VCAP5-DCD studies

I've started preparing for the VCAP5-DCD exam. Hopefully if I get the VCP5-DCV cert by December (Pending course) I'd then be able to sit the DCD exam end of January, early February of 2014.

One of the ways I prepare for exams, is by blogging about it, a lot of us here do so as well from what I can tell. Anyways, I'll be blogging about every objective for the DCD (time permitting) on my blog here. I am always open to helping out or for constructive criticism

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I was also thinking about maybe creating a sticky thread about VCAP5-DCD resources, would be nice as a point of reference.

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QHalo

Good luck! Blogging is tough as I've found out over the last year of trying it myself but it feels good to give back even if you don't get 10000 hits a day.

kj0

I started my blog about a month ago (See sig below). It turned into more of an information hub for others and not really VCP course related. I don't seem to get time to update it as often as I had planned to, I spend more time reading and then am too tired to blog.

Anyways, Best of Luck, Will be awesome to watch you hit this hard and gain a DCD in a matter of no time.

Essendon

Nice blog you got going there mate!

Do you want to start off the thread for resources for the DCD and I'll add to it? I've collected a sizeable number of links to blogs/whitepapers and what not that would make a good addition to the thread.

Good luck with the test.

Konflikt

Hi Essendon! Could you please add those links/whitepapers to this thread? thank you in advance

TheProf

Almost forgot about this thread! Been a long couple of days. Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated. Yes, definitely will start something shortly, just going to try and compile a couple of links, etc before posting a sticky thread for DCD.

Essendon

Yeah, I'm busy pounding away too with my next attempt at the DCD less than 2 weeks away. I'll add my material too after I'm done with my exam.

@TheProf - Are you going to group the material according to the blueprint or would you go Host Design, Storage Design, Cluster Design and so on? It's really upto you but I reckon the latter method is better with the blueprint being so open-ended.

TheProf

Honestly, at this point I am kind of all over the place. My study technique is this. Read the books first, mainly the VMware Press and the vSphere Design book by Scott Lowe cover to cover. Then start going over the blue print, which is where blogging comes in, blogging for me is like taking notes, instead of doing it on paper, I do it online. I pretty much do this until I am comfortable with all the objectives.

My weak point at the moment is storage, I don't do much design, so I have to really catch up on it. Luckily I have a good base to start with. I am thinking all of this will take me around 2 months to complete before doing the exam. Also, at this point, I'd be happy to just sit the exam and see what it's like, even if I don't pass. These days, for all the tough exams, I always go in, not knowing what to expect, we can prepare all we want, but until we do the exam, it's kind of hard to see what its going to be like, especially an exam like DCD. Also, failing doesn't bother me, I use it as a way to prepare for my next attempt.

That's about it...

kj0

Nice, you've got the same idea as me. Book, then blueprint. Although, I have been watching both trainsignal and CBT nugget videos here and there. I grabbed M.W.Preston's blue print document and am saving that for when I finish Scott Lowe's Mastering vSphere.

I have to say, Storage is a huge subject these days it seems. We are currently scoping our new Virtual Infrastructure at the moment, and have approached 4 vendors who have done presentations and what not. - Whitepapers, power points, etc. and all of them have spent 95% talking about Storage.

Essendon

Storage is probably the most important piece in the puzzle. I've seen a number of cases where people buy the quickest servers on the market with 10GbE NIC and what not but dont think about storage. They keep piling on thin-provisioned VM's by the dozens on their storage (not to mention forgotten snapshots!), eventually bringing it to its knees. Couple that with no alarms or VAAI and then they wonder why the heck they werent warned about the imminent apocalypse.

Konflikt

Essendon wrote: »

Yeah, I'm busy pounding away too with my next attempt at the DCD less than 2 weeks away. I'll add my material too after I'm done with my exam.

@TheProf - Are you going to group the material according to the blueprint or would you go Host Design, Storage Design, Cluster Design and so on? It's really upto you but I reckon the latter method is better with the blueprint being so open-ended.

Ok, understood. I am on the same way: I have already booked the exam, and I will take on the middle of Dec.

Anyway, this is my study plan to DCD. I have started on the last week. maybe it helps to someone:
-I am currently watching the Trainsignal design video lessons
-will read:

Sybex: VMware vSphere Design, 2nd Edition
The VCAP5-DCD Official Cert Guide
VMware vSphere Design Workshop

-also planning to watch all Nick Marshall - vBrownBag DCD videos
-DCD doc package: VCAP-DCD 5 Document Package

all the best!

QHalo

Gauging storage needs is like an art. Most companies don't know what their IO profiles are for their applications so it's tough to build it perfectly. If you do, well you're ahead of the game. When I designed this environment I used whatever tools I could find to try and gauge our needs. No one knew anything about IO needs or space requirements or anything. I did some formula calculations based on perfmon and other things. Then I doubled it. Fortunately it worked out for us. But I don't like working that way. It doesn't really matter anyway, from here forward I'm doing server-side caching on all my servers.

Aside from the DCD and more to the topic of storage migrations and purchasing new stuff. The biggest issue I see now is factoring in flash into your new designs. It used to be if you needed x IOPS, x bandwidth and x IO size, you just bought whatever spinning rust you needed and maybe some caching on the array. Now with things like server side caching, it takes a bit more thinking.

TheProf

I agree with QHao, good point and I was thinking the same thing.

The main point of any design is to understand the requirements. If we know that BCA's (Business Critical Applications) require a certain amount of performance from storage then we have something to work for. As QHalo mentioned, the biggest challenge for a lot of organization is measuring the performance required by these applications and then translate that into a requirement for the design.

We can't build something and expect it to work if we don't have any benchmarks to work against. At the end of the day, at least from my experience, I'll have to step in and get that capacity planning done, then work on the solution and tweak it as I move forward to make the best possible fit with room to support future growth.

Another issue that I see happening often, and this something that Essedon mentioned above as well, is to neglect the network layer especially when dealing with IP based storage. Again, you can have a very performing storage subsystem, but if you don't have the right network design in place, you're applications will suffer.

So many factors to consider, this is why I like these types of exams, makes you think about the big picture!

Essendon

@Konflkt - that's a good list of resources you got there.

- I'd recommend reading the Design book cover to cover and really understanding it (your probably are already). Some questions I've had seem to have been plucked directly out of it.

- The cert guide's question bank is woefully inadequate. It's NOT an accurate gauge of your preparation with the questions being far too easier than the real exam. I wouldnt spend too much time on it.
- Safari have a free 10 day trial of all their books. Sign up and read the following:

- Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployment - Crookston and Stanger (excellent design exercise at the end, and some pretty good tips all along)
- Building a Virtual Datacenter (okay for a quick read)

- Do yourself a favour and read, re-read and read again the following links:

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-19627
Understanding security risk management: Recovery time requirements
vSphere 5.0 HA and metro / stretched cluster solutions - Yellow Bricks
Architectural Decisions | CloudXC
DRBC Design - Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Fundamentals
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/vsphere-metro-storage-cluster-white-paper-released.html

These 6 links are at the top of my list.

All the best! Even if you do not pass the first time, take it as a learning exercise (expensive I know!) and come back at it harder next time. It's not an easy exam but I've said it before and I'll say it again - if this exam was easy, would it be worth working towards?

Konflikt

Thank you for your links, and study materials, Essendom. I will check all of them, if I have enough time for them.
So are you saying that the official DCD cert guide from VMware press is just wasting time? I am not very happy for that, because I am currently reading that guide. probably I should switch to the design book..

I'd recommend reading the Design book cover to cover and really understanding it (your probably are already). Some questions I've had seem to have been plucked directly out of it.

You mean this book, right?

I have found an other DCD resource: this blog describes chapter by chapter the entire blueprint
Have somebody red them? It seems it is really good.

JBrown

TheProf,

If you dont mind me asking, why DCD and not DCA first?

TheProf wrote: »

I've started preparing for the VCAP5-DCD exam. Hopefully if I get the VCP5-DCV cert by December (Pending course) I'd then be able to sit the DCD exam end of January, early February of 2014.

One of the ways I prepare for exams, is by blogging about it, a lot of us here do so as well from what I can tell. Anyways, I'll be blogging about every objective for the DCD (time permitting) on my blog here. I am always open to helping out or for constructive criticism .

I was also thinking about maybe creating a sticky thread about VCAP5-DCD resources, would be nice as a point of reference.

Essendon

@JBrown, I think it's got something to do with what he does at work - more design, less admin.

TheProf

Exactly what Essendon said, at work, I am a little less hands on and more on the design side. However I do intend to do the DCA right after, sometime around April/May 2014.

I also want to point out, that both exams are equal in terms of levels, however these exams just concentrate on different subjects, one is deep hands on, the other is deep design.

Essendon

@Konflict - Yes I meant that book. Just make sure it's the 2nd edition.

Since your already going through the official cert guide, finish it but dont think about it too much. The book you've bookmarked and the Crookston/Stagner one are what you want to read. I've gone through the Design book cover-to-cover 4 times and each time it's made the material sink in better.

That blog you've linked to is also very good. I have run through it a couple of times and it's helped.

Are you able to enrol in the vSphere Design Workshop? The material they give during the workshop is also pretty good. The quality of the workshop though, depends on the instructor and the people attending it. Perhaps get your employer to send you to it?

Konflikt

Essendon wrote: »

@Konflict - Yes I meant that book. Just make sure it's the 2nd edition.

Since your already going through the official cert guide, finish it but dont think about it too much. The book you've bookmarked and the Crookston/Stagner one are what you want to read. I've gone through the Design book cover-to-cover 4 times and each time it's made the material sink in better.

That blog you've linked to is also very good. I have run through it a couple of times and it's helped.

Are you able to enrol in the vSphere Design Workshop? The material they give during the workshop is also pretty good. The quality of the workshop though, depends on the instructor and the people attending it. Perhaps get your employer to send you to it?

yes, i have finished with the DCD official cert guide. not that bad, but it could be better.
thanks, i will check the Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments guide. Now I am reading the DCD blog, waht i have linked. it pretty good.

I was on the Optimaze and scale curse in May, so i do not think so that i could go to one other additional curse right now. and my booked exam date is 13th of Dec. Yes, it is a friday:) but if you have the matterial (students book, etc) could you please upload it to somewhere? It would be really helpful & awesome.

Essendon

I have the print version of the workshop. Your not missing out on too much though, just get the Design and go through the :

- Design exercise in the Crookston/Stagner book
- Design exercise run by Gregg Robertson at thesaffageek.com
- Architectural decisions by Josh Odgers at joshodgers.com

And you'll have about the same outcome as by attending the workshop. Good luck with your exam! Mine's 4 days away.

Konflikt

Thanks! Good luck you too! so your exam will start on Monday... If you have a little time, you can check this vBrownBag vid session, it is really promising. (I have not watched yet.) It has been just released some days ago: #vBrownBag Follow Up – VCAP Design Bootcamp with John Arrasjid, Mostafa Khalil and Linus Bourque

dave330i

@Essendon,

It took me 3 tries to pass it (I'm blaming the 2nd fail on the visio bug). You were very close last time. I'm sure you'll get it next time.

Konflikt

off: why does it take 1-2 days to post (allow by admins..) my comment to the thread...?
edit: ok, this one instantly displayed.

@Essendon, @dave330i: do you remember some visio-like test questions example from your previous DCD exams? AFAIK there will be 6 visio-like questions. thank you

BTW, Essendon, today was the day, right? Tell us, what happened!:)

Essendon

@Konflict - The number of questions can vary from what I've read over on the VMware forums. My 3rd go at this thing is tomorrow, I'll post back then. This time I'm going to be way quicker through the multiple choice questions, keeping more time for the design questions - they carry more weight, apparently.

Konflikt

the 2nd part of the DCD boot camp is available

ledywhite

hi Konfikit,
if you want we can exchange information about the exam.
send me mail at adamlerry1975@gmail.com

Konflikt

Hi ledywhite, I've just sent a mail to you