Passed VCP today...thoughts, etc.

[vmNewb35]

I passed my VCP today....woo hoo....

First of all I need to throw out some 'big ups' as the young crowd says today.

Eric (esiebert7625) a.k.a. T2, a.k.a. the borg, a.k.a. the machine....he has all the answers and his website is the best study portal on the web. If he suggests reading it...then read it. Check out his website here: http://www.vmware-land.com[/b] If you are serious about this test then go here and just start reading...sometimes a little RTFM time goes a LONG WAY.

Chris Huss for the dialogue and encouragement.

Rob Schmidt's study questions...these are great for flashcards and to ensure you understand base concepts.

If I were to give any advice on how to tackle this exam I would say:

1. Re-read your class material...lot of useful stuff there

2. Read the whitepapers...of particular help to me was the SAN Configuration Guide and the Resource Management Guide. This may seem korny to some, but I wanted to get a 30,000 feet view for some perspective so I read the Introduction to VMWare whitepaper again last night and I am glad I did...some of the questions come from this seemingly simple document. All of these are linked from Eric's site.

3. Use this forum and the people here as a sounding board and a resource. These folks are awesome and can help elucidate all of the nuances that the test encompasses.

4. Even old geezers like me can pass this with the right amount of effort and focus.

Now I can concentrate on Liverpool's run at the Premiership Title!!!!

Cheers, Chad

[Ken_Cline]

Chad,

Congrats on passing the exam! No small achievement, as you've mentioned. And[/b]thanks for recognizing some of the folks that helped you get there - the simple fact that someone appreciates their efforts goes a long way to ensuring that the help is there for others.

KLC

[asatoran]

Good job on the exam! You may have to change your username 'cuz you're a little past "newb."

[vmNewb35]

Ken -- thanks for the words of encouragement. You guys are the BEST. These boards are unquestionably the best tech resource on the web. I have been in this game for over 20 years and have NEVER seen a more successful user community. The body of knowledge here is amazing...VMWare folks, HP, IBM, etc. etc. Folks from Europe, the states, Asia....one big community. I am in awe of how professional this community remains and I will work toward keeping that high standard. Most boards degenerate into a bunch of banter and flame wars. You guys (in this space) are creating the new model for value-added service from maintenance contracts.

As they 'good on you.'

[vmNewb35]

Is that even possible? I would choose eric's_coffeboy_01

Thanks for the kind words...you guys are great.

[vmNewb35]

Don't want to forget to give 'big ups' to the folks from Canada on the boards ad whom I've met in my travels....you know who you are!

[admin]

Congratulations Chad and welcome to the club!

I know how difficult the VCP exam can be...especially back when it used to have alot of command line stuff in it.

Maybe I can pay you to take over next week's class for me?

Great job!

Chris

[vmNewb35]

Thanks Chris -- you are still the man...I am eager to learn more next week.

[aspen12777]

Congrats Chad.

I am going to jump on your post. I past the test today as well.

I found many of the same docuements helpful as well.

[vmNewb35]

Welcome to the club...

[Vicky011]

Great Job, I am also preparing for this exams

if you can give me some important tips it would be great help..

[langonej]

When I took and passed the exam awhile ago I was a bit disappionted in the amount of iSCSI questions. I've only run iSCSI at home and have actually never seen a large corporation use it (although I'm sure they do). FC questions would have been more appropriate, in my opinion.

[vmNewb35]

I could not agree with you more...a great deal of time in the VI3 class was spent on iSCSI so I knew it COLD going into the exam. Any issue that I didn't quite get I asked the boards, etc. Read the SAN guides....etc etc. I was expecting a lot more.

And I have not run into anybody doing iSCSI either...mostly FC. Again, this is just my experience with it.

[esiebert7625]

Congratulations Chad!

[vmNewb35]

Thanks Eric....again, hats off to you for all the support!!!

[kjones99]

i agree about the number of iSCSI and NFS questions....i don't mind learning about new technologies, but requiring so much of it on this exam was a little strange.

[TomHowarth]

Firstly well done on passing the exam,

secondly kudos for "biging up the posse"

thirdly dream on, Liverpool for the title never!!!!

[vmNewb35]

Thanks Tom....and you know we got screwed on that PK versus Chelsea. Where is the justice in the Premiership?

[TomHowarth]

OK, I'll give you that one, but many's the time that L'pool have 12 players on the pitch, I mean one season your away kit was black!!!!!

Still I'm just enjoying the view form the top, I know it won't last so I'm enjoying it while I can.

anyhow how did you become a supporter of the beautiful game. and more importantly how did you get waylaid and become a Liverpool suporter?

[vmNewb35]

the black away kit was weird.

/insert VMWARE fact here so this doesn't get tossed by mods: WHEN INSTALLING SQL SERVER CHOOSE DBO FOR THE ACCOUNT THAT CONNECTS TO THE VIRTUAL CENTER DATABASE!!!//

football (soccer for the rest of the yanks) is the greatest sport on the planet...I played for years and then refereed and coached for many more before I got old and fat. I enjoyed the refereeing more than playing actually as I could live vicariously through the folks who had real talent.

I just kinda happened across Liverpool several years back. It started by me trying to figure out who Steven Gerrard was as I always referred to him as 'the poor man's Michael Owen' but then he became one of the highlights of the game for me. I wish now we could see more of 2 meter Peter, but I digress. Perhaps the most enjoyable players are actually on Chelsea's side...Drogba, Wright-Phillips, etc. I can't be a Man U fan as most all yanks think that is 'their team.'

Did I mention I am a DIEHARD England fan? That soft goal that Robinson gave up yesterday just killed me. I was glad that Lampard finally produced something though. The other German goal was pretty impressive but the first one should not have happened.

/vmare thought #2: VMWARE SUPPORTS UP TO 127 VIRTUAL SWITCHES //

I am pretty impressed with Man City so far...I don't know how much of this has to do with Sven, but I think their fans will take it anyway it comes. The FA really have something amazing and their is nothing like this in the states. The system of promtion and demotion is so amazingly cool. It gives the little guys a chance to tackle the titans. I really with we had some sort of league that did that state-side.

Cheers