1. S1: Storage
   1. O1.1: Manage Complex Storage
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify RAID levels
         2. Identify supported HBA types
         3. Identify virtual disk format types
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Determine use cases for and configure VMware DirectPath I/O
         2. Determine requirements for and configure NPIV
         3. Determine appropriate RAID level for various Virtual Machine workloads
         4. Apply VMware storage best practices
         5. Understand use cases for Raw Device Mapping
         6. Configure vCenter Server storage filters
         7. Understand and apply VMFS resignaturing
         8. Understand and apply LUN masking using PSA-related commands
         9. Analyze I/O workloads to determine storage performance requirements
   2. O1.2: Manage Storage Capacity
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify storage provisioning methods
         2. Identify available storage monitoring tools, metrics and alarms
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Apply space utilization data to manage storage resources
         2. Provision and manage storage resources according to Virtual Machine requirements
         3. Understand interactions between virtual storage provisioning and physical storage provisioning
         4. Apply VMware storage best practices
         5. Configure datastore alarms
         6. Analyze datastore alarms and errors to determine space availability
   3. O1.3: Multipathing and PSA Plugins
      1. Knowledge
         1. Explain the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layout
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Install and Configure PSA plug-ins
         2. Understand different multipathing policy functionalities
         3. Perform command line configuration of multipathing options
         4. Change a multipath policy
         5. Configure Software iSCSI port binding
2. S2: Networking
   1. O2.1: Manage Complex Virtual Networks
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify common virtual switch configurations
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Determine use cases for and apply IPv6
         2. Configure NetQueue
         3. Configure SNMP
         4. Determine use cases for and apply VMware DirectPath I/O
         5. Migrate a vSS network to a Hybrid or Full vDS solution
         6. Configure vSS and vDS settings using command line tools
         7. Analyze command line output to identify vSS and vDS configuration details
   2. O2.2: VLANS, PVLANS and VLAN Settings
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify types of VLANs and PVLANs
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Determine use cases for and configure VLAN Trunking
         2. Determine use cases for and configure PVLANs
         3. Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify VLAN configurations
   3. O2.3: Deploy and Maintain Scalable Virtual Networking
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify VMware NIC Teaming policies
         2. Identify common network protocols
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Understand the NIC Teaming failover types and related physical network settings
         2. Determine and apply Failover settings
         3. Configure explicit failover to conform with VMware best practices
         4. Configure port groups to properly isolate network traffic
   4. O2.4: Administer vNetwork Distributed Switch Settings
      1. Knowledge
         1. Explain relationship between vDS and logical vSSes
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Understand the use of command line tools to configure appropriate vDS settings on an ESX/ESXi host
         2. Determine use cases for and apply Port Binding settings
         3. Configure Live Port Moving
         4. Given a set of network requirements, identify the appropriate distributed switch technology to use
         5. Use command line tools to troubleshoot and identify configuration items from an existing vDS
3. S3: DRS Clusters and Performance
   1. O3.1: Tune and Optimize vSphere
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify appropriate BIOS and firmware setting requirements for optimal ESX/ESXi Host performance
         2. Identify appropriate ESX driver revisions required for optimal ESX/ESXi Host performance
         3. Recall where to locate information resources to verify compliance with VMware and third party vendor best practices
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory configurations
         2. Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine networking configurations
         3. Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU configurations
         4. Tune ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine storage configurations
         5. Configure and apply advanced ESX/ESXi Host attributes
         6. Configure and apply advanced Virtual Machine attributes
         7. Tune and optimize NUMA controls
   2. O3.2: Optimize Virtual Machines Resources
      1. Knowledge
         1. Compare and contrast virtual and physical hardware resources
         2.  Identify VMware memory management techniques
         3.  Identify VMware CPU load balancing techniques
         4.  Identify pre-requisites for Hot Add features
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Calculate available resources
         2. Properly size a Virtual Machine based on application workload
         3. Configure large memory pages
         4. Understand appropriate use cases for CPU affinity
   3. O3.3: Implement / Maintain Complete DRS Solutions
      1. Knowledge
         1. Explain DRS affinity and anti-affinity rules
         2. Identify required hardware components to support DPM
         3. Identify EVC requirements, baselines and components
         4. Understand the DRS slot-size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Properly configure BIOS and management settings to support DPM
         2. Test DPM to verify proper configuration
         3. Configure appropriate DPM Threshold to meet business requirements
         4. Configure EVC using appropriate baseline
         5. Change the EVC mode on an existing DRS cluster
         6. Create DRS and DPM alarms
         7. Configure applicable power management settings for ESX Hosts
         8. Properly size virtual machines and clusters for optimal DRS efficiency
         9. Properly apply virtual machine automation levels based upon application requirements
   4. O3.4: Capacity Planning in vSphere
      1. Knowledge
         1. Understand the DRS slot-size algorithm and its impact on migration recommendations
         2. Identify tools needed for monitoring capacity planning
         3. Identify performance metrics related to resource contention and saturation
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Predict when additional ESX/ESXi Host, network or storage resources will be required by observing an existing environment
         2. Determine when to expand or contract provisioned Virtual Machine resources based upon observed Virtual Machine utilization
         3. Interpret performance metrics from vCenter to properly size the environment
   5. O3.5: Advanced vSphere Performance Monitoring
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify hot keys and fields used with resxtop/esxtop
         2. Identify fields used with vscsiStats
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Configure esxtop/resxtop custom profiles
         2. Determine use cases for and apply esxtop/resxtop Interactive, Batch and Replay modes
         3. Use vscsiStats to gather storage performance data
         4. Use esxtop/resxtop to collect performance data
         5. Given esxtop/resxtop output, identify relative performance data for capacity planning purposes
4. S4: Business Continuity and Protect Data
   1. O4.1: Implement / Maintain Complete HA Solutions
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify the three admission control policies for HA
         2. Identify heartbeat options and dependencies
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Calculate host failure requirements
         2. Configure customized isolation response settings
         3. Configure HA redundancy in a mixed ESX/ESXi environment
         4. Configure HA related alarms and monitor an HA cluster
         5. Create a custom slot size configuration
         6. Understand interactions between DRS and HA
         7. Create an HA solution that ensures primary node distribution across sites
         8. Analyze vSphere environment to determine appropriate HA admission control policy
         9. Analyze performance metrics to calculate host failure requirements
         10. Analyze Virtual Machine workload to determine optimum slot size
         11. Analyze HA cluster capacity to determine optimum cluster size
   2. O4.2: Deploy and Test FT
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify VMware FT hardware requirements
         2. Identify VMware FT compatibility requirements
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Modify VM and ESX/ESXi Host settings to allow for FT compatibility
         2. Use VMware best practices to prepare a vSphere environment for FT
         3. Configure FT logging
         4. Prepare the infrastructure for FT compliance
         5. Test FT failover, secondary restart and application fault tolerance in a FT Virtual Machine
   3. O4.3: Configure vSphere for MSCS Clustering
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify MSCS clustering solution requirements
         2. Identify the three supported MSCS configurations
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Configure Virtual Machine hardware to support cluster type and guest OS
         2. Configure a MSCS cluster on a single ESX/ESXi Host
         3. Configure a MSCS cluster across ESX/ESXi Hosts
         4. Configure standby host clustering
   4. O4.4: Deploy / Maintain vCenter Heartbeat
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify the five protection levels for vCenter Server Heartbeat
         2. Identify the three server protection options for vCenter Server Heartbeat
         3. Identify supported cloning options
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Install and configure vCenter Server Heartbeat
         2. Determine use cases for and execute a manual switchover
         3. Recover from a failover
         4. Monitor vCenter Server Heartbeat and communication status
         5. Configure heartbeat settings
         6. Configure shutdown options
         7. Configure application protection
         8. Add/Edit Services
         9. Add/Edit Tasks
         10. Edit/Test Rules
         11. Install/Edit Plug-ins
         12. Add/Remove Inclusion/Exclusion Filters
         13. Perform Full System and Full Registry checks
         14. Configure/Test Alerts
         15. Troubleshoot common vCenter Server Heartbeat error conditions
5. S5: Perform Operational Maintenance
   1. O5.1: Implement / Maintain Host Profiles
      1. Skills and Abilities
         1. Use Profile Editor to edit and/or disable policies
         2. Create sub-profiles
         3. Use Host Profiles to deploy vDS
   2. O5.2: Deploy / Maintain Complex Update Manager Environments
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify firewall access rules for Update Manager
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Determine use case for, install and configure Update Manager Download Service
         2. Configure a shared repository
         3. Configure smart rebooting
         4. Manually download updates to a repository
         5. Perform orchestrated vSphere upgrades
         6. Create and modify baseline groups
         7. Troubleshoot Update Manager problem areas and issues
         8. Generate database reports using MS Excel or MS SQL
         9. Upgrade vApps using Update Manager
6. S6: Perform Advanced Troubleshooting
   1. O6.1: Configure, Manage and Analyze vSphere Log Files
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations
         2. Identify ESX/ESXi log files names and locations
         3. Identify tools used to view vSphere log files
      2. Skill and Abilities
         1. Generate vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi log bundles
         2. Use vicfg-syslog to configure centralized logging on ESX/ESXi Hosts
         3. Test centralized logging configuration
         4. Configure the VMA appliance as a log host
         5. Use vilogger to enable/disable log collection on the VMA appliance
         6. Use vilogger to configure log rotation and retention
         7. Analyze log entries to obtain configuration information
         8. Analyze log entries to identify and resolve issues
   2. O6.2: Troubleshoot Memory and CPU Performance
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify resxtop/esxtop metrics related to memory and CPU
         2. Identify vCenter Server Performance Chart metrics related to memory and CPU
      2. Skill and Abilities
         1. Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine CPU performance issues using appropriate metrics
         2. Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine memory performance issues using appropriate metrics
         3. Use Hot-Add functionality to resolve identified Virtual Machine CPU and memory performance issues
   3. O6.3: Troubleshoot Network Performance and Connectivity
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify virtual switch entries in a Virtual Machine’s configuration file
         2.  Identify virtual switch entries in the ESX/ESXi Host configuration file
         3.  Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot vSphere networking configurations
         4.  Identify logs used to troubleshoot network issues
      2. Skill and Abilities
         1. Utilize net-dvs to troubleshoot vNetwork Distributed Switch configurations
         2.  Utilize vicfg-* commands to troubleshoot ESX/ESXi network configurations
         3.  Configure a network packet analyzer in a vSphere environment
         4.  Troubleshoot Private VLANs
         5.  Troubleshoot Service Console and VMkernel network configuration issues
         6.  Troubleshoot DNS and routing related issues
         7.  Use esxtop/resxtop to identify network performance problems
         8.  Use CDP and/or network hints to identify connectivity issues
         9.  Analyze troubleshooting data to determine if the root cause for a given network problem originates in the physical infrastructure or vSphere environment
   4. O6.4: Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity
      1. Knowledge
         1. Recall vicfg-* commands related to listing storage configuration
         2.  Recall vSphere 4 storage maximums
         3.  Identify logs used to troubleshoot storage issues
         4.  Describe the VMFS file system
      2. Skill and Abilities
         1. Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot multipathing and PSA-related issues
         2. Use vicfg-module to troubleshoot VMkernel storage module configurations
         3. Use vicfg-* and esxcli to troubleshoot iSCSI related issues
         4. Troubleshoot NFS mounting and permission issues
         5. Use esxtop/resxtop and vscsiStats to identify storage performance issues
         6. Configure and troubleshoot VMFS datastores using VMkfstools
         7. Troubleshoot snapshot and resignaturing issues
         8. Analyze log files to identify storage and multipathing problems
   5. O6.5: Troubleshoot vCenter and ESX/ESXi Host Management
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot management issues
      2. Skill and Abilities
         1. Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues
         2. Troubleshoot the ESX Service Console firewall
         3. Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi server management and connectivity issues
         4. Determine the root cause of vSphere management or connectivity issue
7. S7: Secure a vSphere Environment
   1. O7.1: Secure ESX/ESXi Hosts
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify configuration files related to network security
         2. Identify virtual switch security characteristics
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Add/Edit Remove users/groups on an ESX Host
         2. Customize SSH settings for increased security
         3. Enable/Disable certificate checking
         4. Generate ESX Host certificates
         5. Enable ESXi lockdown mode
         6. Replace default certificate with CA-signed certificate
         7. Configure SSL timeouts
         8. Secure ESX Web Proxy
         9. Enable strong passwords and configure password policies
         10. Identify methods for hardening virtual machines
         11. Analyze logs for security-related messages
   2. O7.2: Configure and Maintain ESX Firewall
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify vicfg-firewall commands
         2. Explain the three firewall security levels
         3. Identify ESX firewall architecture with/without vCenter Server
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Enable/Disable pre-configured services
         2. Configure service behavior automation
         3. Open/Close ports in the firewall
         4. Create a custom service
         5. Set firewall security level
   3. O7.3: Deploy and Administer vShield Zones
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify vShield Zones components
         2. Identify the four CLI command modes
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Configure vShield Zones
         2. Backup and restore vShield Manager Data
         3. Backup CLI Configuration
         4. Create/Delete Layer 2/3/4 firewall rules using VM Wall
         5. Install/Uninstall a vShield manually and from template
         6. Configure vShield Manager plug-in capability
         7. Configure VM Flow charts
         8. Update vShield Zones
         9. Add/Edit/Delete User Accounts
         10. Assign rights to a user
         11. Add/Delete Application-Port Pair mapping
         12. Execute/Schedule Execution of virtual machine discovery
         13. Utilize vShield Zones CLI commands to configure and monitor vShield Zones
         14. Analyze traffic using VM Flow to determine root cause of network related issues
8. S8: Perform Scripting and Automation
   1. O8.1: Execute Cmdlets and Customize Scripts Using PowerCLI
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify vSphere PowerCLI requirements
         2. Identify Cmdlet concepts
         3. Identify environment variables usage
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Use VMRun to execute commands in a guest OS
         2. Install vSphere PowerCLI
         3. Install Update Manager PowerShell Library
         4. Use basic and advanced Cmdlets to manage VMs and ESX Hosts
         5. Use Web Service Access Cmdlets
         6. Use Datastore and Inventory Providers
         7. Given a sample script, modify the script to perform a given action
   2. O8.2: Administer vCenter Orchestrator
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify vCenter Orchestrator requirements
         2. Identify default Orchestrator plug-ins
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Install and Configure vCenter Orchestrator
         2. Configure vCenter Orchestrator database
         3. Configure vCenter Orchestrator LDAP connection
         4. Configure vCenter Orchestrator vCenter server connections
         5. Run a Workflow
         6. Administer Actions, Tasks, Workflows and Policies
         7. Administer Packages
         8. Identify appropriate Workflow for a given management activity
   3. O8.3: Administer vSphere Using the vMA
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify VMA prerequisites
         2. Identify VMA specific commands
         3. Determine when VMA is needed
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Install and Configure VMA
         2. Add/Remove target servers
         3. Perform updates to the VMA
         4. Use VMkfstools to manage VMFS datastores
         5. Use VMware-cmd to manage VMs
         6. Use esxcli to manage Storage Multipathing
         7. Troubleshoot common VMA errors and conditions
9. S9: Advanced vSphere Installations / Configurations
   1. O9.1: Install ESX with Custom Settings
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify Service Console memory defaults and maximums
         2. Identify default and optional ESX partitions
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Configure optional ESX partitions during installation
         2. Install/uninstall custom drivers
         3. Configure advanced bootloader options
         4. Configure kernel options
         5. Given a scenario, determine when to customize a configuration
   2. O9.2: Plan and Execute Scripted Installations
      1. Knowledge
         1. Identify default installation scripts
         2. Identify boot options for scripted installation
      2. Skills and Abilities
         1. Perform a scripted ESX Host installation
         2. Perform a scripted ESXi Host installation
         3. Configure media repository
         4. Edit installation script parameters
         5. Configure pre/post script tasks
         6. Evaluate use cases for scripted installation
   3. O9.3: Configure vCenter Linked Mode
      1. Skills and Abilities
         1. Identify Linked Mode Prerequisites
         2. Identify differences between Linked and non-linked vCenter Server Configurations
         3. Identify when a role requires reconciliation
      2. Knowledge
         1. Reconcile Roles in a Linked Mode Configuration
         2. Create and Join a Linked Mode Group
         3. Determine use cases for vCenter Server Linked Mode
         4. Troubleshoot Linked Mode Configurations