For my own purposes and to help out everyone, I've tried linking everything I can find on the web to go along with the blueprint (version 3.1) for the VMware Certified Advanced Professional Datacenter Administration Exam (VCAP VDCA-410 / VCAP-DCA). These links are a combination of VMware Documentation and user-contributed blogs.
If you would like to read these offline, I have taken the liberty to convert every single link into a PDF file. (100mb)
There is some stuff I was not able to locate on this blueprint. If you find something I don't have listed, please leave a link in the comments stating the Objective, Knowledge/Skill/Tool, and Property, and it will be added to the list. I hope you find this useful as we all study towards the VCAP VDCA.
Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage
- Objective 1.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Storage Solutions
- Knowledge
- • Identify RAID levels
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels
- Raid Levels Defined
- • Identify supported HBA types
- • Identify virtual disk format types
- • Identify RAID levels
- Skills and Abilities
- • Determine use cases for and configure VMware DirectPath I/O
- • Determine requirements for and configure NPIV
- • Determine appropriate RAID level for various Virtual Machine workloads
- • Apply VMware storage best practices
- • Understand use cases for Raw Device Mapping
- • Configure vCenter Server storage filters
- • Understand and apply VMFS resignaturing
- • Understand and apply LUN masking using PSA?related commands
- • Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements
- Storage Basics – Part I: An Introduction
- Storage Basics – Part II: IOPS
- Storage Basics – Part III: RAID
- Storage Basics – Part IV: Interface
- Storage Basics – Part V: Controllers, Cache and Coalescing
- Storage Basics – Part VI: Storage Workload Characterization
- Storage Basics – Part VII: Storage Alignment
- Storage performance and workload analysis using Swat. - BestPerf
- Tools
- • Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
- • iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vscsiStats
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- o vifs
- o vmkfstools
- o esxtop/resxtop
- Objective 1.2 – Manage Storage Capacity in a vSphere Environment
- Knowledge
- • Identify storage provisioning methods
- • Identify available storage monitoring tools, metrics and alarms
- Skills and Abilities
- • Apply space utilization data to manage storage resources
- • Provision and manage storage resources according to Virtual Machine requirements
- • Understand interactions between virtual storage provisioning and physical storage provisioning
- • Apply VMware storage best practices
- • Configure datastore alarms
- • Analyze datastore alarms and errors to determine space availability
- Tools
- • vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide
- • Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
- • iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vmkfstools
- Objective 1.3 – Configure and Manage Complex Multipathing and PSA Plug?ins
- Knowledge
- • Explain the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layout
- Skills and Abilities
- • Install and Configure PSA plug?ins
- • Understand different multipathing policy functionalities
- • Perform command line configuration of multipathing options
- • Change a multipath policy
- • Configure Software iSCSI port binding
- Tools
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide
- • iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking
- Objective 2.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Virtual Networks
- Knowledge
- • Identify common virtual switch configurations
- Skills and Abilities
- • Determine use cases for and apply IPv6
- • Configure NetQueue
- • Configure SNMP
- • Determine use cases for and apply VMware DirectPath I/O
- • Migrate a vSS network to a Hybrid or Full vDS solution
- • Configure vSS and vDS settings using command line tools
- • Analyze command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details
- Tools
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • vNetwork Distributed Switch: Migration and Configuration
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- Objective 2.2 – Configure and Maintain VLANs, PVLANs and VLAN Settings
- Knowledge
- • Identify types of VLANs and PVLANs
- trunk, access
- • Identify types of VLANs and PVLANs
- Skills and Abilities
- • Determine use cases for and configure VLAN Trunking
- • Determine use cases for and configure PVLANs
- • Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations
- esxcfg-vswitch -l
- esxcfg-vmknic -l
- Tools
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- Objective 2.3 – Deploy and Maintain Scalable Virtual Networking
- Knowledge
- • Identify VMware NIC Teaming policies
- • Identify common network protocols
- Skills and Abilities
- • Understand the NIC Teaming failover types and related physical network settings
- • Determine and apply Failover settings
- • Configure explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices
- • Configure port groups to properly isolate network traffic
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- Objective 2.4 – Administer vNetwork Distributed Switch Settings
- Knowledge
- • Explain relationship between vDS and logical vSSes
- Skills and Abilities
- • Understand the use of command line tools to configure appropriate vDS settings on an ESX/ESX host
- • Determine use cases for and apply Port Binding settings
- • Configure Live Port Moving
- • Given a set of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch technology to use
- • Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an existing vDS
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
Section 3 – Deploy DRS Clusters and Manage Performance
- Objective 3.1 – Tune and Optimize vSphere Performance
- Knowledge
- • Identify appropriate BIOS and firmware setting requirements for optimal ESX/ESXi Host
- performance
- • Identify appropriate ESX driver revisions required for optimal ESX/ESXi Host performance
- • Recall where to locate information resources to verify compliance with VMware and third party vendor best practices
- Skills and Abilities
- • Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory configurations
- • Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine networking configurations
- • Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU configurations
- • Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine storage configurations
- • Configure and apply advanced ESX/ESXi Host attributes
- • Configure and apply advanced Virtual Machine attributes
- • Tune and optimize NUMA controls
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Performance Troubleshooting for VMware vSphere 4
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- o Performance Graphs
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- o resxtop/esxtop
- o vscsiStats
- Objective 3.2 – Optimize Virtual Machine Resources
- Knowledge
- • Compare and contrast virtual and physical hardware resources
- • Identify VMware memory management techniques
- • Identify VMware CPU load balancing techniques
- • Identify pre-requisites for Hot Add features
- Skills and Abilities
- • Calculate available resources
- • Properly size a Virtual Machine based on application workload
- • Configure large memory pages
- • Understand appropriate use cases for CPU affinity
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Understanding Memory Resource Management in VMware® ESX™ Server 4.1
- • VMware vSphere™ : The CPU Scheduler in VMware® ESX™ 4.1
- • vSphere Client
- o Performance Charts
- • vSphere CLI
- o resxtop/esxtop
- Objective 3.3 – Implement and Maintain Complex DRS Solutions
- Knowledge
- • Explain DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules
- • Identify required hardware components to support DPM
- • Identify EVC requirements, baselines and components
- • Understand the DRS slot-size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations
- Skills and Abilities
- • Properly configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM
- WOL
- • Test DPM to verify proper configuration
- • Configure appropriate DPM Threshold to meet business requirements
- • Configure EVC using appropriate baseline
- • Change the EVC mode on an existing DRS cluster
- • Create DRS and DPM alarms
- • Configure applicable power management settings for ESX Hosts
- Saving Power with VMware vSphere ESX – Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS)
- there is now a power menu option in 4.1
- Saving Power with VMware vSphere ESX – Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS)
- • Properly size virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency
- • Properly apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application requirements
- • Properly configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- o DRS Resource Distribution Chart
- Objective 3.4 – Perform Capacity Planning in a vSphere Environment
- Knowledge
- • Understand the DRS slot-size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations
- • Identify tools needed for monitoring capacity planning
- • Identify performance metrics related to resource contention and saturation
- Skills and Abilities
- • Predict when additional ESX/ESXi Host, network or storage resources will be required by observing an existing environment
- • Determine when to expand or contract provisioned Virtual Machine resources based upon observed Virtual Machine utilization
- • Interpret performance metrics from vCenter to properly size the environment
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • Overview Performance Charts Help
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 3.5 – Utilize Advanced vSphere Performance Monitoring Tools
- Knowledge
- • Identify hot keys and fields used with resxtop/esxtop
- • Identify fields used with vscsiStats
- Skills and Abilities
- • Configure esxtop/resxtop custom profiles
- • Determine use cases for and apply esxtop/resxtop Interactive, Batch and Replay modes
- • Use vscsiStats to gather storage performance data
- • Use esxtop/resxtop to collect performance data
- • Given esxtop/resxtop output, identify relative performance data for capacity planning purposes
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o esxtop/resxtop
- o vscsiStats
Section 4 – Manage Business Continuity and Protect Data
- Objective 4.1 – Implement and Maintain Complex VMware HA Solutions
- Knowledge
- • Identify the three admission control policies for HA
- • Identify heartbeat options and dependencies
- Skills and Abilities
- • Calculate host failure requirements
- • Configure customized isolation response settings
- • Configure HA redundancy in a mixed ESX/ESXi environment
- • Configure HA related alarms and monitor an HA cluster
- • Create a custom slot size configuration
- • Understand interactions between DRS and HA
- • Create an HA solution that ensures primary node distribution across sites
- • Analyze vSphere environment to determine appropriate HA admission control policy
- • Analyze performance metrics to calculate host failure requirements
- • Analyze Virtual Machine workload to determine optimum slot size
- • Analyze HA cluster capacity to determine optimum cluster size
- Tools
- • vSphere Availability Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 4.2 – Deploy and Test VMware FT
- VCAP-DCA Objective 4.2 : Deploy + Test VMware FT
- Knowledge
- • Identify VMware FT hardware requirements
- • Identify VMware FT compatibility requirements
- Skills and Abilities
- • Modify VM and ESX/ESXi Host settings to allow for FT compatibility
- • Use VMware best practices to prepare a vSphere environment for FT
- • Configure FT logging
- • Prepare the infrastructure for FT compliance
- • Test FT failover, secondary restart and application fault tolerance in a FT Virtual Machine
- Tools
- • vSphere Availability Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 4.3 – Configure a vSphere Environment to support MSCS Clustering
- Knowledge
- • Identify MSCS clustering solution requirements
- • Identify the three supported MSCS configurations
- Skills and Abilities
- • Configure Virtual Machine hardware to support cluster type and guest OS
- • Configure a MSCS cluster on a single ESX/ESXi Host
- • Configure a MSCS cluster across ESX/ESXi Hosts
- • Configure standby host clustering
- Tools
- • Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 4.4 – Deploy and Maintain vCenter Server Heartbeat
- Knowledge
- • Identify the five protection levels for vCenter Server Heartbeat
- • Identify the three server protection options for vCenter Server Heartbeat
- • Identify supported cloning options
- Skills and Abilities
- • Install and configure vCenter Server Heartbeat
- • Determine use cases for and execute a manual switchover
- • Recover from a failover
- • Monitor vCenter Server Heartbeat and communication status
- • Configure heartbeat settings
- • Configure shutdown options
- • Configure application protection
- • Add/Edit Services
- • Add/Edit Tasks
- • Edit/Test Rules
- • Install/Edit Plug?ins
- • Add/Remove Inclusion/Exclusion Filters
- • Perform Full System and Full Registry checks
- • Configure/Test Alerts
- • Troubleshoot common vCenter Server Heartbeat error conditions
- Tools
- • vCenter Server Heartbeat QuickStart Guide
- • vCenter Server Heartbeat Reference Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance
- Objective 5.1 – Implement and Maintain Host Profiles
- VCAP Objective 5.1 : Implement and Maintain Host Profiles
- Skills and Abilities
- • Use Profile Editor to edit and/or disable policies
- • Create sub-profiles
- • Use Host Profiles to deploy vDS
- Tools
- • vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide
- • VMware vSphere™ 4: Deployment Methods for the VMware® vNetwork Distributed Switch
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 5.2 – Deploy and Manage Complex Update Manager Environments
- VCAP-DCA Objective 5.2 : Deploy and Manage Complex Update Manager Environments
- Knowledge
- • Identify firewall access rules for Update Manager
- Skills and Abilities
- • Determine use case for, install and configure Update Manager Download Service
- • Configure a shared repository
- • Configure smart rebooting
- • Manually download updates to a repository
- • Perform orchestrated vSphere upgrades
- • Create and modify baseline groups
- • Troubleshoot Update Manager problem areas and issues
- • Generate database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL
- • Upgrade vApps using Update Manager
- Tools
- • VMware vCenter Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vmware-umds
Section 6 – Perform Advanced Troubleshooting
- Objective 6.1 – Configure, Manage and Analyze vSphere Log Files
- Knowledge
- • Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations
- • Identify ESX/ESXi log files names and locations
- • Identify tools used to view vSphere log files
- Skills and Abilities
- • Generate vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi log bundles
- • Use vicfg-syslog to configure centralized logging on ESX/ESXi Hosts
- • Test centralized logging configuration
- • Configure the vMA appliance as a log host
- • Use vilogger to enable/disable log collection on the vMA appliance
- • Use vilogger to configure log rotation and retention
- • Analyze log entries to obtain configuration information
- • Analyze log entries to identify and resolve issues
- Tools
- • vSphere Management Assistant Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vicfg-syslog
- • vilogger
- Objective 6.2 – Troubleshoot CPU and Memory Performance
- Knowledge
- • Identify resxtop/esxtop metrics related to memory and CPU
- • Identify vCenter Server Performance Chart metrics related to memory and CPU
- Skills and Abilities
- • Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU performance issues using appropriate metrics
- • Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory performance issues using appropriate metrics
- • Use Hot-Add functionality to resolve identified Virtual Machine CPU and memory performance issues
- Tools
- • vSphere Resource Management Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o resxtop/esxtop
- Objective 6.3 – Troubleshoot Network Performance and Connectivity
- VCAP-DCA Objective 6.3- Troubleshoot Network Performance and Connectivity
- Knowledge
- • Identify virtual switch entries in a Virtual Machine’s configuration file
- • Identify virtual switch entries in the ESX/ESXi Host configuration file
- • Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot vSphere networking configurations
- • Identify logs used to troubleshoot network issues
- Skills and Abilities
- • Utilize net-dvs to troubleshoot vNetwork Distributed Switch configurations
- • Utilize vicfg-* commands to troubleshoot ESX/ESXi network configurations
- • Configure a network packet analyzer in a vSphere environment
- • Troubleshoot Private VLANs
- • Troubleshoot Service Console and vmkernel network configuration issues
- • Troubleshoot DNS and routing related issues
- • Use esxtop/resxtop to identify network performance problems
- • Use CDP and/or network hints to identify connectivity issues
- • Analyze troubleshooting data to determine if the root cause for a given network problem originates in the physical infrastructure or vSphere environment
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- o net-dvs
- o resxtop/esxtop
- Objective 6.4 – Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity
- VCAP-DCA Objective 6.4 : Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity
- Knowledge
- • Recall vicfg-* commands related to listing storage configuration
- • Recall vSphere 4 storage maximums
- • Identify logs used to troubleshoot storage issues
- Troubleshooting SCSI Reservation failures on Virtual Infrastructure 3 and 3.5 and 4.0
- Troubleshooting VMFS-3 datastore issues
- Troubleshooting fibre channel storage connectivity
- Troubleshooting ESX and ESXi connectivity to fibre channel arrays
- Troubleshooting LUN connectivity issues
- Troubleshooting iSCSI array connectivity
- Troubleshooting ESX Server and ESXi connectivity to iSCSI arrays using software initiator
- Troubleshooting ESX and ESXi connectivity to iSCSI arrays using hardware initiators
- Troubleshooting a LUN that is extended in size past the 2TB/2047GB limit
- • Describe the VMFS file system
- Skills and Abilities
- • Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot multipathing and PSA?related issues
- • Use vicfg-module to troubleshoot VMkernel storage module configurations
- • Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot iSCSI related issues
- • Troubleshoot NFS mounting and permission issues
- • Use esxtop/resxtop and vscsiStats to identify storage performance issues
- • Configure and troubleshoot VMFS datastores using vmkfstools
- • Troubleshoot snapshot and resignaturing issues
- • Analyze log files to identify storage and multipathing problems
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- o esxcli
- o resxtop/esxtop
- o vscsiStats
- o vmkfstools
- Objective 6.5 – Troubleshoot vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi Host Management
- VCAP-DCA Objective 6.5 : Troubleshoot vCenter Server and ESX(i) Host Management
- Knowledge
- • Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot management issues
- Skills and Abilities
- • Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues
- • Troubleshoot the ESX Service Console firewall
- • Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi server management and connectivity issues
- • Determine the root cause of vSphere management or connectivity issue
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
Section 7 – Secure a vSphere Environment
- Objective 7.1 – Secure ESX/ESXi Hosts
- Knowledge
- • Identify configuration files related to network security
- • Identify virtual switch security characteristics
- Skills and Abilities
- • Add/Edit Remove users/groups on an ESX Host
- • Customize SSH settings for increased security
- • Enable/Disable certificate checking
- • Generate ESX Host certificates
- • Enable ESXi lockdown mode
- • Replace default certificate with CA-signed certificate
- • Configure SSL timeouts
- • Secure ESX Web Proxy
- • Enable strong passwords and configure password policies
- • Identify methods for hardening virtual machines
- • Analyze logs for security-related messages
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-user
- o vifs
- Objective 7.2 – Configure and Maintain the ESX Firewall
- Knowledge
- • Identify vicfg-firewall commands
- With the RCLI and vSphere CLI, note that many of the commands have been renamed to vicfg- instead of esxcfg- (i.e., esxcfg-nics.pl and vicfg-nics.pl). Both commands perform the same function, but VMware is trying to migrate from esxcfg- to vicfg-
- • Explain the three firewall security levels
- • Identify ESX firewall architecture with/without vCenter Server
- • Identify vicfg-firewall commands
- Skills and Abilities
- • Enable/Disable pre?configured services
- • Configure service behavior automation
- • Open/Close ports in the firewall
- • Create a custom service
- • Set firewall security level
- Tools
- • ESX Configuration Guide
- • ESXi Configuration Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Client
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-firewall
- Objective 7.3 – Deploy and Administer vShield Zones
- Knowledge
- • Identify vShield Zones components
- • Identify the four CLI command modes
- Skills and Abilities
- • Configure vShield Zones
- • Backup and restore vShield Manager Data
- • Backup CLI Configuration
- • Create/Delete Layer 2/3/4 firewall rules using VM Wall
- • Install/Uninstall a vShield manually and from template
- • Configure vShield Manager plug?in capability
- • Configure VM Flow charts
- • Update vShield Zones
- • Add/Edit/Delete User Accounts
- • Assign rights to a user
- • Add/Delete Application?Port Pair mapping
- • Execute/Schedule Execution of virtual machine discovery
- • Utilize vShield Zones CLI commands to configure and monitor vShield Zones
- • Analyze traffic using VM Flow to determine root cause of network related issues
- Tools
- • vShield Zones QuickStart Guide
- • vShield Zones Administration Guide
- • Introduction to vShield Zones
- • Product Documentation
- • vShield Manager
- • vShield CLI
- • vSphere Client
Section 8 – Perform Scripting and Automation
- Objective 8.1 – Execute VMware Cmdlets and Customize Scripts Using PowerCLI
- Knowledge
- • Identify vSphere PowerCLI requirements
- • Identify Cmdlet concepts
- • Identify environment variables usage
- Skills and Abilities
- • Use VMRun to execute commands in a guest OS
- • Install vSphere PowerCLI
- • Install Update Manager PowerShell Library
- • Use basic and advanced Cmdlets to manage VMs and ESX Hosts
- • Use Web Service Access Cmdlets
- • Use Datastore and Inventory Providers
- • Given a sample script, modify the script to perform a given action
- Tools
- • vSphere PowerCLI Installation Guide
- • vSphere PowerCLI Administration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere PowerCLI commands
- • vSphere PowerCLI Cmdlets
- Objective 8.2 – Administer vCenter Orchestrator
- Knowledge
- • Identify vCenter Orchestrator requirements
- • Identify default Orchestrator plug?ins
- Skills and Abilities
- • Install and Configure vCenter Orchestrator
- • Configure vCenter Orchestrator database
- • Configure vCenter Orchestrator LDAP connection
- • Configure vCenter Orchestrator vCenter server connections
- • Run a Workflow
- • Administer Actions, Tasks, Workflows and Policies
- • Administer Packages
- • Identify appropriate Workflow for a given management activity
- Tools
- • vCenter Orchestrator Installation and Configuration Guide
- • vCenter Orchestrator Administration Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vCenter Orchestrator Web Configuration
- • vCenter Orchestrator Client
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 8.3 – Administer vSphere Using the vSphere Management Assistant
- Knowledge
- • Identify vMA prerequisites
- • Identify vMA specific commands
- • Determine when vMA is needed
- Skills and Abilities
- • Install and Configure vMA
- • Add/Remove target servers
- vifp addserver vc1.mycomp.com --authpolicy adauth --username ADDOMAIN\\user1
- • Perform updates to the vMA
vima-update
- • Use vmkfstools to manage VMFS datastores
- • Use vmware-cmd to manage VMs
- • Use esxcli to manage Storage Multipathing
- • Troubleshoot common vMA errors and conditions
- Tools
- • vSphere Management Assistant Guide
- • vSphere Command?Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere Management Appliance
- • vifp
- • vima-update
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-*
- o vmkfstools
- o esxcli
- o vmware-cmd
- • vSphere Client
Section 9 – Perform Advanced vSphere Installations and Configurations
- Objective 9.1 – Install ESX Server with custom settings
- Knowledge
- • Identify Service Console memory defaults and maximums
- • Identify default and optional ESX partitions
- Skills and Abilities
- • Configure optional ESX partitions during installation
- • Install/uninstall custom drivers
- • Configure advanced bootloader options
- • Configure kernel options
- • Given a scenario, determine when to customize a configuration
- Tools
- • ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • vSphere CLI
- o vicfg-advcfg
- o vicfg-module
- • vSphere Client
- Objective 9.2 – Plan and Execute Scripted Installations
- Knowledge
- • Identify default installation scripts
- ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
- Pages 35-49
- • Identify boot options for scripted installation
- • Perform a scripted ESX Host installation
- • Perform a scripted ESXi Host installation
- • Configure media repository
- • Edit installation script parameters
- • Configure pre/post script tasks
- • Evaluate use cases for scripted installation
- Tools
- • ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
- • Product Documentation
- • ks-first-safe.cfg
- • ks-first.cfg
- Objective 9.3 – Configure vCenter Server Linked Mode
-
- VCAP-DCA Objective 9.3 : Configure vCenter Server Linked Mode
- Knowledge
• Identify Linked Mode Prerequisites
- • Identify differences between Linked and non-linked vCenter Server Configurations
- VMware vCenter Server Linked Mode and vSphere - Video
• Identify when a role requires reconciliation - Skills and Abilities
• Reconcile Roles in a Linked Mode Configuration- Using vCenter Server in Linked Mode
• Create and Join a Linked Mode Group
• Determine use cases for vCenter Server Linked Mode
• Troubleshoot Linked Mode Configurations
- Using vCenter Server in Linked Mode
- Tools
• ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide
• vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client