VMware vSphere 5 Ultimate Bootcamp

Prepare to earn the certified virtualization expert (CVE) certification by passing the 80-question, two-hour exam for vSphere administrators, with a $195 price and a 75 percent passing score, delivered worldwide.

Witness a physical data center setup used for VMware vSphere demonstrations, featuring three Dell PowerEdge servers with ample RAM and processing power, storage devices, and ice Gazi devices.

Access data center from workstation to run demos and labs in VMware vSphere 5 Ultimate Bootcamp. RTP over Internet gives access to terminal servers, domain controller, and SQL server.

Learn the IP addressing plan for the VMware vSphere lab, mapping 172.x addresses to DRAC remote access, vCenter servers, and the ESX host, with a focus on virtual machines.

Discuss the course introduction and methodology, and emphasize remember, learn it, do it, and know it.

Explore how virtualizing 1000 servers over four years delivers significant cost savings, cutting hardware and software costs while enabling staff redeployment across locations.

Explore the VMware ROI and total cost of ownership calculator v2.0 to estimate savings, understand third-party calculations, and learn how data entry errors affect accuracy in virtualization cost analysis.

Explore how virtualization simplifies management, decoupling hardware from the OS, enabling template-based VM deployment, easier hardware maintenance, and isolated VMs on one box for efficient resource use.

Define virtual infrastructure with an ESX/ESXi host and virtualization layer, enabling isolated virtual machines like Linux and Microsoft sequel 2008, connected to switch and shared storage.

Compare type 1 and type 2 hypervisors, with type 1 running on physical servers and type 2 as an application on an existing os; include VMware ESX/ESXi and Hyper-V.

Explore the cloud as a platform that automates virtual machine deployment using the virtual center orchestrator and lab manager, creating fences to isolate different environments for private and public clouds.

Discover vm server 2.0, type 2 hypervisor running as a Windows service to create or virtualize machines, supports Windows 98 to Server 2008 with 2 to 4 vmp per core.

Explore the VMware infrastructure 3 suite, including ESX hosts and vCenter versions from VI3 to update 4, with vMotion, high availability, and distributed resource scheduler.

Discover vSphere 4 features like hot add memory and hot plug devices, scalable eight-way virtual SMP, large RAM and CPU options, centralized data store management, thin provisioning, and distributed switches.

Learn about vSphere 4.1 update 1, including two builds, support for 160 logical processors, and expanded vCenter database support for Oracle, IBM DB2 9.7, SQL Server 2008 and 2005.

Discover vSphere 5 host features, including complete ESXi deployment, host profiles, image builder, and a rewritten CLI. Learn new limits—512 VMs per host, 2 TB of RAM—and the firewall addition.

Discover vSphere 5 distributed switch enhancements, including the link layer discovery protocol, net flow version 5 for monitoring and intrusion detection, port mirroring, and network IO control with resource pools.

Explore vSphere 5 storage features: the storage distributed resource scheduler, storage profiles, profile-driven storage, and VMFS 5 with 64 TB LUNs and improved SSD communication.

Explore vSphere 5 miscellaneous features, including srm 5 host based replication with non-identical data stores, Apple os x on Apple Xserve hardware, and improved vdi performance via view.

Drive infrastructure management with vCenter Server as the command center, handling everything across hosts and enabling features like vMotion, high availability, storage motion, and Update Manager, while integrating third-party tools.

Learn to leverage vCenter orchestrator to automate virtual machine deployment with customizable workflows and over 800 available actions, capitalizing on a 64-bit only platform for large infrastructures.

Learn how VMware View 4.6 enables virtual desktops via View Composer and View Manager, delivering secure, device-agnostic access from thin clients to smartphones.

Learn how VMware Workstation provides virtualization on Windows and Linux hosts, with macOS support via Fusion, featuring up to 8 virtual CPUs, 2 terabytes of disk, and 32 GB RAM.

Explore VMware Fusion 4.0.1 for Mac operating system, featuring unity view, OVL tool support, 8 gigabytes of RAM, 8-way SMP, 2 terabytes of disks, with a price lower than workstation.

Explore Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, an older virtualization platform for Windows Server 2003 that supports up to 64 VMs, hardware virtualization, and multiple guest OS options.

Compare and deploy Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2, exploring its role-based installation, guest OS support, live migration, hot add disks, and clustering, while noting memory management challenges versus vSphere.

Learn how System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 groups ESX and Hyper-V hosts, displays their virtual machines, and enables actions like create, add, stop, save state, migrate, and library management.

XenServer enterprise v5.6 sp2 offers a free hypervisor with bare metal install and Zen Center to manage multiple servers, delivering strong network, disk, and memory performance; higher tiers cost money.

Explore XenDesktop and Essentials for XenServer to virtualize desktops, compare with VMware View, and learn about the HDX user experience, multimedia performance, on-demand apps with Zen app, and open architecture.

Discover why VMware is the oldest, most stable virtualization platform, delivering strong performance and cost effectiveness, with broad third party tools and ongoing innovation for the VMware infrastructure.

Explore the virtualization architecture and core concepts, comparing VMware vSphere with competitors, and examine how virtual machines, containers, and integration with third-party tools empower virtualization administration.

Outline planning the ESX deployment, cover basic ESX environment setup and installation basics, and finish with hostname resolution, access and monitoring, and ESX II installation troubleshooting.

Identify vSphere 5 hardware requirements: 64-bit Intel or AMD processors, minimum two cores, up to 160 logical cores, minimum 2 gb ram, and basic networking and boot options.

Explore vSphere hypervisor ESXi with installable and embedded versions, compare logging behaviors—embedded uses non-persistent logs, while installable preserves logs; understand size, hardware considerations, and the common interface module for management.

Learn how ESXi 5 serves as the hypervisor core, using the VMkernel to perform binary translation of OS data into physical hardware and dynamically allocate resources, noting licensing distinctions.

Boot ESXi from a SAN LUN via Fibre Channel or iSCSI by configuring BIOS to the HBA and VMFS volume. Use USB or SD boot for the same recovery functionality.

Boot ESXi from a SAN LUN by configuring the fiber channel card to the target worldwide name, and set the card IP address if using the other path.

Plan deployment by evaluating physical and virtual integration and deciding what to virtualize. Design for future growth and high availability across hosts.

Discover the ESXi compatibility guides to determine which physical hardware supports your installation, and learn to work with your vendor so they own the resolution if issues arise.

Determine ESX/ESXi host size by evaluating memory and CPU needs per application, using capacity tools, and planning extra capacity for high availability; apply per-VM sizing with a 100-VM example.

Evaluate the VMware capacity planner and its web-based tools, and learn to collaborate with your VM partner to gain capacity insights and useful trend analysis.

Increase speed by adding spindles and disks across multiple paths and storage processors; test fiber channel and iSCSI options, and use SSDs for high-IO workloads in vSphere 5.

Learn how VMware vSphere uses memory overcommitment with transparent page sharing, ballooning, swapping, and memory compression to run many Windows XP VMs on limited physical memory while preserving performance.

Explore the actual installation of the vSphere hypervisor (ESXi) in this topic, outlining the steps to deploy ESXi.

the vSphere 5 installable hypervisor supports boot from USB or SD card, uses GPT, requires at least 2 GB RAM (4+ recommended), and supports local hard drives with SATA/SCSI/RAID.

Boot the ESXi 5 installer from media or remote access, accept the license, install to the local drive, then remove media, reboot, and configure IP and hostname via DCUI.

Learn to configure the esxi 5 local management network with the DCUI, set a static IP, and adjust DNS, gateway, and hostname to fit your environment.

Choose the ESXi host for installation, then scroll through and select the ESX 215 sub template to initiate the full ESXi host install process.

Learn to use the ESXi image builder to create custom installations for multiple hosts with a private or public software depot, build image profiles, and enable auto deploy.

Learn how vSphere 5 auto deploy automates ESXi installations with image builder and outer deploy, linking host profiles to image profiles and using per-host answer files.

Explore the vSphere 5 auto deploy architecture as an ESXi host boots via DHCP, fetches Pixi file from the TFTP server, and applies host and image profiles with image builder.

Configure host name resolution and time server settings to ensure accurate network identity and time synchronization.

Configure dns and routing on the esx host via the gui, setting the host name, domain, and two dns servers, and add more lookup domains by editing the resolve file.

Sync time in the virtualized environment using the network time protocol over UDP 123 from an external source; never rely on a virtual machine as a time server.

Access the ESXi host via the vSphere client to view and modify the A.P. configuration, time settings, and AP server options, then restart the AP service to apply changes.

Explore troubleshooting ESXi within the VMware vSphere 5 ultimate bootcamp. Gain focused insights into ESXi troubleshooting aligned with the course context.

Learn how esx.conf stores about 80 percent of host configurations and how to verify hostname, IP, vmkernel, and firewall settings using ESXCLI or vSphere client.

BIOS loads the bootloader and ESXi kernel boots, loads drivers and runs configuration scripts before daemons start and the Direct Console User Interface becomes available.

Restart the ESXi CIM management agents using the direct console or command line. Run the provided shell script to restart all services, and expect brief downtime during refresh.

Troubleshoot ESX connectivity by verifying the host daemon (hostd) status, restarting hostd when needed, and restarting all services, guided by the watchdog that auto-restarts hostd.

Explore the purple screen of death (psod) in VMware, how hardware failures trigger it, read core dump details, and determine faulty memory or hardware with VMware support.

Review ESX deployment planning and guidelines, explore vSphere design for virtual environment planning, perform the basic install, and troubleshoot networking, storage, and hostname resolution on the ESXi host.

Explore third party tools for managing the VMware vSphere environment, covering ESX management, basic Linux commands, and the vi editor, with troubleshooting for the VCR client connectivity.

Discover Veeam's FastSCP, a fast file transfer tool that moves files between data stores up to six times faster, with user-switching and backup integration for VM environments.

Explore WinSCP 5.0.2 as a free vSphere management tool, noting root ssh authentication is not supported on ESX and that it works on ESX II.

Explore the datastore browser included with ESXi 5 to create folders, upload and download files, delete items, and move data between data stores with a built-in search.

Learn to use ISO programs to simplify a virtualized environment, with Daemon Tools as an example, so you can access all systems from any virtual machine.

Unify management across hypervisors with PlateSpin Orchestrate from a single location, enabling policy-based dynamic VM provisioning with built-in auditing and readiness for high performance computing.

Explore Quest Software’s Vizioncore tools for vSphere: ranger pro backups, fog light performance and statistics, replicator for sites, optimizer pro for disk resizing, and Wii control for hypervisor vm management.

Explore Quest's free PowerGUI, a GUI for PowerCLI, to build and run scripts that manage your vSphere infrastructure without heavy command-line usage.

Explore PHD Virtual tools, their free utilities, and scripts for kickstart installations, offline patch downloading, and update manager workflows, plus testing-oriented virtual san appliances for non-production environments.

Learn to manage the ESX and ESX infrastructure within a vSphere environment, focusing on practical ESX management tasks.

Explore ESXi host management options—from remote agents like ILO, DRAC, IPMI to SSH via the DCUI—and manage vCenter Server with the web client, vSphere client, and CLI.

Direct console user interface (DCUI) provides command line access on the physical esx server, while you configure the esx host using the vSphere client or alternative clients.

Discover the brand new vSphere web client connected to server VCT TS 51, featuring inventory, clusters, data stores, volumes, networking, and extended management capabilities.

Enable ssh access on esx or ssi with PuTTY, SecureCRT, or FastSCP, and use tech support mode or remote tech support mode in version 4.1 to communicate via SSH.

Manage esxi 5 troubleshooting by enabling or disabling ssh and esxi shell, and suppress warnings via host advanced options set to 1, and use PowerShell or VC Ally when needed.

Explore how to use the direct console user interface to enable or disable the ESXi and SSH shells, adjust the ESXi shell timeout, and restart management agents for troubleshooting.

Master the vSphere command line interface (vCLI), replacing ESX's old remote CLI, to run commands on ESX 3.x/4.x from Windows, Linux, or the management appliance built atop the Perl SDK.

Discover vCLI commands, from VI config and advanced settings to DNS, storage arrays, and host monitoring in interactive and batch modes.

Discover the vSphere CLI tools and commands, learn to locate the VCL installation directory, and use dash help to figure out how to run commands on a Windows system.

Explore the vSphere sdk for perl, with an extensive perl library, dozen sample scripts, and provisioning tools to create, relocate, clone, or power on VMs using vcl-style connections.

Explore how the vSphere management assistant (vMA 5.0) appliance remotely runs scripts and agents to manage ESX hosts, with built-in VCL tools, logging, and PowerShell support.

PowerCLI 5.0 provides access to the vSphere API through a PowerShell command-line interface, with prebuilt packages that let you manage all aspects of your environment with a single command.

Use the vi editor in VMware vSphere to back up the hosts file, edit it, search with /, insert with i, and save or quit with :wq or :q!.

Explore troubleshooting the vSphere Client (VIC) and learn how to fix issues, preparing you to effectively manage and support your client environment.

the vSphere client creates a new log on each login and rotates logs 0-9; configure log size in local settings, with files named v-i client-<log number>.

Verify the hostname, IP, and vCenter server; confirm user credentials, test network connectivity, resolve SSL prompts, and ensure ESX firewall, host daemon, management agents, and vCenter service are running.

Explore vcenter server 5 licensing and installation options, including the appliance, and learn to inventory, manage, troubleshoot license issues and database across versions.

Learn how licensing differs across ESX and ESXi, with ESX 3 requiring a license server and ESXi being free for standalone use; manage licensing in vSphere via home, administration, licensing.

Use the licensing manager to add and apply vSphere licenses to ESX and vCenter, view license details by product, key, or asset, and monitor vRAM entitlements over one year.

Explore VMware vSphere essentials and essentials plus for small businesses, featuring eight vCPUs per VM, Update Manager, vSAN, and up to three dual-socket hosts.

Compare vSphere 5 license types—standard, enterprise, and enterprise plus—with per cpu pricing and vRAM entitlements, including center foundation and center standard.

Analyze vSphere 5 licensing by RAM entitlements and DRAM entitlements, and compare VMware View desktop VM licensing with unlimited RAM entitlement at $65 per desktop VM and memory overcommitment.

Explore Microsoft's 2008 server licensing calculator and its online virtualization tool. See how licenses vary by processors, cores, or sockets and how data center edition cuts costs in VM environment.

Explore Microsoft’s server virtualization validation program, select a product, specify virtualization tech and guest OS details, and understand the support implications of unsupported features.

Learn how VMware vSphere 4.1 provides unlimited licenses for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 with VM support, subscription and patches, lowering ownership costs and enabling virtualization with application support.

Explore installing the vCenter server in this topic, guiding you through the installation process and key setup steps.

Explore how vCenter Server 5 centralizes your virtual infrastructure with container objects, folders, data centers, clusters, and resource pools for management; compare Windows and appliance versions and Active Directory integration.

Examine vCenter Server 5 hardware requirements, including dual processors, minimum 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 4.4 GB free disk, and gigabit Ethernet, plus fault tolerance caveats and 2003/2008 OS support.

Deploy the vCenter server appliance v5 from an ovf template, configure static networking, set a new root password, initialize the embedded database, and connect to manage data center and hosts.

Vcenter server 5 architecture integrates core services from a standard ESXi host with distributed features. It manages access via local or Active Directory and supports plugins such as Update Manager.

vCenter Server 5 connects clients and web clients to hosts via an agent and VIP X user, with the host daemon as the primary controller, even when using putty.

Follow the correct vCenter installation order: create a separate database (except when using SQL Express 2008), configure system DSN and 64-bit ODBC, then install the vCenter server and optional components.

Install the vSphere client at every location and install the Vic plug-in and update manager; use the RTP plug-in to connect to a VM via right-click for easier infrastructure management.

Take a look at the vCenter Server inventory in this topic, aligning with the VMware vSphere 5 ultimate bootcamp.

Navigate the vCenter server home page via the vSphere client to access hosts, clusters, templates, datastores, networking, licensing, and authentication tasks, with 100 percent integration from third party storage providers.

Explore datastores and datastore clusters, create folders for organization, and manage permissions, performance, and alarms while reviewing storage io controls, tasks, and storage views.

Explore how to use scheduled tasks in VMware vCenter to automate VM operations such as changing power state, cloning, importing, and updates, enabling downtime and off-peak deployment.

Explore the central repository of events in vSphere, including update manager, converter, and other plug-ins, and review event types, dates, times, and associated tasks.

View and filter system logs in vSphere, including vCenter server and profiler and VPN daemon logs. Learn the differences between profiler logs and VPN daemon logs for performance items.

Configure the vSphere client settings across the general, list, inventory, and maps tabs, optimizing the client server command timeout, console window limits, and performance views for large environments.

Log in remotely to vCenter with vCMA, a free appliance that enables mobile access from iPad, iPhone, Android, and Linux clients, letting you perform tasks on the road.

Plan the vCenter server deployment by examining the steps highlighted in this topic. Gain a focused understanding of how to approach deployment planning within VMware vSphere 5.

Explore backup strategies for vcenter server, including physical to virtual conversion, cloning, or building a center with the same name and ip, esx host failover, and fault tolerance.

Achieve constant uptime for the vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.4, delivering high availability, disaster recovery, instant monitoring, and automatic or manual failover with no hardware configuration.

Explore troubleshooting techniques for vCenter Server and its database, addressing issues that arise from time to time and maintain system reliability.

Recognize that vCenter server refresh can be slow after host changes, requiring a manual refresh. If changes don’t appear, troubleshoot hostname issues and restart the host daemon or management agents.

Explore vCenter statistics in VMware vSphere 5, including 20-second real-time snapshots and archive rollups across past day to year, and level 4 memory, balloon driver, and latency metrics.

Explore sql server recovery models, including simple (recover to most recent backup), full (default, point-in-time recovery), and bulk-logged models, with emphasis on backups and log management to prevent space issues.

Identify vCenter Server Service (vpxd) errors by checking disk space, validating database connections to SQL Server or other DBs, and confirming service recovery settings to automatically restart the service.

Explore vcenter server standalone mode to access more detailed logs, including daemon insights not shown in the standard log, such as an odbc login failure.

Reinitialize the vCenter server database by deleting and resetting all tables, then log in as the service account and restart the vCenter service to restore operations.

Diagnose vSphere client session errors by verifying the vCenter host connection, checking direct ESXi access, using DCUI or SSH to inspect services, and reconnecting when needed.

Clarify licensing requirements and options, outline vCenter server appliance installation, and emphasize database connectivity for the vCenter server service alongside inventory, deployment planning, and troubleshooting.

Explore the three vSphere 5 virtual switch types—standard, distributed, and Cisco Nexus 1000V—and how the distributed switch centralizes properties via vCenter for cross-host connectivity.

The lecture demonstrates isolating and segmenting a vSphere environment using standard virtual switches, multiple NICs, and VLANs to improve throughput, redundancy, and security for management, IP storage, and VM traffic.

Configure standard virtual switches on esx to use the service console or vse port on the management lan for communication, preserving isolation for performance, visibility, and redundancy.

Discover how VMware assigns MAC addresses to virtual NICs by using vendor first three octets and randomly generating the remaining octets; these MAC patterns reveal virtual machine activity.

Explore virtual switch physical NIC configurations in vSphere, including internal networks, single NIC setups, and multiple NICs with teaming and channel separation.

Identify the eight vmkernel ports reserved on every virtual switch and how the six uplink ports derive from them; vSphere client shows 24 of 32 ports and cli reveals all.

Explore how nic teaming in vSphere 5 distributes load and offers redundant connections with configurable failover policies, using distributed switches and Cisco VSE options up to 32 nics.

Explore how Cisco discovery protocol integrates with VMware vSphere environments, available on ESX 3.5 and above, with upgrade notes and default enablement for Cisco devices.

The lecture covers vSwitch ports tab, showing port group level overrides for security, traffic shaping, and NIC teaming, with max 4000 ports per standard switch and 4096 per ESX host.

Modify the vSwitch properties by managing speed and duplex for physical adapters in the network adapters tab, with auto negotiate as the default to verify accuracy.

Configure standard vSwitch VLANs under the general tab at the port group level by assigning VLAN IDs; it uses 802.1Q tagging and avoids the native VLAN.

Plan vSphere VLANs to control security and traffic, choosing whether to place VLANs on separate switches or share them, while using a management plan and IP-based storage considerations.

Compare standard vSwitch protections with physical switches to reveal limitations like mac flooding, 802.1Q vlan tagging, double encapsulation, and lack of learning behavior.

Configure security on the standard vSwitch: promiscuous mode, MAC address changes, and forged transmits; set promiscuous mode to reject to prevent traffic capture.

Learn how NIC teaming in vSphere provides outbound load balancing with no extra software, while enabling an override of failover order across multiple NICs in a vSwitch.

Load balancing based on IP hash routes traffic using source and destination NIC IPs, delivering better distribution across NICs and higher performance. It requires link aggregation on the physical switch.

Override the port group failover order by selecting active and standby NICs, apply the override only when needed, as manual settings can unbalance load.

Apply multiple policies to a single team to manage traffic shaping and NIC teaming. Assign all policies to that team so you avoid changing every item.

Disable spanning tree on host-connected ports, disable channel negotiation, port aggregation, and port security; ensure NIC team ports share a broadcast domain and configure the trunk port for VLAN IDs.

Configure virtual networking on an ESX host with the vSphere client by creating virtual switches and port groups, assigning VLAN IDs, and managing VM network and management traffic.

Create a single network distributed virtual switch and propagate it across the entire vSphere infrastructure. See how this approach enables consistent propagation of the switch across the environment.

Learn how a vSphere distributed switch centralizes policies at the data center level, supports up to 350 hosts, private VLANs, up to 32 uplinks per host, and network IO control.

Explore vSphere 5.0's distributed switch features, including user defined network i/o control for qos, port groups, netflow version 5 with network profiling and compliance, port mirroring, and lldp discovery.

Create a vSphere distributed switch in inventory under networking, add the dv switch, uplink ports, and a dv port group, then customize host and adapter assignments.

Edit DV switch uplink policy settings to manage traffic shaping, ingress and egress, bandwidth, and overrides on the uplink, noting that security policies are defined at the port group level.

Explore dvSwitch port group settings, including 128 ports per group on a 130-port switch, with uplinks, static port binding, security, traffic shaping, and VLAN options (promiscuous, isolated, community) plus teaming and failover.

Explore port binding methods for a distributed switch, including static, dynamic with overcommitment, and ephemeral bindings, and port counts per host and vcenter, with up to 20000 ports in 4.1.

Explore private VLANs in vSphere, including the default primary VLAN, and how community and isolated PVLANs, plus promiscuous ports, control which VMs can see each other, with port group assignment.

Configure private VLAN tagging in VMware vSphere 5 by assigning unique PVLAN IDs and using the private VLAN definitions table to route MAC addresses across promiscuous, community, and isolated VLANs.

migrate the service console and VM kernel ports to a distributed virtual switch using the manage virtual adapters workflow to migrate existing ports to a port group on the vds.

Enable net flow by configuring the collector IP and port, setting the distributed switch IP, and enabling port group monitoring to route VM traffic to a net flow analyzer.

Explore the Cisco Nexus 1000v virtual switch for vSphere, a third‑party VSE with enterprise plus licensing and 60‑day eval, offering port channels, quality of service, ACL, and port security.

Explains the Nexus 1000v architecture with a virtual supervisor module for central management of Cisco Nexus 1000v switches across ESX hosts, per-VM switches, and multiple distributed switches delivering Cisco features.

Review how virtual switches use port groups and VM kernel or service console ports, define security and traffic shaping policies, note NIC teaming limits, and isolate the management network.

Create and modify virtual networks using the command line interface, saving time on configuration tasks.

Transition from legacy ESX config commands to ESXCLI for networking, using module-based ESXCLI commands. Older vi config, vim, and perl tools still work, but ESXCLI is the recommended path.

Learn how to select and name a physical NIC in the ESX network configuration, navigate the NIC naming hierarchy, and replace the old config command with streamlined commands.

Configure physical NICs in vSphere by setting NIC0 to 1000 Mbps with full duplex, applying similar settings to NIC1, NIC2, and NIC3, and verify with NIC list commands.

Explore configuring virtual switches in vSphere, including creating a standard switch, adding port groups such as Port Vila 101 and VLA 102, and assigning VLAN IDs.

Configure a specific IP address for the VMkernel port and verify that the port group becomes a VMkernel port, distinguishing it from the ESX config.

Explore additional service console (vswif) commands for ESX and review ESX config commands. Learn how to add IP addresses while noting migration toward vswif-based management instead of vmkernel.

Explore additional service console commands for ESX, learn how to disable with a capital D, and understand how restore returns to internal use only, removing external connections.

Explore creating and modifying virtual networks using command line and the gui, including distributed switch and virtual switch, with emphasis on case sensitivity, scripts, and interconnectivity to the physical environment.

Explore how storage integrates with the virtual infrastructure, covering iSCSI and fiber channel storage, VMFS and NAS storage, raw device mapping, and a brief look at solid-state disks.

Explore storage concepts in vSphere, including san, nas, lun, VMFS, data store, iSCSI, fibre channel, and HBA hardware.

Understand VMware device and path naming, including vmhba identifiers, target and lun numbers, and optional slice, plus eu, iqn, and aaa naming in vmfs disks and cd-roms.

Learn vSphere multipath storage: multiple paths with two HBAs and two storage processors create four paths to disk array, only one is active at a time, using round-robin load balancing.

Discover the pluggable storage architecture in vSphere 5, including storage array type plug-ins that monitor physical paths and support failovers with fixed path, MRU, and round robin options.

Explain how the pluggable storage architecture in VMware vSphere 5 connects the vm kernel, native multipath, storage array type plug-in, and path selection plug-in, including third-party options like PowerPath.

Route virtual machine traffic through specific multipath paths to improve load balancing. Configure round robin IOPS via esx cli, with one IOPS per device.

Learn to view and manage multipathing in VMware vSphere 5, identify active paths and active I/O, and understand fixed, round-robin, and MRU policies with asterisked preferred paths.

Enable storage I/O control on each datastore, set a congestion threshold, and avoid mixing drive types in clusters to prevent performance issues; use share values to prioritize VMs during contention.

Explore storage api for array integration based on TTN standards within a pluggable storage architecture, including copy offload, hardware assisted locking, and 5.0 thin provisioning that reclaims space.

Explore the ESXi storage core commands for multipathing, including adapters and claim rules, and distinguish temporary claiming from permanent claim rules that persist across reboots.

Explore multipathing concepts in vCLI, listing storage devices, paths, and plug-ins with dash options; learn to check path states and craft practical cheat sheets for scripting.

Explore iSCSI storage via GUI and the command line to understand core storage options in VMware vSphere 5 Ultimate Bootcamp.

Explore iSCSI overview: access networked storage as local disks for hosts over tcp/ip, send SCSI commands, with gigabit to 10 gig speeds and default tzp 30–60.

Explore iSCSI concepts for ESX/ESXi, including initiator and target roles, data stores and raw device mapping, boot from SAN considerations, and how motion moves VM disks across shared storage.

Configure esxi host iSCSI initiators via hba or nic and assign iqn names, aliases, and ip addresses for host and storage array targets to enable vmkernel tcp/ip storage access.

Hardware-based initiators offload processing to the hardware card, delivering the best performance. Jumbo frames on software initiators can outperform hardware without jumbo frames, highlighting storage-network optimization.

Explore iSCSI multipathing in vSphere 5, comparing hardware and software paths, and track maximum PAHs per line (8) and hardware initiators (4) to understand traffic and path counts.

Configure dual virtual switches and VMkernel ports, enable the software iSCSI initiator, bind ports, discover targets with CHAP, format LUNs with VMFS, and enable datastore round-robin.

Configure iSCSI software initiator networking by organizing port groups and NICs across switches, ensuring only one vmkernel NIC is active to maintain redundancy and proper isolation.

Select the host, open configuration, choose storage adapters, and set properties; rescan to discover iSCSI devices, add the built-in iSCSI software adapter, configure it, and connect to targets.

Enable the iSCSI software initiator, adjust the auto-filled iSCSI name to match your setup by updating the IQ ending, and click OK to continue.

Bind the VMkernel port to the iSCSI software adapter via the GUI, assign physical adapters through port groups, and configure VMkernel adapters to enable two communication paths to the storage.

Bind physical NICs to the software iSCSI initiator and configure static or dynamic discovery with target IP, port, and IQN; enable per-line CHAP and rescan to view targets and paths.

Configure storage in vSphere 5 by setting up a switch and a VMkernel port for IP storage, using iSCSI with the software adapter and dynamic discovery to access data stores.

Learn to manage iSCSI sessions via the command line by listing, adding, and removing sessions with esxcli iscsi commands and selecting the server you communicate with.

Troubleshoot the iSCSI software initiator by validating connectivity to the target, verifying the service console port and firewall, and checking VMkernel connectivity and host logs for iSCSI events.

Explore the distinction between iSCSI vendors and the products they deliver, showing how hardware vendors often source from QLogic, Emulex, IBM, or EMC, sometimes renamed as Fujitsu.

Explore fiber channel as a high-speed transport protocol with a five-layer stack, delivering 1, 2, 4, and 8 gigabit transfer rates, including fiber channel over ethernet and data center bridging.

Explain how fiber channel devices support booting and creating VMFS volumes, compare fiber channel with iSCSI, and clarify that storage motion and RDM convey similar concepts on fiber channel.

Discover how Fiber Channel multipathing scales in vSphere 5 with up to 32 paths per line and 16 HBA ports, enabling higher throughput when managed through your infrastructure.

Explore how multiple vendors supply fiber channel storage devices, focusing on five hardware producers: QLogic, Emulex, IBM, HP, and LSI Logic.

VMFS-5 raises the maximum LUN to 64 TB per extent, preserves VMFS-3 upgrade paths, and enables 64 TB RDM luns, with 2 TB minus 512 bytes disks and 136,690 files.

Learn to view and create a VMFS-3 datastore using the ESX host storage wizard to add a disk LUN, name it, and set an eight megabyte block size.

upgrade vmfs-3 to vmfs-5 only if space is insufficient, migrate data store, ensure all hosts support vmfs-5 on esx 5, and note the inherited block size with 2 tb luns.

View and create a vmfs-5 datastore by selecting a lun from the SAN, naming it, and allocating the maximum or a set size.

Configure and create a VMFS-5 datastore by selecting a host, adding storage, choosing a LUN, and enabling hardware acceleration and storage API features for efficient data stores.

Explore expanding a VMFS datastore with extents to grow beyond two terabytes online, up to 32 extents, while noting this is a one-way, temporary solution.

Learn how to add an extent to an existing VMFS, using the increase wizard to allocate additional data storage and expand usable space.

Learn how to expand a VMFS volume on ESX/ESXi by having the SAN administrator extend the LUN and then resize the datastore on the host to utilize the new space.

Learn how to defragment virtual machine disks inside vSphere, why VMFS on SAN doesn't need defragmentation, and when to rely on storage admins for LUNs and SAN fragmentation management.

Use vmkfstools to perform vmfs operations on esx and ssi. Create and label volumes, read metadata, add extents, resize, export, and clone virtual vmfs volumes.

Learn to display disk usage on esxi with df -h, showing device, size, used, available, and mount point; output can be scripted or emailed.

Explore nas storage and nfs datastores using gui and command line to manage data in vmware vSphere 5 ultimate bootcamp.

Learn how to configure an NFS target on Windows 2003 R2 using Microsoft Services for FS, including user mapping, domain settings, and share permissions.

Mount an NFS datastore to a host by selecting server, location, and datastore name in the storage configuration; mount as read-only for ISO files, but use read-write for virtual machines.

Learn to configure NFS storage via the ESX CLI, including mounting and unmounting NFS shares, naming the NFS device, and comparing with legacy ESX config options.

Explore raw device mapping (RDM) in VMware vSphere 5, examining what it is and why it matters, even if many users rarely use it.

Explore the two RDM compatibility modes, virtual and physical, and learn how virtual mode provides raw disk access while physical mode bypasses SCSI filters for private commands.

Learn to use vmkfstools commands to set up devices, create raw device mappings, and configure pass-through devices in physical compatibility mode versus virtual RDM.

Discover how solid state disks in VMware vSphere 5 boost performance through automatic tagging, SSD-as-swap, higher IO throughput, and better VM consolidation via guest OS recognition.

Explore virtual hardware options in VMware vSphere 5, including up to 32 virtual CPUs, four displays, USB 3.0, direct PCI path, and SCSI adapters, with focus on RAM and drivers.

Explore virtual NIC types - VMXNET, VMXNET2, and VMXNET3 - and learn how virtualization-aware networking enables direct communication, boosting VM-to-VM speeds on the same host and 10 Gbps host-to-host throughput.

Configure virtual disks for a VM in vSphere 5, choosing thick or thin provisioning, eager or lazy zeroing, and SCSI or independent persistent or non-persistent disks, with OS-specific defaults.

Explore the virtual SCSI controller type, including the vizir 4.1 adapter on hardware version 7, and learn when a high speed secondary SCSI adapter benefits high I/O data drives.

Use VMDirectPath to grant a VM direct access to PCI devices on the host for high I/O workloads, with hardware version 7 and BIOS virtualization technology, and verify device support.

Connect guest OS ISO via CD-ROM, power on, and boot into the ISO to install OS; clone from templates with customization, noting OSX requires an Apple X server.

Navigate the vm console and menus to manage a highlighted virtual machine, with power options, settings edits, and console access, including fullscreen via control alt enter.

Install and upgrade VMware Tools on each virtual machine using interactive or automatic options, via console or inventory, to enable snapshots and consolidated backup features.

Explore VMware Tools features across ESX and workstation, including time synchronization, taskbar display, update notifications, device connections, event-driven scripts, security considerations, and the shrink feature for Windows.

Create a virtual machine container on the host, configure the virtual machine to version 7 with 32-bit Windows standard 2003, then attach an unattended install and power on.

Install VMware tools to improve mouse control and performance, enable hardware acceleration, and set system performance to best performance, then reboot for finalizing improvements.

Clones create exact duplicates of a VM with identical data, powered on or off; templates convert VMs to templates that cannot be powered on, with the .mtx extension.

Demonstrates template provisioning by cloning a virtual machine to a template, then deploying and customizing a virtual machine from that template using the customization wizard.

Learn to create a custom virtual machine, export an ovl template, and deploy a disaster recovery ovl template in a VMware vCenter environment with thin provisioning and standard hardware settings.

Explore the variety of virtual appliances and learn how to deploy and utilize them within vSphere 5.

Download and import virtual appliances from vmware.com/appliances, featuring pre-configured virtual machines such as databases, web servers, and firewalls; VMware offers up to eight free appliances with the right license.

Export the virtual machine to the OVF format, a cross-platform standard for virtualization. OVF package can be imported by Hyper-V or distributed as three files or a single file.

Explore VMware converter in topic 4 of the VMware vSphere 5 ultimate bootcamp, focusing on P2V and V2V conversions.

Explore VMware converter sources, including standalone and integrated options, to convert powered-off or powered-on physical machines and virtual machines across Hyper-V and VMware environments.

Discover the standalone VMware vCenter Converter 5, enabling hot, physical-to-virtual cloning with on-the-fly disk resizing, automated service shutdown, and local or remote conversions, plus encrypted data and Linux/LVM preservation.

Implement a four-step hot cloning process: prepare the source, snapshot with the agent, set up the destination VM with copied values and customized drivers, then clean up the agent.

Learn how to use the standalone VMware vCenter Converter 5 to convert a powered-on machine from local or remote locations, selecting destination type, hardware, network, and post-conversion options.

Troubleshoot VMware Converter by verifying agent privileges to install and run as a service, ensuring OS support, and confirming proper network connectivity and open ports.

Topic 5 teaches you how to manage virtual machines within the VMware vSphere environment effectively.

Discover how to hot add memory and CPUs in VMware vSphere 5, enabled by hardware version 7/8 and enterprise licenses, with off-state enablement and scalable resource growth.

Explore configuring a powered-off virtual machine's hardware in VMware vSphere 5, including memory, vCPU sockets and cores, video, disk, network, USB 3.0 compatibility, and device management.

Resize a virtual disk in vSphere by increasing thick provision size in the hardware tab, without snapshots, then extend or create a partition from unallocated space inside the VM.

Extend the vmdk file to enlarge the virtual drive, using either command line (powered off) or the GUI, then extend the partition with desart part or partition magic.

Learn to use vmware-cmd.pl (vcli) to control virtual machines and host operations through command-line actions, including vm config paths and starting vms from directories.

Learn to safely kill a running VM using esxcli, select the VM process by world id, and perform a soft kill or a forced kill as needed.

Learn how virtual machine snapshots capture memory, settings, and disk state, enable revert to points in time, and assist testing like service packs and hotfixes.

Explore how snapshots in VMware vSphere use delta files linked to the base VM, the descriptor file, the VM snapshot metadata, and the memory state file to capture VM state.

Name snapshots with the date and time (and optional description), and choose to capture memory or quiesce the guest file system, noting that snapshots require stopping the virtual machine.

Learn how to revert a VMware vSphere 5 virtual machine to any snapshot, forward or backward, with warnings that changes will be lost and how to select the target snapshot.

Learn how VMware snapshots create delta files, how read-only states evolve, and how reverting or deleting snapshots merges deltas back into the original VM.

Discover the vSphere web client prerequisites, including center server installation, port configuration, and hardware and browser requirements such as 2–4 cores, 2 GB RAM, Firefox support, and Flash Player.

Register the center and log in to the web client with the center name, username, and password; view the data centers and clusters, noting certificate warnings and directory traversal concerns.

Explore virtual machine troubleshooting. Learn best practices for VMware vSphere 5 in this focused lecture.

Identify and fix vm problems by ensuring ram and disk space, avoiding resource hogging. Troubleshoot the guest os and network like a physical server, and reset mac addresses when needed.

Explain the distinct user types in vSphere: ESX host users and Virtual Center users, and how local users, groups, and permissions determine access—center admin rights don’t grant host login.

This lecture explains security model that starts with a user or group, uses Active Directory or local service console, assigns a role with privileges, and applies permissions to inventory objects.

Pair a group with a role to assign permissions at the inventory level, propagating to all child objects and VMs in the data center. Use groups and grant minimal permissions.

Discover built-in and custom roles in vSphere, understand privileges, and see how roles are assigned to groups or users in the host and virtual center inventory, including inheritance.

Review how to manage roles and privileges for virtual machine tasks, noting 200 items across 18 privileges and plugin-added privileges. Learn to audit settings to prevent granting unintended access.

Understand ESXi host permissions, including default administrator accounts (root and vip user), the default read-only access for others, and managing access via ssh or the direct console.

Demonstrate how Jeff’s membership in managers and VM admins yields inherited permissions with no conflicts, granting power on to the data center and power off to the resource pool.

Resolve conflicts in permissions by combining user and group rights, showing user-specific permissions override group permissions while enabling actions like creating VMs and powering on datacenters and resource pools.

Explore conflicting permissions in a resource pool with multiple group memberships, where more restrictive permissions take precedence, causing the VM admins to have no access while others can power on.

Explore the difference between explicit and inherited permissions in vSphere 5, showing how explicit rights override group settings through Jeff's read-only data center access and administrator rights on high resource.

Create custom vSphere roles, grant VM power on/off, propagate to child objects, then test access for managers and VM admins across data centers.

Understand the tiered authentication model in the PAM system, where login first checks biometric devices, then an S and L, then Active Directory, and finally Unix login.

Explore how to manage firewalls in ESX, emphasizing that firewall management applies to ESX only and that the ESX site does not include a firewall.

Explore how VMware vSphere uses self-signed versus trusted certificates and enables data encryption across ESX/ESXi components, including SSL, key exchange, and encrypted client, web service, and management connections.

Explore the ESXi 5.0 firewall, a new stateless, service-oriented engine that blocks all traffic by default, with most rules via the sphere client gui and nonstandard ports needing command-line edits.

Learn to configure esxi firewall in the vsphere client through the security profile, enabling ssh, and opening standard and custom ports, with start stop controls available in the profile.

Learn how the ESX firewall in vSphere 5 opens and closes only the required ports, enables SSH management, and restricts access by IP.

Examine SSH access and its role in both ESX and ESXi, as introduced in topic four.

Create an ssh/console banner by adding an issue file in the ETSI directory and referencing it with a banner directive to notify users they are logging into a secure site.

Learn how to monitor ESXi access in vSphere 5 and use the who command to see who is connected at any given time, a capability not available in earlier versions.

Disable direct root logon by default, require logging in with individual user accounts, and switch to root only for troubleshooting, with all root activity logged in auth.log.

Log in as user, switch to root with su, and note that root commands aren’t logged ESX versions; restrict who can su to root by enabling ESX Shell security settings.

Emphasizes security across the vSphere environment and outlines VMware's five-day security course and advanced security course, covering DMZ hardening, host security, auditing tools, certificates, and third-party tools.

Explore VMsafe and vShield, learn what a vShield zone is, and discover why these features are really useful.

Protects VM-to-VM traffic with stateful packet inspection and a flow meter, via the V shield family (shield app, edge, endpoint), enabling security groups, gateway functionality, and site-to-site VPN.