• Use command-line interfaces, log files, and VMware vSphere® Client™ to diagnose and resolve problems in the vSphere environment
• Describe the benefits and capabilities of VMware Skyline
• Explain the purpose of key vSphere log files
• Monitor and analyze key performance indicators for compute, storage, and networking resources for VMware ESXi™ hosts
• Optimize the performance in the vSphere environment, including VMware vCenter Server®
• Identify networking problems based on reported symptoms, validate, and troubleshoot the reported problem, identify the root cause, and implement the appropriate resolution
• Analyze storage failure scenarios using a logical troubleshooting methodology, identify the root cause, and apply the appropriate resolution to resolve the problem
• Troubleshoot vSphere cluster failure scenarios and analyze possible causes
• Diagnose common VMware vSphere® High Availability problems and provide solutions
• Identify and validate ESXi host and vCenter Server problems, analyze failure scenarios, and select the correct resolution
• Troubleshoot virtual machine problems, including migration problems, snapshot problems, and connection problems
• Troubleshoot performance problems with vSphere components

Certifications

Attendance of this course meets the training requirement to achieve the following certification:

• VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization (VCP-DCV)

1. Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

2. Introduction to Troubleshooting

• Define the scope of troubleshooting
• Use a structured approach to solve configuration and operational problems
• Apply a troubleshooting methodology to logically diagnose faults and improve troubleshooting efficiency

3. Troubleshooting Tools

• Use command-line tools (such as ESXCLI) to identify and troubleshoot vSphere problems
• Identify important vSphere log files and interpret the log file contents
• Describe the benefits and capabilities of VMware Skyline
• Explain how VMware Skyline works
• Identify uses for Skyline Advisor

4. Network Optimization

• Explain performance features of network adapters
• Explain the performance features of vSphere networking
• Use esxtop to monitor key network performance metrics

5. Troubleshooting Virtual Networking

• Analyze and resolve standard switch and distributed switch problems
• Analyze virtual machine connectivity problems and fix them
• Examine common management network connectivity problems and restore configurations

6. Storage Optimization

• Describe storage queue types and other factors that affect storage performance
• Discuss vSphere support for NVMe and iSER technologies
• Use esxtop to monitor key storage performance metrics

7. Troubleshooting Storage

• Troubleshoot and resolve storage (iSCSI, NFS, and VMware vSphere® VMFS) connectivity and configuration problems
• Analyze and resolve common VM snapshot problems
• Identify and resolve multipathing-related problems, including common causes of permanent device loss
• (PDL) and all paths down (APD) event problems

8. CPU Optimization

• Explain the CPU scheduler operation and other features that affect CPU performance
• Explain NUMA and vNUMA support
• Use esxtop to monitor key CPU performance metrics

9. Memory Optimization

• Explain ballooning, memory compression, transparent page sharing, and host-swapping techniques for memory reclamation when memory is overcommitted
• Use esxtop to monitor key memory performance metrics

10. Troubleshooting vSphere Clusters

• Identify and recover from problems related to vSphere HA
• Analyze and resolve VMware vSphere® vMotion® configuration and operational problems
• Analyze and resolve common VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource Scheduler™ problems

11. Troubleshooting Virtual Machines

• Identify, analyze, and solve virtual machine snapshot problems
• Troubleshoot virtual machine power-on problems
• Identify possible causes and troubleshoot virtual machine connection-state problems
• Diagnose and recover from VMware Tools™ installation failures

12. vCenter Server Performance Optimization

• Describe the factors that influence vCenter Server performance
• Use VMware vCenter® Server Appliance™ tools to monitor resource use

13. Troubleshooting vCenter Server and ESXi

• Analyze and fix problems with vCenter Server services
• Diagnose and troubleshoot vCenter Server database problems
• Examine ESXi host and vCenter Server failure scenarios and resolve the problems

• Experienced system administrators
• System engineers
• System integrators

This course requires completion of one of the following prerequisites:

• VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V7]
• Equivalent knowledge and administration experience with ESXi and vCenter Server

Experience in working at the command prompt is highly recommended.