Clear and Simple VMware vSphere 6.7 Professional VCP-DCV

Understand how network traffic travels from the operating system of a vSphere 6.7 VM and gets virtualized. Explain the role of the ESXi hypervisor in network virtualization.

Describe the vSphere 6.7 Standard Switch and its major components, including VMNICs, VM Port Groups and VMkernel ports.

Understand the architecture of the vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch. Differentiate the vSphere Distributed Switch from the vSphere Standard Switch.

Learn how to create a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch, choose the correct version, and assign hosts to the vSphere Distributed Switch. Manage the physical VMNICs of each ESXi host.

In this lesson, viewers explore the features of VMware's vSphere Distributed Switch, comparing its advanced functionalities—like private VLANs, NetFlow, port mirroring, health checks, and network I/O control—with those available in the Standard Switch. Through hands-on examples, the lesson demonstrates how to configure traffic prioritization, establish VLAN segmentation, and monitor network performance, providing an in-depth look at managing virtual network resources within VMware environments.

Configure Port Binding, Port Allocation, VLANs and VLAN Trunks on a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch.

Configure Port Binding, Port Allocation, switch Security Policies, VLANs and Trunks, NIC Teaming and Load Balancing, and failover settings on a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch.

Configure NIC Teaming and Failover on a VMware vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch.

An in depth look at how to configure average bandwidth, peak bandwidth, and burst size, and the impact of these settings. This demo is performed on a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch.

Learn how to move groups of VMs from an existing vSphere Standard Switch Port Group to a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch Port Group.

Verify and troubleshoot the configuration of a vSphere 6.7Distributed Switch. View virtual switch versions and CDP, LLDP, and MTU settings. Check enabled services on VMkernel ports and view the configured TCP/IP stack.

Understand the basic elements of Network IO Control and how it uses shares, limits, and reservations to control bandwidth contention.

Learn how to configure Network IO Control in vSphere 6.7 to prioritize traffic on the physical uplinks of the ESXi host. Understand when you should use shares, limits, and reservations. Learn how to apply controls on different system classes of traffic.

Understand Private VLANs and the purpose of Isolated, Community, and Promiscuous Secondary VLANs. Learn how traffic is controlled by creating Secondary VLANs in vSphere 6.7.

Set up a Primary VLAN on a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch, and then configure a Promiscuous, Community, and Isolated VLAN. Understand how traffic is segmented based on the configuration options chosen.

Learn how to create different types of Port Mirroring sessions so that you can monitor traffic within a vSphere 6.7 virtual switch for security purposes.

Configure a vSphere 6.7 Distributed Switch to send traffic summaries, called Network Flows, to a centralized NetFlow collector. This data can then be used to perform historical analysis of traffic details.

Understand how storage commands (SCSI) travel from the operating system of a vSphere 6.7 VM and get virtualized. Explain the role of the hypervisor in storage virtualization.

Compare and contrast VMFS and NFS datastores in vSphere 6.7. Identify common storage solutions (FC, FCoE, iSCSI, Direct Attach Storage) that are used to create VMFS datastores. Understand how LUNs are discovered by ESXi and formatted with VMFS.

Understand the differences between NFS 3 and NFS 4.1, and how these changes impact NFS datastores for vSphere 6.7. Learn how NFS 4.1 can secure storage traffic more effectively than NFS 3.

Learn how to create an NFS datastore using the vSphere 6.7 Client. Configure sharing settings on an NFS server. Mount an NFS share on a group of ESXi hosts.

Understand critical iSCSI concepts including the network topology and key components of an iSCSI SAN. Learn what LUNs are, and how they are presented to ESXi 6.7 hosts over the iSCSI network.

Learn how you can use a normal Ethernet connection and a VMkernel port to connect an ESXi host to an iSCSI Storage Array.

In this lesson, viewers learn how to connect an ESXi host to iSCSI storage by configuring a software iSCSI initiator and using dynamic discovery to identify available storage LUNs. The tutorial also demonstrates how to set up iSCSI targets on a Windows Server, making storage resources accessible for creating data stores on the ESXi host.

Create a new vSphere 6.7 datastore on an iSCSI LUN. Format it with VMFS6. Configure datastore size and block size on the LUN. Learn how datastores are identically presented to all connected hosts. Learn how to unmount and delete datastores.

Use spare space in an iSCSI LUN to increase the size of an existing datastore in vSphere 6.7.

View LUNs and available paths.Configure iSCSI network port bindings. Choose between round robin, Fixed, and Most Recently Used (MRU) path selection policies (PSP).

Learn how you can use a dedicated hardware iSCSI connector and a VMkernel port to connect an ESXi 6.7 host to an iSCSI Storage Array.

Learn how you can use a dedicated hardware iSCSI connector to connect an ESXi 6.7 host to an iSCSI Storage Array, even without configuring a VMkernel port.

Learn how you can create a Datastore cluster to load balance VMs across multiple datastores for the purposes of load balancing in vSphere 6.7. Reduce storage contention and ensure that datastores do not run out of space unexpectedly.

Form a datastore cluster using a group of similar datastores. Configure cluster settings to control load balancing based on used capacity and storage latency in vSphere 6.7.

Understand how storage commands flow in a traditional storage solution, and contrast that with the storage path used by Virtual SAN 6.7 (vSAN). Learn why shared storage is required for many vSphere features like vMotion and DRS. Understand how VMs are broken down into objects and stored across multiple ESXi hosts.

Understand how vSAN can be used with vSphere 6.7 to leverage local storage devices to create a shared datastore. Learn key concepts such as vSAN Clusters, Disk Groups, Cache and Capacity tiers, and Hybrid vs. All-Flash architectures.

Understand the purpose of vSAN Disk Groups, and how to design them for best performance. Learn how the flash tier impacts the performance of a hybrid disk group in vSphere 6.7. Balance workload equally across a vSAN cluster.

Learn how to configure vSAN on a cluster of ESXi hosts from beginning to end, including creating the network, disk groups, and VMkernel ports. Learn how to set up vSAN features like encryption and deduplication, RAID 5/6 erasure coding, and more.

Configure a group of ESXi hosts as a cluster and enable vSAN 6.7 to create a shared vSAN datastore.

Understand Virtual Volumes datastores in vSphere 6.7, and how they differ from a traditional VMFS datastore by creating indivual volumes for each VM on the storage array. Learn how operations like snapshots and cloning can be made more efficient by using VVOLs.

Learn how to configure Storage IO Control (SIOC) in vSphere 6.7 to prioritize storage traffic. Configure shares, limits, and reservations.

Learn about VMFS metadata errors and how you can use the VMware On-disk Metadata analyzer to detect and resolve these errors.

Understand how the ESXi host divides CPU resource among competing VMs. Learn basic CPU performance indicators such as CPU READY and COSTOP.

Learn how to view and interpret alarms, overview performance charts, and advanced performance charts for a VM. Closely examine detailed CPU and Memory charts for a VM and view Ready, Ballooning, and other key metrics.

This lesson introduces ESXtop, a performance monitoring tool for ESXi hosts, and highlights essential resources to help users understand its metrics and commands. Viewers are guided to reference materials that break down ESXtop's fields and functionalities, preparing them for an in-depth demonstration in the following video.

Learn to launch a remote shell session to an ESXi 6.7 host using Putty. Launch ESXTOP, and view and interpret CPU, Memory, and other key performance metrics.

Understand the role of vCenter 6.7 Single Sign-On (Sso), and how it can be used to securely grant access to varying VMware solutions with a single login. Understand the role of vCenter and the Platform Services Controller (PSC).

Learn how to configure SSO Identity Sources and use the SSO administrator account in vSphere 6.7. Reboot the vCenter Server to apply changes.

Understand the Roles that are built into vCenter 6.7 by default. Use permissions, roles, and users and groups to control access to administrative functions. Create a custom role and define the scope of a permission.

Learn how to configure VM encryption, VM Storage Policies, Secure Boot, VMware Tools Automatic Upgrades, and Encrypted vMotion in vSphere 6.7

Understand UEFI secure boot and how certificates are used to validate that boot components are legitimate. Understand the virtual hardware and operating system requirements for secure boot.

Configure the Security Profile on an ESXi 6.7 host to manage the on-board firewall and configure Lockdown Mode. Enable and disable key services to futher secure the ESXi host. Join an ESXi host to the Active Directory Domain.

This video demonstrates the complete configuration and performance of Encrypted vMotion, and how it can be used to secure the contents of memory for a vSphere 6.7 VM during a vMotion migration.

Learn how you can use Update Manager 6.5 or 6.7 to perform patches, upgrades, and install new extensions. Understand concepts including baseline types, attaching objects, scanning, and remediation. Understand how Update Manager and DRS work together.

Perform a complete configuration of Update Manager 6.7 with the vCenter Server Appliance. Configure download settings and notification checks. Modify remediation and rollback settings. Configure DRS, HA, and other cluster settings during Update Manager remediation.

Attach a baseline to a group of ESXi 6.7 hosts. Scan the hosts, find missing updates, and apply the changes through remediation. Reboot and place hosts in maintenance mode as required.

Learn how to apply license keys to a vCenter using the HTML5 vSphere client.

Learn to install VMware Tools on a vSphere 6.7 VM. Configure automatic updates of VMware tools for VMs. Understand features that are possible when VMware Tools is installed.

Update VMware Tools on a single vSphere 6.7 VM. Then learn how to perform a mass-upgrade of VMware Tools using Update Manager.

Update Virtual Hardware on a single vSphere 6.7 VM. Then learn how to perform a mass-upgrade of Virtual Hardware using Update Manager.

Learn about the overall ESXi upgrade process, and how to perform upgrades using the GUI, Scripted Upgrades, using ESXCLI commands, using Auto Deploy, and using Update Manager. Understand the proper sequence in which to upgrade VMware solutions.

Upgrade an ESXi host for 6.5 using the DCUI. Configure the necessary BIOS settings to boot from the installation media. Upgrade the existing installation without overwriting VMFS datastores.

Upgrade a group of ESXi hosts to 6.7 using Update Manager. Import an updated ESXi image into Update Manager. Apply an upgrade baseline, then scan and remediate the hosts.

Upgrade the Windows vCenter 6.5 to the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) 6.7 using the migration tool.

In this lesson, viewers learn how to upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance from version 6.5 to 6.7 by deploying a new virtual appliance, migrating data, and assuming the network identity of the original appliance. The tutorial walks through each stage of the process, including configuration checks, DNS setup, and final cleanup steps to ensure a smooth transition to the updated version.

Auto Deploy can be used to install an image on a Bare-metal ESXi host as it boots using DHCP and PXE servers. Once the host is imaged and successfully booted, you will see how to use Host Profiles to apply a standardized configuration.

Learn how to use Host Profiles to create a standard ESXi 6.7 configuration based on a reference host, and then apply that standard configuration to new or existing ESXi hosts and clusters.

Create a new vSphere 6.7 VM and configure resource settings such as memory, CPU, and virtual disks. Boot the VM from an ISO image mounted to the CD drive and install the guest Operating System.

Learn how to create a Template that can serve as an image that you can use to create many identical copies of a VM. Use Customization Specifications to perform SysPrep and scrub out unique settings from cloned VMs.

Learn how to create local and subscribed Content Libraries, and how to publish a Content Library externally. Import Templates, ISO Images, and other key files into a Content Library.

Remove a VM from the vCenter inventory without deleting the VM files. Re-add the VM to the vCenter inventory using the VMX file in the datastore.

Understand the VM configuration settings that are contained within the VMX file, and how to edit those settings using a text editor.

Use Advanced Settings under VM Options on a VM to configure the parameters of a VM. Change an advanced parameter and verify the results.

Download and install vCenter Converter in standalone mode and use it to convert physical machines or VMware Workstation image to vSphere VMs.

Use the HTML5 vSphere 6.7 Client to view and adjust the CPU and Memory resource settings, including limits and reservations. Understand the limits of reservations, and why shares are typically preferable.

Learn how to configure shares on a VM. Understand how shares are used to prioritize resources during times of contention.

Configure VMs to enable to addition of memory or CPU resources while the VM is powered-on.

View performance charts for VMs in the vSphere Client. Analyze resource usage.

Create container objects such as Resource Pools and vApps to control resource settings across a large group of VMs. Learn about basic Resource Pool design, and some of the common pitfalls. Use vApps to control startup and shutdown order of VMs.

Learn how to create a Resource Pool within a DRS Cluster of ESXi hosts, or on a standalone host. Set shares, limits, and reservations. Understand how many shares each pool gets, and the end result that actually impacts the VMs.

Learn how Expandable Reservations can be used to allow VMs to power on, even if resource reservations would normally prevent them from doing so. Understand Admission Control and its impact on Resource Pools.

Learn how to create a vApp and add VMs that are part of a Multi-tier Application. Configure resource settings and control startup and shutdown order for groups of VMs.

This lesson introduces VMware's Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), a feature that uses vMotion to automatically balance workloads across ESXi hosts for optimized performance. Viewers learn about DRS automation levels, affinity and anti-affinity rules for VM placement, and how DRS integrates with vCenter to maintain stability, even allowing host evacuation for maintenance purposes.

Understand new features of DRS in vSphere 6.5. Learn how Predictive DRS leverages vRealize Operations Manager to prevent problems before they start. Describe Dynamic Thresholds, and how they can be used to learn normal behavior patterns for a cluster. Learn about additional enhancements, such as Network Aware DRS.

Learn how to enable Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) on a cluster of ESXi hosts in fully automated, partially automated, and manual modes. Modify migration thresholds, VM overrides, and equalized VM distribution across hosts.

This lesson covers advanced configuration options for VMware's Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), including VM distribution, memory metric for load balancing, and CPU overcommitment limits. These settings allow administrators to control VM distribution across hosts, balance memory based on consumed versus active memory and set a virtual-to-physical CPU ratio to optimize performance and prevent resource bottlenecks.

In this lesson, viewers learn about VMware's Distributed Power Management (DPM), a feature that consolidates VMs onto fewer hosts during low-demand periods to save energy, automatically placing unneeded hosts into standby. DPM offers various automation levels, from manual recommendations to fully automated power adjustments, and requires hosts to support wake-on-LAN or similar protocols to power back up as demand increases.

This lesson demonstrates how to add standalone ESXi hosts to a DRS cluster, including handling virtual machines and existing resource pools during the migration process. Viewers learn about restructuring resource pools for optimal resource allocation within the cluster and understanding DRS's dynamic load-balancing behavior, which migrates VMs across hosts as needed to maintain balance.

This lesson demonstrates how to monitor a DRS cluster, including tracking CPU, memory, and storage usage across hosts and observing DRS recommendations and faults. Viewers learn to view performance metrics, analyze historical DRS actions, and use performance charts to track resource utilization and migration events within the cluster, enhancing cluster management and troubleshooting capabilities.

Configure Affinity and Anti-affinity rules, to either keep VMs together on the same host, or separated on different hosts. Create VM-Host rules to control VM placement on a larger scale. View and apply DRS recommendations in vSphere 6.7.

Use DRS to automatically migrate VMs off of ESXi hosts prior to performing planned maintenance. Push out new software with Update Manager that requires hosts to enter Maintenance Mode and validate DRS performance and zero-impact maintenance in vSphere 6.7.

Learn how to access the ESXi shell using SSH, and restart hostd and vpxa. Use the services.sh restart command to restart services on a host. Use the DCUi to enable the ESXi shell.

Use the HTLM5 client to access vCenter and modify the monitoring settings and change the vCenter logging level. Export system logs and gather performance data.

Learn how to generate a support bundle. Use the vm-support command at the ESXi host shell. Download logs from a host using WinSCP.

Download log bundles from a single ESXi host using the Host client. This is useful if you need to retrieve logs when vCenter is down.

This lesson highlights that vSphere Data Protection (VDP) is reaching its end of availability, with vSphere 6.5 as the last release supporting it, advising against new deployments. It directs viewers to VMware resources for the VDP installation process and provides additional context for those studying for VCP certification.

Learn the basic concepts of vSphere Data Protection and how to create a backup job and establish a retention policy. Understand application aware and file level backup capabilities.

Learn how to configure a host cluster for High Availability. Configure settings including host isolation response, Admission Control policies and their impact, and Heartbeat Datastores.

Learn how High Availability and Virtual Machine Component Protection can be used to protect VMs and host from storage connectivity failures.

This lesson explains how to configure VMware High Availability (HA) for an ESXi cluster, allowing virtual machines to restart on other hosts in case of host failure. Viewers learn to set VM restart priorities, define responses for host isolation, and handle storage connectivity issues, as well as enable monitoring for VM and application heartbeats to optimize cluster resilience.

This lesson demonstrates configuring Admission Control for a VMware HA cluster to reserve resources for host failures, ensuring enough capacity to restart VMs if a failure occurs. The tutorial covers defining failover capacity with options like dedicated failover hosts, cluster resource percentages, and slot-based policies, recommending cluster resource percentage as a straightforward, scalable approach for most environments.

This lesson explains configuring heartbeat data stores in VMware vSphere 6.7 to help determine if an isolated host is truly down or merely disconnected from the network. By setting heartbeat data stores, vSphere can monitor a host's file lock status, providing other hosts with a more accurate status, while options for automatic selection or specific data stores enhance fault tolerance and simplify management.