Best Practices and URL’s
Here’s a great check list that I came across today… Enjoy!
Component Check (per Best Practice)
Host Verify equipment was burned in with memory test for at least 72 hours
Host Verify all host hardware is on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)
Host Verify all host hardware meets minimum supported configuration
Host Check CPU compatibility for vMotion and FT
Host Check ESX/ESXi host physical CPU utilization to make sure that it is not saturated or running in a sustained high utilization
Host Verify all hosts in the cluster are compatible versions of ESX/ESXi
Host Check ESX/ESXi host active Swap In/Out rate to make sure that it is not consistently greater than 0
Host Check to make sure that there is sufficient service console memory (max is 800MB)
Host Verify that ESX service console root file system is not getting full
Host Check if any 3rd party agents are running in the ESX service console
Host Verify that NTP is used for time synchronization
Network Verify that networking in configured consistently across all hosts in a cluster
Network Check to make sure there is redundancy in networking paths and components to avoid single points of failure (e.g. at least 2 paths to each network)
Network If HA is being used, check that physical switches that support PortFast (or equivalent) have PortFast enabled
Network Check that NICs for the same uplink have same speeds and duplex settings
Network Check that Management/Service Console, Vmkernel, and VM traffic is separated (physical or logical using VLANs)
Network Verify that portgroup security settings for ForgedTransmits and MACAddressChanges are set to Reject
Network Check the virtual switch portgroup failover policy for appropriate active and standby NICs for failover
Network Verify that VMotion and FT traffic is on at least a 1 Gb network
Network Check that IP storage traffic is physically separate to prevent sharing network bandwidth
Storage Verify that VMs are on a shared datastore
Storage Check that datastores are masked/zoned to the appropriate hosts in a cluster
Storage Check that datastores are consistently accessible from all hosts in a cluster
Storage Check that the appropriate storage policy is used for the storage array (MRU, Fixed, RR)
Storage Check to make sure there is redundancy in storage paths and components to avoid single point of failure (e.g. at least 2 paths to each datastore)
Storage Check that datastores are not getting full
Virtual Datacenter Check that all datacenter objects use a consistent naming convention
Virtual Datacenter Verify that hosts within a cluster maintain a compatible and homogeneous (CPU/mem) to support the required functionality for DRS, DPM, HA, and VMotion
Virtual Datacenter Check that FT primaries are distributed on multiple hosts since FT logging is asymmetric
Virtual Datacenter Verify that hosts for FT are FT compatible
Virtual Datacenter Check that reservations/limits are used selectively on VMs that need it and are not set to extreme values
Virtual Datacenter Check that vCenter Server is not running other applications and vCenter add-ons (for large environments and heavily loaded vCenter systems) and is sized appropriately
Virtual Datacenter Check that the DB log setting is Normal unless there is a specific reason to set it to High
Virtual Datacenter Check that the vCenter statistics level is set to an appropriate level (1 or 2 recommended)
Virtual Datacenter Check that appropriate vCenter roles, groups, and permissions are being used
VM Check any VMs with CPU READY over 2000 ms
VM Check any VMs with sustained high CPU utilization
VM Check any VMs with incorrect OS type in the VM configuration compared to the guest OS
VM Check any VMs with multiple vCPUs to make sure the applications are not single threaded
VM Check the active Swap In/Out rate of VMs to make sure it is not consistently greater than 0
VM Check that NTP, windows time service, or another timekeeping utility suitable for the OS is used (and not VMware Tools)
VM Check that VMware Tools are installed, running, and not out of date for running VMs
VM Check VMs that are configured and enabled with unnecessary virtual hardware devices (floppy, serial, parallel, CDROM) and any devices that prevent VMotion
VM Check VMs that are not yet on virtual hardware v7
VM Check VM configuration (memory reservation) for VMs running JVM to consider setting reservation to the size of OS+ java heap
Item URL
Documentation http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs
VMTN Technology information http://www.vmware.com/vcommunity/technology
VMTN Knowledge Base http://kb.vmware.com
Discussion forums http://www.vmware.com/community
User groups http://www.vmware.com/vcommunity/usergroups.html
Online support http://www.vmware.com/support
Telephone support http://www.vmware.com/support/phone_support.html
Education Services http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/index.cfm
Certification http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/
Technical Papers http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources
Network throughput between virtual machines http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1428
Detailed explanation of VMotion considerations http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1022
Time keeping in virtual machines http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources/238
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006427
VMFS partitions http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources/608
VI3 802.1Q VLAN Solutions http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_vlan_wp.pdf
VMware Virtual Networking Concepts http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/997
Using EMC Celerra IP Storage (VI3 http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1036
VMware vCenter Update Manager documentation http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vum_pubs.html
VMware vCenter Update Manager Best Practices http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10022
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10041
Recommendations for aligning VMFS partitions http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources/608
Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10352
Large Page Performance http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1039
VMware vSphere PowerCLI http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/windowstoolkit/
VI3 security hardening http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/resources/726
VMware HA: Concepts and Best Practices http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/402
Java in Virtual Machine on ESX http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/Java_in_Virtual_Machines_on_ESX-FINAL-Jan-15-2009.pdf
CPU scheduler in ESX 4.0 http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10059
Dynamic Storage Provisioning (Thin Provisioning) http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10073
Understanding memory resource management on ESX http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/10062
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