Pass the VMware VMware Certified Specialist - vSAN 2023 5V0-22.23 Questions and answers with CertsForce

A durability component is a temporary component that is created when a host or disk group is placed in maintenance mode with the Ensure data accessibility option, or when a host or disk group fails unexpectedly. A durability component improves the availability of data by maintaining the required number of failures to tolerate (FTT) until the original component is restored or rebuilt. A durability component also speeds up the resynchronization process by reducing the amount of data that needs to be copied. The other characteristics are not applicable to a durability component. References: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23, page 10, Objective 6.8; [Durability Components]

Deploying the application on a new cluster with vSAN 8.0 ESA using a new hardware design is the correct answer because it will satisfy the customer’s requirement for low latency. vSAN 8.0 ESA is a new architecture that uses a storage pool configuration where all disks are treated as capacity disks and use a new algorithm to distribute data across them. This improves the I/O flow, reduces the write amplification, and eliminates the cache tier bottleneck. Using a new hardware design with all-flash disks or NVMe disks will further enhance the performance and latency of the application, as these disks have faster read and write speeds than hybrid disks. Deploying the new applications on the existing cluster with a RAID-6 VM storage policy and an additionalstripe width of 4, deploying the application on a new cluster with vSAN 8.0 OSA using the existing hybrid configuration, and performing an in-place upgrade from vSAN 7.0 U2 OSA to vSAN 8.0 ESA are not valid or optimal solutions for this scenario. Deploying the new applications on the existing cluster with a RAID-6 VM storage policy and an additional stripe width of 4 will increase the resiliency and availability of the data, but it will also increase the network traffic, disk space consumption, and parity calculation overhead, which will negatively affect the latency and performance of the application. Deploying the application on a new cluster with vSAN 8.0 OSA using the existing hybrid configuration will not improve the latency significantly, as vSAN 8.0 OSA still uses the same disk group configuration as vSAN 7.0 U2 OSA, where one disk is designated as a cache disk and the rest are capacity disks. The cache disk can still become a bottleneck for high-performance applications, especially if it is not an SSD or NVMe disk. Performing an in-place upgrade from vSAN 7.0 U2 OSA to vSAN 8.0 ESA is not possible, as vSAN ESA requires a different hardware design than vSAN OSA. The existing disk groups need to be deleted and all disks need to be erased before switching to vSAN ESA. References:

[VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide], page 6

What’s New in VMware vSAN 8.0

vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used is the correct answer because vSAN 8 ESA uses adaptive RAID-5 erasure coding that depends on the number of hosts in the cluster. If the cluster has 6 or more hosts, vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 4 data bits and 1 parity bit across 5 hosts. This provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) and a space efficiency of 1.25x. If the cluster has less than 6 hosts (3 to 5), vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 2 data bits and 1 parity bit across 3 hosts. This also provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) but a space efficiency of 1.5x. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

A, vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used, is incorrect because vSAN will only use this scheme if the cluster has less than 6 hosts but more than 2 hosts. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.

B, RAID 5 will provide an FTT=2 level of protection in this case, is incorrect because RAID 5 can only provide an FTT=1 level of protection, regardless of the number of hosts or the data placement scheme. To achieve an FTT=2 level of protection, vSAN would need to use RAID 6 erasure coding, which requires at least 6 hosts in the cluster.

D, vSAN will spread the components across all of the disk groups, is incorrect because vSAN will not necessarily spread the components across all of the disk groups in the cluster. vSAN will only spread the components across as many disk groups as needed to meet the storage policy requirements and to balance the load and capacity. In this case, vSAN will only need to spread the components across 5 disk groups for each stripe of RAID-5 data. References:

VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 11

Adaptive RAID-5 Erasure Coding with the Express Storage Architecture in vSAN 8

The VMware solution that requires vSAN usage is VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated software stack that bundles compute virtualization (VMware vSphere), storage virtualization (VMware vSAN), network virtualization (VMware NSX), and cloud management and monitoring (VMware vRealize Suite) into a single platform that can be deployed on premises or as a service within a public cloud. VMware Cloud Foundation relies on vSAN as the primary storage solution for its workload domains, which are logical pools of resources that can be used to run different types of workloads. The other options are not correct. VMware Horizon, VMware Telco Cloud Automation, and VMware Aria Automation are VMware solutions that do not require vSAN usage, although they can benefit from it. VMware Horizon is a platform that delivers virtual desktops and applications across a variety of devices and locations, and it can use any supported storage solution, including vSAN. VMware Telco Cloud Automation is a cloud-native orchestration and automation platform that enables communication service providers to accelerate the deployment and lifecycle management of network functions and services across any network and cloud. It can use any supported storage solution, including vSAN. VMware Aria Automation is not a valid VMware solution name. References: VMware Cloud Foundation Overview; VMware Horizon Overview; VMware Telco Cloud Automation Overview

The purpose of using the Operations Reserve option in the vSAN ReadyNode Sizer is to provide space for internal operations such as deduplication, compression, encryption, snapshots, clones, and rebalancing. The Operations Reserve is calculated as a percentage of the total usable capacity of the vSAN cluster. The default value is 30%, but it can be adjusted based on the expected workload characteristics and data services requirements. The other options are not correct, as they do not describe the Operations Reserve option. Configuring space for external operations, reserving space for tolerating failures, and allocating space for vSAN upgrades are not part of the Operations Reserve option. References: 2, section 2; , section 3

The minimum required number of hosts to provide data redundancy for a vSAN stretched cluster using dual-site mirroring and local protection with 1 failure - RAID-1 (Mirroring) is six hosts. This is because a vSAN stretched cluster requires at least three hosts per site, and each site must have enough hosts to tolerate one host failure. Therefore, the minimum configuration is three hosts per site, plus one witness host at a third site, for a total of six hosts. References: [VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23], page 14

To upgrade multiple vSAN Witness nodes with vLCM (single image management) that are used for vSAN Stretched and two-node Clusters, the administrator can upgrade two witness node types: appliance witness node and nested witness node. An appliance witness node is a virtual ESXi host that runs on a physical ESXi host and contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster. A nested witness node is a virtual ESXi host that runs on another virtual ESXi host and contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster. Both types of witness nodes can be managed by vLCM as independent nodes since vSphere 7.0 Update 3, as long as they are version 7.0 Update 2 or later. The other options are not correct. A shared witness node is a witness node that serves multiple vSAN clusters, which is not supported by vLCM. A dedicated witness node is a witness node that serves only one vSAN cluster, which is not a specific type of witness node. A physical witness node is aphysical ESXi host that contains the witness components of VM objects stored in the vSAN cluster, which cannot be upgraded by vLCM. References: vSphere Lifecycle Manager and the vSAN Witness Hosts; Shared Witness for 2-Node vSAN Deployments

To deploy a new two-node vSAN cluster with a shared witness, the administrator must meet several requirements, one of which is that the ESXi hosts must have a minimum of 64 GBs of memory. This is because each host must have enough memory to run the VMs and also to support the vSAN metadata overhead. The other options are not requirements for a two-node vSAN cluster with a shared witness. The ESXi hosts do not need SSDs or NVMe for Virtual Flash File System, as they can use any supported storage devices for vSAN. The ESXi host’s controller cache and advanced features do not need to be disabled, as they can be used to improve performance and reliability. The ESXi host’s drives do not need to be configured in RAID 1, as vSAN uses its own software-defined RAID mechanism to provide Failures to Tolerate. References: Shared Witness for 2-Node vSAN Deployments; Two-Node Cluster Requirements

To create an image using vSphere Lifecycle Manager, the mandatory requirement is to specify the ESXi version. An image is a collection of software components that define the desired state of hosts in a cluster. An image must include at least one ESXi version component, which determines the base hypervisor software for the hosts. Optionally, an image can also include other components, such as vendor add-ons, firmware and drivers add-ons, or custom components. The other options are not correct. A component is a generic term for any software element that can be included in an image, but it is not a specific type of component. A firmwareand drivers add-on is an optional component that provides firmware and drivers updates for hardware devices on the hosts. A vendor add-on is an optional component that provides vendor-specific software for the hosts. References: About Images; Create an Image

To configure vSAN Direct, the administrator must meet two requirements: a valid vSAN license for the vSAN cluster and unclaimed disks in the hosts for vSAN Direct. A vSAN license is required to enable vSAN features and services, including vSAN Direct. Unclaimed disks are local storage devices that are not used by vSAN or any other service, and can be claimed by vSAN Direct to create datastores for persistent storage. The other options are not requirements for vSAN Direct. HA is an optional feature that can be enabled on any cluster, but is not specific to vSAN Direct. A dedicated network for vSAN Direct is not necessary, as vSAN Direct uses the same network as vSAN. An integration with vSAN File Services is not required, as vSAN Direct does not provide file shares, but block storage. References: Set Up vSAN Direct for vSphere with Tanzu; vSAN Licensing Guide