VCAP5–DCA (VDCA550) Study Guide

The following pages will detail my study guide for the VCAP5-DCA (VDCA550) exam.

The guide is based off the VMware VCAP5-DCA (VDCA550) Blueprint version 3.3

I have created a document package of all required documents listed in the blueprint. There are some duplications but for the most part common files per objective can be found under the common files.

The Blueprint Docs folder contains some duplications but for the most part shared files for each objective can be found under the common files folder in that objective folder.

The Exam docs folder contains the missing documents that weren’t downloaded as part of the Blueprint Docs.

The file can be downloaded from here

Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage

  • Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements
  • Identify and tag SSD and local devices
  • Administer hardware acceleration for VAAI
  • Configure and administer profile – based storage
  • Prepare storage for maintenance
  • Apply space utilization data to manage storage resources
  • Provision and manage storage resources according to Virtual Machine requirements
  • Understand interactions between virtual storage provisioning and physical storage provisioning
  • Configure datastore Alarms
  • Create and analyze datastore alarms and errors to determine space availability

  • Perform command line configuration of multipathing options
  • Change a multipath policy
  • Troubleshoot common storage issues

Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking

  • Create and Manage vSS components
  • Create and Manage vmkernel ports on standard switches
  • Configure advanced vSS settings

  • Determine use cases for and applying VMware DirectPath I/O
  • Migrate a vSS network to a hybrid or full vDS solution
  • Configure vSS and vDS settings using command line tools
  • Analyze command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details
  • Configure NetFlow
  • Determine appropriate discovery protocol
  • Determine use cases for and configure PVLANs
  • Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations

  • Understand the NIC Teaming failover types and related physical network settings
  • Determine and apply Failover settings
  • Configure explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices
  • Configure port groups to properly isolate network traffic
  • Given a set of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch technology to use
  • Configure and administer vSphere Network I/O Control
  • Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an existing vDS

Section 3 – Implement and Manage Host Clusters

  • Calculate host failure requirements
  • Configure customized isolation response settings
  • Configure HA redundancy
    • Management Network
    • Datastore Heartbeat
    • Network partitions
  • Configure HA related alarms and monitor an HA cluster
  • Create a custom slot size configuration
  • Understand interactions between DRS and HA
  • Analyze vSphere environment to determine appropriate HA admission control policy
  • Analyze performance metrics to calculate host failure requirements
  • Analyze Virtual Machine workload to determine optimum slot size
  • Analyze HA cluster capacity to determine optimum cluster size

  • Explain DRS / storage DRS affinity and anti – affinity rules
  • Identify required hardware components to support Distributed Power Management (DPM)
  • Identify EVC requirements, baselines and components
  • Understand the DRS / storage DRS migration algorithms, the Load Imbalance Metrics, and their impact on migration recommendations
  • Properly configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM
  • Test DPM to verify proper configuration
  • Configure appropriate DPM Threshold to meet business requirements
  • Configure EVC using appropriate baseline
  • Change the EVC mode on an existing DRS cluster
  • Create DRS and DPM alarms
  • Configure applicable power management settings for ESXi hosts
  • Properly size virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency
  • Properly apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application requirements
  • Create and administer ESXi host and Datastore Clusters
  • Administer DRS / Storage DRS

  • Configure EVC using appropriate baselin
  • Create and manage DRS and DPM alarms
  • Properly size virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency
  • Properly apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application requirements

Section 4 – Manage Virtual Machines and vSphere Resources

  • Configure esxtop/resxtop custom profiles
  • Determine use cases for and apply esxtop/resxtop Interactive, Batch and Replay modes
  • Use vscsiStats to gather storage performance data
  • Use esxtop/resxtop to collect performance data
  • Given esxtop/resxtop output, identify relative performance data for capacity planning purposes

  • Tune Virtual Machine memory configurations
  • Tune Virtual Machine networking configurations
  • Tune Virtual Machine CPU configurations
  • Tune Virtual Machine storage configurations
  • Calculate available resources
  • Properly size a Virtual Machine based on application workload
  • Modify large memory page settings
  • Understand appropriate use cases for CPU affinity
  • Configure alternate virtual machine swap locations

  • Tune Virtual Machine disk controller configurations
  • Configure .vmx file for advanced configuration scenarios
  • Identify pre-requisites for Hot Add features
  • Configure VMware Fault Tolerance
  • Upgrade virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools [expand]

  • Configure and manage a vSphere Replication infrastructure
  • Configure and manage vSphere Replication of virtual machines
  • Troubleshoot vSphere Replication

Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance

  • Use Profile Editor to edit and/or disable policies
  • Create sub-profiles
  • Use Host Profiles to deploy vDS
  • Use Host Profiles to deploy vStorage policies
  • Import/Export Host Profiles
  • Manage Answer Files

  • Install and configure Update Manager Download Service
  • Configure a shared repository
  • Configure smart rebooting
  • Manually download updates to a repository
  • Perform orchestrated vSphere upgrades
  • Create and modify baseline groups
  • Troubleshoot Update Manager problem areas and issues
  • Generate database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL
  • Upgrade vApps using Update Manager
  • Utilize Update Manager PowerCLI to export baselines for testing
  • Utilize the Update Manager Utility to reconfigure vUM settings

  • Apply vSphere tags
  • Search vSphere inventory
  • Troubleshoot the vSphere inventory infrastructure

  • Generate vCenter Server and ESXi log bundles
  • Use esxcli system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts
  • Test centralized logging configuration
  • Analyze log entries to obtain configuration information
  • Analyze log entries to identify and resolve issues
  • Install and configure VMware syslog Collector and ESXi Dump Collector

Section 6 – Secure a vSphere Environment

  • Add/Edit Remove users/groups on an ESXi host
  • Customize SSH settings for increased security
  • Enable ESXi lockdown mode
  • Enable strong passwords and configure password policies
  • Identify methods for hardening virtual machines
  • Analyze logs for security – related messages
  • Manage Active Directory integration

  • Enable/Disable certificate checking
  • Generate ESXi host certificates
  • Replace default certificate with CA – signed certificate
  • Configure SSL timeouts
  • Configure vSphere Authentication Proxy

Section 7 – Perform Scripting and Automation

  • Identify vSphere PowerCLI requirements
  • Identify Cmdlet concepts
  • Identify environment variables usage
  • Install and configure vSphere PowerCLI
  • Install and configure Update Manager PowerShell Library
  • Use basic and advanced Cmdlets to manage VMs and ESXi Hosts
  • Use Web Service Access Cmdlets
  • Use Datastore and Inventory Providers
  • Given a sample script, modify the script to perform a given action

  • Configure and manage vCenter Orchestrator
  • Add Orchestrator to vCenter
  • Create basic vCenter management workflows
  • Troubleshoot existing workflows
  • Import/export packages