To shut down the vSAN cluster using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard, the administrator needs to turn off High Availability (HA) before starting the wizard. This is because HA monitors the cluster for host failures and attempts to restart the affected VMs on other hosts. If HA is not turned off, the cluster might register host shutdowns as failures and trigger unnecessary VM restarts, which can interfere with the graceful shutdown process. Therefore, the administrator should disable HA from the Configure tab of the cluster before using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard12 References: 1: Shut Down the vSAN Cluster Using the Shutdown Cluster Wizard 3 2: Manually Shut Down and Restart the vSAN Cluster 4

A durability component is a temporary component that is created when a host or disk group is placed in maintenance mode with the Ensure data accessibility option, or when a host or disk group fails unexpectedly. A durability component improves the availability of data by maintaining the required number of failures to tolerate (FTT) until the original component is restored or rebuilt. A durability component also speeds up the resynchronization process by reducing the amount of data that needs to be copied. The other characteristics are not applicable to a durability component. References: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 EXAM 5V0-22.23, page 10, Objective 6.8; [Durability Components]

To spread the components across storage devices as much as possible, the vSAN administrator can configure disk striping in either OSA or ESA. Disk striping is a policy attribute that defines the number of capacity devices across which each replica of a storage object is striped. A higher number of stripes can result in better performance and availability, but also consumes more storage space. Disk striping can be configured in OSA by using the Number of disk stripes per object policy attribute, or in ESA by using the Striping Width policy attribute12 References: 1: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 14 2: VMware vSAN Design and Sizing Guide, page 32

The reason why there are objects in the pending category of the scheduled resyncing in the cluster monitor is that the delay timer has not expired. The delay timer is a configurable setting that determines how long vSAN waits before repairing a non-compliant object after placing a host in a failed state or maintenance mode. The default value is 60 minutes, but it can be changed in the vSAN Services configuration. The pending category displays the objects with the expired delay timer that cannot be resynchronized due to insufficient resources in the current cluster or the vSAN FTT policy set on the cluster not being met. The other options are not correct. These objects do not belong to virtual machines that are powered off, as vSAN resynchronizes all objects regardless of their power state. Object resynchronization does not need to be started manually, as vSAN initiates it automatically when the delay timer expires. There are not too many objects to be synchronized, as vSAN can handle multiple resynchronization tasks in parallel. References: Monitor the Resynchronization Tasks in the vSAN Cluster; About vSAN Cluster Resynchronization

To replace a failed cache drive in a vSAN OSA cluster, the vSAN administrator should remove the existing vSAN disk group and physically replace the device. Then check to verify that the ESXi host automatically detects the new device Afterwards manually recreate the Disk Group. This is because when a cache drive fails, it affects the entire disk group that contains it, and vSAN does not allow removing only the cache drive from a disk group. Therefore, the administrator must remove the whole disk group before replacing the cache drive, and then recreate it with the new cache drive and the existing capacity drives. The other options are not correct. Physically replacing the failed cache drive without removing the disk group first might cause errors or inconsistencies in vSAN configuration. vSAN will not automatically create a new disk group or allocate storage after replacing a cache drive, as these actions require manual intervention from the administrator. Rebalancing the cache layer is not necessary after replacing a cache drive, as vSAN will automatically distribute data across all devices in the disk group. References: Replace a Flash Caching Device on a Host; How to manually remove and recreate a vSAN disk group using esxcli

To expand disk group #2 to have three capacity devices, the vSAN administrator should add the new capacity device to the disk group and vSAN will automatically rebalance. This action allows the administrator to increase the storage capacity of the disk group without disrupting any ongoing operations or evacuating any data. vSAN will automatically distribute data across all devices in the disk group to balance performance and utilization. The other options are not correct. Creating a new disk group with a single capacity device and then migrating the existing capacity devices is not necessary, as it would require more steps and resources than adding a device to an existing disk group. Putting the entire ESXi host or the disk group in maintenance mode and evacuating all data is not required, as it would cause downtime and data movement that could be avoided by adding a device to an existing disk group. References: Add Devices to the Disk Group; Expanding a vSAN Cluster

To avoid storage policy non-compliance, the vSAN maintenance mode option that should be used is Full data migration. This option evacuates all data from the host to other hosts in the cluster and maintains the current object compliance state. This means that the VM objects will have access to all their replicas and will be compliant with their assigned storage policies. The other options might result in storage policy non-compliance, as they do not guarantee full data redundancy or policy adherence. Ensure accessibility only migrates the components that are essential for running the VMs, but might not have access to all their replicas. Partial maintenance mode is not a valid option for vSAN clusters. No data migration does not evacuate any data from the host and might result in VM unavailability or data loss. References: Working with Maintenance Mode; Place a Member of vSAN Cluster in Maintenance Mode

The correct answer is D, add additional capacity disks to each disk group. This is because adding capacity disks to existing disk groups is the fastest and easiest way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore without disrupting any ongoing operations or requiring additional hardware. The administrator can add up to five capacity disks per disk group in vSAN OSA, which means each host can have up to 25 capacity disks in total. The administrator should make sure that the new capacity disks are unformatted and not partitioned, so that vSAN can recognize and claim them. The administrator should also manually rebalance the cluster after adding the capacity disks to distribute the data evenly across the new devices. The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, enable Deduplication and Compression on the cluster level, is incorrect because enabling Deduplication and Compression is not a recommended way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore. Deduplication and Compression is a space efficiency feature that reduces the logical space consumption of data by eliminating duplicate blocks and applying compression algorithms. However, enabling Deduplication and Compression requires a full data evacuation and resynchronization, which can be disruptive and time-consuming. Deduplication and Compression also introduces additional CPU and memory overhead, which can affect the performance of the cluster. Deduplication and Compression is only supported on all-flash clusters, not on hybrid clusters.
• B, add additional capacity by adding a disk on one host and creating a storage pool, is incorrect because creating a storage pool is not supported in vSAN OSA. A storage pool is a new configuration introduced in vSAN 8 ESA, where all disks are treated as capacity disks and use a new algorithm to distribute data acrossthem. This configuration is not compatible with vSAN OSA, which uses a disk group configuration where one disk is designated as a cache disk and the rest are capacity disks. To use a storage pool, the administrator would need to migrate to vSAN 8 ESA on a new cluster with new hardware.
• C, add additional capacity by adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster, is incorrect because adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster is not the fastest or easiest way to expand the capacity of the vSAN datastore. A vSAN ReadyNode is a preconfigured server that meets the hardware requirements for running vSAN. Adding a vSAN ReadyNode to the cluster would require additional hardware procurement, installation, and configuration. It would also increase the compute capacity of the cluster, which may not be necessary for the workload. Adding a vSAN ReadyNode would also trigger a resynchronization of data across the cluster, which can affect the performance and availability of the cluster. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 10

The Skyline Health interval validates online if there are new Health Checks available for vSAN every 24 hours. This means that vSAN checks for new health checks from VMware Analytics Cloud once a day and updates the vSAN Health Service accordingly. The other options are not correct, as they do not match the actual frequency of the online validation. References: About the vSAN Skyline Health

The three actions that the vSAN administrator should perform on the staging cluster prior to moving the vSAN nodes to the production cluster are:

• Disable vSAN Services: This will stop any vSAN-related operations on the staging cluster, such as resynchronization, rebalancing, or repair. This will also prevent any new virtual machines from being created or migrated to the staging cluster.
• Delete all Disk Groups: This will remove all disks from the vSAN cluster and erase all data on them. This will also free up the disks for use in the production cluster.
• Delete all partitions from the capacity disks: This will ensure that there are no remnants of any previous vSAN configuration on the disks. This will also avoid any potential conflicts or errors when adding the disks to the production cluster.

Enabling File Services, marking the disks for partial reservation, and removing all capacity drives are not necessary or recommended actions for this scenario. Enabling File Services would add an unnecessary layer of complexity and overhead to the staging cluster. Marking the disks for partial reservation would reduce the available capacity for vSAN and potentially cause performance issues. Removing all capacity drives would leave only cache disks in the staging cluster, which would not be compatible with vSAN. References:

• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 10

To view the resynchronizing metrics, the vSAN administrator should open the Backend performance category. This category shows the performance of vSAN data components, such as read/write latency, IOPS, throughput, congestion, and resync traffic. The other categories are not relevant for this task. Disks shows the performance of physical disks in the cluster, Host Network shows the network performance of vSAN hosts, and Resvnc Latency shows the latency of resynchronization operations. References: 1, page 23; 3, section 6.4

 To perform maintenance on one of the hosts in a three-node vSAN cluster with the best availability for the VMs with the least effort and data transfer, the maintenance mode option that should be used is Ensure accessibility. This option migrates only enough components to ensure that all accessible VMs remain accessible, but does not guarantee full data redundancy or policy compliance. This option is also the only evacuation mode available for a three-node cluster or a cluster with three fault domains, as there are not enough hosts to perform full data migration or re-protection after a failure. The other options are not correct. Migrating all VMs and their storage from the host to a different storage system or a different vSphere cluster would require more effort and data transfer than using Ensure accessibility, as well as additional resources and configuration steps. Full data migration is not possible in a three-nodecluster, as it would require at least four hosts to evacuate all data from one host and maintain full redundancy and policy compliance. References: Place a Member of vSAN Cluster in Maintenance Mode; Working with Maintenance Mode

To implement HCI mesh between two clusters on vSAN that are located in geographically separate sites, the vSAN administrator should consider the following requirements:

• Either Layer 2 or Layer 3 communications can be used. HCI mesh supports both Layer 2 and Layer 3 network configurations, as long as the network latency and bandwidth requirements are met3
• The configuration must meet the same latency and bandwidth requirement as local vSAN. HCI mesh requires a network latency of less than or equal to 5 ms RTT between any two hosts in the participating clusters, and a network bandwidth of at least 10 Gbps for the vSAN network vmkernel port3 References: 3: VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 15

To ensure the latest network driver is installed on the NIC before remediation, the vSAN administrator should add an individual component to the vLCM image that has the updated NIC driver. This action allows the administrator to override the driver provided by the vendor add-on and use a newer version that is compatible with the ESXi version and the hardware device. The administrator can add an individual component to the vLCM image by importing it from a ZIP file or selecting it from the vLCM depot. The other options are not correct. Making sure the vLCM image is configured to use the most recent version of the vendor add-on will not help, as the required NIC driver is a newer version than the one provided by the vendor add-on. Removing the vendor add-on from the vLCM image or modifying the vLCM image to omit the NIC driver will not ensure the latest network driver is installed on the NIC, as these actions will leave the NIC without any driver update. Manually installing or updating the network driver on the servers is not recommended, as it might cause inconsistency and non-compliance in the vLCM image. References: vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image Components; [Add an Individual Component to an Image]

To configure vSAN Direct, the administrator must meet two requirements: a valid vSAN license for the vSAN cluster and unclaimed disks in the hosts for vSAN Direct. A vSAN license is required to enable vSAN features and services, including vSAN Direct. Unclaimed disks are local storage devices that are not used by vSAN or any other service, and can be claimed by vSAN Direct to create datastores for persistent storage. The other options are not requirements for vSAN Direct. HA is an optional feature that can be enabled on any cluster, but is not specific to vSAN Direct. A dedicated network for vSAN Direct is not necessary, as vSAN Direct uses the same network as vSAN. An integration with vSAN File Services is not required, as vSAN Direct does not provide file shares, but block storage. References: Set Up vSAN Direct for vSphere with Tanzu; vSAN Licensing Guide

To introspect multiple performance metrics of a single virtual machine, such as latency, throughput, IOPS, and congestion, the feature that should be used is I/O Trip Analyzer. This feature allows the administrator to diagnose the virtual machine I/O latency issues by providing a breakdown of the latencies at each layer of the vSAN stack, such as VM, host, network, and disk group. The other options are not correct, as they do not provide multiple performance metrics of a single virtual machine. esxcli is a command-line tool that can be used to manage various aspects of ESXi hosts, but it does not provide detailed performance analysis of virtual machines. Skyline Health is a feature that provides proactive notifications and recommendations for software and hardware issues based on VMware Analytics Cloud, but it does not provide granular performance metrics of virtual machines. llOlnsiqht is not a valid feature name in vSAN. References: Use I/O Trip Analyzer; Monitoring vSAN Performance

vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used is the correct answer because vSAN 8 ESA uses adaptive RAID-5 erasure coding that depends on the number of hosts in the cluster. If the cluster has 6 or more hosts, vSAN will use a 4+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 4 data bits and 1 parity bit across 5 hosts. This provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) and a space efficiency of 1.25x. If the cluster has less than 6 hosts (3 to 5), vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 scheme, where the data is written as a stripe of 2 data bits and 1 parity bit across 3 hosts. This also provides a failure tolerance of 1 (FTT=1) but a space efficiency of 1.5x. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• A, vSAN will use a 2+1 RAID-5 data placement scheme with parity will be used, is incorrect because vSAN will only use this scheme if the cluster has less than 6 hosts but more than 2 hosts. In this case, the cluster has 5 hosts, so vSAN will use the 4+1 RAID-5 scheme.
• B, RAID 5 will provide an FTT=2 level of protection in this case, is incorrect because RAID 5 can only provide an FTT=1 level of protection, regardless of the number of hosts or the data placement scheme. To achieve an FTT=2 level of protection, vSAN would need to use RAID 6 erasure coding, which requires at least 6 hosts in the cluster.
• D, vSAN will spread the components across all of the disk groups, is incorrect because vSAN will not necessarily spread the components across all of the disk groups in the cluster. vSAN will only spread the components across as many disk groups as needed to meet the storage policy requirements and to balance the load and capacity. In this case, vSAN will only need to spread the components across 5 disk groups for each stripe of RAID-5 data. References:
• VMware vSAN Specialist v2 Exam Preparation Guide, page 11
• Adaptive RAID-5 Erasure Coding with the Express Storage Architecture in vSAN 8