VCAP5 - DCD resources

Essendon

To give back to the community that helped me greatly in preparing for this exam, here's a thread containing links I found useful. Please note that due to the open-ended nature of the blueprint, this is not an exhaustive list of resources you may need. Read, read, keep reading and then read some more - that's how you prepare for this.Feel free to post your own links into this thread and I'll add them to the list. So without much further ado, here you go.

Storage

• Thin Provisioning – What’s the scoop? | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs
• Thin on Thin? Where should you do Thin Provisioning vSphere 4.0 or Array-Level? - Virtual Geek
• http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-WP-vSPHR-NAS-USLET-101-WEB.pdf
• EMC VNX and Celerra Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) - Free Download

Networking

• vSphere 5 New Networking Features – Enhanced NIOC | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs
• The Great vSwitch Debate – one BIG .pdf file… | Ken's Virtual Reality
• » Etherchannel and IP Hash or Load Based Teaming? Long White Virtual Clouds

DR/BC (SRM, MetroClusters included - you must know where you should use what solution)

• https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19992
• Understanding security risk management: Recovery time requirements
• DRBC Design - Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Fundamentals
• Stretched Clusters and VMware vCenterTM Site Recovery Manager
• vSphere 5.0 HA and metro / stretched cluster solutions - Yellow Bricks
• https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9429
• http://www.vhersey.com/2012/12/home-lab-srm-part-1-environment-setup/
• VMware Site Recovery Manager with LeftHand VSA | Virtual Lifestyle
• SRM FAQ! - Yellow Bricks
• https://blogs.vmware.com/tp/files/vsphr-cs-mtro-stor-clstr-uslet-102-hi-res.pdf ** MUST read

Design decisions

• Architectural Decisions | CloudXC
• Customer Stories by product - VMware vSphere
• http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19627

HA/DRS/SDRS/Host Profiles/Linked Mode (all the good stuff!)

• VMware KB: Advanced configuration options for VMware High Availability in vSphere 5.x
• Standby vCenter Server for disaster recovery - Yellow Bricks
• vSphere Documentation Center
• Storage IO Control, Storage DRS and Auto-Tiering Datastores, Part 1 | Tintri
• DataCore SANSymphony-V - Auto Tiering & VMware DRS Problem | vtricks.com ** Read the entire series about auto-tiering and SDRS and how they play with each other.
• Storage DRS I/O load balancing and Array-based Auto-Tiering - frankdenneman.nl
• My first Auto Deploy design for real production environment - Gabes Virtual World

Study guides

• VCAP5-DCD Study Guide - VirtuallyHyperVirtuallyHyper
• VCAP5-DCD Study Guide | Virten.net
• New study guides for VCAP5 and VCP5 exams preparation
• VCAP5-DCD Study Guide - VirtuallyHyperVirtuallyHyper ** I used this mainly
• http://www.elasticsky.co.uk/dcdguide Great collection of vmware pdf's.

Books (all these books were very, very useful)

• VMware vSphere 5.1 Clustering Deepdive (Volume 1): Duncan Epping, Frank Denneman: 9781478183419: Amazon.com: Books
• Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments: Sean Crookston, Harley Stagner: 9780321820471: Amazon.com: Books
• Storage Implementation in vSphere 5.0 (VMware Press): Mostafa Khalil: 9780321799937: Amazon.com: Books
• VMware vSphere 5® Building a Virtual Datacenter (VMware Press Technology): Eric Maille, René-Francois Mennecier: 9780321832214: Amazon.com: Books
• VMware vSphere Design: Forbes Guthrie, Scott Lowe, Kendrick Coleman: 9781118407912: Amazon.com: Books
• VMware vSphere Performance: Designing CPU, Memory, Storage, and Networking for Performance-Intensive Workloads: Matt Liebowitz, Christopher Kusek, Rynardt Spies: 9781118008195: Amazon.com: Books ** Not out yet, but should be good

Videos

• VMworld 2012 Session STO2980: VMware vSphere 5 Storage Best Practices - YouTube ** You must watch all VMworld videos similar to this one, very very useful
• Storage Design for VMware vSphere 5.0 with Mostafa Khalil - YouTube

Others

• Attend the vSphere Design Workshop if you can. For my review, check vSphere 5 Design Workshop | Everything Virtual!
• VCDX Boot Camp

I'll post my handwritten notes when I've been able to scan and convert them to a pdf. (cannot do this, because the notes contain things from my first 2 attempts and I've clearly marked them so I could work on them harder - probably means contravening the NDA if I did put them on here - sorry!)

dave330i

Essendon wrote: »

I'll post my handwritten notes when I've been able to scan and convert them to a pdf.

Your handwritten notes are legible to other people?

kj0

Excellent work.

Essendon

@Dave - I write in cursive, so it aint too bad! Only problem is, they are about 50 pages of my chicken scratch...
@kj0 - Cheers mate

tstrip007

Mod can we STICKY this? Thanks Essendon.

stevets

Is the DCD still based on 5.0 or have they upgraded to 5.1/5.5?

Essendon

They just say 5.x in the exam, no question is about 5.0 or 5.1 specifically. But they will upgrade in Feb/March, this info is from the VMware forums.

stevets

Excellent, thanks! I'll be sitting that exam on Friday. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought about the versioning a lot sooner. Thanks for the list of resources, too!

TheProf

Dude you're helping me out big time with this thread! Thanks for posting! I started collecting resources as well but most of them you've already mentioned here.

QHalo

baller thread

tbgree00

Thanks a lot! I want this exam. I took the design workshop and feel like it was really helpful.

Essendon

Added some more links.

alxx

Awesome thanks for the links!

Konflikt

nice post. i will check soon, all of them

nellaivijay

Thanks for sharing.

QHalo

from PEX

point scoring

https://twitter.com/vcdxnz001/status/432235857659969536/photo/1

tomtom1

Stumbled across this on the VMware forums, which is a good read for both the logical and physical network design, if it involves DMZ related traffic and security is of the essence:
The vSwitch ILLUSION and DMZ virtualization : BRAD HEDLUND

piedthepiper

join the google+ group for the DCD !

Nidz

where from i can download vsphere 5.5?

jibbajabba

Nidz wrote: »

where from i can download vsphere 5.5?

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI55U2&productId=353

Deathmage

tomtom1 wrote: »

Stumbled across this on the VMware forums, which is a good read for both the logical and physical network design, if it involves DMZ related traffic and security is of the essence:
The vSwitch ILLUSION and DMZ virtualization : BRAD HEDLUND

Really liked this article. Doing networking myself right now I fully understand the concepts and practises. I see that me going to at-least CCNA currently and with CCNP someday will be very useful for VMware land.

mu5ic92

What resource is recommend to use as a lab environment? I know a laptop with a good CPU and ram is recommend but what if I dont have one?

TacoRocket

You're trying to go for VCAP? You might want to look at the 6 version.

iBrokeIT

Version 6 for the VCAP/VCIX DCD isn't out yet. Believe me, I am waiting for it

Deathmage

where is this mysterious VCIX study group...

Essendon

Sometimes you need to look around a bit harder https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vcix-6-study-group

Deathmage

Essendon wrote: »

Sometimes you need to look around a bit harder https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vcix-6-study-group

that would require me to think...gosh those are scary words...

Deathmage

Loving the article(s) Manny. Posted some questons for you and the group. Who else is in the group?

Deathmage

love the VCIX 6 content Manny in the Study Group, keep it up!!!!