“Specialist Exams”….Wait, what?

I have a requirement to essentially get more up to speed with vRealize Operations Manager. As I was digging through some of the reading material I came across the specialist exam. The details for which can be found here.

I wasn’t actually aware up until this point VMware actually offer specialist exams. At time of writing vRealize Operations and vSAN are the only two specialist certifications you can take.

I can understand the logic behind it – vRealize is becoming a very comprehensive suite of applications and with the VCP7-CMA certification primarily focused on vRealize Automation, it makes sense to separate out certain technologies into their own curriculum.

2VB-602 (vRealize Operations)

For a couple of weeks or so I’ve been messing around with / reading up on / watching videos of vRealize Operations primarily focused on 6.6 without even knowing about the certification. The exam, however, is based on 6.0 – 6.5 and 6.6 brings some rather substantial changes. Therefore don’t expect to see 6.6 related questions in the exam.

Resources

Although I wasn’t actually focused on passing this specific test, Here’s what I’ve used so far in an attempt to get up to speed:

Pluralsight’s training course on vRealize Operations (created March 2017) – https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/vmware-vrealize-operations-manager

VMware’s documentation center – https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations-Manager/index.html

vApp Deployment and Configuration Guide – https://docs.vmware.com/en/vRealize-Operations-Manager/6.6/vrealize-operations-manager-66-vapp-deploy-guide.pdf

VMware training videos – http://players.brightcove.net/1534342432001/S1xUFpuYwx_default/index.html?playlistId=5446534362001

Exam Experience

The exam can be taken anywhere unlike the VCP or VCAP exams which require you to attend a training center. The questions were pretty tough, but that may have come down to my lack of experience with the product.

Overall, it was a interesting experience. I probably would have preferred vRealize Operations to have it’s own VCP level exam being proctored etc. It’s a nice-to-have, but I still have a lot to learn about vRealize Operations but it’s given me some confidence that I’ve probably understood the fundamentals.

Now I can rest…

I decided at around mid December to make passing the VCAP6 DCV Deploy exam a target. Today I can tick that objective off. As I have previously passed the VCAP5-DCD exam this should entitle me to the VCIX-DCV certification, but I may need to wait a bit for that.

My Experience

Precisely this time last year I passed the VCAP5-DCD exam. By cheer coincidence I picked exactly 365 days later to do the deploy exam on v6. I was quite nervous as I’ve never done a deploy VMware lab exam before. The lab itself was reasonably well laid out but the response times and general feel of the environment was a bit sluggish, but then again my home lab resides on SSD storage so perhaps I’m used to a snappy interface.

Tips based on my own prep

• The study guide from vJenner is an absolute goldmine : http://www.vjenner.com/vcap6-dcv-deployment-study-guide/.
• As with all VMware exams the blueprint is your main reference. If you’re comfortable with most of the objectives you should be good to go.
  • Additionally, there is a lot to cover. Naturally like myself you’re most likely going to have weak and strong areas. Don’t get too hung of up on (for example) nailing to commit the entire esxcli CLI namespace to memory.
• If you’re finding it difficult to fully remember esxcli commands in their entirety remember there’s –help and –example flags.
• use a VMware HOL (Hands on Lab) to get acquainted with the UI

Good Luck!

Nothing really special here. I plan on using this site to post on (what I believe to be interesting) topics that covers a number of technologies.

Enjoy.