Pass the VMware VCAP-VKS 3V0-24.25 Questions and answers with CertsForce

VCF 9.0 distinguishes betweenbacking up the Supervisor control planeandbacking up workloadsthat run on the Supervisor, includingvSphere Pods. In the “Considerations for Backing Up and Restoring Workload Management” table, the scenario “Backup and restore vSphere Pods” explicitly lists the required tool as“Velero Plugin for vSphere”, with the guidance to “Install and configure the plug-in on the Supervisor.”

The same document is explicit thatstandalone Velero with Restic is not valid for vSphere Pods, stating: “You cannot use Velero standalone with Restic to backup and restore vSphere Pods. You must use the Velero Plugin for vSphere installed on the Supervisor.”

vCenter file-based backup is documented for restoring theSupervisor control plane state, not for backing up and restoring vSphere Pod workloads themselves. Therefore, to meet the requirement to protect third-party applications running asvSphere Pods, the architect should propose theVelero Plugin for vSphere.

A Global Namespace in a service-mesh-driven, multi-cluster design is fundamentally anorganizational and policy boundarythat lets platform teams treat multiple Kubernetes namespaces—across multiple clusters/regions—as one logical application domain. That is whyBis correct: it defines an application boundary spanning clusters, which is exactly what “GovApp” needs when its tiers are distributed across regions but must still behave as one application. It also explains whyAis correct: the value of a Global Namespace is that you can applyconsistent identity, security, and traffic policiesacross all member namespaces and clusters, rather than configuring them separately per cluster. This supports uniform mTLS/authorization posture, consistent service-to-service access rules, and standardized routing behaviors regardless of where a service instance runs.

The other options describe outcomes that may be enabled by additional service-mesh features, but they are not the corerequirementsthat define a Global Namespace: distributed ingress/egress is not guaranteed simply by the namespace construct, automatic workload placement is typically handled by schedulers/placement engines rather than the namespace boundary, and centralized logging is an observability capability outside the namespace requirement itself.

In VCF 9.0, ingress is described as part ofVKS cluster networking. The documentation’s VKS Cluster Networking table lists“Cluster ingress”and identifies its role asrouting inbound pod traffic. It further clarifies that this function is delivered by athird-party ingress controller, and explicitly namesContouras an example (“you can use any third-party ingress controller, such as Contour”).

That mapping is exactly what optionAdescribes: Contour is deployed to provideingresscapabilities so that inbound requests from outside the cluster can be routed to Kubernetes services and pods according to ingress rules. In other words, Contour is not a storage component (that would align to CSI/CNS/pvCSI), not a node lifecycle manager (that is handled by VKS/Cluster API/VM Service), and not an infrastructure health monitoring tool (that would be metrics/observability tooling). VCF 9.0 positions Contour specifically within theingresspart of the networking feature set, makingAthe correct answer.

In a vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) environment, resource management follows aDeclarative Model. When an administrator uses kubectl edit deployment to manually scale a running workload from 5 to 10 replicas, they are modifying thelive stateof the deployment. However, thesource of truthfor a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster in VCF 9.0 is theCluster YAML specificationmaintained by the Cluster API (CAPI) provider within the Supervisor.

If the administrator redeploys the cluster or if the Supervisor’s controller performs a reconciliation loop, it refers back to the original configuration file. If that cluster YAML file still defines the replica count as 5, the Supervisor will terminate the 5 "extra" pods to match the desired state defined in the configuration. This is a common administrative pitfall; for changes to be persistent across redeployments or updates in VCF 9.0, the underlying manifest (the "Desired State") must be updated. Manually editing the live object only provides a temporary change that will be overwritten during the next synchronization or lifecycle event because the cluster YAML file was not updated to reflect the requested increase.

Answer (Correct Order):

Run the install command:velero install … --provider aws --bucket … --plugins … --backup-location-config …

Apply BackupStorageLocation YAML.

Apply VolumeSnapshotLocation YAML.

Run test backup:velero backup create test-backup --include-namespaces "myapp1"

The correct sequence follows Velero’s operational model: install the Velero components first, then define where backups and snapshots are stored, and finally validate with a real backup. In VCF 9.0, the Velero Plugin for vSphere installation command includes parameters for the object-store provider, bucket, and plugin images, which establishes the Velero control plane in the target namespace and prepares it to communicate with an S3-compatible store.

After the installation is in place, you apply theBackupStorageLocationconfiguration so Velero has a durable destination for Kubernetes backup metadata in the object store. This aligns with the VCF 9.0 guidance that backups upload Kubernetes metadata to the object store and require S3-compatible storage for backup/restore workflows.

Next, apply theVolumeSnapshotLocationso Velero knows how and where to create/track volume snapshots for stateful workloads. The VCF 9.0 install example explicitly includes snapshot/backup location configuration parameters, reflecting that both must be set for complete protection.

Finally, run a test backup scoped to the namespace (--include-namespaces=my-namespace) to confirm end-to-end functionality.

cert-manager addresses the operational risk described (manual creation/renewal causing outages) by making certificate lifecycle management anative, declarative Kubernetes workflow. Instead of treating TLS certificates as manually managed files, cert-manager extends the Kubernetes API with custom resources such asCertificate,Issuer, andClusterIssuer, so certificates and their issuing policies become first-class objects that can be version-controlled and automatically reconciled. This directly satisfies the requirement to usetrusted certificates issued through the corporate CA, because an Issuer/ClusterIssuer can represent that corporate CA integration and define how certificate requests are fulfilled. Once configured, cert-manager continuously monitors certificate validity andautomatically renews and rotatescertificates before expiration, then updates the referenced Kubernetes Secrets so Ingress endpoints remain protected without human intervention. In a vSphere Supervisor / VKS environment, VMware also uses cert-manager on the Supervisor for automated certificate rotation in platform integrations (for example, rotating certificates used by monitoring components), reinforcing the model of automated rotation rather than manual certificate handling.

VCF 9.0 documentation explicitly indicates thatvCenter upgrades and the Supervisor/cluster (Workload Management) upgrade are distinct, noting that “if you have only upgraded vCenter and not the cluster” then DevOps engineers have reduced permissions until the cluster is upgraded. This supports the stated standard that VKS/Workload Management lifecycle can be treated separately from vCenter. For the private registry requirement, VCF 9.0 provides an operational mechanism to authenticate and pull artifacts from private registries: “Registry secrets allow package and repository consumers to authenticate to and pull images from private registries,” implemented via a standard Kubernetes Secret of type kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson.

Taken together, the standard implies (1)asynchronoushandling (separate lifecycle from vCenter) and (2)privatesourcing (images pulled from an internal registry with registry secrets). Therefore, selectingAsynchronous Privatebest matches both requirements in a single configuration choice, aligning with the documented separation of upgrades and the documented need to use authenticated access to private registries.

Hosts and Clusters

To create avSphere Zone(used as a Supervisor Management Zone and/or Workload Zone), the administrator must start from the vSphere Client inventory wherevCenterand its clusters are managed. That’s why the correct starting point in the “Inventories” toolbar isHosts and Clusters—it is the entry point used to select the vCenter object and the target clusters.

VCF 9.0 documents the zone-creation workflow as:navigate to vCenter, thenSelect Configure, thenselect vSphere Zones, and finally clickAdd New vSphere Zone. After naming the zone, youselect a vSphere cluster to add to the zoneand finish the wizard.

This sequence matches the intent of the hotspot: you must first open the inventory view that exposes vCenter and clusters (Hosts and Clusters), then perform the configuration steps under vCenter to define vSphere Zones. Once created, these zones can later be selected during Supervisor deployment (for multi-zone placement) or assigned to namespaces for workload placement.

VCF 9.0 explicitly states: “The VKS exposes three layers of controllers to manage the lifecycle of a VKS cluster,” and then enumerates those layers. The first layer is the set of components that integrate the workload cluster with Supervisor-backed resources, including aCloud Provider Plug-inthat integrates with the Supervisor and enables infrastructure integrations such as persistent volume requests being passed to the Supervisor (which is integrated with Cloud Native Storage). The second layer isCluster API, described as providing “declarative, Kubernetes-style APIs for cluster creation, configuration, and management,” driven by resources that represent the cluster, the VMs making up the cluster, and cluster add-ons. The third layer is theVirtual Machine Service, which provides a declarative API for managing VMs and associated vSphere resources and is used to manage the lifecycle of the control plane and worker node VMs hosting a VKS cluster.

Therefore, optionAis the only answer that matches the three lifecycle controller layers defined in the VCF 9.0 documentation.

VCF 9.0 defines VKS as an upstream Kubernetes offering that isbuilt for vSphereand delivered with “well-thought-out defaults” to reduce operational burden. It states VKS provides an“opinionated installation of Kubernetes”with defaults “optimized for vSphere,” which “reduce[s] the amount of time and effort” typically spent deploying and running an enterprise Kubernetes cluster—this directly supportssimplified management and operations (A).

VCF 9.0 also emphasizes VKS is“integrated with the vSphere infrastructure”(storage, networking, authentication) and is built on a Supervisor that maps to vSphere clusters, creating a “unified product experience.” This supportsconsistent Kubernetes deployment on vSphere (B)because clusters are provisioned and operated in a standardized, vSphere-native way.

Finally, VCF 9.0 states VKS clusters “use open source Linux-based” components from VMware by Broadcom and notes key integrations (for example, CNI options) are open source—supportingleveraging open-source technologies (D).

OptionsCandEare not VKS benefits as stated: VKS targets VKS-provisioned upstream Kubernetes clusters (not “any distribution”), and “pods directly on ESXi” is described asvSphere Pods(Workload Management), not a defining benefit of VKS clusters.