Mastering VMware vSphere 6.5

Mastering VMware vSphere 6.5

by Andrea Mauro, Paolo Valsecchi, Karel Novak
Released December 2017
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781787286016

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Book description

Deliver great business value by adopting the virtualization platform VMware vSphere 6.5, from the design to the deployment

About This Book

  • This new edition is based on vSphere 6.5 and has described new features in different areas, including management, security, scalability, availability and so on.
  • Design, deploy and manage VMware datacenters
  • Implement monitoring and security of VMware workloads with ease.

Who This Book Is For

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

What You Will Learn

  • Get a deep understanding of vSphere 6.5 functionalities
  • Design and plan a virtualization environment based on vSphere 6.5
  • Manage and administer a vSphere 6.5 environment and resources
  • Get tips for the VCP6-DCV and VCIX6-DCV exams (along with use of the vSphere 6 documentation)
  • Implement different migration techniques to move your workload across different environments.
  • Save your configuration, data and workload from your virtual infrastructure.

In Detail

VMware vSphere 6.5 provides a powerful, flexible and secure foundation for next-generation applications which helps you create an effective digital transformation. This book will be based on VMware vSphere 6.5 which empowers you to virtualize any complex application with ease.

You'll begin by getting an overview of all the products, solutions and features of the vSphere 6.5 suite, comparing the evolutions with the previous releases. Next ,you'll design and plan a virtualization infrastructure to drive planning and performance analysis. Following this , you will be proceeding with workflow and installation of components. New network trends are also covered which will help you in optimally designing the vSphere environment. You will also learn the practices and procedures involved in configuring and managing virtual machines in a vSphere infrastructure. With vSphere 6.5, you'll make use of significantly more powerful capabilities for patching, upgrading, and managing the configuration of the virtual environment. Next we'll focus on specific availability and resiliency solutions in vSphere.

Towards the end of the book you will get information on how to save your configuration, data and workload from your virtual infrastructure. By the end of the book you'll learn about VMware vSphere 6.5 right from design to deployment and management.

Style and Approach

This book acts as a reference guide providing real-world scenarios and a possible baseline for each virtualization project based on VMware vSphere.

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. What this book covers
      1. Part 1 – From the Basics to Design
      2. Part 2 – From Deployment to Management
      3. Part 3 – Maintain a Virtual Infrastructure
      4. Part 4 – Match Your Business Continuity and Service Levels
    2. What you need for this book
    3. Who this book is for
    4. Conventions
    5. Reader feedback
    6. Customer Support
      1. Downloading the color images for this book
      2. Errata
      3. Piracy
      4. Questions
  2. Evolution of VMware vSphere Suite
    1. VMware and vSphere background
    2. VMware vSphere as a Cloud Foundation
      1. Virtual Machine (VM) versus containers
    3. VMware vSphere as an infrastructure foundation
      1. Storage platform
      2. Network and security platform
      3. Cloud platform
      4. End-user computing platform
      5. Container platform
      6. Other VMware products complementary to vSphere
    4. What's new on vSphere 6.5 and vSphere limits?
      1. What's new in 6.5?
        1. What's new with vSphere 6.5 Update 1?
      2. Configuration maximums
        1. VM
        2. Host ESXi 6.5
        3. vCenter Server 6.5
      3. Why you should upgrade to vSphere 6.5 and why not?
        1. Why upgrade?
        2. Why shouldn't you upgrade?
      4. Features and editions of vSphere 6.5
    5. Summary
  3. Design and Plan a Virtualization Infrastructure
    1. Plan a virtual infrastructure project
    2. Assess
      1. Requirements, constraints, and assumptions
    3. Design
      1. Conceptual design
      2. Logical design
        1. Service dependencies
      3. Physical design
        1. ESXi host
        2. vCenter Services
        3. Building blocks
      4. How to provide good documentation
        1. Design areas and technologies
        2. Best practices
        3. Reference architecture
        4. VVD
        5. VMware Solution Enablement Toolkits (SETs)
    4. Different scenarios
      1. Enterprise
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Some design decisions
      2. Small or Mid-Sized Business (SMB)
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Some design decisions
      3. Remote offices and branch offices (ROBO)
        1. Business requirements
        2. Possible constraints
        3. Main risks
        4. Some design decisions
    5. Summary
  4. Analysis and Assessment of an Existing Environment
    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. Capacity Planner
        2. DPACK
    2. Assessment of an existing virtual environment
      1. Discovery and inventory
      2. Health check
        1. Existing tools for analyzing a virtual environment
          1. RVTools
          2. VOA
          3. VMware vSphere Health Check
    3. Summary
  5. 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 to 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
      2. Where to install – physical or virtual?
    5. vCenter Server deployment
      1. Choosing the database
        1. Configuring a Microsoft SQL Server database
        2. Configuring ODBC DSN
          1. Installing vCenter Server for Windows
    6. vCSA deployment
      1. Why deploy vCSA instead of the Windows version?
      2. Installing the vCSA PSC
      3. Installing the vCSA vCenter
    7. Summary
  6. Configuring and Managing vSphere 6.5
    1. VMware vSphere HTML5 client
    2. ESXi configuration
      1. Management console configuration
        1. Enabling SSH access
        2. Configuring NTP
      2. ESXi 6.5 partition layout
        1. Boot banks
        2. Scratch partition
    3. vCSA configuration
      1. Basic setup using 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 a host 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
    4. Managing data centers, clusters, and hosts
      1. Creating a data center
      2. Adding a host to 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
        4. vCenter Server in Enhanced Linked mode (ELM)
    5. Automating tasks with scripts
      1. Automating with PowerCLI
        1. PowerCLI script examples
      2. Using vCLI
        1. Installing vCLI on Windows
      3. vCenter REST API
    6. Summary
  7. Advanced Network Management
    1. Basic overview
      1. OSI model
      2. Encapsulation and de-encapsulation
      3. Broadcasting, unicasting, and multicasting
      4. MAC tables and MAC learning process
      5. Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
      6. Virtual LAN (VLAN)
      7. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) versus User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
      8. IPv6
    2. Virtual networking
      1. vSS
      2. vDS
      3. Managing vSS
        1. VMkernel adapters
        2. Physical adapters
        3. TCP/IP stacks
      4. Managing vDS
        1. Properties
        2. Topology
        3. Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
        4. Private VLAN
        5. NetFlow
        6. Port mirroring
        7. Health check 
        8. Network I/O Control (NIOC)
        9. Network protocol profiles
        10. Ports, hosts, VMs, and networks
    3. Introduction to NSX
      1. NSX components
        1. Management plane
        2. Control plane
        3. Data plane
      2. NSX installation
        1. Network Functions Virtualization (NVF)
    4. Summary
  8. Advanced Storage Management
    1. Storage basics
    2. The evolution of the storage world
      1. Spinning disks
      2. Flash devices
      3. Storage array
      4. Converged networks
    3. VMware vSphere storage types
      1. Storage types at the VM logical level
      2. Storage types at the VM physical level
      3. Storage types at the ESXi logical level
      4. Storage types at the ESXi physical level
    4. VMware vSphere storage configuration
      1. Storage FC
        1. FCoE
      2. Storage iSCSI
      3. Storage NFS
    5. Storage features
      1. VM snapshots
      2. Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) 6
      3. Hot-extend for jumbo VMDK
      4. Automatic space reclaim
      5. Instant clones versus linked clones
      6. Storage DRS versus storage tiering
      7. Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
    6. Storage integration
      1. VMware vSphere Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM)
      2. Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA)
        1. Multipathing
        2. Storage masking and filtering
      3. VMware VAAI
      4. VMware vSphere APIs for IO Filtering (VAIO)
      5. VMware vCenter plugins
      6. VASA
      7. VVols
    7. Storage design
      1. VM storage layout
      2. VM snapshot limits
      3. Datastore layout
      4. Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and All-Paths-Down (APD)
      5. VVols dependencies
    8. Introduction to HCI and vSAN
      1. VMware vSAN
    9. Caching with vSphere Flash Read Cache
      1. Other solutions
    10. Summary
  9. Advanced VM and Resource Management
    1. VM components
      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. VMware Tools
        1. Open VM Tools (OVT)
    2. Deploying VMs
      1. Creating a new VM
        1. Hardware version
          1. Setting the default hardware version
        2. Installing the OS
        3. Installing VMware Tools
      2. Deploying a VM from a template
      3. Cloning a VM
      4. Deploying Open Virtual Format (OVF) and Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) templates
      5. Creating a Content Library
    3. 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. Committing changes
        3. Snapshot consolidation
    4. Resource management
      1. Memory resources
      2. CPU resources
      3. Resource pools
        1. Managing resource pools
      4. Creating a DRS cluster
        1. Virtual network-aware DRS
        2. Managing DRS rules
          1. VM-VM affinity rule
          2. VM-Host affinity rule
      5. Managing power resources
      6. Managing storage and network resources
    5. VM migration
      1. vMotion without shared storage
    6. Converting VMs
      1. P2V
      2. V2V
    7. Summary
  10. Monitoring, Optimizing, and Troubleshooting
    1. What is troubleshooting?
    2. Monitoring a virtual environment
      1. CLI usage
        1. ESXCLI commands
        2. ESXCFG-
        3. vSphere Management Assistant
        4. Ruby vSphere console
        5. VIM-CMD
        6. VCSA – CLI 
        7. PowerCLI
    3. Logs
      1. ESXi host logs
      2. GUI Tools
      3. vRealize Operations Manager
    4. Troubleshooting
      1. Troubleshooting the vCenter Server
      2. TRBL with ESXi host
      3. Troubleshooting cluster HA or DRS
      4. Troubleshooting virtual network
      5. Troubleshooting storage
      6. Troubleshooting VMs
    5. Summary
  11. Securing and Protecting Your Environment
    1. Regulations and compliance
    2. Security and hardening concepts in vSphere
      1. Hardening vSphere
        1. Host hardening
          1. Lockdown Mode
          2. Networking
          3. Transparent Page Sharing (TPS)
          4. VIB acceptance levels
        2. VM hardening
        3. VMware vCenter hardening
      2. Authentication and identity
        1. Password management
        2. AD authentication
        3. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
        4. Smart cards
        5. RSA SecurID
      3. Other security aspects
        1. Log management
        2. Monitoring protocols
        3. Certification management
    3. New security options in vSphere 6.5
      1. VMware vCenter federations
      2. Protecting the data at rest
        1. VM encryption
      3. Protecting data in motion
        1. Encrypted vMotion
      4. Secure boot
        1. ESXi secure boot
        2. VM secure boot
      5. Enhanced logging
    4. Summary
  12. Lifecycle Management, Patching, and Upgrading
    1. Updating or patching ESXi hosts and vCSAs
      1. Updating or patching ESXi hosts through the command line
      2. Updating hosts using vSphere Client
      3. Updating the vCSA through the command line
        1. Staging and remediating patches
      4. Updating the vCSA with VAMI
    2. 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 VMware Tools
    3. Upgrading and migrating to vSphere 6.5
      1. Why migrate to version 6.5?
      2. Upgrading the workflow and procedure
        1. Step 1 – Pre-migration
        2. Step 2 – Migration
        3. Step 3 – Validation
      3. Migrating from previous releases
        1. Troubleshooting
    4. Summary
  13. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
    1. BC concepts
      1. BC metrics
      2. Business impact analysis (BIA)
      3. Business continuity standard
      4. Common mistakes
    2. Disaster recovery (DR)
      1. DR of a virtual data center
      2. DR versus disaster avoidance
      3. DR versus stretched cluster
    3. VMware solutions
      1. VM Replication
      2. Stretched cluster
      3. Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
    4. Summary
  14. Advanced Availability in vSphere 6.5
    1. VMware vSphere HA
      1. Virtual Machine Component Protection (VMCP)
      2. Proactive HA
      3. Admission control
      4. VM restart and monitoring
    2. VMware vSphere FT
    3. VMware vCenter High Availability (VCHA)
    4. VMware vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
    5. Summary
  15. Data and Workloads Protection
    1. Backup technologies
      1. Backup host configuration
      2. Restoring the host configuration
    2. File-based backup of the vCSA
      1. Restoring the vCSA from a file-based backup
    3. Protecting the workloads
      1. Transport modes
      2. VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP)
      3. Backup solutions for VMware vSphere
        1. Veeam Backup & Replication
        2. NAKIVO Backup & Replication
        3. Altaro VM Backup
        4. Vembu VMBackup
        5. Micro Focus VM Explorer
      4. Deduplication appliances
      5. Hyper-scale solutions
        1. Cohesity
        2. Rubrik
    4. Summary

Product information

  • Title: Mastering VMware vSphere 6.5
  • Author(s): Andrea Mauro, Paolo Valsecchi, Karel Novak
  • Release date: December 2017
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781787286016