Seeing as the VCAP5-DCD and DCA are now live  I thought I’d create this page for the exams and list all the resources  I’ll be using for the exams in my goal to attain my VCDX5 (My VCDXWannabe page also shows my progress so far .)

VCAP-DCA

• The exams will still require you to have passed the VCP5 as a pre-requisite so if you haven’t got this yet then maybe a have a look at my VCP5 page for all the resources I personally used and recommend. If you have your VCAP4-DCA then for three months after the release of the final exam you can pass the VCAP5-DCA and gain both the VCAP5-DCA and the VCP5.
• The beta for the VCAP5-DCA has been announced and I was given approval to blog about it as well as the blueprint in my VCAP5-DCA Beta blog posting.

• I sat the VCAP5-DCA at the end of October 2012 and wrote about my experience in my posting here: https://thesaffageek.co.uk/2012/10/30/my-vcap5-dca-experience/

• While preparing for the now closed beta of the VCAP5-DCA I went through all the objectives(a few to still publish) for the VCAP5-DCA and added the parts that have changed or been updated since the VCAP4-DCA and listed all of them here.
• You can download the official blueprint from here : http://mylearn.vmware.com/register.cfm?course=139202
• Josh Coen and Jason Langer have shown me up (I’m more than happy to be shown up by these EXTREMELY in-depth breakdowns) and have also broken down each objective with unbelievable depth and I can say I will be going through their and my breakdowns for my VCAP5-DCA GA attempt. Keep them coming guys
• Ethan Rowe has also started breaking down all the VCAP5-DCA blueprint objectives and has already taken a very large chunk out of it. Check out his breakdowns here
• One of the best resources in my studying for my VCP4 was Scott Lowes Mastering VMware vSphere 4 book. Scott’s Mastering VMware vSphere 5 book is now available in both the US and the rest of the world via Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions. I was fortunate enough to win a signed copy at VMworld Europe and have already started browsing through it and yet again it look amazing.  Also for those people out there who will be doing the VCP5 I would highly recommend this book.
• Next is the vSphere 5 Clustering Tech Deepdive book by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping. The book is available for purchase right now and is geekily available for the kindle also. For those of us that have already read Frank and Duncan’s vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive book,this book is a much-anticipated addition to our study materials as the 4.1 book was and still is proving very helpful in my gaining a solid understanding of HA and DRS. With all the new features around HA and DRS in vSphere 5 the new book is a must to gain a good understanding of it all from the masters themselves.
• For the VCAP4-DCA Sean Cookston’s,Ed Grigson’s and Kendrick Coleman’s Blueprint Breakdowns were highly beneficial and all three are planning on upgrading theirs with the new blueprint once it is released. Due to around 75% of the VCAP5 being the same as the VCAP4 the resources listed will give you a great start point until the guys have updated them to version 5. I will update these and separate them into separate points once the guys update them.
• David Davis and Elias Khnaser have now released their VMware vSphere 5 Training. Personally I love these training videos as it’s like being on the courses for it but you can watch whenever you want and via your iPad and laptop with the online training option. Even though it is more aimed at the VCP5 level it gives you a great understanding of all the new technologies and features in vSphere5 and how they all work.
• David also completed all four of the VCAP4-DCA recommended courses videos and  you can get all four of them included the recently released PowerCLI and Security courses in his VMware vSphere 4 VCAP Training Package. I used them for my VCAP4-DCA studying and plan to use them as reference and a refresher for my VCAP5-DCA.
• As mentioned in my VCAP5-DCA Beta blog posting Ed Grigson has done a brilliant breakdown of the VCAP5-DCA Blueprint and differences between it and the VCAP4-DCA in his VCAP5-DCA – What’s new? blog posting
• Jason Nash has worked with Trainsignal and has released the VMware vSphere Optimize and Scale (VCAP5-DCA) series of videos.
• An extremely helpful resource in my preparations for the VCAP4-DCA was the US vBrownbags hosted by either Cody Bunch or Damian Karlson. The guys have started going through the VCAP5-DCA objectives now and they really are brilliant. Also you can watch all the VCAP4-DCA videos as the differences between the blueprints are massive and the VCAP4 ones were really good.
• The vBrownbags are also available via Nick Marshalls blog for iTunes and RSS download here
• Samir Roshan has broken down each of the objectives for the VCAP5-DCA on his blog here and has linked to all the articles out there covering each section and even the pages it details the information on. Nice work Samir!
• The vBrownbag guys have given a really great bit of advice which should give you faster response times which is a must for the DCA exam
• Shane Williford has done a brilliant VCAP-DCA study guide and even separated out the CLI here
• Chris Wahl has created an awesome VCAP5-DCA study sheet that you can use to tick off each objective and if you have each of the following for each objective:
  • Read – The objective has been researched and related material has been read over.
  • Lab – The goal of the objective has been reproduced in a lab environment.
  • CLI – Used to denote when an objective has been completed or researched for the CLI command, when applicable.
  • GUI – Used to denote when an objective has been completed or researched for the GUI, when applicable.

VCAP-DCD

• The VCAP5-DCD GA has now been announced and the first person i saw blog about it was Andrea Mauro on his blog here. a number of people have already started submitting for their authorisation approvals for the exam and the timing seems to have coincided perfectly with the VCAP5-DCD vBrownbags finishing  (Mentioned and linked to further down on this page). You can register for the exam on the VMware certification site here
• I passed the exam on my second attempt on January 21 2013 and wrote a blog posting about my experiences and the resources I used plus some tips for the exam here
• I have created a mock design scenario and am hoping to go through each section of a vSphere design whilst trying to meet the requirements and mitigate risks. I’m hoping people will comment on the postings and people can learn how to think whilst doing vSphere designs in prep for the DCD, the VCDX or just your day job.
• The blueprint is available for download so you can print it out and start making your way through it
• Seb Hakiel an Xtravirt colleague of mine has taken on the task of breaking down the VCAP5-DCD blueprint objectives and has almost all of them on his blog here.Brilliant work and certainly wish I had this before my VCAP5-DCD.
• There is no pre-requisite exam/s for the VCAP-DCD but it is highly recommended you do the VMware vSphere: Design Workshop [V5.0] course to better understand the design processes and considerations. NOTE : If you have taken the course then make sure you go to your transcript under VMware learning, click next steps under the course name and then download the completed design scenarios that you followed during the course so you can learn how VMware would have built it
  
• A number of the beta test takers have blogged about their experiences. Obviously they are under NDA but they are still really helpful in getting an idea of how different the exam is to the VCAP4-DCD. Tom Fojta has posted his experiences here: http://fojta.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/vcap-dcd-5-exam/ and Dave Convery has posted his here: http://www.tech-tap.com/2012/02/21/my-vmware-vcap5-dcd-beta-exam-experience/.
• As mentioned in my All Things Virtual 25 ,Scott Vessey (@vmtraining) has blogged about the upgrade path for people who are VCAP4 to VCP5 and VCAP5-DCA. As confirmed now by VMware (about 5 months too late in my opinion) it also means that it saves people already VCAP certified having to do the VCP5.
• The exam has now changed in format due to people having problems when they went back to design questions in the exam and so there is no way of marking questions for review or doing the test in the way Jason Boche and people have mentioned of skipping the drag and drops until the end. You will now have to do each question and once you click next there is no going back to it. Forbes Guthrie has blogged about this change in his blog here: http://www.vreference.com/2012/11/16/vcap5-dcd-small-but-important-change-to-the-exam-format/
  
• One of the best resources in my studying for my VCP4 was Scott Lowes Mastering VMware vSphere 4 book. Scott’s Mastering VMware vSphere 5 book is now available in both the US and the rest of the world via Amazon in both paperback and kindle versions. I was fortunate enough to win a signed copy at VMworld Europe and have already started browsing through it and yet again it look amazing.  Also for those people out there who will be doing the VCP5 I would highly recommend this book.
• Scott has been busy as he also did a VMware vSphere Design book with Forbes Guthrie and Kendrick Coleman. The book is everything you need to fully understand a good design and all the questions and things you need to think about and mention in your designs. I’m currently using this book to strengthen a design I’m doing for a customer and it has been unbelievably beneficial. I’ve also heard from a vExpert and big name in the VMware community that the book is much more helpful than the version 5 of the design course.
  
• Next is the vSphere 5 Clustering Tech Deepdive book by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping. The book is available for purchase right now and is geekily available for the kindle also. For those of us that have already read Frank and Duncan’s vSphere 4.1 HA and DRS Technical Deepdive book,this book is a much-anticipated addition to our study materials as the 4.1 book was and still is proving very helpful in my gaining a solid understanding of HA and DRS. With all the new features around HA and DRS in vSphere 5 the new book is a must to gain a good understanding of it all from the masters themselves.
• David Davis and Elias Khnaser have now released their VMware vSphere 5 Training. Personally I love these training videos as it’s like being on the courses for it but you can watch whenever you want and via your iPad and laptop with the online training option. Even though it is more aimed at the VCP5 level it gives you a great understanding of all the new technologies and features in vSphere5 and how they all work.
• Alex Galbraith has done two amazing postings on the study resources he used for his VCAP4-DCD and what he did the week before his DCD exam and his thoughts on the exam. It is based on VCAP4-DCD but due to a very large portion of the VCAP5-DCD being the same as version 4 he lists some resources I never knew about or thought about which will be highly beneficial for VCAP5.
• One of the resources Alex mentions is the DRBC Design – Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Fundamentals course which is highly beneficial but costs $240 and you only get access to it for 60 days! I know not helpful for everyone but for people who work for VMware partners, the course is available on demand for a year for free via Partner university “Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Design [v5.X]”  🙂 . I’ve already registered myself on it and am planning to watch it very soon for a customer engagement which will hopefully prepare me nicely for the DCD preparations for DRP and BCP in relation to vSphere 5. Also the course has been updated for vSphere 5 so make sure you do the new one. *UPDATE* As commented on this blog below, it looks like VMware are now offering it for FREE for EVERYONE so go get registered. http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/www/mL.cfm?menu=topfreecourses .
• The guys from the APAC Brownbags have been doing webcasts on the VCAP5-DCD for a few months now and have now covered  all the sections of the Blueprint. You can register for these and the US vBrownbags which have started to cover the VCAP5-DCA here. There are also a number of the APAC VCAP5-DCD vBrownbags that have already been done that are on the same page as above which I plan to go through when I start preparing for the VCAP5-DCD.
• The vBrownbags are also available via Nick Marshalls blog for iTunes and RSS download here
• There are also a number of US vBrownbag’s that cover sections of the VCAP5-DCD so make sure to watch these also
• Scott Lowe has now released his Designing VMware Infrastructure Trainsignal set of videos. The videos look amazing and I’m hoping I can get my hands on it very soon as I’m certain it is going to be HIGHLY beneficial for my VCAP-DCD preparations. 
• Pearson IT have started doing exam profiles and have done one for the VCAP5-DCD exam giving some useful tips here
• Karim Elatov has done an amazing page breaking down some top links and all of the objectives.
• I sat the VCAP5-DCD exam and wrote about me experiences here
• Shane Williford has done some amazing study notes covering the exam here
• Nick Marshall has broken down the DCD blueprint against all the APAC vBrownbags so that you can go through them whilst making sure you tick off each section of the blueprint
• An amazing resource that I am going through for my DCD retry is the Private Cloud – Architecture v1.5 document which was briefly covered by it’s creator Iwan Rahabok in one of the APAC vBrownbags and covers some INSANE information for designs and is massive
• Will Huber (VCDX #81) has done a very helpful VCAP-DCD notes download that you can use of his notes for his VCAP4-DCD. 95% of the concepts are the same as the VCAP5-DCD so I’m planning to read through these.
• Josh Odgers  (VCDX#90) is doing a series of postings covering architectural decisions when doing vSphere designs and has already done a large number of these. These are amazing in getting you to think of what you would try do and then you can see how Josh did it and learn the ways vSphere and hardware can be designed to meet even the most unusual requirement
• The rough cuts version of the VCAP5-DCD Official Certification Guide from VMware press is available for viewing here

 

If you know of any other resources out there please do leave a comment or drop me a tweet on twitter on @greggrobertson5 as this is really all about helping everyone find the best resources for the exams.

 

Gregg

 

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