If you are an experienced vSphere admin then this post may not be for you. However, if you are new or just getting started on your journey to virtualization and vSphere with Operations Management (VSOM) then please keep reading…
I was once asked: “Explain how a brand new admin who wanted to install vSphere with Operations Management (VSOM) for the first time would go about doing that?”. While my initial thought was “Ah, that’s easy!”, in trying to answer this question it occurred to me that it’s actually quite involved, especially when you are new. You would need to do some research to understand the components, in the course of this research you would come across many new terms and acronyms and several different installation guides. Bottom line, a lot of time would be spent trying to figure out what the pieces are and how they fit together, and this is all before you install the first component.
This got me thinking about the challenges new IT professionals face and how it can be difficult having to sift through the vast amount of data trying to get answers to even the simple questions.
It’s in this spirit that we have created a new video series entitled “Getting Started – vSphere with Operations Management”. These videos are aimed specifically at helping new IT professionals get started with VSOM. The series starts by introducing you to the principals of virtualization and then guide you through the process of installing and configuring each VSOM component. The aim is to to help you spend less time researching and more time doing. These videos are basic, the goal was simple – to provide a series of introductory videos targeted at people who are new to vSphere in order to help get them through the initial learning curve.
There are currently 28 videos available on VMware TV’s YouTube channel. I’ve also provided a summary of the videos below. Please check them out and let us know what you think. We plan to use the feedback we get from these videos in order to create additional videos that will also target at the new IT professional just getting started.
This video introduces you to the benefits of virtualization and how it can help reduce cost, improve availability and simplify operations for your IT infrastructure. It introduces you to VMware’s high performance, enterprise-class hypervisor architecture and provides information to help you get started with deploying VMware vSphere.
This video shows how to deploy vSphere with Operations Management (VSOM) in a simple lab environment that mimics the environment used to create the training videos. Watch this video to learn how to create a small lab that you can use to evaluate and train on vSphere with Operations Management.
This video shows how to install the VMware ESXi hypervisor on a vSphere host and how to configure the management network using the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI).
This video provides an overview of the vSphere Host Direct Console User Interface (DCUI). The DCUI is a menu-based interface that is accessed from the host console and used to configure ESXi running on vSphere hosts.
This video shows how to download the vSphere client and install it on a Windows desktop so you can use it to connect to and manage your vSphere hosts. Note that the vSphere client can be used to manage a single vSphere hosts as well as together with vCenter server in order to provide centralized management of many vSphere hosts.
This video shows how to use the vSphere client to connect to a vSphere host and deploy the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). The VCSA is a preconfigured Linux-based virtual machine optimized for running vCenter Server and associated services.
This video shows how to connect to the vCenter Server Appliance management interface in order to accept the end-user license agreement and configure the database for first time use.
This video shows how to get started with creating your VMware vCenter Server inventory by using the vSphere Web Client to create a datacenter, create a cluster and to add hosts to the cluster.
This video shows how to secure vSphere hosts with Lockdown Mode in order to limit direct access to the host console and require administrators manage hosts through vCenter Server.
This video shows how to use the ESXi Firewall on the vSphere host to block incoming and outgoing communication and to manage the services running on the host.
This video shows how to join a vSphere host to a Microsoft Active Directory (AD) domain in order to allow admins to use their active directory credentials to access and manage hosts.
This video shows how to use the vSphere web client to configure shares, reservations, and limits in order to effectively distribute compute and memory resources among virtual machines.
This video shows how to use the vSphere web client to configure resource pools within a DRS cluster and how to add virtual machines to the resource pools.
This video shows how to use the vSphere web client to enable and configure High Availability (HA) and Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS). HA protects against machines down time by automating recovery in the event of a host failure. DRS ensures performance by balancing virtual machine workloads across hosts a cluster.
This video shows how to use vSphere Maintenance Mode to automate the task of migrate virtual machine workloads off vSphere hosts in preparation for host maintenance.
This video shows how to protect virtual machines with VMware Fault Tolerance (FT). FT provides continuous virtual machine availability through instantaneous failover in the event of a host failure.
This video shows how to install and configure the vCenter Operations Manager using the vSphere web client to deploy the vCenter Operations Manager virtual appliance.
This video provides an introduction to the vCenter Operations Manager dashboard along with a detailed breakdown of the health, risk and efficiency badges.
This video shows how to use the vCenter Operations Manager dashboard to perform basic troubleshooting tasks and how to configure smart alerts and generate reports.
