[VCAP5] VCAP5-DCA exam VDCA550 (Adventures in a Virtual World)

由于VMWare全线升级VDCA510 到 VDCA550,文章列举了具体的异同点，可做参考

原文  http://paulgrevink.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/vcap5-dca-exam-vdca550/

This week, VMware released the new VDCA550 exam. This exam also qualifiesfor the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 – Data Center Administration(VCAP5-DCA) Certification.

So, now two exams qualify for this certification, the other being theVDCA510 exam that has been around since July 2012. The difference betweenthose, the oldest exam is based on vSphere 5.0, the latest is based on vSphere5.5.

With a new exam comes a new Exam Blueprint. Both blueprints can be found here .

Although the Exam Blueprint for the VDCA510 exam is currently on version2.9, there are no changes in the Objectives since version 1.1.

So what has changed in the Exam Blueprint for the VDCA550 exam?

• Section 1.2,     The number of live lab activities (VDCA550; 23 and VDCA510; 26).

• Section 1.6,     The Time limit has changed (VDCA550; 180 minutes and VDCA510; 210). Both     an additional 30 minutes for non-native English speakers.

• Section 1.12,     the environment available during the exam is described in greater detail     in the VDCA550 Blueprint. Also, the vSphere 5.5 environment consist of     five ESXi 5.5 hosts, two vCenter 5.5 Servers, vCOPS 5.6 Foundation,     vCenter Orchestrator 5.5 and vSphere Replication 5.5 appliances plus an     Active Directory domain controller and shared storage.

• Section 1.13     presents an overview of the documentation available during the exam; links     to the actual documentation are included in the Blueprint. You won’t find     this overview in the VDCA510 Blueprint.

• Under the     Objectives, all “ Knowledge sections ” have been disappeared in the     VDCA550 Blueprint. Although some parts moved to the “ Skills and     Abilities ” section.

• The VDCA550     Blueprint does not have a separate Troubleshooting section. Some     troubleshooting objectives have been moved to other objectives.

• The VDCA510     Blueprint has a total of 9 sections; the VDCA550 Blueprint has 7 sections.

New Skills and Abilities been marked as “ NEW ”.
Other Skills and Abilities moved to a new location, e.g. “Configure SoftwareiSCSI port binding” is now part of Objective 1.1. But in the VDCA510 exam itwas part of Objective. 1.3, so it has been marked as: “ VDCA510 Obj.1.3 ”.

The VDCA550 Blueprint has the following sections and objectives

Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage

Objective 1.1 – Implement Complex Storage Solutions

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

• Determine     requirements for and configure NPIV

• Understand     use cases for Raw Device Mapping

• Configure     vCenter Server storage filters

• Understand     and apply VMFS re-signaturing

• Understand     and apply LUN masking using PSA-related commands

• Configure     Software iSCSI port binding, VDCA510 Obj. 1.3

• Configure and     manage vSphere Flash Read Cache, NEW

• Configure     Datastore Clusters, VDCA510 Obj. 1.2

• Upgrade     VMware storage infrastructure

Objective 1.2 – Manage Complex Storage Solutions

• Analyze I/O     workloads to determine storage performance requirements, VDCA510 Obj.     1.1

• Identify and     tag SSD and local devices, VDCA510 Obj. 1.1

• Administer     hardware acceleration for VAAI, VDCA510 Obj. 1.1

• Configure and     administer profile-based storage, VDCA510 Obj. 1.1

• Prepare     storage for maintenance, VDCA510 Obj. 1.1

• Apply space     utilization data to manage storage resources

• Provision and     manage storage resources according to Virtual Machine requirements

• Understand     interactions between virtual storage provisioning and physical storage     provisioning

• Configure     datastore Alarms

• Create and     analyze datastore alarms and errors to determine space availability

Objective 1.3 – Troubleshoot complex storage solutions

• Perform     command line configuration of multipathing options

• Change a     multipath policy

• Troubleshoot     common storage issues

Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking

Objective 2.1 – Implement and manage virtual standard switch (vSS)networks

VDCA510 Obj. 2.1 coversconfiguring switches using CLI tools

• Create and     Manage vSS components , NEW

• Create and     Manage vmkernel ports on standard switches , NEW

• Configure     advanced vSS settings , NEW

Objective 2.2 – Implement and manage virtual distributed switch (vDS)networks

• Migrate a vSS     network to a hybrid or full vDS solution, VDCA510 Obj. 2.1

• Configure vSS     and vDS settings using command line tools, VDCA510 Obj. 2.1

• Analyze     command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details, VDCA510     Obj. 2.1

• Configure     NetFlow, VDCA510 Obj. 2.1

• Determine     appropriate discovery protocol, VDCA510 Obj. 2.1

• Determine use     cases for and configure PVLANs

• Use command     line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations

Objective 2.3 – Troubleshoot virtual switch solutions

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

• Determine and     apply Failover settings

• Configure     explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices

• Configure     port groups to properly isolate network traffic

• Given a set     of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch     technology to use, VDCA510 Obj. 2.4

• Configure and     administer vSphere Network I/O Control, VDCA510 Obj. 2.4

• Use command     line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an     existing vDS, VDCA510 Obj. 2.4

There is no more Objective 2.4.

Section 3 – Implement and Manage Host Clusters

Objective 3.1 – Implement and Maintain Complex VMware HA Solutions

This is VDCA510 Obj. 4.1

• Calculate     host failure requirements

• Configure     customized isolation response settings

• Configure HA     redundancy
      o   Management Network
      o   Datastore Heartbeat
      o   Network partitions

• Configure HA     related alarms and monitor an HA cluster

• Create a     custom slot size configuration

• Understand     interactions between DRS and HA

• Analyze     vSphere environment to determine appropriate HA admission control policy

• Analyze     performance metrics to calculate host failure requirements

• Analyze     Virtual Machine workload to determine optimum slot size

• Analyze HA     cluster capacity to determine optimum cluster size

Objective 3.2 – Implement and manage complex DRS solutions

• Explain DRS /     storage DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3     Knowledge

• Identify     required hardware components to support Distributed Power Management (DPM)     , VDCA510 Obj. 3.3 Knowledge

• Identify EVC     requirements, baselines and components, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3     Knowledge

• Understand     the DRS / storage DRS migration algorithms, the Load Imbalance Metrics,     and their impact on migration recommendations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3     Knowledge

• Properly     configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM, VDCA510 Obj.     3.3

• Test DPM to     verify proper configuration, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

• Configure     appropriate DPM Threshold to meet business requirements, VDCA510 Obj.     3.3

• Configure EVC     using appropriate baseline, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

• Change the     EVC mode on an existing DRS cluster, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

• Create DRS     and DPM alarms, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

• Configure     applicable power management settings for ESXi hosts, VDCA510 Obj.     3.3

• Properly size     virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency, VDCA510 Obj.     3.3

• Properly     apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application     requirements, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

• Create and     administer ESXi host and Datastore Clusters, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3    

• Administer     DRS / Storage DRS, VDCA510 Obj. 3.3

Objective 3.3 – Troubleshoot vSphere clusters

• Configure EVC     using appropriate baseline

• Create and     manage DRS and DPM alarms

• Properly size     virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency

• Properly     apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application     requirements

There is no more Objective 3.4.

Section 4 – Manage Virtual Machines and vSphere Resources

Objective 4.1 – Utilize Advanced vSphere Performance Monitoring Tools

• Configure     esxtop/resxtop custom profiles, VDCA510 Obj. 3.4

• Determine use     cases for and apply esxtop/resxtop Interactive, Batch and Replay modes, VDCA510     Obj. 3.4

• Use     vscsiStats to gather storage performance data, VDCA510 Obj. 3.4    

• Use esxtop/resxtop     to collect performance data, VDCA510 Obj. 3.4

• Given     esxtop/resxtop output, identify relative performance data for capacity     planning purposes, VDCA510 Obj. 3.4

Objective 4.2 – Optimize Virtual Machine resources

• Compare and     contrast virtual and physical hardware resources, VDCA510 Obj.     3.2

• Identify     VMware memory management techniques, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Identify     VMware CPU load balancing techniques, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Identify     pre-requisites for Hot Add features, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Tune Virtual     Machine memory configurations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Tune Virtual     Machine networking configurations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Tune Virtual     Machine CPU configurations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Tune Virtual     Machine storage configurations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Calculate     available resources, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Properly size     a Virtual Machine based on application workload, VDCA510 Obj.     3.2

• Modify large     memory page settings, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Understand     appropriate use cases for CPU affinity, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

• Configure     alternate virtual machine swap locations, VDCA510 Obj. 3.2

Objective 4.3 – Manage advanced virtual machine configurations

The first four Skills and Abilities are identical to those in Objective4.2!!!

• Compare and     contrast virtual and physical hardware resources

• Identify     VMware memory management techniques

• Identify     VMware CPU load balancing techniques

• Identify     pre-requisites for Hot Add features

• Configure     VMware Fault Tolerance, VDCA510 Obj. 4.2

• Upgrade     virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools, NEW

Objective 4.4– Configure and manage vSphere Replication

This objective is all NEW.

• Configure and     manage a vSphere Replication infrastructure

• Configure and     manage vSphere Replication of virtual machines

• Troubleshoot     vSphere Replication

Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance

Objective 5.1 – Implement and Maintain Host Profiles

• Use Profile     Editor to edit and/or disable policies

• Create     sub-profiles

• Use Host     Profiles to deploy vDS

• Use Host     Profiles to deploy vStorage policies

• Import/Export     Host Profiles, NEW

• Manage Answer     Files

Objective 5.2 – Utilize Update Manager for patches and upgrades

• Install and     configure Update Manager Download Service

• Configure a     shared repository

• Configure     smart rebooting

• Manually     download updates to a repository

• Perform     orchestrated vSphere upgrades

• Create and     modify baseline groups

• Troubleshoot     Update Manager problem areas and issues

• Generate     database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL

• Upgrade vApps     using Update Manager

• Utilize     Update Manager PowerCLI to export baselines for testing

• Utilize the     Update Manager Utility to reconfigure vUM settings

Objective 5.3 – Manage vCenter inventory

• Apply vSphere     tags, NEW

• Search     vSphere inventory, NEW

• Troubleshoot     the vSphere inventory infrastructure, NEW

Objective 5.4 – Configure, manage, and analyze vSphere and SSO log files

• Generate     vCenter Server and ESXi log bundles, VDCA510 Obj. 6.1

• Use esxcli     system syslog to configure centralized logging on ESXi hosts, VDCA510     Obj. 6.1

• Test     centralized logging configuration, VDCA510 Obj. 6.1

• Analyze log     entries to obtain configuration information, VDCA510 Obj. 6.1    

• Analyze log     entries to identify and resolve issues, VDCA510 Obj. 6.1

• Install and     configure VMware syslog Collector and ESXi Dump Collector, VDCA510 Obj.     6.1

Section 6 – Secure a vSphere Environment

Objective 6.1 – Manage authentication and end-user security

• Add/Edit     Remove users/groups on an ESXi host, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Customize SSH     settings for increased security, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Enable/Disable     certificate checking, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Generate ESXi     host certificates, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Enable ESXi     lockdown mode, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

Objective 6.2 – Manage SSL certificates
The first four Skills and Abilities are identical to those in Objective 6.1!!!

• Add/Edit     Remove users/groups on an ESXi host

• Customize SSH     settings for increased security

• Enable/Disable     certificate checking

• Generate ESXi     host certificates

• Enable ESXi     lockdown mode

• Replace     default certificate with CA-signed certificate, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1    

• Configure SSL     timeouts, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Configure     vSphere Authentication Proxy, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Enable strong     passwords and configure password policies, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Identify     methods for hardening virtual machines, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Analyze logs     for security-related messages, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

• Manage Active     Directory integration, VDCA510 Obj. 7.1

Section 7 – Perform Scripting and Automation

Objective 7.1 – Execute VMware Cmdlets and Customize Scripts UsingPowerCLI

• Identify     vSphere PowerCLI requirements, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Identify     Cmdlet concepts, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Identify     environment variables usage, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Install and     configure vSphere PowerCLI, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Install and     configure Update Manager PowerShell Library, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1    

• Use basic and     advanced Cmdlets to manage VMs and ESXi Hosts, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1    

• Use Web     Service Access Cmdlets, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Use Datastore     and Inventory Providers, VDCA510 Obj. 8.1

• Given a     sample script, modify the script to perform a given action, VDCA510     Obj. 8.1

Objective 7.2 – Utilize basic workflows using Orchestrator

vCenter Orchestrator was an objective in the VDCA410 exam that qualifiedfor the VCAP4-DCA certification, disappeared in the VDCA510 exam and returnedin the VDCA550 exam

• Configure and     manage vCenter Orchestrator, NEW

• Add     Orchestrator to vCenter, NEW

• Create basic     vCenter management workflows, NEW

• Troubleshoot     existing workflows, NEW

• Import/export     packages, NEW

Some Objectives are no longer part of the VDCA510 exam,like;

• VDCA510     Blueprint , Section 6 contains 5 objectives covering troubleshooting     skills on CPU, Memory, Network and Storage. However, imho one should know     how to troubleshoot a vSphere environment.

• VDCA510     Blueprint, Objective 7.2 “ Configure and Maintain the ESXi Firewall     ”.

• VDCA510     Blueprint, Objective 8.2 “ Administer vSphere Using the vSphere     Management Assistant ”.

• VDCA510     Blueprint, Objective 9.1 “ Install ESXi hosts with custom settings     ”, aka the ESXi Image Builder.

• VDCA510     Blueprint, Objective 9.1 “ Install ESXi Hosts Using Auto Deploy ”.

I hope this is useful, as always, I thank you for reading.