• Identify the effects of a system problem
• Define the scope of troubleshooting
• Use a structured approach
• Understand the principles of troubleshooting
• Follow a logical troubleshooting procedure
• Examine examples of troubleshooting

• Use command-line tools to identify and troubleshoot problems
• Use vSphere CLI
• Find and interpret important log files
• Use VMware vRealize® Log InsightTM for log aggregation, efficient log search, and problem analysis

• Explain the performance features of network adapters
• Explain the performance features of vSphere networking
• Use esxtop to monitor key network performance metrics

• Identify the symptoms of network-related problems
• Analyze and resolve standard switch and distributed switch problems
• Analyze virtual machine connectivity problems and fix them
• Examine common management network connectivity problems and restore configurations
• Identify and prevent potential problems

• Describe storage queue types and other factors that affect storage performance
• Use esxtop to monitor key storage performance metrics

• Troubleshoot storage (iSCSI, NFS, VMware vSphere® VMFS, VMware vSAN™, and VMware vSphere®
Virtual Volumes™) connectivity problems
• Analyze storage-related logs
• Analyze hardware malfunction and software misconfiguration scenarios
• Identify multipathing-related problems, including permanent device loss (PDL) and all paths down (APD)
• Analyze possible causes, recover from the faulty conditions, and restore storage visibility

• Explain the CPU scheduler operation and other features that affect CPU performance
• Explain NUMA and vNUMA support
• Use esxtop to monitor key CPU performance metrics

• Explain ballooning, memory compression, and host-swapping techniques for memory reclamation when
memory is overcommitted
• Use esxtop to monitor key memory performance metrics

• Describe the factors that influence vCenter Server performance
• Use VMware vCenter® Server Appliance™ tools to monitor resource usage

• Identify and recover from problems related to VMware vSphere® High Availability
• Analyze and troubleshoot various types of vSphere vMotion problems related to virtual machine migrations
• Discuss and recover from VMware vSphere® Distributed Resource SchedulerTM problems to achieve
proper function and balanced resource use
• Examine vSphere cluster failure scenarios and possible solutions

• Analyze and resolve common virtual machine snapshot problems
• Identify possible causes and resolve virtual machine power-on problems
• Troubleshoot virtual machine connection state problems
• Resolve problems seen during VMware Tools™ installations
• Examine failure scenarios and provide solutions

• Configure ESXi host access and authorization
• Secure ESXi, vCenter Server, and virtual machines
• Use VMware Certificate Authority to configure vSphere certificate management
• Configure vSphere to encrypt virtual machines, core dumps and VMware vSphere® vMotion® migrations

• Understand the vCenter Server and VMware Platform Services Controller™ architecture in vSphere 6.x
• Identify and resolve authentication problems
• Troubleshoot VMware Certificate Authority and certificate problems
• Analyze and fix problems with vCenter Server services
• Analyze and fix vCenter Server database problems
• Identify VMware vCenter Server® High Availability problems
• Examine ESXi host and vCenter Server failure scenarios and resolve the problems