VCP-DCV study plan

Build a symptom-to-cause decision tree covering 10 common vSphere failures (host disconnected, HA agent error, VM will not power on, datastore inaccessible, APD vs PDL, snapshot consolidation stall, uplink down, vMotion failure, expired certificate, insufficient resources).

Reproduce at least 5 of those failures in a lab and record for each the exact log file, path, and error string that identifies it.

Generate an ESXi support bundle and a vCenter log bundle, then locate the three specific log entries that answer three questions you wrote in advance.

Classify a simulated storage-path outage as APD or PDL and write the correct recovery sequence for each, including why the sequences differ.

Configure vCenter alarms for host connectivity, datastore capacity, and VM resource usage, then deliberately trigger each one and confirm it fires.

Create custom roles and assignments that give a VM operator and a read-only auditor only the privileges each needs, and prove the boundary by attempting a denied action.

Execute a full host maintenance-mode workflow including evacuation, verify where each VM landed, and return the host to service with documented pre-checks.

Configure a snapshot retention policy, run a cleanup of orphaned snapshots, and document the consolidation procedure and its risks.

Perform a template deployment and a VM clone, recording the disk format and customization decisions you made and why.

Diagram the ESXi architecture (VMkernel, VMX process, resource scheduler, storage and network stacks) and explain each layer from memory without notes.

Compare VMFS, NFS, and vSAN datastores on locking, multi-host access, and block sizing, and state which workload type each suits best.

Explain step by step what HA admission control, DRS, and resource pools each do during a single host failure and where they overlap.

Trace a packet from a VM vNIC through a standard switch and a distributed switch uplink, naming what happens at each hop.

Map the SSO and certificate trust chain in a vCenter deployment and identify which component validates which certificate.

Match vCenter, HA, DRS, vSAN, distributed switches, and replication features to eight stated business requirements and justify each match in one sentence.

Identify the major vCenter Server Appliance services and describe what visibly breaks for the user when each one is stopped.

Distinguish high-availability features from disaster-recovery features and place each product or feature on the correct side of that line.

Deploy a minimal lab (one vCenter, one cluster, two hosts) and confirm which capabilities are gated by licensing level.

Size a cluster (host count, CPU, RAM, storage) from a supplied workload profile, showing the arithmetic and the N+1 headroom explicitly.

Design a network layout that separates management, vMotion, storage, and VM traffic, and defend the MTU and uplink-redundancy choices.

Produce an addressing and datastore layout plan that states expected growth and where it will be absorbed.

Write a backup and DR plan that states RPO and RTO targets and names the mechanism that satisfies each target.

Install ESXi hosts, join them to vCenter, and configure NTP, DNS, and remote syslog, verifying each with a command or UI check.

Deploy the vCenter Server Appliance into the intended SSO domain and confirm every service reaches a healthy state.

Configure a standard switch and a distributed switch with VLAN-backed port groups and prove connectivity end to end.

Add an iSCSI or NFS datastore, present it to hosts, and verify path status and multipathing behavior.

Attach a host profile, check compliance, and remediate one deliberate drift.

Use esxtop to identify one CPU-ready bottleneck, one memory-ballooning condition, and one storage-latency condition, and state the remediation for each.

Read vCenter performance charts to separate contention from saturation for CPU, memory, disk, and network.

Apply three tuning measures (resource-pool shares, storage I/O control, network I/O control) and measure before and after with numbers.

Plan an ESXi and vCenter upgrade path, listing pre-checks, compatibility checks, and the rollback steps.

Re-run the week 1 troubleshooting scenarios closed-book and score yourself against the original runbook.

Complete two full-length timed practice exams and score at least 80% on the second attempt.

Rewrite your 20 most-missed objectives as one-line facts and re-test until recall is complete.

Re-derive from memory the architecture diagram, the HA and DRS failure behavior, and the troubleshooting decision tree.

Spend a focused lab block on the two weakest domains identified by the practice exams, re-running the relevant procedures.