I took the VCAP-DCA exam earlier this week in London. I live in Copenhagen so I had to travel there. When I booked my test there were no test centres in Denmark. Now there is, but I had already booked the flight and hotel so it was too late to change it.
I had booked my exam for Tuesday November 9th at 11.00am – I arrived early and after signing in, showing two different signed ID’s and getting my picture taken I was ready for the test. The test started with a survey where you rate yourself in respect to different vSphere topics. Scripting, storage, designing etc. After the survey the test started. I got a total of 34 live labs and I had 4 hours to do them all. English is not my native language so I got 30 minutes more than you US and UK guys. I was happy about that, that meant more time to solve the labs.
All of the live labs is done in the same enviroment, so don’t mess anything up. Some labs required you to have solved an earlier lab. My strategy for the exam was to solve all of the labs I knew to do quick and save the the ones I was not too sure about till the end. Time management is essential especially if you have 30 minutes less than me! When I got to the last lab and completed it, I had about 15 minutes left to go back to the labs, I had ether completely skipped or only half solved. I managed to solve 2 or 3 labs during that time. I had written down the labs I had not done / or completed during my first run. So I was able to quickly go back to them. It is not possible to mark a question as incomplete for later review so do it on paper. If you don’t do this you will have a hard time remembering what to go back to.
After the test I walked out of the room with a good feeling. I had solved a lot of labs but not all of them. I just hope it was enough. Hopefully I willfind out next week.
If you are doing the exam and want some tips here they are:
- Get a Lab enviroment, install and configure everything listed in the exam blueprints. You will need both ESX and ESXi servers.
- Work with the GUI and command line. If the VMA (vSphere Management Assistant) is new to you it is time to get used to it.
- KNOW YOUR DOCUMENTATION – during the exam you have access to most vSphere Product Documentation. Know in whatdocuments to find the information you need to solve the labs.
I hope I did enough to pass the test. If not the test revealed my weak points and I know what to improve. To anyone doing the test. Good luck! 🙂
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