Chapter 1: vSphere Overview, Components, & Requirements Flashcards by Brendan Simpson

Describe vSphere Replication.

An extension to the VMware vCenter Server that provides hypervisor-based VM replication and recovery.

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Describe vCenter High Availability.

A component of vSphere that provides protection for the VCSA against host, hardware, and application failures.

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What kind of automated failover is used in vCenter High Availability?

Active/passive.

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What feature can be used to provide significantly less downtime when patching the vCenter Server Appliance?

vCenter High Availability.

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What feature was added in vSphere 7.0 that allows you to back up and restore the VCSA?

vCenter Appliance File-Based Backup & Restore.

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In vSphere HA, when a host failure is detected the VM is is migrated and restarted on the surviving host. What kind of migration is this classified as?

A cold migration.

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What kind of failover is provided by Fault Tolerance (FT)?

Automated live failover.

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Describe the function of DPM?

Distributed Power Management (DPM) is a component of vSphere that is used to conserve power usage by proactively shutting down hosts when they are not in use, and restarting them when they are needed.

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Describe the function of a Content Library.

A Content Library is a centralized repository used to distribute templates, ISOs, scripts, vApps, and other files associated with VMs.

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Describe the purpose of a Host Profile?

A feature that can be used to apply an standard configuration to a set of ESXi hosts.

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What 3 line items should be procured when planning for a vSphere environment?

A vCenter Server license, a vSphere license, and support for the environment.

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What versions/editions of vCenter Server are available?

Essentials, Essentials Plus, Foundation, and Standard.

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What number of hosts are supported with a vCenter Server Essentials license?

3 hosts, with 2 CPUs max.

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What number of hosts are supported with a vCenter Server Essentials Plus license?

3 hosts, with 2 CPUs max.

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What number of hosts are supported with a vCenter Server Foundation license?

4 hosts are supported, with no CPU limitation.

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What number of hosts are supported with a vCenter Server Standard license?

2000 hosts are supported, with no CPU limitation.

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Which versions of vSphere include the license for vCenter Server?

Essentials and Essentials Plus.

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Which versions of vCenter Server include basic vCenter features such as single pane of glass, management, Lifecycle Manager, and VMware converter?

All 4 versions of vCenter Server include the basic feature set:
- Essentials
- Essentials Plus
- Foundation
- Standard

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Which versions of vCenter Server include common vCenter features such as vMotion, vSphere HA, & vSphere Replication?

Essentials Plus, Foundation, and Standard all support common vCenter features. Essentials Plus does not include common features.

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Which versions of vCenter Server include advanced vCenter features such as vCenter Server High Availability, and VCSA backup and restore?

Only the Standard version of vCenter includes these features. Essentials, Essentials Plus, and Foundation do not include advanced feature sets.

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How many CPUs and cores are covered by a single vSphere license?

A single vSphere license covers 1 physical CPU, and up to 32 cores.

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What are the major versions/editions of vSphere 7.0?

Standard and Enterprise Plus.

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How many vCPUs are supported for Fault Tolerance in the Standard edition of vSphere?

Up to 2 vCPUs.

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How many vCPUs are supported for Fault Tolerance in the Enterprise Plus edition of vSphere?

Up to 8 vCPUs.

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Which version of vSphere supports a more complex topology that allows for the following configurations? - vCenter Server for Windows - Embedded databases (PostgreSQL) - External databases (SQL Server, Oracle) - External PSCs

vSphere 6.0 supports these topologies.

Which version of vSphere does not require an external PSC?

vSphere 7.0

Describe vCenter Single Sign-On.

An authentication service that utilizes a secure token exchange mechanism rather than requiring to authenticate users per component.

Which component is a part of vCenter SSO and provides SAML tokens to authenticate users to other vCenter components?

Security Token Service (STS).

What VCSA service contains the topology of the vSphere infrastructure and allows secure communication between vSphere components?

The vCenter Lookup service.

Which VCSA service provides the vCenter SSO domain? (vsphere.local)

The VMware Directory Service.

What VCSA service provides web services such as ICIM/Hardware Status, Performance Charts, Web Access, Storage Policy Based Services, and vCenter Server status?

The tcServer.

What is the default domain name for vCenter Server?

vsphere.local

What is the name of the vCenter feature that allows multiple VCSAs to be connected together so all vCenter Server systems and their respective inventories can be managed together?

Enhanced Linked Mode.

What edition of vCenter Server is required to utilize Enhanced Linked Mode?

vCenter Server Standard. Essentials, Essentials Plus, and Foundation do not support ELM.

How many instances of the vCenter Server Appliance can be linked together using Enhanced Linked Mode?

Up to 15 VCSAs can be connected using Enhanced Linked Mode.

What are the 3 instances of vCenter Server that are required for vCenter High Availability (HA)?

In VCHA there are active, passive, and witness nodes. The active node is cloned twice to the passive and witness nodes.

What kind of failover is provided by vCenter High Availability?

VCHA utilizes an active/passive failover solution.

What is the purpose of the witness node in regards to vCenter High Availability?

The witness is a lightweight clone of the active node that provides quorum in the case of a split-brain situation.

What version of ESXi can the vCenter Server Appliance be deployed on?

The VCSA can be deployed on ESXi version 6.5 or later.

What are the CPU and memory requirements to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance for a Tiny environment?

2 CPUs and 12 GB of memory.

What are the CPU and memory requirements to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance for a Small environment?

4 CPUs and 19 GB of memory.

What are the CPU and memory requirements to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance for a Medium environment?

8 CPUs and 28 GB of memory.

What are the CPU and memory requirements to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance for a Large environment?

16 CPUs and 37 GB of memory.

What are the CPU and memory requirements to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance for an X-Large environment?

24 CPUs and 56 GB of memory.

How many hosts and virtual machines are supported by a vCenter Server Appliance in a Tiny environment?

Up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines.

How many hosts and virtual machines are supported by a vCenter Server Appliance in a Small environment?

Up to 100 hosts or 1000 virtual machines.

How many hosts and virtual machines are supported by a vCenter Server Appliance in a Medium environment?

Up to 400 hosts or 4000 virtual machines.

How many hosts and virtual machines are supported by a vCenter Server Appliance in a Large environment?

Up to 1000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines

How many hosts and virtual machines are supported by a vCenter Server Appliance in an X-Large environment?

Up to 2000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines.

How much RAM is required and recommended to install ESXi version 7.0

4 GB is the minimum, but 8 GB is recommended.

How much space is required for an SD or USB boot disk?

At least 8 GB of storage is required.

How much space is required for a HDD, SSD, or NVMe boot disk?

At least 32 GB of storage is required.

What feature must be enabled on ESXi to allow a CD-ROM device to connect to a virtual machine?

IDE emulation mode.

What is the default storage size for a vCenter Server Appliance that uses a Tiny deployment?

Default is set to 415 GB.

What is the default storage size for a vCenter Server Appliance that uses a Small deployment?

Default is set to 480 GB.

What is the default storage size for a vCenter Server Appliance that uses a Medium deployment?

Default is set to 700 GB.

What is the default storage size for a vCenter Server Appliance that uses a Large deployment?

Default is set to 1065 GB.

What is the default storage size for a vCenter Server Appliance that uses an X-Large deployment?

Default is set to 1805 GB.

When ESXi functions in degraded mode, where is the scratch partition placed?

The scratch partition is placed onto the host's RAM and links it to /tmp/scratch.

What size of local disk contains boot and ESX-OSD data?

A local disk with 32 GB minimum.

What size of local disk contains boot, ESX-OSD data, and a VMFS datastore?

A local disk with 142 GB or more.

A network that is created and managed by a separate entity outside of vSphere is referred to as?

An opaque network.

What is an example of an opaque network?

VMware NSX.

What are the commonly used network segments in vSphere?

VMkernel adapters can be configured to use the following: - Management - vMotion - vSphere Replication - vSphere HA Heartbeats - Fault Tolerance - IP Storage - Virtual Machines

What are the 3 main infrastructure services that are recommended when deploying vSphere?

Active Directory for SSO, DNS for hostname resolution, and NTP for time synchronization.

Which version of vSphere added the ability to use mixed IPv6 and IPv4 environments?

This functionality was first added in vSphere 6.5.

Which minimum versions of the following browsers are required to connect to vSphere? - Microsoft Edge - Internet Explorer - Firefox - Google Chrome - Safari

The minimum versions are as follows: - Microsoft Edge 38 or later - Internet Explorer 11.0.96 or later - Firefox 45 or later - Google Chrome 50 or later - Safari 5.1 or later

What file transfer protocols are supported for vCenter Server File-Based Backup & Restore?

FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP.

What is feature or adapter is required on an ESXi host to enable Distributed Power Management (DPM)?

DPM requires iLO, IPMI, or a Wake-on-LAN (WoL) adapter.

What service must be deployed in order to use vSphere Replication?

A vSphere Replication Management Server (VRMS) must be deployed in order to use vSphere Replication version 8.3.

How many vSphere Replication Appliances (VRAs) can be deployed to support vSphere Replication?

Up to 9 VRAs can be deployed.

What are the minimum vCPU and memory requirements for the vSphere Replication Management Service (VRMS) appliance?

At least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of memory are required, but it can also be configured to use 4 vCPUS.

What are the minimum vCPU and memory requirements for each vSphere Replication Services (VRS) appliance?

Each VRS appliance requires 2 vCPUs and 716 MB of memory.

What is the minimum version of ESXi required for nodes in an ESXi cluster to support vCenter Server High Availability?

Version 6.5 or later.

What is the minimum version of ESXi required for nodes in a management cluster to support vCenter High Availability?

At least 6.0 or later.

What are the minimum and recommended amounts of hosts in a cluster to support vCenter Server High Availability?

At least 2 are required, but 3 are recommended.

What is the minimum vCenter server deployment size required to enabled vCenter Server High Availability?

A small deployment or greater is required. VSHA is not supported with a Tiny sized deployment.

What vCenter server license level is required to enable vCenter Server High Availability?

Standard. Foundation is not supported.

What are the network requirements to support the vCenter HA network?

Network requirements: - Latency: 10 ms or less - HA network must be on a different subnet than the management network - A default gateway cannot be used

What is the difference between an automatic or manual deployment of vCenter Server High Availability?

Differences: - Automatic: automatically clones the active node to the passive node - Manual: requires the active node to be clone manually, but provides more control

What are the storage device cache requirements for a host that will support a vSAN?

One SAS/SATA solid-state drive or PCIe flash device.

What are the VM data storage requirements for a host that will support a vSAN?

For a hybrid group configuration: at least one SAS or NL-SAS magnetic disk For an all-flash group configuration: at least one SAS/SATA SSD or PCIe flash device

What are the storage controller requirements for a host that will support a vSAN?

One SAS/SATA host bus adapter or a RAID controller that is in RAID 0 or passthrough.

What is the maximum round-trip time (RTT) that is required for a vSAN cluster?

1 ms

A typical deployment of NSX-V includes what services?

The following services are typical for an NSX for vSphere deployment: - A single NSX Manager instance - 3 NSX Controller instances - 1 or more NSX Edge instances

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying an NSX Manager?

16 GB of memory, 4 or 8 vCPUs, and 60 GB of disk space.

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying an NSX Controller?

4 GB of memory, 4 vCPUs, and 28 GB of disk space.

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying a compact NSX Edge instance?

512 MB of memory, 1 vCPU, and 1 GB of disk space.

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying a large NSX Edge instance?

1 GB of memory, 2 vCPUs, and 1 GB of disk space.

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying a Quad Large NSX Edge instance?

2 GB of memory, 4 vCPUs, and 1 GB of disk space.

What are the memory, vCPU, and disk space requirements for deploying an X-Large NSX Edge instance?

8 GB of memory, 6 vCPUs, and 2.75 GB of disk space.

What is the required network latency in RTT for NSX networks?

Network latency should be no higher than 150 ms.

What are the main components of the vRealize Suite?

vRealize consists of the following services: - vRealize Operations (vROps) - vRealize Automation - vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) - vRealize Log Insight (vRLI)

What service/tool is describes the following? "A tool that provides monitoring of and analytics of a vSphere environment"

vRealize Operations (vROps)

What service/tool is describes the following? "A cloud automation software that speeds up the delivery of infrastructure and application resources on-premises and in the cloud"

vRealize Automation.

What kind of automation is provided by vRealize Automation?

Self-service and policy-based automation.

What service/tool is describes the following? "A tool that can collect details and flows from physical and virtual network infrastructure, and can help plan and monitor a software-defined network"

vRealize Network Insight (vRNI).

What service/tool is describes the following? "A tool that can collect and analyze logs from vSphere components, virtual machines, physical machines, and the entire infrastructure"

vRealize Log Insight (vRLI).

Describe the function of a software-defined data center (SDDC).

An SDDC is a data center that leverages logical infrastructure services from underlying physical infrastructure.

Describe the VMware vCloud Suite.

The vCloud Suite is an enterprise-ready private cloud software suite that includes vSphere for data center virtualization and VMware vRealize Suite for cloud management.

What is the industry's most advanced hybrid cloud platform?

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).

What service provides a high scalable and secure service that allows organizations to seamlessly migrate and extend their on-premisses vSphere-based environments to the AWS cloud?

VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS.

Describe the function of the VMware vCloud Directory.

vCloud Directory is a cloud service-delivery platform used by some cloud providers to operate and manage cloud-based services.