Ware interview questions

1. What versions of ESX Server you have knowledge?

Vmware ESX Server 5.0/ 5.5

2. What versions of Virtual center server you have knowledge ?

Vcenter Server 4.0/5.0

3. Roles and responsibilities on VMware?

4. Explain about your VMware environment? No of ESX Servers, No of VM in each ESX Server,
What features are used? How are they connected to storage?

5. What is the maximum no of virtual machines can be created on a Single ESX Server with high
end configuration?

ESX Server 3.5 - Can create upto 127 VM

ESX Server 4.0 - Can create upto 256 VM;s

6. ESX server supports how many processors ?

ESX Server 3.5 - 32 Processors

ESX Server 4.0 - 64 Processors

7. ESX server supports what capacity of RAM ?

ESX Server 3.5 - 256 GB RAM

ESX Server 4.0 - 1 TB RAM

8. How many processors can be allocated to VM ?

ESX 4.0 - 8 Processors

9. How many NICs can be allocated to VM ?

8 Ethernet adapators

10. What is the maximum RAM can be allocated to VM?

ESX 4.0 - 256 GB RAM

ESX 3.5 - 64 GB RAM

11. What files are associated with VM ?

a. .vmx – Configuration files

b. .vmdk - Virtual harddisk file

c. .nvram - Phoenix bios file

d. .vmsn - Swap file

e. .log - Log files

12. Is ESX server operating system or application

Operating system, similar like linux, having virtualization layer between VM’s and

13. What is Service Console ?

It is interface to interact and manage Virtualization environment

14. How many service console adaptors we can create in ESX Server

16 adaptors

15. What is VMKernal ?

It is a virtual Ethernet adaptor used to communicate with IP Storage and vmotion

purpose

16. How many networks will be installed by default in ESX Server ?

2 Networks - VM Network for Virtual machines and Service Console for ESX Management
purpose

17. Which network is used for storage purpose ?

VMKernal

18. Which network is used for Vmotion ?

VMKernal

19. How many virtual switches can be created in ESX Server ?

ESX 3.5 - 127

ESX 4.0 - 256

20. When I try to power on VM it is displaying error message Can’t map memory for VM: Cannot
allocate memory. What are the reasons for the same ?
 Due to insufficient Service console memory this error will be displayed, By increasing
service console memory we can overcome this error.

21. How can you check the Physical NIC’s in service console ?

ESXCFG-NICS -l

22. How can you format VMFS file system in Service console?

Using VMFStools command

23. How to clone a VM in Service console / without Virtual Center ?

Making a copy of folder using cp command

24. What is a cold migrate ?

Migrating a powered off virtual machine from one ESX to other ESX Server

25. What is a storage vmotion ?

Migrating /Moving a powered on VM from one datastore to the other datastore

26. What are the storage vmotion requirements?

ESX Server should have access to source and destination datastore

VM should not have any snapshots

27. What happens to Virtaul Machines, when one ESX server in HA cluster goes down ?

The VM’s will get restart on the other ESX Server

28. What happens to Virtual machines, when one server in DRS cluster goes down?

That VM’s will be powered off and will be in shutdown state.

29. Can we establish a HA cluster with different processor?

Yes

30. In cluster if Virtual center goes down what happens ?

DRS cluster will not function but VM’s will still continue to run and in HA Cluster HA agents on
primary ESX server will take the responsibility.

31. What is the port no of Virtual Center server ?

902
 32. Which Webserver will be used by Virtual Center server?

Apache

33. How do you create Resource pools ?

Right click on ESX Server and select new resource pool

34. What is the difference between Limit & Reservation in Resource pools?

Limit will restrict the Guest O/S to use the maximum physical resources like RAM & Processor

Reservation will ensure /guarantees the reserved capacity from the physical resources

35. What is the use of Shares ?

Defining priority to the VM’s to use physical resources like CPU &Memory

36. What is difference between available memory and Reservation ?

Available memory is free memory available to all the VM’s and reservation is the memory
occupied by VM’s when powered on

37. What is role as a Vmware administrator ?

38. What kind of activities will be performed on a daily basis in ESX Server ?

39. Explain about your environment ( How many esx servers, configuration of esx servers, how
many virtual machines, storage)

40. How do extent datastores ?

Select datastore – Properties – Increase/ Extent

41. Can we attach 4 TB Partition as VMFS filesystem ?

No maximum 2 TB Partition can be attached

42. What is the use of promiscuous mode in Traffic shaping ?

It allows to listen all the traffic going in the switch, applications like IDS, IPS, Network monitoring
tools will use this feature.

43. What traffic shaping policies are available ?

44. Which daemon in ESX Server is responsible for responding to Virtual Center ?

Vpxa service
45. What is the maximum no of ESX Servers can be added to Virtual center ?

300 ESX Servers

46. What happens to virtual center if you change the password of root account in ESX Server ?

No Impact as Vcenter server uses vpx user account

47. What will you do if OS Gets corrupted in VM ?

We can repair using ISO image

48. How do you troubleshoot ESX Server?

49. How do you power on VM in Service console?

Vmware-cmd < Configuration file) start

50. Where do you configure SMTP Server?

Vcenter Server - Server Settings - Mail

51. What are the default traffic routing settings?

52. What is the recent Patch name & number released by VMware for ESX Server and Virtual
Center?

53. What is VCB & explain technical functionality of VCB ?

54. How do you configure ISCSI storage devices?

55. How does VLAN & Port groups differ?

VLAN id can be assigned on portgroup, portgroup identifies the network and we can define
traffic shaping policies on portgroup

56. What settings should be done in Physical switch if All VLAN information should be exposed to
ESX Server?

Physical port should be configured as trunk port

57. If huge number of Virtual machines to be deployed, then how do you do this ?

Using templates , Will select template and deploy multiple VM’s

58. If you want to roll back changes in VM then what will you do ?

I will create snapshot and if required I will rollback

59. How do you restore backup of a VM ?

60. How do you verify the version of ESX Server from service console and as well in VI Client ?

Esxcfg-update

61. How do you get the list of VM running in Service console ?

Vmware-cmd

62. How do you get resource usage information from service console ?

esxtop

63. Where does the VM log files stored ?

In the virtual machine folder of datastore

64. Can I use schedule tasks in VI Client connected to ESX host ?

No , schedule task comes with vcenter Server

65. What is the difference between volume based migration and disk based migration ?

66. what tools did u use for p2v ?

Vmware Converter

67. What versions of p2v used for migration ?

Vmware converter 3.0 and 4.0 standard editions

68. What do u mean by hot cloning and cold cloning ?

Hot cloning means cloning a powered on VM , Cold cloning means cloning a powered off
vm

69. Is it possible to do hot cloning for linux box ?

Yes in vmware converter 4.0 but not all the linux flavors

70. What errors you faced during p2v take few cases and explain and how did u resolve ?

71. What steps you will take to resolve kernel panic error in ESX ?

Will call vmware support and take their help with the help of PSOD error

72. How do you resolve blue screen errors after migration from physical server and which case it
throws a blue screen ?

Repairing the guest operating system

73. How many servers did you do p2v, How did you plan ?
20 – 30 servers, During weekends will be performed, after performing P2V, will verify the VM and
shutdown physical server
74. How do you configure NTP settings & how do you verify it is working fine or not.

75. How to list the patches installed in ESX Server ?

76. Which command is used to check the ESX updates and install ?

Esxcfg-update --query

77. What are the disadvantages of Vmotion ?

78. Compare Hyper-v with ESX Server ?

79. How do you stop migration of VM to different esx server in DRS Cluster ?

Setting the specific VM to a manual DRS Cluster mode

80. While converting two VMs online using VMware convertor one system taken 4 timeout requests
and while another one taken more than 16 timeout requests , what could be the reason behind
this ?

81. What is the use of vmware tools ?

Vmware tools will be installed in Guest operating system which provides driver
functionality, Time synchronization, memory management, and increase in keyboard and mouse
functionality

82. What are the requirements for Vmotion? You need to perform vmotion for a specific VM, what all
you verify / check
a) Will verify Vmkernal adaptor is available
b) Will verify vmotion is enabled or not
c) Will verify whether processor compatible or not
d) Will verify whether portgroup exist on the destination esx server
83. What is DRS
DRS(Distributed resource scheduler) is a load balancing cluster, DRS cluster will balance
the VM’s across the ESX servers, in case if any ESX gets overloaded the VM’s will be
migrated to other ESX Servers.
84. What is HA Cluster
HA is High Availability cluster and in case of any ESX server gets failed then VM’s will get
restarted on other ESX Server