Thursday, January 1, 2015

VCIX - NV Resources, Tips and Exam Experience

Hi,

Recently I had some days off at the end of the year and thought to use them properly so I booked the VCIX-NV and VCP-NV (yes in that order only :-)).

First of all, I will list out the resources which I used to prepare for VCIX-NV.

The Exam is based on NSX for vSphere version 6.0.2.

1) Blueprint for the VCIX-NV (Yes this is the Primary)

2) HOL Labs 1403,1424,1425 (Enrol few times and make sure you understand all the Tasks you are performing)

3) Official NSX for vSphere Documentation (The Documentation is based on NSX-V 6.1 version)

Read the Installation Guide and Admin Guide very carefully. Understand the overall objective for using particular NSX Feature/s.

4) VCIX Study Guide Series posts by Martijin Smit

5) There is a VMware blogs which you can find here.

6) Hands on. (which I didn't except the HOL as dont have the HomeLab). This is a key as you can test all kinds of scenarios possible as per the blueprint. I understand not everyone has ability and can afford the HomeLab [ like me :-( ] has to rely on alternate resources like HOL. Second problem could be the NSX bits which is again not possible to get for everyone who is trying to achieve this certification.

Now lets come at the 2nd part of the post which is about the Exam Experience at Pearson Vue.

Now as most of the people know in the community and this has be brought out earlier too by various people in the form of various blog posts which is related to the Latency issue while doing the live lab at Pearson Vue Testing center and I had similar issue few times. I called up the proctor three times where either I had the issue when the task was not finishing up after clicking OK button in the vSphere Web Client and waiting till its finished which took long time but cant do anything else until that task is over. One time I cant even click OK on the menu and then Proctor called up the Tech Support and as I watching and listening the whole conversation, no troubleshooting steps actually been performed and automatically everything came to normal. The proctor did freeze the session each time but I got only 15 mins for all the time loss which to me is not enough as I think I wasted almost 25-30 mins just in waiting. I have already addressed this internally and hopefully it will be fixed in near future.

Few Tips for the future candidates.

a) Try to setup the putty sessions to all the possible components which you need for either verifying configuration or part of troubleshooting

b) Use vSphere C# client to make changes in the configuration which I find is faster than Web Client.

c) Read the task carefully and make sure you finish all of them and using both vSphere c# and Web client together will minimize the overall time.

d) Write down the passwords and other information about the login credentials on the sheet Pearson is providing as you may need them

e) Not sure how to keep track but do mark the questions answered fully or partially on the sheet so that you can go back and check if anything needs to be finished later on.

f) Dont spend too much time on one task and now this is the advice everyone is giving whomsoever took the VCAP exams but it DOES makes difference here in VCIX as there are only 18 tasks to finish within the same amount of Time as other VCAP Exams.


Clarification on VCP-NV inheritance on passing VCIX-NV:

So many people in the community are under the impression that once anyone clears the VCIX-NV exam will automatically inherit VCP-NV which is not true as per the response I have received and it is clear in the course datasheet and other details available right now.

VCIX is not similar in that sense as VCAP. If someone passes any VCAP level exam then it is possible to inherit the VCP certification upon passing VCAP but with VCIX, it is not the case.

Logically thinking, why the person has to appear if he is capable of passing VCIX? Which to me is a valid question but still awaiting a reply on that Internally. I will update this post once I receive a response from VMware Education Services.

So I did have to admit that I postpone my success till next attempt of VCIX-NV :-)

As VCP-NV was out of the way on the very next day of VCIX attempt, hopefully I should be able to knock it down next time as not blaming anything I will have to just focus on the missed areas and also deep dive again in NSX !!

Wish me luck !

Share and care please !


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