VCAP-DCD5

Section 1 – Create a vSphere Conceptual Design

Objective 1.1 – Gather and analyze business requirements Skills and Abilities 

• Associate a stakeholder with the information that needs to be collected.
• Utilize customer inventory and assessment data from a current environment to define a baseline state.
• Analyze customer interview data to explicitly define customer objectives for a conceptual design.
• Identify the need for and apply requirements tracking.
• Given results of a requirements gathering survey, identify requirements for a conceptual design.
• Categorize requirements by infrastructure qualities to prepare for logical design requirements.
Tools
• VMware Virtualization Case Studies 
• Five Steps to Determine When to Virtualize Your Servers
• Functional vs. Non-Functional Requirements 
• Conceptual, Logical, Physical: It is Simple 
• Product Documentation


Objective 1.2 – Gather and analyze application requirements Skills and Abilities

• Given a scenario, gather and analyze application requirements
• Given a set of applications within a physical environment, determine the requirements for virtualization.
• Gather information needed in order to identify application dependencies.
• Given one or more application requirements, determine the impact of the requirements on the design.

Tools
• VMware Cost-Per-Application Calculator
• VMware Virtualizing Oracle Kit 
• VMware Virtualizing Exchange Kit 
• VMware Virtualizing SQL Kit 
• VMware Virtualizing SAP Kit 
• VMware Virtualizing Enterprise Java Kit 
• Business and Financial Benefits of Virtualization: Customer Benchmarking Study
• Product Documentation


Objective 1.3 – Determine Risks, Constraints, and Assumptions Skills and Abilities

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

Tools
• Developing Your Virtualization Strategy and Deployment Plan
• Product Documentation




Section 2 – Create a vSphere Logical Design from an

Existing Conceptual Design

Objective 2.1 –Map Business Requirements to the Logical Design Knowledge 

• Explain the common components of logical design.
• List the detailed steps that go into the makeup of a common logical design.
• Differentiate functional and non-functional requirements for the design.

Skills and Abilities
• Build non-functional requirements into a specific logical design.
• Translate given business requirements and the current state of a customer environment into a logical design.
• Create a Service Catalog

Tools
• Conceptual, Logical, Physical: It is Simple 
• VMware vSphere Basics Guide 
• What’s New in VMware vSphere 5 
• Functional vs. Non-Functional Requirements
• ITIL v3 Introduction and Overview 
• Product Documentation


Objective 2.2 – Map Service Dependencies Knowledge 

• Identify basic service dependencies for infrastructure and application services. 

Skills and Abilities 

• Document service relationships and dependencies (Entity Relationship Diagrams)
• Identify interfaces to existing business processes and define new business processes
• Given a scenario, identify logical components that have dependencies on certain services.
• Include service dependencies in a vSphere 5 logical design.
• Analyze services to identify upstream and downstream service dependencies.
• Having navigated logical components and their interdependencies, make decisions based upon all
service relationships.

Tools
• Datacenter Operational Excellence Through Automated Application Discovery & Dependency Mapping 
• Product Documentation

Objective 2.3 – Build Availability Requirements into the Logical Design Knowledge
• Understand what logical availability services are provided by VMware solutions.
• Identify and differentiate infrastructure qualities (Availability, Manageability, Performance,
Recoverability, Security)
• Describe the concept of redundancy and the risks associated with single points of failure. • Differentiate Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery concepts.

Skills and Abilities

• Determine availability component of service level agreements (SLAs) and service level management processes.
• Explain availability solutions for a logical design based on customer requirements.
• Define an availability plan, including maintenance processes.
• Prioritize each service in the Service Catalog according to availability requirements.
• Balance availability requirements with other infrastructure qualities

Tools

• Improving Business Continuity with VMware Virtualization Solution Brief
• VMware High Availability Deployment Best Practices 
• vSphere Availability Guide 
• Product Documentation

Objective 2.4 – Build Manageability Requirements into the Logical Design Knowledge

• Understand what management services are provided by VMware solutions.
• Identify and differentiate infrastructure qualities (Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability, Security)

Skills and Abilities
• Build interfaces to existing operations practices into the logical design
• Address identified operational readiness deficiencies
• Define Event, Incident and Problem Management practices
• Define Release Management practices
• Determine Request Fulfillment processes
• Design Service Asset and Configuration Management (CMDB) systems
• Define Change Management processes
• Based on customer requirements, identify required reporting assets and processes

Tools
• Optimizing Your VMware Environment 
• Four Keys to Managing Your VMware Environment
• Operational Readiness Assessment 
• Operational Readiness Assessment Tool 
• Product Documentation


Objective 2.5 – Build Performance Requirements into the Logical Design Knowledge

• Understand what logical performance services are provided by VMware solutions.
• Identify and differentiate infrastructure qualities (Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability, Security)
• List the key performance indicators for resource utilization.

Skills and Abilities
• Analyze current performance, identify and address gaps when building the logical design.
• Using a conceptual design, create a logical design that meets performance requirements.
• Identify 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 performance component of SLAs and service level management processes.
Tools
• Proven Practice: Implementing ITIL v3 Capacity Management in a VMware environment
• vSphere Monitoring and Performance Guide 
• Product Documentation

Objective 2.6 – Build Recoverability Requirements into the Logical Design Knowledge

• Understand what recoverability services are provided by VMware solutions.
• Identify and differentiate infrastructure qualities (Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability, Security)
• Differentiate Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery concepts.
• Describe and differentiate between RTO and RPO
Skills and Abilities
• Given specific RTO and RPO requirements, build these requirements into the logical design.
• Given recoverability requirements, identify the services that will be impacted and provide a recovery plan for impacted services.
• Given specific regulatory compliance requirements, build these requirements into the logical design.
• Based on customer requirements, identify applicable site failure / site recovery use cases.
• Determine recoverability component of SLAs and service level management processes.
• Based on customer requirements, create a data retention policy.
Tools
• VMware vCenterTM Site Recovery Manager Evaluation Guide 
• A Practical Guide to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with VMware Infrastructure
• Mastering Disaster Recovery: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Whitepaper 
• Designing Backup Solutions for VMware vSphere 

• Product Documentation


Objective 2.7 – Build Security Requirements into the Logical Design Knowledge 

• Understand what security services are provided by VMware solutions.
• Identify and differentiate infrastructure qualities (Availability, Manageability, Performance, Recoverability, Security).
• Describe layered security considerations, including but not limited to Trust Zones.
Skills and Abilities
• Identify required roles, create a role-based access model and map roles to services.
• Create a security policy based on existing security requirements and IT governance practices.
• Incorporate customer risk tolerance into the security policy.
• Given security requirements, assess the services that will be impacted and create an access management plan.
• Given a regulatory requirement example, determine the proper security solution that would comply with it.
• Based upon a specified security requirement, analyze the current state for areas of compliance/non-compliance.
• Explain how compliance requirements will impact the logical security design.

Tools
• vSphere Security Guide 
• Developing Your Virtualization Strategy and Deployment Plan 
• Achieving Compliance in a Virtualized Environment 
• Infrastructure Security: Getting to the Bottom of Compliance in the Cloud 
• Securing the Cloud 
• Product Documentation




Section 3 – Create a vSphere Physical Design from an 

Existing Logical Design Objective 

3.1 – Transition from a Logical Design to a vSphere 5 Physical Design Skills and Abilities 

• Determine and explain design decisions and options selected from the logical design.
• Build functional requirements into the physical design.
• Given a logical design, create a physical design taking into account requirements, assumptions and constraints.

• Given the operational structure of an organization, identify the appropriate management tools and roles for each staff member.

Tools
• Conceptual, Logical, Physical: It is Simple 
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide 
• vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 3.2 – Create a vSphere 5 Physical Network Design from an Existing Logical Design Knowledge

• Describe VLAN options, including Private VLANs, with respect to virtual and physical switches.
• Describe switch-specific settings for ESXi-facing ports, including but not limited to:
o STP
o Jumbo Frames
o Load-balancing
o Trunking
• Describe network redundancy considerations at each individual component level.
• Cite virtual switch security policies and settings
Skills and Abilities
• Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements, for each service:
o Determine the most appropriate networking technologies for the design.
o Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities (AMPRS).
• Determine and explain the selected network teaming and failover solution.
• Implement logical Trust Zones using network security/firewall technologies.
• 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:
o vSphere Standard Switch
o vSphere Distributed Switch
o Third-party solutions (ex. Nexus 1000V)
o Hybrid solutions
• Based on an existing logical design, determine appropriate host networking resources.
• Properly apply converged networking considering VMware best practices.

Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide

• vSphere Installation and Setup Guide 
• vMotion Architecture, Performance and Best Practices in VMware vSphere 5 
• VMware vSphereTM: Deployment Methods for the VMware® vNetwork Distributed Switch
• vNetwork Distributed Switch: Migration and Configuration 
• Guidelines for Implementing VMware vSphere with the Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch
• VMware® Network I/O Control: Architecture, Performance and Best Practices 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 3.3 – Create a vSphere 5 Physical Storage Design from an Existing Logical Design Knowledge 

• Describe selection criteria for commonly used RAID types
Skills and Abilities 
• Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements, for each service:
o Determine the most appropriate storage technologies for the design.
o Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
• Create a physical storage design based on selected storage array capabilities, including but not limited to:
o Active/Active, Active/Passive
o ALUA, VAAI, VASA
o PSA (including PSPs and SATPs)
• Identify proper combination of media and port criteria for given end-to-end performance requirements.
• Specify the type of zoning that conforms to best practices and documentation.
• Based on service level requirements utilize VMware technologies, including but not limited to:
o Storage I/O Control
o Storage Policies
o Storage vMotion
o Storage DRS
• Determine use case for virtual storage appliances, including the vSphere Storage Appliance.
• Given the functional requirements, size the storage for capacity, availability and performance, including:
o Virtual Storage (Datastores, RDMs, Virtual Disks)
o Physical Storage (LUNs, Storage Tiering)
• Based on the logical design, select and incorporate an appropriate storage network into the physical design:
o iSCSI
o NFS
o FC
o FCoE

Tools

• Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide 
• iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide 
• vSphere Installation and Setup Guide 
• Performance Implications of Storage I/O Control–Enabled NFS Datastores in VMware vSphere® 5.0
• Managing Performance Variance of Applications Using Storage I/O Control 
• VMware Virtual Machine File System: Technical Overview and Best Practices 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 3.4 – Determine Appropriate Compute Resources for a vSphere 5 Physical Design Knowledge 

• Describe best practices with respect to CPU family choices.

Skills and Abilities 
• Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements, for each service:
o Determine the most appropriate compute technologies for the design.
o Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
• Explain the impact of a technical design on the choice of server density:
o Scale Up
o Scale Out
o Auto Deploy
• Determine a consolidation ratio based upon capacity analysis data.
• Calculate the number of nodes in an HA cluster based upon host failure count and resource guarantees.
• Explain the implications of using reservations, limits, and shares on the physical design.
• Specify the resource pool and vApp configuration based upon resource requirements.
• Size compute resources:
o Memory
o CPU
o I/O devices
o Internal storage
• Given a constraint to use existing hardware, determine suitability of the hardware for the design.

Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide
• vSphere Installation and Setup Guide 
• vSphere Resource Management Guide 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 3.5 – Determine Virtual Machine Configuration for a vSphere 5 Physical Design Knowledge 

• Describe the applicability of using an RDM or a virtual disk for a given VM.

Skills and Abilities 

• Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements, for each service:
o Determine the most appropriate virtual machine configuration for the design.
o Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
• Based on an existing logical design, determine appropriate virtual disk type and placement.
• Size VMs appropriately according to application requirements, incorporating VMware best practices.
• Determine appropriate reservations, shares, and limits.
• Based on an existing logical design, determine virtual hardware options.
• Design a vApp catalog of appropriate VM offerings (e.g., templates, OVFs, vCO).
• Describe implications of and apply appropriate use cases for vApps.
• Decide on the suitability of using FT or 3rd party clustering products based on application requirements.
• Determine and implement an anti-virus solution

Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide 
• Virtual Machine Administration Guide 
• Best Practices for Performance Tuning of Latency-Sensitive Workloads in vSphere VMs
• Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure 
• Guest Operating System Installation Guide 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 3.6 – Determine Data Center Management Options for a vSphere 5 Physical Design 

Knowledge 
• Differentiate and describe client access options.

Skills and Abilities 
• Based on the service catalog and given functional requirements, for each service:

o Determine the most appropriate datacenter management options for the design.
o Implement the service based on the required infrastructure qualities.
• Analyze cluster availability requirements for HA and FT.
• Analyze cluster performance requirements for DRS and vMotion.
• Analyze cluster storage performance requirements for SDRS and Storage vMotion.
• Determine the appropriate vCenter Server design and sizing requirements:
o vCenter Server Linked Mode
o vCenter Server Virtual Appliance
o vCenter Server Heartbeat
• Determine appropriate access control settings, create roles and assign users to roles.
• Based on the logical design, identify and implement asset and configuration management technologies.
• Determine appropriate host and virtual machine deployment options.
• Based on the logical design, identify and implement release management technologies, such as Update Manager.
• Based on the logical design identify and implement event, incident and problem management technologies.
• Based on the logical design, identify and implement logging, monitoring and reporting technologies.

Tools

• vSphere Monitoring and Performance Guide 
• vCenter Server and Host Management Guide 
• VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.0 Performance and Best Practices
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client




Section 4 – Implementation Planning

Objective 4.1 – Create an Execute a Validation Plan Knowledge 

• Recall standard functional test areas for design and operational verification.
• Differentiate between operational testing and design verification.
Skills and Abilities
• From an existing template, choose the appropriate test areas.
• Identify expected results
• Demonstrate an ability to track results in an organized fashion
• Compare actual and expected results and explain differences

• Apply validation plan metrics to demonstrate traceability to business objectives Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide • Validation Test Plan 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 4.2 – Create an Implementation Plan Skills and Abilities

• Based on key phases of enterprise vSphere 5 implementations, map customer development needs to a standard implementation plan template.
• Evaluate customer implementation requirements and provide a customized implementation plan. • Incorporate customer objectives into a phased implementation schedule.
• Match customer skills and abilities to implementation resource requirements.
• Identify and correct implementation plan gaps.
Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide • Operational Test Requirement Cases 
• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client


Objective 4.3 – Create an Installation Guide Knowledge 

• Identify standard resources required to construct an installation guide. Skills and Abilities 
• Consider multiple product installation dependencies to create a validated configuration. • Recognize opportunities to utilize automated procedures to optimize installation. • Create installation documentation specific to the design.

Tools
• vSphere Server and Host Management Guide • Deployment Guide 

• Product Documentation
• vSphere Client

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