Configure VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise

Operating Systems: Linux, Solaris, Windows

Configure VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise

To configure WebSphere^® Virtual Enterprise to work with VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms, you must configure security so that the servers can communicate with each other and configure custom properties on your deployment manager to define the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX servers.

Before you begin

Configure the VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms environment on your physical servers. Your VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms environment must meet the following requirements:

Your VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms environment must be on servers that are running Solaris Operating Environment on Intel^® hardware, Windows^®, or Linux^® x86 operating systems.
You must use VMware products that support VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms. The supported versions are VMware VirtualCenter Version 2.5 and VMware ESX Version 3.5.

Install and configure WebSphere Virtual Enterprise on each virtual machine.

About this task

When you have multiple nodes running on a physical computer with VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms, WebSphere Virtual Enterprise can contact VMware through Web services. You can configure this communication in the administrative console by creating cell-wide custom properties. These custom properties define the URL, user ID, and password for theVMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX servers. You also must configure your key stores to retrieve signers from the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX servers. How you configure your VMware environment to work with WebSphere Virtual Enterprise is dependent on your VMware configuration. You must create the custom properties for enough of the servers in your environment to make WebSphere Virtual Enterprise aware of all of the virtual machines and physical computers.

If you are using only VMware ESX servers, configure the enough of the individual servers to make WebSphere Virtual Enterprise aware of the physical servers and virtual machines in the environment.
If you are using VMware VirtualCenter to manage your environment, you can connect to the VMware VirtualCenter server, which establishes communication with all of the virtual machines and servers that the VMware VirtualCenter server manages. You do not need to connect to each VMware ESX server. If a VMware VirtualCenter is available, the best practice is to connect to the VMware VirtualCenter server instead of each VMware ESX server.
If you are running multiple VMware VirtualCenter servers with a Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) to provide high availability, you can configure the key stores and custom properties for each VMware VirtualCenter server.

If you do not configure WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to work with VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms, the WebSphere Virtual Enterprise environment does not understand that the nodes are on virtual machines, and as a result, the machine processor or memory might be overloaded.

Procedure
Retrieve a signer from the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX server and store the signers in the CellDefaultTrustStore key store. To retrieve the signer, you can either use the administrative console or run the retrieveVMwareCertificate.py script. Perform this step for the VMware VirtualCenter server, or for enough of the individualVMware ESX servers to represent all of the physical servers and virtual machines in the environment.
To retrieve the signer using the script, perform the following steps:
Run the retrieveVMwareCertificate.py script. Use the following syntax:
./wsadmin.sh -lang jython -f retrieveVMwareCertificate.py -host:
vmware_esxorvc_server_host_name -port:vmware_server_ssl_port_number
For example, you might type the following command:
./wsadmin.sh -lang jython -f retrieveVMwareCertificate.py 
-host:venus00.rtp.raleigh.ibm.com -port:443
To retrieve the signer using the administrative console, perform the following steps:

Navigate to the signer certificates administrative console panel. In the administrative console, click Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates > CellDefaultKeyStore > Signer certificates > Retrieve from port.
Enter the host and port information for the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX and an alias or name for the certificate. For Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), the default port value is 443.
Click Retrieve signer information.
Click Apply. This action indicates that you accept the credentials of the signer.
The signer certificate that is retrieved from the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX server is stored in the CellDefaultKeyStore keystore.
Configure custom properties for the VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX servers so that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise can use Web services to communicate with the VMware Infrastructure SDK (VI SDK).

If you are using VMware VirtualCenter, configure the custom properties for your VMware VirtualCenter server. You do not need to configure the custom properties for each server that the VMware VirtualCenter manages.
If you are using VMware ESX only, configure the custom properties on enough of the VMware ESX servers so that WebSphere Virtual Enterprise knows about all of the physical servers and virtual machines in the environment.
Create the following cell-wide custom properties:

vmware.service.unique_id.url
vmware.service.unique_id.userid
vmware.service.unique_id.password
The unique_id value is a unique name that links the three custom properties together. You can also eliminate the unique_id variable and create custom properties named vmware.service.url, and so on. For example, if you are setting the custom properties for the vmwareserver1 server, you might name the custom properties:

vmware.service.vmwareserver1.url
vmware.service.vmwareserver1.userid
vmware.service.vmwareserver1.password
Results
By configuring WebSphere Virtual Enterprise to work with VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX, better service differentiation management results than using VMware VirtualCenter or VMware ESX alone. With WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, you can add application-level goals and characteristics so that the can perform the necessary flow control, and so on can occur in your virtualized environment.

What to do next
Configure middleware servers on your WebSphere nodes.

Subtopics

VMware Infrastructure 3 platforms and WebSphere Virtual Enterprise

Next topic
Adding middleware servers to configurations

Related tasks

Related reference

VMware custom properties