VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V8]

1 Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics

• Course objectives

2 vSphere and Virtualization Overview

• Explain basic virtualization concepts

• Describe how vSphere fits in the software-defined data center and the cloud infrastructure

• Recognize the user interfaces for accessing vSphere

• Explain how vSphere interacts with CPUs, memory, networks, storage, and GPUs

• Install an ESXi host

3 vCenter Management

• Recognize ESXi hosts communication with vCenter

• Deploy vCenter Server Appliance

• Configure vCenter settings

• Use the vSphere Client to add and manage license keys

• Create and organize vCenter inventory objects

• Recognize the rules for applying vCenter permissions

• View vSphere tasks and events

• Create a vCenter backup schedule

• Recognize the importance of vCenter High Availability

• Explain how vCenter High Availability works

4 Deploying Virtual Machines

• Create and provision VMs

• Explain the importance of VMware Tools

• Identify the files that make up a VM

• Recognize the components of a VM

• Navigate the vSphere Client and examine VM settings and options

• Modify VMs by dynamically increasing resources

• Create VM templates and deploy VMs from them

• Clone VMs

• Create customization specifications for guest operating systems

• Create local, published, and subscribed content libraries

• Deploy VMs from content libraries

• Manage multiple versions of VM templates in content libraries

5 Configure and Manage vSphere Networking

• Configure and view standard switch configurations

• Configure and view distributed switch configurations

• Recognize the difference between standard switches and distributed switches

• Explain how to set networking policies on standard and distributed switches

6 Configure and Manage vSphere Storage

• Recognize vSphere storage technologies

• Identify types of vSphere datastores

• Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing

• Describe iSCSI components and addressing

• Configure iSCSI storage on ESXi

• Create and manage VMFS datastores

• Configure and manage NFS datastores

• Discuss vSphere support for NVMe and iSER technologies

7 Managing Virtual Machines

• Recognize the types of VM migrations that you can perform within a vCenter instance and across vCenter instances

• Migrate VMs using vSphere vMotion

• Describe the role of Enhanced vMotion Compatibility in migrations

• Migrate VMs using vSphere Storage vMotion

• Take a snapshot of a VM

• Manage, consolidate, and delete snapshots

• Describe CPU and memory concepts in relation to a virtualized environment

• Describe how VMs compete for resources

• Define CPU and memory shares, reservations, and limits

• Recognize the role of a VMware Tools Repository

• Configure a VMware Tools Repository

• Recognize the backup and restore solution for VMs

8 vSphere Monitoring

• Monitor the key factors that can affect a virtual machine's performance

• Describe the factors that influence vCenter performance

• Use vCenter tools to monitor resource use

• Create custom alarms in vCenter

• Describe the benefits and capabilities of VMware Skyline

• Recognize uses for Skyline Advisor Pro

9 Deploying and Configuring vSphere Cluster

• Use Cluster Quickstart to enable vSphere cluster services and configure the cluster

• View information about a vSphere cluster

• Explain how vSphere DRS determines VM placement on hosts in the cluster

• Recognize use cases for vSphere DRS settings

• Monitor a vSphere DRS cluster

• Describe how vSphere HA responds to different types of failures

• Identify options for configuring network redundancy in a vSphere HA cluster

• Recognize the use cases for various vSphere HA settings

• Configure a cluster enabled for vSphere DRS and vSphere HA

• Recognize when to use vSphere Fault Tolerance

• Describe the function of the vCLS

• Recognize operations that might disrupt the healthy functioning of vCLS VMs

10 ESXi Operations

• Use host profiles to manage ESXi configuration compliance

• Recognize the benefits of using configuration profiles

11 Managing the vSphere Lifecycle

• Generate vCenter interoperability reports

• Recognize features of vSphere Lifecycle Manager

• Describe ESXi images and image depots

• Enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager in a vSphere cluster

• Validate ESXi host compliance against a cluster image and remediate ESXi hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager

• Describe vSphere Lifecycle Manager automatic recommendations

• Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to upgrade VMware Tools and VM hardware

12 Network Operations

• Configure and manage vSphere distributed switches

• Describe how VMware vSphere Network I/O Control enhances performance

• Define vSphere Distributed Services Engine

• Describe the use cases and benefits of vSphere Distributed Services Engine

13 Storage Operations

• Describe the architecture and requirements of vSAN configuration

• Describe storage policy-based management

• Recognize components in the vSphere Virtual Volumes architecture

• Configure Storage I/O Control