Preparing for the VMware Certified Professional Exam

The VMware Certified Professional Exam (VCP)  is one of the hottest and also one of the hardest certifications to get in the IT industry today.  I'm always impressed when I see that 80% of the students in my classes are looking at VCP certification.  I am always being asked how to prepare for the VCP certification, so I thought I'd share some perspective.

Ways to Study
It's important you put together a good game plan for studying the test.  The key is to find a method that works for you.

• A source that I really like is to use Flashcards Deluxe and www.quizlet.com.

• Flashcards Deluxe - an app you can download on your iPhone, Blackberry, etc.  You can download flash cards from different sites directly into the app.  You can also build your own study cards that you can download into the app.  Download prebuilt flashcards on vSphere from Quizlet.
• www.quizlet.com  - a great source for flash cards.  There are a number of prebuilt flash cards for studying vSphere 4, like the Configuration Maximums Guide.

• There are products like Garage Band on Mac and lots of free software for audio recording.  A number of candidates have found success by using their audio recordings while driving to work, being on the bus/train or riding a stationary bike or elliptical.

Things you need to study

• Configuration Maximums Guide:  You need to understand limits.
• VMware ICM 4.1 Class: Unless you are getting a lot of hands on work and mentoring in your job, you've got to take the VMware ICM 4.1 class.  There is just to much topic matter to learn on your own.
• Additional Books: Mastering VMware vSphere 4, VCP VMware Certified Professional Study Guide , Maximum vSphere and the Sybex VCP Study Guide are excellent complements to the VMware courseware.  There are other excellent books out there, go through them and find the one that is right for you.   I am not trying to recommend or not recommend any books.
• Hands on Practice: You've got to find a way to get hands on practice.  You can install the ESXi 4.1 server on a host based system like VMware Fusion (Mac OS) or VMWare Workstation.  You're going to want an extra 4GB of memory but that's more cost effective than buying the hardware to create a test environment.
• VMware Documentation: You need to use the VMware documentation as reference materials.

Here is the URL you need to use to find the main documentation set to get you started:

• http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx41_vc41.html 
• This documentation set has some key guides you need to be looking at:   Introduction to VMware vSphere, Getting Started with ESX, Virtual Machine Administrator's Guide, Resource Management Guide and ESX Configuration Guide.  

Once you feel you have a solid foundation you can start prepping for the VCP exam.  You absolutely need to follow the Exam Blueprint Guide.  This guide will help you focus on the right areas.

Avoid Common Test-Taking Mistakes
Don't make common test-taking mistakes on the exam.  Candidates typically miss 5 - 10 questions on the test due to not reading the questions carefully.  First of all, read the question carefully.  Then do the following before selecting an answer(s). 

• Make sure you understand what type of question it is and what the question is looking for.
• Check to see if the question is looking for two, three or multiple answers.
• Read all the answers before making your selection.
• Eliminate all obvious wrong answers.
• Are there words like "all that apply" or "all that do not apply" or "All of the above" or "None of the Above".  Don't let the way the question is written lead you astray.

Pearson VUE
When you are ready to take the test, the VMware Certified Professional exam is administered by Pearson VUE.  Pearson VUE has over 3500 authorized testing centers worldwide.  To register visit www.pearsonvue.com/vmware and select the VCP4 Certification Exam. The exam code is VCP410.

Good luck!  :)

Some Good Blogs on Virtualization

The emphasis on Cloud Computing is increasing significantly.   Since it also has tremendous growth in the market, you are seeing the top vendors putting a lot attention on this space.  Virtualization plays a key role in Cloud Computing so  I wanted to share some articles on Cloud Computing and Virtualization.  I will add to this list over time.


VMware Networking Blog

• vmware.com/go/networking

VMware Blogs

• http://blogs.vmware.com/

Cloud Computing Markets Projected to Reach $17 Billion by 2016

• http://tinyurl/254zeuy

Why Microsoft Still Hyper V-entilates at VSphere 4's Competition

• http://tinyurl.com/2fzz489

The Top 10 Cloud Computing Trends

• http://tinyurl/mtk2k9

The Top 150 Players in Cloud Computing

• http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/770174

World's 30 Most Influential Cloud Computing Bloggers

• http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1192832

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is the abstraction of a resource from its physical environment.  There are different types of virtualization including:  hardware, operating system, network, storage, application server, management and services.

For most users they see virtualization through a virtual machine (VM).  A VM is a software environment that runs an operating system and applications while abstracting the surrounding hardware, networking, storage, etc.  When an operating system runs in a virtual machine, it is not even aware that it running in virtual environment.  For example:

• You can't take the C:\ drive from a Dell system and copy it to an IBM system and get it to work.  There are tons of compatibility issues with hardware, drivers, etc.  Yet if you are working with VMware virtualization and you loaded VMware's ESXi (hypervisor - bare metal) on a Dell system, then you are using VMware drivers, VM SCSI definitions, etc.  You can very easily move the Virtual Machine to different hardware, because the Virtual Machine (its operating system and applications) keeps hardware transparent to the operating system.  You could use VMotion to move the guest OS to different hardware with no downtime.  Virtualization solutions like VMware "take hardware out of the equation".

The x86 architecture runs different levels of authorization.  Operating systems have traditionally run in level 0 (to get access to hardware) and applications usually run in level 3.   With virtual machines, they run in level 0 so they can manage access to hardware.  Full virtualization uses binary translation and direct executing techniques for performance. The VM supports direct execution of the processors for performance.    This fully abstracts the OS from the hardware.  Allowing the guest operating system to be decoupled from the hardware provides tremendous portability and flexibility.

VMs are servers and desktops that work like physical servers and desktops except they run in a  software environment instead of a hardware environment.  This abstraction layer is very thin and very high performing.  VMs can have:

• CPU, memory, hard disks, NICs, parallel/serial ports, SCSI controllers, USB controllers and a video card.

Most of the IT industry does not realize the blazing speed of these VM environments and the tremendous advantages they bring to IT environments and cloud computing infrastructures.

What is Cloud Computing?

Introduction to Cloud Computing

The cloud is a networked environment (Intranet/Internet) that provides services (endpoints) and resources to consumers.  Users don't care what makes up the cloud, they just care that they can access their services and resources.  The cloud abstracts  all the hardware, OSs, networking, storage and computing power inside of the cloud.  A public cloud's resources are accessed over the Internet.  A private cloud's resources are accessed through an Intranet.    Software as a Service (SAAS) provides access to services and resources inside of the cloud.  SAAS is where middleware and Java play a key role in the cloud.  Utility computing is when someone starts paying for the access to the resources and services in the cloud.

Virtualization is the engine that drives Cloud Computing

The cloud requires the aggregation of  resources to achieve high levels of scalability.  Successful management of the cloud's resources requires the ability to abstract the computing resources in the cloud infrastructure.   Behind all the abstraction, someone needs to be able to make large grids of computers, networks, storage, etc all work together to provide the cloud services and resources.  This is where virtualization comes into play.  Virtualization is a key component to make the cloud work.  Key benefits of virtualization include:

• Significantly reducing Infrastructure Management costs.
• Flexibility to quickly deploy new virtual machines, computing resources, networking infrastructure and storage.
• Agility to manage the cloud resources easily.
• Maintaining access to cloud resources with High Availability, Fault Tolerance, Load Balancing, Disaster/Recovery.
• Providing proper levels of security and compliance for the cloud environment.

Gartner predicts there will be a larger investment in private cloud (company, enterprise level) than public cloud (Internet level) solutions.   Industry analysts are predicting that by 2016 the Cloud Computing industry will be spending 16 - 20 billion dollars a year.  Cloud Computing and Virtualization are the fastest growing segments of the IT industry.  This is why you see big companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, etc.  all looking at making a major investment in Virtualization technologies and products.  Right now VMware has a large advantage over everyone.  Right now VMware is a key leader in this space and has a very clear vision of the cloud and what it takes to deliver cloud infrastructures successfully.  I'd definitely recommend reading some of the white papers on their website.