VMware Certified Professional - Data Center Virtualization 2021 Exam Experience
Simon Eady
Having not sat any VMware exams recently (MSC exam not including) I had to update my VMware certification status and therefore sit the VCP exam.
The VCP-DCV 2021 certification validates candidate skills to implement, manage, and troubleshoot a vSphere infrastructure, using best practices to provide a powerful, flexible, and secure foundation for business agility that can accelerate the transformation to cloud computing.
The Exam
The exam covers a broad spectrum of vSphere components as you would expect. As with the VCF MSC exam, I was a little apprehensive about it as there is an awful lot of detailed material to cover that the exam expects you to have good knowledge of. You have 130 minutes to work through 70 question It is available as a remote-proctored exam, and requires a score of 300 or more to pass.
Exam tips
- As you work through the exam questions flag the ones you are not 100% sure on.
- At the end of the 70 questions it is worth quickly going over the questions you are not sure on.
- Some of the questions are design orientated so read them carefully. You will find critical information in the problem statement that will help you provide the correct solution/answer.
- A personal gripe with the exam, even though I covered most if not of all of the Exam Guide material there were many questions in the exam that seemed very left field or ambiguous, these questions I think are designed to check your operational knowledge of vSphere and what you could do against what you should do. All I can say is take your time if you hit one or more of these questions. Read them thoroughly and respond with the best choice available.
- There are many administration questions so know your way around vCenter.
- Config Maximums and Minimums are covered so be aware of them.
- Naturally you will need to know your vSAN
Study Resources
Exam Guide - https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/certification/vmw-vcp-dcv-exam-preparation-guide.pdf - Very useful.
Study guide - https://www.vladan.fr/vcp7-dcv/ - a well put together guide from a member of the VMware community.
You can find useful information you need to know on https://docs.vmware.com
Completing the exam
You get notified immediately upon completion of the exam if you have passed or failed.
Being perfectly transparent I thought I had failed the exam as several of the questions were ambiguous (in my opinion) but I am glad to say I passed first time and with a reasonable score.3