VMware vSphere 6.7 with ESXi and vCenter
Course Name	VMware vSphere 6.7 with ESXi and vCenter VMware vSphere 6.7 with ESXi and vCenter VMware vSphere 6.7 with ESXi and vCenter
Format	5-day instructor led training
Course Books	647 pg Study Guide fully annotated with slide notes 213 pg Lab Guide with detailed steps for completing all labs
vSphere Version	Course uses VMware vSphere 6.7 released May 2018
Delivery Options	Instructor led on-site training. Instructor led distance learning. Instructor led mixed onsite and distance classes. Self paced video training with full lab access and instructor mentoring
Remote Labs	Remote access to dedicated rack of servers with one enterprise class PC Server per student, an iSCSI SAN, etc.
Max Attendees	We recommend you place no more than 16 attendees in a class We can provide concurrent lab access for 150+ students
Requirements	Course can be run from any location that has a reliable Internet connection. Each attendee needs a PC that supports Microsoft Terminal Services
Lab Time	40+% of class time is devoted to hands-on labs
Availability	Released March, 2017. Last revised: April 2019 for ESXi 6.7 Update 1
Recorded Lectures	Attendees of full instructor led classes receive lifetime access video recordings of all lectures
Suggested Price	$3,595 USD / seat

Overview

This powerful 5-day class is an intensive introduction to VMware vSphere™ including VMware ESX™ 6.7 and vCenter™. This course has been completely rewritten to reflect the most recent changes and improvements introduced in vSphere 6.7. 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. Student learn how to install ESXi, connect virtual and physical networking, how to use NAS and SAN storage, how to build VMs, how to install and configure vCenter, how to manage ESXi CPU / Memory resources, how to monitor vSphere, how to migrate VMs and how to build Load Balanced and Failure recovery clusters. With 40+% of class time is devoted to labs, students learn the skills they need to become effective vSphere administrators. Labs start with installation and configuration of stand-alone ESXi servers continues until students have built a complete vSphere environment.

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.

Objectives

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
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 including hot-add vCPUs and Memory
Configure, manage, monitor and secure users and groups
Understand the benefits and trade offs of network attached storage and Fibre, iSCSI SANs
Configure and use shared SAN storage including Fibre SAN, iSCSI SAN
Add and grow 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
Patch and update ESXi servers using vCenter Update Manager
Monitor and tune both ESXi and virtual machine performance
Understand how VMware and third party products, including operating systems, are impacted by virtualization
Troubleshoot common problems

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. We assume that all attendees have a basic familiarity with PC server hardware, disk partitioning, IP addressing, O/S installation, networking, etc.

Who Should Attend

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 18 chapters:

Virtualization Infrastructure Overview
How to Install, Configure ESXi 6.7 (HoL¹)
Virtual and Physical Networking (HoL)
NAS Shared Storage(HoL)
Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines (HoL)
Install and Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (HoL)
VM Rapid Deployment using Templates, Clones (HoL)
Add and Grow virtual disks (HoL)
Advanced Virtual Hardware – Hot Plug CPU/Memory (HoL)
ESXi and vCenter Permission Model (HoL)
Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage (HoL)
VMFS – The VMware Cluster File System (HoL)
ESX and vCenter Alarms (HoL)
Resource Management and Resource Pools (HoL)
VM Hot VMotion, Cold Migration and Storage VMotion (HoL)
Load Balancing w. Distributed Resource Scheduling Clusters (HoL)
Failure Recovery with High Availability Clusters (HoL)
Patch Management with VMware Update Manager (HoL)
Managing Scalability and Performance (HoL)
Final Thoughts

¹ HoL – Every attendee perform one or more Hands on Labs at the end of each 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
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 3^rd 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 Next Generation 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 3^rd 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
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
Prepare for an IT failure with vSphere Replication. Hot replicate and then restore a running VM
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 bring the host up to date
Performance analysis and bench marking storage and networking

Certification

By the end of this course, attendees will have acquired all of the knowledge and hands-on skill required to successfully challenge Certified Virtualization Professional (CVP) exam.

Please check with your training partner to see if a CVP exam voucher is included in the price of this course.

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
Joining ESXi to a Domain
Local User Management and Policies
First look at the VMware vSphere Host Client

Chapter 3 – Virtual and Physical Networking

vNetwork standard and distributed virtual Switches
Virtual Switches, Ports and Port Groups
Creating VMkernel NICs
Creating, sizing and customizing Virtual Switches

Chapter 4 – Connecting to and Using NAS Shared Storage

Benefits Shared Storage offer to Virtual Infrastructure
Shared Storage options
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
Use and update VMware Host Client

Chapter 6 – vCenter Server Appliance and Web Client

The need for Identity Source management
Installing and configuring vCenter Server Appliance with 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 ESXi hosts into vCenter management
Installing and Using the vSphere Next Generation 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
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 10 – VMware File System (VMFS)

Unique file system properties of VMFS
Managing shared Volumes
Creating new VMFS partitions
Introduction to 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
Reviewing alarms and acknowledging them
Configure vCenter so it can send E-mail and SNMP alerts
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 Migrations to new ESX hosts, datastores
Hot Migrations with VMotion
VMotion requirements and dependencies
How VMotion works – detailed explanation
How to test ESXi hosts and VMs for VMotion compatibility
Troubleshooting VMotion
Storage VMotion for hot VM disk migrations

Chapter 14 – Distributed Resource Scheduling Load Balanced Clusters

CPU and Memory resource balanced clusters with VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler
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
VMware High Availability clusters
How VMware HA protects against ESXi host, storage network and SAN volume failures
Introduction to VMware Fault Tolerance

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 – 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 18 – Final Thoughts

Consolidation guidelines for VMs and Storage
Determining which workloads to consolidate
Other considerations

For More Information

This class can be customized to meet your unique training and delivery needs, including:

On-site delivery at your facility
Custom timetables including 3-day rapid delivery boot-camps
Content and Lab customization to meed your unique training needs
Distance training
Mentoring, implementation planning and assistance

For group discounts or content for instructor lead deliveries please contact your authorized ESXLab.com training partner, or sales@esxlab.com