VMware vSphere 6.7 Optimize, Upgrade, Troubleshoot
This powerful 5-day class provides an in-depth look at vSphere 6.7. In this course, cover how to deploy vSphere 6.7, how to optimize it – including VMs, ESXi hosts, vCenter Server Appliance, networking and shared SAN storage… with the goal of delivering both scalability and performance.
We show step-by-step how to upgrade or migrate to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7, how to use VMware Update Manager to upgrade ESXi hosts and how to use VUM how to upgrade VM virtual hardware.
And, we will also show you how to diagnose, isolate and fix common problems. All of Web Client, Host Client, and command line tools are all used to explore, configure, update, investigate and zero in on performance bottlenecks and to find and fix trouble spots. Up to 45% of class time is devoted to labs so concepts, skills and best practices are developed and reinforced.
By the end of the class, attendees will have learned practical, actionable skills in vSphere design, implementation, upgrading, sizing, scalability, performance optimization and troubleshooting.
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
• vSphere Administrators responsible for day-to-day operation of Virtual Infrastructure
• vSphere Performance analysts who need to understand, provision, monitor Virtual Infrastructure
• 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 chapters:
Chapter 1 – Install,
Configure and Secure ESXi 6.7 (HoL1)
Chapter 2 – Virtual and Physical
Networking (HoL1)
Chapter 3 – Advanced Virtual
Networking (HoL1)
Chapter 4 – Connecting to NAS
Shared storage (HoL1)
Chapter 5 – Virtual Hardware and
Virtual Machines (HoL1)
Chapter 6 – vCenter Server and Web
Client (HoL1)
Chapter 7 – Virtual Machine Rapid
Deployment (HoL1)
Chapter 8 – Upgrade ESXi hosts,
VMs with VMware Update Manager (HoL1)
Chapter 9 – Connecting to Fibre
& iSCSI Shared Storage (HoL1)
Chapter 10 – Understand and Use
Raw Device Maps (HoL1)
Chapter 11 – Working with VMFS
Filesystems (HoL1)
Chapter 12 – Storage Profiles
(HoL1)
Chapter 13 – Storage Load
Balancing with SDRS Clusters (HoL1)
Chapter 14 – VM VMotion, Storage VMotion Migration (HoL1)
Chapter 15 – Manage Host
Configurations with Host Profiles (HoL1)
Chapter 16 – HA Cluster CPU/Memory
Resource Mgt. (HoL1)
Chapter 17 – VMware Fault
Tolerance (HoL1)
Chapter 18 – Scalable Networking
with Distributed vSwitches (HoL1)
Hands On Labs:
Attendees will complete the
following hands on labs during the class:
Install of ESXi 6.7 and perform post-install configuration
steps
Review ESXi services and configure ESXi firewall
Enable ESXi Lockdown mode to prevent direct host
configuration changes
Create/update Standard vSwitch configurations
Configure vSwitch Security Policies for Promiscuous Mode,
MAC Address Changes and Forged Transmits
Configure a vSwitch, VMkernel ports for Jumbo Frame use
Connect to NFS storage
Create a new VM according to best practices
Import and configure vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 via
command line
Perform an upgrade of vCenter Server Appliance from v6.0 to
v6.7
Use vCLI command line tools like esxcli, localcli,
vmware-cmd and other commands
Use esxtop to monitor resource use and pinpoint performance
concerns
Rapidly deploy VMs from Templates and Clones
Tune VM vCPU to maximize CPU performance
Implement an ESXi host vFlash Read Cache volume
Enable and use Hot-plug virtual hardware
Monitor storage controller queue length and performance
Monitor ESXi host and VM memory use
Update VMs for service by pCPU cores (not hyperthreaded
logical processors)
Configure and use VMware Update Manager to update an ESXi
host from ESXi 6.0 to ESXi 6.7
Use VMware Update Manager to upgrade a VM’s virtual hardware
Connect to an iSCSI SAN
Create VMFS file systems
Expand VMFS using LUN Spanning and LUN expansion
Create custom storage profiles and assign them to VMFS
volumes
Assign storage profiles to VMs
Perform storage compliance checks and remediate
non-compliant VMs
Create Storage DRS clusters and use Storage DRS to manage
storage capacity and I/O load
Use Host Profiles to create ESXi Host configuration rulesets
Use Host Profiles to verify and fix non-compliant host
configurations
Create a High Availability Cluster
Configure All Paths Down and Permanent Device Loss policies
in an HA cluster
Create a multi-core Fault Tolerant VM
Create Distributed vSwitches
Bulk migrate VMs from Standard to Distributed vSwitches
Work with dvSwitch Configuration Backup Up and Restore
Enable and use dvSwitch Health Management
Using dvSwitch port shadowing
Testing network health on dvSwitches
Work with dvSwitch configuration roll back and recovery
(1 HoL –
Every attendee performs one or more Hands on Labs at the end
of each chapter)
Detailed Chapter List:
Chapter 1 – Install, Configure
and Secure ESXi 6.7
Install and configure ESXi 6.7
using Best Practices
Enable and secure command line
access including the console and Secure Shell
Using Lockdown mode to restrict
management access
Working with ESXi log files
Working with VMkernel Paging Files
on local storage, flash storage and shared storage
Lockdown modes introduced in
vSphere 6.7
Use command line tools to review
and update host configurations
Using command line tools to
create/manage users and permissions
Chapter 2 – Virtual and
Physical Networking
Create / update standard Virtual
Switches
vSwitch security policies
Network failure detection and
beaconing
Enabling Discovery Protocol
settings
Use Jumbo Frames to improve
network performance
Use command line tools to create,
update and repair Standard vSwitches
Use esxtop to monitor network
activity
Chapter 3 – Advanced
Networking
Configuring vSwitch Security
policies, Promiscuous Mode, Forged Transmits and MAC address changes
Understanding and using Traffic
Shaping
The Five physical NIC teaming
policies including their pros / cons and use cases
Troubleshoot networking
configuration and performance issues
Chapter 4 – Connecting to NAS
Shared storage
Connecting to NFS v3 storage
Network design for high service
availability
Best practices for performance and
reliability
Chapter 5 – Virtual Hardware
and Virtual Machines
VM virtual hardware, options and
limits
Creating and right-sizing Virtual
Machines for CPU, memory
Installing VMware Tools
Virtual Machine best practices
Import and export VMs in Open
Virtual Machine Format
Implement and use vFlash Read
Cache storage to accelerate VM read performance
Configure and use virtual NVMe
vDisks
Chapter 6 – Upgrade, Configure vCenter Server Appliance
Deploy vCenter Server Appliance
6.0 via the command line and configuration files
Upgrade vCenter Appliance 6.0 to
vCenter Appliance 6.7
Learn how to implement vCenter
redundancy with vCenter High Availability
Connecting Single Sign On (SSO) to
Active Directory and other identity sources
Use command line tools to backup
and restore an ESXi host’s configuration
Chapter 7 – Virtual Machine
Rapid Deployment
How to create a Template VM
Using Guest OS Customization for
Windows and non-Windows OS'
Enabling, using Hotplug Virtual
CPU and memory
Enabling, using Hotplug disks,
networking, USB devices and more
Predictive and adaptive sizing
strategies for VMs
Troubleshooting Virtual Machine
issues
Features and benefits of NVMe
virtual disks
Use esxtop to
analyze VM performance
Chapter 8 – Use VMware Update
Manager to Upgrade ESXi hosts
Using command line tools to backup
and restore an ESXi host’s configuration
Configure VMware Update Managers
Create ESXi host Patch Baselines
Importing a new ESXi install media
image
Attaching a Host Upgrade patch
baseline
Performing host compliance scans
Upgrading an ESXi host from ESXi
6.0 to ESXi 6.7
Chapter 9 – Connecting to
Fibre & iSCSI Shared Storage
General SAN features and
capabilities
Overview of Fibre Storage Networks
VMware APIs for Array Integration
(VAAI)
Storage network design for
performance and redundancy
Connecting to Fibre and iSCSI
shared storage
iSCSI Hardware and Software
Initiators
iSCSI Static and Send Targets LUN
discovery
Troubleshooting storage issues
Use esxtop to review storage
controller and datastores configuration and I/O activity
Chapter 10 – Direct VM to SAN
Access with Raw Device Maps
Explain Physical and Virtual Raw
Device Maps (RDMs)
Use cases and benefits of 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 11 – VMware File System
(VMFS 6)
Features and benefits of VMFS 6
Creating and managing shared
Volumes
Managing VMFS capacity with LUN
spanning and LUN expansion
Understand VMware multipath
options
Benefits of using vendor multipath
solutions
Understanding and selecting
multipathing policies
VMFS performance, scalability and
reliability considerations
Review storage queuing, I/O aborts
and other storage issues
Diagnose and troubleshoot storage
performance
Troubleshooting VMFS issues
VMFS best practices
Chapter 12 – Storage Profiles
SAN and user defined storage
profiles
Using storage speed, replication
to define storage capabilities
VMware APIs for Storage Awareness
(VASA)
Creating VM storage profiles
VM/Storage compliance checks
Remediating incorrectly placed VMs
Enable priority storage queues
with Storage I/O Control
Chapter 13 – Storage Load
Balancing with SDRS Clusters
Creating and using Storage
Distributed Resource Scheduling clusters (SDRS)
Cluster properties for capacity
and I/O load balancing
Best practices for building
storage clusters
Chapter 14 – VMotion Migration,
Cold Migration, Storage VMotion
Cold Migrations to new ESXi hosts,
datastores
Hot Migrations with VMotion
VMotion requirements and
dependencies
How VMotion works – detailed
explanation
Troubleshooting VMotion
Storage VMotion for hot VM disk
migrations
Chapter 15 – Managing ESXi Host
Configurations with Host Profiles
The challenge of maintaining
approved ESXi host configurations
Using Host Profiles to harvest an
ESXi host configuration rule set
Updating a Host Profile rule set
Attaching a Host Profile rule set
to an ESXi host and completing a compliance scan
Remediating non-compliant host
configurations and verifying host configuration compliance
Chapter 16 – VMware High
Availability Clusters
Minimize unplanned VM down time
VMware High Availability clusters
VM requirements for HA Clusters
Storage fault recovery in High
Availability clusters (All Paths Down, Permanent Device Loss)
Monitoring VM health in HA
clusters
Admission Control policy settings
for predictable pCPU/pRAM resource availability
Identifying and troubleshooting
issues in VMware HA clusters
Chapter 17 – VMware Fault
Tolerance
Eliminate VM unplanned down time
with VMware Fault Tolerance
Role of the Primary and Secondary
VM in a Fault Tolerance configuration
Explain how Fast Checkpointing
keeps the Secondary VM vCPU, vRAM, vDisk up to date
Enabling VM Fault Tolerance
Initial VM synchronization
Testing Fault Tolerance
Chapter 18 – Distributed
vSwitch Features and Scalability
Features and benefits of
Distributed vSwitches
Role of the DVUplink port group
Adding ESXi hosts to dvSwitches
Creating dvSwitch port groups
Migrating physical NICs and
VMkernel ports to dvSwitches
dvSwitch configuration backup and
restore
Configuring custom VM MAC address
generation policies
Testing dvSwitch network health