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

To build a vSAN ESA cluster with RAID-5/FTT 1 adaptive storage policy, the absolute minimum number of hosts that need to be part of that vSAN ESA cluster is 3. This is because the vSAN ESA supports a new RAID-5 erasure coding scheme in a 2+1 configuration, which writes the data in a VM as a stripe consisting of 2 data bits and 1 parity bit, across a minimum of 3 hosts. This scheme can tolerate a single host failure (FTT=1) while consuming 1.5x the capacity of the primary data. This scheme is suitable for smaller vSAN clusters that want to reduce capacity usage without compromising performance12 References: 1: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 ExamPreparation Guide, page 15 2: Adaptive RAID-5 Erasure Coding with the Express Storage Architecture in vSAN 8 3

When adding a disk to a host that was previously used in a decommissioned vSAN cluster, the disk may still have some vSAN metadata partitions that prevent it from being recognized by disk management. To resolve this issue, the disk partitions need to be deleted using either ESXCLI or partedUtil commands. This will erase all data on the disk and make it available for use in disk management. References: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23, page 21

To replace a failed cache drive in a vSAN OSA cluster, the vSAN administrator should remove the existing vSAN disk group and physically replace the device. Then check to verify that the ESXi host automatically detects the new device Afterwards manually recreate the Disk Group. This is because when a cache drive fails, it affects the entire disk group that contains it, and vSAN does not allow removing only the cache drive from a disk group. Therefore, the administrator must remove the whole disk group before replacing the cache drive, and then recreate it with the new cache drive and the existing capacity drives. The other options are not correct. Physically replacing the failed cache drive without removing the disk group first might cause errors or inconsistencies in vSAN configuration. vSAN will not automatically create a new disk group or allocate storage after replacing a cache drive, as these actions require manual intervention from the administrator. Rebalancing the cache layer is not necessary after replacing a cache drive, as vSAN will automatically distribute data across all devices in the disk group. References: Replace a Flash Caching Device on a Host; How to manually remove and recreate a vSAN disk group using esxcli

The two prerequisites for using the TRIM and UNMAP capability of vSAN are:

• B. The vSAN cluster is an all-flash architecture. TRIM and UNMAP are only supported on all-flash vSAN clusters, as they can reclaim space from flash devices that use thin provisioning. TRIM and UNMAP are not supported on hybrid vSAN clusters, as they cannot reclaim space from magnetic disks that use thick provisioning1.
• D. TRIM and UNMAP is enabled. TRIM and UNMAP are disabled by default in vSAN, as they might have a performance impact on some workloads. To enable TRIM and UNMAP on a vSAN cluster, the administrator must use the following RVC command: vsan.unmap_support –enable2. After enabling TRIM and UNMAP, the administrator must power off and then power on all VMs that use the vSAN datastore.

The host rebuild reserve is a feature that allows vSAN to reserve space in the cluster for vSAN to be able to repair in case of a single host failure. This reservation is set to one host worth of capacity, which means that if one host in the vSAN cluster fails and no longer contributes storage, there is still sufficient capacity remaining in the cluster to rebuild and re-protect all vSAN objects. This feature prevents the creation of new VMs or powering on VMs if such operations consume the reserved space. By default, the host rebuild reserve is disabled, but it can be enabled in the vSAN Services configuration. The other options are not related to the hostrebuild reserve. References: vSAN Capacity Management in v7.0U1; Configure Reserved Capacity

To avoid storage policy non-compliance, the vSAN maintenance mode option that should be used is Full data migration. This option evacuates all data from the host to other hosts in the cluster and maintains the current object compliance state. This means that the VM objects will have access to all their replicas and will be compliant with their assigned storage policies. The other options might result in storage policy non-compliance, as they do not guarantee full data redundancy or policy adherence. Ensure accessibility only migrates the components that are essential for running the VMs, but might not have access to all their replicas. Partial maintenance mode is not a valid option for vSAN clusters. No data migration does not evacuate any data from the host and might result in VM unavailability or data loss. References: Working with Maintenance Mode; Place a Member of vSAN Cluster in Maintenance Mode

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 protect a virtual machine against a disk or disk group failure, the storage policy must have a failure tolerance method (FTM) of RAID-1 or RAID-6 and a failure to tolerate (FTT) value of at least 1. RAID-1 mirrors the data across multiple disk groups, while RAID-6 uses erasure coding to stripe the data and parity information across multiple disk groups. RAID-5 is not suitable for this scenario, as it can only tolerate one disk failure per stripe. FTT 2 or 3 would require more disk groups than available in the cluster. Therefore, the correct options are C and E. References: 1, page 8; 2, section 3.1

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 expand disk group #2 to have three capacity devices, the vSAN administrator should add the new capacity device to the disk group and vSAN will automatically rebalance. This action allows the administrator to increase the storage capacity of the disk group without disrupting any ongoing operations or evacuating any data. vSAN will automatically distribute data across all devices in the disk group to balance performance and utilization. The other options are not correct. Creating a new disk group with a single capacity device and then migrating the existing capacity devices is not necessary, as it would require more steps and resources than adding a device to an existing disk group. Putting the entire ESXi host or the disk group in maintenance mode and evacuating all data is not required, as it would cause downtime and data movement that could be avoided by adding a device to an existing disk group. References: Add Devices to the Disk Group; 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 achieve the best performance for the database virtual machines and tolerate two host failures in a vSAN OSA cluster, the administrator must use RAID-1 as the RAID configuration in the storage policy. RAID-1 is a mirroring technique that creates multiple replicas of each object across different hosts. RAID-1 provides the best performance among the available RAID configurations, as it does not involve any parity calculations or stripe splitting. To tolerate two host failures, the administrator must set the Failures to Tolerate (FTT) policy to 2, which means that each object will have three replicas. The other options are not correct. RAID-5 and RAID-6 are erasure coding techniques that split each object into data segments and parity segments across different hosts. RAID-5 can tolerate one host failure, while RAID-6 can tolerate two host failures. However, both RAID-5 and RAID-6 have lower performance than RAID-1, as they involve more complex calculations and network traffic. RAID-0 is a striping technique that splits each object into multiple stripes across different hosts. RAID-0 does not provide any data redundancy or fault tolerance, and therefore cannot tolerate any host failure. References: RAID Configurations, FTT, and Host Requirements; RAID 5 or RAID 6 Design Considerations

When a host in a vSAN stretched cluster goes offline, vSAN will use Adaptive Resync to recalculate the quorum on an object. Quorum is the minimum number of votes that an object needs to be available. For example, a RAID-1 object with two data components and one witness component needs two votes out of three to be available. If one data component goes offline, the object still has quorum and is available. However, if both data components go offline, the object loses quorum and is unavailable. Adaptive Resync will adjust the quorum requirement based on the availability of components and fault domains. For example, if one fault domain goes offline, Adaptive Resync will lower the quorum requirement to one vote out of two, so that the object can remain available with one data component and one witness component. References: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23, page 18

To restore the health of the vSAN cluster with minimum risk, the vSAN administrator must remove the devices from the storage pool, replace the storage devices, and claim the new devices in vSAN. This is because removing and replacing devices in a storage pool does not affect the availability or performance of the objects stored in that pool. The storage pool automatically rebalances the objects across the remaining devices in the pool when a device is removed, and distributes the objects across the new devices when they are added. This process is faster and safer than removing and re-adding a host to the cluster, which requires resynchronization of all objects on that host4 References: 4: VMware vSphere Storage Guide, page 133 : VMware vSAN Design and Sizing Guide, page 38

The impact to any virtual machine that was running on the failed host using vSANPolicy1 is that each virtual machine will be restarted on another vSAN host using vSphere HA. This is because vSANPolicy1 has a Failures to Tolerate setting of 1 failure - RAID-5 (Erasure Coding), which means that each object has four components (three data and one parity) distributed across four hosts. If one host fails, the object can still be accessed with the remaining three components,and vSphere HA will restart the virtual machine on another host. vSAN will also try to rebuild the missing component on another host, if there is enough capacity and resources. The other options are incorrect because they either assume that the object is unavailable or that the recovery process is delayed or impossible. References: [VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23], page 16

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

 To design a HCI Mesh solution with VMware vSAN and VMware vSphere High Availability (HA), two considerations that the architect should assess are: A minimum of three nodes are required within the client cluster for vSphere HA to work. This is because vSphere HA needs at least three nodes in a cluster to form a quorum and elect a master host that monitors the availability of other hosts and VMs. If there are less than three nodes in a cluster, vSphere HA cannot function properly and might fail to detect or respond to host or VM failures. If vSphere HA is to work with HCI Mesh, Datastore with All Paths Down (APD) must be configured to Power off and restart VMs. This is because APD is a condition that occurs when a storage device becomes inaccessible due to loss of physical connectivity, resulting in I/O errors or timeouts for VMs that use that device. When using HCI Mesh, APD can happen if the network connection between the client cluster and the server cluster is lost or disrupted, causing the remote datastore to become unavailable. To ensure that vSphere HA can restart the affected VMs on another host that has access to their storage, Datastore with APD must be set to Power off and restart VMs in the vSphere HA settings. The other options are not correct. A server vSAN cluster can serve its local datastore up to 15 client vSAN clusters, not five. This is the maximum number of client clusters that can mount a remote datastore from a server cluster using HCI Mesh. A client cluster can mount up to five remote datastores from one or more vSAN server clusters, not ten. This is the maximum number of remote datastores that can be mounted by a client cluster using HCI Mesh. References: VMware vSAN HCI Mesh; vSphere Availability; Handling All Paths Down (APD) Conditions

To spread the components across storage devices as much as possible, the vSAN administrator can configure disk striping in either OSA or ESA. Disk striping is a policy attribute that defines the number of capacity devices across which each replica of a storage object is striped. A higher number of stripes can result in better performance and availability, but also consumes more storage space. Disk striping can be configured in OSA by using the Number of disk stripes per object policy attribute, or in ESA by using the Striping Width policy attribute12 References: 1: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 14 2: VMware vSAN Design and Sizing Guide, page 32

To upgrade the complete vSAN cluster as a single task, including firmware and drivers for its hardware, the vSAN administrator should select Remediate All through vLCM to upgrade all hosts in the cluster. This option allows the administrator to apply the image created by vLCM to all hosts in the cluster in a single operation, without having to manually remediate each host individually. The other options are not correct, as they do not perform the upgrade of the vSAN cluster as a single task. Placing all hosts in the vSAN cluster into Maintenance Mode is not necessary, as vLCM will automatically place each host into Maintenance Mode before applying the image. Staging the upgrade of the vSAN cluster through vLCM is only a preparatory step that downloads the image components to each host, but does not apply them. Manually remediating one host at a time in the vSAN cluster is not efficient, as it requires more user intervention and time. References: vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) on HPE; Lifecycle Management with vLCM in vSAN 7 Update 1

The updated policy is serially applied to the virtual machines is the correct answer because changing the rule in the assigned policy will trigger a policy compliance check and a resynchronization of the affected objects. The policy change will not be rejected, queued, or ignored, as it is a valid and supported operation. However, the policy change will not be applied in parallel, as that would cause too much network and disk traffic. Instead, the policy change will be applied one virtual machine at a time, starting with the most critical ones, until all virtual machines are compliant with the new policy. References:

• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 9

The most likely cause for some components to be not in a fully healthy state is that one host is in maintenance mode with the ensure accessibility option. This option creates temporary durability components on other hosts to maintain the required number of failures to tolerate (FTT) until the original components are restored or rebuilt. These durability components are not considered fully healthy because they do not have full redundancy and might not be compliant with the storage policy. The other options do not explain why some components are not fully healthy, as they do not affect the FTT or the compliance state of the objects. References: Durability Components; esxcli vsan debug object overview

The correct answer is A, the disk group must be deleted on each physical host in the vSAN OSA cluster to use the NVMe device. This is because vSAN OSA uses a disk group configuration where one disk is designated as a cache disk and the rest are capacity disks. To replace the cache disk with a different type or size, the disk group must be deleted first, which will erase all data on the disks and trigger a resynchronization of the affected objects. The administrator should put the host in maintenance mode and choose the option to evacuate all data before deleting the disk group. After replacing the cache disk with the NVMe device, the administrator should recreate the disk group and exit maintenance mode. The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• B, the disk group does not need to be removed before adding new cache, is incorrect because adding a new cache disk to an existing disk group is not supported in vSAN OSA. The cache disk can only be replaced by deleting and recreating the disk group.
• C, the host must be removed from vSAN OSA cluster before changing cache devices, is incorrect because removing the host from the cluster is not necessary and will cause more disruption and data loss than putting the host in maintenance mode. Removing the host will also delete its disk groups and require re-adding them after rejoining the cluster.
• D, the cache disk drives must have a larger capacity, is incorrect because there is no requirement for the cache disk to have a larger capacity than the existing one. The cache disk size should be determined by the workload characteristics and performance requirements, not by the expansion process. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 10