Clouding is the abstraction of physical devices

into logical units with the intent to maximize

hardware usage. Cloud is also a big lie, EMC
Instructor

Online Database
Capstone Project

Jonas Misiuk
April, 2016

[Type here]

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

PROJECT

TERMINOLOGY

VIRTUALIZATION
DATASTORE
ESXI
VSPHERE
STORAGE IN VSPHERE
DATACENTER
GUEST OPERATING SYSTEM
NAS

6
6
7
7
7
8
9
9

PHYSICAL COMPONENTS

10

SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS

10

OPERATING SYSTEMS
APPLICATION AND TOOLS

10
11

DIAGRAMS

11

INITIAL DIAGRAM
ACTUAL DIAGRAM

11
12

MAJOR INSTALLATIONS

13

INSTALLING WINDOWS SERVER 2012 R2

ACTIVE DIRECTORY USERS AND COMPUTERS
WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION
ESXI INSTALLATION
VCENTER AND VSPHERE INSTALLATION

13
14
14
14
15

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NETWORK CONFIGURATION

15

INTERNET SETTINGS
SWITCH

15
16

CREATING A DATASTORE

17

DEPLOY OVF FILE FOR VCENTER SERVER APPLIANCES

CREATING DATACENTER
ADDING HOST TO DATACENTER

17
20
21

VIRTUAL MACHINES

22

NAS INSTALLATION

24

QFINDER PRO
COMMUNICATING WITH VSPHERE
ATTACHING TO ESXI

24
26
27

FINAL PROJECT MAP

28

CLOSING REMARKS

29

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Introduction
This project concludes my A.A.S in Information Technology Network Engineering. This final
project includes the usage of tools and applications used throughout the course. The emphasis
of this environment is the construction and configuration of a cloud storage using several
VMware Inc. products to develop a database that can be accessed from the cloud and
manipulated using virtual machines running on a powerful server.

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Preface
Wouldnt it be nice to access very large amounts of data and perform real time analysis so you
can impress your clients?
Have you ever wondered why your computer slows down so much when you try to run a
database?
Have you ever thought of using a powerful computer inside your own computer without
taking up all your resources?
The answer for all these questions is simple and it is called DataEverywhere.com

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Project
This project targets to solve problems regarding regular computer limitations. The main goal is
to run queries from large databases using the resources of a Virtual Machine and not the
resources of the users computer.

Terminology
This project will mention unique terms. Follows below a list of the most important tools,
features and terms used on this project.

Virtualization
Virtualization is the process by which physical units can be seen as logical units within a specific
environment. For example, two different hard disks can be combined into one LUN and appear
as such on any computer. Virtualization allows the maximization of a systems resources.

Datastore
A datastore is created on top of the ESXi, in this case, our host installed on a separate machine
within the network. A datastore is a logical container that holds virtual machine files and other
files necessary for virtual machine operations. Datastores can be stored in several different
physical storage types. These types include local storage, iSCSI, Fibre Channel SAN, or NFS. A
datastore can be VMFS-based or NFS-based.
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ESXi
ESXi is a VMware product and it is described as a system similar to a stateless compute node.
ESXi can be installed in a virtual environment as well as on a physical computer. It will be the
operating system for that machine. ESXi
enables the virtualization of the resources
of the computer and all the physical
devices attached to it. ESXi does not have a
GUI but can be managed through another
VMware tool called VSphere, which allows
the administrator to manage the ESXi using
user-friendly interface.

VSphere
VSphere is the VMware cloud computing virtualization platform (definition from VMware Inc.).
VSphere has a powerful interface that can be accessed from a web portal or through the
VSphere client application that can be installed on any computer within the network.

Storage in vSphere
Every virtual machine uses a virtual hard disk to store its operating system, program files, and
other data associated with its activities. A virtual disk is a large physical file, or a set of files, that
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can be copied, moved, archived, and backed up as easily as any other file. Virtual disk files are
stored on dedicated storage space on a variety of physical storage systems, including internal
and external devices of a host, or networked storage, dedicated to the specific tasks of storing
and protecting data. (VMware Inc.s definition)
A host (ESXi) can discover storage devices to which it has access and format them as datastores.
In this project, I created 2 datastores. One of them from the hosts hard disk and the other one
from a NAS. The datastore is a special logical container, analogous to a file system on a logical
volume, where hosts place virtual disk files and other files that encapsulate essential
components of a virtual machine. Datastores can hide specifics of different storage products
and provide a uniform model for storing virtual machine files.

Datacenter
A datacenter is the primary container of inventory objects such as hosts and virtual machines.
From the datacenter, administrators can add and
organize inventory objects. Typically, hosts,
folders, and clusters to a datacenter. Large
companies use datacenters to represent
Organizational Units. Datacenters are also used
for storage, processing and distribution of large
amounts of data, which makes it a must in this
project.
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Guest Operating System

Virtual machines can be created like a physical computer would. The difference is that all the
resources are actually virtual, in this case, several operating systems can run on top of the same
machine and share its resources. Installing a guest operating system on a virtual machine is
essentially the same as installing it on a physical computer. The installation and configuration
process will be described later.
After the installation of a guest operating system, vCenter Server allows the user to use the
virtual machine as if it were a physical device.

NAS
Network Attached Storage, is a storage server that stores data in a file level. NAS devices can be
connected to the host (ESXi) and its resources and
capacity can be pooled or clustered among the
existing Virtual Machines. The device used as a NAS
component for this network was a QNAP TVS
863+. The device has 20Tb of capacity and its own
processor. The processor is responsible for the file conversion into formats that can be accessed
and used in different systems, as to mention, UNIX and Windows. The great advantage of a NAS
device is the fact that it unifies both platforms into one single storage device.

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Physical Components
This is a list of components used on the project

3 Desktops Dell Optilex 9020

o Intel I5 Processors
o 4, 6 and 10GB of Ram

QNAP NAS storage device

o Capacity: 20TB

Cisco Switch 2900 series

Buffalo Router

2 Dell Monitors and

IOGEAR VGA and USB splitter

HP laptop

Software and Applications

Follows a list of the software utilized in this project:

Operating Systems

Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows 7

Windows 8.1

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ESXi 5.5

Application and Tools

Active Directory Users and Computers

VSphere Client

VCenter Server tools

VCenter Server Appliances

VMware tools

WinSCP

Rufus 2.0

PuTTY

QFinder Pro

ESXi Customizer

Other software and applications

Diagrams
Initial Diagram
The project was initially based on the diagram as shown in the picture below:

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Vmware vCloud Director

Vmware vSphere

ESXi Hosts

vCloud Director Server

(cells)

vCenter Database

vCloud Director
Database

vCenter

As any other projects, changes had to be made so in order to achieve the end goal. The first
thing to be changed was the naming. On the left side of the diagram we see VCloud Director.
VCloud director is not a software but a package of software to develop, manage and maintain a
cloud environment. The applications mentioned previously are part of the Cloud Director.

Actual Diagram
The actual diagram, extracted from VSphere, is the correct one for this type of environment. As
displayed below, the QNAP device (NAS) is attached or connected to the host (ESXi
192.168.11.105) and then distributed among the Virtual Machines running on top of the host.
The datastore seen below is a datastore created from the hosts hard disk.

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The schema was retrieved from VSphere Web Client.

Major Installations
Installing Windows Server 2012 R2
Installed Windows Server 2012 R2 on one of the desktops. Installation proceeded successfully
with no incidents.
User name: Administrator
Password: Welcome1

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Active Directory Users and computers

Installed on the Server to manage domain, users, computers and group policies. Created
Windows 7 machine user and a set of rules.
Created domain services. Domain name: DataEveryhwhere.com

Windows 7 Installation
Installed Windows 7 on another desktops Installation proceeded successfully with no incidents.

ESXi Installation
After the first steps on the installation
process I found out that the new ESXi
does not support the Network Interface
Card from the available desktop because
many drivers were removed from current
version of ESXi. In a real environment, I
could either buy a compatible NIC or try
to make it work with the current
resources. I chose the second. In order to fix the driver issue, I downloaded the driver from the
manufacturer and obtained an ISO customizer tool to insert the driver into ESXi ISO. Following
that, I turned the customized ISO into a bootable file from USB Flash Drive (used Rufus to make
the bootable device. Rufus was also used for the previous installations).
Before the installation, I made sure to enable the motherboard to boot from USB device.

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In the BIOS, I enabled AHCI, Intel Virtualization Technology and other features that are required
for virtualization.

VCenter and VSphere Installation

Once ESXi was correctly installed and
all the network settings were
configured, I was able to access its
interface by browsing to the ESXis IP
address. The web interface allowed
me to download VCenter and
VSphere. All the necessary plugins
were also installed so my system was
completely compatible with the VMware applications.

Network Configuration
Internet settings
Used a Buffalo Router to obtain internet connection from the school network. Disabled the
Wireless functions from the router and used a DHCP settings on the router. Changed Admin
password for security.
A static IP address was set on each desktop as follows:

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System

IP Address

Subnet Mask

Default Gateway

Primary DNS

Windows Server 2012

192.168.11.128

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.1

Windows 7

192.168.11.114

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.128

ESXi

192.168.11.105

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.128

Vsphere

192.168.11.133

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.128

Windows 8.1

192.168.11.115

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.128

NAS - QNAP

192.168.11.99

255.255.255.0

192.168.11.1

192.168.11.128

Switch
All the ports were open and the Cisco 2900 Series was connected to the router. The NAS device
was connected to the switch as well as any other additional device that required to be a part of
the network.

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Creating a datastore
A new datastore can be created by formatting LUNs or by mounting NFS volumes to an existing
host. The datastore in this project was created by mounting a NFS (QNAP) volume to the
existing ESXi. The whole process will be listed
and a few screenshots will be provided.
Following the installations, I had to configure all
the VSphere/VCenter with the correct settings to
make it work. Follows a list of the settings I had
to configure:

Donwload VSphere Client for initial setup

Deploy OVF file for VCenter Server Appliances

vCSA appliance supports Oracle as external database. vCenter Server Appliance contains all of
the necessary services to run vCenter Server 6.0 along with its components. With the VCenter
server installed, it is possible to start the monitoring of configuring of the cloud environment.
Follows below a screenshot of the interface with information regarding the server.

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As the picture shows, the server is running and the inventory service is running. Time
synchronization is disables as well as Active Directory. These two settings were also changed.

Selected it to be Thin Provisioning

Time configuration to synchronize time with Active Directory

Security Profile: Enabled SSH

Added more RAM and expanded vCSA ram to 4GB

Console View Powered on the vCSA

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Followed prompts from vCSA to initialize VCenter.

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Creating Datacenter
According the instructions from the VMware website, creating a Data Center should be a simple
process. On a real environment, it is not so easy. After many attempts and many failures, I was
able to create the data center and add a host to it. In order to accomplish such task, I accessed
my VSphere interface. Made sure everything was working correctly, and followed the wizard to
create a datacenter.

As the process moves on, I named the datacenter Capstone and after clicking next my
datacenter and it was created. The next step is to add a host to the datacenter.

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Adding host to Datacenter

The datacenter must have a host. In this case, the host is the ESXi server. After clicking on Add
a host the system will prompt for the IP
address. Once the IP address field was
filled, the host was found and added to the
datacenter. Screenshots below.
When I thought that was all had to do to
finish this part, I noticed that my datacenter had no storage devices attached to it, making it
useless. After researching for a few minutes, I found out that in order to create the datastore, I
needed to assign a hard disk or some storage device to it. Clicked again on my Datacenter and

selected datastore. Now, with my host assigned to the datacenter, I was allowed to select the
ESXi host and any storage device attached to it to become my storage component. The hard
disk of the host became the storage device for the Datacenter. At this point, no other storage
devices had been added to the environment but later, I will attach a NAS device to the ESXi and
link it to the datacenter

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Virtual Machines
The main goal of the project was to create virtual machines that allow users to use the
resources of a different computer to perform heavy duty tasks. Once the datacenter was
created and the host was added to it, I was able to start virtualizing Operating Systems to work
on top of the ESXi, and therefore, become a part of the datastore.
From DreamSparks I downloaded a Windows 8.1 ISO file and immediately after that, I uploaded
it to my storage through VSpehere. It is important to remember that the storage component
was attached to the ESXi host. It was challenging to make it work because the browsers were
not accepting a VMware plugin to enable such function. As a workaround, I used the Client
instead of the web interface. Once the upload finished, I expanded my Datacenter, and found
my ESXis IP address and clicked on Add new VM. The wizard requested that a folder should
be created for the VM files. Once the folder was created and selected, the system prompted for
an ISO file so it could start the process of installing and virtualizing an operating system. I
rapidly located the file I had previously uploaded to the host prompted for the hardware
configuration I wanted for the system. After selecting the desired RAM amount and hard disk
size, the installation began. The installation was physically taking place in the same machine
that my ESXi was installed, however, I was able to follow through with the installation process
from a different computer. Also, if I logged in in any other computer using my VSphere

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credentials, I would be able to verify the installation process by selecting the VM that was being
installed and opening its console window. The installation process was very slow and thats
because my machine does not have a super powerful processor and a lot of ram. This is a
demonstration of what can be done with VMware products and not a performance exhibition.
After
the

completion of this process, I virtualized my just installed Windows 8.1 and accessed some of its
features. Impressed me that the overall performance of the system was satisfactory. At this
point, the map of my network looked like the figure below.

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NAS Installation
NAS was one of the most difficult parts of my project. The way NAS works is through Ethernet.
This allows a transfer rate up to 16GB/s. My first challenge was to find a way to attach my NAS
device to the ESXi machine so I could later add to my datacenter. If I disconnected my ESXi from
the internet I would be able to attach my NAS to it, however, this would imply in the complete
loss of network making it impossible to access VSphere.

QFinder Pro
As a solution, I decided to use a switch and connect the NAS to the switch and some of the

devices from my network. All my devices worked fine but I still could not see the NAS in my
system, nor could I ping it. I tried to access my NAS through a console cable and it would
prompt for a password. The default password did not work. Again, after days of research, I

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decided to contact the product manufacturer and request for more information. It turned out
that there should be an installation software with the device in order to set up the initial
configuration. The software was called QFinder Pro Unable to proceed, I downloaded the
software and was able to finally see the NAS. My joy did not last long. I could see it but there
was no way to access it. I found on Google a way to reset the storage system to its default
settings. Then, with the default username and password I accessed its interface and configured
its network settings. Network settings are displayed on the following screenshot at the end of
this section. With a static IP address and under the same subnet as my other devices, I plugged
it into the switch and the first thing I tried was to ping it from all my other devices.
Communication had been established.

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Communicating with VSphere

Following the steps given by VMware, I attempted to add the NAS device by right clicking my
datacenter or host and selecting add storage. This did not work. Whenever I tried that, I
received a message stating a problem with the NFS server. I learned that the solution for the
issue I was having was a simple configuration setting within the NAS structure. I accessed its
interface and enabled NFS. Of course, it solved one issue but it did not solve the whole
problem. I still could not see it from my VSphere so I could add it to my ESXi and by doing so,
add to the datacenter. I spent one entire day trying to understand the reason why I could not
see it in my system. The problem was not my communication. I could easily ping the device and
access it from my browser but could not put it into the Client. After much reading and
searching, I noticed that there was a VSphere tab I as missing. I saw a tab called QNAP in one of
the videos I watched but I did not have it. I decided then to look for it. Shortly after I was able
to install an extension to my VSphere which gave me access to any QNAP device attached to my
network. I immediately accessed my NAS devices interface and created a logical unit called
JonasProject and then, from my VSphere, located the new Storage System and mounted it as
NFS. Now, my QNAP was added to the environment, however, I could not see it in my map yet.

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Attaching to ESXi
It could not be simpler. I located my ESXi in VSphere, right clicked it, and as the last option, I
saw QNAP. As one of the options, I attached the storage to my host and established the bridge
between my Virtual Machines and the NAS. I configured my NAS device to have RAID 5
configuration so it is fault tolerant without losing too much performance. In addition to that, I
played around with it and found out I can move entire virtual machines from one location to
another. I migrated my Windows 8.1 SQL from the hosts Hard Disk to the NAS.
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Final Project Map

Full of excitement, I went to my mapping options from VSphere to check what my network
looked like. I expected it to have my ESXi in the center, being the bridge between my
VirtualMachines, NAS and datastore. When I refreshed my map, I had a great feeling of
accomplishment as I
saw the image below.

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Closing Remarks
This project was planned since the beginning of the semester and milestones were set to be a
guide throughout the weeks. As many graduating students, I felt often times that I was not
going to be able to finish my project on my own. I accepted the challenge and worked out
without anyones help but Google, old homework assignments and a desire to deliver what I
promised. This project does not reflect with exactness what was planned from the beginning,
however, it delivers the end goal.
I used the best of my abilities to troubleshoot and build a cloud environment with all the details
that this project required. I am proud to have finished under my current circumstances. It has
been the most challenging academic task I have ever had and has enhanced my comprehension
of many IT principles I learned in theory.
I used all the knowledge I accumulated over the past semesters to bring this project to life and I
look forward to the next challenges I will have in my career with confidence that I can
accomplish great things.

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