VCP-DCV vSphere Architecture, Products and Solutions Practice Question
A vSphere administrator is planning to deploy a vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) with an embedded Platform Services Controller (PSC). The company policy requires that all vCenter services be highly available. Which deployment topology should the administrator choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse high availability (HA) with fault tolerance or disaster recovery, leading them to choose multi-site or external PSC options, but vSphere HA on a cluster is the simplest and correct method to achieve high availability for a single VCSA with embedded PSC.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy a VCSA with embedded PSC on a cluster with vSphere HA enabled.
Deploying a VCSA with an embedded PSC on a cluster with vSphere HA enabled ensures that if the ESXi host running the VCSA fails, the VCSA is automatically restarted on another host in the cluster, providing high availability for all vCenter services. The embedded PSC topology is fully supported with vSphere HA, and this approach meets the policy requirement without the complexity of external PSCs or multi-site configurations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy a single VCSA with embedded PSC on a standalone host.
Why it's wrong here
Single instance is a single point of failure.
- ✗
Deploy a VCSA with an external PSC, and install the PSC on a separate VM.
Why it's wrong here
External PSC does not make the VCSA highly available.
- ✓
Deploy a VCSA with embedded PSC on a cluster with vSphere HA enabled.
Why this is correct
vSphere HA restarts the VCSA if the host fails, providing high availability.
- ✗
Deploy two VCSAs in separate vCenter Single Sign-On domains and configure multi-site.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-site provides DR, not HA for a single vCenter.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 498 original VCP-DCV practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This VCP-DCV practice question is part of Courseiva's free VMware certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the VCP-DCV exam.