Master VMware vSphere 6 Administration

Explore planning the VMware vSphere installation by understanding ESX as the hypervisor, the VMkernel and per-VM monitor architecture, licensing levels, and hardware, storage, and security considerations.

Plan the esx ii version 6 installation by confirming hardware requirements, bios virtualization features, and memory limits, then consult the compatibility guide to verify vendor support.

Plan the vSphere 6 installation using a capacity planner to set a baseline, typically 3–4x growth, then evaluate sd card, local disk options and pixi boot with kickstart.

Learn to install ESXi with in-place upgrades, or fresh installations, and optionally overwriting the datastore, using a nested lab and an ISO image for hardware-assisted virtualization.

Explore the ESXi 6 boot process from grub and the Linux kernel to the DCUI, and view how VMFS data stores, logs, and automated boot backups protect configurations.

Explore the direct console user interface to configure the management network with a static ipv4 address, dns, and hostname, selecting the vmkernel port (default first nic) for management.

Connect to an ESXi 6 host using the vSphere client to manage it. Configure DNS, external NTP time sync, and syslog logging for centralized logs.

Learn to access and manage an ESXi host using DCUI, vSphere client, and the management UI; cover SSH access, ports, and basic data store tasks.

Enable SSH in the ESXi security profile, configure it to start with the host, and connect via PuTTY to inspect backup files and ESXi configuration; avoid unnecessary command line changes.

Learn to access the ESXi host direct console, enable and disable the ESX shell, configure SSH and idle/availability timeouts, and restart management agents from the DCUI when needed.

Learn to manage ESXi hosts and data stores, control access with roles and permissions, and connect to Active Directory for centralized authentication in VMware vSphere environments.

Configure ESXi permissions and domain-based access with admin groups, test SSH logins, and review root privileges and events. Limit access with the firewall by IP addresses and standard ports.

Learn how lockdown mode routes host management through vCenter and how to export key logs via the vSphere client, troubleshoot management agents, and explore nested ESXi demos.

Learn vSphere licensing basics, including center installation, essentials kits vs essentials plus, remote office licensing, and core-based ESXi licensing with vCenter connectivity and key features like vMotion and HA.

Explore vSphere licensing options—standard, enterprise, and enterprise plus—with enterprise plus adding a virtual data center, storage vMotion, and advanced features like DRS, DPM, and Storage API.

Explore remote office licensing for vSphere, including per-25 vm licensing, essential kit pricing, and upgrades from standard to enterprise plus; vCenter centralizes management with SSO and AD/LDAP.

Explore vCenter architecture, including embedded and external platform services controllers, PSC deployment options, SSO, databases, licensing, and planning for multiple centers.

Assess hardware for vSphere 6: 8 GB, 12–16 GB for web client; external PSC needs 2 GB memory and two CPUs; install database, PSC, center, inventory, then update manager.

Set up the database for vCenter, including DSN creation and permissions. Deploy single sign-on and certificate authority to manage signed certificates via the platform services controller.

Plan deployment by reviewing vCenter components, the inventory service, data center sizing, and statistics levels; grasp real-time vs archived stats, 20-second granularity, and the CPQ ready summation.

Explore vCenter installation and deployment options, including embedded versus external databases, backup strategies, and upgrade paths, while wiring in SSO, PostgreSQL migration, and essential configuration steps.

connect to vcenter via the web client, install the client integration plug‑in, and configure single sign‑on with local sso and active directory integration for users and groups.

Assign roles and permissions in vCenter, create a data center, add a host, and examine single sign-on access, certificates, and shell warning suppression in vSphere 6.

Deploy the vCenter server appliance on Linux, choosing embedded or external platform services controller, meeting memory, storage, DNS, and database options, and aligning with vSphere 6 compatibility.

Explore virtual networking in vSphere 6 by comparing standard and distributed switches, licensing, and third-party options, and configure VMkernel ports, uplinks, and VM port groups for redundancy.

Explore how traffic routes across virtual switches with distinct management, storage, and port group networks, including a NAT router, while redundant NICs and trunking influence load balancing and connectivity.

Explore vSwitch configuration in VMware vCenter, covering naming conventions, port counts, VMkernel ports, port groups, security settings, and outbound traffic shaping.

Explore vSwitch traffic shaping, switch-level load balancing, and uplink failure detection using link status and beacon probing, with enterprise-class switch technologies for seamless failover and redundant management networks.

Review load balancing methods for a standard virtual switch: route based on originating port ID and IP hash; IP hash delivers the best balance with required switch configuration.

Explore vSwitch and VLAN tagging in vSphere 6, configuring trunk ports and port groups for secure segmentation, and compare virtual switch tagging with external tagging for isolation and redundancy.

Master vSphere storage concepts, including unique device naming via scuzzy inquiry, path and LUN identifiers, and the pluggable storage architecture with multipath and vendor plugins.

Explore the pluggable storage architecture controlled by the VM kernel, including third-party plugins and VM native multipath. Learn how path selection and round-robin settings affect LUN performance on a SAN.

Explore how the storage API enables full copy, thin provisioning, and linked clones, plus LUN scanning and VMFS considerations for efficient VM provisioning.

Learn how to configure iSCSI storage with ESXi hosts using software or hardware initiators, including IQN/initiator names, IP connectivity, multipath limits, and VMkernel binding for optimal access to LUNs.

Configure iSCSI storage in VMware vSphere 6 by creating VMkernel ports, binding them to a software iSCSI adapter, and enabling dynamic discovery with CHAP.

Master iSCSI storage in vSphere by adding a new IP, scanning for devices, and validating paths; extend LUNs and data stores using the storage API for reintegration to manage capacity.

Delve into vSphere storage options, from jumbo frames and fiber channel over ethernet to iSCSI and NFS 4.1, covering multipath limits, zoning, and performance trade-offs.

Master iSCSI storage in vSphere by configuring per-path multipath, switching between fixed and round-robin, and using virtual volumes to automate LUN provisioning.

Review the virtualization storage environment, highlighting bottlenecks and optimizations like jumbo frames, multipath, and storage API usage. Compare iSCSI and fiber channel and note quad store testing options.

Explore virtual appliances as pre-configured virtual machines and learn to deploy OVL/OVA templates in vSphere 6, configure networks, storage, and remote console access for quick setups.

Set up the VMware remote console, compare Firefox and Chrome behavior, manage credentials, and export an OVL template to three desktop files for easy import elsewhere.

We explore the virtual machine architecture in vSphere 6, covering hardware options, vmdk and vmx files, snapshots, change block tracking, and PCI passthrough.

Configure MAC addresses for VMs, examine three provisioning types (thick lazy zeroed, thick eager zeroed, and the default), and review SCSI controllers and direct path I/O.

Create a new virtual machine, configure hardware with 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM, and 40 GB disk, attach the data store ISO, then power on to install Windows Server 2012.

Configure and optimize a virtual machine in vSphere by installing tools, enabling hot add, adjusting memory and CPUs, adding a network adapter and disk on the fly, and fine-tuning performance.

Explore how to create exact clones and templates of virtual machines, convert between templates and VMs, and manage deployments across data centers using vcenter content libraries and customization specifications.

Demonstrates creating a template from a VM, deploying customized clones with a customization specification and answer files, reorganizing storage via storage vMotion, and configuring startup and shutdown for vSphere hosts.

Master creating and managing vSphere snapshots, including memory snapshots and delta files, with the snapshot manager; learn how revert and delete affect the VM, and that snapshots are not backups.

Master VMware Converter to convert physical machines to virtual across ESX, Workstation, and Hyper-V. Prepare sources, run snapshots, install agents, and remove hardware to ensure a clean, compatible virtual machine.

Use the standalone vmware converter to convert a powered-on remote vm, deploy the agent, take a snapshot, configure destination hardware and storage, and plan post-conversion synchronization with downtime.

Master VMware converter workflows—from finishing jobs to powering on VMs—while using VMware Tools, templates, cloning, and snapshots to manage virtual appliances and open virtual machine formats.

Identify distributed switch design concepts, create a data center–level switch from vCenter, and assess features such as network IO control, netflow, ACLs, change control, health checks, and backup options.

Master VMware vSphere 6 administration teaches how to create and configure a distributed switch in a data center, manage uplinks, enable IO control, and implement net flow version 10.

Learn to configure a VMware vSphere distributed switch, including port mirroring and remote mirroring, port groups, binding options, alarms, and policy settings like security and traffic shaping.

Configure a distributed switch by creating a protocol profile, assigning it to a port group, and defining an IP pool and DMZ network policy to manage virtual machine traffic.

Explore the distributed switch architecture, including port groups, uplinks, traffic filtering and marking, QoS options including DCP, NetFlow, and dynamic link aggregation with trunk mode.

Explore how to manage user access in vSphere center and ESXi hosts, configure domain accounts and a single sign-on, and assign roles and privileges for vmotion and storage vmotion prerequisites.

Explore how to assign permissions at any level in vSphere, understand explicit versus inherited access, and learn how vSphere migrations use cold, hot, and motion with memory considerations.

Ensure host requirements for motion, shared data stores or ISO access, and matching port groups, then migrate virtual machines across hosts and perform storage motion with compatibility checks.

Move a running virtual machine's files from one data store to another using storage motion, redistributing storage load, changing provisioning between thick and thin, and defragmenting thin disks.

Demonstrates migrating between hosts by moving compute resources and local data stores, using storage motion to relocate local disks, and performing combined motion for simultaneous compute and storage migration.

Discover how vSphere clusters manage multiple hosts with high availability, data store heart beating, DRS, and EVC, plus VM motion and swap file placement.

Configure a vSphere cluster, manage hosts and host groups, create VM groups, and apply manual or fully automated drs with affinity rules to optimize VM placement.

Explore memory flow from physical to virtual to guest OS and master vSphere 6 memory optimization, including transparent page sharing, ballooning, compression, and swapping for better VM performance.

Configure host and per VM settings, including salt values, to manage inter VM memory sharing and contention. Learn how ballooning, the balloon driver, compression, and swapping improve memory availability.

Examine how swapping moves memory to disk in VMware vSphere 6, detailing VM kernel swap and the vmx swap, and factors like ballooning, swap file location, and overhead.

Explore how the vm kernel maps virtual cpus to physical threads, leverages hyper-threading, and uses numa architecture to optimize vm performance and load balancing.

Configure resource pools to manage cpu and memory contention using reservations, limits, and shares, and learn how expandable pools borrow from a parent to ensure virtual machines have necessary resources.

Explore how to configure vCenter alarms, monitor host and VM health, choose alert types (green, yellow, red), and set email or SNMP notifications and actions for proactive fault management.

Learn to monitor performance in the vSphere client, using cluster- and host-level charts to analyze cpu, memory, disk, and ready time, and set alarms with configurable stats levels.

Configure cluster-level alarms linking ready time and usage, then use advanced performance charts and per-VM stack graphs to identify memory issues and optimize resource allocations.

Explore how business continuity relies on vSphere high availability to restart VMs on cluster hosts using slot values, shared storage, VM kernel ports, port groups, heartbeat, and fault domain manager.

Enable and configure high availability in a vSphere 6 cluster, covering host monitoring, all path down handling, VM component protection, and failure responses; set isolation addresses and gateway.

Reconfigure for high availability, monitor the cluster, and validate failover by rebooting a virtual machine to see it come online on another host.

Discover how virtualization backups work using the free VMware backup software, including change block tracking, outside-in backups, and snapshot-based daily incrementals for vSphere environments.

Deploy the vSphere data protection product in the MWAPE datacenter, validate version 6, and configure default gateway and DNS with a static IP before powering on and finishing deployment.

Set up and integrate the GDP VCP appliance with vCenter, configure storage for backups, test the connection, and plan backup jobs with email reporting options.

Configure a daily backup job for 5-3, selecting hard disk 2 and enabling change block tracking snapshots, then explore restoration, replication, and file-level restore options for offsite protection.

Explore disaster recovery options in vSphere, including replication and data protection appliances to create multiple recovery points. Use Site Recovery Manager to automate recovery plans and reconfigure IPs across sites.