Pondering just waiting for VCAP5-DCA

blargoe

Now that I have some time to start studying for VCAP-DCA again, I'm looking at the information that has been put out there from the beta version of VCAP5-DCA and noticed that Orchestrator, vCenter Heartbeat, vShield Zones, and Linked Mode are no longer going to be included on the exam. Since those happened to be the areas (aside from Linked Mode) that I had almost no experience with, now I'm pondering whether I should just study v5 and wait for the new exam... or switch gears totally and look at DCD instead...

I did go to two of the advanced vSphere 4 courses, so I would hate to not make use of that time/effort and not get the v4 cert, but since I waited so long, and now am close to working on a new v5 deployment, I'm almost to the conclusion that the best use of my time would be to abandon any more work on v4.

Decisions, decisions...

ChooseLife

Ultimately that is your decision to make. Do you feel it would be good to have both VCAP4-DCA and VCAP5-DCA? Do you have time for both? Then do both to maximize results. Do you want to do just one and choosing between v4 or v5? That's a tougher choice... If I was in your position, I'd gauge how close I am to being ready for VCAP4-DCA and if the amount of effort was reasonable, would go for v4, otherwise would start focusing on v5...

dave330i

You'll need both DCD & DCA to become a VCDX. I've heard DCD isn't too tough if you have experience building vSphere infrastructure. I'll let you know how hard it really is on Wednesday.

blargoe

I'm not sure yet if I will eventually go for VCDX, but I feel like I'm adequately qualified to get something higher than VCP and not be "paper". If I do VCDX it'll be after I have several dozen distinct vSphere environments under my belt, some of which will have to be bigger than what I have worked with thus far.

I think DCA is the best match with my real world experience; however, I have designed and implemented a couple of vSphere datacenters and have experience in general designing infrastructure (Microsoft back-end stuff mainly) with a semi-formal methodology behind it, so neither would be a "bad" fit.

dave330i

I recommend not taking DCD until capacity planning is 2nd nature to you.

dave330i

VCAP5-DCA is now live.

blargoe

I wish I had more time to dedicate to study, else I would be wrapping up the loose ends on VCAP4-DCA... but as it is, my time at home is at a huge premium right now, and I have to work as efficiently as possible. So, with my vSphere 5 project at the new job kicking off (with LOTS of room for improvement and opportunity for me to shine through leveraging the technology effectively), I'm running my VCAP study in tandem with working on my vSphere 5 implementation. I think this is a good strategy for me, because I can use my work digging through the exam objectives to flesh out those things that aren't second nature to me at this time, and have these things built in to the environment from the beginning.

It will be more effort than just hitting the ground running and going straight into the upgrade, but I have convinced the bosses that a lot of analysis and re-engineering needs to go into our vSphere environment, and I am going to take full advantage. And it will be less effort than trying to tackle VCAP prep separately.

I am also *trying* to align the management of the project by integrating the objectives for the DCD test as well, just to get exposed to approaching it from the architect point of view, but that won't be the main focus. I set aside project time to formally document functional requirements, vs business requirements, logical vs physical design, etc., just to get used to working that way and will be stepping through the DCD blueprint as I go along, unless time constraints on the project and other tasks at work force me to hurry up.

dave330i

Sounds like a good plan. Good luck on the rebuild.

RouteThisWay

Good luck! Appears to be a solid strategy. I think that is a good idea to try to incorporate some of the DCD objectives in your current implementation.

I plan on upgrading to VCP5 pretty quickly after starting my new job and getting settled there and then go straight for the DCA myself.

blargoe

I'm getting pretty close on the DCA prep. Maybe a couple of weeks before I'll be comfortable with a first attempt at the exam.

That idea I had about adding time to my project for "requirements analysis", "research", etc turned out to be gold. I have been essentially studying for this test for 3 solid weeks with my VM Workstation lab and no one has said a word. Now I now which features I want to include in my design, and I think I know enough to cover it in the exam

Off to rebuild the lab again...

dave330i

Not sure about your area, but where I live I need to schedule these exams a month in advance. You might want to look into it.

blargoe

Will do. Thanks

jibbajabba

Don't you have to get that 10 minute pre-assessment with VMware before you can schedule even the exam ?

dave330i

jibbajabba wrote: »

Don't you have to get that 10 minute pre-assessment with VMware before you can schedule even the exam ?

You need authorization from VMware. Go to VMware site and click the "I'm glutton for punishment so please let me take this 4 hour exam" hyperlink in the VCAP cert section. VMware checks to see if you meet the pre-req (VCP4 or 5 depending on the VCAP) and sends you an authorization e-mail in a few days.

jibbajabba

dave330i wrote: »

You need authorization from VMware. Go to VMware site and click the "I'm glutton for punishment so please let me take this 4 hour exam" hyperlink in the VCAP cert section. VMware checks to see if you meet the pre-req (VCP4 or 5 depending on the VCAP) and sends you an authorization e-mail in a few days.

Thought so, thanks. Just one thing to consider when making specific timed plans ..

blargoe

I'll be taking this test in a couple of weeks. The authorization actually came back in less than 24 hours. I had dates to pick from as soon as 3 days out if I wanted, but chose a later date because of holiday timing and some training that I have right around the corner. I have to drive over an hour to a Pearson Professional center to do the test. Which isn't that bad, I guess, but I'm used to having a test center right across town I can go to.

I'll let you know how it goes.

meadIT

Good luck! That reminds me...I have a voucher for the exam that I need to use before the end of the year. Guess I should go ahead and schedule it just in case it fills up.

QHalo

Good luck! As soon as I'm through NCDA, that's my next step. Here's hoping that it doesn't change to 5.1 stuff before then.

meadIT

When they updated VCAP 4 to 4.1, they made sure the questions they asked would be the same answer whether it was 4.0 or 4.1. In other words, they wouldn't ask a question that could be different based on version. However, 5.1 was a huge change from 5.0, so I'm not sure that will stay the same in this version, but I would assume so.

dave330i

Good luck on the exam. Looks like you, Essendon and I are taking the DCA around the same time.

I should stop slacking and study some more.

blargoe

QHalo wrote: »

Good luck! As soon as I'm through NCDA, that's my next step. Here's hoping that it doesn't change to 5.1 stuff before then.

Thanks... NetApp OnTAP Admin is actually my next training course. I'll be interested to see how you do there.

blargoe

dave330i wrote: »

Good luck on the exam. Looks like you, Essendon and I are taking the DCA around the same time.

I should stop slacking and study some more.

That's part of the reason I went ahead and just booked it... I'm FORCED to continue studying... but timing wise, I really need to get this thing done, there are other certs I want to work on that I have put on the back burner because of this one.

blargoe

Taking this tomorrow. I'm pretty burned on out studying, so I'm probably going to cool it for this last day for the most part. I know what I know, and I don't know what I don't know. I'm as prepared as I'm ever going to be...

dave330i

Good luck on the exam.

FYI, you'll get a 5 min warning pop up. It froze my test environment. I had to switch between question & lab environment to clear it up.

blargoe

I sat the exam yesterday. I thought the exercises were good and appropriately challenging. Nothing was off limits.

However, my connection to the remote lab was SLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOW. Much worse than what dave330i described. Clicking between windows, maximixing/minimizing, etc might take 5-10 seconds, each time, for it to render on my screen. Sometimes, the text in the lables on the tabs in vCenter client would not render at all... I was going blind at times if I were in the vCenter client via remote desktop.

I showed the proctor what was happening and she called in and registered an incident number for me since it was impacting my ability to complete the test. I think didn't get to 8 questions and didn't completely finish 3-4 more. They better give me a redo.

dave330i

That really sucks. Hopefully they'll give you a redo. On the plus side, now that you've been through the exam, you know what to expect next time.

blargoe

Thanks dave. There was really only one question that I had that I knew I'd have to spend some time looking up (skipped most of that one), and I later guessed which ones would require the most back-and-forth between screens or just more time in general and marked those to come back to later. Having sat through it once, I doubt I would have finished EVERY question, but I would have gotten a lot more accomplished if not for the performance.