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

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.

According to the VCF 9.0 Operations and vSAN Integration Guide, performance metrics in the vSAN Cluster Performance widget are only available when the vSAN Performance Service is enabled. The documentation states:

“The vSAN Performance Service must be enabled in vCenter Server for each vSAN cluster to collect and visualize performance statistics in VCF Operations. Without this service, performance dashboards and widgets will not display data.”

Option A (Support Insight) relates to telemetry with VMware, not performance widgets.

Option B (Cloud proxy as Collector) is required for general collection but not specific to vSAN widget visibility.

Option C (SMART data collection) provides disk health analytics, not cluster-level performance stats.

Option D is correct, because enabling the vSAN Performance Service ensures that VCF Operations receives and displays data in the vSAN Performance dashboards.

Therefore, the administrator must enable the vSAN Performance Service for all vSAN clusters in vCenter.

Memory tiering in modern vSphere environments allows hosts to utilize different memory technologies (e.g., DRAM and persistent memory tiers) to optimize cost and performance.

The vSphere documentation explains:

“Memory tiering enables efficient placement of memory pages across different memory types, optimizing performance and capacity for memory-intensive workloads.”

The primary use case is for:

Large in-memory databases

Analytics workloads

Memory-intensive applications

Incorrect options:

It does not primarily reduce swap for small VMs (A).

It does not directly boost CPU throughput (B).

It does not address host availability during hardware failure (C).

Thus, memory tiering is best suited for optimizing memory usage for large, memory-intensive workloads.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, certificate replacement procedures for components such as:

vCenter Server

NSX Manager

SDDC Manager

Aria Suite components

require certificates to be provided in PEM format.

From the VCF 9.0 documentation under Certificate Management:

“When replacing certificates with CA-signed certificates, provide the certificate and private key in PEM format.”

Additionally:

“The certificate file must include the full chain (server certificate and intermediate certificates) in PEM encoding.”

Why PEM?

PEM format:

Base64 encoded

Human-readable

Common format for VMware components

Required for SDDC Manager certificate import workflows

Why the Other Options Are Incorrect

A. PFX (PKCS#12)Contains private key and certificate bundled together; not the required format for VCF certificate replacement workflows.

B. DERBinary format; VMware Cloud Foundation certificate workflows require Base64 PEM format.

D. P7B (PKCS#7)Does not contain private key; unsuitable for certificate replacement.

Document References (VCF 9.0)

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Security and Certificate Management

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Replace Certificates with CA-Signed Certificates

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Certificate Requirements and Formats

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, the strategy for monitoring diverse application types (internal, commercial, and open-source) in a consolidated manner relies heavily on the ingestion and analysis of log data.

According to the VCF 9.0 Operations and Monitoring Guide:

VCF Operations for Logs (D): This is the core platform (formerly VMware Aria Operations for Logs) used for real-time log management. It provides a centralized location to collect logs from any source—be it a custom-coded internal app, a commercial database, or an open-source web server. This satisfy the "consolidated manner" requirement by aggregating disparate data streams into a single searchable interface.

VCF Operations for Logs Content Packs (E): To provide "simple" monitoring for commercial and open-source applications without manual configuration, VCF utilizes Content Packs. These packs contain pre-defined dashboards, extracted fields, and alerts tailored for specific applications (e.g., Apache, Microsoft SQL Server, Linux, etc.). By using Content Packs, an administrator can immediately gain deep visibility into the health and performance of diverse applications without building custom monitoring logic.

Why other options are incorrect:

VCF Operations Service/Application Discovery (A & C): These features are used to map relationships between virtual machines and services to understand dependencies. While they help identify what is running, they do not provide the deep "monitoring" (log analysis and alerting) requested for a mix of internal and open-source apps.

VCF Operations for Applications (B): This usually refers to high-frequency metrics and trace analysis (formerly Tanzu Observability/Wavefront). While powerful, it is often more complex to implement across a standard VCF fleet compared to the "simple, consolidated" log-based approach provided by VCF Operations for Logs and its associated Content Packs.

The VCF 9.0 Operations Guide – Metrics and Super Metrics explains that super metrics are used when administrators need to aggregate or compute new values from existing metrics. Super metrics can be applied across multiple objects, such as aggregating the health score of all VMs in a fleet.

The documentation states:

“A super metric is a user-defined formula that calculates a value derived from one or more existing metrics. Super metrics can be applied across objects to provide aggregate insights such as averages or totals.”

Dashboard (A): Dashboards can display metrics but cannot compute new aggregated values on their own.

Symptom (C): Used to define conditions that trigger alerts, not to compute average health values.

Alert (D): Alerts notify administrators of issues but do not calculate averages across many VMs.

Therefore, to display the average health score of all VMs across multiple clusters, the administrator must create a super metric and then visualize it in a dashboard.

Document reference (VCF 9.0):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Observability and Monitoring Architecture

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → VCF Operations and VCF Operations for Logs

Deleting an Organization in VCF Automation requires using the Provider Management Portal, not Fleet Management. Before deletion, dependent resources must be removed.

According to the VCF 9.0 Automation documentation:

Administrators must log into the VCF Automation Provider Management Portal (G).

The Organization must first be disabled (C) to prevent active usage.

All associated region quotas must be deleted (D), since Organizations cannot be removed while resource allocations exist.

Finally, the administrator can delete the Organization (A).

Deleting SSL certificates (B) and the embedded Orchestrator (F) are not required for Organization removal. Fleet Management (E) is unrelated to Organization lifecycle operations.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 documentation for vSphere Supervisor and Kubernetes workload management specifies that Kubernetes-native backup and restore for Supervisor-provisioned clusters is performed using Velero.

From the VCF 9.0 documentation covering Supervisor Services and Kubernetes workload protection:

“For backup and restore of Kubernetes workloads deployed on clusters enabled with vSphere Supervisor, VMware supports the use of Velero to protect Kubernetes resources and persistent volumes.”

Velero is Kubernetes-native and integrates with the Supervisor cluster to protect:

Namespaces

Kubernetes objects

Persistent volumes

TKG clusters

The other options are incorrect for this use case:

Site Recovery Manager (now part of VMware Live Site Recovery) protects vSphere VMs at the infrastructure level, not Kubernetes objects.

Restic is a backup utility used by Velero internally but is not the primary supported platform tool.

VMware Live Recovery is used for disaster recovery at the VM/site level, not Kubernetes-native backup inside Supervisor.

Document reference (VCF 9.0):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Workload Management → Supervisor Services → Backup and Restore for Kubernetes Workloads (Velero support section).

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.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, the construct of VM Applications Organizations was deprecated in favor of All Applications Organizations. The documentation highlights this change:

“Organizations for All Applications provide a unified model for managing both VM and Kubernetes workloads. They support third-party integrations such as Tanzu Salt and Active Directory, and enable deployments to Native Public Cloud endpoints.”

Since the customer upgraded from VCF 5.2, their first new Organization after the upgrade must use the All Applications model. VM Applications Organizations (Option A) are legacy and do not support the full feature set such as NPC or third-party integrations. Option C is incorrect because the Fleet Management API is for monitoring and operational insights, not for creating Organizations.

Therefore, the administrator must create the new Organization as an All Applications Organization in the VCF Automation Provider Management Portal.

VCF 9.0 describes the VKS architecture and explicitly notes: “The Cluster API provides declarative, Kubernetes-style APIs for cluster creation, configuration, and management.” Inputs include resources describing the cluster, VMs, and add-ons. Provisioning flows also present ClusterClass/Cluster API as the supported “cluster type” when creating a Kubernetes cluster via self-service. These extracts confirm that Cluster API is the foundational component used by VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) on vSphere Supervisor to bootstrap and manage Kubernetes workload clusters in VCF 9.0.

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The VCF Operations for Networks (formerly vRNI) enables Application Discovery and Network Visibility. According to VCF 9.0: “Operations for Networks provides flow-based application discovery, dependency mapping, and security planning. This allows administrators to visualize application topology and relationships across the VCF fleet.” By contrast, VCF Operations for Logs provides log aggregation, while the Collector provides integration for metrics, not discovery. The vSphere Supervisor enables Kubernetes workloads, not application discovery. Therefore, to achieve Service and Application Discovery, administrators must deploy VCF Operations for Networks.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, the Account and Password Management table explicitly lists the NSX Local Manager local appliance accounts whose passwords are managed (updated/remediated) through VCF Operations UI or API. Under NSX Local Manager, the accounts shown as managed are:

audit — “Update or remediate by using the VCF Operations UI or API.”

admin — “Update or remediate by using the VCF Operations UI or API.”

root — “Update or remediate by using the VCF Operations UI or API.”

These three correspond exactly to options A (admin), C (audit), and E (root).

Document reference (VCF 9.0):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Account Management Design → Table 674: Account and Password Management in VMware Cloud Foundation (section showing NSX Local Manager accounts: audit, admin, root).

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.

The VCF 9.0 Upgrade Guide specifies 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 are optional add-ons for extended visibility. Thus, the required three are: A, D, F.

According to the VCF 9.0 Container Registry Documentation, Harbor is defined as:

“Harbor is an open source registry that secures artifacts with policies and role-based access control, ensures images are scanned and free from vulnerabilities, and signs images as trusted.”

This description aligns exactly with option A. Harbor is not Bitnami (B), though it integrates with open-source images. It includes vulnerability scanning but is not only an image scanner (C). It does not require GitHub as a source (D); Harbor can integrate with multiple registries.

Therefore, Harbor’s primary role within VCF is to act as a secure image registry with RBAC, scanning, and signing capabilities.

In NSX 4.x integrated with VCF 9.0, default segment security profiles block DHCP servers by default. The NSX Admin Guide states: “To allow DHCP servers on a segment, edit the applied segment security profile and set the DHCP Server Block option to NO.”

Cloning profiles (B, C) is an optional best practice but not required for functionality. The DHCP server block resides in the security profile, not the IP discovery profile, making C and D incorrect. Therefore, the required step is to edit the default segment security profile, set DHCP Server Block = NO, and apply it.

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.

In VCF 9.x, air-gapped bring-up requires staging the required binaries in the VCF Installer. The documented list explicitly includes NSX and VCF Operations among the components to upload. The product guide states: “VMware Cloud Foundation required binaries include… NSX … VMware Cloud Foundation Operations … vCenter … SDDC Manager…” (exact list excerpt). This list does not call for ESX images or the legacy “Lifecycle Manager.”

Therefore, from the given options the two binaries that must be uploaded are NSX and VCF Operations. ESX is pre-imaged on hosts per preparation guidance and is not a required VCF Installer binary; “Lifecycle Manager” is not used in VCF 9.0 bring-up.

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The VCF 9.0 Deployment Guide states:

“Each new VCF instance requires its own management domain consisting of vCenter Server, NSX Manager cluster, and SDDC Manager.”

vCenter (A) is required to manage ESXi hosts and clusters.

NSX Manager (D) provides software-defined networking for the instance.

SDDC Manager (E) is the lifecycle and management component central to each VCF instance.

Supervisor (B) is optional and only enabled if Kubernetes workloads are required. VCF Automation (C) is a separate solution, not part of the core instance bring-up. VCF Installer (F) is the deployment tool, not a persistent component. Thus, the correct components to deploy are vCenter, NSX Manager, and SDDC Manager.

The VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 networking design documentation specifies that container workloads running on VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) with NSX networking require external connectivity via a Centralized Connectivity model. This is implemented using an NSX Tier-0 (T0) Gateway which provides north-south routing to the corporate physical network.

The guide states: “In VKS deployments backed by NSX networking, workloads achieve external reachability through a centralized Tier-0 Gateway, ensuring integration with corporate networking and enterprise services.” This model ensures traffic consolidation, policy enforcement, and simplified routing for Kubernetes workloads.

Round-robin Connectivity is not a supported NSX gateway connectivity model.

Distributed Connectivity refers to east-west NSX overlay communication, not north-south connectivity.

Physical Connectivity is not precise, as workloads do not connect directly to the physical network; instead, they use logical routing.

Centralized Connectivity is the correct model, where the T0 Gateway centralizes external routing for container workloads.

When converging an existing vSphere environment into VCF, certain architectural requirements must be satisfied.

The VCF 9.0 Convergence Guide states that:

The vCenter Server must be running on a cluster it manages (self-managed cluster) to allow SDDC Manager to take ownership during convergence.

Incorrect options:

Baselines (A) are not required; in fact, VCF requires image-based lifecycle management after convergence.

VDS version 7.0 (C) is not a documented prerequisite.

NSX (D) is not required prior to convergence; NSX can be deployed during workload domain bring-up.

Therefore, the required prerequisite is:

vCenter Server VM must be hosted on a cluster it manages.

According to VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 documentation for VCF Automation (Aria Automation integration):

To deploy workloads to specific NSX segments with VLAN-based selection and IPAM integration, the administrator must:

1️⃣ Configure Network IPAM Settings (Option C)

VCF Automation requires network segments to be associated with IPAM configuration:

“To enable automatic IP allocation for workloads, configure network profiles with gateway, subnet, and IP range details for the associated networks.”

This ensures automatic IP address allocation from the internal IPAM.

2️⃣ Create a Network Profile and Associate Segments (Option D)

VCF Automation uses Network Profiles to group NSX segments and associate them with projects:

“A network profile defines the networks available to a project and includes capability tags that are matched during workload deployment.”

Including all appdev segments in a dedicated network profile ensures logical isolation from other projects.

3️⃣ Use Capability Tags for VLAN Selection (Option F)

VCF Automation uses capability tags to match user input to infrastructure:

“Capability tags applied to networks can be matched in cloud templates to dynamically select networks based on user-defined inputs.”

By applying vlan: tags to each segment, a self-service user can specify a VLAN number that determines which segment is selected during deployment.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect

A – Custom groups are not required for network selection.

B – Tagging segments alone is insufficient without associating them through a network profile.

E – Adding networks to the existing development project violates logical isolation requirements.

Document reference (VCF 9.0):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → VCF Automation → Projects and Network Profiles

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Network Profiles and IPAM Configuration

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 → Capability Tags and Network Selection

The VCF 9.0 Service Mesh Integration Guide defines 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 in service-to-service communication, observability, and policy enforcement within the service mesh. Therefore, the correct answer is B.

VCF Operations primarily focuses on metrics, performance, and health monitoring. However, detailed event-level data, log entries, and historical audit records are not fully captured unless log aggregation is enabled.

The VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 documentation explains:

“VCF Operations for Logs provides centralized log aggregation and analytics across all VCF components, including ESXi, vCenter, NSX, and other infrastructure services.”

This solution enhances troubleshooting by:

Collecting syslogs and events from infrastructure components

Providing searchable log data

Correlating events across services

Retaining detailed historical log information

Other options are incorrect:

Management Pack (A) extends metrics, not detailed logs.

VCF Automation (B) is unrelated to troubleshooting logs.

Operations Diagnostics (C) is not the primary log aggregation solution.

Therefore, to capture missing event data for future incidents, the administrator should deploy VCF Operations for Logs.

According to the VCF 9.0 Operations and Monitoring Guide:

Fleet Management: “VCF Operations Fleet Management enables cross-instance monitoring, unifying health and metrics across multiple VCF instances.”

Operations for Networks: “Provides application and network visibility, dependency mapping, and traffic analytics. Required to complete full-stack monitoring.”

Core VCF Operations is already deployed as part of the management stack and does not need to be added separately. Operations for Logs is optional for log aggregation, not mandatory for full-stack observability. The Management Pack Builder (C) is an add-on tool for custom packs, not a required component. Therefore, the correct two to add for full-stack monitoring are VCF Operations Fleet Management (A) and VCF Operations for Networks (E).