VCP

VCP Requirements – VMware Certified Professional on vSphere

You might be wondering what are the requirements to became a VCP. In fact you can’t just pass an exam…..Even if you can register and pass the exam at Pearson VUE without attending the VMware class, you won’t became a VCP. The only way to became VCP 5 (if you’re not VCP 3 or VCP 4)  is to attend the VMware class for Install and configure vSphere 5  (online or by traveling to the nearest location) and then passing the exam in one of those Pearson VUE Exam Centers.

The real exam is a QCM exam which is executed on a computer with online connection.  You can get the vSphere 5 Blueprint from this page.

You can find your class on the VMware Educations pages :

-    VMware Education – public course catalog
-    VMware Education – browse class by location      What’s new in vSphere 5 course

Once sit the VMware Class, you should be ready for the exam. Well, not exactly. You will now probably really need to study for the exam. Here are some links and tools I used to pass mine.

Latest Video Training from TrainSignal:

I have done a deep review of this training in my article here. vSphere 5 got more complex and more ….. how to say… you need larger knowledge of VMware vSphere which is built on VCP 4 and vSphere 4. This is discussed in those videos which target the VCP 5 exam.

Read my review of this training course here.

I’m already VCP 4 and VCP 5. I’ve done a lot of deployments of vSphere, works a lot in my home lab, but there is always something that I haven’t thought of, there is always different ways of doing stuff and there is certainly many aspects and features that I haven’t explored yet. This vSphere 5 training has opened some of those grey zones that are now clear for me….

See more details about this course here.

VCP5 Practice Exams:

• Simon Long’s VCP5 Practice Exam
• The official VMware VCP5 Mock Exam (mylearn account is necessary)
• Kalen Ardnt VCP5 Quiz
• Elastic Sky Configuration Maximums

vSphere 5 Blueprint:

Section 1 – Plan, Install, Configure and Upgrade vCenter Server and VMware ESXi

• Objective 1.1 – Install and Configure vCenter Server
• Objective 1.2 – Install and Configure VMware ESXi
• Objective 1.3 – Plan and Perform Upgrades of vCenter Server and VMware ESXi
• Objective 1.4 –Secure vCenter Server and ESXi
• Objective 1.5 – Identify vSphere Architecture and Solutions

Section 2 – Plan and Configure vSphere Networking

• Objective 2.1 – Configure vNetwork Standard Switches
• Objective 2.2 – Configure vNetwork Distributed Switches
• Objective 2.3 – Configure vSS and vDS Policies

Section 3 – Plan and Configure vSphere Storage

• Objective 3.1 – Configure Shared Storage for vSphere
• Objective 3.2 – Configure the Storage Virtual Appliance for vSphere
• Objective 3.3 – Create and Configure VMFS and NFS Datastores

Section 4 – Deploy and Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

• Objective 4.1 – Create and Deploy Virtual Machines
• Objective 4.2 – Create and Deploy vApps
• Objective 4.3 – Manage Virtual Machine Clones and Templates
• Objective 4.4 – Administer Virtual Machines and vApps

Section 5 – Establish and Maintain Service Levels

• Objective 5.1 – Create and Configure VMware Clusters
• Objective 5.2 – Plan and Implement VMware Fault Tolerance
• Objective 5.3 – Create and Administer Resource Pools
• Objective 5.4 – Migrate Virtual Machines
• Objective 5.5 – Backup and Restore Virtual Machines
• Objective 5.6 – Patch and Update ESXi and Virtual Machines

Section 6 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting and Alarm Management

• Objective 6.1 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts
• Objective 6.2 – Perform Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting
• Objective 6.3 – Perform Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting
• Objective 6.4 – Perform Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS Clusters and vMotion/Storage vMotion

Section 7 – Monitor a vSphere Implementation

• Objective 7.1 – Monitor ESXi, vCenter Server and Virtual Machines
• Objective 7.2 – Create and Administer vCenter Server Alarms

 Section 0 – VMware Vision – also needed

• Objective 0.1 – VMware Products
• Objective 0.2 – Cloud Concepts

The highlighted paths are available until February 29th 2012,  VCP4 people do not need to attend any vSphere 5 training course in order to pass SVCP 5 and became Certified VCP5.  But they might consider to attend What’s new course which can be helpful in preparing for the VCP 5 exam.

The VCP exam has 85 questions with 8 pre-exam survey questions. The passing score is 300 and the maximum is 500.  If you’re planning to became VCI – a VMware Certified Instructor, the minimum limit is (as far as I know) 400 poins.

There is 90 min available as a time limit, and for users passing the exam in a country where the primary language is not English there is an additional 30 minutes time added to the exam automatically. I was in that category since my native language is French.

You can get More Information on VMware Courses in general with those following links:

-  Vmware Certification – here you should start.
-  VMware Education – public course catalog.
-  VMware vSphere: What’s new.
-  VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting. - lab-intensive, four-day course
-  Main documentation link – VMware vSphere

Recommended tools:

With VMware Workstation -  you can run VMware ESXi 5 inside of VMware Workstation (as a VM) without the need of tweaking the VMX configuration file. You can read about the new Virtual Network Editor in my post, which make things even more easy.

I have recently published a Free E-book on building a virtual lab (using nested ESXi hosts) on a laptop with limited resources. You might be interested in reading this post. You can download the E-book fo Free after subscribing to my Weekly newsletter.

My preferences goes to video learning, especially If you can’t afford to build a home lab with shared storage, it might be a solution for you. I like to learn through Video since it’s complementary learning. Besides that the pros shows you “live” all the little how-to’s and tools they using.. so you save your time by watching those courses. You benefit from their experiences…

Other TrainSignal’s Training:

Performance monitoring training - great series - how to get the most of your vSphere installation, cli commands to troubleshoot performance, etc…. Read my article on that here.

VMware vSphere Troubleshooting training. You can read my review on that training here.