arsenal

4. Assign each physical NIC to a port group and a vSwitch.
5. Use separate physical NICs to handle the different traffic streams, such as network packets generated by VMs, iSCSI protocols, VMotion
tasks, and service console activities.
6. Ensure that 220 702 the physical NIC capacity is large enough to handle the network traffic on that vSwitch. If the capacity is not enough, consider
using a high-bandwidth physical NIC (10Gbps) or moving some VMs to a vSwitch with a lighter load or to a new vSwitch.
7. If packets are being dropped at the vSwitch port, increase the virtual network driver ring buffers where applicable.
8. Verify that the reported speed and duplex settings for the physical NIC match the hardware expectations and that the hardware is
configured to run at its maximum capability. For example, verify that NICs with 1Gbps are not reset to 100Mbps because they are
connected to an older switch.
9. Verify that all NICs are running in full duplex mode. Hardware connectivity issues might result in a NIC resetting itself to a lower speed or
half duplex mode.
10. Use vNICs that are TSO-capable, and verify that TSO-Jumbo Frames are enabled where possible.
o Tasks represent system activities that do not complete immediately, such as migrating a VM.
o If you are logged in to a vCenter Server system that is part of a Connected Group, a column in the task list displays the name of the vCenter
Server system on which the task was performed.
Appendix A – Defined privileges
Appendix B – Installing the MS sysprep tools
Appendix C – Performance metrics
ESX Configuration Guide
o A vNetwork Distributed Switch acts as a single vSwitch across all associated hosts on a datacenter. This allows virtual machines to maintain
consistent network configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts. A dvPort is a port on a vNetwork Distributed Switch.
o The VMkernel TCP/IP networking stack supports iSCSI, NFS, and VMotion. Virtual machines run their own systems’ TCP/IP stacks and connect
to the VMkernel at the Ethernet level through virtual switches.
o TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO), allows a TCP/IP stack to emit very large frames (up to 64KB) even though the maximum transmission unit
(MTU) of the interface is smaller. The network adapter then separates the large frame into MTU-sized frames and prepends an adjusted copy
of the initial TCP/IP headers.
o The default number of logical ports for a vSwitch is 56.
o Each uplink adapter associated with a vSwitch uses one port.
o You can create a maximum of 127 vSwitches on a single host. (EDIT the current Maximums PDF says 248)
o Maximum of 512 port groups on a single host.
o For a port group to reach port groups located on other VLANs, the VLAN ID must be set to 4095. If you enter 4095, the port group can see
traffic on any VLAN while leaving the VLAN tags intact.
o VLAN ID is a number between 1 and 4094.
o ESX supports only NFS version 3 over TCP/IP.
o You can create a maximum of 16 service console ports in ESX.
o CDP advertisements typically occur once a minute.
o dvPort group properties include:
o Port Binding - when ports are assigned to virtual machines connected to this dvPort group.
o Static binding - to assign a port to a virtual machine when the virtual machine is connected t 9L0-403 o the dvPort group.
o Dynamic binding - to assign a port to a virtual machine the first time the virtual machine powers on after it is connected to the
dvPort group.
o Ephemeral - for no port binding.
o Whether to allow live port moving.
o Config reset at disconnect to discard per-port configurations when a dvPort is disconnected from a virtual machine.
o Binding on host allowed to specify that when vCenter Server is down, ESX can assign a dvPort to a virtual machine.
o Port name format to provide a template for assigning names to the dvPorts in this group.
o Private VLANs are used to solve VLAN ID limitations.
o A private VLAN is identified by its primary VLAN ID. A primary VLAN ID can have multiple secondary VLAN IDs associated with it. Primary
VLANs are Promiscuous, so that ports on a private VLAN can communicate with ports configured as the primary VLAN. Ports on a secondary
VLAN can be either:
o Isolated - communicating only with promiscuous ports
o Community - communicating with both promiscuous ports and other ports on the same secondary VLAN.
o Only one VMotion and IP storage port group for each ESX host.
o You can enable or disable IPv6 support on the host.
o The following networking policies can be applied:
o Security
o Promiscuous M 9L0-510 ode - In non-promiscuous mode, a guest adapter listens only to traffic forwarded to own MAC address. In
promiscuous mode, it can listen to all the frames. By default, guest adapters are set to non-promiscuous mode.

By default, statistics are stored in the vCenter Server database for one year. You can increase this to three years.
o You cannot view datastore metrics in the advanced charts. They are only available in the overview charts.
o CPU Performan 220 701 ce Enhancement Advice
1. Verify that VMware Tools is installed on every VM on the host.
2. Compare the CPU usage value of a VM with the CPU usage of other VMs on the host or in the resource pool. The stacked bar chart on the
host's Virtual Machine view shows the CPU usage for all VMs on the host.
3. Determine whether the high ready time for the VM resulted from its CPU usage time reaching the CPU limit setting. If so, increase the
CPU limit on the VM.
4. Increase the CPU shares to give the VM more opportunities to run. The total ready time on the host might remain at the same level if the
host system is constrained by CPU. If the host ready time doesn't decrease, set the CPU reservations for high-priority VMs to guarantee
that they receive the required CPU cycles.
5. Increase the amount of memory allocated to the VM. This decreases disk and or network activity for applications that cache. This might
lower disk I/O and reduce the need for the ESX/ESXi host to virtualize the hardware. Virtual machines with smaller resource allocations
generally accumulate more CPU ready time.
6. Reduce the number of virtual CPUs on a VM to only the number required to execute the workload. For example, a single-threaded
application on a four-way VM only benefits from a single vCPU. But the hypervisor's maintenance of the three idle vCPUs takes CPU cycles
that could be used for other work.
7. If the host is not already in a DRS cluster, add it to one. If the host is in a DRS cluster, increase the number of hosts and migrate one or
more VMs onto the new host.
8. Upgrade the physical CPUs or cores on the host if necessary.
9. Use the newest version of ESX/ESXi, and enable CPU-saving features such as TCP Segmentation Offload, large memory pages, and jumbo
frames.
o Memory Performance Enhancement Advice
1. Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each VM. The balloon driver is installed with VMware Tools and is critical to performance.
2. Verify that the balloon driver is enabled. The VMkernel regularly reclaims unused VM memory by ballooning and swapping. Generally,
this does not impact VM performance.
3. Reduce the memory space on the VM, and correct the cache size if it is too large. This frees up memory for other VMs.
4. If the memory reservation of the VM is set to a value much higher than its active memory, decrease the reservation setting so that the
VMkernel can reclaim the idle memory for other VMs on the host.
5. Migrate one or more VMs to a host in a DRS cluster.
6. Add physical memory to the host.
o Disk I/O 220 702 Performance Enhancement Advice
1. Increase the VM memory. This should allow for more operating system caching, which can reduce I/O activity. Note that this may require
you to also increase the host memory. Increasing memory might reduce the need to store data because databases can utilize system
memory to cache data and avoid disk access. To verify that VMs have adequate memory, check swap statistics in the guest operating
system. Increase the guest memory, but not to an extent that leads to excessive host memory swapping. Install VMware Tools so that
memory ballooning can occur.
2. Defragment the file systems on all guests.
3. Disable antivirus on-demand scans on the VMDK and VMEM (backup of the VM’s paging file) files.
4. Use the vendor's array tools to determine the array performance statistics. When too many servers simultaneously access common
elements on an array, the disks might have trouble keeping up. Consider array-side improvements to increase throughput.
5. Use Storage VMotion to migrate I/O-intensive VMs across multiple ESX/ESXi hosts.
6. Balance the disk load across all physical resources available. Spread heavily used storage across LUNs that are accessed by different
adapters. Use separate queues for each adapter to improve disk efficiency.
7. Configure the HBAs and RAID controllers for optimal use. Verify that the queue depths and cache settings on the RAID controllers are
adequate. If not, increase the number of outstanding disk requests for the VM by adjusting the Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding
parameter. For more information, see the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.
8. For resource-intensive VMs, separate the VM's physical disk drive from the drive with the system page file. This alleviates disk spindle
contention during periods of high use.
9. On systems with sizable RAM, disable memory trimming by adding the line MemTrimRate=0 to the VM's .VMX file.
10. If the combined disk I/O is higher than a single HBA capacity, use multipathing or multiple links.
11. For ESXi hosts, create virtual disks as preallocated. When you create a virtual disk for a guest operating system, select Allocate all disk
space now. The performance degradation associated with reassigning additional disk space does not occur, and the disk is less likely to
become fragmented.
12. Use the most current ESX/ESXi host hardware.
o Networking Performance Enhancement Advice
1. Verify that VMware Tools is installed on each VM.
2. If possible, use 220 701 vmxnet3 NIC drivers, which are available with VMware Tools. They are optimized for high performance.
3. If VMs running on the same ESX/ESXi host communicate with each other, connect them to the same vSwitch to avoid the cost of
transferring packets over the physical network.

If you create or edit a role on a vCenter Server system that is part of a connected group in Linked Mode, the changes you make are propagated
to all other vCenter Server systems in the group. Assignments of roles to specific users and objects are not shared across linked vCenter Server
systems.
o Permissions grant users the right to perform the activities specified by the role on the object to which the role is assigned
o By default, 640 802 Dumps all users who are members of the Windows Administrators group on the vCenter Server system have the same access rights as any
user assigned to the Administrator role on all objects.
o Propagation is set per permission, not universally applied. Permissions defined for a child object always override those propagated from
parent objects.
o You cannot set permissions directly on a vNetwork Distributed Switches. To set permissions for a vNetwork Distributed Switch and its
associated dvPort Groups, set permissions on a parent object, such a folder or datacenter, and select the option to propagate these
permissions to child objects.
o If no permission is defined for the user on that object, the user is assigned the union of privileges assigned to the groups for that object.
o If a permission is defined for the user on that object, the user's permission takes precedence over all group permissions
o Reports are updated every 30 minutes.
o Map views are updated every 30 minutes
o Alarms are notifications that occur in response to selected events, conditions, and states that occur with objects in the inventory.
o Alarms are composed of a trigger and an action.
o Alarms have two types of triggers: condition/state triggers, and event triggers.
o Condition or State Triggers Monitor the current condition or state of VMs, hosts, and datastores.
o Event Triggers Monitors events that occur in response to operations occuring with any managed object in the inventory, the vCenter Server
system, or the license server.
o Condition and state triggers use one of the following operator sets to monitor an object:
o Is equal to and Is not equal to
o Is above and Is below
o Event triggers use arguments, operators, and values to monitor operations that occur in the vServer System.
o Alarm actions are operations that occur in response to triggered alarms.
o The default VMware alarms do not have actions associated with them. You must manually associate actions with the default alarms.
o You can disable an alarm action from occurring without disabling the alarm itself.
o You disable alarm actions for a selected inventory object.
o When you disable the alarm actions for an object, they continue to occur on child objects.
o When you disable alarm actions, all actions on all alarms for the object are disabled. You cannot disable a subset of alarm actions.
o The SNMP agent included with vCenter Server can be used to send traps when alarms are triggered on a vCenter Server.
o Alarm reporting can further restrict when a condition or state alarm trigger occurs by adding a tolerance range and a trigger frequency to the
trigger configuration.
o The tolerance range specifies a percentage above or below the configured threshold point, 640-802 after which the alarm triggers or clears.
o Condition threshold + Tolerance Range = Trigger alarm
o The trigger frequency is the time period during which a triggered alarm action is not reported again. By default, the trigger frequency for the
default VMware alarms is set to 5 minutes.
o Statistical data consists of CPU, memory, disk, network, system, and VM operations metrics.
o Collection intervals determine the time period during which statistics are aggregated and rolled up, and the length of time the statistics are
archived in the vCenter database. By default, vCenter Server has four collection intervals: Day, Week, Month, and Year.
o Real-time statistics are not stored in the database. They are stored in a flat file on ESX/ESXi hosts and in memory on the vCenter Server
systems
o Real-time statistics are collected directly on an ESX/ESXi host every 20 seconds (60 seconds for ESX Server 2.x hosts).
o On ESX hosts, the statistics are kept for one hour, after which 180 data points (15 -20 second samples) will have been collected.
o On ESXi hosts, the statistics are kept for 30 minutes, after which 90 data points will have been collected.
o Collection Intervals:
Collected frequency Retention
5 Minutes 1 Day
30 Minutes 1 Week
2 Hours 1 Month
1 Day 1 Year
o You can change the frequency at which statistic queries occur, the length of time statistical data is stored in the vCenter Server database, and
the amount of statistical data collected.
o Not all attributes are configurable for each collection interval.
o You can assign a collection level of 1- 4 to each collection interval, with level 4 having the larg 640 802 braindumps est number of counters.
o By default, all collection intervals use collection level 1.
o Generally, you need to use only collection levels 1 and 2 for performance monitoring and analysis.

vSphere supports a maximum of eight simultaneous VMotion, cloning, deployment, or Storage VMotion accesses to a single VMFS3
datastore, and a maximum of four simultaneous VMotion, cloning, deployment, or Storage VMotion accesses to a single NFS or VMFS2
datastore. A migration with VMotion involves one access to the datastore. A migration with Storage VMotion involves one access to the
source datastore and one access to the destination datastore
o Disks are converted from thin to thick format or thick to thin format only when they are co vcp 4 pied from one datastore to another. If you choose
to leave a disk in its original location, the disk format is not converted.
o Thin or thick provisioned – not available for RDMs in physical compatibility mode. If you select this option for a virtual compatibility mode
RDM, the RDM is converted to a virtual disk. RDMs converted to virtual disks cannot be converted back to RDMs.
o You can run the storage vmotion command in either interactive or noninteractive mode.
o Interactive mode, type svmotion --interactive.
o Noninteractive mode: svmotion [Standard CLI options] --datacenter=<datacenter name> --vm ‘<VM config datastore path>:<new
datastore>’ [--disks ‘<virtual disk datastore path>:<new datastore>, <virtual disk datastore path>:<new datastore>]’
o A snapshot captures the entire state of the VM at the time you take the snapshot. This includes:
o Memory state – The contents of the VM’s memory.
o Settings state – The VM settings.
o Disk state – The state of all the VM’s virtual disks.
o Snapshots of raw disks, RDM physical mode disks, and independent disks are not supported.
o Change Disk Mode to independent to Exclude Virtual Disks from Snapshots
o Persistent – Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on your physical computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode
are written permanently to the disk.
o Nonpersistent – Changes are discarded when you power off or reset the VM. Nonpersistent mode enables you to restart the VM with a virtual
disk in the same state every time. Changes to the disk are actually written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when you power off
or reset.
o Snapshots:
o Delete – commits the snapshot data to the parent and removes the selected snapshot.
o Delete All – commits all the immediate snapshots before the You are here current state to the base disk and removesall existing
snapshots for that VM.
o Revert to Snapshot – a shortcut to the parent snapshot of “You are here”.
o If you use Active Directory groups for permissions, make sure that they are security groups and not distribution groups.
o Users who are currently logged in and are removed from the domain retain their vSphere permissions only until the next validation period (the
default is every 24 hours).
o A role is a predefined set of privileges. Privileges define basic individual rights required to perform actions and read properties. When you
assign a user or group permissions, you pair the user or group with a role and associate that pairing with an inventory object.
o Default roles:
o System roles – System roles are permanent. You cannot edit the privileges associated with these roles.
o Sample roles – VMware provides sample roles for convenience as guidelines and suggestio vmware vcp 4 ns. You can modify or remove these roles.
o You can also create completely new roles.
o All roles permit the user to schedule tasks by default. Users can schedule only tasks they have permission to perform at the time the tasks are
created.
o Default roles:
Role Role Type Description of User Capabilities
No Access system Cannot view or change the assigned object. available in ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server.
Read Only system View the state and details about the object. available on ESX/ESXi and vCenter
Server.
Administrator system All privileges for all objects. available in ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server.
Virtual Machine
Power User
sample allow the user to interact with and make hardware changes to VMs, as well as
perform snapshot operations. available only on vCenter Server.
Virtual Machine User sample allow the user to interact with a VM’s console, insert media, and perform power
operations. available only on vCenter Server.
Resource Pool
Administrator
sample allow the user to create child resource pools and modify the configuration of the
children, but not to modify the resource configuration of the pool or cluster on which
the role was granted. Also allows the user to grant permissions to child resource
pools, and assign VMs to the parent or child resource pools. available only on
vCenter Server.
VMware Consolidated
Backup User
sample used by the VMware Consolidated Backup product and should not be modified.
available only on vCenter Server.
Datastore Consumer sample allow the user to consume space on the datastores on which this 640 802 role is granted.
available only on vCenter Server.
Network Consumer sample allow the user to assign VMs or hosts to networks available only on vCenter Server

NPIV support is subject to the following limitations:
o NPIV must be enabled on the SAN switch.
o NPIV is supported only for VMs with RDM disks.
o The physical HBAs on the ESX host must have access to a LUN using its WWNs in order for any VMs on that host to have access to that
LUN using their NPIV WWNs.
o The physical HBAs on the ESX host must support NPIV.
o Each VMcan have up to 4 virtual ports. NPIV-enabled VMs are assigned exactly 4 NPIV-related WWNs. Can utilize up to 4 physical HBAs
for NPIV pur vcp-410 poses.
o A VM with WWNs that are already in use on the storage network is prevented from powering on.
o While hyperthreading does not double the performance of a system, it can increase performance by better utilizing idle resources.
o The advanced CPU settings are useful only for fine-grained tweaking of critical VMs.
o NUMA memory node affinity enables fine-grained control over how VM memory is distributed to host physical memory.
o Specify nodes to be used for future memory allocations only if you have also specified CPU affinity.
o The following NIC types are supported:
vNIC Description
Flexible Supported on VMs that were created on ESX Server 3.0 or greater and that run 32-bit guest operating systems.
The Flexible adapter functions as a vlance adapter if VMware Tools is not installed in the VM and as a vmxnet
driver if VMware Tools is installed in the VM.
e1000 Emulates the functioning of an E1000 network card. It is the default adapter type for VMs that run 64-bit guest
operating systems.
Enhanced vmxnet An upgraded version of the vmxnet device with enhanced performance. It requires that VMware Tools be
installed in the VM.
vmxnet 3 Next generation vmxnet device with enhanced performance and enhanced networking features. It requires that
VMware Tools be installed in the VM, and is available only on VMs with hardware version 7 and greater.
o Independent disks are not affected by snapshots.
o Two modes for independent disks:
o Persistent – The disk operates normally except that changes to the disk are permanent even if the VM is reverted to a snapshot.
o Nonpersistent – The disk appears to operate normally, but whenever the VM is powered off or reverted to a snapshot, the contents of
the disk return to their original state. All later changes are discarded.
o VMDirectPath I/O allows a guest operating system on a VM to directly access physical PCI and PCIe devices connected to a host. Each VM can
be connected to up to two PCI devices. PCI devices connected to a host can be marked as available for passthrough from the Hardware
Advanced Settings in the Configuration tab for the host.
o Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can provide greater throughput and lower CPU utilization.
PVSCSI adapters are best suited for environments, especially SAN environments, running I/O-intensive applications. PVSCSI adapters are not
suited for DAS environments.
o Hardware requirements for customizing the guest operating system:
o Must reside on a disk attached as SCSI 0:0 node in the VM configuration.
o If a VM has mixed IDE and SCSI disks, the first IDE disk is considered the boot disk, and vCenter Server passes it to the customizer.
o If the vmware vcp 410 new VM encounters customization errors while it is booting
o Customization errors are logged to (Windows guest) %WINDIR%tempvmware-imc or (Linux guest) /var/log/vmware/customization.log.
o When you migrate a suspended VM, the new host for the VM must meet CPU compatibility requirements, because the VM must resume
executing instructions on the new host.
o Use of Jumbo Frames is recommended for best VMotion performance.
o Some restrictions apply when migrating VMs with snapshots. You cannot migrate a virtual machine with snapshots with Storage VMotion.
o You can migrate as long as the VM is being migrated to a new host without moving its configuration file or disks (the VM must reside on
shared storage accessible to both hosts).
o Reverting to a snapshot after migration with VMotion might cause the VM to fail, because the migration wizard cannot verify the compatibility
of the VM state in the snapshot with the destination host.
o During a migration with Storage VMotion, you can transform virtual disks from thick-provisioned to thin or from thin-provisioned to thick.
o Storage VMotion is subject to the following requirements and limitations:
o Virtual machines with snapshots cannot be migrated using Storage VMotion.
o Virtual machine disks must be in persistent mode or be raw device mappings (RDMs). For virtual compatibility mode RDMs, you can
migrate the mapping file or convert to thick-provisioned or thinprovisioned disks during migration as long as the destination is not an NFS
datastore. For physical compatibility mode RDMs, you can migrate the mapping file only.
o Must have a license that includes Storage VMotion.
o ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts must be licensed and configured for VMotion. ESX/ESXi 4.0 and late vmware vcp 410 r hosts do not require VMotion configuration in
order to perform migration with Storage VMotion.
o A particular host can be involved in up to two migrations with VMotion or Storage VMotion at one tim

A vApp is a container, like a resource pool and can contain one or more VMs. A vApp can power on and power off, and can also be cloned.
o The vApp metadata resides in the vCenter Server's database
o You can add an object, such as a VM or another vApp, to an existing vApp.
o An IP pool is a network configuration that is assigned to a network used by a vApp. The vApp can then leverage vCenter Server to
automaticallyPassed VCP410 provide an IP configuration to its VMs.
o Each application within the service will be powered on according to how the startup order is set. When powering on a vApp within a DRS
cluster in manual mode, no DRS recommendations are generated for VM placements. The power on operation performs as if DRS is run in a
semi-automatic or automatic mode for the initial placements of the VMs. This does not affect VMotion recommendations. Recommendations
for individual powering on and powering off of VMs are also generated for vApps that are running
o A VM’s name can be up to 80 characters long. Names are case insensitive.
o Virtual machine version 4 — Compatible with ESX 3.0 and greater hosts and VMware Server 1.0 and greater hosts.
o Virtual machine version 7 — Compatible with ESX 4.0 and greater hosts. Provides greater VM functionality.
o Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization.
o Best suited for high performance storage environments.
o Not suited for DAS environments. VMware recommends that you create a primary adapter (LSI Logic by default) for use with a disk that
will host the system software (boot disk) and a separate PVSCSI adapter for the disk that will store user data, such as a database.
o Paravirtual SCSI adapters are available for VMs running hardware version 7 and greater. They are supported on the following guest operating
systems:
o Windows Server 2008
o Windows Server 2003
o Red Hat Linux (RHEL) 5
o Features not supported with Paravirtual SCSI adapters:
o Boot disks
o Record/Replay
o Fault Tolerance
o MSCS Clustering
o SCSI controller types:
o BusLogic Parallel
o LSI Logic SAS
o LSI Logic Parallel
o VMware Paravirtual
o Thin Provisioned Format – Use this format to save storage space. If a virtual disk supports clustering solutions such as Fault Tolerance, you
cannot make the disk thin. You can manually convert the thin disk into thick.
o Thick Format – This is the default virtual disk format. It is not possible to convert the thick disk into thin. (EDIT: you can via Storage VMotion)
o Automatic VMware Tools upgrade is not supported for VMs with Solaris or Netware guest operatinPassed VCP 4 g systems.
o If you are using a WYSE thin client device to conduct remote desktop sessions using VMware VDI, installing WYSE Multimedia Support in the
guest operating system improves the performance of streaming video. WYSE Multimedia Support is supported on the Windows 2003 and
Windows XP guest operating systems only. WYSE Multimedia Support is installed as part of a VMware Tools installation or upgrade.
o Virtual machines with hardware versions lower than 4 can run on ESX4 hosts but have reduced performance and capabilities. In particular, you
cannot add or remove virtual devices on VMs with hardware versions lower than 4 when they reside on an ESX4 host.
o Virtual Machine Hardware Versions:
Host Version 7 Version 4 Version 3 Compatible with vCenter Server version
ESX/ESXi 4.x create, edit, run create, edit, run run vCenter Server 4.x
ESX Server 3.x – create, edit, run run VirtualCenter Server 2.x and higher
ESX Server 2.x – – create, edit, run VirtualCenter Server 1.x and higher
o SCSI Bus Sharing list:
Option Description
None Virtual disks cannot be shared by other VMs.
Virtual Virtual disks can be shared by VMs on same server.
Physical Virtual disks can be shared by VMs on any server.
o Memory/CPU Hotplug – VMware Tools must be installed for hotplug functionality to work properly.
o VMI – A paravirtualization standard that enables improved performance for VMs capable of utilizing it.
o Enabling paravirtualization utilizes one of the VM’s six virtual PCI slots
o A VM with paravirtualization enabled and that is powered off can be moved manually to a host that does not support paravirtualization.
However, this can result in reduced performance.
o N-port ID vir vcp 410 tualization (NPIV) – Provides the ability to share a single physical Fibre Channel HBA port among multiple virtual ports, each with
unique identifiers. This allows control over VMaccess to LUNs on a per-VMbasis.

Performance charts
o WebAccess
o vCenter Storage Monitoring/Storage Views tab
o vCenter Servic VCP-410 exam e Status
o When a server is connected to other vCenter Server systems using Linked Mode, you can connect to that vCenter Server system and view and
manage the inventories of all the vCenter Server systems that are linked.
o Linked Mode uses Microsoft Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) to store and synchronize data.
o The following requirements apply to each vCenter Server system that is a member of a Linked Mode group:
o DNS must be operational.
o Can be in different domains if the domains have a two-way trust relationship.
o When adding a vCenter instance to a Linked Mode group, the installer must be run by a domain user who is an administrator on both the
machines.
o Must have network time synchronization. The installer validates that the machine clocks are not more than 5 minutes apart.
o The roles defined on each vCenter Server system in a linked mode group are replicated to the other systems in the group.
o Troubleshooting:
o Conflicts can occur, when you clone a vCenter Server instance that is running in a VM and you do not use sysprep or a similar utility to
ensure that the cloned vCenter Server instance has a globally unique identifier (GUID).
o The DNS name of the machine must match with the actual machine name.
o Joining a Linked Mode group:
1. Verify that the vCenter Server domain name matches the machine name.
2. Update the URLs to make them compatible with the new domain name and machine name (if required).
3. Join the vCenter Server system to a Linked Mode group.
o When you are logged in to a vCenter Server system that is part of a connected group, you can monitor the health of services running on each
server in the group.
o Client uses ports 80 and 443 to communicate with vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi hosts. These ports cannot be changed.
o The SNMP traps sent by vCenter Server are defined in VMWARE-VC-EVENT-MIB.mib
o ESX/ESXi includes an SNMP agent embedded in hostd that can both send traps and receive polling requests such as GET requests. This agent is
referred to as the embedded SNMP agent. Versions of ESX prior to ESX 4.0 included a Net-SNMP-based agent. You can continue to use this
Net-SNMPbased agent in ESX 4.0 with MIBs supplied by your hardware vendor and other third-party management applications. However, to
use the VMware MIB files, you must use the embedded SNMP agent. By default, the embedded SNMP agent is disabled. To enable it, use the
vSphere CLI command vicfg-snmp.
o Both the embedded SNMP agent and the Net-SNMP-based agent available in the ESX VCP-410 exam questions service console listen on UDP port 161 by default. If you
enable both of these agents for polling on an ESX host, you must change the port used by at least one of them.
o Can use SNMP to monitor guest operating systems or applications running in VMs. Do not install agents in the VM that are intended to
monitor physical hardware.
o VMware MIB Files
MIB File Description
VMWARE-ROOT-MIB.mib Contains VMware’s enterprise OID and top level OID assignments.
VMWARE-AGENTCAP-MIB.mib Defines the capabilities of the VMware agents by product versions.
VMWARE-ENV-MIB.mib Defines variables and trap types used to report on the state of physical hardware components of
the host computer.
VMWARE-OBSOLETE-MIB.mib Defines OIDs that have been made obsolete to maintain backward compatibility with earlier
versions of ESX/ESXi. Includes variables formerly defined in the files VMWARE-TRAPS-MIB.mib
and VMWARE-VMKERNEL-MIB.mib.
VMWARE-PRODUCTS-MIB.mib Defines OIDs to uniquely identify each SNMP agent on each VMware platform by name, version,
and build platform.
VMWARE-RESOURCES-MIB.mib Defines variables used to report information on resource usage of the VMkernel, including
physical memory, CPU, and disk utilization.
VMWARE-SYSTEM-MIB.mib The VMWARE-SYSTEM-MIB.mib file is obsolete. Use the SNMPv2-MIB to obtain information
from sysDescr.0 and sysObjec ID.0.
VMWARE-TC-M VCP-410 study guide IB.mib Defines common textual conventions used by VMware MIB files.
VMWARE-VC-EVENTS-MIB.mib Defines traps sent by vCenter Server. Load this file if you use vCenter Server to send traps.
VMWARE-VMINFO-MIB.mib Defines variables for reporting information about VMs, including VM traps.

ESX/ESXi System Logs
Component Location
ESX Server 2.x Service log /var/log/vmware/vmware-serverd.log
ESX Server 3.x or ESX Service log /var/log/vmware/hostd.log
vSphere Client A VCP-410 questions gent log /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log
Virtual Machine Kernel Core file /root/vmkernel-core.<date> and /root/vmkernel-log.<date> present after rebooting
Syslog log /var/log/messages
Service Console Availability report /var/log/vmkernel
VMkernel Messages /var/log/vmkernel
VMkernel Alerts & Availability report /var/log/vmkernel
VMkernel Warning /var/log/vmkwarning
Virtual Machine log file The same directory as the .vmx file for the VM.
o vSphere Client System Logs
Component Location
vSphere Client Installation log Temp directory on the vSphere Client machine. e.g.: C:Documents and Settings<user
name>Local SettingsTempvmmsi.log
vSphere Client Service log vpx directory in the Application Data directory on the vSphere Client machine. e.g.:
C:Documents and Settings<user name>Local SettingsApplication Data vpxviclientx.
log x(=0, 1, ... 9)
o VMware Server System Logs
Component Operating System Location
VM Console log Windows Temp directory e.g.: C:Documents and Settings<username>Local Settings
Tempvmware-<username>-<PID>.log
Linux Temp directory e.g.: /tmp/vmware-<username>/ui-<PID>.log
VM log Windows & Linux vmware.log Located in the same directory as the VM .vmx file.
VM Event log Windows C:Program FilesVMwareVMware Virtual Infrastructure
vmserverdRooteventlogvent- <path_to_configuration_file>.vmx.log
Linux /var/log/vmware/event-<path_to_configuration_file>.vmx.log
VM Conf file Windows <virtual_machine_name>.vmx Located in the folder where VMs are stored.
Linux <virtual_machine_name>.vmx Located in the folder where VMs are stored.
o All ESX/ESXi hosts run a syslog service (syslogd).
o ESXi hosts can use the vSphere Client or the vSphere CLI command vicfg-syslog
o Cannot use the vSphere Client or vicfg-syslog to configure syslog behavior for an ESX host. To configure syslog for an ESX host, you must
edit the /etc/syslog.conf file.
o Libraries – Central repositories for VM provisioning media e.g. VM templates, ISO images, floppy images, VMDK files, guest customization files.
o Guided Consolidation ports
Port Protocol Service Description MS Windows
135 TCP/UDP Loc-srv/epmap Microsoft DCE Locator service (End-point Mapper). DHCP, DNS & VCP-410 dumps ; WINS Server
137 TCP/UDP Netbios-ns NetBIOS names service. WINS & DNS Server
138 TCP/UDP Netbios-dgm NetBIOS datagram
139 TCP/UDP Netbios-ssn NetBIOS Session Windows File and Printer sharing.
445 TCP/UDP DNS DNS Direct Hosting port. Active Directory
o Guided Consolidation can be installed together with vCenter Server, or can be installed on a separate host. For best performance, install
Guided Consolidation on a separate host. It includes the following services:
o vCenter Collector Service – Discovers domains and systems within domains. Collects performance data on those systems.
o vCenter Provider Service – Helper service to the Collector Service. Communicates with target systems and passes the data back.
o vCenter Guided Consolidation – Coordinates all communication among Guided Consolidation components.
o You can analyze up to 100 systems simultaneously.
o The following formula is used to resize converted disks:
o amount of space used on physical disk * 1.25 = resultant virtual disk size
o Virtual disks are set to a size of 4GB or larger.
o Disconnecting a managed host does not remove it from vCenter Server; it temporarily suspends all monitoring activities performed by vCenter
Server.
Passed VCP-410 o Deploying an OVF template is similar to deploying a VM from a template. However, you can deploy an OVF template from any local file system
accessible from the vSphere Client machine, or from a remote web server.
o OVF advantages:
o OVF files are compressed, allowing for faster downloads.

After you upgrade all of your hosts to ESX4/ESXi4, you can optionally uninstall your license server and remove the license server configuration
from vCenter Server.
o For ESXi, the vSphere Host Update Utility does not support roll back.
o You can remove the ESX 4.0 boot option from the ESX bootloader menu and perform VCP-410 dumps a complete roll back to ESX 3.x. Any changes made to
the ESX 4.0 service console are lost after the rollback.
o Any changes made to VMs will persist after the rollback.
o If you upgraded the VM hardware, the VMs will not work after you perform the ESX rollback. To avoid this situation, take a snapshot of
the VM before you upgrade the VM hardware.
o Run the rollback-to-esx3 command – reconfigures the bootloader.
o Reboot the server.
o After the host boots into ESX 3.x, delete the ESX 4.0 service console VMDK folder from the VMFS datastore.
o Each time you update an ESXi host, a copy of the ESXi build is saved on your host.
o ESXi permits only one level of rollback.
o When you manually boot into the standby build instead of the current boot build, an irreversible rollback occurs.
o When the page that displays the current boot build appears, press Shift+r to select the standby build.
o Do not use vmware-vmupgrade.exe to upgrade VMs.
o Some VMs that you create on ESX4 hosts are supported on ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts. If you create a VM on ESX4 and select the typical path, the
virtual hardware version is version 7. Virtual machines with virtual hardware version 7 are not supported on ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts. Select the
custom path and select virtual hardware version 4
o If you create VMs that use paravirtualization (VMI) or an enhanced networking device (vmxnet), VMotion is not supported. In this case, you
can only move the VM to the ESX 3.x host if the VM is powered off.
o On Windows guest operating systems, you must reboot the VM a total of three times when you upgrade VMware Tools and the virtual
hardware:
1. Power on the VM.
2. Upgrade VMware Tools.
3. Reboot the VM at the end of the VMware Tools upgrade.
4. Power off the VM.
5. Upgrade the virtual Hardware.
6. Power on the VM.
7. The Windows operating system detects new devices and prompts you to reboot the VM.
8. Reboot the VM to make the devices work properly.
o During the virtual hardware upgrade, the VM must be shut down for all guest operating systems.
o When you upgrade from virtual hardware version 3 to version 7, the upgrade is irreversible, even if you take a VM backup or snapshot before
performing the upgrade. 4 to version 7 the upgrade is reversible if you take a VM backup or snapshot
o Tools for installing updates and patches to ESX/ESXi hosts:
o Host Update Utility – graphical utility for ESXi only.
o Update Manager – for ESX and ESXi,
o vihostupda VCP-410 te – command-line utility for ESX and ESXi.
o esxupdate – command-line utility for ESX only.
o If the Host Update Utility does not meet the needs of your environment, you can customize the application the settings.config XML file,
located in %PROGRAMFILES%VMwareInfrastructureVIUpdate 4.0
o Run vihostupdate on ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0 hosts. Run vihostupdate35 on ESX 3.5/ESXi 3.5 hosts.
o The esxupdate utility is supported as well. It is for ESX only.
o The vihostupdate command works with bulletins.
o You can use the vihostupdate utility in conjunction with offline bundles or with a depot.
o To get the build number of an ESX4 host: # vmware –l (from KB 1001179).
vSphere Basic System Administration
o VMware modules (plugins) include:
o Update Manager
o Converter Enterprise
o vShield Zones – an application-aware firewall built for vCenter Server integration. It inspects client-server communications and intervirtual-
machine communication to provide detailed traffic analytics and application-aware firewall partitioning.
o Orchestrator – a workflow engine that enables you to create and execute automated workflows.
o Data Recovery – a disk-based backup and recovery solution. Enable centralized and efficient management of backup jobs and includes
data de-duplication.
o Tomcat VCP-410 braindump Web server is installed as part of the vCenter Server installation. The components that require Tomcat are:
o Linked Mode
o CIM/Hardware Status t

o Back up the VirtualCenter 2.x SSL certificates. %ALLUSERSPROFILE%Application DataVMwareVMware VirtualCenter or
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%VMwareVMware VirtualCenter.
o Note any non-default settings, such as the IP address, the database DSN, user name, password, and assigned ports.
o Create a backu VCP-410 exam questions p copy of vpxd.cfg.
o The database upgrade log is at %TEMP%VCDatabaseUpgrade.log.
o By default, a vCenter Server creates a maximum of 10 simultaneous database connections.
o Datastores and networks have their own set of privileges that control access to them.
o Users are initially granted the No Access role on all new managed objects, including datastores and networks. All existing objects in vCenter
maintain their permissions after the upgrade.
o The upgrade process uses the datacenter's “Read-only” privilege.
o If the “Read-only” privilege is nonpropagating (not inherited by child objects), VMware assumes access privileges should not be assigned
to datastores and networks.
o If the “Read-only” privilege is propagating (inherited by child objects), VMware assumes access privileges should be assigned to
datastores and networks so users can view them and perform basic operations that require access.
o The “Read-only” propagating permission on a datacenter, as well as all other permissions you have set, will continue to work as expected after
the upgrade.
o You must change “Read-only” nonpropagating datastore permissions to propagating datastore permissions in order for users to access the
datastore. You can assign datastore permissions on datastore or folders containing datastore. The same goes for Network permissions.
o The “Database Consumer” sample role assigns the “Allocate Space” privilege to the datastore. “Network Consumer” sample role assigns the
“Assign Network” privilege.
o Host Update Utility does not upgrade VMFS datastores or VM
o Update Manager supports mass remediation.
o During host upgrades using the Update Manager, static IP addresses are a requirement.
o The upgrade to ESXi4 & ESX4 preserves almost all configuration data, including your networking, security, and storage configuration. The only
configuration not preserved is related to licensing.
o For ESX only, the upgrade reuses the existing /boot partition to hold the ESX 4.0 boot files. After the upgrade, the ESX 3.x installation is
mounted in the new ESX 4.0 installation under the /esx3-installation directory.
o Backup the ESX Host Configuration:
o Back up the files in the /etc/passwd, /etc/groups, /etc/shadow, and /etc/gshadow directories.
o Back up any custom scripts.
o Back up your .vmx files.
o Back up local images, such as templates, exported VMs, and .iso files.
o Backup the ESXi Host Configuration: vicfg-cfgbackup --server <ESXi-host-ip> --portnumber <port_number> --
protocol <protocol_type> --username username --password <password> -s <backup-filename>
o You cannot perform an in-place upgrade from ESX to ESXi (or from ESXi to ESX).
VCP-410 study guide o The only ESX 2.x version that has upgrade support is ESX 2.5.5 – you can perform a migration upgrade with or without VMotion.
o Direct, in-place upgrade from ESX 2.5.5 to ESX 4.0 is not supported, even if you upgrade to ESX 3.x as an intermediary step. The default ESX
2.5.5 installation creates a /boot partition that is too small to enable upgrades to ESX 4.0. As an exception, if you have a non-default ESX 2.5.5
installation on which at least 100MB of space is available on the /boot partition, you can upgrade ESX 2.5.5 to ESX 3.x and then to ESX 4.0.
o The upgrade logs are here:
o /esx3-installation/esx4-upgrade/
o /var/log/vmware/
o For an unsuccessful ESX upgrade:
o /esx4-upgrade/
o /var/log/vmware/
o You may need to reconnect the host to vCenter Server and assign an upgraded license to your product within 60 days after the upgrade.
o The host sdX devices might be renumbered after the upgrade.
o You must convert LUN masking to the claim rule format. Run the esxcli corestorage claimrule convert command. It converts
the /adv/Disk/MaskLUNs advanced configuration entry in esx.conf to claim rules with MASK_PATH as the plug-in.
o Web Access service is disabled after you upgrade the host.
o vSphere Web Access is not supported on ESXi hosts.
o 60-day evaluation count down starts even if the host is licensed and you are not using evaluation mode.
o One advantage of using evaluation mode is that it offers full feature functionality.
o After you determine that the ESX 4.0 upgrade is stable, you can remove the ESX 3.x boot option from the ESX 4.0 bootloader menu to disable
the ability to roll back to ESX 3.x. If you deselected the rollback option, this procedure is not applicable. Run the cleanup-esx3 command
with the optional -f (force) flag.
o The cleanup-esx3 VCP-410 questions script removes the following files and references from the ESX 4.0 host:
o ESX 3.x references in the /etc/fstab directory
o ESX 3.x boot files in the /boot directory
o The rollback-to-esx3 script in the /usr/sbin/ directory

When you restore the standard switch, a new virtual adapter is created and the manageVCP-410 ment network uplink that is currently connected to
vNetwork Distributed Switch is migrated to the new virtual switch.
o The software creates these partitions:
o One 4GB VFAT scratch partition for system swap.
o One VMFS3 partition on the remaining free space.
o The installer creates a 110MB diagnostic partition for core dumps.
o The scratch partition is not required (but created by default during the installation). It is used to store vm-support output, which you need
when you create a support bundle.
o Lockdown mode prevents remote personnel from logging in to the ESXi host by using the root login name. By default, lockdown mode is
disabled.
o Resetting the configuration does not remove virtual machines on the ESXi host. After you reset the configuration defaults, the virtual
machines are not visible, but you can retrieve them by reconfiguring storage and reregistering the virtual machines.
o When you perform a configuration backup, the serial number is backed up with the configuration and is restored when you restore the
configuration. The serial number is not preserved when you run the Recovery CD (ESXi Embedded) or perform the repair operation (ESXi
Installable).
o When you restore the configuration, the target host must be in maintenance mode, which means all virtual machines (including the vSphere
CLI virtual appliance) must be powered off.
o Run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the -s flag to save the host configuration to the specified backup filename.
o When you restore configuration data, the build number currently running on the host must be the same as the build number that was running
when you created the backup file. You can override this requirement by including the -f (force) flag with the vicfg-cfgbackup
command.
o Run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the -l flag to load the host configuration from the specified backup file.
o You can restore the ESXi Installable software by running the ESXi installation CD in repair mode. All host configuration data is overwritten by
system defaults.
o During VCP-410 braindump the repair operation, your existing ESXi 4.0 Installable VMFS datastore is preserved if it is in its original location on the ESXi 4.0 boot
disk, or if it is located on another disk (separate from the boot disk). If you changed the VMFS location on the boot disk, it is preserved if it is
located beyond the 900MB partition.
vSphere upgrade guide
o When you upgrade from ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 to ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0, you can use either the vSphere Host Update Utility or vCenter Update Manager.
o EDIT – you can also use the upgrade script (esxupgrade.sh – KB 1009440). VMware doesn’t mention the option of a fresh install at any point;
they are pushing the upgrade option as much as possible. You can’t seem to do an upgrade with the ESX4 install CD.
o Host Update Utility is used for upgrading ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 standalone hosts to ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0 and for patching ESXi 4.0 standalone hosts. It is
a standalone Microsoft Windows application recommended for smaller deployments with fewer than 10 ESX/ESXi hosts, without vCenter
Server or Update Manager.
o vCenter Update Manager is for upgrading and updating ESX/ESXi hosts that are managed in vCenter Server.
o Orchestrated upgrades can be used to upgrade the VM hardware and VMware Tools.
o No VMFS upgrade is required if you are upgrading from ESX 3.x
o You must upgrade VMware Tools before upgrading virtual hardware.
o After you upgrade to vCenter Server, you cannot revert to VirtualCenter 2.x. Take appropriate backups before starting the upgrade.
o Upgrade VirtualCenter 2.x to vCenter Server 4.0:
o Make sure your database is compatible
o Have required permissions
o Take a full backup of the VirtualCenter 2.x database
o Back up the VirtualCenter 2.x SSL certificates
o Install the vSphere Client
o vCenter Converter, upgrade
o vCenter Guided Consolidation upgrade
o Upgrade to vCenter Update Manager 4.0.
o Use vCenter Update Manager to upgrade ESX 3.x hosts to ESX 4.0. (or use host update utility)
o Use vCenter Update Manager to upgrade your VMs. vCenter Update Manager ensures that the VMware Tools upgrade and the virtual
hardware upgrade happen in the correct order
o Upgrade your product licenses
o ESX 2.x hosts cannot be added to clusters.
o Oracle 9i i VCP-410 exam s no longer supported.
o Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is no longer supported.
o To Back Up VirtualCenter 2.x:
o Make a full backup of the VirtualCenter 2.x databa