VMware 5V0-35.21 - VMware vRealize Operations Specialist

To discover custom application services running on virtual machines, the administrator needs to install the vRealize Operations Service Discovery Management Pack1. This management pack enables service and application discovery using the Service Discovery adapter, which leverages the Telegraf agent to collect data from the end point VMs2. The administrator can configure the Service Discovery adapter to discover predefined and custom applications and services, and view their relationships and metrics in vRealize Operations3. The administrator can also create custom application definitions based on object names, tags, or properties, and import them as XML files. Configuring a white list is not a valid option, as it is used to filter out unwanted services from discovery. References: 1: vRealize Operations Service Discovery Management Pack - VMware Docs(https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations/8.6/com.vmware.vcom.core.doc/GUID-B9095E9B-7F10-4B2F-95A9-3D54CF5038FF.html)  2: Service and Application Discovery - VMware Docs(https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations/8.10/com.vmware.vcom.core.doc/GUID-CC683117-D936-432C-B30B-CCCA08E863FB.html)  3: Configure Service and Application Discovery - VMware Docs(https://developer.vmware.com/apis/579/vra-advanced-designer/) : Create Application Definition - VMware Docs : Configure White List - VMware Docs

According to the VMware vRealize Operations User Guide1, an automated action is a predefined or custom action that can be executed automatically when an alert is triggered. An automated action can help to resolve or prevent the problem that caused the alert, or to notify the relevant stakeholders. To allow an automated action to be triggered from an alert, two conditions must be met:

Within the active policy, the alert definition’s automated setting must be set to enabled. This allows the alert definition to trigger automated actions when the alert criteria are met. By default, the automated setting is disabled for all alert definitions, and must be manually enabled by the administrator.

The alert must have a recommendation attached to it. A recommendation is a suggested action that can help to resolve or prevent the problem that triggered the alert. A recommendation can include a link to a related topic in the documentation or an external URL. A recommendation can also be associated with an automated action, which can be executedby the system or by the user. An alert definition can have one or more recommendations, but only one of them can be associated with an automated action.

Therefore, the correct answers are B. Within the active policy, the alert definition’s automated setting must be set to enabled. and E. The alert must have a recommendation attached to it, as these are the two conditions that must be met to allow an automated action to be triggered from an alert. References:

1: VMware vRealize Operations User Guide, https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations/8.5/vrealize-operations-manager-85-user-guide.pdf, page 21-22, 25-26, 29-30

 The reason why vRealize Operations reports that the cluster has 0 days remaining when the actual CPU overcommit ratio is less than the 4:1 configured value is that the CPU demand in the cluster is greater than the total CPU capacity. The allocation model is a method of calculating the capacity and utilization of resources based on the amount of resources that are allocated to the objects, such as virtual machines, clusters, or datastores. The allocation model allows the administrator to set the overcommit ratio for CPU, memory, or disk space, which is the ratio of the allocated resources to the available resources. The overcommit ratio determines how much the resources can be overcommitted without affecting the performance or availability of the objects1.

When the administrator enables the allocation model in a policy and sets the CPU overcommit ratio to 4:1 for all vSphere clusters in a vSphere datacenter, it means that the administrator allows the CPU resources to be allocated four times more than the availableCPU resources in the clusters. For example, if a cluster has 100 GHz of CPU capacity, the administrator can allocate up to 400 GHz of CPU resources to the virtual machines in the cluster. However, this does not mean that the virtual machines can consume up to 400 GHz of CPU resources without any impact. The actual CPU consumption of the virtual machines depends on the CPU demand, which is the amount of CPU resources that the virtual machines require to run their workloads. The CPU demand can vary depending on the workload type, intensity, and pattern2.

If the CPU demand in the cluster is greater than the total CPU capacity, it means that the virtual machines are requesting more CPU resources than the cluster can provide. This can result in CPU contention, performance degradation, and SLA violations. In this case, vRealize Operations reports that the cluster has 0 days remaining, which means that the cluster has reached its maximum capacity and cannot accommodate any more CPU demand. The cluster has 0 days remaining even if the actual CPU overcommit ratio is less than the 4:1 configured value, because the overcommit ratio only reflects the allocated resources, not the consumed resources. The overcommit ratio does not guarantee that the cluster can support the CPU demand of the virtual machines, but only indicates the potential capacity of the cluster based on the allocation model1.

References: 1: Allocation Model - VMware Docs 2: Demand Model - VMware Docs

The two required components of an alert definition are symptom and action. An alert definition is a configuration that defines the conditions and actions for generating an alert1. An alert is a notification that indicates a potential or existing issue with an object in the environment2. An alert definition consists of the following components3:

Symptom: A symptom is a condition that indicates a deviation from the normal or expected behavior of an object. A symptom can be based on metrics, properties, events, or messages. A symptom can have a severity level and a wait cycle. A symptom is a required component of an alert definition, as it triggers the alert when it is met.

Recommendation: A recommendation is a suggestion or a guidance that provides a possible solution or a mitigation for the issue that caused the alert. A recommendation can include a link to a relevant document or a workflow. A recommendation is an optional component of an alert definition, as it helps the user to resolve the alert, but it does not affect the alert generation.

Action: An action is a task or a workflow that can be executed automatically or manually to resolve the issue that caused the alert. An action can be based on vRealize Orchestrator workflows or vRealize Operations Manager tasks. An action is a required component of an alert definition, as it defines the response for the alert when it is generated.

Version: A version is a number that indicates the release or the update of the alert definition. A version is an optional component of an alert definition, as it helps the user to track the changes and the compatibility of the alert definition, but it does not affect the alert generation.

Node: A node is a vRealize Operations Manager instance that is part of a cluster. A node is an optional component of an alert definition, as it helps the user to specify the scope and the source of the alert definition, but it does not affect the alert generation.

Therefore, the two required components of an alert definition are symptom and action, while the other components are optional. References:

1: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 93.

2: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 91.

3: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 94.

According to the VMware vRealize Operations Reference Materials, Workload Optimization is a feature that allows you to automatically balance and optimize workloads across your virtualized infrastructure. Workload Optimization has four settings that determine how aggressively it moves workloads between clusters: Moderate, Balance, Consolidate, and Buffer. Each setting has a different impact on the number of vMotion operations, the cluster headroom, and the workload contention.

The Consolidate setting is the most aggressive setting that aims to minimize the workload contention across clusters by reducing the number of clusters used and maximizing the utilization of each cluster. The Consolidate setting performs the most vMotion operations, leaves the least cluster headroom, and has the lowest workload contention. The Consolidate setting is suitable for environments that have overprovisioned clusters and want to free up some clusters for other purposes or reduce the infrastructure costs. Therefore, option C is correct.

The other options are not correct because they do not meet the goal of minimizing the workload contention across clusters by reducing vMotion operations. Option A is not correct because the Moderate setting is the least aggressive setting that aims to maintain the current state of the clusters and avoid unnecessary vMotion operations. The Moderate setting performs the least vMotion operations, leaves the most cluster headroom, and has the highest workload contention. The Moderate setting is suitable for environments that have stable clusters and do not want to disrupt the existing workload placement. Option B is not correct because the Balance setting is a moderate setting that aims to balance the workload distribution across clusters and improve the performance of the clusters. The Balance setting performs a moderate number of vMotion operations, leaves a moderate cluster headroom, and has a moderate workload contention. The Balance setting is suitable for environments that have some imbalanced clusters and want to optimize the workload placement. Option D is not correct because the Buffer setting is a conservative setting that aims to create more cluster headroom and reduce the risk of resource shortage. The Buffer setting performs a low number of vMotion operations, leaves a high cluster headroom, and has a low workload contention. The Buffer setting is suitable for environments that have unpredictable or bursty workloads and want to ensure enough capacity for future demand. References:

Configuring and Using Workload Optimization

Start Running a Self-Driving Datacenter – vRealize Operations 7.0 Workload Optimization

Using Workload Optimization to Improve Performance

 To access the Troubleshoot with Logs dashboard from vRealize Operations, the administrator must configure the vRealize Log Insight integration from the vRealize Operations interface and configure vRealize Operations in vRealize Log Insight. The Troubleshoot with Logs dashboard allows the administrator to view graphs of log events in the environment, or create custom sets of widgets to access the information that matters most. The dashboard requires the integration of vRealize Operations with vRealize Log Insight, which is a log management and analysis tool1. The integration can be done in twoways: by configuring the vRealize Log Insight adapter in vRealize Operations, or by configuring vRealize Operations in vRealize Log Insight. Both methods are necessary to access the Troubleshoot with Logs dashboard and the Logs tab in vRealize Operations2. References: 1: Troubleshoot with Logs Dashboard 2: Configuring vRealize Log Insight with vRealize Operations

Remote Checks are a type of Telegraf plugin that allow you to monitor the availability and performance of remote services or endpoints from the Telegraf agent installed on a virtual machine. You can configure Remote Checks from the Manage Telegraf Agents page in vRealize Operations. There are two types of Remote Checks available: ICMP and TCP. ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) checks use ping commands to test the connectivity and response time of a target IP address or hostname. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) checks use socket connections to test the connectivity and response time of a target IP address or hostname and port number. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) are not Remote Checks, but they are Application Services that can be discovered and monitored by the Telegraf agent using other plugins. References:

Additional Operations from the Manage Telegraf Agents Page

Telegraf Agent Remote Check

Checking SSL/TLS Certificate Validity Period using vRealize Operations Application Monitoring

Automating App Monitoring

vRealize-Automated-Install-of-Telegraf-Agent

Role is the attribute that should be defined to ensure that group members can access vRealize Operations objects when importing a group from Active Directory into vRealize Operations. Role is a set of permissions that defines what actions a user or a group can perform on vRealize Operations objects, such as dashboards, alerts, reports, and policies. By assigning a role to a group, the administrator can grant or restrict access to vRealize Operations objects for all the group members. Description, Group Members, and Type are not attributes that ensure that group members can access vRealize Operations objects when importing a group from Active Directory into vRealize Operations. Description is an optional field that provides additional information about the group. Group Members is a list of users that belong to the group. Type is a classification of the group based on the source, such as Local, LDAP, or Active Directory. References: Import User Groups From Source, section “Import User Groups From Source”. vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, section “Create and Configure Dashboards”.

Cloud Accounts are the connections that allow vRealize Operations Manager to collect data from various cloud platforms and services. vRealize Operations Manager supports several types of Cloud Accounts, such as VMware Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes1. To monitor all supported environments, the administrator can use any combination of these Cloud Accounts, depending on the cloud services that the company is consuming. However, among the options given, only Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware Cloud on AWS are valid Cloud Accounts that can be used in vRealize Operations Manager. AWS is the leading public cloud provider that offers a wide range of compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, and other services2. VMware Cloud on AWS is a hybrid cloud service that delivers a consistent VMware environment on the AWS infrastructure, allowing customers to migrate, extend, and modernize their applications3. Both AWS and VMware Cloud on AWS can be integrated with vRealize Operations Manager by configuring the respective Cloud Accounts and providing the necessary credentials and regions45.

Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and IBM Cloud are also popular public cloud providers that offer various cloud services, but they are not supported as Cloud Accounts in vRealize Operations Manager. Therefore, they cannot be used to monitor the environments in vRealize Operations Manager. To monitor these cloud platforms, the administrator might need to use other tools or methods, such as third-party management packs, custom integrations, or external APIs . References:

Cloud Accounts

Amazon Web Services

VMware Cloud on AWS

Configure an Amazon Web Services Cloud Account in vRealize Operations

Configure a VMware Cloud on AWS Cloud Account in vRealize Operations

[Google Cloud Platform Management Pack for vRealize Operations]

[Alibaba Cloud Monitoring]

[IBM Cloud Monitoring]

 The action that would help achieve the goal of excluding alerts triggered by the test/development VMs, but not other VMs, is to create a policy inherited from the current active policy, set the alert definition state to “Disabled”, and then assign to test/development VMs. A policy is a set of configuration settings that define the behavior and appearance of vRealize Operations for the objects to which it is applied1. A policy can be inherited from another policy, and it can override or customize the settings of the parent policy2. An alert definition is a configuration that defines the conditions and actions for generating analert3. An alert definition can be enabled or disabled in a policy, and it can be assigned to specific object types or groups4. By creating a policy inherited from the current active policy, the administrator can preserve the existing settings for the other VMs, and only modify the alert definition state for the test/development VMs. By setting the alert definition state to “Disabled”, the administrator can prevent the alert from being triggered by the test/development VMs, and avoid the unnecessary noise and notifications. By assigning the policy to the test/development VMs, the administrator can apply the customized settings to the desired objects, and ensure the policy precedence and inheritance. Under Alerts, select Alerts Definitions, and then remove the Symptoms Definition (option B) is not a correct action, as it would affect the alert definition for all the VMs, not just the test/development VMs, and it would also remove the ability to detect the CPU usage issue for the other VMs. On the Environment tab, select all test/development VMs, and then unassign the active policy that is currently assigned to the test/development VM (option C) is not a correct action, as it would not disable the alert definition for the test/development VMs, but rather assign them the default policy, which may have different settings and alert definitions than the current active policy. Under Alerts, select Alerts Definitions, and then set the alert definition to “Disabled” for test/development VMs (option D) is not a correct action, as it would not create a separate policy for the test/development VMs, but rather modify the current active policy, which may affect the other VMs that are using the same policy. References:

1: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 51.

2: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 52.

3: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 93.

4: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 94.

[5]: vRealize Operations Manager User Guide, VMware, 2021, p. 55.