2V0-18.25 VMware vSphere Foundation 9.0 Support

What's inside

2V0-18.25 isn't about knowing where a setting lives. It's about working out where a VMware vSphere Foundation fault really lives, which log, health check or tool shows the evidence, and which documented fix applies, without reaching for a fix written for full VMware Cloud Foundation.

This independent study guide for the VMware Certified Professional – VMware vSphere Foundation Support (VCP-VVF Support) exam turns what 2V0-18.25 expects you to understand into the symptoms, causes, fixes and traps that real VVF support work depends on. The exam is based on the 9.0 release, 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 platform

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

• Method and tools: a troubleshooting method for VVF, what a VVF deployment contains and what it doesn't, which tool suits which fault, and where each component keeps its logs.
• Deployment and scaling: the VCF Installer, validation and deployment failures, converting existing vSphere to VVF 9.0, and creating, scaling and importing clusters and hosts.
• Licences: assignment, usage reporting, evaluation mode, expiry and what stops working when a licence runs out.
• Compute: ESX host connection states and logs, vCenter services and backup, virtual machine power-on, snapshot and migration failures, vSphere HA, DRS, EVC and vCLS.
• Storage and networking: vSAN component states and health, stretched clusters and witness failures, iSCSI, NFS and Fibre Channel, APD and PDL, and standard and distributed switches.
• Operations and automation: VCF Operations, the Troubleshooting Workbench, log bundles with Log Assist, dashboards, reports and alerts, VCF Operations for logs, and VCF Operations orchestrator workflows.

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.
• 200 Common trap callouts that point out the fixes that seem right but aren't, such as a procedure that only applies where SDDC Manager exists.
• 19 diagrams, from what a VVF platform contains to host connection states, vSAN component states, APD and PDL, and the path of a log.
• Key takeaways closing every chapter for quick revision.
• A glossary of 400+ 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 vSphere 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.

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

Is this book for you?

• Yes, if you're preparing for 2V0-18.25 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 2V0-18.25 exam guide, and some hands-on time in a VMware Cloud Foundation lab.
• Leads to VMware Certified Professional – VMware vSphere Foundation Support.

Which certification, which book?

Exam coverage

Every skill area in Broadcom's 2V0-18.25 outline (as of November 2026), and the chapters that cover it.

See every objective and where the book covers it

Chapters

1. Troubleshooting VVF 9.0: method, components and tools
2. Deploying VVF with the VCF Installer
3. Converting existing vSphere to VVF 9.0
4. Clusters: creating, scaling and importing
5. Licence management
6. ESX hosts
7. vCenter
8. Virtual machines
9. vSphere clusters: HA, DRS, EVC and vCLS
10. vSAN
11. vSAN stretched clusters
12. iSCSI, NFS and Fibre Channel storage
13. Virtual networking: vSphere Standard and Distributed Switches
14. VCF Operations: configuration, log bundles and Log Assist
15. Troubleshooting VVF with VCF Operations
16. VCF Operations for logs
17. VCF Operations orchestrator: configuration and workflows

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:

• VVF 9.0 troubleshooting: which tool for which fault

  Where to start with a VVF fault: the VCF Installer, VCF Operations features, or a component's own tools.

• VVF 9.0 log locations: where each component keeps its logs

  Where to find logs for ESX, vCenter, the VCF Installer and the VCF Operations products.

• VVF 9.0: converge, upgrade or deploy new?

  How the starting state of an existing vSphere environment decides the path to VVF 9.0.

• VVF 9.0 licences: evaluation mode and expiry

  What evaluation mode allows, what happens when a licence expires, and how recovery works.

• ESX host connection states in vCenter

  What Connected, Not Responding and Disconnected mean, and what each means for running VMs.

• Reading vSphere HA agent states

  What each vSphere HA agent state says about a host, and what it means for failover.

• vSAN stretched clusters: what happens when a site, link or witness fails

  Which objects stay available after each single failure in a vSAN stretched cluster.

• APD and PDL: telling the two storage faults apart

  How to tell All Paths Down from Permanent Device Loss on ESX, and what each does to VMs.

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 2V0-18.25 study plan