Dave's VCDX journey

dave330i

Finally have an interesting design. Do I attempt again?

kj0

dave330i wrote: »

finally have an interesting design. Do i attempt again?

Do it!!

dave330i

Spending this week studying for VCAP6-DCA. 1 week should be enough for this exam. Just need to remember that Backspace doesn't work in the exam.

dave330i

DCA scheduled for tomorrow. Still feeling sick from this cold I've been fighting since last week. The good news is that backspace seems to be working in the exam environment.

Checked my VMware cert list and I actually have a VCIX6-DCV. I did hear that if you have VCAP5-DCD & DCA and pass 1 of the VCAP6, VMware will grant you VCIX6-DCV status. I assume that means I could have attempted VCDX6 w/out passing the VCAP6-DCV deploy.

Deathmage

dave330i wrote: »

DCA scheduled for tomorrow. Still feeling sick from this cold I've been fighting since last week. The good news is that backspace seems to be working in the exam environment.

Checked my VMware cert list and I actually have a VCIX6-DCV. I did hear that if you have VCAP5-DCD & DCA and pass 1 of the VCAP6, VMware will grant you VCIX6-DCV status. I assume that means I could have attempted VCDX6 w/out passing the VCAP6-DCV deploy.

You can do it Dave!

I'm about to take my AWS: SA cert in a week or two then on-to the VCAP6-NV after I finish up the CISSP study..

dave330i

Don't take a 3.5 hour advanced exam while sick. Ended up failing the deploy by about a question.

Annoyingly, I have to pass the VCP6 delta exam. Took it this morning and passed. It was probably the hardest VCP exam I've taken.

Time to schedule another deploy exam. Probably sometime between xmas & new years.

dave330i

Passed the VCAP-DCA. Not being sick is very important. I ended up over studying, since I scored 369.

Guess I need to start prepping for the vcdx.

Essendon

Maybe we can buddy up Dave? I've got my final attempt mid March. When're you aiming for?

dave330i

Essendon wrote: »

Maybe we can buddy up Dave? I've got my final attempt mid March. When're you aiming for?

I'm ok with teaming up, but aren't you almost done? I have a design in mind, but haven't done any real work on it.

Essendon

Yeah I'm almost done with the process. Just over 1 month to go before the final showdown. Continually working on my presentation, totally intending to say all those things they want to hear (justification, alternatives, risks and mitigation). One thing that stood out to me is - even though a lot of people recommend talking about the logical design aspect only during the presentation, I'd highly recommend throwing in the physical design aspect once every slide (so say you have Admission Control and justify it but also point out what setting you used and why it's beneficial to the business). This will show the panelists you aren't afraid of going into the weeds and discuss tech in depth. The scenario however must be logical design only (unless asked) in the interest of saving time.

dave330i

Ugh... I have to go with vSAN for storage or change my design.

jibbajabba

So where is everybody in the process ?

I finally pulled my finger out :

dave330i

I'm spending way too much time deploying everything VMware owns (just wrapping up View).

jibbajabba

My wait begins now. Just submitted myself

slinuxuzer

jibbajabba wrote: »

My wait begins now. Just submitted myself

Best of Luck

jibbajabba

Thanks.

jibbajabba

Essendon wrote: »

Yeah I'm almost done with the process. Just over 1 month to go before the final showdown. Continually working on my presentation, totally intending to say all those things they want to hear (justification, alternatives, risks and mitigation). One thing that stood out to me is - even though a lot of people recommend talking about the logical design aspect only during the presentation, I'd highly recommend throwing in the physical design aspect once every slide (so say you have Admission Control and justify it but also point out what setting you used and why it's beneficial to the business). This will show the panelists you aren't afraid of going into the weeds and discuss tech in depth. The scenario however must be logical design only (unless asked) in the interest of saving time.

Don't be too technical - you won't have that much time. Put stuff on backup slides, or have it on the slides but I'd wait for a question about the physical parts, rather than starting with it. If I'd talk about a physical aspect for a cluster setup for example, I could talk hours about just that.

Essendon

jibbajabba wrote: »

Don't be too technical - you won't have that much time. Put stuff on backup slides, or have it on the slides but I'd wait for a question about the physical parts, rather than starting with it. If I'd talk about a physical aspect for a cluster setup for example, I could talk hours about just that.

I've been there thrice mate so I know what goes down, while I agree about not being too technical is the way to go, I was referring to demonstrating technical depth by throwing in a physical level design decision here and there. There's actually a section for technical depth in the feedback you receive when you don't pass and it specifically says things like - demonstrate deeper understanding of blah.

slinuxuzer

I think if I were giving advice to anyone attempting VCDX I'd tell them to start the process by writing "this is not an engineering cert" one hundred times, yes engineering is an important part, and you ARE expected to have deep technical knowledge. But this is a design certification and any engineering details should be a product of meeting the business objective / requirements.

jibbajabba

Essendon wrote: »

I've been there thrice mate so I know what goes down, while I agree about not being too technical is the way to go, I was referring to demonstrating technical depth by throwing in a physical level design decision here and there. There's actually a section for technical depth in the feedback you receive when you don't pass and it specifically says things like - demonstrate deeper understanding of blah.

I know you have been. And I am not saying I know the secret sauce, but I know guys who passed it multiple times at first attempt and I am being mentored by a double. Again, that doesn't say anything, but even the presentation shown by VCDX001 on the demo on youtube they don't go that deep.

I am just saying how I would read this all personally. Proof is in the pudding obviously, but if I'd get a feedback saying that my technical expertise isn't all that, I would not just put more deep-technical details into the presentation, but it would show me personally that I might not have shown said expertise throughout the defense. And I am talking the actual design they have in front of them (which might have gotten me enough points to advance but potentially still not full whack), the presentation but also the scenario.

In an interview for a partner they do VCDX style presentations as part of the interview - in fact, the hiring manager was ex-panelist. I left the scenario thinking 'YES, GOT IT, AWESOME' and told close friends at my job that I will likely be leaving ..

The response: Nope mate, too technical where you shouldn't have been (Cx part of the presentation) and not technical enough where you should have been (i.e. when pretend Head of I.T. asked some more deeper questions).

Another complaint I had from said interview was that my slides were too busy and they were supposed to be to present a solution and not a configuration workbook.

So no, I haven't been in the room yet, but I have similar experiences, that, of course, not necessarily reflect a VCDX process, but I got burned twice now during an architect job hunt due to the same reason. One of them was Nutanix - and in fact, most people in the interview room were VCDX and I was about to throw the towel and go into pig farming as they made me think I know nothing about architecture.

If you re-read my post you will notice I didn't say DO NOT put anything in it - but "I" would use backup slides, keep the presentation logical as it is about the solution and not about how I configure it.

I submitted for CMA / vRA. I will likely discuss the logical part, what parts of the design have been designed why etc. I don't think there is much of a point in having a slide saying what sort of blueprint structure we are using with a list of configuration items. The slides would look crazy busy and not concise ...

I don't want to sound like a know-it-all , but as I say - I have been burned a few times now in a similar situation.

A shame panelists can't be mentor. It would be interesting to hear what exactly went wrong in those three attempts.

Deáthmáge85

How's your progress jibbajabba?

dave330i

Anyone else notice that the top VMware cert is a sales cert?

Deáthmáge85

dave330i wrote: »

Anyone else notice that the top VMware cert is a sales cert?

What could possibly be higher than a VCDX?

dave330i

Deáthmáge85 wrote: »

What could possibly be higher than a VCDX?

There's a reason why lots of super technical folks are struggling so much with VCDX.

Deáthmáge85

dave330i wrote: »

There's a reason why lots of super technical folks are struggling so much with VCDX.

Well in the past 2 years I've grown and matured a lot and can truly grasp the understanding of KISS. It's a art for truly technical people, it's a hard skill so many should master.

jibbajabba

In other news. My design was accepted - defending CMA in September (w/c 10).

Deáthmáge85

So I'm going to attempt the VCIX6-DCD exam the end of December. Curious though, which one is easier to study for? - I'm very hands-on with it, except after all these years I still don't use scripting as much as I'd like.

Finishing up Cyber Security, as in I just passed CySA+ and reading CASP since there is so much overlap, it's silly not to study and take this soon. But afterwards, want to take an Advanced VMware track.

This is Trevor, btw.

Deáthmáge85

jibbajabba wrote: »

In other news. My design was accepted - defending CMA in September (w/c 10).

So my question is can you bring a cut out picture of your forum avatar and print it out and glue it to a popsicle stick and hold it up when they take your VCDX picture?

jibbajabba

Deáthmáge85 wrote: »

So my question is can you bring a cut out picture of your forum avatar and print it out and glue it to a popsicle stick and hold it up when they take your VCDX picture?

Man I wish - I am using that avatar for the last, don't know - 20 years ? More than that ? I wished I had a larger version of it.

And right now it is wannabe-vcdx - if anything ...

Edit: funny, google picture search found one.

dave330i

@jibba - Good luck in your defense.