Well after a lot of studying and labbing, I took and passed the VCP410 yesterday!! It was my second attempt... my first attempt was at a horrible test center a week earlier, and the PC I was using crashed and my progress couldn't be recovered, so I had to reschedule (at a good test center).
Resources used:
VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage - taken through a
VMware Academy Program school so it was cheap and included a voucher for 70% off the exam.
Mastering VMware vSphere 4 - easy to read, mostly covers the same material as the course.
VCP VMware Certified Professional vSphere 4 Study Guide - focused on the exam requirements, good for quick review, and includes two practice exams (~170 questions total).
CBT Nuggets: VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 - unnecessary considering the other resources I used, but some people might prefer a CBT over reading.
VMware vSphere 4.0 Documentation - it was necessary to read some of the official docs to fill in some gaps left by the other resources I used. I read the Basic System Administration guide, and memorized the Configuration Maximums.
VMware Data Recovery Documentation - I read the Administration Guide.
vSphere4 card - excellent
free pocket reference for studying anywhere.
RTFM Education vSphere Videos/Demos - good
free CBT videos.
VCP vSphere 4 Practice Exams - The SLOG – SimonLong/Blog - decent
free practice exam.
VCP on vSphere 4 Mock Exam - official
free practice exam. Only 30 questions but it's from a larger pool, and the questions are written by VMware so in theory they should be similar to the real questions.
EDIT: forgot about the edition comparison matrix (seems there are two now):
Compare vSphere Kits for Small BusinessesCompare vSphere Editions for Mid-size and Enterprise Businesses
On a side note, the test center I used for my first attempt was by far the worst I've ever seen. I took it at the end of June, and when I arrived at the location, there were 8-10 people milling around (never a good sign), waiting to take a Microsoft second shot exam. The test center had problems with their Prometric system so eventually everyone had to reschedule. During the 1.5 hours I was there, I was the only person who took an exam since I was taking a Pearson VUE exam.
The exam PCs were garbage, all at least 5 years old, with filthy keyboards and mice. The first PC I sat down at had an "CPU overheat" message on POST and powered off immediately, so I had to choose another one. That one probably had the same problem as it simply powered off an hour into the exam.
The exam center owner was clueless and kept insisting that I had in fact finished the exam. He called support (first he apparently called Prometric support) who told him to submit an incident, and I pretty much had to fill it out for him since he didn't understand how to do it. All the while I was looking at his Pearson Certified Test Center certificate (what a joke).
Pearson VUE really handled the incident well, though, and I was able to reschedule without any trouble.
