This hands-on training course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere®, which consists of VMware ESXi™ and VMware vCenter Server™. The course is based on ESXi 5.0 and vCenter Server 5.0. Completion of this course satisfies the prerequisite for taking the VMware® Certified Professional 5 exam.

Students who complete this course may enroll in any of several more advanced vSphere courses. For advanced course options, see www.vmware.com/education.

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

Introduction to VMware Virtualization

• Introduce virtualization, virtual machines, and vSphere components
• Explain the concepts of server, network, and storage virtualization
• Describe where vSphere fits into the cloud architecture
• Install and use vSphere user interfaces

Create Virtual Machines

• Introduce virtual machines, virtual machine hardware, and virtual machine files
• Deploy a single virtual machine

VMware vCenter Server

• Introduce vCenter Server architecture
• Introduce vCenter Server appliance
• Configure and manage vCenter Server appliance
• Manage vCenter Server inventory objects and licenses

Configure and Manage Virtual Networks

• Describe, create, and manage a standard virtual switch
• Describe and modify standard virtual switch properties
• Configure virtual switch load-balancing algorithms

Configure and Manage Virtual Storage

• Introduce storage protocols and device names
• Configure ESXi with iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
• Create and manage vSphere datastores
• Deploy and manage the VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance

Virtual Machine Management

• Deploy virtual machines using templates and cloning
• Modify and manage virtual machines
• Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
• Perform VMware vSphere® vMotion® and Storage vMotion migrations
• Create a vSphere vApp

Data Protection

• Discuss a strategy for backing up ESXi hosts and vCenter Server
• Introduce the VMware Data Recovery appliance
• Discuss solutions for backing up virtual machines efficiently

Access and Authentication Control

• Control user access through roles and permissions
• Configure and manage the ESXi firewall
• Configure ESXi lockdown mode
• Integrate ESXi with Active Directory
• Introduce VMware vShield Zones

Resource Management and Monitoring

• Introduce virtual CPU and memory concepts
• Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
• Configure and manage resource pools
• Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server performance graphs and alarms

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

• Introduce new vSphere High Availability (HA) architecture
• Configure and manage a vSphere High Availability cluster
• Introduce VMware Fault Tolerance

Scalability

• Configure and manage a VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster
• Configure Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
• Use vSphere HA and DRS together

Patch Management

• Manage ESXi patching using vCenter Update Manager
• Install Update Manager and Update Manager plug-in
• Create patch baselines
• Scan and remediate hosts

Installing VMware Components

• Introduce ESXi installation
• Describe boot from SAN requirements
• Introduce vCenter Server deployment options
• Describe vCenter Server hardware, software, and database requirements
• Install vCenter Server (Windows based)

At the end of the course, you should gain an understanding of the
functionality in vSphere 5 and be able to do the following:

• Install and configure ESXi
• Install and configure vCenter Server components
• Configure and manage ESXi networking and storage using vCenter Server
• Deploy, manage, and migrate virtual machines
• Manage user access to the VMware infrastructure
• Use vCenter Server to monitor resource usage
• Use vCenter Server to increase scalability
• Use VMware vCenter™ Update Manager to apply ESXi patches
• Use vCenter Server to manage higher availability and data protection