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Book Description

Explore the benefits of VMware vSphere 6.7 to provide a powerful, flexible, and secure virtual infrastructure, and secure apps. Next, you'll pick up on how to enhance your infrastructure with high-performance storage access, such as remote direct memory access (RDMA) and Persistent

Key Features

  • Design, deploy and manage VMware vSphere virtual data centers
  • Implement monitoring and security of VMware workloads with ease
  • Explore tips and techniques for designing a robust virtual infrastructure

Book Description

vSphere 6.7 is the latest release of VMware's industry-leading virtual cloud platform. By understanding how to manage, secure, and scale apps with vSphere 6.7, you can easily run even the most demanding of workloads. This Learning Path begins with an overview of the features of the vSphere 6.7 suite. You'll learn how to plan and design a virtual infrastructure. You'll also gain insights into best practices to efficiently configure, manage, and secure apps. Next, you'll pick up on how to enhance your infrastructure with high-performance storage access, such as remote direct memory access (RDMA) and Persistent memory. The book will even guide you in securing your network with security features, such as encrypted vMotion and VM-level encryption. Finally, by learning how to apply Proactive High Availability and Predictive Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), you'll be able to achieve enhanced computing, storage, network, and management capabilities for your virtual data center.

By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be able to build your own VMware vSphere lab that can run high workloads.

This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products:

  • VMware vSphere 6.7 Data Center Design Cookbook - Third Edition by Mike Brown and Hersey Cartwright
  • Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 - Second Edition by Martin Gavanda, Andrea Mauro, Karel Novak, and Paolo Valsecchi

What you will learn

  • Understand how to patch, upgrade, and manage a virtual environment with vSphere 6.7
  • Identify key factors related to a vSphere design
  • Mitigate security risks and meet compliance requirements in a vSphere design
  • Create a vSphere conceptual design by identifying technical and business requirements
  • Map the logical resource design into the physical vSphere design
  • Create professional vSphere design documentation

Who this book is for

This Learning Path is for administrators, infrastructure engineers, consultants, and architects who want to design virtualized data center environments using VMware vSphere 6.x (or previous versions of vSphere and the supporting components). Basic knowledge of VMware vSphere is required to get the most out of this Learning Path.

Table of Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. The Complete VMware vSphere Guide
  3. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. Packt.com
  4. Contributors
    1. About the authors
    2. 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 example code files
      2. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  6. The Virtual Data Center
    1. Benefits and technologies of virtualization
      1. The hypervisor
      2. Virtual machines
      3. Virtual infrastructure management
      4. Understanding the benefits of virtualization
      5. Identifying when not to virtualize
    2. Becoming a virtual data center architect
      1. How it works…
      2. There's more…
    3. Using a holistic approach to data center design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    4. Passing the VMware VCAP6-DCV Design exam
      1. Getting ready
      2. How to do it…
      3. There's more…
    5. Becoming a VMware Certified Design Expert
      1. How to do it…
      2. There's more…
    6. Identifying what's new in vSphere 6.7
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    7. Planning a vSphere 6.7 upgrade
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  7. The Discovery Process
    1. Identifying the design factors
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    2. Identifying stakeholders
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    3. Conducting stakeholder interviews
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    4. Using VMware Capacity Planner
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    5. Using Windows Performance Monitor
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. Conducting a VMware optimization assessment
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    7. Identifying dependencies
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  8. The Design Factors
    1. Identifying design requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    2. Identifying design constraints
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    3. Making design assumptions
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    4. Identifying design risks
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    5. Considering infrastructure design qualities
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. Creating the conceptual design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
        1. Design requirements
        2. Design constraints
        3. Assumptions
      3. There's more…
  9. vSphere Management Design
    1. Identifying vCenter components and dependencies
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    2. Selecting a vCenter deployment option
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    3. Determining vCenter resource requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    4. Selecting a database for the vCenter deployment
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    5. Determining database interoperability
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. Choosing a vCenter deployment topology
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    7. Designing for management availability
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    8. Designing a separate management cluster
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    9. Configuring vCenter mail, SNMP, and alarms
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    10. Using Enhanced Linked Mode
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    11. Using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    12. Backing up the vCenter Server components
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    13. Planning vCenter HA to increase vCenter availability
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    14. Upgrading vCenter Server
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    15. Designing a vSphere Update Manager Deployment
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
  10. vSphere Storage Design
    1. Identifying RAID levels
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    2. Calculating storage capacity requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    3. Determining storage performance requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    4. Calculating storage throughput
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    5. Storage connectivity options
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    6. Storage path selection plugins
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    7. Sizing datastores
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    8. Designing VSAN for virtual machine storage
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    9. Using VMware Virtual Volumes
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    10. Incorporating storage policies into a design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    11. NFS version 4.1 capabilities and limits
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    12. Using persistent memory to maximize VM performance
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  11. vSphere Network Design
    1. Determining network bandwidth requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    2. Standard or distributed virtual switches
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    3. Providing network availability
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    4. Network resource management
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    5. Using private VLANs
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. IP storage network design considerations
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    7. Using jumbo frames
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    8. Creating custom TCP/IP stacks
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    9. Designing for VMkernel services
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    10. vMotion network design considerations
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    11. Using 10 GbE converged network adapters
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    12. IPv6 in a vSphere design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    13. Remote direct memory access options
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  12. vSphere Compute Design
    1. Calculating CPU resource requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    2. Calculating memory resource requirements
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    3. Transparent page sharing
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    4. Scaling up or scaling out
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    5. Determining the vCPU-to-core ratio
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    6. Clustering compute resources
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    7. Reserving HA resources to support failover
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    8. Using distributed resource scheduling to balance cluster resources
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    9. Ensuring cluster vMotion compatibility
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    10. Using resource pools
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    11. Providing Fault Tolerance protection
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    12. Leveraging host flash
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  13. vSphere Physical Design
    1. Using the VMware Hardware Compatibility List
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    2. Understanding the physical storage design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    3. Understanding the physical network design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    4. Creating the physical compute design
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    5. Creating a custom ESXi image
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. The best practices for ESXi host BIOS settings
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    7. Upgrading an ESXi host
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  14. Virtual Machine Design
    1. Right-sizing virtual machines
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    2. Enabling CPU hot add and memory hot plug
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    3. Using paravirtualized VM hardware
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    4. Creating virtual machine templates
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    5. Upgrading and installing VMware Tools
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    6. Upgrading VM virtual hardware
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
      3. There's more…
    7. Using vApps to organize virtualized applications
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    8. Using VM affinity and anti-affinity rules
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    9. Using VM to Host affinity and anti-affinity rules
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    10. Converting physical servers with vCenter Converter Standalone
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
    11. Migrating servers into vSphere
      1. How to do it…
      2. How it works…
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  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
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