This objective was quite straight forward. I spent a bit of time on it due to watching videos that also cover other networking aspects in troubleshooting and performance.

Knowledge

• Describe the relationship between vDS and the vSS

This is VCP5 stuff so if you don’t know this you probably shouldn’t be doing the exam. For a refresher I used this VMworld Networking Deep Dive video http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-3813

Also used the networking lessons from the VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal.

David also did a great overview in the Using the vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch lesson from the http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-4-Training.aspx course from Trainsignal

Skills and Abilities

• Understand the use of command line tools to configure appropriate vDS settings on an ESXi host

As I covered in the previous objectives these are covered here http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcli.ref.doc_50%2Fvcli-right.html

This is 100% about lab practice of using the commands and how to do things and fix things when you make a mistake.

• Determine use cases for and apply Port Binding settings

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022312 Perfect overview of each setting and what they do.

Also covered in the VMware vSphere 5 Training course’s networking sections.

Also there is a great posting that has just been posted about deciding on if you should use static or ephemeral. http://vmguy.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/1814

• Configure Live Port Moving

Very simply an advanced setting for a port group on a distributed switch. “Live Port Moving: Transfer stand-alone port groups to distributed port groups, assigning settings associated with distributed port group to the stand-alone group” – as detailed in http://www.trainsignal.com/blog/vmware-networking-configuring-vnetwork-2

• Given a set of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch technology to use

This is all about knowing what each feature does and how it will meet certain requirements. I think knowing all about the distributed switch and its settings will suffice. Also loads of lab practice with it

Used the vSphere Distributed Virtual Switch (dvswitch) lesson from the VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal

• Configure and administer vSphere Network I/O Control

I’ve used the Network IO Control Lesson from the VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal for this as it covers it perfectly

• Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an existing vDS

Covered in the first bullet point and the troubleshooting steps are covered perfectly in section 6.

Now onto objective 3, Performance

Gregg