1. Interview Questions: VMware L3 Administrator
December 29, 2010gunnalagLeave a commentGo to comments
This is an attempt to make a list of typical questions you can expect in the initial technical round for
VMware administrator L3 positions. Apparently most people can answer these questions just by
preparation but it makes to the interviewer about how strong the candidate in basic overview.
1. What will be your daily activities in VMware
2. What is the difference between VMware and Hyper-V, when do you use one over the other
3. When you encounter PSOD, what steps do you follow
4. What do you do when you encounter “Failed to load, swap file not found” error
5. What port does P2V uses
6. What is the command to format and mount a file system
7. What is dvSwitch and why do you need it
8. What is the command you use for reading vm dump file and where does dump file reside
9. Explain the process you follow for Physical to Virtual conversion
10. What is P2V Cleanup and explain it
11. What do you do when the VC becomes frozen/not responding
12. What is ballooning and explain it
13. What is DRS
14. What is HA and how frequent it checks the hosts connectivity
15. what is AAM (Always Available Manager, Active Alert Manager) and it’s role
16. What is Forged Traffic and what is the default value it’s set to
17. What is Promiscuous mode
18. What is RDM and when do you use it
19. What is ks.conf file
20. How do you expand root/C: drive of a VM
21. What are the features of VMFS
22. How do you restart the services of ESX and vCenter
23. Which port vCenter server listens on or uses
24. What is traffic shaping/filtering/prioritization, NIC teaming
25. Suppose I select 1 mb block size what is the maximum file size I can have?
26. What are Networking Policies
27. What network types available in VMWare?
I’ll prepare a list for questions in next rounds as well when I find some time again.
Vmware interview questions third round of technical interview in IBM
1. Explain the physical topology of Virtual Infrastructure 3 Data Centre ?
2. How do you configure Clusters,Hosts,Resource Pools in VI3 ?
3. What are resource pools & whats the advantage of implementing them ?
4. Explain why Vmware ESX Server is preferred over Virtual Server or Workstation for enterprise
implementation ?
5. In what different scenarios or methods can you manage a VI3 ?
6. Explain the difference between access through Virtual Infrastructure Client (vi client), Web access,
Service Console access(ssh) ?

2. 7. Explain advantages or features of Vmware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) ?
8. What are the types of datastores supported in ESX3.0 ?
9. How can you configure these different types of datastores on ESX2.5 ?
10.What is Vmware Consolidate Backup (VCB) ? Explain your work exposure in this area ?
11.How do you configure Vmware Virtual Centre Management Server for HA & DRS ? What are the
conditions to be satisfied for this setup ?
12.Explain your work related to below terms :
VM Provisioning:
Alarms & Even Management:
Task Scheduler:
Hardware Compatibility List:
13.What SAN or NAS boxes have you configured VMware with ? How did you do that ?
14.What kind of applications or setups you have on you Virtual Machines ?
15.Have you ever faced ESX server crashing and Virtual Centre Server crash? How do you know the
cause of these crashes in these cases ?
Increasing VMware VMFS Volume
April 17, 2011gunnalagLeave a comment
With vSphere-4, you have option to increase the VMFS Volume similar to the way you expand
the disk using Snap Drive/DiskPart on Window servers.
Here are the steps for doing this:
1. Increase the LUN (and Volume if applicable) size to new size on Neap Side.
2. Select a particular host that has access to this Shared VMFS Volume -> Configuration -> Storage
-> Properties
3. Verify that the „Device Capacity‟ and „Primary Partitions Capacity‟ shows the difference in size
that‟s increased above.
4. Choose „Increase‟ -> select the desired Volume to be expanded and ensure its showing that free
space will be added to expand the disk.
5. Perform Storage Refresh on other hosts in the Cluster to get the new disk size reflected (can use
Get-VMHostStorage –Refresh cmdlet to do this task)
These steps can only be done by directly connecting to any of the hosts in the cluster.
Categories:VMware
Administering ESXi 4.1
January 3, 2011gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Choose the right version
1. ESXi free – unlimited use but with features limitations
2. ESXi Installable – commercial version of ESXi and supports all advanced features. Can be
installed on any choosen server.

3. 3. ESXi Embedded – preinstalled as firmware so that you don‟t have to install it again. The
downside is you can‟t transfer the license to other physical hardware.
2. Requirements (for ESX Installable version called VMware VMvisor)
1. With x64 bit x86 processor (i.e., x86-64). x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set.
Examples: AMD Opteron‟s and Intel Xenon and Nehalem processors. With VT enabled.
2. Minimum of 2 GB RAM. For upgrades, 3GB RAM is required if the ESXi host is managed by
vCenter Server.
3. One or More 1 Gb network adapter.
4. Create the DNS entry for the static IP with host A record entry. Note IPv6 is not supported for
ESXi “PXE” installation.
5. Hardware Storage Controllers (Basic SCSI Adapter, FC Adapter, Internal RAID Controller,
SAS, or SATA)
6. Storage/Disk space
1. Basic SCSI Controller or SCSI disk drives
2. SATA disk through supported SAS contollers, or RAID LUN with unpartitioned space.
3. SAS disk drives
4. FC or iSCSI
7. Download ESXi Installable version bootable image (ISO/CD)
3. Installation
1. Insert the ESXi bootable CD or connect the ISO via server remote management applications like
1. HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO),
2. Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC),
3. IBM management module (MM), and IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II (RSA II), etc.,
2. Boot the server to start the ESXi bootable device
3. Choose the boot image from the VMware VMvisor Boot Menu
1. ESXi Installer (enter by default with in 10 seconds)
2. Boot from the Local Disk
3. Press [Tab] to edit Options
4. Choose the Install option from the Welcome screen options
1. [ESC] to Cancel
2. (R) Repair
3. (Enter) Install
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5. Press F11 to “Accept EULA and Continue”
6. Select a Disk
7. Choose the right disk from the displayed list and press Enter
8. Press F11 to confirm the selection
9. Installation Proceeds and once it‟s done
1. ESXi will be installed in Evaluation mode
2. There is no Host based Licensing for ESXi
10. Removable the install disk and Press Enter to reboot
11. Once server/hypervisor boots up, Press F2 to “Customize System” from “Direct Console Mode”
12. F
4. Post Install Configuration
1. Configure Password (Default Not Set)

4. 2. Configure Lockdown Mode (Default Disabled)
1. Prevents remote users from logging on to host using “root” user (like disable SSH)
3. Network Configuration Options
1. Configure Management Network
1. Network Adapters
2. VLAN
3. IP Configuration (Default gets a IP address from DHCP, you have to set a Static IP here)
4. IPv6 Configuration
1. In case if IPv6 is enabled or disabled it‟s will restart the HOST
5. DNS Configuration
1. Type Primary and Secondary DNS servers
2. Provide the ESX host name in FQDN format
6. Custom DNS Suffixes
7. Confirm the network changes by press <Y> yes to “Apply changes and restart management
network?”. You may notice a brief network outage on for that host and it‟s guests.
8.
2. Restart Management Network
1. May be required to restore networking or to renew DHCP lease.
2. If DHCP renew results in a new identity, the remote management software will be disconnected
3. Test Management Network
1. Ping the configured Default Gateway
2. Ping the configured Primary and Secondary DNS servers
3. Resolve the configured host name
4. Disable Management Network
5. Restore Standard Switch
4. Configure keyboard
5. View Support Information
1. Server serial number
2. License serial number
3. SSL Thumbprint
4. VMware Global Support Services URL
5.
6. View System logs
1. <1> Messages
2. <2> Config
3. <3> Management Agent (hostd)
7. Restart Management Agents
1. Are the programs that allow remote management software to monitor and control this host
2. This will disconnect all the remote management software
8. Reset System Configuration
1. All the system parameters will be reverted to their software defaults. Including any parameters
customized by the hardware manufacturer.
2. The root password will be reset to nothing
3. All Virtual Machines will be unregistered
4. This operation requires a HOST restart so migrate your VMs to other hosts if needed
9. Remove Custom Extensions

5. 10. Press Alt+F12 to view the real time Kernel Logs/Activities use Alt+F2 to return to Direct
Console User Interface
11. Login to Tech Support mode: (which unsupported if run without VMware support consultation)
1. Press Alt+F1 to go to Text mode console (unsupported Tech support mode) from Direct Console
User Interface
2. You don‟t get a login prompt there and none of the keys will be echo‟ed back
3. Type unsupported
4. Then type root account password at the Password prompt
5. Type Exit to exit
6. Then Press Alt+F2 to return to Direct Console User Interface
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Categories:VMware
Administering ESX 4
January 3, 2011gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Requirements
1. With x64 bit x86 processor (i.e., x86-64). x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set.
Examples: AMD Opteron‟s and Intel Xenon and Nehalem processors. With VT enabled.
2. Minimum of 2 GB RAM
3. One or More network adapter. The ESX installer needs a live network connection to properly
detect certain network settings, such as the host name under DHCP.
4. IPv4 static IP address. Create the DNS entry for the static IP with host A record entry. IPv6 is
not supported for ESX installation.
5. Hardware Storage Controllers (SCSI Adapter, FC Adapter, or Internal RAID Controller)
6. Storage/Disk space
1. SCSI disk, FC LUN, or RAID LUN with unpartitioned space.
2. A hardware iSCSI, a disk attached to an iSCSI controller, such as the QLogic qla405x. Software
iSCSI is not supported for booting or installing ESX.
3. The service console must be installed on a VMFS datastore that is resident on a host‟s local disk
or on a SAN disk that is masked and zoned to that particular host only. The datastore cannot be
shared between hosts.
4. ESX at least requires 1.25 GB. If the service console is installed on the same machine at least 9.5
GB is required.
5. Must be at least 10GB if you install the components on a single disk.
7. Download ESX bootable image (ISO/DVD) (Note that it‟s a DVD image not a CD, if you have
to burn it use DVD only)
2. Installation
1. Insert the ESX bootable CD or connect the ISO via server remote management applications like
1. HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO),
2. Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC),
3. IBM management module (MM), and IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II (RSA II), etc.,
2. Boot the server to start the ESX bootable device
3. Choose the install mode from below options
1. Install ESX in graphical mode

6. 2. Install ESX in text mode
3. ESX Scripted Install using USB ks.cfg file
4. ESX Scripted Install to first disk
5. ESX Scripted Install to first disk (overwrite VMFS)
6. Boot from first hard disk
7. F2 to other options
4. Choose the Keyboard layout (Required)
5. Install Custom drivers (Optional). In case, if you have any hardware that is not on VMware‟s
hardware compatibility list, then you should install the respective device drivers provided by the
device vendor for ESX platform. You can install the custom drivers via CLI later.
6. ESX will load the default and specified drivers
7. vSphere license key (Optional). Primarily for Host based Licensing. For centralized licensing
select later and activate the host via vSphere. If not provided ESX will be installed in Eval mode
and you need to activate the host by valid license within 60 days period.
8. Choose the Network Adapter. (Required)
9. Specify VLAN ID (Optional) if you want the host to be in a specific vLAN. Use MAC address
to verify which adapter it‟s referring to.
10. Configure Network Adapter. You can allow DHCP to configure the network during installation.
After installation, you can change the network settings. Thus below details are Optional if you
use DHCP.
1. IP address
2. Subnet mask
3. Gateway
4. Primary DNS
5. Secondary DNS
6. Host name (provide a FQDN )
11. Use “Test these settings” tab to verify the network accessibility
12. Choose the Setup type
1. Standard Setup (Setup ESX on a single hard drive or LUN)
2. Advanced Setup
1. Virtual disk partitions. View and customize the individual ESX partitions
2. The installer creates three basic partitions: /boot, vmkcore, and VMFS.
3. The service console VMDK file (The name of this file is esxconsole-<system-
uuid>/esxconsole.vmdk) resides on the VMFS partition. The service console VMDK file
contains /, swap, and /var/ log, by default, and any other partitions that you specify.
4. Configure bootloader automatically (leave checked if unsure)
1. Bootloader kernel options
2. Bootloader password
13. Select the Install location (Required)
1. By default lists Local Storage
2. If you have hardware iSCSI target attached disk then you will see the Remote Storage Location
14. Choose Datastore. Specify if you already have a datastore created for the host or let the installer
create the new Datastore by specifying the name for the new datastore to be created.
15. Create on the same device as ESX
16. Then configure the Service Console virtual disk image
17. Increase the /var/log partition size to a good number say 5 GB instead of default 2 GB

7. 18. Time zone
19. Configure Date and Time
1. Use Automatically and specify the NTP server.
1. Specify your internal NTP server name
2. You can use the global NTP server pool.ntp.org
3. Then click Synchronize to get the date and time automatically set
2. Manually. Specify the right time
20. Set Administrator (Root) password. Password must be at least 6 character long
21. Additional user accounts. This is required if you want to immediately REMOTE into the ESX
host via ssh since default root account will be denied for remote ssh.
22. Review the Summary of Installation Settings
23. Click Finish to reboot the server and start ESX
24. Use URL via browser to manage the server
25. After the server boot up, verify that all the boot checks passed with status OK
26. Press „I‟ to enter the interactive startup
27. Press Alt+F1 for console login and Alt+F11 to return back to standard server console
28.
3. Patching
4. Upgrading
5. Retiring
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Categories:VMware
Software vs. hardware iSCSI for VMware ESX
January 1, 2011gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Hardware iSCSI Features and Limitations
Below are some items to consider if you are planning to use the iSCSI hardware intitiator.
1. ESX Server host booting from iSCSI SAN is possible only with hardware iSCSI initiator
2. Multipathing support for failover only, no load-balancing by using multiple QLA4010s
3. Support for VMotion, VMware HA, and VMware DRS
4. Support for RDMs
5. No support for Microsoft Cluster Server
6. No VMware Consolidated Backup over iSCSI
2. Software iSCSI Features and Limitations
Below are some items to consider if you are planning to use the iSCSI software intitiator.
1. No support for booting ESX Server from software iSCSI
2. Software initiator supports only a single storage interface (vmhba40)
3. Multipathing support for failover only, no load balancing by using multiple physical network
adapters (NIC teaming)
4. Support for VMotion, VMware HA, and VMware DRS
5. Support for RDMs
6. No support for Microsoft Cluster Server
7. No VMware Consolidated Backup over iSCSI
3. Step to enable MultiPath failover for iSCSI storage
If you plan to use NIC teaming to increase the availability of your network access to the iSCSI
storage

8. array, you must turn off port security on the switch for the two ports on which the virtual IP
address is shared.
The purpose of this port security setting is to prevent spoofing of IP addresses. Thus many
network
administrators enable this setting. However, if you do not change it, the port security setting
prevents failover
of the virtual IP from one switch port to another and NIC teaming cannot fail over from one path
to another.
For most LAN switches, the port security is enabled on a port level and thus can be set on or off
for each port.
Categories:VMware
iSCSI SAN Design Considerations
January 1, 2011gunnalagLeave a comment
1. A basic difference between iSCSI and Fibre Channel is that when an iSCSI path is overloaded,
the TCP/IP protocol drops packets and requires them to be resent. Fibre Channel
communications over a dedicated path are not at risk of being overloaded. When a network path
carrying iSCSI storage traffic is oversubscribed, a bad situation quickly grows worse and
performance further degrades as dropped packets must be resent.
2. Another potential disadvantage with implementing software-initiator iSCSI (but not hardware-
initiator iSCSI) is that standard 10/100 Ethernet interfaces do not have enough throughput for
practical iSCSI work. Gigabit Ethernet interfaces are required, and those interfaces tend to
consume large amounts of CPU time. One way of overcoming this demand for CPU resources is
to use TOEs (TCP/IP offload engines).
3. TCP/IP offload engines shift TCP packet processing tasks from the server CPU to specialized
TCP processors on the network adapter or storage device. The QLA4050 hardware initiator,
which is supported on ESX Server 3.0, uses a TOE.
4. iSCSI does not work well over most shared wide area networks. one should consider iSCSI a
local-area technology, not a wide-area technology, because of latency issues and security
concerns.
5. One should also segregate iSCSI traffic from general traffic. Layer 2 VLANs are a particularly
good way to implement this segregation.
6. Best practice is to have a dedicated LAN for iSCSI traffic and not share the network with other
network traffic.
It is also best practice not to oversubscribe the dedicated LAN.
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Categories:VMware
VMware HA
December 31, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
HA stands for one of the critical enterprise cluster feature of VMware called “High Availability”.
It can be configured on a VMware cluster to auto recover VM‟s from a ESX host failure.
1. When you configure HA via vCenter Server on VMware cluster, it
1. installs Automated Availability Manager (AAM) (VMware HA agent) on individual ESX host

9. 2. The HA agent (AAM) runs a heartbeat mechanism on each host in a cluster to signal that the host
is running and is a part of the cluster.
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Categories:VMware
KickStart automated ESX install
December 31, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Extract the ESX media from the bootable ISO/DVD received from VMware
2. Copy them to a network location and make them accessible
3. Create the ks.cfg (kickstart configuration file) answer file with custom values to installation
options. The main sections of the ks.cfg file are as below
1. accepteula or vmaccepteula (required)
2. autopart (required)
3. clearpart (optional)
4. dryrun (optional)
5. install (required)
6. keyboard (optional)
7. serialnum or vmserialnum (optional)
8. network (optional)
9. paranoid (optional)
10. part or partition (optional)
11. rootpw (required)
12. %include or include
13. %pre (optional)
14. %post (optional)
15. %firstboot
4. The previous version to 4.0 of ESX server used to support incomplete ks.cfg file by which it uses
the defined values for settings in the ks.cfg and prompt user for configuring the rest. This is now
changed from ESX[i] 4.0 where you should have all the responses specified in ks.cfg or don‟t
have the ks.cfg at all. So ESXi only allows a zero-touch builds via ks.cfg.
5. To have readily setup solution, refer to Virtaul Applicances “ESX Deployment Appliance
(EDA)“
6. References:
1. http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmwareinsmb/2010/07/13/esxi-41-scripted-installation-
via-pxe-and-kickstart
2. http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/09/automating-esxi-41-kickstart-tips.html for ks.cfg setup
tips
3. http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/esxi-41-kickstart-install-wip.html
4. autodeploy_fling.pdf (application/pdf Object)
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10. Categories:VMware
Setting up Virtual Infrastructure using VMware
December 30, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
1. ESX server
1. Administering ESX 4
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2. ESXi server
1. Virtual Center (vCenter) server (is the centralized management server for complete
infrastructure)
1. Installed on a Windows server that is part of AD domain
2. vSphere client (VMware-viclient.exe)
1. Download from any of ESX server URL, vCenter server or ISO from VMware
2. Install on vCenter server or any workstation
3. Choose to install “Host Update Utility 4.0″
1. This tool allows you to upgrade ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0 and ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.0. The utility also
allows you to patch and update ESXi hosts.
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3. Using Software
1. vSphere Client is a single GUI application to
1. Connect to specific ESX host and administer
2. Connect to vCenter server to manage multiple ESX hosts
3. You can to the remote server using
1. IP Address or host name
2. Logon using
1. vCenter administrator logon credentials or
2. loggedon Windows session credentials if it has all permissions
3. Configure AD security group and assign permission to your Windows logon account and use that
account
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Categories:VMware
Virtualization
December 30, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
Definition in simple terms referring to practical understanding:
Process of separating physical components of computing infrastructure from the logical
components that demand the resources.
1. Types of Virtualization:
1. Server : Where you use Virtual machines to separate hardware from virtual operating systems,
allowing you to run the multiple operating systems on a single machine, all at the same time.
2. Storage: Removing physical mapping of storage and moving storage into logical objects, which
can be easily managed
3. Network: process of combining hardware and software network resources and network
functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity, a virtual network. There two
types of N/W Virtualizations
1. Internal: Network functionality provided by software
2. External: combining multiple network functions into one unit
4. Application: Process of encapsulating applications to be able to run on another system without
actually installing them, allowing applications to run without conflicts
5. Desktop: consolidation of desktop computers into virtualized server systems
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2. How server virtualization can help?….
1. Consolidate data center servers, desktops,
2. efficient h/W resources utilization,
3. less energy and cooling,
4. less IT staff to maintain and increased IT productivity
5. respond faster to business needs by faster server deployments
6. HA and load-balancing
Categories:VMware
PXE booting to RIS servers after migrating to WDS PXE in VM infrastructure
December 29, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Create a new VDI with
a. Latest NIC VMXNET3, you need latest version in order to boot to WDS server. The
default NIC „Flexible‟ doesn‟t work
b. Use SCSI controller of BUS logic. None of the latest LSI logic SCSI controller work with
RIS builds
2. Boot the VDI to Win7 build
3. Have a computer account created with all the required options (through pre-setup.bat)

12. 4. Change the netbootMachineFilePath attribute to point to RIS build servers (say
buildserver1.org.com).
a. AD object „Attribute Editor‟ tab is not visible via dsa.msc, use adsiedit instead.
b. Move computer to respective AD site OU.
5. Remove the latest version NIC
6. Add a Flexible NIC to let the computer to boot to RIS server
7. Build computer with Automatic setup in RIS. Custom setup doesn‟t work.
Categories:VMware
Let’s troubleshoot VMware
December 29, 2010gunnalagLeave a comment
1. Scenario#1: Logon to Virtual Center Server Fails with generic error “Unable to connect to remote
server”
1. Isolate if it’s a Networking issue
1. adfind – Ensure the server name is typed correctly and is a valid Windows server in AD using adfind
2. ping – Ensure the remote vCenter server is reachable using ping
3. nslookup – Ensure the DNS entries are correct for the server by doing a nslo0kup
4. FQDN – use FQDN JIC if some DNS Zones entries issues is around causing the network connectivity
2. Isolate if it’s a Windows server issue
1. telnet to 443 – Check the connectivity to the vCenter web service to ensure web service at least
responding
2. sc query “vmware virtualcentre server” – Ensure that the VMware virtualcentre server service is
running fine
3. eventvwr – check if there are any vcenter errors in application log or service/system errors in system
log
4. vpxd.exe – check the vpxd log file %ALLUSERSPROFILE%VMwarevmware virtualcentreLogsvpxd-
#.log”
5. Attempt to start the service if it’s not running
6. If service fails with error, correlate it with the log statements in vpxd log files
3. Isolate if it’s a DB connectivity issue
1. In case if there are any ODBC errors in vpxd log file follow below steps according to the error
message “usually authentication errors”
2. if the DB used is a locally installed SQlExpress version or Access DB, verify that the SQL Server DB
service is running fine
3. If the DB is a remote SQL/Oracle DB, check the reachability to the server
4. Open the ODBC Manager and very the DSN entry and test the connectivity to the server
5. In case of authentication issues, try to use
1. the other login account or
2. attempt with “Integrated Windows authentication”
6. If still there is any issue, correlate the issue with SQL authentication/security and DB logging
7. Once all the issues are isolated and if it’s indeed DB connection issues that got fixed, then attempt to
start the “vmware virtualcentre server” service on vCenter server.
Categories:VMware
Interview Questions: VMWare L3 Administrator

13. December 29, 2010gunnalag4 comments
This is an attempt to make a list of typical questions you can expect in the initial technical round for
VMWare administrator L3 positions. Apparently most people can answer these questions just by
preparation but it makes to the interviewer about how strong the candidate in basic overview.
1. What will be your daily activities in VMWare
2. What is the difference between VMWare and Hyper-V, when do you use one over the other
3. When you encounter PSOD, what steps do you follow
4. What do you do when you encounter “Failed to load, swap file not found” error
5. What port does P2V uses
6. What is the command to format and mount a file system
7. What is dvSwitch and why do you need it
8. What is the command you use for reading vm dump file and where does dump file reside
9. Explain the process you follow for Physical to Virtual conversion
10. What is P2V Cleanup and explain it
11. What do you do when the VC becomes frozen/not responding
12. What is ballooning and explain it
13. What is DRS
14. What is HA and how frequent it checks the hosts connectivity
15. what is AAM (Always Available Manager, Active Alert Manager) and it’s role
16. What is Forged Traffic and what is the default value it’s set to
17. What is Promiscuous mode
18. What is RDM and when do you use it
19. What is ks.conf file
20. How do you expand root/C: drive of a VM
21. What are the features of VMFS
22. How do you restart the services of ESX and vCenter
23. Which port vCenter server listens on or uses
24. What is traffic shaping/filtering/prioritization, NIC teaming
25. Suppose I select 1 mb block size what is the maximum file size I can have?
26. What are Networking Policies
27. What network types available in VMWare?
I’ll prepare a list for questions in next rounds as well when I find some time again.
Check the health of all Hosts and VM objects in vCenter. Are there any active alarms in
vCenter? Have you set up any alarms in the first place? Do the alarms automatically
trigger notification or any type of incident tracking mechanism?
Are all vCenter plug-ins functioning properly?
Do you have any Host Hardware issues? Alarms, bad memory, power supply or capacity
issues?
Are all Hosts in compliance with Host Profiles?
Are there any resource bottlenecks? Memory, CPU, Disk, Network? Do you have any,
or need any, additional tools to have a better handle on this?
Are you running at your optimum resource levels? In other words, is the load properly
distributed?
Are you running out of resources anywhere? LUNs with low disk space, etc. Do you
need to start looking at budgeting for additional capacity?
Check for Firmware updates on Host hardware
Check for ESX Patches

14. Check for VM Patches
Check VMware Tools version
Run scripts to identify the existence of VMs with snapshots and follow up to see if they
are still needed.
Have you schmoozed with your Storage Admins lately? A good idea since you cannot
get very far without them.