New Training: vSphere Security

In this 9-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Keith Barker discusses and demonstrates several options for securing a vSphere environment. Watch this new VMware training.

Watch the full course: VMware Certified Professional

This training includes:

• 9 videos

• 1.2 hours of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro to vSphere Security

• vSphere Security Overview

• Hardening ESXi Hosts

• Join an ESXi Host to AD

• Roles and Permissions Overview

• Assigning Permissions

• Digital Certs and CAs

• Hands on Lab: Permissions and Roles

• Lab Walkthrough

How Do I Secure ESXi?

VMware's ESXi virtualization software is the industry standard for a virtualized environment. Just because ESXi is rock-solid, that doesn't mean that IT professionals can be lax on security. Like any other enterprise application, VMWare still needs to be secured properly. So, here are a few things IT professionals can do to ensure their ESXi virtualized environments are safe and secure.

Install ESXi in high-security mode. By doing this, all security settings are applied by default. Sensitive data will always be encrypted and never sent in plain text.

Plan the virtual networking environment for guest operating systems appropriately. Much like a physical infrastructure, the virtual network environment in ESXi can be segregated by VLANs. VLANs are a standard security practice for networking. Make sure to plan these appropriately.

After guest operating systems are installed in ESXi, make sure to keep them updated. Patches still need to be applied to guest OSes. If not, attacks like Row Hammer can affect not only that guest OS, but the rest of that virtualized environment as well.

Of course, these are only three basic examples of how you can secure ESXi. There are plenty of other strategies that IT professionals can still use.