During this four-day course, you will gain the knowledge, skills, and tools to plan and deploy a VMware vSAN™ cluster.
You will learn about managing and operating vSAN. This course focuses on building the required skills for common Day -2
vSAN administrator tasks such as vSAN node management, cluster maintenance, security operations, troubleshooting and
advanced vSAN cluster operations. You will learn these skills through the completion of instructor-led activities and handson lab exercises.

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
• Describe vSAN concepts
• Detail the underlying vSAN architecture and components
• Explain the key features and use cases for vSAN
• Identify requirements and planning considerations for vSAN clusters
• Explain the importance vSAN node hardware compatibility
• Describe the different vSAN deployment options
• Explain how to configure vSAN fault domains
• Detail how to define and create a VM storage policy
• Discuss the impact of vSAN storage policy changes
• Detail vSAN resilience and data availability
• Describe vSAN storage space efficiency
• Explain how vSAN encryption works
• Detail VMware HCI Mesh™ technology and architecture
• Detail vSAN File Service architecture and configuration
• Describe how to setup a stretched and a two-node vSAN cluster
• Describe vSAN maintenance mode and data evacuation options
• Define the steps to shut down a vSAN cluster for maintenance
• Explain how to use proactive tests to check the integrity of a vSAN cluster
• Use VMware Skyline Health™ for monitoring vSAN health
• Use VMware Skyline Health to investigate and help determine failure conditions
• Discuss vSAN troubleshooting best practices
• Describe vSAN Express Storage ArchitectureTM concepts

Storage and virtual infrastructure consultants, solution architects, and administrators who are responsible for production
support and administration of VMware vSAN 8.

Completion of the following course is required:
• VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage or equivalent knowledge

1 Course Introduction
• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives
2 Introduction to vSAN
• Describe vSAN architecture
• Describe the vSAN software components: CLOM,
DOM, LSOM, CMMDS, and RDT
• Identify vSAN objects and components
• Describe the advantages of object-based storage
• Describe the difference between All-Flash and
Hybrid vSAN architecture
• Explain the key features and use cases for vSAN
• Discuss the vSAN integration and compatibility with
other VMware technologies
3 Planning a vSAN Cluster
• Identify requirements and planning considerations
for vSAN clusters
• Apply vSAN cluster planning and deployment best
practices
• Determine and plan for storage consumption by
data growth and failure tolerance
• Design vSAN hosts for operational needs
• Identify vSAN networking features and
requirements
• Describe ways of controlling traffic in a vSAN
environment
• Recognize best practices for vSAN network
configurations
4 Deploying a vSAN Cluster
• Recognize the importance of hardware
compatibility
• Ensure the compatibility of driver and firmware
versioning
• Use tools to automate driver validation and
installation
• Apply host hardware settings for optimum
performance
• Use VMware vSphere® Lifecycle ManagerTM
to perform upgrades
• Deploy and configure a vSAN Cluster using the
Cluster QuickStart wizard
• Manually configure a vSAN Cluster using VMware
vSphere® Client™
• Explain and configure vSAN fault domains
• Using VMware vSphere® High Availability with
vSAN
• Understand vSAN Cluster maintenance capabilities
• Describe the difference between implicit and
explicit fault domains
• Create explicit fault domains
5 vSAN Storage Policies
• Describe a vSAN object
• Describe how objects are split into components
• Explain the purpose of witness components
• Explain how vSAN stores large objects
• View object and component placement on the
vSAN datastore
• Explain how storage policies work with vSAN
• Define and create a virtual machine storage policy
• Apply and modify virtual machine storage policies
• Change virtual machine storage policies dynamically
• Identify virtual machine storage policy compliance
status
6 vSAN Resilience and Data Availability
• Describe and configure the Object Repair Timer
advanced option
• Plan disk replacement in a vSAN cluster
• Plan maintenance tasks to avoid vSAN object
failures
• Recognize the importance of managing snapshot
utilization in a vSAN cluster
7 Managing vSAN Storage Space Efficiency
• Discuss deduplication and compression techniques
• Understand deduplication and compression
overhead
• Discuss compression only mode
• Configure erasure coding
• Configure swap object thin provisioning
• Discuss reclaiming storage space with SCSI UNMAP
• Configure TRIM/UNMAP
8 vSAN Security Operations
• Identify differences between VM encryption and
vSAN encryption
• Perform ongoing operations to maintain data
security
• Describe the workflow of data-in transit encryption
• Identify the steps involved in replacing Key
Management Server
9 vSAN HCI Mesh
• Understand the purpose of vSAN HCI Mesh
• Detail vSAN HCI Mesh technology and architecture
• Perform mount and unmount of a remote datastore
10 vSAN File Service and iSCSI Target Service
• Understand the purpose of vSAN File Services
• Detail vSAN File Services architecture
• Configure vSAN File Shares
• Describe vSAN iSCSI Target Service
11 vSAN Stretched and Two Node Clusters
• Describe the architecture and uses case for
stretched clusters
• Detail the deployment and replacement of a vSAN
witness node
• Describe the architecture and uses case for twonode clusters
• Explain storage policies for vSAN stretched cluster
12 vSAN Cluster Maintenance
• Perform typical vSAN maintenance operations
• Describe vSAN maintenance modes and data
evacuation options
• Assess the impact on cluster objects of entering
maintenance mode
• Determine the specific data actions required after
exiting maintenance mode
• Define the steps to shut down and reboot hosts
and vSAN clusters
• Use best practices for boot devices
• Replace vSAN nodes
13 vSAN Cluster Monitoring
• Describe how the Customer Experience
Improvement Program (CEIP) enables VMware to
improve products and services
• Use VMware Skyline Health for monitoring vSAN
cluster health
• Manage alerts, alarms, and notifications related to
vSAN in VMware vSphere® Client™
• Create and configure custom alarms to trigger
vSAN health issues
• Use IOInsight metrics for monitoring vSAN
performance
• Use a vSAN proactive test to detect and diagnose
cluster issues

14 vSAN Troubleshooting
• Use a structured approach to solve configuration
and operational problems
• Apply troubleshooting methodology to logically
diagnose faults and optimize troubleshooting
efficiency
• Use VMware Skyline Health to investigate and help
determine failure conditions
• Explain which log files are useful for vSAN
troubleshooting
15 vSAN Express Storage Architecture
• Understand the purpose of vSAN Express Storage
Architecture
• Describe the vSAN Express Storage Architecture
components
• Identify Storage Policy differences
• Understand compression and encryption operation
differences