Request to extend a chance for VCDX5

Hi,

I am taking the Liberty here to request VMware Education to extend the chance for Appearing a VCDX 5 Defense after the schedule of Oct 2015.

Now for me, there are reasons behind it which includes personal and work related that I could not prepare on time for this and now dead line is just 10 days away.

I have put lot of time individually to attain the required certifications (VCAP5-DCA and VCAP5-DCD) with the support of my Family and this is over few years of time which covers the time of a new born and a Toddler in the house. With other factors (e.g. work changes and family - main two factors for anyone in any industry) its very difficult to manage the whole planning of preparing an Application and then Defend the same, and to prepare the application alone requires lot of dedication and time, as this is just do or die situation (being optimistic but one never knows) which I wants to attempt and experience this dangerously beautiful journey. Now I am not sure how much important it is, for you to bother about my reasons, I guess not much, but still look at this situation from the other side of the Fence and try to realize the situation from a stand point of a professional, a common man, a family member, a community contributor. and a Father.

So here is my profound Request, to all the decision makers to give the VMware Community one more chance to defend after Oct 2015, which may fall into next year, as I am sure there are others in the community who are under the same condition as me and can stand with me for the above request.

Now one thing I want to make it clear here that, this will be 1st request so far of such kind, and while thinking about it a lot, I decided to echo my thoughts through this post, and its not my intent to take this in any negative way.

With all respect, I will definitely honor the decision, taken by the program authorities and will hope other would do the same. One thing I have learned that, to achieve something you need to put the effort first, so I am considering this step as an effort rather than sitting idle.

This is no way to avoid any future plan on attaining the certifications to attain VCDX, but just a simple request to give one more chance to over all VMware community enthusiasts out there, who are dedicated, focused and being professional to attain this Elite certification which has a tremendous value.

I'm leaving this post here in your capable hands to decide about this Request and urge to give a second thought before making a decision, which infact, can change so many lives (including the person/s and their family).

Update:  (As of 13th May 2016)

VMware just announced today that the VCAP5 Exam Retirements are suspended and the Registration remains open for now. So now this will give chance to the candidates who wants to do the VCAP5/DCA-DCD based on vSphere 5.0/5.5 versions and also prepare for their VCDX.

Here are the exams still available to appear for.

VCAP5 Design Exams:

• VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 — Data Center Design (VCAP5-DCD)
  Exam #VDCD550

VCAP Lab Exams:

• VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 — Data Center Administration (VCAP5-DCA)
  Exam #VDCA550
• VMware Certified Implementation Expert — Network Virtualization (VCIX-NV)
  Exam #VCXN610

So wish you all the very best !

Crossing my fingers !

Please Share and Care !!

VCAP5-DCD cleared and now one step closer to VCDX !

Hi,

All the readers out there who has been through the journey of VCAP-DCD will know the feeling of pressing the button "End the Exam" and which gives you the one moment of shock, which runs through your whole body and every single tissue of the body is waiting for the next screen.

"Congratulations you have passed the VCAP-DCD Examination"

That screen gave me immense pleasure and for minutes,hours and now days its still giving me the same pleasure in installments :-).

Wow, what a journey. The DCD and DCA are one of the most difficult exams I have ever taken and everyone can vouch the same who has been through the journey as me.

Thank You Note

I really want to thank my friends and colleague who have helped me through this DCD Exam journey and contributed their knowledge and their invaluable time they have provided. We have formed virtual study group and exchanged ideas and prepared to tackle this challenge.


Bas Raayman - @BasRaayman

Gregg Robertson - @greggrobertson5

Marek Zdrojewski - @MarekDotZ

Bobby Stampfle - @BobbyFantast1c

Alex- Correa - @AlexCorrea305 and his friends.

Michael Webster - @vcdxnz001 is my mentor and guided me through this journey.

Exam experience:

I went to another Pearson Vue location for a change for this Exam which I gave based on version vSphere 5.1 and Bingo ! Found it lucky ! :-)

BTW this Exam is retiring today itself so no more vSphere 5.1 but going forward only 5.5 version is available at this time. So many people have asked about the same through Twitter so thought to clarify as everyone is interested in knowing the experience for 5.5 version. Hopefully someone who has passed the version 5.5 can put their experience for others.

It was a new center opened in West of Toronto and 30 mins drive was not far. and went through regular security check in process and get started. No hick ups in the Exam except on time the Adobe Flash decided to stop responding and I just waited for few seconds and it came back normally and yes this was during making a 3rd Design. I almost finished 100 questions leaving 1.25 mins to spare. So thought to take a scheduled break, 1st time I took this break as this was my 4th Attempt :-). Yes I never gave up. This is a Devil exam if you ask me. Especially the content is not what you do on daily basis so you WILL find it more challenging than others who are not in the same boat as you.

So I used that extra time and started reviewing the questions again from # 1. Made some changes in my selection of the answers too while thinking over the options I have selected in MC, and D&D type questions and actually one Design Question as well. But at the end, everything was worth to get a Pass.

"A Pass is a Pass" - as they say, but getting 317 is little more to satisfy myself as just not at the Edge.

Exam Preparation/Tips and Resources

Now for the preparation, I took long time as busy with Family, personal matters, other certification exams time to time with various tracks etc. but I gave myself a break of few months between the attempts and literally spent my own time in preparing for the same. I have seen that most people don't do that (spending vacation time) to prepare for an Exam so in that regard  I have to say a big "Thank You" to my wife and my family to support me through this journey and also in advance for the VCDX. With two little kids it IS difficult to study in breaks and give such tough exam, But my friends, hard work pays off. Period.

For the resources I have used all known resources which are available freely to everyone but will still list out here for the reference.

1) Official vsphere Design Workshop material - Student Guide and Lab Guide
[The courseware is more than enough for this Exam :-)]
2) Official blueprint to keep track of the subjects and reading
3) 2nd Edition vSphere Design book by Scott Lowe
4) Pluralsight videos by Scott Lowe on vSphere Design
5) Managing and Optimizing vSphere Deployments - by Harley Stagner and Sean Crookston
6) VMware vSphere Building a Virtual Datacenter - by Eric Maille and Rene-Francois Mennecier
7) VMware vSphere 5.x Datacenter Design Cookbook - by Hershey Cartwright
8) vSphere Design Best Practices - by Christopher Kusek and brian Bolander
9) Storage Implementation in vSphere 50 - by Mostafa Khalil
10) Gregg Robertson has listed most resources here for DCD so check them out.

10) There is a visio like tool used in the DCD Exam to draw the design and I found the link on Josh andrews' blog  which led me to http://virtualtiers.net/ developed by the community members. I used that to practise the Design questions listed on the site and also tried creating few fictitious designs on my own and use the tool to create a design. This way you can get familiarize with the tool and the time can be minimized for placements of objects in the Exam.

Though this tool is experimental as still undergoing some improvements but its not bad at all. I really recommend to the future candidates who are preparing for 5.5 version to practice the Design items.

11) Some ex-TSEs of VMware has developed a nice Study Guide for VCAP-DCD at http://virtuallyhyper.com so dont forget to check that out. It is very intensive and well written guide covering all the blueprint subjects. You will find some other study guides links as well there.

12) No doubt apart from the reading material you should have experience working in Virtualization architecting and developing solutions and also understanding the terms and technologies to be used.

As the exam is retiring today I wish the good luck to all who are on this path to VCDX for their DCD on 55 version. Once the version 6 will be out it may change as well but time will tell the availability for 5.5 version for now.

Please share and care !!

Wish me Luck for VCDX !

Visio Stencil Links for VCDX Defence with updated Links

I'm putting here all the links from where you can download the#VMware #Visio #Stencils if you are preparing for VCDX Defense or just doing any presentations / designs.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11498 

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/24068 

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13703 

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13702

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-14908

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-12204 

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/400678

Multi Vendor collection http://www.visiocafe.com/ 

Various Contributors

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-stencils.html 

http://technodrone.blogspot.com/visio-stencils-happy-holiday-to-you-all.html 

http://graffletopia.com/stencils/475 

http://www.vi-tips.com/2009/05/visio-stencils-for-vmware-icons-and.html 

http://virtualisedreality.com/vmware-and-related-visio-stencils/

http://www.thevesi.org/downloads.jspa

http://xtravirt.com/presentation-pack

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/phoward/

http://vmtoday.com/2012/09/new-vmware-icons-visio-stencil-download/

http://rodos.haywood.org/2009/02/vmware-diagrams-ppt-not-visio.html 

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/prod_cat_visios.html

http://vsphere-land.com/generalvi3-links/stencil-graphic-links.html

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-powerpoint-graphics-visio-stencils

http://www.vmguru.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu-62/general-mainmenu-63/33-visio-stencils

Some View Visio Stencils by Ray Heffer

http://www.rayheffer.com/2684/visio-stencil-set-vmware-vsphere-horizon/

vCO specific Visio Stencils by Josh Townsend

http://vmtoday.com/2014/03/vcenter-orchestrator-visio-stencil/

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60388/VMware-Stencil2-vSphere.zip 

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60389/VMware-Stencil1-vSphere.zip 

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1338 
http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1406 

Some Diagrams by @HanyMichael 

http://www.hypervizor.com/diagrams/ 

NSX Visio Diagrams on VMware Blogs by Nikhil Kelshikar

VCAC 6 icon Pack by Ryan kelly

Juniper Visio stencils

Good Luck !!

Share and care !

Ultimate VCAP5-DCD / VCAP5-DCA preparation Links

I have read so many blogs out there discussing and preparing you for VCAP5-DCD. For VCAP5-DCA I did not make any preparation except doing some tasks in my home lab as I have appeared for the BETA exam and passed it.

These blogs are no doubt not to be under rated or such for those who are getting ready as they add more value of course. Now this is not some kind of judgement about which blog is good/bad but actually the nature of content which brought me to a position where I can just suggest to read them/go through while preparing for the exams. So don't go and compare one to another. All the information available through blog posts by our community members are equally important and valuable in their own stance. To add to that this is not some kind of competition where there is a winner or the 1st rank will be given, but simply the Quality of the Content which matters.

But to me one blog just came on the surface while I was looking at the content for VCAP5-DCD

http://virtuallyhyper.com/2012/08/vcap5-dcd/

This blog site is maintained by our 3 Engineers of VMware, Jarrett, Joe and Karim. I have personally work with them on numerous occasions and the stuff they have put on the blog is top notch. They have blended the information from everywhere possible to make the flow lot smoother while you are reading. The best thing is to have the links ready for further reading if one needs to dig deeper in a subject. They have also written for VCAP5-DCA so you can check that out too.

Recently @ForbesGuthrie passed his VCAP5-DCD and he mentioned in his Tweet that he used this blog for the preparation. So this is one of the use cases I would say :-) while recommending this site.

 

Now I have not meet him yet but know him as he was one of the writers of VMware vSphere Design 4 book which help you preparing for VCAP-DCD Version 4. Now most of the content you can definitely use for Version 5 as well as far as the design methodologies and principles are concerned.

One day I was researching for some specific issue and then found about the www.thefoglite.com. This is another Top recommendation for VCAP5-DCA by Ethan Rowe (@rowe_ethan)

http://thefoglite.com/vcap-dca5-objective/

Now at the same time I don't want to miss a chance to give the credits to @JoshCoen (Blogpost) and @jaslanger (Blogpost) for their respective contributions for VCAP5-DCA.

Hopefully this will help you in preparing for both VCAPs along with other resources out there which may includes various blog sites, videos, online sessions etc. etc.

My 2c.

Good Luck to all going for VCDX  !!!!!

VMware Training and Credits

Here is the summary where you can associate the VMware Training and how many training credits that course has.

Its easy to interpret the credits into the training you can attend for the courses offered by VMware Education as of today.

If you have any question and you can visit the Education and Certification site.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/www/

Enjoy learning.

VCAP-DCD - Objective 2.1 and 2.2 on Logical Design

Objective 2.1 –Map Business Requirements to the Logical Design

Knowledge

·         List the fundamental components of the vSphere4 environment.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_intro_vs.pdf#page=8

·         List the fundamentals of the VMware virtualization architecture.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_intro_vs.pdf#page=12

·         List the phase of logical design.

·         List the detailed steps that go into the makeup of a logical design.

Skills and Abilities

·         Define a logical design.

·         Apply the detailed steps that go into the makeup of a logical design to a particular customer environment.

·         Distinguish between a logical and physical design.

·         Given a situation, translate given business requirements and the current state of a customer environment into a logical design.

Tools

·         Introduction to VMware vSphere

·         What’s New in VMware vSphere 4.1

·         VMware vSphere Evaluator’s Guide

The logical design includes the relationships between all major infrastructure components, while considering:

• The conceptual design

• Constraints and risks

The logical design is useful for understanding and evaluating the design of the infrastructure.

• Does it meet the goals and requirements, while staying within the constraints?

The logical design does not include physical details:

• For example, vendor models, host names, IP addresses, and port connections

The logical design is based on the information documented in the conceptual design and considers all constraints and risks. Where there are risks, they should be communicated to the organization along with a recommended action, so that a decision can be made and the design can move forward.

Use the logical design to create the physical design.

A physical design includes specific vendor and implementation details:

• Vendor models, host names, IP addresses, port connections, LUN sizes, number of CPUs, and other specific physical details

In the end, a good design:

• Involves the organization’s key stakeholders and SMEs

• Balances business goals and requirements with technical considerations and best practices

• Has documented rationales and considerations

• Includes enough detail to be unambiguous

• Is not unnecessarily complex

• Is repeatable

At the beginning of any design project you need to develop a high level vision for the project. This high-level vision includes the project

scope, goals, requirements, assumptions, and constraints.

The conceptual design focuses on achieving the organization’s business goals and requirements.

The logical design includes the relationships between all major infrastructure components and is useful for understanding and evaluating the design of the infrastructure.

A physical design includes specific vendor and implementation details.

Design criteria should include usability, manageability, security, and cost.

Educate key stakeholders and SMEs about vSphere and virtualization so that they can provide valuable input during the design project.

Designing is a balancing act between technical best practices and the organization’s goals, requirements, and constraints.

Objective 2.2 – Map Service Dependencies

Knowledge

·         Identify basic service dependencies for infrastructure and application services.

Skills and Abilities

·         Analyze service dependencies to determine requirements for the logical design of a multi site environment.

·         Identify the upstream/downstream service dependencies.

·         Having navigated logical components and their interdependencies, make decisions based upon all service relationships.

Tools

·         Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines

·         Virtualizing a Windows Active Directory Domain Infrastructure

·         Datacenter Operational Excellence Through Automated Application Discovery & Dependency Mapping

·         Product Documentation

Depending on the project, the optional installation and configuration document might include only high-level steps for implementing the design. On the other hand, the document might include step-by- step procedures for implementing the design. The level of detail typically depends on the cost of the project and whether the design is product-oriented or solution-oriented. A solution-oriented project typically includes more details specific to an organization’s needs.

In either case, these documents can refer to online VMware documentation for detailed step-by-step instructions as necessary. Assume that the reader is familiar with basic vSphere operation.

At a minimum, these documents should include the products listed above.

VCDX Path - for both vSphere versions

Hi,

I was thinking to do this while back but could not get time to do it but today I just put some raw information in a form of Flow chart for both VCDX versions based on vSphere 4 and vSphere 5

This will help people determining and planning for their defenses at either SF or Barcelona.

Please watch this space with updates shortly.

Thanks for your time.

VMware Visio Stencils for VCDX Design

Recently I was thinking to start drawing on the whiteboard for each design component in vSphere e.g. Virtual Machine Design, Cluster Design, Storage Design, Virtual Center Server etc. etc. but then I need few whiteboards as the design grows or a bigger Desk like @FrankDenneman

Thought about using the Bamboo Tablet also as inspired by @Scott_Lowe but that requires a bigger monitor to dedicate the space.

So looking at the cost involved I am staying with Visio and just split the designs in to various pages and can work across multiple monitors.

After doing some research found out that there are Visio Stencils available at various scattered places and one needs to visit various sites to see the content.

So for all the VCDX aspirants, I have gathered all the links from VMware community forums and also referred to the posts by some of our own community members such as @maishsk @rick_vmwaretips etc. etc.

There are two Zip files with which you can download them directly but you have to go to each link to download the files.

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60388/VMware-Stencil2-vSphere.zip

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/11498-6-60389/VMware-Stencil1-vSphere.zip

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11498

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/24068

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13703

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-13702

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1338

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1406

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-stencils.html

http://technodrone.blogspot.com/visio-stencils-happy-holiday-to-you-all.html

http://graffletopia.com/stencils/475

http://www.vi-tips.com/2009/05/visio-stencils-for-vmware-icons-and.html

http://virtualisedreality.com/vmware-and-related-visio-stencils/

www.visiocafe.com

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/prod_cat_visios.html

http://vsphere-land.com/generalvi3-links/stencil-graphic-links.html

http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-vsphere-powerpoint-graphics-visio-stencils

http://www.vmguru.com/index.php/articles-mainmenu-62/general-mainmenu-63/33-visio-stencils

NSX Icons

Hope you find all these links useful while preparing your VCDX Design and Good Luck to you all who are going to defend at SF and Barcelona VMworld 2012.

Update:

@joshuatownsend has blogged about Visio stencils for vSphere and View Horizon which you find here.

Please share your designing skills which can help others to become a better presenter. :-)

Cheers

 

VCAP5-DCD - Hot Target - Objective - 1.3

Objective 1.3 – Determine Risks, Constraints, and Assumptions

Knowledge

·         Identify appropriate best practices related to a proposed design.                      

* Associate a role to the information that needs to be collected.

·         Differentiate between the general concepts of a risk, a requirement, a constraint, and an assumption.

Skills and Abilities

·         Given a business ask or request, determine whether it is a risk, a requirement, a constraint, or an assumption.

·         Given an organization, evaluate and respond to common inherent risks, constraints, and/or assumptions.

Tools

·         Developing Your Virtualization Strategy and Deployment Plan

Scope – Identify the project scope in detail

·         Properly identifying the scope prevents unintended project expansion.

·         Example: The virtualization project includes only the London datacenter’s test and development servers. At this time, it does not include any production servers or remote offices.

Goals – Identify and list the overall project goals that the organization wants to achieve

·          The project goals should be derived from the business goals of the organization.

·          Each project goal should be specific, measurable, and actionable.

·          Example: The organization wants to achieve a 25 percent reduction in operational costs by the end of the year

Requirements – Identify and list the key business and technical requirements that must be achieved in the project

• Example: The organization must comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulations.

• Example: The underlying infrastructure for any service defined as strategic must support a minimum of four 9s of uptime (99.99 percent).

Assumptions – Identify and list the design assumptions

• Assumptions are design components that are assumed to be valid without proof.

• Example: The datacenter uses shared (core) networking hardware across production and nonproduction infrastructures.

• Example: The organization has sufficient network bandwidth between sites to facilitate replication.

• Example: Security policies dictate server hardware separation between DMZ servers and internal servers.

Constraints – Identify and list the design constraints

• Constraints limit the design choices.

• Example: Due to a preexisting vendor relationship, host hardware has already been selected. The hardware is …

A constraint could be a business process, a business policy, or a technical limitation. Clearly list the constraints so that they can be reviewed for accuracy and

referred to during the design project.

If a particularly goal, requirement, or constraint cannot be met or creates a risk, discuss the issue with the key stakeholders and SMEs. Discuss it as early as possible in the design project so that the best possible compromise can be reached early in the design process.

Discussing issues and risks early in the design project also reduces the number of surprises in the end design. Surprises in the end design increase the risk of not reaching an agreement to move forward with implementation.

Risks – Identify any risks that might prevent achieving the project goals

• Example: The organization's main datacenter contains only a single core router, which is a single point of failure.

• Example: The lack of executive sponsorship places at risk the goal of virtualizing 75 percent of the datacenter by the end of 2010

The conceptual design focuses on achieving the organization’s business goals and requirements.

• Determine the entities that are affected by the project:

- Lines of business, users, applications, processes, management methods, physical machines, and so on

• Determine how the goals, requirements, and constraints map to each entity.

• Design the infrastructure that will be necessary to achieve each entity’s goals and requirements, while staying within the constraints.

- For example, where will you need availability, scalability, performance, security, manageability, and so on, while staying within cost and other constraints?

Document the conceptual design with diagrams, tables, and text.

Gathering information about your organization’s situation is part of the design methodology presented in this course. Choosing, and then interviewing, key technical personnel and project stakeholders to determine your organization’s situation is just as important as gathering workloadsizing information. The organization’s situation will affect your design.

Use interviews early in the design process to uncover things that affect the end design, such as project goals, budget constraints, hardware policy choices, and department boundaries. Sometimes, organizational boundaries and politics affect the achievable consolidation ratio. Key stakeholder and SME interviews help to uncover this information.

For example, one organization’s primary goal might be to reduce its datacenter footprint and the associated costs, while another organization’s goal might be to virtualize to meet the business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) initiatives of its business.

The first organization might be seeking to achieve 10:1, 20:1, or higher consolidation ratios. The second organization, on the other hand, might be entirely satisfied with a 5:1 consolidation ratio, so long as the virtual infrastructure meets its disaster recovery requirements.

Organizational and political factors often affect the design, yet they are not strictly technical. Sometimes, resistance to virtualization exists due to the preconceptions and fears of decision makers. A feeling of control often accompanies owning physical hardware. The loss of physical hardware might result in a sense of loss of control. Decision makers might also have concerns about performance issues as well as concerns about the return on investment and total cost of ownership associated with virtualization. Resolving the doubts and fears of the decision makers is necessary to move quickly through the design process.