1. VMware Advanced Administration
Description
The focus on this class is the effective and efficient use of vSphere software to improve deployment, performance,
monitoring, back up, recovery and best practices. The class includes command line and scripting content and
labs. Attendees use these tools to automate repetitive tasks. Service availability is covered through in-depth
looks at VMware High Availability clusters and VMware Fault Tolerance. Performance is extensively covered,
helping you keep your VMware systems running at full speed. VM backup and recovery is addressed using both
VMware Consolidated Back Up and VMware Data Recovery. These tools can be used for daily VM back up and
also for Disaster Recovery/Remediation planning.
Windows and ESX patching are covered along with ESX Host Profiles. These tools let you set configuration and
patch baselines and then help you deploy and update to ensure policy compliance. Virtualization introduces new
security concerns. These are identified and addressed both by creating awareness and by demonstrating how
security can be improved and monitored.
Objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Explain the many significant benefits of • Use VMware Consolidated Back Up to back
virtualization up and restore running VMs
• Install ESX Server according to best • Use VMware Data Recovery to back up and
practices recover VMs and files
• Configure and manage local storage • Configure, manage, monitor and secure
• Create virtual, distributed virtual, and virtual users and groups
to physical LAN segments • Create and manage Distributed Resource
• Define and use NAS datastores Schedule load balanced clusters
• Create virtual machines, install operating • Understand and use Distributed Power
systems and applications Management
• Install, configure and administer VMware • Create and manage VMware High
vCenter Availability clusters to protect against VM
• Rapidly deployment of VMs using golden- service loss caused by ESX server failures
master templates • Use Fault Tolerance to deliver 100% VM
• Create clones - one-time copies of virtual uptime
machine • Monitor and tune both ESX and virtual
• Use VMware vNetwork Distributed machine performance
vSwitches to deliver consistent network • Patch management using vCenter Update
configurations Manager
• Understand and use shared SAN storage • Understand how VMware and third party
including Fibre and iSCSI SANs products, including operating systems, are
• Perform VM cold migrations, hot migrations impacted by virtualization
and Storage VMotion • Secure and lock down the Service Console
• Create and enforce server configuration with
Host Profiles
• Troubleshoot common problems
VMware vSphere Advanced Administration
Course Summary (cont’d)
Due to the nature of this material, this document refers to numerous hardware and software products by their trade names. References to other companies and their products are for informational
purposes only, and all trademarks are the properties of their respective companies. It is not the intent of ProTech Professional Technical Services, Inc. to use any of these names generically
VMWAREVSPHEREADVANCEDADMINISTRATION-110202061239-PHPAPP01.DOC

2. Topics
• Scripted ESX Server Installation
• VMware vMA (Virtual Management
Assistant) appliance
• Files shares including NFS and SMB
• Standard and vNetwork Distributed
vSwitches
• vCenter
• Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines
• VM Rapid Deployment using Templates,
Clones
• Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage
• VMware File System (VMFS)
• Resource Management and Resource Pools
• VM Hot and Cold Migration, Storage
VMotion
• Load Balancing with DRS and DPM clusters
• Failure Recover with High Availability
clusters
• VMware Fault Tolerance
• VMware Consolidated Back Up
• VMware Data Recovery
• Effective Performance Monitoring
• ESX Host Profiles
• VMware Update Manager
• ESX and vCenter Log management
• Security Best Practices
Due to the nature of this material, this document refers to numerous hardware and software products by their trade names. References to other companies and their products are for informational
purposes only, and all trademarks are the properties of their respective companies. It is not the intent of ProTech Professional Technical Services, Inc. to use any of these names generically
VMWAREVSPHEREADVANCEDADMINISTRATION-110202061239-PHPAPP01.DOC

3. Audience
• System architects or others who need to design virtual infrastructure
• Senior administrators responsible for technical design and implementation of new Virtual Infrastructure
projects
• Security specialists responsible for monitor, managing, securing and administering Virtual Infrastructure
• Operators responsible for day-to-day operation of Virtual Infrastructure
• Performance and capacity analysts who need to understand, provision, monitor and performance tune
Virtual Infrastructure
• Backup Administrators who need to understand the impact of existing and new back up strategies in a
virtual environment
• Business Continuity specialists responsible for disaster recovery and high availability
• Storage administrators who need to understand how Virtual Infrastructure sees and uses Fibre SAN and
iSCSI SAN volumes and NAS datastores
• Managers who need an unbiased understanding of virtualization before committing their organization to a
virtual infrastructure deployment.
Prerequisites
Students should have user, operator or administrator experience on common operating systems such as
Microsoft Windows, Linux, UNIX or other platforms. Experience installing, configuring and managing operating
systems, storage systems and or networks are useful but not required. We assume that all attendees have a
basic familiarity with PC server hardware, disk partitioning, IP addressing, O/S installation, etc.
Duration
Four days
Due to the nature of this material, this document refers to numerous hardware and software products by their trade names. References to other companies and their products are for informational
purposes only, and all trademarks are the properties of their respective companies. It is not the intent of ProTech Professional Technical Services, Inc. to use any of these names generically
VMWAREVSPHEREADVANCEDADMINISTRATION-110202061239-PHPAPP01.DOC

4. VMware vSphere Advanced Administration
Course Outline
I.Scripted ESX Server Installation
A. Understanding ESXi and full ESX VII.VM Rapid Deployment using Templates,
B. Selecting, validating and preparing your Clones
server A. Templates - Virtual Machine Golden Master
C. Sizing Service Console and VMkernel images
resources B. Creating, modifying, updating and working
D. Storage controllers, disks and partitions with Templates
E. Software installation and licensing C. Patching, and refreshing Templates
F. First look at the VMware vSphere Client D. Cold and hot cloning VMs
E. Performance considerations
II.VMware vMA Installation & Use
A. Overview of VMware Virtual Management VIII.Using Fibre and iSCSI Shared Storage
Appliance A. Fibre SAN overview
B. Installing & configuring vMA B. iSCSI overview
C. Overview of vMA scripting capabilities C. Virtual and physical iSCSI adapters
D. Creating and using virtual iSCSI adapters
III.Using SMB and NFS File Shares E. Scanning and rescanning Fibre and iSCSI
A. Connecting to NFS shares SANS
B. Connecting to SMB shares F. Performance and redundancy
C. Moving files between ESX and Windows considerations and best practices
with WinSCP
IX.VMware File System (VMFS)
IV.Standard and vNetwork Distributed vSwitches A. VMFS - VMware's cluster file system
A. Virtual Switches, Ports and Port Groups overview
B. Service Console and VMkernel ports B. Unique features & benefits of VMFS
C. Distributed virtual switches and distributed C. Creating new VMFS partitions
Port Groups D. Managing VMFS capacity with LUN
D. NIC teaming for redundancy and expansion and LUN spanning
Performance E. Native and 3rd party Multipathing with Fibre
E. Connecting to vLANs and iSCSI SANs
F. VMFS performance considerations
V.vCenter
A. vCenter architectural and feature overview X.Resource Management and Resource Pools
B. vCenter components & licensing A. How ESX delivers resources to VMs
C. Importing ESX hosts into vCenter B. Shares, Reservations and Limits
management C. CPU, memory and disk resource tuning
D. Troubleshooting vCenter D. Resource Pools
VI.Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines XI.VM Hot and Cold Migration, Storage VMotion
A. Assigning, modifying and removing Virtual A. Cold Migrations to new ESX hosts,
Hardware datastores
B. Hot plugging virtual hardware B. Hot Migrations with VMotion
C. Working with a VM’s BIOS C. VMotion requirements and dependencies
D. VM best practices for monitoring and D. Troubleshooting VMotion
scalability E. Storage VMotion for hot VM disk migrations
E. Understanding what should and should not
be virtualized
Due to the nature of this material, this document refers to numerous hardware and software products by their trade names. References to other companies and their products are for informational
purposes only, and all trademarks are the properties of their respective companies. It is not the intent of ProTech Professional Technical Services, Inc. to use any of these names generically
VMWAREVSPHEREADVANCEDADMINISTRATION-110202061239-PHPAPP01.DOC

5. VMware vSphere Advanced
Administration
Course Outline (cont’d)
XII.Load Balancing w. DRS, DPM E. Performance and capacity planning
A. Resource balanced clusters with VMware strategies
Distributed Resource Scheduler XVIII.ESX Host Profiles
B. DRS Cluster configuration and tuning A. Create and refine a new Host Profile
C. Isolation response and per-VM policy template
overrides B. Verify host configuration compliance using
D. Using Distributed Power Management to Host Profiles
reduce server power demands C. Enforce configuration standards on non-
compliant ESX hosts
XIII.Failure Recover with High Availability
Clusters XIX.Update Manager
A. High Availability options A. Overview of ESX patch management
B. Manually take ownership of a VM from a B. Create patch baselines
failed server C. Scan ESX host for compliance with
C. VMware High Availability clusters baselines
D. Automatically apply critical patches
XIV.VMware Fault Tolerance
A. Fault Tolerance overview XX.ESX and vCenter Log Management
B. Features and limitations A. VCenter logging
C. Configuration, monitoring and recovery B. ESX logging
C. Configuring, customizing logging
XV.VMware Consolidated Back Up
A. Pro’s and Con’s of traditional back up XXI.Security Best Practices
strategies A. Locking down enabled Service Console
B. VM backup and recovery with VMware services
Consolidated Back Up B. Setting custom restrictions on access
C. Third party backup solutions C. Virtual Machine security considerations
D. Backing up the ESX Service Console
XVI.VMware Data Recovery
A. Deploying the VMware Data Recovery
virtual appliance
B. Creating and running VM back ups using
Data Recovery
C. Scheduling back ups
D. Restoring a VM using Data Recovery
XVII.Effective Performance Monitoring
A. VMkernel CPU and memory resource
management mechanisms
B. Identifying and resolving resource
contention
C. Monitoring VM and ESX host performance
D. Configuring and customizing resource based
alarms
Due to the nature of this material, this document refers to numerous hardware and software products by their trade names. References to other companies and their products are for informational
purposes only, and all trademarks are the properties of their respective companies. It is not the intent of ProTech Professional Technical Services, Inc. to use any of these names generically
VMWAREVSPHEREADVANCEDADMINISTRATION-110202061239-PHPAPP01.DOC