2V0-15.25 VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Support Questions and Answers

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation, the Provider Portal must have full visibility into the underlying VCF inventory—includingNSX Managers,clusters,regions,vCenters, andSDDC Manager objects—before new regions can be created for Kubernetes-based deployments (All Apps Orgs).

The issue described:

“The NSX Manager for the workload domain does not appear in the list of available NSX Managers”

occurs whenSDDC Manager is not integratedinto VCF Automation. Without this integration, VCF Automation cannot discover workload domains or their associated NSX Managers. As a result, when attempting to create a new region, the NSX Manager list is empty.

The required action is:

Add the SDDC Manager integration under VCF Automation → Provider Portal → Integrations.

This integration enables Automation to pull:

NSX Manager inventory

vCenter endpoints

Workload domain topology

Cluster details

Only after this integration is complete will the NSX Manager appear and allow region creation.

Option A and D (deploying new WLD or cluster) are unnecessary—inventory access is the problem, not resources.

Option B (triggering inventory sync) cannot work becauseno SDDC Manager integration exists.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, usingvSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA)withAuto-Policy Management, the system automatically selects the correct storage policy based on the cluster size and desired failure protection. When the administrator configures tolerance for a single failure (FTT=1 using RAID-1 mirroring), vSAN ESA requiressufficient remaining hosts during a failure eventto reprotect objects.

Aminimum of 3 ESA-capable hostsis required for RAID-1, and re-protection after a failure requires enough hosts with available capacity to place new replica components. In small ESA clusters (e.g., 3 or 4 nodes), if one host fails, the remaining hosts may not meet the placement rules for automatic rebuild to restore compliance. ESA enforces strict placement rules to maintain consistent performance and resilience; if vSAN determines that object layout compliance cannot be restored without violating these rules, it entersReduced availability with no rebuildstate.

This behavior is expected and documented: rebuilds cannot occur if the cluster does not have sufficient hosts or free capacity to recreate absent components. The administrator’s ESA configuration behaved correctly given the cluster size limitation, makingBthe correct answer.

vDefend – Distributed Firewall is a security capability delivered byNSXwithin VMware Cloud Foundation. Although VCF components such as SDDC Manager, VCF Operations, and VCF Automation rely on licensing frameworks, the enforcement and activation ofNSX features—including Distributed Firewall—occur entirely withinNSX Manager.

To enablevDefend (Distributed Firewall), NSX Manager must detect a valid NSX license that includes security features. Without applying the correct license directly to NSX Manager:

The Distributed Firewall feature remains locked

vDefend cannot be enabled in workload domains

Security rules and micro-segmentation capability remain unavailable

VCF does not apply NSX security licensing at the SDDC Manager, VCF Automation, or VCF Operations layers. Instead, NSX Manager handles all feature entitlement checks internally.

Therefore, the new license must be installeddirectly in NSX Manager, under:

System → Licensing → NSX → Add License

Options A, C, and D are incorrect because none of those components control NSX feature activation.

The symptoms described—reduced cluster capacity,degraded virtual machine components, andautomatic component rebuild operations—are classic indicators of avSAN disk failure or disk group degradation. vSAN continuously monitors the health of disks, disk groups, and network paths. When a physical disk or disk group becomes unavailable, vSAN will:

Mark affected components as degradedbecause the required number of replicas or witnesses cannot be maintained.

Trigger automatic repair/rebuild operations, provided there are enough healthy disks remaining in the cluster to satisfy the storage policy (e.g., FTT=1, RAID1/5/6).

Reduce available storage capacitybecause the failed device is removed from contributing to the vSAN datastore.

These behaviors align directly with documented vSAN failure-response logic, which states thatcomponent rebuilds begin automatically after a disk failure, assuming the cluster still has adequate resources.

The other options do not match the symptoms:

A. VM migration to another cluster→ does not reduce vSAN capacity nor trigger component rebuilds.

B. vSAN license capacity too small→ restricts features, not component state or capacity changes.

C. Too many VMs created→ may cause capacity pressure but doesnotmark components degraded or trigger automated rebuilds.

Onlyphysical disk failureaccurately explains all three observations simultaneously.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, VCF Operations (vROps-based) usespoliciesto control which alerts, symptoms, and metrics are evaluated for a given object. Creating an alert definition and symptom alone is not sufficient; the alert must beassociated with and enabled in a policythat is actively applied to the target object (in this case, a Virtual Machine). The documentation shows that when you create an alert definition, there is an explicitPolicies step, where you select the policy (for example, the default policy) so that the alert becomes active for objects governed by that policy.

The metric “Read Latency (ms)” is valid for virtual-machine–related objects: VCF Operations documents Read Latency metrics at the VM disk and VM–datastore link level (for Disk and Datastore metrics on Virtual Machines). Therefore, option B (metric not applicable) is incorrect. No requirement exists that such a performance alert must be forwarded from VCF Operations for Logs (D); log-based alerts are a separate alert type.

If the alert definition is not enabled in the effective policy for that VM, VCF Operations will not evaluate the symptom or generate the alert, and it will not appear in the alert pane—even though the definition technically exists. This matches optionCexactly.

To successfully configure aMicrosoft Certificate Authority (CA)inVMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Operations(formerly vRealize/Aria Operations), the service account used for the integration must have specific permissions on the Certificate Template (e.g., the "VMware" template).

Required Permissions:The VCF 9.0 and Aria Operations documentation explicitly states that the service account must be assignedReadandEnrollpermissions on the target Certificate Template.

Read:This permission is critical for the "Discovery" and "Validation" phase. It allows VCF Operations to query the CA, list available templates, and read the template's properties (like Key Usage and Extended Key Usage) to ensure they meet the security requirements (e.g., Server Authentication, Non-Repudiation).

Enroll:This permission allows the account to actually submit a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) via the interface and receive a signed certificate.

The Cause of Failure (Option A):If the user account is configured withonly the "Enroll" permission, it effectivelylacks the "Read" permission. Without "Read", VCF Operations cannot "see" or validate the template during the configuration wizard. The application attempts to fetch the template details, fails (because the template is invisible to it), and throws the error"Certificate authorities update failed."

Why other options are incorrect:

Option D (Read and Enroll):This is thecorrectand recommended configuration. If the user had these permissions, the operation would succeed (assuming other prereqs like Basic Auth are met).

Option C (Autoenroll):TheAutoenrollpermission is designed for Windows Group Policy-based background renewal. It isnot requiredfor the VCF Operations API-based integration, which relies on explicit "Enroll" calls.

In VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 usingdisconnected mode licensing, VCF Operations does not automatically synchronize license status with VMware’s cloud services. Instead, the administrator must periodically refresh the license file using amanual offline workflow. When the VCF Operations console reports that licenses have expired, it means the license entitlement in theVCF Business Services portalis out of date, and therefore VCF Operations cannot validate the current usage.

The VMware-documented offline licensing workflow requires the following steps:

Export the usage filefrom VCF Operations.This usage file contains consumption details needed to generate a new offline license.→C is correct.

Upload the usage file to the VCF Business Services consoleand generate a new offline license file.In disconnected mode, the Business Services portal is the only mechanism to create updated license entitlements.→D is correct.

Import the updated VCF license file into VCF Operations, specifically assigning it to theSDDC Manager.SDDC Manager is the system that validates and enforces licensing across workload domains, so the new license must be applied there—not only to a vCenter.→F is correct.

Options A and B do not affect license validation.

Option E is incorrect because workload-domain vCenter licensing is independent and not the root cause of VCF license expiration.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, publishing aVCF Operations Orchestratorworkflow to aVCF Automation project catalogrequires that the Organization has a valid integration withVCF Operations Orchestrator. The question states that the usercannot see the Workflows option under Content Hub, and theorganization is not a Provider Consumption Organization (PCO). According to the VCF 9.0 documentation, only organizations withVCF Operations Orchestrator integrationare allowed to publish workflows into the catalog. Both embedded and external orchestrator integrations must be configured depending on the environment. Ifno orchestrator (embedded or external)is integrated with the organization, workflows cannot be listed or published. This aligns with the documented VCF Automation and VCF Operations Orchestrator design requirements, which specify that workflow publishing is only available when the orchestrator instance is properly registered.

Additionally, user role permission issues could prevent workflow visibility, but the key blockers described in the scenario are the missing workflow section and the organization type. Because the organization isnot a PCO, advanced provider features—including workflow publishing—are disabled unless a proper orchestrator integration exists. Therefore, the two most likely causes are:

A:An external VCF Operations Orchestrator is not integrated with their Organization.

D:An embedded VCF Operations Orchestrator is not integrated with their Organization.

These two conditions directly match the documented behavior in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0.

In VCF 9.0, when deployingVCF Automationusing the VCF Installer in aSimple Deployment Model, the appliance requirestwo IP addresses:

Primary IP– Management interface

Secondary IP– Required for service separation and internal routing for Automation services

VMware’s JSON schema for VCF Installer enforces this requirement. If the second IP is missing, incorrectly formatted, or placed under the wrong JSON section, the installer validation will fail immediately with a JSON schema error before deployment begins.

This is one of themost common causesof validation failure for VCF Automation deployment.

Option A (component binaries missing) produces abundle downloaderror, not JSON schema failure.

Option C (NSX Manager size = large) is allowed and does not break JSON validation.

Option D (separate vDS for vSAN) is allowed if defined correctly and also does not cause JSON schema failure.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Automation, each VPC is governed by aVPC Service Profile, which defines the default network services applied to the VPC’s DHCP server—this includesDNS servers, NTP servers, DHCP lease values, and other network attributes. When a subnet is associated with a VPC and DHCP is enabled, the DHCP service inherits its DNS and NTP configuration from the VPC Service Profile.

In the scenario, virtual machines attached to the new VPC subnet receive an IP address, but not DNS or NTP settings. This indicates that the DHCP server is functioning correctly, but its service profile lacks DNS and NTP configuration. Updating thedefault VPC Service Profileallows the administrator to specify DNS resolver addresses and NTP time sources, which will then automatically be pushed to all DHCP-enabled subnets under that VPC.

Option B (changing to DHCP Relay) is incorrect because relay mode does not configure DNS/NTP—it delegates DHCP to an external DHCP server.

Option C (enable DNS/NTP passthrough) is not a feature of NSX DHCP.

Option D (changing connectivity mode) affects routing and service placement, not DHCP options.

Before applying updates to a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), an administrator must validate that all vCenter services are healthy. VMware provides two supported and documented methods for checking vCenter service status:

1. Using the vCenter Appliance Shell

Running the command:

services-control --status

This command displays the status of all vCenter-related services (vmdird, vmcad, vpxd, vsan-health, etc.). It is the authoritative diagnostic tool embedded in the appliance for confirming whether services are running, stopped, or in a degraded state. This method is explicitly documented in vSphere 9.0 service management procedures.

This matchesOption B.

2. Using the vCenter Server Management Interface (VAMI)

Accessed at:

https:// :5480

The VAMI console provides a graphical interface underServices, showing the real-time health, status, and start/stop controls for all vCenter services. VMware documentation instructs administrators to review service status here before performing upgrades or maintenance operations.

This matchesOption C.

Incorrect Options Explained

A. vSphere performance charts→ These show workload data, not service health.

D. vim-top command→ Displays vSphere hosts’ runtime metrics, not vCenter services.

E. Running services.sh on ESXi DCUI→ vCenter doesnotrun ESXi services; this script is for ESXi hosts only.

In vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA),Auto-Policy Managementdetermines which default storage policies can be used based on the number of hosts in the cluster. RAID-5 and RAID-6 policies require a minimum number of hosts to satisfy fault domain and component placement rules.

ForvSAN ESA, the minimum hosts required are:

RAID-1 (FTT=1)→ minimum3 hosts

RAID-5 (FTT=1)→ minimum4 hosts

RAID-6 (FTT=2)→ minimum6 hosts

In this scenario, the administrator deployed athree-host ESA cluster. Since RAID-5 requires at leastfourESA-capable hosts, vSAN Auto-Policy Managementautomatically falls back to RAID-1, the highest level of resilience possible with the available cluster size. This results insignificantly higher storage consumption, which matches exactly what the administrator observed.

Option A is incorrect because RAID-5 is fully supported on ESA—but only with enough hosts.

Option C (Force Provisioning) does not change the default policy selected.

Option D (Host Rebuild Reserve) does not control RAID policy selection.

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x usesVMware Identity Broker (VIDB)as the central identity provider for the entire VCF fleet. VIDB synchronizes user and group metadata from the connected enterprise identity source, in this caseActive Directory. When a user is added to an AD groupafterthe group was already synced into VIDB,VIDB does not automatically resync group membership on demandunless a directory synchronization is performed.

In this scenario, the groupVCFA_ProviderAdminswas synchronized five days earlier. When the new userprovideradmin05was later added to the AD group, VIDB—and therefore the VCF Automation Provider Management Portal—does not recognize that new user until amanual directory resynchronizationoccurs fromVCF Operations.

This operation forces VIDB to:

Requery Active Directory

Update group membership information

Repopulate available users for import into VCF Automation

Options B and D are incorrect because they donotinfluence Identity Broker directory synchronization. Option C (disable VCF SSO) would break authentication and is not a valid solution.

In VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Automation for All Apps, avSphere Namespacecan span multipleSupervisor Zones. However, workloads—including catalog item deployments—canonlybe deployed into zones that are explicitlyassigned to that Namespace. The user in the scenario successfully deploys intozone1andzone2, which confirms that those zones are correctly associated with the Namespace.

The failure to deploy intozone3, while deployments into the other zones work, strongly indicates thatzone3 is not part of the Namespace configuration.

This behavior matches how Supervisor Zones function:

A zone must beadded to the Namespacein Supervisor configuration.

If the zone is not associated,VCF Automation will not present it as an eligible deployment location, and deployment into that zone fails.

Option A and D (project roles) are incorrect because insufficient permissions would prevent deploymentinto any zone, not a single missing zone.

Option B (Namespace Class) is irrelevant because Namespace Classes define resource limits, not which Supervisor Zones the Namespace is mapped to.

In VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, supplemental storage such as NFS is fully supported for workload domains when configured correctly. When an NFS datastore mounts successfully in vSphere but users cannot write data, the issue almost always lies in theexport permissions on the NFS server. vSphere will allow mounting a read-only NFS export, but write operations will fail silently at the VM or guest OS level.

VCF documentation confirms that ESXi requires explicitread/write export permissions, typically configured per-host or by IP subnet, on the NFS server. Even if network connectivity and VM-level access appear healthy, incorrect server-side permissions prevent ESXi from executing write operations.

Option A is incorrect because NFS servers are not validated by the HCL for write capability.

Option B (rebooting the host) is unnecessary and unrelated to permission enforcement.

Option D (MTU mismatch) may cause performance issues, not write-access failures.

Thus, the next troubleshooting step is to verify that the ESXi hosts haveread/write accesson the NFS share, makingCthe correct answer.