VCP 5 Certification Guide from @VMwarePress - Early Review
Being a SafariBooksOnline subscriber was a tough choice for me initially even though it was part of my desire to go all digital as I describe in a previous post. My primary hesitation was whether or not I’d actually use it enough to justify the cost. Well, I’m several months in and I’d say that I definitely got my money’s worth so far just in the amount of resources that were readily available to me on my iPad and PC while preparing for the VCAPs and now the VCP5.
One key book for me was access to Scott Lowe’s Mastering vSphere 5 book. I’ll be purchasing this one with tokens once it is released to do so but in the mean time it’s been another example of Scott’s excellent work. While perusing for new releases I happened by one that I had never expected: VMware Press’s rough cut for The Official VCP 5 Certification Guide by Bill Ferguson. This is the first book that I can think of that is officially sanctioned by VMware as a certification preparation material and I am ALL for it!
I immediately added it to my Virtualization folder and loaded it up on the iPad (my Safari reader of choice). I was instantly engaged when I saw the “Do I Know This Already?” quizzes at the beginning of each section. One of my biggest challenges in exam prep is studying. In the past I have almost solely relied on sheer experience (which has served me well) but the VCP5 involves a ton of tech new to me. The question seem to resemble what I would expect from the actual course (though perhaps easier). After jotting down my answers for the first section imagine my surprise when I didn’t find any answers!!!!! Now how do I know if I need to read this section!?!
No worries, this is a rough cut so I’m not going to be upset about this at all. I’m sure Appendix A will show up eventually! :) I will be politely requesting from VMware Press to release Appendix A answers for the chapters provided in the Rough Cut.
Content
The book in many ways feels much like most study aids I’ve seen except much easier to read and follow. Also it feels much more personal, including part about exposed “license key” in one of the sections being WAY expired. :) As I’ve continued reading I’ve found a variety of useful tidbits that have filled in small gaps in my knowledge of vSphere 5 as well as provide something I expect will show up on the exam.
There were several times while reading that I felt the content jumped around. At first this bothered be a fair bit until the author makes note that he is more or less following the blueprint provided by VMware for the certification exam. Once that was mentioned I found the shifts a little less disruptive since my expectation had changed, but not ideal as a cover to cover read. I wouldn’t suggest making any changes to this format however because I think the real value here is that you can quickly locate the necessary content for a specific objective on the blueprint without a great deal of effort.
Another facet of this book I really liked were the figures. The images were well chosen in most cases and provide quick glimpse into where to locate information in the vSphere client or elsewhere in the environment. One of my favorite figures was the one illustrating different cloud services. Well done folks!
I’m not going to go deeper on content in this post since this is a Rough Cut and I want to show true deference to the author and publisher in their efforts. I can see that this book is going to be an excellent resource for those preparing for the VCP5. Now if only it were done before next week when I take mine!
