VMware vSphere 6.7 Optimize, Upgrade, Troubleshoot

Upgrade your VMware vSphere 6.7 skills. Learn how to Design, Deploy, Administer, Upgrade, Troubleshoot like an expert.

Course  Summary

This powerful 5-day equivalent class provides an in-depth look at vSphere 6.7. In this course, I cover how to deploy vSphere 6.7, how to optimize it – including VMs, ESXi  hosts, vCenter Server Appliance, networking and shared SAN storage… with the goal of delivering availability, scalability and performance.

Sign up for this class and I'll show step-by-step how to upgrade ESXi hosts to ESXi 6.7 and how to upgrade or migrate to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7, and how to use VMware Update Manager to upgrade to the latest VM virtual hardware version to take advantage of vHardware's latest features and capabilities.

I'll also show you how to diagnose, isolate and fix common problems. We use all of VMware's modern user interfaces including the new web based vSphere Client, stand alone host management with Host Client and VMware's new standard for interacting with vCenter - HTML 5 Client. I also show you how to review, configure, diagnose and fix common problems when web interfaces aren't available using command line tools. Command line tools expose the full feature and capability set of ESXi and vCenter and can be used to explore, configure, update, investigate and zero in on  performance bottlenecks and trouble spots. Up to 45% of class time is  devoted to labs so concepts, skills and best practices are developed and  reinforced.

By the end of the  class, participants will have learned advanced practical and actionable skills in vSphere design, implementation, upgrading, sizing, scalability,  performance optimization, troubleshooting and more.

Course  Packages & Pricing

Most popular

Getting Started

Free

  • Get the first 26 videos for free

    • Start the full course for free
    • 4+hrs with 26 Lectures and Hands-on Lab demo videos
    • Free course book covers first 3 chapters only
    • Upgrade to the full course when you are ready
    • Join our closed vSphere Discussion group
    • Participate in weekly instructor led webinars
    • Get discount coupons for future enrollments
Free

Learn

$295 USD

  • Everything in the Getting Started Tier plus

    • 30 day money back guarantee
    • Equivalent to a 5-day 8hr/day vSphere 6.7 training course
    • Comparable to VMware's 6.7 Optimize & Scale class
    • Lifetime access to all recorded lectures and labs
    • Learn vSphere 6.7 with 19+hrs of video lectures
    • 14+hrs of practical hands-on lab demo videos
    • Free Preview videos in most chapters
    • 700pg Study Guide with all slides and slide notes (PDF)
    • 240pg Lab Guide gives with all lab tasks (PDF)
    • Questions answered within one business day
    • Attend free weekly instructor led webinars
    • Free vSphere 6.7 timed practice exams
    • Course completion certificate
    • Advanced vSphere 6.7 Training on a budget!
Buy Now

Learn and Do

$995 USD

  • Everything in the Learn Tier plus

    • 30 Days Access to our live hands-on vSphere 6.7 Labs
    • 7x24 dedicated to your always on labs
    • Complete with DNS, DHCP, Active Directory, File Shares
    • Two ESXi hosts. One to build, one ready for VMotion
    • iSCSI SAN with 5 LUNs for shared storage and cluster labs
    • Access from Windows, Mac, LInux via RDP / RDC
    • Also access via free RDP-to-HTML 5 gateway
    • Next business day support for your labs
    • Additional Lab Q&A with the instructor
    • Get the hands-on skills you need to succeed!
Buy Now

Learn, Do and Coach

$1495 USD

  • Everything in the Learn and Do Tier plus

    • 3 hours of live one-on-one coaching with the course author
    • Choose the topic - new features, upgrades, performance, troubleshooting...
    • Priority lab scheduling so you get your labs when you need them
    • Maximize your vSphere productivity and effectiveness!
Buy Now

Course  Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

    • - Install, configure, secure and administer ESXi 6.7 hosts according to best practices
    • - Configure ESXi services and firewalls
    • - Use command line tools to manage ESXi hosts, packages, services, users, permissions, view logs
    • - Work with pNICs, vNICs and TCP/IP stacks
    • - Review and administer standard vSwitches, Port Groups, VMkernel NICs from the command line
    • - Explain the pros, cons, performance differences and use cases for e1000, e1000 and vmxnet vNICs
    • - Correctly enable, configure and test Jumbo Frames to improve overall network throughput
    • - Use provided Network Tools to test connectivity, network paths, SSL connections, capture packets and display network information
    • - Explain, configure and use the three different vSwitch Security policies
    • - Identify and implement the 5 pNIC teaming policies, explain their requirements and use cases and select the best policy based on available hardware
    • - Explain and configure Beacon Probing to improve network fault detection
    • - Configure VLAN Tagging using any of vSwitch tagging, External Switch tagging or Guest OS tagging and the use cases for each option
    • - Explain, configure and use pHardware -> vHardware mapping using DirectPath and Single Root I/O Virtualization
    • - Monitor network activity with esxtop
    • - Connect ESXi host to NAS / NFS shares from Host Client or from the command line
    • - Explain the pros, cons and use cases for the three different virtual SCSI host bus adapters - Buslogic, LSIlogic and Paravirtual
    • - Configure and streamline Guest operating systems for efficient deployment inside VMs
    • - Use esxcli to list, power manage, register / unregister VMs
    • - Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) to version 6.7 from version 6.0
    • -  Perform post-install configuration tasks on vCSA including joining the  base OS and Platform Services Controller to Active Directory
    • - Explain and perform vCSA backups using the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI)
    • - Review, stop, start and restart vCenter services from the command line
    • - Import and Export VMs safely using Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF)
    • - Understand, configure and use Hot-plug virtual hardware including vCPUs, vRAM, vNICs, virtual SCSI adapters and vDisks
    • - Monitor real time VM resource use with esxtop
    • - Use VMware Update Manager (VUM) to upgrade ESXi hosts to ESXi 6.7
    • - Use VUM to upgrade VM virtual hardware and VMware tools
    • - Understand supported shared storage options and connect ESXi to iSCSI shared storage
    • - Understand the benefits of VMware APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) and how to test to see if your SAN supports all VAAI capabilities
    • - Monitor storage performance using esxtop
    • - Use Raw Device Maps (RDMs) to provide direct VM to SAN LUN access for dedicated LUNs and for Microsoft Cluster Services VMs
    • - Understand, create, monitor and capacity manage VMFS 6 file systems
    • - Explain the pros, cons, limitations and use cases of VMware's Native Multipathing (NMP) active / stand by and active active services
    • - Understand, configure, use and monitor vFlash File Systems and Flash based VMFS volumes to improve ESXi host and VM I/O efficiency
    • - Understand, configure and use Storage Profiles to identify storage capabilities, VM storage needs and verify correct VM to storage placements
    • - Create, configure and work with automated Storage Distributed Resource Scheduling (SDRS) Datastore clusters
    • - Configure ESXi hosts, VMs and networks so that they meet VMotion, Storage VMotion, DRS and HA cluster requirements
    • - Configure and use vSphere High Availability clusters to deliver 99.99% VM uptime and protect against host, storage network and SAN LUN failures
    • - Use vSphere Fault Tolerance to provide zero unplanned downtime for critical VMs - even with host, storage network or SAN LUN failures
    • - Create Distributed Virtual Switches and migrate pNICs, Port Groups off of standard vSwitches onto dvSwitches


Course  Packages

The Free Course Package

Do you need to improve your VMware vSphere 6.7? Or, maybe upgrade your legacy VMware vSphere skills to take advantage of vSphere 6.7's latest features and capabilities? If so, this package lets you try out my advanced vSphere 6.7 course at no cost and no risk. Just enroll and start learning.

In this package you get 100% of the videos, hands-on lab demos and course books for the first 3 chapters of this course, including:

- Introductory Lectures (total 13min)
- Class Overview Lectures (total 15min)
- Install and Configure ESXi 6.7 Lectures (total 140min)
- Install and Configure ESXi 6.7 Hands-on Lab Demos (total 72min)
- Introduction to Physical and Virtual Networking Lectures (total 41min)
- Introduction to Physical and Virtual Networking Hands-on lab Demos (total 29min)

For a total of over 5hrs and 10min of free content! You also get the first 4 chapters of the course book in digital / PDF format! Once you are completely satisfied that this course is for you, upgrade a higher tier to unlock all of the additional video content.and receive the full course book set.


The Learn Course Package

Choose this package to get the equivalent of a full week of advanced VMware vSphere 6.7 training at the lowest possible price. For less than $100, you get:

Get over 35 hours of recorded lectures and recorded hands on lab demos with lifetime access. Our Video-on-Demand lectures (24+hrs) systematically introduce you to advanced VMware vSphere 6.7 concepts, configurations and mechanics. Each chapter thoroughly covers one major vSphere topic starting with the basics and then moving on to details, implementation considerations, design tradeoffs, best practices, pitfalls, performance considerations and tips and tricks. Most of the work is done using VMware's web interfaces but we do drop to the command line for a behind-the-scenes look at what is really going on. I provide many command line examples that show how to review, configure, troubleshoot, and manage ESXi hosts, vCenter Server Appliance, VMs, networks and storage. We also use command line tools to test configurations and monitor host, VM, network and storage activity and resource use.

Following each chapter you will find detailed Hands-on lab demo videos (16+hrs). In the hands-on lab demo videos, I connect to a live VMware vSphere 6.7 environment where I complete the lab tasks needed to build, configure, administer, test and verify that our new feature is built    right and is working as expected. I explain what I am doing, why I'm doing it and what to watch out for along the way. Our recorded hands-on lab demo videos are a great tool for you to use to refresh your knowledge and plan you activities before you make changes in your own live work environment

Full Course books in digital / PDF format. Your get our highly regarded 700 page vSphere 6.7 Study Guide that includes all slides and slide notes for every recorded lecture in  this class. We also include our 240 page vSphere 6.7 Lab Guide that includes  detailed step-by-step instructions for completing every   task demonstrated in the hands-on lab demo videos. This is a great reference set that you'll come back to again and again. Your also get free vSphere 6.7 course book updates for life!

Questions and Answers. Got a question? Ask it in your attendee interface and receive an answer typically within one business day

Free access to live, weekly Ask the Instructor webinars. Join us twice a week on Zoom meetings where you can interact with other students, ask questions about the course material and brainstorm with your instructor and peers regarding challenges you face at work. Participants will receive an e-mail each week with the next week's meeting schedule. I will hold meetings at different times to help you fit them into your schedule.

vSphere 6.7 practice exams. We also include access to our VMware vSphere 6.7 onlne exam engine. Whenever you are ready, challenge our VMware vSphere 6.7 exams to see how much knowledge and skill you have gained. Challenge the exam as often as you like.

When  you take the exam, you'll be  asked  80 multiple choice or True / False  questions. You have just 90  minutes  so you'll have to move quickly. Not  sure of an answer? Mark it  for review and come back to it once you've  answered all of the easy questions. Use our practice exam to identify areas where you need further study. Go back back to the relevant chapters and review the lectures and lab demos. Then challenge the exam again and watch your results improve!

Course Completion Certificates. Once you complete the final lecture of this course, you will automatically receive a Course Completion Certificate by e-mail.



The Learn and Do Course Package

This bundle includes everything found in the Learn course package plus:

30 Days Access to our Dedicated Live vSphere 6.7 Labs

ESXLab maintains a live vSphere lab environment that we use primarily for our corporate training customers. When you choose this bundle, we add 30 days of 24/7 dedicated lab access to your video training. Use our labs to work through every lab task I demonstrate in the Hands-on Lab Demo videos.

Video lectures and lab demos are great but nothing beats actually logging in to a live system and doing the work yourself. You get dedicated live remote labs   that you access using Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (available on PC, notebooks, Macs and Linux). Can't RDP from work? No problem, as we also provide a free RDP -> HTML 5 browser gateway service that puts your entire lab in a browser tab.

Your labs come pre-configured with everything you need to build your vSphere 6.7 environment including:

- DNS, DHCP and Active Directory server all set up and ready to go
- SMB and NFS shares pre-populated with needed tools and media images
- A Windows desktop to access the environment
- Two ESXi hosts for you to use. One is ready to install and the second pre-configured and ready to use for VMotion and clusters
- An iSCSI SAN to provide shared storage volumes. We use this for VMotion, HA clusters and more

Don't worry if you make a mistake or need assistance using your labs as support is included

Need Additional Lab Time? Select the 60 day option so you can work through your labs as your schedule permits



The Learn, Do and Coach Course Package

This bundle includes everything found in the Learn and Do course package plus:

3 hours of One-on-One Coaching

Do your vSphere  education needs go beyond a training course? Do you wonder if you are  using all of the features and capabilities of your expensive vSphere  licenses? Or maybe you'd like to discuss your plans, problems, issues or  strategies with an objective, experienced vSphere administrator. If you answered Yes to any of these questions, then One-on-One Coaching is for you.

With  this bundle you get 3hrs of one-on-one coaching with the course author. Once we agree on a time (during business hours), you set the an agenda and we will meet via Zoom. We can use all 3 hrs at once or you can have up to 3, one hour meetings as you prefer.You get up to one year to use your time so there is no hurry to book your coaching time. You can even buy additional blocks of time once your 3hrs are up!


Is this Class  For Me?

To benefit this course you should be an experienced vSphere administrator (any version) with a good working knowledge of guest operating systems including Windows Server or Linux. You should be familiar with TCP/IP networking, storage basics and computer hardware. Prior VMware vSphere experience is strongly recommended as this fast paced course moves through the basics quickly and focuses primarily on intermediate to advanced topics.

Customers buy our courses because they

    • - Are experienced legacy vSphere admins but are new to vSphere 6.7. They can use this course to upgrade their skills while building vSphere knowledge
    • - Have used vSphere before but have never had formal training. This class will help you fill in knowledge gaps and become more effective
    • - Currently administer vSphere and need to learn how to configure and use vSphere's many advanced features
    • - Have only used VMware's web / GUI interface and need to add command line configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting skills
    • - Are preparing to challenge the VMware Certified Professional - Datacenter Virtualization exam or the VMware Certified Advanced Professional exam and want to gain additional knowledge and hands-on lab tie before challenging the exam

Course  Curriculum

Instructor  Bio

Larry Karnis

ESXLab - Your source for affordable VMware vSphere training.

Q: What do you do if you need to learn VMware vSphere introductory or advanced skills - but can't afford the $4,000+ needed to attend official VMware training?
A: Enroll in ESXLab's VMware vSphere training instead!

My is Larry Karnis and I have been teaching VMware vSphere since 2004, when I was invited by VMware to become one of their first contract instructors. I taught their Install, Configure, Manage and FastTrack courses for 5 years. In 2008, I founded ESXLab and dedicated it to providing practical, effective and objective VMware training for corporate and individual customers. I have led hundreds of training classes all around the world and have taught vSphere to literally thousands of people in my live instructor led events. And I have taught over 25,000 people through video-on-demand training!

This site is my official video-on-demand training site. This site offers my complete introductory and advanced vSphere training courses. These courses provide you with a learning experience comparable to what you would receive if you attended a crazy expensive 5-day event such as official VMware vSphere 7.0 Install, Configure, Manage  or VMware vSphere 7.0 Optimize and Scale courses. But my video-on-demand training sells for a small fraction of the cost of live training.

By offering self-paced Video-on-Demand (VoD) training, digital course eBooks, live remote access vSphere labs and online support, I can provide you with a self-paced vSphere learning experience that will match or exceed what you would get from an instructor led training class. My goal is to give you a better training experience - for much, much less.

How Will ESXLab vSphere Training Benefit Me?

I get lots feedback from people who tell me the benefits they have received from my courses. They use my training to:

  • Help prepare for VMware Certified Professional (VCP)  or VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification
  • Fill in knowledge gaps on software they already have and use
  • Learn about new features and capabilities of vSphere 6.7 or 6.5
  • Learn how to use vSphere Web Client and HTML 5 Client (because vSphere Client is obsolete)
  • Get the skills necessary to move into an entry level vSphere administrators job
  • Get the skills necessary to move up to intermediate and advanced level vSphere administrators job

Why Learn From Me?
I am an IT consultant / trainer with over 25 years of experience. I currently run an IT consulting and training company called ESXLab that specializes in VMware vSphere consulting and training. 

After graduating with Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Math in 1984, I worked for 10 years as a UNIX programmer and administrator. I switched to Linux in 1995 and started teaching Linux courses for Learning Tree, Global Knowledge and RedHat. At RedHat, I taught introductory and advanced Linux courses and administered the RedHat Certified Engineer exams. I even authored two books on Linux.

I've been working with VMware products since 2001. I earned my first VMware Certified Professional (VCP) designation on ESX 2.0 in 2004 (VCP #: 993). I have earned VCP in ESX 3, and in vSphere 4 and 5. I have been providing VMware consulting and training for more than 17  years. I have taught more than 25,000 people how to use vSphere in live instructor led training, online live training and video-on-demand training.

I worked for VMware as a VMware Certified Instructor (VCI) for five years (2004-2008). After leaving VMware, I launched my own VMware training business called ESXLab.  

I hold many industry certificates including VCP-Datacenter Virtualization on VMware Infrastructure 2 & 3 and vSphere 4 & 5 (ret.), VMware Certified Instructor (ret.), RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE), RedHat Certified Instructor (RHCI) and RedHat Certified Examiner (RHCX) as well as certifications from the Linux Professional Institute, Hewlett Packard, Santa Cruz Operation and others. 

I hope to see you in one of my VMware classes... There's no risk as I make plenty content available for free preview - so check it out and see if my VMware vSphere training is for you.

Feel free to send me questions. My e-mail address is larry.karnis@esxlab.com. I usually respond within 1-2 days.

Thanks for your interest.

Larry

Larry Karnis / ESXLab.com

E-mail: larry.karnis@esxlab.com

John Smith

Developer

Highly Recommended Course. Easy to Understand, Informative, Very Well Organized. The Course is Full of Practical and Valuable for Anyone who wants to Enhance their Skills. Really Enjoyed it. Thank you!!

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