EMEA vBrownBag Network Virtualization (VCP-NV) Series

Just a quick post to point out the EMEA vBrownBag guys are starting a series on Network Virtualization tonight to help go through the blueprint to obtain your VCP in Network Virtualization

The sessions are held every Tuesday at 19:00 and you can register via the following URL:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/541316569











The schedule is currently as follows:

9/9/2014 (EMEA) VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV) Ojbective 1 by Frank Buchsel (@fbuchsel)
9/16/2014 (EMEA) VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV) Ojbective 2
9/23/2014 (EMEA) VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV) Ojbective 3
9/30/2014 (EMEA) VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV) Ojbective 4

The blueprint for VCP-NV is here and it looks like this:

Section 1 – Define VMware NSX Technology and Architecture

Objective 1.1 – Describe the Benefits of a VMware NSX Implementation
Objective 1.2 – Describe VMware NSX Architecture
Objective 1.3 – Differentiate VMware Network and Security Technologies
Objective 1.4 – Contrast Physical and Virtual Network Technologies
Objective 1.5 – Explain VMware NSX Integration with Third-Party Products and Services
Objective 1.6 – Explain VMware NSX Integration with vCloud Automation Center (vCAC)

Section 2 – Plan and Configure vSphere Networking

Objective 2.1 – Define Benefits of Running VMware NSX on Physical Network Fabrics
Objective 2.2 – Describe Physical Infrastructure Requirements for a VMware NSX Implementation

Section 3 – Configure and Manage vSphere Networking

Objective 3.1 – Configure and Manage vSphere Standard Switches (vSS)
Objective 3.2 – Configure and Manage vSphere Distributed Switches (vDS)
Objective 3.3 – Configure and Manage vSS and vDS Policies

Section 4 – Install and Upgrade VMware NSX

Objective 4.1 – Configure Environment for Network Virtualization
Objective 4.2 – Deploy VMware NSX Components
Objective 4.3 – Upgrade Existing vCNS/NSX Implementation
Objective 4.4 – Expand Transport Zone to Include New Cluster(s)

Section 5 – Configure VMware NSX Virtual Networks

Objective 5.1 – Create and Administer Logical Switches
Objective 5.2 – Configure VXLAN
Objective 5.3 – Configure and Manage Layer 2 Bridging
Objective 5.4 – Configure and Manage Logical Routers

Section 6 – Configure and Manage NSX Network Services

Objective 6.1 – Configure and Manage Logical Load Balancing
Objective 6.2 – Configure and Manage Logical Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
Objective 6.3 – Configure and Manage DHCP/DNS/NAT
Objective 6.4 – Configure and Manage Edge Services High Availability

Section 7 – Configure and Administer Network Security

Objective 7.1 – Configure and Administer Logical Firewall Services
Objective 7.2 – Configure Distributed Firewall Services
Objective 7.3 – Configure and Manage Service Composer

Section 8 – Perform Operations Tasks in a VMware NSX Environment

Objective 8.1 – Configure Roles, Permissions, and Scopes
Objective 8.2 – Describe NSX Automation
Objective 8.3 – Monitor a VMware NSX Implementation
Objective 8.4 – Perform Auditing and Compliance
Objective 8.5 – Administer Logging
Objective 8.6 – Backup and Recover Configurations

Section 9 – Troubleshoot a VMware Network Virtualization Implementation

Objective 9.1 – Identify Tools Available for Troubleshooting
Objective 9.2 – Troubleshoot Common NSX Installation/Configuration Issues
Objective 9.3 – Troubleshoot Common NSX Component Issues
Objective 9.4 – Troubleshoot Common Connectivity Issues
Objective 9.5 – Troubleshoot Common vSphere Networking Issues

See you there

VMware Certified Associate Exams

VMware have recently released some new entry level exams call VMware Certified Associate or VCA.  There are currently three courses and exams available, soon to be four, and consist of:

• VMware Certified Associate – Cloud (VCA-Cloud)
• VMware Certified Associate – Data Center Virtualization (VCA-DCV)
• VMware Certified Associate - Workforce Mobility (VCA-WM)
• VMware Certified Associate – Network Virtualization (VCA-NV) (Comming Soon)

Each exam has an accompanying online course that is available for free from the VMware Certification Website.  You don't need to sit these courses before attempting the exam but obviously it is recommended.  These courses and exams are ideal for people want a good overview of the associated VMware products and gain a certification in them.  The cost of the exams are £80 plus VAT and can be booked via Pearson VUE once you have authorisation via the VMware Certification Website.  VMware have an offer on at the moment whereby if you book the exam before the end of 2013 you will receive a 50% discount.  If you also book the exam before the end of October and use the voucher code VCA13ICS you will be able to sit the exam for free.  I've sat a passed all currently available VCA exams and found them to be very fair.  I've never worked with Horizon or the vCloud Suite so I found the online training valuable and very informative.

Free Trainsignal Training for all 2013 vExperts

The guys over at Trainsignal have very kindly offered all 2013 vExperts online access to the entire Trainsignal training library for free for one year.  This is an extremely generous offer from Trainsignal and would like to extend my thanks.  I’ve grown up watching these videos and find them to be an excellent resource for getting to know a product very quickly.  The instructors are all experts in their own fields and produce some valuable training material.  So if you were recently nominated a vExpert for 2013 then head over here and request your free access.

Once again guys, thanks very much.

P.s.  They do check the list to ensure you are actually a vExpert

VCAP5-DCA – My Experience

After passing my VCAP5-DCD exam at the second attempt it was naturally time to start revising for the VCAP5-DCA exam.  I booked the exam for Monday 3rd December at the Leeds Pearson VUE training center which is currently the closest testing point where I can sit the VCAP exam.  This is a bit annoying as it's a 2hr train journey there and back.  In preparing for the exam I used the following resources (In no particular order):

VCAP5-DCA Blueprint
Professional VMware vBrownBags
The Saffa Geek website
VlacoLabs website
Home Lab

This is the first time that I've sat the VCAP-DCA style exam which involved 26 questions in a lab environment accessed via a remote desktop connection.  I'm not going to explain how this exam is setup as there are plenty of posts out there, what I will explain is what issues I encountered whilst sitting the exam:

1.  The speed of the remote desktop session wasn't the greatest.  Opening and switching between applications was very laggy and when attempting to open the supplied .pdf documentation and scroll through was unusable.
2.  The supplied username and passwords were all identical but was there any need for the sheer complexity?  Due to the stress of the exam and time allowance I found it difficult to remember and had to constantly revert back to the screen which contained the details.  A nice and simple Administrator and vmware would have been preferred.
3.  When I actually started going through all the questions I noticed a few were already completed.  Without going into too much details certain tasks that I was being asked to completed seemed to already have been completed and only involved me checking over the results.  I first noticed this when being asked to save a .txt file in a certain location and the file already existed.  After a few more questions like this I raised it with the Pearson VUE test center who said they would log it with VMware and I should complete the exam.
Once I complete the exam I was informed that I would receive my results within 15 business days (Shourly there must be a quicker way to issues results in this day and age).

10 days later during a twitter conversation with Gregg Robertson, Matt Steiner picked up on the issues I experienced and raised it with a Senior Program Manager for technical certifications who asked me to provide feedback on my experience.  I fired off the mail informing him of the issues I encountered but they were unable to identify anything.  He kindly advised that I would get my results within the 15 business days as indicated but was nice enough to put me out of my misery and advised that I passed the exam.  A few days later my official results notification arrived in my inbox.

All in all I really enjoyed this style of exam and think a lot more should be delivered this way.  The speed of the session was an issue but nothing that you couldn't over come with a bit of patience.  I can now finally upgrade my lab from 5.0 U1 to 5.1 and enjoy and nice shiny new web interface.

VCAP5-DCD – My Experience Part 2

After failing my very first attempt at a VCAP exam, namely the VCAP5-DCD exam, I re-sat it again today in Leeds.  In my previous post I wrote about what I used to prepare for the exam and that design isn’t really my day to day job but it was something that I wanted to improve on hence preparing for and taking the exam.  This time around I used exactly the same material but made tons of notes along the way.  I can also recommend the following video by Scott Lowe and TrainSignal:

I’ve put a copy of my notes in my dropbox account so if you want grab a copy then click here (Please excuse all spelling and grammatical mistakes as this was mainly for my use).  You’ll be glad to know that I passed the exam this time around.  It was closer than I’d like but a people always say, a pass is a pass.  I think I’ll take the weekend off and then start the VCAP5-DCA which hopefully I should find a little easier.

VCAP5-DCD – My Experience

Well today I sat and unfortunately failed the VCAP5-DCD exam with a score of 289 (Passing score was 300).  I am a little disappointed but this is the first time I have sat any VCAP exam and VMware design is not actually my day to day job.  I’m going to try and book in again for two weeks time and study like mad.  I went for the same approach as Jason Boche blogged here which served me very well.  I finished with 25 minutes spare which I should have really used to go over all my answers but then you start doubting yourself.  Anyway, below is a list of resources that I used to prepare of the exam which might help other people:

VMware vSphere: Design Workshop [V5.0]

VMware vSphere 5 Clustering Technical Deepdive

Mastering VMware vSphere 5

VMware VSphere Design

Professional VMware vBrownBags

The vBrownBags were very helpful and the guys over at Professional VMware are doing an excellent job with the content.  So, good luck anyone else looking to take the exam and hopefully I’ll pass it next time.

UK VCAP Testing Centre

The only location in the UK where you can sit the VCAP exam’s is in London:
Pearson Professional Centres-London Holborn
190 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7BH
United Kingdom
That’s 246.8 miles from my current location.  So in order to sit one exam I need to travel by train for 3 hours to London, commute to the testing centre via the tube, sit the 4 hour exam and then travel back on the train for another 3 hours.  That’s put a downer on things.