Although vSphere 8 is released (GA) at VMware Explore Europe 2022 and modified exams can be expected, the vSphere 7 ones are still current. Also at Explore I took the Advanced Design VMware vSphere 7.x exam and passed it to update my VCDX-DCV certification based on vSphere 6.5 to the latest one based on vSphere 7. The exam I took was the Advanced Design VMware vSphere 7.x (3V0-21.21). Also this exam is a requirement for all who strive for the VCAP – Design certification or VCIX-DCV milestone based on vSphere 7 certification.

The Data Center Virtualization Design 2022 exam, is a 60-item exam with a passing score of 300 using a scaled method. Candidates are given an time of 150 minutes

Because I have passed 3 or 4 VMware design exams before on vSphere and NSX, I had a pretty good idea about the exam structure and started studying 4 week before and was really happy to have passed the exam. During the preparations, I gathered quite a list of study materials which I wanted to share with you all.

VMware exam details

Exam general info

Exam Preparation Guide

Especially check the sections:

  • Sections Included in this Exam
  • References (for the links check the last section)
  • Sample Questions

Community study material

vcdx133.com – Advanced Design VMware vSphere 7.0 Exam (3V0-21.21) Study Links

virtualg.uk – The VCAP6-DCV Deploy Exam Simulator is back!

AMPRS(S)

www.jeffreykusters.nl – Working with design assumptions, the VCDX way

www.jeffreykusters.nl – Breaking down the conceptual design, RCARs and AMPRS …. VCDX style

NUMA

frankdenneman.nl – vSphere 7 Cores per Socket and Virtual NUMA

vCenter High Availability (vCHA)

vmanalyst.com – https://vmanalyst.com/?s=vcha

What’s new

vSphere 7 – What’s new

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-70-release-notes.html#whatsnew

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-esxi-701-release-notes.html#whats-new-1

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-esxi-702-release-notes.html#whats-new-1

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-esxi-70u3c-release-notes.html#whats-new-1

https://core.vmware.com/blog/vsphere-7-update-3-whats-new

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/03/vsphere-7-features.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/03/vsphere-7.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-new-generation-vsphere.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/09/whats-new-with-vmware-vsphere-7u1.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2021/03/whats-new-part-2-in-vsphere-7-update-2.html

vSphere 7 Core storage – What’s new

https://core.vmware.com/resource/whats-new-vsphere-7-core-storage

VMware links (documentation, blogs, YouTube)

Storage

vVol’s

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-0F225B19-7C2B-4F33-BADE-766DA1E3B565.html

Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC)

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.wsfc.doc/GUID-1A2476C0-CA66-4B80-B6F9-8421B6983808.html

Core vSphere

Content Library

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-content-library.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-254B2CE8-20A8-43F0-90E8-3F6776C2C896.html

DirectPath I/O and Assignable Hardware

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/03/vsphere-7-assignable-hardware.html

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2142307

NUMA

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/GUID-7E0C6311-5B27-408E-8F51-E4F1FC997283.html

Time keeping

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-0EE343F5-70E9-4C82-860D-97C72273907D.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-460AF162-8670-42F3-9F6C-8035A8092EB7.html

vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS)

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/09/vsphere-7-update-1-vsphere-clustering-service-vcls.html

vCenter High Availability (vCHA)

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.avail.doc/GUID-2D395533-4C7C-45A6-9B5C-0A78C3E3A5C8.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vcenter.upgrade.doc/GUID-C27CD7DF-AB52-4A77-A6A6-A966498D5CA0.html

vSphere Lifecycle Manager

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-patching-lifecycle-management.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/08/vlcm-support-for-vsphere-auto-deploy.html

vCenter requirements

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vcenter.install.doc/GUID-88571D8A-46E1-464D-A349-4DC43DCAF320.html

Security

Authentication

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.authentication.doc/GUID-B98DF9C2-FE7D-483F-9521-C17C138B59D8.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/05/vsphere-authentication-active-directory-ldap-event-2889.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/01/microsoft-ldap-vsphere-channel-binding-signing-adv190023.html

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/05/vsphere-7-integrated-windows-authentication-iwa-ldap.html

Certificate Management

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-certificate-management.html

Lockdown mode

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.security.doc/GUID-88B24613-E8F9-40D2-B838-225F5FF480FF.html

vSphere Trust Authority (vTA)

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-vsphere-trust-authority.html

vSGX (Software Guard Extensions) & Secure Enclaves

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2020/04/vsphere-7-vsgx-secure-enclaves.html

Bitfusion 2.x

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere-Bitfusion/2.5.0/rn/VMware-vSphere-Bitfusion-250-Release-Notes.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere-Bitfusion/2.5/User-Guide/GUID-6F08501B-F3CB-4032-939C-EACEC0605FE1.html

Exam preparation references section

The references section in de exam guide mentions all sorts of KB articles without link to them. I have added them to this section.

Storage DRS FAQ

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2149938

VMware response to ‘L1 Terminal Fault – VMM’ (L1TF – VMM) Speculative-Execution vulnerability in Intel processors for vSphere: CVE-2018-3646

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/55806

Understanding Virtual Volumes (vVols) in VMware vSphere 6.7/7.0

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2113013

FAQ: VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1021175

Mixed, Passthru, HBA and RAID mode SAS or SATA IO Controller card support

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/53573

vSAN Design Considerations – Deduplication and Compression

https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2020/06/18/vsan-design-considerations-deduplication-and-compression/

Write Buffer Sizing in vSAN when Using the Very Latest Hardware

https://blogs.vmware.com/virtualblocks/2019/10/01/write-buffer-sizing-vsan/

To conclude

Having an overview of relevant links will save you time, searching for and collecting them. I hope this helps you preparing for your exam. All the best and I would love to hear your feedback.


0 Comments

Leave a Reply