masha

o 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
automatically provide an IP

220 702
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 fo

9L0-403 r VMs with Solaris or Netware guest operating 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 pow

9L0-510 ered off can be moved manually to a host that does not support paravirtualization.
However, this can result in reduced performance.
o N-port ID virtualization (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.

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 Agent log /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log
Virtual Machine Kernel Core file /root/vmkernel-core. and /root/vmkernel-log. present after rebooting
Syslog log /var/log/me

220 701 ssages
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\\Local Settings\Temp\vmmsi.log
vSphere Client Service log \vpx directory in the Application Data directory on the vSphere Client machine. e.g.:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data \vpx\viclientx.
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\\Local Settings
\Temp\vmware–.log
Linux Temp directory e.g.: /tmp/vmware-/ui-.log
VM log Windows & Linux vmware.log Located in the same directory as the VM .vmx file.
VM Event log Windows C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Virtual Infrastructure\
vmserverdRoot\eventlog\vent- .vmx.log
Linux /var/log/vmware/event-.vmx.log
VM Conf file Windows .vmx Located in the folder where VMs are stored.
Linux .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
220 702
Port Protocol Service Description MS Windows
135 TCP/UDP Loc-srv/epmap Microsoft DCE Locator service (End-point Mapper). DHCP, DNS & 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
220 701
Server.
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

Performance charts
o WebAccess
o vCenter Storage Monitoring/Storage Views tab
o vCenter Service 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 vC

640 802 Dumps enter 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 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
640-802

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.
640 802 braindumps

VMWARE-TC-MIB.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.

o When you restore the standard switch, a new virtual adapter is created and the management 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 create

vcp-410 on 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 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

vmware vcp 410

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

vmware vcp 410

o Upgrade your product licenses
o ESX 2.x hosts cannot be added to clusters.
o Oracle 9i is 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 database.

This topic introduces the components of VMware vSphere.
VMware vSphere includes the following components:
VMware® ESX and VMware® ESXi

A virtualization layer rPassed VCP410 un on physical servers that abstracts processor, memory, storage, and resources into multiple virtual machines.
Two versions of ESX are available:
■

VMware ESX 4.0 contains a built-in service console. It is available as an installable CD-ROM boot image.
■

VMware ESXi 4.0 does not contain a service console. It is available in two forms: VMware ESXi 4.0 Embedded and VMware ESXi 4.0 Installable. ESXi 4.0 Embedded is firmware that is built into a server’s physical hardware. ESXi 4.0 Installable is software that is available as an installable CD-ROM boot image. You install the ESXi 4.0 Installable software onto a server’s hard drive.
VMware® vCenter Server

The central point for configuring, provisioning, and managing virtualized IT environments.
VMware® vSphere Client

An interface that allows users to connect remotely to vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi from any Windows PC.
VMware® vSphere Web Access

A Web interface that allows virtual machine management and access to remote consoles.
VMware® Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)

A high performance cluster file system for ESX/ESXi virtual machines.
VMware® Virtual SMP

Feature that enables a single virtual machine to use multiple physical processors simultaneously.
VMware® VMotion and Storage VMotion

VMware VMotion enables the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another with zero down time, continuous service availability, and complete transaction integrity. Storage VMotion enables the migration of virtual machine files from one datastore to another without service interruption. You can choose to place the virtual machine and all its disks in a single location, or select separate locations for the virtual machine configuration file and each virtual disk. The virtual machine remains on the same host during Storage VMotion.
Migration with VMotion – Moving a powered-on virtual machine to a new host. Migration with VMotion allows you to move a virtual machine to a new host without any interruption in the availability of the virtual machine. Migration with VMotion cannot be used to move virtual machines from one datacenter to another.
Migration with Storage VMotion – Moving the virtual disks or configuration file of a powered-on virtual machine to a new datastore. Migration with Storage VMotion allows you to move a virtual machine’s storage without any interruption in the availability of the virtual machine.
VMware® High Availability (HA)

Feature that provides high availability for applications running in virtual machines. If a server fails, affected virtual machines are restarted on other production servers that have spare capacity.
VMware® Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

Feature that allocates and balances computing capacity dynamically across collections of hardware resources for virtual machines. This feature includes distributed power management (DPM) capabilities that enable a datacenter to significantly reduce its power consumption.
VMware® Consolidated Backup (Consolidated Backup)Passed VCP 4

Feature that provides a centralized facility for agent-free backup of virtual machines. It simplifies backup administration and reduces the impact of backups on ESX/ESXi performance.
VMware® vSphere SDK

Feature that provides a standard interface for VMware and third-party solutions to access the VMware vSphere.
VMware® Fault Tolerance

When Fault Tolerance is enabled for a virtual machine, a secondary copy of the original (or primary) virtual machine is created. All actions completed on the primary virtual machine are also applied to the secondary virtual machine. If the primary virtual machine becomes unavailable, the secondary machine becomes active, providing continual availability.
vNetwork Distributed Switch (DVS)

Feature that includes a distributed virtual switch (DVS), which spans many ESX/ESXi hosts enabling significant reduction of on-going network maintenance activities and increasing network capacity. This allows virtual machines to maintain consistent network configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts.
Host Profiles

Feature that simplifies host configuration management through user-defined configuration policies. The host profile policies capture the blueprint of a known, validated host configuration and use this to configure networking, storage, security, and other settings across multiple hosts. The host profile policies also monitor compliance to standard host configuration settings across the datacenter. Host profiles reduce manual steps involved in configuring a host and can help maintain consistency an
vcp 410

d correctness across the datacenter.
Pluggable Storage Array (PSA)

A storage partner plug-in framework that enables greater array certification flexibility and improved array-optimized performance. PSA is a multipath I/O framework allowing storage partners to enable their array asynchronously to ESX release schedules. VMware partners can deliver performance-enhancing multipath load-balancing behaviors that are optimized for each array.

vCenter Server instances in a Linked Mode group can be in different domains if the domains have a two-way trust relationship.
o The installer must be run by a domain user who is an administrator on both the machines.
o The vCenter Server installer validates that the machine clocks are not more than 5 minutes apart.
o The instances can run under different domain accounts.
o Windows Server 2008 automatically co

VCP-410 questions nfigures the firewall to permit access. Launch firewall.cpl and add an exception for
C:\Windows\ADAM\dsamain.exe
o When you install vCenter Server in Linked Mode, the firewall configuration on any network-based firewalls must be modified.
o Configure Windows RPC ports to generically allow selective ports for machine-to-machine RPC communication.
o vCenter Collector service – uses port 8181 and 8182, by default.
o vCenter Web Server – uses ports 8080 and 8443, by default.
o All product licenses are encapsulated in 25-character license keys that you can manage and monitor from vCenter Server.
o vSphere Licenses – For ESX/ESXi.
o vCenter Server Licenses – For vCenter Server.
o vCenter Server 4.0 does not require a license server to manage ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0 hosts. However, vCenter Server 4.0 does requires a license
server to manage ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts.
o If a vCenter Server license expires, the managed hosts become disconnected.
o If an ESX/ESXi host license expires, the VMs that reside on the host continue to run, but you cannot power on the VMs or reset them.
ESXi Installable and vCenter Server Setup Guide
o When you power on the ESXi host for the first time or after resetting the configuration defaults, the host enters an autoconfiguration phase
during which system network and storage devices are configured with defaults.
o By default, DHCP configures IP and all visible blank internal disks are formatted with VMFS so that virtual machines can be stored on the disks.
o ESXi has an interface called the direct console to:
o Configuring host defaults
o Setting up administrative access
o Troubleshooting
o Minimum hardware configurations supported by ESXi 4.0:
o 64-bit x86 CPUs.
o 2GB RAM minimum
o Supported SATA, SAS or SCSI disks
o The installer reformats and partitions the target disk and installs the ESXi 4.0 boot image.
o ESXi Installable is always installed in evaluation mode (60 days).
o ESXi Installable and ESXi Embedded cannot exist on the same host.
o Booting multiple servers from a single shared ESXi image is not supported.
o If there is no DHCP available during the install, it assigns the link local IP address, which is in the subnet 169.254.x.x/16.
o Direct Console
Action Key
View and change the configuration F2
Change the user interface to high-contrast mode F4

VCP-410 dumps

Shut down or restart the host F12
Move the selection between fields Arrow keys
Select a menu item Enter
Toggle a value Spacebar
Confirm sensitive commands, such as resetting configuration defaults F11
Save and exit Enter
Exit without saving Esc
Exit system logs q
o To change the security banner > Advanced Settings window, select Annotations.
o Test Management Network:
o Pings the default gateway
o Pings the primary DNS nameserver
o Pings the secondary DNS nameserver
o Resolves the configured host name
o Restarting the management agents restarts all management agents and services that are installed and running in /etc/init.d on the ESXi host.
Typically, these agents include hostd, ntpd, sfcbd, slpd, wsman, and vobd. The software also restarts the Automated Availability Manager Passed VCP-410
(AAM) if it is installed.
o Disable the management network is if you want to isolate an ESXi host from an HA and DRS cluster, but you do not want to lose your static IP
and DNS configurations or reboot the host.

ks-first-safe.cfg Installs ESX on the first detected disk and preserves the VMFS datastores on the disk.
o ks-first.cfg Installs ESX on the first detected disk.
o The default root password is mypassword.
o /boot and vmkcore are physical partitions. /, swap, /var/log, and all the optional partitions are stored on a virtual disk called esxconsole-
/esxconsole.vmdk. The virtual di
VCP-410 exam sk is stored in a VMFS volume.
o You cannot define the sizes of the /boot, vmkcore, and /vmfs partitions when you use the graphical or text installation modes. You can define
these partition sizes when you do a scripted installation.
o ESX Required Partitions
Mount Point Type Size Location
/boot ext3 1.25GB of free space and includes the /boot and vmkcore
partitions. The /boot partition alone requires
1100MB.
Physical partition
N/A swap 600MB recommended minimum 1600MB maximum. Virtual disk in a VMFS volume
/ ext3 Based on the size of the /usr partition. By default, the
minimum size is 5GB and no /usr partition is defined.
Virtual disk in a VMFS volume
N/A VMFS3 For VMFS volumes hosting esxconsole.vmdk: 1200MB and
an additional 10GB. VMFS2 is supported in read-only
mode to import legacy VMs.
Physical partition.
N/A vmkcore See /boot Physical partition
o ESX Optional Partitions
Mount Point Type Recommended Size Location
/home ext3 512MB Virtual disk in a VMFS volume
/tmp ext3 1024MB Virtual disk
/usr ext3 Missing in PDF Virtual disk
/var/log ext3 2000MB Virtual disk. The graphical and text
installers create this partition by
default.
o vihostupdate command applies software updates to ESX4/ESXi4 hosts and installs and updates ESX/ESXi extensions (use vihostupdate35 on
ESX 3.5/ESXi 3.5 hosts.)
o The esxupdate utility is for ESX only.
o You can use the vihostupdate utility in conjunction with offline bundles or with a depot
o vSphere Databases:
o Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express – up to 5 hosts and 50 VMs. If the machine has Microsoft SQL Native Client installed, remove it before
installing vCenter Server with the bundled database. If the machine has MSXML Core Services 6.0 installed, remove it before installing
o Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Windows XP, apply MDAC 2.8 SP1 to the client. Use the SQL Native Client driver (version 9.x) for the client.
Ensure that the machine has a valid ODBC DSN entry. Remove MSXML Core Services 6.0 before
o Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Windows XP, apply MDAC 2.8 SP1 to the client. Use the SQL Native Client driver (version 10.x) for the client.
Ensure that the machine has a valid ODBC DSN e

VCP-410 exam questions ntry.
o Oracle 10g – If necessary, first apply patch 10.2.0.3 (or later) to the client and server. Then apply patch 5699495 to the client. Ensure that
the machine has a valid ODBC DSN entry.
o Oracle 11g – Ensure that the machine has a valid ODBC DSN entry.
o Even though vCenter Server is supported on 64-bit operating systems, the vCenter Server system must have a 32-bit DSN. This requirement
applies to all supported databases. By default, any DSN created on a 64-bit system is 64 bit. On a 64-bit system use
C:\WINDOWS\SYSWOW64\odbc32.exe.
o vCenter Server must have a computer name that is 15 characters or fewer. The data source name (DSN) and remote database systems can
have names with more than 15 characters.
o To prepare a SQL Server database to work with vCenter Server, you generally need to create a SQL Server database user with database
operator (DBO) rights.
o If you use SQL Server for vCenter Server, do not use the master database.
o When using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition with vCenter Server, do not name the instance MSSQLSERVER.
o The vCenter Server performs a silent installation of vCenter Orchestrator. If you install vCenter Server on an IPv6 operating system, the
vCenter Orchestrator module is not supported.
o The vSphere Host Update Utility is for updating and patching ESXi 4.0 hosts and upgrading ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts to ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0.
o You can join multiple vCenter Server systems to form a Linked Mode group.
o Linked Mode global data includes:
VCP-410 study guide
o Connection information (IP and ports)
o Certificates
o Licensing information
o User roles

The evaluation period is 60 days and begins as soon as you power on the ESX machine, even if you start in license mode initially.
o The installer creates three basic partitions: /boot, vmkcore and VMFS. The service console VMDK file contains swap, and /var/log, by default,
and any other partitions that you specify.
o The media depot is a network-accessible location that contains the ESX installation media. You can use HTTP/ HTTPS, FTP, or NFS to access the
depot.
VCP-410 dumps

o Scripted installation – you must point to the media depot in the script by including the install command with the nfs or url option.
o Interactive installation – include the askmedia boot option.
o The boot options list appears when you boot the installer and press F2.
o Bootstrap Commands for ESX Installation
Command Description
askmedia Allows you to interactively select the location of the ESX installation media. This option is required if the
image is hosted at an HTTP, FTP, or NFS location.
BOOTIF Accepts the format for the boot network adapter as supplied by PXELINUX.
gateway= Sets this network gateway as the default gateway during the install.
ip= Specifies a static IP address to be used for downloading the script and the installation media. The IPAPPEND
option is also supported if you PXE boot the installer.
ks=cdrom:/ Performs a scripted installation with the script at , which resides on the DVD in the DVD-ROM drive.
ks=file:// Performs a scripted installation with the script at , which resides inside the initial ramdisk image.
ks=ftp://// Performs a scripted installation with a script located at the given URL.
ks=http:/// Performs a scripted installation with a script located at the given URL.
ks=https:/// Performs a scripted installation with a script located at the given URL.
ks=nfs:/// Performs a scripted installation with the script located at on a given NFS server.
ks=usb Performs a scripted installation with the ks.cfg script in the root directory of the USB flash drive attached to
the host. If multiple flash drives are attached, the installer cycles through each one, mounting and
unmounting them until the file named ks.cfg is found.
ks=UUID::/ Performs a scripted installation with a script located on the ext partition with the given UUID.
ksdevice= Same as netdevice
nameserver= Specifies a domain name server as the nameserver during the install.
netdevice= Tries to use a network adapter when looking for an installation script and installation media. Specify
as a MAC address (for example, 00:50:56:C0:00:01). If not specified and files need to be retrieved over
the network, the installer defaults to the first discovered network adapter. The IPAPPEND option is also
supported if you PXE boot the installer.
netmask= Specifies subnet mask for the network interface that downloads the installation media.
noapic Flags the kernel to use the XTPIC instead of the APIC.
text Starts the ESX installer in text mode.
url= Looks for the installation media at the specified URL. When you are PXE booting the installer, the url=
command only works with earlier versions of SYSLINUX. The command does not work with
SYSLINUX/PXELINUX version 3.70 and higher.
vlanid= Configures the VLAN for the network card.
o PXE Boot the ESX Installer:
1. Install TFTP server software that supports
VCP-410
PXE booting.
2. Put menu.c32 file in an accessible place
3. Install PXELINUX.
4. Configure the DHCP server.
5. Create the kernel image and ramdisk directory by copying the vmlinuz and initrd.img files from the /isolinux directory on the ESX
installation DVD to a supported location.
6. Create the /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg directory on your TFTP server.
7. Create a PXE configuration file. PXE configuration file in /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
o In an interactive installation, omit the ks= option.
o ESX 3.x supported a hybrid installation. You could supply an incomplete ESX installation script, and the installer prompts you for the missing
parts. ESX 4.0 does not support this.
o Install ESX interactively or by using a script. For interactive installation, you can use graphical mode or text mode.
o The installer erases all content on the selected storage device.
o Installing ESX on a USB device is not supported.
o VMFS2 volumes are not recognized by the ESX 4.0 installer.
o The installation log is /var/log/esx_install.log.
o The installation script can reside in one of the following locations:
o Default installation script
o FTP
o HTTP/HTTPS
VCP-410 braindump
o NFS
o USB flash drive
o Local disk
o The installer creates a /root/ks.cfg script, which reflects the choices you made in the interactive installation.
o Installation media contains the following default installation scripts:

The VMware vSphere storage architecture consists of layers of abstraction that hide and manage the complexity and differences among physical storage subsystems.
This storage architecture is shown in Figure 10.
VCP-410 exam questions
Figure 10. Storage Architecture
To the applications and guest operating systems inside each virtual machine, the storage subsystem appears as a virtual SCSI controller connected to one or more virtual SCSI disks as shown in Figure 10. These controllers are the only types of SCSI controllers that a virtual machine can see and access, and include BusLogic Parallel, LSI Logic Parallel, LSI Logic SAS, and VMware Paravirtual.
The virtual SCSI disks are provisioned from datastore elements in the datacenter. A datastore is like a storage appliance that delivers storage space for virtual machines across multiple physical hosts.
The datastore abstraction is a model that assigns storage space to virtual machines while insulating the guest from the complexity of the underlying physical storage technology. The guest virtual machine is not exposed to Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN, direct attached storage, and NAS.
Each virtual machine is stored as a set of files in a directory in the datastore. The disk storage associated with each virtual guest is a set of files within the guest’s directory. You can operate on the guest disk storage as an ordinary file. It can be copies, moved, or backed up. New virtual disks can be added to a virtual machine without powering it down. In that case, a virtual disk file (.vmdk) is created in VMFS to provide new storage for the added virtual disk or an existing virtual disk file is associated with a virtual machine.
Each datastore is a physical VMFS volume on a storage device. NAS datastores are an NFS volume with VMFS characteristics. Datastores can span multiple physical storage subsystems. As shown in Figure 10, a single VMFS volume can contain one or more LUNs from a local SCSI disk array on a physical host, a Fibre Channel SAN disk farm, or iSCSI SAN disk farm. New LUNs added to any of the physical storage subsystems are detected and made available to all existing or new datastores. Storage capacity on a previously created datastore can be extended without powering down physical hosts or storage subsystems. If any of the LUNs within a VMFS volume fails or becomes unavailable, only virtual machines that touch that LUN are affected. An exception is the LUN that has the first extent of the spanned volume. All other virtual machines with virtual disks residing in other LUNs continue to function as normal.
VMFS is a clustered file system that leverages shared storage to allow multiple physical hosts to read and write to the same storage simultaneously. VMFS pr
VCP-410 study guide ovides on-disk locking to ensure that the same virtual machine is not powered on by multiple servers at the same time. If a physical host fails, the on-disk lock for each virtual machine is released so that virtual machines can be restarted on other physical hosts.
VMFS also features failure consistency and recovery mechanisms, such as distributed journaling, a failure-consistent virtual machine I/O path, and machine state snapshots. These mechanisms can aid quick identification of the cause and recovery from virtual machine, physical host, and storage subsystem failures.
VMFS also supports raw device mapping (RDM). RDM provides a mechanism for a virtual machine to have direct access to a LUN on the physical storage subsystem (Fibre Channel or iSCSI only). RDM is useful for supporting two typical types of applications:
■

SAN snapshot or other layered applications that run in the virtual machines. RDM better enables scalable backup offloading systems using features inherent to the SAN.
■

Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS) spanning physical hosts and using virtual-to-virtual clusters as well as physical-to-virtual clusters. Cluster data and quorum disks
VCP-410 questions
must be configured as RDMs rather than files on a shared VMFS.
Figure 11. Raw Device Mapping
An RDM is a symbolic link from a VMFS volume to a raw LUN. The mapping makes LUNs appear as files in a VMFS volume. The mapping file, not the raw LUN, is referenced in the virtual machine configuration.
When a LUN is opened for access, the mapping file is read to obtain the reference to the raw LUN. Thereafter, reads and writes go directly to the raw LUN rather than going through the mapping file.

vStorage – enables the most efficient use and management of storage
o vNetwork – simplify and enhance networking
o Fault Tolerance – a secondary copy. Actions completed on the primary VM are also applied to the secondary VM. If the primary VM becomes
unavailable, the secondary machine becomes active, providing continual availability.
o Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS) – spans many hosts reduction of maintenance and increasing network capacity.VCP-410
o Host Profiles – host configuration management through user-defined configuration policies. Captures the blueprint and monitors compliance.
o Pluggable Storage Array (PSA) – greater array certification flexibility and improved array-optimized performance. A multipath I/O framework.
o Cluster – aggregate computing and memory resources of a group of physical x86 servers sharing the same network and storage arrays.
o Resource pools – partitions of computing and memory resources from a single host or a cluster. can be hierarchical and nested.
o Storage VMotion – enables the migration of VMs from one datastore to another datastore without service interruption
o Fault Tolerance (FT) – uses vLockstep technology, continuous availability by protecting a VM (the Primary VM) with a shadow copy (Secondary
VM) that runs in virtual lockstep on a separate host.
o vNetwork Distributed Switch (dvSwitch) – functions as a single virtual switch across all associated hosts.
o dvPort (distributed virtual port) – a port on a DVS that connects to a host’s service console or VMkernel or to a VM’s network adapter.
o vApp – has the same basic operation as a VM, but can contain multiple VMs or appliances.
o Web Access cannot be used to access a host running ESXi 4.0.
o Web Access is turned off by default for ESX hosts.
Getting Started with ESX
o ESX Service Console is held in the esxconsole.vmdk partition.
o vCenter Server uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express for small deployments with up to 5 hosts and 50 VMs.
o If SQL Native Client is already installed, uninstall SQL Native Client before you begin the vCenter Server installation.
o vCenter server must belong to a domain rather than a workgroup. Otherwise it’s not able to discover – using such features as vCenter Guided
Consolidation Service. The computer name cannot be more than 15 characters.
o vCenter Server cannot be an Active Directory domain controller.
o The Domain user account should have the following permissions:
o Member of the Administrators group
o Act as part of the operating system
o Log on as a service
ESX and vCenter server installation guide
o ESX4 will only install and run on servers with 64-bit x86 CPUs. They require a 2GB RAM minimum.
o vCenter Server must have 2 CPUs and 3GB RAM.
o The vCenter Server has a service called VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices. This service requires 128MB to 1.5GB of additional
memory.
o You can use a 32-bit Windows for up 200 hosts. A 64-bit Windows can have 200-300 hosts.
o The vSphere Client requires the Microsoft .NET 3.0 SP1 Framework.
o vCenter server required firewall ports:
Port Description
80 Redirects requests to HTTPS port 443.
389 LDAP port number for the Directory Servic

VCP-410 braindump es for the vCenter Server group. Needs to bind to port 389, even if you are not joining this
vCenter Server instance to a Linked Mode group.
443 Listen for connections from the vSphere Client.
636 For vCenter Linked Mode, this is the SSL port of the local instance
902 Uses to send data to managed hosts. Managed hosts also send a regular heartbeat over UDP port 902 to the vCenter
902/903 Ports used by vSphere Client to display VM consoles.
8080 Web Services HTTP. Used for the VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices.
8443 Web Services HTTPS. Used for the VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices.
o If ESX will not use an NTP server, make sure that the server hardware clock is set to UTC in the BIOS (EDIT: As a matter of best practice you
VCP-410 exam

should always set ESX server’s hardware clocks to UTC)
o IPv6 is not supported for ESX installation
o The service console must be installed on a VMFS datastore that is resident on a host’s local disk or on a SAN disk that is masked and zoned to
that particular host only.