Wow I can’t believe I’m starting yet another page for VMware study resources but seeing as the VCP-IaaS is soon to be replaced by the VCP-Cloud and that current VCP5-DV holders can take the VCAP5-CID I thought i may as well get a start on listing resources as if I can just do the VCAP5-CID then I might just do that.

This is a working list at the moment so I am hoping to grow it and would love for people who know of other top resources out there to let me know

VCAP5-CID

• First resource is the official VMware page for the exam as this gives you an idea of where the exam fits in and additional VMware recommended resources.
• Next is the exam blueprint which like all the other VMware exams is something you HAVE TO go through and make sure you know everything listed. The blueprint for the CID is very much like the VCAP-DCD which does make it a bit more difficult to find solid things to review for each section but I’m going to try find everything and list them here
• You will have to get authorisation for the exam just like you do for any of the other Advanced exams so get your authorisation in as soon as possible so you have it whenever you decide to sit the exam
• I have started going through the VCAP-CID blueprint objectives and break them down. You can see how far I’ve got on my page here
• The EMEA vBrownbag which I co-host have gone through the VCAP5-CID blueprint which can be found on http://professionalvmware.com/brownbags/ as well as downloadable by iTunes here http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/professionalvmware-brownbags/id468638808 .
• A list of all the VCAP5-CID videos are listed below and I will try keep this updated for people and we are looking at doing deep dives into some of the sections which warrant it.
  • Objective 1-vCloud Conceptual Design
  • Objective 2-vCloud Logical Design
  • Objective 3-vCloud Physical Design
  • Objective 4-vCloud Security
  • Objective 5-Hybrid/Multi-Site vCloud
  • Objective 6-Availability
  • Objective 7-Metering and Compliance
  • Objective 8-vApp Design

• Even though you don’t have to do the VCP-IaaS or VCP-Cloud prior to sitting the CID these are highly beneficial in your studying for the exam and if you can’t pass them then you will most likely not pass the CID so I would recommend trying to pass one of these first if you haven’t been working and designing Cloud infrastructures for quite a while. I prepared and sat the exam in July 2013 and wrote about my experiences in my VCP5-IaaS Exam Experience blog posting.
• The is no pre-requisite exam for the VCAP-CID but the recommended course is VMware vCloud: Design Best Practices . Currently this is covering vCloud 1.5 and not 5.1 which is isn’t great as the exam is now  based on 5.1 and I do think this could get very confusing seeing as there are some big changes from vCloud 1.5 and vCloud 5.1. (the exam being based on 5.1 has been confirmed to me from VMware Education)
• Even though it covers the pieces you should know as your base knowledge there is nothing wrong with going through the basics again and David Davis with Jake Robinson have done a brilliant set of videos which I would highly recommend covering VMware vCloud Director Essentials.
• Jake has also released his own set of Trainsignal videos covering VMware vCloud Director Organizations. These are brilliant in understanding the capabilities and features of vCloud director after you have a firm understanding of the portions covered in the essentials training
• VCDX #104 Chris Wahl has done a series of videos for Trainsignal covering VMware vCloud Director 5.1 Essentials. These videos look really great and even though most of it should be base knowledge to you from the VCP-IaaS or VCP-Cloud I personally will be using them to refresh my memory on some portions.
• Quite a few people have sat the VCAP5-CID beta and one person who blogged about this experience was Tom Fojta
• One of the best resources for the exam and something I have been reading from start to finish whilst doing a customer roll out of vCloud is the vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT). These pdf’s are amazing and cover everything from conceptual,logical and physical designs to operations procedures.
• With the release of the latest VMware vSphere Design book by Forbes Guthrie and Scott Lowe is a whole section by Kendrick Coleman around vCloud design. I went through the whole book for my VCAP-DCD preparations and think the whole book is applicable for the exam as it covers a large portion of the design methodology that is also applicable to vCloud designs
• VMware have released a free eLearning course for vCloud Networking and Security Fundamentals. The vCNS is a massive part of the vCloud 5.1 release and so I think this free course will be highly beneficial
• Even though it is base level knowledge around vCloud 5.1 I recently watched the VMware vCloud Director Essentials [V5.1] and vCloud Networking and Security Essentials [V5.X] VMware Partner Central training course for my VTSP 5 Cloud and found it a really great refresher on vCloud concepts and it covered off all the new features of vCloud 5.1 really well. The VMware vCloud Director Fundamentals course is available for free here which covers pretty much the same information and it’s free for everyone
• In his beta exam experience blog posting Kenny Garreau mentioned he used Massimo Referre’s vCloud Director Networking for Dummies and VMware’s vCloud Director Resource Allocation Models whitepaper from Frank Denneman and Chris Colotti. I’ve gone throught the resource allocation models whitepaper before but I’ll certainly look at both again prior to my exam.

VCAP-CIA

• The VCAP5-CIA has now been released and you can now request authorisation to attempt the exam.
• The EMEA vBrownbag will be starting to go through the blueprint. You can register for the podcast here. As the objectives are covered I will add links to each of the objectives below:
  • Objective 1 – Configure and Maintain vCloud Director
  • Objective 2 – Manage vSphere Resources
  • Objective 3 – Manage vCloud Director Resources
  • Objective 4 – Manage Complex vCloud Director Networks
  • Objective 5 – Manage Security
  • Objective 6 – Manage catalogs and vApps (apologies that the recording only half recorded)
• Karthic Kumar has already broken down the VCAP5-CIA blueprint with links to all the applicable kb articles and blogs covering all the portions you need to know. This is great as I was going to start doing this but Karthic has done a great job of it and he passed the VCAP5-CIA already so you can be assured he knows what is required.
• There are a number of CBT and free courses that I personally will be watching to refresh my base knowledge and also help me prepare for the VCAP5-CIA. The videos I will be using are:

• VMware vCloud Director 5.1 Essentials
• VMware vCloud Director Organizations
• VMware vCloud Director Essentials (this is the vCloud 1.5 series)
• vCloud Networking and Security Fundamentals
• VMware vCloud Director Fundamentals [V5.1]
• vShield Fundamentals
• VMware vShield Edge Fundamentals [V5.X]
• VMware vShield App Fundamentals [V5.X]

• Just like for the VCAP-DCA the CIA is lab based and so I will be spending extensive amounts of my time practicing in my home lab. The continual practicing of all the portions of the blueprint in the lab I believe is the most important part of the preparation as being able to do things extremely quickly whilst being hindered by the delay (I’m assuming the delay experienced for the DCA will still be around for the CIA) is the main challenge of the exam.
• Chris Wahl has created a study sheet like he did for the VCAP5-DCA which can be downloaded for free thanks to SolarWinds. You can download his study guide here.
• VCDX and Italian vMafia member Andrea Mauro sat the exam and wrote about his experiences of the exam here

As stated if you know of great resources out there for either of these exams then please do let me know as it helps everyone to know and be able to use the best resources out there

Gregg