Thursday 31 March 2016

VMware beta exams

For a long time now, VMware have run betas of their certification exams - to have people like you help the exam development process and have items tested and validated prior to a final exam release.

Recent examples are the exams for the various VCAP6/VCIX6 certifications.

Read more about it here - including a list of recent or active betas, with the expected dates for the release of beta results and exam GA.

Simple VMware exam registration - yes please!

VMware and Pearson have done further integration work on their systems, resulting in a simple registration process for all VMware certification exams.

No more "exam authorisation" process, and no more having to maintain multiple Pearson logins for VCA/VCP and for VCAP/VCIX exams - just a single, simple process to follow.

All you have to do now is:

1. Go to the page for the relevant exam via the VMware Certification site
2. Click the "Register Now" link on the respective exam page
3. Login to your VMware myLearn account (there's a "one time only" confirmation page to click through)
4. Schedule and pay for the exam

It's great to finally have such a simple process!

Exam Retirements in June 2016

UPDATE: The exam retirements for VCAP5-DCA, VCAP5-DCD, and VCIX-NV have been suspended - read more here.

VMware have announced the retirement of 4 exams related to the older version 5 certifications:

June 2, 2016
VDCA550 for VCAP5-DCA (retirement suspended)
VCXN610 for VCIX-NV (retirement suspended)

June 24, 2016
VDCD550 for VCAP5-DCD (retirement suspended)
VCPC550 for VCP-Cloud

You won't be able to schedule any of these exams beyond those dates, so if you want to achieve those certifications you should act now!

If you already hold the certifications, or achieve them by the dates above, they won't be taken away from you. (VCP-Cloud falls under the VCP recertification guidelines/timing)

Each of the certifications above now has a newer version equivalent:

VCAP5-DCA > VCAP6-DCV Deploy
VCIX-NV > VCIX6-NV
VCAP5-DCD > VCAP6-DCV Design
VCP-Cloud > VCP6-CMA

The exams for the newer versions are either already available, or they will be before the retirement dates for the older version exams as above.