This hands-on training course explores installation, configuration, and management of VMware vSphere®, which consists of VMware vSphere® ESXi™ and VMware® vCenter Server™. This course is based on prerelease versions of ESXi 5.1 and vCenter Server 5.1.

Completion of this course satisfies the prerequisite for taking the VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization exam.

•  Install and configure ESXi
•  Install and configure vCenter Server components
•  Use vCenter Server to configure and manage ESXi networking and storage
•  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 vSphere® Update Manager™ to apply ESXi patches
•  Use vCenter Server to manage higher availability and data protection

•  System administrators
•  Systems engineers
•  Operators responsible for ESXi and vCenter Server

System administration experience on Microsoft Windows or Linux operating systems

 1  Course Introduction
•  Introductions and course logistics
•  Course objectives
2  Introduction to VMware Virtualization
•  Introduce virtualization, virtual machines, and vSphere components
•  Explain the concepts of server, network, and storage virtualization
•  Describe where vSphere fits into the cloud architecture
•  Install and use vSphere user interfaces
3  Creating Virtual Machines
•  Introduce virtual machines, virtual machine hardware, and virtual machine files
•  Deploy a single virtual machine
4  VMware vCenter Server
•  Introduce the vCenter Server architecture
•  Introduce VMware® vCenter™ Server Appliance™
•  Configure and manage vCenter Server Appliance
•  Manage vCenter Server inventory objects and licenses
5  Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
•  Describe, create, and manage a standard virtual switch
•  Describe and modify standard virtual switch properties
•  Configure virtual switch load-balancing algorithms
6  Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
•  Introduce storage protocols and device names
•  Configure ESXi with iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
•  Create and manage vSphere datastores
•  Deploy and manage VMware vSphere® Storage Appliance
7  Virtual Machine Management
•  Use templates and cloning to deploy virtual machines
•  Modify and manage virtual machines
•  Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
•  Perform VMware vSphere® vMotion® and VMware vSphere® Storage vMotion® migrations
•  Create a VMware vSphere® vApp™
8  Data Protection
•  Discuss a strategy for backing up ESXi hosts and vCenter Server
•  Discuss solutions for backing up virtual machines efficiently
9  Access and Authentication Control
•  Control user access through roles and permissions
•  Configure and manage the ESXi firewall
•  Configure ESXi lockdown mode
•  Integrate ESXi with Active Directory
•  Explain VMware® vShield Endpoint™ integration in VSphere
10  Resource Management and Monitoring
•  Introduce virtual CPU and memory concepts
•  Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
•  Configure and manage resource pools
•  Monitor resource usage using vCenter Server performance graphs and alarms
11  High Availability and Fault Tolerance
•  Introduce the new VMware vSphere® High Availability architecture
•  Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
•  Introduce VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance
•  Describe VMware vSphere® Replication
12  Scalability
•  Configure and manage a VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ (DRS) cluster
•  Configure Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
•  Use vSphere HA and DRS together
13  Patch Management
•  Use Update Manager to manage ESXi patching
•  Install Update Manager and the Update Manager plug-in
•  Create patch baselines
•  Scan and remediate hosts
14  Installing VMware Components
•  Introduce ESXi installation
•  Describe boot-from-SAN requirements
•  Introduce vCenter Server deployment options
•  Describe vCenter Server hardware, software, and database requirements
•  Install vCenter Server (Windows-based)