VMware vSphere 6.7 Optimize, Upgrade, Troubleshoot (VM7430)

Module 1 – Install, Configure and Secure ESXi 6.7

• Install and configure ESXi 6.7 Update 1 using Best Practices
• Enable and secure command line access including the console and Secure Shell
• Using Lockdown mode to restrict management access
• Lockdown modes introduced in vSphere 6.7
• Configure vFlash storage on ESXi
• Using command line tools to review and update host configurations
• Use command line tools to create/manage users and permissions

Module 2 – Virtual and Physical Networking

• Create / update standard Virtual Switches
• vSwitch security policies
• Network failure detection and beaconing
• Enabling Discovery Protocol settings
• Use command line tools to configure/update vSwitches
• Use Jumbo Frames to improve network performance
• Use esxtop to monitor network activity

Module 3 – Advanced Networking

• Configuring vSwitch Security policies, Promiscuous Mode, Forged Transmits and MAC address changes
• Understanding and using Traffic Shaping
• The Five physical NIC teaming policies including their pros / cons and use cases
• Enabling and using Jumbo Frames for improved performance and reduced protocol overhead
• Troubleshoot networking configuration and performance issues

Module 4 – Connecting to and Using NAS Shared Storage

• Connecting to NFS v3 storage
• Network design for high service availability
• Best practices for performance and reliability

Module 5 – Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines

• VM virtual hardware, options and limits
• Creating and right-sizing Virtual Machines for CPU, memory
• Installing VMware Tools •Virtual Machine best practices
• Import and export VMs in Open Virtual Machine Format
• Implement and use vFlash Read Cache storage to accelerate VM read performance
• Configure and use virtual NVMe vDisks

Module 6 – Upgrade, Configure vCenter Server Appliance

• Deploy vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 via the command line and configuration files
• Upgrade vCenter Appliance 6.0 to vCenter Appliance 6.7
• vCenter deployment and redundancy options
• Connecting Single Sign On (SSO) to Active Directory and other identity sources
• Use command line tools to backup and restore an ESXi host’s configuration

Module 7 – VM Rapid Deployment using Templates, Clones

• How to create a Template VM
• Using Guest OS Customization for Windows and non-Windows OS'
• Enabling, using Hotplug Virtual CPU and memory
• Enabling, using Hotplug disks, networking, USB devices and more
• Predictive and adaptive sizing strategies for VMs
• Troubleshooting Virtual Machine issues
• Use esxtop to analyze a VM's performance

Module 8 – Use VMware Update Manager to Upgrade ESXi hosts

• Using command line tools to backup and restore an ESXi host’s configuration
• Configure VMware Update Managers
• Create ESXi host Patch Baselines
• Importing a new ESXi install media image
• Attaching a Host Upgrade patch baseline
• Performing host compliance scans
• Upgrading an ESXi host from ESXi 6.0 to ESXi 6.7

Module 9 – Connecting to Fibre & iSCSI Shared Storage

• General SAN features and capabilities
• Overview of Fibre Storage Networks
• VMware APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
• Storage network design for performance and redundancy
• Connecting to Fibre and iSCSI shared storage
• iSCSI Hardware and Software Initiators
• iSCSI Static and Send Targets LUN discovery
• Troubleshooting storage issues
• Use esxtop to review storage controller and datastores configuration and I/O activity

Module 10 – Direct VM to SAN Access with Raw Device Maps

• Explain Physical and Virtual Raw Device Maps (RDMs)
• Use cases for Raw Device Maps
• How Raw Device Maps work with VM cold, VMotion and Storage VMotion migrations
• Using RDMs to implement Virtual and Virtual/Physical Microsoft Fail Over Clusters

Module 11 – VMware File System (VMFS)

• Unique file system properties of VMFS
• Creating and managing shared Volumes
• Managing VMFS capacity with LUN spanning and LUN expansion
• Understand VMware multipath options
• Benefits of using vendor multipath solutions
• Understanding and selecting multipathing policies
• VMFS performance, scalability and reliability considerations
• Review storage queuing, I/O aborts and other storage issues
• Diagnose and troubleshoot storage performance
• VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache description and use cases
• Troubleshooting VMFS issues
• Use esxtop to review datastore I/O activity

Module 12 – Storage Profiles

• SAN and user defined storage profiles
• Using storage speed, replication to define storage capabilities
• VMware APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA)
• Creating VM storage profiles
• VM/Storage compliance checks
• Remediating incorrectly placed VM
• Understanding Storage I/O Control
• Enable priority storage queues with Storage I/O control

Module 13 – Storage Load Balancing with SDRS Clusters

• Creating and using Storage Distributed Resource Scheduling clusters (SDRS)
• Cluster properties for capacity and I/O load balancing
• Best practices for building storage clusters

Module 14 – VMotion Migration, Cold Migration, Storage VMotion

• Cold Migrations to new ESXi hosts, datastores
• Hot Migrations with VMotion
• VMotion requirements and dependencies
• How VMotion works – detailed explanation
• Troubleshooting VMotion
• Storage VMotion for hot VM disk migrations

Module 15 – Managing ESXi Host Configurations with Host Profiles

• The challenge of maintaining approved ESXi host configurations
• Using Host Profiles to harvest an ESXi host configuration rule set
• Updating a Host Profile rule set
• Attaching a Host Profile rule set to an ESXi host and completing a compliance scan
• Remediating non-compliant host configurations and verifying host configuration compliance

Module 16 – VMware High Availability Clusters

• Minimize unplanned VM down time VMware High Availability clusters
• VM requirements for HA Clusters
• Storage fault recovery in High Availability clusters (All Paths Down, Permanent Device Loss)
• Monitoring VM health in HA clusters
• Admission Control policy settings for predictable pCPU/pRAM resource availability
• Identifying and troubleshooting issues in VMware HA clusters

Module 17 – VMware Fault Tolerance

• Eliminate VM unplanned down time with VMware Fault Tolerance
• Role of the Primary and Secondary VM in a Fault Tolerance configuration
• Explain how Fast Checkpointing keeps the Secondary VM vCPU, vRAM, vDisk up to date
• Enabling VM Fault Tolerance
• Initial VM synchronization
• Testing Fault Tolerance

Module 18 – Distributed vSwitch Features and Scalability

• Features and benefits of Distributed vSwitches
• Role of the DVUplink port group
• Adding ESXi hosts to dvSwitches
• Creating dvSwitch port groups
• Migrating physical NICs and VMkernel ports to dvSwitches
• dvSwitch configuration backup and restore
• Configuring custom VM MAC address generation policies
• Testing dvSwitch network health