Course Content
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage Content
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Course Introduction
Introduction to vSphere and the Software Defined Data Center
As a vSphere administrator, you must be familiar with the components on which vSphere is based. You must also understand the following concepts: Virtualization, the role of the ESXi hypervisor in virtualization and virtual machines Fundamental vSphere components and the use of vSphere in the software-defined data center Use of vSphere clients to administer and manage vSphere environments
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Overview of vSphere and Virtual Machines
vSphere Virtualization of Resources
vSphere User Interfaces
Overview of ESXi
Virtual Machines
You can create a virtual machine in several ways. Choosing the correct method can save you time and make the deployment process manageable and scalable.
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Creating Virtual Machines
Virtual Machine Hardware Deep Dive
Introduction to Containers
vCenter Server
vCenter Server helps you centrally manage multiple ESXi hosts and their virtual machines. If you do not properly deploy, configure, and manage vCenter Server Appliance, your environment might experience reduced administrative efficiency or ESXi host and virtual machine downtime.
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Centralized Management with vCenter Server
Deploying vCenter Server Appliance
vSphere Licensing
Managing the vCenter Server Inventory
vCenter Server Roles and Permissions
Monitoring vCenter Server Appliance
Backing Up and Restoring vCenter Server Appliance
vCenter Server High Availability
Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
When you configure ESXi networking properly, virtual machines can communicate with other virtual, and physical, machines. In this way, remote host management and IP-based storage operate effectively.
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Introduction to vSphere Standard Switches
Configuring Standard Switch Policies
Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage
Understanding the available storage options helps you set up your storage according to your cost, performance, and manageability requirements. You can use shared storage for disaster recovery, high availability, and moving virtual machines between hosts.
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vSphere Storage Concepts
Fibre Channel Storage
iSCSI Storage
VMFS Datastores
NFS Datastores
vSAN Datastores
Virtual Machine Management
Virtual machines are the foundation of your virtual infrastructure. Managing VMs effectively requires skills in creating templates and clones, modifying VMs, migrating VMs, taking snapshots, and protecting the VMs through replication and backups.
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Creating Templates and Clones
Working with Content Libraries
Modifying Virtual Machines
Migrating VMs with vSphere vMotion
Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
Migrating VMs with vSphere Storage vMotion
Creating Virtual Machine Snapshots
vSphere Replication and Backup
Resource Management and Monitoring
Although the VMkernel works proactively to avoid resource contention, maximizing performance requires both analysis and ongoing monitoring. Developing skills in resource management, you can dynamically reallocate resources so that you can use available capacity more efficiently.
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Virtual CPU and Memory Concepts
vSphere Resource Controls
vSphere Resource Monitoring Tools
Monitoring Resource Use in vSphere
Using Alarms in vSphere
vSphere Clusters
Most organizations rely on computer-based services like email, databases, and web-based applications. The failure of any of these services can mean lost productivity and revenue. By understanding and using vSphere HA, you can configure highly available, computer-based services, which are important for an organization to remain competitive in contemporary business environments. And by developing skills in using vSphere DRS, you can improve service levels by guaranteeing appropriate resources to virtual machines.
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vSphere Clusters Overview
vSphere DRS
Introduction to vSphere HA
vSphere HA Architecture
Configuring vSphere HA
Introduction to vSphere Fault Tolerance
vSphere Lifecycle Management
Managing the life cycle of vSphere involves keeping vCenter Server and ESXi hosts up to date and integrated with other VMware and third-party solutions. To achieve these goals, you must understand how to use the new features provided by vSphere Lifecycle Manager, namely, clusterlevel management of ESXi hosts and the vCenter Server Update Planner.
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vCenter Server Update Planner
Overview of vSphere Lifecycle Manager
Working with Baselines
Working with Images
Managing the Life Cycle of VMware Tools and VM Hardware
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage
About Lesson

NFS Datastores

Learner Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

  • Identify NFS components
  • Recognize the differences between NFS 3 and NFS 4.1
  • Configure and manage NFS datastores

NFS Components

An NFS file system is on a NAS device that is called the NFS server.

NFS v3 and NFS v4.1

An NFS datastore can be created as either NFS 3 or NFS 4.1.

NFS 3 NFS 4.1
ESXi managed multipathing Native multipathing and session trunking
AUTH_SYS (root) authentication Optional Kerberos authentication
VMware proprietary client-side file locking Server-side file locking
Client-side error tracking Server-side error tracking

NFS Version Compatibility with Other vSphere Technologies

vSphere supports NFS 4.1 to overcome many limitations when using NFS 3. Both NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 shares can be used, but you must consider important constraints when designing a vSphere environment in which both versions are used.

vSphere Technology NFS 3 NFS 4.1
vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion Yes Yes
vSphere HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance Yes Yes
vSphere DRS and vSphere DPM Yes Yes
Stateless ESXi and Host Profiles Yes Yes
vSphere Storage DRS and Storage I/O Control Yes No
Site Recovery Manager Yes No
vSphere Virtual Volumes and vSphere Replication Yes Yes
vRealize Operations Manager Yes Yes
Host Profiles Yes Yes

Configuring NFS Datastores

To configure an NFS datastore:

  1. Create a VMkernel port:
    • For better performance and security, separate your NFS network from the iSCSI network.
  2. Create the NFS datastore by providing the following information:
    • NFS version: 3 or 4.1
    • Datastore name
    • NFS server names or IP addresses
    • Folder on the NFS server, for example, /templates or /nfs_share
    • Hosts that mount the datastore
    • Whether to mount the NFS file system as read only
    • Authentication parameters

Configuring ESXi Host Authentication and NFS Kerberos Credentials

As a requirement of Kerberos authentication, you must add each ESXi host to the Active Directory domain. Then you configure NFS Kerberos credentials.

Configuring the NFS Datastore to Use Kerberos

When creating each NFS datastore, you enable Kerberos authentication by selecting one of the security modes:

  • Kerberos5 authentication
  • Kerberos5i authentication and data integrity

Unmounting an NFS Datastore

  • Unmounting an NFS datastore causes the files on the datastore to become inaccessible to the ESXi host.
  • Before unmounting an NFS datastore, you must stop all VMs whose disks reside on the datastore.

Multipathing and NFS Storage

For a highly available NAS architecture, configure NFS multipathing to avoid single points of failure.

Example of a multipathing configuration:

  • Configure one VMkernel port.
  • Attach NICs to the same physical switch to configure NIC teaming.
  • Configure the NFS server with multiple IP addresses (same subnet is OK).
  • To better use multiple links, configure NIC teams with the IP hash load-balancing policy.

Enabling Multipathing for NFS 4.1

  • NFS 4.1 supports native multipathing and session trunking.
  • To enable multipathing, enter multiple server IP addresses when configuring the datastore.

NFS Datastores

Review of Learner Objectives

After completing this NFS Datastores lesson, you should be able to meet the following objectives: • Identify NFS components

  • Recognize the differences between NFS 3 and NFS 4.1
  • Configure and manage NFS datastores
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