vSphere Advanced Settings

ESX Host Advanced Settings

ESX Advanced parameter	Default value	Changed Value	Justification
Syslog.global.logHost	empty	Syslog servers See. Table 122 SYSLOG Servers	Centralized syslog for troubleshooting and security audits.
Syslog.global.logDirUnique	false	true	Creates unique subdirectories in shared datastore scratch location.
Syslog.global.logDir		[TEMPLATES-01] /scratch/log/	We use SD cards in ESX hosts where ramdisk is used for logs and core dumps. This setting instructs ESXi to use shared datastore instead local ramdisk for scratch location.
UserVars.ESXiShellInteractiveTimeOut	0	1800	ESXi Shell (SSH, concole) log out time-out value in seconds. Changed value 1800 seconds (30 min) increase security.
UserVars.SuppressShellWarning	0	1	Disables warning message that SSH is enabled.
Config.HostAgent.plugins.hostsvc.esxAdminsGroup	ESX Admins	PPOD-TEC-NG-Admins PPOD-TEC-CH-Admins	We have two AD groups of ESX Admins managing pPODs in different datacenters.
VMkernel.Boot.terminateVMOnPDL	no	yes	Terminates VMs in case LUN device is permanently lost.
Disk.AutoremoveOnPDL	enabled	disabled	Don't remove datastores in PDL automatically.

vSphere HA Advanced Settings

HA Cluster Advanced parameter	Default value	Changed Value	Justification
das.vmcpuminmhz	32MHz	570MHz	Defines the default CPU resource value assigned to a virtual machine if its CPU reservation is not specified or zero. This is used for the Host Failures Cluster Tolerates admission control policy. Default min reservation 570MHz per VM solves vCloud Director CPU Max OverBooking Ratio. Single ESX host can serve 29GHz. 50 * 570MHz = 28.5GHz
das.maskCleanShutdownEnabled	false	true	This is an accompanying configuration that helps vSphere HA distinguish between VMs that were once powered on and should be restarted versus VMs that were already powered off when a PDL occurred therefore these are VMs that don’t need to be and more importantly probably should not be restarted