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>For example: If I have a hardware server with 1 CPU, 4 cores, and 8 gb of RAM, can I run 4 simultaneous machines with 1 core and 2gb RAM assigned to each? Or does ESXI handle it by how much each one is being used?

If you don't want to overcommit the host at all (e.g. you want a hard guarentee that all of those VMs will always have 100% of their resources available, yes. Most people, however, expect to do some overcommitment. The extent to which you can do this is completely workload dependent, but it ranges from 1:1 on the lowend (your example) to 10:1 or even higher (e.g., you have 4 cores phsyically and you've built 40 cores worth of VMs, or 80GB worth of VM memory).

>I noticed that if I boot up a machine with 2gb of RAM assigned, it seems to allocated 2gb used in the ESXI summary page. To me, that implies I need that much physical RAM to really be there.

Allocated != Used (which does not equal 'Active', or 'Shared' or 'Granted', etc). Allocated is just the amount you put in when you configured the virtual machine. The most 'relevant' value for what you are looking for is probably 'Active' and/or 'Granted' - this is a better indication of what the VM is actually using currently.

>CPU seems different though. Do I need a core per PC, or could I assign 2 cores per PC and still run 4 PCs simultaneously without issues?

CPU and memory can be overallocated in the same ways. For every physical core in your system, you can allocate up to (I believe) 25 virtual cores. So your system could reasonable have 100 virtual CPUs running at the same time....Now, with a 25:1 virtualCore:physicalCore ratio, you have a pretty reasonable chance of some serious contention issues if all those VMs need to execute something at the same time, so you probably wont be able to actually achieve that but that brings your next question

>I guess a lot of this depends on how hard the machines are each being run as well.

Exactly. Some environments I've seen hit 20:1 ratios (vCore:pCore, or vMem:pMem), some maxed out at 3:1 based on their workload. You just have to try it and see (and VMware has tools to help try and estimate this).

>If someone could clarify this for me, or point me in the direction I can go for this info, that would be great! Thanks!

This is a good start. There's an in depth guide on memory management here: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/perf-vsphere-memory_management.pdf

If you want proper documentation, 'Mastering vSphere 5.5' by my buddy Scott is very good, and almost the bible for this stuff: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/1118661141

Lastly, the VMware ICM (Install, Configure Manage) course is very good (albeit a bit pricy).

I don't think I've ever gotten onboard USB 2.0 controllers to passthrough correctly. I gotten them to seemingly passthrough, but keyboards don't work only flash drives. I suspect its because the sort of fake hub used to connect to 1.1 devices doesn't show up in the list and if it did it wouldn't "connect" correctly.

I've had some success with onboard USB 3.0. AMD controllers at least.

But cards are the way out usually. I just buy USB 3.0 because it works fine for my needs and PCI-e has less limitations than PCI and PCI-e USB 2.0 controllers are really rare. I bought a number of cheap cards, these are successful ones from my tests.

This uses the NEC uPD720200a controller. At least I hope it does, I'm almost positive the page used to list the controller type in the item description. 720201 did NOT work for me in Windows XP, drive wouldn't load. That controller is the issue free one I used.
http://www.amazon.com/Chasetac-USB-SuperSpeed-PCIe-card/dp/B000KVUIX8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00

This card is a with caveats one. It uses the Fresco Logic FL1100 chipset. Its nice because it has 4 ports in a PCI-e slot, which makes it a good choice for KB/mouse and other connectivity. However, it causes the hypervisor to reboot when rebooting the guest...unless! you hack the passthru.map file to force it to use d3d0 resets. I suspect it has incomplete support for FLR or something and reports that works, but then it doesn't when the rubber hits the road.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORICO-4-Port-PCI-Express-to-USB-3-0-Host-Controller-Card-Power-Cable-For-MAC-PC-/161841673066?hash=item25ae83f36a:g:M7IAAOSw9r1V-Qfs

I never got to testing the Asmedia chipset cards. But since that highpoint card uses them they probably work.

I would recommend switching from SATA disks to NL-SAS disks as soon as you can - SATA disks have a queue depth of 32, whereas NL-SAS disks have a queue depth of 254.

You'd be surprised how inexpensive nice NL-SAS drives are these days: http://amzn.com/B00AA76GQU?tag=amz-link-20 (I use these and they work great)

I had the "VSAN Nightmare" due to using SATA magnetic disks and a low queue depth, and after moving to a RAID controller with queue depth of 1024 and NL-SAS disks the performance has been fine. You can learn more about the queue depth here: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2014/06/09/queue-depth-matters/

Luckily your RAID card is fine but I honestly wouldn't trust a production VSAN cluster to SATA disks based on my experience


My environment now is 8x Dell R720xd with 3 disk groups each - 1x 200gb Intel DC S3700 SSD and 3x Seagate ST2000NM0023 2tb 7.2k NL-SAS, behind H710P controller. Machines are connected to 10gbe network physically isolated just for VSAN use.


I had tried at first to screw around with policies in terms of # of disk stripes per object, but ultimately noticed almost no real-world difference in VM performance. After picking up the VSAN book that was recently released, it said effectively, don't screw with the # of disk stripes setting. The only time that changing that policy setting would improve performance (per the book) is if you have a huge amount of read IO to the point that you are outstripping the read cache on the SSD and reads are coming from disk. This doesn't apply to my environment so I ended up going back to just a "1x FTT, 1x stripe" policy as my default (matching the "unassigned" policy default which you shouldn't use), and then a "2x FTT, 1x stripe" for really important stuff.

Truthfully don't have a lot of time for benchmarks these days and our environment is heavily production so I try not to look at it the wrong way; I think in reality, as long as you have properly set up network, good RAID card, fast SSD's, and SAS magnetic disks, you will effectively be playing in SSD cache most of the time and there isn't much more you can do to tweak it.

VSAN is pretty low on customization options, really the ONLY thing you can do is fiddle with the policies, but the experts basically say "dont touch them" and that seems to work for me

I read the VCP6 Official Study Guide mostly, and a few other sources. I also have 2 years of daily experienced with vSphere 5.1 - 6.5, this was helpful for my comfort with the product, but so much of what you are tested on are things you would never rely on memory for, you'd consult the KB for the correct, current answer.

VCP6-DCV Official Cert Guide

This one is super helpful as well

Veeam Unofficial VCP6-DCV Study Guide

I thought the hard parts of the test were the details of storage protocols, affinity rules and cascading resource reservations and limits.

Good luck!

Do yourself a favor and just spring for a disk that's NOT spinning rust. Flash memory prices have come WAY down in recent months and will almost certainly continue to dive. Then you can reliably run multiple VMs off the same drive. I have an old HP Z420 running HPE custom ESXi 6.7 with a pair of these for most of my VMs: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB-Internal-MZ-76E500B-AM/dp/B0781Z7Y3S/

But I've also got an old 10k RPM WD Raptor (160GB that runs a Pi-hole VM) as well as a 1TB WD Black (running my Bitcoin Core full node) and 1TB Hitachi for ISO storage. Any VMs I run off the WD Black feel liek they take forever to do much of anything and forget trying to run Windows updates on one VM while doing anything else on another VM on the same drive. It's just far too painful. I'd save the little 320GB for backups or something. It's tedious to use any PC these days without an SSD.

EDIT: That being said, what SCSI Controller type are you running on your VMs? VMware Paravirtual, LSI Logic Parallel, and so on. That might affect performance. Perhaps this will help lead you in the right direction, sorry I don't have more specific suggestions to try: https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2014/02/vscsi-controller-choose-performance.html

Go get Scott Lowe's book. Read it at least twice. If you have the money, like mech said the VCA is a good start. At the very least Im pretty sure you can take their online "class" to learn the VCA material for free. Keep your eye out as well for free vouchers to take the VCA with as they do pop up from time to time!

Edit: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/0470890800

I'm with you, just starting on this. Luckily I have official vCAC training coming up but I've got a start with vCO. These videos are pretty good, although I'm still having some issues getting the examples in the AD Part to work.

 

http://www.cbtnuggets.com/it-training-videos/course/vmwr_vcenter_orchestrator_5_5

 

I also just got this book in the mail yesterday. I haven't read much but it looks promising. Note, after looking at this its for vCO 4.2 but alot of the concepts look like they line up. I'll try to post more about it after reading some.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Automating-vSphere-vCenter-Orchestrator-Technology/dp/0321799917

VirtualLanger.com has a great study guide. I know the guy personally, he's awesome.

Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5 by Scott Lowe. Should literally be your bible if you're going for DCV.

I used the 5.0 version of Scotts book AFTER failing fairly badly by using The Official VCP5 Certification guide.

VMware study guides and practice exams Also helpful. Be critical of anything you read though, it'll help you learn the material better. Here's my favorite email response I received, ever.

Shpadoinkles,
Thanks for your interest in VMware certifications ans sorry for the delay in getting back to you. You are correct, that item would have been accurate for vSphere 4 but not 5. I will change the item to reference the CIM Server service on the host.

Thanks,
Josh

After reading Scotts book, I had in depth enough knowledge that I realized one of the VMware practice questions had an incorrect answer. I challenged it and got it updated.

Finally, hands on time. This is the most important. You'll get questions like, "In this menu, if you select this option, what is no longer available?" And it'll be a menu option that is so rarely used you'll shake your head in confusion. I went in cocky the first time as I studied that Official Cert Guide like crazy. Took it camping with me, read it before bed, read it at work. Nothing prepares for that test like being in the GUI or command line.

Get on the waiting list for the ICS class at stanly community college its like $250 for an official vmware course (training partner) you can buy the lab books, take the class and you get access to a bunch of free vmware software esxi, workstation, cloud offerings as well as discount voucher codes.

https://vmware.stanly.edu/

Then pick up mastering vsphere 5.5 by scott lowe, and read that and the documentation.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/1118661141

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp
(There is a zip file of the all the documentation you can get and they are pdfs. at the bottom of the contents section)

Sign up at vmware learning and they have a free practice exam, as well as materials for the vca you can run through.

https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/login.cfm?ui=Full

You can build a lab if you dont have one a laptop using vmware workstation just max out the ram, I recommend building the lab from scratch a couple times to get use to it then from there you can use autolab for working on learning to use the software without having to manually rebuild.

http://www.labguides.com/

There's a few ways to approach it, but I highly recommend buying https://www.amazon.com/Docker-Deep-Dive-Nigel-Poulton-ebook/dp/B01LXWQUFF for 8 bucks. Ignore his book on k8, it's not nearly as good. But this book is incredibly well written. It reads easy and he draws a lot on vSphere knowledge to help draw parallels between the two technologies. And when I say it reads well, I mean it. The book really should be called Harry Potter and the Docker Daemon.

​

Outside of that, stand it up in a lab and try to deploy a three tier webapp on K8. Once you get your legs under you a bit check out one of my college's blogs ( http://www.hanymichaels.com/ ) . His content mostly focuses on NSX and PKS but if you're a VMware guy then these are our flavors in the container space.

Well, one thing to consider is that DRS doesn't seek to "balance out the load." At least not at its core. It's main purpose is to ensure that all VMs are getting the resources they need and that there isn't a large disparity. Frank Denneman has a good write up, a little old, but still applicable. His Clustering Deepdive book is also an excellent resource on understanding DRS.

Edit: Another good read on DRS.

Stanly has a wait list, but the price can't be beat.

I also think Pluralsight is very very good and worth trying to convince your company to sign up for. If not, it's probably worth it to sign yourself up for $30 a month or whatever it is now.


Lastly, for VMware, these are the two books people seem to swear by for the VCP:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/0470890800/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y (This is the vsphere 5 version, I believe there is a 5.5 version as well if you're interested)

and

http://www.amazon.com/Official-Certification-Guide-VMware-Press/dp/0789749319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394466897&sr=1-1&keywords=vmware+certification

• Jot down a list of areas you were unsure of during the test (i.e. vMotion requirements, HA, SSO, etc) and then research them more.
  
• Take the practice tests again. At the end of each one, look at the chapters you were lacking in the results and reread those areas.
  
  I would also pick up the Mastering vSphere 5.5 book and use that to fill in gaps on the areas you're not doing well with.
  
  Another training resource would be CBT Nuggets. They do a free 7 day trial, sign up when you have 7 days to spend going through their VCP550 material (don't forget to cancel if you don't want to continue with their videos).
  
  Then also lab lab lab. Everything that is explained in the book, you should be doing in a lab. Doing it will help you remember and it will also allow you to hit problems when you do it incorrectly (it happens). When you hit a problem, fixing it is very beneficial to learning about the technology. If you don't hit any problems, break stuff on purpose and fix it.
  
  You can get a trial of all the software and then use an OpenSource system for the NAS/SAN pieces (FreeNAS/Openfiler) or even use the free EMC vVNX appliance (resource hog though).
  
  Those were the steps I took for the test.

You're on the right track. Those practice exam questions are a huge help, because we take them directly from the exam material. They are worded and sometimes are actually from the live exams. I helped write this book and can attest that it aligns with the current VCP6-DCV exam perfectly. (I don't get any royalties from it, so not trying to push it, was already paid a set amount). Also make sure you are aware that vSphere Foundations is an online exam and non-proctored, whereas the VCP6-DCV Exam is at an exam center and proctored.

So, now that I have some free time, I installed ESXi on my SuperMicro Whitebox server that has 2 built-in X540-T2 ports, and an add-in 4-port I350 PCI-E card (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G0LVSTA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1). I checked, and all 6 ports were recognized during install and startup of ESXi, so that is good news. Only 3 SATA ports were recognized, and after I installed sata-xahci, it still didn't work.

Do you have an idea of anything else I can try? My motherboard is a SuperMicro X10-DRI-T-O.

Update: I have found a card that should work, several people said it works for ESXi 6 and it's quite cheap. However, I don't think I will be needing it since I have found out that my drives aren't even being recognized in my BIOS, nor in my bootable Windows USB. There is some work to be done here, and ESXi is not at fault.

Update 2: I turned my SuperMicro server off for 30 seconds, then back on and all my hard drives are now recognized. I suspect that even without sata-xahci they would have been recognized, it was just a temporary hardware issue, not a software issue. My main computer does this sometimes too, nothing a power-cycle (30 seconds shut off then back on) won't fix.

So, seems like ESXi 6.0 supports my SuperMicro Whitebox out of the box.

I got a lot of value out of this book. You'll need to understanding networking fairly well if you want to be a decent VMware engineer.

https://www.amazon.com/Networking-VMware-Administrators-Press-Technology/dp/0133511081

Chris Wahl has a great blog as well: http://wahlnetwork.com/

This article is the most up to date information on the subject you are likely to find out in the blogs. It's written specific to vSphere 6.5, which is the most recent major version of vSphere as of this writing. Tons of other information out there is old and, while it may not be wrong, it might have bits and pieces that have changed since they were written.

If you really want a deep dive on the subject and more details than what everyone in this thread is providing, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the Host Resources Deep Dive for vSphere 6.5 that takes these topics as far as you want to understand them. NUMA is covered extensively in the book (I read it a while back) and will give you so many performance tuning options that you'll wish you had enough time to test them all. :)

• 1. Learn Networking - This is typically where installations are done incorrectly. Learn networking basics until you are solid then know the current best practices from the VMware Networking Guide.
     
• 2. RTFM - It's not the official manual but it might as well be.
     
• 3. Labs - Make use of the VMware HOL
     This should be a good start.

I used the blueprint and course materials to prep. I had an ESXi server at home, so I built nested ESXi hosts and attached them to an iSCSI NAS. This helped with understand DRS, HA, admission control, etc.

I also read this book: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1118658442/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and dogeared the corners of pages with key info.

I've heard the CBT Nuggets are also pretty good, if you have access to them.

vSphere Essentials will do what you need. Depending on how fast you're going to grow your virtual datacenter, you may want to look at the other options and consider the cost differences. I've never had to upgrade from Essentials, so no clue what that process is like.

Yes, the hypervisor is the same across the various versions.

Mastering VMware vSphere 5 by Scott Lowe.

Attend VMworld.

As a final note I'd get more RAM in your servers if I were you. Servers are memory hungry. I personally find that I always have plenty of CPU resources available but fall short on RAM. However, it really depends on the workload you're throwing at your cluster, so ymmv.

Have fun!

Some of my favorites from a Job interview guide for Virtualization System Administrators

Easy

1. Explain your VMware environment?
   
2. What is the difference between ESX and ESXi?
   
3. What is HA and how does it work?
   
4. Where do you need to store the Windows Sysprep files to allow the customization of a VM when deploying a virtual machine from a template.
   
5. Explain what Vmotion is and how it works.
   
6. What are common Vmotion problems.
   
   Medium
   
   
7. What is a SCSI Reservation?
   
8. How can you collect diagnostic information about ESX/ESXi hosts from a single location ?
   
9. What do you use for scripting and automation for VMWare?
   
10. How much of "your" data center can be virtualized?
    
11. What are Baselines, and why would you use them?
    
12. How do you do troubleshooting when things are not working as expected in your virtual environment?
    
13. How do you enable hot add memory and hot add CPU for VM's?
    
14. How do you get a VM to see external USB devices?
    
    Hard
    
    
15. What is Promiscuous Mode on a vSwitch? What happens if the vSwitch is configured to the "Accept" setting?
    
16. How do you increase the system partition in a Server 2003 Virtual machine?
    
17. How do you upgrade the virtual hardware of a VM?
    
18. What is the difference between VMFS-3 and VMFS-5?
    
19. Explain Vmotion in a more technical depth.
    
20. What is your stand on virtual desktops
    
21. ESXi 5 supports improved 3D Graphics. However, what do you need to do first to enable it for a VM?
    
22. What is the difference between eager-zeroed and lazy-zeroed thick disk?
    
23. What are IP Pools, and what do you nee them for?
    
24. If you come into a new VM environment as a systems administrator, how would you approach this situation?
    
25. You have ESXi installed, but the Storage HBA is not showing up. What do you do?

For anyone still possibly following this... I also posted on /r/freenas, and did some more work. I believe I've solved my problem...

(Original Comment)

For anyone who may still be looking at this post... I believe I've solved my issue with some re-architecture...

First, I installed a small SSD (400GB) to host the 2 critical VMs (my pfSense, and my FreeNAS). Both of those have dual 64GB ZFS OS Drives).

Then, I temporarily exported the remaining VMs to "warm storage".

I re-flashed my LSI SAS 9211-8i to IT MODE, and passed it through to the FreeNAS VM, just as the other one is already.

In FreeNAS I created a MIRROR between the two existing 2TB SSDs (Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND), and added an additional Intel SSD (Intel SSD DC S3700 200GB) for SLOG.

Once all that was complete, I created an NFS share on the new MIRROR, and added it to VMWare.

Lastly, I re-imported the remaining 6 VMs from "warm storage", and started them all up. Everything has been running now for 24-hours without issues, and weekends are when all my automated processes kickoff, so this is a good sign.

The textbook for the class I took absolutely sucked. I bought Mastering VSphere 6 ( Mastering VMware vSphere 6 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118925157/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_UUXFAbVRY5J9X ) and it was perfect for me. It was a lifesaver when I was setting up my home network and I keep it on my shelf at work. Strongly recommend.

go get scott lowe's mastering vsphere 5.5. also go check out vmware's free learning videos. to get some good hands on experience check out vmware's free hands on labs. good luck.

Pretty much did the exact same thing. I'm already planning on how I can make this into a self-service system. That vCO virtual appliance is awesome. Check out this for getting started: http://www.vcoteam.info/learn-vco/pimp-my-vcenter-orchestrator-virtual-appliance.html

Also I just picked up this book: http://www.amazon.com/Automating-vSphere-vCenter-Orchestrator-Technology/dp/0321799917

There is a Mastering vSphere 6 book Can confirm, I used the 5.5 version to get my VCP-DCV. Excellent reference book. Also agree the ICM class is so very basic that if you've installed a homelab, chances are you won't learn much new. When I took it I'd deployed several clusters already and didn't take much away.

Can confirm. I would also recommend some additional reading. Something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Nick-Marshall/dp/1118925157/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464096815&sr=8-1&keywords=mastering+vsphere+6 will be a good start.

I think it was Mastering vSphere 5 - I am not sure - it was on Amazon. Honestly, I read the book and passed the test. my 5 years of experience pretty much helped me.

Disclaimer, I am not certified, you can't be without a registered class AND test. I have only passed the test and cannot afford the $3K class yet

Edit: Found it! http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/0470890800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376012706&sr=8-1&keywords=mastering+vsphere+5

Additionally, pick up VMware vSphere 5.1 Clustering Deepdive. It applies to 5.5 as well. Definitely a good book.

You need this book and this study guide. Good luck!

Links for anyone looking to purchase a copy of these books

 

Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5
Amazon |
Barnes and Noble |
Google Play |
iTunes |
O'Reilly |
Wiley

Mastering VMware vSphere 6
Amazon |
Barnes and Noble |
Google Play |
iTunes |
O'Reilly |
Wiley

 

Happy VMing!

The reason for the extra memory is well I figured I might as well just max out the motherboard from the start considering how cheap memory is in the first place and not worry about wanting to upgrade that down the line. I am planning on starting out with ESXI 5.0 anyway and picking up this book http://amzn.com/0470890800 as my go to reference manual outside of the google library.

I had no plan of using the onboard RAID hardware at all - I've already been warned by a friend (who builds clusters and borderline supercomputers for universities for a living) that the onboard RAID stuff will suck and that I should either buy a separate controller (just like you did) or use a software based configuration. Which brings me to my next question, what would you recommend for to purchase as a separate controller card?

When I said "the network" I meant the physical network. The virtual port will be the secondary's assigned virtual port of course.

The hosts can be connected to the same or to different physical switches, but they'd be connected to the same logical networks/vlans. In either case, the physical switchs will eventually see a frame from the VM on a physical port it had not before. When this happens the switch will add the source MAC address of the VM to it's forwarding table indicating that "this MAC exists on port N". Future frames destined for the VM's MAC will now be sent to this new port.

There is a NIC Teaming policy for each vSwitch called "Notify Switches" related to this. If this policy is enabled the destination host will send out frames with the MAC of the incoming VM so that the physical switches know ahead of time to start sending frames destined for the VM's MAC to the new physical port. This way when the VM stops executing on the source host and starts executing on the destination host, there will be a much smaller number of packets that potentially don't make it to the VM. I'm not sure if this settings applies to FT fail over events, but it would be easy to test with the right equipment in a lab.

If you're interested in knowing more about networking from the perspective of a VMware administrator check out this book. It starts from the very basics of networking (first 6 chapters) and then goes from there to vSphere specific topics. Would probably be a good read for you.

I read through, cover to cover, http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/0470890800 & http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789749319/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also got a chance to go to VMWare Install, Configure and Manage 5.1 (I think that is the course name), but that didn't seem to have as much useful information as the books did.

I am sure many people will add to this but what I find is the biggest gap is not having a good base of understanding of why all of this "Infrastructure" is needed.

There is so much content to learn and I am not even scratching the surface. There is much to learn and you are not alone.

Hands-on labs
https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalogs/catalog/1212

Physical networking (My teacher)
https://www.pluralsight.com/authors/ross-bagurdes

Virtual Networking
https://www.amazon.com/Networking-VMware-Administrators-Press-Technology/dp/0133511081

Storage
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Storage-Victor-ebook/dp/B00YSIL6HQ

vSAN
https://www.amazon.com/VMware-vSAN-6-7-Deep-Dive-ebook/dp/B07L8CNZ53

NSX
https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2018/10/nsx-vmworld-2018-europe-the-technical-geek-guide.html/

ESXi Deep dive
https://pages.rubrik.com/host-resources-deep-dive_request.html

vVols are making a comeback
https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2019/07/25/vvols-vmworld-2019/

Project pacific
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2019/09/project-pacific-at-tech-field-day-extra-at-vmworld-2019.html

Good mentions
https://storagehub.vmware.com/
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/techpaper/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf

And any VMware feature you need a walkthrough
https://featurewalkthrough.vmware.com/

Edit: adding newest deep dive for Pacific https://cormachogan.com/2019/11/22/project-pacific-vmworld-2019-deep-dive-updates/

Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5

It's a great book especially if you follow along on your own environment.

The vSphere Install/Config class is more for a person first coming into VMware. I did not learn much from the class whatsoever because I already had 3 years of experiencing in administration.

The book I did use was:

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/1118661141/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Not sure if there is a comparible one for vSphere 6.

Also the VMware VCP Exam Blue Print was a huge one. Make sure understand each bullet and you'll do fine on the exam.

We have used these with good success 6.5 U2.

https://www.amazon.com/QNINE-Controller-Superspeed-Self-Powered-Technology/dp/B077YDXG2L/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=qnine+pcie+to+3%2B1+usb+card&qid=1565373298&s=gateway&sr=8-5

Look to be unavailable right now and I need to order 12 more :(

>Have you worked on 5.0/5.5 for two years on a daily basis that is more than just start/stop/create VMs?

I inherited an ESX (not i) 4.1 environment and upgraded/rebuilt it on 5.1, but we haven't upgraded to 5.5 yet. Most of the day to day is like you say start/stop/create but I do have experience configuring the hosts, networking, iSCSI storage, evc/drs cluster, vCenter, backups (we dabbled in VDR briefly but now use Veeam) and I've done some labs at the last two VMworld conferences.

I've had a quick look at the blueprint and my biggest gaps are probably VUM, vDS and vCOPs, as we don't really have a big enough deployment (or the licensing) to leverage all of those.

>Are those books updated for 5.5 yet?

The Scott Lowe book has been updated for 5.5. Not sure about the official guide.

Purchase copies of both the Clustering Deep Dive and Host Resources Deep Dive books. You can also find digital copies from Rubrik for free at the following:

​

https://pages.rubrik.com/host-resources-deep-dive_request.html

https://pages.rubrik.com/clustering-deep-dive-ebook.html

​

If you're going to run vSAN there is also a vSAN Deep Dive book available.

​

I have years of expertise with VMWare deployment and administration.

I followed the VMWare blueprint for the exam and found this book was extremely helpful in explaining the concepts: Mastering VMware vSphere 6.7 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119512948/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rvwzDbRXBY74B

And once you’ve finished that and you’re ready for the Masters class:

VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive

Study guide

Starter book (verify you know current min/max values before you attempt a test)

Depending on where you live and how serious you are, Stanly Community College is probably your cheapest bet to get a real education with a shot at the DCV. Get on the waitlist now, it may take awhile to get in.

I think this one's pretty good. Haven't taken my VCP yet but have it coming up on the 27th.

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Nick-Marshall/dp/1119512948

I'm taking the same class. I searched Reddit and found others who have taken it and asked them about it. Most of the replies were essentially that its self paced, don't have to turn in assignments by the end of each week just have to get them done before the end of the course, and its not enough to prepare you for the exam, you will still need to do a lot of studying and labs on your own. One of them recommended this book which I've already bought: http://www.amazon.com/VCP5-DCV-Certified-Professional-Data-Virtualization-vSphere/dp/1118658442/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411156183&sr=8-1&keywords=vcp+sybex

This book explains more than you ever want to know

https://www.amazon.com/Vmware-Vsphere-Host-Resources-Deep/dp/1540873064/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=vsphere+deep+dive&qid=1571948440&sr=8-1

The "VCP Bible" is called Mastering vSphere (insert version # here) and can be found here. The Mastering series is the definitive guides to VMware. If you want to learn it, or study for the VCP, that has it all. There is also tons of courses on Pluralsight.

Start with this book, Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5 and start looking for a VCP5-DCV class.

I'd pick up a copy of Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5, get a CBT Nuggets or Pluralsight subscription, and build a lab.

Can you post a link to the book you are referring to?

Edit: is this it?
https://www.amazon.com/VCP6-DCV-Official-2V0-621-VMware-Certification/dp/078975648X

Get Mastering vSphere 6

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Nick-Marshall/dp/1118925157

There's also a book by Cody Bunch
Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator

http://www.amazon.com/Automating-vSphere-vCenter-Orchestrator-Technology/dp/0321799917

I used the Official Cert Guide, which came with some practice tests that mimic the VCP.