At vForum Sydney 2011 I presented three Certification Quick Start sessions on preparing for the VCP510 exam. A number of session attendees asked whether the slides would be available for download, I haven’t been able to get an answer to that question, so here is a summary.
All of the information you need is available through www.vmware.com/go/vcp The training requirements are listed along with links to the download page for the blueprint, a mock exam and the Exam Registration link.
My top tip for knowing you’re ready to sit the exam is to read through the blueprint. If you can honestly say you are comfortable with the subject area and activities of every objective of the blueprint then you’re ready.
I have highlighted in my copy of the blueprint the areas I feel I need to study more and I will read the documentation and then build up the component in my test lab. My initial list for more study has about 25 items on it and I’ll be reading and working in my lab for a while.
I think a lab environment, where you can build and break ESXi and vCentre as much as you need, is critical to really understanding the products. I will be doing a roundup of the various lab environments I have in a following post, however Jase McCarty has posted about his home lab setup and some links to other home lab blog posts. Jase’s post seems to be the most recent, there don’t seem to be a lot of mentions of vSphere 5.0 in home labs yet.
© 2011, Alastair. All rights reserved.
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Thanks for the shout out.
vSphere 5 has been running very well in the lab.
One thing to take note of, because I chose the Rosewill Slim MicroATX case/power supply combo, I had to use a EPS12V adapter for my server class boards. I have found that if I had decided to use standard EPS12V power supplies, I would also have the ability to remotely power on my systems.
Brian Carpenter has a lab configuration similar to mine (http://vtbrianc.com/wp/2011/my-vmware-vsphere-home-lab/) and I believe he doesn’t have this limitation.
Tommy Trogden (http://vtexan.com/) is also running a similar configuration.
Also Jeramiah Dooley’s configuration runs vSphere 5 well. http://vmforsp.typepad.com/vm-for-service-providers/2011/06/pcs-and-home-labs-and-data-centers-oh-my-part-1.html
Kendrick Coleman is also running vSphere 5 without issue. http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/vmware-vsphere-home-lab-qthe-green-machinesq.html
Thanks,
Jase