VCP5-DCV Official Certification Guide (Covering the VCP550 Exam)

Bill Ferguson, VCI 3, 4, 5; VCP 3, 4, 5; CCSI; and MCT Alumni has been in the computer industry for more than 20 years. Originally in technical sales and IT consulting with Sprint, he made his transition to Certified Technical Trainer in 1997 with ExecuTrain. He now runs his own company, Parallel Connections, as an independent contractor and consultant based in Birmingham, Alabama, working worldwide for most of the national training companies and some regional training companies. In addition, he has written and produced many technical training videos and books. Bill’s aspiration is as follows: “My job is to understand the material so well that I can make it easier for others to learn than it was for me to learn. Toward that end, I strive to provide an effective learning environment whether in person, in print, or online.”

Introduction xxiii

Chapter 1 Planning, Installing, Configuring, and Upgrading vCenter Server and VMware ESXi 3

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 3

Foundation Topics 6

Identifying and Explaining vSphere Editions and Features 6

    Identifying Available vSphere and vCenter Server Editions 6

    Identifying the Various Data Center Solutions that Interact with vSphere 9

    Explaining ESXi and vCenter Server Architectures 10

    Identifying Available vSphere Editions and Features 10

    Explaining ESXi and vCenter Server Architectures 11

    Explaining Private/Public/Hybrid Cloud Concepts 12

    Determining the Appropriate vSphere Edition Based on Customer Requirements 14

    Identifying Single Sign-On Requirements 15

    Deploying the vCenter Appliance 15

    Installing vCenter Server into a Virtual Machine 20

    Sizing the vCenter Server Database 24

    Installing Additional vCenter Server Components 24

Installing/Removing vSphere Client Plug-Ins 25

    Enabling/Disabling vSphere Web Client Plug-Ins 26

    Licensing vCenter Server 26

    Determining Availability Requirements for vCenter Server in a Given vSphere Implementation 27

    Determining Use Cases for vSphere Client and Web Client 28

Installing and Configuring VMware ESXi 28

    Performing an Interactive Installation of ESXi 29

    Deploying an ESXi Host Using Auto Deploy 31

    Configuring NTP on an ESXi Host 33

    Configuring DNS and Routing on an ESXi Host 33

    Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Hyperthreading 34

    Enabling/Sizing/Disabling Memory Compression Cache 35

    Licensing an ESXi Host 36

Planning and Performing Upgrades of vCenter Server and VMware ESXi 37

    Identifying Upgrade Requirements for ESXi Hosts 37

    Identifying Steps Required to Upgrade a vSphere Implementation 38

    Upgrading a vSphere Distributed Switch 39

    Upgrading from VMFS3 to VMFS5 40

    Upgrading VMware Tools 41

    Upgrading Virtual Machine Hardware 44

    Upgrading an ESXi Host Using vCenter Update Manager 45

    Determining Whether an In-Place Upgrade Is Appropriate in a Given Upgrade Scenario 50

Securing vCenter Server and ESXi 50

    Identifying Common vCenter Server Privileges and Roles 51

        System Roles 52

        Sample Roles 52

        Custom Roles 53

    Describing How Permissions Are Applied and Inherited in vCenter Server 53

        Example 1: Permissions That Apply Directly to an Object Supersede Those That Are Inherited 53

        Example 2: If a User Is a Member of Multiple Groups, the User Is Assigned the Union of the Privileges for Each Group 54

        Example 3: User/Role Pairings Applied Directly to an Object Supersede User/Role Pairings That Are Inherited 55

        Example 4: Permissions That Are Applied Directly to a User Supersede Permissions That Are Inherited Through Group Membership 55

    Single Sign-On Architecture 56

    Configuring and Administering the ESXi Firewall 57

    Enabling Lockdown Mode 58

    Configuring Network Security Policies 59

        Promiscuous Mode 60

        MAC Address Changes 61

        Forged Transmits 61

    Adding/Modifying/Removing Permissions for Users and Groups on vCenter Inventory Objects 62

    Creating/Cloning/Editing vCenter Server Roles 63

        Creating Roles 63

        Cloning Roles 64

        Editing Roles 66

    Adding an ESXi Host to a Directory Service 68

    Applying Permissions to ESXi Hosts Using Host Profiles 69

    Determining the Appropriate Set of Privileges for Common Tasks in vCenter Server 69

Summary 70

Exam Preparation Tasks 70

    Review All the Key Topics 70

    Review Questions 71

Chapter 2 Planning and Configuring vSphere Networking 75

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 75

Foundation Topics 78

Configuring vSphere Standard Switches 78

    Identifying vSphere Standard Switch (vSS) Capabilities 78

    Creating/Deleting a vSphere Standard Switch 79

        Deleting a vSphere Standard Switch 84

    Adding/Configuring/Removing vmnics on a vSphere Standard Switch 85

    Configuring VMkernel Ports for Network Services 91

    Adding/Editing/Removing Port Groups on a vSphere Standard Switch 93

    Determining Use Cases for a vSphere Standard Switch 97

Configuring vSphere Distributed Switches 97

    Identifying vSphere Distributed Switch Capabilities 98

    Creating/Deleting a vSphere Distributed Switch 101

        Deleting a vDS 104

    Adding/Removing ESXi Hosts from a vSphere Distributed Switch 104

    Adding/Configuring/Removing dvPort Groups 110

    Adding/Removing Uplink Adapters to dvUplink Groups 113

    Creating/Configuring/Removing Virtual Adapters 118

    Migrating Virtual Adapters To/From a vSphere Standard Switch 125

    Migrating Virtual Machines To/From a vSphere Distributed Switch 127

Configuring vSS and vDS Policies 132

    Identifying Common vSS and vDS Policies 132

    Configuring dvPort Group Blocking Policies 138

    Configuring Load Balancing and Failover Policies 139

        Load Balancing 140

        Network Failover Detection 141

        Notify Switches 141

        Failback 142

    Configuring VLAN Settings 143

        Configuring VLAN Policy Settings on a vDS 145

        Configuring VLAN Trunking Policies on a VDS 145

        Configuring Private VLAN Policy Settings on a vDS 146

    Configuring Traffic Shaping Policies 148

        Traffic Shaping Policies for vSphere Standard Switches 148

        Traffic Shaping Policies for vSphere Distributed Switches 150

    Enabling TCP Segmentation Offload Support for a Virtual Machine 150

    Enabling Jumbo Frames Support on Appropriate Components 152

        Enabling Jumbo Frames for VMkernel Interface on a vSS 152

        Enabling Jumbo Frames on a vDS 154

        Enabling Jumbo Frame Support on Virtual Machines 155

    Determining Appropriate VLAN Configuration for a vSphere Implementation 155

    Monitoring dvPort State 157

    Backing Up and Restoring vDS Configuration 157

    Configuring LACP on Uplink Port Groups 159

    Determining Use Cases for a vSphere Distributed Switch 166

Summary 166

Exam Preparation Tasks 167

    Review All the Key Topics 167

    Review Questions 168

Chapter 3 Planning and Configuring vSphere Storage 175

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 175

Foundation Topics 179

Configuring Shared Storage for vSphere 179

    Identifying Storage Adapters and Devices 179

        Fibre Channel 180

        FCoE 180

        iSCSI 181

        NAS 181

        VSAN 181

    Identifying Storage Naming Conventions 182

        Storage Naming Conventions for Local and SAN 182

    Identifying Hardware/Dependent Hardware/Software iSCSI Initiator Requirements 184

    Comparing and Contrasting Array Thin Provisioning and Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning 185

        Array Thin Provisioning 186

        Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning 186

    Describing Zoning and LUN Masking Practices 188

        Zoning 188

        Masking 189

    Scanning/Rescanning Storage 189

    Identifying Use Cases for FCOE 191

    Creating an NFS Share for Use with vSphere 191

    Connecting to an NAS Device 192

    Enabling/Configuring/Disabling vCenter Server Storage Filters 195

    Configuring/Editing Hardware/Dependent Hardware Adapters 197

    Enabling/Disabling Software iSCSI Initiator Settings 197

    Configuring iSCSI Port Binding 199

    Enabling/Configuring/Disabling iSCSI CHAP 201

    Determining Use Cases for Hardware/Dependent Hardware/Software iSCSI Initiator 204

    Determining Use Cases For and Configuring Array Thin Provisioning 204

Creating and Configuring VMFS and NFS Datastores 205

    Identifying VMFS and NFS Datastore Properties 205

    Identifying VMFS-5 Capabilities 207

    Creating/Renaming/Deleting/Unmounting a VMFS Datastore 207

    Mounting/Unmounting an NFS Datastore 216

    Extending/Expanding VMFS Datastores 220

        Extending VMFS Datastores 220

        Expanding VMFS Datastores 223

    Upgrading a VMFS-3 Datastore to VMFS-5 226

    Placing a VMFS Datastore in Maintenance Mode 228

    Selecting the Preferred Path for a VMFS Datastore 229

    Disabling a Path to a VMFS Datastore 231

    Determining Use Cases for Multiple VMFS and NFS Datastores 232

    Determining Appropriate Path Selection Policy for a VMFS Datastore 232

Summary 233

Exam Preparation Tasks 234

    Review All the Key Topics 234

    Review Questions 235

Chapter 4 Deploying and Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 241

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 241

Foundation Topics 244

    Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines 244

    Identifying Capabilities for VM Hardware Versions 244

    Identifying VMware Tools Device Drivers 246

    Identifying Methods to Access and Use Virtual Machine Console 246

    Identifying Virtual Machine Storage Resources 248

    Placing Virtual Machines in Selected ESXi Hosts/Clusters/Resource Pools 249

    Configuring and Deploying a Guest OS into a New Virtual Machine 249

    Creating/Converting Thin/Thick Provisioned Virtual Disks 251

    Configuring Disk Shares 253

    Installing/Upgrading/Updating VMware Tools 256

    Configuring Virtual Machine Time Synchronization 258

    Converting a Physical Machine Using VMware Converter 259

    Importing a Supported Virtual Machine Source Using VMware Converter 262

    Modifying Virtual Hardware Settings Using VMware Standalone Converter 262

    Configuring/Modifying Virtual CPU and Memory Resources According to OS and Application Requirements 263

        Configuring and Modifying Virtual Machine CPU 263

        Configuring and Modifying Virtual Machine Memory 264

    Configuring/Modifying Virtual NIC Adapter and Connecting Virtual Machines to Appropriate Network Resources 267

    Determining Appropriate Datastore Locations for Virtual Machines Based on Application Workloads 267

Creating and Deploying vApps 268

    Identifying vApp Settings 268

        Application Properties 269

        Deployment 269

        Authoring 272

        Start Order 273

    Creating/Cloning/Exporting a vApp 274

    Adding Objects to an Existing vApp 282

    Editing vApp Settings 282

    Configuring IP Pools 283

    Suspending/Resuming a vApp 284

    Determining When a Tiered Application Should Be Deployed as a vApp 284

Managing Virtual Machine Clones and Templates 285

    Identifying the vCenter Server, Managed ESXi Hosts, and Virtual Machine Maximums 286

    Identifying Cloning and Template Options 288

    Cloning an Existing Virtual Machine 289

    Creating a Template from an Existing Virtual Machine 290

    Deploying a Virtual Machine from a Template 293

    Updating Existing Virtual Machine Templates 295

    Deploying Virtual Appliances and/or vApps from an OVF Template 298

    Importing and/or Exporting an OVF Template 301

    Creating and Publishing Content Libraries 303

    Determining the Appropriate Development Methodology for a Given Virtual Machine Application 303

Administering Virtual Machines and vApps 303

    Identifying Files Used by Virtual Machines 304

    Identifying Locations for Virtual Machine Configuration Files and Virtual Disks 305

    Identifying Common Practices for Securing Virtual Machines 308

    Hot Extending a Virtual Disk 309

    Configuring USB Passthrough from an ESXi Host 312

    Configuring Serial Port Redirection 313

    Configuring Virtual Machine Options 314

        General Options 315

        VMware Remote Console Options 315

        VMware Tools 316

        Power Management 317

        Advanced 318

        Fibre Channel NPIV 318

    Configuring Virtual Machine Power Settings 319

    Configuring Virtual Machine Boot Options 320

    Configuring Virtual Machine Troubleshooting Options 321

    Assigning a Storage Policy to a VM 321

    Verifying Storage Policy Compliance for Virtual Machines 323

    Determining When an Advanced Virtual Machine Parameter Is Required 324

    Adjusting Virtual Machine Resources (Shares, Limits, and Reservations) Based on Virtual Machine Workloads 324

Summary 324

Exam Preparation Tasks 325

    Review All the Key Topics 325

    Review Questions 327

Chapter 5 Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels 333

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 333

Foundation Topics 336

Creating and Configuring VMware Clusters 336

    Describing DRS Virtual Machine Entitlement 336

    Creating/Deleting a DRS/HA Cluster 337

    Adding/Removing ESXi Hosts from a DRS/HA Cluster 338

    Adding or Removing Virtual Machines from a DRS/HA Cluster 344

    Configuring Storage DRS 345

    Configuring Enhanced vMotion Compatibility 351

    Monitoring a DRS/HA Cluster 352

    Configuring Migration Thresholds for DRS and Virtual Machines 353

    Configuring Automation Levels for DRS and Virtual Machines 355

    Enabling and Disabling Host Power Management 356

    Enabling BIOS P/C States 357

    Creating VM-Host and VM-VM Affinity Rules 358

    Enabling/Disabling Host Monitoring 363

    Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Virtual Machine and Application Monitoring 364

        Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Virtual Machine Monitoring 364

        Enabling/Configuring/Disabling Application Monitoring 366

    Configuring Admission Control for HA and Virtual Machines 366

        Admission Control 367

        Admission Control Policy 367

    Determining Appropriate Failover Methodology and Required Resources for an HA Implementation 370

        Host Failures the Cluster Tolerates 370

        Percentage of Cluster Resources as Failover Spare Capacity 371

        Specify Failover Hosts 371

Planning and Implementing VMware Fault Tolerance 371

    Identifying VMware Fault Tolerance Requirements 372

    Configuring VMware Fault Tolerance Networking 373

    Enabling/Disabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a Virtual Machine 373

    Testing an FT Configuration 375

    Determining Use Case for Enabling VMware Fault Tolerance on a Virtual Machine 375

Creating and Administering Resource Pools 375

    Describing the Resource Pool Hierarchy 376

    Defining the Expandable Reservation Parameter 377

    A Description of vFlash Architecture 377

    Creating/Removing a Resource Pool 378

    Configuring Resource Pool Attributes 380

    Adding/Removing Virtual Machines from a Resource Pool 381

    Determining Resource Pool Requirements for a Given vSphere Implementation 381

    Evaluating Appropriate Shares, Reservations, and Limits for Resource Pools Based on Virtual Machine Workloads 382

Migrating Virtual Machines 383

    Identifying ESXi Host and Virtual Machine Requirements for vMotion and Storage vMotion 383

        ESXi and VM Requirements for vMotion 384

        ESXi and VM Requirements for Storage vMotion 385

        Enhanced vMotion (Cross-Host vMotion) 386

    Identifying Enhanced vMotion Compatibility CPU Requirements 387

    Identifying Snapshot Requirements for vMotion/Storage vMotion Migration 389

    Migrating Virtual Machines Using vMotion/Storage vMotion 390

        Migrating a VM Using vMotion 390

        Migrating a VM’s Files Using Storage vMotion 394

    Configuring Virtual Machine Swap File Location 396

    Migrating a Powered-Off or Suspended Virtual Machine 399

    Utilizing Storage vMotion Techniques 399

Backing Up and Restoring Virtual Machines 401

    Identifying Snapshot Requirements 401

    Creating/Deleting/Consolidating Virtual Machine Snapshots 401

    Identifying VMware Data Protection Requirements 408

    Explaining VMware Data Protection Sizing Guidelines 409

    Installing and Configuring VMware Data Protection 410

    Creating a Backup Job with VMware Data Protection 412

    Installing, Configuring, and Managing vSphere Replication 412

    Determining Appropriate Backup Solution for a Given vSphere Implementation 416

Patching and Updating ESXi and Virtual Machines 416

    Identifying Patching Requirements for ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machine Hardware/Tools 417

    Creating/Editing/Removing a Host Profile from an ESXi Host 417

    Attach/Apply a Host Profile to an ESXi Host or Cluster 421

    Performing Compliance Scanning and Remediation of an ESXi Host Using Host Profiles 423

    Installing and Configuring vCenter Update Manager 425

    Configuring Patch Download Options 429

    Creating/Editing/Deleting an Update Manager Baseline 430

    Attaching an Update Manager Baseline to an ESXi Host or Cluster 434

    Scanning and Remediating ESXi Hosts and Virtual Machine Hardware/Tools Using Update Manager 434

Summary 435

Exam Preparation Tasks 436

    Review All the Key Topics 436

    Review Questions 439

Chapter 6 Performing Basic Troubleshooting 443

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 443

Foundation Topics 447

Performing Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts 447

    Identifying General ESXi Host Troubleshooting Guidelines 447

        Learn How to Access Support Mode 447

        Know How to Retrieve Logs 451

    Troubleshooting Common Installation Issues 453

        Troubleshooting Boot Order 453

        Troubleshooting License Assignment 454

        Troubleshooting Plug-Ins 454

    Monitoring ESXi System Health 455

    Exporting Diagnostic Information 456

Performing Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting 461

    Verifying Network Configuration 461

    Verifying a Given Virtual Machine Is Configured with the Correct Network Resources 463

    Troubleshooting Virtual Switch and Port Group Configuration Issues 463

    Troubleshooting Physical Network Adapter Configuration Issues 464

    Identifying the Root Cause of a Network Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 465

Performing Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting 466

    Verifying Storage Configuration 467

    Troubleshooting Storage Contention Issues 469

    Troubleshooting Storage Overcommitment Issues 471

        Excessive Reservations Cause Slow Host Performance 471

        Path Thrashing Causes Slow Performance 471

    Troubleshooting iSCSI Software Initiator Configuration Issues 472

    Troubleshooting Storage Reports and Storage Maps 472

        Storage Reports 472

        Storage Maps 475

    Identifying the Root Cause of a Storage Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 476

Performing Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS Clusters and vMotion/Storage vMotion 476

    Identifying HA/DRS and vMotion Requirements 476

    Verifying vMotion/Storage vMotion Configuration 477

        Verifying vMotion Configuration 478

    Verifying HA Network Configuration 478

    Verifying HA/DRS Cluster Configuration 479

    Troubleshooting HA Capacity Issues 480

    Troubleshooting HA Redundancy Issues 480

    Interpreting the DRS Resource Distributing Graph and Target/Current Host Load Deviation 481

    Troubleshooting DRS Load Imbalance Issues 483

    Troubleshooting vMotion/Storage vMotion Migration Issues 483

    Interpreting vMotion Resource Maps 484

    Identifying the Root Cause for a DRS/HA Cluster or Migration Issue Based on Troubleshooting Information 484

Summary 486

Exam Preparation Tasks 487

    Review All the Key Topics 487

    Review Questions 488

Chapter 7 Monitoring a vSphere Implementation 493

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 493

Foundation Topics 497

Monitoring ESXi, vCenter Server, and Virtual Machines 497

    Describing How Tasks and Events Are Viewed in vCenter Server 497

        Viewing by Object Selected in the Navigator 498

        Filtering the Output 499

        Filtering by Keyword 499

    Identifying Critical Performance Metrics 500

    Explaining Common Memory Metrics 501

    Explaining Common CPU Metrics 506

    Explaining Common Network Metrics 507

    Explaining Common Storage Metrics 507

    Comparing and Contrasting Overview and Advanced Charts 508

    Configuring SNMP for vCenter Server 510

    Configuring Active Directory and SMTP Settings for vCenter Server 511

        Configuring Active Directory Settings for vCenter 511

        Configuring SMTP Settings for a vCenter Server 512

    Configuring vCenter Server Logging Options 514

    Creating a Log Bundle 515

    Creating/Editing/Deleting a Scheduled Task 518

    Configuring/Viewing/Printing/Exporting Resource Maps 524

    Starting/Stopping/Verifying vCenter Service Status 527

    Starting/Stopping/Verifying ESXi Host Agent Status 529

    Configuring vCenter Server Timeout Settings 530

    Monitoring/Administering vCenter Server Connections 531

    Creating an Advanced Chart 533

    Determining Host Performance Using Resxtop and Guest Perfmon 536

        Determining Host Performance Using Resxtop 536

        Determining Host Performance Using Guest Perfmon 540

    Given Performance Data, Identifying the Affected vSphere Resource 541

Creating and Administering vCenter Server Alarms 541

    Listing vCenter Default Utilization Alarms 542

    Listing vCenter Default Connectivity Alarms 543

    Listing Possible Actions for Utilization and Connectivity Alarms 543

    Creating a vCenter Utilization Alarm 544

    Creating a vCenter Connectivity Alarm 548

    Configuring Alarm Triggers 551

    Configuring Alarm Actions 552

    For a Given Alarm, Identifying the Affected Resource in a vSphere Implementation 552

Installing, Configuring, and Administering vCenter Operations Manager 553

    Differentiating Between Major/Minor vCOPs Badges 554

    Explaining vCOPs Architecture 555

    Deploying and Configuring a vCOPs Appliance 556

    Upgrading vCOPs 564

    Understanding Metrics Used by Major/Minor vCOPs Badges 566

    Monitoring Your vSphere Environment 567

Summary 568

Exam Preparation Tasks 569

    Review All the Key Topics 569

    Review Questions 571

Chapter 8 What Do I Do Now? 575

Foundation Topics 576

Scheduling the Test 576

Comparing Your Knowledge to the VCP550 Exam Blueprint Objectives 577

Studying the Questions at the End of Each Chapter and on the Bonus Material 577

Taking the Mock Exam on the VMware Website 578

The Day of the Test 579

Sending Me an Email When You Pass 579

Appendix A Answers to the “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes and Chapter Review Questions 581

“Do I Know This Already?” Answers 581

Chapter Review Answers 583

 

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