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

vSAN Datastores

Learner Objectives

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

  • Explain the purpose of a vSAN datastore
  • Describe the architecture and requirements of vSAN configuration
  • Explain the purpose of vSAN storage policies

About vSAN Datastores

vSAN is a software-defined storage solution providing shared storage for vSphere clusters without using traditional external storage. A vSAN cluster requires:

  • A minimum of three hosts to be part of the vSphere cluster and enabled for vSAN
  • A vSAN network
  • Local disks on each host that are pooled to create a virtual shared vSAN datastore

Disk Groups

Disk groups are vSAN management constructs on all ESXi hosts in a vSAN cluster. A host can include a maximum of five disk groups.

The disk groups are combined to create a single vSAN datastore.

A disk group requires:

  • One flash device for caching
  • One to seven capacity devices for storage

vSAN Hardware Requirements

vSAN capabilities are native to ESXi and require no additional software.

Viewing the vSAN Datastore Summary

The Summary tab of the vSAN datastore shows the general vSAN configuration information.

Objects in vSAN Datastores

vSAN storage is object-based and policy-driven.

vSAN Object Traditional VM Files
VM home namespace .nvram, .vmsd, .vmx, vmx-*.vswp, .log, .hlog
VMDK -flat.vmdk
VM swap .vswp
VM memory .vmem
Snapshot delta -00000#-delta.vmdk, -00000#-sesparse.vmdk

VMs created on a vSAN datastore include the following objects:

  • One VM home namespace
  • One or more VMDK objects
  • Thin-provisioned VM swap object
  • One or more VM memory objects
  • vSAN performance data objects
  • iSCSI LUN objects

VM Storage Policies

Storage policies define how objects that are included in a VM are stored.   Storage policies have the following characteristics:

  • Based on storage capabilities
  • Defined for a VM or disk at the time of deployment
  • Can be applied later
  • Can be changed at any time
  • Cannot be deleted if they are in use

Viewing VM Settings for vSAN Information

The consumption of vSAN storage is based on the VM’s storage policy. The VM’s hard disk view provides the following information:

  • A display of the VM storage policy
  • The location of disk files on a vSAN datastore

Review of Learner Objectives

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

  • Explain the purpose of a vSAN datastore
  • Describe the architecture and requirements of vSAN configuration
  • Explain the purpose of vSAN storage policies

Virtual Beans: Storage

As a Virtual Beans administrator, you are planning how to use NAS and iSCSI storage with vSphere:

  • For NAS storage, you can create one or more NFS datastores and share them across ESXi hosts:
    • Use the datastores to hold templates, VMs, and vCenter Server Appliance backups.
  • For iSCSI storage, you can create one or more iSCSI datastores and share them across ESXi hosts:
    • Use the datastores to hold templates and VMs.

What are the benefits to Virtual Beans of using vSAN storage? Benefits include (but are not limited to):

  • You can use the vSphere Client to manage the vSAN configuration. No separate user interface is necessary.
  • vSphere administrators do not need special storage hardware training.
  • You can use vSAN storage policies to define specific levels of service for a VM.
  • You can expand the vSAN capacity by adding one or more hosts to the vSAN cluster (also known as scale out).

Key Points

  • ESXi hosts support various storage technologies: Direct-attached storage, Fibre Channel, FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS.
  • You use VMFS and NFS datastores to hold VM files.
  • Shared storage is integral to vSphere features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere HA, and vSphere DRS.
  • vSAN clusters direct-attached server disks to create shared storage designed for VMs.
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