Tuesday 29 December 2015

Cool new VCP geographic distribution chart

VMware have published a new infographic showing where in the world the thousands of VCPs are.

As a Brit, I'm glad to see the UK right up there with over 4000.

No surprise that the USA has the highest number though!

Have a look here.

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Cisco certification path to NV certifications extended indefinitely

VMware brought in a policy some time ago such that those holding certain Cisco certifications would not have a mandatory NSX training requirement in order to achieve VCP-NV and VCIX-NV certifications - you'd just have to pass the relevant exam and confirm your Cisco certification to VMware.

There was an initial deadline set for this, which had been extended out to January 31st 2016 - VMware have announced today that this path to the NV certifications will remain available indefinitely - great news if you're Cisco certified and you want to get certified in NSX!

Read the announcement here.

Latest VMware Training & Certification News

April 2017
I've made a major update to my VCP Common Questions blog post - fleshing it out and bringing it up-to-date.

Latest 2017 stats on numbers and locations of VCPs.

Friday 11 December 2015

Horizon / Desktop & Mobility Certifications

There are 4 levels of certification for Horizon in the Desktop & Mobility category:

VCA6-DTM
VCP6-DTM
VCIX6-DTM (coming soon)
VCDX6-DTM (coming soon)

Latest news:

NSX / Network Virtualisation Certifications

There are 4 levels of certification for NSX in the Network Virtualisation category:

VCA6-NV
VCP6-NV
VCIX6-NV (coming soon)
VCDX6-NV (coming soon)

Latest news:
If you have achieved VCP-NV you will automatically be awarded the VCP6-NV.

The deadline for holders of certain Cisco certification holders bypass the NSX training requirement for NSX certifications is now extended indefinitely.

vRealize / Cloud Managment & Automation Certifications

There are 4 levels of certification for vRealize Automation in the Cloud Management & Automation category:

VCA6-CMA or VCA6-HC
VCP6-CMA
VCIX6-CMA (coming soon)
VCDX-CMA (coming soon)

Latest news:

vSphere 6 / Data Center Virtualisation Certifications

There are 4 levels of certification available for vSphere 6:

VCA6-DCV
VCP6-DCV
VCAP/VCIX6-DCV
VCDX6-DCV

Latest news:
VMware announced that the beta of the 2 exams for VCAP/VCIX level will be available in January 2016.

They also confirmed that there will still be 2 distinct VCAP Design and VCAP Deployment certifications to go with each exam, with the status of VCIX being awarded to someone who passes both.

Version 5 Certifications

Here's my archive of version 5 VMware certification pages:

Data Center Virtualisation
VCP5-DCV
VCAP5-DCA
VCAP5-DCD
VCDX-DCV

Cloud
VCP-Cloud
VCAP-Cloud - now fully retired
VCDX-Cloud

Desktop
VCP5-DT - now fully retired
VCAP5-DT - now fully retired
VCDX5-DT

Network Virtualisation
NSX Training and Certifications

VCP6-DCV Information and Preparation

VMware Certified Professional 6 - Data Center Virtualisation (VCP6-DCV) is the latest version of the most popular VMware certification, focused around compute virtualisation with vSphere 6.

If you are new to VMware training and certification, and to compute virtualisation, this is the most likely path you will follow:

2. Pass the vSphere 6 Foundations exam (code 2V0-620)

Install Configure Manage is just one of the qualifying training courses for VCP6-DCV - at the time of writing you can actually take any of these vSphere 6 courses:
  • Install, Configure, Manage
  • Optimize & Scale
  • Bootcamp
  • Fast Track
  • Design and Deploy Fast Track
  • Troubleshooting
  • Install, Configure and Manage plus Optimize and Scale Fast Track

Alternate paths to achieve VCP6-DCV are available for those who have previous or other VCP level certifications - you can find those under the Existing Candidate Requirements tab of the VCP6-DCV page.

In terms of exam information and preparation - the links above will give you costs, numbers of questions, amount of time, the exam topics that you will be tested on - for previous version exams this information was found in a PDF known as the "exam blueprint".

The exam pages will also tell you whether that particular exam is "proctored" or "non-proctored". Only the "proctored" exams need to be taken at a testing centre, "non-proctored" exams can be taken from any location/system with an internet connection.

As well as the preparation resources available on the exam pages, the VCP community forum page can also give you some great ideas and help from others, plus there are some great unofficial resources available too:

Monday 9 March 2015

VCP recertification deadline extended, VCP6 discount for those who've already recertified

VMware have announced today that the original VCP recertification deadline of March 10th 2015 has now been extended til May 8th 2015.

This has been done for 2 reasons:

1. To allow extra time for partners and customers who have not had sufficient notification to be able to meet the deadline.
2. To reflect a problem with the myLearn system over the weekend that prevented people from gaining authorisation for the VCP550D exam.

This is great news if you haven't yet done your recertification.

The options to recertify have not changed - you can still take a VCP exam in another discipline, a VCAP exam in the same or another discipline, or if you're a VCP in the DCV discipline you can take the "delta" VCP550D exam - this special exam will also now remain available til May 8th.

But what about those who DID meet the original March 10th deadline? (Like me!)

Well there's some great news there too - you'll get 65% off a VCP6 exam from when they become available through to August 31st 2015!

If you want to find out more, check out this blog post on vmware.com:


VCAP exams retired for Cloud and Desktop

March 2nd 2015 saw the retirement of 4 exams, each of the 2 VCAP level exams for the Cloud and Desktop disciplines:

Cloud
VCAP-CIA - Cloud Infrastructure Administration
VCAP-CID - Cloud Infrastructure Design

Desktop
VCAP-DTA - Desktop Administration
VCAP-DTD - Desktop Design

There were some problems with these exams, and with new versions of these exams needing to be developed for the new VCIX certifications mentioned in the 2015 VMware Certification Roadmap, it was decided to retire these older exams.

This would have meant that the VCDX certifications in these 2 disciplines would no longer be obtainable by those who hadn't already gained both VCAP certifications in that discipline.

But, VMware recognised this and dropped the VCAP requirement for VCDX applications for June defences - you can read more about that here:

VMware Communities post about VCDX-Cloud and VCDX-Desktop changes

Monday 26 January 2015

VCP-Cloud - some exam retirements

VMware are retiring the exams based on vCloud Director 1.5 and 5.1 at the end of March 2015:


  • Exam Code VCPC510 - Based on vCloud Director 5.1
  • Exam code VCPVCD510 – Based on vCloud Director 1.5 (also known as the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Exam)

From April 1st onwards, you can still achieve VCP-Cloud by passing the VCPC550 exam (based on vCloud Automation Center 5.2 and vCloud Director 5.5).

Alternatively, you could follow the path to the new VCP6-Cloud certification.