Course Content
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage Content
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Course Introduction
Introduction to vSphere and the Software Defined Data Center
As a vSphere administrator, you must be familiar with the components on which vSphere is based. You must also understand the following concepts: Virtualization, the role of the ESXi hypervisor in virtualization and virtual machines Fundamental vSphere components and the use of vSphere in the software-defined data center Use of vSphere clients to administer and manage vSphere environments
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Overview of vSphere and Virtual Machines
vSphere Virtualization of Resources
vSphere User Interfaces
Overview of ESXi
Virtual Machines
You can create a virtual machine in several ways. Choosing the correct method can save you time and make the deployment process manageable and scalable.
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Creating Virtual Machines
Virtual Machine Hardware Deep Dive
Introduction to Containers
vCenter Server
vCenter Server helps you centrally manage multiple ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. If you do not properly deploy, configure, and manage vCenter Server Appliance, your environment might experience reduced administrative efficiency or ESXi host and virtual machine downtime.
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Centralized Management with vCenter Server
Deploying vCenter Server Appliance
vSphere Licensing
Managing the vCenter Server Inventory
vCenter Server Roles and Permissions
Monitoring vCenter Server Appliance
Backing Up and Restoring vCenter Server Appliance
vCenter Server High Availability
Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
When you configure ESXi networking properly, virtual machines can communicate with other virtual, and physical, machines. In this way, remote host management and IP-based storage operate effectively.
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Introduction to vSphere Standard Switches
Configuring Standard Switch Policies
Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
Understanding the available storage options helps you set up your storage according to your cost, performance, and manageability requirements. You can use shared storage for disaster recovery, high availability, and moving virtual machines between hosts.
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vSphere Storage Concepts
Fibre Channel Storage
iSCSI Storage
VMFS Datastores
NFS Datastores
vSAN Datastores
Virtual Machine Management
Virtual machines are the foundation of your virtual infrastructure. Managing VMs effectively requires skills in creating templates and clones, modifying VMs, migrating VMs, taking snapshots, and protecting the VMs through replication and backups.
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Creating Templates and Clones
Working with Content Libraries
Modifying Virtual Machines
Migrating VMs with vSphere vMotion
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
Migrating VMs with vSphere Storage vMotion
Creating Virtual Machine Snapshots
vSphere Replication and Backup
Resource Management and Monitoring
Although the VMkernel works proactively to avoid resource contention, maximizing performance requires both analysis and ongoing monitoring. Developing skills in resource management, you can dynamically reallocate resources so that you can use available capacity more efficiently.
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Virtual CPU and Memory Concepts
vSphere Resource Controls
vSphere Resource Monitoring Tools
Monitoring Resource Use in vSphere
Using Alarms in vSphere
vSphere Clusters
Most organizations rely on computer-based services like email, databases, and web-based applications. The failure of any of these services can mean lost productivity and revenue. By understanding and using vSphere HA, you can configure highly available, computer-based services, which are important for an organization to remain competitive in contemporary business environments. And by developing skills in using vSphere DRS, you can improve service levels by guaranteeing appropriate resources to virtual machines.
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vSphere Clusters Overview
vSphere DRS
Introduction to vSphere HA
vSphere HA Architecture
Configuring vSphere HA
Introduction to vSphere Fault Tolerance
vSphere Lifecycle Management
Managing the life cycle of vSphere involves keeping vCenter Server and ESXi hosts up to date and integrated with other VMware and third-party solutions. To achieve these goals, you must understand how to use the new features provided by vSphere Lifecycle Manager, namely, clusterlevel management of ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server Update Planner.
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vCenter Server Update Planner
Overview of vSphere Lifecycle Manager
Working with Baselines
Working with Images
Managing the Life Cycle of VMware Tools and VM Hardware
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage
About Lesson

vSphere Storage Concepts

Learner Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

  • Recognize vSphere storage technologies
  • Identify types of datastores

About Datastores

 

A datastore is a logical storage unit that can use disk space on one physical device or span several physical devices.

Datastores are used to hold VM files, VM templates, and ISO images.

vSphere supports the following types of datastores:

  • VMFS
  • NFS
  • vSAN
  • vSphere Virtual Volumes

Storage Overview

ESXi hosts should be configured with shared access to datastores.

 

Storage Protocol Overview

Each datastore uses a protocol with varying support features.

Datastore Type Storage Protocol Boot from SAN Support vSphere vMotion Support vSphere HA Support vSphere DRS Support
VMFS Fibre Channel Yes Yes Yes Yes
FCoE Yes Yes Yes Yes
iSCSI Yes Yes Yes Yes
iSER/NVMe-oF (RDMA) No Yes Yes Yes
DAS (SAS, SATA, NVMe) N/A Yes* No No
NFS NFS No Yes Yes Yes
vSphere Virtual Volumes FC/Ethernet (iSCSI, NFS) No Yes Yes Yes
vSAN Datastore vSAN No Yes Yes Yes

About VMFS

 

  • ESXi hosts support VMFS5 and VMFS6:
  • Features supported by both VMFS5 and VMFS6:
    • Concurrent access to shared storage
    • Dynamic expansion
    • On-disk locking
  • Features supported by VMFS6:
    • 4K native storage devices
    • Automatic space reclamation

About NFS

  • NFS is a file-sharing protocol that ESXi hosts use to communicate with a networkattached storage (NAS) device. NFS supports NFS 3 and 4.1 over TCP/IP.

About vSAN

  • vSAN is hypervisor-converged, softwaredefined storage for virtual environments that does not use traditional external storage.
  • By clustering host-attached hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs), vSAN creates an aggregated datastore shared by VMs.

About vSphere Virtual Volumes

 

vSphere Virtual Volumes provides several functionalities:

  • Native representation of VMDKs on SAN/NAS: No LUNs or volume management
  • Works with existing SAN/NAS systems
  • A new control path for data operations at the VM and VMDK level
  • Snapshots, replications, and other operations at the VM level on external storage
  • Automates control of per-VM service levels by using storage policies
  • Standard access to storage with the vSphere API for Storage Awareness protocol endpoint
  • Storage containers that span an entire array

About Raw Device Mapping

 

  • Although not a datastore, raw device mapping (RDM) gives a VM direct access to a physical LUN.
  • The mapping file (-rdm.vmdk) that points a VM to a LUN must be stored on a VMFS datastore.

Physical Storage Considerations

Before implementing your vSphere environment, discuss the storage needs with your storage administration team. Consider the following factors:

  • LUN sizes
  • I/O bandwidth required by your applications
  • I/O requests per second that a LUN is capable of
  • Disk cache parameters
  • Zoning and masking
  • Multipathing setting for your storage arrays (active-active or active-passive) • Export properties for NFS datastores

Review of Learner Objectives

After completing this vSphere Storage Concepts lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

  • Recognize vSphere storage technologies
  • Identify types of datastores
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