This five-day intensive, extended-hours course focuses on installing, configuring, managing, and mastering VMware vSphere® 6.5, including VMware ESXi™ 6.5 and VMware vCenter Server® 6.5. This course combines the content of the VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage course with 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. Students gain practical experience with these concepts through the completion of hands-on labs.

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
•  Describe the vCenter Server architecture
•  Deploy a vCenter Server instance or VMware vCenter® Server Appliance™
•  Use vCenter Server to manage an ESXi host
•  Configure and manage the vSphere infrastructure with VMware vSphere® Client™ and VMware vSphere® Web Client
•  Configure virtual networks with vSphere standard switches
•  Use vCenter Server to manage various types of host storage: VMware vSphere® VMFS, NFS, and VMware vSphere® Virtual Volumes™
•  Manage virtual machines, templates, clones, and snapshots
•  Create a vApp
•  Describe and use the content library
•  Migrate virtual machines with VMware vSphere® vMotion®
•  Use VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion® to migrate virtual machine storage
•  Monitor resource usage and manage resource pools
•  Use VMware vRealize® Operations Manager™ to identify and solve issues through analytics and alerts
•  Manage VMware vSphere® High Availability and VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance
•  Use VMware vSphere® Replication™ and VMware vSphere® Data Protection™ to replicate virtual  machines and perform data recovery
•  Use VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ clusters to improve host scalability
•  Use VMware vSphere® Update Manager™ to apply patches and perform basic troubleshooting of ESXi  hosts, virtual machines, and vCenter Server operations
•  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 vSphere and other products
•  Plan and design a vSAN cluster

Administrators with foundational knowledge of virtualization, and experienced system administrators, systems engineers, and system integrators willing to work hard to achieve superior vSphere and vSAN skills with minimal time away from the office.

•  System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems
•  Understanding of concepts presented in the VMware Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals course or VCA-DCV certification

 1. Course Introduction
        Introductions and course logistics
        Course objectives
        Identify additional resources

    2. Software-Defined Data Center
        Introduce components of the software-defined data center
        Describe where vSphere fits into the cloud architecture
        Install and use vSphere Client
        Overview of ESXi and vCenter Server

    3. Creating Virtual Machines
        Introduce virtual machines, virtual machine hardware, and virtual machine files
        Deploy a single virtual machine

    4. vCenter Server
        Introduce the vCenter Server architecture
        Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance
        Use vSphere Web Client
        Manage vCenter Server inventory objects and licenses

    5. Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
        Describe, create, and manage standard switches
        Describe and modify standard switches properties
        Describe the NIC teaming of a standard switch port group

    6. Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
        Introduce storage protocols and device names
        Configure ESXi with iSCSI and NFS storage
        Create and manage VMFS datastores
        Introduce virtual volumes

    7. Virtual Machine Management
        Use templates and cloning to deploy virtual machines
        Modify and manage virtual machines
        Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
        Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion migrations
        Create vSphere vApps
        Introduce content libraries

    8. Resource Management and Monitoring
        Introduce virtual CPU and memory concepts
        Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
        Configure and manage resource pools
        Use vCenter Server performance graphs and alarms to monitor resource usage

    9. vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance. and Protecting Data
        Explain the vSphere HA architecture
        Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
        Use vSphere HA advanced parameters
        Introduce vSphere Fault Tolerance
        Enable vSphere Fault Tolerance on virtual machines
        Introduce vSphere Replication
        Use vSphere Data Protection to back up and restore data

   10. vSphere DRS
        Describe the functions and benefits of a vSphere DRS cluster
        Configure and manage a vSphere DRS cluster
        Work with affinity and anti-affinity rules
        Describe the new capabilities for what-if analysis and proactive vSphere DRS
        Highlight the evolution of vSphere DRS using predictive data from vRealize Operations Manager
        Perform preemptive actions to prepare for CPU or memory changes
        Describe the vCenter Server embedded vSphere Update Manager, VMware vSphere® ESXi™ Image Builder CLI, and VMware vSphere® Auto Deploy capabilities
        Use vSphere HA and vSphere DRS together for business continuity

   11. vSphere Update Manager
        Use vSphere Update Manager to manage ESXi patching
        Install vSphere Update Manager and the vSphere Update Manager plug-in
        Create patch baselines
        Scan and remediate hosts

   12. 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

   13. 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

   14. vSAN Configuration
        Identify physical network configuration requirements
        Configure vSAN networking
        Configure a vSAN cluster
        Test and validate the vSAN configuration and functionality

   15. 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

   16. 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

   17. 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 vSphere HA and vSphere DRS for a stretched cluster
        Demonstrate stretched cluster failover scenarios

   18. Monitoring and Troubleshooting vSAN
        Use vSphere Web Client to detect problems
        Use the vSAN health service to monitor health and performance
        Monitor vSAN with vRealize Operations Manager
        Use ESXi commands to monitor the vSAN environment
        Monitor vSAN with Ruby vSphere Console and vSAN Observer

   19. Interoperability with vSphere Features
        Identify vSphere features and VMware products that interoperate with vSAN
        Describe how vSAN interoperates with third-party products and solutions

   20. Designing a vSAN Deployment
        Discuss vSAN design considerations
        Plan and design vSAN clusters
        Identify the design and sizing tools for vSAN
        Describe vSAN use cases

   This course prepares you for the following certification:
•  VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP6-DCV)