INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1) What are the VMware certifications?

VMware Certified Professional 5 - Infrastructure as a Service (VCP5-IaaS)

VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vsphere 4 (VCAP4)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional on vsphere 5(VCAP5)
VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX)
VMware Certified Associate (VCA4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional (VCP4-DT)
VMware Certified Professional (VCP5-DT)
VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP-DT)

2) Tell me something about VMware Company?

VMware is the global leader in virtualization, offering products &

solutions for cloud infrastructure and management, cloud
application platforms & end-user computing. VMware developed
a range of products, most notable of which are their hypervisors.
VMware became well known for their first type 2 hypervisor
known as GSX. VMware delivered its first product, VMware
Workstation. in May 1999 and entered the server market in 2001
with VMware GSX Server (hosted) and VMware ESX Server
(hostless).

3) What are the VMware products?

Vsphere
Esx server
Esxi server
Workstation
Fusion
Player
Server
VMware service manager
ThinApp
View
Ace
Lab manager
Infrastructure
Converter
Site recovery manager
Stage manager
VCenter orchestrator
VMFS

4) What are the versions of Esx server?

VMware ESX Server 1.0 First release was in 2001

VMware ESX Server 1.1 (January 7, 2002)
VMware ESX Server 1.5 (May 13, 2002)

VMware ESX 2.0 (July 21, 2003)

VMware ESX Server 2.1 Build 22983 (4/13/06)
VMware ESX Server 2.0.2 Build 23922 (5/4/06)

VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware

ESX
ESX
ESX
ESX
ESX
ESX
ESX
ESX

VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware

Infrastructure 3.0 (VI3) (June 5, 2006)

ESX Server 3.0 Build 27701 (06/13/06)
ESX Server 3.0.1 Build 32039 (09/25/06)
ESX Server 3.0.2 Build 52542 (07/31/07)
ESX Server 3.0.3 Build 104629 (August 8, 2008)
ESX Server 3.0.3 Update 1 Build 231127 (08 Mar 2010)

VMware ESX Server 3.5 (December 10, 2007)

VMware ESX Server 3.5 Build 64607 (20 Feb 2008)
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 1 Build 82663 (10 Apr 2008)
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 Build 110268 (13 Aug 2008)
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 Build 123630 (6 Nov 2008)
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 4 Build 153875 (30 Mar 2009)
VMware ESX Server 3.5 Update 5 Build 207095 (03 Dec 2009) This
was the last version to support 32-bit systems.

VMware vSphere 4.0 (May 20, 2009)

VMware ESX 4.0 Build 164009 (21 May 2009)
VMware ESX 4.0 Update 1 Build 208167 (19 Nov 2009)
VMware ESX 4.0 Update 2 Build 261974 (10 Jun 2010)
VMware ESX 4.0 Update 3 Build 398348 (5 May 2011)
VMware ESX 4.0 Update 4 Build 504850 (November 17, 2011; 8
months ago)
VMware ESX 4.1 Build 260247 (July 13, 2010)
VMware ESX 4.1 Update 1 Build 348481 (Feb 10, 2011)

2.5 (December 14, 2004)

Server 2.5.0 Build 11343 (11/29/2004)
Server 2.5.1 Build 13057 (05/20/2005)
Server 2.5.1 Build 14182 (06/20/2005)
Server 2.5.2 Build 16390 (09/15/2005)
Server 2.5.3 Build 22981 (04/13/2006)
Server 2.5.4 Build 32233 (10/05/2006)
Server 2.5.5 Build 57619 (10/08/2007)

VMware ESX 4.1 Update 2 Build 502767 (Oct 27, 2011)

5) What are the difference between Esx and Esxi?

Esx:

Service console
Installation time is more.
3rd party Softwares.
5 ways of accessing.

Esxi:

No service console.
Installation time is less.
No 3rd party Softwares.
4 ways of accessing.
Editions Installable and Embedded.

6) What are the Vsphere editions in the 4 and 5?

Vsphere 4

Standard
Enterprise
Enterprise plus
Advanced

Vsphere 5

Essential
Essential plus
Same as in Vsphere 4.

7) What are the difference between 3.5 and 4.0, 4.0 and 5.0?

8) What are the requirements of an Esx server?

64 bit hardware
2 CPUs min
2 Gb Ram min
1 Gb Nic
VT enable in BIOS

9) What is VApp?

A virtual appliance is a pre-configured virtual machine that typically

installs a pre-installed guest operating system and other software.
VApp contains one (or) more related Vm.
In VApp we can set startup and shutdown options.
In VApp we can power on, off and do cloning.

10) What is OVF and OVA, explain the differences?

OVF:- Open Virtualization Format

It contains Vm files.
It exports in the form of directory.
OVA:-Open Virtualization Appliance
It exports in the form of single file, like Zip file
The file contains all the ovf files.

11) What is RDM?

Raw Device mapping

Providing a SAN LUN directly to the Vm is known as RDM.

12) What is an RDM file?

-rdm.vmdk

13) What is Thin provisioning and Thick provisioning?

Thin provisioning: - On demand occupying of data store.

Thick provisioning: - It occupies the entire data store.
In thick provisioning there r two types
Eager to Zero:-while creating, the disk is zeroed out.
Lazy to Zero:-while writing the disk is zeroed out.
Eager to zero provides better performance.

14) What is VSMP?

Virtual SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) is a utility that allows a

single virtual machine to use two or more processors
simultaneously.

15) What is the difference between Standard and Distributed

switches?

Standard: - Configured at the Host level.

Distributed: - Configured at the VCenter server level.

16) What are host profiles?

A Host profile copy the configuration of a specific host and allows us

to duplicate the configuration to other host. It reduces the manual
steps in host configuration.

17) What is VMFS? What is its block size in 4 and 5?

VMFS is a cluster file system, which allows multiple hosts to read

and write at a time.
Datastore of both is 64TB
Block Size in 4.x (VMFS 3)
1MB---256gb-512bytes
2MB---512gb-512bytes
4MB---1Tb-512bytes
8MB---2Tb-512bytes
Block Size in 5(VMFS 5)
1MB2Tb-512bytes

18) Who are the competitors for Esx server?

Microsoft----Hyper v
Citrix---Xenserver
Red hat enterprise virtualization

19) What is Service console?

Service console is an operating system, which is used to boot

Vmkernel and maintains sessions.

20) What is the OS in service console?

Service console is developed based on Red hat Linux operating

system.

21) It is based on which Linux version?

Red Hat 7.2 for ESX 2.x and.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 for Esx 3.x.

22) What is default password for Esxi?

The default password in Esxi 4 is Empty.

In Esxi5.0, it is null and we have to assign the password to log into
Esxi host through Vsphere client.

23) What is Tech support mode?

Tech support mode is command line interface used to manage the

Esx host.

24) How many ways to connect Esx server?

Direct Access
Vsphere client
Vsphere client VCenter
SSh---Putty
Web access

25) How to configure SSh in Esx server?

Log into VCenter server

Select Host
Configuration tab in right pan.
Security profile in Software.
Click properties for services.
Select SSh and select options.
Select the service want to start.
Click ok. ......

26) What is Port number of SSh?

22

27) I am not able to connect to Esx server through web

browser how to solve it?

28) What is diff between Esxi installable and embedded?

Esxi installable comes in Bootable Cd.

Esxi embedded is integrated with the hardware by hardware
vendors.

29) I am not able to access Esx server via vsphere client and
why?

Login Credentials may be wrong.

Ip address may be wrong.
Ping and check wither its pinging are not.

30) What are the virtual machine files?

.Vmx
.Vmdk
.Vmxf
.nvram
.Vswp
.Vmss
.log

31) What is the size of vswp file?

Vswp=allocated memory for Vm reserved memory for Vm.

32) What is vmdk file?

Virtual machine Hard disk file.

33) What is vmx file?

Vmx is a Configuration file.

It contains Configuration info and H/W sittings of the Vm.

34) My vmx file is corrupted how can I power on the VM

Create a new VM in Custom mode

Match the vmdk file of corrupter vmx and power on.

35) What are the snapshot related files?

.VmsnSnapshot Vm content is stored in these file.

.VmsdSnapshot Meta dataContains info about all snapshots.
.VmdkDelta file Actual storage content is stored.

36) What are the types of network cards available in VM?

Vlan,Vmxnet,e1000

37) What are the e1000 and Vlan?

38) What is vmxnet?

39) How many network cards I can configure to VM?

10 cards in 5.0
4 cards in 4.0

40) How can I add hard disk to virtual machine?

Right Click
Edit settings
ADD
Select Hard disk
Create new virtual hard disk
Next

Thin provisioning
Next,.....Next
Finish.

41) What are persistent and non-persistent disks?

Persistent:-If any changes are made to the VM, changes are

immediately and permanently written to the disk.
Non-Persistent:-If any changes are made to the VM, changes to the
disk are discarded when you power off (or) revert to the snapshot.

42) What is hot add and hot plug?

Hot add means adding Ram to the Vm.

Hot plug means adding Cups to the Vm.

43) What are the storage controllers in VM?

IDE
SATA
SCSI
SAS

44) What is the max hard disk we can configure to VM?

Max hard disk is 1Tb.

45) What are VMware tools?

VMware tools are nothing but Drivers used for the enhanced
performance of the VM (like mouse, keybord, ect.) and used in HA.

46) What is cloning?

Cloning is a technology to create identical copies of an existing VM.

47) What is guest customization?

Guest customization is used to prevent conflicts that occurs at the

time of cloning and deploy of Vm (like host name, licences, Sid, time
zone ect).

48) What are the requirements for guest customization?

VMware tools must be installed in Vm.

Sysprep file must be installed in VCenter.

49) What is sysprep?

Sysprep files are needed for guest customization to clone a Vm.

50) What is SID?

Secure Id: these are used in Windows operating system to uniquely

identify Sys and user.

This option must be selected; else new clone will be same as the
parent clone.

51) Can I clone when Vm is powered on?

Yes, we can clone when Vm is powered on, that is known as Hot

cloning.

52) Can I clone a Vm from one data center to another and

from one VCenter to another?

Yes it possible to clone Vm from one data center to another and

from one VCenter to another.

53) What is snap shot (what is meant by consolidating a

snapshot)?

Point in time backup of a Vm.

Snapshot allows us to preserve the state of the Vm, so we can
return to the same state repeatedly.
Consolidating: - deleting a snap shot before u, so the child content
will meagre with the parent.

54) How many snap shots we can configure for VM?

32

55) Can I clone a Vm from Snap shot?

Yes, we can clone a Vm from snapshot.

56) What are the requirements for installing for VCenter

server and what
are the supporting Data
bases?

Installing VCenter:64 bit operating system 2k8 or 2k3.

2 Cpus
2 Gb Ram min
1 Gb Nic
Data Bases:SQl----2000 Sp2, 2005 Sp4.
Oracle---9g,10g
IBM---Db2

57) What is DSN file?

Data Source Name (DSN) is used to connect the data base of ODBC
(open data base connectivity)drives

58) What is linked mode?

Joining two or more VCenter servers is known as Linked mode, so we

can view and manage the VCenter.

59) What happens if VCenter server crashes?

DRS will not work.

HA works, but we cant make changes.
FT works for one failure.
Dvswitch works, but we cant make changes.

60) What is VSwitch?

VSwitch is software implantation of physical switch. This directs

network traffic between Vms and links to external networks.

61) What is Distributed Virtual Switch?

Dvswitch functions as a single switch across all the hosts.

Distributed Virtual switch allows Vm to maintain consistent network
configuration as they migrate across multiple hosts.

62) What are the default port groups in Esx and Esxi

Esx:Service console port.

VMkernel port (Management port).
Vm port group.
Esxi:VMkernel port (Management port).
Vm port group.

63) How can I configure Vlans in Vswitches?

64) What is Nic teaming?

Connecting multiple physical adapters to a single Virtual switch is

known as Nic teaming.
For Failover and Load balancing.

65) What are the failover detection methods?

Link State
Beacon probing

66) What are the load distribution techniques?

Port based load distribution

MAC based load distribution

IP hash based load distribution

67) What are traffic shaping policies?

Average Bandwidth
Peak Bandwidth
Burst Size

68) What are network security policies, and explain each?

Promiscuous Mode:MAC address Change.

Forged Transmits.

69) Where do you configure dvSwitch?

In VCenter -->Home-->Inventory-->Networking
Right click on the datacenter--> New Dvswitch
Name, Number of uplink ports
Add host now (or) later, next and next, finish.

70) Is dvSwitch a host specific, cluster, VCs specifics?

Dvswitch is a VCs specific.

71) What are pvlan?

72) What is Cisco nexus 1000v switch?

73) What are storage protocols Esx supports?

Fibre channel
Iscsi Hardware
Iscsi Software
NFS
VMFS

74) What is NFS?

NFS:-Network file system.

NFS is a file sharing protocol that Esxi host used to communicate
with storage devices.

75) How do you add NFS DB to Esx server?

76) How can you increase the size of data store?

Configuration tabstorageright click on Datastoreproperties

increase Datastore.

77) What is multipathing, what multipathing available in

Esx?

Having multiple paths to an Esx server to connect to the

Datastore(SAN)
Available multipathing
Fixed or Preferred
Most recently used
Round robin

78) How do you configure Lun in Esx server?

In Esx click on host add VMkernel port.

Configuration tab--> storage adapter-->add iscsi software adapter.
Detailsproperties-->Dynamic (or) Static Discovery, give server ip,
add Lun path, next.
Storage-->Add storage, partition, next , finish.

79) What is WWN?

WWN is World Wide Name, it is a naming convention used for the

Lun, when we use HBA. (Fibre channel cable)

80) What is IQN?

IQN is Iscsi Qualified Name, it is a naming convention used for the

Lun, when we use iscsi hardware or iscsi software. (Ethernet cables)

81) What is zoning?

Dividing Fc switch into different zones for providing security to host

before connecting to San Datastore.

82) What is Lun masking?

Exposing one more Lun to a specified host is known as Lun masking.

83) What is Vmotion

Migrating Vms from one host to another host without downtime.

For maintenance and load balancing.

84) What are the Pre requisites of Vmotion?

Vms should be in shared data store.

Same Cpus.
Vmotion should be enabled in VMkernel port.
No locally attached devices.
Both Esx must have same Network configuration.

85) What is SVmotion?

Migrating Vms from one data store to another data store is known
as Svmotion.

86) Prerequisites of SVmotion?

Same of Vmotion.

87) What is a cluster?

A cluster is a collection of Esx servers and its associated Vms.

88) What is EVC?

Enhanced Vmotion compatibility which prevents Vmotion migration

from failing because of Cpus incompatibility.

89) What are the pre requisites for EVC?

The Cpus must be from same vendor.

Esx 3.5 update 2 or Later.
Connected to VCenter.
Enable Hardware virtualization.
Configure to Vmotion migration.

90) Why would one change the swap file location of VM?

Moving the swap file to an alternate location can be done to lower

the cost or higher performance storage or non-replicated storage for
disaster recovery solution.
VMware recommends to store the Swap file in the same directory as
Vm.

91) What is DRS

DRS (distributed resource scheduler ) Automatic distribution of Vm

from one Esx serve to another Esx is known as DRS.

92) What is DPM?

DPM (distributed power management) places host in standby for

optimize power usage.

93) What are the DRS automation modes and rules?

Automation modes

Manual
Partially Automatic
Fully Automatic
Rules
Vm Vm Affinity
Vm-Vm Anti affinity
Vm-Host Affinity

94) What is HA?

HA (High Availability) is a host level feature which restarts the Vms

to other Esx servers in case of host failure.

95) What is Admission control policy?

Admission control policy helps ensure sufficient resources to provide

High Availability.
Admission control policies:Host failures the cluster tolerates.
Percentage of cluster resources reserved as failover spare capacity.
Specify failover Hosts.

96) How many host failures cluster tolerates?

4 Host failures.

97) What is a slot

A slot is a logical representation of the memory and CPU resources

that satisfy the requirements for any powered-on virtual machine in
the cluster.

98) What are the slot sizes

Max usages of Cpu and Memory reservations of the Vm.

If no reservations then the default of 256 MHz for Cpu and Memory
overhead for Memory is used.

99) What is host isolation?

Host Isolation response determines what happens to the Vms when

host loses the network heartbeat but continues running.

100) Responses available?

Leave power on
Power off
Shut down
Use cluster settings

101) what is HA restart priority?

HA restart priority determines which Vm should power on firs.

102) Can I stop a single VM to restart?

Yes

103) what is HA for VM?

HA agent monitors VMware tools in each Vm running on the host

and if it doesnt receive heartbeat, it restarts the Vm on the same
host.

104) what is HA agent?

In 5.0 HA agent is FDM (Fault domain manager)

In 4.1 AAM (Automatic availability manager )
When HA is enabled, it automatically installed in Esx and monitors
it.

105) what are HA logs?

If managed by vCenter Server 5.0 or later /var/log/vmware/fdm/*

If managed by vCenter Server 4.1 or earlier /var/log/vmware/aam/*

106) what are the requirements for HA?

Min 3 GB ram for Esx.

Shared Datastore.
Name resolution should be resolved.

107) what is FT?

Fault Tolerance provides zero down time, zero data loss and
continues availability of the applications.

108) what are the requirements of Fault Tolerance?

Vm should be in shared Datastore.

Single Vcpu for Vm.
Hardware virtualization should be enabled in BIOS.
3 nics of minimum of 1GB.
Cpus must mach and be from a specific list of processors.
Only 4 ft enabled Vm in a single Esx.

109) what is fixed baseline and dynamic base line?

Fixed Patch Baseline: - In this type of base line, you manually specify
which patches to include in the fixed patch baseline from the total
set of patches available in the Update Manager repository.

Dynamic patch Baseline: - The contents of a dynamic baseline are

based on available patches that meet the specified criteria. As the
set of available patches changes, dynamic baselines are updated as
well. You can explicitly include or exclude any patches.

110) in how many ways can you upgrade Esx server and
How?

You can upgrade Esx server in 3 ways:

Insert the advanced version of Esx server Cd into the drive and
reboot the system, it will ask you to upgrade the server.
By using patches (update manager installed, connected to VCS)
By using ISO image of the advanced version(update manager
installed and connected to VCS)

111) how do u upgrade VCenter server?

Let us discuss the case of upgrading VCenter server from 4.1 to 5.0
While installing the VCS 4.1 you will be asked to give the data
source name. DSN is used to establish the connection to the data
base. Give the DSN by using native client. Preserve that DSN name
safely.
Install multiple ESX and VMs in the VCS.
Again install VCS5.0 in any of the machines and use the same DSN
as used while installing 4.1.
Make sure you copy the SSL certificates to the new server folder.
Crash or power of the 4.1 machine
Login to the machine of 5.0, you can see the ESX servers and VMs
running in it.

112) How to upgrade VM hardware?

Login to VCenter server via Vsphere client or web client

Power off the VM
Right click on the VM, menu option
Upgrade Hardware and yes
Power on the VM

113) what are the Virtual machine hardware versions in 3.5,

4.0 and5?

The Hard ware version in:Esx3.5 is 4

Esx /Esxi 4.0 is 7
Esxi5.0 is 8

114) How to upgrade VMware tools?

115) what are operating systems that support hot add and
hot plug?

Windows 2003 server 32 bit enterprise edition.

Windows 2003 server 64 bit enterprise edition.
Windows 2008 server 32 bit
Standard Edition
Enterprise Edition
Windows 2008 server 64 bit
Standard Edition
Enterprise Edition
Datacenter Edition
Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate 64-bit

116) what is P2V and v2v?

Converting a Physical machine to a virtual machine is called as P2V

Converting a Virtual machine to a virtual machine is called as v2v
(VMs running on a Work Station).

117) in how many ways can we convert p2v?

There are 3 ways to P2V:Bootable Cd or Ghost imaging process.

VMware converter standalone.
VMware converter integrated with VCenter.

118) what are the default installed plugins in VCenter server

VMware VCenter storage monitoring.

VCenter hardware status.
VCenter Service status.

119) I installed update manager and (integrated) VCs, but

from vsphere client I could not access update manager?

120) what is VMware converter agent?

121) what the versions VMware converter you worked on?

122) what is VShield edge and vcd?
VShield edge: Provides protection to the Datastore.

123) what is VMA?

The vsphere Management Assistant (VMA) allows administrators and

developers to run scripts and agents to manage Esxi hosts and
VCenter Server systems. VMA is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software, a logging component, and an authentication
component that supports non-interactive login.

124) what is VCLI?

The vsphere Command-Line Interface (vsphere CLI) command set

allows you to run common system administration commands
against ESX/Esxi systems from any machine with network access to
those systems. You can also run most vsphere CLI commands
against a VCenter Server system and target any ESX/Esxi system
that VCenter Server system manages. Vsphere CLI includes the
ESXCLI command set, vicfg- commands, and some other
commands.

125) what is PowerCLI?

VMware vsphere PowerCLI is a powerful command line tool that lets

you automate all aspects of vsphere management, including
network, storage, VM, guest OS and more. PowerCLI is distributed as
a Windows PowerShellsnap in, and includes more than 300
PowerShell cmdlets, along with documentation and samples.

126) what is DCUI?

DCUI: Direct console user interface. The Esx/Esxi screen.

127) what is EULA?

EULA: End user License agreement is the contract between the

licensor and purchaser, establishing the purchaser's right to use the
software.

128) what is Resource pool?

A Resource pool is a logical aggression of resources (like cpu and

memory )
Managing CPU and memory resources.

129) what are reservations, limits and expandable

reservations?

Reservations: - The minimum amount of resources that are required

by the resource pool. For example, you can set a CPU reservation,
which is the minimum amount of CPU that this pool must have.
Limits: - The maximum amount of resources that are given to the
resources pool. By default, the resource pool is given unlimited
access to the maximum amount of resource.
Expandable Reservation: -An attribute that is specific to a resource
pool. This attribute allows a resource pool that cannot satisfy a
reservation request to search through its hierarchy to find
unreserved capacity to satisfy the reservation request.

130) what are Shares in Resource pool?

Shares:-It guarantees certain amount of resources to resource pool

(like Cpu and Memory).shares work like virtual machine shares.

131) what is memory over commitment?

Memory over commitment occurs when physical memory allocated

to the host is less than the sum of memory allocated to the virtual
machines.

132) what are the memory reclamation techniques and

explain each one of them?

Transparent page sharing: -Transparent page sharing allows pages or

files with identical contents to be stored once.
Memory ballooning mechanism: - It is active when memory scarce,
forces Vms to use their own paging area. VMware tools start an App
called as Balloon drivers and that memory is given to the needed
Vm.
Memory compression: -Esx compresses pages in Ram only. Memory
compression is another technique that the VMkernel uses to reclaim
host physical memory. This technique attempts to reclaim some
memory by compressing pages.
Hypervisor Swapping: - The Esx server swaps least used pages to
the Hard disk. This technique is used to page virtual machine
memory to disk. This is used when other techniques are temporarily
unable to reclaim memory quickly enough to satisfy current system
demand.

133) how do you monitor the performance of ESX and VM?

Monitoring the Performance of ESX: - When you connect to ESX

server, you can see the performance tab on the screen, it displays
the chart and graphs of the Esx server.
Monitoring the Performance of VM: - Click on Vm, performance tab.

134) what is ESX top?

ESXTOP is a tool often used at VMware to diagnose and identify

performance problems.

135) what is the difference between Esx top and resx top?

The fundamental difference between resx top and Esx top is that
you can use resx top remotely, where as you can start Esx top only
through the service console of a local Esx host.

136) what are the CPU parameters to check and what they
mean?

137) what are the memory parameters to check and what

they mean?

138) what are the network parameters to check and what

they mean?

139) what are Esx and Esxi partitions?

140) what are Esx log files?

/var/log/vmkernel Core VMkernel logs, including device discovery,

storage and networking device and driver events, and virtual
machine startup.
/var/log/vmkwarning Summary of Warning and Alert log messages
excerpted from the VMkernel logs.
/var/log/vmksummary Summary of ESX host startup and
shutdown, and an hourly heartbeat with uptime, number of virtual
machines running, and service console resource consumption.
/var/log/messages Messages from the Service Console Linux
kernel, including service startup and shutdown.
/var/log/vmware/hostd.log Host management service logs,
including virtual machine and host Tasks and Events,
communication with the vsphere Client and VCenter
Server vpxa agent, and SDK connections.
/var/log/boot-logs/sysboot.log Early VMkernel startup, module
loading, and host initialization.
/var/log/vmkiscsid.log Software iscsi Client logs.

141) what are VCenter server log files?

When an ESX host is managed by VCenter Server, two components

are installed, each with its own logs:
/var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log VCenter Server vpxa agent logs,
including communication with VCenter Server and the Host
Management hostd agent.
VMware High Availability logs:
If managed by VCenter Server 5.0 or later /var/log/vmware/fdm/*
If managed by VCenter Server 4.1 or earlier
/var/log/vmware/aam/*

142) Where is the VCenter server and converter log files

located?

143) what is vpxa, vpxd, hostd?

Hostd: -The hostd process runs directly on the Esxi host and is
responsible for managing most of the operations on the Esxi host.
Vpxd: -Vpxd is a process which runs on the VCenter server.
Vpxa: -Vpxa is a VCenter agent. It acts as an intermediary between
vpxd and hostd.

144) How to restart vpxa?

Service vmware-vpxa restart (or to stop, start)

145) How to restart management agents in Esx and Esxi?

Esx:- service mgmt-vmware restart(or to stop, start)

Esxi: - DCUI-->F2-->Restart management agent.

146) what is the difference between HA mechanism in 4 and

5?

HA in 4.0: -Only Network heartbeat is present, Primary and

secondary hosts (5 primaries are always present). No Datastore
heartbeat.
HA in 5.0:- Network heartbeat and Datastore heartbeat are present,
Master and slaves. Only one Master and remaining are slaves.

147) what is FDM?

FDM (Fault domain manager) is HA agent that starts on the hosts

when HA is enabled.

148) what is Datastore heartbeat?

The Datastore heartbeat is used to make the communication

between a master and failed or Isolated or partitioned host.

149) what are the services in VCenter server?

VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware
VMware

VCenter Orchestrator configuration

Virtual center Management Web services
Virtual center Server
vsphere Profile Driven Storage service
VCMSDS

150) what is busy box?

151) what is digi box?

152) How to configure Esx firewall?
153) How do u collect log files and in how many ways?
154) what is a template?

Template is also a virtual machine which cannot be powered on.

155) when virtual machine is converted to template what are

the files which get changed?

Vmx file get changed to vmtx

156) what is the difference between template and OVF

template?

157) what are the default roles available in VCenter server

and what is no access role and explain when it is used?

Default Roles Available:No Access

Read only
Administrator

158) to install VCenter server which one is preferred

(Physical machine or Virtual machine) and why?

It prefer to install VCenter server in a virtual machine, even if the

hardware fails also there will be no problem and it does not affect
the Vm.

159) what is the command used to keep ESX server in

maintenance mode?

esxcfg - hostops --operation enter

160) what is the command used to exit ESX server from

maintenance mode?

esxcfg-hostopsoperation exit

161) what is the command used to create a VSwitch?

esxcfg vswitch a vSwitch0

In the above command I have created a virtual switch name
vswitch0

162) what is the command used to create a port group?

esxcfg -vswitch-add-pg iscsi -l vSwitch0

163) what is the command used to create a service console

port?

esxcfg-vswitch A Service Console vSwitch0

164) what is the command used to create a kernel port?

165) what is the command used to configure nic teaming to
vswitch?
166) what is the command used to create a vmdk file?

Here in this command to created a virtual machine file of 10GB:

Vmkfstools c 10GB <path to vmdk>

167) what is the command used to extend vmdk file?

Here in the command, to extend the vmdk file with 10GB file, now
my total file size would be 20GB.
Vmkfstools -X 10GB <path to vmdk>

168) what is the command used for Svmotion?

It Moves a virtual machine configuration file and optionally its disks

while the virtual machine is running.
The below command prompts you for the information it needs to
complete the storage migration.
Svmotion --interactive

169) what is the command used for update patches?

The command used to configure only to download the host patch is:
Vmware umds.exe--set-config -enable host1 -enable win0 -enable
The command used to start the download patch is:
Vmware umds.exe -download
To set the path where the patches to be stored:
Vmware umds.exe -set-config path c: \download

170) what is the command used to find Esx versions?

171) what is the command used to unregister a virtual
machine?

The following command is used to unregister the virtual machine

from the inventory
Vmware cmd

172) what is the command used to list all the network cards?

esxcfg nics -l

173) what is the command used to change the default

gateway?

Esxcfg route a 192.168.100.0/24 192.168.0.1

174) what is the command used to change the hostname?

175) explain any five troubleshooting issues while installing
ESX server?
176) explain any three trouble shooting issues while cloning
virtual machine?
177) explain any four trouble shooting issues while creating
a snapshot?
178) explain five trouble shooting issues while doing
Vmotion for a virtual machine?
179) explain three troubleshooting issues while enabling FT?
180) explain five troubleshooting issues while installing
update manager and updating ESX server?
181) explain five troubleshooting issues while performing
P2V and V2V?
182) what are VCPU? How can be configured in 3.5,4, and 5?