VCA-DCV VMware Certified Associate on vSphere Study Guide VCAD-510

VCA-DCV VMware Certified Associate on vSphere Study Guide: VCAD-510 is a comprehensive study guide for the VMware Certified Associate – Data Center Virtualization exam. Hands-on examples, real-world scenarios, and expert review questions cover the full exam blueprint, and the companion website offers a suite of tools to help you prepare for the exam including practice exams, electronic flashcards, and a glossary of key terms. In addition, the website includes videos that demonstrate how to complete the more challenging tasks. Focused on practical skills, this study guide not only prepares you for the certification exam, but also for the duties expected of a VCA.

The VMware Certified Associate-Data Center Virtualization certification targets those with limited virtualization and VMware data center technology experience, providing a springboard to the popular VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization certification. Virtualization has become a high priority among organizations, and credentialed professionals are in high demand. This guide helps you prove a certain level of foundational skill in basic virtualization technology, including the vSphere suite's Infrastructure Services, Application Services, and vCenter Server. Topics include:

• Explaining data center virtualization concepts
• Identifying the core components of vSphere
• Networking and storage planning/configuration with vSphere
• Correlating VMware solutions to common business challenges

The VCA-DCV certification is the only one with no instructor-led training requirement, so a thorough study guide is an invaluable tool in you exam preparation. This book not only covers the full exam, but also provides practice designed to actually improve the skills used every day on the job. VCA-DCV VMware Certified Associate on vSphere Study Guide is more than just test prep—it's job prep.

Dane Charlton, VMware Certified Professional (VCP 2.5, 3, 4, 5), has over 25 years of experience working with information technology for small and large companies. For the last 15 years he's been supporting virtualization efforts along with large messaging environments.

Introduction xv

Assessment Test xxi

Chapter 1 Intro to Virtualization 1

What Is Data Center Virtualization? 2

Virtualization Then and Now 3

Physical and Virtual Data Center Components 4

Physical Data Center Components 4

Virtual Data Center Components 5

Physical and Virtual Component Differences 7

Benefits of Using Virtualization 9

Online Tools 13

Summary 14

Exam Essentials 15

Review Questions 16

Chapter 2 VMware Solutions 21

Availability Challenges 22

VMware Availability Products and Technologies 23

Management Challenges 27

VMware Management Products and Technologies 27

Scalability Challenges 28

VMware Scalability Products and Technologies 29

Optimization Challenges 31

VMware Optimization Products and Technologies 32

Summary 36

Exam Essentials 37

Review Questions 39

Chapter 3 vSphere Core Components 43

Virtual Machines 44

What Is a Virtual Machine, Anyway? 44

What Can You Do with Virtual Machines? 45

ESXi Hypervisor 47

vCenter Server 47

vMotion 48

Distributed Resource Scheduler 49

Distributed Power Management 49

Storage vMotion 50

Storage DRS 50

vSphere Data Protection 51

High�]Availability Configuration 51

Fault Tolerance 52

vSphere Replication 52

Migration 53

High Availability 54

Host HA 55

Virtual Machine HA 56

Applications HA 57

Fault Tolerance 57

Clusters and Resource Pools 58

Clusters 58

Resource Pools 59

Other VMware Data Center Products 61

vCenter Operations Manager 61

vSphere Data Protection 62

NSX 62

Virtual SAN 62

vCenter Site Recovery Manager 62

Summary 63

Exam Essentials 64

Review Questions 65

Chapter 4 Storage in a VMware Environment 71

Physical vs. Virtual Storage 72

What Is Shared Storage? 73

VMware Storage Types 75

Local Storage 75

Fibre Channel 76

iSCSI 77

Network File System 77

Virtual Machine File System 78

The VMFS vs. the NFS 78

Disk Provisioning 78

Thick Provisioning 79

Thin Provisioning 80

VMware Virtual Storage Technologies 82

Summary 83

Exam Essentials 84

Review Questions 86

Chapter 5 Networking in a VMware Environment 91

Differentiate Physical and Virtual Networking 92

Physical Switches 92

Virtual Switches 94

Differences Between Physical and Virtual Switches 97

Differentiate VMware Virtual Switch Technologies 97

Standard Virtual Switches 98

Distributed Virtual Switches 98

Identify VMware Virtual Switch Components 101

Standard Virtual Switch 101

Distributed Virtual Switch 102

Identify Common Virtual Switch Policies 103

Port Group Policies 103

Distributed Virtual Switch Policies 106

Identify Capabilities of Network I/O Control 108

Summary 113

Exam Essentials 113

Review Questions 115

Chapter 6 Business Challenges Meet VMware Solutions 119

Availability Challenges and Solutions 120

vMotion 121

Storage vMotion 121

Virtual Machine Snapshots 122

High Availability 123

Fault Tolerance 123

vSphere Replication 124

vSphere Data Protection 124

Site Recovery Manager 125

Management Challenges and Solutions 126

Virtual Machines/Physical�]to�]Virtual Conversions 126

vCenter Server 126

vCenter Configuration Manager 127

Optimization Challenges and Solutions 128

vCenter Operations Manager 128

Thin Provisioning 129

Distributed Switches with QoS 130

Distributed Power Management 130

Storage I/O Control 131

vFlash 131

VM Storage Profiles 131

Memory Ballooning 132

Transparent Page Sharing 132

Scalability Challenges and Solutions 133

Virtual Machines 133

Virtual Machine Templates 134

Distributed Resource Scheduler 135

Storage DRS 135

vSphere Storage Appliance 136

Hot Add 136

Distributed Virtual Switches 136

The Differences between SMB and Enterprise Challenges and Solutions 137

Summary 138

Exam Essentials 139

Review Questions 140

Appendices 145

Appendix A Answers to Review Questions 147

Appendix B Online Resources 159

Index 165

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