VMware vSphere: Fast Track (VSFT)

Course Introduction

• • Introductions and course logistics
• • Course objectives

vSphere and Virtualization Overview

• • Explain basic virtualization concepts
• • Describe how vSphere fits in the software-defined data center and the cloud infrastructure
• • Recognize the user interfaces for accessing vSphere
• • Explain how vSphere interacts with CPUs, memory, networks, storage, and GPUs
• • Install an ESXi host

vCenter Management

• • Recognize ESXi hosts communication with vCenter
• • Deploy vCenter Server Appliance
• • Configure vCenter settings
• • Use the vSphere Client to add and manage license keys
• • Create and organize vCenter inventory objects
• • Recognize the rules for applying vCenter permissions
• • View vSphere tasks and events
• • Create a vCenter backup schedule
• • Recognize the importance of vCenter High Availability
• • Explain how vCenter High Availability works

Configure and Manage vSphere Networking

• • Configure and view standard switch configurations
• • Configure and view distributed switch configurations
• • Recognize the difference between standard switches and distributed switches
• • Explain how to set networking policies on standard and distributed switches

Configure and Manage vSphere Storage

• • Recognize vSphere storage technologies
• • Identify types of vSphere datastores
• • Describe Fibre Channel components and addressing
• • Describe iSCSI components and addressing
• • Configure iSCSI storage on ESXi
• • Create and manage VMFS datastores
• • Configure and manage NFS datastores
• • Discuss vSphere support for NVMe and iSER technologies

Deploying Virtual Machines

• • Create and provision VMs
• • Explain the importance of VMware Tools
• • Identify the files that make up a VM
• • Recognize the components of a VM
• • Navigate the vSphere Client and examine VM settings and options
• • Modify VMs by dynamically increasing resources
• • Create VM templates and deploy VMs from them
• • Clone VMs
• • Create customization specifications for guest operating systems
• • Create local, published, and subscribed content libraries
• • Deploy VMs from content libraries
• • Manage multiple versions of VM templates in content libraries

Managing Virtual Machines

• • Recognize the types of VM migrations that you can perform within a vCenter instance and across vCenter instances
• • Migrate VMs using vSphere vMotion
• • Describe the role of Enhanced vMotion Compatibility in migrations
• • Migrate VMs using vSphere Storage vMotion
• • Take a snapshot of a VM
• • Manage, consolidate, and delete snapshots
• • Describe CPU and memory concepts in relation to a virtualized environment
• • Describe how VMs compete for resources
• • Define CPU and memory shares, reservations, and limits
• • Recognize the role of a VMware Tools Repository
• • Configure a VMware Tools Repository
• • Recognize the backup and restore solution for VMs

vSphere Cluster Management

• • Use Cluster Quickstart to enable vSphere cluster services and configure the cluster
• • View information about a vSphere cluster
• • Explain how vSphere DRS determines VM placement on hosts in the cluster
• • Recognize use cases for vSphere DRS settings
• • Monitor a vSphere DRS cluster
• • Describe how vSphere HA responds to different types of failures
• • Identify options for configuring network redundancy in a vSphere HA cluster
• • Recognize the use cases for various vSphere HA settings
• • Configure a cluster enabled for vSphere DRS and vSphere HA
• • Recognize when to use vSphere Fault Tolerance
• • Describe the function of the vCLS
• • Recognize operations that might disrupt the healthy functioning of vCLS VMs

Managing the vSphere Lifecycle

• • Generate vCenter interoperability reports
• • Recognize features of vSphere Lifecycle Manager
• • Describe ESXi images and image depots
• • Enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager in a vSphere cluster
• • Validate ESXi host compliance against a cluster image and remediate ESXi hosts using vSphere Lifecycle Manager
• • Describe vSphere Lifecycle Manager automatic recommendations
• • Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to upgrade VMware Tools and VM hardware

Network Operations

• • Configure and manage vSphere distributed switches
• • Describe how VMware vSphere Network I/O Control enhances performance
• • Define vSphere Distributed Services Engine
• • Describe the use cases and benefits of vSphere Distributed Services Engine

Storage Operations

• • Describe the architecture and requirements of vSAN configuration
• • Describe storage policy-based management
• • Recognize components in the vSphere Virtual Volumes architecture
• • Configure Storage I/O Control

ESXi Operations

• • Use host profiles to manage ESXi configuration compliance
• • Recognize the benefits of using configuration profiles

vSphere Monitoring

• • Monitor the key factors that can affect a virtual machine's performance
• • Describe the factors that influence vCenter performance
• • Use vCenter tools to monitor resource use
• • Create custom alarms in vCenter
• • Describe the benefits and capabilities of VMware Skyline
• • Recognize uses for Skyline Advisor Pro