VMWare Interview Preparation Guide

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*VMotion should enable on source and destination of ESXi
*VM should be on shared storage
*Same CPU Family and generation on source and destination
*Same n/w settings
*No Cd Dvd attached to VM

VC agent is an agent installed on ESX server which enables communication between VC and ESX server.
The daemon associated with it is called vmware-hostd , and the service which corresponds to it is called as mgmt-vmware, in the event of VC agent failure just restart the service by typing the following command at the service console.

When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow outgoing traffic from the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the outgoing traffic will be allowed from the VM.

VMWare Kernel is a Proprietary kernel of vmwareand is not based on any of the flavors of Linux operating systems,. VMkernel requires an operating system to boot and manage the kernel. A service console is being provided when VMWare kernel is booted. Only service console is based up on Redhat Linux OS not VMkernel.

1) .vmx - Virtual Machine Configuration File
2) .nvram - Virtual Machine BIOS
3) .vmdk - Virtual Machine Disk file
4) .vswp - Virtual Machine Swap File
5) .vmsd - Virtual Machine Snapshot Database
6) .vmsn - Virtual Machine Snapshot file
7) .vmss - Virtual Machine Suspended State file
8) .vmware.log - Current Log File
9) .vmware-#.log - Old Log file

1) / -root
2) Swap
3) /var
4) /Var/core
5) /opt
6) /home
7) /tmp

Vmkernel port is used by ESX/ESXi for vmotion, ISCSI & NFS communications. ESXi uses Vmkernel as the management network since it don't have service console built with it.

There are 3 types of port groups in ESX
1) Service console port group
2) VMkernel Port group
3) Virtual machine port group

There are only 2 types of port group in ESXi
1) Vmkernel Port group
2) Virtual Machine Port group

VC agent is an agent installed on ESX server which enables communication between VC and ESX server. This Agent will be installed on ESX/ESXi will be done when you try to add the ESx host in Vcenter.

The service console is developed based up on Redhat Linux Operating system, it is used to manage the VMKernel.

Click Edit Menu on VC and Select Client Settings to change VI settings
Click Administration Menu on VC and Select VC Management Server Configuration to Change VC Settings.

It is a backup framework, that supports 3rd party utilities to take backups of ESX servers and Virtual Machines. Its not a backup service.

Virtual Machine Configuration (What hardware is attached to it)
State of the Virtual Machine Hard Disk file ( To revert back if needed)
State of the Virtual Machine Memory (if it is powered on)

If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's, then the snapshot failed. If it is mapped as virtual then we can take a snapshot of it.
If you configure the VM with Mapped LUN's as physical, you need to remove it to take a snapshot.

We can convert a VM into Template, and it cannot be powered on once its changed to template. This is used to quick provisioning of VM's.

VM provisioning , Task Scheduling and Event Logging.

When we create a virtual machine the configuration wizard generates a MAC address for that machine, you can see it in the .vmx (VM Config) file. If it doesn't matches with the MAC address in the OS this setting does not allow incoming traffic to the VM. So by setting Reject Option both MAC addresses will be remains same, and the incoming traffic will be allowed to the VM.

Yes, The vSwitches support VLAN Tagging, otherwise if the virtual machines in an esx host are connected to different VLANS, we need to install a separate physical nic (vSwitch) for every VLAN. That is the reason vmware included the VLANtagging for vSwitches. So every v'Switch supports up to 1016 ports, and BTW they can support 1016 V'LANS if needed, but an ESX server doesn't support that many VM's.

All the vm's which are configured in VM Port Group are able to connect to the physical machines on the network. So this port group enables communication between vSwitch and Physical Switch to connect vm's to Physical Machine's.

Service Console and VMKernel (VMotion and iSCSI), these communications does not happen without an ip address (Whether it is a single or dedicated).

The port group segregates the type of communication.

1) Virtual Machine Port Group - Used for Virtual Machine Network
2) Service Console Port Group - Used for Service Console Communications
3) VMKernel Port Group - Used for VMotion, iSCSI, NFS Communications

Virtual Nic(s) on Virtual Machine(s) ----->

Physical Nic on the ESX Server (Virtual Switch - 56 Ports) ----->

Physical Switch Port Should be trunked with all the VLANS to which the VM's need access

All the ESX servers should be configured with Same number of Physical Nics (vSwitches) and Connectivity also should be same, So that vMotion succeeds
All the Virtual Machines are connected to one vSwitch with Different VLANS, this means the Physical Nic(vSwitch) needs to be trunked with the same VLANS on the Physical Switch Port

service mgmt-vmware restart.

service sshd restart.