2V0-15.25 VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Support

What's inside

2V0-15.25 isn't about knowing where a setting lives. It's about working out where a VMware Cloud Foundation fault really lives, which log, health check or tool shows the evidence, and which documented fix applies, without making the change in the wrong place.

This independent study guide for the VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Support (VCP-VCF Support) exam turns what 2V0-15.25 expects you to understand into the symptoms, causes, fixes and traps that real VCF support work depends on. The exam is based on VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, and the book is too, written from Broadcom's own 9.0 documentation and the Knowledge Base articles it cites.

Method first, then every part of the fleet

Seventeen chapters, each one readable on its own, that together cover every exam objective:

• Method and tools: a troubleshooting method for VCF, the fleet's components and where each one keeps its logs, the SoS utility, support bundles and the root causes that recur across the fleet.
• Deployment and lifecycle: the VCF Installer, depots and validation failures, adding and removing VCF Instances, upgrading from VCF 5.x, converging and importing existing vSphere, and creating and scaling workload domains, clusters and hosts.
• Fleet management: certificate authorities, CSRs, replacement, external certificates and auto-renewal; password rotation and remediation; licence assignment, entitlements and expiry; and identity with VCF Identity Broker and VCF Single Sign-On.
• Compute, storage and networking: ESX host connection states and logs, vCenter services and backup, virtual machines, vSphere HA, DRS and vCLS, vSAN component states and stretched clusters, supplemental storage, distributed switches, NSX transport nodes and Edges, routing, gateways, services and VPCs.
• Operations, automation and mobility: VCF Operations, the Troubleshooting Workbench, log bundles with Log Assist, dashboards, reports and alerts, VCF Operations for logs and for networks, VCF Automation, Supervisor, provider management and organisations, and HCX configuration and migrations.

Inside

• Symptom, cause and fix tables that set out where a fault lives, the evidence that shows it and the documented fix, such as what a host that is not responding means for its running VMs, or which VM attributes block each HCX migration type.
• 200 Common trap callouts that point out the fixes that seem right but aren't, such as a change made directly in vCenter or NSX when SDDC Manager or VCF Operations owns it.
• 18 diagrams, from the fleet's components and log locations to upgrade order, certificate replacement paths, host connection states, vSAN component states and HCX.
• Key takeaways closing every chapter for quick revision.
• A glossary of 460+ terms, most linked to Broadcom TechDocs, with a free online version for readers of the print edition.

Understanding, not memorising

There are no exam questions in this book. It explains the knowledge the exam looks for, so you can reason through scenarios you have never seen and bring the same method to a real VMware Cloud Foundation fault.

Written by Tony Rough, a cloud architect with over twenty years in IT infrastructure, whose VMware certifications include the VCAP-DCA in data centre administration: keeping a vSphere platform running and putting it right when it goes wrong.

Part of the Ultra Transcenders series from Distilled Press. An independent publication, not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Broadcom Inc. VMware, VMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere, vSAN, NSX and HCX are trademarks of Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Is this book for you?

• Yes, if you're preparing for 2V0-15.25 and want to understand why the right answer is right, or you work with these services and want a compact reference organised by technology.
• It isn't a question bank. The book contains no exam questions. Use it alongside Broadcom's free official 2V0-15.25 exam guide, and some hands-on time in a VMware Cloud Foundation lab.
• Leads to VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Support.

Which certification, which book?

Exam coverage

Every skill area in Broadcom's 2V0-15.25 outline (as of November 2026), and the chapters that cover it.

See every objective and where the book covers it

Chapters

1. Troubleshooting a VCF 9.0 fleet: method, components and tools
2. Deploying a VCF fleet with the VCF Installer, and adding or removing instances
3. Upgrading VCF 5.x to VCF 9.0
4. Converging and importing existing vSphere environments
5. Workload domains, clusters and hosts
6. Certificate management
7. Password and licence management
8. Identity and access: VCF Identity Broker and VCF Single Sign-On
9. ESX hosts and vCenter
10. Virtual machines and vSphere clusters
11. vSAN, stretched clusters and supplemental storage
12. vSphere Distributed Switches and NSX configuration
13. NSX routing, gateways, services and VPCs
14. Troubleshooting with VCF Operations
15. VCF Operations for logs and VCF Operations for networks
16. VCF Automation, Supervisor, provider management and organisations
17. HCX workload mobility

Plus an appendix glossary of 400+ terms, each linked to Broadcom TechDocs, with the same terms explained free online for print readers.

Sample diagrams

Free study notes

Some sections of the book, free to read online:

• VCF 9.0 log locations: SDDC Manager, VCF Installer, vCenter, ESX and NSX

  Which log on which appliance records the failed step, from domainmanager.log and lcm-debug.log to hostd, vpxa and the NSX logs.

• VCF 9.0: deploy, upgrade, converge or import?

  The four starting points, the path and tool each one leads to, and which existing components converge into VCF 9.0.

• VCF 9.0 certificate replacement: configured CA or external CA

  The two replacement paths side by side, the import rules for external certificates and the documented replacement failures.

• ESX host connection states: connected, not responding and disconnected

  What each state means, how hostd, vpxa and FDM fit in, and the first action for a host that is not responding.

• vSphere HA agent states and admission control failures

  What Agent Unreachable, Uninitialized, Host Failed, Network Partitioned and Network Isolated mean, and the documented fix for each.

• vSAN absent and degraded components: what happens on failure

  Absent and degraded compared, object accessibility rules and how vSAN behaves when a device, controller or host fails.

• NSX host transport nodes: preparation faults and connection states

  The channels between NSX Manager and a host, and the symptom, cause and fix for preparation and connection faults.

• HCX migration types and why they fail

  Bulk, Cold, vMotion, Replication Assisted vMotion and OS Assisted Migration compared, and the VM attributes that block each one.

Study plan

A free week-by-week plan through the book at a 4-week or 8-week pace, with the study notes and exam skill areas for each week.

Open the 2V0-15.25 study plan