Monday 27 February 2012

vSphere-land top bloggers - thanks!

Eric Siebert over at vSphere-land runs a poll on a regular basis for the top virtualization blogs, so you are reading what is unofficially the 64th best virtualization blog in the world!

It's always an honour to get praise such as that for the work that gets put in writing and maintaining the work done for the VMware community, I've been a vExpert for the last 2 years, and it's things like these that make it all worthwhile!

For the first time Eric also had specialist votes in certain categories, so here's the full placings for my blog:

64th in the Top Virtualization Blogs overall

4th in the Favourite News/Information Website category

17th in the Favourite Independent Blogger category

Here's the full results:
http://vsphere-land.com/news/top-blog-2012-results.html

I'd like to say a huge THANKS to all those who took the time to vote for my blog!

Monday 20 February 2012

VCAP5-DCD - now in beta!

A week or so ago VMware emailed all the current VCAP4-DCD holders inviting them to book their beta version of the VCAP5-DCD exam - this is the first sign of any of the advanced-level certifications for vSphere 5.

The invitation email also included the beta version of the exam blueprint, unless VMware change things drastically between the beta and final versions of the exam it looks as though the format, scoring and objectives remain the same as they were for VCAP4-DCD - although the exam content will have been updated for vSphere 5 of course!

The beta period runs for the next couple of weeks, it's normally then a 4-6 week period til the final version of the exam becomes available. There's no news as yet to report about VCAP5-DCA before anyone asks!

As and when I find them, I'll add links below with the experiences of those who take the exam:

Mike Brown
Jason Boche
Dave Convery
Tom Fojta

New email address

I've finally got round to doing something I should have done when I first created this blog - I have a new email account dedicated to my activities around VMware training and certification:

vmtraining.blog@gmail.com

I'm using this email address from this point forward as my primary address for this blog, and for my Twitter account, I've also updated the link in the "Contact Me" section to the top-right of all my blog pages.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

VMware View certifications

This page has links to the posts on this blog that relate to the VMware certifications for Horizon and View.

Horizon with View 6
VCP6-DT

View 5
VCP5-DT

View 4
VCA4-DT
VCP4-DT
VCAP4-DT

New certification: VCP5-DT

VMware have now released the VMware Certified Professional - Desktop certification for vSphere 5 and View 5, shortened to VCP5-DT. The exam is aimed at those who are responsible for deploying, administering, and managing View 5 on top of vSphere 5.

There is no formal training requirement for View 5 to qualify for VCP5-DT, the View 5: Install Configure Manage course will be a big help, but you must hold VCP5 in order to qualify for VCP5-DT certification - and of course VCP5 does have a vSphere 5 training requirement.

So, if you're starting out with VMware certifications your minimum requirements to VCP5-DT look like this:

Attend vSphere 5 training > Pass VCP5 exam > Pass VCP5-DT exam

If you already have your VCP5 certification you will only need to pass the VCP5-DT exam. If you are a VCP3 or VCP4 you will need to gain VCP5 and pass the VCP5-DT exam.

VMware have not shortened the path to VCP5-DT for those that already hold VCP4-DT, and it now looks like there will be no VCA5-DT certification at all - VCP5-DT will be the foundation-level certification for View 5.

As usual, VMware have published a number of resources for the VCP5-DT exam - the exam blueprint, mock exam, confirmation of the various training/exam paths - here's the official VCP5-DT page:
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=28343&ui=www_cert