VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage V8

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

• Describe the benefits and capabilities of VMware Skyline

• 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 

1 Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics

• Course objectives

2 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

• Describe how to proactively manage your vSphere environment using VMware Skyline

3 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

4 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

5 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

6 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

7 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 

8 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

9 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

• Describe the function of the vSphere® Cluster Service

10 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

• Describe VMware vSphere® Lifecycle Manager™ and VMware vSAN™ integration