• Classroom
Course Description

In this five-day seminar, we will focus on ESX and Hyper-V security. You will start with virtualization basics, hardware virtualization considerations, and different versions of ESX. We will examine best practices for securing ESX servers, access to the management console, ESX logging and other configuration issues to ensure ESX virtual server hosts are secure and stable. We will then review Hyper-V and best practices for securing a Hyper-V environment. Finally, we will tie all of these concepts together with a formulation of a suggested audit program of ESX/Hyper-V and the virtual server environment. Case studies using a combination of live demonstrations and exercises will reinforce important virtualization concepts and associated audit points addressed in real audit projects.

This course is available on-site at your location, or offered through open enrollment in Chicago, IL, and New York, NY.

Learning Objectives

  1. Virtualization Basics, define virtualization, advantages and disadvantages of virtualization, hardware considerations, high availability, back-up strategies, ESX and Hyper-V, integrating virtualization and disaster recovery, potential hypervisor attacks
  2. ESX Basics, ESX versions, ESX 4.x and 5.x, managing ESX hosts, ESX host security, patching ESX hosts
  3. Hyper-V Basics, Windows Server 2012 vs. Windows Server 2012 Server Core, Installing Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 vs. Server Core 2012, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Server Core and Hyper-V, Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 2012, best practices for securing Hyper-V hosts
  4. Developing an Audit Program for ESX/Hyper-V, hardware parameters, proper UPS configuration for hosts and guests, best practices for console access, log file configuration and review, firewall configuration, SNMP configuration, Scanning for servers for security holes/viruses/root kits, back-up strategy, patch management, VMotion/DRS security, virtual guest configuration, virtual server guest base images

Framework Connections