I85PREP
⌘ K
Dell VxRail Deploy study materials
Dell VxRail Deploy study resources

Dell VxRail Deploy: VxRail Post-Deployment Operations and Troubleshooting

Dell VxRail Deploy · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

VxRail Post-Deployment Operations and Troubleshooting

What this domain covers

This domain tests day-2 operations: health checks, expansion, upgrades, backups, log collection, and diagnosing common deployment or network failures.

Core rules

  • After deployment, verify vSAN health, VxRail health, HA/DRS settings, datastore capacity, the VxRail plugin in vCenter, and VxRail Manager backup configuration.
  • Use VxRail Manager for Health Check, Support Logs, VxRail Update bundles, and Procedure Manager workflows. These are the supported paths for cluster-level operations.
  • Expand through the Add Nodes workflow. The new node must be a supported match for the cluster and must meet the firmware baseline. Pre-checks compare the node against the cluster before it is admitted.
  • Upgrade with VxRail bundles. Do not upgrade vCenter, ESXi, or firmware independently outside the bundle; the bundle defines the validated order and compatibility.
  • Configure VxRail Manager backup to external SMB or NFS storage and test restore procedures.
  • Troubleshoot with the VxRail support bundle, vSAN health, iDRAC logs, DNS/NTP checks, and certificate expiry checks. The VxRail REST API supports automation and data collection.

Worked example

An administrator adds a fifth node, but the expansion pre-check fails with a firmware mismatch. Reasoning: VxRail validates the new node against the cluster baseline before adding it to vSAN. Do not bypass the check. Update the node to the matching VxRail bundle, confirm vSAN health is clean, then rerun Add Nodes. If the node is a different model, verify mixing support in the Support Matrix first.

Traps

  • Upgrading vCenter separately and breaking the VxRail bundle compatibility.
  • Adding a node with older firmware or an unsupported model and ignoring pre-check failures.
  • Skipping the post-upgrade health check and missing degraded vSAN components.
  • Deleting or rebuilding VxRail Manager without a recent backup.
  • Overlooking expired vCenter or VxRail Manager certificates when registration or login fails.
  • Treating a vSAN disk failure as a VxRail Manager fault instead of checking vSAN health and iDRAC.