Hello all,
So after just missing my first attempt at my DCD I figured I would take what I learned from that experience and help build some new practice material for those who are attempting the VCAP-DCD5.1/5.5 exam. During my studies I found a lot of good material out there around the items on the blue print but didn't find a lot of material to help me get into the mind set / exam mode per say. A good example of this is Joshua's Test Track for the DCA. He has created some really good practice questions with a lab to boot to really get you in the right mind set for the DCA. What I would like to do is build something simular for the DCD.
With that in mind, here is the project:
I would like to build a interactive webpage that will simulate what the design questions and drag-n-drop questions are like on the exam with some practice questions created by myself and other people of the community. How I'm going to try and make it, I'm going to try and use jsPlumb or maybe other simular drag-n-drop java libraries with html 5 to help create an enviroment. Here is a link to the jsPlumb so you can kind of get an idea of how it will work:
Demo
jsPlumb 1.6.4 demo - home (Vanilla)
Other Java libraries to try
http://www.codecademy.com/forum_questions/51aea0670b92bcd46d000667
This is what it will look like:
Once the frame work is in place we can create test questions and have an interactive testing system to also help grade peoples awnsers to help prep people for the DCD exam prior to writing.
Milstones of the project:
1.) Create Photoshop and site layout - I have already completed this and continueing to work on it to get more scenario's, I will post the photoshop .psd shortly incase anyone wants to use them to create there own for the time being
2.) Collect Good test questions with photoshop with an awnser page for the time being until the javascript is written - this partialy done. I currently only have two questions created
3.) Put it all together and post it. I'm in the process of registering a blog so once I get that done and everything is together I can post the interactive page there and link it in the forums
4.) Shed less tears over failed DCD attempts 
Here are the first two questions I have created:
DCD-Design-Q1
DCD-Drag-n-Drop-Q1
DCD-Q1-A1 - One possible design choice to suit all the requirements, there is many others. I will also build on this design and put a section for NIOC for those who want to add in 10GB NICS
Now for a quick explanation to my awnser to the design. For this one I put in an additional 2xQuad Port nics in the available PCI slots. This allows for 2 nics for mgmt, 2nics for iSCSI, 2nics for backup, 2 nics for FT, 2 nics for DMZ for isolation, and 4 nics for the VMware Network as one of the requirement was it needed 2.43Mbps throughput. Since you never truely get 100% on network transfer speeds I typically build out to 80%, which is 800Mbps for a 1GB nic. So to meet the 2.43Mbps you would need a minium of 3 1GB NIC's, however this leaves a single point of failure as if one nic fails the VM Network can only push 2Mbps of traffic till that NIC is back online. Thus I bumped the VMnetwork to 4 1GB NIC's so there was no single pont of failure. If anyone else has better ways or other ways please feel free to post on it or work through the question.
DCD-Drag-n-Drop-Q1-A1
A quick Explantion of the design layout
Special thanks to lbourque for running this past the VMware Certification team so fast and getting the green light
If anyone wants to create some questions please post them here as I've told lbourque I'd post them here so they can be looked over incase there is any issues with them.
Current questinos / designs i'm working on:
vApp desing question
Storage design question
Calculation questions IE. what is the min amount of hosts you need to run X number of servers with X cpu, X memory, X networking
Multiple choice questions to hammer on the blue print topics like RPO, RTO, ect.
Thanks again, and I hope to get enough free time in the next few weeks to make some good progress on this.
Also please excuse any spelling mistakes / type-o's, I put this together pretty quickly and haven't had a great deal of time to look it over :smileysilly:
Cheers everyone and good luck!
Yeah many of the items still need more anchors. each question I will have to tailor the anchors as they are not bidirectional, so I have to set a source and target. Once I get more things worked out i'll double back and look at the libraries for the anchor system and see if I can tweak it but I tried a few different ways and it wanted non of it :smileysilly:
Which browser did you use? as I tested it in IE, Firefox, and chrome and the buttons all lined up?
Yeah some of the images I have to adjust still. I will also post a bug list and things I'm currently working on when I get to work.
Thanks for the input and checking it out .
hmm that's wierd, I just checked mine and it worked for the most part. IE could use a little tweak but chrome and firefox where fine. What versions of the browsers are you running?
With that in mind, I will look into a css reset so all the browsers act simulairly
Hello all,
Okay so the simulator as it currently stands is essentially the frame work. From here I can customize each page / question so it works the best to each scenario. This has to be done due to the fact of the way the anchors work. Each item can have as many source anchors or target anchors as you want, but they can't over lap. So each question I will have to setup each item with the proper type of anchors so its most effecient. Currently right now each item only has one source anchor and one target anchor, this will change probably in the next revision. Since the simulator is using the jquery java libraries it requires certian versions of browers to work properly, here is the base requirements:
jQuery 2.x:
IE: 9+
Chrome: (Current -1) or Current
Firefox: (Current -1) or Current
Safari: 5.1+
Opera 12.1x, (Current -1) or Current
iOS 6.1+
Andriod 2.3, 4.0+
**Current -1 or current denotes that we support the current stable version of the browser and the version that preceded it. For example, if the current version of a browser is 24.x, we support the 24.x and the 23.x versions
Most of my testing was with IE, Chrome, and firefox, so typically one of these three will work best with it.
Simulator beta 1.0 known bugs:
- The connectors code is kinda bugged at the moment. Each connector has a different color, however if you use multiple connectors it will keep changing the color to all the connectors. This is due to the way the array works and how i'm injecting the color code. I will need to find a way to tag a class on every connector as I inject it so that it can be unquie and not part of a single array. Not sure if I will get this resloved in the next reversion or not, we'll see as I have to possibly re-write the way jquery does that particular array.
- The overlay isn't working perfectly. What this means is if you create an item, then create another item over top of it, the last item will always be on the top layer. A good example of this is the vAPP. Say you created the VM's first, then the vAPP, when you drag the vAPP over the VM's the vAPP will always be on a layer higher then the VM's as it was created after. This is a problem with the Z indexing and should be able to get it squared away for the next revision. For the time being just make sure that you drag the items that have to be on top of something on last.
- There is a bit of a transparancy issue with objects, so when you stack them ontop of each other it can look a little wierd, this is just tweaking the css file so everything is slightly less transparent in some situations. I'm hoping to have this fixed in the next revision
- Spacing issue on the web page depending on what browser you use. I'm going to look into a css reset so each browser acts the same or as close as possible, as right now its varrying results.
Cosmetic Changes and tweaking:
- I have to still adjust some of the image sizes to best fit into the design area. This shouldn't take to long and just requires some photoshop time.
- Some of the diagnal graphics crop a little funny, not sure if I can totaly reslove this but will look into it to see if I can at least reduce the space some of them take up
- Each qusetion / page will need to have the connector anchors tweaked to best suit the question. Since the first question was the networking one I will start fixing the anchors on that question so it works out best for the question. By this I mean there will be enough anchors to do whatever you want as I don't want to put the "exact" amount of anchors required so it gives away a possible answer. I will just simply put enough anchors in the proper positions to best suit the question.
- The undo button will probably not make it in or will be VERY last due to the complexitiy of having to track every item that is dropped, dragged, connected ect.
- The Narrow / Wide buttons are just not setup at the moment, will get those working shortly
- The Trash can, althoguh not added yet, will probably be another feature that will come last or near the end due to the way the code works.
- The sissors are coming, and will be put in place so you can't remove a connector without clicking on them first. Currently as it stands you can remove a connector by just simply clicking on it, this will change once I get the sissors on the page.
I can't think of anything else at the moment, however I probably won't get a chance to look at the code again till Sunday so updates won't happen till probably Sunday at the earliest. If anyone else spots anything odd or that needs fixing please let me know.
So over the next few days I will probably have enough time to create some new question material but we'll see
If anyone has any questions please let me know,
Thanks again and will update soon
This is really great stuff! If we come up with design examples for a practice exam, does it first need to be screened by the cert team at VMware first? I've been looking in to creating design questions with four separate Visios to choose from as practice questions. Only thing stopping me is my fear of getting hammered by the cert team.
AFAIK, Cert. Team and Community Moderator Gregg Robertson locked the topic for around 48-72 hrs to review it and it's validated by them..
Review 2nd page. reply no. 20
firestartah would you confirm..?
Site has been updated
Beta 1.2
New features / Updates:
- Added in answer buttons so people can get the answer after working the question without having to visit the forums and dig through everything
- Added new pages and questions. Please let me know if you find any problems with them
- Added vAPP design question
Known issues:
- Please clear your cookies and temp files if you have any problems with the page not updating. I found for some reason firefox was holding onto old information with the connectors so the new ones weren't showing up.
- The connectors will still change color on you if you mouse over them or connect them to an image that has a different connector color. I'm currently working on a label system to get around this, for the time being just use the standard connector or everything or use the colors for fun if you choose :smileysilly:
Working on:
- Working on getting the framework done for the drag-n-drop questions. I don't think this will take two much work so hopefully it will make it in the next patch
- Working on the scissors functionality
- Working on the label system for the connectors
You can see how the test format will now look. I hope you all enjoy, till next update
I hope to jump back into material as soon as I get the framework all done and all the current questions in. That way when new questions are made they can be easily implemented.
Cheers
Good good good, mate
Small trivial thing, on MCQs, change the color of the correct answer, it's really hard to know which answer is the correct
That green color is so dark :smileygrin:
Hey vfk,
Yeah the website is www.virtualtiers.net
I'll repost it here every time I update as the site doesn't have a comments sections yet.
I'll also make the correct color a brighter green for the MCQ next update as well
Been following this with interest and the site looks great and very familiar to the real thing Keep up the good work. I've gone through the questions and think they are great though as a suggestion it could be worth putting in an explanation of the answer so you can justify the design decision. The first design question could do with more mount points for the connectors - happy to explain why offline but essentially it does need it as there will be variations to the design that will meet the requirements. Would really love the undo button to functionality to drag it to the bin but it's an outstanding effort bud so keep it up. Happy to help with questions but these will need to be cleared with VMware Education.
Hey Wardy8214,
Thanks for the heads up, yeah just shoot me a PM about the question at hand and you can fill me in on anything that needs changing and i'll do my best to update it, as mount points are pretty easy to put in now. As for the explanation I will be doing this and tucking it in the pictures when I get a chance, but the more information I have the better. Also I know for each design question there will probably be a few different way to complete it so I will be trying to post those as well as time permits .
As far as questions you would like to submit you can pass them along to me and i'll make sure the people on the Cert team give them the OK, or if your in touch with someone from the Cert team you can pass it along to them as well. Once they are OK'ed I'd love to add them to the post and get the minto the simulator asap.
Currently I'm trying to finish the overall frame work asap so I can get the questions in quickly as they are developed.
As far as the undo button and the trash can, yeah these features will probably be put in last if at all due to the complexity of the code to do it, as I'm not working with a library I created so i'm kinda limited a little. With that, i'm also not the best coder in the world :smileysilly: so if anyone else is a good coder and would like access to the code I will gladly send it to them or post it on github if they think they can improve it as i'm more of a rag tag coder or scavanger if you will :smileysilly:
Thanks for the comments and look forward to getting it all up and running :smileygrin:
Dear JPM, you're really doing a good tremendous work that really would be a gift for all VCAP-DCD hunters
Keep up your spirit and your good work
Regards,
A special thanks also goes out to iPaul386 as he has helped tremendously and helped with a lot of the harder pieces of code in the library, so many thanks to him! Without his help the simulator would of taken MUCH longer to get working.
ShadyMalatawey Thanks hoping to have it up and working fully in the coming month. Then I can relax again :smileygrin:
However I re-take the DCD on Oct 18th so hopefully I pass it this time around :smileygrin:
Beta Updated 1.3
- Added in two Drag-n-Drop Questions now that the frame work is done I should be able to finish up the rest this weekend
- Now that there is at least 1 of every type of question in the exam its starting to look and feel more realistic, I hope you all enjoy
Work to take place on the weekend
- It's looking like I will get some free cycles this weekend and with all the frameworks built now I should be able to get the rest of the material up.
- Fix some of the bugs people have reported
- Will try and get the explanations into the pictures as well
At least that's the wish list, we'll see how far I get,
Thanks again and enjoy!
Please let me know if you spot any bugs
Cheers