Unofficial VCAP6-DCV Design Study Guide

I’ll be following the VCAP6-DCV Design Exam Blueprint

I’ll try and see how this goes in terms of posting on the objectives. This exam will not be like the deployment exam in terms of one size fits all. Every design is different and I’ll see how best to explain the topics and share my insight as I go down the blueprint.

Section 1:

Create a vSphere Conceptual Design

 

Objective 1.1 – Gather and Analyze Business Requirements

  • Associate a stakeholder with the information that needs to be collected.
  • Utilize inventory assessment data from a current environment to define a baseline state.
  • Analyze customer interview data to explicitly define customer objectives for a conceptual design
  • Determine customer priorities for defined objectives.
  • Ensure that Available, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability and Security (AMPRS) considerations are applied during the requirements gathering process.
  • Given results of the requirements gathering process, identify requirements for a conceptual design.
  • Categorize requirements by infrastructure qualities to prepare for logical design requirements.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag EMEA VCAP6-Design Objective 1.1 –  Jason Grierson & Gregg Robertson VCDX #205 (Video)
  2. Pluralsight – Designing VMware Infrastructure – Scott Lowe (Based on 5.x, but still relievant)

Objective 1.2 – Gather and Analyze Application Requirements

  • Gather and analyze application requirements for a given scenario.
  • Determine the requirements for a set of applications that will be included in the design.
  • Collect information needed in order to identify application dependencies.
  • Given one or more application requirements, determine the impact of the requirements on the design

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownbag EMEA VCAP6-Design Objective 1.2 – Mark Gabryjelski VCDX #23 (Video)

Objective 1.3 – Determine Risks, Requirements, Constraints and Assumptions

  • Differentiate between the concepts of risks, requirements, constraints, and assumptions.
  • Given a statement, determine whether it is a risk, requirement, constraint, or an assumption.
  • Analyze impact of VMware best practices to identified risks, constraints, and assumptions.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag EMEA VCAP6-Design Objective 1.3 – Rebecca Fitzhugh VCDX #243 (Video)

 

Section 2:

Create a vSphere 6.x Logical Design from an Existing Conceptual Design

 

Objective 2.1 – Map Business Requirements to a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Analyze requirements for functional and non-functional elements.
  • Build non-functional requirements into a specific logical design.
  • Translate stated business requirements into a logical design.
  • Incorporate the current state of a customer environment into a logical design.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownbag EMEA VCAP6-Design Objective 2.1 – Paul Cradduck VCDX #244 (Video)

Objective 2.2 – Map Service Dependencies

  • Evaluate dependencies for infrastructure and application services that will be included in a vSphere design.
  • Create Entity Relationship Diagrams that will map service relationships and dependencies.
  • Analyze interfaces to be used with new and existing business processes.
  • Determine service dependencies for logical components.
  • Include service dependencies in a vSphere 6.x Logical Design.
  • Analyze services to identify upstream and downstream service dependencies.
  • Navigate logical components and their inter-dependencies and make decisions based upon all service relationships.

 

Objective 2.3 – Build Availability Requirements into a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Evaluate which logical availability services can be used with a given vSphere solution.
  • Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to availability.
  • Describe the concept of redundancy and the risks associated with single points of failure.
  • Explain class of nines methodology.
  • Determine availability component of service level agreements (SLAs) and service level management processes.
  • Determine potential availability solutions for a logical design based on customer requirements.
  • Create an availability plan, including maintenance processes.
  • Balance availability requirements with other infrastructure qualities.
  • Analyze a vSphere design and determine possible single points of failure.

Study Resources:

  1. The 9’s Uptime Calculator – http://www.hostingmanual.net/uptime-calculator/
  2. vBrownBag EMEA VCAP6-Design Objective 2.3 – Rebecca Fitzhugh VCDX #243 (Video)

Objective 2.4 – Build Manageability Requirements into a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Evaluate which management services can be used with a given vSphere Solution.
  • Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to management.
  • Differentiate available command line-based management tools (PowerCLI, vMA etc.)
  • Evaluate VMware Management solutions based on customer requirements.
  • Build interfaces into the logical design for existing operations practices.
  • Address identified operational readiness deficiencies.
  • Define Event, Incident and Problem Management practices.
  • Analyze Release Management practices.
  • Determine request fulfillment and release management processes.
  • Determine requirements for Configuration Management.
  • Define change management processes based on business requirements.
  • Based on customer requirements, identify required reporting assets and processes.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag VCAP6-Design Objective 2.4 – Jason Grierson & Ron Wedel VCDX #227 (Video)

 

Objective 2.5 – Build Performance Requirements into a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Evaluate logical performance considerations for a given vSphere solution.
  • Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to performance.
  • Analyze current performance, identify and address gaps when building the logical design.
  • Using a conceptual design, create a logical design that meets performance requirements.
  • Determine performance-related functional requirements based on given non-functional requirements and service dependencies.
  • Define capacity management practices and create a capacity plan.
  • Incorporate scalability requirements into the logical design.
  • Determine a performance component for service level agreements and service level management processes.

 

Objective 2.6 – Build Recoverability Requirements into a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Evaluate which logical recoverability services are available for a given vSphere solution.
  • Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to recoverability.
  • Determine Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solution options for a given vSphere Design.
  • Given recoverability requirements, analyze services that will be impacted and provide a recovery plan for impacted services.
  • Plan a data retention policy based on customer requirements.

 

Objective 2.7 – Build Security Requirements into a vSphere 6.x Logical Design

  • Evaluate which security services can be used with a given vSphere solution.
  • Differentiate infrastructure qualities related to security.
  • Build specific regulatory compliance requirements into the logical design.
  • Analyze application and infrastructure security requirements.
  • Build a role-based access model and map roles to services.
  • Build a security policy based on existing security requirements and IT governance practices.
  • Incorporate customer risk tolerance into the security policy.
  • Assess the services that will be impacted and create an access management plan.
  • Determine the proper security solution that would satisfy a regulatory requirement.
  • Based on stated security requirements, analyze the current state for compliance/non-compliance.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag VCAP6-Design Objective 2.7 – Larus Hjartarson VCDX #192 (Video)

 

Section 3:

Create a vSphere 6.x Physical Design from an Existing Logical Design

 

Objective 3.1 – Transition from a Logical Design to a vSphere 6.x Physical Design

  • Analyze design decisions and options selected from the logical design
  • Determine impact of VMware best practices to identified risks, constraints, and assumptions in a given vSphere design.
  • Based on business requirements, determine the appropriate roles for each staff member.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag VCAP6-Design Objective 3.1 – Joe Clarke VCDX #138 (Video)

 

Objective 3.2 – Create a vSphere 6.x Physical Network Design from an Existing Logical Design

  • Analyze VLAN options with respect to virtual and physical switches.
  • Given business requirements, determine the design for virtual network components:
    • STP
    • Jumbo Frames
    • Load-balancing
    • Trunking and link aggregation groups
  • Evaluate network redundancy considerations for a given design.
  • Analyze design for inclusion of Network I/O Control capabilities.
  • Determine use case for multiple TCP/IP stacks in a given design.
  • Based on given functional requirements for each service:
    • Determine the most appropriate networking technologies for the design
    • Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities (AMPRS.)
  • Analyze design for appropriate network teaming and failover solution.
  • Determine network security and firewall requirements for a virtual network design
  • Based on service level requirements, determine appropriate network performance characteristics.
  • Given a current network configuration as well as technical requirements and constraints, determine the appropriate virtual switch solution:
    • vSphere Standard Switch
    • vSphere Distributed Switch
    • NSX
    • Hybrid solutions
  • Based on an existing logical design, determine appropriate host networking resources.
  • Properly apply converged networking considering VMware best practices.

Study Resources:

  1. vBrownBag VCAP6-Design Objective 3.2 – Tim Davis (Video)

 

Objective 3.3 – Create a vSphere 6.x Physical Storage Design from an Existing Logical Design

  • Evaluate criteria, capabilities and limitations between storage types (Block, NAS, Object Based)
  • In a given design, determine Storage Policy availability and performance characteristics
  • Based on the logical design and given functional requirements, for each service:
    • Determine the most appropriate storage technologies for the design
    • Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities
  • Ensure storage array capabilities are supported in a vSphere 6.x design:
    • Active/Active, Active/Passive
    • ALUA, VAAI, VASA
    • PSA (including PSPs and SATPs)
  • Based on service level requirements include VMware technologies in the design, such as:
    • Storage I/O Control and Network I/O Control
    • Storage Policies
    • Storage vMotion
    • Storage DRS
    • Virtual SAN
  • Given the functional requirements, size the storage for capacity, availability and performance, including:
    • Datastores, RDMs, Virtual Disks
    • Physical Storage (LUNs, Storage Tiering)
  • Based on the logical design, select and incorporate an appropriate storage network into the physical design:
    • Block (FC, iSCSI, FCoE, SAS)
    • NAS (NFSv3, NFSv4)
    • Object Based (Virtual SAN, Virtual Volumes

     

Objective 3.4 – Determine Appropriate Compute Resources for a vSphere 6.x Physical Design

  • Analyze best practices with respect to CPU family choices.
  • Evaluate NUMA and vNUMA with ESXi hosts and Virtual machines in a given design.
  • Analyze the following in a vSphere design:
    • Enhanced vMotion compatibility
    • Implications of vSMP in virtual machines
    • Transparent Page Sharing (TPS) and large pages
    • Resource overcommitment
  • Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements:
    • Determine the most appropriate compute technologies for the design
    • Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
  • Determine the impact of a technical design on the choice of server density:
    • Scale Up/Out
    • Auto Deploy
  • Calculate the required number of nodes in an HA cluster based upon host failures and resource guarantees
  • Evaluate the implications of using reservations, limits, and shares on the physical design.
  • Specify the resource pool and vApp configuration based upon resource requirements.
  • Size the following resources appropriately:
    • Memory
    • CPU
    • I/O devices
    • Internal storage
  • Given a constraint to use existing hardware, determine suitability of the hardware for the design.

 

Objective 3.6 – Determine Data Center Management Options for a vSphere 6.x Physical Design

  • Based on business requirements, determine client access options in a vSphere solution.
  • Analyze business requirements when integrating vSphere with other VMware solutions.
  • Evaluate the impact of the VMware Certificate Authority and the VMware Endpoint Certificate Store to the design.
  • Based on the logical design and given functional requirements:
    • Determine the most appropriate datacenter management options for the design.
    • Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
  • Analyze cluster requirements:
    • Availability requirements for HA and FT
    • Performance requirements for DRS and vMotion
    • Storage performance requirements for SDRS and Storage vMotion
  • Determine appropriate vCenter Server design and sizing requirements:
    • vCenter Server Enhanced Linked Mode
    • vCenter Server virtual appliance vs vCenter Server for Windows
    • Platform Services Controller
  • Evaluate access control methodologies for creating roles and assignment of users to roles.
  • Determine proper structure for access control settings (i.e. folders, resource pools, etc.)
  • Develop appropriate host and virtual machine deployment options.
  • Include in the design appropriate technologies for:
    • Asset management
    • Event, incident and problem management
    • Logging, monitoring and reporting