HOL for VCAP?

GBAKER2204GBAKER2204 Member Posts: 91 ■■■□□□□□□□
Is it possible to use the VMware HOL to pick up the necessary skills and experience for the VCAP-Deploy exam, or would a home lab be the better option for studying for the Deploy exam? Has anyone just used the HOL for preparing for VCAP?
WIP: 2017 - VCP6.5-DCV (Achieved), VCAP6-DCV, Citrix CCA-V

Comments

  • dave330idave330i Member Posts: 2,091 ■■■■■■■■■■
    I used HOL for all my 6 prep.
    2018 Certification Goals: Maybe VMware Sales Cert
    "Simplify, then add lightness" -Colin Chapman
  • GBAKER2204GBAKER2204 Member Posts: 91 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Great to know, thank you so much for your reply.
    WIP: 2017 - VCP6.5-DCV (Achieved), VCAP6-DCV, Citrix CCA-V
  • EssendonEssendon Member Posts: 4,546 ■■■■■■■■■■
    Another vote for the HOLs.
    NSX, NSX, more NSX..

    Blog >> http://virtual10.com
  • GBAKER2204GBAKER2204 Member Posts: 91 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Thanks Essendon.
    WIP: 2017 - VCP6.5-DCV (Achieved), VCAP6-DCV, Citrix CCA-V
  • techfiendtechfiend Member Posts: 1,481 ■■■■□□□□□□
    HOL labs don't have much content for the VCAP6 Deploy anymore. What I did was use vJenner's study guide and the old HOL 6.0 labs from the archive.

    The goods: You'll test in the same looking environment, but slower and more limited, tweak the display to your liking; you don't need hardware/vmware workstation to study.

    The bads: I couldn't setup auto-deploy; I couldn't find VUM, VDP or Replication appliances installed, these are part of the exam blueprint.

    If you have 16GB+ RAM you can trial vmware workstation and build a nested esxi environment to study what the HOL's are missing. It will take some time to deploy but will be much more responsive than HOL.
    2018 AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (Apr) 2017 VCAP6-DCV Deploy (Oct) 2016 Storage+ (Jan)
    2015 Start WGU (Feb) Net+ (Feb) Sec+ (Mar) Project+ (Apr) Other WGU (Jun) CCENT (Jul) CCNA (Aug) CCNA Security (Aug) MCP 2012 (Sep) MCSA 2012 (Oct) Linux+ (Nov) Capstone/BS (Nov) VCP6-DCV (Dec) ITILF (Dec)
  • blargoeblargoe Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
    I would do the HOLs, but nothing replaces the blood, sweat and tears from setting it all up from scratch.
    IT guy since 12/00

    Recent: 11/2019 - RHCSA (RHEL 7); 2/2019 - Updated VCP to 6.5 (just a few days before VMware discontinued the re-cert policy...)
    Working on: RHCE/Ansible
    Future: Probably continued Red Hat Immersion, Possibly VCAP Design, or maybe a completely different path. Depends on job demands...
  • GBAKER2204GBAKER2204 Member Posts: 91 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Thanks to all that responded. Will see how far I can get on the HOLs and if I find anything useful post up the labs used for the blueprint sections.

    In the midst of costing/completely rebuilding my lab from scratch hence the question.
    WIP: 2017 - VCP6.5-DCV (Achieved), VCAP6-DCV, Citrix CCA-V
  • techfiendtechfiend Member Posts: 1,481 ■■■■□□□□□□
    The exam sim joelsfood posted is two big thumbs up! I'd suggest taking it 5-7 days before you test to give an idea what you should focus on studying the rest of the way.
    2018 AWS Solutions Architect - Associate (Apr) 2017 VCAP6-DCV Deploy (Oct) 2016 Storage+ (Jan)
    2015 Start WGU (Feb) Net+ (Feb) Sec+ (Mar) Project+ (Apr) Other WGU (Jun) CCENT (Jul) CCNA (Aug) CCNA Security (Aug) MCP 2012 (Sep) MCSA 2012 (Oct) Linux+ (Nov) Capstone/BS (Nov) VCP6-DCV (Dec) ITILF (Dec)
  • DeathmageDeathmage Banned Posts: 2,496
    I'd finally admit the HOL is better, even though the lab has a place in my heart.

    Upgraded the home-lab in June with a QNAP TS-831XU-RP and Netgear M4300-8X8F and after I did it, I was like O.o.... it is nice having a RAID 10 12TB array with a mirror SSD cached on 10G (for PLEX) for the tri R710's and tri R610's but it's a royal ***** powering this thing up when the compute and edge clusters are running and my TP-LINK Smart plug saying I'm using 1200 watts an hour, I blew my circuit breaker 5 times so far. icon_sad.gif

    Can finally say that yes the home-lab was nice for DCV land, but now that I'm doing NV w/ the compute and edge, and now lately me feeling the need for a smaller "remote" datacenter, I'm really pondering if it's really worth it give my utility free $$$... icon_wink.gif
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