Lab Introduction and Physical Architecture

Physical Architecture

In order to test new VMware products/features, I use the available hardware to build my very own lab. Usually I use one server with 256GB of RAM, and a FC/iSCSI external storage. The server comes with 4 NICs which are connected to a layer-3 switch. On the switch, I create the necessary VLANs and enable inter-VLAN routing. Afterwards, I configure the ports as Trunks. After installing the OEM-customized version of ESXi on the physical server, I add all 4 NICs in the same virtual standard switch, and enable the "Promiscuous Mode" on the switch settings. The number of Port Groups and their associated VLAN ID, or the number of Uplinks (vmnics) that I assign to each port group depends on the lab I'm creating.

Creating the VMs on the Physical Server

I start by creating nested ESXi servers. It's the same procedures as creating a regular VM, except you'll need to enable an option called "Expose hardware assisted virtualization to the guest OS", noting that this option is not available in legacy vSphere Client. Several people explain how to do this, so if you don't know how to create a nested ESXi VM, refer to their blog posts (hint: use Google to search for "create nested ESXi"). Other tips include reserving all memory, and using VMXNET3 adpaters.

The second type of VM is creating a new Windows Server VM and use it for two purposes:

1-  An iSCSI target for all the nested ESXi servers, thus providing them with a shared storage

2- A "Control Center" that I use to manage the nested environment.

For these purposes, I add a new role: "iSCSI Target Server" (refer to this link for more information). Also, I install Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Notepad++, Putty, WinSCP on the Control Center machine. If this Control Center is able to reach the Internet, I sync its time with a reliable time server.

Nested ESXi Shared Storage

On the nested ESXi servers, I configure a Software iSCSI Adapter. I take note of the IQN and add it to iSCSI Target Server, (and if necessary, the physical external iSCSI storage).

Now that all nested servers are deployed and have their shared storage, it's time to deploy VMs in this nested environment.

Stay tuned for the next post.

Note: I intend to publish more posts that shows how to do each step in details.