VCP410 -- passed!!!
MentholMoose
Member Posts: 1,525 ■■■■■■■■□□
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 Businesses
Compare 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.
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 Businesses
Compare 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.
MentholMoose
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
Comments
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gateway
Member Posts: 232
Great news! Congrats on the pass, that should certainly open a few doors.Blogging my AWS studies here! http://www.itstudynotes.uk/aws-csa -
blargoe
Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
Congrats! Curious, how much experience did you have with vSphere before taking the exam?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... -
cbigbrick
Member Posts: 284
Congradulations and nice write up. I'm planning on taking this test the end of this month.And in conclusion your point was.....???
Don't get so upset...it's just ones and zeros. -
JBrown
Member Posts: 308
Congratulations !!!
I will be attending VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V4] at the end of the year myself. Unless our school gets VAP license and then it will cost me zilch for the whole thing.
)
Thanks for the study materials/links.
PS: does anybody know what it takes to setup VAP for colleges? -
MentholMoose
Member Posts: 1,525 ■■■■■■■■□□
Thanks for the kind words.
I had no prior vSphere experience, but did have a little bit of VI3 experience (just setting up some POC environments).Congrats! Curious, how much experience did you have with vSphere before taking the exam?
More Citrix, which I need for work (I'm upgrading an XD3 Advanced implementation to XD4 Enterprise, so I need more XenApp knowledge). I've started reading this: The Real Citrix CCA Exam Preparation Kit: Prepare for XenApp 5.0Congrats! What's next for you?
Check the How to Enroll page. I think it's not difficult to join the program, but offering the classes requires additional requirements (plus the process of creating a new course and preparing to offer it, which is time consuming at most schools).PS: does anybody know what it takes to setup VAP for colleges?MentholMoose
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV -
stupidboy
Member Posts: 470
Well done dude
I have finally finished a long stint out with a customer, having lots of fun with XenServer, PVS, XenApp and UPM. I thought that it would be great for getting my CCEE well under way. However, I get back to the office to find out I have got to upgrade my VCP to vSphere ASAP as well as some on-line courses and maybe a VCDX for good measure. Got to love partner requirements
Your array of links is well timed for my re-acquaintance with VMware and journey my least favourite Hypervisor (that'll get me flamed for sure
). So a big thanks for all the pointers 
Good luck with XenApp, the Syngress book is one of the better ones but is a little weak in some areas, nothing a good lab session cannot address. -
MentholMoose
Member Posts: 1,525 ■■■■■■■■□□
It's now showing up on my VMware transcript. It's only 18 calendar days after the exam, which is faster than I expected!!MentholMoose
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV -
Bl8ckr0uter
Inactive Imported Users Posts: 5,031 ■■■■■■■■□□
MentholMoose wrote: »It's now showing up on my VMware transcript. It's only 18 calendar days after the exam, which is faster than I expected!!
I forgot to ask (or maybe I asked and I forgot the answer) how much exp do you have with VMware? -
MentholMoose
Member Posts: 1,525 ■■■■■■■■□□
I set up some POC environments on VI3, and worked a bit with ESXi (standalone hosts), but that is about it. I do have experience with VMware Server and Workstation, but that is not helpful for the VCP.I forgot to ask (or maybe I asked and I forgot the answer) how much exp do you have with VMware?MentholMoose
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV -
earweed
Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
Congrats!No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives. -
TNStratos201
Member Posts: 6 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats and thanks for the links. Took my Install, Configure, Manage class (live online version) in June. Hopefully, I can sit the exam by the first of September.Certification Goals for 2011:
MCITP:EA
VCP -
bwcarty
Member Posts: 422 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congrats! This reminds me that now that I'm finished with WGU, I need to go back and upgrade my VCP!Help eradicate blood cancers with a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. -
BadDingo
Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□
Congrats...That was a hard exam. My wife rushed me into taking the test 9 days after the class and I failed by 30 points. I ended up passing it second time after I labbed for three weeks.
VMware cert is great...Now I just need to find a gig where I can get back into using it in production on a daily basis.
BadDingo... -
astorrs
Member Posts: 3,139 ■■■■■■□□□□
FYI, you'll need to take the What's New course now since the deadline passed.Congrats! This reminds me that now that I'm finished with WGU, I need to go back and upgrade my VCP!
