Introduction xxiii
Chapter 1 Planning, Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading vCenter
Server and VMware ESXi 3
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 3
Foundation Topics 6
Identifying and Explaining vSphere Editions and Features 6
Identifying Available vSphere and vCenter Server
Editions 6
Identifying the Various Data Center Solutions
that Interact with vSphere 9
Explaining ESXi and vCenter Server Architectures
10
Identifying Available vSphere Editions and
Features 10
Explaining ESXi and vCenter Server Architectures
11
Explaining Private/Public/Hybrid Cloud Concepts
12
Determining the Appropriate vSphere Edition
Based on Customer Requirements 14
Identifying Single Sign-On Requirements 15
Deploying the vCenter Appliance 15
Installing vCenter Server into a Virtual Machine
20
Sizing the vCenter Server Database 24
Installing Additional vCenter Server Components
24
Installing/Removing vSphere Client Plug-Ins 25
Enabling/Disabling vSphere Web Client Plug-Ins
26
Licensing vCenter Server 26
Determining Availability Requirements for
vCenter Server in a Given vSphere Implementation 27
Determining Use Cases for vSphere Client and Web
Client 28
Installing and Configuring VMware ESXi 28
Performing an Interactive Installation of ESXi
29
Deploying an ESXi Host Using Auto Deploy 31
Configuring NTP on an ESXi Host 33
Configuring DNS and Routing on an ESXi Host
33
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Hyperthreading
34
Enabling/Sizing/Disabling Memory Compression
Cache 35
Licensing an ESXi Host 36
Planning and Performing Upgrades of vCenter Server and VMware ESXi
37
Identifying Upgrade Requirements for ESXi Hosts
37
Identifying Steps Required to Upgrade a vSphere
Implementation 38
Upgrading a vSphere Distributed Switch 39
Upgrading from VMFS3 to VMFS5 40
Upgrading VMware Tools 41
Upgrading Virtual Machine Hardware 44
Upgrading an ESXi Host Using vCenter Update
Manager 45
Determining Whether an In-Place Upgrade Is
Appropriate in a Given Upgrade Scenario 50
Securing vCenter Server and ESXi 50
Identifying Common vCenter Server Privileges and
Roles 51
System Roles 52
Sample Roles 52
Custom Roles 53
Describing How Permissions Are Applied and
Inherited in vCenter Server 53
Example 1: Permissions
That Apply Directly to an Object Supersede Those That Are Inherited
53
Example 2: If a User Is
a Member of Multiple Groups, the User Is Assigned the Union of the
Privileges for Each Group 54
Example 3: User/Role
Pairings Applied Directly to an Object Supersede User/Role Pairings
That Are Inherited 55
Example 4: Permissions
That Are Applied Directly to a User Supersede Permissions That Are
Inherited Through Group Membership 55
Single Sign-On Architecture 56
Configuring and Administering the ESXi Firewall
57
Enabling Lockdown Mode 58
Configuring Network Security Policies 59
Promiscuous Mode 60
MAC Address Changes
61
Forged Transmits 61
Adding/Modifying/Removing Permissions for Users
and Groups on vCenter Inventory Objects 62
Creating/Cloning/Editing vCenter Server Roles
63
Creating Roles 63
Cloning Roles 64
Editing Roles 66
Adding an ESXi Host to a Directory Service
68
Applying Permissions to ESXi Hosts Using Host
Profiles 69
Determining the Appropriate Set of Privileges
for Common Tasks in vCenter Server 69
Summary 70
Exam Preparation Tasks 70
Review All the Key Topics 70
Review Questions 71
Chapter 2 Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking 75
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 75
Foundation Topics 78
Configuring vSphere Standard Switches 78
Identifying vSphere Standard Switch (vSS)
Capabilities 78
Creating/Deleting a vSphere Standard Switch
79
Deleting a vSphere
Standard Switch 84
Adding/Configuring/Removing vmnics on a vSphere
Standard Switch 85
Configuring VMkernel Ports for Network Services
91
Adding/Editing/Removing Port Groups on a vSphere
Standard Switch 93
Determining Use Cases for a vSphere Standard
Switch 97
Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches 97
Identifying vSphere Distributed Switch
Capabilities 98
Creating/Deleting a vSphere Distributed Switch
101
Deleting a vDS 104
Adding/Removing ESXi Hosts from a vSphere
Distributed Switch 104
Adding/Configuring/Removing dvPort Groups
110
Adding/Removing Uplink Adapters to dvUplink
Groups 113
Creating/Configuring/Removing Virtual Adapters
118
Migrating Virtual Adapters To/From a vSphere
Standard Switch 125
Migrating Virtual Machines To/From a vSphere
Distributed Switch 127
Configuring vSS and vDS Policies 132
Identifying Common vSS and vDS Policies 132
Configuring dvPort Group Blocking Policies
138
Configuring Load Balancing and Failover Policies
139
Load Balancing 140
Network Failover
Detection 141
Notify Switches 141
Failback 142
Configuring VLAN Settings 143
Configuring VLAN Policy
Settings on a vDS 145
Configuring VLAN
Trunking Policies on a VDS 145
Configuring Private VLAN
Policy Settings on a vDS 146
Configuring Traffic Shaping Policies 148
Traffic Shaping Policies
for vSphere Standard Switches 148
Traffic Shaping Policies
for vSphere Distributed Switches 150
Enabling TCP Segmentation Offload Support for a
Virtual Machine 150
Enabling Jumbo Frames Support on Appropriate
Components 152
Enabling Jumbo Frames
for VMkernel Interface on a vSS 152
Enabling Jumbo Frames on
a vDS 154
Enabling Jumbo Frame
Support on Virtual Machines 155
Determining Appropriate VLAN Configuration for a
vSphere Implementation 155
Monitoring dvPort State 157
Backing Up and Restoring vDS Configuration
157
Configuring LACP on Uplink Port Groups 159
Determining Use Cases for a vSphere Distributed
Switch 166
Summary 166
Exam Preparation Tasks 167
Review All the Key Topics 167
Review Questions 168
Chapter 3 Planning and Configuring vSphere Storage 175
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 175
Foundation Topics 179
Configuring Shared Storage for vSphere 179
Identifying Storage Adapters and Devices 179
Fibre Channel 180
FCoE 180
iSCSI 181
NAS 181
VSAN 181
Identifying Storage Naming Conventions 182
Storage Naming
Conventions for Local and SAN 182
Identifying Hardware/Dependent Hardware/Software
iSCSI Initiator Requirements 184
Comparing and Contrasting Array Thin
Provisioning and Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning 185
Array Thin Provisioning
186
Virtual Disk Thin
Provisioning 186
Describing Zoning and LUN Masking Practices
188
Zoning 188
Masking 189
Scanning/Rescanning Storage 189
Identifying Use Cases for FCOE 191
Creating an NFS Share for Use with vSphere
191
Connecting to an NAS Device 192
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling vCenter Server
Storage Filters 195
Configuring/Editing Hardware/Dependent Hardware
Adapters 197
Enabling/Disabling Software iSCSI Initiator
Settings 197
Configuring iSCSI Port Binding 199
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling iSCSI CHAP
201
Determining Use Cases for Hardware/Dependent
Hardware/Software iSCSI Initiator 204
Determining Use Cases For and Configuring Array
Thin Provisioning 204
Creating and Configuring VMFS and NFS Datastores 205
Identifying VMFS and NFS Datastore Properties
205
Identifying VMFS-5 Capabilities 207
Creating/Renaming/Deleting/Unmounting a VMFS
Datastore 207
Mounting/Unmounting an NFS Datastore 216
Extending/Expanding VMFS Datastores 220
Extending VMFS
Datastores 220
Expanding VMFS
Datastores 223
Upgrading a VMFS-3 Datastore to VMFS-5 226
Placing a VMFS Datastore in Maintenance Mode
228
Selecting the Preferred Path for a VMFS
Datastore 229
Disabling a Path to a VMFS Datastore 231
Determining Use Cases for Multiple VMFS and NFS
Datastores 232
Determining Appropriate Path Selection Policy
for a VMFS Datastore 232
Summary 233
Exam Preparation Tasks 234
Review All the Key Topics 234
Review Questions 235
Chapter 4 Deploying and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps
241
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 241
Foundation Topics 244
Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines 244
Identifying Capabilities for VM Hardware
Versions 244
Identifying VMware Tools Device Drivers 246
Identifying Methods to Access and Use Virtual
Machine Console 246
Identifying Virtual Machine Storage Resources
248
Placing Virtual Machines in Selected ESXi
Hosts/Clusters/Resource Pools 249
Configuring and Deploying a Guest OS into a New
Virtual Machine 249
Creating/Converting Thin/Thick Provisioned
Virtual Disks 251
Configuring Disk Shares 253
Installing/Upgrading/Updating VMware Tools
256
Configuring Virtual Machine Time Synchronization
258
Converting a Physical Machine Using VMware
Converter 259
Importing a Supported Virtual Machine Source
Using VMware Converter 262
Modifying Virtual Hardware Settings Using VMware
Standalone Converter 262
Configuring/Modifying Virtual CPU and Memory
Resources According to OS and Application Requirements 263
Configuring and
Modifying Virtual Machine CPU 263
Configuring and
Modifying Virtual Machine Memory 264
Configuring/Modifying Virtual NIC Adapter and
Connecting Virtual Machines to Appropriate Network Resources
267
Determining Appropriate Datastore Locations for
Virtual Machines Based on Application Workloads 267
Creating and Deploying vApps 268
Identifying vApp Settings 268
Application Properties
269
Deployment 269
Authoring 272
Start Order 273
Creating/Cloning/Exporting a vApp 274
Adding Objects to an Existing vApp 282
Editing vApp Settings 282
Configuring IP Pools 283
Suspending/Resuming a vApp 284
Determining When a Tiered Application Should Be
Deployed as a vApp 284
Managing Virtual Machine Clones and Templates 285
Identifying the vCenter Server, Managed ESXi
Hosts, and Virtual Machine Maximums 286
Identifying Cloning and Template Options 288
Cloning an Existing Virtual Machine 289
Creating a Template from an Existing Virtual
Machine 290
Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template
293
Updating Existing Virtual Machine Templates
295
Deploying Virtual Appliances and/or vApps from
an OVF Template 298
Importing and/or Exporting an OVF Template
301
Creating and Publishing Content Libraries
303
Determining the Appropriate Development
Methodology for a Given Virtual Machine Application 303
Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 303
Identifying Files Used by Virtual Machines
304
Identifying Locations for Virtual Machine
Configuration Files and Virtual Disks 305
Identifying Common Practices for Securing
Virtual Machines 308
Hot Extending a Virtual Disk 309
Configuring USB Passthrough from an ESXi Host
312
Configuring Serial Port Redirection 313
Configuring Virtual Machine Options 314
General Options 315
VMware Remote Console
Options 315
VMware Tools 316
Power Management 317
Advanced 318
Fibre Channel NPIV
318
Configuring Virtual Machine Power Settings
319
Configuring Virtual Machine Boot Options 320
Configuring Virtual Machine Troubleshooting
Options 321
Assigning a Storage Policy to a VM 321
Verifying Storage Policy Compliance for Virtual
Machines 323
Determining When an Advanced Virtual Machine
Parameter Is Required 324
Adjusting Virtual Machine Resources (Shares,
Limits, and Reservations) Based on Virtual Machine Workloads
324
Summary 324
Exam Preparation Tasks 325
Review All the Key Topics 325
Review Questions 327
Chapter 5 Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels 333
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 333
Foundation Topics 336
Creating and Configuring VMware Clusters 336
Describing DRS Virtual Machine Entitlement
336
Creating/Deleting a DRS/HA Cluster 337
Adding/Removing ESXi Hosts from a DRS/HA Cluster
338
Adding or Removing Virtual Machines from a
DRS/HA Cluster 344
Configuring Storage DRS 345
Configuring Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
351
Monitoring a DRS/HA Cluster 352
Configuring Migration Thresholds for DRS and
Virtual Machines 353
Configuring Automation Levels for DRS and
Virtual Machines 355
Enabling and Disabling Host Power Management
356
Enabling BIOS P/C States 357
Creating VM-Host and VM-VM Affinity Rules
358
Enabling/Disabling Host Monitoring 363
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Virtual Machine
and Application Monitoring 364
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Virtual
Machine Monitoring 364
Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Application
Monitoring 366
Configuring Admission Control for HA and Virtual
Machines 366
Admission Control
367
Admission Control Policy
367
Determining Appropriate Failover Methodology and
Required Resources for an HA Implementation 370
Host Failures the
Cluster Tolerates 370
Percentage of Cluster
Resources as Failover Spare Capacity 371
Specify Failover Hosts
371
Planning and Implementing VMware Fault Tolerance 371
Identifying VMware Fault Tolerance Requirements
372
Configuring VMware Fault Tolerance Networking
373
Enabling/Disabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a
Virtual Machine 373
Testing an FT Configuration 375
Determining Use Case for Enabling VMware Fault
Tolerance on a Virtual Machine 375
Creating and Administering Resource Pools 375
Describing the Resource Pool Hierarchy 376
Defining the Expandable Reservation Parameter
377
A Description of vFlash Architecture 377
Creating/Removing a Resource Pool 378
Configuring Resource Pool Attributes 380
Adding/Removing Virtual Machines from a Resource
Pool 381
Determining Resource Pool Requirements for a
Given vSphere Implementation 381
Evaluating Appropriate Shares, Reservations, and
Limits for Resource Pools Based on Virtual Machine Workloads
382
Migrating Virtual Machines 383
Identifying ESXi Host and Virtual Machine
Requirements for vMotion and Storage vMotion 383
ESXi and VM Requirements
for vMotion 384
ESXi and VM Requirements
for Storage vMotion 385
Enhanced vMotion
(Cross-Host vMotion) 386
Identifying Enhanced vMotion Compatibility CPU
Requirements 387
Identifying Snapshot Requirements for
vMotion/Storage vMotion Migration 389
Migrating Virtual Machines Using vMotion/Storage
vMotion 390
Migrating a VM Using
vMotion 390
Migrating a VM’s Files
Using Storage vMotion 394
Configuring Virtual Machine Swap File Location
396
Migrating a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual
Machine 399
Utilizing Storage vMotion Techniques 399
Backing Up and Restoring Virtual Machines 401
Identifying Snapshot Requirements 401
Creating/Deleting/Consolidating Virtual Machine
Snapshots 401
Identifying VMware Data Protection Requirements
408
Explaining VMware Data Protection Sizing
Guidelines 409
Installing and Configuring VMware Data
Protection 410
Creating a Backup Job with VMware Data
Protection 412
Installing, Configuring, and Managing vSphere
Replication 412
Determining Appropriate Backup Solution for a
Given vSphere Implementation 416
Patching and Updating ESXi and Virtual Machines 416
Identifying Patching Requirements for ESXi Hosts
and Virtual Machine Hardware/Tools 417
Creating/Editing/Removing a Host Profile from an
ESXi Host 417
Attach/Apply a Host Profile to an ESXi Host or
Cluster 421
Performing Compliance Scanning and Remediation
of an ESXi Host Using Host Profiles 423
Installing and Configuring vCenter Update
Manager 425
Configuring Patch Download Options 429
Creating/Editing/Deleting an Update Manager
Baseline 430
Attaching an Update Manager Baseline to an ESXi
Host or Cluster 434
Scanning and Remediating ESXi Hosts and Virtual
Machine Hardware/Tools Using Update Manager 434
Summary 435
Exam Preparation Tasks 436
Review All the Key Topics 436
Review Questions 439
Chapter 6 Performing Basic Troubleshooting 443
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 443
Foundation Topics 447
Performing Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts 447
Identifying General ESXi Host Troubleshooting
Guidelines 447
Learn How to Access
Support Mode 447
Know How to Retrieve
Logs 451
Troubleshooting Common Installation Issues
453
Troubleshooting Boot
Order 453
Troubleshooting License
Assignment 454
Troubleshooting Plug-Ins
454
Monitoring ESXi System Health 455
Exporting Diagnostic Information 456
Performing Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting 461
Verifying Network Configuration 461
Verifying a Given Virtual Machine Is Configured
with the Correct Network Resources 463
Troubleshooting Virtual Switch and Port Group
Configuration Issues 463
Troubleshooting Physical Network Adapter
Configuration Issues 464
Identifying the Root Cause of a Network Issue
Based on Troubleshooting Information 465
Performing Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting 466
Verifying Storage Configuration 467
Troubleshooting Storage Contention Issues
469
Troubleshooting Storage Overcommitment Issues
471
Excessive Reservations
Cause Slow Host Performance 471
Path Thrashing Causes
Slow Performance 471
Troubleshooting iSCSI Software Initiator
Configuration Issues 472
Troubleshooting Storage Reports and Storage Maps
472
Storage Reports 472
Storage Maps 475
Identifying the Root Cause of a Storage Issue
Based on Troubleshooting Information 476
Performing Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS Clusters and
vMotion/Storage vMotion 476
Identifying HA/DRS and vMotion Requirements
476
Verifying vMotion/Storage vMotion Configuration
477
Verifying vMotion
Configuration 478
Verifying HA Network Configuration 478
Verifying HA/DRS Cluster Configuration 479
Troubleshooting HA Capacity Issues 480
Troubleshooting HA Redundancy Issues 480
Interpreting the DRS Resource Distributing Graph
and Target/Current Host Load Deviation 481
Troubleshooting DRS Load Imbalance Issues
483
Troubleshooting vMotion/Storage vMotion
Migration Issues 483
Interpreting vMotion Resource Maps 484
Identifying the Root Cause for a DRS/HA Cluster
or Migration Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 484
Summary 486
Exam Preparation Tasks 487
Review All the Key Topics 487
Review Questions 488
Chapter 7 Monitoring a vSphere Implementation 493
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 493
Foundation Topics 497
Monitoring ESXi, vCenter Server, and Virtual Machines 497
Describing How Tasks and Events Are Viewed in
vCenter Server 497
Viewing by Object
Selected in the Navigator 498
Filtering the Output
499
Filtering by Keyword
499
Identifying Critical Performance Metrics 500
Explaining Common Memory Metrics 501
Explaining Common CPU Metrics 506
Explaining Common Network Metrics 507
Explaining Common Storage Metrics 507
Comparing and Contrasting Overview and Advanced
Charts 508
Configuring SNMP for vCenter Server 510
Configuring Active Directory and SMTP Settings
for vCenter Server 511
Configuring Active
Directory Settings for vCenter 511
Configuring SMTP
Settings for a vCenter Server 512
Configuring vCenter Server Logging Options
514
Creating a Log Bundle 515
Creating/Editing/Deleting a Scheduled Task
518
Configuring/Viewing/Printing/Exporting Resource
Maps 524
Starting/Stopping/Verifying vCenter Service
Status 527
Starting/Stopping/Verifying ESXi Host Agent
Status 529
Configuring vCenter Server Timeout Settings
530
Monitoring/Administering vCenter Server
Connections 531
Creating an Advanced Chart 533
Determining Host Performance Using Resxtop and
Guest Perfmon 536
Determining Host
Performance Using Resxtop 536
Determining Host
Performance Using Guest Perfmon 540
Given Performance Data, Identifying the Affected
vSphere Resource 541
Creating and Administering vCenter Server Alarms 541
Listing vCenter Default Utilization Alarms
542
Listing vCenter Default Connectivity Alarms
543
Listing Possible Actions for Utilization and
Connectivity Alarms 543
Creating a vCenter Utilization Alarm 544
Creating a vCenter Connectivity Alarm 548
Configuring Alarm Triggers 551
Configuring Alarm Actions 552
For a Given Alarm, Identifying the Affected
Resource in a vSphere Implementation 552
Installing, Configuring, and Administering vCenter Operations
Manager 553
Differentiating Between Major/Minor vCOPs Badges
554
Explaining vCOPs Architecture 555
Deploying and Configuring a vCOPs Appliance
556
Upgrading vCOPs 564
Understanding Metrics Used by Major/Minor vCOPs
Badges 566
Monitoring Your vSphere Environment 567
Summary 568
Exam Preparation Tasks 569
Review All the Key Topics 569
Review Questions 571
Chapter 8 What Do I Do Now? 575
Foundation Topics 576
Scheduling the Test 576
Comparing Your Knowledge to the VCP550 Exam Blueprint Objectives
577
Studying the Questions at the End of Each Chapter and on the Bonus
Material 577
Taking the Mock Exam on the VMware Website 578
The Day of the Test 579
Sending Me an Email When You Pass 579
Appendix A Answers to the “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes and
Chapter Review Questions 581
“Do I Know This Already?” Answers 581
Chapter Review Answers 583
9780789753748 TOC 7/9/2014
Bill Ferguson, VCI 3, 4, 5; VCP 3, 4, 5; CCSI; and MCT Alumni has been in the computer industry for more than 20 years. Originally in technical sales and IT consulting with Sprint, he made his transition to Certified Technical Trainer in 1997 with ExecuTrain. He now runs his own company, Parallel Connections, as an independent contractor and consultant based in Birmingham, Alabama, working worldwide for most of the national training companies and some regional training companies. In addition, he has written and produced many technical training videos and books. Bill’s aspiration is as follows: “My job is to understand the material so well that I can make it easier for others to learn than it was for me to learn. Toward that end, I strive to provide an effective learning environment whether in person, in print, or online.”
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