VM1106

VMware vSphere: Advanced Fast Track

This fast-paced, extended-hour, lab-intensive course includes the content of the VMware vSphere: Manage for Performance and VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting courses. This course provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make fundamental design decisions that enhance performance and meet performance goals in a deployed VMware vSphere^TM installation. This course also provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve competence in troubleshooting the vSphere virtual infrastructure.

This course includes a prepaid voucher for the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 - Datacenter Administrator examination.

Prerequisites

Completion of one of the following courses:

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage
VMware vSphere: Fast Track
VMware vSphere: What's New

Or equivalent knowledge and administration experience with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server

Delegates will learn how to

At the end of the course, you will be able to do the following:

Use vSphere tools to monitor the performance of VMware ESX^TM/ESXi hosts
Diagnose performance problems relating to CPU, memory, network, and storage on an ESX/ESXi host
Apply guidelines for monitoring application performance
Use the VMware vSphere Client and command-line utilities to diagnose and rectify ESX/ESXi, VMware vMotion^TM, VMware Storage vMotion, VMware High Availability, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, and virtual machine power-on problems
Use ESXi technical support mode to diagnose and rectify problems on ESXi
Create and use a network packet capture utility to capture and display virtual switch network traffic

Course Outline:

Course Introduction

Introductions and course logistics
Course objectives

Performance in a Virtualized Environment

Discuss the vSphere performance troubleshooting methodology
Discuss software and hardware virtualization techniques and their impact on performance
Monitor performance using vCenter Server performance charts and the ESX/ESXi resxtop command

CPU Performance

Discuss the CPU scheduler and other features that have an impact on CPU performance
Monitor key CPU performance metrics
Troubleshoot common CPU performance problems

Memory Performance

Discuss memory reclamation techniques and memory overcommitment
Monitor key memory performance metrics
Troubleshoot common memory performance problems

Guidelines for DRS and Resource Controls

Discuss performance guidelines for DRS clusters, resource pools, and resource allocation settings

Network Performance

Discuss the performance features of modern network adapters
Monitor key network performance metrics
Troubleshoot common network performance problems

Storage Performance

Discuss how storage protocols, VMware vStorage VMFS configuration, load balancing, and queuing affect performance
Monitor key storage performance metrics
Troubleshoot common storage performance problems

Virtual Machine Performance

Discuss guidelines for configuring a virtual machine for optimal performance

Application Performance

Discuss tools and guidelines for application performance

Troubleshooting Modules

Course Introduction

Introductions and course logistics
Course objectives

ESXi Command-Line Troubleshooting Methods

Install and use the VMware vSphere Management Assistant
Learn common vSphere command-line interface commands and syntax
Configure ESXi technical support mode and Secure Shell (SSH) access

ESX, ESXi, and vCenter Server Log Files

View ESX, ESXi, and vCenter Server log files
Configure a centralized ESX/ESXi log host

Network Troubleshooting

Identify and configure vNetwork components
Configure and use a network traffic packet capture utility

Management Troubleshooting

Troubleshoot vSphere management components

Storage Troubleshooting

View, configure, and diagnose storage-access problems Configure iSCSI authentication and digests

vMotion Troubleshooting

Troubleshoot vMotion and Storage vMotion errors
VMware Infrastructure Troubleshooting
Troubleshoot DRS cluster errors with shares, pools, and limits
Troubleshoot VMware HA cluster errors with slot calculations, admission control, and host monitoring
Review virtual machine power-on requirements Troubleshoot virtual machine power-on failures.