So at VMworld 2014 Europe I sat the VCAP-CID exam, on Monday the 13th of October to be exact. I passed with 30 min left on the clock. Barely.
How hard was it and what resources did I use to pass?
So lets begin with the difficulty level. I had no idea how the exam was going to be, but I figured it would be like the VCAP-DCD exam, which is according to most people very tough. I’m sure if this is the first VCAP design exam you will do the VCAP-CID exam is actually a bit tougher than its DCD cousin, as it covers the VAF (VMware Architecture Framework) using vCloud Director and also how to operate/manage VMware Cloud environments. But there is a reason why it was tough, and perhaps tougher than it should have been for me.
The main reason the exam was tough was that I hadn’t covered all the sections in the Blueprint. I’ve been covering the VCAP-CID exam blueprint as a part of my studying, and since I was doing that I might as well blog about it, which I’m doing at this page:
At the time of the exam I had only covered the first three Sections and but had read the vCAT documents at least 2 times before. Going through the Blueprint sections helped me immensely and I recommend going through them as well, or reading my Study Notes, which ever helps 🙂
And of course if you have taken the DCD you know how the exam is set up, with its Visio and Drag-and-Drop questions. The most time is spent on these.
Other material I gathered, but only covered the BOLD items before the exam:
- Reading:
- vCAT 3.1.2 documents – 709 pages
- VMware Private Cloud Computing with vCloud Director Book by Simon Gallagher (@vinf_net) and Aidan Dalgelish (@AidersD) – 370 pages
- Blueprint material
- Whitepapers:
- Courses:
- VMware vCloud Director 5.1 Essentials: Installing and Configuring course from Pluralsight by Chris Wahl (@chriswahl) – 2 hours 34 minutes
- VMware vCloud Director 5.1 Essentials: Managing and Monitoring course from Pluralsight by Chris Wahl (@chriswahl) – 4 hours 54 minutes
- VMware vCloud Director Organizations course from Pluralsight by Jake Robinson (@jaker)- 3 hours 52 minutes (a bit old but still good material)
- Videos:
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 1- Create a vCloud Conceptual Design with Frank Buechsel (@fbuechsel) – 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 2 -Create a vCloud Logical Design with Frank Buechsel (@fbuechsel) – 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 3 – vCloud Physical Design with Philip Monk (@phil_monk31) – 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 4 – vCloud Security with Philip Monk (@phil_monk31) – 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 5 – Create Extended vCloud Designs with Frank Buechsel (@fbuechsel) – 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 6: vCloud Availability with Michael Webster (@vcdxnz001)- 26 min (missing the first half)
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 7 – Metering and Compliance with Lawrence Kohan (@lawrencekohan)- 1 hour
- EMEA vBrownbag VCAP-CID Objective 8 – vApp Design with Kenny Garreau (@kennega)- 1 hour
- Most of VMware’s Youtube videos on vCloud Director show only basic stuff so I didn’t find anything that wasn’t explained in detail elsewhere.
- VMworld sessions – most of them from VMworld 2012 (when vCloud Director was still cool)(all sessions are about 1 hour in length)
- vCloud DR for Oxford University Computing Services – Real World Example
- vCloud Networking: an Extensible and Open Platform
- Using VMware vCloud Networking and Security and vCenter Configuration Manager to Achieve Better that Physical Security for Business Critical Apps
- Appeasing Your PCI Assessor Using vCloud Networking and Security to Segment and Secure Your Virtual Data Centers
- Automation of vCloud Director Disaster Recovery
- vCAT 3.0: Operating a VMware vCloud
- Architecting for VMware vCloud Allocation Models – please note that allocation model changed in vCloud Director 5.1 U2.
- vCloud Architecture Toolkit 3.0 Overview
- Extending vCloud Director
As you can see there is a lot of good material on vCloud Director, but the main thing to read the vCAT documents, they are an invaluable resource on vCloud Director designs.
If you have taken the DCD the Conceptual->Logical->Physical aspect of the exam is pretty straight forward, but if not I recommend spending some time on reading the material for Section 1 in the blueprint.
A part from that I really can’t tell you more 🙂
But do read on other bloggers experiences as well as its always good to get a second (or nine in this case) opinion 🙂
- Manfred Hofer from www.vbrain.info: VCAP-CID and VCAP-DTD Exam Experience
- Frank Buechsel from fbuechsel.eu/: VCAP-CID experience
- Tom Fojta from fojta.wordpress.com: VCAP-Cloud Infrastructure Design Exam Experience
- Matt Vandenbeld from Pluralsight: VCAP-CID exam: Know what to expect and how to prepare
- Josh Odgers from www.joshodgers.com/: My VCAP5-CID (Cloud Infrastructure Design) Exam Experience
- Grant Orchard from grantorchard.com/: MY VCAP-CID EXPERIENCE
- Andrea Mauro from http://vinfrastructure.it/: My experience with VCAP5-CID Exam
- Nathan Wheat from http://wheatcloud.blogspot.com/: VCAP-CID and VCAP-DCD exam experiences
- Paul Fries from http://www.poppingclouds.com/: VCAP5-CID Exam Experience
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