1) How does VMotion works? Whats the port number used for it?

Answer
VMotion is used to migrate a running virtual machine from one ESX host to another host
without any down time.
vMotion:Live or cold migration of a virtual machine from one physical server to another server is
called as vMotion.
Now come's the question, how does this happens? How is it possible? does really the
user might not face an access disruption. this what the question come in the mind and
here a explanation.
There are 3 underlying action happening in vMotion.
First:The entire state of a virtual machine is encapsulated by a set of files stored on shared
storage such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network
Attached,Storage (NAS).
VMware vStorage VMFS allows multiple ESX to access the same virtual machine files
concurrently.
Second:The active memory and precise execution state of the virtual machine is rapidly
transferred over a high speed network, allowing the virtual machine to instantaneously
switch from running on the source ESX host to the destination ESX host.
VMotion keeps the transfer period imperceptible to users by keeping track of on-going
memory transactions in a bitmap.
Once the entire memory and system state has been copied over to the target ESX host,
VMotion suspends the source virtual machine, copies the bitmap to the target ESX host,
and resumes the virtual machine on the target ESX host.
This entire process takes less than two seconds on a Gigabit Ethernet network.
Third:The networks being used by the virtual machine are also virtualized by the underlying
ESX host, ensuring that even after the migration, the virtual machine network identity
and network connections are preserved.

VMotion manages the virtual MAC address as part of the process. Once the destination
machine is activated, VMotion pings the network router to ensure that it is aware of the
new physical location of the virtual MAC address.
Since the migration of a virtual machine with VMotion preserves the precise execution
state, the network identity, and the active network connections, the result is zero
downtime and no disruption to users.
The port no. used for VMotion is 8000 TCP as protocol.
2) Prerequisites for VMotion
1) CPU compatibility (i.e., source and destination hosts should be of same family i.e.,
Intel or AMD).
2) Storage should be common or shared storage.
3) Resources should be available on the destination host.
4) Physical network should be same network.
5) Create vmkernel port group in both source and destination hosts.
6) No access of mountable devices.
7) No permission of vmx file.

3) Prerequisites for HA?

1)

CPU compatibility (i.e., source and destination hosts should be of same family i.e.,
Intel or AMD).

2) Storage should be common or shared storage.

3) Resources should be available on the destination host.
4) Physical network should be same network.
5) Create vmkernel port group in both source and destination hosts.
6) Host should be configured with FQDN.

7) DNS should be configured with Host name.

4) How do DRS works? Which technology used? What are the priority counts to
migrate the VMs?
DRS means Distributed Resource Scheduler. Its main function is Load Balancing
Mechanism. VMware DRS allows users to define the rules and policies that decide how
virtual machines share resources and how these resources are prioritized among
multiple virtual machines.
When a virtual machine experiences increased load, VMware DRS first evaluates its
priority against the established resource allocation rules and policies, and if justified,
allocates additional resources. Resources are allocated to the virtual machine by either
migrating it to another server with more available resources or by making more space
for it on the same server by migrating other virtual machines to different servers. The live
migration of virtual machines to different physical servers is executed completely
transparent to end-users through VMware VMotion.
VMware DRS uses VMware VMotion technology to automatically and transparently
move running workloads between systems to provide a level of runtime flexibility unique
to virtual environments.
For each migration recommendation, the priority level is limited to the integer range
priority 2 to priority 5 (inclusive).
For each migration recommendation, the priority level is limited to the integer range
priority 2 to priority 5
(inclusive). It is calculated according to this formula:
6 - ceiling(LoadImbalanceMetric / 0.1 * sqrt(NumberOfHostsInCluster))
Here, ceiling (x) is the smallest integer value not less than x. LoadImbalanceMetric is the
current host load standard deviation shown on the cluster's Summary page of the
vSphere Client.
For each host:
1. Compute the load on the host as
sum(expected VM loads) / (capacity of host)
This value is the host load metric.
2. Compute the standard deviation of the host load metric across all hosts to
determine Load balance Metric.
These formulas apply only to ESX/ESXi 4.x and VCenter Server 4.x. They are subject to
change.

5) How does snap shots works?

Snapshot is a pre-reserved state of a virtual machine.
A VMware snapshot is a copy of the virtual machine's disk file (VMDK) at a given point
in time.
6) What are the files will be created while creating a VM and after powering on the
VM?

The default files created while the VM is created are

VMX file Configuration
VMXF file Supplementational Configuration
VMDK Files Disk related files, includes .VMDK, -delta.vmdk, -rdm.vmds
VSWP File Memory overflow (SWAP) file
VMSD File Snapshot details
VMSS File Memory contents of suspended VM
VMSN File Snapshot Files
NVRAM File BIOS file
Log files
After powering on the VM
VSWP file
At VM power on, a memory swap file is created, it is equal to the memory designated to
the VM in its VM settings. If the ESXi host cannot provide sufficient memory to the VM,
and Ballooning cannot be utilized to free memory then the host will use this file as
memory overflow.
7) If the VMDK header file corrupt what will happen? How do you troubleshoot?
If VMDK header corrupted following will happen
Failed to open disk.
The file specified is not a virtual disk (15) 3023.
Cannot open the disk or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
The file specified is not a virtual disk
To resolve this issue, you have to recreate the VMDK header/descriptor file.
If the virtual machine is using persistent disks, see Recreating a missing virtual disk (VMDK)
header/descriptor file (1002511).

On products such as VMware Workstation and VMware Server, you need to use the vmwarevdiskmanager utility to create a new disk of the same type and size of the -flat.vmdk file.
In Windows, this utility is located in the install directory of VMware Server or VMware
Workstation (C:/Program Files/VMware/).
To recreate the VMDK header/descriptor file:
If you are using Windows, locate the utility in the install directory of VMware Server or VMware
Workstation (C:/Program Files/VMware/).
Run the command:
vmware-vdiskmanager.exe <create disk> <size> <adapter> <disk-type> <path>
For example, to create a 20 GB persistent size disk for use with Windows Server 2003 on the e:
drive, run the command:
vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -c -s 20GB -a lsilogic -t 2 "e:\newdisk.vmdk"
Note: For more information about vmware-vdiskmanager.exe, consult the Linux man page (man
vmware-vdiskmanager) or Windows Help (vmware-vdiskmanager /?).
Copy the new VMDK descriptor file to the folder where the problematic virtual machine is
located, and edit the flat file to which it points so it has the correct name.
8) What are the prerequisites for installing VC and Update manager?
Hardware requirement for installing VC and update manager for ESXi 5.x
Hardware Requirement
Processor: Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more logical cores, each with a speed
of at least 2GHz
Memory:2GB RAM if Update Manager and vCenter Server are on different machines
4GB RAM if Update Manager and vCenter Server are on the same machine
Networking:10/100 Mbps
Note: For best performance, use a Gigabit connection between vCenter Update
Manager and the ESX/ESXi hosts
vCenter Update Manager 5.x requires a 64-bit operating system and cannot be installed
on a 32-bit operating system. When performing an install you must ensure that your
operating system is 64-bit capable
update manager requires 32-bit DSN to communicate with database and it requires min
120GB storage space to store patches
9) I turned on Maintenance mode in an ESX host, all the VMs has been migrated to
another host, but only one VM failed to migrate? What are the possible reasons?

1. Is the VM in the same shared datastore as the other VMs.

2. Is the other host resource setting preventing the vm to be migrated.
3. Post the last set of vmkernel logs to know more about the failure.
4. Is by any chance, any additional disks are configured as RDM.
10) How will you turn start / stop a VM through command prompt?
There may be times when you can't manage ESX through the GUI, but thankfully you can still
manage virtualization from the command prompt.
First, you can list all the VMs on a server using the vmware-cmd -l command. For example,
vmware-cmd -l
Produces
/vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/Test/Test.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/savdalvdi01/savdalvdi01.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/savdalesxvc/savdalesxvc.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/savdalappv01/savdalappv01
.vmx
Note that you're shown the VMX location for each VMs. You need these paths to actually control
the VMs.
To check if a VM is running, specify the VMX file and the getstate switch. For example,
vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/savdalesxvc/
savdalesxvc.vmx getstate
returns
getstate() = off
To start a VM, just use the start switch. For example,
vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/f27f61fa-1c0f60ae/savdalesxvc/
savdalesxvc.vmx start
returns
start() = 1
The VM will now be running.
11) I have upgraded a VM from 4 to 8 GB RAM; its getting failed at 90% of powering on?
How do you troubleshoot?
12) Storage team provided the new LUN ID to you? How will you configure the LUN in VC?
What
would be the block size (say for 500 GB volume size)?

13) I want to add a new VLAN to the production network? What are the steps involved
in that? And how do you enable it?
14) Whats the difference between Top and ESXTOP command?
Difference between TOP and ESXTOP commands:1. Vmware ESXTOP command is used to for Storage Monitoring.
2. ESX TOP show the service console performance (or) ESX host performance.
3. Monitors overall storage performance per HBA.
4. Monitors storage performance per LUN.
5. Monitors storage performance per VM.
6. TOP command is used to shows how many users are logged in to virtual center.
15) How will you check the network bandwidth utilization in an ESXS host through
command prompt?

16) How will you generate a report for list of ESX, VMs, RAM and CPU used in your
Vsphere environment?
Two ways to generate report for ESXi,VM,RAM and CPU
A) use the vCenter performance charts, select chart options and chose the the resource &
corresponding metrics
B) Go to host>click File>Report>host summary(or)performance

17) What the difference between connecting the ESX host through VC and Vsphere?
What are the services involved in that? What are the port numbersused?
The ports used for connecting ESX host through vsphere is HTTP port 80 and HTTP port 443
18) Can I deploy a VM by template in different data centres?
Yes we can deploy vm by template in different data centers.
Procedure to deploy VM from template
Right click on template>select deploy a virtual machine
Start deploy a virtual machine from a template task
>Select virtual machine name and folder>Select resource>Select a data store

19) I want to increase the system partition size (windows 2003 server- Guest OS) of a
VM? How will you do it without any interruption to the end user?
Through Extpart.exe we can increase the partition size (C:\) without any interruption to the end
user. Remaining partitions we can increase through diskpart.

20) Which port number used while 2 ESX transfer the data in between?

21) Unable to connect to a VC through Vsphere client? What could be the reason? How
do you troubleshoot?
Cause
This issue occurs if there is a proxy server between the vSphere Client and vCenter Server. The
vSphere Client does not support proxy connections to connect to vCenter Server.
Resolution
To resolve this issue, disable the connection to the proxy server.

To disable the connection to the proxy server:

1. Click Start > Control Panel.
2. Click Network and Sharing Center or Network and Internet.
3. Click Internet Options in the left pane.
4. Click the Connections tab.
5. Click LAN Settings.
6. Deselect Use a proxy server for your LAN.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK to close the Internet Properties window.
22) Have you ever upgraded the ESX 3.5 to 4.0? How did you do it?
Yes.
Steps:-

1. Login to client environment.

2. Open internet explorer and enter ILO IP. It will login into physical server.
3. Click on resource console at the left pane.
4. Click on launch java at right pane. Console will be opned.
5. Click on ADD Virtal Disk. And select the ISO image of ESX 4.0.
6. Click on power source. And select Cold Boot.
7. Rebooting will start with in server.
8. In between upgrading It will ask for Storage option then we will give server
storage i.e., HP\DELL.
9. Select ESXI overwrite on data store.
10. Reboot is completed. After this provide IP to the server.

23) What is AAM? Where is it used? How do you start or stop through command
prompt?
AAM is the Legato automated availability management. Prior to vSphere 4.1, VMwares HA
is actually re engineered to work with VMs with the help of Legatos Automated Availability
Manager (AAM) software. VMwares vCenter agent (vpxa) interfaces with the VMware HA agent
which acts as an intermediary to the AAM software. From vSphere 5.0, it uses an agent called
FDM (Fault Domain Manager).Upto ESXi 4.1 AAM was used as HA agent
service vmware-aam restart
service vmware-aam stop
service vmware-aam start

24) How will you change the service console IP?

25) Whats the difference between ESX and ESXi?
Diff. Btw ESX and ESXi:-

1. ESX supports service console (CLI) command line interface whereas ESXi does
not support service console.
2. ESX supports CLI and GUI whereas ESXi supports only GUI
3. ESX supports virtual apps and scripting whereas ESXi also supports virtual apps
and scripting after the introduction of Power CLI from ESXi 5.0.
4. ESX versions:- 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0
ESXi versions:- 3.5, 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5.

26) What is the Maximum Virtual SCSI adapters per virtual machine?
27) What is the Maximum Virtual SCSI targets per virtual SCSI adapter?
28) What is the Maximum IDE controllers per virtual machine?
29) What is the Maximum Parallel ports per virtual machine?

Answers for Q. nos 26, 27, 28, 29 are tabulated below.

ESXi versions

Max. Virtual SCSI

adapters per VM

4.0
4.1
5.0
5.1
5.5

42
41
42
4
4

Max. Virtual SCSI

targets per virtual
SCSI adapters
153
152
153
152
152

Max. IDE
controllers per
VM
15
13
14
13
13

Max. Parallel
ports per VM
3
3
3
3
3