My VCAP-DCA Experience
Well I finally received my VCAP-DCA results and I’m very pleased to say that I passed! The two VCAPs were a fantastic challenge but I’m definitely GLAD to have them behind me. I’d like to put together a few things that I found in the VCAP4-DCA experience and share them with you.
My first piece of advice. Taking both VCAPs close together stinks and is a royal time sink. Don’t do it unless you really, REALLY have to do it or just hate yourself.
The DCA is like a customer engagement where they tell you they can only afford your rate for 3 hours to make their fixes and changes. While you go they say “Oh yea, and I forgot about this” When you’re done they say “that’s all, you’ll have your check in 10 business days”. Then they’ll make you wait 15 business days.
I got into the test and after completing the short survey I immediately went to work (This is a good tip. Tic-tock). It wasn’t difficult knocking out some of the low hanging fruit but there are some fairly involved tasks. One extremely valuable tip I had received was to make a note on your “whiteboard” if you’re not 100% sure on how to configure something and move on. Time is your enemy. I personally set a time limit of 5 minutes for each task on the first pass unless I was completely confident that I was completing the task.
ProTip: Don’t dawdle. Keep moving forward but remember going back can be slow so leave yourself time if you can.
Per the VCAP-DCA blueprint the test does grade with partial credit so I kept going on a question as long as I felt I was not “fumbling” around on a task. There were a few tasks where I didn’t recall exactly how to complete the task and a couple where things simply would not work. I still feel quite confident that I had performed the task correctly and even replicated the steps in the lab.
ProTip: Partial credit counts. If you know part but not all…quickly do what you know.
This leads to another important element of the exam. They INTENTIONALLY have things configured incorrectly in the environment. The intent here is to make sure you understand the requirements for enabling features and performing tasks.
ProTip: Make sure you understand the requirements for enabling features and performing tasks. The blueprint is an excellent guide as to what you need to know.
The test creators did a great job with making the environment easy to interact with and switch between question and lab. One thing they did very POORLY on is being able to quickly go back to a previous question. Please keep in mind that once you get to the end they give you a big heads up that you’re on the last question but going back towards the beginning is a major pain in the ass. In future tests with live lab such as this I would really like to see some type of mechanism to choose which question you’d like to go back to quickly.
ProTip: Many tasks take time. Do NOT sit there and watch and wait. Keep moving forward!
If you’re taking this exam then you’re probably an administrator in some respect and you should be able to multitask. Keep in mind that navigating the questions can be a pain so expect some extra clicking. Do NOT try to fix everything until it is needed. It’s difficult not to do this so be strong.
One of my strategies was to make sure I knew where some things were in the vSphere 4 documentation. Most of this documentation is made available to you in the lab environment so knowing where things are can be a huge benefit if you’re having small difficulties on a task. I had a small issue with a document that I had expected to see but wasn’t there. I should have checked the blueprint more carefully since the documents linked seem to be the ones provided.
ProTip: READ THE BLUEPRINT. READ THE BLUEPRINT. READ THE BLUEPRINT
There are a ton of clues and strategies provided in the blueprint so READ IT!
ProTip: Use the products and perform tasks in the blueprint in a lab environment. Simply reading will NOT give you the stuff you need in order to pass this exam.
That about sums up the experiences and ProTips so here’s a list of resources I used to help prepare that were very helpful. I only had about 30 days to prep for this exam so I was limited on how much material I was able to consume. Building my homelab was a huge help but if you plan to do that give yourself a few weeks to get it built BEFORE starting your official study prep.
- TrainSignalvSphere Troubleshooting Course
- Mastering vSphere by Scott Lowe
- VMware Troubleshooting course student materials
- ProfessionalVMware.com Brownbags
- http://www.seancrookston.com/vcap-dca/
I will be making posts about building my homelab and a review of some of the resources I used. I hope the information I provided here was helpful. I’m always willing to try to answer questions that will not violate NDA so feel free to ping me at josh.c.atwell at gmail or twitter at Josh_Atwell.
