BOOK FOR VCP 5

[Mukz9]

Hi,

There appears to  be several books relevant to VMware vSphere 5.

Mastering VMware vSphere - By Scott Lowe

The official VCP5 certification guide - By Bill Ferguson

VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 Study Guide - By Brian Atkinson

Can someone please let me know which would be an appropriate book for the preparation of VCP 5 exam?

Thanks & regards,

Mukz

[a_p_]

Although Scott Lowe's book is excellent, only the two other books actually focus on the exam (i.e. the Exam Blueprint).

Whatever you use for exam preparation, ensure you read the current VCP5-DV Exam Blueprint because some of the objectives may have changed since the two books were released.

André

[aravinds3107]

The books which you have mentioned are definately a good read, but make sure to cover all the topic listed in blueprint before sitting for the exam.

[Gav0]

I was lucky enough to receive a free copy of 'The official VCP5 certification guide - By Bill Ferguson' at a recent VMware event in the UK.  I was wondering how useful this would be as a study guide as it is aligned to an older version of the blueprint - is it still worth being walked through each topic in the book in conjunction with the latest blue print?

[scott28tt]

Personally I think using a combination of the exam blueprint, the documentation, and the software itself are the best resources.

Why?

Well the blueprint tells you what the exam objectives are - what you will get tested on - and it reflects the current objectives as they have changed since the 5.1 release. The items in the exam are validated against the documentation. Some of the questions in the exam can only be answered by having done the tasks being asked about.

[scott28tt]

Have you compared the current blueprint to the book contents? That's what I'd do if I had a copy to hand...

[Mukz9]

Hi Andre,

Thank you. I will go through the exam blue print.

Mukz

[Mukz9]

Thank you, Aravind.

[Mukz9]

Thank you, Scott. If I happen to get an opportunity to check all these relevant books, I will try and compare the contents with the blue print

[AndreTheGiant]

For the last one I have written a review:

http://vinfrastructure.it/en/2012/06/book-review-vcp5-vmware-certified-professional-on-vsphere-5-stu...

Also note that the blueprint is changed in the previous monts.

[Gav0]

Scott Vessey wrote:

Have you compared the current blueprint to the book contents? That's what I'd do if I had a copy to hand...

Chapter 1 of 'The Official VCP Study Guide' maps directly to the VCP5_DV blue print 2.6 even though the book was written before the DV/IAAS split.

The content seems a bit light to me, eg auto deploy is covered in a paragraph, i'd expect the exam to want more depth then that.

I havent compared any other chapters with the blue print but i will be re-enforcing the book with the official docs....

[shanka]

Dear,

can i download required books as PDF. If possible please send me the web link..

Thanks

shanka

[scott28tt]

Yes you can download the required documents:

You'll find the exam blueprint on this page: http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp

It includes links to some of the vSphere documentation, which you can download in full here: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-pubs.html

[depping]

Definitely not a requirement for VCP, but if you ever want to know everything there is need to know about vSphere HA, DRS, Storage DRS, vMotion, Storage vMotion or Storage IO Control: The vSphere 5.1 Clustering Deepdive.

**disclaimer, I am the author of the book :-)**

[timevisser]

All,

I have purchased many of the books listed in this forum for self study and lab.  Many have asked about the Blue Print and how well it may or may not match existing books being sold.  Why I can not answer all of these questions, I can provide you with what I have researched so far that may be of value to you. 

I have gone through the first four Objectives from the Blue Print,  http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp and compared it to the "The Official VCP5 Certification Guide" and here are the areas I found not in the book that are in the Blue Print:

Objective 1.4 Enable/Configure/Disable services in the ESXi firewall

Objective 1.5 Identify the various datacenter solutions that interact with vSphere (View, SRM, Lab Manager, etc)

Objective 4.1 Configre/Modify disk controller for virtual disks

Objective 4.1 Configure appropriate virtual disk type for a virtual machine

I did this pretty quick so if there are errors in what I listed above, please let us know.  I hope this helps you in determning which book(s) to get.  I also have VCP5 Study Guide that Brian Atkinson wrote and I know he frequents these forums so maybe he can help us understand from his book which areas may be missing.  To date, I have not found any updates for the "The Official VCP5 Certification Guide" for the missing Blue Print topics.

Tim

[vmroyale]

Hey Tim,

At the time my book was published, it was to version 1.4 of the exam blueprint. At that time, my book included content to cover every single objective listed in the blueprint.

The blueprint version number has changed several times, since my book was published. Until version 2.5 was released, the objectives in the blueprint did not actually change. With version 2.5 of the blueprint, there were actually some changes that are documented on Andrea_Mauro's (AndreTheGiant) site at http://vinfrastructure.it/en/2013/03/some-updates-on-the-vcp5-dv-exam/

I just went through version 2.62 of the exam blueprint and confirmed that there have been no additional changes, since Adrea's post linked above.

So to finally address your original concern, as of v 2.62 of the exam blueprint my book lacks coverage for one single exam objective:

Objective 1.5 – Identify vSphere Architecture and Solutions
Identify the various datacenter solutions that interact with vSphere (View, SRM, Lab Manager, etc)

My honest opinion on this objective is that there is sufficient information on the product pages (View, SRM, Lab Manager) for each of these solutions to get you through the exam. Know what each product is and what it is used for and you should be fine. As for which specific products, you will have to use a bit of your own judgement here. Unfortunately the inclusion of discontinued products and the blanket term "etc" leaves it a bit vague.

Hope this helps and good luck on the exam!

[danorama]

The books are good if you know absolutely nothing about vSphere and virtualization. Stick with the blue print along with every peice of VMware documentation there is to go with it.

[SweenDawg]

Mike Preston compiled the info identified in the blueprint into a study guide.  If you need a hard copy just print the PDF.

http://blog.mwpreston.net/vcp-5/

-Brian