VCAP5-DCA - Registration is now OPEN!

VMware have advised that registration is now open for the VCAP5-DCA live lab exam.

Here's the official VCAP5-DCA page with links to the blueprint, a video demo of the user interface, and a list of testing centres where you can take the exam:

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=30483&ui=www_cert

This is a vSphere 5 update to the VCAP4-DCA exam, and there are some changes to the vSphere features tested on in the exam - Ed Grigson did a great job of interpreting the exam blueprint (based on the beta exam) here so you don't have to:

VCAP5-DCA - What's New?

One additional thing that's been confirmed is that those who are already VCP4/VCAP4-DCA who pass the VCAP5-DCA exam until October 9th will also be awarded the VCP5 certification - after that date you will only be able to take VCAP5-DCA if you are already a VCP5.

In terms of preparation for the exam, well anyone that's taken the VCAP4-DCA exam will tell you to build a lab and practice, practice, practice!

There is an official instructor-led training class that aligns closely to the exam blueprint items - vSphere: Optimize and Scale [v5.0] - it is not mandatory to take the training but is an excellent class as well as giving you a chance to learn and practice the topics in the exam.

I'm a VCAP4-DCA :-)

I was just heading deep underground to get the Waterloo & City line train last night when my Blackberry buzzed to tell me I had a new email, I waited til I was on the platform waiting for the train to come and thought I'd check to see what my email was - it was from VMware Certification thanking me for my participation in the VCAP-DCA exam, my score report was attached in a PDF...

All I had to do now was view the attachment, which due to a complete lack of signal my Blackberry couldn't open!!! Now it's only a 4 minute journey to Waterloo, but it felt like it took 20! I couldn't wait to get off the train, up the escalator, and on to the station concourse - finally the signal returned and I could open the PDF - I passed!

I'm delighted to now be a VCAP4-DCA, I posted my review of the exam recently and it was tough - it was a great relief to know that the preparation work was worth doing!

Now I've just got to wait to find out my VCAP4-DCA number...

UPDATE: I'm VCAP4-DCA number 319 :-)

Blog posts related to vSphere 5 release

I've added NINE new posts to this blog related to the vSphere 5 release:

1. How does a VCP3 holder update to VCP5?
2. Is it worth doing vSphere 4 certifications?
3. New certification - VCP5
4. New vSphere 5 training courses
5. New vCloud Director 1.5 courses
6. New VMware official curriculum
7. Update your VCP4 to VCP5
8. Gaining VCP4 and VCP5

Feel free to email me if you have any questions: vmtraining.blog@gmail.com

Scott.

VCAP4-DCA exam review

Today was a big day for me, I finally got to take the VCAP4-DCA exam for vSphere 4 - this was the third time I had been scheduled to take the exam and this time I didn't have to re-schedule it - ahh, the joys of being a busy man! It goes without saying that I can only give out so much information on the exam, I definitely don't want to violate any non-disclosure agreement after going through 3.5 hours of work and a lot of preparation!

So, on to what I can say... It's a tough exam, fair, but tough. You get given a really wide variety of tasks to carry out, some of them relatively straightforward things that any VCP would know how to do, other tasks were very in-depth and quite complex. I used a variety of different administrative interfaces - this is not an exam that you can do with the vSphere Client alone - you WILL need to know how to use the Service Console and vSphere Management Assistant, and you WILL need to do some work in vSphere PowerCLI too.

There were a number of tasks that I was asked to carry out that are things I've never had to do before in 5 years of working in-depth with ESX/ESXi and vCenter Server, things that I've never been asked in class or in discussions with customers. I did have a good read through the VCAP-DCA exam blueprint when I came out of the exam just to make sure VMware were justified in asking me to carry out some of these tasks, and I can confirm that they WERE!! You won't get asked to do literally everything in the blueprint document, you get roughly 40 tasks to perform on the day, but the tasks in your exam will be a subset of what's in the blueprint so be prepared to do anything that's in the document.

In terms of preparation, get the blueprint, build a lab, and practice. And just when you think you're ready, practice some more!! I'm sure you're waiting for a list of what resources I used to prepare, or would recommend you take a look at - you really need to focus on troubleshooting, performance, automation and security:

Official advanced-level vSphere courses
Video-based training from TrainSignal
Study guides from people such as Ed Grigson and Sean Crookston

This is definitely a certification that sorts out the men from the boys, puts hairs on your chest, helps you to earn your stripes as a vSphere administrator, and plenty of other cliches. I'm now waiting to get my results in about 2 weeks time, best of luck to you if you're taking yours any time soon...

What's a BrownBag? Find out this week!

There are only a couple of things in life that I would buy and expect the contents to be given to me wrapped in a brown paper bag, and lunch isn't one of them! However, over in the US the term Brown Bag (or "brown bag seminar" according to Wikipedia) is designed to be an hour-long seminar that can be consumed by attendees whilst they also consume their lunch!

Well-known blogger Cody Bunch started his VCP BrownBag series over a year ago, extended the coverage to incorporate VCDX, and now has an impressive list of guests and topics similar to the VMware Communities Podcast! The problem for us Europeans is that we have to stay up very late if we want to join Cody's BrownBags live, so Tom Howarth of PlanetVM fame has agreed to start a BrownBag series that will run during evening hours in the UK and Europe.

So, the first European BrownBag takes place this Thursday, July 7th, and it starts at 7pm UK time. Tom has kindly asked me to be a guest speaker/presenter on the session, and we plan on discussing the current state of play with VMware certifications and curriculum.

Register for the first European BrownBag here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/389446408

Building a vSphere home lab for VCP/VCAP-DCA preparation

From talking to many individuals who are wishing to achieve VMware certifications such as VCP or VCAP-DCA, most people have to prepare for exams in their own time. One of the important elements of both these exams, particularly the live-lab VCAP-DCA, is to use a vSphere environment to practice using the various administrative tools and interfaces in readiness for the exams.

Some people are lucky enough to have access to a lab environment at their workplace that they can "play" on, but many inviduals end up trying to build their own home lab. This can be done either be using a number of separate physical machines, or building a vSphere lab in virtual machines on products like VMware Player or Workstation, or even the free edition of ESXi.

Whether physical or virtual, generally there are four systems required:
2 x ESXi servers (ESX can be used instead)
1 x Windows server running vCenter Server, SQL Express, and the vSphere Client
1 x shared storage server running FreeNAS, OpenFiler, or similar

There are already many blog articles out there on how to build a virtual vSphere lab:
http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/virtualization/vmware-lab-setup---a-virtualized-lab-for-testing-ha-and-drs/
http://vinf.net/2010/02/25/8-node-esxi-cluster-running-60-virtual-machines-all-running-from-a-single-500gbp-physical-server/
http://www.vmwarevideos.com/video-my-home-vmware-vsphere-lab
http://www.techhead.co.uk/tell-us-about-your-server-lab
http://www.vm-help.com/

Here's a very useful site that deals with the software/build process and offers a recommendation on hardware too:
http://www.labguides.com/autolab/

One of my students this week has just told me about an amazing deal for building a virtual home lab system, it's a HP ProLiant MicroServer on sale from EBuyer, with a £100 cashback offer - as of today the effective price you pay is only £137.99: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/253305

You will need to upgrade the RAM to 8GB in order to run the required virtual machines, but that's only going to cost an extra £64: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/229102

Of course, you might want to upgrade the hard disk to something like an SSD drive for better performance, but that's up to you - the 250GB built-in disk should easily be big enough to accomodate all your vSphere VMs.

First UK delivery of vSphere: Advanced Fast Track training

Global Knowledge will be running the first UK delivery of the new vSphere: Advanced Fast Track training course, starting on June 13th. This is an extended-hours course that covers 7 days of material in 5 days, and includes both the vSphere: Troubleshooting and vSphere: Manage for Performance courses.

I blogged about the course when the details of it were first released:
http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/02/exclusive-new-course-vsphere-advanced.html

I'm delivering this course myself, and it offers good preparation for the VCAP4-DCA live-lab certification exam - covering the majority of the objectives in the exam blueprint.

Latest VCAP4 exam blueprints - April 2011

Jon Hall from VMware has published updated versions of the blueprint documents for both the advanced-level vSphere certifications, here's the all-important links:


VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint v1.9
VCAP4-DCD exam blueprint v1.6


I've had a look through both documents, and it's not obvious what's been modified, but as usual with VMware it is recommended to use the latest blueprint documents when starting to prepare for an exam.

Updated VCAP4 exam blueprints

4VMware have just released new versions of the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD exam blueprints, and it is always recommended to use the latest blueprint documents as the basis for any study/preparation for a VMware certification exam.

MyLearn (account required)
VCAP4-DCA blueprint
VCAP4-DCD blueprint

Communities forum
VCAP4-DCA blueprint
VCAP4-DCD blueprint

As of today, the VCAP4-DCA blueprint is at v1.7, and VCAP4-DCD is at v1.5.

New Course - vSphere: Advanced Fast Track

VMware have decided to create an advanced-level extended-hours course for vSphere 4 - vSphere: Advanced Fast Track. This course will combine together the vSphere: Troubleshooting course (4 days) with the vSphere: Manage for Performance course (3 days) into a single 5-day extended-hours course.

This new combined course will offer excellent preparation for the VCAP4-DCA exam, and will include a voucher for the exam as part of the course fee. The course is expected to be available within the next couple of months, the content is still being finalised at the moment, and pricing has yet to be determined.

This course is going to be perfect for anyone who's attended the vSphere: Install Configure Manage, vSphere: What's New, or the old vSphere: Fast Track course, and also for those who attend the new vSphere: Automation Fast Track - it gives students from any of those courses an excellent follow-on course as well as helping prepare for the VCAP4-DCA exam.

VCAP4 Updates - January 2011

Some updates related to the VCAP4 certifications from the last few weeks:

Registration for the final VCAP4-DCD exam opened in December, it's one of a number of links and resources you can find on the main VCAP4-DCD page on the VMware website.

Global Knowledge are now able to offer the VCAP4 exams at their training centres in Wokingham and Wakefield, these UK locations have now been added to the VCAP Testing Centre Locations list.

Updated versions of the VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint  and VCAP4-DCD exam blueprint are now available and should be used as the primary study guides for the exams.

Gregg Robertson has continued to add new links to some really key study resources for both exams to his blog TheSaffaGeek - you'll find links back to my blog there as well as some overlap to some of the links/resources I've posted on here previously.

Global Knowledge offer new UK-based VCAP-DCA testing centres

The live-lab VCAP-DCA exam has been available for a couple of weeks now, VMware have worked with Pearson VUE to try and offer the exam at many testing centres globally. Most of the current testing centres offering the VCAP-DCA exam as run directly by Pearson themselves, in the UK the only centre where the exam has been available is in Holborn, London.

Something that Global Knowledge have been discussing with VMware is offering the exam at other testing centres in the UK, and around Europe, and I'm glad to be able to announce that three Global Knowledge UK training centres will be able to offer the VCAP-DCA exam:

Global Knowledge London
Global Knowledge Wokingham
Global Knowledge Wakefield

I've also learned that by mid-November, all VCAP-DCA exam bookings will be made directly via Pearson, rather than having to be arranged through VMware.

VCAP exams user interface demos

VMware have just released Flash demos of the exam environment used for the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD exams - I spoke with Jon Hall at VMworld Europe a couple of weeks ago and he told me then they were almost ready to be published - Jon narrates the demos himself.

You'll find the VCAP4-DCA demo in the VCAP4-DCA Resources section on the main VCAP4-DCA page, and in case you want to watch the demo straight away here's the direct link.

The VCAP-DCD page has an idential layout, so again check under the VCAP4-DCD Resources section on the VCAP4-DCD page, here's the direct link.

The first batch of VCAP4-DCA holders are here!

There's been a few messages flying around on Twitter in the last day from people reporting that they've received the results of their VCAP4-DCA beta exam, so the world has it's first VCAP4-DCAs!

Those that I've heard of so far:
Jason Boche
William Lam
Chris Dearden
Duncan Epping
Rick Boyett
Kanuj Behl
Hal Rottenburg
Rick Scherer
Mark Gabryjelski
JF Richard
David Convery
Bill Griffith

I'll keep the above list updated if I hear of any others. I met quite a few people at VMworld this week who have their exams scheduled in the coming weeks, and I'm going to book mine soon.

Congratulations to all VCAP4-DCAs!

List last updated on October 17th 2010

VCAP and VCDX updates

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you'll know already that registration for the VCAP4-DCA exam for vSphere 4 is now open. The VCAP4-DCA exam forms part of the up-and-coming VCDX4 certification, and is a chance for VCP4 holders to "raise the bar" in terms of their VMware certifications.

With the introduction of the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD certifications, VMware are retiring the various components of the VCDX3 certification for VI3:

- Registration for the Enterprise Administration exam for VI3 are now closed
- Registration for the Design exam for VI3 are closed too
- Those who have already passed both the exams above for VI3 can still submit a defence to achieve VCDX3, but the design must be submitted by November 22nd 2010
- The design defence element of VCDX3 will only be available at a couple more VMware partner events, the final event being Partner Exchange in Florida in February 2011

VMware also stated previously that those that had completed elements of the VCDX3 certification would receive discounts on the equivalent exams for vSphere 4, to allow them to "upgrade" their certification. As I have previously passed the Enterprise Administration exam for VI3, and I have my VCP4, I now have a 50% discount voucher for me to use against the VCAP4-DCA exam. An equivalent voucher will be sent out to those eligible for a discount on the VCAP4-DCD exam once that exam has been released.

The VCDX4 defence application will be made available in November 2010, which suggests to me that the VCAP4-DCD exam will launch next month too - we shall see...

Another excellent VCAP4-DCA study resource

Whilst the new VCAP4-DCA exam is 100% live labs, so hands-on practice and experience are a really key part of any preparation for the exam, there are already a number of key study resources available.

I have various other blog posts on VCAP4-DCA already, with links to the key official and unofficial resources such as the exam blueprint and some experiences of those who took the beta version of the exam.

Sean Crookston over at vFAIL.NET has been busy collecting together information about most of the elements covered in the VCAP-DCA exam into a set of posts on his site, so here is his VCAP4-DCA Index.

Update: October 15th 2010
The vFAIL.NET Study Guide is now complete, and will be available soon as a downloadable PDF

50% VCAP4 exam discount

VMware are currently running a promotion around the exams for the VCAP4-DCA and VCAP4-DCD certifications - a 50% discount voucher to anyone who attends one of the recommended training courses.

It's not compulsory to attend any training courses to take a VCAP4 exam, you do have to be VCP4-certified (which does have training requirements) but you can then self-study in terms of preparation for the VCAP4 exams.

There are recommended courses for each of the two certifications, and if you review the exam blueprint documents for either of the certifications (VCAP4-DCA blueprint, VCAP4-DCD blueprint) you will see the strength of the relationship between these courses and the exams:

VCAP-DCA
vSphere: Troubleshooting
vSphere: Manage for Performance
vSphere: Automation with PowerCLI
vSphere: Manage and Design for Security

VCAP-DCD
vSphere: Design Workshop

Attend any of the above instructor-led courses between now and November 30th and the week after your course VMware will email you the 50% discount voucher. For further information, follow the link to the VMware Education Services page and click the Learn More icon under VMware Training and Advanced Certification - here's the direct link too.

Certification Updates - September 16th 2010

Lots of small pieces of certification news to cover in this post:

VCAP4-DCA exam
Registration is now open as of September 13th, as I revealed recently - register here
I registered on Monday, and have already had a follow-up email from the Certification team
VMware have published a list of the testing centres where the VCAP4-DCA exam can be taken - here's the list

VCP4 study sites
Forbes Guthrie has updated his excellent vSphere reference card for the 4.1 release - download it from here
Simon Long has been updating his VCP4 study notes and practice questions for 4.1, the study notes are work in progress but then he has just started a job at VMware so I'll let him off - access The SLOG

VCP4 exam prep workshop
I've now completed an overhaul of the unique VCP4 exam prep workshop that Global Knowledge run in the UK, mainly by updating and enhancing the practice questions we go through on the day - click here for details on the workshop

VCP4 books
There are now a number of VCP4 study books on the market, I'm hoping to be able to review each of them here soon:
VMware Certified Professional vSphere 4 Study Guide by Robert Schmidt
VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 Study Guide by Brian Perry, Chris Huss, Jeantet Fields
VCP4 Exam Cram by Elias Khnaser

Phew, lots of new things to take a look at there!

Exclusive: VCAP4-DCA exam release date

Here's a little piece of exclusive information, and one that a lot of people have been asking about for a few weeks now...

VMware will make the final VCAP4-DCA exam available from September 13th 2010.

So, grab the blueprint, get yourself prepared, not long to wait now...

UPDATE - September 13th
Exactly as I'd learned, registration for the VCAP4-DCA is now open, via this link.

VCAP4-DCA and VCP4 exam blueprint links

Well-known virtualization blogger Kendrick Coleman has published a version of the VCAP4-DCA exam blueprint in the form of a set of links to the key technologies and documents covered in the exam. It's the most comprehensive VCAP4-DCA guide I've seen so far, couple it with my recent blog post of beta exam review links and you've got an excellent set of resources.

Here' the link to Kendrick's VCAP4-DCA page:
http://kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/vcap-datacenter-administration-exam-landing-page-vdca410.html

Simon Long did the same thing a while back for the VCP4 exam, and has been updating the links on his page to point to the documentation for vSphere 4.1. Simon has also started working on a VCAP4-DCA page similar to Kendrick's, the links will follow once Simon has caught his breath from starting a new job at VMware...

Here's the link for Simon's VCP and VCAP4-DCA pages:
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-upgrade-study-notes/
http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcap4-dca-study-notes/