My VCAP DCD Experience

In continuation to my post on the VCAP DCA , I also wanted to share my experience with the VCAP DCD exams. I took this exam on 29th June 12 , which is almost 6 months gap from my VCAP DCA exam. This exam is much tougher than the VCAP DCA in my opinion.

VCAP DCA is all about performing administration and configuration tasks with respect to the scenario given , so if you are hands on and work day to day with vSphere then this shouldn’t be tough. However when it’s come to the VCAP DCD you need to understand all the nuances of a typical customer scenario which you will be working as an enterprise architect with focus on virtualization of course.

My experience with consulting and enterprise architecture methods surely helped a big deal , however this is not a mandatory requirement as such.

The exam consists of around 110-113 questions with multiple choice , drag drop and 5 Visio like scenario based questions.The exam covers all the topics mentioned in the blueprint.VMware has been doing a good job of making sure that all they give in the blueprint is covered in the exam and also the exam live up to the “Advanced”category which these exams are part.

Make sure that you understand every aspect of a project design such as Goals, Constraint, Risks, Assumptions in very details and have a clear understanding of what these are and given a scenario how to recognize them. Go through the HA/DRS concepts in great detail , look at all the backup and DR strategies and concepts.

There are not much lab work required here however I would encourage people preparing for the exam to do a lot of mock design on paper or visio in networking and storage areas with various permutation and combination of network cards , HBA and storage tiers.

Make sure to cover the VMware vSphere Design workshop material , all the documents references given in the blueprint. Try the VCAP DCD UI Demo for making your self comfortable and also to know what will the Visio type questions will look like.

Handling the time in the exam is a critical factor make sure that you target approximately 35 questions per hour which will give you sufficient time in the last hour so that you don’t have to rush and you can concentrate on the Visio type questions and also review your answers if necessary.

Overall it took me approximately three weeks of solid study to get through the exam , but I am not complaining as the result is a pass and I am glad that I made it to the group of people who are VCAP DCD.

Next  VCDX huh 🙂

3 Replies to “My VCAP DCD Experience”

  1. Hey man

    Do you have a list of stuff from the VMware vSphere Design workshop ? I cant do this course but would like to do the exam!

    Thanks for any help

  2. Pingback: VCAP5 DCD Exam Experience and Study Tips

  3. Pingback: The Path Less Travelled : My VCDX Experience

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