1. P2V Checklist :
1. Decide on the clone method (Hot or Cold).
Note: If the source machine is a domain controller, database server, email server,or any
other service with frequently changing data, a cold conversion must be performed.
Tip: For a domain controller the best way is to create a new virtual machine and promote it
to a DC then decommission the old DC.
2. Does the physical machine use serial ports?
If yes, it is still possible to P2V, however that VM will need to be resticted to an individual
ESX server with the physical serial device attached.
3. Does the physical machine use parallel ports?
If yes, it is still possible to P2V, however that VM will need to be resticted to an individual
ESX server with the physical parallel device attached.
4. Does the physical machine use and USB devices?
If yes, you will need to look into using USBanywhere, which allows to use USB over the
network.
5. Check there is enough storage space for the new VM. Take into account the
current data size plus growth.
Note: Disks can be resized upon conversion so if there is a large quantity of unused space
on the physical this can be removed to save space.
6. Check there is enough RAM available in the virtual environment to accomodate
the new VMs needs.
7. Check there is enough CPU available in the virtual environment to accomodate
the new VMs needs.
Note: Physical machines with multiple CPUs but only using single threaded applications
should be set to 1vCPU. Adding extra CPUs would waste CPU time / cycles because the
applications would not make use of it.
8. Check the network the physical machine is connected to, is available in the
virtual environment.
9. Monitor the physical machine for the following utilization metrics:
Difference between HA and Vmotion?
 VMotion and HA are different features.
+15133740425

2. Step By Step :
1. Verify that the system you want to P2V is running a Windows OS. If it isn't, you won't
be able to use the P2V assistant.
2. Create a virtual disk, or disks, with enough space to house the data on the machine you
want to P2V and attach it/them to the helper VM.
3. Boot the system that you plan to P2V to the P2V boot disk and assign the appropriate
network settings--IP address, netmask, gateway, and name server.
4. Open the P2V Assistant on the helper VM and choose to clone a source computer's
physical disk, and click Next.
5. Type in the IP address you assigned to the machine to be cloned and hit Next.
6. Choose the disk that you want to configure and click Next. Note that you can only clone
one disk at a time, so if you have multiple disks, you'll need to re-run this process for each
of them.
7. Choose whether you want to reconfigure the disk now or later and click Next. Might as
well have the P2V assistant reconfigure it.
8. Choose to copy the disk to a physical disk on the system. Choose to copy it to the
virtual disk that you added to the system in step 2 and click Next.
9. If you want to change partitions around, this screen is the easiest place to do so. If not,
leave everything the way it is and click Next.
10. The final step is to choose which VMware product you plan to run the virtualized system
on. Make the appropriate choice, click Next, and then Finish.
11. Once the disk has been copied, shutdown the helper VM, remove the disk that you
added in step 2, attack that disk to a new VM, and start that VM up.

3. Installing ESXi 4.1 with Boot from SAN :
1. Document network/port mappings in vSphere Client on existing ESX server
2. Put host into maintenance mode
3. Shutdown host
4. Remove host from Storage Group in EMC Navisphere
5. Create dedicated Storage Group per host for the boot LUN in Navisphere
6. Create the 5GB boot LUN for the host
7. Add the boot LUN to the host’s Storage Group
8. Connect to the host console via the Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC)
9. Attach ESXi media via DRAC virtual media
10. Power on host (physically or via the DRAC)
11. Press CTRL+Q to enter Qlogic FastUtil
12. Select Configuration Settings
13. Select Adapter Settings
14. Change “HBA BIOS” to Enabled [ESC]
15. Select “Selectable Boot”
16. Change to “Enabled”
17. Change primary from zeroes to the disk with the address of the owning SP
1. Compare the address with the EMC Storage Processor (SP) Front-End Port addresses in Navisphere
2. If the disk shows as “LUNZ”, do not enable Selectable Boot or configure a disk (skip to 21)
Escape and Save settings, but don’t leave the utility
At the main menu, select “Select Host Adapter”
Change to the next adapter
Repeat steps 12 through 20
Exit the utility, reboot, and press F2 to enter Setup
Change Boot Hard Disk Sequence to put the SAN disk first
Exit BIOS and reboot
Press F11 for boot menu
Select Virtual CD
In Setup on the “Select a Disk” screen, select the remote 5GB LUN
Press F11 to begin install
Press Enter to reboot the host
After setup completes, configure password, time, and network
Add host to vCenter and configure networking (per step 1)
Add LUNs to the host’s Storage Group in Navisphere
Rescan for storage on host in vCenter

4. vMware Issues in production :
1.HA issue because of DNS, the hosts are unable to communicate together. After adding all server IP's in
each server /etc/hosts file.
2.VM was not powered on, when the swap file was locked by another host, It powered on after
releasing the lock.
Resource pool :
o Esxi resource pool is a pool of CPU and memory resources.
o resources are allocated based on the CPU and memory shares that are defined.
Promiscuous mode :
o If we enable the mode in a switch, It gives the switch visibility to all vm's.
Traffic shaping :
We can control the vSwitch traffic.
o average bandwidth - estabilish the number of bits.
o burst bandwidth - estabilish the number of bytes.
o peak bandwidth.
vMware vshield Zone :
o It gives the network access protection between running VM's in the virtual datacenter.
VCB :
VCB is a backup framework, which enables third party backup tools to take backups.
o Centralized backups of esxi virtual servers
o It provides file level backups of Esxi servers,both full and incremental.
o Provides image level backups and utilizes vmware snap shots.
o It provides LAN-free backup,because the VCB server connected to SAN through FC.
Port Groups : The port group segregates the type of communication.
o Virtual machine port group - used for VM network.
o VMkernal portgroup includes NFS or iSCSI,vMotion.
o Service console poertgroup - only for ESX.

5. NIC Teaming :
o It is used to distribute the network traffic between the adapters.
o Reroute the traffic in the event of adapter failure and load balancing.
Virtual Machine Port group :
o It allow VM's to connect to the physical machine.
o This group enables communication between vSwitch and physical switch.
VC Core services :
o VM provisioning
o Task scheduling
o Event logging
What are the devices that can be added while the virtual Machine running
o VI 3.5 - HD and NIC's.
o vShepere 4.0 - Memory and processor along with HD and NIC's.
Snap Shot :
o It's the running state image of the virtual machine with file system and memory state.
Considerations when we initiate a snapshot :
o VM Configuration file.
o VM Hard Disk.
o VM Memory.
Command for restart host :
o service mgmt-vmware restart
High availability (HA) :
o HA gives high availability to valued application and VM's.
o It will restart the VM's with minimum downtime.
o HA is not dependent on VC or vMotion.
CPU Ready :
CPU Ready shows how long a virtual machine is waiting to be scheduled on a physical processor. A
virtual machine waiting many thousands of milliseconds to be scheduled on a processor might indicate

6. that the ESX/ESXi host is overloaded, a resource pool has too tight a limit, or the virtual machine has too
few CPU shares