VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage

This hands-on training course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere®, which consists of VMware ESXi™ and VMware® vCenter Server™. This course is based on versions of ESXi 5.5 and vCenter Server 5.5. Completion of this course satisfies the prerequisite for taking the VMware® Certified Professional 5 exam.

Objectives

By the end of the course, you should understand vSphere 5.5 functions and features and be able to meet the following objectives:

• Deploy an ESXi host
• Deploy a vCenter Server instance
• Deploy a vCenter Server appliance
• Manage an ESXi host using vCenter Server
• Manage ESXi storage using vCenter Server
• Manage ESXi networking using vCenter Server
• Manage virtual machines using vCenter Server
• Deploy and manage thin-provisioned virtual machines
• Migrate virtual machines with VMware vSphere® vMotion®
• Manage vSphere infrastructure with VMware vSphere® Web Client and VMware vSphere® Client™
• Migrate virtual machines using VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion®
• Manage access control using vCenter Server
• Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server
• Manage VMware vSphere® High Availability, VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance, and VMware vSphere® Data Protection™ using vCenter Server
• Apply patches using VMware vSphere®Update Manager™

Course Outline

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

Virtualized Data Center

• Introduce components of the virtualized data center
• Describe where vSphere fits into the cloud architecture
• Install and use vSphere Client

Creating Virtual Machines

• Introduce virtual machines, virtual machine hardware, and virtual machine files
• Deploy a single virtual machine

VMware vCenter Server

• Introduce the vCenter Server architecture
• Introduce VMware® vCenter™ Single Sign-On™
• Install and use vSphere Web Client
• Introduce VMware® vCenter™ Server Appliance™
• Configure and manage vCenter Server Appliance
• Manage vCenter Server inventory objects and licenses

Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks

• Describe, create, and manage a standard switch
• Describe and modify standard switch properties
• Configure virtual switch load-balancing algorithms

Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage

• Introduce storage protocols and device names
• Configure ESXi with iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
• Create and manage vSphere datastores
• Deploy and manage VMware® Virtual SAN™

Virtual Machine Management

• Use templates and cloning to deploy virtual machines
• Modify and manage virtual machines
• Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
• Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion migrations
• Create a VMware vSphere® vApp™

Access and Authentication Control

• Control user access through roles and permissions
• Configure and manage the ESXi firewall
• Configure ESXi lockdown mode
• Integrate ESXi with Active Directory

Resource Management and Monitoring

• Introduce virtual CPU and memory concepts
• Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
• Configure and manage resource pools
• Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server performance graphs and alarms

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

• Introduce the new vSphere High Availability architecture
• Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
• Introduce vSphere Fault Tolerance
• Describe VMware vSphere® Replication

Scalability

• Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ (DRS) cluster
• Configure Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
• Use vSphere HA and DRS together

Patch Management

• Use vSphere Update Manager to manage ESXi patching
• Install vSphere Update Manager and the vSphere Update Manager plug-in
• Create patch baselines
• Scan and remediate hosts

Installing VMvvare Components

• Introduce ESXi installation
• Describe boot-from-SAN requirements
• Introduce vCenter Server deployment options
• Describe vCenter Server hardware, software, and database requirements
• Install vCenter Server (Windows-based)

Who Can Benefit

• System administrators
• Systems engineers
• Operators of ESXi and vCenter Server

Prerequisites

• System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems.
• Understanding of concepts presented in the VMware Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals course for VCA-DCV certification.

Mode

• Classroom based lectures with practical exercises