VSANICM8 - VMware vSAN: Install, Configure, Manage

Overview

During this four-day course, you will gain the knowledge, skills, and tools to plan and deploy a VMware vSAN™ cluster. You will learn about managing and operating vSAN. This course focuses on building the required skills for common Day-2 vSAN administrator tasks such as vSAN node management, cluster maintenance, security operations, troubleshooting and advanced vSAN cluster operations. You will learn these skills through the completion of instructor-led activities and hands-on lab exercises.

Product Alignment

VMware ESXi™ 8.0
VMware vCenter Server® 8.0
VMware vSAN 8.0

Objectives

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

Describe vSAN concepts
Detail the underlying vSAN architecture and components
Explain the key features and use cases for vSAN
Identify requirements and planning considerations for vSAN clusters
Explain the importance vSAN node hardware compatibility
Describe the different vSAN deployment options
Explain how to configure vSAN fault domains
Detail how to define and create a VM storage policy
Discuss the impact of vSAN storage policy changes
Detail vSAN resilience and data availability
Describe vSAN storage space efficiency
Explain how vSAN encryption works
Detail VMware HCI Mesh™ technology and architecture
Detail vSAN File Service architecture and configuration
Describe how to setup a stretched and a two-node vSAN cluster
Describe vSAN maintenance mode and data evacuation options
Define the steps to shut down a vSAN cluster for maintenance
Explain how to use proactive tests to check the integrity of a vSAN cluster
Use VMware Skyline Health™ for monitoring vSAN health
Use VMware Skyline Health to investigate and help determine failure conditions
Discuss vSAN troubleshooting best practices
Describe vSAN Express Storage ArchitectureTM concepts

Prerequisites

Equivalent knowledge or completion of the following course is required:

VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage

Audience

Storage and virtual infrastructure consultants
Solution architects
Administrators who are responsible for production support and administration of VMware vSAN 8.0.

Outline

Course Introduction

Introduction and course logistics
Course objectives

Introduction to vSAN

Describe vSAN architecture
Describe the vSAN software components: CLOM, DOM, LSOM, CMMDS, and RDT
Identify vSAN objects and components
Describe the advantages of object-based storage
Describe the difference between All-Flash and Hybrid vSAN architecture
Explain the key features and use cases for vSAN
Discuss the vSAN integration and compatibility with other VMware technologies

Planning a vSAN Cluster
Identify requirements and planning considerations for vSAN clusters
Apply vSAN cluster planning and deployment best practices
Determine and plan for storage consumption by data growth and failure tolerance
Design vSAN hosts for operational needs
Identify vSAN networking features and requirements
Describe ways of controlling traffic in a vSAN environment
Recognize best practices for vSAN network configurations

Deploying a vSAN Cluster

Recognize the importance of hardware compatibility
Ensure the compatibility of driver and firmware versioning
Use tools to automate driver validation and installation
Apply host hardware settings for optimum performance
Use VMware vSphere® Lifecycle ManagerTM to perform upgrades
Deploy and configure a vSAN Cluster using the Cluster QuickStart wizard
Manually configure a vSAN Cluster using VMware vSphere® Client™
Explain and configure vSAN fault domains
Using VMware vSphere® High Availability with vSAN
Understand vSAN Cluster maintenance capabilities
Describe the difference between implicit and explicit fault domains
Create explicit fault domains

vSAN Storage Policies

Describe a vSAN object
Describe how objects are split into components
Explain the purpose of witness components
Explain how vSAN stores large objects
View object and component placement on the vSAN datastore
Explain how storage policies work with vSAN
Define and create a virtual machine storage policy
Apply and modify virtual machine storage policies
Change virtual machine storage policies dynamically
Identify virtual machine storage policy compliance status

vSAN Resilience and Data Availability

Describe and configure the Object Repair Timer advanced option
Plan disk replacement in a vSAN cluster
Plan maintenance tasks to avoid vSAN object failures
Recognize the importance of managing snapshot utilization in a vSAN cluster

Managing vSAN Storage Space Efficiency

Discuss deduplication and compression techniques
Understand deduplication and compression overhead
Discuss compression only mode
Configure erasure coding
Configure swap object thin provisioning
Discuss reclaiming storage space with SCSI UNMAP
Configure TRIM/UNMAP

vSAN Security Operations

Identify differences between VM encryption and vSAN encryption
Perform ongoing operations to maintain data security
Describe the workflow of data-in transit encryption
Identify the steps involved in replacing Key Management Server

vSAN HCI Mesh

Understand the purpose of vSAN HCI Mesh
Detail vSAN HCI Mesh technology and architecture
Perform mount and unmount of a remote datastore

vSAN File Service and iSCSI Target Service

Understand the purpose of vSAN File Services
Detail vSAN File Services architecture
Configure vSAN File Shares
Describe vSAN iSCSI Target Service

vSAN Stretched and Two Node Clusters

Describe the architecture and uses case for stretched clusters
Detail the deployment and replacement of a vSAN witness node
Describe the architecture and uses case for two-node clusters
Explain storage policies for vSAN stretched cluster

vSAN Cluster Maintenance

Perform typical vSAN maintenance operations
Describe vSAN maintenance modes and data evacuation options
Assess the impact on cluster objects of entering maintenance mode
Determine the specific data actions required after exiting maintenance mode
Define the steps to shut down and reboot hosts and vSAN clusters
Use best practices for boot devices
Replace vSAN nodes

vSAN Cluster Monitoring

Describe how the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) enables VMware to improve products and services
Use VMware Skyline Health for monitoring vSAN cluster health
Manage alerts, alarms, and notifications related to vSAN in VMware vSphere® Client™
Create and configure custom alarms to trigger vSAN health issues
Use IOInsight metrics for monitoring vSAN performance
Use a vSAN proactive test to detect and diagnose cluster issues

vSAN Troubleshooting

Use a structured approach to solve configuration and operational problems
Apply troubleshooting methodology to logically diagnose faults and optimize troubleshooting efficiency
Use VMware Skyline Health to investigate and help determine failure conditions
Explain which log files are useful for vSAN troubleshooting

vSAN Express Storage Architecture

Understand the purpose of vSAN Express Storage Architecture
Describe the vSAN Express Storage Architecture components
Identify Storage Policy differences
Understand compression and encryption operation differences