VMware vSphere: Fast Track 7.0

Course Modules

1 Course Introduction
• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

2 Introduction to vSphere and the Software-Defined
Data Center
• Explain basic virtualization concepts
• Describe how vSphere fits into the software-defined
data center and the cloud infrastructure
• Explain how vSphere interacts with CPUs, memory,
networks, and storage
• Recognize the user interfaces for accessing the
vCenter Server system and ESXi hosts
• Describe the ESXi host architecture
• Navigate the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI)
to configure an ESXi host
• Recognize ESXi host user account best practices
• Install an ESXi host
• Use VMware Host Client™ to configure ESXi host
settings

3 Virtual Machines
• Create and provision a virtual machine
• Explain the importance of VMware Tools™
• Install VMware Tools
• Identify the files that make up a VM
• Recognize the components of a VM
• Recognize virtual devices supported by a VM
• Describe the benefits and use cases for containers
• Identify the parts of a container system

4 vCenter Server
• Describe the vCenter Server architecture
• Discuss how ESXi hosts communicate with vCenter
Server
• Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance
• Use the vSphere Client to manage the vCenter
Server inventory
• Add data center, organizational objects, and hosts
to vCenter Server
• Use roles and permissions to enable users to access
objects in the vCenter Server inventory
• Back up vCenter Server Appliance
• Monitor vCenter Server tasks, events, and appliance
health
• Use vCenter Server High Availability to protect a
vCenter Server Appliance

5 Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
• Create and manage standard switches
• Describe the virtual switch connection types
• Configure virtual switch security, traffic-shaping and
load-balancing policies
• Compare vSphere distributed switches and
standard switches

6 Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
• Identify storage protocols and storage device types
• Discuss ESXi hosts using iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre
Channel storage
• Create and manage VMFS and NFS datastores
• Explain how multipathing works with iSCSI, NFS,
and Fibre Channel storage
• Recognize the components of a VMware vSAN™
configuration

7 Virtual Machine Management
• Use templates and cloning to deploy new virtual
machines
• Modify and manage virtual machines
• Create a content library and deploy virtual machines
from templates in the library
• Use customization specification files to customize a
new virtual machine
• Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage
vMotion migrations
• Describe Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
• Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
• Examine the features and functions of VMware
vSphere® Replication™
• Describe the benefits of vSphere Storage APIs –
Data Protection

8 Resource Management and Monitoring

• Discuss CPU and memory concepts in a virtualized
environment

• Describe what overcommitment of a resource
means

• Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory
usage
• Use various tools to monitor resource use
• Create and use alarms to report certain conditions
or events

9 vSphere Clusters
• Describe the functions of a vSphere DRS cluster
• Create a vSphere DRS cluster
• Monitor a vSphere cluster configuration
• Describe options for making a vSphere environment
highly available
• Explain the vSphere HA architecture
• Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
• Examine the features and functions of VMware
vSphere® Fault Tolerance

10 Network Scalability
• Configure and manage vSphere distributed
switches
• Describe how VMware vSphere® Network I/O
Control enhances performance
• Explain distributed switch features such as port
mirroring and NetFlow

11 vSphere Lifecycle Management
• Recognize the importance of vCenter Server
Update Planner
• Describe how VMware vSphere® Lifecycle
Manager™ works
• Describe how to update ESXi hosts using baselines
• Validate ESXi host compliance using a cluster image
• Describe how to upgrade VMware Tools and VM
hardware

12 Host and Management Scalability
• Use host profiles to manage ESXi configuration
compliance
• Create and manage resource pools in a cluster
• Describe how scalable shares work

13 Storage Scalability
• Explain why VMware vSphere® VMFS is a high performance, scalable file system
• Explain VMware vSphere® Storage APIs – Array
Integration, VMware vSphere® API for Storage
Awareness™, and vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering
• Configure and assign virtual machine storage
policies
• Create VMware vSAN™ storage policies
• Recognize components of the vSphere Virtual
Volumes architecture
• Configure VMware vSphere® Storage DRS™ and
VMware vSphere® Storage I/O Control