Professional Training

Prerequisites

We recommend that attendees of this course are:
- System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems
- Understanding of concepts presented in the VMware Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals

Objectives

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following
objectives:
Describe the software-defined data center (SDDC)
Explain the vSphere components and their function in the infrastructure
Install and configure 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 Lifecycle Manager to 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
Describe the ESXi host architecture
Navigate the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) to configure an ESXi host
Recognize ESXi host user account best practices
Install an ESXi host
Use VMware Host Client to configure ESXi host settings

Virtual Machines

Create and provision a virtual machine
Explain the importance of VMware Tools
Install VMware Tools
Identify the files that make up a VM
Recognize the components of a VM
Recognize virtual devices supported by a VM
Describe the benefits and use cases for containers
Identify the parts of a container system

vCenter Server

Describe the vCenter Server architecture
Discuss how ESXi hosts communicate with vCenter Server
Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance
Use 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 VMware 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
Recognize the components of a VMware vSAN configuration

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
Use customization specification files to customize a new virtual machine
Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion migrations
Describe the Enhanced vMotion Compatibility feature
Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
Examine the features and functions of VMware vSphere Replication
Describe the benefits of VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection

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 Clusters

Describe the functions of a vSphere DRS cluster
Create a vSphere DRS cluster
Monitor a vSphere cluster configuration
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

vSphere Lifecycle Management

Recognize the importance of vCenter Server Update Planner
Describe how VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager works
Describe how to update ESXi hosts using baselines
Validate ESXi host compliance using a cluster image
Describe how to upgrade VMware Tools and VM hardware