VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage

System engineers and administrators involved in the administration of a VMware vSphere solution.

After completing this course you should be able to:

• Describe the software-defined data center (SDDC)
• Explain the vSphere components and their function in the infrastructure
• Install and configure VMware ESXi™ hosts
• Deploy and configure VMware vCenter® Server Appliance™
• Use VMware vSphere® Client™ to manage the vCenter Server inventory and the vCenter Server configuration
• Manage, monitor, back up, and protect vCenter Server Appliance
• Create virtual networks with vSphere standard switches
• Describe the storage technologies supported by vSphere
• Configure virtual storage using iSCSI and NFS storage
• Create and manage VMware vSphere® VMFS datastores
• Use the vSphere Client to create virtual machines, templates, clones, and snapshots
• Create a content library and deploy virtual machines from templates in the library
• Manage virtual machine resource use
• Migrate virtual machines with VMware vSphere® vMotion® and VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion®
• Create and manage a vSphere cluster that is enabled with VMware vSphere® High Availability and VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™
• Discuss solutions for managing the vSphere life cycle
• Use VMware vSphere® Update Manager™ to apply patches and perform upgrades to ESXi hosts and virtual machines

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

Introduction to vSphere and the Software-Defined Data Center

• Explain basic virtualization concepts
• Describe how vSphere fits into the software-defined data center and the cloud infrastructure
• Explain how vSphere interacts with CPUs, memory, networks, and storage
• Recognize the user interfaces for accessing the vCenter Server system and ESXi hosts
• Use VMware Host Client™ to access and manage ESXi host

Virtual Machines

• Create and remove a virtual machine
• Provision a virtual machine with virtual devices
• Identify the files that make up a virtual machine
• Explain the importance of VMware Tools™

vCenter Server

• Describe the vCenter Server architecture
• Discuss how ESXi hosts communicate with vCenter Server
• Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance
• Use the vSphere Client to manage the vCenter Server inventory
• Add data center, organizational objects, and hosts to vCenter Server
• Use roles and permissions to enable users to access objects in the vCenter Server inventory
• Back up vCenter Server Appliance
• Monitor vCenter Server tasks, events, and appliance health
• Use vCenter Server High Availability to protect a vCenter Server Appliance

Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks

• Create and manage standard switches
• Describe the virtual switch connection types
• Configure virtual switch security, traffic-shaping and load-balancing policies
• Compare vSphere distributed switches and standard switches

Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage

• Identify storage protocols and storage device types
• Discuss ESXi hosts using iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
• Create and manage VMFS and NFS datastores
• Explain how multipathing works with iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
• Deploy virtual machines on a VMware vSAN™ datastore

Virtual Machine Management

• Use templates and cloning to deploy new virtual machines
• Modify and manage virtual machines
• Create a content library and deploy virtual machines from templates in the library
• Dynamically increase the size of a virtual disk
• Use customization specification files to customize a new virtual machine
• Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion migrations
• Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
• Examine the features and functions of VMware vSphere® Replication™

Resource Management and Monitoring

• Discuss CPU and memory concepts in a virtualized environment
• Describe what overcommitment of a resource means
• Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
• Use various tools to monitor resource use
• Create and use alarms to report certain conditions or events

vSphere Cluster

• Describe options for making a vSphere environment highly available
• Explain the vSphere HA architecture
• Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
• Examine the features and functions of VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance
• Configure a vSphere cluster using ESXi Cluster Quickstart
• Describe the functions of a vSphere DRS cluster
• Create a vSphere DRS cluster

vSphere Lifecycle

• Describe how VMware vSphere® Lifecycle Manager™ works
• Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to update ESXi hosts in a cluster

Attendees should meet the following prerequisites:

• System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems

• VSD - VMware vSphere: Design
• VSOS - VMware vSphere: Optimize and Scale
• VST - VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting