I just passed the VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4 (VCP-410) today! And now i just thought i would share with you the studying methods and steps i used to accomplish this.
- Installed a lab environment at home. So that i could evaluate, test and get ”hands-on” experience on vSphere. (2x ESXi hosts + freenas for shared storage) This is by far the absolute best way to learn about vSphere and get experience and knowledge about this great product.
- Watched TrainSignals ”VMware vSphere Training” DVD video (http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Training-P76.aspx). Great video by David Davis. Thanks man!
- Read and memorized the ”vSphere documentation notes” (http://www.vreference.com/downloads/vsphere4-notes1.0.pdf) and the ”vSphere reference card” (http://www.vreference.com/downloads/vReference-vSphere4card1.0.pdf) from vreference.com. Many thanks to Forbes Guthrie for his excellent work on these pdfs.
- Read the ”VCP on vSphere4 Exam Blueprint” from VMware to define what i had to learn to pass the exam. All questions, reflections and obscurity’s that i had on the content of the blueprint i looked up and read about in the main documentation set for vSphere. You can download this in pdf format or you can (as i did) search it in the online version found here http://pubs.vmware.com/vsp40_i/ . This is the definitive resource and answers all your questions.
- And as a last step i took as many of the online practice exams i found on the internet including the official VCP-410 Mock exam found on mylearn.vmware.com. Here are some other links to online practice exams on vSphere i found.
- http://www.simonlong.co.uk/blog/vcp-vsphere-4-practice-exam/ // Great resource. Thank’s a lot Simon Long for this!!
These were the main steps i took before i decided that i was ready to take the exam. Of course all the practical experience i have gotten in my everyday work with customers that use vSphere has really helped me a lot. I really hope that these step can help you preparing and getting all the knowledge needed to pass the exam.
Good Luck all you vSphere fans and happy studying!!
Regards,
Andreas