VMware Telco Cloud Platform for Radio Access Network: Install Configure Manage [V1.5]

This three-day, hands-on training course provides you with the advanced knowledge, skills, and tools to achieve competency in operating and troubleshooting the VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN™ environment. In this course, you are introduced to the VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN infrastructure, deployment options, and procedures. You also deploy Kubernetes clusters and understand the detailed configuration settings of management and workload clusters. You onboard and instantiate network functions and network services using hands-on lab exercises.

In addition, you are presented with various types of technical problems in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN, which you will identify, analyze, and solve through a systematic troubleshooting process.

Objectives

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

• List details of VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN
• List steps to deploy an infrastructure using infrastructure automation
• Explain Tanzu Kubernetes Grid and Supporting Containers as a Service
• List and describe process of onboarding and instantiating network functions
• List and describe the process of network function and platform life cycle management
• Describe VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN troubleshooting methods
• Describe the use of APIs within Telco Cloud Automation

Intended Audience

• Telco cloud system administrators and telco network operations engineers
• Professionals who work with telco or enterprise and datacenter networks
• Designers and operations engineers who manage telco workloads

Prerequisites

Before taking this course, you should have completed the Telco Cloud Automation Fundamentals and Telco Cloud Platform for Radio Access Network (TCP-RAN) Foundations courses.

You should also have the following understanding or knowledge:

• Good understanding of VMware products like vSphere and VMware Tanzu™ Kubernetes Grid
• Knowledge of and working experience with network functions virtualization, including:
• ETSI NFV framework, virtualized network functions, and related Interfaces
• Kubernetes, Helm, cloud-native network functions, CSI, and CNI

Product Alignment

• VMware Telco Cloud Platform 5G Edition [2.0]

Course Outline

1 Course Introduction

• Introduction and course logistics
• Course objectives

2 Day 0 Operations: VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN Overview and Installation

• Describe day 0 operations for VMware Telco Cloud Automation
• Describe the VMware Telco Cloud Automation architecture
• Describe the VMware Telco Cloud Automation control plane architecture
• List the VMware Telco Cloud Automation deployment options
• List the steps to perform VMware Telco Cloud Automation deployment
• List the steps to perform VMware Telco Cloud Automation control plane integration with vSphere
• Describe VMware Telco Cloud Automation control plane scaling
• Describe the vSphere Architecture
• List the key VMware components that are part of vSphere
• Describe the key use cases for vSphere

3 Day 1 Operations: Infrastructure Automation

• Describe infrastructure automation
• List the use cases of infrastructure automation
• Describe the requirements of infrastructure automation
• Describe provisioning with and without infrastructure automation
• List the benefits of infrastructure automation
• List challenges of infrastructure automation
• Describe the infrastructure requirements of infrastructure automation
• Describe the infrastructure automation domains
• Describe the process to identify the infrastructure automation domains
• Configure an infrastructure for infrastructure automation
• List the steps to deploy an infrastructure using infrastructure automation
• List the steps to validate infrastructure deployment

4 Day 1 Operations: Containers as a Service

• Describe the role of containers in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN
• Describe the benefits and challenges of containers
• List the various container use cases
• Describe the Kubernetes architecture
• List the role of nodes and clusters
• Describe the supporting components of Kubernetes
• Compare Kubernetes to Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
• List the key features of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
• Describe the architecture of Tanzu Kubernetes Grid
• List the steps to create a Kubernetes cluster template
• Describe the process for deploying node pools and groups
• List the steps to instantiate a cluster
• List CaaS scale options
• List upgrade operations
• Describe how advanced features like Air Gap are supported

5 Day 1 Operations: Network Functions and Network Services

• Describe the role of a network service
• Describe the types of network functions
• List the type of descriptors
• Describe the requirements of a descriptor
• Describe the role of TOSCA
• Describe how TOSCA is used to create descriptors
• Explore the basics of the TOSCA structure
• Examine various types of descriptors
• Describe the role of onboarding
• List the steps to onboard a virtual network function
• List the steps to onboard a cloud-native network function
• List the steps to onboard a network service
• Examine the results of the onboarding process
• Describe the role of Harbor
• Explain how to list the contents of a Harbor platform
• List the steps to interface with a Harbor platform
• List the steps to instantiate a virtual network function
• List the steps to instantiate a cloud-native network function
• Examine the results of the instantiation process
• List the steps to instantiate a network service
• Examine the results of the instantiation process

6 Day 2 Operations: Platform Life Cycle Management

• Explain the life cycle stages in VMware Telco Cloud Automation control plane
• Explain the life cycle stages in VMware Telco Cloud Automation
• Define an upgrade schedule
• Define workflows
• Apply an upgrade schedule to manage the life cycle of the VMware Telco Cloud Automation control plane
• Apply an upgrade schedule to manage the life cycle of VMware Telco Cloud Automation
• Describe network function life cycle management events
• Execute healing
• Perform a termination
• Describe network service life cycle management events
• Execute network service healing
• Set up network service monitoring
• Perform a network service termination

7 Day 2 Operations: Troubleshooting

• Identify the features of the VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN dashboards
• List the components of the VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN dashboards
• Explain the features of fault management in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN
• Describe the use of fault management in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN for network functions
• Describe the use of performance management in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN for network functions
• Describe the use of logs in VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN
• Troubleshoot using VMware Telco Cloud Platform-RAN logs
• List the key CLI tools that can be used for troubleshooting
• List the steps to identify common network function deployment problems
• Examine key troubleshooting scenarios

8 Day 2 Operations: API Management

• Define the VMware Telco Cloud Automation API
• Explain the API architecture
• Describe VMware Telco Cloud Automation API use cases
• Explain how to configure an external REST API
• Describe how to request security tokens for implementation
• Explain how to implement commands through external systems using APIs