Prerequisites
You must have an FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP server up and running with sufficient disk space to store the backup.
Dedicate a separate folder on your server for each file-based backup.
Procedure
In a Web browser, go to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, https://appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN:5480.
Log in as root.
In the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, click Summary.
Click Backup.
The Backup Appliance wizard opens.
Enter the backup protocol and location details.
Option
Description
Backup protocol
Select the protocol to use to connect to your backup server. You can select FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP.
For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service. For SCP, the path is absolute to the remote systems root directory.
Backup location
Enter the server address and backup folder in which to store the backup files.
Port
Enter the default or custom port of the backup server.
User name
Enter a user name of a user with write privileges on the backup server.
Password
Enter the password of the user with write privileges on the backup server.
(Optional) Select Encrypt Backup Data to encrypt your backup file and enter a password for the encryption.
If you select to encrypt the backup data, you must use the encryption password for the restore procedure.
Click Next.
On the Select parts to backup page, review the data that is backed up by default.
(Optional) Select Stats, Events, and Tasks to back up additional historical data from the database.
(Optional) In the Description text box, enter a description of the backup and click Next.
On the Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the backup and click Finish.
The Backup Progress window opens and indicates the progress of the backup operation.
After the backup process finishes, click OK to close the Backup Progress window.
Results
You successfully created a backup file of the vCenter Server Appliance.

Do the following before you start to troubleshoot a problem using esxtop: 1. Log on to the VMware Management Interface for the ESX Server machine in question. Refer to the online document, Logging Into the VMware Management Interface, for details. In the status monitor, under Virtual Machines, note the virtual machine IDs (or VMIDs) for all virtual machines running on the server.

2. Make certain you have an secure shell (SSH) client. Windows users can get a free SSH client from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html. 3. If you have ESX Server version 2.0.x, refer to the VMware Knowledge Base Answer ID 1078 for instructions on downloading and installing the VMware performance monitoring tools, esxtop and vmkusage. ESX Server version 2.1 and higher include esxtop and vmkusage. See Using vmkusage to Isolate Performance Problems on page 6 for a description of vmkusage. Starting esxtop Perform the following steps to start and set up esxtop
1. Using a secure shell (SSH), log on to the ESX Server machine as root. 2. Enter esxtop in the SSH command line. The esxtop display appears.

Note: The esxtop tool includes several interactive commands. To view a list of the interactive commands, enter h. 3. Enter the f command. The Field Select page appears

4. Enter r to toggle on the SWPD field.
5. Press any key other than a through x to see the esxtop display again

Note: You can also run esxtop in batch mode. For example, use the command: [root]# esxtop -b -n iterations > logfile. For detailed command reference information, enter man esxtop on the SSH command line. Examining CPU Usage This section describes how to assess system CPU loading, percentage of individual CPU use and individual virtual machine CPU use. Load Average Line Examine the load average on the first line to determine the amount of use for all physical CPUs on the ESX Server machine. The load averages are displayed for five-second, and one-, five- and fifteen-minute intervals. A load average of 1.00 means that the ESX Server machine’s physical CPUs are fully utilized, and a load average of 0.5 means they are half utilized. On the other hand, a load average of 2.00 means that you either need to increase the number of CPUs or decrease the number of virtual machines running on the ESX Server machine because the system as a whole is overloaded.
PCPU Line Examine the PCPU line for the percentage of individual physical CPU use for CPU0 and CPU1 respectively (for a dual-processor machine). The last value is the average percentage for all of the physical CPUs. As a rule of thumb, 80.00% is a desirable usage percentage, but bear in mind that different organizations have varying standards with respect to how close to capacity they run their servers. 90% should be considered a warning that the CPUs are approaching an overloaded condition.
You can enter the interactive c command to toggle the display of the PCPU line. If hyperthreading is enabled, the LCPU line appears whenever the PCPU line is displayed. The LCPU line shows the logical CPU use. Virtual Machine CPU Usage A virtual machine world is listed as vmm in the WTYPE column. The world ID (WID) corresponds to the VMID in the VMware Management Interface Status Monitor (see Getting Started on page 2). For virtual machines with one virtual CPU (VCPU), the VCPUID and WID is the same. For virtual machines with two VCPUs, there are two VCPUIDs associated with one WID. For example:

Use the WID and VMID values as cross references to identify a specific virtual machine’s display name. Use the following steps to assess virtual machine CPU usage. 1. Examine the %READY field for the percentage of time that the virtual machine was ready but could not get scheduled to run on a physical CPU. Under normal operating conditions this value should remain under 5%. 2. Examine the %USED field for the percentage of physical CPU resources used by a VCPU. If the physical CPUs are running at full capacity, you can use %USED to identify a virtual machine that is using a large amount of physical CPU resources. 3. Examine the %EUSED field for the percentage of the maximum physical CPU resource usage a virtual machine is currently using. The %EUSED value is calculated as follows: %EUSED = %USED *((# of VCPUs * 100)/ max) In this formula: # of VCPUs is the number of VCPUs configured in a virtual machine. max is the maximum percentage of CPU resources allocated to a virtual machine. The default is 100. The following table shows how %EUSED increases as the value of max decreases for a virtual machine with a constant physical CPU usage of 40% (i.e., %USED = 40).

%EUSED is an useful indicator of how close a virtual machine is to saturating the physical CPUs. If a virtual machine consistently saturates the physical CPUs (i.e., it uses 100% of the physical CPU resources), you can fix it by either: * Decreasing the number of virtual machines running on an ESX Server machine.
* Moving the virtual machine to a different ESX Server machine that has more physical CPU resources, and increasing the value of max. Assessing Memory Usage Look at the percentage of maximum memory actively used by a virtual machine listed in the %MEM column. Also, note the amount of swapped memory used by a virtual machine listed the SWPD column. Using some swap space is not necessarily bad, because the pages swapped out could be inactive; however, the use of swap space is a clue that you could be losing performance due to active swapping. If the swap percentage increases, there could be a performance problem. If the maximum system memory or swap space is exceeded, additional virtual machines will not power up and you may need to reconfigure memory and swap space. Assessing Disk and Network Usage Examine the DISK and NIC lines for disk activity. If the throughput is either not meeting expectations or approaching the maximum capacity of the hardware device, there is a potential for a performance bottleneck. Exiting esxtop Enter q to exit esxtop

Cannot create a new datastore from vCenter Server or directly from the vSphere Client Creating a new datastore fails The Add Storage Wizard reports the error: An error occurred during host configuration. Call “HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastoreCreateOptions” for object “ha-datastoresystem” on ESXi “xxx.xxx.xxx.xx” failed. An internal error occurred in the vsphere client.
Cause
This issue may occur if:
The size of the LUN is more than 2TB – 512 bytes. The maximum LUN size in vSphere 4 is 2TB – 512 bytes. For more information on this limitation, see Troubleshooting a LUN that is extended in size past the 2TB/2047GB limit (1004230).
The LUN being presented was used as an RDM earlier and does not have a valid partition table.
The LUN being presented was used as a disk device on an other operating system and does not have a valid partition table.
The LUN contains a GPT partition that cannot be removed.
Resolution
To prevent this issue:
Ensure that the LUN size is less than 2TB – 512 bytes or 2047GB. If the LUN is larger then 2TB – 512 bytes, delete it from your Storage Array and recreate it with a size less than the 2TB – 512 bytes limit.
If the disk was used by another operating system in the past (I.E.: it was an RDM, or Linux, FreeBSD, or other filesystem) or contains a GPT partition, you must delete the partition information.For more information

VMware vSphere ESXi can use locally attached SSDs (Solid State Disk) and flash devices in multiple ways. Since SSDs offer much higher throughput and much lower latency than traditional magnetic hard disks the benefits are clear. While offering lower throughput and higher latency, flash devices such as USB or SATADOM can also be appropriate for some use cases. The potential drawback to using SSDs and flash device storage is that the endurance can be significantly less than traditional magnetic disks and it can vary based on the workload type as well as factors such as the drive capacity, underlying flash technology, etc.
This KB outlines the minimum SSD and flash device recommendations based on different technologies and use case scenarios.
SSD and Flash Device Use Cases
A non-exhaustive survey of various usage models in vSphere environment are listed below.
Host swap cache
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 5.1 for SATA and SCSI connected SSDs. USB and low end SATA or SCSI flash devices are not supported.
The workload is heavily influenced by the degree of host memory over commitment.
Regular datastore
A (local) SSD is used instead of a hard disk drive.
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 7.0 for SATA and SCSI connected SSDs.
There is currently no support for USB connected SSDs or for low end flash devices regardless of connection type.
vSphere Flash Read Cache (aka Virtual Flash)
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 5.5 for SATA and SCSI connected SSDs.
There is no support for USB connected SSDs or for low end flash devices.
vSAN
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 5.5 for SATA and SCSI SSDs. For more information, see the vSAN Hardware Quick Reference Guide.
vSphere ESXi Boot Disk
A USB flash drive or SATADOM or local SSD can be chosen as the install image for ESXi, the vSphere hypervisor, which then boots from the flash device.
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 3.5 for USB flash devices and vSphere 4.0 for SCSI/SATA connected devices.
Installation to SATA and SCSI connected SSD, SATADOM and flash devices creates a full install image which includes a logging partition (see below) whereas installation to a USB device creates a boot disk image without a logging partition.
vSphere ESXi Coredump device
The default size for the coredump partition is 2.5 GiB which is about 2.7 GB and the installer creates a coredump partition on the boot device device for vSphere 5.5 and above. After installation the partition can be resized if necessary using partedUtil. For more information, see the vSphere documentation.
Any SATADOM or SATA/SCSI SSD may be configured with a coredump partition.
This usage model has been supported from vSphere 3.5 for boot USB flash devices and since vSphere 4.0 for any SATA or SCSI connected SSD that is local.
This usage model also applies to Autodeploy hosts which have no boot disk.
vSphere ESXi Logging device
A SATADOM or local SATA/SCSI SSD is chosen as the location for the vSphere logging partition (/scratch partition). This partition may be but need not be on the boot disk and this applies to Autodeploy hosts which lack a boot disk.
This usage model has been supported since vSphere 7.0 for any SATA or SCSI connected SSD that is local. SATADOMs that meet the requirement set forth in Table 1 are also supported.
This usage model can be supported in a future release of vSphere for USB flash devices that meet the requirement set forth in Table 1.
SSD Endurance Criteria
The flash industry often uses Tera Bytes Written (TBW) as a benchmark for SSD endurance. TBW is the number of terabytes that can be written to the device over its useful life. Most devices have distinct TBW ratings for sequential and random IO workloads, with the latter being much lower due to Write Amplification Factor (WAF) (defined below). Other measures of endurance commonly used are DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) and P/E (Program/Erase) cycles.
Conversion formulas are provided here:
Converting DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) to TBW (Terabytes Written):
TBW = DWPD * Warranty (in Years) * 365 * Capacity (in GB) / 1,000 (GB per TB) Converting Flash P/E Cycles per Cell to TBW (Terabytes Written):
TBW = Capacity (in GB) * (P/E Cycles per Cell) / (1,000 (GB per TB) * WAF) WAF is a measure of the induced writes caused by inherent properties of flash technology. Due to the difference between the storage block size (512 bytes), the flash cell size (typically 4KiB or 8KiB bytes) and the minimum flash erase size of many cells one write can force a number of induced writes due to copies, garbage collection, etc. For sequential workloads typical WAFs fall in the range of single digits while for random workloads WAFs can approach or even exceed 100. Table 1 contains workload characterization for the various workloads excepting the Datastore and vSphere Flash Read Cache workloads which depend on the characteristics of the Virtual Machines workloads being run and thus cannot be characterized here. A WAF from the table can be used with the above P/E to TBW formula.

Before you can use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with the vSphere Web Client, you must verify that the service is enabled and running.
Procedure
Log in to your vCenter Server system by using the vSphere Web Client.
On the vSphere Web Client Home page, click Administration.
Under System Configuration click Services.
Select ImageBuilder Service, click the Actions menu, and select Edit Startup Type.
On Windows, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service is disabled. In the Edit Startup Type window, select Manual or Automatic to enable Auto Deploy.
On the vCenter Server Appliance, the vSphere ESXi Image Builder service by default is set to Manual. If you want the service to start automatically upon OS startup, select Automatic.
If you select the manual startup type, you must start the service manually upon OS startup every time you want to use the service.
(Optional) Click the Start the service icon.
(Optional) If you want to use vSphere ESXi Image Builder with thevSphere Web Client, log out of the vSphere Web Client and log in again.
The Auto Deploy icon is visible on the Home page of the vSphere Web Client.

Authentication and authorization govern access. vCenter Single Sign-On supports authentication, which means it determines whether a user can access vSphere components at all. Each user must also be authorized to view or manipulate vSphere objects.
vSphere supports several different authorization mechanisms, discussed in Understanding Authorization in vSphere. The focus of the information in this section is how the vCenter Server permission model works and how to perform user management tasks.
vCenter Server allows fine-grained control over authorization with permissions and roles. When you assign a permission to an object in the vCenter Server object hierarchy, you specify which user or group has which privileges on that object. To specify the privileges, you use roles, which are sets of privileges.
Initially, only the administrator user for the vCenter Single Sign-On domain, [email protected] by default, is authorized to log in to the vCenter Server system. That user can then proceed as follows:
Add an identity source in which users and groups are defined to vCenter Single Sign-On. See the Platform Services Controller Administration documentation.
Give privileges to a user or group by selecting an object such as a virtual machine or a vCenter Server system and assigning a role on that object for the user or group.