VCP-CMA 2020 (2V0-31.20) Exam Study Guide - Sections 1-3
This study guide aligns with the exam blueprint for the Professional VMware vRealize Automation 8.1 exam (2V0-31.20), which leads to the VMware Certified Professional - Cloud Management and Automation 2020 certification. The exam is 135 minutes with 70 questions.
This study guide has been created to help myself study for the exam, but I hope you find this helpful in your own preparation for the exam. If you want official training to prepare for the exam, please refer to VMware Learning.
Section 1 - Architectures and Technologies
Objective 1.1 - Describe the Architecture of vRealize Automation
vRA appliance uses VMware Identity Manager as the identity provider. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) is used to install, configure, and manage the vRA appliance as well as VMware identity manager.
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vRealize Automation appliance is installed on Photon OS 3.0, and it includes native Kubernetes (K8S). All the core vRA services are deployed and maanged as Kubernetes pods, and the containers inside a pod are hosted using the Docker engine.
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PostgreSQL is the database used for vRA, and it runs as a Kubernetes pod. Data is stored in a persistent storage volume. The core services have dedicated databases.
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vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) runs as a Kubernetes pod with the following two key containers:
- Control Center is used to manage the operation of vRO. You can changethe default vRO behavior and also install and configure plug-ins. Control Center requires a web browser.
- vco-server service is the orchestration engine that executes vRO workflows.
Objective 1.2 - Differentiate between vRealize Automation and vRealize Automation Cloud
vRealize Automation 8.x is an on-prem solution of vRealize Automation Cloud. vRealize Automation Cloud is a web-based SaaS offering, and it includes Cloud Assembly, Service Broker, and Code Stream.
vRealize Automation 8.x is suitable for existing vRealize customers who need big cloud management solution or those who may not have the option to use SaaS due to security or compliance reasons. vRealize Automation Cloud is great for customers who are new to vRealize Suite or are moving towards SaaS.
Objective 1.3 - Describe the Services Offered by vRealize Automation
There are three main services offered by vRealize Automation: Cloud Assembly, Service Broker, and Code Stream.
Cloud Assembly
Cloud Assembly is used to create blueprints (or now called templates) and deploy machines, applications, and services to multiple clouds.
- Cloud Assembly supports deploying machines to VMware vSphere, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
- Blueprints can be created and managed as a code using YAML.
- Built-in vRealize Orchestrator instance can be used to design and manage custom workflows.
- VMware Enterprise PKS infrastructure can be integrated with vRA to deploy Kubernetes clusters.
Service Broker
Service Broker offers a self-service catalog for easy consumption.
- Administrators can create a content source and define available templates and services for users.
- Administrators can create and apply policies to manage deployment lease and day 2 actions.
Code Stream
Code Stream is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) software. Continuous integration automates the build and test phases of application development, and continuous delivery automates the release and deploy processes to production.
- Developers and/or DevOps administrators can automate the entire application development release lifecycle by creating pipelines that automate build, deploy, test, and release actions in a sequence.
- Code Stream supports Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and VMware vSphere.
Section 2 - VMware Products and Solutions
There are no testable objectives for this section.
Section 3 - Planning and Designing
There are no testable objectives for this section.