VMware vSphere 5 Training

VMware vSphere 5 Training - Course Outline

Lesson 1 - Getting Started with VMware vSphere 5 Training Course

Find out who should watch this course and what vSphere 5 topics we’ll cover in this video training course.

• About Your Instructors
• Who Should Watch this Course?
• What is VMware vSphere?
• What We Cover in the Course

Lesson 2 - Lab Setup

Learn why you should build your own lab, the options for creating your lab, and about the various vSphere lab environments we used in the creation of this course.

• Why Build a Lab?
• Two Ways to Build a Virtualization Lab
• Limitations to a Virtual Lab
• Importance of Shared Storage
• Running vSphere in Workstation
• vSphere 5 Lab Setups

Lesson 3 - Course Scenario

In this video you will learn the details of the course scenario.

Lesson 4 - Overview of VMware vSphere 5

In this lesson, we’ll cover the components that make up vSphere, how it’s priced, how the VMware cloud infrastructure relates, and how all this is priced.

• vSphere 5 Overview
• vSphere 5 Components
• Packaging and Versions
• Cloud Computing
• Ecosystem

Lesson 5 - Installing VMware ESXi 5

Learn the system requirements and how to install ESXi 5, step by step.

• ESXi Installation Requirements
• What Happened to ESX Server?
• Downloading VMware ESXi 5
• Installing VMware ESXi 5
• ESXi Initial Configuration
• Installing the vSphere Client

Lesson 6 - Installing vCenter 5

There’s more to installing vCenter than the traditional Windows App. Properly installing vCenter means analyzing the hardware/software and database requirements. Additionally, we’ll walk you through the process of downloading the vSphere 60 day evaluation – which contains the latest vCenter.

• What is vCenter Server?
• vCenter Server Blueprint
• vCenter Server Physical or Virtual?
• vCenter Server Pre-installation
• vCenter Server Features
• HW and SW Requirements
• Database Requirements
• Port Requirements
• How to Evaluate vCenter 5?
• Installing vCenter 5
• Verifying Installation of vCenter 5

Lesson 7 - Installing vCenter 5 as a Linux Appliance (vCSA)

NEW in vSphere 5, the vCenter Server appliance allows you to deploy vCenter 5 without a Windows license or installation. Additionally, there is no vCenter install to perform so you can have vCenter up and running, faster than ever before!

• What is the vCenter Server Appliance?
• Pros and Cons to Using vCenter as an Appliance
• Deploying the vCenter Server 5 Appliance (vCSA)
• Configuring vCSA
• Testing vCSA with the vSphere Client

Lesson 8 - Using the vSphere 5 Web Client

NEW in vSphere 5, the vSphere web-based client has been introduced. Learn what this new client can and can’t do as well as what makes it unique (and very cool). Also, you’ll learn how to install the required web-client server that makes it all work.

• vSphere 5 Web Client Overview
• Installing the Server for the Web Client
• Authorizing the Web Client Server
• Using the vSphere 5 Web Client

Lesson 9 - What’s New in vSphere 5

In this lesson, you’ll learn all the new features of vSphere 5, what they do, and how they can help you. Make sure you watch this one to catch up on all that is new in VMware’s most exciting release yet.

• vSphere 5 Platform Enhancements
• vSphere Storage
• vSphere Networking
• vCenter 5.0
• VM Enhancement Capabilities
• Auto Deploy and Image Builder
• Storage DRS
• Profile Driven Storage
• VMFS-5
• VMware View Accelerator
• The New High Availability – HA
• vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5
• vCloud Director 1.5
• vShield 5.0

Lesson 10 - Navigating vSphere Using the vSphere Client

After watching this lesson, you’ll know the terminology used in a vSphere infrastructure, how to use the vSphere client, perform remote control on virtual machines, how to use hot-keys, as well as how to search, sort, filter, export data, and run reports.

• vSphere Terminology (Lingo)
• Using the vSphere Client
• Performing VM Guest Remote Control
• Navigating the vSphere Client with Hotkeys
• Searching the Virtual Infrastructure
• Sorting and Filtering in the vSphere Client
• Exporting Data
• Running Reports

Lesson 11 - vCenter 5 – Configuring Your New Virtual Infrastructure

This is where you’ll perform core setup of vCenter by adding virtual datacenters, folders, and hosts. From there, Eli will walk you through configuring vSphere licensing, vCenter server settings, reviewing system logs, services, and how to monitor ESXi server health.

• Planning the Virtual Infrastructure
• Naming Convention
• vSphere Network Virtualization Diagram
• Adding Datacenters and Hosts
• Configuring the ESXi Server Clock and NTP
• Configuring vSphere Licensing
• Reviewing System Logs, vCenter Sessions, and Service Status
• Removing “Getting Started” Tabs
• Monitoring ESXi Host Health Hardware Status
• vCenter Server Settings and Plugins
• Adding Folders

Lesson 12 - Creating and Modifying Virtual Guest Machines

In this lesson, you’ll learn all the options for creating virtual machines, how to download virtual appliances, how to access a VM’s BIOS, how to create an ISO library, how to use the vSphere datastore browser, copy files to ESXi with SCP, access ESXi with SSH, and the new vSphere 5 EFI Firmware.

• Three Ways to Create Virtual Machines
• Downloading VMs from Virtual Appliance Marketplace
• VMware Guest OS Install Guide
• Changing BIOS Settings in a Guest VM
• Creating ISO Images of CD/DVD Install Media
• Creating a Library of ISO Installation Media
• Using the vSphere Datastore Browser
• Using Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) with vSphere
• Accessing ESXi Using SSH
• Creating a New Virtual Machine with a Fresh OS Install
• vSphere 5 EFI Firmware Option

Lesson 13 - Installing and Configuring VMware Tools

Proper installation of VMware Tools is critical to efficient and useable virtual machines. Learn why you need the VMware Tools, how to install them, and how to configure them. We’ll end the lesson with how to see if VMware Tools need updating and, if so, how to update them.

• Why You Need VMware Tools
• Installing VMware Tools in Windows
• Installing VMware Tools in Linux
• Searching and Sorting to Check VMware Status
• Updating VMware Tools
• Performing VMware Tools Installation
• Configuring VMware Tools with VMware Toolbox

Lesson 14 - Understanding and Using Tasks, Events, and Alarms

VMware Admins need to keep track of their vSphere infrastructure by monitoring tasks, events, and alarms. In this lesson, learn how to access each of these, how vCenter Alarms work, and how to configure SNMP and SMTP alerts.

• Understanding Tasks and Events
• Configuring SNMP and SMTP Email in vCenter
• Alerting You with vCenter Alarms
• Viewing, Filtering, and Exporting Tasks and Events
• Adding and Managing Alarms
• Disabling Alarm Actions
• Performing Configuration of SNMP and SMTP
• vCenter Service Status

Lesson 15 - Virtual Storage 101 and Storage Terminology

In this lesson, Elias (the storage super-star), gives you everything you need to get started with vSphere and SAN storage. You’ll learn about virtual disks, the VMFS, storage technologies (NFS/iSCSI/FC), the pieces that make up a Fiber Channel SAN and an iSCSI SAN. From there, Eli covers vSphere 5 storage maximums and much more!

• Storage 101 – Virtual Disks and VMFS
• Data Transfer
• Comparing Storage Technologies
• Storage Area Network (SAN) 101
• Fiber Channel SAN Components
• Fiber Channel HBAs
• Fiber Channel Connectivity
• Zoning
• Managing FC Storage
• Addressing FC SAN LUNs
• Understanding iSCSI Storage
• Why You Need a SAN
• Configuring iSCSI Storage
• Configuring NFS Storage
• Properties of Fiber Channel Datastore
• Storage Terms You Must Know
• What is in a Datastore?
• ESXi Server Storage Options
• VMFS Specs and Maximums

Lesson 16 - vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA)

NEW with vSphere 5 is the option to use the vSphere Storage Appliance – a virtual SAN that requires no dedicated hardware and spans your ESXi servers. It’s easy to install, highly available, and fully supported by VMware with advanced vSphere features.

• vSphere Storage Appliance Overview
• What Makes VSA Unique
• VSA Cluster Design Options
• VSA SAN Maintenance Mode
• VSA Installation Gotchas

Lesson 17 - Creating a Free iSCSI SAN with OpenFiler

OpenFiler is an open-source (aka free) option for building a virtual SAN. With an OpenFiler SAN, you can test and learn about advanced vSphere features at no cost and without having to purchase any dedicated SAN hardware. Find out how to install OpenFiler as a virtual machine in vSphere.

• Why Use OpenFiler?
• Downloading OpenFiler
• Installing OpenFiler
• Configuring OpenFiler as an iSCSI SAN
• Connecting vSphere to the OpenFiler iSCSI SAN

Lesson 18 - Administering VMware ESXi Server Security

VMware Admins have to protect the virtual infrastructure with security. This is done connecting Windows AD users and groups to vSphere roles in order to create permissions. Find out how to configure it and watch as we test out custom security roles in both ESXi and vCenter.

• Basics of vSphere Security
• Default vSphere Security Roles
• Adding, Modifying, and Removing ESXi Users and Groups
• Using Windows AD Users and Groups to Secure vSphere
• Defining and Applying Roles and Permissions
• vShield Overview
• Securing Guest Virtual Machines

Lesson 19 - vSphere Virtual Networking

In this lesson, you’ll get a huge jumpstart on vSphere networking by learning virtual network terminology, how vSwitches compare to physical switches, how virtual port groups work, what VMkernel interfaces do for you, VLAN basics, and much more!

• Virtual Networking
• Network Adapters
• Virtual Standard Switches (vSS)
• vSS Functionality
• Similarities Between pSwitch and vSS
• Differences Between pSwitch and vSwitch
• Types of vSwitches
• Virtual Switch Ports
• What is a VLAN?
• MAC Address Changes
• Forged Transmits
• NIC Teaming

Lesson 20 - Using the vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch (dvswitch)

vSphere’s distributed virtual switch (dvswitch) is a powerful vSwitch that allows you to centrally manage your virtual network across all ESXi hosts. Learn how to create a dvswitch, add hosts and vmnics, great a dvport group, migrate legacy switches, migrate VMkernel interfaces, and perform other common dvswitch administration tasks.

• vSphere Distributed Switch
• Private VLANS – pVLANs
• pVLANs Secondary Mode Nodes
• Networking Policies
• Configuration Tasks
• Creating a New dvswitch
• Creating a dvPort Group
• Migrating Legacy vSwitches and VM Networks to dvswitch
• Migrating VMKernel Virtual Adapters to dvswitch
• Configuring Private VLANs

Lesson 21 - Moving Virtual Machines with vMotion

vMotion is the vSphere feature the makes everyone say WOW when they see vMotion move a running virtual machine, from one host to another, with no downtime. In this lesson, you’ll learn what is required to make it work and see vMotion in action.

• Why You Need vMotion
• vMotion Requirements
• vMotioning Virtual Machines
• vMotion Configuration
• Performing vMotion
• Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

Lesson 22 - Moving Virtual Storage with svMotion

Almost as amazing as vMotion, svMotion moves the virtual hard drive of a running virtual machine, from one SAN to another, with no downtime. Find out what you need to make it work and learn how to move virtual machine disks yourself.

• What is svMotion?
• svMotion Requirements
• svMotion and Thin Provisioning
• Using svMotion
• Migrating VMs with Snapshots – New in vSphere 5

Lesson 23 - Performance Optimization with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

One of the features that makes vSphere infrastructure perform so well is DRS. If you aren’t running DRS, you need to in order to balance the virtual machine load and make your life easier. In this lesson, learn how DRS works, what the requirements are, and how to administer a DSR-enabled vSphere cluster.

• Introduction to Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)
• DRS Requirements
• Creating a DRS Enabled Cluster
• DRS/HA Cluster Settings
• Understanding Resource Pools
• Creating Resource Pools in Your DRS Cluster
• Additional Resources

Lesson 24 - Implementing High Availability with VMware HA (VMHA)

vSphere infrastructures are so resilient thanks to VMware’s High Availability. It’s operating system and application agnostic and gets virtual machines back up fast when a physical server fails. Learn the requirements to use it, how to configure it, and what’s new with VMHA and Fault Domain Manager.

• Why Do You Need High Availability (HA)?
• VMHA Saving the Day
• VMHA Master / Slave
• Requirements for VMHA
• Best Practices for VMHA
• Configuring VMHA

Lesson 25 - Super High Availability with VMware Fault Tolerance (FT)

For extreme and continuous availability of your Tier-1 applications, VMware’s Fault Tolerance is the solution for you. When a physical server fails, VMs protected by fault tolerance won’t miss a beat and your end users will never even know. In this lesson, David will show you how to use VMware’s site-survey to see if your servers are ready for FT then he’ll show you how to implement it. Finally, David pulls the plug on one of his servers to demonstrate that FT really works.

• Introduction to VMware Fault Tolerance (FT)
• Requirements of FT
• Constraints of FT
• Testing to See If You Can Use FT with VMware Site Survey
• Enabling VMware FT
• Testing Failover with a Virtual Machine Using FT

Lesson 26 - Upgrading from VMware vSphere 4 to vSphere 5

To take advantage of the powerful features offered by vSphere 5, you’ll first need to upgrade to it. Learn how to upgrade and the various options in this lesson.

• Upgrade Prerequisites
• Upgrade Steps
• Upgrade to vCenter 5
• Update Manager Upgrade
• ESX/ESXi Upgrade
• VM Upgrade
• Upgrading vCenter Server and Client
• Upgrading Update Manager
• Upgrading ESXi

Lesson 27 - vSphere Command Line Interface (CLI) Options

To become a vSphere expert, you’ll eventually have to master the command line. In this lesson, David shows you the 4 different options to administer vSphere from the CLI – Tech Support Mode, PowerCLI, vCLI, and the vSphere Management Assistant (vMA). Also, David demos PowerGUI and Project Onyx.

• Administering vSphere Using the CLI
• Four vSphere CLI Options
• Using ESXi Tech Support Mode
• Using esxcfg and esxcli Commands
• Getting Started with PowerCLI
• Project Onyx
• vCLI Basics
• Installing and Using vMA

Lesson 28 - vSphere Auto Deploy

NEW in vSphere 5, Auto Deploy allows you to roll out ESXi servers en masse to bring up a large virtual infrastructure in no time. You’ll learn what makes up Auto Deploy, how to configure it, how to deploy a new ESXi server with Auto Deploy, how PowerCLI can help, and how to configure syslog and dump collectors using Auto Deploy.

• What is Auto Deploy?
• Auto Deploy Components
• Auto Deploy First Boot Process
• Infrastructure Requirements
• Installation and Configuration Tasks
• Lab Environment Setup
• Installing Auto Deploy and TFTP Server
• Adding ESXi Host to vCenter
• Moving Host Profile from Staging to Production Area
• Installing Dump and Syslog Collectors
• Setting Dump Collector
• Setting Up Syslog Server
• Test and Repair Rules Compliance
• Auto Deploy PowerCLI Commands

Lesson 29 - Storage DRS

NEW in vSphere 5, Storage DRS does for storage what DRS did for CPU and memory. SDRS will automatically select the best datastore for your VMs. It will also move virtual machine disk files from one datastore to another if there is a space or latency issue. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to configure and administer SDRS to prevent storage performance issues for your virtual infrastructure.

• Storage DRS Explained
• Datastore Clusters Explained
• SDRS Initial Placement
• SDRS Load Balancing
• Datastore Maintenance with SDRS
• SDRS Affinity Rules
• Configuring and Using Storage DRS

Lesson 30 - Policy-driven Storage

NEW in vSphere 5, policy/profile-driven storage allows you to map the capabilities of your storage to profiles then map your virtual machines to a profile that fits their needs. This will save you time by making new VM creation more efficient and it will allow you to ensure that you VMs are on the right storage.

• Policy-driven Storage Explained
• Storage Vendor Profiles and VASA
• Configuration of Policy-driven Storage

Lesson 31 - Understanding the New vSphere 5 vRAM Pooled Pricing

VMware’s controversial new pricing model has been causing a ruckus. Learn all the details of vSphere 5’s vRAM pooled pricing and the steps you can take to ensure that you get the most out of your vSphere licenses (and save money).

• Why is vSphere 5 vRAM Pooled Pricing So Important?
• 3 Major Changes with vSphere 5 Licensing
• vRAM Pooled Pricing in Action
• vSphere 5 vRAM Entitlements
• Requirements to Access vRAM Pooled Pricing Reports
• vSphere 5 License Validator Script
• Using vSphere License Advisor
• 4 Ways to Reduce Your vRAM Pool Utilization

Lesson 32 - Network I/O Control (NIOC)

vSphere’s Network I/O control offers the ability to prioritize your most critical traffic on the virtual network to ensure that your most critical apps perform as they should. Learn how to implement NIOC and the new features offered by NIOC in vSphere 5.

• What is Network I/O Control?
• New in vSphere 5 NIOC
• Configuring Network I/O Control

Lesson 33 - Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

Storage I/O control ensures that one virtual machine doesn’t monopolize shared storage and that your resource allocations are respected not only for CPU and memory but also for storage. Learn how to configure and administer SIOC as well how new vSphere 5 SIOC features can help you.

• Why You Need Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
• How SIOC Works
• SIOC Requirements
• Enabling SIOC in vSphere
• Monitoring SIOC Performance

Lesson 34 - ESXi Firewall

NEW in vSphere 5, ESXi servers offer a basic firewall to protect from malicious attack. In this lesson, learn where to configure this new firewall and how it works.

• ESXi Firewall Defined
• Configuration Files
• Rule Set Add
• Service Behavior
• ESXI Shell Firewall Configuration

Lesson 35 - VMware Data Recovery (VDR) 2

NEW in vSphere 5, VMware’s backup and recovery tool offers VSS as the application level (for application integrity), Linux file level restore, and increased scalability. Learn how to install, configure, and perform backup and restore with the new VDR version 2.

• Introduction to VMware Data Recovery (VDR) 2
• New VDR Features in vSphere 5
• Limitations of VDR
• Installing VDR
• VDR Initial Configuration
• Installing VDR Client Plug-in
• Backing Up with Data Recovery
• Restoring with Data Recovery

Lesson 36 - Administering vSphere Using an iPad

Learn how to use the free vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) and the free vSphere Client for iPad to administer your vSphere infrastructure from anywhere! When it comes to “cool factor” this video takes the lead.

• Features of the vSphere Client for iPad
• Requirements for the vSphere Client for iPad
• Installing vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA)
• Installing vSphere Client for iPad
• Administering vSphere Using an iPad