorized to access host services, but it does not affect the availability of those services. In other words, if the ESXi Shell, SSH, or Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) services are enabled, they will continue to run whether or not the host is in lockdown mode.

vSphere High Availability greatly simplifes virtual machine provisioning, resource allocation, load balancing and  migration while also providing an easy-to-use, cost-efective high-availability and failover solution for applications running in virtual machines. Using VMware vSphere 5.0 and VMware HA helps eliminate single points of failure in the deployment of business-critical applications in virtual machines. It also enables you to maintain other inherent virtualization benefts such as higher system utilization; closer alignment of IT resources with business goals and priorities; and more streamlined, simplifed and automated administration of larger infrastructure installations and systems.

Download VSphere HA 5 Best Practices Guide

During the past weeks I’ve been working very hard to create cool articles regarding the release of VMware’s new flagship vSphere 5. Since I was asked to participate in the beta program, I had a great opportunity to record a lot of video material prior to the official release. According to the number of unique visitors (3000+ a day) at ntpro.nl during the month of July (a vacation month) there were some good vSphere 5 articles posted. I’ve created a list with my complete vSphere 5 coverage. 

vSphere 5 Video - ESXi Firewall Configuration
vSphere 5 Video - iSCSI User Interface support
vSphere 5 Video – The vSphere Web Client
What's New in VMware vSphere 5 - Technical Whitepapers
vSphere 5 Video - Storage DRS
What's New in VMware vCloud Director 1.5
vSphere 5 – New Training Courses: What's New [V5.0] and VCP5
vSphere 5 video - Migrating from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.0
What's New in VMware vShield 5
vSphere 5 Video - EFI the Extensible Firmware Interface
vSphere 5 What's New - Profile Driven Storage
vSphere 5 What's New - High Availability (HA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Image Builder and Auto Deploy
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage Appliance (VSA)
vSphere 5 What's New - Storage DRS
New Book - VMware vSphere 5.0 Clustering Technical Deepdive (video)
What's New in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5

ESXi includes a firewall between the management interface and the network. To ensure the integrity of the host, VMware has reduced the number of firewall ports that are open by default. The ESXi firewall is enabled by default. At installation time, the firewall is configured to block incoming and outgoing traffic, except traffic for the default services. The firewall also allows Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) pings and communication with DHCP and DNS (UDP only) clients.

From the host Security Profile panel, you can configure firewall properties for this host. The Secuirty Profile panel lists the incoming and outgoing connections for the firewall and the port each service uses. The panel also displays the IP addresses that are allowed to connect for each service. You can modify the list of services and the allowed IP addresses for each service.

You can add supported services and management agents that are required to operate the host by adding ruleset files to the ESXi firewall configuration file directory /etc/vmware/firewall/. You open or close ports for these services by enabling or disabling the service on the host's security profile in the vSphere Client.