VMware vSphere 5 - Part 1: Introduction to Virtualization

Overview/Description
One of the biggest developments in IT infrastructure management is the emergence of server virtualization. Virtualization is well suited for most business applications and is widely in use for all but the most demanding workloads. Virtualization brings many economic advantages. It allows an organization to run multiple operating systems, called virtual machines, simultaneously on a single physical machine. The ability to consolidate multiple machines allows the IT department to reduce its hardware and software costs, as well as significantly reducing its operational costs. Virtualization isn't limited to simply creating virtual machines. Other infrastructure components, such as networking and storage, can also be virtualized, hiding the complexities of the underlying networking and storage components from the virtual machines. Once virtualized, the physical resources such as processor power, network switches and SAN resources can be aggregated and combined together for use by virtual machines, resulting in better utilization of physical resources, load balancing, and fault tolerance/redundancy. vSphere 5 is a virtualization software suite that can create virtual counterparts which correspond to, or replace, the physical components of a datacenter. This course will discuss the physical and virtual relationships between components. VMware products, such as ESXi and vCenter Server are licensed differently depending on their implementation. Factors such as the size of your environment, the resource needs of VMs, and the vSphere features one wishes to utilize will determine license type, configuration, and costs. Many of these factors will determine the type or edition of vSphere licensing your purchase. Each edition provides a feature set as well as determines the amount of physical resources VMs will have available to them (RAM, CPU, etc) and this course reviews each of those factors.

Target Audience
Anyone wishing to learn the fundamental features, functions, and capabilities of the VMware vSphere product suite collection of products in order to provide a full array of enterprise virtualization functionality; systems engineers, system administrators, vSphere operators and support personnel, and ESXi operators and support personnel. A good understanding of system administration on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Server 2008 operating systems experience would be of benefit. Experience equivalent to or greater than CompTIA Network+ and with Linux Server operating systems is strongly recommended.

Expected Duration (hours)
2.0

Lesson Objectives

VMware vSphere 5 - Part 1: Introduction to Virtualization

identify the characteristics of vSphere computer virtualization

differentiate between the two types of hypervisors

recognize the benefits of virtual network infrastructure

identify the components that make up a virtual datacenter

identify the characteristics of the vSphere virtual datacenter

identify the characteristics of vCenter Server management features

match VMware vSphere management components to their functions

distinguish between the vSphere management interfaces

differentiate between features of the vSphere product editions

describe how vSphere licensing works