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Using a VM manager

A VM manager is an application that allows you to connect to one or more VMware vSphere ESXi hypervisors. Pexip Infinity logs in to the selected VM manager when Automatically deploying a new Conferencing Node on a VMware host. It does not log in at any other time, and the credentials used to log in to the VM manager are not stored by Pexip Infinity.

Version 12 of the Pexip Infinity platform supports VMware vSphere ESXi 5.x and 6.0, although we recommend ESXi 5.5 or 6.0. Support for ESXi 4.1 is being deprecated - if you have upgraded from a version prior to v12, you can still deploy Conferencing Nodes to servers running ESXi 4.1; however if you have a new deployment using v12 and attempt to deploy a Conferencing Node to a server running ESXi 4.1, that node will go straight into maintenance mode. The VM managers used to connect to these hypervisors are either:

  • vCenter Server, an application that allows you to use a single interface to manage one or more host servers running ESXi.
  • ESXi directly on the host, used when managing a single host server running ESXi.

You can also log in to a VM manager directly yourself. To connect to vCenter Server, use either the vSphere desktop or web client; to connect directly to an ESXi host you can only use the vSphere desktop client.

Overview of Pexip Infinity, vSphere clients, VM Manager and ESXi host connectivity

When creating a Conferencing Node for automatic deployment on an ESXi host, you are asked to select the VM manager to be used. If the ESXi host on which you wish to deploy the Conferencing Node is managed by vCenter Server, you must select that vCenter Server as the VM Manager. Do not attempt to deploy the conferencing node directly onto the ESXi host (by selecting the ESXi host as the VM manager).

The Add VM Manager page allows you to create a list of VM managers in advance of creating your Conferencing Nodes. You can also add a VM manager during the process of creating a Conferencing Node.

Adding VM managers

To add, edit or delete VM managers, go to System configuration > VM Managers.

The available options are:

Option Description
Name The name that you will use to refer to this VM manager.
Description An optional field where you can provide more information about the VM manager.
Address

The IP address or hostname of the VM manager.

If you are using vCenter Server, this will be the IP address or hostname of the vCenter Server.

If you are not using vCenter Server, this will be the IP address or hostname of ESXi on the host server.

If an ESXi host is being managed by vCenter Server, all administration must be performed via vCenter Server. Do not log in directly to the ESXi host; configuration changes made in this way may be lost. To ensure that ESXi hosts being managed by vCenter Server are accessible via vCenter Server only and are not directly accessible, you should put them in Lockdown mode. Lockdown mode forces all operations to be performed through vCenter Server.