To begin the practice scenarios: Once you have read through the setup instructions below, choose Scenario 1 from the dropdown menu on right. From that point on you can navigate either by the next button or the dropdown menu.
This practice exam is intended to serve as a tool to help you determine your readiness to the take the actual VDCA550 and VDCA510 exams. It contains some questions that apply only to the VDCA550 exam, but most questions apply to both exams. If you are preparing for VDCA510, then work on only exercises 1[nd]26.
Before starting the practice set, you should prepare a personal lab environment that is configured according to the following specifications. If your personal lab environment is not configured as indicated, then you should plan to accommodate for the differences between your environment and the specifications as you perform the exercises in the practice exam.
If you are preparing for exam VDCA510, you should prepare a lab environment based on vSphere 5.1. If you are preparing for VDCA550, you should prepare a lab environment based on vSphere 5.5.
Windows-based vCenter Server: vcenter-01.lab.local[md]Perform a Simple Install. Ensure that VMware Single Sign-on, the vSphere Web Client, vCenter Orchestrator, and VMware Update Manager are installed.
vCenter Server configuration: Configure vCenter Server to manage the following datacenter, cluster, and ESXi hosts:
Datacenter: datacenter-01
HA/DRS Cluster: cluster-01 (DRS: not enabled; HA: not enabled)
ESXi hosts:
VMware Update Manger: Install on vcenter-01.lab.local, but do not configure any baselines.
ESXi host network adapters:
Standard virtual switches:
vSwitch0:
vSwitch1:
vSwitch2:
Distributed virtual switches:
dvSwitch0:
dvSwitch1:
iSCSI Storage: Be sure to configure the iSCSI-1 vmkernel port with IP addresses on the same subnet as the iSCSI storage. Configure the iSCSI software adapter. Configure the appropriate LUNs and masking to provide the following datastores. Do not configure binding on the iSCSI software adapter and do not configure multipathing.
iSCSI-based VMFS datastores:(200 GB,, presented to all ESXi hosts)
VMFS-01
iSCSI-based VMFS datastores: (10 GB each, presented to all ESXi hosts)
VMFS-10, VMFS-11, VMFS-12, VMFS-20, VMFS-21, VMFS-22
Local SSD Storage: In the ESXi host host-01.lab.local, install a drive that is at least 2 GB and mark it as SSD (see VMware KB article 2013188).
Host Profile: profile-01[md]created from host-01.lab.local
Simple VMs (1 vCPU, 1 GB memory, 2 GB virtual disk thin provisioned, no installed guest operating system, stored on VMFS-10, powered-off):
Windows VMs: (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB thin provisioned virtual disk [C:], 200 GB thin provisioned [E:], Windows 2008 R2, connected to VM network, stored on VMFS-01, powered on)
PowerCLI Windows system: A Windows 7 VM named desktop-01. Download this Zip file from VMware VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zip, and store it at d:\depot\VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-depot.zip.
VMware vSphere Replication Appliance: Deploy a vSphere Replication Appliance in a VM named vr01-vclass.local. Only one site will be used during the practice exam. So prepare to allow vSphere Replication to occur within a single site. Reference:
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.replication_admin.doc%2FGUID-50985A20-8622-4269-94E3-7558A4ACB478.html
Sphere Management Assistant: vma-01
vCenter Appliance: vc-app-01.lab.local. Deploy the appliance, but do not use it to manage any ESXi hosts. Create a cluster named Cluster-01, but do not add any ESXi hosts.
The actual exam will require some troubleshooting steps, in which something is broken and you must fix it. In some cases, the actual exam will identify a symptom of the problem that needs to be repaired and provide requirements on fixing it. In other cases, the actual exam might not directly identify the problem or directly bring it to your attention. Instead, you will discover a problem on your own as you attempt to perform the work for a specific exercise and the only way to complete the exercise will be to fix the underlying problem. Naturally, such approaches are difficult to provide in this practice exam, without a means to implement misconfigurations into your personal lab environment without your knowledge.