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VMware is a leader in Virtualization and Cloud Computing, offering solutions for online grid and desktop virtualization.
It has transformed the tech world by moving from physical systems to virtual ones.
As more companies adopt virtual environments to optimize hardware, the need for experts in this field is growing.
Organizations rely on skilled professionals to manage and maintain their operations.
To find the best talent, companies conduct technical interviews and HR evaluations.
Technical interviews focus on testing a candidates knowledge and skills in virtualization.
VMkernel is a virtualization interface between a Virtual Machine and the ESXi host, which stores VMs.
It also controls special services such as vMotion, fault tolerance, NFS, traffic management, and iSCSI.
Without VMkernel, hosted VMs cannot communicate with the ESXi server.
#2.What are the hypervisor and their types?
A hypervisor is a virtualization layer that enables multiple operating systems to share a single hardware host.
There are two types of hypervisors.
#3.What is Virtualization?
Virtualization lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine which is called ESXi host.
#4.What are the different types of virtualization?
There are 5 basic types of virtualization.
VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Interview Questions
#5.What is VMware FT?
FT stands for Fault Tolerance, a very prominent component of VMware vSphere.
It provides continuous availability for VMs when an ESXi host fails.
It supports up to 4 vCPUs and 64 GB memory.
FT is very bandwidth-intensive, and 10GB NIC is recommended to configure it.
It creates a complete copy of an entire VM, including storage, computing, and memory.
#6.How many vCPUs can be used for a VM in FT in VMware vSphere 7.0?
In VMware vSphere 7.0, there can be up to 8 vCPUs with the VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus license.
#7.What is the name of the technology used by VMware FT?
vLockstep technology is used by VMware FT
#8.What is Fault Tolerant Logging?
The communication between two ESXi hosts is called FT logging when FT is configured between them.
The pre-requisition of configuring FT is to configure the VMKernel port.
#9.Will the FT work if the vCenter Server goes down?
vCenter Server is only required to enable Fault Tolerance on a VM.
Once it is configured, vCenter is not required to be online for FT to work.
FT failover between primary and secondary will occur even if the vCenter is down.
#10.What is the main difference between VMware HA and FT?
Virtual Networking Interview Questions
#11.What is virtual networking?
#12.What is vSS?
#13.What is vDS?
#14.How many maximum standard ports per host are available?
4096 ports per host are available either in a standard switch or a distributed switch.
#15.What are the main benefits of a distributed switch (vDS)?
vDS can provide:
#16.What is the VMKernal adapter, and why is it used?
#17.What is the main use of port groups in data center virtualization?
#18.What are the three-port groups configured in ESXi networking?
#19.What is VLAN, and why is it used in virtual networking?
Every VLAN has a proper number called VLAN ID.
#20.What is VLAN Tagging?
#21.What are the three online grid security policies/modes on vSwitch?
#22.What is the promiscuous mode on vSwitch?
By default, a guest operating systems virtual data pipe adapter only receives frames that are meant for it.
#23.What is MAC address changes data pipe policy?
The security policy of a virtual switch includes aMAC address changeoption.
This option affects the traffic that a virtual machine receives.
This setting protects the host against MAC impersonation.
#24.What is the Forged transmits internet policy?
TheForged transmitsoption affects traffic that is transmitted from a virtual machine.
When theForged transmitsoption is set toAccept,ESXidoes not compare source and effective MAC addresses.
VMware vCenter Server Interview Questions
#25.What are the main components of vCenter Server architecture?
The following components are included in thevCenter Serverappliance deployments:
#26.What are PSC and its components?
It has three main components.
#27.What are the two main PSC deploying methods?
#28.What are the different types of vCenter Server deployment?
It has two deployment types till VMware vSphere 6.7.
In VMware vSphere 7.0 and onwards, External PSC has been deprecated.
We can only install PSC in Embedded mode.
#30.What is vCloud Suite?
#31.What is the basic security step to secure vCenter Server and users?
Authenticate vCenter Server with Active Directory.
By using this, we can assign specific roles to users and can also efficiently manage the virtual environment.
Virtual Storage Interview Questions
#32.What is a data store?
A datastore is a storage location where virtual machine files are stored and accessed.
Datastore is based on a file system which is called VMFS, NFS.
#33.What is the .vmx file?
It is the configuration file of a VM
#34.What information .nvram file store?
It stores BIOS-related information of a VM.
#35.What is the .vmdk file used?
vmdk is a VM disk file and stores data of a VM.
It can be up to 62 TB in size in the vSphere 5.5 and onward versions.
#36.How many disk types are in VMware?
There are three disk types in vSphere.
#37.What is Storage vMotion?
During Storage vMotion, virtual disk types think provisioning disk can be transformed to thin-provisioned disk.
Whats New in vSphere 6.0
#38.What is the VM Hardware version for vSphere 6.0?
Version 11
#39.What VM hardware version for vSphere 6.5?
Version 13
#40.What VM Hardware version for vSphere 6.7 and vSphere 7.0?
#42.How many maximum hosts can manage a vCenter Server in vSphere 6.0?
#43.How many hosts can be managed by a cluster in vSphere 6.0?
A single cluster can manage a maximum of 64 hosts in VMware vSphere 6.0 and onward versions.
#44.How can a single cluster manage maximum VMs?
A single cluster can manage a maximum of 8000 VMs.
#45.What is VVol?
VVol is automatically created when a virtual disk is created in a virtual environment for a VM.
#46.How many licensing options are for vSphere 6.0?
Content Libraries Interview Questions
#48.What is the Content Library?
We create VM templates and share on another geographical location without creating again on other locations.
It has many benefits, such as sharing and consistency, storage efficiency, and secure subscription.
#50.How many types of Content Libraries have?
It has three types:
#51.What are the requirements and limitations of Content Libraries?
A content library has the following requirements and limitations
#52.What is VMFS?
VMFS is a file system for a VM in VMware vSphere.
VMFS is a datastore that is responsible for storing virtual machine files.
VMFS can also store large files, which size can be up to 64TB in vSphere 6.0.
In the latest versions of VMware vSphere, VMFS 6 is used to store VMs.
VSAN Interview Questions
#53.What is vSAN?
Virtual SAN is software-defined storage first introduced in vSphere 5.5 and is fully integrated with vSphere.
#54.What is cold migration?
To move a powered-off VM from one host to another is called cold migration.
#55.What is Storage vMotion?
To move a powered-on VM from one datastore to another is called Storage vMotion.
#56.What are the different configuration options for VSAN?
There are two configuration options for vSAN:
#57.Are there VSAN-ready nodes available in the market?
Yes, vSAN-ready, such as VxRail 4.0 and 4.5, are available in the market.
#58.How many minimum servers/hosts are required to configure vSAN?
If one of the servers fails, a vSAN cluster will fail.
#59.How many maximum ESXi hosts are allowed for vSAN?
64 hosts are allowed to configure a vSAN cluster at maximum.
#60.How many disk groups and max magnetic disks are allowed in a single disk group?
#61.How many types of storage can we use in our virtual environment?
#62.What is NFS?
#63.What is Raw gear Mapping (RDM)?
RDM enables you to store virtual machine data directly on a LUN.
RDM is recommended when a VM must interact with a real disk on the SAN.
#64.What is iSCSI storage?
An iSCSI SAN consists of an iSCSI storage system, which contains one or more storage processors.
TCP/IP protocol is used to communicate between host and storage array.
an iSCSI initiator is configured with the ESXi host.
#65.What is the format of iSCSI addressing?
It uses TCP/IP to configure.
#66.What are iSCSI naming conventions?
#68.What configs can be configured for vApp?
Basic Concepts of NSX
#69.What is decoupling?
An important concept of data pipe virtualization is the decoupling of software andnetworkinghardware.
The software works independently of the networking hardware that physically interconnects the infrastructure.
Remember that your internet hardware performance will always limit your throughput on the wire.
#70.What is Control Plane?
This control aspect of your online grid is called the control plane.
#71.What is Data Plane?
The networking hardware forms the data plane where all the data is forwarded from source to destination.
#72.What is the Management Plane?
The management plane primarily consists of the NSX manager.
The NSX manager is a centralized web link management component and primarily allows for a single management point.
It also provides the REST API that a user can use to perform all NSX functions and actions.
During the deployment phase, the management plane is established when the NSX appliance is deployed and configured.
This management plane directly interacts with the control plane and also the data plane.
#73.What is Logical Switching?
This means you are no longer limited to 4096 physical broadcast domains (VLANs).
#74.What are NSX Gateway Services?
The Edge gateway services interconnect your logical networks with your physical networks.
#75.What is Logical Routing?
Multiple virtual broadcast domains (logical networks) can be created using NSX.
#76.What is East-West Traffic in Logical Routing?
East-west traffic is traffic between virtual machines within a data center.
In the current context, this typically will be traffic between logical switches in aVMwareenvironment.
#77.What is North-South Traffic?
North-south traffic is traffic moving in and out of your data center.
This is any traffic that either enters your data center or leaves your data center.
#78.What is a Logical Firewall?
Logical firewalls are of two types: distributed firewall and Edge firewall.
A distributedfirewallis ideally deployed to protect any east-west traffic, while an Edge firewall protects any north-south traffic.
#79.What is a Load Balancer?
An Edge services gateway instance must be deployed to get to initiate the load balancer service.
#80.What is Service Composer?
The service composer allows you to allocate internet and multiple security services to security groups.
Virtual machines that are part of these security groups are automatically allocated the services.
#81.What is Data Security?
#82.Configuration Maximum of NSX 6.2
NSX Core Components
#83.Define NSX Manager?
The NSX manager allows us to create, configure, and manage NSX components in an environment.
#84.Define NSX Controller Cluster?
Controllers are deployed as virtual appliances and should be deployed in the same vCenter NSX manager is connected to.
In a production environment, wise to deploy a minimum of three controllers.
#85.What is VXLAN?
This is achieved by encapsulating theEthernet framewith additional UPD, IP, and VXLAN headers.
Consequently, this increases the size of the packet by 50 bytes.
#86.What is VTEP?
VTEPs are configured as separate VMKernel interfaces on the hosts.
Once the NSX Manager prepares the ESXi host, we need to configure VTEP.
NSX supports multiple VXLAN vmknics per host for uplink load balancing features.
In addition to this, Guest VLAN tagging is also supported.
#87.Describe Transport Zone?
A transport zone enables a logical switch to extend across multiple virtual distributed switches.
#88.What is Universal Transport Zone?
A universal transport zone allows a logical switch to span multiple hosts across multiple vCenters.
#89.What is NSX Edge Services Gateway?
NSX API allows each of these services to be deployed, configured, and consumed on-demand.
it’s possible for you to implement the NSX Edge as an ESG or as a DLR.
The number of Edge appliances, including ESGs and DLRs, is limited to 250 on a host.
NSX provides L2-L4 stateful firewall services using a distributed firewall that runs in the ESXi hypervisor kernel.
VSIP is responsible for monitoring and enforcing security policies on all the traffic flowing through the data plane.
The distributed firewall (DFW) throughput and performance scales horizontally as more ESXi hosts are added.
#91.What is Cross-vCenter NSX?
This allows you to manage multiple vCenter NSX environments from a single primary NSX manager.
In a cross-vCenter deployment, multiple vCenters are all paired with their own NSX Manager per Center.
One NSX Manager is assigned the primary while other NSX managers become secondary.
This primary NSX manager can now deploy a universal controller cluster that provides the control plane.
Unlike a standalone vCenter-NSX deployment, secondary NSX managers do not deploy their own controller clusters.
#92.What is a VPN?
NSX Edge supports three types of VPN connectivity.
SSL VPN-Plus, IP-SEC VPN, and L2 VPN.
#93.What is SSL VPN-Plus?
SSL VPN-Plus allows remote users to access applications and servers in a private web connection securely.
There are two modes in whichSSLVPN-Plus can be configured: internet access mode and web access mode.
In the web connection access mode, a remote user can dive into the internal private web connection securely.
This is done by a VPN client that the remote user downloads and installs on their operating system.
In web access mode, the remote user can enter the private networks without any VPN client software.
#94.What is IPSec VPN?
NSX Edge can establishsecure tunnelswith remote sites to allow secure traffic flow between sites.
The number of tunnels an Edge gateway can establish depends on the size of the edge gateway deployed.
The networks can be both traditional VLANs and VXLANs.
In such a deployment, a virtual machine can move between sites without changing its IP address.
Both the client and the server learn the MAC addresses of both local and remote sites.
There can only be one primary NSX manager and up to seven secondary NSX managers.
The universal controller cluster will provide the control plane for the cross-vCenter NSX environment.
Remember that in a cross-vCenter environment, the secondary NSX managers do not have their own controller clusters.
#97.What is the Segment ID pool, and how to assign it?
All traffic will be bound to its segment ID, which allows for isolation.
#98.What is L2 Bridge?
A logical switch can be connected to a physical switch VLAN using an L2 bridge.
However, L2 bridges should not be used to connect two different physical VLANs or two different logical switches.
Edge Services Gateway
#99.What is Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing?
These multiple paths are added as comma-separated values when defining the static routes.
#100.What are the default ranges for directly connected, static, external BGP, etc.?
#101.What is Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)?
OSPF is a routing protocol that uses a link-state routing algorithm and operates within a single autonomous system.
#102.What is Graceful Restart in OSPF?
Graceful Restartallows for non-stop packet forwarding even if the OSPF process is being restarted.
This helps in non-disruptive packet routing.
#103.What is Not-So-Stubby Area (NSSA) in OSPF?
#104.What is BGP?
#105.What is Route Distribution?
In an environment where multiple routing protocols are being used, route redistribution enables cross-protocol route sharing.
#106.What is Layer 4 Load balancer?
Layer 4 load balancer takes routing decisions based on IPs and TCP or UDP ports.
The layer 4 connection is established between a client and a server.
#107.What is Layer 7 load balancer?
#108.What is utility Profile in configuring Load Balancer?
When traffic is received, the virtual server processes the traffic based on the values defined in the profile.
This allows for greater control over managing your web link traffic:
#109.What is the sub-interface?
Sub-interfaces are simply a division of a physical interface into multiple logical interfaces.
This logical interface uses the parent physical interface to move data.
#110.Why is Force Sync NSX Edge necessary for your environment?
#111.Why is a remote Syslog server necessary to configure in your virtual environment?
VMware recommends configuringSyslog serversto avoid log flooding on the Edge appliances.
When logging is enabled, logs are stored locally on the Edge appliance and consume space.
Service Composer
#112.What are Security Policies?
Security policies are sets of rules that apply to a virtual machine, data pipe, or firewall services.
Security policies are reusable rulesets that can be applied to security groups.
NSX Monitoring
#113.What is Endpoint Monitoring in NSX?
Endpoint Monitoring requires guest introspection to be installed.
#114.What is Flow Monitoring?
NSX Flow monitoring is a feature that allows detailed traffic monitoring to and from protected virtual machines.
Note:Flow monitoring can only be turned on for NSX deployments where a firewall is enabled.
#115.What is Traceflow?
Traceflow enables you to inject a packet into the internet and monitor its flow across the internet.
This flow allows you to monitor your online grid and identify issues such as bottlenecks or disruptions.
Managing NSX
#116.How does the Syslog server work in NSX?
#117.How do backup and restore work in NSX?
Backups are critical for an NSX environment that allows you to restore them appropriately during a system failure.
All these can be backed up and restored individually.
#118.What is the SNMP trap?
you’ve got the option to configure the SNMP agent to forward SNMP traps.
By default, the SNMP trap mechanism is disabled.
Only critical and high severity notifications are sent to the SNMP manager when the SNMP trap is enabled.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post.
Good luck with your interview!
Miscellaneous Interview Questions
#119.What is VMware Tanzu?
This technology is introduced in VMware vSphere 7.0.
#120.What is VMware DRS?
#121.What are share, limit, and reservation?
Share: A value that specifies the relative priority or importance of a VM access to a given resource.
#122.What are the alarms?
Why do we use them?
An alarm is a notification that appears when an event occurs.
Many default alarms exist for many inventory objects.
We can add HDDs and NIC while VM is running.
#124.What is a Template?
An installed VM can be converted into a template, but it cannot be powered on.
#125.What is Snapshot?
To create a copy of a VM with the timestamp as a restore point is called a snapshot.
Snapshots are taken when an upgrade or software installation is required.
For better performance, a snapshot should be removed after a particular task is performed.
#126.How to convert a physical machine into a VM?
Datastores and ESXi hosts can both be used while vMotion.
#128.What is the difference between a clone and a template?
A clone is a copy of a virtual machine.
Cloning a VM will save time if multiple VMs with the same configurations are required to configure.
It cant be powered-on or edited after converting a VM to a template.
#129.What monitoring method is used in vSphere HA?
#130.How is the master host elected in vSphere HA?
A host which has the highest number of datastores mounted will be selected as a master host.
All other hosts will remain slave hosts.
#131.What is the purpose of VMware Tools?
#132.What is VMware DPM?
#133.What is the ESXi Shell?
It is a command-line interface.
It is used to execute the repair and diagnostics of ESXi hosts.
It can be accessed via DCUI, vCenter Server enables/disable, and via SSH.
