5V0-22.23 VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Questions and Answers

The reconfiguring state indicates that some components stored on the vSAN datastore are being moved or resized to meet a new storage policy requirement. This state can occur when the applied storage policy is modified, such as changing the number of failures to tolerate, stripe width, or object space reservation. The other situations will not cause components to enter this state. References: [VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23], page 31

To ensure that a single rack failure is not going to affect the data availability, while minimizing the number of racks used, the administrator has to do the following:

• Distribute servers across at least three different racks. This is because vSAN supports up to three fault domains per cluster, which can be used to tolerate one or two failures. If only two racks are used, then only one failure can be tolerated4
• Configure three fault domains. A fault domain is a logical grouping of hosts that share a common failure point, such as a rack or a power supply. By configuring fault domains, vSAN can place replicas of an object across different fault domains, so that a failure within one fault domain does not result in data loss orunavailability4 References: 4: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 13

vSphere High Availability is the correct answer because it meets the requirements of making the virtual machine available quickly after a failure occurs and minimizing administrative effort. vSphere HA monitors the health and availability of the hosts and virtual machines in a cluster and automatically restarts any failed virtual machines on other hosts within minutes. vSphere HA also supports proactive HA, which can migrate virtual machines from hosts that are about to fail or have degraded performance. vSphere HA is easy to configure and manage, as it only requires enabling HA on the cluster level and setting some basic policies and options. Distributed Services Engine,Fault Tolerance, and vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler are not valid or optimal solutions for this scenario. Distributed Services Engine is a new feature in vSphere 7 that provides network services such as firewalling, load balancing, routing, and NAT for virtual machines and containers. It does not directly affect the availability or recovery of virtual machines after a failure. Fault Tolerance provides continuous availability for virtual machines by creating a secondary copy of the virtual machine that runs in lockstep with the primary copy on another host. If the primary copy fails, the secondary copy takes over without any interruption or data loss. However, Fault Tolerance has some limitations and overheads, such as requiring dedicated network bandwidth, supporting only one vCPU per virtual machine, and consuming twice as much CPU and memory resources as a single virtual machine. Fault Tolerance also requires more administrative effort than vSphere HA, as it needs to be enabled and configured for each individual virtual machine. vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler is a feature that balances the workload and resources across a cluster by automatically migrating virtual machines based on their demand and priority. It does not directly affect the availability or recovery of virtual machines after a failure, although it can work together with vSphere HA to find optimal hosts for restarting failed virtual machines. References:

• [VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide], page 11
• vSphere Availability
• Distributed Services Engine
• vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler

In a vSAN stretched cluster configuration, both data sites are active sites, but one site must be designated as the preferred site and the other site as the secondary or nonpreferred site. This configuration helps to ensure that data remains on a given site in case of a network partition between the sites. If the network connection between the two active sites is lost, vSAN continues operation with the preferred site, unless it is resyncing or has another issue. The site that leads to maximum data availability is the one that remains in operation. The other options are not relevant to this scenario. References: Introduction to Stretched Clusters; vSAN Stretched Cluster Guide

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

vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used is the correct answer because vSAN 8 ESA uses adaptive RAID-5 erasure coding that depends on the number of hosts in the cluster. If the cluster has 6 or more hosts, vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 4 data bits and 1 parity bit across 5 hosts. This provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) and a space efficiency of 1.25x. If the cluster has less than 6 hosts (3 to 5), vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 2 data bits and 1 parity bit across 3 hosts. This also provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) but a space efficiency of 1.5x. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used, is incorrect because vSAN will only use this scheme if the cluster has less than 6 hosts but more than 2 hosts. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.
• B, RAID 5 will provide an FTT=2 level of protection in this case, is incorrect because RAID 5 can only provide an FTT=1 level of protection, regardless of the number of hosts or the data placement scheme. To achieve an FTT=2 level of protection, vSAN would need to use RAID 6 erasure coding, which requires at least 6 hosts in the cluster.
• D, vSAN will spread the components across all of the disk groups, is incorrect because vSAN will not necessarily spread the components across all of the disk groups in the cluster. vSAN will only spread the components across as many disk groups as needed to meet the storage policy requirements and to balance the load and capacity. In this case, vSAN will only need to spread the components across 5 disk groups for each stripe of RAID-5 data. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 11
• Adaptive RAID-5 Erasure Coding with the Express Storage Architecture in vSAN 8

The reason why there are objects in the pending category of the scheduled resyncing in the cluster monitor is that the delay timer has not expired. The delay timer is a configurable setting that determines how long vSAN waits before repairing a non-compliant object after placing a host in a failed state or maintenance mode. The default value is 60 minutes, but it can be changed in the vSAN Services configuration. The pending category displays the objects with the expired delay timer that cannot be resynchronized due to insufficient resources in the current cluster or the vSAN FTT policy set on the cluster not being met. The other options are not correct. These objects do not belong to virtual machines that are powered off, as vSAN resynchronizes all objects regardless of their power state. Object resynchronization does not need to be started manually, as vSAN initiates it automatically when the delay timer expires. There are not too many objects to be synchronized, as vSAN can handle multiple resynchronization tasks in parallel. References: Monitor the Resynchronization Tasks in the vSAN Cluster; About vSAN Cluster Resynchronization

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 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

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 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 configure vSAN Direct, the administrator must meet two requirements: a valid vSAN license for the vSAN cluster and unclaimed disks in the hosts for vSAN Direct. A vSAN license is required to enable vSAN features and services, including vSAN Direct. Unclaimed disks are local storage devices that are not used by vSAN or any other service, and can be claimed by vSAN Direct to create datastores for persistent storage. The other options are not requirements for vSAN Direct. HA is an optional feature that can be enabled on any cluster, but is not specific to vSAN Direct. A dedicated network for vSAN Direct is not necessary, as vSAN Direct uses the same network as vSAN. An integration with vSAN File Services is not required, as vSAN Direct does not provide file shares, but block storage. References: Set Up vSAN Direct for vSphere with Tanzu; vSAN Licensing Guide

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.

To create an image using vSphere Lifecycle Manager, the mandatory requirement is to specify the ESXi version. An image is a collection of software components that define the desired state of hosts in a cluster. An image must include at least one ESXi version component, which determines the base hypervisor software for the hosts. Optionally, an image can also include other components, such as vendor add-ons, firmware and drivers add-ons, or custom components. The other options are not correct. A component is a generic term for any software element that can be included in an image, but it is not a specific type of component. A firmwareand drivers add-on is an optional component that provides firmware and drivers updates for hardware devices on the hosts. A vendor add-on is an optional component that provides vendor-specific software for the hosts. References: About Images; Create an Image

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 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

An all-flash vSAN ESA cluster with four nodes can satisfy the storage policies that require FTT=2 (RAID-1 Mirroring) or FTT=2 (RAID-6 Erasure Coding). These policies mean that the cluster can tolerate two host failures while maintaining data availability and redundancy. RAID-1 Mirroring creates three replicas of each object across different hosts, while RAID-6 Erasure Coding splits each object into four data segments and two parity segments across different hosts. Both policies require at least four hosts in the cluster to meet the FTT=2 requirement. The other options are not correct. An all-flash vSAN ESA cluster with four nodes cannot satisfy the storage policies that require FTT=3 (RAID-1 Mirroring) or FTT=1 (RAID-5 Erasure Coding). These policies mean that the cluster can tolerate three or one host failure respectively, but they require more or less hosts than four to do so. RAID-1 Mirroring with FTT=3 requires at least six hosts in the cluster to create four replicas of each object, while RAID-5 Erasure Coding with FTT=1 requires at least three hosts in the cluster to split each object into two data segments and one parity segment. References: vSAN Express Storage Architecture; RAID Configurations, FTT, and Host Requirements

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

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