Pass the VMware VCP-VCF Architect 2V0-13.25 Questions and answers with CertsForce

Logical design decisions specify how features are configured to meet conceptual requirements. In VMware Cloud Foundation logical design, tuning VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) parameters such as latency sensitivity for workload clusters is explicitly part of logical design because it directly impacts workload performance and cluster behavior. Options A and B are conceptual or operational, and option D is a standard best practice at the physical design layer. VMware documents emphasize that logical design choices define how features (like DRS, HA, and vSAN policies) are implemented .

Constraints are design limitations that cannot be changed and must be worked around.

B (no funding for new storage, so existing must be used) is a clear constraint, as it restricts the architect from proposing new storage hardware.

A (out of maintenance) represents a risk (unsupported hardware may fail).

C and D are requirements, not constraints, because they describe desired functionality of the solution.

Thus, the correct constraint is that existing storage must be used due to funding limitations.

To track configuration drift in VMware Cloud Foundation, the solution uses Configuration Templates and drift checks:

A: Template for the Management Cluster ensures cluster-level baseline is tracked.

B: Scheduling drift checks every 30 days ensures changes are detected.

D: Template for NSX Manager ensures network and security components are included in drift detection.

C (Management vCenter) is not separately templated, it’s part of cluster drift.

E (remediation every 30 days) is not required — detection is enough.

F (Host Profiles) is vSphere-specific, not aligned with VCF’s drift management framework.

RAID-1 policies offer low latency and high performance, ideal for critical workloads such as transactional databases.

RAID-5/6 provides efficient capacity usage, which is preferred for non-critical workloads.

VMware recommends the vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) with 6 nodes minimum for performance and redundancy.The ESA supports better performance with fewer overheads than OSA. VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 promotes using vSAN ESA for mission-critical workloads when latency is a priority.

VMware Cloud Foundation architecture uses the RACR framework (Requirements, Assumptions, Constraints, Risks) to classify inputs:

Business requirements describe high-level outcomes the business wants to achieve, often focusing on cost, efficiency, or customer satisfaction.

Technical requirements define how infrastructure should behave to meet performance, resiliency, or security needs.

Among the given options:

A (growth by 30%) and C (no SPOF) are technical requirements.

B (security and resiliency) is also a technical requirement.

D (reduce operational costs) directly aligns with business goals, making it the correct business requirement.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) defines how quickly a system/service must be restored after a disruption. In this scenario, the infrastructure components should be fully functional within 4 hours.

This contrasts with RPO, which measures data loss tolerance. RTO focuses on downtime tolerance.

VMware Cloud Foundation documentation on BCDR (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery) explicitly defines these metrics during availability planning.

Deploying two VCF Instances allows isolation between environments. One instance can serve as development/test and the other as production.

This separation enables patch/upgrade validation without impacting production. VCF architecture supports managing multiple VCF instances in a Fleet for centralized visibility and policy enforcement.

VMware explicitly recommends separating environments for lifecycle testing in environments with strict change control policies.

A single workload domain in VCF maps to a single vCenter instance. When the host limit for that vCenter is reached (typically ~1000 hosts per vCenter), the correct and supported scale-out design is to deploy a second VI workload domain, which comes with its own dedicated vCenter instance, allowing continued expansion without affecting the existing domain.

According to the VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.2 Design Guide, a vSAN stretched cluster provides zero data loss (RPO = 0) and automated failover between two availability zones within the same region. It ensures continuous availability of workloads with minimal performance impact. The guide specifies:

“Stretching a vSAN cluster automatically initiates VM restart and recovery and has a low recovery time for unplanned failures. The solution supports synchronous replication with a maximum inter-site latency of 5ms RTT.”

This design fully satisfies the RPO (≤5 minutes) and RTO (≤30 minutes) requirements while minimizing performance impact, as all writes are synchronously mirrored between sites.

In contrast:

Backup-based recovery (A) and asynchronous replication (B) cannot achieve RPO < 5 minutes.

Array-based synchronous replication (D) is not applicable to vSAN-only VCF environments and introduces additional complexity.

Therefore, the vSAN stretched cluster is the recommended and VMware-validated solution for meeting near-zero RPO/RTO and automated failover requirements in a business-critical VCF environment.

References (VMware Cloud Foundation documents):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.2 Design Guide — “Stretching vSAN Clusters Across Availability Zones.” (pp. 1039–1042)

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.1 Architecture Overview — “Disaster Avoidance and Recovery with vSAN Stretched Clusters.” (pp. 290–292)

According to the VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.1 Design Framework, Technical Requirements describe how the business and functional goals are to be implemented through technology, configuration, and design mechanisms. The document defines:

“Technical requirements determine how a solution’s business and functional objectives are achieved using technical means such as architecture components, configurations, and integrations.”

These are distinct from business requirements, which define what must be achieved, and constraints, which limit design options. Technical requirements translate abstract needs (for example, availability, scalability, performance) into actionable design implementations (such as anti-affinity rules, distributed switches, NSX federation, or vSAN stretched clusters).

By following VMware’s VCF Design Methodology, architects use technical requirements to shape logical and physical architectures, ensuring that all solution components meet the identified business outcomes and compliance standards.

References (VMware Cloud Foundation documents):

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.1 Design and Architecture Guide — Requirements Classification and Technical Requirements Definition (pp. 58–61).

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.2 Design Framework — Business, Functional, and Technical Requirement Mapping to Design Decisions.