VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer: ICM plus Troubleshooting and Operations Fast Track

Course Introduction

• Introductions and course logistics
• Course objectives

Introduction to NSX Advanced Load Balancer

• Introduce NSX Advanced Load Balancer
• Discuss NSX Advanced Load Balancer use cases and benefits
• Explain NSX Advanced Load Balancer architecture and components
• Explain the management, control, data, and consumption planes and their respective functions

Virtual Services Configuration Concepts

• Explain Virtual Service components
• Explain Virtual Service types
• Explain and configure basic Virtual Service components such as Application Profiles, Network Profiles, Pools, and Health Monitors

Profiles and Policies

• Explain and deep dive on Advanced Virtual Service creation
• Explain and deep dive on Application Profiles and Types such as L4, DNS, Syslog, and HTTP
• Explain and configure advanced application HTTP Profile options
• Deep dive on Network Profiles and Types
• Explain and configure SSL Profiles and Certificates
• Explain and Configure HTTP and DNS policies

Pools Configuration Concepts

• Explain and deep dive on Pools configuration options
• Describe available Load Balancing algorithms
• Explain multiple Health Monitor types
• Explain multiple Persistence Profiles
• Explain and configure Pool Groups

Modifying Application Behavior

• Design and apply application solutions leveraging application profiles
• Design and apply application solutions leveraging Network and HTTP Policies and DataScripts
• Explain DataScript fundamentals
• Explain and leverage NSX Advanced Load Balancer analytics to understand application behavior
• Describe and configure Client SSL Certificate Validation
• Describe and configure Virtual Service DDoS, Rate Limiting, and Throttling capabilities
• Modify Network Profiles properties such as TCP connection properties
• Design and apply application solutions leveraging Persistence Profiles

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Infrastructure Architecture

• Deep dive on the management, control, data, and consumption planes and functions
• Describe Control Plane Clustering and High Availability
• Describe Controller Process Sharding
• Describe Controller Sizing
• Describe Service Engine CPU and NIC Architecture
• Explain Tenants
• Deep dive and configure properties of Service Engine Groups
• Explain Service Engine Group High Availability Modes
• Describe and configure Active/Standby High Availability Mode
• Describe and configure Elastic HA High Availability Mode (Active, N+M)
• Explain Service Engine Failure Detection and Self-Healing
• Describe Service Engine as a Router
• Deep dive on Virtual Service scale out options, such as Layer 2 (Native), Layer 3 (BGP), and DNS-based
• Explain Infrastructure Upgrade process

Introduction to Cloud Connectors

• Introduce Cloud Connectors
• Review Cloud Connector integration modes
• Introduce Cloud Connector types

Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in No Access Clouds

• Explain No Access Cloud concepts
• Configure No Access Cloud integration
• Explain and Configure Linux Server Cloud
• Describe the Advanced Configuration options available in Bare-Metal (Linux Server Cloud)

Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in VMware environments

• Introduce VMware integration options
• Explain and configure VMware No Access Cloud Connector
• Explain and configure VMware Write Access Cloud Connector
• Describe VMware Write with NSX-V Access Cloud Connector
• Describe VMware NSX-T integration

Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in Public Clouds (AWS)

• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer Public Cloud integrations
• Explain and demonstrate AWS Public Cloud Integration
• Describe Azure Public Cloud Integration

DNS Foundations

• Review, discuss, and explain DNS fundamentals
• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer DNS and IPAM providers

Global Server Load Balancing

• Introduce Global Server Load Balancing Concepts and Benefits
• Explain and configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer infrastructure
• Explain and configure DNS Virtual Service components
• Explain and configure GSLB Service Engine Group
• Describe and configure GSLB Sites
• Explain and configure basic GSLB Services to include pools and health monitors
• Describe GSLB Service Load Balancing algorithms
• Explain and configure Data and Control Plane-based Health Monitors
• Describe GSLB Health Monitor Proxy

Troubleshooting

• Introduce Infrastructure and Application Troubleshooting Concepts
• Describe Control Plane and Data Plane-based Troubleshooting
• Explain Application Analytics and Logs
• Describe client logs analysis
• Explain Headers troubleshooting and Packet Capture mechanism
• Leverage CLI for detailed data plane troubleshooting
• Explain Service Engine Logs
• Explain Health Monitors troubleshooting
• Explain BGP session troubleshooting
• Describe Control Plane Troubleshooting, Clustering, and Cloud Connector issues

Monitoring NSX Advanced Load Balancer Solution

• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer Events
• Describe and configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer Alerts
• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer monitoring capabilities, leveraging SNMP, Syslog, and Email

Introduction to NSX ALB Programmability and Automation

• Introduce NSX Advanced Load Balancer REST API interface
• Describe REST API Object Schema
• Explain and interact with REST API interface, leveraging browser and command line utility
• Explain Swagger-based API documentation
• Review 3rd-party automation integrations

Events and Alerts

• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer Events
• Describe and configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer Alerts
• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer monitoring capabilities leveraging SNMP, Syslog and Email

Introduction to NSX Advanced Load Balancer Troubleshooting

• Explain NSX Advanced Load Balancer troubleshooting concepts
• Describe and leverage Application Logs
• Describe and leverage Application Analytics and Security Insights
• Understand and utilize Health Score concepts
• Explain and leverage metrics
• Explain and leverage packet capture and command line utilities
• Describe and leverage UI and CLI utilities to perform Control Plane troubleshooting

Cloud Connector Infrastructure Troubleshooting

• Describe and perform general Cloud Connector troubleshooting
• Describe and analyze VMware Cloud Connector state
• Leverage case studies to troubleshoot VMware Cloud Connector
• Describe and troubleshoot VMware NSX Cloud Connector integration
• Describe and troubleshoot Linux Server Cloud Connector integration
• Describe and troubleshoot Openstack Cloud Connector integration
• Leverage case studies to troubleshoot Openstack Cloud Connector
• Describe and troubleshoot AWS and Azure Cloud Connector integrations

Data Plane Infrastructure Troubleshooting

• Explain general Service Engine infrastructure
• Explain and leverage Analytics, Health Score and Metrics for Service Engine troubleshooting
• Explain and leverage Events and Alerts for Service Engine troubleshooting
• Leverage CLI for Service Engine troubleshooting
• Analyze Service Engine with Tech Support utility
• Leverage CLI for advanced Datapath analysis

Monitoring NSX Advanced Load Balancer

• Explain and configure SNMP-based monitoring
• Explain and configure REST API-based monitoring
• Describe and leverage 3rd-party REST API monitoring extensions (Grafana, Prometheus)

By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:

• Describe NSX Advanced Load Balancer architecture
• Describe the NSX Advanced Load Balancer components and main functions
• Explain the NSX Advanced Load Balancer key features and benefits
• Deploy and configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer infrastructure within Private or Public Clouds leveraging Write and No Access Cloud Connectors
• Explain, deploy, and configure Service Engines
• Explain and configure Local Load Balancing constructors such as Virtual Services, Pools, Health Monitors, and related components
• Understand and modify application behavior leveraging Profiles, Policies, and DataScripts
• Configure advanced services such as Global Server Load Balancing
• Describe and leverage NSX Advanced Load Balancer REST API interfaces and related automation capabilities
• Describe and configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer application and infrastructure monitoring
• Gather relevant information and perform basic troubleshooting of applications leveraging built-in NSX Advanced Load Balancer tooling
• Describe the NSX Advanced Load Balancer components and main functions
• Explain NSX Advanced Load Balancer key features and benefits
• Establish and apply a structured troubleshooting approach and methodology
• Identify, analyze, and troubleshoot problems related to the NSX Advanced Load Balancer infrastructure, to include control and data plane components
• Identify, analyze and troubleshoot problems related to application components such as Virtual Services, Pools and related components

• Course Introduction
• Introduction to NSX Advanced Load Balancer
• Virtual Services Configuration Concepts
• Profiles and Policies
• Pools Configuration Concepts
• Modifying Application Behavior
• NSX Advanced Load Balancer Infrastructure Architecture
• Introduction to Cloud Connectors
• Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in No Access Clouds
• Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in VMware environments
• Install, Configure, and Manage NSX ALB in Public Clouds (AWS)
• DNS Foundations
• Global Server Load Balancing
• Troubleshooting
• Monitoring NSX Advanced Load Balancer Solution
• Introduction to NSX ALB Programmability and Automation
• Events and Alerts
• Introduction to NSX Advanced Load Balancer Troubleshooting
• Cloud Connector Infrastructure Troubleshooting
• Data Plane Infrastructure Troubleshooting
• Monitoring NSX Advanced Load Balancer