Deploying Host Profiles - absentee-neptune/SYS-350 GitHub Wiki

Host Profiles Preliminary Research

Host Profiles are useful for standardizing a VMware host configuration across a large cluster. Host profiles are used to provision a new host much quicker and have the possibility to apply a predefined profile to new hosts to reduce time and the human error factor if this process were all manual. It's very important to keep the same security configuration, storage configuration, networking configuration for all your environment as it makes the hosts behave the same way with the same level of security when need be, and host profiles help with this.

One of the downsides is that you must have the Enterprise Plus License in order to fully take advantage of the configuration. Also, it is said that Host Profiles may not work properly in a cluster containing ESX and ESXi hosts (that are meant for different purposes). It is recommended that different clusters should be created for each type of host and maintain separate host profiles. So in an unregulated and/or nonuniformed network environment, it is not best to use host profiles.

esxstop command

When I ran the command, a bunch of data popped up which looked liked it would be formatted to a CSV file for analysis. There were statistics about the hardware the server was running and also network and storage configurations. Each entry of data for each header seemed to be dated and time-stamped as if it was a logging alternative for ESXi servers, or at least an interactive management service and updates as long as it is running. The command has different modes that it can be run in, which each has its own benefits. Using the tag -b enables batch mode, which allows you to collect and save resource utilization statistics in a file (such as a .csv). Using the tag -s enables secure mode when in interactive mode, in which the -d command, which specifies the delay between updates, is disabled, and allows much more control for data updates. Using the tag -R enables replay mode, which. allows you to replay data collected using the associated vm-support tool.

Deploying a Host Profile to the Cluster

I deployed a host profile that added a new admin user (brianna), set the root password for the hosts, added a new VM portgroup (Nested-LAN HP), added a new vSwitch (CYBER), and added a new role (Test). I attached and checked the compliance of the Host Profile against the three nested ESXi hosts and it is all good. Seeing the applied changes will be shown in the demo.


Milestone Completion

Milestone Demontration

Reflection


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