VMware VSphere 5.1 Optimize & Scale

This training course, for experienced VMware vSphere® personnel, teaches advanced skills for configuring and maintaining a highly available and scalable virtual infrastructure. The course is based on VMware vSphere® ESXi™ 5.0 and VMware® vCenter Server™ 5.0. This course prepares the student for the VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Datacenter Administration [V5] certification (VCAP5-DCA). Completion of this course also satisfies the prerequisite for taking the VMware Certified Professional 5 exam.

Who is the course for?

Experienced system administrators and system integrators.

Pre-Requisites

Completion of one of the following courses:

• VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V5]
• VMware vSphere: What's New [V5]
• VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V5]
• (Fast Track scalability topics are repeated in this course.)

or equivalent knowledge and administration experience with ESXi and vCenter Server Experience working at the command prompt is highly recommended

Course Objectives

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

• Configure and manage ESXi networking and storage for a large and sophisticated enterprise.
• Manage changes to the vSphere environment.
• Optimize the performance of all vSphere components.
• Troubleshoot operational faults and identify their root causes.
• Use VMware vSphere® ESXi™ Shell and VMware vSphere® Management Assistant (vMA) to manage vSphere.
• Use VMware vSphere® Auto Deploy™ to provision ESXi hosts.

Note: The scalability topics from VMware vSphere: Fast Track [V5.0] are repeated in this course

Course Modules

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

VMware Management Resources

• Configure vMA
• Understand the esxcli and vicfg commands
• Configure ESXi technical support mode and SSH access
• Understand important ESXi and vCenter Server log files

Performance in a Virtualized Environment

• Understand the vSphere performance troubleshooting methodology
• Understand software and hardware virtualization techniques and their effects on performance
• Use vSphere performance monitoring tools

Network Scalability

• Create, configure, and manage vSphere distributed switches
• Migrate virtual machines from standard switches to distributed switches
• Understand distributed switch features such as PVLANs, VMware vSphere® Network I/O Control, port mirroring, and NetFlow

Network Performance Troubleshooting

• Understand performance features of network adapters
• Understand performance features of vSphere networking
• Monitor key network performance metrics
• Use vMA to manage virtual network configuration
• Troubleshoot common network performance problems

Storage Scalability

• Configure storage multipathing
• Understand vSphere storage APIs for array integration and storage awareness
• Explain profile-driven storage
• Add a storage policy to a virtual machine storage profile
• Describe VMware vSphere® Storage DRS™ operation
• Configure Storage DRS and VMware vSphere® Storage I/O Control

Storage Connectivity and Performance Troubleshooting

• Diagnose storage access problems
• Understand how storage protocols, VMware vSphere® VMFS configuration, load balancing, and queuing affect performance
• Monitor key storage performance metrics
• Use vMA to manage virtual storage
• Troubleshoot common storage performance problems

Host and Management Scalability

• Understand CPU scheduler and other features that affect CPU performance
• Monitor key CPU performance metrics
• Troubleshoot common CPU performance problems

CPU Performance

• Understand memory reclamation techniques and overcommitment
• Monitor key memory performance metrics
• Troubleshoot common memory performance problems

Memory Performance

• Understand performance guidelines for virtual machines, resource allocation settings, VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ clusters, resource pools, and VMware vSphere® High Availability admission control policies
• Troubleshoot virtual machine power-on failures
• Troubleshoot vSphere cluster problems

VM and Cluster Performance and Troubleshooting

• Understand how vCenter Linked Mode manages multiple vCenter Server inventories
• Explain VMware vSphere® Distributed Power Management™
• Use Host Profiles to manage ESXi configuration compliance
• Use VMware vSphere® PowerCLI™ to perform vSphere administrative tasks
• Use Image Builder to create an ESXi installation image
• Use vSphere Auto Deploy to provision ESXi hosts.

The Knowledge Academy works in partnership with Avnet Technology Solutions Ltd for the provision of accredited VMware training