TheSaffaGeek

My ramblings about all things technical

Category Archives: Certifications


by Leave a comment

VCAP5-DCA: Objective 9.2

Install ESXi Hosts Using Auto Deploy

I know this isn’t following the flow but I wanted to get Auto Deploy tested in my lab early so I jumped to this so I could have all of my Auto Deployed Hosts done before doing all my other lab work.

For this objective I would do an install in your lab/on your laptop and learn it as I think this the only way to learn how it all goes together. Duncan Epping has done a great blog posting here: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/08/25/using-vsphere-5-auto-deploy-in-your-home-lab/

Also VMware have done a really great POC step by step that is a really great way of building it and is the one I’ve followed to learn it.  http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-A9FFEDEE-1A3D-4EFD-A130-F6E78C727380.html

  • Knowledge
    • Identify Auto Deploy requirements

For me this is about knowing what are all the prerequisites and parts that make up the Auto Deploy solution. There is a really great VMware article that covers this and is what I think they based this objective on as it seems to have links for all the parts of this objective here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2005131

  • Skills and Abilities
    • Install the Auto Deploy Server

This is really simple and if clicking next,next and finish is all they test you on I’ll be happy as the installation is really easy http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-A9FFEDEE-1A3D-4EFD-A130-F6E78C727380.html

I would also learn how to configure the auto deploy server as I think the installation steps above are surely too simple: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-A9FFEDEE-1A3D-4EFD-A130-F6E78C727380.html

    • Utilize Auto Deploy cmdlets to deploy ESXi hosts

Covered here: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/esxi-image-builder-and-auto-deploy-powercli-quick-reference.html

    • Configure Bulk Licensing

This is quite straight forward but is something that is also extremely important and therefore is something I think you need to make sure you really who how to do. The steps are detailed on pg75 and 76 of the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.

    • Provision/Reprovision ESXi hosts using Auto Deploy

Provisioning is covered on pg 81 of the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.

Reprovisioning is covered on pg 82 of the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.

    • Configure an Auto Deploy reference host

This is covered on pg 84 vSphere Installation and Setup Guide.

I think this is something that may be asked as it incorporates host profiles and auto deploy and is something that can be easily tested in the lab. That’s my opinion though.

This objective was really quick and seeing as it is the last on the list I think a fair amount of people may speed through it but I think this is one of the most important as it’s a new feature and also is something any VMware Admin/Architect should be learning as it’s likely to be the way vSphere goes in the future

Gregg


    by Leave a comment

    VCAP5-DCA : Objective 3

    For Objective 3 I’ve been re-watching the Trainsignal vSphere Performance Monitoring Training videos. I’ve been watching these in the evening via my iPad as with the online training capability of watching it, it means I can watch them this way which i feel is much easier. I’ve also gone through all the links in Sean Cookston’s,Ed Grigson’s and Kendrick Coleman’s Blueprint Breaksdowns for the VCAP4 for Objective 3.

    The differences between the blueprints for Objective 3 for the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP5-DCA aren’t much but the parts that are different are:

    • Configure advanced cluster attributes
    • Tune Virtual Machine memory configurations
    • Tune Virtual Machine networking configurations
    • Tune Virtual Machine CPU configurations
    • Tune Virtual Machine storage configurations
    • Understand the DRS / storage DRS migration algorithms, the Load Imbalance Metrics, and their impact on migration recommendations
    • Create and administer ESXi host and Datastore Clusters
    • Administer DRS / Storage DRS

    For me, I’m going to cover these via the Trainsignal VMware vSphere 5 Training course, the Trainsignal vSphere Performance Monitoring Training videos I mentioned at the beginning and the vSphere 5 Clustering Tech Deepdive book by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping.

    There is also a fair portion of lab time that needs to be done on all the parts mentioned in Objective 3, which I’ll be doing closer to the exam so it’s all fresh in my mind Smile

    I hope everyone got the dates they wanted for the Beta, I thankfully did and now know what i’m aiming for.

    Gregg


    by Leave a comment

    VCAP5-DCA: Objective 2.4

    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


    by Leave a comment

    VCAP5-DCA: Objective 2.3

    This is another objective which is exactly the same as the VCAP4-DCA one .

    Knowledge

    • Identify VMware NIC Teaming policies
    • Identify common network protocols

    Skills and Abilities

    • Understand the NIC Teaming failover types and related physical network settings

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004088 A perfect overview video detailing NIC teaming creations in a vSwitch

    http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/virtual_networking_concepts.pdf page 8 details the varying options for NIC teaming

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-networking-guide.pdf page 48 covers teaming and the next section on Failover settings

    NIC Teaming is covered in the vSphere Virtual Networking lesson from the VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal

    • Determine and apply Failover settings

    Covered above on pg 48 of the Networking guide mentioned above.

    Failover settings are covered in the vSphere Virtual Networking lesson from the VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal

    • Configure explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-networking-guide.pdf pg 77

    • Configure port groups to properly isolate network traffic

    Nothing new here and the correct way to isolate them is detailed in the best practices above

    Another straight forward objective if you have already done the VCAP4-DCA. Just a refresher on all the practices and terms and options is required in my opinion

    Gregg


    by Leave a comment

    VCAP5-DCA: Objective 2.2

     

    This one is exactly the same as the VCAP4-DCA objective so it is all about reviewing it all and making sure you understand what each part does and how to do it. Personally i think this is another one you just need to practice doing in your lab and watch the videos to refresh your understanding.

    Configure and Maintain VLANs, PVLANs and VLAN Settings

    Knowledge

    • Identify types of VLANs and PVLANs

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010691

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

    Skills and Abilities

    • Determine use cases for and configure VLAN Trunking

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004252 VLAN trunking example and reasons of why you would do/use it

    • Determine use cases for and configure PVLANs

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010691This gives a great overview of PVLANS and what each setting would be used for.

    • Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations

    Covered in Objective 2.1 and will be covered better in Objective 6

     

    Chris Wahl has done a brilliant overview of Private VLANS in his blog posting Understanding vSphere Private VLANs For Fun and Profit and also did a brilliant breakdown of the whole objective in the vBrownbag he did which i would highly recommend

    Gregg


    by 1 Comment

    VCAP5-DCA: Objective 2.1

    This objective has barely changed from the VCAP4-DCA objective. LLDP is new to vSphere 5 as is NetFlow configurations. For this one I’ve spent time practicing in my lab and will be one I’ll also be covering when i rebuild my lab and do the troubleshooting objective (Objective 6)

    Knowledge

    · Identify common virtual switch configurations

    Skills and Abilities

    • Configure SNMP

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008065 vicfg-snmp method via ESXCli

    http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/1688-VCAP-DCA-Prep-Video-Configure-SNMP-for-ESXESXi.html A video by Eric Sloof of how to do it via the vMA which I feel is a much easier method. Just remember to to the –E to enable it which Eric doesn’t show in his video

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vcli.ref.doc_50/vicfg-snmp.html?resultof=%22%76%69%63%66%67%2d%73%6e%6d%70%22%20

    • Determine use cases for and applying VMware DirectPath I/O

    Covered in objective 1.1

    • Migrate a vSS network to a Hybrid or Full vDS solution

    This is all about lab practice firstly

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

    • Configure vSS and vDS settings using command line tools

    This is another that can only be learnt in your lab

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcli.ref.doc_50%2Fvcli-right.html – all the commands you should know for both standard and distributed virtual switching

    • Analyze command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details

    This is another where lab practice is the best way of learning it.

    The above link in the previous bullet point covers all the things you should know how to do. Personally I’m using it to build, change and troubleshoot my networking in the lab as I have experience in the GUI methods already

    • Configure NetFlow

    http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2011/08/vsphere-5-new-networking-features-netflow.html

    • Determine appropriate discovery protocol

    CDP

    LLDP

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc_50%2FGUID-A1B145E9-6454-45C0-8E7E-71E04A3BC9FF.html this covers both and what each provides

    CDP overview in the vSphere Network Troubleshooting How-To lesson in trainsignals http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Troubleshooting-Training.aspx

    Jason Boche has done two posting covering each of the discovery protocols

    http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2011/11/17/link-layer-discovery-protocol-lldp/

    http://www.boche.net/blog/index.php/2011/05/15/cisco-discovery-protocol-cdp-tag-team/

    As I’ve said for Objectives 1.1 and 1.2, the above links are ones I’ve been using in my preparations for the beta exam, for some of the sections I’ve not put any links in as Sean Cookston’s,Ed Grigson’s and Kendrick Coleman’s Blueprint Breaksdowns for the VCAP4 covered them perfectly. This is more about covering the new things i need to learn after having done the VCAP4-DCA exam (twice to be exact)

    Gregg


    by 1 Comment

    VCAP5-DCA Objective 1.3

    Not many differences in this one. For me it was all about refreshing my understanding of the PSA,MPP’s,PSP’s and SATP’s and in what circumstances would I use what command.

    Knowledge

    • Explain the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layout

    Skills and Abilities

    • Install and Configure PSA plug-ins

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf pg164

    • Understand different multipathing policy functionalities

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1011340 A really great VMware kb on it all

    http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/03/19/pluggable-storage-architecture-exploring-the-next-version-of-esxvcenter/ -Really great for getting your head around what to use when, just remember the esxcli commands have changed for vSphere 5

    http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Troubleshooting-Training.aspx vSphere Storage Troubleshooting – Terms, Concepts, & Logs

    • Perform command line configuration of multipathing options

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50%2FGUID-DD2FFAA7-796E-414C-84CE-1FCC14474D5B.html

    • Change a multipath policy

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc_50/GUID-C1358DCD-E4F2-49A5-842D-EDADA1784E9A.html

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017760 <-i really like this one as gives a good overview of the “change” of commands from 4 to 5

    • Configure Software iSCSI port binding

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvD7MDlfh9U this gives a good overview of the steps necessary

    http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-multipathing-configuration-software-iSCSI-port-binding.pdf A VMware technical white paper showing every single step necessary. I read this one twice as this covers it perfectly and seeing as it is a new feature of vSphere 5 to have the new UI interface to support multipathing configuration for the software iSCSI adapter using port binding i think it’s a technique to know for the exam.

    .

    A fairly straight forward objective once i got my head around all the components again.

    Gregg


    by 1 Comment

    VCAP5-DCA Objective 1.2

    Objective 1.2 is almost exactly the same as the VCAP4 blueprint’s and a large portion of the things in here are covered better in the troubleshooting sections in my opinion but for the few things that are different that I made sure I covered, I have listed below. As with Objective 1.1,the below links are ones I’ve been using in my preparations for the beta exam, for some of the sections I’ve not put any links in as Sean Cookston’s,Ed Grigson’s and Kendrick Coleman’s Blueprint Breaksdowns for the VCAP4 covered them perfectly.

    Knowledge

    • Identify storage provisioning methods
    • Identify available storage monitoring tools, metrics and alarms

    Skills and Abilities

    • 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

    http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.0.pdf pg 11,30

    • Apply VMware storage best practices

    http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.0.pdf pg 30

    • Configure Datastore Alarms

    http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-12145

    http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/how-to-make-vcenter-datastore-alarms-useful/

    • Analyze Datastore Alarms and errors to determine space availability
    • Configure Datastore Clusters

    Storage DRS lesson from VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal

    A nice and quick section thankfully, some of the links I used are still related to vSphere 4 but are nice refresher reads Smile

    Gregg


    by 2 Comments

    VCAP5-DCA Objective 1.1

    Seeing as the VCAP5-DCA blueprint is 60-70% the same as the VCAP4, a large portion of the objectives are the same but objective 1.1 has a fair amount of differences due to VMFS 5 coming out, the standardisation of the esxcli command and a number of new features like Profile Based Storage. I think you can never know too much about storage and this one is one I’ve spent a bit more time on due to the new features and methods. Also i need to break old habits of using esxcfg. The below links are ones I’ve been using in my preparations for the beta exam, for some of the sections I’ve not put any links in as Sean Cookston’s,Ed Grigson’s and Kendrick Coleman’s Blueprint Breaksdowns for the VCAP4 covered them perfectly. This is more about covering the new things i need to learn after having done the VCAP4-DCA exam (twice to be exact)

    Objective 1.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Storage Solutions

    Knowledge

    · Identify RAID levels

    · Identify supported HBA types

    · Identify virtual disk format types

    Skills and Abilities

    • Determine use cases for and configure VMware DirectPath I/O
    • Determine requirements for and configure NPIV
    • Determine appropriate RAID level for various Virtual Machine workloads
    • Apply VMware storage best practices

    http://www.vmware.com/pdf/Perf_Best_Practices_vSphere5.0.pdf pg 30

    • Understand use cases for Raw Device Mapping
    • Configure vCenter Server storage filters

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf pg126

    • Understand and apply VMFS resignaturing

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf pg122-123

    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1011387 Now using the esxcli command for ESXi 5

    • Understand and apply LUN masking using PSA-related commands

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009449 <- look carefully at this one as I think there is a nice hint in it by the name of something

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1017760

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vcli.examples.doc_50/cli_advanced_storage.8.2.html

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf pg 166-168

    http://www.punchingclouds.com/?p=965

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vcli.ref.doc_50/esxcli_storage.html

    • Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements

    Understanding vSphere Storage Management from Trainsignals VMware vSphere Performance Monitoring Training

    • Identify and tag SSD devices

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf Pg 143 and 144 and 147

    • Administer hardware acceleration for VAAI

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-4-esxi-installable-vcenter/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.esxi_server_config.doc_41/esx_server_config/managing_storage/c_hardware_acceleration.html

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021976

    http://www.shogan.co.uk/?p=995 From my Xtravirt Colleague Sean Duffy

    • Configure and administer profile-based storage

    http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-storage-guide.pdf pg195

    Policy Driven Storage lesson from VMware vSphere 5 Training course from Trainsignal

    • Prepare storage for maintenance (mounting/un-mounting)

    http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004605 -Covers via vsphere client, command line and automated via PowerCLI

    http://blog.mwpreston.net/vcp-5/vcp-5-objective-3-3-create-and-configure-vmfs-and-nfs-datastores/

    • Upgrade VMware storage infrastructure

    http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2003813

    http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMFS-5_Upgrade_Considerations.pdf

    http://blog.mwpreston.net/vcp-5/vcp-5-objective-3-3-create-and-configure-vmfs-and-nfs-datastores/

    Now to go and practice all the above things in your lab and make sure you know how to do all of them.

    Gregg


    by 2 Comments

    VCAP5-DCA Beta

    As a VMware vExpert working for Xtravirt Limited and a keen contributor to the VCAP communities on the VMware communities ,I received an email from Randy Becraft from VMware confirming my inclusion on the VCAP5-DCA beta exam along with the Blueprint for the exam which should be starting in the coming weeks. Obviously I am under NDA so I can’t divulge too much but Randy has kindly given me permission to blog about the blueprint and what will be required once the exam becomes available to the public.

    The Differences

    The exam is 60-70% the same as the VCAP4 but the main differences are:

    • The exam consists of approximately 26 live lab activities and consists of multiple tasks, where each task is scored. This is down from the 36 there was in the VCAP4-DCA which I think is much better as I blazed through the VCAP4-DCA to try finish enough of the questions in time and made a few mistakes along the way due to this.
    • There are a number of sections and products which are thankfully not part of the exam any more. This is great as these were very uncommon products that were very hard to practice seeing as 98% of people have never used them (although they are gaining prominence recently).The ones that aren’t a part of the exam anymore are:
      • vCenter Server Linked Mode
      • Orchestrator
      • vShield Zones
      • vCenter Heartbeat
    • The exam is obviously based on vSphere 5 and so as you would imagine there are a number of the new features that have been introduced in vSphere 5 that are part of the blueprint like Storage DRS and the new Auto Deploy features to name but two.
    • The recommended courses are also different as with VCAP4-DCA there were four recommended courses aka:

    But with the VCAP5-DCA there are only two recommended courses:

    I do think it’s a shame there aren’t the kinds of courses there were for the VCAP4 as I learnt an unbelievable amount from the courses and will be using Trainsignal videos and the official course notes I received from doing two of the recommended courses to help me prepare for the VCAP5-DCA beta

    The Similarities

    The following things are the same as the VCAP4-DCA:

    • The passing score is still 300 and is scaled. Scaled scores are calculated using a mathematical formula that considers a variety of factors, including the number and type of exam questions included in a specific version of the exam
    • The exam time is still 210 minutes for English speaking countries. Extra time is given for non-English speaking countries the same as they do for the VCP exams.
    • Having your VCP (in this case the VCP5) is a pre-requisite for the exam and you will still need to put in an authorisation request like you did for the VCAP4 before being able to book the exam. If you are a VCAP4-DCA but do not have your VCP5 and pass the VCAP5-DCA exam within the first three months from release of the live exam you will also be awarded your VCP5 credential.
    • You can book the exam via Pearson VUE’s website at http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware. The exam will be in the usual Pearson VUE testing centres that offer VCAP-level exams and there may not be a centre near you offering the exam.
    • The security for the exam is still the enhanced method where they won’t let you take in anything to the exam room even your watch and you will be required to have a photo taken and do a digital signature over and above the normal exam sign in procedures.
    • So as to not repeat what has been done so well, Ed Grigson also got permission from Randy to blog about his inclusion in the beta and has done a brilliant breakdown of the similarities and differences between the blueprints of the VCAP4-DCA and the VCAP5-DCA in his blog posting here

    There has been information about the infrastructure you will be expected to use during the VCAP5 exam, which will be two ESXi hosts and a vCenter server. This is very much like the VCAP4 exam environment but a subtle difference which VCAP4-DCA takers will fully recognise.

    I will be linking to all the resources I’m using for both the VCAP exams on my VCAP5-DCA and DCD resources page and plan to give an NDA limited review of my thoughts of the beta exam and if it was harder/easier or the same as the VCAP4-DCA.

    Good luck to all those people selected to do the beta exam and keep an eye out for my home lab postings in my preparation for the exam.

    Gregg