On October 26th, I sat the VCDX Administration Exam. Today I received notification that I passed.
Now if you were following me on Twitter then you would have seen that I was not at all happy with the feeling I left the Exam with.
My experience.
It was taken in the Pearson testing Center in Tel-Aviv. This was the first time I have taken an exam there. Firstly, I am grateful that I could do the Exam in Israel, and did not have to fly to another country to actually sit the Exam.
I have taken exams before, but for the first time, I think, this is the only place that really abided 100% (TO THE LETTER!!!!!) to all the rules (Well done!). I felt like I was in a fish tank. Constantly being watched and with two surveillance cameras on me from the roof at all times. Adding to the fact that this was an important exam, feeling relaxed was not part of the experience.
Of course I will not be able to provide you any of the questions that were on the Exam, that would be violating the NDA, but I will add to the common knowledge already out there.
The exam time limit was 2 hours and 45 minutes. 70 Multiple choice questions and 11 Hands-on lab. I distinctly remember that the split was 50-50 (questions-labs) and not 60-40 as I have seen on several places on the www.
I as well finished the Exam with not more than 60 seconds to spare. You have to manage and divide your own time between the two parts.
I will say that there were questions / Labs on almost every part of the blueprint, some more than others.
You will need to know your command syntax and remember that there is more than one way to do things.
The VCDX is a 4 part process (http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/)
- You must be certified as a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) on VMware Infrastructure 3 and you must complete the Qualification Skills Review.
- Pass the VMware Enterprise Administration Exam. Includes live labs and tests a higher level of skill set than the exam for VCP on VMware Infrastructure 3.
- Pass the VMware Design Exam. This exam focuses on actual design scenarios and contains simulations and situational questions.
- Submit, present and defend a successful VMware Infrastructure design and implementation plan.
The resources I used for studying for this Exam:
- Previous knowledge and experience using & Designing vSphere and ESX infrastructures.
- VMware Enterprise Administration Exam Blueprint, v3.5
- Some great revision guides from
- Study guide VCDX Enterprise Exam 3.5 from Peter van den Bosch
- w1nter's VCDX guides on Storage, Networking, Logging, Security
- 1 HS21 Blade with 8GB RAM + 2x73gb disks installed with ESX4i
- 8-10 VM's
- 2x ESX 3.5
- 1x Windows 2003 - Domain Controller
- 1x Windows 2003 - vCenter Server
- 1x Openfiler - Shared Storage
- 1x Windows 2003 - VCB server
- 1-2 VM's in each virtual ESX Server
- "….And a partridge in a pear tree…"
On to the Design Exam. Oh and I would like to squeeze in the VCP4 in the next 6 weeks as well :)