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Learning Path: VMware vSphere Unlocked
Rating: 4.2 out of 5(83 ratings)
732 students

Learning Path: VMware vSphere Unlocked

Master the art of delivering high availability and zero data loss across the virtual IT environment
Created byPackt Publishing
Last updated 2/2019
English

What you'll learn

  • Understand vCenter and Platform Services Controller
  • Learn about virtual networking with vSwitches and VMKernel interfaces
  • Learn about scalable storage access with NFS and iSCSI
  • Protect your virtual machines with high availability and fault tolerance
  • Deep dive into the latest features of VMware vSphere 6
  • Explore the best practices for application virtualization in vSphere 6
  • Back up, recover, and troubleshoot your vSphere 6 deployment

Course content

2 sections • 88 lectures • 23h 28m total length

  • Course Overview and Virtualization Concepts11:11

    For viewers who are new to virtualization or for those who are not familiar with VMware vSphere, we'll introduce some of the key information you'll need to orient yourself for the rest of the course.

  • Installing ESXi8:46

    ESXi is VMware's hypervisor and hosts virtual machines running on servers with ESXi installed.

  • Welcome to ESXi4:06

    A new installation of ESXi doesn't let us do much from the host. When we connect using a browser, the Welcome to ESXi provides some simple but relatively unknown features.

  • DCUI7:59

    To configure networking and other core configuration, DCUI provides a simple interface.

  • Using vSphere Desktop Client11:32

    To do anything useful in ESXi, we'll need to use either the vSphere Desktop Client or the HTML5 Host Client.

  • Datastore Browser7:55

    VMFS is commonly used as the filesystem for virtual machine storage. We are able to use the Datastore Browser to manage virtual machine and other files stored on VMFS and other type of datastores.

  • ESXi and ESXi Shell16:05

    ESXi is an operating system designed for hosting virtual machines, and uses various components such as Linux, Vmkernel and the busybox embedded platform.

  • Installing VIBs12:48

    VMware Installation Bundles are used to update ESXi.

  • Host Client8:50

    Beginning with ESXi 6.0 Update 2, the HTML5 Host Client is installed automatically.

  • Basic VM20:00

    A number of techniques exist for provisioning virtual machines, but we'll first look at the basics of a creating a single virtual machine.

  • VM Operations13:49

    Virtual machines have many of the same challenges as physical machines, and also some new ones.

  • OVF Templates7:59

    We previously installed a virtual machine manually, but we are able to import/export virtual machines using the Open Virtualization Format.

  • Snapshots13:06

    Snapshots are very helpful for managing virtual machine state but there are some things to beware of.

  • Hot Add Hardware5:35

    To support growth, we can add hardware such as disks, network interfaces and potentially CPU and memory to a running virtual machine.

  • VMXNET3 and PVSCSI6:04

    Virtual machines can potentially benefit from using native VMware device drivers, rather than a driver provided for compatibility. The VMXNET3 and PVSCSI paravirtualized devices are provided for this purpose.

  • Working with Standard vSwitches19:29

    Virtual switches are used to provide internal and external connectivity between virtual machines, VMkernel adapters and external networks. Proper network functionality depends not only on vSphere configuration but also on external physical switches.

  • Teaming and Load-Balancing13:24

    Managing virtual machine traffic load is a key consideration, and there are a number of options available to distribute traffic load across multiple uplinks.

  • VMKernel Adapters10:47

    In order to provide IP services that vSphere requires for management, storage and other system networking, Vmkernel Adapters are needed. It is critical to understand the application of Vmkernel IP networking. We will look at core utilization scenarios and best practices, and will also re-visit some of these areas when we discuss storage and vMotion in later sections.

  • VMFS and VAAI19:27

    We briefly introduced VMFS and the datastore concept earlier, but it is important to understand not only how to work with VMFS but also how vSphere will interact with storage. We'll review various mechanisms that vSphere uses to provide deep storage integration.

  • Configuring NFS13:28

    The Network File System is commonly used for simplicity and does not require the use of VMFS or volume management. NFS is broadly supported, but vSphere has specific compatibility requirements.

  • Configuring iSCSI17:37

    NFS provides a solid base for IP-based storage, but vSphere does not provide native multipathing support for NFS. iSCSI is also a viable alternative for IP storage that provides performance and security benefits, although with some additional complexity.

  • Path Balancing and Failover17:38

    As the number of datastores and storage paths available increases, it is important to optimize storage I/O effectively. vSphere does not use optimal methods by default, and vendors may provide their own extensions.

  • Installing vCenter13:12

    Any environment with more than a single host will be well served by adding vCenter, and all the interesting vSphere features require it. vCenter and Platform Services Controller provide a highly scalable infrastructure, but configurations with multiple vCenter and PSC servers can get quite complex.

  • Configuring Single Sign-On14:15

    For convenience and in order to support the centralization of Identity and Access Management, various identity sources can be integrated with the Single Sign-On service.

  • Roles and Permissions16:56

    Once integration with an external identity source is available, it is highly beneficial to follow a least privilege model and identity.

  • Adding ESXi Hosts to vCenter11:50

    Adding a host to vCenter is simple, but it is useful to understand how it works and what changes are made to the host. It's also sometimes necessary to restart the management agents if the host does not respond to vCenter.

  • Using and Configuring vCenter with vSphere Desktop Client10:22

    The vSphere Desktop Client will be very familiar to anyone who's used any version of vSphere, but its days are numbered.

  • Using and Configuring vCenter with vSphere Web Client12:52

    The vSphere Web Client has been put forward as an alternative to the Desktop Client but has been plagued with plugin and performance issues. Currently, vSphere Web Client is the official web client, but vCenter HTML5 Client is also coming along rapidly.

  • Working with Templates14:31

    Deploying virtual machines quickly and consistently is key to providing rapid, secure provisioning. Virtual machine templates can be used to provide a partially configured, updated base image which can be cloned and customized at deployment time.

  • Cold Migration and vMotion23:32

    vMotion is the absolute rock star feature that truly rocked the industry. Host and storage portability of running virtual machines makes all of vSphere's advanced workload management features possible. It works like magic, but like all magic, it requires careful preparation and some behind-the-scenes tricks.

  • HA and FT28:49

    In a non-virtual deployment, high availability is expensive, complicated and requires unique solutions for each protected operating system and application. vSphere's HA features are transparent, are cross-platform, and can be configured in minutes. As your environment gets larger, it's important to think about the impact of the loss of multiple servers and how to accomodate workload demands during large restart events.

  • DRS20:50

    Distributed Resource Scheduler allows you to define clusters of hosts and datastores, which can then be treated as a shared pool of resources. Depending on the cluster configuration, we can handle initial and ongoing placement of virtual machines to hosts and datastores based on their utilization rates.

  • Performance Monitoring22:20

    vSphere integrates a large number of infrastructure components and requires capacity and load management in order to ensure best performance and avoid problems.

  • Alarms18:40

    When the unexpected occurs, you should know about it. vSphere provides a relatively simple system for notification by mail, visible alarm and SNMP trap. Alarms can also be configured to take action in response to virtual machine and host conditions.

  • Useful ESXi Commands14:34

    By this point in the course, you'll have seen that you can do (almost) anything you need using the vSphere Desktop or Web clients. However, for troubleshooting and advanced configuration, you may need to get on the shell and use the various utilities available. We'll also discuss how we can access these functions remotely, with vCenter and Single sign-on integration for security and authentication.

Requirements

  • A good understanding of networking and network services such as DNS, Active Directory, and TCP/IP.

Description

VMware vSphere 6 is a powerful server virtualization platform that enables optimized performance, efficiency, and availability for your infrastructure. VMware vSphere Unlocked is a Learning Path provides the information that meets the objectives specified in the blueprint for the VMware VCP6-DCV certification program.

Packt’s Video Learning Paths are a series of individual video products put together in a logical and stepwise manner such that each video builds on the skills learned in the video before it.

This Learning Path will help you make most of the core features in vSphere. We will begin with exploring the essential concepts of virtualization like ESXi and DCUI interfaces. We will then move on to see how vSphere works with virtual machines. We will learn how to enhance and monitor vSphere performance by optimizing our virtual environment and solving performance issues. We will also see how to upgrade our legacy vSphere to the latest version along with troubleshooting techniques. This Learning Path will empower you to virtualize any application with ease as we will be covering all the latest enhancements and advanced functionalities of vSphere hypervisor, virtual machines, vCenter Server virtual storage, and security.

By the end of the Learning Path, you will gain expertise in VMware vSphere 6 and virtualize any application with ease for your enterprise.

About the Authors

For this course, we have combined the best works of these esteemed authors:

Glen Martin has over 20 years' experience in enterprise IT operations and architecture and technical training, and over 10 years' vSphere experience in environments of all sizes.

Atindra Chaturvedi is a certified VMware Advanced Professional in Data Center Design (VCAP-DCD) and Data Center Administration (VCAP-DCA) which speak to his advanced knowledge of the vSphere virtual data center design and hands-on ability to operate the advanced tools available in the environment. He is currently certified Cisco Network Professional Routing & Switching (CCNP-R&S) and Data Center (CCNP-Data Center) which gives him the advanced knowledge of networking and design and hands-on configuration of all aspects of data center equipment. He currently holds network virtualization (VCP-NV) and Cloud (VCP-Cloud) certifications from VMware, and is a Brocade Certified Engineer Network Functions Virtualization.

He has more than 18 years of commercial data center experience and has authored courses on vSphere networking, vSphere networking design, VMware NSX, and VMware NSX design.

Who this course is for:

  • Virtualization administrators, system engineers, and virtualization consultants who are new to VMware data center technology and vSphere.
  • If you have prior experience with vSphere 5.x, you will learn how to use the new features to your advantage.
  • Experienced vSphere administrators who want to prepare for the VMware VCP6-DCV certification exam

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