ABOUT THE AUTHORS Jon Hall is a Certification Development, Technical Training, and Education Services Management Professional with over a decade of experience working for VMware Education Services. He assisted in the development of numerous VMware certifications, and currently holds 13 VMware certifications, along with certifications from HP, Cisco, and others. Joshua Andrews is a VMware expert, blogger, and certification enthusiast. He currently holds numerous VMware certifications, including VCP6-DCV, VCAP6-DCV, VCIX-DCV, and VCIX-NV. He has also received the VMware vExpert designation every year since 2012.

• Introduction xxiAssessment Test xxxiChapter 1 What’s New in vSphere 6.7 1Accessing vSphere 2VMware vSphere Client 2Application Programming Interface 8Topology and UI Updates for VCSA 8External Platform Services Controller 8Update Manager 10Storage Updates 18Persistent Memory 19Remote Direct Memory Access 19vSAN 20Security Updates 22Virtual Machines 24Content Library 24Per-VM EVC 40Summary 41Exam Essentials 42Review Questions 43Chapter 2 Configuring and Administering Security in a vSphere Datacenter 47Configuring and Administering Role-Based Access Controls 49What Is a Privilege? 49What Is a Task? 49What Is a Role? 50Assigning Permissions 54Viewing and Exporting Group and User Permissions 70Securing ESXi Hosts and the vCenter Server 72Hardening ESXi Hosts 72Hardening vCenter Server 87Configuring and Enabling SSO and Identity Sources 88vCenter Single Sign-On 89Platform Services Controller 91Configuring vCenter Single Sign-On 93Securing Virtual Machines 96Secure Boot 96Virtual Machine Encryption 96Virtual Machine Hardening 106vSphere Network Security 117Summary 118Exam Essentials 118Review Questions 119Chapter 3 Networking in vSphere 123Understanding vSphere Networking 124Standard Switches 125Virtual Distributed Switches 127Using dvPort Groups 138Working with Virtual Adapters 144Custom TCP/IP Stacks 147Long-Distance vMotion 151Migrating Virtual Machines to or from a vDS 151Performance and Reliability 151Link Aggregation 152Load Balancing and Failover Policies 153Traffic Shaping 154TCP Segmentation Offload 155Jumbo Frames 155Network Isolation 158Automatic Rollback 159Monitoring and Mirroring 163Using NetFlow 164Understanding Network I/O Control 165Configuring NIOC Reservations, Shares, and Limits 166Summary 170Exam Essentials 171Review Questions 172Chapter 4 Storage in vSphere 177Managing vSphere Integration with Physical Storage 178Adding an NFS Datastore 179Using Block Storage 186Configuring the Software iSCSI Initiator 187Binding VMkernels to the Software iSCSI Initiator 189Scanning for Changes 192Storage Filters 193Thin Provisioning 194Storage Multipathing and Failover 196Configuring and Upgrading VMFS and NFS 203Configuring VMFS Datastores 207Raw Device Mapping and Bus Sharing 214Configuring Software-Defined Storage 217Virtual Storage Area Network 217Virtual Volumes 225Storage Policy–Based Management 229Enabling and Configuring Storage I/O Control 230Summary 233Exam Essentials 234Review Questions 235Chapter 5 Upgrading a vSphere Deployment 239Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 240Upgrading a vCenter Server on Windows 244Verify Basic Compatibility and Download the Installer 245Prepare the Database for Upgrade 245Prepare for Upgrading the Content Library 247Verify Network Prerequisites, Load Balancer, and ESXI Hosts 247Starting the vCenter on Windows Upgrade 247Migrating to the vCenter Server Appliance 252Upgrading Using the Command Line 252Upgrading Using the Graphical Interface 253Upgrading ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machines 264Using the Update Manager Download Service 264Using vSphere Update Manager 265Summary 284Exam Essentials 285Review Questions 286Chapter 6 Allocating Resources in a vSphere Datacenter 291Administering and Managing vSphere 6.x Resources 293Configuring Multilevel Resource Pools 295Reservations, Limits, and Shares 296Resource Pool Administration Exercises 303Using Tags and Custom Attributes 308Configuring vSphere DRS and Storage DRS Clusters 315Distributed Resource Scheduler 316Predictive DRS 318Network-Aware DRS 320Storage DRS 322Establishing Affinity and Anti-Affinity 322DRS Cluster Administration Exercises 324Summary 342Exam Essentials 343Review Questions 344Chapter 7 Backing Up and Recovering a vSphere Deployment 349VCSA Backup and Restore 350Backing Up Virtual Machines by Using VDP 357Installing VDP 358Creating Backup Jobs 361Restoring from Backup 365Deploying Proxy Servers 368Replicating Virtual Machines 376Deploying a Replication Appliance 376Configuring Replication 378Recovering Replicated VMs 382Summary 387Exam Essentials 387Review Questions 388Chapter 8 Troubleshooting a vSphere Deployment 393Troubleshooting vCenter and ESXi 394vCenter Connectivity and Services 394vCenter Certificates 399vCenter Log Files 399ESXi Troubleshooting 403ESXi Monitoring 407Troubleshooting Storage and Networking 413Storage Issues 413Storage Performance 416Storage DRS and I/O Control 417Network Issues 418Troubleshooting Upgrades 421Troubleshooting Virtual Machines 421Troubleshooting HA and DRS 425Summary 426Exam Essentials 427Review Questions 428Chapter 9 Deploying and Customizing ESXi Hosts 433Configuring Auto Deploy 434Enabling PXE Boot 435Configuring DHCP 435Configuring TFTP 436Enabling Auto Deploy 437Adding Deploy Rules 440Adding a Custom Image and Profile 442Stateless Caching and Stateful Installs 442Employing Host Profiles 452Creating and Using Host Profiles 453Importing and Exporting Host Profiles 457Advanced Profile Modifications 458Using Answer Files 461Summary 468Exam Essentials 468Review Questions 469Chapter 10 Ensuring High Availability for vSphere Clusters and the VCSA 475Configuring vSphere Cluster High Availability 476HA Failures and Responses 477Host Isolation 478Heartbeat Datastores 479Advanced Options 480Configuring VMCP 482Monitoring Virtual Machines 483Admission Control 486vCenter Server Appliance High Availability 499Summary 511Exam Essentials 512Review Questions 514Chapter 11 Administering and Managing vSphere Virtual Machines 519Virtual Machine Advanced Settings 520Virtual Machine Configuration File 522Advanced Virtual Machine Options 528Content Library 537VMware Converter 546Summary 558Exam Essentials 558Review Questions 559Appendix Answers to Review Questions 565Chapter 1: What’s New in vSphere 6.7 566Chapter 2: Configuring and Administering Security in a vSphere Datacenter 567Chapter 3: Networking in vSphere 569Chapter 4: Storage in vSphere 570Chapter 5: Upgrading a vSphere Deployment 571Chapter 6: Allocating Resources in a vSphere Datacenter 573Chapter 7: Backing Up and Recovering a vSphere Deployment 575Chapter 8: Troubleshooting a vSphere Deployment 577Chapter 9: Deploying and Customizing ESXi Hosts 578Chapter 10: Ensuring High Availability for vSphere Clusters and the VCSA 579Chapter 11: Administering and Managing vSphere Virtual Machines 581Index 583