VMware 2V0-15.25 VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Support Exam Practice Test

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation, each VPC is governed by aVPC Service Profile, which defines the default network services applied to the VPC’s DHCP server—this includesDNS servers, NTP servers, DHCP lease values, and other network attributes. When a subnet is associated with a VPC and DHCP is enabled, the DHCP service inherits its DNS and NTP configuration from the VPC Service Profile.

In the scenario, virtual machines attached to the new VPC subnet receive an IP address, but not DNS or NTP settings. This indicates that the DHCP server is functioning correctly, but its service profile lacks DNS and NTP configuration. Updating thedefault VPC Service Profileallows the administrator to specify DNS resolver addresses and NTP time sources, which will then automatically be pushed to all DHCP-enabled subnets under that VPC.

Option B (changing to DHCP Relay) is incorrect because relay mode does not configure DNS/NTP—it delegates DHCP to an external DHCP server.

Option C (enable DNS/NTP passthrough) is not a feature of NSX DHCP.

Option D (changing connectivity mode) affects routing and service placement, not DHCP options.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Operations manages credentials for integrated components such as vCenter Server through its internal password vault. When administrators modify passwordsdirectly on the component—such as manually changing thevCenter rootpassword—VCF Operations is no longer able to authenticate using its stored credentials. As a result, any password rotation or update operation initiated through VCF Operations fails during the validation step.

The error"Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials"is a direct symptom of this condition. VCF Operations attempts to log in to vCenter using thepreviously stored credential, which no longer matches the actual root password. Documentation describes this as an "out-of-sync credential state," and the resolution is to performpassword remediationto re-synchronize VCF Operations with the system.

Option A (password complexity) is irrelevant because complexity is validated only after authentication.

Option C (vCenter down) would generate connectivity errors, not authentication errors.

Option D (SSH disabled) does not prevent password rotation because VCF Operations uses VMware Tools guest operations, not SSH, for authentication.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0,all host commissioning operationsare performed throughVCF Operations, not through vSphere Client, Cloud Builder, or the VCF Installer. Once VCF is deployed, Cloud Builder is no longer used, and the VCF Installer is for lifecycle and bundle management—not for host workflows. The vSphere Client also cannot commission hosts because host commissioning is a foundational VCF workflow requiring hardware validation, storage type checks, NIC checks, HCL conformance, and version compatibility.

The error message provided:

“Hosts must be unassigned, commissioned with at least one physical NIC and the same storage type… and the ESX version must be compatible…”

is a standard VCF 9.0 validation message shown whenno commissioned hostsmatching the workload domain requirements exist. VMware documentation states that hosts must be commissioned under:

VCF Operations → Fleet Management → Hosts → Commission Host

Here, VCF validates:

Storage type (vSAN ESA, vSAN OSA, NFS, FC, etc.)

Network pool membership (matching the WLD plan)

ESXi version compatibility with the Management Domain baseline

NIC mapping and certifications

Until hosts are commissioned, they cannot appear in the workload domain creation wizard.

Thus, the correct method to commission hosts isD. Using VCF Operations.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, password changes mademanually on an NSX Edge Transport Nodearenot automatically synchronizedwith VCF Operations. VCF Operations maintains secure credential records for all managed components, including NSX Manager appliances and NSX Edge Transport Nodes. When credentials become stale—such as after a password expiration and manual reset—VCF Operations marks the credential object asout of syncand requires administrative remediation.

The official workflow described in VCF 9.0 Operations documentation states that administrators must use the“Remediate Password”function whenever a password was changed outside of VCF Operations, ensuring that the platform revalidates and updates the stored credentials used for monitoring, log collection, and automation tasks. Options such as “rotate,” “sync,” or “update” do not apply because rotation implies generating a new password managed by VCF, and “sync” does not overwrite the stored credential. Only remediation forces VCF Operations to re-validate and align credentials with the external system.

Therefore, after manually resetting the NSX Edge admin password, the administrator must perform passwordremediationin VCF Operations to restore operational consistency, makingBthe correct and verified answer.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation, every Organization requires a properly configured Networking Configuration for each Region in which it operates. This configuration step—performed by the Provider Administrator—creates the NSX Project corresponding to the Organization, enabling Namespace creation, VPC visibility, and workload provisioning.

The error “Failed to list VPC after selecting a region” combined with the absence of an NSX Project in NSX Manager is a direct indicator that the Organization’s Networking Configuration was never initialized. VCF Automation automatically creates the NSX Project only when the Provider Admin completes this step.

Option B is invalid because the Organization Administrator cannot create NSX Projects manually; they are system-generated during networking setup.

Option C is incorrect because role assignment affects administrative permissions, not NSX project creation.

Option D is also incorrect—the Organization Admin cannot create a VPC until the NSX Project exists.

The error:

“Internal Error: Failed to retrieve vim client”

occurs whenVCF Operations cannot establish a functional API session with vCenter. Thevim clientis the internal vSphere API client library used by VCF Operations to perform cluster actions such as modifying DRS settings, powering on/off workloads, or retrieving inventory.

When this error appears, VMware documentation identifies these common root causes:

Loss of connectivity between VCF Operations and vCenter

DNS resolution issues

Network interruption

Stale or expired authentication tokens

Credential mismatchIf the vCenter password was changed manually, VCF Operations may be unable to authenticate.

vCenter services restarting or unavailableIf vCenter backend services (vpxd, sts, etc.) are unstable, VCF Operations cannot establish a vim session.

Option A is incorrect—DRS automation state in the vSphere Client does not cause vim client retrieval errors.

Option B (vCenter overloaded by API requests) would cause timeouts, not a vim client initialization failure.

Option D (insufficient licensing) affects feature use, not API connectivity.

In VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 usingdisconnected mode licensing, VCF Operations does not automatically synchronize license status with VMware’s cloud services. Instead, the administrator must periodically refresh the license file using amanual offline workflow. When the VCF Operations console reports that licenses have expired, it means the license entitlement in theVCF Business Services portalis out of date, and therefore VCF Operations cannot validate the current usage.

The VMware-documented offline licensing workflow requires the following steps:

Export the usage filefrom VCF Operations.This usage file contains consumption details needed to generate a new offline license.→C is correct.

Upload the usage file to the VCF Business Services consoleand generate a new offline license file.In disconnected mode, the Business Services portal is the only mechanism to create updated license entitlements.→D is correct.

Import the updated VCF license file into VCF Operations, specifically assigning it to theSDDC Manager.SDDC Manager is the system that validates and enforces licensing across workload domains, so the new license must be applied there—not only to a vCenter.→F is correct.

Options A and B do not affect license validation.

Option E is incorrect because workload-domain vCenter licensing is independent and not the root cause of VCF license expiration.

The status"Node Not Ready"in the NSX Manager UI (specifically in theConfiguration Statecolumn of the Edge Transport Nodes view) indicates that the NSX Manager has failed to push or validate the necessary configuration to the Edge VM.

Check Uplink Network Configuration (Option C):This is the most common cause for a "Node Not Ready" state during deployment or operation. For an Edge Node to be "Ready" (Success/Up), it must have a validTransport Nodeconfiguration, which includes theUplink Profile,IP Pool(for TEPs), and mapping to theFastpath Interfaces(N-VDS). If the uplink configuration is missing, incorrect, or the management plane cannot communicate with the edge to apply it, the node remains in a "Not Ready" state.

Why not Option A?While an Edge must be in anEdge Clusterto beutilizedby a Tier-0 Gateway, a standalone Edge Node should still report a status of "Success" (Configuration) and "Up" (Node Status) if it is healthy. Adding a "Not Ready" (unhealthy/unconfigured) node to a cluster will not fix the underlying configuration issue.

Why not Option D?Missing CPU reservations typically lead to a"Degraded"status or service crashes (Dataplane down), but "Node Not Ready" is the specific indicator of an incomplete or stalled configuration workflow, usually tied to the transport/uplink setup.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, usingvSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA)withAuto-Policy Management, the system automatically selects the correct storage policy based on the cluster size and desired failure protection. When the administrator configures tolerance for a single failure (FTT=1 using RAID-1 mirroring), vSAN ESA requiressufficient remaining hosts during a failure eventto reprotect objects.

Aminimum of 3 ESA-capable hostsis required for RAID-1, and re-protection after a failure requires enough hosts with available capacity to place new replica components. In small ESA clusters (e.g., 3 or 4 nodes), if one host fails, the remaining hosts may not meet the placement rules for automatic rebuild to restore compliance. ESA enforces strict placement rules to maintain consistent performance and resilience; if vSAN determines that object layout compliance cannot be restored without violating these rules, it entersReduced availability with no rebuildstate.

This behavior is expected and documented: rebuilds cannot occur if the cluster does not have sufficient hosts or free capacity to recreate absent components. The administrator’s ESA configuration behaved correctly given the cluster size limitation, makingBthe correct answer.

To collect detailed per-VM CPU metrics—especiallyCPU Ready (%RDY)—the correct command-line utility on an ESXi host isesxtop. This tool provides real-time, low-level performance data for CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, and is the authoritative method for diagnosing CPU contention issues in VMware environments.

When troubleshootinghigh CPU Ready times, esxtop allows administrators to:

View CPU contention at the VM level

Inspect co-stop, wait, and scheduling delays

Monitor NUMA distribution and pCPU saturation

Capture historical performance snapshots using batch mode

The other options do not provide the necessary VM-level CPU scheduling metrics:

A. vimtop: Only available on vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), not ESXi; doesnotshow VM CPU ready.

B. esxcli: Used for configuration and health checks; not for real-time CPU metrics.

C. vim-cmd: Used to manage VMs via vSphere API bindings; not a performance monitoring tool.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 introduces a major architectural redesign that replaces the traditional SDDC Manager–centric domain management model with aunified Fleet Management architectureimplemented throughVCF Operations Fleet Manager. In this model, each Workload Domain operates withits own vCenter, but Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) isremovedto improve isolation, reduce blast radius, and support multi-site scalability. As a result, administrators logged into the vSphere Client of the Management Domaincan no longer manage or expand clusters in other Workload Domains, which explains why the vSphere UI blocks the attempted expansion of WLD-02.

Fleet Manager becomes the new authoritative control plane for lifecycle, topology, host commissioning, and workload domain expansion. Only Fleet Manager maintains the fullglobal viewnecessary to orchestrate cluster addition operations across distributed vCenters and domains. Because WLD-02 is running VCF 9.0 and is fully fleet-aware, its expansion must occur throughVCF Operations Fleet Manager, not through the vSphere Client or legacy SDDC Manager workflows.

Options involving WLD-03 are invalid since that domain is running VCF 5.2.1, is isolated, and cannot participate in fleet-aware operations. SDDC Manager (A) is no longer the correct interface for VCF 9.0 domain expansion operations.

When anNSX Adminaccount becomes locked in NSX Manager, this occurs due to failed login attempts exceeding the lockout threshold for either:

CLI access,

API access, or

UI login, which is tied to API authentication.

Once locked, the only supported method to recover the NSX admin account is tolog in to the NSX Manager console as the root userand manually clear the lockout counters. This is documented in NSX Manager password-recovery procedures and is the standard administrative recovery action.

The root console provides access to:

clear account-lockout admin

or the equivalent reset methods within NSX Manager.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. SSH into NSX Manager as AdminImpossible — the admin account is locked and cannot be used to SSH.

B. Change password age policy in vCenterNSX Manager accounts arenotgoverned by vCenter password policy.

C. Rotate admin password in SDDC ManagerSDDC Manager rotates NSX passwords when unlocked; it cannot unlock a locked account.

AvSAN cluster network partitionoccurs when vSAN nodes cannot communicate over the designated vSAN network. In VMware Cloud Foundation workload domains, the vSAN network relies onL2 adjacency, consistent VLAN configuration, and stable multicast/BUM behavior (in older versions). VCF 9.0 uses unicast-mode vSAN, so multicast-related issues (such as IGMP snooping configuration) are no longer relevant.

A network partition can occur when theVLAN ID on the physical switch port differsfrom the VLAN configured on the vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) for the vSAN VMkernel adapters. The documentation emphasizes thatconsistent VLAN configuration across the physical and virtual networkis required for proper vSAN cluster communication. If a switch port is reconfigured—intentionally or accidentally—to use a different VLAN, the node becomes isolated from the rest of the vSAN cluster, causing:

"vSAN cluster partition" warnings in vCenter

degraded performance

objects marked asnon-compliant

resyncs that cannot complete

Option A (IGMP snooping) does not apply because modern vSAN uses unicast, not multicast.

Option C (Jumbo frames) would cause packet loss only if inconsistently configured, but it doesnotcause a full network partition.

Option D (vSAN Witness on vMotion) is relevant only for stretched clusters and does not cause a partition in a standard four-node cluster.

Application Monitoring in VCF Operations uses Telegraf agents running inside virtual machines. These agents forward metrics to theCloud Proxy, which then sends them to the Operations analytics cluster. One of the most common reasons an agent stops reporting data—especially exactly24 hoursafter deployment—isclock drift or time mismatchbetween the VM (running the Telegraf agent) and the Cloud Proxy.

VCF Operations enforcesstrict timestamp validation. If the timestamps from the agent are outside the acceptable drift window, the Cloud Proxyrejectsincoming data as invalid. In this case, the Telegraf agents appear installed and functional, but no new metrics are received by the analytics engine.

This is a well-known issue documented in VMware Aria/VCF Operations agent-based monitoring, where:

Agents send metrics with local system time.

Cloud Proxy enforces time validation to prevent corrupt metric ingestion.

A drift >5 minutes commonly results inzero data collectiondespite healthy connectivity.

Options B and C cannot stop data flow after exactly 24 hours; they would preventinitialcollection. Option D (virtual hardware/tools compatibility) affects VM operations butnotTelegraf metric time-stamp validation.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation, the Provider Portal must have full visibility into the underlying VCF inventory—includingNSX Managers,clusters,regions,vCenters, andSDDC Manager objects—before new regions can be created for Kubernetes-based deployments (All Apps Orgs).

The issue described:

“The NSX Manager for the workload domain does not appear in the list of available NSX Managers”

occurs whenSDDC Manager is not integratedinto VCF Automation. Without this integration, VCF Automation cannot discover workload domains or their associated NSX Managers. As a result, when attempting to create a new region, the NSX Manager list is empty.

The required action is:

Add the SDDC Manager integration under VCF Automation → Provider Portal → Integrations.

This integration enables Automation to pull:

NSX Manager inventory

vCenter endpoints

Workload domain topology

Cluster details

Only after this integration is complete will the NSX Manager appear and allow region creation.

Option A and D (deploying new WLD or cluster) are unnecessary—inventory access is the problem, not resources.

Option B (triggering inventory sync) cannot work becauseno SDDC Manager integration exists.

When replacing certificates in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations, the system performs strict certificate chain validation. The error shown:

“Certificate chain validation failed due to 'Signature does not match’”

indicates that VCF Operations attempted to validate the presented certificate chain but detected that the server certificate did not correctly match the signing CA certificate. This occursmost commonly when the administrator pastes the server certificate and CA root/intermediate certificates into the wrong fields during import.

VCF requires the certificate bundle to be uploaded in the correct format:

Server certificate→ Server Certificate field

Intermediate certificates→ Intermediate Chain field

Root certificate→ Root CA field

If the chain order is wrong or the server certificate is mistakenly placed in an intermediate or root CA field, the cryptographic signature validation fails. This exact failure mode is documented in VMware certificate replacement workflows.

Option A is incorrect because including an IP address in a CSR does not invalidate chain signatures.

Option B is incorrect because an untrusted CA produces atrustfailure, not asignature mismatch.

Option C is unrelated: accessibility is not required for certificate validation.

When deploying a new workload domain in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), only ESXi hosts that fully meetall pre-requisitesare displayed in the VCF Operations UI for selection. Although all six hosts appear in theUnassigned Host Inventoryin vCenter, VCF performs additional validation before making them selectable for workload domain deployment.

One of the mandatory requirements for any vSAN-enabled workload domain is that the ESXi hosts must be associated with aNetwork Pool configured for vSAN traffic. A network pool defines the host network configuration (VLANs, MTU, NIC mapping) used during domain deployment.

If the two missing hosts are associated with a network pool thatdoes not have vSAN traffic enabled, or are associated withno network pool at all, VCF willexcludethem from the workload domain deployment wizard. This is documented behavior: VCF filters out hosts when required network intents—such as vSAN—are not present.

Other options are incorrect:

A. Management port group enabled for vSAN traffic— vSAN shouldneverrun on the management PG.

B. FTT setting— Has no effect on host visibility; applies only after deployment.

C. Disk partitions— Affects vSAN disk claim but doesnotprevent host selection in VCF.

When VMware Cloud Foundation Operations performs actions on vCenter—such as powering on or off a VM—the tasks are initiatedthrough an integration service account, not the identity of the user logged into the VCF Operations UI. VCF Operations connects to vCenter using a configuredcollector or integration credential, typically a service account defined during initial setup.

VCF documentation clarifies that all automated or orchestrated tasks originating from VCF Operations use this trusted account to ensure consistent auditing, RBAC enforcement, and operational isolation from user identities. Therefore, in the vCenter task pane, the “Initiated By” field always reflects theVCF Operations → vCenter service account, even if the end-user triggered the action indirectly.

Option A is incorrect because the logged-in user does not directly interface with vCenter.

Option C refers to SDDC Manager’s integration account, which is unrelated to VCF Operations workflows.

Option D (administrator@vsphere.local) appears only when vCenter’s built-in admin performs the action.