This five-day course features intensive hands-on training that focuses on installing, configuring, and managing VMware vSphere 8, which includes VMware ESXi 8 and VMware vCenter 8. This course prepares you to administer a vSphere infrastructure for an organization of any size. This course is the foundation for most VMware technologies in the software-defined data center. Attendance of this course meets the training requirement to achieve the following certification: VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization (VCP-DCV)

Upon completing this course, the learner will be able to meet these overall objectives: Install and configure ESXi hosts Deploy and configure vCenter Use the vSphere Client to create the vCenter inventory and assign roles to vCenter users Create virtual networks using vSphere standard switches and distributed switches Create and configure datastores using storage technologies supported by vSphere Use the vSphere Client to create virtual machines, templates, clones, and snapshots Create content libraries for managing templates and deploying virtual machines Manage virtual machine resource allocation Migrate virtual machines with vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion Create and configure a vSphere cluster that is enabled with vSphere High Availability (HA) and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler Manage the life cycle of vSphere to keep vCenter, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines up to date

The primary audience for this course is as follows: System administrators System engineers

The knowledge and skills that a learner should have before attending this course are as follows: System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems

Module 1: Course Introduction Introductions and course logistics Course objectives Module 2: vSphere and Virtualization Overview Explain basic virtualization concepts Describe how vSphere fits in the software-defined data center and the cloud infrastructure Recognize the user interfaces for accessing vSphere Explain how vSphere interacts with CPUs, memory, networks, storage, and GPUs Module 3: Installing and Configuring ESXi Install an ESXi host Recognize ESXi user account best practices Configure the ESXi host settings using the DCUI and VMware Host Client Module 4: Deploying and Configuring vCenter Recognize ESXi hosts communication with vCenter Deploy vCenter Server Appliance Configure vCenter settings Use the vSphere Client to add and manage license keys Create and organize vCenter inventory objects Recognize the rules for applying vCenter permissions View vCenter logs and events Module 5: Configuring vSphere Networking Configure and view standard switch configurations Configure and view distributed switch configurations Recognize the difference between standard switches and distributed switches Explain how to set networking policies on standard and distributed switches Module 6: Configuring vSphere Storage Recognize vSphere storage technologies Identify types of vSphere datastores Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing Describe iSCSI components and addressing Configure iSCSI storage on ESXi Create and manage VMFS datastores Configure and manage NFS datastores Module 7: Deploying Virtual Machines Create and provision VMs Explain the importance of VMware Tools Identify the files that make up a VM Recognize the components of a VM Navigate the vSphere Client and examine VM settings and options Modify VMs by dynamically increasing resources Create VM templates and deploy VMs from them Clone VMs Create customization specifications for guest operating systems Create local, published, and subscribed content libraries Deploy VMs from content libraries Manage multiple versions of VM templates in content libraries Module 8: Managing Virtual Machines Recognize the types of VM migrations that you can perform within a vCenter instance and across vCenter instances Migrate VMs using vSphere vMotion Describe the role of Enhanced vMotion Compatibility in migrations Migrate VMs using vSphere Storage vMotion Take a snapshot of a VM Manage, consolidate, and delete snapshots Describe CPU and memory concepts in relation to a virtualized environment Describe how VMs compete for resources Define CPU and memory shares, reservations, and limits Module 9: Deploying and Configuring vSphere Clusters Create a vSphere cluster enabled for vSphere DRS and vSphere HA View information about a vSphere cluster Explain how vSphere DRS determines VM placement on hosts in the cluster Recognize use cases for vSphere DRS settings Monitor a vSphere DRS cluster Describe how vSphere HA responds to various types of failures Identify options for configuring network redundancy in a vSphere HA cluster Recognize vSphere HA design considerations Recognize the use cases for various vSphere HA settings Configure a vSphere HA cluster Recognize when to use vSphere Fault Tolerance Module 10: Managing the vSphere Lifecycle Enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager in a vSphere cluster Describe features of the vCenter Update Planner Run vCenter upgrade prechecks and interoperability reports Recognize features of vSphere Lifecycle Manager Distinguish between managing hosts using baselines and managing hosts using images Describe how to update hosts using baselines Describe ESXi images Validate ESXi host compliance against a cluster image and update ESXi hosts Update ESXi hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Describe vSphere Lifecycle Manager automatic recommendations Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to upgrade VMware Tools and VM hardware Lab Outline: Labs are designed to assure learners a whole practical experience, through the following practical activities: Lab 1: Accessing the Lab Environment Lab 2: Configuring an ESXi Host Lab 3: Adding vSphere Licenses Lab 4: Creating and Managing the vCenter Inventory Lab 5: Adding an Identity Source Lab 6: Users Groups and Permissions Lab 7: Creating Standard Switches Lab 8: Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches Lab 9: Accessing iSCSI Storage Lab 10: Managing VMFS Datastores Lab 11: Accessing NFS Storage Lab 12: Creating and Removing a Virtual Machine Lab 13: Installing VMware Tools Lab 14: Adding Virtual Hardware Lab 15: Modifying Virtual Machines Lab 16: Creating Templates and Deploying VMs Lab 17: Using Local Content Libraries Lab 18: Using Subscribed Content Libraries Lab 19: Versioning VM Templates in Content Libraries Lab 20: vSphere vMotion Migrations Lab 21: vSphere Storage vMotion Migrations Lab 22: Working with Snapshots Lab 23: Controlling VM Resources Lab 24: Implementing vSphere DRS Clusters Lab 25: Configuring vSphere HA Lab 26: Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager