VMware vSphere 6.7 Bootcamp
This powerful 5-day, 10 hour per day extended hours class is an intensive introduction to VMware vSphere™ including VMware ESXi™ 6.7 and vCenter™ 6.7. This course has been completely rewritten to reflect the most recent changes introduced in vSphere 6.y. Our courseware and labs have been fully updated and now use Host Client and Web Client rather than legacy vSphere Client for both presentation material and lab procedures.
Assuming no prior virtualization experience, this class starts with the basics and rapidly progresses to advanced topics. With 45+% of class time is devoted to labs, students learn the skills they need to become effective vSphere administrators.
Students use dedicated labs that start with installation and configuration of stand-alone ESXi servers and progress to shared storage, networking and centralized management. The class continues to advanced topics including resource management, high availability, performance, disaster preparedness, rapid deployment and VM cold, hot and storage migration.
This class is unique in its approach; which is to identify and eliminate common IT pain points using vSphere. Students learn how to deliver business value; not just the technical or mechanical aspects of the software.
By the end of the class, attendees will have learned the skills, and best practices of virtualization. Attendees will be able to design, implement, deploy, configure, monitor, manage and troubleshoot vSphere 6.7.
At the end of the course, attendees will be able to:
• Explain the many significant benefits of virtualization
• Install ESXi Server according to best practices
• Upgrade and use Host Client to manage stand alone ESXi hosts
• Configure and manage local storage resources
• Create virtual and virtual to physical network configurations
• Use advanced networking including pNIC teams to deliver fast, redundant and reliable networking
• Define and use file share (NAS / NFS) datastores
• Create virtual machines, install operating systems and applications
• Install, configure and upgrade VMware Tools
• Install, configure and update the Platform Service Controller and vCenter Server Appliance
• Rapidly deployment of VMs using golden-master templates
• Create clones – one-time copies of virtual machine
• Use Guest OS customization to rapidly configure new VMs according to requirements
• Configure and use hotplug hardware to upgrade VM hardware with zero downtime
• Configure, manage, monitor and secure users and groups
• Work with roles and permissions to implement access controls to vCenter
• Understand the benefits and trade offs of network attached storage and Fibre, iSCSI SANs
• Create both physical and virtual Raw Device Maps to give VMs direct ownership of SAN volumes
• Configure and use shared SAN storage including Fibre SAN, iSCSI SAN
• Add and grow VM virtual disks including system disks and secondary volumes
• Use vCenter alarms to monitor ESXi, VM, storage and network health, performance, state
• Use Resource Pools to bulk delegate resource to meet Service Level Agreements
• Perform VM cold migrations, hot VMotion migrations and Storage VMotion
• Configure and manage server CPU and Memory capacity and maintain VM responsiveness with Distributed Resource Schedule load balanced clusters
• Deliver high VM service availability using VMware High Availability clusters
• Use HA to successfully minimize VM down time caused by ESXi host failures, storage network failures or SAN volume failures
• Configure, implement and use VMware Fault Tolerance to provide Zero-downtime VMs
• Patch and update ESXi servers using vCenter Update Manager
• Monitor and tune both ESXi and virtual machine performance
• Create, configure, update and test Distributed Virtual Switches
• Understand how VMware and third party products, including operating systems, are impacted by virtualization
• Troubleshoot common problems
This class is suitable for anyone who want to learn how to extract the maximum benefit from their investment in Virtual Infrastructure, including:
• System architects or others who need to design virtual infrastructure
• Security specialists responsible for administering, managing, securing Virtual Infrastructure
• Operators responsible for day-to-day operation of Virtual Infrastructure
• Performance analysts who need to understand, provision, monitor Virtual Infrastructure
• Business Continuity specialists responsible for disaster recovery and high availability
• Storage administrators who work with Fibre / iSCSI SAN volumes and NAS datastores
• Managers who need an unbiased understanding of virtualization before committing their organization to a virtual infrastructure deployment.
Chapter List:
Our class consists of the
following 22 chapters:
1. Virtualization Infrastructure
Overview
2. How to Install, Configure ESXi
6.7 (HoL1)
3. Virtual and Physical Networking
(HoL)
4. Advanced Virtual and Physical
Networking (HoL)
5. NAS Shared Storage (HoL)
6. Virtual Hardware and Virtual
Machines (HoL)
7. Install and Deploy the vCenter
Server Appliance (HoL)
8. VM Rapid Deployment using
Templates, Clones (HoL)
Add and Grow
virtual disks (HoL)
Advanced
Virtual Hardware – Hot Plug CPU/Memory (HoL)
9. ESXi and vCenter Permission
Model (HoL)
10.Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared
Storage (HoL)
11. Direct SAN Volume to VM
Assignment with Raw Device Maps (HoL)
12. VMFS – The VMware Cluster File
System (HoL)
13. ESX and vCenter Alarms (HoL)
14. Resource Management and
Resource Pools (HoL)
15. VM Hot VMotion, Cold Migration
and Storage VMotion (HoL)
16. Load Balancing w. Distributed
Resource Scheduling Clusters (HoL)
17. Failure Recovery with High
Availability Clusters (HoL)
18. Continuous VM availability
with VMware Fault Tolerance (HoL)
19. Patch Management with VMware
Update Manager (HoL)
20. Working with Distributed
Virtual Switches (HoL)
21. Managing Scalability and
Performance (HoL)
22. Final Thoughts
(1 HoL – Every attendee perform
one or more Hands on Lab exercises at the end of the chapter)
Hands On Labs:
Attendees will complete the
following hands on labs during the class:
Install of ESXi 6.7 and perform
post-install configurations
Update ESXi 6.7 Host Client to
improve stability and add features
Create, update Network Standard
vSwitches. Use NIC Teams for performance and redundancy
Enable Jumbo Frames on vSwitches
and VMkernel ports
Create active/active and
active/standby pNIC teams
Define, connect to and browse NFS
file shares
Create a Virtual Machine and
install a guest OS into the VM. Install VMware Tools into the VM. Add 3rd party
tools and utilities to the VM
Export a VM in Open Virtual
Machine Format (OVF) and then re-import it
Install and configure the vCenter
Server Appliance (vCSA)
Configure Single Sign On (SSO)
identity sources including Active Directory
Configure vCenter's inventory
views to organize inventory objects
Getting started with VMware Web
Client
Work with Clones and Templates.
Convert a VM into a template. Rapidly deploy new VMs from template. Copy VMs
using cloning.
Use guest OS customization to
easily change the identity of a VM. Create, update and deploy VMs using Guest
OS Customization Specifications
Work with virtual disks. Hot add a
secondary virtual disk. Grow a non-system volume. Grow a Windows system disk
and increase it's partitions without the need for 3rd party tools
Configure and test hotplug memory.
Create multi-core vCPUs
Work with vCenter permissions. Use
and customize Roles
iSCSI, Fibre Storage Area
Networks. Scanning for and connecting to SAN shared storage
Create a physical Raw Device Map
(pRDM). Assign it to a Windows VM and test VM to SAN LUN access
VMware VMFS – VMware's cluster
file system. How to create, tune and grow VMFS volumes
vCenter alarms for monitoring key
infrastructure objects. Send SNMP traps to a trap receiver on high VM resource
consumption
Create and resource tune Resource
Pools. Test resource resource delegations
Cold Migration VMs from one ESXi
host and storage volume to another
Hot VMotion the live running state
of a VM from one ESXi host to another
Hot Storage Migrate the live disk
state of a running VM from one datastore to another
Build and test an automated CPU
and Memory resource load balancing DRS clusters
Create and test an HA cluster.
Watch the cluster place and restart VMs during a server failures
Set up VMware Update Manager to
patch/update ESXi hosts. Perform an ESXi host Patch Scan, review host
non-compliance with attached patch baselines and then apply patches to update
the ESXi host
Create a Distributed Virtual
Switch and assign uplinking pNICs
Migrate Standard vSwitch VMkernel
ports, Port Groups to the dvSwitch. Verify network functionality
Performance analysis and bench
marking storage and networking
Students now benefit from
un-shared labs. Rather than working in teams of 2, students now complete all
tasks by themselves on their own private lab environment. This provides a
better learning environment for students and facilitates remote attendance.
Detailed Chapter List:
Chapter 1 – Virtualization
Infrastructure Overview
Virtualization explained
How VMware virtualization compares to traditional PC
deployments
Common pain points in PC Server management
How virtualization effectively addresses common IT issues
VMware vSphere software products
What's New and Improved in vSphere 6.7
Chapter 2 – How to
Install, Configure ESXi 6.7
Understanding ESXi
Selecting, validating and preparing your server
Storage controllers, disks and partitions
Software installation and best practices
Join ESXi to a Domain
Local User Management and Policies
First look at VMware Host Client
Chapter 3 – Virtual and
Physical Networking
vNetwork standard and distributed virtual Switches
Virtual Switches, Ports and Port Groups
Creating VMkernel ports
Creating, sizing and customizing Virtual Switches
Chapter 3.1 – Virtual and
Physical Networking
vNetwork standard and distributed virtual Switches
Virtual Switches, Ports and Port Groups
Creating VMkernel ports
Creating, sizing and customizing Virtual Switches
Chapter 4 – Connecting to
and Using NAS Shared Storage
Benefits Shared Storage offer to Virtual Infrastructure
NFS Overview
Configuring ESX to use NFS Shares
Configuring NFS for performance and redundancy
NFS Use Cases
Troubleshooting NFS connections
Chapter 5 – Virtual
Hardware and Virtual Machines
VM virtual hardware, options and limits
Sizing and creating a new VM
Assigning, modifying and removing Virtual Hardware
Working with a VM’s BIOS
VMware remote console applications
Installing an OS into a VM
Driver installation and customization
Chapter 6 – vCenter Server
Appliance and Web Client
The need for Identity Source
management
Installing and configuring vCenter
Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Service Controller
Connecting Single Sign On (SSO) to
Active Directory and other identity sources
vCenter feature overview and
components
Organizing vCenter's inventory
views
Importing ESX hosts into vCenter
management
Administering vCenter Server with
Web Client
Chapter 7 – VM Rapid Deployment
using Templates, Clones
Templates – Virtual Machine Golden Master images
Creating, modifying, updating and working with Templates
Patching, and refreshing Templates
Cloning, one time copies of VMs
Best practices for cloning and templating
Adding and resizing virtual disks
Hotplug VM virtual CPUs and Memory
Chapter 8 – ESXi and
vCenter Permission Model
VMware Security model
Configuring local users and groups
Managing local permissions
vCenter security model
Local, Domain and Active Directory users and groups
How permissions are applied
Chapter 9 – Using Fibre
and iSCSI Shared Storage
Fibre SAN overview
Identifying and using Fibre Host Bus Adapters
Scanning and Rescanning Fibre SANs
iSCSI overview
Virtual and physical iSCSI adapters
Connecting to iSCSI storage
Scanning and rescanning iSCSI SANS
Performance and redundancy considerations and best practices
Understanding the benefits of VMware VAAI compliant storage
Chapter 9.1 – Direct VM
to SAN Access with Raw Device Maps
Explain Physical and Virtual Raw Device Maps (RDMs)
Use cases for Raw Device Maps
How Raw Device Maps work with VM cold, VMotion and Storage
VMotion migrations
Using RDMs to implement Virtual and Virtual/Physical
Microsoft Fail Over Clusters
Chapter 10 – VMware File System
(VMFS)
Unique file system properties of VMFS
Managing shared Volumes
Creating new VMFS partitions
Explanation of new VMFS 6 features and capabilities
Managing VMFS capacity with LUN spanning and LUN expansion
Native and 3rd party Multipathing with Fibre and iSCSI SANs
VMFS performance considerations
VMFS scalability and reliability
Chapter 11 – Infrastructure
Monitoring with vCenter Alarms
Alarm categories and definitions
Creating custom alarms and actions
Configure vCenter so it can send E-mail and SNMP alerts
Reviewing alarms and acknowledging them
Work with alarm conditions, triggers and actions
Identify most useful alarms to review and enable
Chapter 12 – Resource
Management and Resource Pools
Delegate resources in bulk using Resource Pools
How ESX delivers resources to VMs
Shares, Reservations and Limits
CPU resource scheduling
Memory resource scheduling
Resource Pools
Chapter 13 – VMotion Migration,
Cold Migration, Storage VMotion
Cold VM migrations to new ESX hosts, datastores
Hot Migrations with VMotion
VMotion requirements and dependencies
How VMotion works – detailed explanation
Troubleshooting VMotion
How to test hosts for VMotion compatibility
Storage VMotion for hot VM disk migrations
Chapter 14 – Distributed
Resource Scheduling Clusters
CPU and Memory resource balanced clusters with VMware
Distributed Resource Scheduler
DRS Cluster configuration and tuning
Per-VM cluster policy overrides
Learn the features and benefits of DRS Power Management
Chapter 15 – Failure
Recovery with High Availability Clusters
High Availability options to minimize unplanned down time
How VMware HA protects against ESXi host, storage network
and SAN volume failures
Understand and review HA’s many policies
Introduction to continuous VM availability using VMware
Fault Tolerance
Chapter 15.1 – Failure
Recovery with High Availability Clusters
How Fault Tolerance provides continuous VM availability
during ESXi host, storage network and SAN storage failures
How to configure ESXi hosts and networks to enable Fault
Tolerance
How to configure, enable and monitor Fault Tolerance on VMs
Managing Fault Tolerance protected VMs
Fault Tolerance scalability, performance and limitations
Chapter 16 – Patch
Management with VMware Update Manager
Configure and enable VMware Update Manager
Establishing a patch baseline
Verifying compliance and patching ESXi hosts
Chapter 17 – Distributed
Virtual Switches
Features and benefits of dvSwitches vs. Standard vSwitches
How to create a new dvSwitches
Role of dvUplink ports and dvSwitch Port Groups
Migrating physical NICs to dvSwitches
Migrating VMs and VMkernel ports to dvSwitches
Chapter 18 – Managing
Scalability and Performance
VMkernel CPU and memory resource management mechanisms
Tuning VM storage I/O performance
Identifying and resolving resource contention
Monitoring VM and ESX host performance
Performance and capacity planning strategies
Chapter 19 – Final
Thoughts
Consolidation guidelines for VMs and Storage
Determining which workloads to consolidate
Other considerations
Useful books, white papers and online resources