VCP5-DCV needs to change

dave330i

I think VMware needs to revamp VCP exam. Customers are expecting people with VCP to be skill enough to design virtual environments, but that's not what the exam actually tests. The exam mostly covers daily admin skills. They should push the admin skills to VCA and turn VCP into DCD\DCA lite and change the recommended training from ICM to Optimize.

kj0

I agree, but also disagree with you, Dave. I'm currently studying the VCP and there is a fair chunk of stuff that I wouldn't see on a day to day basis unless I'm design/setting up a new infrastructure. admittedly, I am ready Scott Lowe's Mastering vSphere 5 at the moment and that is a deep dive of more than you need to know for the exam, but it all helps.perhaps a split, some content gets moved down to VCA, and the rest stays at the VCP level. For example, VCA could have. Creating VMs and setting up HA. Where VCP could have more in-depth about VMFS or vSS/vDS.

It was obvious that there were a couple of different levels inside the VCP cert when I went from reading, to CBT videos, to Trainsignal Videos.


A good example of the Content that should be in VCA is the level in the Mac Intergration Associate exam. That exam covered Binding to Open Directory, to Binding to AD, Basic troubleshooting (from an admin perspective), etc. Then the Management Associate stepped it up to creating deployment packages by script, etc.

After two plus years experience with vSphere, I've certainly found about 60% more in the VCP manuals and blueprint, then from my day to day activities and that also include the current design/scoping we are going through at the moment

jibbajabba

I think what the VCP really needs are better skills in troubleshooting and performance tuning.

Most problems, in any company I worked for, were based on performance related and storage issues. In fact, most companies I worked for had the infrastructure already in place, so VCPs hired were mostly used as fixing monkeys and one thing where most people seem to struggle is to find performance bottle necks ...

tstrip007

What about turning the VCAP into a three part series similar to CCNP and that be the standard for complex environments. Design, Administer, Troubleshoot.

Haswell

I don't think that the VCP5-DCV needs to change. I think that VMware needs to promote the VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD exams. Most employers have never even heard of VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD. Employers are expecting VCP5-DCV to be VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD, and it's not supposed to be.

VCP5-DCV is equivalent to CCNA, while VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD are equivalent to CCNP / CCDP.

dave330i

Haswell wrote: »

I don't think that the VCP5-DCV needs to change. I think that VMware needs to promote the VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD exams. Most employers have never even heard of VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD. Employers are expecting VCP5-DCV to be VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD, and it's not supposed to be.

VCP5-DCV is equivalent to CCNA, while VCAP5-DCA / VCAP5-DCD are equivalent to CCNP / CCDP.

Problem is that the knowledge gap between VCP and VCAP is closer to CCNA and CCIE.

Haswell

dave330i wrote: »

Problem is that the knowledge gap between VCP and VCAP is closer to CCNA and CCIE.

Agreed.

I also think the naming convention needs to change. According to indeed, there's only 12 jobs in the USA that specifically list the VCP5-DCV / VCP-DCV. While there's there's almost 1,200 jobs that list the VCP. It think it's because VCP is a really catchy simplistic name.

phonic

Haswell wrote: »

Agreed.

I also think the naming convention needs to change. According to indeed, there's only 12 jobs in the USA that specifically list the VCP5-DCV / VCP-DCV. While there's there's almost 1,200 jobs that list the VCP. It think it's because VCP is a really catchy simplistic name.

Good point. Saying you are a 'VCP' sounds sexy. Saying you are a VCP5-DCV sounds geeky.

While I am still a relative n00b when it comes to VMware, I personally think that they should:
1) Revamp the VCA level exams to make it more of a technical 'associate' level cert that requires administration skills and not just another sales / sales engineer role.
2) The VCP is already considered a 'professional' level cert by most people - more in line with the CCNP versus the CCNA. They could certainly split it up and require more than one test (design, administer and maybe troubleshooting). The current VCP exam does touch on all three categories, but they could focus more on each one over multiple exams.
3) Fix the naming scheme, make it more simple to understand and popularize the higher end cert levels. As Haswell mentioned, very few people know of anything but the VCP.

dave330i

ti0009 wrote: »

What about turning the VCAP into a three part series similar to CCNP and that be the standard for complex environments. Design, Administer, Troubleshoot.

VMware Certification

dsp2267

I just hope VMware doesn't go all Microsoft and get spastic with cert renaming. Its bad enough having obscure and terse cert names, worse when there are 2 or 3 completely different handles. People know "VCP", don't throw that out.

At least Cisco created new certs like "CCNA Security" which the average HR droid has a chance of guessing the meaning. IME, very few HR types will try to understand VCP-DV versus VCP-DT.

As for an entry level vSphere design cert, Cisco does have CCDA parallel to CCNA, but the Cisco market is pretty big. I would be surprised if there are enough VCPs to warrant a "VCP Design" cert.

Crikey

jibbajabba wrote: »

I think what the VCP really needs are better skills in troubleshooting and performance tuning.

Most problems, in any company I worked for, were based on performance related and storage issues. In fact, most companies I worked for had the infrastructure already in place, so VCPs hired were mostly used as fixing monkeys and one thing where most people seem to struggle is to find performance bottle necks ...

rt0009 wrote: »

I think what the VCP really needs are better skills in troubleshooting and performance tuning.

Most problems, in any company I worked for, were based on performance related and storage issues. In fact, most companies I worked for had the infrastructure already in place, so VCPs hired were mostly used as fixing monkeys and one thing where most people seem to struggle is to find performance bottle necks .

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you fubared the quote function.

0v3rc10ck3d

Eh, I've got the VCP5-DCV, VCAP5-DCA & DCD and I'd say that I was more than sufficiently equipped to setup and configure our datacenter when i had the VCP, I probably over studied for the exam though as I read 4-5 books and scored in the high 400's. I wouldn't discredit the VCP though.