Advanced Administration and Performance Management

Course Outline

1. Analyzing Problems on Nutanix Clusters

• Evaluating Cluster Health
• Validating Cluster Configuration
• Network Packet Capture and Inspection
• Acropolis Service Failures and Common Errors
• Monitoring Performance in Prism Central
• Alerts, Analysis, and Reporting in Prism Central
• VM Metrics in Prism Central and Prism Element

Hands-on Labs

• Using Nutanix Cluster Check (CLI and GUI)
• Creating a Dashboard with Custom Metrics
• Creating and Reviewing Analysis Charts
• Working with Alerts and Events
• Creating and Managing Reports

2: Exploring Nutanix Storage Features

• Understanding Nutanix AOS Services and AOS Storage Services
• Exploring Storage Components
• AOS Storage Data Pathing
• Creating Highly Available, Resilient Infrastructure
• Storage Optimization and Data Efficiency
• Optimizing and Planning for New Workloads
• Storage Best Practices for Application Workloads

Hands-on Labs

• Setting Advertised and Reserved Capacity on a Storage Container
• Exploring Resilient Capacity and Rebuild Capacity Reservation
• Investigating Nutanix Storage Efficiency
• Using Replication Factor 1
• Using Storage Policies

3: Optimizing Physical and Virtual Networks in AOS

• Choosing a Physical Switch
• Network Design Requirements and Recommendations
• Nutanix Recommended Network Designs
• Core AHV Networking Concepts
• Viewing the Network Configuration in Prism
• Load Balancing in Bond Interfaces
• Best Practices for AHV Networking

Hands-on Labs

• Managing Virtual Switches and Uplinks
• Viewing Virtual Switches from Prism Element
• Configuring QoS Traffic Marking

4: Optimizing Overlay Networks Using Flow Virtual Networking

• Implementing Flow Virtual Networking
• Flow Virtual Networking Architecture and Constructs
• Understanding Flow Virtual Networking Use Cases
• Implementing a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
• Securing Your Subnets

Hands-on Labs

• Enabling Flow Networking
• Creating an External Subnet
• Creating a VPC
• Configuring VMs to use Overlay Networks
• Configuring Gateways and Establishing a VPN
• Verifying VPN Connectivity

5: Analyzing Nutanix Cluster Security Options

• Nutanix Security Technologies
• The Security Dashboard
• User Authentication and Permissions
• Hardening AHV and the CVM
• Using NCM Security Central
• Data Encryption with Nutanix
• Managing Log Files

Hands-on Labs

• Configuring Cluster Lockdown
• Configuring Syslog Integration
• Managing User Permissions
• Hardening the Cluster

6: Microsegmentation with Flow Network Security

• Flow Policy Constructs
• Security Policy Models and Types
• Enabling Microsegmentation
• Creating and Applying Security Policies

Hands-on Labs

• Enabling Flow Microsegmentation
• Creating Categories
• Creating VMs and Assigning Categories
• Configuring Isolation and Application Security Policies

7: Optimizing VM Performance

• Sizing the CVM & Prism Central
• Working with GPUs in AHV
• Improving VM Storage and Network Performance
• Using Resource Planning Features in Prism Central
• Ensuring Efficient Physical Resource Consumption with Machine Learning
• Application Monitoring and Discovery
• Alternate Methods of Provisioning Guest VMs

Hands-on Labs

• Enabling vNUMA on Virtual Machines
• Enabling vDisk Load Balancing in a Volume Group
• Updating the Number of vNIC Queues
• Using Prism Central Resource Planning to Evaluate Workload Changes
• Optimizing VMs using X-Play
• Using APIs to Automate Management Tasks
• Using Playbooks to Make a Call to a REST API Endpoint

8: Understanding Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

• Assessing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
• High Availability and Data Protection
• Third-Party Backup Integrations
• Best Practices

Hands-on Labs

• Configuring Self Service Restore

9: Implementing Disaster Recovery

• Replicating Data with AOS
• Disaster Recovery Orchestration
• Disaster Recovery with Protection Domains
• Getting Started with Nutanix Disaster Recovery
• Protecting Against Ransomware
• Investigating Issues with Protection Policies and Recovery Plans

Hands-on Labs

• Enabling Nutanix Disaster Recovery
• Configuring an Availability Zone
• Creating Production and Test VLANs
• Preparing VMs for Nutanix Disaster Recovery
• Configuring a Protection Policy
• Configuring a Recovery Plan
• Validating and Testing Recovery Plans
• Performing a Planned Failover

Software Versions

• AOS 6.10
• Prism Central 2024.1.0.2

If you are an experienced Nutanix administrator, this course will serve as a deep dive that gives you a rich, nuanced understanding of the Nutanix platform, and will help you get the most out of your Nutanix solutions. AAPM is divided into six major sections, each focused on performance improvements and advanced administration techniques for different aspects of your clusters:

• Analyzing Problems: Explore ways to monitor health issues, and identify ways to improve network, VM, and cluster performance.
• Storage: Take a deep dive into AOS storage services, different aspects of Acropolis Distributed Storage, storage optimization, and storage best practices for application workloads.
• Networks: Learn how to optimize physical and virtual workloads, as well as how to implement Flow Virtual Networking and Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs).
• VMs: Learn about sizing the CVM and Prism Central VMs, alternate methods of VM provisioning (such as via CLI), how to work with GPUs, and how to improve VM storage and network performance.
• Security: Understand important features such as authentication, RBAC, IAM, and encryption. Learn how to use essential security products, such as Flow Security Central and Flow Network Security.
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Learn about Nutanix data backup, web-scale data protection, protection from ransomware, self service restore, and third-party integrations. You will also learn how to use protection domains and Nutanix Disaster Recovery.

Prerequisites

• Nutan ix Enterprise Cloud Administration (ECA) training or an NCP-MCI certification
• Basic knowledge of Nutanix datacenter administration techniques
• Familiarity with traditional virtualization storage architectures
• Comfort with Linux command-line interface

To ensure AAPM is the right fit, we encourage you to complete our online Readiness Evaluation. Questions are based on topics covered in the ECA course and NCP-MCI exam that you should be familiar with before attending. 

Audience

• IT administrators and architects who manage Nutanix clusters but would like more in-depth knowledge of Nutanix datacenter administration 
• Anyone preparing for the Nutanix Certified Master - Multicloud Infrastructure (NCM-MCI) certification