VMware VCP 4 Dumps|Pass your VCP 4 Exam Today

Configure Password screen appears. Type the new password and then type again to confirm the password.
Press ‘Enter’ to set the password.
The second option is ‘Lockdown mode’. Basically, this setting is related to remote management. If you
enable the lockdown mode, the remote users won’t be able to log in (including yourself) using the root password
that you have just set. This prevents users from logging into this console which is basically related to
administrative tasks only.
The third option ‘Configure Management Network‘ is the important one. Since we are using DHCP server,
the IP address, hostname and DNS servers are assigned automatically. However, in order to show you the
settings, we will enter the settings manually. Select Configure Management Network and press ‘Enter’.

www.certifyme.com
Configure Management Network screen appears. Select ‘IP Configuration’ and press Enter.
IP Configuration options screen appears. Select ‘static IP address and network configuration by selecting
the option and pressing ‘SpaceBar’

www.certifyme.com
Now select each option: IP address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway. Enter the IP addresses for each option.
The cursor appears on the right side of the option and you can enter the IP address in IPv4 format. After setting
the options, press ‘Enter’ to confirm the options.
Upon returning to the Configure Management Network screen, select DNS Configuration and hit Enter.

www.certifyme.com
The DNS Configuration screen appears. Configure the options automatically by selecting ‘Obtain DNS
server addresses and hostname automatically’. When you select this, the DHCP server will assign the DNS
server addresses and hostname. To manually enter the information, select ‘Use the following DNS server
addresses and hostname’. When you select this using the Spacebar, you need to select Primary DNS server and
enter the IP address, then select Secondary DNS server and enter the IP address and then select Hostname and
enter the hostname for this machine so that you and other users can access ESXi server from a browser and/or
manage it from vcenter server. Press ‘Enter’ to confirm the options and return to Configure Management
Network screen.

www.certifyme.com
You can also specify DNS suffixes for this server by selecting ‘Custom DNS Suffixes’ and entering the suffix
name. Press Enter to confirm and return to Configure Management Network screen.
Press ‘Esc’ to return to the main console screen. ESXi will ask you to confirm the changes to management
network. Press’Y’ for Yes.

www.certifyme.com
You will return to the main direct console screen. Check other options as well. You can Restart, Test and
Disable Management Network. It is good to test the network configurations you have done recently. Select Test
Management Network to test network configurations.

www.certifyme.com
References:
• http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2009/09/studying-for-vcp-on-vsphere-4.html
• http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx40_vc40.html

Lab Scenario
Following the original layout plan, you are ready to install ESXi on a compatible server. Since you plan to host
4 virtual machines on this server, you want to configure the network access and administrator password using
direct console. So you start with installing ESXi on a server and then once it is installed, you access the console
directly and configure network options.
Lab Objectives
Using your personal lab equipment, perform the following tasks:
• Install ESXi
• Configure ESXi from direct console
Lab Solution
To start the installation of ESXi, insert the media in DVD drive and boot the system from this DVD drive. The
installer options screen appears. Choose the option install from ESXi installer and hit ‘Tab’ and then ‘Enter’
After the loading process, ESXi main welcome screen appears. Press ‘Enter’ to Install

www.certifyme.com
On the ‘End User License Agreement’ screen, press ‘F11′ to accept the license and continue to the next
screen.
On ‘Select a Disk’ screen, select the disk you want to install ESXi and press ‘Enter’ to select the disk and
continue with the installation process.

www.certifyme.com
On ‘Confirm Install’ screen, press ‘F11′ to install ESX 4.0.0 on the selected disk.
The installation starts. After the installation, ESXi will confirm that the installation has succeeded. Review the
information on the screen and press ‘Enter’ to reboot the server.

www.certifyme.com
After the reboot, the main ESXi screen (black and yellow) will welcome you. To customize various options,
press ‘F2′ to enter the direct console and to shutdown and restart the server press ‘F12′. Press ‘F2′ to
enter direct console.
The direct console screen appears. You can see the option on the left side. You can set administrator password,
configure network options and host of other options.

www.certifyme.com
First task is to set the administrator password. Select ‘Configure Password‘ and press ‘Enter’.

www.certifyme.com
Configure Password screen appears. Type the new password and then type again to confirm the password.
Press ‘Enter’ to set the password.
The second option is ‘Lockdown mode‘. Basically, this setting is related to remote management. If you
enable the lockdown mode, the remote users won’t be able to log in (including yourself) using the root password
that you have just set. This prevents users from logging into this console which is basically related to
administrative tasks only.
The third option ‘Configure Management Network‘ is the important one. Since we are using DHCP server,
the IP address, hostname and DNS servers are assigned automatically. However, in order to show you the
settings, we will enter the settings manually. Select Configure Management Network and press ‘Enter’.

www.certifyme.com

Technology Background
Difference between ESX and ESXi
ESXi is a thin version of ESX. Basically the Linux SLI is removed from ESXi whereas ESX has full blown
Linux command line environment to configure various tasks.
There are many benefits of the thin ESXi – less overhead, fewer patches, and greater security. With ESXi, the
“console” is a simple yellow and black menu driven text interface with only the most basic options. However,
ESXi actually has an extremely thin Linux-based console that can be accessed.

www.certifyme.com
Officially, VMware says that you should administer your ESXi server using either the GUI VI Client or the CLI
VMware RCLI. Thus, if you want to perform commands and scripting on your ESXi server, you need to install
the remote command line interface on your Windows PC.
Configuring ESXi from direct console
Configuring ESXi from direct console is relatively easy if you know networking and the server that has ESXi
installed is connected to the network. But first, you need to install ESXi on the server.
However, before installing ESXi server, check the Hardware Compatibility Guide to make sure the server you
are installing ESXi on has the required hardware needed to install ESXi.
For example, the ESXi compatible server should have 64 bit processor (AMD or Intel). At least 3 GB RAM and
SCSI hard drives is a minimum requirement. Now assuming your system has a RAID controller with multiple
hard disks the next step will be to configure those into a logical disk, usually a bootable utility is provided with
the controller to help you do this. Your first important decision comes now, which is how you will configure
your RAID array, depending on the number of disks you have installed. With three or more hard disks it is
tempting to go for RAID5 in order to maximize your capacity whilst still retaining redundancy. For a normal
server install this would be fine, but if you intend to run several virtual machines on this disk array then
RAID1+0 is recommended instead. This is because VMs use a lot of random read/write disk access, and the
way RAID 5 works incurs a significant write speed penalty. Whilst this is not usually noticeable with a single
system accessing an array when there are several it can have serious effect on performance. For the same
reasons the more physical disks you can put in your array the better – given the choice between 2×500GB drives
or 4×250GB drives you should always opt for the latter.
After setting up your server hardware, download ESXi from VMware download site. The file is an .iso file.
Write the file on CD/DVD. Now you need to boot your system using this media. But before that, consider the
following tasks:

• Add ESXi Embedded to your network
• Install the vSphere Client so you can connect to the ESXi host after installation
So once you install ESXi and start managing it from your end using VMware Vsphere client, the process of
accessing the host and installing virtual machines would look like this:

www.certifyme.com
Setting up ESXi
Setting up ESXi involves configuring the Administrative (root) password for the ESXi host and configuring the
default networking behavior.
Before you begin these tasks, you must have the following set up:
• An ESXi system that is connected to a monitor and a keyboard and that is powered on.
• At least one other computer to act as a management station. This computer must be running Windows
and have network access to the ESXi host.
In order to ease network configuration tasks, it is recommended that you use a DHCP server enable network and
connect ESXi to that network.
When you power on the ESXi host for the first time, it enters an auto-configuration phase during which system
network and storage devices are configured with defaults. After the host completes the auto-configuration
phase, the direct console appears on the attached monitor.
Using a keyboard attached to the host, press F2 to examine the default configuration. As the system
administrator, you can make changes to the default configuration, such as creating the administrator password
or setting the static IP address. VMware recommends that you configure your administrative access settings and
server network.
Set the Password for the Administrator Account
You can use the direct console to set the password for the administrator account (root). The administrative user
name for the ESXi 4.0 host is root. By default, the administrative password is not set.
Configuring IP Settings for ESXi
By default, DHCP sets the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. For future reference, write down the
IP address if it is assigned by a DHCP server.
For DHCP to work, your network environment must have a DHCP server. If DHCP is not available, the host
assigns the link local IP address, which is in the subnet 169.254.x.x/16. No outbound traffic is allowed through
the assigned IP address. The assigned IP address appears on the direct console. If you do not have physical
access to the host, you can access the direct console using a remote management application.
When you have access to the direct console, you can optionally configure a static network address. The default
subnet mask is 255.255.0.0.
If your network does not have a DHCP server, configure the IP settings for ESXi manually from the direct
console.
Configure DNS Settings from the Direct Console
If you have physical access to the host or remote access to the direct console, you can use the direct console to
configure DNS information. It is good to manually enter the DNS settings in case DHCP server is not present.
www.certifyme.com
DNS settings are important if you want to create a cluster of ESXi servers on vCenter server or if you want to
install virtual machines on ESXi server using Vsphere client.

Exam Objective: Configure ESXi from the direct console

Contents
• Introduction
• Technology Background
• Lab Scenario
• Lab Objectives

www.certifyme.com
• Lab Solution
Introduction
VMware ESXi is the next-generation hypervisor, providing a new foundation for virtual infrastructure. This
innovative architecture operates independently from any general-purpose operating system, offering improved
security, increased reliability, and simplified management. The compact architecture is designed for integration
directly into virtualization-optimized server hardware, enabling rapid installation, configuration, and
deployment.
Functionally, ESXi 4.0 is equivalent to ESX 4.0, offering the same levels of performance and scalability.
However, the Linux-based service console has been removed, reducing the footprint to less than 32MB of
memory. The functionally of the service console is replaced by new remote command line interfaces in
conjunction with adherence to system management standards. Because ESXi is functionally equivalent to ESX,
it supports the entire VMware Vsphere 4 suite of products, including VMware Virtual Machine File System
(VMFS), Virtual SMP, VirtualCenter, VMotion, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, VMware High
Availability, VMware Update Manager, and VMware Consolidated Backup.
The VMware ESXi architecture comprises the underlying operating system, called VMkernel, and processes
that run on top of it. VMkernel provides means for running all processes on the system, including management
applications and agents as well as virtual machines. It has control of all hardware devices on the server, and
manages resources for the applications. The main processes that run on top of VMkernel are:

• Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) — the low-level configuration and management interface,
accessible through the console of the server, used primarily for initial basic configuration.
• The virtual machine monitor, which is the process that provides the execution environment for a virtual
machine, as well as a helper process known as VMX. Each running virtual machine has its own VMM
and VMX process.
• Various agents used to enable high-level VMware Infrastructure management from remote applications.
• The Common Information Model (CIM) system: CIM is the interface that enables hardware-level
management from remote applications via a set of standard APIs.

VMware ESXi 4.0 is not available free of cost. You have to purchase it along with the VMware Vsphere 4
license unlike ESXi 3.5 or 3.0 which is free to download and install.