If you are expecting some questions arose in exam, it won't be possible to get that, as it's against the NDA(Non Disclosure Agreement) of VMware. However, tips & tricks and some worthfull links may help you so much to get yourself prepare for the exam. However, you may ask queries in comment box if you have any doubts during your prepration or related to this prepration guide. Let's have a look here.
- Candidate must have VCP Certification.
- Register yourself at VMware Certification Portal.
- Once get Authorisation, schedule exam at Pearson Vue.
- It will cost you 310$ to register exam, and there is no second attempt available in one registration. May depends on discounted coupans from VMware.
- There must be atleast 7 days gap if you are registering for second attempt. For 3rd, 4th, it should have 30 days gap. Refer to Exam Blue Print Retake Policy.
- You will not get immediate result, you may have to wait for 15 days. However, these days VMware share the result within 2-3 hours.
- Exam having 23 live scenarios questions which is includes Administration, Configuration, and Troubleshooting.
- Total time duration is 180 minutes for country where English is Primary language, however 30 minutes extra for those candidates where English is not Primary Language.
- You need atleast 60% marks(300 out of 500) to pass the Exam.
- Exam doesn't have some specific requirement to do questions in sequence from 1 to 23, you can choose anyone and and complete the question, and go back to previous question when needed. However, there are some dependancies on questions which need pre configuration for next questions. i;e Migration of VM from one switch to another would be one questions, though setting up vSwitch would be another question. So anyway you have to complete setting vSwitch first then migration.
- If you are noticing or suspecting some issues in your lab; it may be part of any question to fix this, so be assure before reporting this to Exam center.
- You may face slowness in exam labs, so that's performance thing you can't expect same as your home lab. So be prepare youself for low performance network speed labs.
- If you are solving one question, and task is in progress(i;e storage vMotion), move to next question and finish pending task later on. Don't wait to get this completed as you will waste your time by this way.
- If you are accessing server, and it's showing some issue, try taking through IP address as there may be DNS issue.
- Read out question properly as there may be some hints there itself, and also it will help to complete the all task in question, and you will get more marks.
- Have a Cup of Coffee before entering in exam room, as there is no breaks during the exam. If you are availing, means you are lapsing your time.
- It's open book exam, doesn't mean that you will get your books and internet over there. However, you will get VMware PDF's which are available at VMware Website. Be prepare yourself for Advance Search Option in PDF, so that you can search one text in multiple PDF files. Though I still repeat that labs are very slow so don't be dependant on PDF as there is time constraint too and searching answers in PDF will consume lot of time.
- Make yourself prepare with handy tips and steps should be at your finger. Then only you can complete all questions within time frame. And only tips to this is do live practice at your home lab, repeat as much as you can. Don't thing that I will recall it during the exam.
- VMware Exam Blue Print is Bible which can't be skipped during preparation
#VCAP5-DCA Official Cert Guide
#http://www.valcolabs.com/vcap5-dca/
# VMware VCAP5-DCA Exam Blue Print
# TrainSignal - VMware vSphere Optimize and Scale
VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting Workshop
VMware vSphere: Optimize and Scale
During the preparation, create your own lab and should have below setup for prepartion.
- One Virtual Center with vSphere 5.5 Configuration
- Minimum 2 or 3 ESXi 5.5 Host
- OpenFiler for Virtual Storage(As you dont have storage at your home)
- One vMA(vSphere Management Appliance) Setup
- VMware PowerCLI
- ISO Images for ESXi, vCenter, Windows 7, and Windows 2008 (may required during lab practice)
- Putty
- VMware Documentation (Reference guide during prepration)
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- iometer-1.1.0-rc1-win32 software
Cheers and Good Luck!
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