VCP4 Exam Blueprint Study Notes

Section 1 – Plan, Install and Upgrade VMware ESX/ESXi

Objective 1.1 — Install VMware ESX/ESXi on local storage

• Identify minimum hardware requirements – ESXi - ESX
• Download, prepare and validate installation media
• Determine appropriate ESX/ESXi configuration in a given situation
• Obtain required information for environment 
• Verify hardware against the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide – Extra Links #1
• Perform a custom installation – ESXi – ESX
• Customize storage layout for given situations – Extra Links #1
• Configure ESXi from the direct console
• Configure ESX/ESXi NTP
• Manage ESX/ESXi licensing
• Compare/Contrast VMware vSphere editions
• Manage license keys

Objective 1.2 – Upgrade VMware ESX/ESXi

• Plan a VMware vSphere upgrade
• Backup (ESXi - ESX) Restore (ESXi – ESX) host configuration
• Understand Virtual Machine backup options
• Determine if existing hardware meets upgrade requirements
• Understand VMware ESX/ESXi upgrade scenarios
• Perform upgrade to ESX 4.0
  • Upgrade VMware ESX/ESXi
  • Upgrade virtual machine hardware
  • Upgrade VMware Tools
• Verify success of upgrade
• Understand upgrade roll back options – ESXi – ESX

Objective 1.3 – Secure VMware ESX/ESXi

• Identify default security principles
• Understand Service Console firewall operation
  • Service Console Security Level
  • Opening/Closing ports in the firewall using the vSphere Client – Extra Links #1
• Set up user/group accounts
• Determine applications needed for accessing the service console in a given scenario

Objective 1.4 – Install VMware ESX/ESXi on SAN Storage

• Configure LUN Masking
• Prepare SAN
• Configure FC or iSCSI HBA BIOS – FC – iSCSI
  • Enable BIOS
  • Select Boot LUN
• Install VMware ESX/ESXi
• Determine boot LUN size in a given situation

Objective 1.5 – Identify vSphere Architecture and Solutions

• Differentiate VMware platform products and editions
• Understand the various datacenter solutions (View, SRM, Lab Manager, Stage Manager etc.)
• Explain ESX/ESXi architecture
• Compare and contrast bare metal vs. hosted architecture

Section 2 – Configure ESX/ESXi Networking

Objective 2.1 – Configure Virtual Switches

• Understand Virtual Switch and ESX/ESXi NIC and port maximums
• Determine the vSwitch NIC teaming policy in a given situation
• Determine the appropriate vSwitch security policies in a given situation
• Create/Delete Virtual Switches
• Create Ports/Port Groups
• Assign Physical Adapters
• Modify vSwitch NIC Teaming and failover policies
• Modify vSwitch security policy and VLAN settings
• Configure VMotion

Objective 2.2 – Configure vNetwork Distributed Switches

• Understand ESX Host and port maximums for dvSwitches
• Determine the virtual port group NIC teaming and fail-over policy in a given situation
• Determine the appropriate virtual port group security policies in a given situation
• Create/Modify a vNetwork Distributed Switch
• Create/Modify Uplink Group settings
• Create/Modify dvPort Group settings
• Add an ESX/ESXi Host to a vNetwork Distributed Switch
• Add/Delete a VMkernel dvPort
• Migrate Virtual Machines to a vNetwork Distributed Switch

Objective 2.3 – Configure VMware ESX/ESXi Management Network

• Modify Service Console IP Settings
• Configure Service Console availability
• Configure DNS and Routing settings for an ESX Host

Section 3 – Configure ESX/ESXi Storage

Objective 3.1 – Configure FC SAN Storage

• Identify FC SAN hardware components
• Identify how ESX Server connections are made to FC SAN storage
• Describe ESX Server FC SAN storage addressing
• Describe the concepts of zoning and LUN masking
• Configure LUN masking
• Scan for new LUNs – Extra Links #1
• Determine and configure the appropriate multi-pathing policy – Extra Links #1
• Differentiate between NMP and third-party MPP

Objective 3.2 – Configure iSCSI SAN Storage

• Identify iSCSI SAN hardware components
• Determine use cases for hardware vs. software iSCSI initiators
• Configure the iSCSI Software Initiator
• Configure Dynamic/Static Discovery
• Configure CHAP Authentication
• Configure VMkernel port binding for iSCSI Software multi-pathing
• Discover LUNs
• Identify iSCSI addressing in the context of the host

Objective 3.3 – Configure NFS Datastores

• Identify the NFS hardware components
• Explain ESX exclusivity for NFS mounts
• Configure ESX/ESXi network connectivity to the NAS device
• Create an NFS Datastore

Objective 3.4 – Configure and Manage VMFS Datastores

• Identify VMFS file system attributes
• Determine the appropriate Datastore location/configuration for given virtual machines
• Determine use cases for multiple VMFS Datastores
• Create/Configure VMFS Datastores
• Attach existing Datastore to new ESX host
• Manage VMFS Datastores
• Group/Unmount/Delete Datastores
• Grow VMFS volumes

Section 4 – Install and Configure vCenter Server

Objective 4.1 – Install vCenter Server

• Identify hardware requirements
• Understand configuration maximums
• Determine availability requirements for a vCenter server in a given situation
• Determine appropriate vCenter Server edition
• Determine database size requirements – Extra Links #1
• Prepare/Configure vCenter Server database
• Install vCenter Server using downloaded installer – Extra Links #1
• Install additional modules
  • vCenter Guided Consolidation
  • vCenter Update Manager – Extra Links #1
  • vCenter Converter – Extra Links #1
• Determine use case for vCenter Linked Mode Groups

Objective 4.2 – Manage vSphere Client plug-ins

• Identify available plug-ins
• Determine required plug-ins for a given application
• Ensure permissions to install plug-ins
• Enable plug-ins after installation

Objective 4.3 – Configure vCenter Server

• Identify the vCenter Server managed ESX Hosts and Virtual Machine maximums
• Join ESX/ESXi Hosts to vCenter Server
• Configure Guest OS Customization
• Use datacenters and folders to organize the environment
• Configure/Use Scheduled Tasks
• Configure/Use Resource Maps
• Use Storage Reports/Storage Maps
• View/Manage Events
• Configure vCenter Server settings
• Configure vSphere Client settings

Objective 4.4 – Configure Access Control

• Create/Modify user permissions in vCenter
• Create/Modify user permissions in ESX Server
• Restrict access to vCenter inventory objects
• Define vCenter predefined roles and their privileges
• Create/Clone Edit roles
• Assign roles to users and groups
• Describe how privileges propagate
• Understand permissions as applied to user and group combinations

Section 5 – Deploy and Manage Virtual Machines and vApps

Objective 5.1 – Create and Deploy Virtual Machines Knowledge

• Understand virtual machine hardware maximums
• Create a virtual machine
• Determine appropriate SCSI adapter
• Determine Virtual Disk type
• Install/Upgrade/Configure VMware Tools
• Create/Convert templates
• Customize Windows/Linux virtual machines
• Manage Customization Specifications
• Deploy a virtual machine from a template
• Deploy a virtual machine using VMware vCenter Converter Enterprise
• Perform a Hot Clone
• Perform a Cold Clone
• Perform System Reconfiguration
• Deploy a virtual machine using Guided Consolidation
  • Perform Discovery
  • Analyze discovered virtual machines
  • Consolidate selected virtual machines
• Clone a virtual machine
• Import a virtual machine from a file/folder

Objective 5.2 – Manage Virtual Machines

• Configure/Modify virtual machines
• Add/Hot Add virtual machine hardware
• Grow virtual machine disks
• Determine appropriate disk format
• Connect virtual machines to devices
• Configure virtual machine options
  • General Options
  • Advanced Options
  • Power Management Options
  • VMware Tools Options
• Configure appropriate virtual machine resource settings

Objective 5.3 – Deploy vApps

• Determine whether a vApp is appropriate for a given situation
• Define Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF)
• Import/Export a Virtual Appliance
• Build a vApp
• Create/Add virtual machines to a vApp
• Edit vApp Properties
• Export vApps
• Clone a vApp

Section 6 – Manage Compliance

Objective 6.1 – Install, Configure and Manage VMware vCenter Update Manager

• Determine installation requirements and database sizing
• Install Update Manager Server and Client components
• Configure update manager settings
• Configure patch download options
• Create baselines
• Attach baselines to vCenter inventory objects
• Scan ESX hosts and virtual machines
• Remediate ESX hosts and virtual machines
• Stage ESX/ESXi Host updates
• Analyze compliance information from a scan

Objective 6.2 – Establish and Apply ESX Host Profiles

• Create/Delete Host Profiles
• Import/Export Host Profiles
• Edit Host Profile Policies
• Associate an ESX host with a host profile
• Check for Compliance
• Apply Host Profiles
• Analyze configuration compliance information from a scan

Section 7 – Establish Service Levels

Objective 7.1 – Create and Configure VMware Clusters

• Create new cluster
• Add ESX/ESXi hosts to a cluster – Extra Links #1
• Configure High Availability basic/advanced settings
• Enable/Configure VM Monitoring
• Configure Distributed Resource Scheduler basic/advanced settings
• Configure Distributed Power Management
• Configure Enhanced VMotion Compatibility
• Configure swap file location
• Analyze HA host failure capacity requirements
• Analyze HA admission control
• Determine use cases for DRS automation levels and migration thresholds
• Determine use cases for DPM policies

Objective 7.2 – Enable a Fault Tolerant Virtual Machine

• Identify FT restrictions
• Evaluate FT use cases
• Set up an FT network
• Verify requirements of operating environment
• Enable FT for a virtual machine
• Test an FT configuration
• Upgrade ESX hosts containing FT virtual machines

Objective 7.3 – Create and Configure Resource Pools

• Determine Resource Pool requirements for a given situation
• Evaluate appropriate shares, reservations, and limits in a given situation
• Evaluate virtual machines for a given Resource Pool
• Create Resource Pools
  • Set CPU resource shares/reservations/limits
  • Set memory resource shares/reservations/limits
• Define Expandable Reservation
• Add virtual machines to pool
• Describe resource pool hierarchy

Objective 7.4 – Migrate Virtual Machines

• Identify compatibility requirements
• Cite the three methods of virtual machine migration
• Understand/Apply
• Determine migration use cases
• Compare and contrast migration technologies
• Migrate a virtual machine using VMotion
• Migrate a virtual machine using Storage VMotion
• Cold migrate a virtual machine

Objective 7.5 – Backup and Restore Virtual Machines

• Describe different back-up/restore procedures and strategies
• Create/Delete/Restore Snapshots
• Install Backup and Recovery Appliance
• Install vCenter Data Recovery plug-in
• Create a backup job with vCenter Data Recovery
• Perform test and actual restores vCenter Data Recovery

Section 8 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting and Alarm Management

Objective 8.1 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for ESX/ESXi Hosts

• Understand general ESX Server troubleshooting guidelines
• Troubleshoot common installation issues
• Monitor ESX Server system health
• Understand how to export diagnostic data

Objective 8.2 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for VMware FT and Third-Party Clusters

• Analyze and evaluate VM population for maintenance mode considerations
• Understand manual Third-Party failover/failback processes
• Troubleshoot Fault Tolerance partial or unexpected failovers

Objective 8.3 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for Networking

• Verify VM is connected to the correct port group
• Verify port group settings are correct
• Verify that the network adaptor is connected within the VM
• Verify VM network adaptor settings
• Verify physical network adaptor settings
• Verify vSphere network management settings

Objective 8.4 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for Storage

• Identify storage contention issues
• Identify storage over-commitment issues
• Identify storage connectivity issues
• Identify iSCSI software initiator configuration issues
• Interpret Storage Reports and Storage Maps

Objective 8.5 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS and VMotion

• Explain the requirements of HA/DRS and VMotion
• Verify VMotion functionality
• Verify DNS settings
• Verify the service console network functionality
• Interpret the DRS Resource Distribution Graph and Target/Current Host Load Deviation
• Troubleshoot VMotion using topology maps
• Troubleshoot HA capacity issues
• Troubleshoot HA redundancy issues

Objective 8.6 – Create and Respond to vCenter Connectivity Alarms

• List vCenter default connectivity alarms
• List possible actions for connectivity alarms
• For a given alarm, analyze and evaluate the affected virtual infrastructure components
• Create a vCenter connectivity alarm
• Relate the alarm to the affected components

Objective 8.7 – Create and Respond to vCenter Utilization Alarms

• List vCenter default utilization alarms
• List possible actions for utilization alarms
• For a given alarm, analyze and evaluate the affected virtual infrastructure resource
• Create a vCenter utilization alarm
• Relate the alarm to the affected resource

Objective 8.8 – Monitor vSphere ESX/ESXi and Virtual Machine Performance

• Identify critical performance metrics (e.g., CPU ready, queue depth, etc.)
• Explain memory metrics (ballooning, shared, etc.)
• Explain CPU metrics (ready/wait time, etc.)
• Explain network metrics (usage, packet drops, etc.)
• Explain storage metrics (latency, queuing, etc.)
• Compare and contrast Overview and Advanced Charts
• Create an Advanced Chart
• Determine host performance using guest Perfmon