VCAP5-DCD Passed!

[0v3rc10ck3d]

Passed my VCAP5-DCA in July and Passed the VCAP5-DCD yesterday.

Guess it's time to start working on that VCDX!

[aravinds3107]

Congrats 0v3rc10ck3d!!

Good luck with your VCDX Preparation

[MannyS]

Good on you for passing! Can you please tell us what you used for prep and how you dealt with the long and winding scenario questions. I've taken the exam twice already and each time I've had 2 scenarios that absolutely did my head in.

[vmroyale]

Congrats and good luck!

[0v3rc10ck3d]

Best advice I can give is to fully read the questions, I also had to take this exam multiple times and I thought there would be a time constraint much as on the DCA exam. The DCD however I had plenty of time left at the end. Be sure you read both the Customer Scenario and the Design information. It's kind of hard to prepare for the DCD as the breadth of questions are so vast, nothing really I can recommend other than a bit of experience.

Your options are the vBrownbag podcasts for the VCAP5-DCD, there are about 15 videos there. There's a TrainSignal Design Video series by Scott Lowe, the vSphere Design second edition book, Managing and Optimizing VMware vSphere Deployments book, the Clustering DeepDive 5.1 book by Frank Denneman and Duncan Epping, as well as the new short but sweet Offical VCAP5-DCD Certification Guide book, (I've read all of these books) If you're having issues with terminology and VMware's design methodologies it would also help to take one of their Design Workshop classes. Additionally I found it helpful to do the DCA prior to the DCD, When you're studying for the DCA be sure to ask yourself why or why not for each thing you learn that will transition directly to the DCD.

[MannyS]

Thank you for taking the time to write back.

I have used all those books/resources you mentioned and more. I have gone through the vSphere Design Workshop too and it was good too. I thought the Certification Guide book was average, with the questions being too easy and not adequate prep. Problem is - lack of design experience. I can admin the product in my sleep (passed the DCA easily), it's looking at the big picture where the problem lies. Now that's something experience gives you.

A titbit I'd like you give to whoever reads this - check out on youtube.com the design videos that existing VCDX's have made (the videos are listed in VMware Learning's channel). Golden words spoken by those guys. I've been watching as many of the Design videos as possible. The Storage one by Mostafa Khalil and the one by Rawlinson Rivera are particularly good.

Now back to the videos! My 3rd go at the DCD is 11 days away. I'm going to spear this sucker!

[firestartah]

As well as all the resources already mentioned I think the design workshop lab guides were the best resource I used for my second attempt which I'm certain helped me pass. Also don't forget that the completed designs from the labs are available under the learning portal. If you know why design decisions were made and their impacts from the labs you will pass it I'm certain.

Gregg

[arunrj]

I hope the exam questions were on vSphere 5.1 and not on 5.5. Please clarify this as I am planning to take up the exam in 2-3 weeks time.

[0v3rc10ck3d]

The exam is currently based off a mixture of 5.0 and 5.1 similarities I believe.

Definitely no 5.5 stuff yet.

[arunrj]

That's comforting. Thanks for the update.