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5aq1b
Contributor
Contributor

Starting VMWare 5 course today!

Hi - something i've wanted to do for a long while but unfortunately didn't have the time to attend an official VMWare Instructor led course nor did I have the funds!  Fortunately my local Uni is running an official course on evenings, twice a week for 8 weeks and is costing just under £1k - which I guess is something that I hope will repay itself once I can sit the exam and become VCP certified.

Is there anything I should be looking out for during this course?  Anything I can do at home?  I have a HP N36L but it's fully functional right now so don't want to mess with that and use that as my VM Lab.  I've been told I can run a VMWare lab using vmware microstation?

Anyway - looking forward to this and pretty excited by it!

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psenior
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

i'm doing the same as you; a 10 week evening course, 1 night per week for same price, but self funded.

I have the same server as you, a HP proliant microserver with a Turion processor.

I downloaded the 5.1 ESXi image onto a USB stick using an ISOtoUSB utility off sourceforge and it went on cleanly (had some problems as not every ISOtoUSB utility did the job) and now have a working ESXi host.

I downloaded the VMWARE client onto my desktop to connect to the host. all setup and working. just got to read through the 600 pages of notes now...

a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

It definitely makes sense to do some hands on training. You should also go through the VCP Blueprint to see what's required for the exam, because you may not get all the information in the course. What you may want to consider is to build a virtual lab based on VMware Workstation. Take a look at Building the Ultimate vSphere Lab for how this can be done.

If you are interested in a book which covers the Blueprint, take a look at e.g. VCP5 VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 Study Guide: Exam VCP-510

André

5aq1b
Contributor
Contributor

nice one - i'm paying out my own pocket too Smiley Sad

Hopefully it'll be worth it though

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5aq1b
Contributor
Contributor

I've also got the TrainSignal VMWare 5 Training video - has anyone watched this and would you recommend it?

Thanks for the link to the book - will defo be purchasing that!

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

If the quality of the vSphere 5 videos is the same as for version 4 (which I own) than it's certainly worth watching.

André

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firestartah
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

The Trainsignal videos for v5 are very good and I would highly recommend them alongside the Mastering VMware vSphere 5 by Scott Lowe and the vSphere 5 Clustering Deepdive books by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman.

Good luck Smiley Happy

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Gregg http://thesaffageek.co.uk
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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I'd echo the comments from the others already, but add a bit of focus on the VCP now...

Make sure you focus on the exam blueprint - it will tell you what features/tasks the exam will test you on - it's one of a number of official items here: http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert

And check the VCP5 tab on my blog for some other links you will find useful: http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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5aq1b
Contributor
Contributor

thanks  a lot - been on the course 6 weeks now and it's pretty good - although a lot of it is just skimming over lecture notes 😕

One question I have though is I have now come across 2 exam blueprints.

VCP510 Exam Blueprint version 1.4 - 12 December 2011

VCP510 Exam Blueprint version 1.3 - 11 June 2012

I'm not sure which one to look at as the one with the latest version (1.4) has an earlier date!

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firestartah
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Use the one with the latest date as that is the one that is available for download right now and is therefore the correct one

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Gregg http://thesaffageek.co.uk
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5aq1b
Contributor
Contributor

thanks mate - will  batter through this and the cbt / trainsignal videos too!

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firestartah
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

All good

Dont forget the Mock VCP5 you can do from the VMware Education website. It's great practice for the real thing

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Gregg http://thesaffageek.co.uk
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