VMware vSphere 5 - Part 2: DRS, Resource Pools, and vApps
Overview/Description Target Audience Expected Duration Lesson Objectives Course Number Overview/Description
vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) builds on the idea of manually balancing loads across ESXi hosts and turns it into a way of automatically balancing resource utilization load across groups of ESXi hosts. DRS can be as automated as desired, and vCenter Server has flexible controls for affecting the behavior of DRS as well as the behavior of specific VMs within a DRS-enabled cluster. This course describes the function of DRS and how to enable and edit DRS settings. vSphere DRS enables the use of Resource Pools when clustering ESXi hosts. Managing resource allocation and usage for large numbers of VMs creates too much administrative overhead and Resource Pools provide a mechanism for administrators to apply resource allocation policies to groups of VMs all at the same time. In much the same way as you assign users to groups and then assign permissions to the groups, you can leverage Resource Pools to make the allocation of resources to collections of VMs a more effective process. In other words, instead of configuring reservations, limits, or shares on a per VM basis, you can use a Resource Pool to set those values on a group of VMs all at once. This course explains how to create and manage Resource Pools to make the allocation of resources to collections of VMs more effective. vApps are a way for vSphere administrators to combine multiple VMs into a single unit. Why is this functionality useful? Increasingly, enterprise applications are no longer constrained to a single VM. Instead, enterprise applications may have components spread across multiple VMs. For example, a typical multitier application might have one or more front-end web servers, an application server, and a back-end database server. Although each of these servers is a discrete VM and could be managed as such, they are also part of a larger application that is servicing the organization. Combining these different VMs into a vApp allows the vSphere administrator to manage the different VMs as a single unit. This course explains how to work with vApps, including creating vApps and editing vApps. This course can be used in preparation for the VCP5 exam. However, it is not sponsored or authorized by VMware so does not fully satisfy the training requirements to achieve the certification.
Target Audience
Systems engineers, system administrators, vSphere operators and support personnel working in virtualized server environments who have completed Datacenter Virtualization with vSphere 5: Part 1. Candidates who are seeking to learn about advanced features and configuration options available in the vSphere Enterprise product. This includes, configuring High Availability, Distributed Resource Scheduling, upgrading to vSphere 5 and auto deployment. A solid technical foundation in virtualization using vSphere coupled with strong network and administration skills are required as a prerequisite for this path.