VMware vSphere 8.x Professional Exam: An Overview

VMware vSphere 8.x Professional Exam: An Overview 1200 628 CyberVista now N2K

Written by Troy McMillan

On April 18 of this year, VMware released the VMware vSphere 8.x Professional exam (2V0-21.23). At N2K, our practice test is ALREADY AVAILABLE!

Prerequisites

Passing this exam and satisfying other prerequisites (covered later in this blog) bestows the VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization 2024 (VCP-DCV 2024) certification. This certification validates an individual’s knowledge and skills with VMware vSphere solutions, including virtual machines, networking, and storage.

Additional prerequisites for this certificate depend on your current VMware certification status:

No current VMware certification:

Certification path if you hold a VCP-DCV 2023:

Certification path if you hold a VCP-DCV 2021 or Newer:

Certification path if you hold a VCP-DCV 2020 or Older:

Certification path if you hold a VCP-NV 2021 or Newer OR  VCP-CMA 2021 or Newer OR VCP-DTM 2021 or Newer OR  VCP-DW 2021 or Newer OR VCP-SEC 2021 or Newer OR VCPAM 2021 or Newer OR VCP-EWS 2022 or Newer OR VCPVMC 2022 or Newer OR VCP-CO 2022 or Newer:

Certification path if you completed a vSphere 6.7 course but  never certified:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The various scenarios may have different lists of courses that satisfy the requirement per that scenario. Please refer to the list under the proper heading at the above link.

 

This certification can be the start of a long-term journey to achieve more advanced VMware certifications. As it requires a core understanding of the VMware  system, it serves as the baseline certification for multiple certification tracks:

What is tested in (2V0-21.23) ? 

Here are the objectives :

Section 1 –Architectures and Technologies 

Objective 1.1 – Identify the pre-requisites and components for a VMware vSphere 8.x implementation

Objective 1.2 – Describe the components and topology of a VMware vCenter architecture

Objective 1.3 – Describe storage concepts

1.3.1 – Identify and differentiate storage access protocols for VMware vSphere (NFS, iSCSI, SAN, etc.)

1.3.2 – Describe storage datastore types for VMware vSphere

1.3.3 – Explain the importance of advanced storage configurations (vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI), vStorage  APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA), multipathing, etc.)

1.3.4 – Describe storage policies

1.3.5 – Describe basic storage concepts in VMware vSAN and VMware Virtual Volumes (vVOLs)

1.3.6 – Identify use cases for raw device mapping (RDM), Persistent Memory (PMem), Non-Volatile Memory Express  (NVMe), NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF), and RDMA (iSER)

1.3.7 – Describe datastore clusters

1.3.8 – Describe Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

Objective 1.4 – Describe VMware ESXi cluster concepts

1.4.1 – Describe VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS)

1.4.2 – Describe vSphere Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC)

1.4.3 – Describe how DRS scores virtual machines

1.4.4 – Describe VMware vSphere High Availability (HA)

1.4.5 – Identify use cases for fault tolerance

Objective 1.5 – Explain the difference between VMware standard switches and distributed switches

1.5.1 – Describe VMkernel networking

1.5.2 – Manage networking on multiple hosts with vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS)

1.5.3 – Describe networking policies

1.5.4 – Manage Network I/O Control (NIOC) on a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS)

1.5.5 – Describe Network I/O Control (NIOC)

Objective 1.6 – Describe VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager concepts

Objective 1.7 – Describe the basics of VMware vSAN as primary storage

1.7.1 – Identify basic vSAN requirements (networking, disk count, and type)

1.7.2 – Identify Express Storage Architecture (ESA) concepts for vSAN 8

Objective 1.8 – Describe the role of Virtual Machine Encryption in a data center

1.8.1 – Describe vSphere Trust Authority

1.8.2 – Describe the role of a Key Management Services (KMS) server in vSphere

Objective 1.9 – Recognize methods of securing virtual machines

1.9.1 – Recognize use cases for a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM)

1.9.2 – Differentiate between Basic Input or Output System (BIOS) and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware

1.9.3 – Recognize use cases for Microsoft virtualization-based security (VBS)

Objective 1.10 – Describe identity federation

1.10.1 – Describe the architecture of identity federation

1.10.2 – Recognize use cases for identity federation

Objective 1.11 – Describe VMware vSphere Distributed Services Engine

1.11.1 – Describe the role of a data processing unit (DPU) in vSphere

Objective 1.12 – Identify use cases for VMware Tools

Objective 1.13 – Describe the high-level components of VMware vSphere with Tanzu

1.13.1 – Identify the use case for a Supervisor Cluster and Supervisor Namespace

1.13.2 – Identify the use case for vSphere Zones

1.13.3 – Identify the use case for a VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) cluster

Section 2 – VMware Products and Solutions 

Objective 2.1 – Describe the role of VMware vSphere in the Software-Defined Data Center

Objective 2.2 – Not included in the exam

Objective 2.3 – Identify use cases for VMware vCenter Converter

Objective 2.4 – Identify disaster recovery (DR) use cases

2.4.1 – Identify VMware vCenter replication options

2.4.2 – Identify use cases for VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Section 3 – Planning and Designing – There are no testable objectives for this section

Section 4 – Installing, Configuring, and Setup

Objective 4.1 – Describe single sign-on (SSO) 

4.1.1 – Configure a single sign-on (SSO) domain

4.1.2 – Join an existing single sign-on (SSO) domain

Objective 4.2 – Configure vSphere distributed switches

4.2.1 – Create a distributed switch

4.2.2 – Add ESXi hosts to the distributed switch

4.2.3 – Examine the distributed switch configuration

Objective 4.3 – Configure Virtual Standard Switch (VSS) advanced virtual networking options

Objective 4.4 – Set up identity sources

4.4.1 – Configure identity federation

4.4.2 – Configure LDAP integration

Objective 4.5 – Deploy and configure VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)

Objective 4.6 – Create and configure VMware HA and DRS advanced options (Admission Control, Proactive HA, etc.)

Objective 4.7 – Deploy and configure VMware vCenter High Availability

Objective 4.8 – Set up content library

4.8.1 – Create a content library

4.8.2 – Add content to the content library

4.8.3 – Publish a local content library

Objective 4.9 – Subscribe to content library

4.9.1 – Create a subscribed content library

4.9.2 – Subscribe to a published content library

4.9.3 – Deploy virtual machines (VMs) from a subscribed content library

Objective 4.10 – Manage virtual machine (VM) template versions

4.10.1 – Update template in content library

Objective 4.11 – Configure VMware vCenter file-based backup

Objective 4.12 – Configure vSphere Trust Authority

Objective 4.13 – Configure vSphere certificates

4.13.1 – Describe Enterprise PKIs role for SSL certificates 

Objective 4.14 – Configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager

Objective 4.15 – Configure different network stacks

Objective 4.16 – Configure host profiles 

Objective 4.17 – Identify ESXi boot options

4.17.1 – Configure Quick Boot

4.17.2 – Securely Boot ESXi hosts 

Objective 4.18 – Deploy and configure clusters using the vSphere Cluster Quickstart workflow

4.18.1 – Use Cluster Quickstart workflow to add hosts

4.18.2 – Use Cluster Quickstart workflow to configure a cluster

4.18.3 – Use Quickstart to expand clusters

Objective 4.19 – Set up and configure VMware ESXi

4.19.1 – Configure Time Configuration

4.19.2 – Configure ESXi services

4.19.3 – Configure Product Locker

4.19.4 – Configure Lockdown Mode

4.19.5 – Configure ESXi firewall

Objective 4.20 – Configure VMware vSphere with Tanzu

4.20.1 – Configure a Supervisor Cluster & Supervisor Namespace

4.20.2 – Configure a Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Cluster

4.20.3 – Configure vSphere Zones

4.20.4 – Configure Namespace permissions

Section 5 – Performance-tuning, Optimization, Upgrades

Objective 5.1 – Identify resource pools use cases

5.1.1 – Explain shares, limits and reservations (resource management)

Objective 5.2 – Monitor resources of a VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and vSphere 8.x environment

Objective 5.3 – Identify and use resource monitoring tools

Objective 5.4 – Configure Network I/O Control (NIOC)

Objective 5.5 – Configure Storage I/O Control (SIOC)

Objective 5.6 – Configure a virtual machine port group to be offloaded to a data processing unit (DPU)

Objective 5.7 – Explain the performance impact of maintaining virtual machine snapshots

Objective 5.8 – Use Update Planner to identify opportunities to update VMware vCenter

Objective 5.9 – Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to determine the need for upgrades and updates

5.9.1 – Update virtual machines

5.9.2 – Update VMware ESXi

Objective 5.10 – Use performance charts to monitor performance

Objective 5.11 – Perform proactive management with VMware Skyline

Objective 5.12 – Use VMware vCenter management interface to update VMware vCenter

Objective 5.13 – Complete lifecycle activities for VMware vSphere with Tanzu

5.13.1 – Update Supervisor cluster

5.13.2 – Back up and restore VMware vSphere with Tanzu

Section 6 – Troubleshooting and Repairing

Objective 6.1 – Identify use cases for enabling vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) retreat mode

Objective 6.2 – Differentiate between the main management services in VMware ESXi and vCenter and their corresponding log files

Objective 6.3 – Generate a log bundle

Section 7 – Administrative and Operational Tasks

Objective 7.1 – Create and manage virtual machine snapshots

Objective 7.2 – Create virtual machines using different methods (Open Virtualization Format (OVF) templates, content library, etc.)

Objective 7.3 – Manage virtual machines (modifying virtual machine settings, VMware per-VM EVC, latency sensitivity, CPU affinity, etc.)

Objective 7.4 – Manage storage

7.4.1 – Configure and modify datastores

7.4.2 – Create virtual machine storage policies

7.4.3 – Configure storage cluster options

Objective 7.5 – Create DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules for common use cases

Objective 7.6 – Migrate virtual machines

7.6.1 – Identify requirements for Storage vMotion, Cold Migration, vMotion, and Cross vCenter Export

Objective 7.7 – Configure role-based access control

Objective 7.8 – Manage host profiles

Objective 7.9 – Utilize VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager

7.9.1 – Describe firmware upgrades for VMware ESXi

7.9.2 – Describe VMware ESXi updates

7.9.3 – Describe component and driver updates for VMware ESXi

7.9.4 – Describe hardware compatibility check

7.9.5 – Describe ESXi cluster image export functionality

7.9.6 – Create VMware ESXi cluster image

Objective 7.10 – Use predefined alarms in VMware vCenter

Objective 7.11 – Create custom alarms

Objective 7.12 – Deploy an encrypted virtual machine

7.12.1 – Convert a non-encrypted virtual machine to an encrypted virtual machine

7.12.2 – Migrate an encrypted virtual machine

7.12.3 – Configure virtual machine vMotion encryption properties

What can I use to study?

Recommended Training:

Exam Resources :

N2K’s Practice Test for 2V0-21.23 exam 

Exam Details

Exam questions are derived from the recommended training and the exam resources listed above. Pass/fail status is available immediately after taking the exam. The exam is only provided in English.

  • Exam Code 2V0-21.23
  • Prerequisite Certification  None
  • Delivered by  Pearson VUE at Pearson Vue testing centers and from home online  through OnVUE online proctoring
  • Exam Length 135 minutes
  • Exam Type  70   questions
  • Cost: 250.00
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