VMware vSphere 5 On Dell PowerEdge Systems Deployment Guide

vSphere 5 architecture overview

vSphere infrastructure consists of the following components:

ESXi

Allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single system.

vCenter Server

Monitors and manages the management application of VMs and copies of ESXi. With a vCenter server, you can create,start, stop, and migrate VMs across the entire physical data center. vCenter server is optional, but it is required for advanced management capabilities such as VMware vMotion, Distributed Resource Scheduling (DRS), and High Availability (HA).

vCenter Server Database

Stores all the configuration data about a VMware infrastructure environment. Dell recommends you to use a production database such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for the vCenter Server database.

vSphere Web Client

Shares the functionality of the core administrative interface starting from ESXi 5.1, with the vSphere client. vSphere client can be launched from Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, without requiring a specific client installation.

vSphere Client

Requires an ESXi host to manage, by directly connecting to it or through vCenter Server. It can be installed on a system running a supported Windows OS. vSphere Web Client can replace the vSphere Client for future releases. The vSphere Web Client enables you to connect to a vCenter Server system to manage an ESXi host or multiple hosts through a browser.

Virtual Machine DataStore

Stores VM configuration and virtual disk files. The VM storage can either be internal local storage to the ESXi or external storage. Multiple ESXi system share VM storage. Advanced features such as HA and DRS require that the hard disk drive and configuration files are stored on the external shared storage.