VMware vSphere 5.0 Boot Camp
Private Training

Course Summary

This powerful 5-day 10hr/day class is an intensive introduction to VMware vSphere™ 5 including VMware ESX™ 5 and vCenter™. Assuming no prior virtualization experience, this class starts with the basics and rapidly progresses to advanced topics. 40+% of class time is devoted to labs so concepts, skills and best practices are developed and reinforced. Labs 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 balancing, high availability, power management, back-up and recovery, performance, vCenter redundancy, VM redundancy. Disaster recovery, rapid deployment, hot migration and workload consolidation are also covered. This class is unique in its approach; which is to identify and eliminate common IT pain points and then to use virtualization to deliver clear, tangible benefits. Each topic is presented from the perspective of delivering key business value; not just the technical or mechanical aspects of the software. By the end of the class, attendees will have learned the benefits, skills, and best practices of virtualization. Attendees will be able to design, implement, deploy, configure, monitor, manage and troubleshoot VMware vSphere 5.0.

Audience
System Architects, security specialists, analysts, back-up and storage administrators.
Course Length
5 Days
Prerequisites
Attendees should have user, operator or administrator experience on common operating systems such as Microsoft Windows®, Linux™, UNIX™, etc. Experience installing, configuring and managing operating systems, storage systems and or networks is useful but not required. All attendees should have a basic familiarity with PC server hardware, disk partitioning, IP addressing, O/S installation, networking, etc.

Objectives

Explain the many significant benefits of virtualization

Install ESXi Server according to best practices

Create virtual, distributed virtual and virtual to physical LAN segments

Understand and use shared SAN storage including Fibre SAN, iSCSI SAN

Define and use file share (NAS) datastores

Install, configure and administer VMware vCenter

Create virtual machines, install operating systems and applications

Rapid deployment of VMs using golden-master templates

Create clones – one-time copies of virtual machine

Perform VM cold migrations, hot migrations and Storage VMotion

Configure, manage, monitor and secure users and groups

Deploy and use VMware Data Recovery to back up and recover VMs

Create and manager load balanced clusters

Understand, create and manage high availability clusters to protect against VM service loss caused by ESXi server failures

Configure and create VMs in Fault Tolerant mode for 100% VM uptime

Understand how VMware and third party products, including operating systems are impacted by virtualization

Deploy vCenter in Linked Mode for full management redundancy

Detailed Outline

  1. Introduction to vSphere 5.0
    • VMware vSphere
    • Problems and Opportunities
    • Server Resource Utilization
    • Server Consolidation
    • Datacenter Issues
    • OS, Application Imaging
    • Back Up & Recovery
    • Server Refresh
    • Hardware Maintenance
    • High Windows OS Costs
    • MS Virtualization Calculator
    • Disaster Recovery
    • Test, Development & QA
    • IT Technical Career Benefits
    • Virtualization Over Time
    • VMware ESXi
    • vSphere Hardware Limits
    • Small Business Bundles
    • vRAM
    • VMware vCenter
    • Single Host Deployment
    • Multiple ESXi w. Shared Storage
    • vSphere Private Cloud
    • Cloud Computing
    • Storage, Server, Network Cloud
    • New Features in vSphere 5
    • VMSF and SSD
  2. VMware ESXi 5.0
    • Scalable ESXi Deployment
    • Installing ESXi
    • Hardware Virtualization Assist
    • ESXi 5.0
    • ESXi Configuration
    • Configure Management Network
    • Select Management NIC(s)
    • IP, DNS Configuration
    • Custom DNS Suffixes
    • Network Changes and Test
    • ESXi Ready for Service
    • Security Warning
    • vSphere Client>ESXi Host
    • ESXi > Configuration
    • User Groups, Host Roles
    • Properties
    • Sizing ESXi CPU, Memory, Storage, NICs
  3. Virtual Networking
    • Virtual Hardware
    • Virtual and Physical Networking
    • ESXi Networking
    • Project Plan
    • vNetwork Switches
    • Standard vSwitches
    • Distributed vSwitches
    • Physical and Virtual Networking
    • Multi-homed Networking
    • Port Groups
    • vSwitch Properties
    • Add Network Wizards
    • ESXi Physical NICs
    • vSwitch Rules
  4. NAS/NFS
    • Network Attached Storage / Network File System
    • NAS Options
    • Network File System
    • NAS/NFS Uses
    • Defining NFS Shares on Linux
    • NFS Share in Storage Roster
    • NAS/NFS Trade-offs
    • Troubleshooting NFS
  5. Virtual Machines
    • Virtual Machines & Hardware
    • Creating Virtual Machines
    • Datastore Browser
    • New Virtual Machine Wizard
    • Multicore vCPUs
    • VM Wizard Memory, Disk
    • Snapshot Manager
    • Complete the Virtual Machine
    • Remote Console
    • VMware Tools
    • USXi 5.0 Supports USB
    • Windows Performance Tips
    • Supported Guest OS
  6. vCenter
    • Central Management w. vCenter
    • Introduction to vCenter
    • Licensed Add-On Features
    • vCenter Deployment
    • Supported Databases
    • MS SQL Express
    • vCenter is a Management Proxy
    • Database Size Estimates
    • Install/Select Database
    • vCenter uses a Java VM
    • vSphere Client Plug-ins
    • Restart vCenter
    • Home View
    • Organizing Inventory
    • Folders in Datacenters
    • VMs run on Clusters
    • Resource Maps
    • Licensing
    • vCenter Power Management
    • Power Mgt. uses Wake on LAN
    • VM Actions
    • Web Access
  7. Templates, Clones
    • VM Rapid Deployment
    • Template Theory
    • Template Benefits
    • Disk Formats
    • Creating a New Template
    • Clone a VM
    • Clone a Template
    • Windows VM Customization
    • Non-Windows OS Customization
    • Virtual Appliance / Pros and Cons
    • Import/ Export Virtual Appliances
    • Adding Virtual Hardware
    • All VMs Support Simple Changes
    • Hot Add Virtual Disk
    • Hot Grow Disks
    • VM Customizations
    • To Change vCPU Properties
    • Hotplug Hardware
    • Converting Virtual Disks
    • Raw Device Map (RDM)
    • Microsoft Cluster Services
  8. Permissions
    • Permission Privileges, Roles, Users
    • Determining Permissions
    • Privilege Hierarchy
    • Role Assignments
    • vCenter Users, Groups
    • View vCenter Base Permissions
    • ESXi Users, Groups
    • Permissions
  9. Shared Storage
    • Fibre Storage Area Networks
    • World Wide Names
    • Hardware Paths
    • iSCSI
    • LUN Discovery Options
    • CHAP Authentication Process
    • Troubleshooting iSCSI
    • Storage Views
    • vSphere Storage Appliance
  10. VMware File System
    • VMFS 5.0 Features
    • Building a VMFS
    • New VMFS
    • Create/Grow a LUN Span
    • To Add an Extent
    • Grow Volumes
    • Multipathing
    • iSCSI SAN Multipathing
    • Pluggable Storage Architecture
  11. Alarms
    • Performance Alarms
    • vCenter Alarms
    • ESXi Host Alarms
    • Alarm Reporting
    • Triggered vCenter Alarms
    • Custom Alarms
    • Alarm Best Practices
  12. Host Profiles
    • Managing ESXi Host Configuration
    • Host Profiles
    • Edit, Review, Attach a Profile
    • Perform Compliance Check
  13. Resource Management & Resource Pools
    • Resource Administration
    • CPU Resource Tunables
    • Dynamic Memory Balancing
    • Memory Resources Tunables
    • Shares
    • Expandable Reservations
    • Resource Pools
    • Memory/Storage Resource Allocations
    • Virtual Hardware Resources
  14. Second Chapter Title
    • VMware vCenter Converter
    • Clone & Update Disks
    • Converter Steps
    • Prepare for Conversion
    • Clone Physical Disk(s)
    • Copy & Resize Disk
    • Create the New Virtual Machine
    • VM Reconfiguration
    • New VM Housekeeping
  15. Data Recovery
    • VM Backup Challenge
    • Traditional Network Backup
    • Reduce Backup Stress
    • ESXi Configuration Back Up
    • Data Recovery
    • VMDR Web UI
    • Creating a Backup Job
    • Backup Reports
  16. VM Migration
    • Virtual Machine Migration
    • Cold Migration
    • VMotion Migration
    • VMotion Requirements
    • Progress is Monitored
    • VM is Descheduled
    • VM Context is Transferred
    • Switch Over
    • VM Scheduled to Run
    • Housekeeping
    • Failed Validation
    • Compatibility
    • Storage VMotion
    • Adopting DRS
  17. DRS
    • Distributed Resource Scheduler
    • DRS Functions
    • DRS Automation Level
    • Migration Threshold
    • Power Management
    • EVC for Intel CPUs
    • EVC Benefits
    • DRS Groups Manager
    • Resource Management
    • Adopting DRS
    • HA and DRS
    • DRS Power Management
    • Power Management Requirements
    • PM Powering Off/On an ESXi Host
    • Configure ESXi for Power Mgt
    • Power Standby
    • CPU Power Management
  18. VMware HA
    • VMware High Availability Clusters
    • HA VM Requirements
    • VMware HA Host Failures
    • HA Reserve Resources
    • VM Monitoring
    • HA Cluster Slots
    • ESXI Console NIC Failure
    • Maintenance Mode
    • Resolving HA Problems
    • HA and DRS
    • VMware Fault Tolerance
    • FT Use Cases
    • FT VM Requirements
    • Enable FT on a VM
    • FT Impact on VM Memory
    • Testing Fault Tolerance
    • VMware FT Recommendations
  19. Update Manager
    • VMware Update Manager
    • Patch Management
    • VUM Components
    • Install, Enable & Configure VUM
    • Patch Baselines
    • Scan for Compliance
    • VUM & DRS Clusters
  20. Performance
    • Performance Analysis & Tuning
    • ESXi CPU Usage Strategy
    • Physical to Virtual CPU
    • Memory Ballooning
    • Ballooning vs. VMkernel Swap
    • Performance Charts
    • Monitoring Memory Stress
    • Page Faults in Task Manager
    • VM CPU, Memory Consumption
  21. Linked Mode
    • Sizing vCenter – CPU, RAM, Disk
    • vCenter Windows Server
    • Join a Windows Domain
    • Isolated or Linked Mode
    • Joining a Linked Mode Group
    • Authentication Best Practice
    • Troubleshooting Linked Mode
    • Cloning vCenter Servers
  22. Advanced Networking
    • Advanced Virtual Networking
    • Distributed vSwitches
    • Building a New dvSwitch
    • Physical Adapter Details
    • Migrate VMs to dvPort Groups
    • DvSwitch Port Assignments
    • Management, VMkernel Ports
    • Manage Physical/Virtual Adapters
    • DvSwitch Properties
    • Port Group Security
    • Traffic Shaping
    • NIC Team Settings
    • Originating Port Forwarding
    • IP Hash Forwarding
    • Physical NIC Load Forwarding
    • Active and Standby NICs
    • Network Failure
    • Resilient Network Configuration
    • Standard vSwitch VLANs
    • VLANs & VLAN Trunking
    • Private VLans