Virtualization Learning Path
Tagline: Abstracting the Hardware. Focus: VMware vSphere, Nutanix AHV/AOS, Microsoft Hyper-V.
Level 100: The Hypervisor
- Bare Metal vs. Hosted: Type 1 (ESXi, Hyper-V) vs. Type 2 hypervisors.
- Resource Allocation: Understanding vCPU, RAM ballooning, and thin vs. thick provisioning.
- Installation: Installing ESXi and Hyper-V on bare metal hardware.
Level 200: Cluster Management
- High Availability (HA): Configuring clusters to handle host failures automatically.
- Live Migration: vMotion (VMware) and Live Migration (Hyper-V)—how to move VMs without downtime.
- Networking: vSwitches, Distributed Switches, and VLAN tagging within the hypervisor.
- Hands-On Lab: Build a 3-node cluster and force a hardware failure to watch the VMs restart on healthy nodes.
Level 300: HCI & Software-Defined Data Center
- Nutanix & HCI: Moving away from SANs to Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Understanding CVM (Controller VM) logic.
- Optimization: Using DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) and Proactive HA.
- Automation: Using PowerCLI (VMware) and PowerShell (Hyper-V) to bulk-manage VMs.
Target Certifications: VCP-DCV (VMware), NCA (Nutanix), Windows Server Hybrid Administrator.