ICM + Optimize + Storage (Based on DELL EMC)

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives
• Describe the content of this course
• Gain a complete picture of the VMware certification system
• Familiarize yourself with the benefits of the VMware Education Learning Zone
• Identify additional resources

Introduction to vSphere and the Software-Defined Data Center

• Describe the topology of a physical data center
• Explain the vSphere virtual infrastructure
• Define the files and components of virtual machines
• Describe the benefits of using virtual machines
• Explain the similarities and differences between physical architectures and virtual architectures
• Define the purpose of ESXi
• Define the purpose of vCenter Server
• Explain the software-defined data center
• Describe private, public, and hybrid clouds

Creating Virtual Machines

• Introduce virtual machines, virtual machine hardware, and virtual machine files
• Identify the files that make up a virtual machine
• Discuss the latest virtual machine hardware and its features
• Describe virtual machine CPU, memory, disk, and network resource usage
• Explain the importance of VMware Tools™
• Discuss PCI pass-through, Direct I/O, remote direct memory access, and NVMe
• Deploy and configure virtual machines and templates
• Identify the virtual machine disk format

vCenter Server

• Introduce the vCenter Server architecture
• Deploy and configure vCenter Server Appliance
• Use vSphere Web Client
• Backup and restore vCenter Server
• Examine vCenter Server permissions and roles
• Explain the vSphere HA architectures and features
• Examine the new vSphere authentication proxy
• Manage vCenter Server inventory objects and licenses
• Access and navigate the new vSphere clients

Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks

• Describe, create, and manage standard switches
• Configure virtual switch security and load-balancing policies
• Contrast and compare vSphere distributed switches and standard switches
• Describe the virtual switch connection types
• Describe the new TCP/IP stack architecture
• Use VLANs with standard switches

Configuring and Managing Virtual Storage

• Introduce storage protocols and storage device types
• Discuss ESXi hosts using iSCSI, NFS, and Fibre Channel storage
• Create and manage VMFS and NFS datastores
• Describe the new features of VMFS 7.0
• Introduce vSAN
• Describe guest file encryption

Virtual Machine Management

• Use templates and cloning to deploy new virtual machines
• Modify and manage virtual machines
• Clone a virtual machine
• Upgrade virtual machine hardware to version 12
• Remove virtual machines from the vCenter Server inventory and datastore
• Customize a new virtual machine using customization specification files
• Perform vSphere vMotion and vSphere Storage vMotion migrations
• Create and manage virtual machine snapshots
• Create, clone, and export vApps
• Introduce the types of content libraries and how to deploy and use them

Resource Management and Monitoring

• Introduce virtual CPU and memory concepts
• Explain virtual memory reclamation techniques
• Describe virtual machine overcommitment and resource competition
• Configure and manage resource pools
• Describe methods for optimizing CPU and memory usage
• Use various tools to monitor resource usage
• Create and use alarms to report certain conditions or events
• Describe and deploy resource pools
• Set reservations, limits, and shares
• Describe expandable reservations
• Schedule changes to resource settings
• Create, clone, and export vApps
• Use vCenter Server performance charts and esxtop to analyze vSphere performance

vSphere HA, vSphere Fault Tolerance, and Protecting Data

• Explain the vSphere HA architecture
• Configure and manage a vSphere HA cluster
• Use vSphere HA advanced parameters
• Define clusterwide restart ordering capabilities
• Enforce infrastructural or intra-app dependencies during failover
• Describe vSphere HA heartbeat networks and datastore heartbeats
• Introduce vSphere Fault Tolerance
• Enable vSphere Fault Tolerance on virtual machines
• Support vSphere Fault Tolerance interoperability with vSAN
• Examine enhanced consolidation of vSphere Fault Tolerance virtual machines
• Introduce vSphere Replication
• Use vSphere Data Protection to back up and restore data

vSphere DRS

• Describe the functions and benefits of a vSphere DRS cluster
• Configure and manage a vSphere DRS cluster
• Work with affinity and anti-affinity rules
• Describe the new capabilities for what-if analysis and proactive vSphere DRS
• Highlight the evolution of vSphere DRS using predictive data from VMware vRealize® Operations Manager™
• Perform preemptive actions to prepare for CPU or memory changes
• Describe the vCenter Server embedded vSphere Update Manager, VMware vSphere® ESXi™ Image Builder CLI, and VMware vSphere® Auto Deploy capabilities
• Use vSphere HA and vSphere DRS together for business continuity

vSphere Lifecycle Manager

• Recognize the importance of vCenter Server Update Planner
• Describe how VMware vSphere® Lifecycle Manager™ works
• Describe how to update ESXi hosts using baselines
• Validate ESXi host compliance using a cluster image
•  Describe how to upgrade VMware Tools and VM hardware

Network Scalability

• Configure and manage vSphere distributed switches
• Explain distributed switch features such as port mirroring, LACP, QoS tagging, and NetFlow

Storage Scalability

• Configure and assign virtual machine storage policies
• Configure VMware vSphere® Storage DRS™ and VMware vSphere® Storage I/O Control

Host and Management Scalability

• Explain the uses of VMware vCenter® Converter™
• Define and use content libraries
• Describe and use host profiles

CPU Optimization

• Explain the CPU scheduler operation, NUMA support, and other features that affect CPU performance
• Use esxtop to monitor key CPU performance metrics

Memory Optimization

• Explain ballooning, memory compression, and host-swapping techniques for memory reclamation when memory is overcommitted
• Use esxtop to monitor key memory performance metrics

Storage Optimization

• Describe storage queue types and other factors that affect storage performance
• Use esxtop to monitor key storage performance metrics

Network Optimization

• Explain the performance features of network adapters
• Explain the performance features of vSphere networking
• Use esxtop to monitor key network performance metrics

Analyzing vSphere

• Explain how Proactive DRS enhances virtual machine availability

vCenter Server Availability and Performance

• Describe the high availability options for vCenter Server and VMware Platform Services Controller™
• Describe and use VMware vCenter Server® High Availability
• Identify the factors that influence vCenter Server performance

vSphere Security

• Recognize strategies for securing vSphere components, such as vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, and virtual machines
• Describe vSphere support for security standards and protocols
• Describe virtual machine security features
• Describe the components of a VM encryption architecture
• Describe KMS, and how to deploy
• Create, manage, and migrate encrypted VMs

Storage Concept

• Describe storage concepts   
• Discuss the Unity and UnityXT and UnityVSA features and functionality
• Identify hardware components and LED indicators
• Install and configure Unity and UnityVSA (discuss install considerations)
• Perform administration operations via Unisphere
• Provision block and file storage + Concepts
• Perform snapshot and replication operations + Concepts
• Identify and replace failed CRUs
• Describe Storage best practice
• Describe the disaster recovery solutions