Chapter 1 - Course Overview
What this course will cover
The technical skills and background of ideal attendees
Training with a focus on vSphere Best Practices, Good Design, Diagnosis and Troubleshooting, Scaleability, VM Availability, Performance, Availability, Security and more

Chapter 2 - How to install and configure ESXi according to best practices
Selecting and preparing supported hardware for ESXi 6.7
Performing install and post install tasks
Using advanced settings to review and set password strength rules
Connecting ESXi to the management network via the DCUI including tips and best practices
Accessing ESXi through the DCUI, server console and via Secure Shell
Review and managing host access services from the command line (troubleshooting tip)
How to access the DCUI when the DCUI isn't running (troubleshooting tip)
Four different ways to review ESXi logs (web, Host Client, Command line and Console)
How to manage local users and permissions from the command line (troubleshooting tip)
Sizing ESXi hosts for pCPU, pMemory. and, how to enable Transparent Page Sharing to improve memory efficiency by up to 20%
How to use local Flash storage to accelerate ESXi host read I/Os and minimize the impact of host memory stress (performance tip)
How to use Lockdown Mode to secure your ESXi host
How to install VMware packages (called VIBs) using both Host Client and command line
Now to query and restart local host management agents from DCUI and from the command line (troubleshooting tip)
Where to find best practices for security your ESXi hosts

Chapter 3 - Introduction to ESXi Physical and Virtual Networking
Physical networking hardware supported by ESXi. Includes the latest, ultra fast network hardware
The three Virtual NIC options along with use cases to help you select the best vNIC for best performance
The three different TCP/IP stacks supported by ESXi (and why)
How to create and manage vSwitches, VMkernel NICs and Port Groups using Host Client
How to create and manage vSwitches, VMkernel NICs and Port Groups using command line (troubleshooting tip)
The basics of Physical NIC teaming
Great ESXi command line tools to test networking, verify peer connectivity and troubleshoot networking issues

Chapter 4 - Advanced ESXi Physical and Virtual Networking
Virtual / Physical networking design goals
The three vSwitch Security Policies (Promiscuous Mode, MAC Address Changes, Forged Transmits) and when to use them
Network traffic bandwidth management with Traffic Shaping
How to improve network throughput with Jumbo Frames. Includes use cases, how to configure and how to test Jumbo Frame support
The five Physical NIC teaming policies:
Route by Originating Port
Route by MAC Hash
Route by IP Hash
Route by pNIC Load
Route by Active / Stand-by
Includes pros, cons and use cases for each policy
The three different ways to do vLAN tagging
Route by Originating Port
vSwitch Tagging
pSwitch Tagging
VM Tagging
When / how to use each one
VMkernel pNIC Offloading including TCP Segment Offloading and TCP Checksum offloading including benefits and how each works
Exclusive pNIC to VM ownership and use cases using DirectPath I/O and how to do it
Shared pNIC to VM ownership and use cases using Single Root I/O Virtualization and how to do it
How to monitor pNIC and VM network traffic using esxtop
How to query an ESXi host's active network connections on the command line
How to get detailed pNIC statistics including transmits, receives, errors, etc. on the command line
Network design tips and best practices

Chapter 5 - Connecting ESXi to NFS Shares
Supported and unsupported (but works) NFS server options (includes Windows as an NFS server)
The layout of an NFS network. Includes security concerns and compensating controls to address these issues
NFS network design to maximize service access and availability
How to publish NFS shares on Linux (works for Windows too) so that ESXi can use the shares
ESXi physical network and TCP/IP requirements for connecting to NFS shares
How to mount NFS shares using Host Client
How to query NFS servers for their share list from the command line (hint - you can't do this from Host Client)
How to mount NFS shares on the command line (troubleshooting tip)
Using advanced ESXi configuration parameters to increase the maximum number of supported, concurrent NFS shares
Connecting to ESXi to NFS shares from the command line (troubleshooting tip)
ESXi / NFS best practices, pros and cons
NFS v4.1 features, limitations, how to migrate from NFS v3 to 4.1 and how to avoid data corruption

Chapter 6 - Virtual Hardware and Virtual Machines
Introduction to the features and capabilities of Virtual Hardware v14
pCPUs and vCPUs including configuration options and limits
vCPU socket and core hard and practical maximums and guidelines
VMemory configuration, sizing and best practices
How to select and customize vNIC properties for different use cases
The three different virtual SCSI storage controllers and use cases and best practices for each one
How to select the best virtual SCSI storage controller for best VM storage performance
The purpose, features and capabilities of VMware Tools and why it needs to be in every VM
Windows VM configuration and performance tips
The files that need to be backed up to capture a powered off VM
How Snapshots work. Using the Snapshot Manager
Troubleshooting VM Snapshots
The Files that are added to a VM when it is snapshotted
Guest OS Security tips and best practices
Virtual Hardware upgrades and best practices
How to list and shut down VMs from the command line
How to get a VM's power status, power on, power off or reboot a VM from the command line
How to take ownership and give up ownership of a VM from the command line
How to change a running VM's console screen resolution from the command line (great troubleshooting tip)
VM security considerations for Windows VMs
How to streamline the virtual hardware layer and Guest OS for runtime efficiency
An introduction to the VMware Guest OS Optimization Tool

Chapter 7 - vSphere 6.7 Management with vCenter Server Appliance
How to use Javascript Object Notation (JSON) files for automated vCSA installs
vCenter for Windows. How to install it, upgrade to it, migrate from it to vCSA and why you want to migrate
vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) hardware requirements and how to adjust for your VM and ESXi host needs
Platform Services Controller (PSC) and why VMware is strongly encouraging Embedded PSC rather than External PSC
How to Upgrade old vCSA to vCSA 6.7
How to Migrate from vCenter for Windows to vCSA 6.7
An introduction to vSphere Web (flash / flex) Client and new HTML 5 Client
Perform vCSA post install / migrate tasks using the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI)
Why you should always upgrade vCSA before you upgrade ESXi hosts (and what to do about it if you accidentally upgrade ESXi first)
Why you should review and change vCSA's default root password management policy
How to add vCSA to Active Directory and how to use Active Directory accounts as vCenter administrator accounts
How Platform Services Controller Global Permissions and Solution Permissions work
Enable and secure ESXi hosts fia Lockdown Mode from vCenter
The VMware (Digital) Certificate Authority and its three modes (Default, Enterprise and Custom) and which to use
How to maintain high vCSA service availability through vCSA High Availability configurations
Two other vCSA high service availability options if you choose not to use vCSA High Availability
How to back up and restore vCenter Appliance configurations using vCSA's VAMI service
Best practices for securing ESXi and vCSA
Accessing vCSA as root from the command line
How to query, start and restart critical vCSA services from the command line (troubleshooting tip)
vCSA log files. Where they are and how to view them

Chapter 8 - Virtual Machines, Templates, Clones, Hotplug Hardware and Performance Analysis, Tips and Tricks
Rapid VM deployments with Clones and Templates
Template theory, benefits and best practices
Virtual disk formats explained - Thick Disk Lazy Zero, Thick Disk Eager Zero and Thin Disk
Which disk format is best. Performance vs. space efficiency and why Thin Disk is almost always the best format to choose
Cold cloning and hot cloning a VM
Windows Guest OS Customization using Sysprep and non-Windows Guest OS customization
Exporting VMs in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) and Open Virtual Machine Archive (OVA) formats
Importing OVF / OVA format VMs
VM multi-vCPU core sizing and best practices and how to do it
VM memory sizing considerations and best practices
Hot-add (almost) any virtual hardware with Hot-plug. How to set it up and how to do it
Hot-plug vCPU and vRAM strategy, best practices and limitations
Hot adding virtual hardware including hot adding virtual disks with no VM down time
Hot adding additional vSCSI controllers to a VM. Why do it (hint - performance) and the best vSCSI controllers to use based on use cases
Using virtual NVMe controllers and flash backed storage for the ultimate in VM storage performance
Monitoring VM performance in real time with esxtop
Drilling down to VM pCPU core performance with esxtop
Common VM performance issues, how to identify them and how to fix them
Great Guest OS performance monitoring tools. What to use, what to believe and what not to believe when using these tools