Sat the VCAP5-DCA on Tuesday at VMworld

azjag

As the title implies I took the VCAP5-DCA on Tuesday at VMworld. At 75% off the $400 exam fee I couldn't resist the temptation. There was a VMware education center that had computer pods setup for test preparation and offered simulation questions. I spent a good amount of time in these pods on Monday after registering for the exam. On Tuesday I walked in to the test center knowing I wasn't 100% ready for the exam. I complete the survey before the exam and click Start to begin the exam. The screen flashes and it is an error about my account not being authorized to take the test at this time. I am ushered out into a waiting area while support is called to find out what is going on. Spoke with the VMware employee who is supporting the center onsite, who just got off the phone, told me the lab kit is being reauthorized and should be ready in 10 minutes. Ten minutes later I am back in the room, sitting at the same seat, clicking start.

Three and half hours later I walk out of the exam. Completely drained. It is 100% simulation based. If you do not know what you are doing you will not get through it. I am torn between hating the exam and loving it. Hating it because of the time crunch and pressure to get everything done. Loving it because it really does test your knowledge of the product. They ask you to complete the tasks. How you complete the tasks depends on how you use the resources they provide.

Now is the 2 week wait for results. Feels the same as the CISSP exam having to wait on the results. I used the the unofficial official vcap study guide found here The Unofficial Official VCAP5-DCA Study Guide » ValCo Labs.
lots of whitepapers from VMware.

Essendon

Yeah I thought it was a fair exam too since they really do test you but I just do not understand the time pressure. Who on earth does things at break neck speed in a real environment (apart from the odd occasion when things break, of course)? But a good exam nonetheless.

How many question were you able to attempt, complete or skip? I did 18 (I think, cant remember now) completely and the others to a varying degree. I passed with a 315. How was the lag, atrocious or tolerable? And good luck!

meadIT

I'd assume the time restraint is because they provide you all of the documentation. If you had all day to get through the exam, you could just sit there and look everything up. With the time constraint, you have to know most everything, but still have a bit of time to look things up that you aren't sure about.

azjag

Essendon wrote: »

Yeah I thought it was a fair exam too since they really do test you but I just do not understand the time pressure. Who on earth does things at break neck speed in a real environment (apart from the odd occasion when things break, of course)? But a good exam nonetheless.

How many question were you able to attempt, complete or skip? I did 18 (I think, cant remember now) completely and the others to a varying degree. I passed with a 315. How was the lag, atrocious or tolerable? And good luck!

I was able to get through and complete 18 of the questions and tasks. The remaining ones still had things left to do. There were 2 that I didn't even attempt because of the time it would take to search the documentation. Other than the hiccup in the beginning I didn't have too many problems with the environment. There was some lag on the screen refreshes which was annoying. My biggest complaint was the size of the vcenter window. it was 5in x 8in on a 19in monitor. Having to kill the task window and scroll through other windows was annoying. I actually spoke with one of the guys who created the test, he heard me commenting on the screen size and chimed in to the conversation. Those are the 2 biggest complaints they get. Screen size and lag. The screen size issue is a limitation by Pearson VUE and they (VUE) are not compelled to do anything about it. The lag is due to the size of the simulation environment (Lab Kit), the network it is coming through and the speed of the pc you are testing on. I asked him when they are going to upgrade the exam to include 5.5, how it is graded, and a bunch of other questions. 5.5 will be added sometime around November/December as VMworld Spain is also coming up. The grading part is interesting because they use powershell/powercli to check the items and if the grader wants to they can watch the entire test as it is being completed. It was a good conversation and I can't remember everything we talked about.

azjag

Received an email at 5:36pm today with my results.

I passed!!!

Now it is time to go home and celebrate.

Essendon

Congrats Jeff!! VMware seem to have sped up the grading process these days, your result took a week or so. What's next? The DCD?

azjag

Essendon wrote: »

Congrats Jeff!! VMware seem to have sped up the grading process these days, your result took a week or so. What's next? The DCD?

I knew it would take up to 14 days to get my results. I was not expecting them this early due to VMworld and a holiday weekend. This exam was a spur of the moment, it's only $100 go for it, idea and I was not sure I would pass. In my inebriated state I am thinking I will give the DCD a go in the next 6 months or so. We shall see how I feel after I have had a chance to look at the requirements and sober up. What are you using for study material for the DCD?

Essendon

Enjoy the drinks mate! For $100, I'd give it a shot too. I took it on with a 25% off voucher, I was like why not give it a shot and count it as a dry run if I didnt make it. I passed too.

For the DCD, anything I can lay my hands on really. I'm gearing up for my second shot at it towards the end of this month. I'm using the following:

- the 2nd edition of the vSphere Design book. Great book, I read it cover to cover 3 times.
- the HA/Clustering Deepdive book. Read it twice for the DCA and skimmed it for the DCD. Mistake here - should've gone through it again.
- the Managing and Optimizing book by Stagner and Crookston. Good book, I read it cover to cover in 3 days. Some of the scenarios they present in there are exam quality.
- the Design Workshop, some great material in there but most of it was in the vSphere Design book already
- the Architectural Decisions section at joshodgers.com
- a great collection of links at technodrone.blogspot.com

I failed because I lack real work design experience. I know people who've passed it easily because they design solutions with the product for a living. I reckon you'll do just fine too.

Asif Dasl

Congrats on the pass! Good luck with the DCD..

blargoe

Congrats on the pass!

slinuxuzer

One more reason I am sad I missed vmworld this year, 2012 didn't have a testing center, can you tell me how much you used the CLI either powershell or esxcli to complete the tasks? I am very good with the GUI, but not so much on CLI side, I've heard that the time constraint is basically there to force CLI usage and therby further prove knowledge level.

So I am basically trying to find out how true this is or not.

Thanks.

Kinet1c

Congrats on the pass!

Essendon

slinuxuzer wrote: »

One more reason I am sad I missed vmworld this year, 2012 didn't have a testing center, can you tell me how much you used the CLI either powershell or esxcli to complete the tasks? I am very good with the GUI, but not so much on CLI side, I've heard that the time constraint is basically there to force CLI usage and thereby further prove knowledge level.

So I am basically trying to find out how true this is or not.

Thanks.

I used the CLI when it was the only way to answer the question, I'm way quicker with the GUI too. The time constraint is there but it's the lagginess that wastes your time. Dont resize your windows too much, switching between them is bad too.

slinuxuzer

Essendon wrote: »

I used the CLI when it was the only way to answer the question, I'm way quicker with the GUI too. The time constraint is there but it's the lagginess that wastes your time. Dont resize your windows too much, switching between them is bad too.

Thanks for the info, really sucks that something that has zero to do with the technology or knowledge has significant bearing on the outcome.

Essendon

I know, when I took the test the lagginess was bordering on intolerable. The pdf's, especially, take a while to be rendered on your screen. There shouldnt be any need to open them really unless you have just forgotten something, you cannot use them to pick up something new. DONT scroll the pdf's either, atrociously slow!

azjag

There were some small issues with lag but nothing like you experienced. I didn't have any issue with the PDF's and scrolling. I did have issues with the size of the vcenter window. It was about 10in diagonal and it had some issues with lag.

Essendon

I've read people that do their DCA during VMworld experience the least lag. Lucky eh Jeff!

So that now that you've probably sobered up from the feasting and drinking, are you going to start on the DCD next?

azjag

I have already started studying for the exam. Hoping to find a discount code around VMworld 2013 in Barcelona.

I'm reading the following so far:
VMware vSphere Design: Forbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe: 9781118407912: Amazon.com: Books
VCAP5-DCD Official Cert Guide (with DVD): VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 - Data Center Design (VMware Press Certification): Paul McSharry: 9780789750181: Amazon.com: Books

I'm also looking at some of the links you shared. We shall see how I feel in a couple months. This design exam seems to be a very different beast from the administration exam. I hope I have enough exposure for the design concepts. Having worked on a few environments is helpful, but doesn't feel like enough to grasp both smb and enterprise scale.

slinuxuzer

Might want to check out Safari books online, it has a great app for IPAD with offline reading capabilites and I know for a fact these books are available there. It's about 10$ per month for a five slot book shelf.

azjag

I received the certificate, sticker and welcome letter today. Nothing to be excited about, it looks like my last two vmware certificates. It is a little depressing really. Hard work, time investment, and cost involved and you get a certificate on thicker paper printed on a laser printer, form filled letter, and a sticker that says "VCAP" Datacenter Administration. My CISSP, SSCP, and CCENT certs look better then this and came with better swag. I'll have to compare it to the VMware stock certificate when it comes in.

Because I am too lazy to take a picture of my own and post it, I'll borrow the image from EMC. https://community.emc.com/people/wwn/blog/2012/12/11/vcap5-dca-certificate