VMware vSphere: Advanced Fast Track

Course overview

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 an already-deployed VMware vSphere™ installation. This course also provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve competence in troubleshooting the vSphere virtual infrastructure. This course is 35% lecture, and 65% hands-on lab.

Prerequisites

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

Course objectives

At the end of the course, you be able to:

  • Use vSphere tools to monitor the performance of VMware ESX™/ESXi hosts
  • Diagnose performance problems relating to CPU, memory, network, and storage on an ESX/ESXi host
  • Discuss guidelines for monitoring application performance
  • Use the VMware vSphere Client and command-line utilities to diagnose and rectify ESX/ESXi, VMware vMotion™, 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

Manage for Performance Modules

Module 1: Course Introduction

  • Introductions and course logistics
  • Course objectives

Module 2: 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

Module 3: 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

Module 4: Memory Performance

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

Module 5: Guidelines for DRS and Resource Controls

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

Module 6: Network Performance

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

Module 7: 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

Module 8: Virtual Machine Performance

  • Discuss guidelines for configuring a virtual machine for optimal performance

Module 9: Application Performance

  • Discuss tools and guidelines for application performance

Troubleshooting Modules

Module 1: Course Introduction

  • Introductions and course logistics
  • Course objectives

Module 2: 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

Module 3: ESX, ESXi, and vCenter Server Log Files

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

Module 4: Network Troubleshooting

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

Module 5: Management Troubleshooting

  • Troubleshoot vSphere management components

Module 6: Storage Troubleshooting

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

Module 7: vMotion Troubleshooting

  • Troubleshoot vMotion and Storage vMotion errors

Module 8: 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

Module 9: vSphere 4 DRS Cluster Troubleshooting

  • Complete a final multihour, multiproblem troubleshooting exercise