Earlier this week I took and passed the VCP-NV (2V0-642) exam. I do have to say it was a really good experience. It’s one of the few exams I really did enjoy studying for and sitting. So I thought I might use this as an opportunity to post a short recap of my experience and what I used to study and pass the exam.
Getting some of the technicalities out the way all of which can be found at VMware’s VCP-NV landing page. The 2V0-642 exam is VMware’s updated version 2 of the original VCP-NV exam which officially came out back in 2015. Back then it was a 120 questions and by all accounts much harder than this new revised version. This revised exam, based on NSX 6.2, is 2 hours long and 77 questions with a standard 300 passing score out of 500. If you currently hold a VCP the process to certification is fairly straight forward. Take and pass the 2V0-642 exam and earn certification. If you don’t hold a VCP you have a number of pre-requisites to meet. Again, all of which can be found at the VCP-NV landing page.
So first how was the exam? As I mentioned above, a really good experience. Gone are the days of having to take a pre-exam survey. Just acknowledge the Terms and Conditions and the exam begins immediately -Awesome. The questions were well laid out, clear, and descriptive enough to understand. Of course it wouldn’t be a real exam without one or two confusing questions and there were a few of them, but only a few. The exam questions are all weighted so at the end of the day it is a level playing field for everyone.
So what was my process for studying for this exam?
I guess firstly I’ve attended many presentations and watched a number of high level videos on NSX but nothing really deep on the product, nothing really exam helpful. A few months back (the week before VMWorld) I attended the 5-day Install, Configure, Manage course on NSX 6.2. This was a great course and a good primer into learning to use NSX. Very helpful grasping the fundamentals in being able to get started. Well recommended for everyone getting started.
Next came actually using the product in a real lab environment. I think this is a requirement! Bare minimum you should be using VMware’s Hands on Labs but even better is to have your own environment. I’m lucky enough to be preparing for a production deployment and had a test lab to deploy and play with. Having your own environment constantly available is hard to beat.
vBrownBag YouTube videos! There is a VCP-NV series available on YouTube. The videos are based on the original VCP-NV exam and are a few years old but still very relevant. Actually still extremely relevant. There’s eight videos to hunt around for which cover the original objectives with the exception of Troubleshooting. The Objectives match up very closely. The 2V0-642 exam has one main new Objective which covers Cross-vCenter.
In terms of reading material i would highly recommend going through the official NSX online docs pages. Lots of mindless reading but you will find that exam questions come straight out of that. And truthfully you will learn a huge amount doing that. Just remember to focus on version 6.2. I’d also recommend the Cross-vCenter NSX Installation Guide PDF from VMware. This is also in the online docs but I found the PDF easier to consume which I found to be hugely informative and the exam did test heavily on this for me. So I was very thankful to have focused on this reading.
And that was basically it. Practice hands on what you have learnt and read. Troubleshoot in your lab as you are building it out. A few solid study days on the weekend and you should be in a really good position to take and pass the exam.