Manage the Lifecycle of VMware ESX Virtual Machines

Manage the Lifecycle of VMware ESX Virtual Machines

As a Service Consumer, your responsibilities require you to work with virtual machines. The self-service portal allows you to reserve VMware ESX virtual machines and manage their lifecycles. Use the self-service portal to perform the following tasks:

• Reserve a virtual machine for a specified period on one or more virtual machines.
• Manage your reserved virtual machines.
  • Change, extend, or return the virtual machine reservation.
  • Create, restore, or delete a virtual machine snapshot.

Reservations and management requests are subject to approval by your Service Provider or administrator. You receive emails with information about how to access your virtual machines and the status of your requests.

The following diagram illustrates how to reserve and manage VMware ESX Virtual Machines.

Perform the following tasks to reserve and manage a virtual machine:

1. Access VMware ESX Management
2. Select Reservation Type
   • Reserve VMware Virtual Machine
   • Reserve Using a Template
3. Manage Your Reserved Machines
   • Extend or Return Reservations
   • Create, Restore, or Delete a Virtual Machine Snapshot

Access VMware ESX Management

The self-service portal lets you reserve and manage virtual machines. The portal centralizes, expedites, and automates virtual-machine requests. The portal is accessible from CA Service Catalog with the URL and credentials that your Service Provider provides.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to CA Service Catalog.
2. Click Requests.

   The available services list opens.

3. Click Server Automation Services, VMware ESX Management.

   The VMware ESX Management page opens. You can use the page to request VMware ESX machines and manage their lifecycles.

Select Reservation Type

You can reserve a virtual machine (or machines) in the following ways:

• Reserve VMware Virtual Machine
• Reserve Using a Template

You can reserve virtual machines according to your project or business requirements. Configuration options include:

• Operating system
• Installed applications
• Quantity of CPUs
• Amount of memory

You can reserve the appropriate resource allocation for a specified period on one or more virtual machines. Ensure that you:

• Provide a unique reservation name as the system does not support duplicate names.
• Modify the default value in the Primary Disk (GB) to extend the primary disk space. The new value that you add must be greater than the default value. Contact your Service Provider if you have any issues modifying the value.

Note: The Administrator Password field is visible only if you are requesting Windows virtual machines. For the Linux virtual machines request, this field is hidden. Contact your Service Provider for the root password after the virtual machine is provisioned.

Reserve VMware Virtual Machine

Perform the following procedure for requesting uncommon configurations or for reserving a single machine.

Follow these steps:

1. Access VMware ESX Management.
2. Click Reserve VMware Virtual Machine.

   A web form opens with fields for defining the request.

3. Complete the required form fields.

   Additional form fields populate.

4. Modify the populated fields as required.
5. Click Add to Cart and Check Out.
6. Review your request details, and click Save and Submit Cart.

A confirmation message displays. Your request is processed. An Approving Manager reviews your reservation. You receive an email indicating whether your request was approved or declined. If approved, the email includes information about how to access your resources.

Reserve Using a Template

You can create a virtual machine (or machines) based on a reservation template with predefined resources. A reservation template provides the flexibility to select and deploy virtual machines automatically. You can add additional software packages to the base operating system after it is deployed.

Follow these steps:

1. Access VMware ESX Management.
2. Click Reserve Using a Template.

   A web form opens with fields for defining the request.

3. Complete the required form fields.

   Additional form fields populate.

4. Modify the populated fields as required.
5. Click Add to Cart and Check Out.
6. Review your request details, and click Save and Submit Cart.

A confirmation message displays. Your request is processed. An Approving Manager reviews your reservation. You receive an email indicating whether your request was approved or declined. If approved, the email includes information about how to access your resources.

Manage Your Reserved Machines

After successful reservation of virtual machines, you can manage their lifecycles from the self-service portal. You can:

• Change hardware configurations. You can request to increase or decrease the quantity of CPUs or amounts of memory.
• Extend or return reservations. If you require a machine longer than you originally requested, you can request to extend your reservation. If you no longer require a machine, you can return it back to the resource pool.

Create and manage snapshots. Snapshots are ideal for capturing complex configurations and rapidly returning machines to a previous state.

Change VMware Virtual Machine

Your virtual machine requirements can change after your machine is available. You can increase or decrease the quantity of CPUs and amount of memory on the virtual machines you reserved. Your Service Provider sets the available configuration options. Additionally, configuration change requests are subject to approval by your service provider or administrator.

Follow these steps:

1. Access VMware ESX Management.
2. Click Change VMware Virtual Machine.

   A web form opens.

3. Complete the required form fields.

   Additional form fields populate.

4. Modify the populated fields as required.
5. Click Add to Cart and Check Out.
6. Review your request details, and click Save and Submit Cart.

A confirmation message displays. Your request is processed. You receive an email indicating whether your request was approved or rejected.

Extend or Return Reservations

As your project and business requirements change, you can modify the durations of your virtual machine reservations.

Note: Your Approving Manager determines the latest date to which you can extend a reservation. You cannot edit the value.

You can return an entire reservation, which lets you restore the unneeded allocated capacity and performance to the resource pool. Before you return a reservation, consider creating a snapshot of your virtual environment in case you require it again later.

You cannot cancel a reservation that is approved and in the Pending Fulfillment status. Wait until the virtual machine is provisioned, and then cancel the reservation.

Follow these steps:

1. Access VMware ESX Management.
2. Click one of the following options:
   • Extend VMware Reservation.
   • Return VMware Reservation.

   A web form opens.

3. Complete the required form fields.

   Additional form fields populate.

4. Modify the populated fields as required.
5. Click Add to Cart and Check Out.
6. Review your request details, and click Save and Submit Cart.

A confirmation message displays. Your request is processed. You receive an email indicating whether your request was approved or rejected.

Create, Restore, or Delete a Virtual Machine Snapshot

Snapshots are ideal for rapid, time-saving back-ups and restorations. You typically use snapshots to:

• Duplicate an original configuration.
• Capture a complex configuration.
• Capture a configuration before your reservation date expires.
• Back up data.

You can create, delete, and restore snapshots from the self-service portal. When working with snapshots, note the following important information:

• New snapshots are subject to approval by a Service Provider or Administrator.
• You can only work with snapshots you created or to which you have access.
• Create a snapshot to capture a complex setup or to save data.
• Snapshots are valid for the lifecycle of the machine you create them for. You cannot create a snapshot of one machine and then deploy it to another machine.
• By default, you can create three snapshots per machine; the fourth snapshot overwrites the first snapshot. However, your Service Provider or Administrator can adjust the maximum number of snapshots you can create.
• Before you restore a snapshot, verify that the restored snapshot is accurate.
• If a snapshot becomes obsolete, delete the snapshot to avoid restoring an incorrect configuration.
• You cannot cancel a snapshot reservation that is approved and in the Pending Fulfillment status. Wait until the snapshot is created and then delete the snapshot.

Follow these steps:

1. Access VMware ESX Management.
2. Click Snapshots.
3. Click one of the following options:
   • Create Snapshot
   • Restore Snapshot
   • Delete Snapshot

   A web form opens.

4. Complete the required form fields.

   Additional form fields populate.

5. Modify the optional form fields as required.
6. Click Add to Cart and Check Out.
7. Review your request details, and click Save and Submit Cart.

A confirmation message displays. Your request is processed. For new snapshots, you receive an email indicating if your request was approved or rejected along with important information about working with your snapshot too.

Now you know how to reserve and manage VMware ESX virtual machines. You can reserve machines, alter hardware configurations, extend, or return the machines that you reserved, and create and manage snapshots.