Failed VCP510 exam today, my thoughts

ande0255

I am not sure how the results of where you missed a question are pulled from, like with Cisco exams it gives you percentages and brief descriptions of the question type, but my output for the VCP510 said I missed questions in 24 separate categories of answers which I assume means they are tagging questions with multiple categories.

My worst enemy was the clock, as I got to question 36 and looked at my time, I had 44 minutes left. That meant I had 49 questions left, including the current one I hadn't read yet, with about 45 seconds per question from that point forward. A lot of the questions I received were very real world, I think this test was developed specifically for people with industry experience, and not just those with zero experience but steadfast studying and labbing dedication. After sitting the exam, I really don't believe that anyone without experience can pass it without previously seeing the actual test questions, be it by dumping or sitting the exam and failing - and even with experience I think passing this one on the first try would be one hell of a feat. One of the biggest mistakes I made throughout my studies was labbing individual tasks independently of each other, from a root admin account, so I could not see what restrictions might come from building an entire environment from different levels of management levels - This will not give you the experience you need to pass this exam.

So to expand upon why my enemy was the clock, traditionally in my Cisco exams I can look at either the question or the set of answers independently and have a good idea of what the correct answer will be before I read the other, but with VMware that was not the case. A lot of questions were intricate real world scenarios, where there was definitely a correct answer, but you really need to weigh the context of the answer against the context of the question. This is where my balls were clenched tightly in the vice grip was re-reading the question, and re-reading the answers, which were both as intricate and context-based as the other.

My suggestion for labbing would be to build an entire domain through both the client and web interface, intergrate it with LDAP authentication, and create users in LDAP with different levels of management to perform management tasks within the environment. I would run through everything once in all platforms of administration (DCUI, Web, Client, CLI) at least once, just so you have at least one instance of exposure to the environment.

I will rebook if VMware will allow me another attempt with the class waiver, if they don't I won't bother again and walk away with the knowledge I've obtained to this point, but I have to say this test was a lot fairer than I have read before. One thing I would have to stress is to watch the clock on this exam, especially for people who are comfortable with Cisco exams, as there are no questions I got that I read the question and immediately knew the answer to even out spending more time on another question - Be VERY aware of the time you are allocating to certain questions.

My best advice is to watch the clock during the exam, reading is not anywhere near enough to pass, and labbing needs to be done from the perspective of deploying from a hierarchical vSphere management infrastructure. From booting hosts, to deploying VM's via templates, to exporting logs from vSphere - Lab your friggin ass off.

Will report back if I get the green light for attempt 2

RouteMyPacket

So I take you have little to no real world experience with VMware? Ouch! That's not an exam I would attempt without some solid years working with the platform. My last exposure was vSphere 4.1 and I will be taking the VCP5-DCV sometime. You'll get it the second time around, I will use your words of wisdom to try for a pass on the first run.

Asif Dasl

Hard luck, it's definitely a hard exam, there is no doubt. I scraped a pass first time with a 325 but that was after a year after taking the course at UCSC Extension. I never felt confident enough to take it right after the course ended - there are a lot of parts to learn from networking, to storage, to clusters, you name it - there's plenty to learn everywhere you look.

I remember asking myself during the exam "How the eff am I meant to know that?!?" on more than one occasion. Just today I rebuilt my entire lab on the laptop and it went pretty well - I'm all ready for Chris Wahl's vSphere Networking book! But there are still things I am wanting to delve in to deeper having passed the VCP. I went in to EMC storage and now I'm a little rusty on my networking, so I am switching gears again and looking forward to playing around with VSAN.

I think 5.1 is easier than 5.5 to pass, so keep at it, I think it's definitely worth the effort! Keep your chin up - I'm sure you will pass it second time around!

ande0255

I own the Chris Wahl book in addition to the Scott Lowe vSphere 5.0 book, and I admittedly didn't read them thoroughly due to summer time filling my weekends up, though I could identify incorrect answers pretty immediately with the questions I had time to think about. The problem was when I realized I was crunched for time, I couldn't think straight no matter how hard I tried to force myself to focus on the question, I could only think about the time I was spending on it.

With enough time, and comparing the answers to the questions, I was able to rule out the obvious incorrect answers, and I chose the ones I felt were correct. However after the panic ensued, I just read key words in the questions, and looked for patterns in the answers that matched the question, and tried to blaze through them as fast as possible.

I will be rebuilding my lab if vmWare will let me test again without the class, but honestly Stanley doesn't offer online courses in MN, so I wouldn't bother with taking the course at such a cost.

The thing is I work with UC (VoIP) servers that are all hosted on ESXi hosts, but VMware is so solid it never fails, so I don't ever need to troubleshoot it - so I don't have a whole lot of experience minus the very few times I've had to clone a VM and bring it back up. Though I've come so far I can't not get this certification, and I can branch out to datacenter roles in my work place, I am determined to achieve a pass on the next attempt if it can happen.

And one more bit of advice, which has been said else where on the web so I don't feel I'm breaking any kind of NDA saying this, don't bother memorizing any config maximums for the exam. At all.

Asif Dasl

Yeah, I have heard that sooo many times on the web about configuration maximums it's actually NOT true - it may have been true in the past but not any longer. Not once did I get a maximum number of NICs question at all, not even close - a lot of weird questions that were not in any videos or books and I took a best guess at them.

I don't remember how I was for time on the exam, having little time is a norm for most of the harder exams I've taken - so that aspect doesn't stand out to me that much. I think it's impossible to even get close to acing the VCP because of the questions they give you. I just checked Amazon.com for Chris Wahl's book and it gets a disappointing review, but on Amazon.co.uk it's all 5 stars - hopefully it's better than the bad review says.

Could you use a ShipIto.com address to get around the no online courses in MN - just a thought?

BTW - what score did you get?

tomtom1

Too bad, you'll get it next time. If you run into some scenario's that aren't clear, we might be able to help you out. I can also prep some practice questions for you if you'd like? The VCP5 isn't a test that you can pass easily, but it is so worth it. Configuration maximums were questioned in the VCP4 exams, but have been removed from VCP5 and they test you on real product knowledge know, rather than knowing some maximums inside out.

Essendon

I failed my first go at this too, if it makes you feel any better mate. The other guys have given valuable advice already, all I'd say is you've put in a lot of effort into this already, just come back and own it next time. And like tomtom1 said, we can help you out with specific topics you had problems with. Good luck!

scott28tt

An anecdotal knowledge of maximums can be useful (eg. there may be a troubleshooting question that asks you why something can't be done and it may be that the maximum has been reached) but there have been no "direct" questions on maximums since VCP3 days.

You do not need to take the training again, just register for the exam and pay the fee again...

Best of luck

jibbajabba

Man I remember those VCP3 days. I had a whole block of flash cards just for maximums. And back in VCP3 days you even got questions like "what's color has the CDP icon next to a standard switch". They really tried hard to find a way to make sure only people with experience can pass it.

ande0255

Thanks for all the positive feedback, it's much appreciated! I actually got a 225 for my score, which really surprised me, but I was really rushed for the last 2/3 of the test and it just completely shattered my ability to concentrate. A lot of the questions were lengthy scenarios as well, I got a dry erase board this time and didn't use it because I wasn't sure how to use it effectively, but next attempt I will be writing down the amount of devices on which subnets or whatever it lists.

I found that was the part that really consumed time, was having to refer back to this long scenario question and search for the specific piece of info I was looking for, for the host name / vlan number / something regarding the number of devices. I plan to work on how to quickly free hand diagrams before my next attempt so all I need to re-read is the specific question again when cross referencing the answers back to the question, I'd highly recommend anyone to do the same that is not familiar with drawing out a diagram on the fly.

Thank you Scott for pointing that out that I can re-sign up as well! I am going to reschedule it right now, take the weekend off, and then back to the books and completely rebuilding my lab starting Monday. I know exactly what I need to improve on, and looking forward to nailing it in the next couple weeks!

Also I may hit you guys up on my rough areas if I feel I have any, and really appreciate the offer to help out! I think what I really need to do is lab very extensively, different levels of management accounts, and many more vm's utilizing every feature vSphere has to offer. Time to knock this one out of the park next attempt!

Xavor

I failed the first go around, take some time to hit the books again and you should get it. I walked out of the first attempt frustrated with the same reaction to several of the questions on the exam as you did. There's a reason why the VMware forums have the equivalent of a small book of complaints regarding the exam.

tstrip007

I failed the first time too and had been working with it for a few years prior. I went straight to the documentation and blueprint for areas I was weak on which was storage and resource pools. Good luck on the second attempt.

notheory

Could anyone sum up what the difficulties are with the exam? I'll be taking it around November. I do know VDI in and out but want to get VCP-DCV certified to advance my career and eventually switch and do more of the back-end work. I'll be sitting through the VMware course in September. For books I've purchased:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-VMware-vSphere-Scott-Lowe/dp/1118661141/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408308483&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=vmware+dcv5
and
http://www.amazon.com/VCP5-DCV-Certified-Professional-Data-Virtualization-vSphere/dp/1118658442/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408308483&sr=8-1&keywords=vmware+dcv5

I'm a bit discouraged after reading this. It would be a bummer, studying really hard and labbing till late in the evening, just to go for the exam to find silly and unreasonable trick questions. Any hints are much appreciated.

I've also read that they won't be asking you about max and min specifics? And (and I'm not sure if you're allowed to say) but what about min. system requirements?
I always find it nonsense and annoying to memorize things like min. requirements.

Thanks

kj0

notheory wrote: »

I always find it nonsense and annoying to memorize things like min. requirements.

Thanks

You have to keep in mind that they are testing you to be able to Install, Configure and Manage. So this means installing it in a small or even a major enterprise. In some situations where you are setting up a new company, or an existing that already has some servers, you have to be able to determine if the current gear will be compatible or not. (it's a few things like that in which you have to think during that exams)

notheory

kj0 wrote: »

You have to keep in mind that they are testing you to be able to Install, Configure and Manage. So this means installing it in a small or even a major enterprise. In some situations where you are setting up a new company, or an existing that already has some servers, you have to be able to determine if the current gear will be compatible or not. (it's a few things like that in which you have to think during that exams)

I know. I'm not saying I won't memorize it, it's just one of these things where they can really annoy you during the exam.
But I'm more wondering why so many people "hate" the VCP exams.
"|There's a reason why the VMware forums have the equivalent of a small book of complaints regarding the exam.|"
Why is this?

What should I look out for?
I planned to study for it the same way i did for the CCNA:
- Study the material in the books in and out
- Lab lab lab
- Watch cbtnugget videos

This won't do it?

And since I'm already hijacking this thread (sorry for that :P ), are there any good, legit not brain ****, practice exams?

kj0

Any sort of Brain **** is not legit and should not be discussed any further.


Anyway, your method seems sound, although, this is one time I would recommend using trainsignal/PluralSight for VMware related studies. A lot more content. There's a 6 hour video series just on networking intended for a vCAP level, but it definitely covered a lot for the VCP. The "What's new" video's are also really well done and cover everything that's changed.

Read the documentations as well, there are a lot of Knowledge base articles out there. Something like an issue I've had a few times like "Unable to connect to console, mkr 902" or something like that - It will give you and idea that DNS/Firewall plays a role and needs to be also considered. (That's just a scenario I've had at work and at home - Plenty of threads on that issue here in the forums)

notheory

kj0 wrote: »

Any sort of Brain **** is not legit and should not be discussed any further.

Sorry I had a typo in my sentence which made it look wrong (typing from mobile phone).

kj0 wrote: »

Anyway, your method seems sound, although, this is one time I would recommend using trainsignal/PluralSight for VMware related studies. A lot more content. There's a 6 hour video series just on networking intended for a vCAP level, but it definitely covered a lot for the VCP. The "What's new" video's are also really well done and cover everything that's changed.

Read the documentations as well, there are a lot of Knowledge base articles out there. Something like an issue I've had a few times like "Unable to connect to console, mkr 902" or something like that - It will give you and idea that DNS/Firewall plays a role and needs to be also considered. (That's just a scenario I've had at work and at home - Plenty of threads on that issue here in the forums)

Thanks will check out Pluralsight. I remember not liking it too much because the separation of the courses is quite a mess, IMO.

scott28tt

1. The documentation is important - it is used to validate items in the exam.
2. The blueprint is key - it tells you the exam objectives and links to the relevant documents/tools that you should refer to.
3. The software should also be used - there are some items you'll only be able to answer if you've done what's being asked about.

I would consider any other resources as being supplementary to those 3 things.

kj0

This is old, but highly recommend using for quick notes

vSphere 5 Card | vReference

notheory

So I had a better look at Pluralsight and signed up for one month.
This question goes to anyone with who knows their videos and has taken the exam. I'm are right when I'm assuming that all the intermediate level videos are VCP level and the advanced level videos are vcap?

They have a really nice series of scale and optimize but i believe it is overkill for VCP.

kj0

You could assume it like that. It would be more on your understanding. So the advanced networking might cover VLANs on a DvSwitch a little more indepth which might help you understand it a lot better - That sort of thing.

All of them are worth while. The more you know, the better

ande0255

I went through the entire VCP5 set of Pluralsight videos, definitely not overkill, I'd say it's actually a very small portion of what you should be using.