White Papers - 14

The content of the (349 pages) VCAP5-DCA Study Guide was first published as a series of posts on Paul's blog “Adventures in a Virtual World”, these posts were written in preparation for his VCAP5-DCA exam and are based on the official VMware Blueprint. The posts had to meet the following goals:

• Based on the official Blueprint, follow the objectives as close as possible.
• Refer to the official VMware documentation as much as possible. For that reason, every Objective starts with one or more references to the VMware documentation.
• In case the official documentation is not available or not complete, provide an alternative.
• Write down the essence of every objective (the Summary part). 
• If necessary, provide additional explanation, instructions, examples and references to other posts. All this without providing too much information.

 

vSphere encrypts session information using standard digital certificates. Using the default certificates that vSphere creates might not comply with the security policy of your organization. If you require a certificate from a trusted certificate authority, you can replace the default certificate.

Certificate checking is enabled by default and SSL certificates are used to encrypt network traffic. However, ESXi and vCenter Server use automatically generated certificates that are created as part of the installation process and stored on the server system. These certificates are unique and make it possible to begin using the server, but they are not verifiable and are not signed by a trusted, well-known certificate authority (CA).

These default certificates are vulnerable to possible man-in-the-middle attacks. To receive the full benefit of certificate checking, especially if you intend to use encrypted remote connections externally, install new certificates that are signed by a valid internal certificate authority or public key infrastructure (PKI) service. Alternatively, purchase a certificate from a trusted commercial security authority. For information about encryption and securing your vSphere environment, see the vSphere Security documentation.

VMware View is an enterprise-class virtual desktop manager that securely connects authorized users to centralized virtual desktops. It allows you to consolidate virtual desktops on datacenter servers and manage operating systems, applications and data independently for greater business agility while providing a flexible high-performance desktop experience for end users, over any network. Storage is the foundation of any VMware View implementation.

This document is intended for architects and systems administrators who are considering an implementation of View. It outlines the steps you should take to characterize your environment, from determining the type of users in your environment to choosing storage protocols and storage technology.

The paper covers the following topics:

• Windows Disk I/O Workloads
• Base Image Considerations
• Storage Protocol Choices
• Storage Technology Options
• Storage Array Decisions
• Increasing Storage Performance