Course Outline
1. Course Introduction
- Introductions and course logistics
- Course objectives
2. Management Enhancements
- Differentiate the vSphere clients
- Use vSphere Client to view the vSphere environment
- Use VMware Host Client to view the vSphere environment
- Describe the vSphere 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7 enhancements to vCenter Server Appliance
- Describe the new features of vSphere 6.7
- Discuss methods for vCenter Server Appliance Backup and Restore
- Manage a vCenter Server Appliance by using the command-line shell interface
- Describe how vCenter Server High Availability works
- Describe how VMware Platform Services Controller™ high availability works
- Configure and test vCenter Server High Availability
- Summarize the purpose of content libraries in a vSphere environment
- Create a local content library
- Subscribe to a published content library
- Deploy virtual machines from a content library
3. vCenter Server Upgrade and Migration
- Determine the appropriate upgrade path for a vCenter Server deployment
- Upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance instance to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7
- Upgrade a vCenter Server instance to vCenter Server 6.7
- Determine the appropriate migration path for a vCenter Server deployment
- Describe the new migration features of vCenter Server 6.7
- Migrate a vCenter Server instance for Windows to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7
- Describe Platform Services Controller High Availability deployment options
- Describe Enhanced Linked Mode with embedded Platform Services Controllers
- Use Embedded Linked Mode to link multiple vCenter Server systems
- Use Cross SSO Domain repointing to move and consolidate vCenter Server systems from different domains into one domain
4. ESXi Upgrade and Enhancements
- Determine the appropriate upgrade method for an ESXi host
- Describe the procedure for upgrading an ESXi 5.5, 6.0, or 6.5 host to an ESXi 6.7 host
- Discuss the additional features to support hot-plug and SMART solid-state drives
- Describe the new capabilities of Host Profiles introduced in vSphere 6.5
- Describe the vSphere 6.7 Quick Boot feature
- Describe the VMware vSphere® Update Manager™ EAM integration
- Describe vSphere 6.7 persistent memory feature
- Describe how Per-VM Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) provides greater VM mobility
- Discuss how virtual machines and applications to leverage high-performance physical GPU hardware
- Discuss how Instant Clone technology enables the rapid deployment of similar virtual machines
5. Virtual Machine Enhancements
- Discuss how virtual hardware 11, 13, and 14 extend virtual machine resource configurations
- Describe how the VMXNET3 adapter optimizes network traffic
- Discuss how hot-add memory is distributed across NUMA nodes in vSphere 6.x
- Describe the benefits of VMware vSphere® Integrated Containers™
- Upgrade Virtual Machines
6. Storage Enhancements
- Describe vSphere 6.x support for NFS
- Describe VMware vSphere® VMFS6 datastore
- Explain the advantages of SEsparse format for environments where many tenants share storage
- Discuss support for 4Kn (4K native) storage devices
- Explain how VMware vSphere® API for Storage Awareness™ can ensure that a VM’s storage requirements are met
- Describe the interoperability enhancements to VMware vSphere® Storage DRS™ and VMware vSphere® Storage I/O Control
- Describe how vSphere Storage DRS and Storage I/O Control improves adherence to configured maximums and reservations
- Describe the VMware vSAN enhancements
- Describe how VMDK data operations are offloaded to storage arrays through VMware vSphere® API for Storage Awareness™
- Describe per-virtual machine, policy-based policy management
7. Security Enhancements
- Use encryption in your vSphere environment
- Encrypt virtual machines in your vSphere environment
- Explain how to back up encrypted virtual machines
- Enable encrypted vSphere vMotion migration
- Discuss the improvements to lockdown settings
- Describe the addition of smart-card authentication
- Explain the changes that enhance user accountability
- Describe secure boot support for ESXi hosts
- Describe the security enhancements introduced in vSphere 6.7
- Enable Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 mode in your vSphere environment
- Enable a virtual TPM device in your vSphere environment
- Discuss support for Virtualization Based Security (VBS) in your vSphere environment
- Deploy enhanced vCenter Server events and alarms and vSphere logging
- Describe the vSphere features for monitoring vCenter Server Appliance
- List the VMware certificate management components
- Describe certificate use changes in vSphere 6.0
- Describe the primary services provided by the VMware Certificate Authority component
- Contrast using VMware certificate authority (CA) with using and external CA
8. Network Enhancements
- Use Network I/O Control
- Upgrade Network I/O Control to version 3
- Enable network resource management on VMware vSphere® Distributed Switch™
- Configure bandwidth allocation for system and virtual machine traffic based on shares and reservation
- Discuss IPv6 support in vSphere 6.x
- Explain how the gateway per vmknic feature works and how it is configured
- Explain the new ERSPAN headers supported in vSphere 6.5 and how they are configured
- Describe the areas where performance improvements were made in vSphere 6.5
9. Availability Enhancements
- Describe the TCP/IP stack for vSphere vMotion that was introduced in vSphere 6.0
- Explain the changes that make vSphere vMotion migrations across high-latency networks possible
- Discuss the requirements for migrating a virtual machine across vCenter Server instances
- Explain how VMware vSphere® Fault Tolerance in vSphere 6.0 supports virtual machines with multiple
- virtual CPUs
- Describe how vSphere Fault Tolerance maintains the secondary virtual machine in a ready state
- Explain the mechanism by which the primary virtual machine is determined
- Discuss the improvements made in handling all paths down (APD) and permanent device lost (PDL) conditions
- Describe the increased scalability of vSphere HA
- Explain the additional compatibility supported by vSphere HA
- Explain the enhancement of vSphere HA admission control and orchestrated restarts
- Describe advanced vSphere DRS options
- Increase VM and workload uptime with Predictive DRS
- Discuss how Proactive HA helps reduce VM downtime
- Reduce the need for vSphere HA with Proactive HA