VMware 5V0-22.23 VMware vSAN Specialist (v2) Exam Practice Test

To view the resynchronizing metrics, the vSAN administrator should open the Backend performance category. This category shows the performance of vSAN data components, such as read/write latency, IOPS, throughput, congestion, and resync traffic. The other categories are not relevant for this task. Disks shows the performance of physical disks in the cluster, Host Network shows the network performance of vSAN hosts, and Resvnc Latency shows the latency of resynchronization operations. References: 1, page 23; 3, section 6.4

Adding one more disk group per host with the same configuration and adding an ESXi host with identical device configuration are the two methods that the vSAN administrator should use to meet the goal of increasing capacity and performance with the least amount of impact. Adding one more disk group per host will increase the raw storage capacity by 20% and also improve the performance by distributing the I/O load across more cache devices and disk groups. Adding an ESXi host with identical device configuration will increase the raw storage capacity by 25% and also improve the performance by adding more compute and network resources to the cluster. Both methods can be done without disrupting any ongoing operations or requiring any data evacuation or resynchronization.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• Replacing all capacity devices with a similar larger device is incorrect because it will not increase the performance and will have a significant impact on the cluster. Replacing the capacity devices requires deleting the disk groups, which will erase all data on them and trigger a resynchronization of the affected objects. This can be disruptive and time-consuming, and also introduce additional network and disk traffic.
• Replacing all cache devices with a larger device is incorrect because it will not increase the capacity and will have a significant impact on the cluster. Replacing the cache devices also requires deleting the disk groups, which will have the same drawbacks as replacing the capacity devices. Moreover, increasing the cache size may not improve the performance significantly, as vSAN OSA uses afixed cache ratio of 70% for write buffer and 30% for read cache, regardless of the cache device size.
• Adding faster cache devices is incorrect because it will not increase the capacity and will have a significant impact on the cluster. Adding faster cache devices also requires deleting the disk groups, which will have the same drawbacks as replacing the cache devices. Furthermore, adding faster cache devices may not improve the performance significantly, as vSAN OSA uses a fixed cache ratio of 70% for write buffer and 30% for read cache, regardless of the cache device speed. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 10
• Expanding a vSAN Cluster

The Skyline Health interval validates online if there are new Health Checks available for vSAN every 24 hours. This means that vSAN checks for new health checks from VMware Analytics Cloud once a day and updates the vSAN Health Service accordingly. The other options are not correct, as they do not match the actual frequency of the online validation. References: About the vSAN Skyline Health

To add 30 additional vSAN ReadyNodes to an existing vSAN cluster with the fastest approach, the vSAN administrator should use a Host Profile that was extracted from an existing host. AHost Profile is a configuration template that captures the settings of a reference host and applies them to other hosts or clusters. This way, the administrator can quickly and consistently configure multiple hosts with the same settings, such as network, storage, security, and services. The other options are not correct. Running vim-cmd to capture and apply the configuration from an existing host is not as fast or convenient as using a Host Profile, as it requires running commands on each host individually. Launching Quickstart to Add Hosts to a vSAN Cluster is not possible, as Quickstart is only available for new clusters or clusters that were configured through Quickstart. Cloning the ESXi boot partition to all new hosts is not recommended, as it might cause conflicts or errors with the host identity, network settings, or licenses. References: Configuring Hosts Using Host Profile; Using Quickstart to Configure and Expand a vSAN Cluster

To upgrade multiple vSAN Witness nodes with vLCM (single image management) that are used for vSAN Stretched and two-node Clusters, the administrator can upgrade two witness node types: appliance witness node and nested witness node. An appliance witness node is a virtual ESXi host that runs on a physical ESXi host and contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster. A nested witness node is a virtual ESXi host that runs on another virtual ESXi host and contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster. Both types of witness nodes can be managed by vLCM as independent nodes since vSphere 7.0 Update 3, as long as they are version 7.0 Update 2 or later. The other options are not correct. A shared witness node is a witness node that serves multiple vSAN clusters, which is not supported by vLCM. A dedicated witness node is a witness node that serves only one vSAN cluster, which is not a specific type of witness node. A physical witness node is aphysical ESXi host that contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster, which cannot be upgraded by vLCM. References: vSphere Lifecycle Manager and the vSAN Witness Hosts; Shared Witness for 2-Node vSAN Deployments

The minimum required number of hosts to provide data redundancy for a vSAN stretched cluster using dual-site mirroring and local protection with 1 failure - RAID-1 (Mirroring) is six hosts. This is because a vSAN stretched cluster requires at least three hosts per site, and each site must have enough hosts to tolerate one host failure. Therefore, the minimum configuration is three hosts per site, plus one witness host at a third site, for a total of six hosts. References: [VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23], page 14

When a host in a vSAN stretched cluster goes offline, the data components on the hosts will be marked as degraded. This means that the data is still available, but the redundancy level is reduced. vSAN will try to rebuild the missing components on another host in the same fault domain, if there is enough capacity and resources. If the host comes back online within 60 minutes, vSAN will resync the data and restore the redundancy level. If the host does not come back online within 60 minutes, vSAN will rebuild the missing components on another fault domain, if there is enough capacity and resources. This will incur additional network traffic across the witness link. References: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23, page 17

To shut down the vSAN cluster using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard, the administrator needs to turn off High Availability (HA) before starting the wizard. This is because HA monitors the cluster for host failures and attempts to restart the affected VMs on other hosts. If HA is not turned off, the cluster might register host shutdowns as failures and trigger unnecessary VM restarts, which can interfere with the graceful shutdown process. Therefore, the administrator should disable HA from the Configure tab of the cluster before using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard12 References: 1: Shut Down the vSAN Cluster Using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard 3 2: Manually Shut Down and Restart the vSAN Cluster 4

Two characteristics of the vSAN Data-At-Rest Encryption (DARE) are that it is Software Defined and works independently of the Cache or Capacity drives installed on the Nodes, and that it continues to operate unaffected during downtime on vCenter Server. DARE is a feature that encrypts all data stored on vSAN disks using AES-256 XTS mode. It does not require Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) to work, as it uses software-based encryption keys that are generated by an external Key Management Server (KMS) or a vSphere Native Key Provider. DARE also does not depend on the type or size of the disks used in the vSAN cluster, as it encrypts data after all other processing, such as deduplication and compression, is performed. DARE can function even when the vCenter Server is offline or unavailable, as it uses key persistence to store the encryption keys on the ESXi hosts or in a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The hosts can access the keys without contacting the KMS or the vCenter Server. The other options are notcorrect, as they do not describe DARE accurately. DARE does not need to be enabled together with the vSAN Data-In-Transit encryption, as they are independent features that can be enabled or disabled separately. Data-In-Transit encryption encrypts data that is transmitted between hosts in a vSAN cluster using secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates. DARE is supported on Stretched Cluster environments, as it can encrypt data across multiple sites using site affinity rules. 

The reason why the vSAN administrator cannot find any vSAN performance statistics on the cluster summary page is that the vSAN performance service is not enabled. The vSAN performance service is a feature that collects and analyzes performance metrics and displays them in graphical charts in vCenter. The vSAN performance service must be turned on manually for each vSAN cluster, as it is not enabled by default. The other options are not correct. The integration of vRealize Operations Manager with the vSAN cluster is not required to view vSAN performance statistics, as they are available in vCenter. The administrator’s permissions on the cluster level do not affect the visibility of vSAN performance statistics, as they are accessible to any user who can view the cluster. vSAN performance statistics are not only available via CLI, as they can also be viewed in vCenter using the vSAN performance service. References: About the vSAN Performance Service; Enable or Disable the Performance Service

To enable vSAN ESA, two requirements that need to be met are: vSAN Standard license or higher, and vSAN ReadyNodes configuration. vSAN Standard license or higher is required to use vSAN ESA, as it is a feature that is only available in vSAN 8.0 or later versions. vSAN ESA is an optional, alternative architecture to vSAN OSA that is designed to process and store data with higher efficiency, scalability, and performance. vSAN ReadyNodes configuration is required to use vSAN ESA, as it is a hardware configuration that is pre-configured, tested, and certified for VMware Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Software. Each vSAN ReadyNode is optimally configured for vSAN ESA with the required amount of CPU, memory, network, and storage NVMe devices. The other options are not correct. vSAN Build Your Own configuration is not supported for vSAN ESA, as it might not meet the hardware requirements or compatibility for vSAN ESA. vSAN Witness Appliance is not required to use vSAN ESA, as it is only needed for stretched cluster or two-node cluster configurations. References: vSAN Express Storage Architecture; vSAN ReadyNode Hardware Guidance

 To upgrade the vSAN environment from vSAN 7.0 U3 to vSAN 8.0 using vLCM in a non-internet connected environment, the administrator should configure the vSphere Lifecycle Manager to download updates from a local UMDS-shared repository. UMDS stands for Update Manager Download Service, which is a component of vSphere Lifecycle Manager that can be used to download patches and updates for ESXi hosts, virtual appliances, and VMware Tools from the VMware online depot and store them in a shared repository. The administrator can then configure the vSphere Lifecycle Manager to use the UMDS-shared repository as a custom depot for patching and upgrading the vSAN cluster. This option allows the administrator to perform offline upgrades without requiring internet access for the vSAN cluster12 References: 1: VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Administration, page 22 2: VMware vSphere Update Manager Download Service, page 5

 If vSAN is able to locate a full replica of 55% of the votes for the noncompliant objects of a virtual machine, vSAN will mark the virtual machine as compliant and automatically recover the noncompliant objects. This is because vSAN uses a quorum-based algorithm to determine object availability and compliance. An object is considered available if more than 50% of its votes are accessible, and compliant if it meets its assigned storage policy requirements. In this case, since 55% of the votes are accessible, vSAN can access a full replica of each object and restore its compliance state by rebuilding any missing or corrupted components. The other options are not correct. vSAN will not power off, mark as inaccessible, or mark as orphaned a virtual machine that has more than 50% of its votes accessible, as these actions would result in unnecessary downtime or data loss. References: Object States That Indicate Problems in vSAN; Accessibility of Virtual Machines Upon a Failure in vSAN

The correct answer is D, add additional capacity disks to each disk group. This is because adding capacity disks to existing disk groups is the fastest and easiest way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore without disrupting any ongoing operations or requiring additional hardware. The administrator can add up to five capacity disks per disk group in vSAN OSA, which means each host can have up to 25 capacity disks in total. The administrator should make sure that the new capacity disks are unformatted and not partitioned, so that vSAN can recognize and claim them. The administrator should also manually rebalance the cluster after adding the capacity disks to distribute the data evenly across the new devices. The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, enable Deduplication and Compression on the cluster level, is incorrect because enabling Deduplication and Compression is not a recommended way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore. Deduplication and Compression is a space efficiency feature that reduces the logical space consumption of data by eliminating duplicate blocks and applying compression algorithms. However, enabling Deduplication and Compression requires a full data evacuation and resynchronization, which can be disruptive and time-consuming. Deduplication and Compression also introduces additional CPU and memory overhead, which can affect the performance of the cluster. Deduplication and Compression is only supported on all-flash clusters, not on hybrid clusters.
• B, add additional capacity by adding a disk on one host and creating a storage pool, is incorrect because creating a storage pool is not supported in vSAN OSA. A storage pool is a new configuration introduced in vSAN 8 ESA, where all disks are treated as capacity disks and use a new algorithm to distribute data acrossthem. This configuration is not compatible with vSAN OSA, which uses a disk group configuration where one disk is designated as a cache disk and the rest are capacity disks. To use a storage pool, the administrator would need to migrate to vSAN 8 ESA on a new cluster with new hardware.
• C, add additional capacity by adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster, is incorrect because adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster is not the fastest or easiest way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore. A vSAN ReadyNode is a preconfigured server that meets the hardware requirements for running vSAN. Adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster would require additional hardware procurement, installation, and configuration. It would also increase the compute capacity of the cluster, which may not be necessary for the workload. Adding a vSAN ReadyNode would also trigger a resynchronization of data across the cluster, which can affect the performance and availability of the cluster. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 10

The VMware solution that requires vSAN usage is VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated software stack that bundles compute virtualization (VMware vSphere), storage virtualization (VMware vSAN), network virtualization (VMware NSX), and cloud management and monitoring (VMware vRealize Suite) into a single platform that can be deployed on premises or as a service within a public cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation relies on vSAN as the primary storage solution for its workload domains, which are logical pools of resources that can be used to run different types of workloads. The other options are not correct. VMware Horizon, VMware Telco Cloud Automation, and VMware Aria Automation are VMware solutions that do not require vSAN usage, although they can benefit from it. VMware Horizon is a platform that delivers virtual desktops and applications across a variety of devices and locations, and it can use any supported storage solution, including vSAN. VMware Telco Cloud Automation is a cloud-native orchestration and automation platform that enables communication service providers to accelerate the deployment and lifecycle management of network functions and services across any network and cloud. It can use any supported storage solution, including vSAN. VMware Aria Automation is not a valid VMware solution name. References: VMware Cloud Foundation Overview; VMware Horizon Overview; VMware Telco Cloud Automation Overview

The correct answer is B, check VMKNICs, uplinks, physical switches, and associated settings. This is because the VMware Skyline Health: Network Latency Check reports the network latency between vSAN hosts and displays the network latency in real time. Failure indicates that the network latency is above the normal threshold, which can affect the performance and availability of vSAN. The network latency can be caused by various factors, such as misconfiguration, congestion, or errors in the network components. The vSAN administrator should check the VMKNICs, uplinks, physical switches, and associated settings for any issues and resolve them accordingly. The vSAN administrator can also use tools such as vmkping or esxtop to test the network connectivity and performance between hosts. The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, immediately reboot the non-compliant hosts, is incorrect because rebooting the non-compliant hosts is not a recommended action and can cause more disruption and data loss than resolving the network issue. Rebooting the hosts will also trigger a resynchronization of data across the cluster, which can affect the performance and availability of vSAN.
• C, rerun the VMware Skyline Health: vSAN Cluster Partition report, is incorrect because rerunning the VMware Skyline Health: vSAN Cluster Partition report will not help to resolve the network latency issue. The vSAN Cluster Partition report checks if there are any network partitions in the cluster that prevent communication between hosts. The network partition can be caused by network latency, but it is not the same as network latency. The vSAN administrator should first fix the network latency issue before checking for any network partitions.
• D, place the non-compliant hosts into an isolated network partition, is incorrect because placing the non-compliant hosts into an isolated network partition will not help to resolve the network latency issue. It will also cause more problemsfor vSAN, such as data inconsistency, reduced redundancy, and degraded performance. The vSAN administrator should avoid creating any network partitions in the cluster and ensure that all hosts can communicate with each other. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 9
• Network Health - Network Latency Check (2149511)

A possible cause of high latency on the vSAN cluster is that there is congestion in one or more disk groups. Congestion is a measure of how busy the storage devices are in handling I/O requests. When congestion is high, it means that the storage devices are overloaded and cannot process the requests fast enough, resulting in increased latency and reduced throughput. Congestion can be caused by various factors, such as insufficient cache capacity, disk failures, network issues, or heavy workload. The other options are not likely to cause high latency on the vSAN cluster. The Virtual Machines can use PVSCSI controllers without affecting latency, as they are optimized for high performance. Erasure Coding is a space efficiency feature that does not impact latency significantly. Jumbo frames are not required for vSAN, and enabling them does not guarantee lower latency. References: vSAN Performance Monitor; [vSAN Congestion Explained]

Using vSAN ESA and the new Storage pool configuration where all disks contribute to capacity is the correct answer because it allows the organization to take advantage of the new features in vSAN 8.0, such as improved I/O flow, better resiliency, and more efficient disk usage. With vSAN ESA, there is no need to create disk groups or designate cache disks, as all disks are treated as capacity disks and use a new algorithm to distribute data across them. This also simplifies the disk management and reduces the overhead of cache management. References:

• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 6
• What’s New in VMware vSAN 8.0

To satisfy the customer’s needs for high-performance, low-latency applications at edge locations, the best deployment option is to use a new three-node vSAN 8.0 All-Flash Cluster with OSA in each edge location and configure each application VM with a RAID-1 VM storage policy. This option will provide the following benefits:

• All-flash clusters offer the highest performance and lowest latency for vSAN, as they use flash devices for both cache and capacity tiers. Flash devices have faster read and write operations than magnetic disks, and they also support advanced features such as deduplication, compression, and encryption.
• OSA stands for One Socket Architecture, which means that each host has only one CPU socket with multiple cores. This reduces the licensing cost and complexity of vSphere and vSAN, as well as the power consumption and cooling requirements of the hosts. OSA also improves the performance of vSAN by eliminating the NUMA effect, which is the latency caused by accessing memory or devices across different CPU sockets.
• RAID-1 is a mirroring technique that creates two copies of each data component and places them on different hosts. This provides high availability and fault tolerance for the application VMs, as they can survive the failure of one host or disk. RAID-1 also offers better performance than RAID-5 or RAID-6, as it does not incur any parity overhead or additional write operations.

The other options are not optimal for the customer’s needs, as they either sacrifice performance or capacity. Option A uses RAID-5, which is an erasure coding technique that splits each data component into three data segments and one parity segment, and distributes them across four hosts. This reduces the capacity consumption by 25%, but it also increases the write latency and network traffic, as each write operation requires four hosts to participate. Option C uses ESA, which stands for Enterprise Storage Architecture, which means that each host has two CPU sockets with multiple cores. This increases the licensing cost and complexity of vSphere and vSAN, as well as the power consumption and cooling requirements of the hosts. ESA also introduces the NUMA effect, which can degrade the performance of vSAN by adding latency to access memory or devices across different CPU sockets. Option D uses RAID-5 with ESA, which combines the disadvantages of both options A and C.

To implement HCI mesh between two clusters on vSAN that are located in geographically separate sites, the vSAN administrator should consider the following requirements:

• Either Layer 2 or Layer 3 communications can be used. HCI mesh supports both Layer 2 and Layer 3 network configurations, as long as the network latency and bandwidth requirements are met3
• The configuration must meet the same latency and bandwidth requirement as local vSAN. HCI mesh requires a network latency of less than or equal to 5 ms RTT between any two hosts in the participating clusters, and a network bandwidth of at least 10 Gbps for the vSAN network vmkernel port3 References: 3: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 15

Utilizing Network I/O Control and isolating vSAN traffic in a VLAN are the two actions that should be taken to configure the new vSAN cluster to meet the requirements. Network I/O Control allows the vSAN administrator to create network resource poolsand assign bandwidth shares or reservations to different traffic types, such as vSAN, vMotion, or management. This ensures that vSAN traffic has guaranteed bandwidth during contention and can achieve better performance and availability. Isolating vSAN traffic in a VLAN enhances the security of the cluster by preventing unauthorized access or interference from other network segments. It also simplifies the network configuration and management by reducing the broadcast domain and avoiding IP address conflicts. Creating static routes between the vSAN hosts, using IOPS Limit rules in storage policies, and enabling jumbo frames are not necessary or recommended actions for this scenario. Static routes are not required for vSAN communication, as vSAN uses multicast or unicast depending on the version and configuration. IOPS Limit rules are used to limit the IOPS allocated to an object, which can degrade the performance and latency of the application. Jumbo frames can improve the network efficiency and throughput, but they are not mandatory for vSAN and require consistent configuration across all network devices. References:

• Network I/O Control
• vSAN Network Design Guide

To ensure the latest network driver is installed on the NIC before remediation, the vSAN administrator should add an individual component to the vLCM image that has the updated NIC driver. This action allows the administrator to override the driver provided by the vendor add-on and use a newer version that is compatible with the ESXi version and the hardware device. The administrator can add an individual component to the vLCM image by importing it from a ZIP file or selecting it from the vLCM depot. The other options are not correct. Making sure the vLCM image is configured to use the most recent version of the vendor add-on will not help, as the required NIC driver is a newer version than the one provided by the vendor add-on. Removing the vendor add-on from the vLCM image or modifying the vLCM image to omit the NIC driver will not ensure the latest network driver is installed on the NIC, as these actions will leave the NIC without any driver update. Manually installing or updating the network driver on the servers is not recommended, as it might cause inconsistency and non-compliance in the vLCM image. References: vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image Components; [Add an Individual Component to an Image]