Course Overview
This hands-on training course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere™, which consists of ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server. The course is based on
ESX/ESXi 4.1 and vCenter Server 4.1. Completion of this course satisfies as a prerequisite to take the VMware Certified Professional 4 exam.
Students who complete this course may enroll in any of several more-advanced vSphere courses. See www.vmware.com/education for advanced course options.
Audience Profile
This course is intended for:
- System administrators
- Systems engineers
- Operators responsible for VMware® ESX™, ESXi, and VMware vCenter™ Server
At Course Completion
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 ESX or ESXi
- Install and configure vCenter Server components
- Configure and manage ESX/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 ESX/ESXi patches
- Use vCenter Server to manage higher availability and data protection
Course Outline
Course Introduction
- Introductions and course logistics
- Course objectives
Introduction to VMware Virtualization
- Introduce virtualization, virtual machines, and vSphere components
VMware ESX and ESXi
- Introduce the architecture of ESX and ESXi
- Manually configure ESX/ESXi
VMware vCenter Server
- Install and configure vCenter Server components
- Manage vCenter Server inventory objects
Networking
- Create, configure, and manage vNetwork standard switches, network connections, and port groups
Storage
- Configure ESX/ESXi with iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
- Create and manage vSphere datastores
Virtual Machines
- Deploy virtual machines using the Create New Virtual Machine wizard, templates, cloning, and VMware vCenter Converter
- Modify and manage virtual machines
- Perform Storage vMotion migrations
Access Control
- Control user access through roles and permissions
Resource Monitoring
- Control virtual machine access to CPU, memory, and I/O resources
- Introduce VMkernel methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
- Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server performance graphs and alarms
Data Protection
- Back up and recover virtual machines using VMware Data Recovery
Scalability
- Manage multiple vCenter Server inventories using VMware vCenter Linked Mode
- Manage ESX/ESXi configuration compliance using Host Profiles
- Create, configure, and manage vNetwork distributed switches, network connections, and port groups
- Perform VMware vMotion™ migrations
- Configure and manage a VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler cluster
- Configure and manage VMware Distributed Power Management
High Availability
- Configure and manage a VMware High Availability cluster
- Configure fault-tolerant virtual machines using VMware Fault Tolerance
Patch Management
- Manage patching and patch compliance using vCenter Update Manager
Installing VMware ESX and ESXi
- Introduce ESX and ESXi Installable installation
Prerequisites
This course requires that you have:
- System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems