Your Ultimate Guide to the VMware 5V0-22.21 vSAN  Certification Exam Syllabus

The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification, also recognized as the VMware Certified Specialist – vSAN , serves as a professional benchmark for IT experts focusing on data center virtualization. This certification validates an individual’s technical expertise in implementing, managing, and troubleshooting VMware vSAN environments, which are at the core of modern hyper-converged infrastructure solutions. The demand for virtualization professionals with proven vSAN knowledge has grown significantly as enterprises continue to transition toward scalable and software-defined data centers. The exam assesses the candidate’s understanding of vSAN architecture, planning, deployment, management, and troubleshooting processes, ensuring they can design efficient, resilient, and optimized storage solutions using VMware technology.

This certification offers a comprehensive framework for IT professionals who aspire to enhance their proficiency in VMware’s virtualization ecosystem. It focuses on both theoretical knowledge and practical implementation, preparing candidates to deal with complex real-world environments. Individuals who earn this certification demonstrate their ability to plan, deploy, and maintain vSAN clusters that support enterprise workloads while ensuring optimal performance, availability, and scalability. Through the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam, candidates prove their readiness to contribute to large-scale virtualization initiatives and infrastructure modernization projects, making them valuable assets to any organization that utilizes VMware’s suite of data center products.

The VMware Certified Specialist – vSAN  exam, identified by exam code 5V0-22.21, forms part of VMware’s broader certification framework in the data center virtualization track. It emphasizes the deployment and management of vSAN, an essential component that enables hyper-converged infrastructure by combining storage and compute resources into a unified pool. This approach helps reduce complexity, streamline operations, and enhance performance across virtualized workloads. Professionals who achieve this certification are recognized for their ability to ensure that enterprise storage environments function efficiently, securely, and reliably.

Exam Objectives and Structure

The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam is designed to evaluate a candidate’s proficiency across various domains related to VMware vSAN. The objectives cover a broad range of topics, beginning with foundational architecture and extending to advanced configuration, monitoring, and maintenance tasks. Candidates are expected to understand how to design and optimize a vSAN deployment based on organizational requirements, ensuring high availability and efficient storage management. Each domain contributes to assessing the candidate’s comprehensive understanding of the VMware vSAN technology stack, and together they form a balanced evaluation of both conceptual and practical expertise.

The exam format typically includes scenario-based questions that test analytical and problem-solving skills in real-world contexts. Instead of relying solely on theoretical knowledge, candidates must interpret situations that reflect common enterprise challenges. This approach ensures that certified specialists are capable of applying their understanding effectively in operational environments. The exam evaluates the individual’s ability to recognize vSAN requirements, identify architectural considerations, configure appropriate storage policies, and troubleshoot performance or compliance issues within virtualized clusters.

The structure of the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam has been carefully designed to assess both depth and breadth of knowledge. It consists of multiple-choice and multiple-select questions that collectively cover all key aspects of vSAN. The total exam duration is one hundred and thirty minutes, providing ample time for candidates to review each question thoughtfully. The test includes seventy-six questions, and the minimum passing score required is three hundred out of a possible five hundred points. The exam fee is two hundred and fifty United States dollars, which candidates pay when registering through the official Pearson VUE testing platform. Pearson VUE provides secure proctored testing either in physical test centers or through an online environment, ensuring accessibility and reliability for all participants.

VMware recommends that individuals preparing for this certification complete specific training programs before attempting the exam. These training modules include VMware vSAN: Plan and Deploy, VMware vSAN: Troubleshooting, and VMware vSAN: Management and Operations, all aligned with version seven of the software. These courses provide deep technical insights, hands-on experience, and contextual understanding of deployment and operational methodologies. Candidates who undergo this training are more likely to succeed, as they gain the ability to manage practical scenarios efficiently and confidently.

Purpose and Value of VMware vSAN Certification

The VMware vSAN  certification plays an essential role in validating an individual’s capacity to handle the dynamic demands of modern data centers. As virtualization continues to shape the IT landscape, the ability to manage and optimize hyper-converged infrastructure becomes an indispensable skill. VMware’s certification framework not only certifies technical knowledge but also emphasizes operational proficiency. Through the 5V0-22.21 exam, candidates showcase their ability to apply best practices in planning, designing, and troubleshooting storage solutions that leverage the capabilities of VMware vSAN.

Organizations rely heavily on certified professionals to maintain high standards of infrastructure performance and reliability. A VMware Certified Specialist in vSAN is often responsible for ensuring that virtual environments are configured for maximum availability, redundancy, and resource efficiency. They are expected to minimize downtime, maintain data integrity, and adapt to evolving workloads seamlessly. This certification gives employers confidence that the certified individual can implement VMware’s storage technologies effectively while ensuring compliance with enterprise policies and performance benchmarks.

For IT professionals, the VMware 5V0-22.21 certification represents a valuable career milestone. It opens doors to new opportunities in roles such as virtualization engineer, data center specialist, or systems architect. The credential also demonstrates a candidate’s commitment to continuous learning and professional development. As VMware technologies continue to evolve, staying certified ensures that professionals remain relevant and capable of addressing the complexities of next-generation IT infrastructure. Furthermore, achieving this certification helps individuals stand out in competitive job markets where employers prioritize validated skills and verified technical competence.

VMware vSAN and Its Core Concepts

VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage solution integrated directly with VMware vSphere, transforming local storage devices into a shared datastore optimized for virtual machines. Unlike traditional storage systems that rely on separate hardware arrays, vSAN aggregates storage resources from multiple hosts within a cluster, creating a single, high-performance storage pool. This design eliminates the need for external storage area networks and reduces operational costs while maintaining performance and reliability. vSAN leverages policies that define storage characteristics such as redundancy, performance, and capacity. These policies ensure that each virtual machine receives storage configured according to its specific workload requirements.

The fundamental concept behind VMware vSAN is to simplify storage management in virtualized environments. By integrating with vSphere, vSAN allows administrators to manage compute and storage resources from a unified platform. This integration not only enhances visibility but also provides greater control over storage provisioning, performance tuning, and health monitoring. Through this approach, vSAN contributes to operational efficiency by reducing complexity and streamlining management workflows.

VMware vSAN also supports various deployment configurations to meet diverse enterprise needs. These include standard clusters, two-node clusters for smaller deployments, and stretched clusters for high-availability scenarios that span multiple locations. Each configuration type offers distinct advantages depending on the organization’s resilience, performance, and scalability requirements. The flexibility of vSAN allows IT teams to design solutions that align perfectly with business objectives while maintaining consistency and control.

Architecture and Functional Capabilities

The architecture of VMware vSAN revolves around the integration of compute, network, and storage layers within the hypervisor. Each host in a vSAN cluster contributes storage capacity through its local disks, typically a combination of solid-state drives for caching and magnetic or solid-state disks for capacity. This configuration enables efficient data placement and high performance across workloads. The distributed nature of vSAN ensures that data is stored redundantly across hosts, providing fault tolerance and protection against hardware failures.

VMware vSAN employs advanced algorithms for data distribution, balancing, and recovery. It continuously monitors cluster health and automatically rebalances data when necessary to maintain optimal performance. This level of automation reduces administrative overhead and enhances system resilience. Furthermore, vSAN supports space efficiency features such as deduplication, compression, and erasure coding, all of which help maximize storage utilization and reduce operational costs.

Data services play a critical role in extending the functionality of vSAN. These include encryption for data-at-rest security, replication for disaster recovery, and data persistence for containerized workloads. The integration with VMware’s broader ecosystem allows seamless interaction with tools such as vRealize Operations for monitoring and vSphere Lifecycle Manager for updates and maintenance. Through these integrations, administrators can ensure consistent performance and compliance across the virtual infrastructure.

Exam Preparation Approach

Preparing for the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam requires a structured approach that combines conceptual understanding with practical experience. Since the exam tests both theoretical knowledge and application, candidates should focus on developing a comprehensive grasp of each objective domain outlined in the syllabus. Understanding the architectural components and operational behavior of vSAN is essential. Candidates should also become comfortable navigating VMware interfaces and performing configuration tasks within vSphere environments.

Engaging with the recommended VMware training courses provides a strong foundation for success. These courses emphasize real-world scenarios that mirror those found in enterprise settings, helping candidates bridge the gap between theory and practice. Additionally, utilizing practice exams is an effective way to assess readiness, as they familiarize candidates with the exam’s structure, question style, and timing. By identifying weak areas through these practice sessions, candidates can refine their study plans to target specific topics that require additional attention.

Consistent hands-on practice is the key differentiator for success in this certification. Building a small vSAN lab environment, either through physical servers or VMware’s simulation tools, enables candidates to experiment with configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting. Performing these exercises reinforces theoretical learning and provides confidence in handling real-time operational challenges.

Exam Environment and Evaluation Criteria

The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam, administered through Pearson VUE, follows a standardized evaluation process to ensure fairness and reliability. Candidates can choose to take the exam in person at authorized testing centers or through an online proctored platform. The environment is designed to minimize distractions and maintain security, allowing candidates to focus entirely on the assessment. Each question is presented clearly, and the interface allows easy navigation between questions for review.

Scoring is based on a scaled model where each correct response contributes to the overall score. VMware does not disclose exact scoring algorithms; however, achieving a score of at least three hundred out of five hundred is required to pass. This scaled approach ensures consistency across different versions of the exam, accommodating variations in question difficulty.

Upon successful completion, candidates receive official certification as VMware Certified Specialist – vSAN . This credential verifies their ability to deploy and manage VMware’s vSAN technology efficiently and professionally. The certification remains valid until VMware releases a newer version of the exam, encouraging professionals to stay updated with evolving technologies.

Architecture and Technologies in VMware vSAN

The architectural foundation of VMware vSAN forms the basis for understanding how the software-defined storage platform operates within virtualized environments. The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification exam focuses significantly on this domain, as candidates must be proficient in identifying architectural components, design principles, and functional mechanisms that underpin vSAN clusters. The technology is built directly into the VMware ESXi hypervisor, enabling seamless integration with vSphere and eliminating the need for additional software layers or external storage controllers. Each host within a vSAN cluster contributes its local storage devices to a shared datastore that all hosts can access. This approach ensures efficient use of resources while maintaining data protection and scalability.

A crucial part of vSAN architecture is its storage policy-based management framework. Unlike traditional storage solutions that rely on physical configurations, vSAN uses policies to define storage requirements at the virtual machine level. These policies specify characteristics such as failure tolerance, performance expectations, and space efficiency mechanisms. By applying these policies, vSAN dynamically provisions and manages storage resources according to the individual needs of each workload. This automation simplifies administrative tasks and ensures consistent performance across the cluster.

Understanding how vSAN stores and protects data is another vital element of the exam. Data is distributed across multiple hosts within a cluster to achieve redundancy and fault tolerance. When a virtual machine writes data to vSAN, the system breaks that data into objects and components, replicating them based on the assigned storage policy. In the event of a hardware failure, the system automatically rebuilds lost components on available capacity to restore full compliance with the policy. This self-healing capability is one of the defining strengths of vSAN, ensuring continuous availability without manual intervention.

VMware vSAN also incorporates several space efficiency features that optimize storage utilization. These include deduplication, compression, and erasure coding. Deduplication identifies identical data blocks and stores only a single instance, while compression minimizes the space required for stored data. Erasure coding provides fault tolerance with less capacity overhead than full replication. These features work in harmony to balance performance, efficiency, and protection. Candidates must understand when and how these features are applied to achieve optimal results based on specific workload requirements.

The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam may also include scenarios requiring candidates to identify architectural differences between standard vSAN clusters, two-node clusters, and stretched clusters. A standard vSAN cluster typically consists of multiple hosts in a single site and provides high performance and availability within that site. Two-node clusters are designed for smaller deployments or remote offices, offering resilience with minimal infrastructure. Stretched clusters, on the other hand, span two geographic locations, providing site-level redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. Each type requires specific configuration considerations, including network latency, witness placement, and fault domain design.

Another key aspect of this domain involves understanding vSAN data services requirements. These services extend vSAN’s capabilities to support advanced use cases such as encryption, file services, and cloud-native workloads. vSAN encryption ensures data security at rest by encrypting data blocks on physical disks. This process is hardware-agnostic, simplifying compliance with security policies. File services allow vSAN to provide file shares directly within the cluster, expanding its utility beyond block storage. For organizations adopting containerized architectures, Cloud Native Storage with vSAN enables seamless integration with Kubernetes environments, ensuring persistent storage for stateful workloads.

A thorough understanding of these technologies equips candidates to design and manage vSAN environments that align with modern enterprise standards. The 5V0-22.21 exam tests not only theoretical comprehension but also the ability to apply architectural principles effectively in various deployment scenarios.

VMware Products and Solutions Integrated with vSAN

VMware vSAN does not operate in isolation; it functions as part of a comprehensive ecosystem of VMware products and solutions that together create a fully virtualized data center. The integration of vSAN with other VMware technologies enhances monitoring, replication, automation, and scalability. The exam objectives include identifying when and how to use vSphere Replication in combination with vSAN, as well as understanding the roles of supporting tools such as vRealize Operations and the Data Persistence platform.

vSphere Replication is a native VMware solution that provides data protection through asynchronous replication of virtual machines. When used alongside vSAN, it allows administrators to replicate critical workloads between vSAN clusters, either within the same site or across multiple data centers. This integration supports disaster recovery planning and business continuity strategies. Candidates should understand when vSphere Replication is the appropriate choice, such as in environments requiring flexible recovery point objectives without deploying external replication appliances.

Monitoring plays an essential role in maintaining the health and performance of vSAN clusters. VMware’s vRealize Operations platform offers deep visibility into infrastructure components, including vSAN datastores, disk groups, and network configurations. It provides performance metrics, capacity planning tools, and predictive analytics that help administrators proactively identify potential issues. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam expects candidates to recognize how vRealize Operations integrates with vSAN and supports monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization. This integration enhances operational efficiency by providing centralized visibility into performance and health metrics across the entire virtual environment.

Another integral component of the VMware ecosystem is the Data Persistence platform. This platform allows modern, cloud-native applications to run stateful services directly on vSAN while maintaining persistent storage. The Data Persistence platform supports both VMware-managed and partner-managed services, enabling flexibility in deploying containerized applications. Understanding the deployment options for this platform is critical for candidates, as organizations increasingly adopt hybrid and multi-cloud strategies that blend traditional virtualization with container-based workloads.

VMware’s suite of products extends the functionality of vSAN further through integrations with solutions such as vRealize Automation, VMware Cloud Foundation, and NSX. vRealize Automation provides automated provisioning and lifecycle management for vSAN resources, ensuring rapid deployment and consistent configuration across clusters. VMware Cloud Foundation combines vSAN with vSphere, NSX, and vRealize Suite to create a unified platform for managing private and hybrid cloud environments. NSX complements vSAN by providing network virtualization and security services, ensuring that both storage and network resources are aligned in delivering reliable, scalable infrastructure.

By mastering these integrations, candidates demonstrate their ability to manage complex, interconnected environments efficiently. The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification reinforces the professional’s understanding of how vSAN fits into the broader VMware landscape, enabling them to design solutions that leverage multiple technologies to achieve optimal performance and resilience.

Planning and Designing VMware vSAN Deployments

Planning and design represent critical stages in any vSAN implementation. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam evaluates a candidate’s ability to interpret requirements, anticipate challenges, and design clusters that align with organizational goals. Effective planning ensures that vSAN delivers both performance and reliability while maintaining flexibility for future expansion.

A successful vSAN design begins with assessing business objectives and workload characteristics. Candidates should be able to identify factors such as capacity requirements, performance expectations, fault tolerance, and scalability. Understanding these elements allows the designer to select appropriate hardware configurations, including disk group layouts, cache-to-capacity ratios, and networking infrastructure. The design process also involves determining how vSAN features such as deduplication, compression, and erasure coding will be utilized to achieve space efficiency and cost optimization.

Sizing tools play a crucial role in the planning phase. VMware provides design and sizing calculators that help architects determine the necessary number of hosts, disk groups, and capacity to meet workload demands. Candidates are expected to understand how to interpret these tools and apply their results in designing balanced and efficient clusters. The ability to model future growth and ensure adequate overhead for maintenance operations is a vital skill for anyone managing enterprise-scale environments.

Interoperability with other vSphere features must also be considered during design. vSAN integrates tightly with components such as Distributed Resource Scheduler, High Availability, and vMotion. Each of these features interacts with storage in specific ways, influencing performance and fault tolerance. Candidates should be able to identify how these integrations impact overall design decisions, ensuring seamless functionality across all aspects of the virtual infrastructure.

Another advanced design consideration is the use of HCI Mesh. HCI Mesh enables clusters to share capacity across different vSAN environments, allowing more flexible resource utilization. In environments where capacity is underutilized in one cluster but needed in another, HCI Mesh allows cross-cluster provisioning without adding physical storage. Understanding when to implement HCI Mesh and how it interacts with existing vSAN clusters is essential for achieving maximum efficiency and scalability.

vSAN design also extends to ensuring compliance with operational and security policies. Encryption, fault domains, and network configurations must align with organizational standards. Encryption provides protection for data at rest, while fault domains distribute data across different physical racks or sites to mitigate hardware failure risks. Network considerations such as bandwidth, latency, and redundancy must be addressed to guarantee performance and reliability.

The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification requires that candidates not only understand these principles but also demonstrate the ability to apply them to real-world scenarios. Effective design translates into predictable performance and minimal downtime. Poor planning can result in capacity constraints, degraded performance, or loss of redundancy. The certification thus ensures that professionals can anticipate these challenges and create robust, future-ready storage architectures.

Installing, Configuring, and Setting Up vSAN

The installation and configuration of vSAN mark the transition from theoretical design to practical implementation. VMware vSAN is designed to simplify this process, integrating seamlessly with the existing vSphere environment. Candidates preparing for the 5V0-22.21 exam should understand each phase of setup, from initial host preparation to validation of the deployed cluster.

Creating disk groups forms the foundation of vSAN configuration. Each disk group contains a cache tier and a capacity tier. The cache tier is typically composed of solid-state drives to accelerate read and write operations, while the capacity tier may include either flash or magnetic disks to store persistent data. vSAN automatically manages how data flows between these tiers to optimize performance. Candidates must understand how to create, manage, and expand disk groups as workloads evolve.

Configuring the vSAN cluster involves enabling the feature within vSphere and establishing the desired cluster type. This includes configuring fault domains, enabling deduplication or compression, and selecting the appropriate network configuration. Once the cluster is operational, administrators can define and apply storage policies that govern how data is placed and protected. These policies are essential for maintaining the required balance between performance, capacity, and resilience.

Advanced configurations such as stretched clusters and two-node setups are covered extensively in the exam objectives. Stretched clusters provide disaster recovery capabilities by replicating data between two sites, while two-node clusters are optimized for smaller environments that require resilience without extensive hardware investment. Each configuration type involves specific network and witness requirements that candidates must be able to identify and implement accurately.

Cloud Native Storage configuration is another topic emphasized in the VMware 5V0-22.21 syllabus. It enables seamless integration of containerized workloads with vSAN, allowing persistent storage for Kubernetes environments. Administrators can create storage policies tailored to container requirements, ensuring that modern applications benefit from the same performance and protection as traditional virtual machines.

Validation of a vSAN deployment is a final but essential step in configuration. This process ensures that all components meet VMware’s requirements for performance, compatibility, and health. Tools such as Skyline Health provide automated checks that verify the cluster’s compliance with best practices. Understanding how to interpret and act upon validation results is critical for maintaining a stable and efficient environment.

A well-configured vSAN cluster sets the foundation for long-term reliability and operational excellence. The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification ensures that professionals possess the expertise to perform these tasks accurately and confidently, minimizing risk during deployment and maximizing system performance.

Performance Tuning and Optimization in VMware vSAN

Performance tuning is a critical skill for VMware vSAN administrators, as it directly impacts the efficiency, responsiveness, and reliability of virtualized environments. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates are expected to understand the mechanisms of performance optimization, identify potential bottlenecks, and implement corrective actions to ensure that storage resources meet organizational requirements. vSAN performance is influenced by multiple factors, including disk configuration, network latency, host resources, and storage policies. Candidates must recognize how these variables interact and affect the overall performance of a cluster.

A core aspect of vSAN performance management is understanding the role of disk groups. Disk groups consist of a cache tier and a capacity tier, and proper configuration of these components is essential for optimal read and write operations. The cache tier, typically built from solid-state drives, accelerates data access and enhances input/output operations per second (IOPS). The capacity tier, which may include either flash or magnetic disks, provides persistent storage for data. vSAN automatically manages data placement between these tiers to optimize performance, but administrators can influence behavior through storage policy settings.

Storage policies play a pivotal role in determining performance characteristics. Policies define factors such as the number of failures to tolerate, stripe width, and object space reservation. By carefully configuring these policies, administrators can balance the trade-offs between redundancy, performance, and storage efficiency. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam emphasizes the candidate’s ability to apply policies correctly based on workload requirements, ensuring that virtual machines receive the appropriate level of performance and protection.

Network configuration is another critical factor influencing vSAN performance. Bandwidth, latency, and redundancy must be managed to ensure that data flows efficiently between hosts. In stretched clusters, network considerations become even more important, as latency between sites can affect synchronous replication and overall cluster responsiveness. Candidates must understand how to design network configurations that minimize bottlenecks, provide resilience, and maintain compliance with VMware best practices.

Performance monitoring is an ongoing task that requires understanding the metrics provided by vSAN and associated management tools. vSAN exposes performance statistics at both the cluster and virtual machine level, allowing administrators to identify hotspots, imbalances, and inefficiencies. Tools such as vSphere and vRealize Operations provide visualizations, alerts, and predictive analytics to support proactive performance management. Candidates preparing for the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam should be able to interpret these metrics and determine appropriate corrective actions to optimize cluster efficiency.

Component striping is another technique that can improve performance for specific workloads. By distributing data across multiple components, vSAN can increase parallelism and improve read and write throughput. Candidates must understand when to implement component striping, as it involves trade-offs in terms of storage capacity and complexity. The exam evaluates the ability to apply these techniques effectively to meet performance objectives while maintaining compliance with organizational policies.

Upgrades and Lifecycle Management

Maintaining a current and supported vSAN environment is essential for both performance and security. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam requires candidates to understand the processes for applying patches, upgrading software, and managing firmware and driver versions. These tasks are typically performed through VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), which provides automated and streamlined workflows for cluster updates. vLCM simplifies the process of maintaining consistency across multiple hosts, reducing the potential for errors and downtime.

Upgrading an HCI environment involves careful planning to ensure that all components remain compatible and functional. This includes verifying that hardware firmware and drivers meet VMware’s compatibility standards and that storage policies are appropriately applied during the upgrade process. Candidates must understand how to sequence updates, validate changes, and address any issues that arise during maintenance windows. Proper upgrade management ensures that clusters remain resilient, secure, and capable of supporting enterprise workloads without disruption.

Adding and removing hosts is another aspect of lifecycle management that affects both performance and capacity. When a host is added to a vSAN cluster, the system rebalances data to incorporate the new resources, enhancing overall throughput and fault tolerance. Conversely, removing a host requires careful planning to redistribute data and maintain compliance with storage policies. Candidates must be able to execute these operations without compromising cluster health or availability, demonstrating a clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms that support seamless scaling.

Disk group management also plays a role in lifecycle operations. Creating, expanding, reconfiguring, and removing disk groups requires a precise understanding of storage topology and the effects of changes on performance and resilience. vSAN administrators must ensure that all components comply with VMware best practices during these operations, minimizing the risk of data loss or performance degradation. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam assesses the candidate’s ability to perform these tasks confidently and accurately.

Firmware and driver management is integral to maintaining a stable environment. Skyline Health and vSphere Lifecycle Manager provide tools to monitor compatibility and identify required updates. Candidates must understand how to interpret health indicators, apply recommended updates, and verify that all components remain in compliance with VMware standards. These practices are essential for preventing hardware-induced failures, optimizing performance, and ensuring consistent operation across the cluster.

Troubleshooting and Repairing vSAN Environments

Troubleshooting is a critical competency for VMware vSAN administrators, as operational issues can impact performance, availability, and data integrity. The 5V0-22.21 exam emphasizes the ability to diagnose, analyze, and resolve a wide range of vSAN-related problems using both the user interface and command-line tools. Candidates are expected to identify the root causes of failures, interpret system warnings, and implement corrective measures efficiently.

vSAN failures can manifest in various ways, including degraded performance, non-compliant storage objects, and data unavailability. Administrators must understand the impact of each type of failure and the appropriate response to mitigate risks. Skyline Health provides a comprehensive view of cluster status, highlighting warnings, errors, and potential areas of concern. Candidates should be able to interpret these indicators, prioritize corrective actions, and ensure that the cluster returns to a healthy state.

Determining vSAN health involves using tools such as the vSphere Client and ESXCLI. These tools provide detailed information on storage object status, component health, and overall cluster compliance. Candidates must be proficient in gathering and analyzing this data to make informed decisions. This includes monitoring resynchronization processes, which occur when data is rebuilt or redistributed following a failure or maintenance activity. Understanding the performance impact of resync operations is crucial for maintaining operational continuity.

Hardware lifecycle management is another important element of troubleshooting. Administrators must monitor the status of disks, controllers, and hosts to identify potential failures before they affect cluster performance. When hardware issues are detected, candidates should be able to replace components, rebalance data, and restore full functionality in accordance with VMware best practices. This proactive approach reduces downtime and minimizes the risk of data loss.

Capacity management and reclamation are also emphasized in the VMware 5V0-22.21 syllabus. Unassociated or orphaned objects consume valuable storage space, and administrators must know how to identify and remove these objects to reclaim capacity. In addition, troubleshooting object compliance ensures that storage policies are correctly applied and maintained, preserving both performance and data protection standards. Candidates must understand the mechanisms for enforcing policy compliance and correcting violations.

Advanced troubleshooting scenarios may involve analyzing delta components, monitoring TRIM and UNMAP operations, and evaluating the impact of policy changes on performance. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to interpret these metrics and implement solutions that restore cluster health efficiently. The exam assesses the candidate’s ability to combine analytical skills, system knowledge, and operational best practices to maintain a resilient and high-performing vSAN environment.

Administrative and Operational Tasks

Operational proficiency is a central requirement of the VMware 5V0-22.21 certification. Candidates must demonstrate competence in managing ongoing administrative tasks, maintaining cluster health, and ensuring that storage resources are effectively utilized. This domain encompasses storage policy management, capacity planning, performance evaluation, maintenance operations, and cluster lifecycle management.

Creating, updating, and modifying storage policies is fundamental to ongoing administration. Policies govern how virtual machines consume storage resources, specifying parameters such as failure tolerance, stripe width, and space efficiency mechanisms. Administrators must be able to apply policies to individual virtual machines or groups of objects, interpret the effects of policy changes, and ensure that all objects remain compliant. Proper policy management ensures that workloads operate optimally and that storage resources are used efficiently.

vSAN administrators also need to monitor data placement and storage utilization. Understanding the distribution of data across the cluster, evaluating capacity consumption, and identifying potential imbalances are key skills tested in the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam. Administrators should be able to take corrective action when resource constraints or policy violations occur, maintaining a balanced and resilient environment.

Evaluating performance metrics is another critical operational task. Administrators must interpret IOPS, latency, throughput, and other performance indicators to ensure that workloads meet organizational expectations. Tools such as vSphere Client and vRealize Operations provide detailed insights into cluster behavior, helping administrators make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, optimization, and troubleshooting.

Maintenance mode operations are an essential part of administrative responsibilities. When hosts are placed in maintenance mode, workloads are evacuated, and storage objects may be resynchronized across remaining hosts. Administrators must understand the implications of different maintenance options, including full data evacuation versus temporary migration, and choose the approach that balances operational needs with system health. Proper execution of maintenance operations minimizes downtime and ensures continued compliance with storage policies.

Adding capacity, patching clusters, and managing encryption are additional operational responsibilities. Administrators must be able to incorporate new storage resources, apply updates to software and firmware, and configure encryption to protect data at rest. These tasks require a clear understanding of cluster topology, storage policies, and VMware best practices to maintain a secure, high-performing environment.

Monitoring storage policy compliance and interpreting Skyline Health results are ongoing tasks that support proactive management. Administrators must regularly review alerts, identify areas for improvement, and implement corrective measures to maintain cluster health. Understanding the impact of storage policy changes and the operational effects of adjustments is essential for sustaining optimal performance and reliability.

Operational excellence in vSAN administration involves coordinating multiple interrelated tasks to ensure that the cluster operates efficiently, securely, and resiliently. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam ensures that certified specialists possess the knowledge and skills to manage the full lifecycle of a vSAN environment, from configuration and monitoring to optimization, troubleshooting, and operational management.

Advanced VMware vSAN Deployment Scenarios

The VMware 5V0-22.21 certification exam emphasizes the ability to design and implement vSAN in a variety of deployment scenarios that reflect real-world enterprise environments. Understanding advanced deployment options is essential for candidates who aim to ensure high availability, scalability, and performance while meeting organizational requirements. vSAN is flexible enough to accommodate standard clusters, two-node clusters, stretched clusters, and HCI Mesh configurations, each tailored to specific operational needs and workload characteristics.

A standard vSAN cluster represents the most common deployment, consisting of multiple ESXi hosts within a single site. Each host contributes storage resources to the cluster, creating a unified datastore for virtual machines. This configuration is suitable for data centers that require high performance, balanced capacity utilization, and simplified management. Candidates preparing for the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam must understand the architectural considerations of standard clusters, including disk group configuration, storage policy application, and fault domain design. A well-architected standard cluster ensures resilience against hardware failures and provides predictable performance for enterprise workloads.

Two-node vSAN clusters are optimized for small environments, branch offices, or remote locations. They offer redundancy and high availability while minimizing infrastructure requirements. A key component of two-node deployments is the witness host, which acts as a quorum to prevent split-brain scenarios. Candidates must understand how to deploy and configure two-node clusters, including selecting appropriate storage devices, configuring networking, and ensuring proper integration with vSphere. This knowledge enables administrators to extend vSAN capabilities to sites with limited resources without compromising data protection or operational reliability.

Stretched clusters are designed for organizations that require disaster recovery capabilities and site-level redundancy. These clusters span two geographic locations, allowing synchronous replication of virtual machine data across sites. A witness host is deployed in a third location to maintain quorum and prevent split-brain scenarios. Candidates preparing for the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam should be able to design stretched clusters that account for network latency, bandwidth requirements, and fault domain alignment. They must also understand the implications of storage policy settings, data placement, and failover procedures to ensure continuous availability of critical workloads.

HCI Mesh is an advanced vSAN feature that enables resource sharing between separate vSAN clusters. This configuration allows organizations to utilize underused capacity in one cluster to support workloads in another, improving overall resource efficiency. Candidates must understand the prerequisites for deploying HCI Mesh, including network configuration, cluster compatibility, and access control. They should also be able to design workflows for provisioning storage across clusters, monitor performance, and ensure compliance with storage policies. HCI Mesh extends the flexibility of vSAN deployments, enabling administrators to optimize capacity utilization across geographically distributed sites or departmental clusters.

Cloud Native Storage with VMware vSAN

Cloud Native Storage (CNS) represents a significant evolution in vSAN capabilities, allowing administrators to provide persistent storage for containerized applications running on Kubernetes. CNS integrates directly with VMware vSphere and vSAN, offering dynamic provisioning, storage policy enforcement, and seamless lifecycle management for stateful workloads. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam tests candidates’ understanding of CNS deployment and configuration, as well as their ability to align storage policies with container requirements.

Persistent storage is essential for modern applications, particularly those that manage databases, message queues, or other stateful services. CNS enables containers to retain data even when pods are rescheduled or restarted, ensuring application continuity. Candidates must understand how to define storage classes, map them to vSAN policies, and provision persistent volumes that meet performance and availability requirements. This knowledge ensures that containerized applications benefit from the same enterprise-grade reliability and resilience as traditional virtual machines.

CNS also leverages vSAN’s existing space efficiency and performance features, including deduplication, compression, and erasure coding. Candidates should be able to identify scenarios where these features optimize capacity utilization and improve IOPS performance for container workloads. Understanding the interaction between vSAN policies and container storage classes is critical for achieving consistent application behavior and meeting service-level agreements.

The integration of CNS with Kubernetes management tools such as Tanzu Kubernetes Grid enables administrators to automate storage provisioning and lifecycle operations. Candidates must be proficient in configuring storage policies, applying them to persistent volumes, and monitoring utilization to ensure that workloads receive appropriate resources. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam evaluates the candidate’s ability to implement CNS in environments where containers and virtual machines coexist, maintaining efficiency, security, and compliance across hybrid workloads.

Scenario-Based Administration and Troubleshooting

Scenario-based administration is a core component of the VMware 5V0-22.21 certification exam. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to analyze real-world situations, make informed decisions, and apply best practices to maintain cluster health, optimize performance, and resolve operational issues. These scenarios often involve complex interactions between hosts, storage objects, network configurations, and policies, requiring a deep understanding of vSAN architecture and functionality.

A typical scenario may involve a cluster experiencing performance degradation due to high IOPS workloads or an imbalance in data distribution across disk groups. Candidates must identify the root cause, analyze performance metrics using vSphere or vRealize Operations, and implement corrective actions such as adjusting storage policies, redistributing components, or applying component striping. The ability to interpret metrics accurately and take timely action is critical for maintaining optimal performance in production environments.

Troubleshooting also encompasses hardware-related issues, such as failing disks, controllers, or hosts. Candidates must understand how vSAN detects component failures, rebuilds data, and restores compliance with storage policies. This involves analyzing Skyline Health alerts, using ESXCLI commands to assess object status, and monitoring resynchronization operations. Understanding the implications of delta components, orphaned objects, and non-compliant storage policies is essential for restoring cluster health and capacity efficiently.

Capacity management scenarios are another area of focus. Administrators must anticipate growth requirements, identify underutilized resources, and plan for expansion without impacting ongoing operations. Tasks may include adding new hosts, expanding disk groups, or implementing HCI Mesh to share capacity across clusters. Candidates must understand the operational procedures, the effects on performance, and the impact on storage policies when making these changes. Proper execution ensures that workloads remain available, compliant, and optimally provisioned.

Disaster recovery scenarios often involve stretched clusters or two-node configurations. Candidates must be able to design failover procedures, validate data replication, and maintain site-level redundancy. Understanding the role of the witness host, the implications of network latency, and the behavior of storage policies during failover is critical for ensuring uninterrupted access to virtual machines. These scenarios test both conceptual understanding and practical problem-solving skills.

Patch management and upgrade scenarios also appear in the exam. Administrators must plan and execute updates for vSAN software, ESXi hosts, and associated hardware components. Candidates should be familiar with vSphere Lifecycle Manager workflows, verification procedures, and rollback strategies to minimize downtime and maintain cluster health. Knowledge of firmware, driver compatibility, and interoperability with other VMware solutions ensures that upgrades are completed successfully without compromising performance or availability.

Scenario-based troubleshooting frequently involves monitoring vSAN compliance and interpreting Skyline Health results. Candidates must understand how to resolve violations of storage policies, address capacity constraints, and maintain operational efficiency. They should also be able to assess the impact of maintenance mode operations, evaluate performance metrics during cluster reconfiguration, and implement appropriate measures to prevent service disruption.

Monitoring and Operational Insights

Monitoring is a continuous responsibility for vSAN administrators and a significant aspect of the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam. Effective monitoring ensures that clusters operate efficiently, remain compliant with policies, and meet organizational performance standards. Candidates must understand how to gather, interpret, and act upon performance metrics, capacity usage data, and health alerts.

vSAN exposes detailed performance statistics for disk groups, virtual machines, and the cluster as a whole. Metrics such as latency, throughput, and IOPS provide insights into workload behavior and resource utilization. Administrators must be able to identify trends, detect anomalies, and implement corrective actions to maintain optimal performance. vRealize Operations and vSphere Client dashboards provide visualizations, alerts, and predictive analytics that aid in proactive monitoring. Candidates must understand how to use these tools to analyze cluster behavior and ensure compliance with service-level objectives.

Capacity monitoring is equally important. Administrators must track available storage, anticipate growth, and take action before resource constraints affect operations. This may include adding hosts, expanding disk groups, or redistributing objects across the cluster. Candidates should be familiar with procedures for reclaiming capacity from unassociated objects and orphaned components. Proper capacity management ensures that clusters remain balanced, efficient, and capable of supporting future workloads without performance degradation.

Storage policy compliance is another focus area for monitoring. Administrators must ensure that virtual machines and storage objects adhere to defined policies, including failure tolerance, stripe width, and space efficiency settings. Violations may indicate hardware failures, configuration drift, or operational issues. Candidates must be able to identify non-compliant objects, implement corrective actions, and verify restoration of compliance. This process is essential for maintaining data protection, availability, and operational efficiency.

Operational insights also include monitoring the impact of maintenance mode operations, resynchronization processes, and component rebuilds. Candidates must understand how these activities affect cluster performance, latency, and overall availability. Proactive monitoring allows administrators to schedule maintenance effectively, balance workloads, and mitigate the impact of operational activities on business-critical services.

Security and Compliance Considerations

Security and compliance are integral to VMware vSAN administration and are reflected in the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam objectives. vSAN supports encryption at rest, ensuring that all data stored on disk is protected from unauthorized access. Administrators must understand how to configure encryption policies, manage key rotation, and integrate with VMware Key Management Servers. This knowledge ensures that sensitive data remains secure while meeting regulatory and organizational compliance requirements.

Fault domain design is another key security consideration. Properly defined fault domains ensure that data is distributed across separate physical racks or sites, mitigating the risk of data loss due to hardware failure or site-level outages. Candidates must understand how to implement and maintain fault domains in standard clusters, two-node configurations, and stretched clusters. This ensures high availability and aligns with organizational disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.

Compliance monitoring involves evaluating storage policy adherence, observing health alerts, and maintaining accurate configuration records. Administrators must be able to demonstrate operational compliance, identify policy violations, and take corrective actions. Knowledge of these procedures is essential for passing audits, ensuring service reliability, and maintaining enterprise-grade standards.

Troubleshooting Complex vSAN Failures

Effective troubleshooting is a critical skill for VMware vSAN administrators, as complex failures can significantly impact performance, availability, and data integrity. The VMware 5V0-22.21 exam assesses a candidate’s ability to diagnose issues, analyze underlying causes, and implement corrective measures in real-world scenarios. Administrators must understand the interdependencies between hosts, disk groups, network configurations, and storage policies to resolve problems efficiently.

One area of focus is component failure within disk groups. vSAN breaks virtual machine data into components, which are replicated according to storage policies. A failure in a disk or host triggers automatic rebuilds to maintain compliance with these policies. Candidates must know how to identify affected components, monitor the rebuild process, and validate that compliance is restored. This requires proficiency with tools such as Skyline Health, vSphere Client, and ESXCLI commands to ensure accurate diagnosis and remediation.

Network-related failures are another common scenario. High latency, packet loss, or misconfigured networking can disrupt communication between hosts, affecting synchronous replication in stretched clusters and normal operations in standard clusters. Candidates must understand how to analyze network metrics, identify bottlenecks, and implement solutions such as adjusting MTU settings, verifying VLAN configurations, and ensuring redundancy. Proper network troubleshooting maintains performance and prevents data unavailability during high-demand operations.

Hardware issues can also impact vSAN performance and reliability. Failed or degraded disks, controllers, and hosts require immediate attention to prevent policy violations and data loss. Administrators must interpret Skyline Health warnings, determine the severity of the failure, and plan remedial actions. In some cases, replacing hardware triggers automatic resynchronization, requiring monitoring to ensure the process completes efficiently and without impacting critical workloads. Candidates must understand these mechanisms to maintain a resilient environment.

Storage policy violations are frequently a symptom of underlying failures or misconfigurations. Non-compliant objects may occur due to hardware issues, incorrect policy assignments, or changes in cluster topology. Administrators must be able to identify non-compliant objects, trace the cause of the violation, and restore compliance by either redistributing data, adjusting policies, or resolving hardware failures. This ensures that virtual machines continue to meet performance, availability, and protection requirements.

Advanced troubleshooting scenarios may involve delta components, orphaned objects, and resynchronization issues. Delta components can indicate incomplete writes or snapshots, while orphaned objects consume storage unnecessarily. Administrators must know how to reclaim capacity, restore object health, and maintain cluster efficiency. Resynchronization operations, which redistribute data following failures or maintenance activities, can impact performance. Candidates must understand how to monitor these processes and schedule them to minimize disruption.

Capacity Planning and Management

Capacity planning is essential for maintaining an efficient and resilient vSAN environment. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates are expected to anticipate growth requirements, allocate resources effectively, and plan expansions without affecting ongoing operations. Capacity planning involves evaluating storage consumption trends, forecasting future demands, and implementing strategies to optimize utilization.

Administrators must track storage usage at the cluster, disk group, and virtual machine levels. Monitoring available capacity, reserved space, and overhead for maintenance or rebuild operations ensures that clusters remain balanced and efficient. Candidates should be able to interpret capacity metrics, identify underutilized resources, and make informed decisions about scaling storage infrastructure. Proper planning prevents performance degradation, avoids resource contention, and ensures compliance with organizational requirements.

Adding capacity involves integrating new hosts or disk groups into existing clusters. Administrators must consider storage policies, data distribution, and fault domain alignment to ensure seamless expansion. During this process, vSAN automatically rebalances data to incorporate new resources. Candidates must understand the operational implications of expansion, including the temporary impact on performance, resynchronization workloads, and policy compliance. Strategic capacity planning ensures that clusters can accommodate growth without compromising reliability or availability.

Resource optimization is also a key aspect of capacity management. vSAN provides space efficiency features such as deduplication, compression, and erasure coding. Candidates must understand when and how to enable these features to maximize storage utilization. Deduplication eliminates redundant data blocks, compression reduces the space required for stored data, and erasure coding provides fault tolerance with lower capacity overhead. Combining these features effectively ensures that storage resources are used efficiently while maintaining performance and protection.

Capacity planning also includes evaluating HCI Mesh deployments. HCI Mesh allows clusters to share unused capacity across environments, enabling administrators to balance workloads and optimize resource utilization. Candidates must understand how to provision shared storage, monitor utilization, and maintain compliance with storage policies across participating clusters. HCI Mesh enhances flexibility and allows organizations to maximize the value of existing storage investments.

Operational Use Cases for HCI Mesh

HCI Mesh provides a flexible approach to managing storage resources across multiple vSAN clusters. Candidates for VMware 5V0-22.21 must understand operational use cases, configuration requirements, and best practices for deploying HCI Mesh in production environments. HCI Mesh allows clusters to consume storage from remote clusters without requiring additional physical infrastructure, providing cost-effective scalability and workload mobility.

Administrators must consider network configuration, latency, and bandwidth when deploying HCI Mesh. Effective network design ensures that storage access is consistent and does not degrade performance. Candidates should understand how to establish access control, define policies, and monitor performance metrics to maintain service levels. Proper HCI Mesh deployment enhances operational flexibility, allowing administrators to provision resources dynamically and respond to changing business demands.

HCI Mesh can also support disaster recovery and capacity optimization scenarios. By sharing capacity across clusters, organizations can reduce the need for over-provisioning in individual sites while ensuring workloads have access to necessary storage. Candidates must understand how to design HCI Mesh workflows, implement storage sharing policies, and monitor compliance. This enables administrators to maintain a resilient and efficient infrastructure while minimizing operational complexity.

Stretched Cluster Disaster Recovery

Stretched clusters provide site-level redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates must be proficient in designing, implementing, and managing stretched clusters to ensure business continuity during site-level failures. These clusters replicate virtual machine data across two geographically separated locations and use a witness host to maintain quorum and prevent split-brain scenarios.

Designing a stretched cluster involves careful consideration of network latency, bandwidth, and fault domains. Synchronous replication ensures that data at both sites remains consistent, but network constraints must be evaluated to avoid performance degradation. Candidates should understand how to configure storage policies, assign fault domains, and place witness hosts to maintain resilience and compliance. Proper planning ensures that workloads remain available even in the event of a site-level outage.

Administrators must also be able to execute failover and failback procedures. In the event of a site failure, workloads are automatically or manually redirected to the surviving site. Candidates must understand the implications of policy settings, network configurations, and resource availability during these operations. After recovery, workloads may be redistributed, and data resynchronization occurs to restore full compliance. Understanding these processes is critical for minimizing downtime and maintaining business continuity.

Monitoring stretched cluster health is a continuous operational responsibility. Skyline Health and vSphere Client provide metrics on replication status, object compliance, and performance impact. Administrators must be able to interpret these indicators, identify potential issues, and take corrective actions proactively. This ensures that the cluster remains resilient, compliant, and capable of supporting mission-critical workloads.

Real-World Operational Best Practices

Operational best practices are central to maintaining a high-performing and resilient vSAN environment. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates are expected to implement strategies that optimize performance, ensure reliability, and simplify ongoing administration. These practices encompass monitoring, capacity management, maintenance operations, and disaster recovery planning.

Monitoring is the foundation of operational excellence. Administrators should use vSphere Client, vRealize Operations, and Skyline Health to gather comprehensive data on performance, capacity, and compliance. Regular monitoring allows administrators to detect anomalies early, anticipate resource constraints, and implement corrective measures before issues escalate. Proactive monitoring supports continuous availability and minimizes the risk of unexpected downtime.

Capacity management is another critical best practice. Administrators should maintain adequate overhead for maintenance, resynchronization, and failover operations. They should also leverage space efficiency features, evaluate HCI Mesh opportunities, and plan expansions strategically. Effective capacity management ensures that clusters can accommodate growth, maintain performance, and remain compliant with organizational policies.

Maintenance operations require careful planning and execution. Hosts may need to be placed in maintenance mode for updates, hardware replacements, or configuration changes. Administrators must understand the implications of different maintenance mode options, including full evacuation versus temporary migration, to minimize performance impact and maintain compliance. Scheduling maintenance during periods of low demand reduces operational disruption and maintains service levels.

Security and compliance must be maintained continuously. Administrators should implement encryption, monitor fault domains, and ensure storage policy compliance. These practices protect data integrity, prevent unauthorized access, and align operations with regulatory and organizational standards. Candidates must understand how to configure and maintain these protections effectively to ensure secure, reliable operations.

Troubleshooting should follow a systematic, structured approach. Administrators must identify root causes, analyze metrics, implement corrective actions, and validate resolution. Combining theoretical knowledge with practical experience allows administrators to resolve complex issues efficiently. Scenario-based problem-solving skills are essential for addressing real-world operational challenges and ensuring cluster health.

Disaster recovery planning is a vital aspect of best practices. Stretched clusters, failover procedures, and replication strategies must be tested regularly to ensure readiness. Administrators should document procedures, perform simulations, and verify recovery processes to maintain business continuity. A well-designed disaster recovery plan minimizes downtime, preserves data integrity, and ensures operational resilience.

Storage Policy Management in VMware vSAN

Storage policies are a cornerstone of VMware vSAN administration and a critical focus of the VMware 5V0-22.21 exam. Policies determine how virtual machine data is stored, replicated, and protected within a vSAN cluster. Effective storage policy management ensures that workloads meet performance, availability, and capacity requirements while maintaining operational efficiency. Candidates must understand how to create, modify, and apply policies in a variety of scenarios to align storage behavior with organizational objectives.

A storage policy defines parameters such as failures to tolerate, stripe width, object space reservation, and IOPS limits. Failures to tolerate determine the number of hardware or component failures a virtual machine can withstand while remaining operational. Stripe width controls how data is spread across multiple disk groups or hosts, affecting parallelism and performance. Object space reservation allocates a fixed portion of capacity for a virtual machine, ensuring that storage requirements are met. IOPS limits can be used to control resource allocation, preventing individual workloads from consuming excessive storage performance.

Administrators must understand how to apply policies to virtual machines, virtual disks, or other storage objects. Policies can be assigned at creation time or updated dynamically to reflect changes in workload requirements. Candidates must also know how to monitor compliance with policies and take corrective action if objects become non-compliant. This requires familiarity with Skyline Health, vSphere Client dashboards, and ESXCLI commands to verify status and enforce compliance.

Advanced policy management includes scenarios where multiple storage features interact. For example, combining deduplication, compression, and erasure coding can optimize capacity usage, but may require careful planning to avoid performance degradation. Stripe width and IOPS settings must be evaluated in the context of these features to maintain workload efficiency. Candidates should understand how to balance storage efficiency with performance to achieve optimal results across diverse workloads.

Policy compliance monitoring is an ongoing operational task. Administrators must be able to identify non-compliant objects, analyze the cause of the violation, and restore compliance promptly. Non-compliance can occur due to hardware failures, misconfigurations, policy changes, or cluster topology adjustments. Addressing these issues ensures data protection, workload availability, and adherence to enterprise standards. VMware 5V0-22.21 candidates must demonstrate proficiency in both proactive and reactive policy management.

Performance Evaluation and Advanced Metrics

Evaluating performance is essential for maintaining an efficient and resilient vSAN environment. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates are expected to interpret performance metrics, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimization strategies to maintain workload responsiveness. Performance evaluation involves monitoring IOPS, latency, throughput, and resource utilization at both the virtual machine and cluster levels.

vSAN provides detailed metrics for disk groups, hosts, and virtual machines. Latency measurements reveal potential bottlenecks in storage operations, while IOPS and throughput metrics indicate the volume of data processed. Administrators must understand the relationship between these metrics and workload behavior to identify performance issues accurately. Tools such as vSphere Client, vRealize Operations, and Skyline Health provide visualizations and alerts to support proactive performance management.

Candidates must also be able to analyze the impact of storage policies on performance. For instance, increasing stripe width can improve parallelism but may affect capacity utilization, while enabling deduplication and compression can optimize space but potentially introduce latency. Understanding these trade-offs is essential for ensuring that workloads meet service-level objectives without over-provisioning or underutilizing resources.

Advanced metrics include monitoring resynchronization impact, delta components, and storage policy changes. Resynchronization occurs when data is rebuilt or redistributed following hardware changes, policy updates, or maintenance operations. Candidates must be able to assess the performance impact of resync operations, schedule them to minimize disruption, and verify completion. Delta components and other internal vSAN objects must be monitored to maintain cluster efficiency and avoid capacity waste.

Performance evaluation also involves scenario-based analysis. Administrators may need to troubleshoot workloads experiencing high latency or IOPS contention, determine the cause of uneven data distribution across disk groups, or identify the effects of network latency in stretched clusters. VMware 5V0-22.21 candidates must demonstrate the ability to interpret complex performance data, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions that align with operational and business requirements.

Compliance Monitoring and Storage Health

Maintaining compliance and monitoring storage health are critical responsibilities for vSAN administrators. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates are expected to use available tools to assess cluster health, enforce storage policy compliance, and address operational issues proactively. Compliance ensures that workloads meet organizational requirements for availability, protection, and performance.

Skyline Health is a primary tool for monitoring cluster health. It provides real-time alerts, predictive insights, and remediation recommendations to address potential issues. Candidates must be able to interpret health indicators, determine the severity of alerts, and execute corrective measures. Compliance monitoring also involves verifying that storage policies are applied correctly and that virtual machines maintain the desired level of protection and performance.

Non-compliant objects may result from hardware failures, policy changes, or cluster configuration adjustments. Administrators must identify these objects, analyze the root cause, and implement solutions to restore compliance. This may include redistributing data, adjusting storage policies, or replacing failed components. Effective compliance management reduces the risk of data loss, maintains workload availability, and ensures adherence to enterprise standards.

Monitoring capacity and utilization is another key aspect of compliance. Administrators must ensure that sufficient storage resources are available to meet current and anticipated workload demands. This involves tracking disk group usage, evaluating available capacity, and planning expansions as needed. Proper capacity management supports compliance by ensuring that workloads receive adequate resources without exceeding cluster limits or violating policies.

Security compliance is also emphasized. Administrators must implement encryption policies, maintain fault domains, and monitor access to ensure data protection. Storage objects should be evaluated regularly to confirm adherence to policy requirements and prevent unauthorized modifications. VMware 5V0-22.21 candidates must demonstrate knowledge of security best practices and operational procedures to maintain a secure, compliant environment.

Lifecycle Operations and Maintenance

Lifecycle operations are integral to managing a vSAN environment efficiently. VMware 5V0-22.21 exam candidates must understand procedures for updating, patching, and upgrading clusters, hosts, and hardware components. Lifecycle operations ensure that the environment remains supported, resilient, and capable of meeting performance and availability requirements.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) provides a centralized framework for orchestrating updates across multiple hosts. Candidates must be familiar with vLCM workflows, including creating desired images, applying updates, monitoring progress, and validating completion. Proper use of vLCM ensures consistency, reduces administrative overhead, and minimizes the risk of errors during updates.

Adding and removing hosts is another critical lifecycle operation. Administrators must ensure that new hosts are integrated correctly, with storage policies applied and data rebalanced across the cluster. Removing hosts requires careful planning to redistribute data, maintain compliance, and prevent disruption to virtual machines. Candidates must understand the implications of these operations on performance, capacity, and overall cluster health.

Disk group management is a vital component of lifecycle operations. Creating, expanding, reconfiguring, or removing disk groups requires knowledge of vSAN architecture and operational procedures. Administrators must ensure that changes do not compromise data integrity, violate storage policies, or degrade performance. VMware 5V0-22.21 candidates must demonstrate proficiency in managing disk groups throughout their lifecycle to maintain a resilient and high-performing environment.

Firmware and driver updates are essential for maintaining hardware compatibility and operational stability. Skyline Health and vSphere Lifecycle Manager provide tools for monitoring required updates, identifying potential issues, and applying recommended changes. Candidates must understand how to manage firmware and driver versions effectively, ensuring that all components remain compliant with VMware standards and best practices.