3V0-24.25 Questions and Answers

Configuration Order (in order):

Verify the name of the original VolumeSnapshot object in the Supervisor.

Create a VolumeSnapshotContent object.

Create a VolumeSnapshot object.

Verify that the VolumeSnapshot is marked with ReadyToUse as true.

Apre-provisioned snapshotworkflow means the snapshot already exists at the Supervisor/storage layer, and you are “importing” it into Kubernetes by creating the Kubernetes objects that reference it. That’s why the first step is toidentify/verify the exact snapshot nameas it exists in the Supervisor context—this is the authoritative identifier you must point to when you create Kubernetes snapshot metadata. Next, you create theVolumeSnapshotContentobject, which represents theactual snapshot on the storage backendand includes the handle/reference to that pre-existing snapshot. With the content object in place, you then create theVolumeSnapshotobject, which is theuser-facing Kubernetes object(namespaced) that binds to the pre-provisioned VolumeSnapshotContent (either explicitly or via binding rules). Finally, you validate the outcome by checking that theVolumeSnapshot shows ReadyToUse: true, confirming the binding succeeded and Kubernetes can use the snapshot for restore/clone workflows.

The problem describes demand spikes where capacity exists, but the application cannot meet demand—this typically indicates the cluster needs toscale out(more nodes/pods) automatically when load increases. In VCF 9.0, VKS supportsCluster Autoscaleras an optional package and specifically calls out improvements: “Cluster Autoscaler supports scaling from zero or to zero… You must have the autoscaler standard package installed.” This directly supports optionA(install cluster autoscaling) as the mechanism to dynamically add capacity during peak events and reduce it afterward, optimizing cost and operations while meeting bursts. A load balancer (including Foundation Load Balancer) helps distribute traffic acrossexistingendpoints, but it does not create new compute capacity when pods are pending due to insufficient nodes. Similarly, installing Contour relates to ingress (routing inbound traffic) and is not, by itself, a capacity scaling solution. Oversubscription is a risky workaround that can degrade performance and does not provide targeted, policy-driven elasticity. Therefore, enablingcluster autoscalingis the correct way to address burst demand when underlying resources are available.

VCF 9.0 states that you can provision Kubernetes clusters using both GUI and CLI approaches, and it explicitly calls out the CLI clients: “the VCF CLI and kubectl provide command-line interfaces for provisioning Kubernetes clusters.” That directly maps tokubectl (A)andVCF CLI (E)as supported clients for provisioning and lifecycle operations. Separately, VCF 9.0 explains that vSphere administrators can “manage and monitor vSphere Pods, VMs, and VKS clusters by using the vSphere Client,” which corresponds tovSphere UI (C)in the question. In addition, the vSphere Client is used to access Supervisor-facing self-service interfaces (for example, the Local Consumption Interface through the vSphere Client), reinforcing vSphere UI as an operational entry point for managing Supervisor-backed services and workloads.

By contrast,Cluster APIis a controller framework (not an operator “client” for admins in this context), andesxtop/esxcliare ESXi host tools that do not represent the documented, supported interfaces for provisioning and managing VKS clusters at the Kubernetes service layer.

VCF 9.0 describes VKS as providing self-service, declarative lifecycle management for Kubernetes clusters and explicitly identifiesCluster APIas the mechanism that enables Kubernetes-style lifecycle automation. The documentation states that “The Cluster API provides declarative, Kubernetes-style APIs for cluster creation, configuration, and management,” and that its inputs include resources describing “the virtual machines that make up the cluster” plus “cluster add-ons.” This directly maps to automated lifecycle management: a desired-state YAML is reconciled by controllers that create, update, and maintain the control plane and worker node resources without manual, imperative procedures.

The same VCF 9.0 content also notes VKS exposes “three layers of controllers” for lifecycle management and lists Cluster API as one of those layers, reinforcing that Cluster API is foundational for ongoing cluster operations (create, scale, upgrade, reconcile). Contour is an ingress controller (traffic routing), kubeadm is a Kubernetes bootstrap tool (not the VKS lifecycle controller framework), and Grafana is observability/visualization (not cluster lifecycle).

Kubernetes Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is implemented through theRBAC API group(rbac.authorization.k8s.io) and defines the core authorization primitives used to grant permissions to users, groups, and service accounts. The cluster-scoped objects declared by the RBAC API areClusterRoleandClusterRoleBinding. AClusterRoledefines a set of permissions (verbs such as get/list/watch/create/update/delete) over resources at thecluster scope(including cluster-wide resources and optionally namespaced resources across namespaces). AClusterRoleBindingthenbindsthat ClusterRole to a subject (user/group/serviceaccount), making those permissions effective cluster-wide.

This differs from namespace-scoped RBAC objects (RoleandRoleBinding) which apply only within a single namespace. The other options are incorrect becauseClusterObject/ClusterNodeare not RBAC API objects,ValidatingAdmissionPolicybelongs to the admission control API surface (policy enforcement),ResourceQuotais a namespace resource governance object, andContainer/Deploymentare workload/runtime concepts defined in the core/apps APIs rather than authorization primitives.

Answer (Correct Order):

Select the target cluster in the workload domain.

Open Workload Management and select “Enable Supervisor Cluster”.

Choose cluster networking mode and stack.

Configure the control plane compute, networking, and storage policies.

Configure the workload network configurations.

Review, Validate, and Deploy Supervisor.

You start by selecting theexact vSphere cluster(in the workload domain) that will host the Supervisor, because Supervisor enablement is performedagainst a specific cluster. From there you launch the enablement workflow inWorkload Management(“Enable Supervisor Cluster”). Early in the wizard you must decide thenetworking mode(for example, VDS-based vs NSX-backed) and theIP stack, because those choices drive the remaining configuration screens and what inputs are required. Next you define theSupervisor control plane settings—compute sizing and the core policies the Supervisor will use (including storage policy selections and related defaults). After the control plane foundation is defined, you configure theworkload networkingused by namespaces and Kubernetes workloads (IP ranges, routing/LB integration depending on the selected mode). Finally, youreview/validateall inputs anddeployso the platform can create and configure the Supervisor control plane and supporting components.

VCF 9.0 describesCloud Native Storage (CNS) on vCenteras the component that implements “provisioning and lifecycle operations for persistent volumes.” When provisioning persistent volumes, CNS “interacts with the vSphere First Class Disk functionality to create virtual disks that back the volumes,” and it “communicates with Storage Policy Based Management to guarantee a required level of service to the disks.” This is exactly the storage-policy-to-backed-virtual-disk relationship the question is testing: storage policies (via policy-based management) define requirements, and CNS is the vCenter-side service that applies those requirements while creating and managing the backing storage objects.

In contrast,CSI(including Supervisor CNS-CSI and VKS pvCSI) is the Kubernetes-facing interface/driver used to request and consume storage, but it does not “provide” the vSphere storage policy system; rather, it relies on CNS/CNS-CSI and vCenter services to fulfill provisioning requests. Therefore,vSphere Cloud Native Storage (CNS)is the correct choice.

VCF 9.0 explicitly lists thecomponents that run in a VKS clusterand groups them into areas such as authentication/authorization, storage integration, pod networking, and load balancing. In that list, the documentation names:“Container Storage Interface Plugin”(a paravirtual CSI plug-in that integrates with CNS through the Supervisor),“Container Network Interface Plug-in”(a CNI plugin that provides pod networking), and“Cloud Provider Implementation”(supports creating Kubernetes load balancer services).

These three items map directly to the answer choicesD (Container Storage Interface),F (Container Network Interface), andA (Cloud Provider Implementation). The same VCF 9.0 section also mentions an authentication webhook, but that component is not offered as a selectable option in this question, so the best three matches among the provided choices are the CSI, CNI, and cloud provider implementation entries that the document explicitly states are present inside a VKS cluster.

The error shows an admission webhook denial wherevariable validation failedand multiple entries under spec.topology.variables[...] are reported as“variable is not defined”. That message indicates the manifest is supplying variables that arenot part of the current Cluster API / topology schemaenforced by the Supervisor during cluster creation. In VKS, cluster provisioning isdeclarative: you invoke the VKS API withkubectl + a YAML file, and “after the cluster is created, you update the YAML to update the cluster.” When the API/schema changes between releases, older manifests can contain fields/variables that are no longer recognized, and the admission webhook blocks them to prevent creating an invalid cluster spec.

This aligns with VMware’s broader direction that the olderTanzuKubernetesCluster (TKC) API was deprecatedand customers are encouraged to useCluster APIfor bootstrap/config/lifecycle management. In practice, to complete the upgrade/creation successfully, you must update the cluster manifest to match the supported schema:remove the deprecated/unknown topology variablesshown in the error (for example, the undefined storage-policy and trust variables) and re-apply the correctedworkload.yaml.

In VCF 9.0, VKS cluster provisioning and lifecycle management is built around Kubernetes-native, declarative APIs. The VMware documentation describes thatCluster API provides declarative, Kubernetes-style APIs for cluster creation, configuration, and management, and that its inputs include the cluster definition plus the resources describing the virtual machines and “cluster add-ons.” This is why Cluster API is the component associated withprovisioning(creating and managing) workload clusters in the VKS model.

By contrast,cert-manageris typically used to automate certificate issuance/renewal for in-cluster components, andCarvelis a set of tools often used to package, configure, and install Kubernetes software, but neither is the core provisioning controller for creating the clusters themselves. The VCF documentation is explicit that Cluster API is the API layer responsible for cluster creation/configuration/management, making it the correct answer for provisioning VKS workload clusters (including those intended to run service mesh capabilities).

In VCF 9.0 Workload Management, workload backup for VKS clusters (and vSphere Pods) is performed using Velero, specifically theVelero Plugin for vSpherefor Supervisor/VKS scenarios. The documentation describes that you must firstprovide an S3-compatible object storeas part of installing and configuring the Velero Plugin for vSphere, because backup data (Kubernetes metadata and volume snapshot data movement) relies on object storage rather than “namespace storage.” The backup workflow further indicates that when you create a backup, the system uploadsKubernetes metadata to the object store, and persistent volume snapshot handling is coordinated through the plugin components (Snapshot/Upload custom resources).

Therefore, the correct configuration pattern is to point Velero’s backup target (BackupStorageLocation) at anS3-compatible object storeendpoint so metadata and snapshot payloads have a durable destination. This aligns with the documented prerequisite that object storage is required to enable backup/restore operations for persistent workloads, and it is the mechanism Velero uses to store backup artifacts for later restore operations in VKS environments.

VCF 9.0 design guidance for theSupervisor NSX Load Balancer modelstates that theNSX load balancers run on NSX Edges, and sets explicit sizing requirements at theEdge nodelevel. In the “NSX Load Balancer Design Requirements,” VCF 9.0 requires that theNSX Edge cluster must be deployedbecause “NSX Load Balancers run on NSX Edges.” It further requires that“NSX Edge nodes must be deployed with a minimum of Large form factor”because NSX load balancers havefixed resource allocations on NSX Edge nodes, and the Large form factor is needed to accommodate basic system and workload needs.

This directly ties “deployment size” of the load balancer service capacity to theEdge node form factor(Small/Medium/Large, etc.) rather than the number of pods or the number of clusters. The document also notes that if additional load balancers are required, NSX Edges can bescaled up or out, again reinforcing that sizing is anEdge nodesizing decision.

In a vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) environment, resource management follows aDeclarative Model. When an administrator uses kubectl edit deployment to manually scale a running workload from 5 to 10 replicas, they are modifying thelive stateof the deployment. However, thesource of truthfor a Tanzu Kubernetes cluster in VCF 9.0 is theCluster YAML specificationmaintained by the Cluster API (CAPI) provider within the Supervisor.

If the administrator redeploys the cluster or if the Supervisor’s controller performs a reconciliation loop, it refers back to the original configuration file. If that cluster YAML file still defines the replica count as 5, the Supervisor will terminate the 5 "extra" pods to match the desired state defined in the configuration. This is a common administrative pitfall; for changes to be persistent across redeployments or updates in VCF 9.0, the underlying manifest (the "Desired State") must be updated. Manually editing the live object only provides a temporary change that will be overwritten during the next synchronization or lifecycle event because the cluster YAML file was not updated to reflect the requested increase.