Category: Tech Notes
-
195 Hands-On Tasks for the Advanced VCF Networking Exam (3V0-25.25)
Exam 3V0-25.25 tests design, build and troubleshooting together, all of it against NSX. A workbook of 195 tasks across all three, each linked to its steps and a diagram.
-
146 Design Exercises for the VCAP-VCF Architect Exam (3V0-12.26)
Nothing hands-on is tested in exam 3V0-12.26. All twenty objectives are architecture and design, so this workbook is 146 written design exercises rather than lab tasks.
-
262 Hands-On Lab Tasks for the VCAP-VCF Administrator Exam (3V0-11.26)
Every objective in exam 3V0-11.26 is an administration objective. A workbook of 262 hands-on tasks in build order, each one linked to its steps, prerequisites and a diagram.
-
170 Hands-On Lab Tasks for the VCAP-VKS Exam 3V0-24.25 (VCAP-VKS Exam Series, Part 35)
Thirty-four parts of this series went through the 3V0-24.25 blueprint one objective at a time. This part is the other half: a workbook of 170 hands-on tasks in build order, from enabling a Supervisor to recovering a stalled upgrade. Each task carries the exam objective it covers, and the whole set is downloadable as a…
-
VMware Explore 2026 recap: what Broadcom announced in Las Vegas
What Broadcom announced at VMware Explore 2026 Las Vegas, what is GA today, what is roadmap, and what VCF customers in India should do next.
-
How I am turning my one laptop into a full AI and Kubernetes lab, layer by layer
My blueprint for rebuilding my AI applications (DrJhaGPT Pro, the Neevalay bots) as a production-style platform on one 20 GB laptop: 36 layers across cluster, delivery, security, observability, AI serving, backup and cost. For every layer, what I run today, the free open-source pick for the lab, and a drop-down of the enterprise products (VKS,…
-
One RAG Chatbot, Five Tech Stacks: Open Source vs Azure, AWS, IBM & VMware
A RAG chatbot is one pipeline. This maps every stage – ingestion, embeddings, vector DB, retrieval, LLM, hosting, guardrails – onto open source, Azure, AWS, IBM watsonx and VMware on-prem, so you can see who does what.
-
halfvec: Cut Your pgvector Index in Half – Same Answers
How pgvector’s 16-bit halfvec type shrinks a vector index by about 50% with negligible impact on retrieval quality or speed – with a real 9,000-page RAG example.
-
VKS Cluster Performance Optimization with Monitoring and Scaling (VCAP-VKS Exam Series, Part 34)
Objective 5.5 is a measurement objective wearing a scaling costume. Here is the metrics pipeline, the four scaling levers, what each one measurably moves on a VCF 9.0 estate, and the request gap that makes all of them lie to you.
-
Failed VKS Cluster Upgrade Recovery Without Deleting Nodes (VCAP-VKS Exam Series, Part 33)
A stalled VKS cluster upgrade is a live reconciliation loop blocked on a precondition, not a crashed job, and deleting the stuck node destroys your evidence without unblocking anything. Here is how to classify the stall from Cluster API conditions and clear it in the right context.
-
VKS Registry and Trusted CA Errors in Container Deployment (VCAP-VKS Exam Series, Part 32)
Objective 5.3 as a runbook: separating x509 trust failures from registry authentication failures on a VKS cluster, the double encoded secret the Supervisor expects, and the version window where the fix applies but never reaches containerd.
-
VKS VM Class, Cluster Plan and Content Library Fault Diagnosis (VCAP-VKS Exam Series, Part 31)
Objective 5.2 packs five different fault families into a single line of blueprint text. Here is the five gate sweep I use to tell a VM class binding problem from a cluster plan certificate defect, with the real error strings and the surface that actually fixes each one.
Architect’s Toolkit
PJ’s Tools
- Infra 360 Hub – All Series
- VCF Exam Practice Labs
- VCF 9 Interactive Walkthroughs
- VCF Design Cheatsheet
- VCF Upgrade Planner
- VCF 9 Series Hub
- VCF Deployment Hub
- AI Stack Hub
- AI Infra Sizing & Cost Calculator
- LLM & RAG Cost Calculator
- DrJhaGPT – Ask Pranay
VMware Cloud Foundation
- VCF Documentation
- VCF 9 Planning & Preparation Workbook
- VCF Bill of Materials (BoM)
- VMware Compatibility Guide
- VMware Interoperability Matrix
- VMware Configuration Maximums
- VMware Ports & Protocols
- VMware Hands-on Labs
- RVTools Download
Nutanix
AI & Cloud-Native Platform
- NVIDIA Build (Model Catalog)
- NVIDIA AI Enterprise Reference Architecture
- NVIDIA NIM Performance Benchmarking
- NVIDIA NGC Catalog
- NeMo Microservices Helm Chart
- Helm Charts Repository
- Hugging Face Models
Architecture & Design
About the Author
Dr Pranay Jha
Dr. Pranay Jha is a Cloud and AI Consultant with 18+ years of experience in hybrid cloud, virtualization, and enterprise infrastructure transformation. He specializes in VMware technologies, multi-cloud strategy, and Generative AI solutions. He holds a PhD in Computer Applications with research focused on Cloud and AI, has published multiple research papers, and has been a VMware vExpert since 2016 and a VMUG Community Leader.
You May Have Missed
DrJha