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tascott1991
Contributor
Contributor

Exam Help

Hello All,

I come asking for some advice, I failed my second shot at the VCP exam today with a score of 270. I have been using “Mastering VMware vSphere 5.5 by Scott Lowe” and the Exam Blueprint plus around a year and a halfs worth of working with vSphere for the day job. But I am finding that these no way go into the depth that the exam goes into. Any advice or other recommended study material would be greatly appreciated. Then hopefully it will be third time lucky!

Cheers

Tom

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7 Replies
1Adam12
Contributor
Contributor

I'm also open for suggestions, just scored 287 for the second time.  Ugh..

Thought I'd finally take the vmware test, i'm assocate/friend to a few with far less experience than I, that refer to me for assistance, that passed the vcp4/vcp5 exam without much prep.   Either the 5.5 exam has multiplied in difficulty exponentially or I'm a dullard and just realizing it.

Been a vsphere admin since 4.1, multiple orgs, upgraded through 5.5 Ent+ in three companies now.  Been running View since 5.0, been in the industry since '96, I gave less prep and was able to previous pass GSEC/A+)/CCNA.  Took the VSphere ICM, took View ICM, took the VCAP course to qualify for the 5.5 exam.  Read Atkinson's Book front to back.  Running OpsMan, Running DVSwitches, Resource Pools, Vapps, Storage DRS, etc...  The point being I thought I would have fit the qualification to study up and test (sorry still venting).

I want to reschedule and finish this up by the end of the year, but I don't want to waste another couple hundred dollars without some additional prep...

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tascott1991
Contributor
Contributor

I feel your pain lol.

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1Adam12
Contributor
Contributor

Well I dropped 35$ on this bad boy.

http://www.amazon.com/VCP5-DCV-Official-Certification-Covering-VCP550/dp/078975374X/ref=sr_1_2?s=boo...

I'll let you know if it helps after attempt # 3.

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rossbow
Contributor
Contributor

I also use this book to study and find it very helpful. Good luck with your studies.

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maleitch
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

About to take test for second time tomorrow and was feeling pretty good about it.  Took a few sample tests and now feeling horrible about it.  Don't expect to pass at this point.

It is not enough to know the material, you have to know how every aspect of the software will react in EVERY possible scenario.  I don't even trust a lot of the material at this point.

For instance a requirement of vmotion is a 1 Gbps network according to the official study guide.

So we have this sample question:

Q:

  Which two conditions will cause a vMotion validation check to fail? (Choose two.)

A:

  An active connection that matches an existing port group label on the target host

  Insufficient network bandwidth on the target virtual switch

  Different security policies on the target virtual switch

  An active connection to an internal virtual switch

I would think that " Insufficient network bandwidth on the target virtual switch" would be one of the answers.  Nope.  According to the test this will generate a warning but the vmotion will proceed.  Now I am sure there is some wording gameplay "gotcha" in there I am overlooking.

I would love to talk to a vcp on how they survived some of these questions because I think there is something failures like us are missing.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

When vMotion is validated, you get "errors" in red and "warnings" in yellow - this question is asking about things that would cause a red error.

The bottom 2 answers would cause the validation to fail with red errors.


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maleitch
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am blown away.  I have never read anywhere that different security policies on switches will prevent vmotion.  Definitely not in the study guide.  Just tested in lab and you are 100% correct.

Pretty much lost any confidence I had.  I am obviously not approaching this correctly.

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