Signed up for VMware vcp5-dcv academy

Signed up for VMware vcp5-dcv academy at a local college starting in June. It's a 8 weeks night course, 3 hours a day 3 times a week, 2 hours of lecture + lab.

I've been playing around with visualization for a couple of years, but nothing serious. Started with MS virtual PC and virtual server 2005, then vmware workstation.

I've setup a test bed ESXi 4.x demo server at home and have been using it for my lab use, it's been running a few virtual machines running server 2003, xp pro, win 7, linux and now also running CUCM for my cisco voice track.

Looking forward to getting deeper into it, maybe I'll get my VCP this year.

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Essendon

Good luck on the journey, hope you enjoy it! Does the course fulfill the training requirement?

JeanM

Essendon wrote: »

Good luck on the journey, hope you enjoy it! Does the course fulfill the training requirement?

Yep

Comes with a discount for VCP test as well.

Essendon

Good! And the voucher sure helps. Ensure you lab up at home too as you go. Is the course doing 5.5 or 5.1, either way you'd want your home lab be about the same too.

JeanM

Essendon wrote: »

Good! And the voucher sure helps. Ensure you lab up at home too as you go. Is the course doing 5.5 or 5.1, either way you'd want your home lab be about the same too.

Will do, I have 5.1 iso downloaded and got the demo license from vmware for both versions. My physical box is running 4.1 and I'll run 5.5 in workstation as it's got enough ram (16gig) for lab work.

It will be interesting to see if the 8 week course plus official vcp book and lab is enough for passing the exam.

tstrip007

I would go ahead and print out the blueprint so you can cross things out as you go. The technology is so cool, I had a lot of fun studying for the vcp. Good luck.

ande0255

That is awesome, I wish I could find a local class that offered that course! Even Stanley's online curriculum doesn't serve MN residents, so glad I was able to obtain a waiver for the class requirement, or that would have been a huge pain to find a course somewhere.

16GB RAM turned out to be enough for my lab pretty well, it gets close to maxing out at times, but that's when I am really pushing it. I think you will like the material a lot if you actually enjoy studying, it's really nice now that I am starting to be the "vmware guy" at my work

Not that I know much, but I'll take the title.

Asif Dasl

tstrip007 wrote: »

I would go ahead and print out the blueprint so you can cross things out as you go. The technology is so cool, I had a lot of fun studying for the vcp. Good luck.

I agree with this... I had a lot of fun learning VMware, still do

VMware is like looking at the night sky, you notice the stars with your eyes. But then you get a telescope and you notice more detail, then you start questioning "why?".

The next thing you know you are learning stuff to know the "why?". Then you get a BIGGER telescope and you notice even MORE detail, you get the idea!

VMware is just so cool, it's beyond the comprehension of most people how unbelievably cool it is. Once you learn the basics you'll have the force, use it wisely! lol

Good luck with the studies JeanM!

JeanM

So far so good, 1 month down, 1 more to go. I've ordered some new(used from eBay) hardware for my 2nd esxi host, and got an software iScsi san now in my lab to play with.

For the academy we are using NetLabs for the vCenter/esxi/lab/vsphere labs.

mjnk77

Good luck! I took my class at the local community college too. I loved how it was structured. Our class about 11.5 weeks, 2 nights a week, but it ended up getting extended due to snow and instructor out of town. When you go to take the exam, you can do either 510 or 550. They both give you the same cert. If you are learning 5.5 in class, take the 5.5 exam. If you have any questions, send me a pm.

JeanM

Thanks! Stood up esxi 5.5 and vCenter , added esxi 5.5 host w/o any issues . I then tried to add my esxi 4.1.0 and it let me do that, but would not let me move the vm storage from one host to another (not talking about vMotion though)... I am going to stand up another instance of 5.5 and see if it works between the two next.

I went a little overboard with my lab, I currently have one esxi 4.1 host running x3220 and maxed out at 8gb of ram on an old supermicro board + 4port gigabit nic. Second host is dual e5440 xeon with 24gb of ram, I got a pair of e5540 xeons on the way for 3rd host.

My plan is to get rid of the x3220 host and just have the 2x 5440 with 24gb + 2x 5540 with 32-92gb for all the labs that I would want to play with.

The problem is these supermicro dual boards are normally eatx, and finding a rack mount case that isn't a full depth is a pita.