Most viewed posts

VCP5 Exam Prep – Part 4.4

1 September 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: 3 minutes

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.

vCertification, VMware ,

VCP5 Exam Prep – Part 4.3

31 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: 2 minutes

For a list of all objectives see the VCP5 page.

Objective 4.3 – Manage Virtual Machine Clones and Templates

See also: Objective 4.3 – Manage Virtual Machine Clones and Templates.

Identify the vCenter Server managed ESXi hosts and Virtual Machine maximums (new in vSphere 5)

See also: Configuration Maximums for VMware vSphere 5.0. Main differences from vSphere 4.1:

  • Virtual Machine Maximums: 32 vCPU (instead of 8 ) and 1 TB vRAM (instead of 255 GB)
  • ESXi Host Maximums: 512 VM per host (instead of 320), 2048 vCPU per host (instead of 512), 2 TB RAM (instead of 1 TB), 256 NFS mounts per host (instead of 64)
  • vCenter Server Maximums: quite the same of v 4.1
  • VUM Maximums: more concurrent operations

Identify Cloning and Template options (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 43).

Different choices for the destination: which cluster or host, which datastore, which VMDK type, perform a customization (guest OS reconfiguration), power on and/or edit the VM Properties.

Clone an existing virtual machine (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 44). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Create a template from an existing virtual machine (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 47).

Deploy a virtual machine from a template (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 50). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Update existing virtual machine templates (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 53 and 55).

Deploy virtual appliances and/or vApps from an OVF template (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 68).

Import and/or Export an OVF template (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 68 and 70).

Determine the appropriate deployment methodology for a given virtual machine application (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 15).

vCertification, VMware , ,

New certification path from VCP3 to VCP5

30 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: < 1 minute

VMware are announcing this week that there is now a new option (time limited) available for a VCP3 holder to update their certification to VCP5:

  • until the end of Feb, 2012 it’s possible attend at the vSphere 5: What’s New and then simple pass the VCP5 exam.

For more info see the VCP5 official page.

vCertification ,

VMware announce the new View 5

30 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: < 1 minute

For more info:

VMware

VCP5 Exam Prep – Part 4.2

30 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: 3 minutes

For a list of all objectives see the VCP5 page.

Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps

See also this similar post: Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps.

Identify vApp settings (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 179 and 183). Common settings are:

  • vApp Resources for CPU and memory capacity (Share, Reservation, Reservation type, Limit).
  • vApp Startup and Shutdown Options for the order of the VMs inside the vApp.
  • vApp Properties (in the Advanced Property Configuration)
  • IP Allocation Policy (see later)

Create/Clone/Export a vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 178 and 193) and Build & Manage a vApp. Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Note that the distribution format for vApp is OVF, and the vApp metadata resides in the vCenter Server’s database, so a vApp can be distributed across multiple ESXi hosts. This information can be lost if the vCenter Server database is cleared or if a standalone ESXi host that contains a vApp is removed from vCenter Server. You should back up vApps to an OVF package to avoid losing any metadata.

Add objects to an existing vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 181). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Note that a vApp can include: VMs, Resource Pools and other vApps.

Edit vApp settings (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 183) and Edit vApp settings. Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Configure IP pools (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 191). Note that the IP allocation options are:

  • Fixed IP: addresses are manually configured. No automatic allocation is performed. No IP pool is needed.
  • Transient IP: addresses are automatically allocated using IP pools from a specified range when the vApp is powered on. The IP addresses are released when the appliance is powered off.
  • DHCP: a DHCP server is used to allocate the IP addresses. The addresses assigned by the DHCP server are visible in the OVF environments of virtual machines started in the vApp.

Suspend/Resume a vApp (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 194 and 195). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Determine when a tiered application should be deployed as a vApp (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 177) and vApps in vSphere 4, and why they’re very, very useful. Note that vApps requires both a vCenter Server and a DRS license.

vCertification, VMware , ,

VCP5 Exam Prep – Part 4.1

29 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: 3 minutes

For a list of all objectives see the VCP5 page.

Objective 4.1 – Create and Deploy Virtual Machines

See also this similar post: Objective 4.1 – Create and Deploy Virtual Machines.

Identify capabilities of virtual machine hardware versions (new in vSphere 5)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 81) and Virtual Machine Hardware Version 8

Identify VMware Tools device drivers (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See VMware KB: Overview of VMware Tools

Identify methods to access and use a virtual machine console (same as vSphere 4.x)

As usual there is the console in the vSphere Client, and also in vSphere Web Client. But after the guest OS is installed is better choose a network protocol to remote manage the OS (like SSH for Linux or RDP for Windows)

Identify virtual machine storage resources (similar as vSphere 4.x)

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

Place virtual machines in selected ESXi hosts/Clusters/Resource Pools (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 29).

Configure and deploy a Guest OS into a new virtual machine (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 33 and 40).

Configure/Modify disk controller for virtual disks (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 36) and Virtual SCSI Adapter type.

Configure appropriate virtual disk type for a virtual machine (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 36 and 121) and VMDK virtual disk type.

Create/Convert thin/thick provisioned virtual disks (same vSphere 4.x)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 129).

Configure disk shares (similar as vSphere 4.1)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 128). Can also be done from the vSphere Web Client.

Install/Upgrade/Update VMware Tools (same as vSphere 4.x)

See the Guest Operating System Installation Guide.

Configure virtual machine time synchronization (same as vSphere 4.x)

See Timekeeping best practices for Linux guests and Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines.

Convert a physical machine using VMware Converter (similar as vSphere 4.x)

The vCenter Server installation does not include any Converter, so you must use the Standalone Converter edition. See also the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Documentation page. Note that the version 5 is actually in beta phase.

Import a supported virtual machine source using VMware Converter (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See also the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Documentation page.

Modify virtual hardware settings using VMware Converter (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See also the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Documentation page.

Configure/Modify virtual CPU and Memory resources according to OS and application requirements (similar as vSphere 4.x)

See What’s New in Performance in VMware vSphere™ 5.0 and Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.1.

Configure/Modify virtual NIC adapter and connect virtual machines to appropriate network resources (same  as vSphere 4.1)

See the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide (page 107) and Virtual NIC type.

Determine appropriate datastore locations for virtual machines based on application workloads (similar as vSphere 4.x)

There are three options:

  • Store all virtual machine files in the same location on a datastore.
  • Store all virtual machine files in the same datastore cluster (SDRS is needed).
  • Store virtual machine configuration files and disks in separate locations.

About the different choices, they depends of course by the datastore types (which RAID level, number and kind of disks, …), by the workload requirements, the usage of SIOC (if datastore is shared with other VMs, …). But for the VCP5 exam do not expect too much… there are the VCAP exams for more detail about those choices.

vCertification, VMware , ,

New VCP5 blueprint

29 August 2011
Comments off
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Recently, has been released the VCP5 blueprint 1.1 (although in the download is number 1.15?) that cover the official exam (note that the v1.4 was related to the beta exam).

The new blueprint does not include changes on the objectives, just more tools, link to to the documents and some changes in the exam description (the official exam has 85 questions in 90 minutes).

Note that there are also new version of the VCA4-DT (v1.3) and VCP4-DT (v1.2) blueprints.

vCertification ,
© 2025-2011 vInfrastructure Blog | Disclaimer & Copyright