VMware Interview Questions and Answers

VMware Interview Questions and Answers

If you’re a fresher or experienced looking for the best VMware interview questions, you are at the right place. Here we are providing Top 50 VMware Interview Questions along with Answers. By learning these VMware Interview Questions, you can quickly gain expertise in Hypervisor, Virtual Networking, Virtual Storage, Fault Tolerance, vCenter Server, Content Libraries, vSphere 6.0, vApp, vSAN. VMware is the leader in cloud computing and virtualization technologies that provides network virtualization and network solutions which holds about 0.5% of market share. It is a good opportunity for you to go through these interview questions that helps to crack your job interview and acquire a good career in VMware platform.

Best VMware Interview Questions and Answers

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Q1) What is meant by VMware?

VMware is the leader in providing different software and applications for virtualization. The products of VMware can be categorized into two levels, server applications and desktop applications. It is useful for running multiple applications and operating systems on a single computer and is used to get high productivity from very few servers. It can also speed up the new application deployments by simplifying IT management.

Q2) What is Virtualization and what are its types?

Virtualization is defined as the process of creating virtual versions of storage devices network devices, servers on a  physical host.
There are mainly four types of Virtualization.

• Presentation Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization
• Application Virtualization
• Network Virtualization

Q3) What is vCenter Agent?

An agent, which enables communication between VC and ESX server is called vCenter Agent. It is installed on the ESX Server.

Q4) What are the types of Server Software provided by VMware?

The Server Software provided by VMware are of 3 types:

• VMware ESXi Server
• VMware Server
• VMware ESX Server

Q5) What is meant by VMKernel?

A virtualization interface in between ESXi host and Virtual Machine that stores VMs is called VMKernel. It allocates all the ESXi host resources to VMs such as CPU, memory, storage, etc. It can also control the special services like Fault tolerance, vMotion, traffic management, NFS, and iSCSI. While accessing these particular services, the VMKernel port should configure on ESXi server using a standard vSwitch. The hosted VMs cannot communicate with the ESXi server without using VMKernel.

Q6) What is meant by Hypervisor and write its types?

A virtualization layer that enables different operating systems in sharing a single hardware host is known as Hypervisor. Each VM or operating system can be allocated in a physical resources CPU, memory, storage, etc.
Mainly there are two types of Hypervisors:

• Bare-Metal
• Hosted Hypervisor

Q7) What is VMware Fault Tolerance?

Fault Tolerance(FT) is referred to as one of the prominent components in VMware vSphere. When ESXi host fails, then FT provides the VMs availability. It can support 64GB memory up to 4vCPUs. It requires 10GB NIC for configuration because of its bandwidth-intensive. It can create the entire VM copy, such as compute, storage, and memory.

Q8) What is Fault Tolerance logging traffic?

Fault Tolerance logging is an option in the settings of VMKernel port, which is almost equal to Vmotion option of the VMKernel port.

Q9) Explain VMware DRS?

VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) balances resources across different hosts under the resource pool or cluster. It enables the rules and policies in deploying the funds, and those resources must be prioritized to VMs.

Q10) Name the components that are used in VMware infrastructure

The following are the components that are used in VMware infrastructure:

• ESX Server host (In the lower layer)
• Virtual Center Server (tracking VM associated images)
• VMware infrastructure client (enables the communication of client with applications of the user)
• Web-browser (Accessing Virtual Machines)
• License Server (Preparing servers in providing applications’ license)
• Database Servers

Q11) What is meant by .vmdk file?

The .vmdk file is known as a disk descriptor file which is used to describe the memory and size of the virtual disk file. This file contains -flat.vmdk file name in association with hard drive adapter, heads, drive sectors, cylinders etc.

Q12) What is meant by VMware VMotion and How it is useful?

VMware VMotion is used to migrate the virtual machine running with zero downtime from one physical server to another. It can automatically allocate the resource pools for maximum utilization of hardware. Without any scheduled downtime, it can perform hardware maintenance. It can also migrate the virtual machines from underperforming or failing servers.

Q13) What are the prerequisites in configuring VMotion?

Below are the prerequisites in configuring Vmotion:

• Every host should meet the requirements of shared storage.
• Every host must be licensed correctly
• Shared storage must be on the Storage Area Network (SAN), otherwise implement by using NAS, SAN, and iSCSI.
• Every host must meet the requirements of networking.
• The configuration of VMsKernel should happen on every host.
• While migrating the workloads, use 10 GigE adaptors.
• Jumbo frames are very much necessary to get the best performance from VMotion.

Q14) What is the VCloud Suite?

VCloud Suite is used to combine the multiple components of VMware to give the capabilities of cloud infrastructure complete set in a single package, including disaster recovery, virtualization, application management, data centre services, etc.

Q15) What are the different storage availabilities in VCloud Suite?

The storage availability in VCloud Suite includes:
Storage VMotion: It employs proactive storage migration to decrease the I/O bottlenecks of virtual machine storage.
Data Protection: It deploys recovery and back-up tool based on the EMC Avamar.
Storage DRS: Based on the I/O latency and storage capacity, the storage DRS balances the Virtual Machines.
Application HA: It is used to get the high availability on specific applications.

Q16) What is meant by VMware HA?

VMware HA (High Availability) is used to configure on the cluster and works in host levels. A High Availability cluster will restart and migrate all the VMs that running under the host level. VMware HA detects and monitors all the hosts of the ESX server.

Q17) What are the differences between VMware FT and VMware HA?

VMware HA (High Availability) enabled per cluster while VMware FT (Fault Tolerance) enabled per VM basis. In the case of VMware FT, there is no downtime, whereas VMware HA can be powered on and restarted.

Q18) What are the new features of vSphere 5?

The following are the new features in the latest version of vSphere:

• Virtual Machine Enhancement
• vSphere storage Enhancement
• ESXi Hypervisor Enhancement
• vCenter Server Enhancement
• vSphere Networking Enhancement

Q19) What is a Snapshot?

In Virtual Machines, the “point in time image” is referred to as a Snapshot. It contains an image of RAM and VMs disk. By using Snapshot, we can go back to the VM at a point of time as you wish. The functionality of the Snapshot can be used to perform VMs image-level backups.

Q20) What is VDI?

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is used to connect the end user’s desktop with the help of a thin client. The end-user also can connect the desktop using VMware Horizon view.

Q21) What are the differences between clone and template in VMware?

Q22) What are the features of VMware tool?

• Web browser Interface
• Setting configuration in a simple wizard
• Maintenance of Virtual Machines is very easy

Q23) What are the uses of VMware Workstation?

The following are the three main uses of VMware Workstation:

• VMware workstation is used to save the OS configuration (existing) in Virtual Machine form.
• It helps in running more than one operating system in a single system.
• It allows in working in different Operating Systems without switching among them.

Q24) What is meant by VDS, and what are its benefits?

Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) is acting as a single switch which is responsible for providing administration and central provisioning for the virtual network.
Benefits of VDS:

• Monitoring
• Central Provision and
• Central Administration

Q25) Name the port groups in ESXi networking configuration

• Service Console Port Group
• Virtual Machine Port Group
• VMKernel Port Group

Q26) Comparison between ESX and ESXi

Q27) Name the types of ESX Server Partitions?

SWAP
/opt
/var
/home
/-root
/var/core
/tmp

Q28) Write about MAC Address changes?

At the time of creation, the Virtual Machine nics with MAC address is stored in .VMX file. The packet doesn’t allow the incoming traffic to the Virtual Machine if it doesn’t match with MAC address of .VMX file.

Q29) What is a VLAN?

Virtual LAN (VLAN) is used to break the Broadcast traffic into a lot of logic groups. VLAN separates one broadcast domain into many tiny pieces instead of using one physical switch for compromising one domain.

Q30) Name VLAN tagging types?

In vSphere, there are mainly three types of VLAN tagging.

• Virtual Switch Tagging (VST)
• External Switch Tagging (EST)
• Virtual Guest Tagging (VGT)

Q31) What are the Load balancing policies of vSwitch?

There are three types of Load balancing policies are available for vSwitch

• Route Based Source MAC hash
• Route Based on originating virtual switch ID
• Route Based on IP hash

Q32) Write about the types of settings in Network Failover Detection?

There are two types of settings in Network Failover Detection:

• Link Status only
• Beacon Probing

Link Status only:
It depends on the link status of the network adapter. It detects switch power failures and cable pulls, but it cannot detect the errors in a configuration such as blocking of spanning tree, wrong VLAN misconfiguration etc.
Beacon Probing:
It listens to beacon probes and send Ethernet broadcast frames to detect the failure network connections of upstream. Beacon Probing also detects many other failures that were not detected by Link Status.

Q33) What is meant by Cold Migration and Hot Migration?

When the user migration gets suspended or powered off, then it is called as the Cold Migration. When the user migration is running on a powered virtual machine, then it is known as Hot Migration.

Q34) What are the drawbacks in the virtualization platform of VMware?

The following are the drawbacks in VMware virtualization:

• It requires high-end servers which leads to more expensive.
• To buy any resources, it needs substantial investment.
• It requires various types of technologies for implementation.

Q35) What is meant by Platform Services Controller (PSC) and What are its components?

Platform Services Controller is first introduced in VMware vSphere version 6 that handles the security functions of infrastructure.
PSC has three main components:

• VMware Certificate Authority
• Single Sign-On
• Licensing service

Q36) Write about the disk types in VMware vSphere?

Mainly there are three disk types in VMware vSphere:

Eager Zeroes (Thick Provision): It is used in VMware Fault Tolerance. The disk space requirement is allocated at the time of creation to VMs. When compared to other disk formats, this Eager Zeroes thick provision takes a lot of time in creating a virtual disk.

Lazy Zeroes (Thick Provision): In this disk format, every virtual disk can be created by default. There is an allocation of physical space for Virtual machines when the disk is created. This Lazy Zeroes thick provision can’t be converted into thin.

Thin Provision: Thin provision provides the disk space allocation to Virtual Machines. The disk size will increase in proportional to the data size.

Q37) Define VVoL, RDM, and NFS?

VVoL (Virtual Volume):
It is a concept of new disk management of Virtual Machine in vSphere 6.0 version which enables the operations of array-based at the virtual disk level. Virtual Volume can be created automatically when the virtual disk is created.

RDM (Raw Device Mapping):
Raw Device Mapping is a file, which is stored in the VMFS volume acts as a proxy for the devices which are in natural physical form. RDM stores the data of virtual machines on LUN.

NFS (Network File System):

NFS is a file-sharing protocol which is used to communicate with NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. It connects to a network and gives file aces services to the hosts of ESXI.

Q38) Define configuration options in VSAN?

There are two configuration options in VSAN:

• Hybrid
• All-Flash

Hybrid: Uses both magnetic and flash-based disks for storage. The magnetic disks are used for storage or capacity, while flash-based drives are used for cash.

All-Flash: It uses flash for both for storage and caching.

Q39) What are the steps in converting a physical machine into a virtual machine?

The following are the three steps required to convert a physical machine into a virtual machine:

• Initially, an Agent should be installed on the physical machine
• Along with the Converter plug-in, a VI client must be installed
• Needs a server to Export/Import the virtual machine

Q40) Define VMware DPM and ESXi Shell

VMware DPM:

VMware DPM (Distributed Power Management) is a feature of VMware DRS which is used to monitor the cluster resources. VMware DPM shutdowns the un-used hosts and consolidates the workloads when the resources get decreased. If the resources get increased, then it automatically power-on the hosts that are not being used.

ESXi Shell:

ESXi Shell is a command-line which is used to repair the ESXi hosts. It can be accessed through vCenter Server disable/enable, DCUI, and SSH.

Q41) What are the pre-requisites needed in running ESXTOP on ESXi host?

We need two pre-requisites to run ESXTOP on ESXi

• Initially, install vSphere client in which you want to configure the host
• By using Troubleshooting options, enable SSH

Q42) Define Limit, Share, and Reservation in VMware?

Limit: It is defined as the Host cycle consumption without crossing the defined value.
Share: It specifies the importance or relative priority of virtual machine access in a given resource.
Reservation: It is a value that defines in the form of memory or CPU that can be available for the virtual machine to start.

Q43) What is vApp, and how it is useful?

vApp is defined as a group or container in which more than one virtual machine can be managed in multi tired apps for specific requirements like a database server, Web server, and application server. It can also define the power-off and power-on sequences of the virtual machine. By using vApp, we can configure several settings like memory allocation and Internet Protocol allocation policy.

Q44) What is meant by iSCSI storage, and what are it’s naming conventions?

An iSCSI storage system holds in iSCSI SAN that contains more than one storage processors. The communication in between storage array and host can be made possible through the TCP/IP protocol. The configuration of iSCSI initiator is done with ESXi host. The iSCSI initiator is not either independent or dependent; tht’s why it is called as iSCSI software initiator.
The names iSCSI can be formatted in two ways:

• Extended Unique Identifier (EUI)
• ISCSI Qualified Name (IQN)

Q45) What are the types of Content Libraries?

There are three types of Content Libraries:
Published: Local library that consists of ISO images, and VM templates for the subscription.
Local: Local control library.
Subscribed: It syncs with the library of published.

Q46) What are the limitations and requirements of a Content Library?

The following are the limitations and requirements of a Content library:

• Every library consists of a maximum of 256 items.
• The size of single storage is up to 64TB.
• For every 24 hours, the sync is happening.

Q47) What are the types of extensions in VMware?

• .nvram: It is used to stock the virtual machine state BIOS of an organization.
• .vmsd: It provisions the metadata and information of the snapshots in an organization.
• .vmss: It supplies the virtual machine postponed state.
• .vmx: It accumulates the primary formations in the virtual machine.
• .log: It is used to save log file for VMware to see glitches during the process of installation.
• .vmdk: It is used to simulate the disk file to stock the virtual machine gratify.
• .vmsn: It is used in storing the snap state. It can supply both occupied period and consecutive state.
• It provisions the team data formation.

Q48) Define the components that are used in vCenter Server architecture?

There are three main components in the architecture of the vCenter Server:
Web Client and vSphere Client: It is a user interface.
vCenter Server Database: Embedded PostgreSQL or SQL server is used to store security roles, inventory, and resource pools.
SSO: It is a security domain.

Q49) What is meant by VCB, and what are its benefits?

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is referred to as the backup framework that enables third-party tools to get backups. VCB is very much helpful to back up the virtual servers of VMware ESX. VCB is also known as ‘’Backup Proxy Server” and is not considered as backup software. While using this VCB also, one must need backup software.
The Benefits of VCB:

• It provides VMware ESX backups, both incremental and full of file-level availability.
• It prevents from backup loading agent on the virtual machines.
• VCB is used to centralize VMware ESX backups.
• It also provides the backups of image level.
• It prevents to have shut down of virtual machines.
• VCB provides LAN-free backups because the connection of the VCB server to the SAN is made through the adaptor of fibre channel.
• It also provides the virtual server centralized storage backups on the VCB server.
• It reduces the VMware ESX server load without having a third party backup agent.
• VCB utilizes the snapshots of VMware.

Q50) What are the types of deployments in vCenter Server?

There are two types of deployments in vCenter Server

• External Deployment
• Embedded Deployment