VCAP5-DCD Official Cert Guide (with DVD)

Paul McSharry is an independent virtualization consultant and instructor based in the UK. He has been an IT professional for 15 years and now specializes in virtualization technologies and web hosting solutions, working with large retail and financial enterprises. When not working in the field, he is often instructing the VMware-authorized classes for various VMware VATCs. Paul holds a variety of vendor-based IT certifications, such as MCSE, MCITP, VCP, and VCAP, and he is also a qualified IT instructor, holding VMware Certified Instructor (VCI), CompTIA CTT+, and Microsoft MCT credentials. His recent consultancy projects include the following:   ¿ Producing a large-scale hybrid cloud platform to deploy and enable secure e-discovery web-based applications for data review ¿ Several large datacenter migrations using various vSphere platforms ¿ Multiple public and private vCloud director platform designs and implementations ¿ Several enterprise-wide VMware view-based VDI deployments   Paul is an active blogger ( http://www.elasticsky.co.uk ) and Twitter user (@pmcsharry). He has also been awarded the vExpert designation for his work in the VMware community for two years running (2012–2013).

Introduction xvii

 

Chapter 1 Introduction to Technical Design 3



“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 3

Foundation Topics 6

What Is a Technical Design? 6

 Where Do We Start? What Are We Doing? 6

 What Makes a Good Designer? 6

 A Familiar Scenario...? 7

The Technical Design Process 7

 Vision 8

 Scope 9

 Requirements 9

 Constraints 9

 Assumptions 9

 Risks 10

Project Deliverables 10

 Building a Realistic and Executable Plan of Approach 11

 General Guidelines for a Good Technical Design 12

 Learning from Experience 12

 Measuring Project Success 13

Exam Preparation Tasks 13

Review All Key Topics 13

Design Scenarios 14

Definitions of Key Terms 14

Read the Technical Material with a Designer’s Hat On 14

Review Questions 15

 

Chapter 2 Creating a Design 19

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 19

Foundation Topic 22

Gathering Information and Spotting the Gaps 22

Presenting the Data Gathered 26

 Key Points from the Summary of Stakeholder Interviews 27

 Milestone Plan and Technical Approach 28

 Milestone Phases 28

 Justification for Design Choices 28

Real-Life Tips 29

Exam Preparation Tasks 29

Review All Key Topics 29

Design Scenario 30

Definitions of Key Terms 30

Review Questions 30

 

Chapter 3 Thoughts on Good Choices for Virtualization and Design 35

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 35

Foundation Topics 38

What Makes a Good Choice for Virtualization, and What Is a Good Design? 38

“It’s Okay, We Have HA!” 41

 RTO, RPO, and All That Stuff 42

 Single Points of Failure and Risk 43

 What Is DR, and When Is It Invoked? 45

Platform and Operations: The Roles 45

 “Did Someone Change Something on Production?” 47

 When to Virtualize? 48

Exam Preparation Tasks 50

Review All Key Topics 50

Design Scenario 50

Definitions of Key Terms 51

Review Questions 52

 

Chapter 4 Developing a Design on Paper and Delivering It Physically 55

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 55

Foundation Topics 60

How to Approach vSphere Technical Design 60

 Transitioning to a Physical Design: A Common Approach and Process 61

 vSphere Platform Components 63

Design Thoughts, Choices, and Impact Considerations 64

 Storage Design: Logical and Physical Approaches 64

 Storage Tiering 66

 vSphere Storage Design Decisions 69

 Design Approaches and Development 70

 Developing a Physical Storage Design 71

 Examples of Recommended Best Practices 72

 Network Design: Logical and Physical Design to Allow Applications to Flow 73

 vNetworks: Planning from the Basics 74

 Creating a Logical Design 78

 Moving from the Logical Design to the Physical Design 81

 Compute and Host Design 82

 Management/Platform Design 85

The Importance of vMotion, VMware HA, and Fault Tolerance 90

 Admission Control, and I Don’t Have the Power, Captain! 91

 Restart Priority 92

 Guest Machine Placement 93

Now What Do I Do? 93

Exam Preparation Tasks 94

Review All Key Topics 94

Design Scenario 95

Definitions of Key Terms 95

Review Questions 96

 

Chapter 5 Virtual Machine Design 99

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 99

Foundation Topics 104

Virtual Machines—From the Design Perspective 104

 It’s All About the Application 105

 Design Approaches 107

 What Should a VM Contain? 108

Guest Virtual Machine Component Considerations 110

 Reservations, Limits, and Shares 111

 Network Considerations 112

 Storage Considerations 113

 CPU Considerations 114

 vSphere Platform-wide Considerations 115

 Antivirus Solutions for a vSphere Admin 116

 vApps 117

OVFs 119

Exam Preparation Tasks 120

Review All Key Topics 120

Design Scenario 120

Define Key Terms 121

Review Questions 121

Question Scenario 122

 

Chapter 6 Project Execution 125

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 125

Foundation Topics 127

Implementation Approach and Order of Delivery 127

 Establishing the Order of Delivery 128

 Technical Approach 128

Validation, Thoughts, and Processes 130

 Going Live and the Bedding-in Period 135

Documentation and Delivery 136

 Implementation Plans 137

 Installation Guides 137

Exam Preparation Tasks 139

Review All Key Topics 139

Design Scenario 139

Definitions of Key Terms 140

Review Questions 141

 

Chapter 7 Tips For Passing The Exam 143

The Blueprint 143

Studying for the Test and Real-Life Designing 144

 The Exam Design Tool 144

 Tips for E-design Tool Questions 145

My VCAP5-DCD Experience 146

Exam Preparation Tasks 147

Final Preparation Tasks 147

Real-Life Tips from Field and Design Defenses 147

 

Appendix A Answers to the “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes and Chapter Review

Questions 149

 

Appendix B Recommended Reading and Assumed Platform Knowledge 153

Section 1: VMware Recommended Reading List 154

Section 2: Assumed Platform Knowledge 155

Section 3: vSphere Design Choice Thoughts 158

 

Glossary 165

 

Index 169