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VCAP5-DCA

0

0V3RC10CK3D

Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2005
Messages
751
Been studying for this test for about a month, going to take it in about a week.
Any tips from people that have it?

Dumb question, i hear that you can use whatever tools available to accomplish a task, i'd rather not learn all the VMA commands if i dont need them, is there anything I can do with the VMA that I cant do with shell access to a host?
 
Are there tasks that could only be accomplished with the VMA though?

PS. See you at VMWorld!
 
You can accomplish the tasks by any means necessary, they're all really easy tasks too.

Don't sweat it too much, it's a really easy/fun exam.
 
0V3RC10CK3D said:
Are there tasks that could only be accomplished with the VMA though?

PS. See you at VMWorld!
Click to expand...

Nothing I can think of..and given the small number of hosts I can't think of anything that would be quicker done via vMA than other steps.

It IS a fun exam.
 
NetJunkie said:
Nothing I can think of..and given the small number of hosts I can't think of anything that would be quicker done via vMA than other steps.

It IS a fun exam.
Click to expand...

Mine would have been more fun if it didn't take 2 seconds for a mouse click to register. It was that slow.
 
Well, I don't think the exam is "easy". I think it may appear that way with the proper amount of experience and if you're prepared. If you know how to do something, then anything is "easy". However, I can tell you I passed with a great score and still felt the heat during the exam, felt the time pressure, there were still at least one objective I did not know how to do, and at least one that didn't work.

It just isn't fair to a candidate to tell them it is "easy" and set a false pretense, BUT, at the same time ... I totally over stressed it. I think that is healthy, however... so you put the work in. If you're under prepared, you'll know it pretty damn fast. If VMware would fix the length of time it takes to get a score, it wouldn't have been over a month of gut wrenching worry. I'm surprised I didn't get an ulcer... I swear I dreamed about it, the debates with myself what I thought I did wrong, or MAYBE did right. That is the unhealthy part.

Maybe I just take some offense to saying it is easy, because I consider having it great validation. A ton of people fail it, too. Too many google-fix-it admins out there, and I'm not knocking google, I use it too... you're an idiot if you don't. Some people are helpless without it though.
 
defuseme2k said:
Well, I don't think the exam is "easy". I think it may appear that way with the proper amount of experience and if you're prepared. If you know how to do something, then anything is "easy". However, I can tell you I passed with a great score and still felt the heat during the exam, felt the time pressure, there were still at least one objective I did not know how to do, and at least one that didn't work.

It just isn't fair to a candidate to tell them it is "easy" and set a false pretense, BUT, at the same time ... I totally over stressed it. I think that is healthy, however... so you put the work in. If you're under prepared, you'll know it pretty damn fast. If VMware would fix the length of time it takes to get a score, it wouldn't have been over a month of gut wrenching worry. I'm surprised I didn't get an ulcer... I swear I dreamed about it, the debates with myself what I thought I did wrong, or MAYBE did right. That is the unhealthy part.

Maybe I just take some offense to saying it is easy, because I consider having it great validation. A ton of people fail it, too. Too many google-fix-it admins out there, and I'm not knocking google, I use it too... you're an idiot if you don't. Some people are helpless without it though.
Click to expand...

No false pretense, literally every objective is completely mapped out on the blueprint.

I will say that what does make it difficult is that it covers a large spread of items that you have to be familiar with (i.e. auto deploy, powercli, host profiles, esxtop, update manager, etc...) but all of the tasks are extremely simple. You do have to work extremely fast though.

Subject yourself to the DCD/CID exams then take a DCA/CIA, I can guarantee you will call them easy. I'm not trying to discredit the test at all as it's a great way to see who knows their stuff and who doesn't, but the tasks are pretty fun/easy for an experienced VMware admin.
 
itrsteve said:
No false pretense, literally every objective is completely mapped out on the blueprint.

I will say that what does make it difficult is that it covers a large spread of items that you have to be familiar with (i.e. auto deploy, powercli, host profiles, esxtop, update manager, etc...) but all of the tasks are extremely simple. You do have to work extremely fast though.
Click to expand...

Exactly. This test is "easy" because it follows the blueprint very well. I felt nothing was a curveball. Nothing was outside of the standard stuff. Go through the blueprint and actually do everything in it. Do Auto Deploy. Create ESXi images. Use Host Profiles. Do all that stuff in a lab and I bet you have very few problems on the exam. When I wrote the TrainSignal course I mapped out every item in the blueprint to a lesson and even slide number...then confirmed I had shown it in a lab. You do that yourself and you're as good as you're going to get.

Then go take the DCD which makes zero sense...the blueprint is a mess...and when you fail you'll have no idea what to study.
 
NetJunkie said:
Exactly. This test is "easy" because it follows the blueprint very well. I felt nothing was a curveball. Nothing was outside of the standard stuff. Go through the blueprint and actually do everything in it. Do Auto Deploy. Create ESXi images. Use Host Profiles. Do all that stuff in a lab and I bet you have very few problems on the exam. When I wrote the TrainSignal course I mapped out every item in the blueprint to a lesson and even slide number...then confirmed I had shown it in a lab. You do that yourself and you're as good as you're going to get.

Then go take the DCD which makes zero sense...the blueprint is a mess...and when you fail you'll have no idea what to study.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this. The hardest part about the test was managing time (which was made doubly difficult with my slow connection at the testing center).

I studied by just doing everything in the blueprint in my lab at home. During the test I was able to accomplish most of the questions asked and the few I didn't were simply because of a lack of time.
 
Awesome, Well I've watched your Trainsignal videos, Have plenty of experience managing our datacenter, but I'm going through the blueprint and working through everything in autolab to ensure i know how to do things without looking it up. I hope that's enough, Test is scheduled for next Saturday.
 
NetJunkie said:
Then go take the DCD which makes zero sense...the blueprint is a mess...and when you fail you'll have no idea what to study.
Click to expand...

This. The design exams are so painful that it makes the admin ones seem actually fun.

Flunked the CID in April by 12 points and I have no idea what else I could have done different.

The CIA beta was insanely easy, I think I had an hour to spare. Much less tasks to cover and a ton of repeat ones.
 
Question about AutoDeploy / Image Builder if anyone knows.
I setup AutoDeploy in my lab and everything was working great. After Rebooting some servers I ran into an issue where the image depot and images all dissapeared and I had to recreate them. This has happend twice in the lab, is there something I need to do to make them stick around?

I do get-esximageprofile and it shows nothing. So i have to re add the software depot and recreate my image profile for the Deploy rules to work again. Weird
 
Did you actually set the deploy rule so it's the working ruleset?

The image profiles will go away after you reboot (I think it's actually when you close out of that PowerCLI session right?)
 
Yea i added the delploy rule to the working ruleset as it was functional.

If my image files disappear when I reboot how is that useful?
 
0V3RC10CK3D said:
Yea i added the delploy rule to the working ruleset as it was functional.

If my image files disappear when I reboot how is that useful?
Click to expand...

When you set that rule (not just add it), then that image gets placed on your auto deploy server.

Make it a process to export your images to offline bundles if you want to retain them to add updates/vibs/etc.

Once you see it work then it will all make sense.
 
Took my exam today for the VCAP5-DCA. Wow it was slow.

I hope I passed. I'm sure it'll be close as I wasnt able to get to the last couple questions but if it didn't lag as bad as it did I would have finished an hour early.

Now I wait for results.... Any way to expedite this?
 
0V3RC10CK3D said:
Took my exam today for the VCAP5-DCA. Wow it was slow.

I hope I passed. I'm sure it'll be close as I wasnt able to get to the last couple questions but if it didn't lag as bad as it did I would have finished an hour early.

Now I wait for results.... Any way to expedite this?
Click to expand...

I skipped 4 questions and still passed.

No way to expedite. Enjoy the wait. :)
 
Thanks everyone.
I work as an IT consultant and manage a vCloud Director public cloud at a datacenter.

Which should I go for next?

VCAP5-DCD (on the way to VCDX application next year at VMworld)
VCAP5-CIA (Cloud stuff is cool)
CCNA (more well rounded to take care of all things myself)

Thoughts?
 
0V3RC10CK3D said:
Thanks everyone.
I work as an IT consultant and manage a vCloud Director public cloud at a datacenter.

Which should I go for next?

VCAP5-DCD (on the way to VCDX application next year at VMworld)
VCAP5-CIA (Cloud stuff is cool)
CCNA (more well rounded to take care of all things myself)

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

You're not going to go wrong with either

DCD - fills in the gap to start the VCDX process
CIA - insanely easy (not exaggerating, I had 90 min to spare on the beta, same tasks over and over/covers less ground than DCA)
CCNA - definitely does round off and fill in knowledge gaps, I'm thinking about going this route myself and delaying the VCDX agony.

oh ps, congrats!!
 
Congratulations. Was the worst part of the whole ordeal realizing when you opened the email that you had to open the pdf too? Haha... I remember it was like a double suspense moment for me.
 
Haha, I've actually yet to receive my email. I called the Certification Team at VMware and they said they are having issues with their adobe licensing but she let me know the scores were back and I'd passed with around a 359 (not getting to about 6 questions)
 
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