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For a list of all objectives see the VCP5 page.

Objective 4.4 – Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

See also: VCP 5 Objective 4.4 – Administer Virtual Machines and vApps.

Identify files used by virtual machines (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 9).

Identify locations for virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks (same as vSphere 4.x)

By default all related VM’s files are in a folder (and the name of this folder is usually the initial VM name). But vmdk can simple created or relocated (with a Storage Migration) on other datastores. About the swap and snapshot files see:

Identify common practices for securing virtual machines (same as vSphere 4.1)

See the final release of the vSphere 4.1 Security Hardening Guide.

Hot Extend a virtual disk (same as vSphere 4.x)

Introduced in ESX 3.5 Update 2, with this feature you can increase the size of a vmdk of a running VM (does not require any specific license and work also on the free hypervisor). But then you have to extend the guest filesystem in the VM.

For Windows see: How to expand a VMDK and extend a partition in for VMware ESX. Note that diskpart does not work on system disk on Windows 2000/2003 or XP (use Dell Extpart instead) and that starting from Vista it possible handle the extend also from the GUI (using the Disk Management snap-in).

Configure virtual machine options (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 11 and 80).

Configure virtual machine power settings (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 171).

Configure virtual machine boot options (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 173). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Configure virtual machine troubleshooting options (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 176). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Assign a Storage Policy to a virtual machine (new in vSphere 5)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 131).

Verify Storage Policy compliance for virtual machines (new in vSphere 5)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 131).

Determine when an advanced virtual machine parameter is required (similar as vSphere 4.x)

There are advances parameters that can be edited inside the vmx file, or simple the advanced virtual machine options (like Mem/CPU hotplug, Boot Options, Fibre Channel NPIV, …).

In both cases those parameters must be used only when really needed.

Adjust virtual machine resources (shares, limits and reservations) based on virtual machine workloads (similar as vSphere 4.1)

See the vSphere Resource Management Guide.

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Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.