Just like Jason Boche and Chris Dearden I was able to take part in the VCAP4-DCD Beta experience. I took my exam in San Diego on Tuesday (11/9) which was a lot nicer than having to drive up to Orange County like I did for the DCA exam.

Both Jason and Chris did great write-ups on it, the exam was 131 questions and they gave you 3hrs 45mins to complete. The first portion is the NDA acceptance then on to a questionnaire asking you to set your level of understanding. The test had three different types of questions, including;

1. Traditional Multiple Choice (select 1, 2 or 3 of many)
2. Visio-like tool to create architecture drawings
3. GUI style tool where you drag options and drop them on answers

I was able to finish the exam with about 15 minutes to spare, and luckily for me I answer every single question as I was surprised to see no options for going back to review after you finished. I did think I would have a final opportunity to provide input at the end of the exam, but unfortunately I was not presented with that option but I did leave some good feedback on questions that were incorrect or if I felt were unnecessary. A few of the questions did require vendor specific knowledge, I answered these to the best of my ability but left comments that I do not think having vendor specific questions is a good idea for this style of exam. Oh BTW, the Visio style tool is a LOT better than the one in the VCDX3 Design Exam….but it does take a little time getting use to it!

I did not have any fun confrontations with the Pearson staff like Jason did, but I did get into a good discussion about security with a Pearson employee about their new “Palm Vein Scanning Device” that they’re pushing over traditional finger prints. Pretty cool stuff as it ensures identity protection but keeps their information database unappealing to law enforcement (for e-discovery types of things - ie: you leave finger prints at crime scenes, not vein layouts).

Anyways, I feel like I did fairly well - it was a good experience and the information in the blueprint was extremely helpful in my preparation.  I’m excited to see what my results are, if I pass I obtain the DCD certification as well as an upgrade to VCDX4.

Posted under Certification, Training

Sorry this took so long to get out, my new position at EMC has proven to be extremely demanding…which I LOVE! I love going out and evangelizing about what great things we’re doing in the virtualization space. Anyways, back to the review…

Two weeks ago (June 9th) I took the VCAP4-DCA Beta Exam at the Pearson Vue office in Anaheim, CA. The overall process was the same as taking any other VMware exam, you sign-in and verify your identity then they log you into a workstation where the exam awaits.

What’s immediately different about the DCA exam is that it is 100% lab based, no multiple choice questions on this one. Once the Vue administrator signs you into the exam you accept a few disclosures then a RDP-style connection is made with a system probably located at VMware HQ. You switch between the questions and the desktop session using a button located on the screen, you do use the same session for the entire test.

Without breaking NDA it is difficult to explain what’s covered in the exam, but I can say that you will need as much hands-on experience as you can possibly get. It covers many different areas including Installation, Firewall management, NMP management and even some of the add-ons like vShield Zones.

For the beta you get 4 hours to basically get through as much as you can,  I was able to get through about 40 of the questions. I personally haven’t heard how long the exam will be when it goes GA nor how many questions it will have but the one great thing about this exam and the entire VCAP certification is that it will definitely separate the book cramers and good exam takers from the true experienced administrators.

Posted under Certification

It has been an awesome experience being part of the BETA Program for the next release of VMware’s Hypervisor. From finding huge system crippling issues, all the way down to the small typos……

Posted under vSphere

I guess I posted a little too soon about Rove’s Mobile Admin release that has full support for VMware vCenter.   VMware has just announced VMware vCenter Mobile Access (vCMA) which is due to be released BETA in April, this is a Virtual Appliance that links your mobile device/smart phone to your vCenter Server. More information can be found on the Technology Preview Site.

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Posted under ESX 3.5 Tips, ESXi 3.5 Tips, Monitoring, vSphere

Just received an e-mail from the VCDX Certification team that the Design Exam (beta) is available for me until April 10th. As part of the beta I would be entitled to a 50% discount ($200) and I would need to send my comments and suggestions to the team after taking the exam.  I’m going to schedule it now, maybe for the week of March 23rd.  I’ll need a couple weeks to study, especially when I’m trying to edit a book, do a day job and all the other fun things life brings me.

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Posted under Certification