2V0-17.25 VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Administrator Questions and Answers

TheVCF 9.0 Service Mesh Integration Guidedefines Istio as: “Istio Service Mesh provides an infrastructure layer that transparently handles service-to-service communication, securing, observing, and controlling traffic between microservices.” The key purpose is enabling structured and observable communication between applications. While Istio includes discovery and load balancing, those are features, not the overarching purpose. A centralized routing table (Option D) is not the core definition. VMware documentation highlights Istio’s role inservice-to-service communication, observability, and policy enforcementwithin the service mesh. Therefore, the correct answer isB.

The VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 NSX Projects and VPC Guide outlines the prerequisites for configuring external connectivity using a Transit Gateway (TGW). When VLAN-backed external connectivity is used, the documentation specifies:

“For VLAN-backed external connectivity, ensure that all hosts in the workload cluster where VPC workloads run have physical access to the VLAN(s) used by the Transit Gateway. This ensures end-to-end packet reachability between VPC segments and the physical router.”

Analysis of options:

A (TWO BGP Peers): BGP can be configured later to enable dynamic routing but is not a prerequisite for establishing VLAN-backed connectivity.

B (TNP attached): A Transport Node Profile is required for NSX host preparation, but it is part of the general NSX setup, not the specific prerequisite for TGW VLAN external connectivity.

C (Access to VLANs): This is the critical prerequisite—hosts running workloads must have access to the external VLANs. Without this, connectivity to the physical routers will fail.

D (Access to Edge TEP network): TEP networks are used for overlay traffic (Geneve encapsulation), not for VLAN-backed TGW external connectivity.

Therefore, the correct prerequisite is ensuring all VPC workload hosts have access to the VLAN(s) used by the Distributed TGW.

TheVCF 9.0 Upgrade Guidespecifies required components when converting from a vSphere-only deployment to full VCF. The must-deploy services include:

VCF Operations fleet management– central monitoring of multiple instances.

VCF Operations– core operational monitoring platform.

VCF Operations Collector– required for data ingestion from vSphere, NSX, and vSAN.The Identity Broker is already embedded with VCF 9.0 SSO, while VCF Operations for Logs and Networks areoptional add-onsfor extended visibility. Thus, the required three are:A, D, F.

The VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Deployment Guide and the vSphere 9.0 Installation and Setup documentation describe the standard manual ESXi installation workflow. The steps are as follows:

Boot from installation media: The host is started from the ESXi ISO image, either via physical media, virtual media through iLO/iDRAC, or PXE boot.

Select target disk: During setup, administrators select the disk or device where ESXi will be installed.

Configure management network: After installation, the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) is used to set up basic network parameters for the management interface (IP address, DNS, gateway).

Set root password: A secure root password is set to complete the initial setup of the host.

The documentation makes it clear that these steps form the foundation before the host can be discovered and commissioned by SDDC Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation.

Option A is incorrect because the VCF Installer is not used for installing ESXi; it is used for deploying management domains and workload domains.

Option B includes “Join vCenter,” which happens after commissioning, not during installation.

Option D is incorrect since vCenter Server is installed later, not during the ESXi manual setup.

Therefore, the correct stages of manual ESXi installation are: Boot media → Select disk → Configure management network → Set root password.

The documentation clarifies the scenario when a password is changedoutsideof VCF Operations: “When an error occurs, for example after a password expires, you must manually reset the password in the component product. After you reset the password in a component, you must remediate the password in VCF Operations.” “Password Rotation” is different—it “allows you to orchestrate the rotation” of stored credentials (a planned, VCF-driven change), not reconcile an externally altered password. Therefore, after the direct password change in vCenter, the correct recovery step in VCF Operations is to useRemediate passwordto synchronize credentials and restore management from VCF Operations.

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Per theVCF 9.0 Automation Provider Management Guide:

Supervisor Activation: “Kubernetes-based workloads require Supervisor to be enabled in the Management Domain before deploying organizations.”

Region Configuration: “Organizations for All Applications must be deployed into a preconfigured Region, defined in the Provider Management Portal.”NSX Federation (D) is optional for multi-site deployments. Supervisor is not activated in workload domains (B) but centrally in the management domain. VMware Kubernetes Service (E) is enabled per tenant but not required before Organization creation. Thus, correct prerequisites areA and C.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The VCF Operations 9.0 Monitoring Guide specifies: “For any alert definition to be active in the environment, it must be associated with and enabled in an Active Policy.” . Creating symptom and alert definitions only defines conditions; they do not generate alerts until policies include them. REST notification plugins or payload templates are used for outbound integrations, not for enabling alerts. A super metric is only needed for custom composite KPIs, not for native read latency which is a standard metric already available. Therefore, the required step is to enable the alert in an Active Policy so that when the symptom triggers (latency > 1 ms), the alert activates.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

According to the VCF Automation 9.0 Guide, project creation requires administrative login at the tenant level: “To create a new project, log in as a Project Administrator of that tenant.” . After creation, projects must be mapped to Cloud Zones to determine compute placement. The document also emphasizes: “For scalable user management, assign groups from Active Directory to roles within projects rather than individual users.” This reduces management overhead as new members join.

Namespaces are not mandatory unless Kubernetes Supervisor is being integrated, which is not required in this scenario. Likewise, logging in as an Organization Administrator (F) is not needed for tenant-level project creation. Therefore, the correct steps are: Log in as Project Admin (A), Create a Project (D), Assign a Cloud Zone (B), and Use Active Directory Groups for membership (G). This ensures minimal ongoing administrative effort.

TheVCF Automation documentationdefines its primary use cases as:

Self-Service Catalog– “VCF Automation Service Broker provides a catalog for developers and operators to request services and blueprints.”

Application Dependency Mapping– achieved through integration with VCF Operations for Networks. The guide highlights: “Developers can discover application relationships and map dependencies through automated workflows in VCF Automation.”Alerting (A) is handled by VCF Operations, not Automation. VPC implementation (B) and Private AI (D) are supported solutions but not direct Automation use cases. Therefore, the correct answers areC (Self-Service Catalog)andE (Application Dependency Mapping).

In Kubernetes RBAC,ClusterRoleBindingis the mechanism for granting permissions to resources that are not namespace-scoped. The documentation integrated into VCF 9.0 explains: “ClusterRoleBinding binds a user, group, or service account to a ClusterRole, granting cluster-wide permissions to non-namespaced resources such as nodes, storage classes, or persistent volumes.”

A RoleBinding grants access to namespace-scoped resources. RoleReference is a field within a RoleBinding/ClusterRoleBinding object, not a standalone object. ClusterRoleAccess is not a valid Kubernetes construct.

Thus, to assign permissions at a cluster-wide level, the correct object isClusterRoleBinding.

VCF 9.0 licensing is managed through VCF Operations and the VCF Business Services console. The product requires periodic license updates even in connected mode. The documentation states explicitly: “You must update your licensesat least once every 6 months (180 days).If license usage data is not submitted… your licenses are treated as expired, your hosts are disconnected from the vCenter instance, and you cannot start any workload operations.” This language is repeated in the Licensing Overview and Upgrade/Registration sections, confirming the 180-day requirement applies to both connected and disconnected modes (in connected mode usage submission is automated, but you still must perform an update action). Therefore, the correct interval is180 days.

TheVCF Automation Provider Networking Guidestates:

“Before you can configure Provider Networking, an active Tier-0 (T0) Gateway must be created in NSX Manager and associated with the Provider region.”

This gateway provides external routing and forms the foundation for VPC and tenant networking. Creating a T0 at the Organization level (A) is not correct—organizations consume Provider networking but do not create T0s. vDS in Provider Management (C) or vCenter (D) is unrelated to NSX-based provider networking.

Thus, the required prerequisite is:Create a T0 Gateway in NSX Manager.

TheVCF 9.0 Operations Guide – Views and Reportsexplains the four types of views available for custom dashboards:

Object Relationship View:Displays dependencies and hierarchy between objects (for example, VMs, hosts, datastores) but does not provide exportable tabular data.

Scoreboard View:Provides a high-level KPI visualization of a few key objects but is not intended for large tabular exports.

List View (Correct):Displays tabular data across many objects, such as CPU, memory, and disk metrics for VMs. The guide states:“List views are useful when you want to compare metrics across multiple objects and can be exported to CSV for further analysis.”

Trend View:Focuses on historical data and growth over time, but export to CSV is not its primary purpose.

Because the security team requires bothtabular comparison of VM resource usageand the ability toexport the data to CSV, theList Viewis the only option that meets both requirements.

The vSphere 9.0 Resource Management documentation, included within VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, specifies that Resource Pools are the mechanism to delegate compute resources within a cluster. A resource pool acts as a container of compute resources (CPU and memory) that can be subdivided and assigned to VMs or groups of VMs.

The documentation states:

“Resource pools provide resource isolation, control, and delegation. You can configure reservations, limits, and shares to ensure that mission-critical workloads (such as production VMs) receive guaranteed resources, while development or test workloads consume only available resources.”

This aligns directly with the requirements:

Power on only if resources are available → Achieved via reservations and limits.

Production VMs require guaranteed levels of resources → Enforced using reservations.

Three-tier apps with varying demand → Controlled using shares and limits across multiple resource pools.

Other options are incorrect:

vSphere Availability (A) provides failover, not resource governance.

VCF Operations (B) monitors resource usage but does not allocate or enforce it.

Dynamic Resource Scheduling (D) balances workloads but does not provide delegated, guaranteed allocations per department or application tier.

Thus, the correct feature is vSphere Resource Pools.

TheVCF 9.0 Convergence and Migration Guideoutlines prerequisites and unsupported configurations when moving from a standalone vSphere deployment into VCF-managed workload domains.

Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) must be removed:VCF does not support multiple vCenters joined in Enhanced Linked Mode. Each workload domain has its own dedicated vCenter instance, managed by SDDC Manager. The documentation states:“Before convergence, Enhanced Linked Mode must be deactivated. VCF requires independent vCenters for each workload domain.”

Lifecycle Manager must use Images only:VCF lifecycle operations are exclusively image-based. Baselines are not supported.“All clusters managed by VCF must be converted to vSphere Lifecycle Manager image-based lifecycle management prior to convergence.”

Other options are not required:

25 Gbps uplinks (A) are recommended for high throughput but not mandatory; 10 Gbps uplinks are supported.

An additional vMotion VMkernel (C) is not required by default, as standard vMotion networking is included in convergence designs.

vSphere Standard Switches (D) are not supported; VCF requires Distributed Switches, and existing vDS configurations can be adapted.

Therefore, the two configurations that must change are:Deactivate Enhanced Linked Mode (B)andswitch Lifecycle Manager to Images only (E).