Preparing Virtual Machines for Cisco APIC-EM

20 Pages·2017·2.38 MB·English

Preparing Virtual Machines for Cisco APIC-EM
• PreparingaVMwareSystemforCiscoAPIC-EMDeployment, page 1
• VirtualMachineConfigurationRecommendations, page 1
• ConfiguringResourcePoolsUsingvSphereWebClient, page 4
• ConfiguringaVirtualMachineUsingvSphereWebClient, page 7
Preparing a VMware System for Cisco APIC-EM Deployment
ToensurethattheCiscoAPIC-EMworkswellwithinavirtualenvironment,configurethevirtualmachine
withrecommendedresourcepoolvalues.Aresourcepoolisalogicalabstractionforthevirtualmachinesthat
canbeusedtomanageresources.Resourcepoolscanbegroupedintohierarchiesandthenusedtopartition
CPUandmemoryresources.
YoucanconfigureandpreparethevirtualmachineusingeithertheVMwarevSphereClientorWebClient.
WerecommendthatyouusetheVMwarevSphereWebClient,sincetheLatencySensitivitysettingfor
resourcepoolsmustbeconfiguredasHigh.TheLatencySensitivitysettingcanonlybeconfiguredusing
theVMwarevSphereWebClient.
Note WhendeployingtheCiscoAPIC-EMinavirtualenvironment,youmustfirstconfiguretheVMware
systembeforeinstallingCiscoAPIC-EM.ToinstallCiscoAPIC-EM,youneedtodownloadtheISO
imagecontainingthecontrollerfromCisco.comandthenmaptheISOimagetotheVMwaresystemand
bootfromit.
Virtual Machine Configuration Recommendations
ThefollowingtableliststherecommendedconfigurationsettingsforasuccessfulCiscoAPIC-EMVMware
vSphereinstallation,includingresourcepools.WheninstallingCiscoAPIC-EMonasupportedvirtualmachine,
werecommendthatthefollowingconfigurationsettingsareused.
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Virtual Machine Configuration Recommendations
Note WhenpreparingthevirtualmachinefortheCiscoAPIC-EM,theconfigurationsettingsterminologymay
differdependingupontheVMwareapplicationandGUIthatyourareusing.
Table 1: Virtual Machine Configuration Recommendations (Including Resource Pools)
Datastores Werecommendthatyoudonotshareadatastorewith
anydefinedvirtualmachinesthatarenotpartofthe
designatedCiscoAPIC-EMcluster.
Ifthedatastoreisshared,thendiskI/Oaccess
contentionmayoccurandcauseasignificant
reductionofdiskbandwidththroughputanda
significantincreaseofI/Olatencytothecluster.
Note Whenconfiguringthevirtualmachine,you
canselectanyoftheVMwarevirtual
machineprovisioningpolicesforthevirtual
diskfile(ThickProvisionLazyZeroed,
ThickProvisionEagerZeroed,orThin
Provision).
ResourcePool:CPUResources
•Shares—Normal
•Reservation—14400MHzisminimum
configurationsettingforthisvalue
•ReservationType—CheckboxforExpandable
•Limit—Unlimited
ResourcePool:MemoryResources
•Shares—Normal
•Reservation—RefertotheCiscoApplication
PolicyInfrastructureControllerEnterprise
ModuleReleaseNotesfordetailedinformation
aboutRAMrequirements.
•ReservationType—CheckboxforExpandable
•Limit—Unlimited
VMwareESXiVersion 5.1/5.5/6.0
GuestOS:FamilyandVersion
•GuestOSFamily—Linux
•GuestOSVersion—UbuntuLinux(64-bit)
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Virtual Machine Configuration Recommendations
VirtualHardware:CPU
•CPU—6cores(minimum)
•Reservation—14400MHzisminimum
configurationsettingforthisvalue
•Limit—Unlimited
•Shares—Normal
Note 6CPUsistheminimumnumberrequiredfor
yourvirtualmachineconfiguration.For
betterperformance,werecommendusing
12CPUs.Additionally,thenumberof
socketsusedwhensettingupCPUstoa
virtualmachineinVMwaredoesnotimpact
thecontroller'sperformance.
VirtualHardware:Memory
•Memory—RefertotheCiscoApplicationPolicy
InfrastructureControllerEnterpriseModule
ReleaseNotesfordetailedinformationabout
RAMrequirements.
•Reserveallmemory—CheckboxtoEnable.
VirtualHardware:NewHarddisk 500GB(minimum)
VirtualHardware:NewSCSIcontroller VMwareParavirtual
VirtualHardware:Newnetwork
•Newnetworkvalue—EnterthenetworkIP
addressthatthecontrollerwillconnecttofor
thisvalue.
•Status—CheckboxtoenableConnectatPower
On
•Adaptertype—VMXNET3
VirtualHardware:NewCD/DVDDrive SelectDatastoreISOfilefromthedropdownandthe
configurethelocationoftheISOfileintheFile
window
VMOptions:Advanced ChooseHighforLatencySensitivity
Note Youcanconfigureandpreparethevirtual
machineusingeithertheVMwarevSphere
ClientorWebClient.Werecommendthat
youusetheVMwarevSphereWebClient,
sincetheLatencySensitivitysettingfor
resourcepoolsmustbeconfiguredasHigh.
TheLatencySensitivitysettingcanonlybe
configuredusingtheVMwarevSphereWeb
Client.
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Configuring Resource Pools Using vSphere Web Client
Configuring Resource Pools Using vSphere Web Client
ToensurethattheCiscoAPIC-EMworkswellwithinavirtualenvironment,youshouldconfigureresource
poolswiththerecommendedvalues.Aresourcepoolisalogicalabstractionforthevirtualmachinesthatcan
beusedtomanageresources.ResourcepoolscanbegroupedintohierarchiesandthenusedtopartitionCPU
andmemoryresources.
Note Youshouldfirstcreateanewresourcepoolwiththerecommendedconfigurationvaluesasdescribedin
thisprocedure,andthensubsequentlycreateavirtualmachine(wheretheCiscoAPIC-EMwillbeinstalled)
onthatresourcepool.
Before You Begin
YouhavereviewedyourVMwaredocumentationconcerningresourcepoolsandtheirconfiguration.
YouarefamiliarwiththeVMwarevSphereWebClientandhaveabasicknowledgeofhowtocreate,manage
andtroubleshootvirtualmachinesusingit.
YouhaveyourhostandvirtualdatastoresalreadysetupandaccessibleinvSphereWebClientforthis
procedure.
Step 1 OpentheVMwarevSphereWebClienttoperformtheprocedure.
Figure 1: VMware vSphere Web Client
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Configuring Resource Pools Using vSphere Web Client
Step 2 ClickvCenterintheNavigator.
Figure 2: vCenter Home
Step 3 ClickonHosts.
Figure 3: Hosts
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Configuring Resource Pools Using vSphere Web Client
Chooseahostwhereyouwillcreatetheresourcepool.
Step 4 Right-clickontheselectedhostandclickAllvCenterActions|NewResourcePool.
Figure 4: New Resource Pool
Step 5 EnteranameandspecifyvaluesfortheresourcepoolintheNewResourcePooldialogbox.
Figure 5: New Resource Pool
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Configuring a Virtual Machine Using vSphere Web Client
Werecommendenteringthefollowingresourcepoolvaluesinthisdialogbox:
•CPUResources
◦Shares—ChooseNormalfromthedrop-downmenu
◦Reservation—14400MHzisminimumconfigurationsettingforthisvalue
◦ReservationType—CheckboxforExpandable
◦Limit—SettoMaximumLimit
•MemoryResources
◦Shares—ChooseNormalfromthedrop-downmenu
◦Reservation—32GBor64GBistheminimumconfigurationsettingforthisvalue,dependinguponyour
hardware.
◦ReservationType—CheckboxforExpandable
◦Limit—SettoMaximumLimit
Step 6 ClickOKtosavetheconfiguredresourcepoolvalues.
What to Do Next
Proceedtocreateanewvirtualmachineonthisresourcepool.Forassistancewiththisprocedure,seethe
followingprocedure,ConfiguringaVMwareServerUsingvSphereWebClient.
Configuring a Virtual Machine Using vSphere Web Client
ToensurethattheCiscoAPIC-EMproperlyfunctionsinavirtualenvironment,createthevirtualmachine(s)
followingtheproceduredescribedbelowwiththerecommendedsettings.
Note Youmustcreatethisvirtualmachineontheresourcepoolthatyouearlierconfigured,asdescribedinthe
previousprocedure.
Before You Begin
YouhavereviewedtheminimumsystemrequirementsforasuccessfulCiscoAPIC-EMVMwarevSphere
installation,aspreviouslydescribedinthisguide.
YouarefamiliarwiththeVMwarevSphereWebClientandhaveabasicknowledgeofhowtocreate,manage
andtroubleshootvirtualmachinesusingtheWebClient.
YouhaveyourhostandvirtualdatastoresalreadysetupandaccessibleinvSphereWebClientforthis
procedure.
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Configuring a Virtual Machine Using vSphere Web Client
Youhavealreadycreatedaresourcepoolonthehost,followingthestepsdescribedinthepreviousprocedure,
ConfiguringResourcePoolsUsingvSphereWebClient.
Step 1 OpentheVMwarevSphereWebClienttoperformtheprocedure.
Figure 6: VMware vSphere Web Client
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Configuring a Virtual Machine Using vSphere Web Client
Step 2 ClickvCenterintheNavigator.
Figure 7: vCenter
Step 3 ClickResourcePoolsintheInventoryListsinvCenter.
Step 4 Choosetheresourcepoolwhereyouwillinstallthevirtualmachinefromthelist.
Figure 8: Resource Pools
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Configuring a Virtual Machine Using vSphere Web Client
Step 5 RightclickontheresourcepoolandselectNewVirtualMachinefromthemenu.
Figure 9: New Virtual Machine
Note Westronglyrecommendthatonlyasinglevirtualmachinebecreatedundertheresource
pool.
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