Cover image for Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 - Second Edition

Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 - Second Edition

Author Karel Novak , Paolo Valsecchi , Andrea Mauro , Martin Gavanda
Release Date: 2019/03/01
ISBN: 9781789613377
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Book Description

Unleash the benefits of VMware vSphere 6.7 to provide a powerful, flexible and secure digital infrastructure

Key Features

  • Deep dive into areas like management, security, scalability, availability and more with vSphere 6.7
  • Design, deploy and manage VMware vSphere virtual datacenters
  • Implement monitoring and security of VMware workloads with ease

Book Description

VMware vSphere provides a powerful, flexible and secure foundation for next-generation applications and datacenters that help you with your digital transformation efficiently.

Mastering VMware vSphere, 6.7, Second Edition begins by covering an overview of all the products, solutions and features of the vSphere 6.7 suite, comparing the evolutions with the previous releases. You'll learn to design and plan a virtualization infrastructure to drive performance analysis and then proceed with the workflow and installation of components. Along with new network trends that will help you in optimally designing the vSphere environment, you will also learn the best practices involved in configuring and managing virtual machines in a vSphere infrastructure. With vSphere 6.7, you'll make use of more powerful capabilities for patching, upgrading and managing the configuration of the virtual environment. The concluding chapters focus on core vSphere components as storage and network and you will learn all you need about resource management followed by topics as high availability and disaster recovery, troubleshooting, monitoring and security.

By the end the book you will discover different approaches on how to build your own VMware vSphere lab to help you run even the most demanding workloads

What you will learn

  • Get a deep understanding of vSphere 6.7 functionalities
  • Design a virtualization environment based on VMware vSphere 6.7
  • Manage and administer a vSphere 6.7 environment and resources
  • Get tips for the VCP6-DCV and VCIX6-DCV exams
  • Implement different migration techniques across different environments
  • Deploy and understand different concepts of VMware vSphere 6.7 lab

Who this book is for

If you are an administrator, infrastructure engineer, IT architect, or an IT consultant who has basic knowledge of VMware vSphere and now wants to master it, then this book is for you.

Table of Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 Second Edition
  3. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. Packt.com
  4. Contributors
    1. About the authors
    2. About the reviewer
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Download the color images
      2. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  6. Section 1: Getting Started
  7. Evolution to vSphere 6.7
    1. Introduction to VMware vSphere
      1. vSphere strategy – the foundation of your unified hybrid cloud
      2. Software-defined data center (SDDC)
      3. Virtualization versus containers
    2. VMware vSphere ecosystem
      1. Data centers and cloud computing
      2. Storage and availability
      3. Network and security
      4. End user computing
      5. Cloud management
      6. Cloud-native workloads
    3. Introduction to VMware Cloud on AWS
      1. Hardware specifications and sizing
      2. Physical location
      3. Pricing
      4. Interconnection with on-premises SDDC
      5. Connectivity to native AWS services
      6. Certifications
    4. What's new in VMware vSphere 6.7?
      1. Key features
        1. vSphere Client (HTML-5)
        2. Improved vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) monitoring
        3. Improved vCenter backup management
        4. ESXi single-reboot upgrades
        5. ESXi Quick Boot
        6. Support for Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)
        7. vSphere persistent memory
        8. Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM)
        9. TPM 2.0
        10. Microsoft virtualization-based security (VBS)
        11. Per-VM Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)
        12. Hybrid linked mode
        13. Instant Clone
      2. Configuration maximums
        1. Virtual machine hardware 14
        2. ESXi 6.7 hypervisors
        3. vCenter Server 6.7
      3. VMware vSphere 6.7 Editions
        1. VMware vSphere Editions
        2. VMware vSphere Essentials Kits
        3. Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) editions
    5. Reasons for and against upgrading
      1. Why upgrade?
      2. Why shouldn't you upgrade?
        1. Upgrade paths
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  8. Designing and Planning a Virtualization Infrastructure
    1. Planning a virtual infrastructure project
      1. Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
      2. Waterfall
      3. ITIL v3
      4. Improved waterfall
    2. Physical hardware considerations 
      1. Physical form factor considerations
        1. Standard rack servers
        2. Blade servers
        3. Hyper-converged servers
          1. Resource comparison
          2. Hyper-converged systems
      2. Storage design considerations
        1. Standard storage arrays
        2. Software-defined storage
      3. Network design considerations
        1. Three-tier architecture
          1. Access
          2. Distribution
          3. Core
        2. Leaf spine
    3. Assess
      1. The design objective
      2. Requirements, constraints, assumptions, and risks
    4. Design
      1. Conceptual design
      2. Logical design
      3. Physical design
        1. ESXi host
          1. Compute
          2. Storage
          3. Network connectivity
          4. Management
        2. vCenter Server
      4. How to provide good documentation
      5. Best practices
      6. Reference architecture
        1. VVD
    5. Different scenarios
      1. Enterprise
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Some design decisions
      2. Small and medium-sized business (SMB)
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Some design decisions
      3. ROBO
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Examples of design decisions
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  9. Analysis and Assessment of Existing Environments
    1. Analyzing a physical environment before virtualizing
      1. Useful metrics from a physical environment
        1. Processor metrics
        2. Memory metrics
        3. Disk metrics
        4. Network metrics
      2. Are all workloads good candidates to be virtualized?
      3. Existing tools to analyze a physical environment
        1. VMware Capacity Planner (VCP)
        2. Virtual Storage Area Network (vSAN) sizing tools
        3. Dell Live Optics
        4. Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit
    2. Assessing an existing virtual environment
      1. Discovery and inventory
      2. Health check
      3. Benchmarks
        1. DVD Store
        2. Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Benchmark (HCIBench)
      4. Existing tools for analyzing a virtual environment
        1. RVTools
        2. VOA
        3. VMware vSphere Health Check
    3. Summary
    4. Questions
    5. Further reading
  10. Deployment Workflow and Component Installation
    1. vSphere components and workflow
    2. ESXi deployment plan
      1. Choosing the hardware platform
      2. Identification of the storage architecture
      3. Defining the network configuration
    3. ESXi installation
      1. Where should I install ESXi?
      2. Preparing for deployment
        1. Interactive installation
        2. Unattended installation
        3. Auto Deploy installation
      3. How Auto Deploy works
        1. Configuring DHCP
        2. Configuring TFTP
      4. Creating an image profile
      5. Creating deployment rules
      6. Auto Deploy modes
        1. Stateless installation
        2. Stateless caching installation
        3. Stateful installation
    4. vCenter Server components
      1. PSC
        1. Linked Mode
      2. vCenter Server
        1. Migration from vCenter for Windows to vCSA
      3. Where to install – physical or virtual?
    5. vCenter Server Appliance deployment
      1. Why deploy vCSA instead of the Windows version?
      2. Installing the vCSA PSC
      3. Installing the vCSA vCenter
      4. Installing the vCSA with Embedded Platform Service Controller
    6. vCSA HA
      1. vCenter HA configuration
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  11. Configuring and Managing vSphere 6.7
    1. Using the VMware vSphere HTML5 client
    2. Configuring ESXi
      1. Management network configuration
        1. Enabling Secure Shell (SSH) access
        2. ESXi firewall
        3. Configuring the Network Time Protocol (NTP)
      2. ESXi 6.7 partition layout
        1. Boot banks
        2. Scratch partition
      3. Centralized log management
      4. vRealize Log Insight
        1. Free syslog servers
        2. Syslog configuration
    3. Backing up and restoring ESXi
      1. Backing up and restoring ESXi using CLI
      2. Backing up and restoring ESXi using PowerCLI
        1. Backing up using PowerCLI
        2. Restoring using PowerCLI
        3. Backing up all ESXi servers within a single vCenter server
    4. Configuring vCSA
      1. Basic setup using the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI)
        1. Modifying the IP address and DNS
        2. Exporting a support bundle
        3. Configuring time synchronization
        4. Changing the vCSA password
      2. Licensing
      3. Roles and permissions
      4. AD integration
        1. Configuring ESXi with AD authentication
        2. Installing the VMware Enhanced Authentication plugin
      5. vCSA and PSC
        1. Repointing the vCSA to another external PSC
        2. Pointing the vCSA with an embedded PSC to an external PSC
        3. Resetting the SSO password
    5. Exporting and importing the vCSA configuration
      1. The vCSA backup procedure
      2. vCSA restoration procedure
    6. Managing data centers, clusters, and hosts
      1. Creating a data center
      2. Adding a host to the vCenter Server
        1. Disconnecting a host from vCenter Server
        2. Removing a host from vCenter Server
      3. Creating a cluster
        1. Removing a host from a cluster
      4. Managing hosts
        1. Using tags
        2. Tasks
          1. Scheduling tasks
        3. Managing host profiles
    7. Automating tasks with scripts
      1. Automating with PowerCLI
        1. PowerCLI script examples
      2. vCenter REST API
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Further reading
  12. Life Cycle Management, Patching, and Upgrading
    1. Patching a vSphere 6.7 environment
    2. Upgrade flow to vSphere 6.7
      1. Upgrading the workflow and procedure
        1. Step 1 – pre-migration
        2. Step 2 – migration
        3. Step 3 – validation
    3. Upgrading vCSA 6.5 to vCSA 6.7
    4. Upgrading vCenter 6.5 for Windows to vCenter  6.7 for Windows
      1. PSC upgrade
      2. Upgrading vCenter Server
    5. Migrating vCenter 6.5 for Windows to vCSA 6.7
      1. Migration procedure
    6. Upgrading standalone ESXi servers
      1. ESXi compatibility checker
      2. Updating or patching ESXi hosts through the installation ISO
      3. Updating or patching ESXi hosts through the command line
      4. Rolling back to the previous version
    7. VUM
      1. Configuring VUM
      2. Working with baselines
        1. Baseline groups
        2. Attaching or detaching baselines
      3. Scanning VMs and hosts
        1. Staging and remediating patches
      4. Upgrading hosts with VUM
      5. Upgrading VM hardware
      6. Upgrading VM Tools
    8. Updating the vCSA
      1. Updating the vCSA through the command line
        1. Staging and remediating patches
      2. Updating the vCSA with VAMI
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
    11. Further reading
  13. Section 2: Managing Resources
  14. Managing Networking Resources
    1. Basic network overview
      1. OSI model
      2. Encapsulation and de-encapsulation
      3. MAC tables and MAC learning process
      4. Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
      5. Virtual LAN (VLAN)
      6. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) versus User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
      7. IPv6
    2. Virtual networking with switches
      1. Standard virtual switch (vSwitch) overview
      2. Distributed vSwitch overview
      3. Comparing standard and distributed vSwitches
    3. Managing standard virtual networking
      1. Creating a new vSwtich
        1. New vSwitch from ESXi host client
        2. New vSwitch from vCenter Server
        3. New vSwitch from ESXi CLI
      2. Working with port groups
        1. Creating a new port group from ESXi host client
        2. Creating a new port group from vCenter Server
        3. Creating a new port group from ESXi CLI
      3. Working with VMkernel adapters
        1. Creating a new VMkernel adapter from ESXi host client
        2. Creating a new VMkernel adapter from vCenter Server
      4. Working with physical NICs
      5. TCP/IP stacks
    4. Managing distributed virtual networking
      1. Creating a distributed vSwitch
      2. Attaching the ESXi host to the distributed vSwitch
      3. Creating distributed port groups
      4. Properties and configuration options of the distributed vSwitch
        1. Topology
        2. Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
        3. Private VLAN (PVLAN)
        4. NetFlow
        5. Port mirroring
        6. Health check
      5. Ports, hosts, and VMs
      6. Migrate VM networking
    5. NIOC
      1. Network resource pools
      2. Direct allocation on VM
    6. Advanced network functions
      1. Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
        1. Enabling SR-IOV
        2. Configuring VM for SR-IOV
      2. Traffic filtering and marking
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  15. Managing Storage Resources
    1. Storage basics
      1. Storage arrays
        1. Storage performance
          1. The RAID level
          2. Deduplication
          3. Replication
          4. Physical storage device types
        2. SSDs and AFAs
        3. Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) arrays
    2. VMware vSphere storage types
      1. Storage types at the ESXi logical level
      2. Storage types at the ESXi physical level
      3. Storage types at VM logical levels
      4. Storage types at the VM physical level
        1. Persistent memory (PMem)
    3. VMware vSphere storage configuration
      1. FC storage
        1. FCoE storage
      2. iSCSI storage
      3. NFS storage
    4. SIOC and storage DRS
      1. SIOC
        1. Reservations, limits, and shares
          1. Reservations
          2. Limits
          3. Shares
        2. RLS calculations
        3. SIOC versions
      2. Storage DRS
        1. Datastore clusters
        2. Anti-affinity rules
    5. Advanced storage features
      1. Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) 6
      2. Automatic space reclaim
      3. Instant clones versus linked clones
      4. Storage DRS versus storage tiering
      5. RDM
      6. Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and All-Paths-Down (APD)
      7. Flash Read Cache
    6. Storage integration
      1. VMware vSphere SPBM
      2. Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA)
        1. Multipathing
      3. VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI)
      4. VMware vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO)
      5. VASA
      6. VVols
    7. Introducing VMware vSAN
      1. Planning and designing
        1. Device considerations
      2. vSAN configuration
        1. Health monitoring 
        2. vSAN policies
        3. Creating VM on vSAN
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Further reading
  16. VM Deployment and Management
    1. The components of a virtual machine
      1. Virtual hardware
        1. vCPUs
        2. Memory
        3. Network adapter
        4. Virtual disks
        5. Storage controller
      2. File structure
        1. Changing the default file position
      3. Virtual machine tools
        1. OVT
    2. Deploying VMs
      1. Creating a new VM
        1. Hardware version
          1. Setting the default hardware version
        2. Installing the OS
        3. Installing Virtual Machine Tools
      2. Cloning a VM
      3. Deploying a VM from a template
        1. VM customization Specifications
    3. Content library
      1. Creating a content library
        1. Local content library
        2. Subscribed content library
      2. Working with the content library
        1. Uploading ISO images
        2. Uploading templates and OVF files
        3. Deploying VMs from the content library
        4. ISO files from the content library
    4. Managing VMs
      1. Adding or registering an existing VM
      2. Removing or deleting a VM
      3. Managing the power state of a VM
      4. Managing VM snapshots
        1. Creating a snapshot
        2. Reverting to a snapshot
        3. Committing changes
        4. Snapshot consolidation
    5. Importing and exporting VMs
      1. Deploying Open Virtual Format (OVF) and Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) templates
      2. Exporting a virtual machine and an Open Virtual Format (OVF)
    6. Converting VMs
      1. P2V conversion
      2. V2V conversion
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  17. VM Resource Management
    1. Virtual machine resource management
      1. Reservations, limits, and shares
        1. Shares
        2. Reservations
        3. Limits
      2. CPU resources
      3. Memory resources
        1. VM swapping
      4. ESXi host memory states
        1. TPS
        2. Ballooning
        3. Compression
        4. Host swapping
    2. Virtual machine migration
      1. Compute vMotion
      2. Storage vMotion
      3. vMotion without shared storage
    3. DRS
      1. Virtual network-aware DRS
      2. Managing DRS rules
        1. VM-VM affinity rule
        2. VM-Host affinity rule
      3. DRS recommendations
        1. DRS utilization
      4. Managing power resources
    4. Resource pools and vApps
      1. Resource pool configuration 
        1. Expandable resource pool
        2. Resource allocation monitoring and calculations
        3. Managing resource pools
      2. vApps
    5. Network and storage resources
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  18. Section 3: Advanced Topics
  19. Availability and Disaster Recovery
    1. VMware vSphere HA
      1. vSphere HA configuration
        1. vSphere HA heartbeats
          1. vSphere HA network heartbeats 
          2. vSphere HA storage heartbeats
        2. vSphere HA protection mechanism
      2. Virtual Machine Component Protection (VMCP)
      3. Proactive HA
      4. Admission control
      5. VM restart and monitoring
    2. VMware vSphere FT
      1. FT configuration
      2. Working with FT-enabled VM
      3. FT performance implications
    3. Virtual machine clustering
      1. Clustering features available in VMware vSphere
        1. RDM device and multi-writer flag
    4. Virtual machine backup
      1. Transport modes
      2. Backup solutions for VMware vSphere
        1. Veeam Backup and Replication
        2. NAKIVO Backup and Replication
        3. Altaro VM Backup
        4. Vembu VMBackup
      3. Deduplication appliances
      4. Hyper-scale solutions
        1. Cohesity
        2. Rubrik
    5. VMware vSphere Replication
      1. vSphere Replication installation
      2. Working with vSphere Replication
        1. Configuring vSphere Replication 
    6. Disaster recovery and disaster avoidance
      1. DR of a virtual data center
      2. DR versus disaster avoidance
      3. DR versus stretched clusters
    7. VMware solutions
      1. VM Replication
      2. Stretched cluster
      3. SRM
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Further reading
  20. Securing and Protecting Your Environment
    1. Security and hardening concepts in vSphere
      1. Hardening vSphere
    2. Authentication and identity
      1. SSO configuration
        1. Password management
      2. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
    3. Active directory integration
      1. MFA
        1. Smart cards
        2. RSA SecurID
    4. vCenter Server, ESXi, and VM hardening
      1. ESXi hardening
        1. Lockdown mode
        2. Networking
        3. Transparent Page Sharing (TPS)
        4. VIB acceptance level
        5. Host encryption mode
        6. ESXi Secure Boot
      2. vCenter hardening
      3. VM hardening
        1. VM Secure Boot
      4. Other security aspects
        1. Log management
        2. Monitoring protocols
        3. Certification management
    5. Encryption options of the vSphere
      1. Protecting the data at rest
        1. VM encryption
      2. Protecting data in motion
        1. Encrypted vMotion
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  21. Analyzing and Optimizing Your Environment
    1. Monitoring a virtual environment
      1. vSphere monitoring
        1. vCenter Server statistics levels
        2. Performance monitoring with vCenter Server
        3. ESXi health
        4. Working with alarms
      2. CLI monitoring
        1. ESXTOP
        2. PowerCLI
    2. VM optimization
      1. Using the default VM templates
      2. Using only the necessary virtual hardware
      3. Choosing the correct virtual network adapter
      4. VMware tools
      5. Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) storage controller
      6. Don't use snapshots in production
      7. Don't oversize your VMs
      8. VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT)
    3. Log management
      1. vRealize Log Insight
    4. vRealize Operations
      1. vRealize Operations installation
      2. vRealize Operations analytics
      3. vRealize Operations integrations
    5. Other monitoring tools
      1. Veeam ONE
      2. Opvizor
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  22. Troubleshooting Your Environment
    1. What is troubleshooting?
    2. Troubleshooting a virtual environment
      1. CLI tools
        1. esxcli commands
        2. esxcfg-*
        3. Ruby vSphere console
        4. vim-cmd
        5. vcsa-cli
        6. PowerCLI
    3. Logs
      1. ESXi host logs
    4. Troubleshooting vSphere components
      1. Troubleshooting the vCenter Server
      2. Troubleshooting the ESXi host
      3. Troubleshooting cluster HA or DRS
      4. Troubleshooting a virtual network
      5. Troubleshooting storage
      6. Troubleshooting VMs
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Further reading
  23. Section 4: Building Your Lab Environment
  24. Building Your Own VMware vSphere Lab
    1. The importance of lifelong learning
      1. Why build a lab?
      2. VMware Hands-On Lab (HOL)
      3. VMware forums
      4. Blogs
    2. Choosing the right platform
      1. Standard rack servers
      2. Desktop PC
      3. Small, dedicated PCs
      4. Cloud-based solutions
      5. A dedicated server in a data center
    3. Software components and licensing
      1. VMware licensing
        1. VMware EVALExperience
      2. Windows licensing
      3. Other software components
        1. Storage
        2. Networking
    4. Architecture and logical design
      1. The architecture of the lab
        1. The Master ESXi hypervisor
        2. iSCSI storage
        3. Virtual router
        4. Management station
        5. AD
      2. IP address plan
        1. Management network
        2. vMotion network
        3. iSCSI network
        4. Production network
    5. A detailed implementation guide
      1. Master ESXi server configuration
        1. Network configuration
          1. Virtual switches
          2. Port groups
        2. Virtual machines
          1. Virtual router
      2. Virtual router configuration
        1. Firewalls and access to the virtual router
        2. DNS configuration
        3. License configuration
        4. VLAN configuration
      3. Windows infrastructure
        1. DC01.learnvmware.local
        2. DC02.learnvmware.local
        3. Mgmt.learnvmware.local
        4. iscsi.learnvmware.local
          1. Storage design
          2. iSCSI target configuration
        5. DNS configuration
        6. Centralized management
        7. iSCSI target configuration
      4. ESXi servers
        1. Network configuration
          1. vSwitches
          2. Port groups
          3. VMkernel ports
          4. Network verification
        2. Storage configuration
      5. The vCenter Server
      6. vSphere configuration
    6. Summary
  25. Assessment
    1. Chapter 1: Evolution to vSphere 6.7
    2. Chapter 2:  Designing and Planning a Virtualization Infrastructure
    3. Chapter 3: Analysis and Assessment of Existing Environments
    4. Chapter 4: Deployment Workflow and Component Installation
    5. Chapter 5: Configuring and Managing vSphere 6.7
    6. Chapter 6: Life Cycle Management, Patching, and Upgrading
    7. Chapter 7: Managing Networking Resources
    8. Chapter 8: Managing Storage Resources
    9. Chapter 9: VM Deployment and Management
    10. Chapter 10: VM Resource Management
    11. Chapter 11: Availability and Disaster Recovery
    12. Chapter 12: Securing and Protecting Your Environment
    13. Chapter 13: Analyzing and Optimizing Your Environment
    14. Chapter 14: Troubleshooting Your Environment
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