VMware vSphere 7.0 Boot Camp
Course Name	VMware vSphere 7.0 Boot Camp VMware vSphere 7.0 Boot Camp VMware vSphere 7.0 Boot Camp
Format	5-day, 10 hours/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 161 pg Boot Camp Supplement with five additional lectures and lab tasks
vSphere Version	Based on VMware vSphere 7 Update 1
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, 2020. Last revised: July 2021 for ESXi 7.0 Update 1
Recorded Lectures	Attendees of full instructor led classes receive lifetime access video recordings of all lectures
Suggested Price	$4,495 USD / seat

Overview

This powerful 5-day extended hours class is an intensive introduction to VMware vSphere™ including VMware ESXi™ 7 and vCenter™ 7. This course has been completely updated to reflect the most recent changes introduced in vSphere 7.

Assuming no prior virtualization experience, this class starts with the basics and rapidly progresses to advanced topics. With 45+% of class time is devoted to labs, students learn the skills they need to become effective vSphere administrators.

Students use dedicated labs that 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 management, high availability, replication, performance, disaster preparedness, rapid deployment and VM cold, hot and storage migration.

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 7.

Objectives

At the end of the course, attendees will be able to:

Explain the many significant benefits of virtualization
Install ESXi 7.0 according to best practices
Use Host Client to manage standalone ESXi hosts
Configure and manage local storage resources
Create virtual and virtual to physical network configurations
Configure and used Advanced vSwitch features including Teaming, Security and Jumbo Frames
Define and use file share (NAS / NFS) datastores Create virtual machines, install operating systems and applications
Create virtual machines, install operating systems and applications
Install, configure and upgrade VMware Tools
Install, configure and update vCenter Server Appliance
Rapidly deployment of VMs using golden-master VM templates
Create clones – one-time copies of virtual machine
Use Guest OS customization to rapidly configure new VMs according to requirements
Create Content Libraries to manage shared files
Deploy VMs from Templates stored in Content Libraries
Connect CD / DVD media in Content Libraries to a VM's CD / DVD reader
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
Configure direct VM to SAN volume storage with Raw Device Maps
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 hot Storage VMotion migrations
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
Provide zero unplanned VM downtime using vSphere Fault Tolerance
Use HA to successfully minimize unplanned VM down time caused by ESXi host failures, storage network failures or SAN volume failures
Patch and update ESXi servers using vCenter Lifecycle Manager
Create Distributed Virtual Switches. Migrate VM and VMkernel networking over to dvSwitches
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 chapters:

Introduction to VMware vSphere 7.0
How to Install, Configure ESXi 7.0 (HoL¹)
Introduction to Virtual and Physical Networking (HoL)
Advanced Virtual Networking (HoL)
Connecting to NAS / NFS Shared Storage (HoL)
Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines (HoL)
How to Install and Configure vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 (HoL)
VM Rapid Deployment using Templates, Clones (HoL)
Content Libraries (HoL)
Working with VM Hot Plug Virtual Hardware (HoL)
The ESXi and vCenter Permission Model (HoL)
Fibre, iSCSI and NFS v4.1 Shared Storage (HoL)
Direct VM to SAN Volume access with Raw Device Maps (HoL)
VMFS – VMware's Cluster File System (HoL)
Virtual Infrastructure Monitoring with vCenter Alarms (HoL)
Compute Resource Management with Resource Pools (HoL)
VM Cold, Hot VMotion and Storage VMotion Migration (HoL)
Load Balancing with Distributed Resource Scheduling Clusters (HoL)
Rapid VM Failure Recovery with High Availability Clusters (HoL)
Delivering Zero VM Unplanned Downtime with Fault Tolerance (HoL)
Patch Management with VMware Lifecycle Manager (HoL)
Introduction to Distributed Virtual Switches (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 7.0 and perform post-install configurations
Create, update Network Standard vSwitches. Use NIC Teams for performance and redundancy
Configure and test Jumbo Frames to improve physical networking performance
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
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 partition with no down time
Create a new Content Library and upload a VM in OVF / OVA format to it
Deploy a new Virtual Machine from a Template in a Content Library
Connect an ISO file in a Content Library to a VM's CD / DVD reader
Configure and test hotplug memory Create multi-core vCPUs
Hotplug a new virtual CPU package into a running VM
Work with vCenter permissions. Use and customize Roles
iSCSI, Fibre Storage Area Networks. Scanning for and connecting to SAN shared storage
Assign a SAN volume directly to a VM using Raw Device Maps
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
Configure ESXi hosts, networking and VMs for Fault Tolerance
Prepare for an IT failure with vSphere Replication. Hot replicate and then restore a running VM
Set up VMware Lifecycle 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 update the ESXi host
Configure a Distributed Virtual Switch
Migrate VM and VMkernel networking from standard vSwitches to dvSwitches
Performance analysis and bench marking storage and networking

Detailed Chapter List

Chapter 1 - Introduction to VMware vSphere 7.0

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
Hyperconverged Storage with VMware vSAN
Hyperconverged Networking with VMware NSX
What's New in vSphere 7.0

Chapter 2 – How to Install, Configure ESXi 7.0

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 – Introduction to Virtual and Physical Networking

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

Chapter 4 – Advanced Virtual Networking

Explore advanced vSwitch properties
Explain vSwitch Security properties and their use cases
Explain the five NIC Teaming strategies, their implementation, pros, cons and use cases
Explore Jumbo frames including how to test, configure and verify Jumbo frames
Identify Jumbo frame use cases and where to avoid using Jumbo frames

Chapter 5 – Connecting to NAS / NFS 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 6 – 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

Chapter 7 – How to Install and Configure vCenter Server Appliance 7.0

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 7 hosts into vCenter management
Managing vCenter with vSphere Client

Chapter 8 – 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

Chapter 9 – Working with Content Libraries

The purpose, features and benefits of Content Libraries
The 3 types of Content libraries and their use cases
How to create a Content Libraries and upload VMs and media to them
How to deploy a new VM from a template in a Content Library
How to upload media images and use them from VMs

Chapter 10 - Working with VM Hot Plug Virtual Hardware

Upgrade VM vHardware with no downtime with hotplug virtual hardware
Preparing to hotplug vCPUs and vRAM into a running VM
Hotplugging vNICs and vDisks into a running VM
Hotplug Hardware and Guest OS support

Chapter 11 – The 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 12 – Fibre, iSCSI and NFS v4.1 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 13 – Raw Device Maps

Connecting VMs directly to SAN volumes using Raw Device Maps (RDM)
RDM features, benefits and use cases
Virtual and Physical RDMs explained
How to set up and use RDMs
How to correctly tear down RDMs

Chapter 14 – VMFS – VMware's Cluster File System

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 15 – Virtual 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 16 – Compute Resource Management with 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 17 – VM Cold, Hot VMotion and Storage VMotion Migration

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 18 – Load Balancing with Distributed Resource Scheduling 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 19 – Rapid VM 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 20 – Delivering Zero VM Unplanned Downtime with Fault Tolerance

Introduction to continuous VM availability using VMware Fault Tolerance
Configuring host networking to support Fault Tolerance
Fault Tolerant protected VMs restrictions and limitations
Configuring and enabling VM Fault Tolerance protection
Testing Fault Tolerance and demonstrating zero VM unplanned downtime

Chapter 21 – Patch Management with VMware Lifecycle Manager

Configure and enable VMware Lifecycle Manager
Establishing a patch baseline
Verifying compliance and patching ESXi hosts

Chapter 22 – Introduction to Distributed Virtual Switches

Introduction to dvSwitch features and capabilities
Create, configure a dvSwitch
Migrating VMkernel NICs from standard to dvSwitches
Bulk migrate VMs from standard to dvSwitches
dvSwitch configuration backup and restore

Chapter 23 – 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 24 – 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