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VCAP-DCD Pass!

November 30, 2012 in vHersey, VMware

On Monday, November 26, 2012, I sat and PASSED the VCAP-DCD for vSphere 5!!!

The exam was tough, VERY tough. I have always been an administrator and I think I have the technology down cold. Need a host configured, a host profile applied, or multipathing set up – no problem just give me a minute. Need me to identify a set of functional requirements from a business case and then create a design based on it – hmmmmm, not something I have a whole bunch of experience with. I spent a good deal of time preparing for the DCD exam and it required me to recall nearly every minute of that preparation to pull off the pass, and even then I only just squeaked by.

The format of the exam changed sometime in mid-October and the blue print was updated to reflect the change. So what was the change? You are no longer allowed to mark a question for review and then return to it. Once you submit an answer it is you final answer for that question. I think this change significantly increases the difficulty of the exam (or at least contributes to a good level of anxiety while taking it). Several folks have posted an exam strategy of marking design questions for review and returning to them to be able to budget time for them, this strategy no longer works.

As the blue print states you have 225 minutes to complete the exam and there are 100 questions that are a mix of multiple choice, drag-n-drop, and “visio” like design tool. When I submitted my answer to question 100 I still had 53 minutes left. This remaining time is where the mark for review would have come in handy. There were a few of the drag-n-drop and at least on of “visio” design tool questions that I think a go back and review would have been useful for.

My Study Resources
I learned a lot about the design process while preparing for this exam (kind of the point, right?). Lot of great resources out there and here are a few that I used to prepare.

If you are preparing for the exam make sure you check out the design tool demo so you are familiar with how the “visio” like questions work. As with any VMware Certification exam one of the best resources is the exam blue print. Make sure you have the latest copy of the blue print which is available on then VMware VCAP5-DCD Certification page.

Scott Lowe’s Designing VMware Infrastructure TrainSignal course was extremely helpful for me. The course helps lay a good foundation, and I think I found it so beneficial since the instruction does seem to target VMware administrators that are looking to transition into an architect role.

ProfessionalVMware.com APAC DCD vBrownBag Series – http://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/ These are AWESOME resources. I spent my commute listening to the APAC vBrownBags and they are a must listen if you are preparing for the exam.

coolsport00‘s VCAP-DCD Study Notes – http://professionalvmware.com/2012/11/vcap5-dcd-study-outline-pdf/ Shane sent me these the Friday before I took the exam. Wish I had got them sooner. Nice notes organized against the exam blue print.

Jason’s VCAP-DCD Document Package – http://www.virtuallanger.com/2012/09/30/vcap-dcd-5-document-package/ The VMware PDFs and other documents referenced in the blue print in one convenient package.

VirtualHyper.com VCAP-DCD Study Guide – http://virtuallyhyper.com/2012/08/vcap5-dcd/
Some links to some other DCD resources and very good notes for each section of the blue print.

Everyone knows about Scott Lowe’s books and of course the vSphere HA Deepdive by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman. These are fantastic books and will definitely help in your preparation efforts but there a a few new books out there from VMware Press that I found to be very excellent resources.

Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments by Harley Stagner and Sean Crookston is an excellent book on designing and implementing a vSphere infrastructure.

VMware vSphere 5 Building a Virtual Datacenter Eric Maille and René-Francois Mennecier is another great book that will help you learn to match VMware Datacenter products and solutions with business needs.

I will continue to hone my skills as both a vSphere Administrator and a vSphere Architect. One thing is for sure I am glad that exam is behind me (until the next version anyway)!

Good luck!

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My VCP 5 Exam Experience

December 5, 2011 in vHersey, VMware

This morning I sat for and PASSED the VMware Certified Professional Exam on vSphere 5 (VCP510). If I had to sum up the VCP 5 Exam in a single word that word would be tough.

There was a small issue with the test center not having the environment ready for my scheduled exam time. Took them about 45 minutes to get things squared away. This increased the anxiety associated with taking the test a bit but once they worked the problem out with the system everything went OK. I was able to calm myself down once I was seated in front of the testing workstation.

The exam was fairly difficult (tough), much more so than the VCP 4, but I really really enjoyed it. Of course because of the NDA I cannot reveal any specific questions but a lot of the questions were almost like lab set ups. You have this, this, and this and you need it to do this. What is the first thing you should do or why is this not working? Yes there were also some general product knowledge type questions but a lot more of the questions seemed to have you thinking through a configuration or problem.

There are a lot of great study resources on the web and I have listed a few of my favorites with some of my notes on my VCP5 Study page. The Mastering vSphere 5 book by Scott Lowe and the vSphere 5 Clustering Deep Dive by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping
were also very useful resources. I have to say the best resources for preparing for this exam were my home lab and the hands-on experience from upgrading a production vSphere environment from 4.x to 5.

My home lab is a simple environment built on VMware Workstation 8 with 2 ESXi 5 host and the vCenter Virtual Appliance. This set up was enough to work through just about everything in the VCP5 Blueprint.

I think it is pretty fair to say that if you attempt the VCP 5 exam without at least some hands-on experience you are probably not going to do very well unless you are just extremely lucky.

As with the VCP4 and the VCAP-DCA exams I wish the VMware exams would give you some idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Similar to the way EMC did with the ISA exam. I know the reasoning for not providing the questions you missed but being able to see what blue print objectives you scored weakest in would do a lot to help someone as they continue to work with the product.

I think the best advice I can give anyone who is planning to take the VCP 5 exam is to download the VCP 5 Exam Blueprint, set up a lab environment, and start working through the blueprint objectives.

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Passed my EMC ISM (E20-001) Exam

October 4, 2011 in Storage, vHersey

ITN-213, Information Storage Management, is part of the Virtualization Career Studies Certificate Program at TCC. With enrollment in the course you receive a 1/2 price voucher to take the EMC ISM Exam. A few weeks ago I scheduled the exam and started studying. I sat for the exam this past Monday and passed.

I thought the exam was pretty fair. I did not find it to be extremely difficult but I feel I was really well prepared for the exam. Besides the class materials, I studied the Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information book from EMC Education Services from cover to cover. There was not a single question on the exam (at least not on my exam) that was not covered in the book.

My exam consisted of 66 questions and I think I had 90 minutes to complete them. I felt this was plenty of time. I finished in right at 40 minutes. The test is similar to other certification exams I have taken in that it lets you mark questions for review at the end of the test. I think I had marked 9 questions. I went back to them but did not change any answers. I passed the exam with an 87%.

One thing I did like about this exam is that it gave you a break down how you did in each section. Giving you the number of questions from each section, the number you answered correctly, and your percentage score for the section. I scored highest in storage systems (93%) and storage network technologies and virtualization (95%) – no surprise here. I scored lowest in business continuity (78%) and storage security (71%) – again no real surprise there either. I think this is important information especially if you plan to continue to expand your knowledge.

All in all a good exam on some fairly challenging technologies.

More information on the EMC ISA and other EMC certifications can be found here: http://education.emc.com/guest/certification/

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VCAP-DCA Prep Resources and Thanks

July 12, 2011 in vHersey, VMware

Last Friday I received my VCAP-DCA Exam results from VMware and I PASSED. It took 8 business days to get my results and when I left the exam I did not have a great feeling about my performance. The exam was tough and the time limit makes it brutal. I continued to prepare for the exam up until I received the results fearing that I was going to have to sit for it again. What a relief.

Since that is behind me now I am taking a break for a few weeks to enjoy the summer then I am on to preparing for the VCAP-DCD exam.

Here are some resources I used to prepare for the exam and I want to just say “Thank You” to those that have taken the time to provide them.

These study guides were extremely valuable resources when preparing. Each one of them is very well put together following the objectives of the VCAP-DCA Exam Blue Print providing detailed notes and examples for each objective and sub-objective. Many thanks go out to these folks for taking the time to put these excellent study guides together.

The ProfessionalVMware.com BrownBags which are organized by @cody_bunch (<- Follow him) were also a great resource. The BrownBags are held every other week and there is an archive of previous sessions here. You can sign up to participate in future BrownBags here. Cody, I am sure these take a lot to put together and I appreciate you taking the time to do it. They provide a lot of good information. The PowerCLI 101 session was great and very helpful.

I also want to thank my Instructor from TCC, Mr. Guess, for allowing me to use the lab environment there to practice. My lab at work is not what it should be and my home lab runs in VMware Workstation (I am working to build a proper home lab). I was able to get a lot of practice with vCenter Heartbeat, vShield Zones, and Fault Tolerance which I do not work with day to day. If you are looking to get your VCP (or VCAP-DCA) TCC is part of the VMware Academy and offers the Install, Configure, and Manage Class to meet the VCP training requirements. They also offer the Advance Troubleshooting, Performance, and Security classes. It is a good program and if you are in the Tidewater area and interested in virtualization check it out. More information on the Virtualization program at TCC can be found here. Information on the Virtualization Career Studies certificate can be found here.

Thanks again to everyone for providing these resources. They were a tremendous help in preparing for the exam!

To anyone that is preparing for the VCAP-DCA – have fun and good luck with it. Practice, practice, practice and when you sit for the exam try not to focus on the clock. Time management is important but do not let it consume your focus – don’t rush. Read the lab questions carefully and pay attention to detail when you are working through the labs.

Hersey

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