In this five-day course, you will focus on designing, installing, configuring, and managing VMware vCloud Director® 8.10 for service providers. You will learn about self-service provisioning, the creation of organizations, virtual data centers, and catalog services that include predefined virtual machines, and on-demand VMware NSX® networks as well as the integrated use of VMware Virtual SAN™. This course also covers interfacing vCloud Director with other systems through the use of various APIs.

Product Alignment
•  vCloud Director 8.10
•  Virtual SAN 6.2
•  NSX 6.2

Aim

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
•  Design a vCloud Director environment
•  Deploy vCloud Director
•  Manage vCloud Director to satisfy service provider needs
•  Configure Virtual SAN and VMware vSphere® storage to enable multiple tiers in provider virtual data
   centers
•  Create and manage vCloud Director organizations and vApps to satisfy business needs
•  Create and manage vCloud Director catalogs
•  Transfer virtual machine workloads from vSphere into and out of vCloud Director
•  Configure networking for organizations and vApps with the help of NSX
•  Use NSX to create hybrid cloud connectivity between a public cloud and a private cloud
•  Create an interface between vCloud Director and Microsoft Active Directory servers

Recommended for

Cloud architects, systems engineers, data center administrators, and cloud administrators with experience in a service provider or managed services environment.

Prerequisites

This course requires completion of the following course:
•  VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V6] or equivalent knowledge

This course recommends completion of the following e-learning courses:
•  VMware vCloud Director: Fundamentals [V8.10]
•  VMware Virtual SAN: Fundamentals [V6.2]
•  VMware Network Virtualization Fundamentals

Substantial knowledge of TCP/IP networking is helpful.

Syllabus

1. Course Introduction

Introductions and course logistics
Course objectives

2. Software-Defined Data Center

Describe the evolution of the software-defined data center
Describe vSphere
Describe NSX
Describe Virtual SAN

3. Cloud Computing and Cloud Director Overview

Cloud computing overview
Characteristics of cloud services
Categories of cloud computing
VMware offering to enable cloud-based services
Cloud deployment environments
VMware vCloud® Air™ network program overview
Describe vCloud Director in relation to service provider or managed services environments

4. vCloud Director Architecture and Components

vCloud Director architecture
Review vCloud Director components and explain their functions
Examine integration with other VMware products, such as VMware vRealize® Business for Cloud, VMware vRealize® Operations Manager™, NSX, and Virtual SAN
vCloud Director terms: vApp and catalog
vCloud Director terms: organization and virtual data center
Network concepts
vCloud Director supported storage

5. vCloud Providers

Identify storage resources for vCloud Director
Configure and manage storage for providers
Examine provider space allocation to an organization
Manage storage requirements for linked clones and shadow virtual machines
Describe the use cases for Virtual SAN, VMware vSphere® Virtual Volumes™, and legacy storage

6. vCloud Director Organizations

Create and manage organizations
Organization virtual data center allocation models
Recognize resource allocations for an organization
Create and manage catalogs
Manage vApps and vApp templates

7. vCloud Networking with NSX

Describe the basic NSX components in relation to vCloud Director
Describe the network types available in vCloud Director (external, org, vApp)
Discuss the organization and vApp network traffic choices
Examine the function of network pools
Explain how to share content between organizations and vApps
Describe options to connect a private cloud to a public cloud
Review options for external connectivity with VPN

8. Basic Security

Describe role-based access
Create custom security roles
Describe and configure LDAP integration with Active Directory
Describe single sign-on
Enable a SAML identity provider
Describe two-factor authentication

9. Managing Cloud Resources

Identify how vSphere fulfills vCloud Director requests
Manage provider and organization virtual data centers

10. Managing vSphere Resources

Manage VMware vCenter Server® instances
Manage VMware ESXi™ hosts
Manage vSphere datastores
Manage stranded items
Configure and manage resource pools at the vSphere level

11. Monitoring vCloud Components

Monitor usage information at provider and organization virtual data centers
Analyze vCloud Director logs to mirror vCloud Director cells
Monitor vCloud Director environments with vRealize Operations Manager and VMware vRealize® Log Insight™
Leverage vRealize Business for cost management

12. vCloud Director API and Metadata

Describe tools to access the API of vCloud Director
Use of REST API in VMware vRealize Orchestrator
Describe access to vCloud Director using VMware vSphere PowerCLI
Create and update metadata on objects

13. vCloud Director Installation

vCloud Director setup overview
vCloud Director hardware and software requirements
vCloud Director supported platforms
Network configuration prerequisites
Install and configure the vCloud Director database
Configure an Oracle database and a Microsoft SQL Server database
Create SSL certificates
Configure VMware NSX® Manager™ for a new vCloud Director installation
Install and configure an AMQP broker
Download and install the VMware public key
vRealize Business integration with vCloud Director

14. vCloud Director Upgrade

vCloud Director upgrade overview
Upgrade prerequisites
NSX requirements
Additional information
Best practice for upgrades