vSphere 6 Foundations Exam Guide: What 2V0-620 Candidates Need to Know
The vSphere 6 Foundations Exam, identified by VMware as 2V0-620, was intended to validate foundational knowledge of the vSphere platform for candidates building an understanding of VMware virtualization. The important decision today is not simply how to study: VMware announced that this exam retired on August 30, 2019, so candidates must first confirm whether they need historical knowledge, are documenting an old credential, or should pursue a current replacement instead.
Is the vSphere 6 Foundations exam still available?
No. The 2V0-620 vSphere 6 Foundations Exam retired on August 30, 2019, according to VMware’s retirement notice. It should therefore be treated as a historical exam rather than a currently schedulable certification target. Before buying training or practice material, verify the current certification path through the official Broadcom or VMware certification resources.
What the retirement means for planning
A retired exam changes the preparation decision completely. There is no sound reason to plan around a new booking for 2V0-620 unless an authorized certification administrator provides a specific exception, and the supplied official research does not identify one. A candidate studying vSphere 6 concepts can still use the material for legacy support, migration planning, or technical background, but should not represent the exam as current.
Do not confuse 2V0-620 with later Foundations exams
VMware’s retirement material lists 2V0-620 as the vSphere 6 Foundations Exam and separately lists later Foundations exams, including the vSphere 6.5 and vSphere 6.7 versions. The supplied community discussion also distinguishes the vSphere 6.7 Foundations resources from the older vSphere 6 official certification guide. Check the exam code, title, and version together before using any study plan.
Who was the exam designed to serve?
The exam was most relevant to people developing foundational vSphere knowledge rather than candidates proving advanced design or deployment expertise. The evidence supplied here does not provide a full audience profile, prerequisite list, role description, or detailed exam guide for 2V0-620, so those points should not be presented as official requirements. Use the historical exam title as the reliable scope boundary.
A sensible learner profile
A practical learner profile includes an administrator new to VMware virtualization, a support professional who needs to understand the basic relationship between ESXi and vCenter Server, or an infrastructure candidate reviewing legacy vSphere terminology. That is a preparation recommendation, not a documented VMware eligibility rule. Experience with a real or lab-based vSphere environment would make the concepts easier to connect, but the supplied sources do not establish it as a prerequisite.
When legacy study is still useful
Legacy study may be appropriate when an organization still operates or is documenting an older vSphere estate, when a migration team must understand the starting platform, or when a candidate is interpreting older internal procedures. It is not a substitute for checking the supported product and certification path. Broadcom’s support notice states that vSphere 6.0 reached end of general support on March 12, 2020, which reinforces the need to separate historical learning from current operational guidance.
What skills can be stated with confidence?
The supplied official research confirms the exam identity and retirement status, but it does not include the 2V0-620 blueprint, domain list, objective wording, percentage weights, question format, passing score, duration, languages, or delivery method. A responsible guide must mark those details as unavailable instead of borrowing objectives from a newer VCP exam or inventing a historical blueprint.
The safe knowledge boundary
The title supports a foundation-level focus on vSphere 6, but it does not by itself prove that every specific feature, task, or product component appeared on the exam. Study resources should therefore be version-specific and traceable to an archived official exam guide or authorized course material. Treat forum suggestions and third-party question banks as leads to verify, not as authoritative evidence of measured skills.
Why newer exam objectives cannot be substituted
The 2024 VCP-VVF Admin material describes a different certification focused on VMware vSphere Foundation administration. Its published sections include identifying solution components and architecture, installing and configuring the solution, conducting Day 2 operations, and troubleshooting and optimization. Those objectives belong to VCP-VVF Admin, not 2V0-620, and should not be relabeled as the vSphere 6 Foundations blueprint.
Blueprint percentages
No verified percentage weights are supplied for the vSphere 6 Foundations Exam, so this guide does not assign weights to its domains. The approximately 60% figure published for Section 4 belongs to the VCP-VVF Admin exam’s installation, configuration, and management tasks; it must not be reused as a 2V0-620 weighting.
How should you choose study material?
Start with the exact exam code and version, then prefer an archived official exam guide, VMware-authored documentation, and version-matched product material. The Broadcom community discussion says that the last VMware Press book for vSphere Foundations was for 6.0 and points readers toward official resources for the 6.7 version. This distinction helps prevent studying the wrong release.
Build a source-checking routine
For each topic in an old study resource, record three items: the vSphere release, the source type, and whether the information describes a concept or a procedure. Concepts may remain useful across versions, while interface steps, compatibility rules, and lifecycle information can become inaccurate. If a resource does not identify its version, treat it cautiously rather than assuming it matches 2V0-620.
Use documentation to understand, not to memorize
Read product documentation to answer operational questions such as what a component does, where a configuration is applied, and which dependency is involved. Then restate the answer in your own words and connect it to a small lab exercise or diagram. This method is more durable than memorizing isolated definitions and does not depend on access to live exam questions.
Avoid relying on dumps
Exam dumps, leaked questions, and answer memorization are not a defensible preparation strategy and cannot guarantee a pass. They may describe a different version, contain incorrect answers, or encourage recognition without understanding. Use practice questions only when they are lawfully obtained, clearly labeled for the correct exam version, and followed by an explanation that you can verify against an official source.
What is a practical study sequence?
Use a sequence that moves from platform vocabulary to relationships, then to administration reasoning and troubleshooting. Because the official 2V0-620 blueprint is not included in the supplied evidence, the roadmap below is a practical legacy-study method rather than a claim about VMware’s scoring structure or official domain order.
Step one: establish the version boundary
Write down the target as “vSphere 6 Foundations, 2V0-620” and keep it separate from vSphere 6.5, vSphere 6.7, VCP6-DCV, and current VCF certifications. Create a short list of terms that appear in your selected source and flag anything introduced only in a later release. This prevents accidental blending of historical and current objectives.
Step two: map the platform
Draw a simple architecture map showing the roles of ESXi, vCenter Server, virtual machines, clusters, hosts, storage, and networks. For every connection, explain what it enables and what would be affected if it failed. The aim is not artistic detail; it is the ability to reason about dependencies instead of treating each feature as an isolated flashcard.
Step three: learn through administrative outcomes
Organize notes around outcomes: create or manage a workload, connect infrastructure resources, apply a policy, monitor a condition, or recover from a fault. For each outcome, identify the relevant object, the administrative location, the expected result, and a verification step. Keep procedures tied to the vSphere 6 source so later-interface instructions do not silently replace them.
Step four: test troubleshooting logic
For each lab or scenario, begin with symptoms and list plausible causes before checking settings. Separate host, management, compute, storage, and network causes, then record the evidence that would eliminate each one. This develops diagnostic reasoning without pretending that an unofficial scenario reproduces the retired exam.
Step five: perform a closed-book review
At the end of the study cycle, explain the architecture and common administrative decisions without notes. Mark every answer that depends on guessing, vague wording, or a later product version. Return to source documentation for those gaps, then repeat the explanation in a concise form. Readiness should mean reliable understanding, not a high score on an unverified question bank.
How can a lab make legacy topics easier to retain?
A lab is most useful when every action has a question behind it and a verification step afterward. If you have access to an authorized vSphere 6 environment, reproduce basic administrative workflows in a controlled setting; if you do not, use diagrams, documentation exercises, and configuration reasoning rather than claiming hands-on competence you have not developed.
Use task cards
Create one card for each task or concept. The front should state a goal, such as explaining a management dependency or diagnosing a resource symptom. The back should contain the expected result, the relevant object relationships, and the evidence you would inspect. Keep the card release-specific and revise it when documentation reveals a version difference.
Record cause and effect
After each exercise, write a short chain: change, affected component, visible symptom, verification, and corrective action. For example, do not merely note a setting name; note what operational behavior the setting controls and how you would confirm that behavior. This approach turns a catalogue of features into usable administration knowledge.
Keep lab conclusions modest
A successful lab proves that you completed a controlled exercise under those conditions. It does not prove that every exam objective was covered or that a production incident will behave identically. Use the lab to expose gaps, then validate the underlying principle with version-matched official documentation.
Which mistakes waste the most preparation time?
The most damaging errors are planning for a retired exam, mixing vSphere releases, treating a current certification article as the old blueprint, and studying recalled questions instead of skills. Correct these issues before adding more material; otherwise additional study can increase confidence without improving accuracy.
Mistake: booking before verifying status
The retirement notice is decisive for 2V0-620: VMware stated that the exam retired on August 30, 2019. A candidate who skips this check may spend time preparing for an exam that cannot be scheduled. Confirm status first, then decide whether a current certification or a legacy knowledge objective is the real goal.
Mistake: treating product support as certification validity
Product lifecycle and exam retirement are related planning signals but not the same thing. Broadcom’s notice records the end of general support for vSphere 6.0 as March 12, 2020 and also lists technical guidance ending on March 12, 2022. These dates describe product support phases, not an exam score, eligibility rule, or current certification benefit.
Mistake: importing current VCF content
The current VCP-VVF Admin research covers vSphere Foundation components such as ESXi, vCenter, vSAN, and Aria, along with installation, configuration, Day 2 operations, and troubleshooting. That material may be valuable for a current path, but importing it wholesale into a vSphere 6 Foundations plan creates version confusion. Use it only if you have deliberately changed targets.
Mistake: trusting an unlabeled practice set
A practice set without an exam code, version, source, and explanation cannot demonstrate alignment. Do not infer the retired blueprint from the number of questions or the apparent difficulty of a third-party set. Replace it with source-based recall, architecture diagrams, and scenario explanations that you can audit.
What should you do before choosing a replacement?
First define the outcome you need: historical vSphere 6 literacy, evidence of current administration skills, or a certification recognized for a present role. Then compare that outcome with the current official certification catalogue. The supplied sources confirm newer VCP-VVF Admin and VCP-VCF Admin certifications are available, but they do not establish which one is the correct replacement for every 2V0-620 candidate.
If your goal is current vSphere administration
Review the current VCP-VVF Admin requirements and exam guide directly. VMware describes that certification as focusing on installing, configuring, managing, troubleshooting, and optimizing VMware vSphere Foundation. Do not assume the old 2V0-620 study material satisfies current eligibility or preparation requirements; verify those details with the current official page.
If your employer uses an older estate
Keep the legacy study plan tightly scoped to the installed version, but include upgrade awareness in your professional plan. Broadcom’s support notice recommends upgrading from vSphere 6.0 to vSphere 6.5 or vSphere 6.7 to maintain full Support and Subscription Services, while also directing readers to the vSphere Upgrade Center and related services. Confirm the organization’s actual support and migration position rather than relying on an old exam credential.
If you need to document an old credential
Use the exact historical title and exam code in internal records: vSphere 6 Foundations Exam, 2V0-620. Separately record that VMware’s notice lists the exam as retired on August 30, 2019. This wording avoids implying that a retired exam is a current booking option or that legacy knowledge automatically represents current platform competence.
What is the final study and scheduling checklist?
Do not schedule 2V0-620 based on this article because the official evidence identifies it as retired. Use the checklist to decide whether to preserve legacy knowledge or move to a current exam, and make the final status, eligibility, delivery, and registration checks on the official certification site.
Legacy knowledge checklist
Confirm that your material names vSphere 6 and 2V0-620; separate concepts from version-sensitive procedures; map the platform components and dependencies; practise explaining administrative outcomes; validate troubleshooting reasoning against documentation; and label every unsupported assumption. This produces useful technical preparation even though it does not create a path to a new 2V0-620 appointment.
Current certification checklist
Identify the current certification that matches your work; open its official exam guide; verify prerequisites, delivery method, available languages, pricing, scoring, and scheduling rules directly because those details are not supplied here; then build your study sequence from that guide. Do not carry over old exam numbers, weights, or assumptions.
Next action
Open the official certification catalogue and search for the current vSphere-focused path. If your immediate need is legacy documentation, archive the vSphere 6 sources and record the support status separately. If your need is a current credential, stop using 2V0-620 as the booking target and plan against the current exam’s own published requirements.
Conclusion
The central fact is simple: 2V0-620, the vSphere 6 Foundations Exam, retired on August 30, 2019. That makes version control and status verification more important than collecting more practice questions. Preserve the old material for legitimate legacy-support or migration work, but choose a current certification when you need present-day validation. Use official exam guides for any replacement and treat every unverified delivery, scoring, prerequisite, or blueprint claim as a reason to check the source before acting.
