The VMware company is a major provider of virtualization and cloud computing services. VMware, founded in 1998, transformed the whole IT industry with the concept of server virtualization, which made it possible for enterprises to run several different operating systems on one physical machine. This process leads to saving money, higher resource management, and greater flexibility.
VMware has a well-established product line including:
These products make VMware the preferred strategy for implementation and administration of IT environments by global organizations.
This article discusses common and advanced VMware interview questions along with real-time VMware interview questions and answers. It also provides interview preparation tips to help you prepare for a VMware interview.
Here are the basic VMware troubleshooting interview questions and answers for freshers and experienced professionals:
VMware is a virtualization platform that allows running multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server. It works by abstracting the hardware layer and providing each VM with a virtualized set of resources, such as CPU, memory, and storage.
iSCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface) is a protocol that allows the SCSI command set to be transmitted over IP networks. It enables the ESXi hosts to connect to remote storage devices like SAN (Storage Area Networks) and access storage resources over a network.
A Port Group in VMware is a logical grouping of network ports on a virtual switch (vSwitch) that allows virtual machines (VMs) to communicate over the network. The port group determines the networking characteristics of the VMs, such as VLANs and security policies. When a VM is connected to a virtual switch, it uses a port group to connect to the physical network or other VMs on the same host.
ESXi is VMware's enterprise-level hypervisor used to run virtual machines. It is installed directly on the physical server (bare-metal installation), and it doesn't require an underlying operating system, which makes it efficient and optimized for virtual environments.
The VMkernel is the most vital part of the ESXi Hypervisor which essentially is the communication link between the software and the hardware. It offers services such as:
The VMkernel manages the virtual machine operations through which the VMs become able to access the physical resources like storage and networking.
The .vmdk file is a virtual disk file in VMware. It comprises the data of a virtual machine, the operating system, and the rest of the software besides the files. The VMDK files are a base for creating, deploying, and managing virtual machines.
Hypervisors are software programs which have the main function of creating and managing virtual machines. The physical hardware is abstracted so that multiple VMs can share hardware resources simultaneously.
There are two types of hypervisors:
Virtual Volumes (VVol) is a storage framework in VMware that integrates virtual machines with the underlying storage. It simplifies storage management by enabling storage operations at the VM level rather than at the datastore level, providing better control over storage policies.
| VMFS | NFS |
|---|---|
| A high-performance file system for VMware VMs | A network file system for file sharing |
| Block-level storage for virtual machines | File-level storage for sharing files |
| Optimized for VMware environments with locking and concurrency | More suitable for file-based sharing, and less optimized for VM storage |
Here are some of the VMware products:
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) is a functionality that automatically evens out the workloads of virtual machines across ESXi hosts in a cluster, thus optimizing the usage of resources. It keeps a check on the CPU and memory consumptions and moves VMs to the hosts with free resources when the need arises.
Virtualization offers the following benefits:
There are three primary types of virtualization:
A Cluster in VMware is a group of ESXi hosts combined together for resource pooling. Clusters provide features like:
By using clusters, organizations can ensure the optimal use of resources and minimize downtime.
| Cold Migration | Hot Migration |
|---|---|
| Involves shutting down the VM before migration | VM remains powered on during the migration |
| Requires downtime as the VM is powered off | No downtime as the VM remains active |
| Typically used for storage or host changes | Used for VMotion (live migration) between hosts |
vMotion is a VMware feature that allows the live migration of running virtual machines from one physical server to another without downtime. It helps in balancing workloads and ensuring minimal disruption.
VMware HA is a feature that if there is a host failure in the cluster, then automatically the VMs on the failed host are rebooted on the other hosts which are available thus the services are interrupted with a very minimal time and the uptime is increased.
Here are the advanced VMware interview questions and answers for experienced professionals and freshers:
VMware Fault Tolerance keeps a live, up-to-date copy of the virtual machine created so that the shadow VM is able to take over in case of any hardware failure which means no downtime for the application.
vCenter Server is a platform for centralized management that empowers administrators to oversee multiple ESXi hosts and virtual machines from just one console. It makes available functions like:
vSAN is VMware's software-defined storage solution that is a perfect match for vSphere. The storage units (HDDs or SSDs) physically present in each of the ESXi hosts in a cluster are combined via vSAN to provide a data store that can be accessed by all the virtual machines.
Key features of the VMware NSX project include:
A snapshot in VMware captures the state and data of a virtual machine at a specific point in time. It allows you to revert to a previous state in case of failure or to create backup points for testing and development.
VMware SRM is a disaster recovery solution that automates the process of recovering virtual machines in the event of a site failure. It provides policies for failover, failback, and test recovery without affecting production environments.
VMware Tools is a set of utilities installed on virtual machines to improve performance and manageability. It includes drivers for optimized graphics, network communication, and time synchronization.
| Virtual Switch | Physical Switch |
|---|---|
| A virtual switch operates within the hypervisor to manage VM traffic | A physical switch manages network traffic between physical devices |
| Managed via vSphere client or CLI | Managed through a physical network management interface |
| Handles traffic between virtual machines | Handles traffic between physical devices and networks |
A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) is a technology that allows managing of network traffic on VMware environments without the need to connect different physical networks. It offers:
The virtual machine hard disk (VMDK) is essentially a file that keeps the data of a virtual machine. This file is for the operating system, applications, and all other files inside the VM. It functions the same way as a physical hard disk in a physical server but is saved as a file on the datastore.
Here are the interview preparation tips for VMware:
To summarize, preparing with VMware interview questions and answers really takes deep knowledge of VMware products, practical skills, and understanding of the basic and advanced concepts related to VMware. You need to do revision not only of the fundamental questions but also of the practical ones in order to prepare well for your interview and increase the chances of getting the job whether you are a VMware administrator, engineer, or consultant.
The VMware interview typically includes the following rounds:
VMware Tanzu is a suite of products designed to help organizations build, run, and manage cloud-native applications using technologies like Kubernetes, containers, and microservices.
It includes tools such as:
These tools enable businesses to simplify the development, deployment, and management of modern applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
VMware aids in modernization by:
Tools like Tanzu Mission Control and Tanzu Observability enhance operational efficiency, while VMware Cloud on AWS provides flexibility in moving workloads between on-premises and cloud environments. VMware also ensures security and scalability during the digital transformation journey.