2V0-15.25 VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Support Questions and Answers

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0,all host commissioning operationsare performed throughVCF Operations, not through vSphere Client, Cloud Builder, or the VCF Installer. Once VCF is deployed, Cloud Builder is no longer used, and the VCF Installer is for lifecycle and bundle management—not for host workflows. The vSphere Client also cannot commission hosts because host commissioning is a foundational VCF workflow requiring hardware validation, storage type checks, NIC checks, HCL conformance, and version compatibility.

The error message provided:

“Hosts must be unassigned, commissioned with at least one physical NIC and the same storage type… and the ESX version must be compatible…”

is a standard VCF 9.0 validation message shown whenno commissioned hostsmatching the workload domain requirements exist. VMware documentation states that hosts must be commissioned under:

VCF Operations → Fleet Management → Hosts → Commission Host

Here, VCF validates:

Storage type (vSAN ESA, vSAN OSA, NFS, FC, etc.)

Network pool membership (matching the WLD plan)

ESXi version compatibility with the Management Domain baseline

NIC mapping and certifications

Until hosts are commissioned, they cannot appear in the workload domain creation wizard.

Thus, the correct method to commission hosts isD. Using VCF Operations.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 with vSAN ESA, storage policies must match the capabilities of the existing cluster. The scenario describes a5-node vSAN ESA clusterwhere the vSAN Default Storage Policy isRAID-1 (FTT=1). The administrator attempts to apply a2 Failures – RAID-6policy, which ESA supportsonly on clusters with at least 7 nodes. Because the cluster has only five nodes, the policy fails immediately—this is expected and documented in the vSAN ESA design specifications.

Since RAID-6 is not an option and capacity is low, the administrator must look for a method to reclaim storage usage without requiring additional nodes or unsupported policy changes. Converting VMs fromthick provisioning to thin provisioningis a safe and effective mitigation approach. Thin provisioning reduces consumed space by allowing disks to grow only as needed, immediately recovering unused blocks. This is a standard vSAN-supported method to temporarily alleviate capacity pressure.

Enabling encryption (A) or compression (D) doesnotreduce capacity usage retroactively and may actually increase overhead. Using RAID-5 (B) is also not possible because RAID-5 requiresat least 6 ESA-enabled hosts.

To diagnose and resolve the intermittent performance and connection drop issues with the supplemental iSCSI storage, the administrator should focus on network layer consistency and health, particularly regarding packet size (MTU) and delivery (TCP).

Examine the iSCSI VMkernel port for TCP retransmissions (Action B - Diagnose):"Intermittent" connection drops and slow I/O are classic symptoms of packet loss or fragmentation issues. By examining the ESXi network stats (e.g., using esxtop key n or viewing vSphere performance charts) forTCP retransmissions, the administrator can confirm if packets are being dropped or lost in transit.Checksum offload errorscan also indicate issues where the NIC hardware is incorrectly validating packets, causing the OS to drop them. This step identifies theroot cause(packet loss/corruption).

Ensure all ESX hosts have the VMkernel port MTU set to 9000 (Action E - Resolve):For high-performance storage traffic like iSCSI in a VMware Cloud Foundation environment, it is best practice to useJumbo Frames (MTU 9000)end-to-end (Host -> Switch -> Storage Array).

The symptom thatsomehosts are affected suggestsconfiguration driftwhere those specific hosts might be set to a different MTU (e.g., 1500) or are mismatched with the physical network/target (which is likely set to 9000 for performance).

An MTU mismatch (e.g., Target sending 9000-byte frames to a Host/Switch expecting 1500) typically results in the "Do Not Fragment" (DF) bit causing packet drops, leading to the reported connection drops and retransmission delays. Ensuring a consistent MTU of 9000 across the fleet resolves this and aligns with VCF performance standards.

Note: Option A (CHAP) is for authentication security, not performance. Option C (Update network plugin) is a lifecycle task but less likely to be the immediate fix for "some hosts" having intermittent drops compared to the common issue of MTU mismatch. Option D (MTU 1500) would resolve drops if the physical network doesn't support Jumbo Frames, but would degrade performance, making E the preferred resolution for a "performance" storage tier.

A Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation: When enabling vSphere Supervisor with NSX Classic (using the traditional NSX-T Data Center networking stack rather than the newer NSX VPC mode), the vSphere Workload Management wizard filters the list of available NSX Edge Clusters to ensure they are explicitly designated for use with Kubernetes workloads.

The "WCPReady" Tag Requirement: The primary mechanism vCenter uses to identify a valid, compatible Edge Cluster for Workload Management is a specific tag on the NSX Edge Cluster object. This tag must be WCPReady (case-sensitive).

Symptoms: If this tag is missing—which often happens if the Edge Cluster was created manually in NSX Manager rather than through the SDDC Manager automation—the validation process will fail to find any usable clusters. This results in the specific error message: "No valid edge cluster for VDS [UUID]", or simply an empty list of compatible clusters in the wizard.

Resolution: The administrator must log in to the NSX Manager, navigate to System > Fabric > Nodes > Edge Clusters, select the target cluster, and manually add the tag WCPReady (often with the scope "Created for", though the tag itself is the critical filter).

Why other options are incorrect:

B: Large Edge nodes are actually a requirement for vSphere Supervisor (Small/Medium are typically unsupported for this role), so deploying them as Large would make the cluster compatible, not incompatible.

C: vSphere Supervisor fully supports Distributed Connectivity (connecting directly to the VDS), so Central Connectivity is not a hard requirement causing this specific error.

D: While AVI (NSX Advanced Load Balancer) is a supported load balancer, the "No valid edge cluster" error occurs during the Edge Cluster discovery phase, preceding the load balancer configuration.

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x usesVMware Identity Broker (VIDB)as the central identity provider for the entire VCF fleet. VIDB synchronizes user and group metadata from the connected enterprise identity source, in this caseActive Directory. When a user is added to an AD groupafterthe group was already synced into VIDB,VIDB does not automatically resync group membership on demandunless a directory synchronization is performed.

In this scenario, the groupVCFA_ProviderAdminswas synchronized five days earlier. When the new userprovideradmin05was later added to the AD group, VIDB—and therefore the VCF Automation Provider Management Portal—does not recognize that new user until amanual directory resynchronizationoccurs fromVCF Operations.

This operation forces VIDB to:

Requery Active Directory

Update group membership information

Repopulate available users for import into VCF Automation

Options B and D are incorrect because they donotinfluence Identity Broker directory synchronization. Option C (disable VCF SSO) would break authentication and is not a valid solution.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 requires strict vSAN ESA hardware compatibility when creating a workload domain that uses vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA). During host validation, SDDC Manager and vSphere Client check whether each ESXi host meets ESA requirements, including CPU generation, storage controller type, and—most importantly—ESA-certified NVMe storage devices. The validation errors provided:

“Failed to validate vSAN HCL status” for every host

indicate that the hosts do not meet the vSAN ESA HCL requirements.

VCF 9.0 documentation states that ESA uses a next-generation log-structured filesystem requiring certified NVMe devices only, with no RAID controller dependencies. Unlike OSA, ESA eliminates disk groups, but it requires certified devices listed on the vSAN ESA HCL to pass host validation. If non-certified or unsupported NVMe/SAS devices are present, validation fails exactly as described.

Option A is incorrect because RAID pass-through settings apply to OSA, not ESA.

Option C is incorrect because ESA compatibility validation is performed offline using the SDDC Manager BOM, not via internet lookup.

Option D is incorrect because ESA does not use tri-mode RAID controllers.

Therefore, the documented and verified cause is B: hosts are not using vSAN ESA certified storage devices.

The error:

“Internal Error: Failed to retrieve vim client”

occurs whenVCF Operations cannot establish a functional API session with vCenter. Thevim clientis the internal vSphere API client library used by VCF Operations to perform cluster actions such as modifying DRS settings, powering on/off workloads, or retrieving inventory.

When this error appears, VMware documentation identifies these common root causes:

Loss of connectivity between VCF Operations and vCenter

DNS resolution issues

Network interruption

Stale or expired authentication tokens

Credential mismatchIf the vCenter password was changed manually, VCF Operations may be unable to authenticate.

vCenter services restarting or unavailableIf vCenter backend services (vpxd, sts, etc.) are unstable, VCF Operations cannot establish a vim session.

Option A is incorrect—DRS automation state in the vSphere Client does not cause vim client retrieval errors.

Option B (vCenter overloaded by API requests) would cause timeouts, not a vim client initialization failure.

Option D (insufficient licensing) affects feature use, not API connectivity.

When troubleshootingBGP peering issueson an NSX Edge Transport Node, VMware documentation directs administrators to examinerouting logs, because BGP failures are often caused by adjacency negotiation errors, authentication mismatches, keepalive/hold timer issues, or route-policy failures.

The NSX Edge CLI command:

get log-file routing follow

streams real-time routing logs, including BGP daemon logs (bfdd, routed, wdog) and provides detailed insight into:

BGP session establishment and teardown

Keepalive and hold timer exchanges

Neighbor state transitions

Route advertisement or rejection

Authentication mismatches

MTU or connectivity issues on TEP / uplinks

This is theonlycommand in the list that exposesdiagnostic-level BGP informationneeded to troubleshoot peering.

Option A (edge-cluster status) shows cluster membership only.

Option B (get logical-routers) shows logical router configuration, not BGP logs.

Option C (edge-cluster history state) is unrelated to routing.

The"Remote Logging Not Configured"alarm in NSX Manager is a system-health alert indicating that one or more Transport Nodes (Edges or Hypervisors) or Management Nodes do not have a Syslog server defined.

NSX Node Profiles:In VMware NSX (and by extension VCF), the standard method to apply consistent administrative settings—such asSyslog Servers, NTP settings, and Core Dump configurations—across a fleet of nodes is to use anNSX Node Profile.

Configuration Path:The administrator should navigate toSystem > Fabric > Profiles > Node Profiles. Here, they can create or edit a profile that specifies the remote syslog server's IP/FQDN, port, and protocol.

Application:Once the Node Profile is applied to the NSX Management Cluster or Edge Clusters, the configuration is pushed to all respective appliances, clearing the alarm.

Why not A/B:Edge Cluster Profiles manage networking/BFD settings; Uplink Profiles manage NIC teaming and MTU.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, supplemental storage such as NFS is fully supported for workload domains when configured correctly. When an NFS datastore mounts successfully in vSphere but users cannot write data, the issue almost always lies in theexport permissions on the NFS server. vSphere will allow mounting a read-only NFS export, but write operations will fail silently at the VM or guest OS level.

VCF documentation confirms that ESXi requires explicitread/write export permissions, typically configured per-host or by IP subnet, on the NFS server. Even if network connectivity and VM-level access appear healthy, incorrect server-side permissions prevent ESXi from executing write operations.

Option A is incorrect because NFS servers are not validated by the HCL for write capability.

Option B (rebooting the host) is unnecessary and unrelated to permission enforcement.

Option D (MTU mismatch) may cause performance issues, not write-access failures.

Thus, the next troubleshooting step is to verify that the ESXi hosts haveread/write accesson the NFS share, makingCthe correct answer.

When activating avSphere Supervisor using VCF Networking with VPC, theSupervisor Workload Networkmust use aVPC Connectivity Profile. These profiles arescoped to an NSX Project, andcannot be consumed from the Default Project.

VCF Automation requires that:

Acustom NSX Projectbe used for VPC networking integrations.

TheDefault Projectcannot host Connectivity Profiles or VPC constructs intended for Supervisor activation.

Even though the administrator verified that a VPC Connectivity Profileexistsin NSX, the Supervisor wizard will not display it if:

The VPC Connectivity Profile belongs to adifferent project, or

The current selection is theDefault Project, which blocks visibility.

This exact behavior—empty VPC Connectivity Profile dropdown—is documented when attempting Supervisor activation under the Default NSX Project.

Option A (T0 active/active) affects North-South routing but does not hide VPC profiles.

Option B (Supervisor HA mode) does not impact network profile selection.

Option D (missing default VPC) is incorrect because the wizard is complaining aboutavailability of Connectivity Profiles, not VPC instances.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Operations manages credentials for integrated components such as vCenter Server through its internal password vault. When administrators modify passwordsdirectly on the component—such as manually changing thevCenter rootpassword—VCF Operations is no longer able to authenticate using its stored credentials. As a result, any password rotation or update operation initiated through VCF Operations fails during the validation step.

The error"Failed to authenticate with the guest operating system using the supplied credentials"is a direct symptom of this condition. VCF Operations attempts to log in to vCenter using thepreviously stored credential, which no longer matches the actual root password. Documentation describes this as an "out-of-sync credential state," and the resolution is to performpassword remediationto re-synchronize VCF Operations with the system.

Option A (password complexity) is irrelevant because complexity is validated only after authentication.

Option C (vCenter down) would generate connectivity errors, not authentication errors.

Option D (SSH disabled) does not prevent password rotation because VCF Operations uses VMware Tools guest operations, not SSH, for authentication.

In VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Automation for All Apps, avSphere Namespacecan span multipleSupervisor Zones. However, workloads—including catalog item deployments—canonlybe deployed into zones that are explicitlyassigned to that Namespace. The user in the scenario successfully deploys intozone1andzone2, which confirms that those zones are correctly associated with the Namespace.

The failure to deploy intozone3, while deployments into the other zones work, strongly indicates thatzone3 is not part of the Namespace configuration.

This behavior matches how Supervisor Zones function:

A zone must beadded to the Namespacein Supervisor configuration.

If the zone is not associated,VCF Automation will not present it as an eligible deployment location, and deployment into that zone fails.

Option A and D (project roles) are incorrect because insufficient permissions would prevent deploymentinto any zone, not a single missing zone.

Option B (Namespace Class) is irrelevant because Namespace Classes define resource limits, not which Supervisor Zones the Namespace is mapped to.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, VCF Operations (vROps-based) usespoliciesto control which alerts, symptoms, and metrics are evaluated for a given object. Creating an alert definition and symptom alone is not sufficient; the alert must beassociated with and enabled in a policythat is actively applied to the target object (in this case, a Virtual Machine). The documentation shows that when you create an alert definition, there is an explicitPolicies step, where you select the policy (for example, the default policy) so that the alert becomes active for objects governed by that policy.

The metric “Read Latency (ms)” is valid for virtual-machine–related objects: VCF Operations documents Read Latency metrics at the VM disk and VM–datastore link level (for Disk and Datastore metrics on Virtual Machines). Therefore, option B (metric not applicable) is incorrect. No requirement exists that such a performance alert must be forwarded from VCF Operations for Logs (D); log-based alerts are a separate alert type.

If the alert definition is not enabled in the effective policy for that VM, VCF Operations will not evaluate the symptom or generate the alert, and it will not appear in the alert pane—even though the definition technically exists. This matches optionCexactly.

The error message com.vmware.esx.settings.daemon.software.scan_spec (reconstructed from the typo setungs_aaemon.sonware.scan_spec) is a specific failure generated by thevSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM)compliance engine on the ESXi host.

Cause - Removed Component:This error is a documented known issue in vSphere 8.x/VCF 5.x+, specifically occurring when an administrator hasremoved a componentfrom the Cluster Image that the system validates as "required" or "structural" for the host's hardware configuration (common with hosts using DPUs or specific OEM add-ons).

The Scenario:The mention of "High CPU ready times" likely implies the administrator attempted to streamline the host image byremovinga perceived "bloatware" component (like a vendor monitoring agent or unused driver) to improve performance.

The Result:When vLCM attempts to build the "Scan Specification" (scan_spec) to validate the host against this modified image, the internal struct validation fails because the removed component creates an invalid dependency state, throwing the Invalid field software_spec... or scan_spec exception.