Chapter 3. Additional Configuration for Appliances on VMware vSphere

3.1. Installing VMware VDDK on CloudForms

Important

Execution of SmartState Analysis on virtual machines within a VMware environment requires the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK). CloudForms supports VDDK 5.5.

To install VMware VDDK:

  1. Download VDDK 5.5 (VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz at the time of this writing) from the VMware website.

    Note

    If you do not already have a login ID to VMware, then you will need to create one. At the time of this writing, the file can be found by navigating to Downloads → All Downloads → Drivers & Tools. Select VMware vSphere → Drivers & Tools. Expand Automation Tools and SDKs, and select vSphere Virtual Disk Development Kit 5.5. Alternatively, find the file by searching for it using the Search on the VMware site.

  2. Download and copy the VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz file to the /root directory of the appliance.
  3. Start an SSH session into the appliance.

  4. Extract and install VDDK 5.5 using the following commands: 

    # cd /root
# tar -xvf VMware-vix-disklib-5.5.0-1284542.x86_64.tar.gz
# cd vmware-vix-disklib-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl

  5. Accept the defaults during the installation: 

    Installing VMware VIX DiskLib API. You must read and accept the VMware VIX DiskLib API End User License Agreement to continue. Press enter to display it. Do you accept? (yes/no) yes

Thank you. What prefix do you want to use to install VMware VIX DiskLib API? The prefix is the root directory where the other folders such as man, bin, doc, lib, etc. will be placed. [/usr] (Press Enter)

The installation of VMware VIX DiskLib API 5.5.0 build-1284542 for Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the following command:
"/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-vix-disklib.pl". Enjoy, --the VMware team

  6. Run ldconfig to instruct CloudForms to find the newly installed VDDK library.

    Note

    Use the following command to verify the VDDK files are listed and accessible to the appliance: 

    # ldconfig -p | grep vix
  7. Restart the CloudForms appliance.

The VDDK is now installed on the CloudForms appliance. This enables use of the SmartState Analysis server role on the appliance.

3.2. Tuning Appliance Performance

By default, the CloudForms appliance uses the tuned service and its virtual-guest profile to optimize performance. In most cases, this profile provides the best performance for the appliance.

However on some VMware setups (for example, with a large vCenter database), the following additional tuning may further improve appliance performance:

  • When using the virtual-guest profile in tuned, edit the vm.swappiness setting to 1 in the tuned.conf file from the default of vm.swappiness = 30.
  • Use the noop scheduler instead. See the VMware documentation for more details on the best scheduler for your environment. See Setting the Default I/O Scheduler in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Performance Tuning Guide for instructions on changing the default I/O scheduler.