VMware vSphere: Optimize and Scale 5.1 Course Review

vNerd

In summary, myself and @slinuxuzer are taking the vSphere Optimize & Scale 5.1 course through Global Knowledge this week and wanted to post up some daily summaries about the course to document the highs and lows for anyone else interested. Since this is a new class that VMware is offering, there isn't much peer reviewed material out there, at least that we could find.

It started 2/4/13 and we plan to post at the conclusion of each day.

Day I: Management Resources; Performance in a Virtualized Environment - http://bit.ly/WNqS21
Day II: Network Scalability; Network Optimization; Strorage Scalability - http://bit.ly/XmJaKx
Day III: Storage Scalability (Cont); Storage Optimization - http://bit.ly/12F5inB

meadIT

Looking forward to this review. I've been trying to decide if this class would be worthwhile to take.

vNerd

Days II & III have been posted. We got tied up with work most of the evenings, after class, so we are catching up on the material over the next few days.

shifty1981

I know this is an older thread but, I have been using VMware vSphere & vCenter for a while but have never taken one of the classes in prep for the exam. My boss thinks I should take the optimize class. I have a feeling it might help me better troubleshoot and performance tune things but I'm guessing for the exam fast track would be better. Do you have an opinion? We have 2 clusters locally that I manage, 6 hosts total. I assist with two other clusters remotely.

QHalo

Do the Trainsignal stuff from Jason Nash. It's proper.

Haswell

QHalo wrote: »

Do the Trainsignal stuff from Jason Nash. It's proper.

+1

I am using Mr. Nash's course to study for the VCAP5-DCA exam, and it's great.

shifty1981

Which of his courses? Do they fulfill the vmware cert course requirement?

Or are you saying "Take whatever vmware course they'll pay for but before the exam sign up for trainsignal and take as many of his courses as I have time for before taking the exam?"

Do his courses prepare us for all of the certs or just VCP5-DCV? The others I see are:

VCA-DCV
VCAP5-DCA
VCAP5-DCD
VCDX5-DCV

shifty1981

By the way - I saw this link. Looks pretty helpfuL: VMware Certified Professional (VCP, VCP5-DCV, VCP510) Exam Preparation | vLore Blog

QHalo

Oh, sorry I guess I didn't read your post thoroughly. If you need a course requirement and you're pretty well set on the basics, then sure take the Optimize class. His courses cover the advanced topics. David Davis' stuff covers VCP. But neither are 'authorized' training classes so they don't meet those requirements. However...the authorized class is NOT a VCP focused class. They don't follow the VCP blueprint. If you want to pass the VCP-DCV/VCAP-DCA then David and Jason's classes are very good and focused to those ends.

shifty1981

Thanks. Yes I'm personally trying to get good content for the exam while better empowering myself to serve the company. Optimize class seems advanced. Perhaps I'll take that course and then use the other content for studying for the exam.

Thanks!

slinuxuzer

@shifty1981, the optimize and scale course was good, but if you don't have a fair amount of experience with vmware you might want to start with the ICM course. Sorry we never posted days 4 and 5 for the course, Mr. vNerd and I have had an absolutely insane year at work.

shifty1981

thanks slinuxuzer. I feel pretty confident in my vmware experience. I'm sure there are pieces I'm missing but i'll be studying and probably doing trainsignal beyond this course too. thanks!