It’s been a long time since my last post here, as you’re probably already aware I’m involved in another blog called Juku, but that’s another story
In the middle of my tight schedule I decided to book the VCAP-DCD exam to upgrade my VCDX up to version 4 and, as is usual for me, I didn’t had the time to study until the day before the exam.
By the way, on Thursday February 17th I set my alarm clock at 4.30am, drove to Bologna and picked up a semi-empty flight to London Gatwick, my exam was scheduled at 10.45am but as usual I arrived early and stopped by the local Starbucks to get my coffee fix (a quad shot americano, just to warm up my brain a little bit) and to review a couple of VMware documents that I was less sure about, at 10.30 I showed up at the Holborn Pearson center, filled the paperwork and started the exam.
Obviously there are countless NDAs on the exam itself, so I’m not going to disclose anything, I will try to explain my feelings toward the exam that in my opinion is a big step in the right direction.
Let’s start with a quick PROs vs. CONs list:
PROs:
- The Visio-like design portion is actually doable, a quantum leap for those who experienced the infamous VCD310.
- Questions span on every design aspect, this is definitely an Exam that you can pass only if you have a real experience in the field, braindumps are worth nothing here.
- The balance between traditional multiple choice, drag&drop and design questions is great, much better when compared to the old Design Exam.
- Scoring is immediate (this is a GREAT plus to me ).
CONs:
- Exam is waaaay too long: sitting for 4 hours straight in an exam room answering questions is alienating in my opinion.
- Some questions are either too simple or too complex, a better balance would be appreciated.
- There’s no calculator available (neither in physical form or on-screen) and there are many questions that require some math skills.
So, besides the cons listed above, this exam is definitely a big step forward in the right direction, and on top of that I had a feeling that the VCAP-DCD blueprint was covered at almost 100%, instead of the older Design Exam blueprint that, in my opinion, was less focused on the VMware side of things (this also means that you need to study everything listed on the blueprint .
Another pain point for many could be the so-called “VMware terminology” in the design questions, like: constraint, assumptions, upstream and downstream dependencies. They’re clearly meaningful words and if you can wrap your head around these concepts it’s fairly easy to understand and answer the questions, but if you’re not accustomed to design using this terminology you should probably attend the VMware Design course that gives a great overview of the “VMware way” of doing designs.
In the end I passed the exam with a decent 413 (out of 500), upgraded my VCDX certification to VCDX4 and got back home at 11.30pm the same day (with a nice bag of macaroons bought at Laduree), not a bad day after all
So I finally made it, on Friday night I received an email from Melissa of the VCDX certification team stating:
Congratulations! You have achieved the VMware Certified Design Expert on VI3 (VCDX3) certification.
Your VCDX number is: VCDX58
I exploded with a scream of joy, I felt a mix of relieve, excitement and proudness, I really couldn’t believe that I made it.
I already wrote about my Defense experience in a previous post, I have nothing to add to it so I will just thank everybody who supported me through this journey, especially my wife, @esignoretti, @Andrea_Mauro, @drakpz and all the other guys on twitter!
This is truly the most difficult and rewarding achievement in my whole professional life, I wish the best of luck to everyone who will defend at PEX 2011 which will also be the last chance to become a VCDX on VI3.
So today was my day, I spent the whole monday studying my materials like a recluse in my hotel room (my wife had an extra reserve of patience to burn , Today I woke up at 5:00am in order to prepare myself for the defense, I took a shower to clear my thoughts, had a quick breakfast and then drove from Burlington to Alewife to catch the T red line to Kendall, where the VMware offices are located.
I was a bit pessimistic about public transport (well, I’m used to those in Italy) so I ended up being very early (7.25am) to the appointment, I left my wife with a good book to read and I started rehearsing my initial presentation, at 8:05 they made me walk into the Panel room where I hooked up my Mac to the projector and the (in)famous iPad timer started running…
Everything is under NDA so I cannot disclose the questions, and I will not disclose who was on my Panel too (they can do that if they want) but it definitely was intense, unfortunately my spoken English is quite bad so I had to try to explain myself with simple articulations, I still don’t know if they were effective, definitely I was not satisfied with them.
The 75 minutes flew thru like they were 5, and if you normally don’t believe what you read on the internet about stuff, this is definitely not the case, BELIEVE everything they say about the VCDX defense.
After the defense I got 15 minutes to spare, I had some tea, visited the men’s room, checked out the stunning Boston panorama (the VMware offices are located on the 10th floor) and relaxed myself on the overly comfortable armchairs in the cafeteria, believe me, they were the most refreshing 15 minutes I ever had in my whole life.
After the break I walked into the room again for the Design and Troubleshooting part, obviously I can’t go into details here, I will just say that I was probably on the right track for the Design but I spent too much time on two things only, If I had to retry this I would have done things differently.
The troubleshooting scenario is the one that I was most confident with, I think I found the root cause and hope that my explanation of the problem was enough verbose and correct.
Now they’re going to let me know the outcome on Friday the 12th (or even Monday the 15th), I will eagerly wait for that email, in the meantime I still feel a sense of relief
For the VCDX candidates still having to defend here’s an advice that I quote from the great Jason Boche:
HELL YEAH!, I finally got my VCDX submission review done and I’m scheduled to defend my design during the first week of November in Cambridge, MA.
Right now I’m feeling like this:
I really can’t believe I made it through this, when I was filling the application and writing the project material back in august I always had the impression that somehow something was missing and that I was overlooking some fields but that wasn’t the case.
Now I’ll try to prepare for the defense at my best (I already arranged a “grill” session with my colleague Giancarlo ) and enjoy the VMworld Europe that is kicking in next week.
Today an e-mail from the VMware VCDX cert team ended up into my inbox, I was eagerly hoping for a confirmation of my VCDX design submission (still waiting from the 26th of August ) but instead it was an official notification of something I was actually already aware of:
Registration for the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 4 – Datacenter Administration (VCAP4-DCA) exam is now open.
Registrations for the VMware Enterprise Administration on VMware Infrastructure 3 Exam: VCE310 have been closed. No new registrations for this exam will be accepted.
The final opportunity to deliver a defense in pursuit of the VMware Certified Design Expert on VI3 (VCDX3) certification will be at VMware Partner Exchange in Orlando, Florida the week of February 7, 2011.
As a matter of fact they extended the deadline for those who were already preparing a design defense, and as the next paragraph show us, the last application deadline for VCDX3 is now extended to November 22th:
If you have passed both the VCE310 and VCD310 exams and wish to apply for a VCDX3 certification:
The application will be due on November 22, 2010, at 5:00 PM PST.
This will be the final opportunity to achieve the VCDX3 certification.
Please note that defense slots are limited and will be reserved for candidates who submit completed applications in the order received.
VCAP4-DCD Exam vouchers will be distributed to eligible candidates at a later time.
Included in the e-mail there are some interesting Q&A:
Q. Will my VI3-based credentials be withdrawn or invalidated?
A. No. Holders of VCP3 and VCDX3 retain those credentials in perpetuity. VMware believes that they remain significant differentiators. However, over time their significance compared to vSphere 4-based credentials will gradually diminish. As time goes on, potential customers, employers, or partners will increasingly express a preference for vSphere 4 credentials.
Q. I have been preparing hard for the VCE310 and/or VCD310 exams. Hasn’t all that time I spent been wasted?
A. No. There is significant continuity between VI3 and vSphere 4. As you prepare for the VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD exams, you will be able to focus more on new features and differences, and less on fundamentals.
Q. I passed the VCE310 and the VCD310 exams; am I eligible for the discount on the VCAP4-DCA exam?
A. Yes. You are eligible for discount vouchers for both exams.
So basically, if you were desperate to meet the August 28th deadline and decided to give up, you can resume your work and try to submit a design and defend it at the Partner Exchange 2011
) but instead it was an official notification of something I was actually already aware of:
