In this five-day course, you will focus on deploying and managing a software-defined storage solution with VMware vSAN 6.6. You will learn how vSAN functions as an important component in the VMware software-defined data center. You will gain practical experience with vSAN concepts and troubleshooting methodology and diagnostic tools through the completion of hands-on lab exercises.

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

• Describe the vSAN architecture
• Identify vSAN features and use cases
• Configure vSAN networking components
• Configure a vSAN cluster
• Deploy virtual machines on a vSAN datastore
• Configure virtual machine storage policies
• Perform ongoing vSAN management tasks
• Outline the tasks for upgrading to vSAN 6.6
• Configure vSAN encryption
• Control vSAN resynchronization tasks
• Create and manage nested fault domains
• Use the vSAN health service to monitor health and performance
• Configure a stretched cluster and observe failover scenarios
• Describe vSAN interoperability with VMware vSphere features and other products
• Plan and design a vSAN cluster
• Use diagnostic and troubleshooting tools to resolve vSAN deployment and architectural issues

Storage and virtual infrastructure administrators who want to use software-defined storage with vSAN

This course requires completion of one of the following prerequisites:

• Storage administration experience on block or file storage devices
• Understanding of concepts presented in the VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V6.5] course

Experience working at the command line is helpful.

The course material presumes that a student can perform the following tasks with no assistance or guidance before enrolling in this course:

• Use VMware vSphere Web Client
• Create and manage VMware vCenter Server objects, such as data centers, clusters, hosts, and virtual machines
• Create and modify a standard switch
• Connect a VMware ESXi host to NAS, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel storage
• Create a VMware vSphere VMFS datastore
• Use a wizard or a template to create a virtual machine
• Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere vMotion
• Migrate a virtual machine with VMware vSphere Storage vMotion

1 Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives
• Describe the software-defined data center

2 Storage Fundamentals

• Define common storage technologies
• Identify characteristics of storage devices: magnetic and flash-based devices
• Identify and explain various types of storage architectures
• Identify SAN performance factors

3 Introduction to vSAN

• Describe the vSAN architecture and components
• Describe the differences between the vSAN hybrid and all-flash architectures
• Describe the space-efficiency features of vSAN

4 vSAN Configuration

• Identify physical network configuration requirements
• Configure vSAN networking
• Configure a vSAN cluster
• Test and validate the vSAN configuration and functionality

5 vSAN Policies and Virtual Machines

• Explain how storage policies work with vSAN
• Define and create a virtual machine storage policy
• Apply and modify virtual machine storage policies
• Discuss the vsanSparse snapshot format
• Explain the considerations for vsanSparse snapshots

6 Managing and Operating vSAN

• Manage hardware storage devices
• Manage hardware device failures
• Identify vCenter Server alarms for vSAN events
• Configure fault domains
• Upgrade to vSAN 6.6

7 Stretched Clusters and Two-Node Clusters

• Describe the architecture for stretched clusters and two-node clusters
• Create a stretched cluster using a two-node configuration
• Configure VMware vSphere High Availability and VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler for a stretched cluster
• Demonstrate stretched cluster failover scenarios

8 Monitoring vSAN

• Use vSphere Web Client to detect problems
• Use the vSAN health service to monitor health and performance
• Monitor vSAN with VMware vRealize Operations Manager
• Use ESXi commands to monitor the vSAN environment
• Monitor vSAN with Ruby vSphere Console

9 Interoperability with vSphere Features

• Identify vSphere features and VMware products that interoperate with vSAN
• Describe how vSAN interoperates with third-party products and solutions

10 Designing a vSAN Deployment

• Understand vSAN design considerations
• Plan and design vSAN clusters
• Identify the design and sizing tools for vSAN
• Describe vSAN use cases

11 vSAN Software Architecture

• Describe the software components
• Understand how the components relate to each other
• Understand vSAN object placement
• Understand the differences between object states
• Explain how storage policies affect object placement and states
• Predict how specific failures affect object states

12 Troubleshooting Methodology

• Characterize problems
• Determine the cause of problems
• Solve problems

13 Troubleshooting Tools

• Understand the use of various troubleshooting tools
• Use the tools provided to resolve problems with the lab environment