vSphere Configuration and Management

Delivery Options

• Customized Onsite Training (5 days): Request a Proposal

Class Description

Class Overview

Class Outline

1. What is virtualization?
   1. VMware products
      1. ESX/ESXi
      2. VMware Server
      3. VMware Player
      4. VMware Workstation
         1. Demo VMware Workstation - Create VM for ESX
   2. Other virtualization products
      1. Microsoft
         1. Hyper-V
         2. Virtual Server
         3. Virtual PC
      2. Xen
      3. Linux
   3. Virtualization on top of general purpose O/S
   4. Virtualization as the operating system
2. Installation and Configuration of ESX/ESXi
   1. VMware's Enterprise Product Line
      1. ESX
      2. ESXi
      3. vCenter
      4. vSphere Client
   2. ESX
      1. Hardware supported
      2. Min/Max
      3. Install ESX
         1. Demo
      4. Console/Console Operating System
      5. Management
         1. Local user accounts and Shell Access
            1. Demo with putty
         2. vSphere Client
            1. Supported operating systems
            2. Installation
            3. Demo
         3. System logs
            1. Demo
   3. ESXi
      1. Hardware supported
      2. Min/Max
      3. Install ESXi
         1. Demo
      4. Console/Console Operating System
      5. Management
         1. vSphere Client
         2. RCLI
         3. Direct Console
         4. Demo vSphere Client and Direct Console
   4. Virtualization Layer
      1. VMkernal
   5. Physical Hardware
   6. What is a Virtual Machine?
      1. 4 Core resources
         1. Disk
         2. NIC
         3. Memory
         4. Processor
      2. Other virtual hardware
   7. ESX Virtual machines
      1. Files
      2. Demo - create VM on ESX
   8. Best Practices
      1. Give local accounts to ESX and ESXi sparingly
      2. Create second Service Console (for ESX) and VMkernal (for ESXi) for fault tolerance
      3. Use vSphere client when possible
      4. Use vCenter to manage multiple hosts
      5. View logs on a standard schedule
3. vCenter
   1. Management Suite
   2. Added functionality
      1. Templates
      2. DRS
      3. DPM
      4. HA
      5. Management of Multiple ESX and ESXi
      6. Distributed vSwitch
   3. Installation
      1. SQL - local or remote?
      2. SQL Express?
      3. As a VM?
   4. Join ESX and ESXi hosts
      1. Demo
   5. Best Practices
      1. Install vCenter onto a VM
      2. Consider MSCS or Linked vCenter configuration
      3. Install SQL onto the same server as vCenter
      4. Give plenty of RAM (at least 4 GB)
      5. Use Gb NICs for physical deployments
      6. Add virtual NIC for each management port for the ESX and ESXi hosts
4. Networking
   1. Standard vSwitch
      1. Port Groups
         1. VMkernal
            1. vMotion
            2. iSCSI
            3. NFS
            4. Used by ESXi for management
         2. Service Console
            1. Management
            2. Heartbeats
            3. Add 2nd for fault tolerance
         3. VMnets
            1. Private virtual switch
            2. NAT
         4. VLAN
         5. Security
         6. Bandwidth shaping
      2. Physical NIC
         1. Uplink
         2. NIC teaming
      3. Virtual NIC
      4. Demo
   2. Distributed vSwitch
      1. Advantages
         1. Single ARP table
         2. Single view of all ports
         3. Ease of configuration with multiple ESX hosts
      2. Owned and Managed by vCenter
      3. Demo
   3. Best Practices
      1. Put as many NICs as possible into each ESX/ESXi host
      2. NIC team VMnet with a minimum of two physical NICs for performance and fault tolerance
      3. NIC team VMkernal ports used for vMotion and iSCSI/NFS for performance and fault tolerance
      4. Use separate physical NIC or use VLAN tagging on the SC port for security
      5. Create second Service Console port for fault tolerance
      6. Consider placing security configurations on the Port Groups
      7. Make your virtual networking match your physical networking
      8. Use distributed virtual switches
5. Shared and Local Storage
   1. Local
      1. SCSI
      2. SATA
      3. IDE
      4. RAID
   2. Shared
      1. NFS
         1. RO
         2. RW
      2. iSCSI
         1. 1Gb
         2. 10Gb
         3. Hardware vs Software Initiator
      3. Fibre Channel
         1. Hardware - purpose built
         2. 2 Gb
         3. 4 Gb
      4. FCOE
      5. Multipathing
   3. Best practices
      1. iSCSI
         1. use 10 GE if possible
         2. Use iSCSI HW initiator for performance
         3. NIC team if you are not using HW initiator
         4. Use dedicated 1 Gb or 10 GE equipment
         5. Use CHAP authentication if the iSCSI is not on the same physical LAN segment
         6. Use 3rd party Multipathing tools
      2. NFS
         1. Use 10 GE if possible
         2. Configure NIC teaming
         3. Use NFS for ISO files and templates
      3. Fibre Channel
         1. Use 4 Gb
         2. Configure Multipathing
         3. FC provides highest performance
6. Rapid VM Creation and Deployment
   1. Why not sysprep alone?
   2. Templates
      1. Clone VM to Template
      2. Convert VM to Template
   3. Deploy VM from Template
   4. Demo Convert to Template and Deploy from Template
   5. Snapshots and snapshot management
   6. Best Practices
      1. Create multiple layered templates (Server 2003 with latest SP Master, Server 2003 with all patches, Server 2003 with customized applications)
      2. Use VUM to keep templates and VM's up to date
      3. Name templates in such a way that it is easy to find and identify
      4. Place templates on NFS
7. Physical to Virtual (P2V)
   1. Guided Consolidation
   2. P2V
      1. Demo
   3. V2V
      1. Demo
8. Access Control
   1. AD Domain Admin and local admin have full control by default
   2. RBAC
   3. Default Roles
   4. Custom Roles
   5. Create Microsoft user and Group accounts and attach to VMware Role
   6. Demo
   7. Best Practices
      1. Use principle of least privilege
      2. Remove AD Domain Admin from full power over VMware Infrastructure
      3. Don't modify built-in roles
9. Resource Allocation
   1. Core Resources
   2. Limits
   3. Shares
   4. Reservations
   5. Resource Management
   6. Resource Pools
10. Resource Monitoring
    1. Resource tabs using VIC
    2. SSH (using putty)
       1. top
       2. esxtop
    3. Demo VIC and SSH
    4. Best Practices
       1. Use vCenter to obtain the best resource monitoring tools
       2. Use CLI to extract log files for long term logging
11. Scalability
    1. vMotion
       1. demo
    2. DRS
       1. demo
    3. Best Practices
       1. Create clusters for processor compatibility
       2. Configure DRS to automatically migrate VM's
       3. Configure affinity and anti-affinity rules appropriately
12. High Availability and Data Protection
    1. HA
       1. demo
    2. DP
    3. Multiple vCenter configuration
       1. demo
    4. Best Practices
       1. Make sure to reserve enough resources to allow for the failure of the number of hosts desired
       2. Configure high priority VM's to restart automatically in the given order
          1. AD
          2. vCenter
          3. SQL
13. Update Management
    1. Traditional - WSUS
14. Virtualization - VUM
    1. Virtualization - VUM
15. Upgrade and Patch Management
    1. Upgrade ESX 3.5 to ESX 4.0
    2. Patch ESX 4.0 to ESX 4.0 U 1
16. New Features of vSphere
    1. Distributed Virtual Switch
    2. VMDirectPath
    3. VMware Storage VMotion
    4. Growing virtual disk and VMFS while they are live
    5. Pluggable Storage Architecture
    6. VMware Fault Tolerance
    7. Host Profiles to keep ESX deployments consistent
    8. Distributed Power Management
    9. Thin Provisioning
    10. Virtual Appliance (multiple VMs)

Class Materials

Each student in our Live Online and our Onsite classes receives a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the class examples.

Class Prerequisites

Experience in the following areas is required:

• Networking and/or server management

Technical Requirements

Our computer technical requirements and setup process is easy, with support just a click away.

• Onsite course technical requirements and setup instructions.