Some guidance on VMWare Certification.

[vm_symm]

Hi,

I am currently working as a Storage Administrator (Mostly EMC Symmetrix - DMX and VMAX and some Clariion/VNX). Planning to learn VMWare.

Due to certain financial commitments, I have to make do with the computing resources at hand to learn VMWare and get certified.

All I have is a Laptop with 8 GB RAM. Thats it. I am not sure if this will suffice for me to learn VMWare. For some reasons, Windows 7 keeps crashing on this laptop, so will be installing Linux instead. I will be really thankful if someone could let me know if,

1) Will I be able to learn atleast the Basics Of VMWare Vsphere with what I have? I am planning to install VMWare Workstation 9. Then install the trial version of ESXi 5 in it, and inside that, I'll install some Guest OS. Will that do or is there another way to learn it?

2) Which Linux OS will be the best as a Host OS? Something that will have a small footprint and let me do the stuff mentioned above? I have been through the support matrix page, and CentOS 6.3 seems to be better. Has anyone tried what I am planning to try?

3) How long does it take for an average IT Person to grasp VMWare concepts and get certified?

4) Apart from the documentation available on the site, is there some most recommended book that will help me achieve my goal? If so, please tell me the title of the book.

If any/all of the questions are sounding wrong/stupid, kindly pardon me. My only experience till date has been with VMWare Player. I want to do all this so that I can learn VMWare and become a VCP. I understand that to get the certification, the training attendance is a mandate, so saving some bucks for that .

Thing is, I just dont want to get certified and be done with it. I really want to understand and be very comfortable with VMWare and then go for certification.

Please help me.

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello and welcome to the communities.

1) Will I be able to learn atleast the Basics Of VMWare Vsphere with  what I have? I am planning to install VMWare Workstation 9. Then install  the trial version of ESXi 5 in it, and inside that, I'll install some  Guest OS. Will that do or is there another way to learn it?

Yes you can. 8GB of RAM is your limiting factor, but you can make this work. The Workstation on a laptop approach is great for a number of different reasons (portable, cheap, better learning of virtualization concepts) and won't hamper you in many ways. Odds are the limitations you will find here would also exist in a physical lab, unless you had a lot of money to put into it.

2) Which Linux OS will be the best as a Host OS? Something that will  have a small footprint and let me do the stuff mentioned above? I have  been through the support matrix page, and CentOS 6.3 seems to be better.  Has anyone tried what I am planning to try?

Stick with either a distro you already know or one that has good community support around it. Ubuntu and CentOS would both be fine, and I have used both with the Workstation lab approach.

3) How long does it take for an average IT Person to grasp VMWare concepts and get certified?

This always depends on your background, experience and base skill set. Having the storage background will certainly help. There are lots of concepts that fit in here.

4)  Apart from the documentation available on the site, is there some most  recommended book that will help me achieve my goal? If so, please tell  me the title of the book.

Scott Lowe's "Mastering VMware vSphere 5" is a great book. Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman's "VMware vSphere 5.1 Clustering Deepdive" is also essential reading in my opinion. I have a VCP5 study guide available and there is also one available from VMware Press. No matter which approach you take, make sure you get a copy of the exam blueprint and make sure you learn (and/or know how to perform) each objective listed there.

Good Luck!

[EdWilts]

Brian has already taken a good stab and answering some of these questions but let me help fill in some more details.

As Brian said, a large factor in VMware performance is memory.  Since you're limited to 8GB, realize that any guests you install - and you'll need things like Virtual Center, domain controller, etc. - so if you have an SSD in your laptop and can afford to swap without suffering too much, that will help.

> 3) How long does it take for an average IT Person to grasp VMWare concepts and get certified?

Like you, I came from a storage background although I also have extensive knowledge of other platforms and already had 5 certifications, including an RHCE.

It took me 7 months from the time I moved in our virtualization team until I passed the VCP4 exam (and I failed it the first time I attempted it).  I was working full-time in an enterprise VMware environment and I also spend many hours at home studying.  I took off the week I wrote the exam so I could focus on my studying. It's a lot of work and spans a lot of concepts.

I had not yet purchased Scott Lowe's book.  I learned my lesson and bought it before I attempted the VCP5 certification exam and I HIGHLY recommend it.  I am going to assume that you've already printed out the blueprint - it's on VMware's web site at http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp.  It will tell you what topics are covered by the exam.  You'll find it's a LONG list when you're just starting your journey.  Don't take it lightly - it's a tough exam and you will need a lot of hands-on practice to see things not covered in the books.

Google is your friend - there are a LOT of VCP learning resources on the web including sites that take apart the blueprint line by line and give you resources to help you study them.

Lastly, you need to be aware that a VMware course is MANDATORY to get certified.  You can write the exam without the formal training but you we won't be considered certified until you meet both qualifications.

Good luck.

[vm_symm]

Hi Brian and Ed,

Thank you for taking time to reply to my question.

Never thought I'd get a reply from such distinguished members. Was almost sure that I'd be laughed at for the kind of meagre setup I have.

I'll install CentOS 6.3. Not sure if I can install it just with DVD 1 ( I dont have DVD 2). So let me see if that works.

I have Scientific Linux 6.3 as well, but the support matrix states only CentOS 6.3

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

The blueprint should be your guidebook - and like most guidebooks it's updated periodically.  Make sure you are using the latest (and note we should be updating it in the next few weeks).

8gb is doable, 16 is better .  I would do RAM before SSD - I run a full lab on my laptop with 16GB and a 7200RPM drive.  SSD makes it start faster (easily 3x faster lab startup), but RAM makes it live better.

You might google some of the "build a VMware lab" guides out there and/or take a look at labguides.com to get tips and tricks on sizing a kit for 8GB.

I would stick with Win2k3 where you can (lower resource requirements) and Win XP VMs (similar footprint to usable *nix, but shares more code wiht Win2k3, which helps with memory juggling)

Good luck!

[vm_symm]

Hi,

Which laptop do you have?

Please do let me know.