Study VCP DCV only using only software labs

Hello, gents.

I am interested in learning Vmware VCP DC. I think that it's a milestone in the field of virtualization.

Since I do not have a beefy server right now, I wanted to rent a sort of cloud service to run the software and perform the labs.

Does anybody know any company that offers such service?

Kind Regards.

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dave330i

VMWARE hands on lab.

EANx

I'm guessing you mean VCP-DCV? Are you looking for a company that already has labs that can be spun-up at a moment's notice or are you simply looking for cloud compute and will load your own eval or VMUG copies? For "bare-metal" cloud service, the big three are Amazon's AWS with Microsoft and Google a distant #2 & 3.

You can do quite a bit without a beefy server, you might want to give it a try before renting cloud time just to see where you do have resource constraints. As long as your desktop/laptop BIOS supports virtualization, you should be able to run something like VMware Player then drop a couple of copies of ESXi inside that.

scott28tt

A good spec PC or laptop will allow you to build a nested vSphere lab in a bunch of VMs, or a second-hand server off eBay...

You will need to take official training at some point, and you'll get access to a lab environment as part of that too.

Lexluethar

As Scott said virtualizing on your desktop is plenty to pass the VCP imo. Yes there are some items you cannot mess with without shared storage but it's nominal, just know the concepts.

OctalDump

VMware hands on labs is free and a good way to prepare. It has scenarios that focus on a specific technology, so combined with a good study guide, you can hone in on the areas where you need most work.

If you want to roll your own, then it's doable on a decent 4 core laptop/desktop with 16GB RAM (you might get away with lower spec, but it gets more painful), although more is better (i7 and 32GB with a dedicated SSD). You don't need a lot of resources, since you don't do that much with the VMs themselves - it's not like they are running massive database applications, a basic OS install with some simple tools like ping is enough. To cover all the objectives, you will need to run nested VMs and set up a virtualised storage server - but those objectives might be better achieved with Hands On Labs.

tbgree00

For VCP level concepts the Hands on Labs will be good to get your feet wet. Also the labs in the ICM course are good.

You can look at VMware Lab Connect if you want some more in depth labs.