Log into the VMware Management Interface and familiarize yourself with its features.

 As the root user, you have additional privileges that other users don't have. In addition to the Status Monitor page, you have access to the Options page, that allows you to configure ESX Server, including networking, security, SNMP, users and groups, storage configuration, and so on.

 See Modifying VMware ESX Server.

 Create users and groups.

 Create users and place them into groups for different access to ESX Server. For best practice, we suggest that the root user doesn't own virtual machines. In general, users who create, access, and modify virtual machines don't need to have the additional administrative privileges of the root user.

 You might choose to have a virtual machine owned by a "flagship user" instead of a real person. By using a "flagship user," only one user account owns the virtual machines that are in production. An advantage of using flagship accounts is that flagship users never leave the company or go on vacation.

 See Creating a Flagship User and Changing Users and Groups for more information.

 Add additional disks and partitions, as needed.

 When creating your VMFS volumes, you should keep the default access type public, unless you plan to use your virtual machines for clustering. If you are running clustering software, select "shared" as your VMFS volume access type. See Configuring Storage: Disk Partitions and File Systems and Configuration for Clustering for more information.

 Decide how to organize your virtual machine configuration files.

 The default location for these files is the home directory of the user that created the virtual machine. However, in production environments, most virtual machines belong to teams rather than to individuals. Setting up some kind of central directory structure is a good idea.

 Upgrade any existing virtual machines from a previous version of ESX Server or another VMware product.

 The migration procedure is heavily dependent on the version of the VMware product used to create the original virtual machine.

 If you are migrating a virtual machine from a previous version of ESX Server, then see Migrating Older ESX Server Virtual Machines.

 If you are migrating a virtual machine from VMware Workstation or VMware GSX Server, see Migrating VMware Workstation and VMware GSX Server Virtual Machines.

 Be sure to read these instructions carefully, before attempting to migrate your virtual machine.

 Create "golden master" (template) virtual disks.

 To manage ESX Server more efficiently, you can create a small number of "golden master" (template) virtual disks. for easier deployment.These are virtual disks that have complete guest operating systems, installed applications, complete management- agent installs, virus detection software, complete VMware Tools installs, and so on. You can import the disks into a VMFS volume whenever you want to create a new virtual machine.

 Be sure that the golden master has the tools necessary to reset system attributes (hostname and IP address, NetBIOS hostname, domain and SID [Windows operating systems] for the virtual machines you clone. Also, be sure that the user that will be running the newly created virtual machine has the appropriate user and group permissions.

 Use the File Manager in the VMware Management Interface to import the "golden master" virtual disks. See Using the VMware Management Interface to Manage Your Virtual Machines.

 Set user and group permissions for the owner of a virtual machine.

 Log into the management interface and click Manage Files. Navigate to the configuration file (.vmx) of the virtual machine. Click the check box next to the virtual machine's configuration file, and click Edit Properties. Choose read, write, and execute properties for the owner of the virtual machine, and choose read and execute privileges for the owner's group, then click OK. Similarly, set read and write permissions for the owner on the virtual machine's virtual disk (.dsk) file. (Note that read permissions for a virtual disk file are sufficient if the virtual disk is nonpersistent).

 See Setting Permissions for Owners of Virtual Machines and Using Disk Modes.

 Be sure that the same user owns both the virtual machine's configuration and virtual disk file, and this user has full access privileges for both files.

 Set user and group permissions to view a virtual machine in the Status Monitor page of the management interface.

 For a user to see a virtual machine in the management interface, the user, or a group to which the user belongs, must have read access to that virtual machine.

 See Setting Permissions for Owners of Virtual Machines.

 Set user permissions to connect to a virtual machine through the remote console.

 For a user to connect to and power on a virtual machine in the remote console the user, or a group to which the user belongs, must have read and execute access to that virtual machine's configuration file. Also, the user must have execute (x) permission on all parent directories.

 Setting Permissions for Owners of Virtual Machines.

 Configure your SNMP agent.

 ESX Server ships with an SNMP agent that allows you to monitor the health of the physical machine where ESX Server is running and of virtual machines running on it.

 See Configuring the SNMP Agent and Configuring the ESX Server Agent through the VMware Management Interface.

 Log into the VMware Management Interface and download the remote console package.

 You can use the remote console to power on and power off your virtual machines, connect or disconnect devices (including the CD drive and network adapter), and set preferences (including mouse keyboard, and hot key behavior in the remote console window).

 You can install the remote console from the Status Monitor page of the management interface. Launch the remote console from your desktop (Windows operating systems) or from the management interface.

 Click the appropriate link for the operating system on your workstation.

 Learn to use the management interface.

 After login, the starting page of the management interface provides a summary of the virtual machines on ESX Server. Depending on your permissions, you'll be able to view and modify virtual machines. See Using the Status Monitor.

 Clicking on a virtual machine's name opens the details page for that virtual machine, where you can check its CPU, memory, disk, network, hardware, options, and users and events. Familiarize yourself with the information contained in these pages. See Configuring a Virtual Machine.

 Create a virtual machine.

 The Add Virtual Machine wizard only allows you to add a small number of devices to a virtual machine. This makes the initial creation process simpler. You may add devices later by clicking Add Device in the Hardware page for the virtual machine.

 If you have purchased the VMware Virtual SMP for ESX Server product, then you can create dual-virtual CPU SMP virtual machines.

 Be sure to take into account the type of applications you plan to run on this virtual machine when making your choices during its creation. See Creating a New Virtual Machine.

 Add additional disks, drives, network adapters, and SCSI devices.

 Click Add Device in the Hardware page for the virtual machine. See Configuring a Virtual Machine's Hardware.

 Install guest operating system and VMware Tools.

 VMware Tools is a software package installed in the guest operating system that gives you device drivers specific to VMware virtual devices where necessary, and it also includes several communication channels between the virtual machine and the ESX Server virtualization layer.

 See Installing a Guest Operating System and VMware Tools.

 For more information about VMware Tools and the services it provides, see VMware Tools Settings.