Overview
This hands-on training course explores the management of performance in a VMware vSphere™ environment. It provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and to meet performance goals in an already-deployed vSphere installation. The course is based on VMware® ESX™ 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter™ Server 4.0.
Objectives
Upon course completion students will be able to:
- Explain the performance impact of using different monitor modes
- Use vSphere tools to monitor the performance of ESX/ESXi hosts
- Diagnose performance problems relating to CPU, memory, network, and storage on an ESX/ESXi host
- Discuss how to achieve an optimal virtual machine configuration
- Discuss guidelines for monitoring application performance
Intended Audience
System administrators, systems engineers, and consultants responsible for managing the performance of a vSphere installation
Course Outline
Module 1: Course Introduction
Module 2: Performance in a Virtualized Environment
- Discuss the vSphere performance troubleshooting methodology
- Discuss software and hardware virtualization techniques and their impact on performance
- Monitor performance using vCenter Server performance charts and the ESX/ESXi resxtop command
Module 3: CPU Performance
- Discuss the CPU scheduler and other features that have an impact on CPU performance
- Monitor key CPU performance metrics
- Troubleshoot common CPU performance problems
Module 4: Memory Performance
- Discuss memory reclamation techniques and memory overcommitment
- Monitor key memory performance metrics
- Troubleshoot common memory performance problems
Module 5: Guidelines for DRS and Resource Controls
- Discuss performance guidelines for DRS clusters, resource pools, and resource allocation settings
Module 6: Network Performance
- Discuss the performance features of modern network adapters
- Monitor key network performance metrics
- Troubleshoot common network performance problems
Module 7: Storage Performance
- Discuss how storage protocols, VMware vStorage VMFS configuration, load balancing, and queuing affect performance
- Monitor key storage performance metrics
- Troubleshoot common storage performance problems
Module 8: Virtual Machine Performance
- Discuss guidelines for configuring a virtual machine for optimal performance
Module 9: Application Performance
- Discuss tools and guidelines for application performance
Prerequisites
This is an advanced course. Required prerequisites include the completion of one of the following:
- VMware vSphere 4: Install, Configure, Manage
- VMware vSphere: Fast Track
- VMware vSphere 4: What’s New
- Equivalent knowledge and administration experience with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server
Experience with working at the command prompt is highly recommended.