Question about ICM course preparation

GBAKER2204

Hi all,

I will be taking the VCP5ICM course next week and wondered if there was anything I could do to prepare for it in advance?*

Given that I am paying for this out of my own pocket it would be good to maximise the training where possible to ensure I get all of the benefits from it. I intend on sitting the exam shortly after attending the course, perhaps a few weeks to give time for the info to sink in and to lab the areas on which I feel less confident.

I have the Mastering VSphere 5 book and access to CBT training through work. I also have downloaded the exam blueprint and all of the reference guides from VMWare's site.

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of those that have taken the ICM course, and from the VCTs that frequent this forum.

I have been using VMWare's desktop products constantly in the last 8 or 9 years and have undertaken day to day admin of VI 3 *(approximately 1.5 years) and VSphere 4 (approximately 1 year) environments at work during that time, so I am not starting from scratch.

Best wishes,

Guy

jibbajabba

The ICM course starts at 0 but is not enough to pass the exam. If you want to prepare then usually I'd say take the blueprint, get the book and mark the chapter in the book / documentation related to the blueprint and study / lab the heck out of it and if you got questions, ask the trainer.

BUT - your course is next week so there isn't much time to prepare - have a read through the blueprint, or in fact, print it out and take it with you so you can ask questions if you feel you have any (big) gabs ...

GBAKER2204

Thank you for your quick response.

As I said I have been using ESX and VSphere in it's various guises for a number of years, and have been reading through the Blueprint and the Mastering VSphere 5 book over the last month or two.
I would not dare go on a course starting from scratch  and to that end started preparing for the course by reading through the book, watching and annotating the CBTs and working through some labs. I have been using the CBT as well, to give myself grounding in most of the topics covered in the blue print and will likely repeat this, re-read the book and labbing the heck out of it before sitting the exam.
At my last work place I worked through and attained the VSP4 (useless in this setting) and VTSP4 (was somewhat helpful prior to viewing the V5 CBT) courses through VMWare’s Partner Central.

I just wondered if there were any tips I could pick up specifically about pre-course preparation.

Thanks again,

Guy

jibbajabba

GBAKER2204 wrote: »

specifically about pre-course preparation.

There is not much more you can do to prepare, as like I said - the course starts at a point where people with zero knowledge come in. If you worked with vSphere several years and read the book for a month or two - then this is probably all you can do and you may end up being bored

The course might just help you to fill in some gabs but all you can do at this stage really is going through the blueprint and maybe pick out your weak points and ask the hell out of the instructor ...

SteveLord

There is a lot. I took Vsphere 5 ICM and was floored by how much lecture there is. Sometimes talking for an entire hour between labs. Lots of information to absorb. But even if you miss some things, the labs are easy enough to follow along with. Worst part was probably partner labs and having a partner that doesn't communicate well (people from other countries, especially India will be present) or at all. Thankfully there is only a few of them.

Akaricloud

I doubt there's too much you can do beforehand to help, possibly take a quick look at SAN environments if you're not used to them. Just make sure you ask questions and stay interactive during the class. In mine we went much deeper into certain subjects due to myself and others asking questions and posing what-if scenarios.

jibbajabba

You were clearly lucky as all but two in my ICM course (back in the i3 days) didn't even hear about vmware and were sent to the course by their employer ... So clearly that didn't help as he couldn't / wouldn't answer more difficult questions as the other guys had to keep up ... somewhat

Akaricloud

My class was mixed, about 5 of us had actual production experience with it, myself being one of the most knowledgable. Some of the questions asked by those that had more enterprise storage experience than I do definitely helped solidify my understanding.

blargoe

GBAKER2204 wrote: »

Hi all,

I will be taking the VCP5ICM course next week and wondered if there was anything I could do to prepare for it in advance?*

Given that I am paying for this out of my own pocket it would be good to maximise the training where possible to ensure I get all of the benefits from it. I intend on sitting the exam shortly after attending the course, perhaps a few weeks to give time for the info to sink in and to lab the areas on which I feel less confident.

I have the Mastering VSphere 5 book and access to CBT training through work. I also have downloaded the exam blueprint and all of the reference guides from VMWare's site.

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of those that have taken the ICM course, and from the VCTs that frequent this forum.

I have been using VMWare's desktop products constantly in the last 8 or 9 years and have undertaken day to day admin of VI 3 *(approximately 1.5 years) and VSphere 4 (approximately 1 year) environments at work during that time, so I am not starting from scratch.

Best wishes,

Guy

You are in pretty good shape if you have 1.5 years working with vSphere already in whatever capacity you have been working with it. A VCP is going to need basic understanding of operating systems, hardware, networking, and storage; so if you're not up to basic understanding in any of those areas, maybe read up a little. I remember VLANs being hard for some of the folks to grasp in the last ICM course I took. You don't have to be a mile deep in any of these areas, but you need to understand how virtualization affects and changes things on each of those layers.

One other think I will note, is that if you have an officially sanctioned ICM course taught by a VCI, they will be the best resource for how to prepare for the exam. They will tell you that ICM is not an exam preparation course, but they can help point you in the right direction with regard to where the ICM is deficient in exam preparation (in a general sense, they can't violate their NDA). The exam blueprint should always be your benchmark.

There are a number of vExpert and other VM pro blogs out there dedicated to VCP study help; I don't have any off hand, but I know they are out there.

I see you have Mastering vSphere 5, that is probably the best book for general reference outside of the VMware PDFs.

Finally, don't expect to jump right in to the exam until about a month after the class, unless you just have gobs of time dedicate to studing/labbing what the course didn't cover. The course will only get you about 60-70% there as I recall.

Good luck!

GBAKER2204

Thanks to all that have responded so far. Have wanted to do this course for 6 or 7 years (but didn't have the funds to do it untilvnow) so I have been reading around this subject for a while, but only started properly studying once I had confirmed the course was booked.

The training centre is a VMWare Accredited Training Centre (Magirus on Fleet Street here in London) and I was very careful to ensure this was an official course before paying out the money.

I have also looked at vmware training.blogspot.co.uk as well as Simon Long, vhersey and virtual langer's websites and some others that aren't springing to mind.

jibbajabba

Noteable webresources are, I think

Yellow Bricks

Redirect to www.ntpro.nl

and of course from our resident Scott

VMware Training and Certification

Oh and did my ICM and Design Course at Magirus ...

scott28tt

Hello, hope you found my blog useful

Say hi to your instructor from me (will most likely be Phil or Robert)

GBAKER2204

Hi Scott,

Yes I have found your blog to be useful and refer to it often. I will pass on your best to the instructor.

Jibbajabba

How did you find the courses with Magirus? I have also been referring to those sites you mentioned as well as vminfo for Vcp study tips and info on all things virtualisation. I also have visited David Davis's blog.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and advice.

jibbajabba

I just checked and I did the Design course with IBM and not Magirus - but I def. was in Magirus for the ICM course - bear in mind - its been a few years but the lab was excellent and so was the the instructor. "Back in the days" vmware wasn't so big so we had mostly professionals in the course so we had a brilliant brain storm session.

Not sure how it is today though - but I am sure they are still great (not that you got many choices in the UK anyway)