This course is not currently offered by Global Knowledge. Information here is provided for reference only.

In this course, you will learn to follow best practices for secure design, deployment, and operation of a VMware^® vSphere™ environment. Through lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the security and compliance goals of your organization.

What You'll Learn

• Identify vulnerabilities in the current design of a vSphere environment and recommend corrective actions
• Harden vSphere components as described in VMware's vSphere 4.0 Security Hardening Guide
• Recommend configuration and change management policies, processes, and systems

Who Needs to Attend

System administrators, systems engineers, and consultants responsible for securing a vSphere installation

Prerequisites

• Completion of one of the following:
  • VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4.1]
  • VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4]
  • VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V4]
  • VMware vSphere: What's New [V4]
  • Equivalent knowledge and administration experience with VMware ESX™/ESXi and VMware vCenter™ Server
• Experience working at the command prompt is helpful

Follow-On Courses

There are no follow-ons for this course.

Course Outline

1. Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Online resources for security and compliance

2. Security in a Virtual Environment

• Review of information security and risk management concepts
• How virtualization affects security and compliance
• Top vulnerabilities in a virtual environment
• Basic guidelines for securing a virtual environment
• Security tools and technologies

3. Secure Virtual Networking

• vNetwork security architecture
• Network segmentation and traffic isolation
• Secure virtual network configuration
• Traffic isolation with private VLANs

4. Protecting the Management Environment

• vCenter Server authentication, authorization, and accounting
• Working with SSL certificates
• Hardening the vCenter Server system

5. Protecting VMware ESX/ESXi Host Systems

• ESX and ESXi security architecture
• Controlling access to storage
• Hardening ESX and ESXi hosts

6. Hardening Virtual Machines

• Virtual machine security architecture
• Configuring security parameters

7. Configuration and Change Management

• Configuration and change management goals and guidelines
• Maintaining the proper configuration of vSphere components
• Monitoring logs for security-related events
• Configuration and change management tools and technologies

Labs

Approximately 60% of class time is devoted to hands-on labs.