Introduction xxxiii Assessment Test lvii Chapter 1 What s New in vSphere 5.5 1 vSphere ESXi Hypervisor Enhancements 3 Hot-Pluggable PCIe SSD Devices 3 Support for Reliable Memory Technology 3 Enhancements to CPU C-States 4 Virtual Machine Enhancements 4 VM Compatibility with VMware ESXi 5.5 4 Expanded vGPU Support 5 Graphic Acceleration for Linux Guests 5 vCenter Server Enhancements 5 vCenter Single Sign-On 5 vCenter Server Appliance 5 vSphere Web Client 6 vSphere App HA 6 HA Compatibility with DRS VM-VM Affinity Rules 6 vSphere Big Data Extensions 6 Storage Enhancements 6 Support for 62TB VMDK 7 MSCS Updates 7 16Gb E2E Support 7 PDL AutoRemove 7 vSphere Replication Interoperability 7 vSphere Replication Multi-Point-in-Time (MPIT) Snapshot Retention 7 VAAI UNMAP Improvements 8 VMFS Heap Improvements 8 vSphere Flash Read Cache 8 Networking Enhancements 9 Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) Enhancements 9 Traffic Filtering 10 Quality of Service Tagging 10 SR-IOV Enhancements 10 Enhanced Host-Level Packet Capture 10 40Gb NIC Support 10 VMware Data Protection (VDP) Enhancements 10 vCenter Operations Manager 11 Summary 11 Chapter 2 Planning, Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading VMware ESXi and vCenter Server 13 Introducing VMware ESXi 15 Identifying ESXi Host Requirements 15 Performing an Interactive Installation of ESXi 16 Configuring NTP on an ESXi Host 25 Configuring DNS and Routing on an ESXi Host 26 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Hyperthreading 30 Selecting a CPU Power Management Policy 31 Enabling, Sizing, and Disabling Memory Compression Cache 33 Licensing an ESXi Host 35 Introducing vCenter Server 37 Identifying Available vCenter Server Editions 37 Identifying vCenter Server and vCenter Server Database Requirements 38 Identifying Single Sign-On Requirements 40 Creating a Database Connection to the vCenter Server Database 41 Sizing the vCenter Server Database 44 Installing vCenter Server into a Virtual Machine 46 Deploying the vCenter Server Appliance 52 Installing and Configuring the vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client 57 Describing Single Sign-On Architecture 59 Differentiating Single-Sign-On Deployment Scenarios 61 Configuring and Administering Single Sign-On 62 Managing Single Sign-On Users and Groups 65 Installing Additional vCenter Server Components 73 Installing and Removing vSphere Client Plug-Ins 78 Enabling and Disabling vSphere Client Plug-Ins 78 Licensing vCenter Server 80 Determining Availability Requirements for a vCenter Server in a Given vSphere Implementation 83 Planning and Performing Upgrades of vCenter Server and VMware ESXi 84 Identifying Steps Required to Upgrade a vSphere Implementation 85 Identifying Upgrade Requirements for ESXi Hosts 87 Determining Whether an In-Place Upgrade Is Appropriate in a Given Upgrade Scenario 88 Summary 90 Exam Essentials 90 Review Questions 91 Chapter 3 Securing vCenter Server and ESXi and Identifying vSphere Architecture and Solutions 95 Securing vCenter Server and ESXi 97 Configuring and Administering the ESXi Firewall 97 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Services in the ESXi Firewall 103 Enabling Lockdown Mode 106 Adding an ESXi Host to a Directory Service 109 Viewing, Sorting, and Exporting User and Group Lists 113 Identifying Common vCenter Server Privileges and Roles 114 Describing How Permissions Are Applied and Inherited in vCenter Server 116 Adding, Modifying, and Removing Permissions for Users and Groups on vCenter Server Inventory Objects 118 Creating, Cloning, and Editing vCenter Server Roles 123 Determining the Appropriate Set of Privileges for Common Tasks in vCenter Server 126 Identifying vSphere Architecture and Solutions 127 Explaining ESXi and vCenter Server Architectures 127 Identifying Available vSphere Editions and Features 130 Determining Appropriate vSphere Edition Based on Customer Requirements 130 Identifying the Various Datacenter Solutions That Interact with vSphere (Horizon, SRM, Etc.) 132 Summary 133 Exam Essentials 133 Review Questions 134 Chapter 4 Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking 139 Configuring vNetwork Standard Switches 141 Identifying vNetwork Standard Switch Capabilities 141 Creating and Deleting a vNetwork Standard Switch 145 Adding, Configuring, and Removing vmnics on a vNetwork Standard Switch 149 Configuring VMkernel Ports for Network Services 153 Adding, Editing, and Removing Port Groups on a vNetwork Standard Switch 157 Determining the Use Case for a vNetwork Standard Switch 163 Configuring vNetwork Distributed Switches 164 Identifying vNetwork Distributed Switch Capabilities 164 Creating and Deleting a vNetwork Distributed Switch 167 Adding and Removing ESXi Hosts to/from a vNetwork Distributed Switch 170 Adding and Removing Uplink Adapters to/from dvUplink Groups 176 Adding, Configuring, and Removing dvPort Groups 179 Creating, Configuring, and Removing Virtual Adapters 184 Migrating Virtual Adapters to and from a vNetwork Standard Switch 188 Migrating Virtual Machines to and from a vNetwork Distributed Switch 192 Upgrading a vNetwork Distributed Switch 195 Determining the Use Case for a vNetwork Distributed Switch 198 Configuring vSS and vDS Policies 198 Identifying Common vSwitch and dvSwitch Policies 199 Configuring Load Balancing and Failover Policies 199 Configuring Network Security Policies 203 Configuring Traffic Shaping Policies 205 Configuring VLAN Settings 209 Determining Appropriate VLAN Configuration for a vSphere Implementation 210 Configuring dvPort Group Blocking Policies 211 Enabling Jumbo Frames Support on Appropriate Components 212 Summary 217 Exam Essentials 218 Review Questions 220 Chapter 5 Planning and Configuring vSphere Storage 225 Configuring Shared Storage for vSphere 227 Identifying Storage Adapters and Devices 227 Identifying Storage Naming Conventions 228 Scanning and Rescanning Storage 230 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling vCenter Server Storage Filters 233 Describing Zoning and LUN Masking Practices 235 Identifying Hardware/Dependent Hardware /Software iSCSI Initiator Requirements 236 Determining Use Case for Hardware /Dependent Hardware/Software iSCSI Initiator 237 Configuring and Editing Hardware /Dependent-Hardware Initiators 237 Enabling and Disabling a Software iSCSI Initiator 242 Configuring and Editing Software iSCSI Initiator Settings 245 Configuring iSCSI Port Binding 245 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling iSCSI CHAP 247 Configuring FC/iSCSI LUNs as ESXi Boot Devices 252 Comparing and Contrasting Array Thin Provisioning and Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning 254 Determining Use Case for and Configuring Array Thin Provisioning 255 Creating and Configuring VMFS and NFS Datastores 256 Identifying VMFS-5 Capabilities 256 Creating, Renaming, Unmounting, and Deleting a VMFS Datastore 258 Identifying VMFS Datastore Properties 264 Extending and Expanding VMFS Datastores 266 Upgrading a VMFS-3 Datastore to VMFS-5 269 Placing a VMFS Datastore in Maintenance Mode 271 Determining the Appropriate Path Selection Policy for a Given VMFS Datastore 271 Selecting the Preferred Path for a VMFS Datastore 272 Disabling a Path to a VMFS Datastore 274 Creating an NFS Share for Use with vSphere 275 Identifying NFS Datastore Properties 277 Mounting and Unmounting an NFS Datastore 277 Determining the Use Case for Multiple VMFS /NFS Datastores 279 Summary 280 Exam Essentials 281 Review Questions 282 Chapter 6 Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines and vApps 287 Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines 289 Identifying Capabilities of Virtual Machine Hardware Versions 289 Configuring and Deploying a Guest OS into a New Virtual Machine 291 Placing Virtual Machines in Selected ESXi Hosts /Clusters/Resource Pools 295 Identifying Methods to Access and Use a Virtual Machine Console 296 Installing, Upgrading, and Updating VMware Tools 298 Identifying VMware Tools Device Drivers 302 Upgrading Virtual Machine Hardware 304 Configuring Virtual Machine Time Synchronization 307 Identifying Virtual Machine Storage Resources 309 Configuring and Modifying the Disk Controller for Virtual Disks 311 Configuring the Appropriate Virtual Disk Type for a Virtual Machine 316 Creating and Converting Thin/Thick Provisioned Virtual Disks 320 Configuring Disk Shares 323 Determining Appropriate Datastore Locations for Virtual Machines Based on Application Workloads 324 Configuring and Modifying Virtual CPU and Memory Resources According to OS and Application Requirements 325 Configuring and Modifying Virtual NIC Adapters and Connecting Virtual Machines to Appropriate Network Resources 326 Converting a Physical Machine Using VMware Converter 330 Importing a Supported Virtual Machine Source Using VMware Converter 335 Modifying Virtual Hardware Settings Using VMware Converter 339 Creating and Deploying vApps 345 Determining When a Tiered Application Should Be Deployed as a vApp 345 Creating a vApp 346 Adding Objects to an Existing vApp 348 Identifying and Editing vApp Settings 350 Configuring IP Pools 352 Suspending and Resuming a vApp 357 Cloning and Exporting a vApp 358 Summary 361 Exam Essentials 362 Review Questions 364 Chapter 7 Managing and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 369 Managing Virtual Machine Clones and Templates 371 Identifying Cloning and Template Options 371 Cloning an Existing Virtual Machine 372 Creating a Template from an Existing Virtual Machine 375 Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template 377 Updating Existing Virtual Machine Templates 379 Deploying Virtual Appliances and vApps from an OVF Template 380 Importing and Exporting an OVF Template 381 Determining the Appropriate Deployment Methodology for a Given Virtual Machine Application 382 Identifying Content Types 383 Creating a Local/Remote Content Library with /without external storage (VMs, ISOs, Scripts, vApps) 384 Publishing/Subscribing/Sharing a Content Library 386 Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 388 Identifying Files Used by Virtual Machines 388 Identifying Locations for Virtual Machine Configuration Files and Virtual Disks 390 Configuring Virtual Machine Options 392 Configuring Virtual Machine Power Settings 395 Configuring Virtual Machine Boot Options 398 Configuring Virtual Machine Troubleshooting Options 399 Identifying Common Practices for Securing Virtual Machines 400 Determining When an Advanced Virtual Machine Parameter Is Required 402 Hot-Extending a Virtual Disk 403 Enabling TCP Segmentation Offload Support for a Virtual Machine 405 Adjusting Virtual Machine Resources (Shares, Limits, and Reservations) Based on Virtual Machine Workloads 407 Configuring USB passthrough from an ESXi Host 409 Configuring Serial port redirection 412 Summary 414 Exam Essentials 414 Review Questions 416 Chapter 8 Establishing Service Levels with Clusters, Fault Tolerance, and Resource Pools 421 Creating and Configuring VMware Clusters 423 Determining the Appropriate Failover Methodology and Required Resources for an HA Implementation 424 DRS Virtual Machine Entitlement 424 Creating and Deleting a DRS/HA Cluster 425 Adding and Removing ESXi Hosts to /from a DRS/HA Cluster 427 Adding and Removing Virtual Machines to /from a DRS/HA Cluster 430 Enabling and Disabling Host Monitoring 432 Configuring Admission Control for HA and Virtual Machines 434 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Virtual Machine and Application Monitoring 442 Configuring Automation Levels for DRS and Virtual Machines 445 Configuring Migration Thresholds for DRS and Virtual Machines 448 Creating VM-Host and VM-VM Affinity Rules 450 Configuring Enhanced vMotion Compatibility 457 Monitoring a DRS/HA Cluster 460 Configuring Storage DRS 464 Enabling BIOS P/C States 467 Enabling, Configuring, and Disabling Host Power Management and Distributed Power Management 468 Determining Appropriate Power Threshold for a Given Implementation 473 Planning and Implementing VMware Fault Tolerance 474 Determining Use Cases for Enabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a Virtual Machine 475 VMware Fault Tolerance Requirements 476 Configuring VMware Fault Tolerance Networking 477 Enabling and Disabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a Virtual Machine 479 Testing an FT Configuration 482 Creating and Administering Resource Pools 483 The Resource Pool Hierarchy 483 The Expandable Reservation Parameter 484 Creating and Removing a Resource Pool 488 Configuring Resource Pool Attributes 490 Adding and Removing Virtual Machines to /from a Resource Pool 491 Determining Resource Pool Requirements for a Given vSphere Implementation 492 Evaluating Appropriate Shares, Reservations, and Limits for a Resource Pool Based on Virtual Machine Workloads 493 Describing vSphere Flash Read Cache Architecture 497 Adding/Removing vFlash Read Cache Resource Capacity 499 Assigning vFlash Read Cache Resources to VMDKs 501 Summary 504 Exam Essentials 505 Review Questions 506 Chapter 9 Maintaining Service Levels 511 Migrating Virtual Machines 514 Migrating a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine 514 ESXi Host and Virtual Machine Requirements for vMotion and Storage vMotion 518 Enhanced vMotion Compatibility CPU Requirements 519 Snapshot Requirements for vMotion /Storage vMotion Migration 519 Configuring a Virtual Machine Swap File Location 520 Migrating Virtual Machines Using vMotion /Storage vMotion 525 Using Storage vMotion Techniques 528 Backing Up and Restoring Virtual Machines 531 Identifying Snapshot Requirements 531 Creating, Deleting, and Consolidating Virtual Machine Snapshots 533 Differentiating Between VDP and VDPA 541 Explaining VMware Data Protection Sizing Guidelines 542 Identifying VMware Data Protection Requirements 543 Installing and Configuring VMware Data Protection 545 Creating a Backup Job With VMware Data Protection 551 Managing and Monitoring VDP Capacity 554 Performing a Test/Live Full/File-Level Restore with VMware Data Protection 556 Performing a VDR Data Migration 562 Describing vSphere Replication Architecture 562 Installing/Configuring/Upgrading vSphere Replication 563 Configuring Replication for Single/Multiple VMs 565 Recovering a VM Using vSphere Replication 568 Performing a Failback Operation Using vSphere Replication 571 Determining the Appropriate Backup Solution for a Given vSphere Implementation 571 Patching and Updating ESXi and Virtual Machines 573 Patching Requirements for ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machine Hardware/Tools 573 Creating, Editing, and Removing a Host Profile from an ESXi Host 575 Attaching and Applying a Host Profile to an ESXi Host or Cluster 578 Performing Compliance Scanning and Remediating an ESXi Host Using Host Profiles 580 Applying Permissions to ESXi Hosts Using Host Profiles 582 Importing/Exporting a Host Profile 584 Installing and Configuring VMware vSphere Update Manager 586 Configuring Patch Download Options 594 Creating, Editing, and Deleting an Update Manager Baseline 597 Attaching an Update Manager Baseline to an ESXi Host or Cluster 603 Scanning and Remediating ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machine Hardware /Tools Using Update Manager 606 Staging ESXi Host Updates 615 Upgrading an ESXi Host Using vSphere Update Manager 616 Summary 621 Exam Essentials 622 Review Questions 624 Chapter 10 Performing Basic Troubleshooting 629 Performing Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts 631 Troubleshooting Common Installation Issues 631 Monitoring ESXi System Health 632 General ESXi Host Troubleshooting Guidelines 634 Exporting Diagnostic Information 636 Performing Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting 638 Verifying Network Configuration 638 Troubleshooting Physical Network Adapter Configuration Issues 640 Troubleshooting Virtual Switch and Port Group Configuration Issues 643 Verifying a Given Virtual Machine Is Configured with the Correct Network Resources 645 Identifying the Root Cause of a Network Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 646 Performing Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting 646 Verifying Storage Configuration 646 Troubleshooting Storage Contention Issues 648 Troubleshooting Storage Overcommitment Issues 652 Troubleshooting iSCSI Software Initiator Configuration Issues 653 Troubleshooting Storage Reports and Storage Maps 654 Identifying the Root Cause of a Storage Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 655 Performing Basic Troubleshooting for HA /DRS Clusters and vMotion/Storage vMotion 656 HA/DRS and vMotion Requirements 656 Verifying vMotion/Storage vMotion Configuration 657 Verifying HA Network Configuration 657 Verifying HA/DRS Cluster Configuration 658 Troubleshooting HA Capacity Issues 660 Troubleshooting HA Redundancy Issues 661 Troubleshooting DRS Load Imbalance Issues 662 Interpreting the DRS Resource Distribution Graph and Target/Current Host Load Standard Deviation 665 Troubleshooting vMotion/Storage vMotion Migration Issues 667 Interpret vMotion Resource Maps 668 Identifying the Root Cause of a DRS/HA Cluster or Migration Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 669 Summary 669 Exam Essentials 670 Review Questions 672 Chapter 11 Monitoring a vSphere Implementation and Managing vCenter Server Alarms 677 Monitoring ESXi, vCenter Server, and Virtual Machines 680 How Tasks and Events Are Viewed in vCenter Server 680 Creating, Editing, and Deleting Scheduled Tasks 683 Configuring SNMP for vCenter Server 687 Configuring User Directory and SMTP Settings for vCenter Server 689 Configuring vCenter Server Timeout Settings 690 Configuring vCenter Server Logging Options 691 Creating a Log Bundle 692 Starting, Stopping, and Verifying vCenter Server Service Status 693 Starting, Stopping, and Verifying ESXi Host Agent Status 695 Monitoring and Administering vCenter Server Connections 698 Configuring, Viewing, Printing, and Exporting Resource Maps 699 Common Memory Metrics 703 Common CPU Metrics 705 Common Network Metrics 706 Common Storage Metrics 707 Critical Performance Metrics 708 Comparing and Contrasting Overview and Advanced Charts 709 Creating an Advanced Chart 712 Determining Host Performance Using resxtop and Guest Perfmon 715 Given Performance Data, Identifying the Affected vSphere Resource 719 Installing, Configuring, and Administering vCenter Operations Manager 721 Explaining vCenter Operations Manager Architecture 721 Deploying and Configuring vCenter Operations Manager Appliance 723 Upgrading vCenter Operations Manager 728 Differentiating Major/Minor vCenter Operations Manager Badges 731 Understanding Metrics Used by Major /Minor vCenter Operations Manager Badges 732 Monitoring a vSphere Environment 733 For a Given Alarm, Identify the Affected Resource In a vSphere Implementation 737 Creating and Administering vCenter Server Alarms 738 Listing vCenter Default Utilization Alarms 739 Listing vCenter Default Connectivity Alarms 739 Listing Possible Actions for Utilization and Connectivity Alarms 739 Creating a vCenter Utilization Alarm 741 Creating a vCenter Connectivity Alarm 745 Configuring Alarm Triggers 747 Configuring Alarm Actions 748 For a Given Alarm, Identifying the Affected Resource in a vSphere Implementation 749 Summary 750 Exam Essentials 751 Review Questions 753 Appendix A Answers to Review Questions 757 Chapter 2: Planning, Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading VMware ESXi and vCenter Server 758 Chapter 3: Securing vCenter Server and ESXi and Identifying vSphere Architecture and Solutions 759 Chapter 4: Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking 760 Chapter 5: Planning and Configuring vSphere Storage 762 Chapter 6: Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines and vApps 763 Chapter 7: Managing and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 764 Chapter 8: Establishing Service Levels with Clusters, Fault Tolerance, and Resource Pools 766 Chapter 9: Maintaining Service Levels 767 Chapter 10: Performing Basic Troubleshooting 768 Chapter 11: Monitoring a vSphere Implementation and Managing vCenter Server Alarms 770 Appendix B About the Additional Study Tools 773 Additional Study Tools 774 Sybex Test Engine 774 Electronic Flashcards 774 PDF of Glossary of Terms 774 Adobe Reader 774 System Requirements 775 Using the Study Tools 775 Troubleshooting 775 Customer Care 776 Index 777
