VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud Foundation Administrator 2024

Not just another badge on the CV, but a key role with far-reaching consequences.

Until recently, members of the VMware vExpert Program had access to a wide range of VMware trial licenses. This ensured that these specialists could gain practical experience with VMware software and pass on this knowledge in the form of blogs, lectures or video tutorials.
This still applies, but with one restriction:
VMware’s core product VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is excluded from this.
In order to obtain test licenses for this product, vExperts must also be qualified as VMware Certified Professioanl (VCP) for VCF.
The same applies to holders of VMUG Adavantage membership.
Here, too, VCF licenses will only be available in future against proof of VCP-VCF certification (2V0-11.24 or later).
As a VMware trainer, there is another implication. One of the (many) requirements to be allowed to teach VCF courses in the future is also the VCP-VCF.

To learn the basics, Broadcom offers on-demand training.

But this training and certification is not only important in terms of licenses.
Everyone who will be working with this product in the future will gain basic knowledge of the VCF architecture, deployment and Day-2-Operations.

How to upgrade your VCP-NV 6 to VCP-NV 2019

There’s an upgrade track from VCP6-NV to VCP-NV 2019 without taking an exam. It’s not easy to find this possibility. I will show all necessary steps to take and would like to thank Tim Burkhard (VMware Education Team), who pointed me into that direction.

Certification Walkthrough

First you go to VMware-Education and choose the VCP-NV 2019 track. Depending on your current certification status track requirements will be different. Only if you’re holding a current VCP6-NV certification, you’re able to upgrade without an exam. All others will have to pass the exam.

Choose VCP6-NV in the dropdown menu and read the requirements.

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My VCAP exam experience

After being VCP for a very long time it was time to move on towards the next step: VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) Datacenter Deployment.

I’m not goning to drill down too much into details on what to learn and how to prepare. There are plenty of good blog articles around to read. I’d rather give you some soft-skills to tackle the exam and to (hopefully) succeed.

The VCAP Datacenter Deployment exam is unlike many ther VMware exams not a series of multiple chioce questions, but an entire Hands-on-Labs (HOL) environment where you have to solve problems and track down issues. Just like in real life.

During exam you have to solve 27 tasks in 205 minutes. That’s a bit more than 7 minutes per task. Please keep that in mind:

You only have 7 minutes per task

I can’t emphasize this enough. This is not a customer project where you completely finish one task before you’ll advance to the next! If you cannot solve a problem in 7 minutes, skip it and continue with the next one. Time is crucial! Don’t make the same dumb mistake I made on my first attempt. I wasted plenty of time on the first five tasks, because I stubbornly tried to troubleshoot the problem, instead of moving on. So I ran out of time after 20 questions without even reading the last 7 questions. Finally it wasn’t the tasks that lead to failure – it was just the lack of strict time management. Biting the keyboard and banging your head to the wall doesn’t help. Instead I got a valuable (and expensive) lesson on keeping an eye on the clock. Anyway. Fall down, stand up, adjust your crown and move on. My second try was much better and as far as I can remember I only left out a single task.

Continue reading “My VCAP exam experience”