Curriculum by exam

Every objective of the 14 exam blueprints the Academy covers, mapped to the topic, lab and quiz material that addresses it. Objective numbers are the Academy's own index of each blueprint (section.objective, both 1-based, in the order of content/exam-metadata.json) — not Broadcom's official numbering. Coverage is derived from the quiz banks' objective mapping and their study links; an objective with no mapped question is shown honestly as a gap.

Objective ids are the Academy index (section.objective) used by the quiz banks and the weak-area heatmap, not the official blueprint numbering. Always check the official exam guide. Coverage rule: covered = at least one quiz question and at least one topic or lab link; partial = quiz questions but no resolvable link, or links but fewer than 2 questions; gap = no mapped quiz question.

2V0-17.25 — VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Administrator

Section Quiz31 covered10 partial21 gap

Section 1 — VCF Architecture and Components 12%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Differentiate between VCF Standard and Consolidated deployment architectures and identify minimum host requirements for each	VCF Cluster & Host Requirements Management & Workload Domain Design Cluster Sizing Patterns VCF Architecture Options & Topology Architecture Options Analysis	2	covered
1.2	Describe the VCF 9 hierarchy: Private Cloud → Fleet → Instance → Workload Domain and explain fleet-level vs. instance-level operations	VCF 9.0 Management Hierarchy VCF 9.0 Taxonomy & New Constructs	2	covered
1.3	Identify VCF 9 Management Domain components: SDDC Manager, vCenter, NSX Manager cluster, vSAN datastore, VCF Operations, and VCF Automation	VCF 9.0 Management Domain Components VCF Shutdown & Startup Procedures NSX Management Plane Architecture VCF 5.2 to 9.0 Component Changes Management vs Workload Domain Design VCF 5.2 Component Dependencies	5	covered
1.4	Explain the role of the VCF Installer (replaces Cloud Builder in VCF 9) for day-0 bring-up including the deployment JSON specification	VCF 5.2 to 9.0 Component Changes VCF 9.0 Day-0/Day-1 Deployment Flow Bring-up: 5.2 vs 9.0 Lab	2	covered
1.5	Describe SDDC Manager’s core capabilities: lifecycle management, workload domain orchestration, host commissioning, certificate management, password rotation, and network pool management	Bundles & Depot Configuration SDDC Manager Users, Roles & Identity Fleet Lifecycle Management	2	covered
1.6	Differentiate between the SDDC Manager UI (VCF 5.2) and the VCF Operations Console (VCF 9) as the primary administrative interface	VCF Management Interfaces UI Consolidation in VCF 9.0 Fleet LCM, Certificates & Passwords	2	covered
1.7	Explain the VCF Operations Console’s dual role: Fleet Management (infrastructure operations) and Integrated Monitoring (observability)	Fleet Management & Monitoring Fleet-Level Operations	1	partial
1.8	Compare VCF 9 vs. VCF 5.2 architecture changes including Cloud Builder deprecation, Aria Suite rebranding to VCF Operations/Automation, and SDDC Manager UI absorption	VCF 5.2 Bring-up Sequence VCF 9.0 Component Renaming VCF 5.2 Architecture & Components Management Plane Overview Kubernetes Services on VCF VMware Cloud Foundation Overview	5	covered
1.9	Identify VCF licensing models: subscription-only, VCF vs. VVF feature differences, and vSAN capacity entitlements (1 TiB/core for VCF)	VCF 9.0 Licensing & Subscription Model License Management Lab	3	covered
1.10	Describe VI Workload Domain isolation: dedicated vCenter, NSX deployment options (shared vs. isolated), dedicated vSAN datastore, and independent lifecycle	—	0	gap
1.11	Explain the SDDC Manager REST API endpoints for automated VCF deployments, workload domain creation, upgrade management, and certificate rotation	VCF 5.2 Day-2 Operations	1	partial

Section 2 — vSphere, vSAN, and NSX Administration 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Configure vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS) with uplinks, port groups, LACP, traffic shaping, Network I/O Control (NIOC), and NIC teaming policies	—	0	gap
2.2	Manage ESXi host lifecycle: commissioning in SDDC Manager, maintenance mode data migration options (Full, Ensure Accessibility, No Data Migration), and decommissioning	—	0	gap
2.3	Differentiate vSAN OSA (disk groups with cache/capacity tiers) from vSAN ESA (single NVMe storage pool, no disk groups) and identify hardware requirements for each	vSAN ESA vs OSA Architecture vSAN Storage Design vSAN Acronyms & Terminology vSAN Internals at Scale vSAN Storage Core Concepts	3	covered
2.4	Create and apply vSAN storage policies using SPBM: FTT values, RAID-1 mirroring vs. RAID-5/6 erasure coding, object space reservation, and compression settings	Lab: vSAN Erasure Coding Design vSAN ESA Day-2 Operations vSAN Storage Design VCF Storage Fundamentals Lab: vSAN Cluster with ESA vSAN Storage Core Concepts	3	covered
2.5	Configure vSAN fault domains for rack awareness, stretched clusters with witness appliance, and HCI Mesh for remote datastore mounting	—	0	gap
2.6	Explain vSAN ESA RAID-5 2+1 configuration requiring only 3 hosts vs. OSA RAID-5 requiring 4 hosts, and ESA pre-network compression benefits	Lab: vSAN Erasure Coding Design vSAN ESA vs OSA Architecture	1	partial
2.7	Manage NSX segments, Tier-0 and Tier-1 Gateways, Edge Clusters, and transport zones within VCF workload domains	NSX Edge Cluster Sizing NSX Architecture & Control Plane VCF 5.2 to 9.0 Breaking Changes Edge & Gateway Logical Design T0/T1 Routing Topology Lab Edge Dataplane Performance & DPDK	5	covered
2.8	Configure NSX VPCs (Virtual Private Clouds) with Projects and Transit Gateways for multi-tenant isolation in VCF 9	NSX VPC & Advanced Features (9.0)Lab: VPC Construct in VCF 9.0 VCF 9.0 Networking Changes	4	covered
2.9	Manage vSphere DRS automation levels, migration thresholds, VM-Host affinity/anti-affinity rules, DRS groups, and Proactive HA	VCF Cluster Configuration Defaults esxtop CPU Performance Metrics Performance Analysis with esxtop vSphere Cluster Administration	3	covered
2.10	Configure vSphere HA admission control policies, VM restart priorities, VM Component Protection (VMCP) for PDL/APD, and heartbeat datastores	VCF Cluster Configuration Defaults ESXi Storage Path Troubleshooting HA Design & Admission Control HA Reservation Design Guidance	3	covered
2.11	Explain vSphere 9 changes: vCLS deprecated (replaced by embedded key-value store), Host Profiles deprecated (replaced by JSON-based vSphere Configuration Profiles), ELM deprecated, IWA removed	Identity Sources & Authentication Identity & SSO Changes VCF Identity Management & RBAC	1	partial
2.12	Manage vSAN encryption: data-at-rest (AES-256 with KMS), data-in-transit (TLS 1.2), OSA cluster-level vs. ESA object-level encryption	—	0	gap
2.13	Configure vSAN File Services (NFS v3/v4.1, SMB 3.0) and vSAN iSCSI Target Service for non-VM workloads	—	0	gap

Section 3 — Planning and Design 10%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Evaluate organizational requirements for VCF adoption including hybrid cloud models, scalability targets, and resiliency requirements	NSX Multi-Site Federation Design VCF Architecture & Topology Options NSX Federation Deep Dive Lab: NSX Federation Across Instances Multi-Site Design Patterns	2	covered
3.2	Design scalable VCF environments considering Management Domain sizing (minimum 4 hosts), VI Workload Domain placement, and network pool planning	VCF 9.0 Edge Patterns VCF 5.2 Configuration Maximums Reference Design Blueprints VCF Architecture & Topology Options VCF 5.2 Architecture & Components	5	covered
3.3	Plan network architecture: management, vMotion, vSAN, NSX TEP VLANs, MTU requirements (9000 for vSAN/NSX, 1600 minimum for GENEVE overlay)	NSX Overlay Architecture VCF Network Design & VLANs Overlay Encapsulation & MTU Lab Physical Network Design Decisions Lab: Workload Domains & Network Pools Overlay Segments & Tunnel Endpoints	2	covered
3.4	Plan vSAN storage capacity considering FTT overhead, slack space requirements (25-30% recommended), compression ratios, and growth projections	Lab: vSAN Erasure Coding Design Storage Capacity Sizing Math vSAN Storage Core Concepts Lab: Multi-Domain Design & Sizing VCF Storage Fundamentals Physical Storage Design Decisions	3	covered
3.5	Design identity management strategy: vCenter SSO domain topology, Active Directory LDAP integration, Identity Federation (ADFS, Okta, Entra ID) for VCF 9, and VCF Identity Broker	VCF 5.2 Identity Federation Identity Broker Deployment Options Identity & Federation Management Lab: Identity Broker Integration	3	covered
3.6	Plan EVC mode for clusters with mixed CPU generations and understand impact on VM migration compatibility	—	0	gap
3.7	Design content library strategy: published and subscribed libraries for golden image distribution across workload domain vCenters	—	0	gap
3.8	Plan backup strategy for SDDC Manager database, NSX Manager database, and vCenter configuration using SFTP-based backups	VCF 5.2 Backup & Restore Defaults Lab: VCF Backup & Restore Multi-Instance Fleet Operations	5	covered
3.9	Evaluate trade-offs between cost, performance, and resiliency when choosing OSA vs. ESA, RAID-1 vs. RAID-5/6, and standard vs. consolidated architecture	—	0	gap
3.10	Plan vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) prerequisites: NSX configuration, Avi Load Balancer deployment, Content Library for node OVA templates, and storage policies	Avi Controller Cluster & HA Supervisor Architecture VKS Architecture & Components Avi Architecture & Deployment Supervisor Services & VKS Lab: Deploy Avi Controller HA Cluster	3	covered

Section 4 — Deploy, Configure, and Operate VCF 36%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Perform VCF 9 day-0 bring-up using VCF Installer: prepare the deployment JSON specification with host networking, DNS, NTP, and credential configuration	—	0	gap
4.2	Commission and decommission ESXi hosts in SDDC Manager: validate DNS forward/reverse records, NTP sync, SSH reachability, and hardware compatibility	Host Commissioning Lifecycle Lab VCF Compute & Host Commissioning Workload Domains & Network Pools	1	partial
4.3	Deploy VI Workload Domains using SDDC Manager: create network pools, select NSX deployment option, configure vSAN architecture, and monitor deployment workflow	—	0	gap
4.4	Add and remove clusters from existing workload domains and scale clusters by adding or removing ESXi hosts	—	0	gap
4.5	Perform LCM upgrades in the correct dependency order: SDDC Manager → Aria Suite Lifecycle → NSX → vCenter → ESXi/vSAN (VCF 5.2 management-domain order; Aria Suite Lifecycle is upgraded manually), and use pre-check validations before initiating upgrades	VCF 5.2 LCM Prechecks VCF 5.x to 9.0 Upgrade Sequence vCenter Patching & Upgrade Modes Aria to VCF 9.0 Component Renaming VCF Upgrade Phases & Components Fleet Lifecycle Management	16	covered
4.6	Manage certificates using SDDC Manager: connect to Microsoft CA or OpenSSL, generate CSRs, replace certificates for vCenter, NSX Manager, and SDDC Manager, and configure auto-renewal in VCF 9	Certificate Management & CA Integration Certificates & Password Management Certificate Lifecycle Operations Certificate Rotation Lab	3	covered
4.7	Configure password management: rotate passwords for vCenter, NSX, ESXi root, and SDDC Manager service accounts using the encrypted credential vault	VCF 5.2 Password Operations Certificates & Password Management Identity & Password Management Lab: Password & Secrets Management	3	covered
4.8	Configure VCF Operations for monitoring: deploy dashboards, configure alerts, integrate VCF Operations for Logs, and set up VCF Operations for Networks	Multi-Site & Witness Design Patterns VCF Operations KPIs & Reporting VCF 9.0 Deployment Models VCF Operations Cluster Architecture	3	covered
4.9	Configure VCF Automation for self-service: deploy catalog items, configure cloud accounts, create blueprints/templates, and manage tenant projects	VCF 9.0 Deployment Models VCF Automation Organization Types VCF Automation Fundamentals Automation Multi-Tenancy Architecture Consumption & Tenant Design Service Broker Catalog Design	5	covered
4.10	Manage vLCM Images for cluster patching: define cluster images with ESXi base image, vendor add-ons, firmware add-ons, and Hardware Support Manager integration	vSphere Lifecycle Manager Models vLCM Baselines to Images Transition VCF Host Lifecycle Basics vLCM Cluster Image Lab vLCM Cluster Image Management	2	covered
4.11	Configure VM storage policies and validate policy compliance using vSAN health checks and SDDC Manager dashboards	—	0	gap
4.12	Perform brownfield import of existing vSphere environments as VCF workload domains using SDDC Manager API	Brownfield vSphere-to-VCF Adoption VCF 5.x to 9.0 Upgrade & Conversion VCF Upgrade & vSphere Conversion Lab: Converting vSphere to VCF	2	covered
4.13	Configure vSphere resource pools with shares, reservations, and limits for workload prioritization within clusters	—	0	gap
4.14	Manage vMotion, Storage vMotion, and Cross-vCenter vMotion operations including encrypted vMotion configuration	—	0	gap
4.15	Configure NSX Distributed Firewall rules and Gateway Firewall policies for workload security within VCF	Distributed Firewall Deep Dive DFW Rule Engine Internals DFW Realization & Enforcement Lab DFW Security Policy Lab	2	covered

Section 5 — Troubleshooting 24%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Troubleshoot VCF Installer (day-0) bring-up failures: DNS resolution errors, NTP drift, network connectivity issues, and JSON specification validation errors	—	0	gap
5.2	Troubleshoot SDDC Manager host commissioning failures: SSH connectivity, DNS forward/reverse lookup mismatches, hardware compatibility list (HCL) violations, and NTP synchronization	—	0	gap
5.3	Troubleshoot workload domain deployment failures: vCenter OVA deployment errors, vSAN datastore creation failures, NSX host preparation failures, and mid-workflow retry procedures	VCF Log Locations & Diagnostics VCF Lifecycle Troubleshooting Deployment Failure Troubleshooting Lab	1	partial
5.4	Troubleshoot LCM upgrade failures: pre-check validation errors, version compatibility issues, upgrade sequence violations, and rollback procedures	LCM Bundle & Upgrade Failures Bundle Management & Availability Upgrade Troubleshooting Scenario	1	partial
5.5	Troubleshoot vSAN health issues: disk balance warnings, component limit alerts, resync operations, degraded objects, and vSAN HCL database updates	esxtop Storage Latency Metrics Advanced esxtop Performance Analysis	2	covered
5.6	Troubleshoot NSX connectivity issues: TEP communication failures, overlay segment reachability, BGP/OSPF neighbor establishment, and Edge cluster failover	NSX Troubleshooting Tools Traceflow & IPFIX Lab	1	partial
5.7	Troubleshoot certificate management failures: CA connectivity issues, expired certificates, CSR generation errors, and certificate chain validation	SDDC Manager Component Connectivity VCF Lifecycle Troubleshooting Scenarios	1	partial
5.8	Troubleshoot password rotation failures: credential vault synchronization issues, service account lockouts, and dependent component password mismatches	—	0	gap
5.9	Use VCF Operations for Logs to aggregate and analyze log data: create custom dashboards, configure alerts, and generate SOS diagnostic bundles	SoS Utility Deep Dive VCF Operations Adapter Troubleshooting SoS, Log Bundles & API Diagnostics SoS Diagnostics Lab VCF Operations & Logs Troubleshooting VCF Log File Locations	4	covered
5.10	Troubleshoot vSphere HA split-brain scenarios: management network partitions, datastore heartbeat failures, and admission control violations	—	0	gap
5.11	Troubleshoot VDS networking issues: uplink failures, port group misconfiguration, MTU mismatches, LACP negotiation failures, and NIOC contention	—	0	gap
5.12	Identify log file locations for key VCF components: SDDC Manager (/var/log/vmware/vcf/), vCenter (/var/log/vmware/), NSX Manager (/var/log/), and ESXi (/var/log/)	ESXi Log File Locations Collect Support Bundle & Analyze Logs	1	partial
5.13	Troubleshoot vMotion failures: CPU incompatibility (EVC mode mismatch), network bandwidth saturation, encrypted vMotion AES-NI requirements, and storage accessibility	—	0	gap

2V0-13.25 — VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Architect

Section Quiz16 covered19 partial18 gap

Section 1 — Architecture Design Methodology 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Differentiate between business requirements (what the organization needs to achieve) and technical requirements (how technology will meet those needs)	—	0	gap
1.2	Differentiate between a Conceptual Model (high-level business-aligned view), Logical Design (technology-specific but hardware-independent), and Physical Design (specific products, versions, quantities, and configurations)	Conceptual, Logical & Physical Layers Logical Design Decisions Physical Design Decisions	2	covered
1.3	Differentiate between requirements (mandatory conditions), assumptions (believed-true statements), constraints (limitations on the design), and risks (potential negative outcomes)	RCAR: Requirements & Constraints RCAR Framework Mastery Business Requirements Analysis RCAR Documentation Practice	2	covered
1.4	Apply the AMPRS framework: Availability (uptime SLAs), Manageability (operational complexity), Performance (throughput, latency, IOPS), Recoverability (RPO/RTO), Security (compliance, access control)	AMPRS Design Qualities Recoverability Design (RPO/RTO)Availability Design & SLAs	2	covered
1.5	Develop and document a risk mitigation strategy that maps identified risks to specific design decisions and countermeasures	Risk Handling & Documentation Risk Register Practices	1	partial
1.6	Document design decisions with established relationships to requirements, including justification, implications (positive and negative), and alternatives considered	Design Decision Record Template VCF Design Methodology Objectives	1	partial
1.7	Develop a design validation strategy that verifies the implemented solution meets all documented requirements through testing and acceptance criteria	Design Validation & Traceability Validation Strategy in RCAR	1	partial
1.8	Evaluate trade-offs between conflicting AMPRS qualities (e.g., maximum availability vs. cost constraint, security isolation vs. manageability simplicity)	AMPRS Trade-off Analysis Cluster Design Patterns	1	partial
1.9	Create design documentation artifacts: requirements matrices, design decision logs, risk registers, and validation checklists	—	0	gap
1.10	Apply industry-standard design methodologies to VCF solution architecture including TOGAF principles, capacity planning frameworks, and ITIL-aligned operational design	—	0	gap

Section 2 — VCF Infrastructure and Fleet Design 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Differentiate between VCF architecture options: Standard (separate management and workload hosts) vs. Consolidated (shared hosts) and identify use cases for each	VCF 5.2 Architecture Models Workload Domain Boundary Strategy VCF 5.2 Architecture & Components Logical Design Decisions Multi-Workload Domain Design	2	covered
2.2	Design VCF Fleet topologies for single-site, multi-site, and multi-region deployments considering latency, bandwidth, and regulatory requirements	Multi-Site Topology Choices The VCF Fleet Concept VCF Architecture & Topology Options	1	partial
2.3	Design Management Domain sizing: host count (minimum 4 for FTT=1), vCenter sizing (Tiny/Small/Medium/Large/X-Large based on managed objects), NSX Manager cluster resources, and SDDC Manager requirements	VCF 5.2 Bring-up Cluster Minimums Cloud Builder Appliance Management Domain Sizing Overcommit Design Reminders Domain Host Minimums	7	covered
2.4	Design VI Workload Domain placement strategy: number of domains, cluster sizing, NSX deployment model (shared vs. isolated), and vSAN architecture selection (OSA vs. ESA)	Management vs Workload Domains Shared vs Dedicated NSX Manager 5.2 Appliance Sizing Blueprints Multi-Workload Domain Design	2	covered
2.5	Design decisions for VCF Fleet topology — Logical Design: fleet boundaries, instance grouping by geography or business unit, VCF Operations placement for fleet-wide monitoring	The VCF Fleet Concept VCF 9.0 Fleet Lifecycle Management Multi-Instance Fleet Operations	1	partial
2.6	Design decisions for VCF Fleet topology — Physical Design: specific hardware models, rack layouts, power distribution, network cabling, and ToR switch configurations	—	0	gap
2.7	Design decisions for VCF Management Domain — Logical Design: SSO domain topology, identity source integration, management network segmentation, and backup strategy	—	0	gap
2.8	Design decisions for VCF Management Domain — Physical Design: server specifications, NIC configuration, storage device selection, and firmware versions aligned to VCF BOM	Logical vs Physical Decisions Physical Design Decisions	1	partial
2.9	Design decisions for VCF Workload Domain — Logical Design: cluster boundaries, resource pool hierarchy, content library strategy, and VM storage policy framework	—	0	gap
2.10	Design decisions for VCF Workload Domain — Physical Design: host hardware specifications, drive count and type for vSAN, network adapter speeds, and GPU/DPU requirements for specialized workloads	—	0	gap
2.11	Design for Scalability: horizontal scaling (adding hosts/clusters/domains), vertical scaling considerations, and maximum configuration limits	VCF 5.2 Configuration Maximums Scalability & Cluster Sizing Limits Workload Domain Scale in 5.2 Cluster Design Patterns	3	covered
2.12	Design for Capacity Management: proactive capacity planning using VCF Operations forecasting, buffer capacity allocation, and capacity reclamation strategies	—	0	gap

Section 3 — Network and Storage Design 30%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Design network infrastructure — Logical Design: VLAN segmentation (management, vMotion, vSAN, NSX TEP, VM network), MTU strategy (9000 for storage/overlay, 1600+ minimum for GENEVE), and IP addressing plan	VCF 5.2 Network Requirements & MTU VCF 5.2 Design Requirement IDs TEP & MTU Validation NSX Architecture Deep Dive	2	covered
3.2	Design network infrastructure — Physical Design: ToR switch selection, uplink speeds (25/100 GbE), LAG/LACP configuration, spine-leaf topology, and out-of-band management network	vDS Profile Choice at Bring-up Host NIC & Uplink Requirements Network Design Fundamentals 5.2 vDS Profile Options Physical Network Design	3	covered
3.3	Design NSX networking — Logical Design: transport zone topology, segment design, Tier-0/Tier-1 gateway hierarchy, NSX VPC construct for multi-tenancy, and Edge cluster sizing	—	0	gap
3.4	Design NSX networking — Physical Design: Edge Node placement (VM vs. bare-metal), Edge cluster HA mode (active-active ECMP vs. active-standby), and BGP/OSPF peering with physical infrastructure	VCF 5.2 BGP Requirements Tier-0 Gateway Modes 5.2 Network Design Requirements BGP & ECMP Routing T0/T1 Routing Topology Lab NSX Edge Cluster Deployment Lab	3	covered
3.5	Design vSAN storage solutions: OSA vs. ESA selection criteria, drive count and type per host, fault domain configuration for rack awareness, stretched cluster topology for multi-site, and HCI Mesh for disaggregated storage	vSAN ESA vs OSA Stretched Cluster Requirements vSAN Transport & RDT 5.2 Stretched Cluster Latency Limits VCF Storage Fundamentals Multi-AZ Prerequisites	6	covered
3.6	Design storage policy framework: tiered policies (Gold/Silver/Bronze) mapping to FTT, FTM, compression, and encryption settings aligned with workload SLA requirements	—	0	gap
3.7	Design for vSAN capacity: calculate raw-to-usable ratios considering FTT overhead, slack space (25-30%), metadata overhead, and compression ratios	vSAN Capacity Calculation vSAN Storage Policies & Overhead Mathematical Sizing Walkthrough vSAN Storage Design Practice	2	covered
3.8	Design supplemental storage integration: NFS v3/v4.1, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and NVMe-oF as workload domain principal or supplemental storage	Principal vs Supplemental Storage VCF 5.2 Storage Options	1	partial
3.9	Design NSX multi-tenancy with Projects, VPCs, and Transit Gateways for tenant isolation while maintaining shared services access	NSX Projects & VPC Multi-Tenancy VPC Construct Lab	1	partial
3.10	Design NSX security zones: Distributed Firewall micro-segmentation, Gateway Firewall perimeter security, and vDefend integration for advanced threat protection	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Availability, Recoverability, and Security Design 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Design for availability within a single availability zone: vSphere HA (admission control, restart priorities), DRS (resource balancing, anti-affinity rules), and vSAN FTT policies	HA Admission Control Policies HA Admission Control Validation Compute & Cluster Design	1	partial
4.2	Design for availability across availability zones: vSAN stretched clusters (dual data sites + witness), NSX multi-site design, and cross-site vMotion requirements	Witness Placement Patterns NSX Federation Architecture vSAN Stretched Cluster Storage Design Global Manager & Local Managers Fault Domains & Witness Stretched Cluster Design Lab	3	covered
4.3	Differentiate between BCDR strategies for management components (SDDC Manager backup/restore, vCenter backup, NSX Manager backup) and workloads (VM-level backup, replication, snapshots)	VCF Backup Strategy Management Domain Recovery VCF Backup & Restore Lab	1	partial
4.4	Design for Business Continuity: RPO/RTO targets mapping to protection mechanisms, active-active vs. active-passive site configurations, and automated failover workflows	—	0	gap
4.5	Design for Disaster Recovery: VCF-native DR using vSAN snapshot replication, third-party backup integration, HCX for workload mobility, and site recovery orchestration	DR Tiers & Site Recovery NSX Federation for Multi-Site Disaster Recovery Design Lab	1	partial
4.6	Design decisions for securing VCF Management Components: certificate management strategy, password rotation policy, identity federation configuration, and administrative access controls	—	0	gap
4.7	Design decisions for securing VCF Workloads: NSX micro-segmentation, VM encryption (vSAN encryption, VM-level encryption), vTPM for guest OS security, and compliance scanning	—	0	gap
4.8	Design VCF Identity Broker strategy for centralized authentication across fleet using SAML 2.0/OIDC with external identity providers	Identity & SSO Logical Design Identity & Certificate Management Identity Design Personas	1	partial
4.9	Design for compliance: map regulatory requirements (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2) to VCF security controls including encryption, access logging, network segmentation, and audit trails	Compliance-Driven Security Design DFW Micro-Segmentation Zero-Trust Migration Playbook	1	partial
4.10	Design for zero-trust networking: never-trust-always-verify approach using NSX Distributed Firewall rules applied at the vNIC level with application-aware policies	Distributed Firewall Deep Dive Zero-Trust Security Architecture Zero-Trust DFW Design Lab DFW Realization & Enforcement Lab	2	covered

Section 5 — Operations, Automation, and Migration Design 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Design for Lifecycle Management: upgrade planning across fleet instances, maintenance windows, rolling upgrade strategy, and compatibility matrix validation	VCF Upgrade Sequencing Fleet Lifecycle Management Upgrade Path Planning	1	partial
5.2	Design VCF Automation tenant architecture: organization structure, project boundaries, cloud account configuration, and approval workflow policies	Automation Multi-Tenancy Model VCF Automation Constructs Multi-Tenant Project Lab	1	partial
5.3	Design for Self-Service and Governance: catalog item design, entitlement policies, resource quotas, lease management, and cost allocation/chargeback	—	0	gap
5.4	Design decisions for automating VCF infrastructure components: Infrastructure-as-Code templates, API-driven workflows, and CI/CD pipeline integration with SDDC Manager API	Infrastructure-as-Code with VCF Automation Manageability & Operations at Scale Consumption Strategy Design VCF Automation API Standardization & Drift Control	2	covered
5.5	Design decisions for supporting Modern Applications: vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) Supervisor cluster design, namespace resource allocation, storage class mapping, and network policy design	VKS Architecture & Components Supervisor Architecture Deep Dive Modern Apps Design on VCF	1	partial
5.6	Design monitoring strategy for VCF management components: VCF Operations dashboard layout, alert severity framework, escalation procedures, and SLA reporting	—	0	gap
5.7	Design monitoring strategy for VCF workloads: application-level monitoring, custom metrics collection, log aggregation with VCF Operations for Logs, and network traffic analysis with VCF Operations for Networks	—	0	gap
5.8	Design a workload migration/onboarding strategy: HCX migration types (bulk, vMotion, replication-assisted), brownfield import via SDDC Manager, and V2V conversion procedures	HCX Migration Types L2 Stretch & VPN Options Brownfield vSphere Adoption HCX Workload Mobility Lab	3	covered
5.9	Design VCF Operations deployment: sizing for fleet-wide monitoring, retention policies for metrics and logs, remote collector placement for multi-site, and integration with third-party tools (ServiceNow, Splunk)	VCF Operations Node Roles Operations Deployment Architecture	1	partial
5.10	Design capacity forecasting models: predict resource demand using VCF Operations trend analysis, plan procurement cycles, and set automated alerts for capacity thresholds	Capacity Planning & Forecasting Capacity Management Concepts Capacity Planning Analysis Lab	1	partial
5.11	Design cost management framework: cost drivers mapped to business units, showback/chargeback models, and optimization recommendations from VCF Operations	—	0	gap

2V0-15.25 — VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Support

Section Quiz14 covered18 partial27 gap

Section 1 — Troubleshooting Methodology and Tools 10%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Apply a structured troubleshooting methodology: identify symptoms, collect data, formulate hypothesis, test hypothesis, implement fix, verify resolution, and document root cause	Structured troubleshooting framework Layered isolation methodology	1	partial
1.2	Identify log file locations for all VCF components: SDDC Manager (/var/log/vmware/vcf/), vCenter (/var/log/vmware/), NSX Manager (/var/log/), ESXi (/var/log/), VCF Operations appliance logs	VCF component log locations Where VCF logs live	1	partial
1.3	Generate and interpret SOS diagnostic bundles using the SDDC Manager CLI: python /opt/vmware/sddc-support/sos with flags for domain scope, health checks, and log collection	SoS utility syntax and options Practice: SoS diagnostics lab Log collection with SoS VCF credential store behavior	3	covered
1.4	Use VCF Operations for Logs to aggregate, search, filter, and correlate log entries across all VCF components for root cause analysis	Centralized logging and log search Intelligent logging and analytics Practice: Ops for Logs syslog	1	partial
1.5	Use the VCF Operations Observability Workbench to create custom diagnostic views combining metrics, logs, and topology for complex issue analysis	—	0	gap
1.6	Generate log bundles for individual components: vCenter support bundle, NSX support bundle, ESXi vm-support log bundle, and upload via Log Assist for Broadcom support cases	—	0	gap
1.7	Create custom dashboards, reports, and alerts in VCF Operations to proactively identify issues before they cause outages	—	0	gap
1.8	Use esxcli, vmkping, vmkfstools, and other ESXi CLI tools for host-level troubleshooting of network, storage, and configuration issues	Jumbo frame and MTU validation Practice: VDS health and MTU vSAN network health checks	1	partial
1.9	Interpret vSAN health check results and map failures to specific remediation procedures using VMware KB articles	—	0	gap
1.10	Use NSX CLI tools (get logical-switch, get edge-cluster status, get firewall rules) and Central CLI for distributed troubleshooting across transport nodes	NSX CLI diagnostics from Manager NSX troubleshooting tooling nsxcli command reference	1	partial
1.11	Understand escalation procedures: when to engage Broadcom support, required information for support cases (SOS bundle, component versions, error messages, timeline)	Support case preparation checklist Evidence for LCM upgrade failures Practice: Broadcom case management Diagnostic bundle collection Practice: upgrade failure remediation	2	covered

Section 2 — vSphere and Compute Troubleshooting 22%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Troubleshoot ESXi host connectivity issues: management network failures, hostd service crashes, vpxa agent disconnects, and purple screen of death (PSOD) analysis using vmkernel.log	ESXi log file map PSOD decoding and core dumps ESXi host diagnostics ESXi host issue triage	2	covered
2.2	Troubleshoot vCenter Server issues: service startup failures (vpxd, vsan-health, sps), database corruption, certificate expiration, and SSO authentication failures	vCenter services and their logs VCSA database and disk issues Practice: vCenter service recovery	2	covered
2.3	Troubleshoot VM issues: VM fails to power on (resource constraints, storage connectivity, snapshot consolidation needed), VM performance degradation (CPU ready time, memory ballooning, swapping), and VMware Tools connectivity	—	0	gap
2.4	Troubleshoot vSphere cluster configuration issues: DRS rule conflicts, HA failover failures (admission control violations, split-brain), EVC mode incompatibility, and vCLS agent VM health (vSphere 8) or key-value store issues (vSphere 9)	vCLS in vSphere 9 HA isolation settings and heartbeat design Availability design for HA	2	covered
2.5	Troubleshoot vMotion failures: CPU incompatibility (EVC mode mismatch between source and destination), network bandwidth saturation, encrypted vMotion AES-NI requirements, and storage accessibility issues	vMotion failure diagnostics ESXi host and CPU compatibility	2	covered
2.6	Troubleshoot vLCM remediation failures: host fails to enter maintenance mode (DRS cannot evacuate VMs), image push failures, firmware update failures via Hardware Support Manager, and post-reboot compliance mismatches	Maintenance-mode and evacuation blockers Practice: vLCM staged remediation vLCM remediation workflow	1	partial
2.7	Analyze ESXi log files: vmkernel.log (kernel events, storage errors, network errors), hostd.log (host management operations), vpxa.log (vCenter agent communication), and vobd.log (hardware health alerts)	—	0	gap
2.8	Troubleshoot VM snapshot issues: consolidation failures due to locked VMDK files, snapshot chain exceeding recommended depth, and orphaned delta disks consuming datastore space	—	0	gap
2.9	Troubleshoot ESXi host performance: use esxtop to identify CPU contention (%RDY > 10%), memory pressure (balloon/swap activity), storage latency (DAVG > 20ms), and network dropped packets	esxtop CPU metric interpretation esxtop column reference Practice: esxtop performance analysis	1	partial
2.10	Troubleshoot vSphere Configuration Profile drift: identify hosts not compliant with the cluster desired-state JSON profile, remediate non-compliant settings, and resolve profile application failures	—	0	gap
2.11	Troubleshoot identity and authentication: SSO service failures, expired SAML tokens, Identity Federation configuration errors, and AD LDAP connectivity issues	—	0	gap

Section 3 — vSAN Storage Troubleshooting 22%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Troubleshoot vSAN datastore creation failures: ineligible disks (wrong controller mode, HCL violations), insufficient hosts for selected FTT/FTM policy, and VMkernel adapter connectivity issues	—	0	gap
3.2	Troubleshoot vSAN health check failures: hardware compatibility warnings (firmware mismatch), network MTU inconsistency, disk balance degradation, component limit warnings, and resync health issues	vSAN network health categories MTU consistency troubleshooting Network health thresholds Practice: vSAN health checks Practice: network issue diagnosis	2	covered
3.3	Troubleshoot degraded vSAN objects: identify objects with reduced redundancy, understand the impact of absent/degraded components, and monitor resync progress for automatic repair	—	0	gap
3.4	Troubleshoot vSAN stretched cluster issues: witness connectivity failures, site partition behavior (which site continues, which pauses), cross-site replication latency exceeding 5ms threshold, and site affinity misconfigurations	Stretched cluster and witness behavior Multi-site vSAN patterns Practice: stretched cluster design	1	partial
3.5	Troubleshoot vSAN supplemental storage: iSCSI connectivity failures (initiator configuration, target discovery), NFS mount failures (export permissions, network reachability), and FC path management issues	—	0	gap
3.6	Troubleshoot vSAN performance: use vSAN Performance Service to identify high-latency disk groups or hosts, diagnose congestion (vSAN DOM congestion threshold), and identify VMs with non-compliant storage policies causing performance degradation	—	0	gap
3.7	Troubleshoot vSAN disk failures: identify failed or degraded disks in Disk Management, understand disk group rebuild behavior (OSA: entire group rebuilt if cache fails), and perform disk replacement procedures	Disk and cache device failure behavior Disk group failure handling Practice: vSAN disk failure recovery	1	partial
3.8	Troubleshoot vSAN encryption issues: KMS connectivity failures, key rotation errors, and encryption state mismatches between policy and actual object encryption	—	0	gap
3.9	Troubleshoot vSAN capacity issues: cluster approaching full (>80% used triggers warning, >95% triggers critical), identify largest consumers using vSAN capacity analytics, and perform space reclamation (delete snapshots, storage vMotion VMs to other datastores)	vSAN capacity thresholds and response vSAN ESA day-2 operations Capacity warning remediation Practice: vSAN capacity emergency Practice: ESA capacity impact analysis	2	covered
3.10	Use vSAN CLI tools for diagnostics: esxcli vsan health cluster list, esxcli vsan storage list, vsan-trace for performance analysis, and cmmds-tool for Cluster Monitoring Membership and Directory Service inspection	vSAN health CLI commands CMMDS inspection tooling vSAN log file locations esxcli vSAN command reference ESXi and vSAN log map Practice: vSAN failure scenarios	4	covered
3.11	Troubleshoot vSAN File Services issues: file service VM deployment failures, NFS/SMB share access errors, and file service networking configuration problems	—	0	gap

Section 4 — NSX Networking Troubleshooting 22%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Troubleshoot VDS (vSphere Distributed Switch) issues: uplink failures, port group misconfiguration, MTU mismatches between VDS and physical switches, LACP negotiation failures, and NIOC traffic classification errors	—	0	gap
4.2	Troubleshoot NSX configuration issues: NSX Manager cluster health (split-brain, node failures), transport node preparation failures, and NSX Controller connectivity errors	NSX Manager log locations Host data-plane and transport node checks NSX control-plane diagnostics Practice: NSX connectivity troubleshooting	3	covered
4.3	Troubleshoot NSX routing issues: Tier-0 BGP neighbor establishment failures (AS mismatch, IP reachability), OSPF adjacency issues, static route blackholes, and route redistribution misconfiguration	BGP neighbor state troubleshooting BGP peering fundamentals Practice: BGP convergence on Edges	2	covered
4.4	Troubleshoot NSX Gateway issues: Edge Node failures, Edge cluster failover behavior (active-standby vs. ECMP active-active), NAT translation failures, and gateway service (DHCP, DNS, VPN) operational issues	—	0	gap
4.5	Troubleshoot NSX services: DHCP relay/server configuration errors, DNS forwarding issues, IPSec VPN tunnel establishment failures (IKE phase 1/2 negotiation), and L2 VPN connectivity issues	IPSec VPN negotiation parameters	1	partial
4.6	Troubleshoot NSX VPC issues: VPC creation failures, Transit Gateway routing errors, inter-VPC connectivity problems, and VPC-level firewall policy conflicts	—	0	gap
4.7	Troubleshoot NSX overlay connectivity: TEP (Tunnel Endpoint) communication failures between hosts, GENEVE encapsulation issues, BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) failures between TEPs, and overlay segment reachability	TEP connectivity and overlay MTU Practice: Geneve MTU validation Overlay encapsulation fundamentals Practice: verify tunnel endpoints	2	covered
4.8	Troubleshoot NSX Distributed Firewall: rule hit analysis, rule ordering issues (first-match processing), applied-to scope misconfiguration, and DFW performance impact on data plane latency	DFW rule scope and enforcement DFW rule evaluation internals Practice: DFW rule debugging	1	partial
4.9	Use NSX troubleshooting tools: NSX Manager UI (Traceflow for packet path analysis, Live Traffic Analysis), NSX CLI (get logical-switch, get interfaces, get route), and Central CLI for distributed troubleshooting	NSX path-tracing tools Practice: Traceflow and IPFIX Practice: DFW debugging with Traceflow	1	partial
4.10	Troubleshoot NSX transport zone issues: hosts not joined to transport zones, VTEP IP allocation failures from IP pools, and mixed overlay/VLAN transport zone configuration errors	—	0	gap
4.11	Troubleshoot NSX backup and restore: backup job failures, restore prerequisites validation, and post-restore connectivity verification	—	0	gap

Section 5 — VCF Operations and Platform Troubleshooting 24%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Troubleshoot VCF fleet deployment issues: VCF Installer failures (JSON validation errors, network connectivity, DNS resolution), and scaling a fleet by adding/removing VCF Instances	Bring-up pre-flight validation DNS checks during commissioning Practice: deployment failure triage	1	partial
5.2	Troubleshoot VCF 5.x to 9.0 upgrade: pre-upgrade compatibility checks, Aria to VCF Operations migration issues, SDDC Manager upgrade failures, and post-upgrade validation procedures	Bundle download and depot connectivity Depot and proxy troubleshooting Online vs offline depot model	1	partial
5.3	Troubleshoot vSphere to VCF 9.0 conversion: brownfield import prerequisites, workload domain import failures, and post-conversion configuration validation	Brownfield import prerequisites vSphere-to-VCF conversion requirements Practice: brownfield conversion	1	partial
5.4	Troubleshoot VCF workload domain creation failures: vCenter OVA deployment errors, vSAN cluster creation failures, NSX host preparation errors, and network pool IP exhaustion	Failed task analysis Network pools and workload domains LCM task retry workflow Workload domain prerequisites Practice: workload domain provisioning Practice: VCF API task diagnostics	2	covered
5.5	Troubleshoot workload domain scaling: adding/removing clusters, adding/removing hosts (commissioning failures, decommissioning data migration), and cluster stretch/unstretch operations	—	0	gap
5.6	Troubleshoot certificate management: certificate replacement failures, auto-renewal failures in VCF 9, CA configuration errors, external certificate import issues, and CSR generation errors	VCF certificate management architecture Practice: certificate rotation Certificate-related lifecycle failures	2	covered
5.7	Troubleshoot password management: credential rotation failures, service account lockouts after rotation, and credential vault synchronization errors between SDDC Manager and managed components	SDDC Manager task log locations Password rotation architecture Practice: VCF Password Manager	1	partial
5.8	Troubleshoot VCF Identity Broker: SAML/OIDC federation configuration errors, token validation failures, identity provider connectivity issues, and user role mapping problems	—	0	gap
5.9	Troubleshoot VCF Operations configuration: adapter connectivity issues, data collection failures, dashboard rendering errors, and alert notification delivery failures	VCF Operations adapter and collection issues VCF Operations data collection Practice: Ops adapter troubleshooting	1	partial
5.10	Troubleshoot using VCF Operations for Logs: log source configuration issues, log parsing errors, missing log data, and query performance optimization	—	0	gap
5.11	Troubleshoot using VCF Operations for Networks: flow collection issues, topology discovery errors, and network path analysis failures	—	0	gap
5.12	Troubleshoot license management: license assignment failures, license entitlement validation errors, and license expiration handling	—	0	gap
5.13	Troubleshoot VCF Automation configuration: cloud account connectivity failures, blueprint deployment errors, and tenant provisioning issues	—	0	gap
5.14	Troubleshoot Supervisor/VKS issues: Supervisor enablement failures, namespace creation errors, VKS cluster provisioning failures, and storage class/network configuration issues for Kubernetes workloads	—	0	gap
5.15	Troubleshoot HCX: site pairing failures, network extension errors, migration job failures (compatibility issues, network bandwidth, timeout), and post-migration connectivity validation	HCX Service Mesh and migration sizing Practice: HCX migration troubleshooting	1	partial

2V0-16.25 — VMware vSphere Foundation 9.0 Administrator

Section Quiz13 covered23 partial16 gap

Section 1 — Architecture and Technologies 12%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe virtualization principles, hypervisor types, and IT infrastructure fundamentals	Hypervisor types and abstraction ESXi host architecture	1	partial
1.2	Differentiate between VCF and VVF licensing, feature sets, and use cases	VVF licensing tiers vDS capabilities and requirements VVF editions and features	1	partial
1.3	Identify VVF included components: vSphere 9, vCenter Standard, VCF Operations, optional vSAN	VVF vs VCF component scope Monitoring tooling in VVF VVF component stack vSphere Foundation overview VCF Operations for vSphere Foundation vSAN in a VVF deployment	3	covered
1.4	Explain components NOT included in VVF: NSX, HCX, VCF Automation, VCF Operations Fleet Management	What VVF excludes Networking available in VVF Self-service and automation in VVF	2	covered
1.5	Describe industry standards relevant to VVF deployments (security compliance, interoperability)	—	0	gap
1.6	Identify VVF hardware compatibility requirements and HCL validation	Hardware compatibility and VCG Driver and firmware compatibility Hardware preparation for VVF	1	partial
1.7	Explain the VVF subscription licensing model and per-core entitlements	VCF 9.0 licensing model VVF license management VVF licensing positioning	2	covered
1.8	Differentiate between VVF Standard and VVF Premier edition capabilities	—	0	gap

Section 2 — vSphere Configuration and Management 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Deploy and configure ESXi 9.0 hosts for VVF environments	—	0	gap
2.2	Deploy and configure vCenter Server 9.0 for VVF management	—	0	gap
2.3	Create and manage vSphere clusters with DRS and HA	DRS automation levels DRS features in cluster design Cluster DRS configuration Workload optimization with DRS vMotion and CPU compatibility	3	covered
2.4	Configure resource pools, shares, reservations, and limits	Resource allocation constructs Cluster resource design	1	partial
2.5	Manage virtual machine lifecycle: create, clone, template, snapshot, migrate	—	0	gap
2.6	Configure VM hardware versions, virtual devices, and VMware Tools	vMotion of GPU-backed VMs GPU-enabled cluster design	1	partial
2.7	Implement vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) for image-based host management	Image-based host lifecycle Creating and applying cluster images vLCM cluster image management	1	partial
2.8	Compare host profiles vs configuration profiles for host standardization	vSphere Configuration Profiles Host Profiles and host configuration	1	partial
2.9	Configure and manage content libraries for template and ISO distribution	Content library types Content libraries and templates	1	partial
2.10	Manage vCenter roles, permissions, and privilege propagation	—	0	gap

Section 3 — Storage Management 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Differentiate between principal storage (vSAN) and external/supplemental storage in VVF	—	0	gap
3.2	Configure and manage VMFS 6 datastores on FC, iSCSI, and local storage	VMFS versions and datastore types vSphere storage options	1	partial
3.3	Configure and manage NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 datastores	NFS and block protocol options NFS datastores on ESXi	2	covered
3.4	Configure iSCSI software and hardware initiators on ESXi hosts	—	0	gap
3.5	Configure FC zoning requirements and best practices for ESXi	—	0	gap
3.6	Implement multipathing policies (Fixed, Round Robin, MRU) for SAN storage	Path selection policies and SATP Storage path analysis with esxcli	1	partial
3.7	Create and manage VM storage policies for VVF environments	vSAN FTT and RAID levels VM storage policy assignment Storage QoS and IOPS limits Failures to tolerate and capacity math vSAN storage policy concepts Building a vSAN cluster with policies	3	covered
3.8	Configure Storage DRS and datastore clusters for automated load balancing	Storage DRS in VCF 9.x	1	partial
3.9	Manage vSAN in VVF: understand the 0.25 TiB/core entitlement and optional add-on	vSAN ESA versus OSA vSAN architecture selection vSAN architecture comparison	1	partial
3.10	Implement storage vMotion for non-disruptive datastore migrations	VM migration operations	1	partial

Section 4 — Networking 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Configure vSphere Standard Switches (VSS) with port groups, VLANs, and security policies	—	0	gap
4.2	Configure vSphere Distributed Switches (VDS) with distributed port groups	—	0	gap
4.3	Implement VDS features: NIOC, port mirroring, NetFlow, LACP, traffic filtering	Network I/O Control on vDS VDS health check and diagnostics	3	covered
4.4	Configure NIC teaming and failover policies (active/standby, load-based, IP hash)	NIC teaming policies on a vDS vDS teaming and uplink policies	2	covered
4.5	Implement network segmentation using VLANs and PVLAN on VDS	—	0	gap
4.6	Configure VMkernel adapters for management, vMotion, vSAN, and NFS traffic	VMkernel adapter services VMkernel configuration checks Physical network MTU design	2	covered
4.7	Troubleshoot network connectivity between VMs, hosts, and external networks	Diagnosing VM connectivity loss VM network issue isolation Network issue diagnosis practice	1	partial
4.8	Understand VVF networking limitations: no NSX overlay, no micro-segmentation	Networking capabilities in VVF NSX-only capabilities	1	partial
4.9	Configure TCP/IP stacks for traffic isolation	TCP/IP stacks for VMkernel traffic vMotion network isolation	1	partial

Section 5 — Operations and Troubleshooting 35%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Configure and use VCF Operations (Aria Operations) for VVF monitoring	Green Score & Sustainability Costing and pricing in VCF Operations Orchestrator role and use cases Capacity analysis and reclamation The VCF fleet concept VCF Operations Console navigation	9	covered
5.2	Create custom dashboards, views, and reports in VCF Operations	—	0	gap
5.3	Configure alerts, symptoms, and notification rules	Symptoms and alert definitions Object model and alert constructs Alert correlation concepts Alert policies in VCF Operations	2	covered
5.4	Implement vSphere HA: admission control, heartbeat datastores, isolation response	vSphere HA restart behaviour HA design for availability HA admission control validation Cluster HA settings HA and cluster design practice	2	covered
5.5	Configure DRS rules: affinity, anti-affinity, VM-Host rules	Affinity and anti-affinity rules Designing DRS placement rules VM placement and availability	1	partial
5.6	Implement Proactive HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance	Proactive HA and hardware health Compute availability layers Host health monitoring and HA Designing HA protection layers	2	covered
5.7	Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager for host patching and firmware updates	—	0	gap
5.8	Configure and manage vSphere certificates and Certificate Authority	Certificate authority modes VMCA and certificate management Certificate rotation across components	1	partial
5.9	Troubleshoot ESXi host boot failures, PSOD, and connectivity issues	Restarting management services Host agent troubleshooting vCenter service recovery	1	partial
5.10	Troubleshoot vCenter service health and VPXD issues	Log file map by component vCenter service and log diagnostics	1	partial
5.11	Troubleshoot VM performance: CPU ready, memory ballooning, storage latency	Performance chart metrics esxtop CPU metrics esxtop performance analysis	1	partial
5.12	Use esxcli, vim-cmd, and dcli for command-line troubleshooting	—	0	gap
5.13	Generate and analyze vm-support diagnostic bundles	ESXi support bundle collection Collecting and analyzing support bundles Key CLI commands reference	1	partial
5.14	Monitor host and cluster performance using vCenter performance charts	—	0	gap
5.15	Implement backup and recovery strategies for vCenter and ESXi configurations	Backup methods per component VCF 9.0 backup and restore	1	partial

2V0-18.25 — VMware vSphere Foundation 9.0 Support

Section Quiz18 covered14 partial13 gap

Section 1 — Troubleshooting Methodology 12%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Apply structured troubleshooting methodology: identify, diagnose, resolve, verify, document	Structured troubleshooting methodology VVF support triage basics	3	covered
1.2	Differentiate between VVF and VCF troubleshooting scope (no NSX, no HCX, no VCF Automation in VVF)	VVF support scope boundaries NSX changes from 5.2 to 9.0 DFW enforcement point VPC networking in VCF 9.0 Tier-0 gateways and external routing Edge dataplane performance modes	14	covered
1.3	Identify appropriate support resources: VMware KB articles, Broadcom support portal, community forums	Knowledge base search strategy Support portal and case workflow	1	partial
1.4	Describe the process for opening and escalating VMware support requests (SR)	PSOD evidence for escalation ESXi coredump configuration	1	partial
1.5	Understand severity levels and SLA expectations for VVF support cases	Support severity levels and SLAs Escalation tiers and priority scoring Case severity practice	1	partial
1.6	Generate and collect diagnostic bundles for VMware Support	Host diagnostic bundle collection Support bundle collection methods Support bundle collection lab	2	covered
1.7	Interpret vSphere event logs and alarm history for initial triage	Triage and event correlation Log sources used in triage	1	partial

Section 2 — vSphere Compute Issues 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Troubleshoot ESXi host boot failures: PSOD causes, boot device issues, driver incompatibilities	PSOD analysis and dump files ESXi coredump targets	1	partial
2.2	Troubleshoot ESXi host connectivity: management network, DCUI, SSH, direct console	—	0	gap
2.3	Troubleshoot vCenter Server service failures: VPXD, VMware Directory Service, Postgres DB	vCenter database service issues VCSA service architecture vCenter service recovery lab	1	partial
2.4	Troubleshoot vCenter appliance deployment and configuration issues	—	0	gap
2.5	Diagnose VM power-on failures: resource constraints, EVC mode mismatches, invalid configurations	VM power-on and file locks Lock file cleanup lab HA admission control practice	2	covered
2.6	Troubleshoot vMotion failures: network misconfiguration, CPU compatibility, provisioning errors	vMotion failure diagnostics vMotion types and requirements MTU and vmkping checks Compute and vMotion fundamentals	2	covered
2.7	Troubleshoot DRS and HA cluster issues: split-brain, admission control failures, FDM agent errors	—	0	gap
2.8	Diagnose VM performance problems: CPU contention, memory pressure, snapshot growth	esxtop memory counters esxtop memory view esxtop performance lab	2	covered
2.9	Troubleshoot vSphere certificate issues: expired certificates, STS token failures, certificate chain errors	Certificates and SSO services vCenter certificate renewal VCSA certificate renewal lab	1	partial
2.10	Use esxcli, vim-cmd, and dcli for host-level diagnostics	ESXi esxcli command reference Unresponsive VM handling	2	covered

Section 3 — Storage Issues 22%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Troubleshoot VMFS datastore access issues: APD (All Paths Down) and PDL (Permanent Device Loss)	Storage disconnects on ESXi Path failover and dead paths esxcli command reference	3	covered
3.2	Troubleshoot iSCSI connectivity: initiator configuration, CHAP authentication, port binding failures	vSAN iSCSI & Block Storage	1	partial
3.3	Troubleshoot FC storage: zoning issues, LUN masking, HBA driver problems	—	0	gap
3.4	Troubleshoot NFS datastore mounting: DNS resolution, export permissions, firewall rules, NFS locks	NFS and datastore types	1	partial
3.5	Diagnose storage performance: high latency, KAVG/DAVG/GAVG analysis, queue depth tuning	Storage latency counters in esxtop esxtop disk view Advanced esxtop analysis lab	2	covered
3.6	Troubleshoot vSAN issues in VVF: disk group failures, object compliance, rebuild operations	—	0	gap
3.7	Troubleshoot vSAN stretched cluster synchronization and witness failures	—	0	gap
3.8	Troubleshoot Storage vMotion failures and datastore migration issues	—	0	gap
3.9	Troubleshoot VM snapshot management: consolidation failures, orphaned snapshots, delta disk growth	Snapshot consolidation and locks Snapshot consolidation lab	1	partial
3.10	Analyze SCSI sense codes and storage error messages in vmkernel.log	ESXi log file locations SCSI errors in vmkernel log Log locations and rotation	2	covered

Section 4 — Networking Issues 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Troubleshoot vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) issues: port group misconfigurations, VLAN tagging	—	0	gap
4.2	Troubleshoot vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) issues: uplink failures, LACP negotiation, NIOC	vDS teaming and LACP Recovering from vDS changes vDS and NIC teaming lab VDS health check lab	2	covered
4.3	Diagnose VM network connectivity: incorrect port groups, MAC address conflicts, security policy blocks	Port group VLAN checks VM connectivity diagnostics VM-level network checks	2	covered
4.4	Troubleshoot VMkernel adapter issues: vMotion failures due to network, iSCSI port binding, NFS mount failures	—	0	gap
4.5	Troubleshoot physical NIC (vmnic) failures: link state, driver issues, firmware compatibility	ESXi network CLI diagnostics esxcli command reference	1	partial
4.6	Diagnose network performance: packet loss, CRC errors, MTU mismatches, jumbo frame issues	End-to-end jumbo frame MTU Overlay MTU requirements MTU-related packet loss checks	3	covered
4.7	Troubleshoot VDS migration issues when moving from VSS to VDS	VSS to VDS migration risks VMkernel adapters and uplinks	1	partial
4.8	Use network troubleshooting tools: pktcap-uw, tcpdump-uw, net-stats, esxcli network commands	ESXi packet capture tooling VMkernel interface CLI esxcli command reference ESXi network diagnostics lab	2	covered

Section 5 — Upgrade and Migration Issues 23%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Troubleshoot vSphere to VVF 9.0 conversion process	—	0	gap
5.2	Troubleshoot VVF 9.0 initial deployment and configuration issues	—	0	gap
5.3	Troubleshoot ESXi host upgrade failures: compatibility issues, boot bank problems, VIB conflicts	ESXi upgrade troubleshooting vLCM images and OEM drivers ESXi upgrade via vLCM lab Upgrade failure remediation lab	2	covered
5.4	Troubleshoot vCenter Server upgrade and migration failures	vCenter upgrade stages Pre-check failures and logs	2	covered
5.5	Troubleshoot vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediation failures: pre-check errors, hardware incompatibility	vLCM hardware compatibility checks Upgrade troubleshooting logs VCG driver and firmware validation	2	covered
5.6	Troubleshoot cluster scaling: adding/removing ESXi hosts, cluster reconfiguration issues	—	0	gap
5.7	Troubleshoot VVF license assignment, entitlement verification, and expiration issues	VVF license assignment VCF 9.0 licensing model License model change in 9.0	2	covered
5.8	Troubleshoot VCF Operations configuration in VVF: adapter connectivity, data collection failures	VCF Operations adapter configuration VCF Operations in VVF Deploy VCF Operations lab	1	partial
5.9	Troubleshoot VCF Operations Orchestrator: workflow execution failures, plugin issues	—	0	gap
5.10	Troubleshoot VCF Operations for Logs: log forwarding, retention, archiving configuration	ESXi syslog configuration Ops for Logs syslog lab	1	partial

2V0-41.24 — VMware NSX 4.x Professional V2

Section Quiz12 covered31 partial13 gap

Section 1 — Architecture and Technologies 12%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe VMware Virtual Cloud Network vision and NSX platform role	—	0	gap
1.2	Explain NSX architecture: management plane, control plane, data plane	NSX three-plane architecture Control plane vs data plane NSX Manager cluster diagnostics	2	covered
1.3	Identify NSX Manager cluster components and deployment models	NSX Manager cluster design NSX form factors and sizing	1	partial
1.4	Describe the NSX data plane: N-VDS, VDS-based transport, host transport nodes, edge transport nodes	—	0	gap
1.5	Explain transport zones: overlay and VLAN types, their purpose and scope	Transport zone types and scope Overlay transport zone lab	1	partial
1.6	Describe Geneve encapsulation format and TEP (Tunnel Endpoint) communication	GENEVE overlay encapsulation Geneve encapsulation deep dive Overlay segment and TEP lab TEP connectivity checks	2	covered
1.7	Identify N-VDS vs VDS integration modes for transport node configuration	NSX data plane components Overlay segment and TEP lab	1	partial
1.8	Explain DPU-based acceleration for NSX data plane offload	DPU-Based Acceleration	1	partial

Section 2 — Installation and Configuration 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Deploy NSX Manager cluster (3-node) for production environments	NSX Manager cluster HA Manager cluster sizing	1	partial
2.2	Prepare ESXi hosts as transport nodes: install NSX VIBs, configure TEP interfaces	Overlay MTU validation lab TEP tunnel and MTU checks Underlay MTU requirements	1	partial
2.3	Configure transport zones and assign to transport nodes	—	0	gap
2.4	Configure IP pools and IP addressing for TEP interfaces	TEP addressing on transport nodes Transport node profile design	1	partial
2.5	Deploy and configure NSX Edge nodes (VM-based and bare-metal)	Edge node sizing guidelines Edge sizing for advanced services Edge cluster deployment lab	2	covered
2.6	Configure NSX Edge clusters with appropriate HA mode (active-active, active-standby)	Tier-0 HA modes and ECMP ECMP and dynamic routing T0/T1 routing topology lab	1	partial
2.7	Configure segments (overlay and VLAN-backed) with segment profiles	VLAN vs overlay transport zones Transport zone and profile design	1	partial
2.8	Manage NSX users, roles, and RBAC with LDAP and VMware Identity Manager integration	NSX identity source integration	1	partial
2.9	Configure NSX backup and restore, syslog forwarding	NSX Manager backup practice Backup and recovery design	1	partial

Section 3 — Logical Switching 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Explain logical switching concepts: segments, segment profiles, MAC learning	—	0	gap
3.2	Describe overlay segment packet forwarding: Geneve encapsulation, TEP-to-TEP tunneling	Overlay east-west forwarding VM-to-VM overlay validation	2	covered
3.3	Differentiate between overlay segments and VLAN segments	VLAN-backed segments	2	covered
3.4	Configure segment profiles: security, QoS, IP discovery, MAC discovery, spoofguard	Segment profiles overview Segment profile exploration	2	covered
3.5	Explain BUM (Broadcast, Unknown unicast, Multicast) traffic handling in overlay networks	BUM replication modes Control plane BUM handling	1	partial
3.6	Configure L2 bridging between overlay segments and VLAN segments	VLAN segments and physical connectivity	1	partial
3.7	Describe NSX packet walk for east-west (within segment) and cross-segment traffic	Intra-segment forwarding on a host Host data plane switching	1	partial

Section 4 — Logical Routing 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Explain NSX logical routing architecture: distributed router (DR) and service router (SR)	Where stateful gateway services run Distributed router first-hop routing NSX routing path walkthrough Tier-0 and Tier-1 routing model	2	covered
4.2	Configure Tier-0 gateways for north-south traffic and external connectivity	Tier-0 north-south gateway T0/T1 routing topology lab	1	partial
4.3	Configure Tier-1 gateways for tenant/workload isolation and east-west routing	Tier-1 services and Edge clusters Tier-1 gateway configuration lab	1	partial
4.4	Configure static routes on Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways	—	0	gap
4.5	Configure BGP peering on Tier-0 gateways for dynamic routing with physical routers	Route redistribution on Tier-0 BGP peering and redistribution lab Route redistribution into BGP	1	partial
4.6	Configure OSPF on Tier-0 gateways as an alternative dynamic routing protocol	—	0	gap
4.7	Explain ECMP (Equal-Cost Multi-Path) for load distribution across multiple uplinks	Tier-0 HA modes ECMP path behavior	1	partial
4.8	Configure VRF Lite for multi-tenant routing on shared Tier-0 gateways	VRF-Lite on Tier-0 VRF-Lite and route leaking lab	1	partial
4.9	Explain the logical routing packet walk: DR forwarding vs SR forwarding	—	0	gap
4.10	Configure NAT: SNAT, DNAT, reflexive NAT, and NO-NAT rules on gateways	NAT on Tier-1 gateways Routing and NAT topology lab	1	partial
4.11	Configure DHCP and DNS services on NSX gateways	—	0	gap

Section 5 — Security Services 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Describe NSX Distributed Firewall (DFW) architecture and east-west traffic control	Where DFW rules are enforced Kernel-level DFW enforcement lab	1	partial
5.2	Configure DFW rules: allow, drop, reject actions with logging	DFW rule evaluation pipeline DFW rule tables and matching DFW policy build lab	2	covered
5.3	Implement micro-segmentation using security groups, tags, and DFW policies	Tag-based micro-segmentation design Group membership criteria Security policy with tags lab Lateral security design decisions	2	covered
5.4	Describe NSX Gateway Firewall for north-south traffic control at Tier-0/Tier-1 gateways	Gateway firewall placement vDefend component overview	1	partial
5.5	Configure Gateway Firewall rules with service profiles	—	0	gap
5.6	Configure IDS/IPS on distributed and gateway firewalls	Distributed IDS/IPS enforcement IDS/IPS deployment lab IDS/IPS placement design	1	partial
5.7	Explain NSX integration with VMware Identity Manager for Identity Firewall	Identity firewall and AD groups	1	partial
5.8	Configure IPSec VPN: route-based and policy-based site-to-site VPN	IPSec VPN modes on NSX	1	partial
5.9	Configure L2 VPN for extending Layer 2 networks across sites	—	0	gap
5.10	Describe NSX ALB (Avi Load Balancer) integration for application delivery	NSX load balancing and Avi Advanced load balancing solution Avi architecture and deployment	1	partial

Section 6 — Operations and Troubleshooting 19%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
6.1	Use NSX Manager UI and CLI for operational management	Support bundle collection SoS and log bundle workflow	1	partial
6.2	Configure syslog forwarding for NSX components	Syslog forwarding to a SIEM Centralized logging solution	1	partial
6.3	Perform NSX backup and restore operations	—	0	gap
6.4	Use log files to troubleshoot NSX issues: /var/log/proton, /var/log/nsx-syslog.log	NSX Manager log file locations Log locations and collection	1	partial
6.5	Use NSX CLI tools: get logical-switch, get logical-router, get firewall rules	Logical switch state on transport nodes NSX CLI command reference	2	covered
6.6	Troubleshoot transport node connectivity: TEP communication failures, tunnel status	Tunnel status CLI checks TEP tunnel verification lab	1	partial
6.7	Troubleshoot logical switching issues: segment connectivity, MAC learning, BUM flooding	—	0	gap
6.8	Troubleshoot logical routing issues: BGP peering failures, route advertisement, ECMP	Tier-1 to Tier-0 route advertisement BGP neighbor diagnostics NSX routing troubleshooting BGP session fundamentals Route advertisement configuration BGP convergence on Edges lab	2	covered
6.9	Troubleshoot DFW and Gateway Firewall rule evaluation order and default rules	DFW default rule behavior Baseline before enforcement	1	partial
6.10	Identify and use NSX Traceflow for packet path visualization and troubleshooting	Traceflow path analysis lab Traceflow for connectivity issues DFW debugging with Traceflow	2	covered
6.11	Monitor NSX Edge node health: CPU, memory, interface statistics, tunnel status	—	0	gap

2V0-32.24 — VMware Cloud Operations 8.x Professional V2

Section Quiz11 covered24 partial14 gap

Section 1 — Architecture and Technologies 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Differentiate between VMware Cloud Management offerings: SaaS vs On-Premises deployment models	Automation component roles Consuming and automating VCF Cloud template design patterns	1	partial
1.2	Identify features and capabilities of Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRealize Suite LCM)	Aria suite components and roles Aria stack deployment sequence	1	partial
1.3	Identify features and capabilities of Aria Operations (vRealize Operations)	—	0	gap
1.4	Identify features and capabilities of Aria Log Insight (vRealize Log Insight)	Aria product renaming map Legacy vRealize to Aria names	1	partial
1.5	Describe Aria Operations architecture: analytics cluster, collector groups, cloud proxies	Aria Operations collection tiers Operations node roles explained Validated operations design	3	covered
1.6	Describe Aria Operations deployment sizes: extra-small to extra-large, and resource requirements	Operations sizing and deployment options Operations sizing in VCF Object-count sizing guidance	1	partial
1.7	Describe Aria Operations HA and Continuous Availability (CA) modes	Operations availability model changes Analytics cluster node roles	1	partial
1.8	Describe Aria Log Insight architecture: standalone vs clustered with ILB (Integrated Load Balancer)	Operations for Logs cluster design Validated logging cluster design	1	partial

Section 2 — Policies and Capacity Management 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Configure operational policies for object groups and custom groups	What Operations policies control Alert policy and symptom framework	1	partial
2.2	Configure capacity policies: allocation model, demand model, and hybrid model	Demand, allocation and utilization models Capacity planning dimensions	2	covered
2.3	Implement capacity analytics: time remaining, capacity projections, optimization recommendations	Capacity metric definitions Capacity remaining and headroom	1	partial
2.4	Configure what-if analysis scenarios for workload placement and resource planning	What-if analysis and capacity modeling Capacity and what-if practice lab	2	covered
2.5	Implement workload optimization: right-sizing (oversized/undersized VM detection), reclaim recommendations	Rightsizing recommendation model Demand versus allocation Right-sizing automation policies	3	covered
2.6	Configure cost analysis: cost drivers, rate cards, showback/chargeback models	Showback and chargeback cost models Cost model and rate cards Cost optimization super metrics lab	1	partial
2.7	Implement compliance policies: vSphere Security Configuration Guide, custom benchmarks	Compliance frameworks and drift detection Compliance policy types Compliance benchmarking lab Compliance drift detection lab	3	covered
2.8	Configure business intent policies for application performance SLAs	—	0	gap
2.9	Use Automation Central for automated remediation actions (power off idle VMs, right-size, reclaim snapshots)	Automation and reclamation policies Automated remediation actions Reclaimable capacity types	1	partial

Section 3 — Troubleshooting with Analytics 22%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Use Aria Operations for root cause analysis: symptoms, alerts, and anomaly detection	Dynamic thresholds and symptoms Demand, allocation and contention Threshold modes compared Rightsizing signals	3	covered
3.2	Create and interpret custom dashboards for infrastructure health monitoring	CPU performance counters to watch Performance troubleshooting workflow Contention scoring super metrics	1	partial
3.3	Configure and use super metrics for composite performance indicators	Super metric formulas and scope Super metric recipe examples	1	partial
3.4	Use the Troubleshooting Workbench for guided root cause analysis	Root-cause workflow in Operations Cross-component correlation	1	partial
3.5	Interpret health, risk, and efficiency badges for objects	Object badges in Operations Alert impact and badge types	2	covered
3.6	Configure integration between Aria Operations and Aria Log Insight for correlated analysis	Operations and Logs integration Launch-in-context between metrics and logs	1	partial
3.7	Use Aria Log Insight for log search, filtering, and pattern detection	Explore Logs and field extraction Log sources and vCenter logs Log analytics solution design Log onboarding and alerting lab	2	covered
3.8	Configure Aria Log Insight agents, log forwarding, log masking, and filtering	—	0	gap
3.9	Create log-based alerts and notifications in Aria Log Insight	—	0	gap
3.10	Use metric charts, heat maps, and relationship maps for troubleshooting	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Custom Content 18%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Create custom dashboards with widgets: scoreboard, heat map, top-N, metric chart, alert list, object list	Dashboard widget types Dashboard building lab Executive dashboard build lab	2	covered
4.2	Create custom views: list, summary, trend, distribution, and text views	View types and their uses Creating custom views	1	partial
4.3	Create custom reports: scheduled, ad-hoc, PDF/CSV export	Views and scheduled reporting Custom views and reports Notification channels	2	covered
4.4	Create and manage super metrics: formulas, object scope, policy association	Super metric architecture Worked super metric formulas	1	partial
4.5	Install and configure management packs for third-party monitoring (AWS, Azure, storage arrays)	Adapters and management packs Integration and extensibility options	1	partial
4.6	Install and configure content packs in Aria Log Insight (VMware, Linux, Windows, network devices)	Content packs for Operations for Logs Content pack management design	1	partial
4.7	Create custom content in Aria Log Insight: extracted fields, saved queries, custom dashboards	—	0	gap
4.8	Use the True Visibility Suite for extended monitoring capabilities	—	0	gap
4.9	Share and export custom content between Aria Operations instances	Management pack packaging Content packs and prebuilt content Exporting dashboard definitions	1	partial

Section 5 — Operations Management 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Deploy and configure Aria Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM)	—	0	gap
5.2	Use vRSLCM for deploying Aria Operations and Aria Log Insight	—	0	gap
5.3	Configure vRSLCM binary mapping, license management, and certificate management	Aria Suite Lifecycle in the BOM	1	partial
5.4	Apply patches and upgrades via vRSLCM to Aria Operations and Aria Log Insight	—	0	gap
5.5	Configure RBAC and identity management in Aria Operations (local, LDAP, SAML, VMware Identity Manager)	Identity sources for Operations Identity and access management design	1	partial
5.6	Manage Aria Operations cluster: add/remove nodes, scale analytics cluster, manage data retention	Cluster composition and scaling Operations cluster maintenance lab	1	partial
5.7	Configure data sources: vCenter adapter, NSX adapter, storage adapters, cloud adapters	—	0	gap
5.8	Configure Aria Operations event log forwarding to external systems	Alert-to-ticket integration Outbound alert actions Notification and remediation pipeline	1	partial
5.9	Manage Aria Log Insight: configure retention policies, archiving (NFS), storage management	Log retention and archive design Log retention and archiving	1	partial
5.10	Manage Aria Log Insight agents and agent groups for OS-level log collection	—	0	gap
5.11	Configure Aria Log Insight log forwarding destinations and log routing	—	0	gap
5.12	Use Skyline and Federated Analytics for proactive support and cross-instance analytics	Skyline proactive health Multi-instance operations topologies Multi-cloud observability options	2	covered
5.13	Generate log bundles for troubleshooting Aria Operations and Aria Log Insight issues	—	0	gap

6V0-21.25 — VMware vDefend Security for VCF 5.x Administrator

Section Quiz14 covered22 partial11 gap

Section 1 — vDefend Architecture 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe the vDefend security platform and its role within VMware Cloud Foundation	Security compliance benchmarks in VCF	1	partial
1.2	Explain the Distributed Firewall (DFW) architecture and hypervisor-level enforcement at each vNIC	DFW kernel enforcement point vDefend component stack DFW realization at the kernel	3	covered
1.3	Describe the Gateway Firewall (GFW) for north-south perimeter security	Where Gateway Firewall runs vDefend component map	1	partial
1.4	Explain the Security Services Platform (SSP) for scale-out analytics and visibility	—	0	gap
1.5	Differentiate between east-west (DFW) and north-south (GFW) traffic security models	Gateway Firewall vs DFW East-west enforcement point VPC constructs and NSX security services vDefend component stack vDefend component map VPC isolation and security policy	3	covered
1.6	Describe the vDefend licensing model: Firewall add-on vs Firewall with ATP add-on	vDefend licensing tiers vDefend component stack Distributed IDS/IPS prerequisites	3	covered
1.7	Identify vDefend integration points with NSX Manager, vCenter, and VCF Operations	—	0	gap
1.8	Explain the data plane components including kernel-level packet processing at vfilter	DFW data path architecture Hypervisor-native enforcement principles	1	partial
1.9	Describe the role of NSX Application Platform (NAPP) for advanced security services	NAPP platform design decisions Advanced threat service components Security services platform in VCF 9.0	2	covered

Section 2 — Micro-Segmentation 30%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Configure DFW policies across predefined categories: Ethernet, Emergency, Infrastructure, Environment, Application, and Default	Default rule in zero-trust designs Rule categories and the default rule Zero-trust rule set design	1	partial
2.2	Explain DFW rule processing order: categories evaluated left-to-right, rules top-to-bottom within each category, first match wins	DFW rule processing pipeline Policy categories and ordering Category order in practice	1	partial
2.3	Configure security groups with static membership (manual VM/IP assignment)	—	0	gap
2.4	Configure security groups with dynamic membership using tag-based criteria, VM name patterns, and OS type	Security groups and membership types Tag-based dynamic grouping Group membership design decisions	1	partial
2.5	Implement NSX tag-based grouping for automated workload classification	Security groups vs IP-based rules Tag-based micro-segmentation Grouping strategy design decisions	1	partial
2.6	Configure Active Directory integration for Identity Firewall (IDFW) user-based policies	Identity Firewall prerequisites Context-aware identity rules	1	partial
2.7	Explain the Applied To field for scoping rule enforcement to specific groups, segments, or DFW-wide	Applied-To scope optimization Applied-To design patterns Scoping rules to reduce host footprint	1	partial
2.8	Design and implement zone-based segmentation (Production vs Development, PCI vs non-PCI)	—	0	gap
2.9	Implement application-level micro-segmentation with ring-fencing and tier-based controls	—	0	gap
2.10	Configure context-aware firewall policies using Layer 7 application identification	Layer 7 rules and context profiles DFW L2-L7 rule capabilities FQDN and TLS-aware rule features	2	covered
2.11	Protect container workloads using vDefend Firewall for Kubernetes/VKS environments	—	0	gap
2.12	Plan segmentation strategy using Security Intelligence flow analysis and rule recommendations	Rule actions and logging Flow-based rule recommendations NSX Intelligence recommendation engine Logging guidance and flow analytics	2	covered

Section 3 — Threat Prevention 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Configure distributed IDS/IPS with signature-based threat detection at each workload vNIC	Signature profiles and rule binding Profile design per workload tier Applying IDS/IPS profiles to rules	1	partial
3.2	Manage IDS/IPS signature profiles including automatic downloads and custom signature import	Signature sources and updates Signature bundle updates	1	partial
3.3	Differentiate between distributed IDS/IPS (east-west) and gateway IDS/IPS (north-south)	—	0	gap
3.4	Configure IDS/IPS rule actions: Detect only vs Detect and Prevent (Reject/Drop)	IDS vs IPS operational modes Detection mode behaviour	2	covered
3.5	Implement IDS/IPS Turbo mode architecture for enhanced performance	NSX Datapath Acceleration	1	partial
3.6	Configure NSX Malware Prevention Service using Guest Introspection (GI) framework	—	0	gap
3.7	Deploy NSX Distributed Malware Prevention service VMs on ESXi host clusters	Malware Prevention architecture Component deployment requirements	1	partial
3.8	Explain file introspection capabilities: hash-based detection, local analysis, and cloud analysis	File analysis pipeline Advanced threat prevention components NAPP-hosted security services	2	covered
3.9	Configure URL filtering and FQDN-based filtering for outbound traffic control	Gateway Firewall URL filtering	1	partial
3.10	Integrate vDefend with third-party security services (Palo Alto, Check Point) via service insertion	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Network Detection and Response 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Describe the NDR architecture: aggregation, correlation, and context engine	NDR data collection layer Telemetry flow between components	1	partial
4.2	Explain how NDR combines signals from IDS/IPS, Malware Prevention, and NTA	NDR signal aggregation Campaign correlation engine	1	partial
4.3	Configure Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) for behavior-based anomaly detection using ML algorithms	What NTA analyses Behavioural vs signature detection Behavioural detection models	2	covered
4.4	Interpret NDR campaign visualization linking related alerts into unified intrusion campaigns	NDR campaigns and confidence scoring Campaign correlation engine Campaign investigation walkthrough	3	covered
4.5	Deploy and configure NDR Sensor for non-vSphere workload monitoring	NSX Datapath Acceleration	1	partial
4.6	Use NDR Intelligent Assist (GenAI/LLM-powered) for threat analysis and response guidance	—	1	partial
4.7	Integrate NDR alerts with external SIEM platforms for centralized security operations	—	0	gap
4.8	Configure air-gapped NDR environments for regulated/isolated deployments	NDR connectivity requirements	1	partial

Section 5 — Operations 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Configure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for security administration	NSX role assignments and RBAC	2	covered
5.2	Automate security workflows for policy deployment and compliance enforcement	NSX Manager configuration backup Staging rules before enforcement VCF Automation policy capabilities Backup design for VCF components Version-controlled infrastructure as code Validating rules in monitor mode	3	covered
5.3	Monitor security events and perform incident response using vDefend dashboards	File verdicts and reporting Unified security dashboard	1	partial
5.4	Troubleshoot DFW rule enforcement using packet tracing, flow monitoring, and log analysis	Traceflow for DFW troubleshooting Verifying rules on the ESXi host Traceflow for DFW validation DFW troubleshooting commands	2	covered
5.5	Generate and analyze PCAP captures for IDS/IPS signature validation	—	0	gap
5.6	Use Security Intelligence segmentation assessment to evaluate security posture	Flow-based segmentation assessment NSX Intelligence security posture Security Intelligence in the VVS design	1	partial
5.7	Implement Firewall Rule Analysis to identify suboptimal or redundant policies	DFW rule hygiene analysis Rule consolidation strategies	1	partial
5.8	Configure syslog forwarding and log export for security audit compliance	DFW logging and syslog planning SOC and compliance reporting integration	2	covered

6V0-22.25 — VMware Avi Load Balancer 30.x Administrator

Section Quiz15 covered17 partial17 gap

Section 1 — Avi Architecture 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe the Avi Load Balancer three-tier architecture: Controller, Service Engines, and applications	Service Engine data plane Avi control and data planes	1	partial
1.2	Explain Controller cluster deployment: 3-node cluster, leader election, cluster VIP, follower synchronization	Controller cluster and quorum Avi architecture overview Deploying a Controller cluster	2	covered
1.3	Describe Service Engine (SE) lifecycle management by the Controller	SE deployment prerequisites in VCF Cloud access modes	1	partial
1.4	Explain the distributed data plane architecture with SEs handling all data traffic	Where packets are processed Control plane vs data plane	1	partial
1.5	Differentiate between L4 and L7 load balancing characteristics	—	0	gap
1.6	Describe Service Engine Groups: logical grouping, shared configuration, HA mode settings	Service Engine Groups explained Avi objects in VCF	1	partial
1.7	Explain elastic scale-out: automatic SE deployment for performance scaling	SE autoscale policies SE fabric scale-out practice	1	partial
1.8	Describe the interaction between Virtual Services, Pools, and Virtual IPs (VIPs)	—	0	gap
1.9	Identify VCF integration: SDDC Manager deployment, NSX Cloud Connector, vCenter discovery	Avi integration into VCF Avi deployment in VCF 9.0 Migrating NSX LB to Avi Avi deployment access modes NSX segments and load balancing	3	covered

Section 2 — Virtual Service Configuration 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Create and configure Virtual Services with VIP, port, and application profile assignments	—	0	gap
2.2	Configure pools with backend server definitions and health monitors	—	0	gap
2.3	Implement load balancing algorithms: Round Robin, Least Connections, Consistent Hash, Fastest Response	Pool load balancing behaviour Load distribution methods	2	covered
2.4	Configure health monitors: TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, UDP, DNS, and custom monitors	Health monitor configuration Health monitor protocols Health monitor mismatch pitfalls	2	covered
2.5	Implement persistence profiles: IP-based, cookie-based, custom header, App Cookie, TLS	Session persistence options Persistence on NSX and Avi	2	covered
2.6	Configure SSL/TLS termination: certificate management, SSL profiles, client certificate authentication	SSL termination and bridging SSL profiles and certificates	1	partial
2.7	Manage EC and RSA certificates: generation, import, renewal, and chain validation	—	0	gap
2.8	Configure Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) cipher suites in SSL profiles	Cipher suite selection TLS handshake comparison lab	1	partial
2.9	Implement content switching using HTTP request policies and DataScripts	Content switching on L7	1	partial
2.10	Configure DNS virtual services for DNS load balancing and GSLB	—	0	gap

Section 3 — Application Profiles 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Identify features inside HTTP application profiles: connection multiplexing, compression, caching	HTTP virtual service behaviour	1	partial
3.2	Configure L4 application profiles for TCP/UDP pass-through load balancing	L4 versus L7 virtual services	2	covered
3.3	Configure DNS application profiles for DNS-based services	—	0	gap
3.4	Implement SSL/TLS application profiles with appropriate cipher suites and protocol versions	TLS version and cipher policy TLS profile configuration lab	1	partial
3.5	Configure Web Application Firewall (WAF): enable/disable, OWASP CRS, detection vs enforcement mode	WAF rollout and tuning Avi advanced L7 services	3	covered
3.6	Explain WAF learning mode for positive security model development	—	0	gap
3.7	Describe the WAF security pipeline: allow list, positive security model, signature engine (CRS)	—	0	gap
3.8	Configure WAF paranoia levels and false-positive mitigation	OWASP CRS rule tuning	1	partial
3.9	Identify the capacity impact of enabling WAF on Service Engines	WAF deployment considerations SE CPU and sizing	1	partial
3.10	Implement rate limiting per application at L3/L4 and L7 layers	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Analytics and Troubleshooting 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Enable and interpret real-time analytics for virtual services	—	0	gap
4.2	Analyze end-to-end timing breakdown: Client RTT, Server RTT, App Response, Data Transfer	Latency breakdown metrics End-to-end analytics lab	1	partial
4.3	Differentiate between significant and non-significant logging and their resource impact	Client log modes Reading Avi application logs	2	covered
4.4	Interpret application logs for HTTP status codes, error rates, and response times	—	0	gap
4.5	Analyze client insights: geographic distribution, browser types, connection quality	—	0	gap
4.6	Interpret health scores and understand factors that affect scoring	What health score measures Virtual service performance analysis	2	covered
4.7	Use analytics to identify the source of latency: client-side, network, or server-side	End-to-end timing breakdown L7 analytics troubleshooting	1	partial
4.8	Identify how logs change when WAF is enabled (additional WAF match fields)	WAF logging and tuning	1	partial
4.9	Troubleshoot pool member health monitor failures using logs and connectivity tests	Diagnosing pool member failures Analytics-driven troubleshooting	2	covered
4.10	Diagnose SE performance issues using SE-level metrics and resource utilization	Packet-level evidence collection PCAP and HAR export	1	partial

Section 5 — Operations 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Identify SE capacity limitations and SE group maximum configurations	—	0	gap
5.2	Configure SE anti-affinity rules for fault domain separation	SE and Controller placement rules SE placement across hosts	1	partial
5.3	Implement elastic HA modes: N+M (default), Active/Active, Legacy Active/Standby	Service Engine HA modes SE sizing and HA choices Configuring SE group HA	2	covered
5.4	Configure buffer Service Engines for N+M fault tolerance	—	0	gap
5.5	Perform Controller and SE upgrades with minimal disruption using rolling upgrades	Avi upgrade order and workflow	2	covered
5.6	Configure Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB): sites, DNS virtual services, GSLB services, geo-location policies	GSLB site components GSLB design considerations Multi-site GSLB build	3	covered
5.7	Implement GSLB health monitors for cross-site application availability	—	0	gap
5.8	Configure RBAC with tenant isolation and granular role assignments	Avi tenancy models and roles Multi-tenant SE groups	2	covered
5.9	Integrate Avi with Kubernetes/OpenShift as ingress controller	—	0	gap
5.10	Perform backup and restore of Controller configuration	Controller configuration backup Infrastructure as code practices Backup and restore for DR	2	covered

3V0-21.25 — Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation

Section Quiz17 covered12 partial6 gap

Section 1 — Architecture and Design 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe VCF Automation 9 architecture including the VMware Management Services Platform (VMSP) deployment model	VCF Import Tool workflow vLCM baseline to image transition Brownfield vSphere-to-VCF adoption Brownfield conversion planning Upgrade failure and patch remediation	3	covered
1.2	Differentiate between VM-Apps-Org and All-Apps-Org organizational models and determine the appropriate model for given scenarios	VCF Automation organization types Org and project isolation model	1	partial
1.3	Explain the VCF Automation component hierarchy: Fleet, VCF Instance, Region, Zone, Organization, Project, Namespace	What a project scopes Automation building blocks and hierarchy Projects, zones and tenancy Fleet, instance and private cloud terms Multi-tenant project configuration	2	covered
1.4	Identify VCF Automation microservices and their roles (PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, Tenant Manager, Orchestrator, Blueprinting)	Event-driven extensibility execution VCF Automation service components ABX runtime and action patterns Assembler, Broker and Orchestrator roles	2	covered
1.5	Design high-availability and disaster recovery strategies for VCF Automation deployments	Stretched vSAN clusters in VCF 5.2 Automation cluster architecture Automation deployment sizing and HA Git as content source of truth Stretched workload domain provisioning VCF backup and restore paradigm	4	covered
1.6	Describe integration points between VCF Automation and NSX VPC, vSphere Supervisor, and VCF Operations	Tier-0 gateway HA modes Cost tagging and chargeback Automation networking and VPCs NSX gateway constructs in VCF NSX VPC in VCF 9.0 Chargeback and showback in Operations	3	covered

Section 2 — Blueprint and Template Design 30%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Author advanced cloud templates using VCF Automation YAML template language with inputs, resources, and outputs	Cloud template YAML structure Cloud template capabilities	1	partial
2.2	Design multi-tier application blueprints with compute, network, storage, and load balancer resources	Load balancer resources in templates Multi-tier template with load balancer	1	partial
2.3	Implement property bindings, conditional resource deployment, and iterative resource creation in blueprints	Cloud template iteration and inputs Template resource design patterns Conditional inputs and form logic	3	covered
2.4	Configure Cloud Zones with placement policies, tags, capability constraints, and flavor mappings	Cloud zones and capability tags Cloud accounts, zones and profiles Constraints in cloud templates Configuring cloud zones and mappings	3	covered
2.5	Design and manage image mappings, flavor mappings, and network profiles for multi-cloud resource abstraction	—	0	gap
2.6	Implement custom naming conventions using naming templates for VMs and resources	—	0	gap
2.7	Configure property groups to share reusable input configurations across multiple blueprints	Reusing inputs across templates	1	partial
2.8	Manage blueprint versioning, release management, and catalog publication workflows	Template versioning and catalog publish Content sharing and versioning	1	partial
2.9	Implement Terraform providers (vsphere, vra, vcfa) for infrastructure-as-code within VCF Automation	Terraform with VCF Automation IaC integrations in Automation GitOps pipeline with Terraform	2	covered

Section 3 — Extensibility 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Design and implement ABX (Action Based Extensibility) actions in Python, Node.js, or PowerShell	ABX runtimes and container lifecycle ABX versus Orchestrator workflows Event payload and subscription flow	3	covered
3.2	Configure event subscriptions to trigger ABX actions on lifecycle events (Pre-Provision, Post-Provision, Pre-Decommission)	Provisioning event topics ABX action for CMDB enrichment Testing and promotion pipeline Event-driven workflow build	4	covered
3.3	Create and manage vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) workflows for complex multi-step automation	Choosing an extensibility mechanism Orchestrator workflow engine	1	partial
3.4	Implement custom resources with full CRUD lifecycle backed by ABX actions or vRO workflows	Extending Automation with custom code	1	partial
3.5	Design resource actions (Day-2 operations) for deployed resources with approval integration	Approval policies and triggers Approval policy design Catalog with approvals and quotas	1	partial
3.6	Configure integration between VCF Automation and external systems (ServiceNow, CMDB, PagerDuty) via ABX	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Multi-Cloud Governance 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Configure multi-organization tenancy in both VM-Apps-Org and All-Apps-Org models	—	0	gap
4.2	Design role-based access control using VCF Automation roles (System Admin, Org Admin, Project Admin, Developer, Viewer)	Built-in roles and their scopes RBAC matrix for self-service	1	partial
4.3	Implement approval policies with multi-level sequential and parallel approval chains	Sequential and tiered approvals Approval escalation configuration Approval and quota lab	2	covered
4.4	Configure lease policies with automated expiry actions and extension workflows	Lease management behaviour Governance policy set Lease and resource reclamation	2	covered
4.5	Design resource quota management at Organization and Project levels	Quota scopes in the org hierarchy Quota management design	1	partial
4.6	Configure content sharing policies between provider and consumer organizations	Catalog content sharing scopes Entitlements and Service Broker policies Provider content and org management	2	covered
4.7	Implement VPC-based network isolation for All-Apps-Org tenants using NSX VPC integration	—	0	gap

Section 5 — GitOps and Operations 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Configure Git integration for version-controlled blueprint management with auto-import	Git-backed templates and pipelines Content sources in Service Broker End-to-end GitOps pipeline Version control integration options	2	covered
5.2	Implement GitOps workflows using ArgoCD for Kubernetes workload delivery through VCF Automation	GitOps tooling in the pipeline GitOps pipeline build	1	partial
5.3	Design CI/CD pipelines integrating Harbor image registry, Git repositories, and VCF Automation catalog	Pipeline tooling in the Automation stack CI/CD for cloud templates	1	partial
5.4	Manage Day-2 lifecycle operations including power management, snapshots, resize, and custom actions	Day-2 operations in Automation Day-2 actions for consumers Configuring Day-2 actions	2	covered
5.5	Configure and manage the VCF Automation Service Catalog for self-service consumption	Automation component responsibilities Service Broker catalog design	2	covered
5.6	Troubleshoot deployment failures using VCF Automation event logs, ABX action logs, and vRO workflow runs	Deployment history and audit trail ABX error handling and logging ABX structured logging practice Deploying and validating templates	2	covered
5.7	Monitor VCF Automation platform health using VCF Operations integration and Fleet Management	—	0	gap

3V0-22.25 — Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Operations

Section Quiz16 covered13 partial3 gap

Section 1 — Architecture 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe VCF Operations architecture including analytics cluster nodes, remote collectors, and cloud proxies	VCF Operations node roles VCF 5.2 latency budgets Collector and proxy architecture Federation and vMotion limits Validated operations design Configuring data collection	4	covered
1.2	Differentiate between VCF Operations deployment models: standalone, HA pair, and multi-node analytics cluster	Analytics cluster scaling model VCF 5.2 topology blueprints vSAN witness sizing Supervisor zone models VCF Operations node roles Stretched cluster witness design	7	covered
1.3	Explain the VCF Operations object model: adapters, objects, metrics, properties, and relationships	Object model and metrics Resource kinds and relationships	1	partial
1.4	Describe VCF Operations for Logs architecture including ingestion pipelines, retention policies, and archive destinations	Log retention and archiving Operations for Logs basics Logging design decisions	1	partial
1.5	Identify VCF Identity Broker integration for centralized authentication (AD, LDAP, SAML, OIDC)	VCF 5.2 requirement categories Identity Broker integration External service prerequisites Identity and access overview Identity changes in 9.0 Fleet-level services	3	covered
1.6	Explain how VCF Operations integrates with SDDC Manager, NSX, vSAN, and VCF Automation for unified fleet monitoring	NSX monitoring in VCF Adapter types and metrics Cost analysis and showback VCF 9.0 edge patterns Disaggregated storage clusters Federation and stretched segments	8	covered

Section 2 — Capacity Management 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Configure capacity analytics dashboards showing current utilization, reclaimable waste, and time-to-full forecasts	Time-remaining forecasting Admission control for management clusters Automation and Operations integration Capacity projection maths Admission control policies Capacity settings and buffers	5	covered
2.2	Execute what-if analysis scenarios to model workload additions, hardware expansions, and migration impacts	What-if capacity modelling Capacity forecasting basics What-if scenario practice	2	covered
2.3	Identify and reclaim wasted resources: oversized VMs, idle VMs, powered-off VMs, and orphaned VMDKs	Reclaimable capacity categories Reclaimable capacity analysis Rightsizing and reclamation	2	covered
2.4	Configure right-sizing recommendations and implement bulk reclamation projects	Rightsizing recommendation inputs Rightsizing report practice	1	partial
2.5	Design cost drivers for chargeback/showback models scoped to datacenters, clusters, or custom groups	Costing, rate cards and drivers Cost allocation scopes Cost settings in Operations	1	partial
2.6	Generate capacity planning reports with time-to-full projections and hardware procurement recommendations	—	0	gap

Section 3 — Performance Analysis 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Analyze performance metrics across compute, storage, and network layers using VCF Operations dashboards	Health, risk and efficiency badges Memory pressure metrics Navigating Operations views esxtop memory analysis Dashboard hierarchy design Dashboard widgets for storage	3	covered
3.2	Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks using correlation analysis between CPU ready, memory balloon, disk latency, and network drops	CPU contention metrics Symptom correlation in alerts esxtop CPU analysis vCPU sizing and overcommit Cross-component alert correlation Performance chart metrics	3	covered
3.3	Configure and interpret heat maps for cluster-level performance visualization	Dashboard widget types Building dashboard widgets	1	partial
3.4	Create custom views and reports for executive performance reporting	Views versus reports Report scheduling and delivery Scheduled report practice	1	partial
3.5	Design workload optimization strategies using DRS recommendations and VCF Operations insights	DRS and HA dashboard widgets Workload optimization and DRS	2	covered
3.6	Analyze vSAN performance metrics including latency percentiles, congestion, cache hit rates, and IOPS distribution	Storage latency distribution analysis vSAN performance metrics	1	partial

Section 4 — Automation and Remediation 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Configure alert definitions with symptom definitions, alert criticality, and recommended actions	Symptoms, alerts and recommendations Symptoms and alerts Building alert definitions	2	covered
4.2	Design notification rules using email (SMTP), REST webhooks, SNMP traps, and syslog forwarding	Notification channel types ITSM integration patterns Alerting and notifications ServiceNow integration options	2	covered
4.3	Configure automated remediation actions triggered by alerts using VCF Operations workflows	Automated remediation flow Rightsizing and reclamation actions Closed-loop remediation lab Automated actions and workflows Rightsizing workflow practice	3	covered
4.4	Implement maintenance schedules to suppress alerts during planned maintenance windows	Alert suppression options Maintenance windows and suppression Planned-change alert handling	1	partial
4.5	Configure VCF Operations automation jobs scoped using custom groups or tags	Policy scoping and overrides Custom groups for policy scope Policy-driven alerting practice	1	partial
4.6	Design proactive monitoring strategies using anomaly detection and predictive analytics	Dynamic thresholds and baselines Dynamic threshold configuration	1	partial

Section 5 — Custom Content and Compliance 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Create advanced custom dashboards with widgets, interactions, and context-driven drill-downs	—	0	gap
5.2	Design and implement super metrics using complex formulas across object hierarchies	Super metric formulas Super metric recipes Super metric design lab	2	covered
5.3	Install and configure management packs and content packs from VMware Marketplace	Management pack installation Third-party adapters Extensibility options PAK file handling	2	covered
5.4	Configure VCF Operations for Logs: agents, log forwarding, masking, filtering, retention, and archiving (NFS, object storage)	Log privacy and redaction	1	partial
5.5	Implement compliance monitoring using VMware Security Baselines (CIS), custom benchmarks, and regulatory frameworks (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST)	Compliance frameworks in Operations Compliance baselines and scoring Applying a benchmark CIS and STIG benchmarking Compliance monitoring design	2	covered
5.6	Configure configuration drift detection with baseline templates and automated drift alerts	Configuration drift detection Drift alerts and baselines Drift detection lab	1	partial
5.7	Implement AI-assisted log correlation for anomaly detection and cross-component root cause analysis	—	0	gap
5.8	Design custom groups and application models for multi-tier dependency-aware monitoring	Custom group membership rules Custom group design lab Grouping objects for analysis	1	partial

3V0-23.25 — Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Storage

Section Quiz16 covered15 partial2 gap

Section 1 — vSAN Architecture 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Differentiate between vSAN OSA and vSAN ESA architectures including data path, caching model, and RAID implementations	ESA single-tier vs OSA two-tier vSAN ESA and OSA fundamentals	1	partial
1.2	Describe the vSAN object model: objects, components, witnesses, and their placement across fault domains	vSAN objects and components model Object health and component states	1	partial
1.3	Explain vSAN ESA single-tier NVMe architecture, log-structured storage engine, and adaptive RAID behavior	vSAN ESA architecture and RAID options vSAN ESA and OSA fundamentals ESA vs OSA design deep dive	2	covered
1.4	Describe vSAN OSA disk group architecture: cache tier, capacity tier, write path, and destage operations	OSA disk group composition ESA and OSA architecture comparison vSAN storage core concepts	1	partial
1.5	Design vSAN Storage Clusters (disaggregated storage) for independent compute and storage scaling	Disaggregated vSAN storage options Cluster topologies and storage disaggregation	1	partial
1.6	Differentiate between principal and supplemental storage in VCF Workload Domain clusters	Principal vs supplemental storage in VCF VCF storage options overview External storage integration in VCF	2	covered
1.7	Describe the role of vSAN within a Supervisor context for Kubernetes persistent volumes	Kubernetes storage classes on vSAN vSAN File Services use cases Persistent volume provisioning practice	2	covered

Section 2 — Storage Policies 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Design VM storage policies for different workload tiers using FTT, FTM, IOPS limits, and object space reservation	vSAN storage policy parameters Policy settings in ESA operations	1	partial
2.2	Differentiate between RAID-1 (mirroring) and RAID-5/6 (erasure coding) in both OSA and ESA contexts	FTT and erasure coding capacity math vSAN storage policy parameters Erasure coding policy design SPBM and FTT host requirements	3	covered
2.3	Calculate storage overhead for different RAID configurations: RAID-1 FTT=1/2/3 and RAID-5/6 in OSA vs. ESA	Raw vs usable capacity calculations ESA vs OSA storage overhead ratios vSAN capacity sizing math	1	partial
2.4	Configure vSAN encryption policies including data-at-rest and data-in-transit encryption with external KMS	vSAN encryption requirements vSAN data-at-rest key management Encryption and hardening practice	2	covered
2.5	Implement IOPS limit policies for noisy-neighbor mitigation in shared clusters	Per-object QoS in storage policies vSAN storage policy parameters	1	partial
2.6	Configure storage policies for vSAN stretched clusters including PFTT and SFTT parameters	Stretched cluster policy and site affinity Stretched cluster design requirements Stretched cluster policy specifics	2	covered

Section 3 — Cluster Operations 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Deploy and manage vSAN stretched clusters with witness appliance configuration and site affinity rules	Witness placement in stretched clusters Stretched cluster witness role Witness sizing and placement Stretched cluster partition scenarios	3	covered
3.2	Configure vSAN File Services for NFS and SMB file shares with access control	vSAN File Services overview vSAN data services and file shares	1	partial
3.3	Configure vSAN iSCSI target service for block-level storage access by physical servers	vSAN iSCSI Target Service	1	partial
3.4	Manage host maintenance operations with decommission modes: Ensure Accessibility, Full Data Migration, No Action	Host maintenance mode evacuation options vSAN data migration modes Object health and rebuild behavior Host failure impact on objects	2	covered
3.5	Configure vSAN cross-cluster capacity sharing (HCI Mesh) and vSAN Storage Clusters	HCI Mesh and disaggregated storage Cluster storage sharing options	2	covered
3.6	Perform vSAN cluster expansion (add hosts) and contraction (remove hosts) with data migration	Adding hosts and vSAN disk claim vSAN disk lifecycle and rebalance vSAN rebalancing behavior	1	partial
3.7	Configure vSAN data-at-rest and data-in-transit encryption with KMS server integration	—	0	gap

Section 4 — Performance and Capacity 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Analyze vSAN performance metrics: read/write IOPS, latency (p50/p90/p99), congestion, and cache hit rate	Cache tier sizing and destage behavior Interpreting vSAN performance metrics vSAN performance service metrics	2	covered
4.2	Use vSAN IOInsight for detailed I/O profiling: I/O size distribution, queue depth, and read/write ratio	vSAN performance service and observer tooling Mirroring vs erasure coding performance trade-offs vSAN performance diagnostics tools Policy selection by workload tier	2	covered
4.3	Calculate raw vs. usable capacity for OSA and ESA RAID configurations with compression factors	Mirroring vs erasure coding capacity vSAN capacity sizing math	1	partial
4.4	Design capacity plans using slack space requirements (25-30% free) and time-to-full projections	Slack space in capacity waterfalls vSAN raw-to-usable sizing formula vSAN capacity thresholds and alarms	2	covered
4.5	Configure VCF Operations for vSAN-specific capacity dashboards and what-if analysis	What-if capacity modeling in VCF Operations Capacity what-if scenario practice Capacity analytics and scenarios	1	partial
4.6	Implement vSAN-to-vSAN snapshot replication for disaster recovery with configurable RPO	Replication choices and RPO targets Validated DR and replication design	1	partial

Section 5 — Troubleshooting 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Diagnose and resolve vSAN health check failures using Skyline Health and CLI tools	—	0	gap
5.2	Troubleshoot vSAN object non-compliance issues including component placement failures and resync operations	Object compliance and resync status Object-level component inspection	1	partial
5.3	Diagnose disk failures in OSA (cache and capacity) and ESA configurations and understand rebuild behavior	Disk failure handling and rebuild ESA disk failure and rebuild behavior Disk replacement procedures vSAN disk failure recovery practice Resync rate and rebuild tuning	2	covered
5.4	Troubleshoot vSAN network partitions and split-brain scenarios in standard and stretched clusters	vSAN network partition diagnosis vSAN quorum and votes in partitions vSAN health check categories	2	covered
5.5	Resolve vSAN performance bottlenecks including congestion, cache saturation (OSA), and latency spikes	Cache destage and ratio sizing Inter-site network requirements vSAN performance metric interpretation vSAN performance and capacity scenarios	2	covered
5.6	Troubleshoot supplemental storage issues (iSCSI, NFS, FC) in VCF Workload Domain clusters	Separating storage from compute metrics External NFS storage integration	1	partial
5.7	Use esxcli vsan, RVC (Ruby vSphere Console), and vSAN Observer for advanced diagnostics	ESXi vSAN CLI command reference vSAN diagnostic tooling in vSphere Low-level vSAN diagnostic commands vSAN health CLI usage	3	covered

3V0-24.25 — Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 vSphere Kubernetes Service

Section Quiz18 covered11 partial3 gap

Section 1 — Architecture 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe the three-layer VKS architecture: Supervisor, vSphere Namespace, and VKS Cluster	VKS architecture layers Supervisor and namespace design	1	partial
1.2	Explain Spherelet and CRX (Container Runtime Executive) for vSphere Pods on ESXi	Spherelet and vSphere Pods Supervisor component roles	1	partial
1.3	Describe Supervisor Control Plane VM deployment, sizing (Tiny/Small/Medium/Large), and HA configuration	Supervisor control plane availability Supervisor control plane sizing Supervisor cluster topology	3	covered
1.4	Differentiate between NSX-backed and VDS-backed Supervisor networking models	Supervisor networking backings NSX networking validation lab Workload Management networking setup	1	partial
1.5	Explain Supervisor Services framework: VKS, Contour, Harbor, External-DNS, and LCI	—	0	gap
1.6	Describe Cluster API (CAPI) and CAPV (Cluster API Provider vSphere) for VKS cluster lifecycle management	Cluster API cluster lifecycle Provisioning clusters via ClusterClass	1	partial

Section 2 — Cluster Lifecycle 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Provision VKS clusters using declarative YAML with ClusterClass and MachineDeployment specifications	—	0	gap
2.2	Scale VKS clusters horizontally by modifying MachineDeployment replicas and adding node pools	Node pool scaling objects ClusterClass topology manifest VKS cluster lifecycle lab	2	covered
2.3	Configure Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler with min/max annotations on MachineDeployments	Cluster Autoscaler on node pools Cluster provisioning with autoscaling	2	covered
2.4	Manage Tanzu Kubernetes Releases (TKRs): check availability, upgrade clusters, and handle air-gapped environments	Content library and TKR images Content library prerequisites	2	covered
2.5	Implement MachineHealthCheck for automated node health monitoring and remediation	Machine health checks in ClusterClass	2	covered
2.6	Perform VKS cluster upgrades following the Supervisor > TKR > VKS Cluster upgrade order	Kubernetes version lifecycle VCF component upgrade sequence Content library TKR subscription TKR version upgrade lab	3	covered
2.7	Manage VM Operator and VM Service classes for VKS worker node specifications	VM Service and VM Classes Deploy a VM via VM Service Namespace resource classes	2	covered

Section 3 — Networking 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Configure Antrea CNI including NetworkPolicies, AntreaNetworkPolicies, and ClusterNetworkPolicies	NetworkPolicy enforcement lab Antrea CNI and network policy	2	covered
3.2	Explain NSX integration with VKS: dedicated Tier-1 gateways and segments per namespace	NSX-backed namespace networking NSX segment and gateway validation	1	partial
3.3	Configure Service types: ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer with Avi NSX ALB integration	Kubernetes service types and LB LoadBalancer service with Avi NSX LB versus Avi ALB NSX networking validation lab	2	covered
3.4	Implement Ingress resources with Contour and Envoy proxy for HTTP/HTTPS path-based routing	Supervisor Services catalog Ingress controller integration lab	2	covered
3.5	Design VKS Supervisor networking with NSX VPC and Centralized Transit Gateway (CTGW)	NSX VPC and Project constructs VPC construct lab	2	covered
3.6	Implement Antrea Traceflow for live packet tracing and network troubleshooting	NSX Traceflow packet walk	1	partial

Section 4 — Storage 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Configure the vSphere CSI driver for dynamic persistent volume provisioning from vSAN	vSphere CSI and StorageClass PVC provisioning lab	1	partial
4.2	Design StorageClasses referencing vSAN storage policies with appropriate access modes (RWO, RWX, ROX)	vSAN file services access modes PVC provisioning lab	1	partial
4.3	Implement ReadWriteMany volumes using vSAN File Services for shared workloads	vSAN file services access modes PVC provisioning lab	1	partial
4.4	Configure volume snapshots and volume expansion for stateful applications	Volume snapshot and restore lab vSphere CSI storage architecture	3	covered
4.5	Explain Cloud Native Storage (CNS) architecture and the PVC-to-VMDK provisioning workflow	vSphere CSI storage architecture PVC provisioning lab	1	partial

Section 5 — Security and Operations 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Configure vSphere SSO integration with VKS clusters including Viewer, Editor, and Owner permission levels	—	0	gap
5.2	Implement external identity providers (LDAP, OIDC) using Pinniped for Kubernetes authentication	VKS identity and SSO integration Namespace access control design	2	covered
5.3	Configure Pod Security Admission (PSA) with privileged, baseline, and restricted policy levels	Pod security and DFW lab Multi-tenant isolation controls	2	covered
5.4	Deploy and manage Harbor as a private container image registry with vulnerability scanning	Supervisor Services catalog Registry and ingress services	2	covered
5.5	Implement Velero for VKS cluster backup and restore including PV snapshot support	Backup with Velero Supervisor Services catalog Backup before upgrade lab Snapshot and restore lab	2	covered
5.6	Configure Prometheus and Grafana for VKS cluster monitoring and alerting	Kubernetes metrics collection	1	partial
5.7	Troubleshoot common VKS issues: cluster provisioning failures, pending pods, PVC binding, LoadBalancer allocation	Supervisor troubleshooting patterns PVC provisioning lab LoadBalancer service with Avi	2	covered
5.8	Implement RBAC with Roles, ClusterRoles, RoleBindings, and ClusterRoleBindings for fine-grained access	Namespace RBAC and SSO Namespace permissions design	2	covered

3V0-25.25 — Advanced VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Networking

Section Quiz16 covered12 partial2 gap

Section 1 — Architecture 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
1.1	Describe NSX architecture across management plane (NSX Manager cluster), control plane (Central Control Plane), and data plane (ESXi TEPs, N-VDS, OVS)	—	0	gap
1.2	Explain transport node architecture including TEP (Tunnel End Points), transport zones (overlay and VLAN), and N-VDS internals	Transport zones and segment types TEP addressing and connectivity Create overlay segment	2	covered
1.3	Describe Geneve encapsulation format, BFD tunnel monitoring, and overlay-to-underlay requirements (MTU >= 1600)	Overlay MTU and fabric sizing BFD and tunnel liveness checks TEP and overlay path checks Geneve encapsulation and MTU validation Geneve overlay segments Tunnel endpoint verification	3	covered
1.4	Differentiate between NSX Manager cluster roles: Manager, Policy, Controller	NSX management and control planes Manager cluster diagnostics	1	partial
1.5	Explain DPU-based acceleration for NSX data plane offloading	Dataplane acceleration on NSX DPDK-accelerated Edge cluster	1	partial

Section 2 — Routing Design 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
2.1	Design Tier-0 gateway HA modes: Active-Active (ECMP) vs. Active-Standby and determine appropriate mode for given scenarios	Tier-0 HA modes ECMP north-south scaling Build T0/T1 routing topology	1	partial
2.2	Configure advanced BGP: route maps, prefix lists, community attributes, AS path manipulation, and BFD timers	BGP inbound route filtering BFD timers and BGP convergence BGP route maps and policies Advanced BGP policy engineering	4	covered
2.3	Design ECMP topologies with multiple Edge nodes peering with physical ToR switches	ECMP path loss and throughput Edge failure scenario matrix	1	partial
2.4	Configure OSPF areas, route redistribution, and inter-area routing on Tier-0 gateways	OSPF on Tier-0 gateways OSPF areas and redistribution	2	covered
2.5	Design NSX Federation with Global Manager and Local Managers for multi-site network management	NSX Federation components Federation Global/Local Managers Federation across two instances Multi-site federation design	2	covered
2.6	Implement VRF gateways for multi-tenant routing isolation on shared Tier-0 infrastructure	VRF-Lite on a shared Tier-0 VRF isolation and route leaking	2	covered
2.7	Design advanced Tier-0 patterns: single centralized, dedicated management/workload, VPC-based, and multi-tenant with Projects	Projects and VPC multi-tenancy VPC construct in VCF 9.0 Tenant routing isolation options	1	partial

Section 3 — Security Services 20%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
3.1	Design and implement vDefend Distributed Firewall policies for east-west micro-segmentation	Distributed Firewall enforcement point Federation and consistent DFW policy Global versus local security policy Kernel-level DFW enforcement Location-aware DFW across sites Lateral security validated design	2	covered
3.2	Configure Gateway Firewall rules for north-south perimeter security on Tier-0 and Tier-1 gateways	Gateway Firewall scope DFW versus Gateway Firewall	1	partial
3.3	Implement Distributed IDS/IPS with signature management, alert modes, and block modes	IDS/IPS modes and actions Scoping IDS/IPS profiles and rules Detection versus prevention mode	2	covered
3.4	Configure URL filtering, Network Detection and Response (NDR), and malware prevention services	URL filtering and gateway features Malware prevention on NSX NDR and cloud analysis	2	covered
3.5	Design security group membership using VM tags, OS type, cluster, and dynamic criteria	Dynamic groups and tag criteria Group membership and rule realization DFW policy with tags and groups Policy realization and convergence	2	covered
3.6	Implement Global IDS/IPS policy management in NSX Federation environments	Federated security policy scope IDS/IPS design and deployment	1	partial

Section 4 — Load Balancing and Network Services 15%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
4.1	Deploy and manage NSX VPC with Centralized and Distributed Transit Gateways	VPC and Transit Gateway constructs VPC connectivity model	1	partial
4.2	Configure VPC subnet types: Public, Private-VPC, and Private-Transit Gateway	VPC subnet types and NAT VPC networking constructs	1	partial
4.3	Design NSX Projects for multi-tenant management with isolated Tier-1 gateways and segments	VPC and Project self-service model Create Projects, VPCs and subnets	1	partial
4.4	Configure stateful services: NAT (SNAT/DNAT/Reflexive), DHCP, DNS, IPSec VPN, and L2 VPN on NSX gateways	Tier-1 services including NAT L2 VPN and segment stretching NAT on the routing topology	3	covered
4.5	Implement NSX-backed Supervisor networking for VKS with VPC and CTGW integration	NSX networking for Supervisor VPC constructs in VCF 9.0 Validate NSX networking for VKS	1	partial

Section 5 — Troubleshooting 25%

#	Objective	Where it is covered	Quiz	Coverage
5.1	Use NSX Traceflow to diagnose connectivity issues and identify firewall rule matches	DFW troubleshooting first steps Interpreting Traceflow observations DFW rule debugging with Traceflow	2	covered
5.2	Analyze packet walks for east-west (same host, cross-host) and north-south (VM to Internet) traffic flows	—	0	gap
5.3	Troubleshoot overlay tunnel failures using TEP connectivity checks, MTU validation, and BFD status	TEP and tunnel failure causes NSX connectivity troubleshooting MTU validation across the path	2	covered
5.4	Diagnose BGP peering issues: ASN mismatch, wrong neighbor IP, firewall blocking, route advertisement problems	BGP neighbor state diagnosis BGP peering on NSX Edges	2	covered
5.5	Use Edge node CLI commands for routing table inspection, BGP neighbor status, and service health checks	Edge node CLI commands	1	partial
5.6	Troubleshoot NAT, DHCP, VPN, and load balancer configuration issues	Load balancer health monitor checks NAT and gateway rule checks Gateway Firewall and NAT order DNAT on Tier-1 gateways Load balancing validated design	3	covered
5.7	Configure and analyze IPFIX flow data and port mirroring for traffic visibility	IPFIX flow export configuration Flow telemetry and collectors	3	covered

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