VCP4 required vSphere course, help please

Hi All,
I am currently involved in an internship at my college working on a project for a VDI implementation. As you know the backbone to VMware VDI is vSphere.. I am going to start work this week on our vSphere and Have seriously been considering the VCP4 certification. I read that training is required in order to sit for the VCP .. It seems really expensive ... does anyone out there know of a cheaper way to get the required training for vSphere install, configure, manage course? I am a student and was wondering if that could cut back some $$.. thanks all !
I am currently involved in an internship at my college working on a project for a VDI implementation. As you know the backbone to VMware VDI is vSphere.. I am going to start work this week on our vSphere and Have seriously been considering the VCP4 certification. I read that training is required in order to sit for the VCP .. It seems really expensive ... does anyone out there know of a cheaper way to get the required training for vSphere install, configure, manage course? I am a student and was wondering if that could cut back some $$.. thanks all !
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Note: vSphere 5 is due out in the second half of this year so it might be worth waiting for it to be released first.
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger
VMware Certified Associate 4 - Desktop
It doesn't require a course, only you pass the exam and you will become associate.
No courses for me, they are really expensive and I'm thinking about the cert I might do it next month. I know it's an entry level one but it's better than nothing.
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
I am not saying you couldn't get virtualization jobs, but it will be harder and your likely to be limited in what jobs you can land, for instance you may only be able to land P2V contracts instead of full time Vsphere administrator jobs.
I am in no means trying to discourage you, virtualization is utltra neat, really hot technology that is here to stay, but I would hate for you to spend alot of time and money and then not get a good ROI, I've seen this happen alot.
The ROI is there, but you may not be able to take advantage of it before you have to renew your certs/skills.
just my .2 cents
Yea, this is an awesome idea, I can't stress enough how much I believe in staying on your employer about training.
After a year of requesting it, finally in two weeks I am attending Vsphere 4.1 install, configure, manage.
The total value should be around 4,500 and thats huge when it doesn't come out of your pocket, and I firmly believe that in the next ten years in order to jump to the next level above your run of the mill systems administrator, virtualization experience is going to be an absolute MUST.
But if you plan on taking the course I would suggest not taking the exam before the course, doing that is just wasting money. The course is of great benefit for the exam.
Depends really .. sometimes someone is ready to take the exam but just doesn't have the cash to take the course but also wants to get it over with
Plus I can imagine you sit the course with a whole different attitude if you know you don't have the pressure in passing - you can just sit there and enjoy the ride
Ok, granted - that probably only applies if the person who pays for the course is your manager -as it was in my case
if you wanna be a VCP you gotta attend the course, know about networking (lil' bit), know about Storage (very important) and build a home lab in order to get some practice and obviously pass the exam.:).
vmware suddenly offers 100% discount vouchers but only for channel partners.
Good luck with it.
HH
I am using netapp at my site, and netapp makes a simulator similar to cisco's packet tracer, that is pretty good.
It's really hard to wrap your mind around actually setting it up without the physical hardware to look at, but I found some uses for it.
Also, I think HP makes a simulator for it's EVA storage line, but never worked with them or their simulators.
My point is, you can take it, but you won't get any "benefits" and you aren't allowed to call yourself VCP - all you are is a dude with a passed exam of some sort
Sorry for the late response.. been a busy week. I haven't actually got into the setting up stages of our vSphere but I believe we will probably start with local storage then once were comfortable , mite move them over to an iscsi SAN.. still got to do a lil more research on the storage types but this is just a POC so idk if it will be necessary .. yet I still wanna learn and actually set it up.