Category Archives: VMware

vForum Australia 2017 Recap

Posted by on November 6, 2017 No comments

Another year and another vForum has come and gone.  This has really become a stand out event for me on the local calendar.  For the Australia region this is the closest we can get to VMworld without actually going to VMworld.  This year vForum had returned back to the Sydney Convention Centre which has recently been rebuilt.  Unlike previous years the event had moved from a two day event to one.

My frame of reference for vForum is fairly small as this was only my second vForum Australia (Actually there was a vForum Roadshow in Melbourne a few years back too).  Without a doubt the biggest improvement made was the location.  Bring vForum to the centre of Sydney on Darling Harbour was a big win.  Hotels are plentiful and the views are amazing.

I arrived in Sydney from Melbourne the day before vForum.  My manager from Brisbane was down in Sydney on unrelated work so this was a good opportunity to catch up in person for a few drinks on George St (I can’t believe construction on the light rail is still happening on George St which I also recall from last years vForum).

While I had every intention on going, unfortunately I didn’t make VMDownUnderground this year, an event organised and run by the Sydney VMUG crew the night before vForum.  Last year’s VMDownUnderground was a  great event but I had used the opportunity to have dinner with fellow work colleagues on Darling Harbour.  Being Melbourne based and having most of my team in Sydney I don’t get this opportunity often.

This year I was not only representing myself and my organisation but also VMUG as the Melbourne Leader.  With the help of VMUG HQ and the vForum event planners the local VMUG Australia chapters pooled our time and resources to run a booth.  There were ~40 vendors on the showroom floor this year.  VMware and the event planners did a great job with vendor layout with all locations being great.  We, VMUG, were lucky enough to secure a prime location across from VMware in the centre of the showroom right next to the VMware charity water challenge.

While my day started off at 7 AM helping to setup and prepare the VMUG booth.  The official start of vForum Australia was the keynote at 9 AM with VMware COO Sanjay Poonen opening.  The attendance for the keynote was huge.  The entire keynote hall was almost completely full, a real great buzz to it.  The keynote sessions ran till just after 11 AM.  At which point a large proportion of attendees to the keynote left the event (or possibly went to the side events).  Though that didn’t deter from the atmosphere during the remainder of vForum.

Foot traffic around and to the VMUG booth was nothing short of amazing this year.  Having a Claw Machine full of plush toys at our booth I’m sure didn’t hurt either.  This was a huge success in drawing attendees to our booth.  Not only attendees but vendors and VMware staff were lining up for a game.  One of our original goals, as VMUG Australia, was to promote the upcoming Sydney and Melbourne UserCons but we quickly switched to brand awareness for VMUG.  I was amazed to find out so many people still hadn’t heard of VMUG!

vForum Australia ended with the after party at Hard Rock Cafe right next to the convention centre.  A great opportunity to wind down with friends and finally grab some food and drinks.  Compared to last year’s vForum party with Rouge Traders playing (whom I’m a big fan of).  Hard Rock was a slightly more subdue affair.  It did lead to a more intimate setting where you could have more meaningful conversations with people, so in that regards a success.

I still had a little bit left in me after Hard Rock.  So before calling it a night I headed back to my hotel to drop off my swag and have a shower before heading out for a few drinks and cocktails with some vForum friends at Palmer and Co.  A small underground bar set in a 1920s speakeasy style.

While I would have like to see vForum as a two day event, particularly with the addition of Transform Security and Empower Digital Workspace events running at the same time.  Whatever the format VMware and vForum always put on a great event for attendees.  I’m already looking forward to next year with catching up and meeting new people in the community.

Recap: VCP-NV Certification (2V0-642)

Posted by on October 19, 2017 No comments

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.

 

Sydney vForum 2016

Posted by on November 13, 2016 4 comments

For those of us not lucky enough to attend VMworld (yep, me).  The smaller vForum has to be the next best thing, particular for those of us in the ANZ region of the world.  vForum is seen as almost a mini VMworld in OZ spread out over two days and getting somewhere around 3 to 4 thousand people throughout the event.  I must have been scanned about a 100 times walking into the main pavilion so hopefully that gets taken into account 🙂  Having barely recovered from an intense three days at PAX AUS the weekend before.  I was still psyched and ready to go.

Day 0 – VMDownUnderGround (Tuesday)

My Tuesday before vForum started with a Work From Home half day.  I was able to put in a solid morning of work before heading to Melbourne Airport.  One of the benefits of where I live is the short 15-minute drive to the airport.  Boarding my flight, I literally bumped into Chew from VMware while trying to fight my way to my seat (Sorry again Chew).

We landed in Sydney at 3:30 PM, disembarked, and I followed the signs to the domestic terminal train station.  I purchased an Opal card and boarded a train that took me to Central Station.  This was my first Sydney Airport to City train trip and I must say I was really impressed with what Sydney have done. I can’t believe Melbourne haven’t done the same yet!

I checked in at the Cambridge Hotel which was a short walk from Central.  I took a few minutes to rest the feet then made my way into the city.  I still had a few hours before VMDownUnderGround at 6 PM, so I took a little stroll up to Circular Quay.

VMDownUnderGround, organised by Sydney VMUG and sponsored by Veeam, was held at King Street Brewhouse.  A microbrew pub overlooking Darling Harbour.  The turnout was a little smaller than I expected but still a great turnout of people, from Queensland to Tassie to New Zealand.  I had the opportunity to meet a number of VMware staff from the Sydney office.  Finally met in person some Brisbane and Sydney VMUG guys.  There was Brett and Alistair representing vBrownBag plus many more.  I could have chatted all night with everyone but us final few called it a night around 10:30 PM in preparation for vForum the next day.

Day 1 – vForum Techday (Wednesday)

My day began with a call from the boss!  He had taken the train to central station and swung past my hotel so we could walk down together to The Royal Hall of Industries @ Moore Park.  On entry, I instantly regretted bring my backpack as VMware provided one to All Access Pass guests.  Being the Techday I spent much of the day focusing on going to sessions.  NSX, DevOps, Containers, just to name a few.  While there were many people I wanted to catch-up with, I decided to leave that till Thursday’s General Access day.  Between sessions I ran into a few fellow Optus co-workers where we decided to focus our efforts together on visiting vendors and of course collecting awesome swag.  Moving between vendor stalls I found myself constantly bumping into people I knew.

That evening I caught up with a few more fellow work colleagues for dinner.  I particularly wanted to catch up with a recently departed team mate.  We made our way into the CBD and found a nice little Thai restaurant just off George Street, where I succumbed to peer pressure and ordered way toooo spicy food.

Day 2 – vForum General Access (Thursday)

Once again my day started with meeting up with my boss outside my hotel and walking down to Moore Park.  This time even before walking into the hall I ran into many more Sydney co-workers.  Many whom I was meeting in person for the first time.

I only had two sessions that I really wanted to attend on Thursday.  The Keynote at 10 AM with Pat Gelsinger and the Technical Keynote at 1:30 PM with Kit Colbert.  Outside those two keynote sessions I spent the day visiting the remaining vendors I had not spoken to yet and catching up with fellow colleagues and friends.   As well as heading over and saying hello to the vBrownBag and the VMUG guys.

A fellow team mate introduced me to former work colleague and friend Frank Yoo now working at Rubrik.  While at the Rubrik stand, I entered their raffle draw.  Now if you know me, you know that I’m one of the unluckiest people when it comes to competitions.  So it was a complete surprise punch in the face, when I won the coffee maker prize.  Thanks heaps, Frank and Rubrik.  The Rubrik branding on the actually coffee maker was a nice touch!

20161113_102013

The day ended with the vForum After Party featuring the band Rouge Traders.  I’ve been a huge fan of them for years so I was pretty excited to have them here playing.  The band played in the main pavilion where the keynotes were held.  But before we were allowed in they herded us into the small foyer for 45 minute or so.  Presumably they needed more time to setup either the band or the food and drinks in the pavilion.  So while it was a little uncomfortably cramped to begin with, once the doors opened and we got inside all was forgiven.

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Before calling it a night and making the solo trip back to my hotel I had one last catch-up with Ryan McBride from the Sydney VMUG crew.  Ryan’s an awesomely funny guy who I’m looking forward to catching up with next week back in Melbourne.

Day 3 – The Day after vForum Summary

While many people flew out and went back to work for Friday.  I decided to mix it up a little and spend a day in Sydney.  I couldn’t come to Sydney and not spend at least a day doing all the touristy things.

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I had an awesome time during vForum.  VMware have as always put on an excellent event.  VMDownUnderGround was also a great opener to vForum.  While I would have preferred more deep-dive sessions.  I did manage to take away a little from each session I went to which I see as a success.  And yes, I’m constantly told not to focus on sessions but rather use the time building networking connections.  But I felt that there was room to achieve both during vForum which I think I achieved.

PowerCLI Core

Posted by on October 23, 2016 No comments

When Microsoft and Jeffrey Snover released PowerShell on Linux a few months back we knew PowerCLI running on Linux wasn’t too far away.  Well, an awesome demo from Alan Renouf running PowerCLI in a Docker container was probably a giveaway 🙂

Well since then we’ve been patiently waiting, and hearing rumors of a Fling, for the release.  Earlier this week VMware finally released that Fling.  And that haven’t disappointed.  VMware have provided a number of different methods to run PowerCLI Core --OS X, Linux, and Docker.  Skimming through the Instructions PDF on the Flings site by far the easiest method has to be the Docker image from Docker Hub (assuming you already have docker installed).

I decided to try out this docker image and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  Boy, I miss the old days of Linux where I had to compile and install everything, then troubleshoot, and repeat.  Using an Ubuntu 14.04 build it’s as simple as running two commands.

First pull down the docker image from Docker Hub.

docker pull vmware/powerclicore

Then run the container!

docker run --rm -it --entrypoint=’/usr/bin/powershell’ vmware/powerclicore

And that’s really it, kind of.  There is one more command you’ll have to run to actually connect to a vCenter or ESXi host.  Without it you’ll receive an Invalid Certificate error which will prevent you from connecting.

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction Ignore -Confirm:$false

After that you should be able to connect as normal to a vCenter.

ubuntu01-vmware-workstation-000303

As the doco states not all the modules are available yet.  Currently just the Core and VDS cmdlets.  A quick check shows we have 315 available to us.  Which, to be honest, is a huge amount.

PS /powershell> (get-command -Module powercli*).count
315

I haven’t done too much with it yet.  Though I have already noticed a few odd issues and errors.  It’s hard to say if it’s PowerCLI Core related or PowerShell.  One notable issue is when pipping a PowerCLI cmdlet multiple times on the command line it would intermittently fail.

The important thing to note here is this is a Fling, which as I’ve mentioned before, is unsupported and comes with no guarantees.  Not only that but it’s build upon an Alpha build of PowerShell 6.  Put it together and sure you’ll probably get unexpected results sometimes.

Never the less this is another get testament to VMware’s commitment to PowerCLI and PowerShell.  I’m excited to see PowerShell and PowerCLI continue to further develop and mature on Linux and open the door to a whole new slew of developers.

References

PowerCLI Core Fling
VMware PowerCLI Blog Announcement

VCP 6, My Last VCP

Posted by on June 28, 2016 No comments

VMW-LGO-CERT-PRO-6-DATA-CTR-VIRT

Ok, so I say this every time but this time I mean it… well, at least I think I do.  This is my last VCP exam.  I took the VCP 5.5 Delta a few years back now.  Before that were a few VCP 5s.  There might have even been a VCP 4 thrown in there somewhere.  I’ve taken this exam more times than I want to think about.

Last week I took the VCP6-DCV Delta.  I could have held off a few more months before my VCP 5 expired but i had some spare capacity to study so I committed to retake the exam.  Work was kind enough to give me two dedicated study days to prepare.  I used them as well as I could have.  I had also hoped to get in some solid study in the weeks leading up to the exam but unforeseen personal issues got in the way which wrote that off.  So I really wasn’t feeling confident going into this exam.  To my surprise, though, I actually passed with a decent mark.

The VCP is a real solid exam for its type, it always has been.  Personally I think one of the harder ones out there too.  Of course exams like the VCAP are on a different level but as for the standard multiple choice exam it’s right up there.  VCP exams really require that you have solid experience with the technology, especially the VCP-DCV focusing on vCenter, along with vSphere Replication, a little vCloud Air thrown in, vSAN features, and the new PSC.  it has really become quite broad.

The Delta I took was comprised of 65 questions over 75 minutes, 20 questions less then the full VCP exam thankfully.  As a guide I usually work out how many questions 70% is and treat that as what’s required to pass.  It’s usually treated me well as a format for passing.  So when I scribbled down 15 questions I was uncertain with at the end of the exam I felt it could have gone either way.  I was quite worried.  So seeing that I passed in the high 400’s out of a possible 500 was quite pleasing.

I think the community has finally gotten over and accepted this 2 year expiration with VMware certifications.  I’ve never really had an issue with it.  I’ve known this is where the industry has been heading with certifications for a while now.  It doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating though.  Which is why I’m hoping I won’t have to do another one again.  Now it’s not to say that I won’t do another VMware cert.  I just have to be a little smarter and play the game a little better by upgrading to the new VCIX cert.

In any case, it’s done, it’s out the way.  I get to use the new little logo.  And, well, that’s about it 😛

Being a vExpert is a great motivation booster!

Posted by on August 29, 2015 No comments

Returning from a month long Euro Trip a few weeks back I had been struggling to get back into work mode.  So it was a huge motivation boost to receive an email earlier this week welcoming me to the VMware vExpert Program as a 2015 vExpert.  I’m thrilled to have been recognised along with a lot of other amazing people.

My history with VMware products goes back to the Virtual Infrastructure and ESX Server 3 days.  I still remember my scepticism when my manager said we’re going to migrate to this virtualisation stuff.  Over the last few years VMware and Virtualisation have become a crucial part of my role in the Cloud & Managed Services department of Optus Business in Australia.

I’m really looking forward to engaging ever more with the virtualisation community throughout the remainder of the year and into next.

The 2015 second half intake of vExperts can be found here.

and the full list here.

vExpert-2015-Badge

Enable SSH on vCenter Server Appliance 6 (VCSA)

Posted by on June 14, 2015 2 comments

If you’re running the Appliance version of vCenter 6 at some stage you may want console access via SSH.  When you install VCSA 6 for the first time you have the option during installation to enable SSH.  Depending on your security stance you may have left SSH off and now you want it on.

There are a few different methods for enabling SSH on VCSA.  The below two methods both use the web client.

Method 1.
Directly enabling SSH in the Web Client.

This method is probably the easiest and quickest way.  The settings just happen to be in a non-intuitive location.

On the Home screen of the Web Client select Administration -> System Configuration

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Select Nodes and right click on your vCenter server.

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Select Edit Settings

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Select the Checkbox Enable SSH login

enable_ssh-000180

Click OK.

You should now be able to SSH to the vCenter name or IP.

 

Method 2.
Enabling SSH via the Remote Console.

Navigate to your vCenter Appliance VM.  Click on Launch Remote Console.

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Press ALT + F1 to get a login TTY session and login as root

enable_ssh-000183

Run the below commands to enable SSH.  ssh.get shows the current status.  ssh.set allows you to change the state of SSH.  Use ‘false’ instead of true to disable SSH.

Command> ssh.get
Enabled: False
Command> ssh.set --enabled true
Command> ssh.get
Enabled: True
Command>

The above methods takes effect immediately, no need to reboot.  When disabling SSH, current sessions stay active and don’t end.  So if someone has an open SSH session they won’t be kicked out until they logoff or their session times out.

References

VMware vCenter 6 Documentation
Edit Access Settings to the vCenter Server Appliance

 

No vmkcore disk partition is available

Posted by on May 31, 2015 5 comments

Sometimes I really do feel the computer gremlins are out to get me.  As long as I can remember I’ve had a flawlessly running Test Lab at work.  The day of my scheduled ESXi host upgrades I come across numerous hosts with the below error.

No vmkcore disk partition is available and no network coredump server has been configured.  Host core dumps cannot be saved.

no_vmkcore01

I tried to ignore the error but VMware Update Manager would have no bar of it and prevented me from performing an ESXi version upgrade.

The error is referring to the location ESXi will dump its core during a Purple Screen of Death (PSOD).  Usually you’ll see this warning with a statless configured ESXi host.  In this situation a host will be running in memory with no disk.  You will usually configure the vSphere Network Dump Collector service.  This wasn’t the case in my situation.

Logging into the Shell I ran the follow

~ # esxcli system coredump partition list

no configured dump partition found; skipping

Next I attempted to set the coredump

~ # esxcli system coredump partition set --enable true --smart

Unable to smart activate a dump partition.  Error was: Not a known device: naa.6000097000024659483748380304235.

Not really sure what was going on here.  I just hope no one was messing with LUN mappings.

So next I use the set -u to unconfigure any current core dump follow by set --enable true --smart which allows ESXi to automatically determine the best location to set.

~ # esxcli system coredump partition set -u

~ # esxcli system coredump partition set --enable true --smart

~ # esxcli system coredump partition get

Active: naa.600601600fc04857394578c4d945e311:7

Configured: naa.600601600fc04857394578c4d945e311:7

This resolved the error immediately without any reboots and allowed me to continue with ESXi host upgrades.

I don’t know the root cause to this issue but as I’m upgrading ESXi versions I think it’s okay to sometimes let things go.

Note;  --enable true --smart contains double dashes.

Modifying vCenter Server Appliance 6 (VCSA) NTP settings

Posted by on March 23, 2015 8 comments

For some unknown reason that I’m yet to learn.  The VAMI in vCenter Server Appliance 6 has been removed.  VAMI is the management interface that you usually connect to on port 5480 for most VMware appliances.  Prior to vCenter 6 you could connect to your VCSA appliance on port 5480.  In the VAMI you could check that status of the appliance services, change its network settings, perform updates, and change NTP settings.

vcsa_ntp0

It’s this last  setting that quickly alerted me to this change shortly after deploying my first VCSA 6.  During the initial deployment of my vCenter Appliance I would specify my NTP servers when prompted.  During my first two attempts the deployment would error out and fail because my NTP time sources specified were timing out.  So on the third attempt I decided to skip the NTP servers and configure them post install.

Here in lies the new way of modifying NTP settings on a vCenter 6 Appliance.

Firstly we need to log into the appliance via SSH or via the console using the root account.

vcsa_ntp01

We will be presented with a VMware shell with instructions on how to enable BASH.  For this task and many other vCenter tasks the current shell is good enough.  From here we can run our NTP commands.  If we type ntp followed by the ‘TAB’ key we get a list of ntp commands we can run.

vcsa_ntp02

Typing ntp.get lists the current status of NTP and what NTP servers are configured.  In this case the status is Down and no servers have been configured.

Command> ntp.get
Config:
Status: Down
Servers:
Command>

As we have no NTP servers listed we can use the ntp.server.set command.  This will override any current servers that may also be listed.

Command> ntp.server.set --servers 0.au.pool.ntp.org
Command> ntp.get
Config:
Status: Down
Servers: 0.au.pool.ntp.org
Command>

We now have one NTP time source set.  If we wish to make modifications to the list of servers without overriding them we can use the ntp.server.add command.

Command> ntp.server.add --servers 1.au.pool.ntp.org
Command> ntp.get
Config:
Status: Down
Servers: 0.au.pool.ntp.org 1.au.pool.ntp.org
Command>

With our NTP time sources set we now enable and start NTP using the command timesync

Command> timesync.set --mode NTP
Command> timesync.get
Config:
Mode: NTP

Command> ntp.get
Config:
Status: Up
Servers: 0.au.pool.ntp.org 1.au.pool.ntp.org

And that’s really all that is required.  Relatively straight forward to perform.  From my point of view it’s certainly not as convenient as using the VAMI web portal from previous versions.  As mentioned above.  I don’t know why it was removed.  Perhaps time constraints meant that it will be introduced in a future update.  Or perhaps it’s just hidden on a different port I’m not aware of.  In any case it would be nice to officially know.

Note; ‘--servers’ above is a double dash.

References

Add or Replace NTP Servers in the vCenter Server Appliance Configuration

VCP5-DCV Delta done and dusted

Posted by on October 21, 2014 No comments

Over the weekend logic and common sense failed me and I decided to sit my VCP5-DCV Delta Exam.  Since VMware introduced a recertification policy back in March 2014 I’ve been buying my time to renew.  My deadline was approaching and with the limited time offer to sit a Delta exam recertification I jumped on it.

To date I’ve seen nothing out there on user experiences taking the Delta exam, though, it’s only been three weeks since the VCP5-DCV Delta exam has been available.  So unfortunately taking this exam would be unchartered waters.  I’ve been psyching myself up all week so that wasn’t going to phase me 🙂

I had my plan ready for first thing Saturday morning.  I would fire up the vSphere environment on my new NUC test lab.  Download all the PDFs in the VCP5-DCV Delta Blueprint.  Then cram like I’ve never crammed before over 48 hours and take the exam Sunday night.

Step 1 was Requesting Authorization on the VMware MyLearn site.  I had already performed this earlier on in the week and was authorized the same day, my authorization was valid for 10 years, I guess just in case I became a little busy.  Step 2 was booking for the VCP550D exam on the Pearsons website first thing Saturday morning.  There’s nothing like preparing for an exam than knowing you’ve already paid to take it.  The exam cost was $130 AUD ($120 USD).

Next I downloaded and studied the Blueprint.  65 questions over 75 minutes, that’s 1 minute 15 seconds per a question.  Vmware are notorious for pushing time limits in exams 🙁  The MyLearn site states that only new material between vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 would be on the exam yet the blueprint contained everything that would be in a full VCP exam.  This made study a little difficult.  I wasn’t going to study everything obviously.  So I took advantage of the FREE 1-hr online course -VMware vSphere: What’s New Fundamentals of V5.5 to help prepare for the exam.  I used that has the basis of what I needed to study.  The online course was a good starting point of where to start the deep dives into the PDFs.  What I found was absent in the video, but clearly mentioned on the blueprint, was vCOPs and vSAN.  Something to keep in mind.

Next came the mind numbingly hard part of reading the PDFs.  I focused heavily on some of the new guides, In particular, the Replication guide, Data Protection, and Storage.  By Sunday afternoon (after a day and half of reading) I had covered most of the material in the PDFs.  The only exception being the three vCOPS PDFs totalling 400 pages which I refused to read!

Next came taking a few practice exams off the VMware MyLearn site.  I knew the questions would be broader than the Delta exam so I just focused on the new 5.5 material.

As the end of Sunday approached it was time to take the exam.  Now If it’s not clear by this point, this is an online exam.  For the people that don’t know what that means.  It is an open book exam!  Now I don’t want hate messages.  It’s an open book exam!

So this is where my three monitors got put to good use.  Monitor 1, the exam window.  Monitor 2, Google.  Monitor 3, the Advanced Search function of Adobe Reader set to search all PDFs in the Blueprint folder.

Now if you’ve read this far, plain and simply, I’m not going to give you the answers.  I feel, though, based on my experience I can comfortably recommend what you need to be studying.  So know your vSAN, know your vFlash, know your VDP, and know Replication.  It felt like the lower end of 50% -- 75% was this new material and the rest was standard VCP knowledge material that we should all know.  Looking at the exam at a high level it’s set in the format of a traditional VCP exam.  So if you can remember back to your last one expect the same types of questions worded the same way.

Where I felt I was weak on and would also recommend.  Know your vSphere Editions and high level vCOPs 😉  If you’ve done your VCA-DCV certification you’ll been fine with that knowledge for vCOPs.  Just focus on your knowledge of what Badges are and what they are comprised of.

So now long story short I am recertified for another 728 days.

As an open disclaimer I’ve been using vSphere 5.5 since day one of release.  I’ve been closely following all the new technologies that have been accompanying vSphere 5.5.  Keep that in mind before you say this was a paper certification.

References

Recertification Policy

VCP5-DCV Delta recertification exam

Pearsons VMware exam registration site