VCP 550 General questions

Hey everyone, been looking through a couple of posts and just wanted some guidance as far as studying for the VCP550. Took the ICM from Stanly and watched all the cbt nuggets videos. I am aware that this alone isn't enough to pass the test. I have been working with Esxi and vcenter for about 3 years now in my current position learning more everyday

Managing hosts (Installing Esxi and management configuration, Updates, connectivity, not to much performance monitoring, working with HA, DRS)
Working with VM's (Templates, Deploying, v motioning, snapshots, adjusting settings)
Working with Virtual Networking (vDS, a bit of standard virtual switches, portgroups, vlans, creating vmks, managing uplinks)
Vcops (just deployed it and starting to get familiar with it)
Storage (Configuring iScsi connections to a SAN, dynamic discovery, from labs experience with configuring datastores)

I keep reading that the "Mastering VMware Vsphere 5.5" is an excellent book and do plan on reading through it (should I read through it all?). I guess the point of this post is what else should I look into doing? I am aware brain **** is not a good idea but where can I get some really decent practice tests to go over and over to really solidify my understanding of the more complicated topics? Also have been made aware of the blueprint and its a little overwhelming when you look at all the topics and dont have a good idea of what to practice on when looking through the list. Appreciate any info you guys can provide, thank you again.

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xengoreth

The official practice questions/quizzes can be found here on VMware's site.

As far as Scott Lowe's book goes, I found it to be dry and uninteresting and basically non-enlightening (especially for someone who works with the technology daily). If you can suffer through it, more power to you, but I think there are other ways to learn the material that are more interactive and enjoyable.

Your best bet is getting the exam blueprint, labbing through every scenario, and reading every piece of documentation that's referenced. Know everything on the blueprint and pay attention to details like requirements for specific features, license levels, and the services that various products provide. Everything on the blueprint is fair game so it in combination with the documentation library for 5.5 is the thing to know.

xengoreth

Also, good luck!

mu5ic92

xengoreth wrote: »

Also, good luck!

Thank you for the info! I was a little surprised to see that VMware actually recommends using the VMware official practice exams by measureup on the website. Thinking of going through the blueprint in depth and then taking a stab at the practice tests. Worse case scenario I fail the test and since measure up says they guarantee passing then I could just get the $120 back. What are you thoughts on this?

scott28tt

This post of mine is a bit out of date now as it was written for the VCP510 exam, rather than VCP550 - but it should still have some use: VMware Training and Certification: Studying for the VCP5 exam

Lexluethar

I used Scott Lowe's mastering book and the exam blueprint from vmware to pass the VCP exam. I agree Scott's book can be dry but I've found that to be true with most technology books.

The best thing for studying, tedious as it may be is to take the exam blueprint and create a study sheet off it. Each exam topic and sub topic have material typed for each. It is a lot of data but in the end you will know your stuff. I also suggest typing the information out yourself, you will retain it more than just copying and pasting the information.

xengoreth

mu5ic92 wrote: »

Thank you for the info! I was a little surprised to see that VMware actually recommends using the VMware official practice exams by measureup on the website. Thinking of going through the blueprint in depth and then taking a stab at the practice tests. Worse case scenario I fail the test and since measure up says they guarantee passing then I could just get the $120 back. What are you thoughts on this?

I think MeasureUp could be an OK resource but my experience has been that they don't always have correct information or well-worded questions. Anything that you can use to quickly assess your weaknesses so you can study the read the blueprint/docs and lab in those specific areas does have some value to it. However, the question is if you think MeasureUp's product is worth $120.00 to you, which is a question I can't answer for you.

If it were my money, I'd think about adding that $120.00 to my home lab instead.

mu5ic92

While going over the links in the VCP Blueprint I keep running into issues where its downloads or references vSphere 6.0 rather then 5.5. An example of this is the pricing guide which only references the 6.0 and 6.0 with Operations Management. Can anybody help me out here. Where can I find only the 5.5 documentation for pricing?Edit: Found a whitepaper for licensing for Vmware Vsphere 5 is it safe to go off this. Main difference I see from the Vsphere 6.0 licensing is vRAM entitlement bits. Should I ignore the vRam points? Attaching in case someone someday needs it.

Virtualization-Advisors-&-VMware-vSphere-5-Licensing.pdf

scott28tt

VMware retire licensing documents related to products you can no longer purchase, you'll also not be able to download vSphere 5.5 software unless you're a licensed customer - some of the pains of studying for an older version certification.

That document is for vSphere 5.0, so I wouldn't use it for VCP550 - I did track down the 5.5 version however: https://www.cristie.co.uk/media/2161/vmware-vsphere-55-whitepaper-packaging-pricing-pnp-.pdf

mu5ic92

scott28tt wrote: »

VMware retire licensing documents related to products you can no longer purchase, you'll also not be able to download vSphere 5.5 software unless you're a licensed customer - some of the pains of studying for an older version certification.

That document is for vSphere 5.0, so I wouldn't use it for VCP550 - I did track down the 5.5 version however: https://www.cristie.co.uk/media/2161/vmware-vsphere-55-whitepaper-packaging-pricing-pnp-.pdf

Thank you very much Scott for this information. Making my way through section 1 of the blue print. Was wondering, how much in depth specific should I be remembering when it comes to RAM, Compute specifics for vcenter server and the vcenter appliance. An example of this being the following info below. I know its probably best to know everything to the T but I just want some general info as to how deep I should be remembering this.

The minimum system requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance are as follows:
■ 70GB of free space on a datastore
■ GbE NIC
■ 8GB of RAM if managing 10 or fewer hosts or 100 or fewer virtual machines with the
embedded vPostgres database
■ 16GB of RAM if managing 10–50 hosts or 100–1500 virtual machines with the
embedded vPostgres database
■ 24GB of RAM if managing 50–100 hosts or 1500–3000 virtual machines with the
embedded vPostgres database
■ 4GB of RAM if managing 10 or fewer hosts or 100 or fewer virtual machines with an
external Oracle database
■ 8GB of RAM if managing 10–100 hosts or 100–1000 virtual machines with an external
Oracle database
■ 16GB of RAM if managing 100–400 hosts or 1000–4000 virtual machines with an
external Oracle database
■ 32GB of RAM if managing more than 400 hosts or 4000 virtual machines with an
external Oracle database

scott28tt

Technically, questions on that could be part of the exam, as per objective 1.2 Install and Configure vCenter Server.

Lexluethar

Anything on the exam blueprint is a possible question on the exam.

Sahil30

Thanks for the Info..If you want Some more Guidance or Information on VMware Training Certification SSDN Technologies, Gurgaon can help you in that...SSDN Technologies having a Experienced trainers who will trained you in a well planned manner, So that it help you in your Career & Bright Future..

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scott28tt

Sahil30 wrote: »

Thanks for the Info..If you want Some more Guidance or Information on VMware Training Certification SSDN Technologies, Gurgaon can help you in that...SSDN Technologies having a Experienced trainers who will trained you in a well planned manner, So that it help you in your Career & Bright Future..

I presume this is the same SSDN that I emailed about trying to post spam comments on my blog