Certification

Passed: My VCAP5-DCD Experience

May 15, 2013 by Michael 2 Comments

pass I meant to sit the VCAP5-DCD exam last year after my US project finished and I’d had some time off. For one reason or another it never happened. I managed to book it just after VMworld Europe but then had to cancel again.

The other day, I finally got to sit it (I didn’t get as far as passing the VCAP4-DCD). Hooray, I passed!

Unfortunately I don’t live very near any exam centres that were offering slots for one of VMware’s 4-hour Advanced exams so I had to drive over to Milton Keynes to QA’s training facility there. If you choose to take an exam there and, like me, have to drive there make sure you leave yourself plenty of time as parking wasn’t straightforward. The facilities, the exam station itself was fairly decent. The screen size was bigger than I’ve seen in some other places and the workstation was pretty nippy. I’m tempted to go back there as and when I do my DCA exam.

The exam itself, as I’m sure you’ll read elsewhere, is 3 hours and 45 minutes long and is comprised of a mixture of multiple choice type questions, drag and drop questions and some Visio-like diagramming tasks. What made it quite a challenge was that, unlike with some other exams, you cannot return to a previously answered question, you can’t flag a question for later review. I found that this made me very conscious of time passing. I was torn between making it through all of the questions by submitting some hasty answers – some of which I know I will have got wrong through not ready the question through carefully – and taking my time thus risking leaving some questions unanswered. In the end, I finished with mere seconds to spare so I either judged it right or just got lucky!

I can understand some of the reasoning behind removing candidates’ ability to review answers but I found some of the questions were curiously worded and, with some questions, I wanted to go back and check it almost as soon as I’d moved on. In a way though, I’m glad I couldn’t because I almost certainly wouldn’t have finished. In the end, it doesn’t matter too much because I’ve passed now but I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed the experience. I’m very happy about the result though!

Filed Under: Certification

TrainSignal Online – 1 Month On…

March 22, 2013 by Michael Leave a Comment

It’s been just over a month since TrainSignal switched to providing their courses only via an online model and binned the idea of shipping DVDs around the world.

Although they kept their plans under wraps fairly well (at least they did as far as I know), it shouldn’t really have come as a surprise to anyone that they changed their model. You only have to look back another month or so to one of the UK’s big high street names going to the wall to see further evidence that physical media is just not as popular anymore.

I had been planning to purchase one of TrainSignal’s courses just prior to them making the switch. Good job I waited eh? But after giving it a week or so to bed in, I subscribed and I now have access to the whole training catalog.

Logging in, the dashboard (below) gives you the ability to browse and take courses, take practice exams, see what’s new etc.

screenshot334

You can see my progress having a look at David Davis and Jake Robinson’s “VMware vCloud Director Essentials” course. There’s also a link that will let you download the Silverlight based offline player.

The offline player, as it says on the tin, allows you to download courses to view when you don’t have an internet connection handy. It requires you to authenticate using your TrainSignal account and you’ll need to connect the player to the internet every few days or so for it to re-authenticate. Once in, you can browse the course catalog and select courses for download.

offlineplayer

The player’s fairly responsive and I’ve had no issues with it… save one. As stated on their website, TrainSignal do not yet offer an offline player for mobile devices (e.g. iPads etc). For me, that’s a bit of a detractor.

Overall, I like what TrainSignal have done. I can pick and choose whichever courses I want and hopefully the catalog will grow nicely. I do want an iPad app for it though!

Note: I didn’t clarify when I first wrote this that TrainSignal have offered their courses online for some time but not as a subscription model. Thanks to Ricky El-Qasem.

Filed Under: Certification, Opinion, Reviews Tagged With: Training, trainsignal

TrainSignal Moves to Online Subscription Model

February 19, 2013 by Michael 1 Comment

The first ever TrainSignal course that I “took” was David Davis’ VMware vSphere 4 training. I had heard lots about it from a few people on Twitter and several others in person and I wanted to use it to fill in a few gaps in readiness for my VCP4 exam. I’ve since been through a few other courses and they’ve all been great.

What’s changed between then and now is TrainSignal’s transition from supplying only DVDs, through adding online access to purchased course, to finally switching to a subscription only model.

It’s a move that makes a great deal of sense and it’d be worth a subscription to get access to course related to technologies that I don’t use as often. There is even an offline player but it’s currently limited to desktop computers (Windows / OSX).

One thing that I would like to see though is a way to view courses offline on mobile devices. I recently used Handbrake to transfer my copy of Scott Lowe’s Designing VMware Infrastructure to my iPad so I could work through it anywhere. At about 800Mb though, I would only want to download that ahead of time and not via 3G when on a train.

Still, good move TrainSignal. I like it.

Filed Under: Certification, News, Reviews Tagged With: iPad, Training, trainsignal

VMware Press Sweepstakes

May 13, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

VMware Press, VMware’s official publishing arm, are in the middle of running a 60 day competition sweepstake (that ends June 30th 2012). On offer are a $100 Amazon gift card and three VMware Press books for the winner and nine second prize winners will win an eBook of their choice.

Enter here.

The publisher has already produced two excellent books in Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0 and Automating vSphere with VMware vCenter Orchestrator. This summer promises a glut of new titles that I’d be interested to read too:

Storage Implementation in VMware vSphere 5.0 (July 2012)
Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments (July 2012)
The Official VCP5 Certification Guide (July 2012)
VMware View 5: Building a Successful Virtual Desktop (August 2012)
VMware vSphere 5 Integration into the Datacenter (August 2012)

As and when they come out you can probably expect me to post a review here.

Filed Under: Certification, Fun Tagged With: competition

VCP5: Passed

February 14, 2012 by Michael 1 Comment

It took me a while to get around to booking it but I passed my VCP5 exam on the first attempt yesterday.

Back in 2009 when vSphere 4 was launched, I took the VCP4 exam much earlier. I was thinking last night why this was and I think it’s down to a change in circumstances. In 2009 I was freelancing and I felt it was advantageous to get my VCP4 as soon as possible. Working as I now do for a consultancy as a permanent employee, it’s not been as important for me to update to VCP5. That said, I did want to do it before the end of February to avoid having to take the “What’s New in vSphere 5″ course.

Now I know that everybody else who has posted about their VCP pass has done this but I just wanted to note the various resources that I used in my preparations. Many of them can be found mentioned on Gregg Robertson’s blog (The Saffa Geek) where he has a page dedicated to VCP5 studying resources. Besides that though I just wanted to call out a couple of things in particular:

Scott Lowe’s book “Mastering VMware vSphere 5” is a brilliant introduction and detailed reference to vSphere 5.
VMware’s own product documentation and KB articles.
Trainsignal’s VMware vSphere 5 Training – very useful for learning anywhere (I had the videos on my phone).
My own lab

That last resource is not to be underrated. Nowhere else can you try lots of different configurations and break things with impunity. ANd that is almost certainly the best way to learn.

A final word on the VCP5… good luck.