VMware/VCP550D
VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam
Delta Exam - New VCP-DCV Exam - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=51919&ui=www_cert
The exam is offered to current VCP5-DCVs who need to renew their VCP5-DCV credential. The exam will be available through May 8, 2015 and offers some key advantages:
- Based on new material between the vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams – you save hours of prep time
- Available online – you can take it from any location
- Far less expensive – you save money
Download the Exam Blueprint - https://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCP_Blueprints/VCP-DCV-VCP550D-Exam-Blueprint-v1_3.pdf
Request Authorization - http://mylearn.vmware.com/quiz.cfm?item=60020
Ready to register? Click Associate and Professional Level Exams on http://pearsonvue.com/vmware/exams/ and select exam VCP550D.
Take advantage of the FREE 1-hr online course VMware vSphere: What’s New Fundamentals of V5.5 to help you prepare for the exam. - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=one&id_subject=51301
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VCP550D Online Test-VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam - VMware Exams Test Base - http://www.vca-vcp.com/vcp550d-online-test-vmware-certified-professional-5-data-center-virtualization-delta-exam/
todo:
http://www.vmwarerecertification.com/
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=40280&ui=www_cert
http://landing.vmwarecertificationmarketplace.com/VCP_Prep_Bundles
VCP550D Delta Exam
VCP550D - VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam
The exam will only be offered until May 8, 2015 [1]
You want to upgrade your VCP510-DCV to VCP550? Pass the Delta Recertification Exam VCP550D - www.running-system.com [2]
- Based only on new material between vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams
- You take the exam online from any location – no need to go to a Pearson VUE testing center
- costs about 120 US-Dollar
- The exam consists of 65 questions and 8 pre-exam survey questions – you have to reach a passing score of 300.
- Time limit is 75 minutes
Ready? [3]
- read what VMware writes about the VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam
- then download the Exam Blueprint (pdf file)
- invest one hour in the Free online course to prepare for the exam: What’s new fundamentals of V5.5
- ready to pass the Exam? Here you can request authorization
- and here you can register: PearsonVUE.com -> select exam VCP550D
Topics cover: VSAN, vCOPs, HA, DRS, FT, Storage and Networking (primarily dvSwitch specifics), SRM, vSphere Replication [4]
Certification - (VCP5-DCV) VCP-Data Center Virtualization - http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - ESXi 5.5 - vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-virtual-machine-admin-guide.pdf - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-virtual-machine-admin-guide.pdf
What’s New in the VMware vSphere 6.0 Platform - VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf
vReference - http://www.vreference.com/
VCP550D Online Test-VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam - VMware Exams Test Base - http://www.vca-vcp.com/vcp550d-online-test-vmware-certified-professional-5-data-center-virtualization-delta-exam/
Recertification Policy and FAQ - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=46667&ui=www_cert
- The new policy gives you four options to recertify:
- Take the current exam for your existing VCP certification solution track. For example, if you are a VCP3, you could take the current VCP5-Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) exam.
- Earn a new VCP certification in a different solution track. For example, if you are a VCP-Cloud, you could recertify by earning VCP5-Desktop (VCP5-DT) certification.
- Advance to the next level by earning a VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification. For example, if you are a VCP5-DCV you could earn VCAP5-DCA certification.
- Renew your current VCP5 DCV by completing a limited-time, streamlined delta exam. The exam is based only on the delta (new) material between the vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams.
VMware Certification - retake policy - http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/faqs.cfm?ui=www#4871 [5]
- "There is a 7 calendar day period between exam attempts for unsuccessful candidates. If a candidate passes the exam, they cannot take the exam again until a new major revision of the product and certification is released"
Passed VCP 5 Delta Test | vmexplorer - http://vmexplorer.com/2014/11/21/passed-vcp-5-delta-test/
- Test was 65 Questions and you have 75 Minutes to complete it, I had about 15 Mins left.
- I passed my VCP5 in January of 2012 and I don’t believe there was one repeat question from that test
- I didn’t get any min max questions
- Lot of Virtual SAN Questions
- Know your licensing Models and what features belong to what
- Don’t skip studying around vDP or vSphere Replication
- Really know vRealize Operations (aka vCOPS) badges and how they are calculated (I got at least 3 questions on this)
- The questions seem to be longer in length and more multiple choice / select all correct << Not my favorite type
- I would say I passed for two reasons
- It was open book, how nice was that! So have your best documents and guides ready
- I followed the blue print, read my documents, and made sure I read every ‘Note’ section
VMware KB: Product offerings for vSphere 5.x - http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001113
VMware delta exam VCP550D... Passed! - Mike Tabor - https://miketabor.com/vmware-delta-exam-vcp550d-passed/
- "Overall it felt a lot like taking the VMware VCP-DCV exam all over again, though just a few less questions and shorter time frame to complete as the Delta Exam is 65 questions in 75 minutes vs 85 questions in 90 minutes. "
VCP550-D-DCV - Taken and passed. : vmware - http://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/2ivd5u/vcp550ddcv_taken_and_passed/
- VCOP's badges - what they represent
- VSAN - what happens when you enable and disable it
- Port Blocking
- HA constraints
- Data protection
- Replication
VMware Certification FAQ - http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/?menu=faq
VCP550D Class: VMware vSphere: What’s New Fundamentals [V5.5]
New feature topics:
- vSphere Platform
- vCenter Server
- vSphere Network
- vSphere Storage
New features are centered around:
- Scalability
- Performance
- Availability
--- vSphere New Features ---
Increased Configuration Maximums:
- 320 physical CPU (double core capacity)
- 4TB memory
- 16 NUMA Nodes (from 8)
- 4096 vCPUs
- per ESXi host
vSphere 5.1 | vSphere 5.5 160 pCPU 320 pCPU 2TB memory 4TB memory 8 NUMA nodes 16 NUMA nodes 2048 vCPUs 4096 vCPUs
Virtual Machine Compatibility ESXi 5.5 (vHW 10) - Virtual Hardware 10
- LSI SAS support for Solaris 11
- New CPU architectures
- AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) support
- SATA controller that supports both virtual disk & CDROM on controller
- Support 30 devices per controller, up to 4 controllers with total of 120 devices
Support for additional vGPUs support: nVidia, AMD, Intel
Hot-Pluggable SSD PCIe Devices
- Hardware and BIOS must support Hot-Plug PCIe
Support for Reliable Memory
- Reduce memory corruptions (memory corruption = PSOD)
- Uses a hardware feature called "reliable memory"
- Critical Components:
- VMkernel
- UW (User Worlds)
- Init Thread
- Hostd and Watchdog
Previously only P-States (Performance States) were well supported
CPU C-States now used to help
- More eager to enter deeper C-States
Feature Summary:
- Configuration maximum increases (2x from 5.1)
- vHW 10 (LSI SAS, CPU enablement, AHCI controller
- Expanded vGPU and GP-GPU support
- Hot-Plug SSD PCIe Devices
- Support for Reliable Memory
--- vCenter Server Features ---
Improvements:
- Security
- Single sign on
- User Interface
- platform support
- usability experience
- Scalability
- appliance maximums
Appliance
- scalability of embedded database (vPostgres)
- supports up to 100 hosts / 3000 powered on VMs
vSphere Web Client
vSphere App HA
- Reduce application downtime
- Several off-the-shelf applications supported
VM-to-VM Anti-Affinity
- Optimal workload placement
--- vSphere Networking Features ---
New Features:
- Scalability
- 40 Gig NIC support
- Performance
- Enhanced SR-IOV (Single Route - IO Virtualization) for low latency applications
- Availability
- Enhanced LACP
- Operations
- Packet capture tool
- Port security through traffic filtering
- QoS tagging for End to End SLA
vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS)
Packet Classification
- Traffic filtering (ACLs)
- DSCP Marking (QoS)
Troubleshooting
- Host level packet capture tool (tcpdump)
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
- standards based link aggregation method
- automatic negoation of link aggregation properties between virtual and physical switches
- Advantages:
- plug and play
- detects link failures and cabling mistakes and reconfigures links automatically
- provides higher bandwidth and redundancy
Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV)
- standard that allows one PCI express (PCIe) adapter to be presented as multiple separate logical IO devices (virtual functions)
- advantage: offload io processing to adapters and reduce network latency
- disadvantage: vmotion, FT, HA not available when enabled
40 Gig NIC support
- support on Mellanox ConnextX3 VPI adapters
--- vSphere Storage Features ---
New Features:
- Scalability
- support for 62TB VMDK
- Performance
- 16 GB E2E support
- vSphere Flash Read Cache (Enterprise+)
- Availability
- MSCS Supportability enhancements
- vSphere Replication Multiple Points-In-Time
- Storage vMotion & SDRS compatibility
- Expanded Replication Topologies
- Operations
- VAAI UNMAP Enhancements
- VMFS Heap Enhancements
Why 62TB? Is actually 64TB, but overhead from snapshot and VMFS reduce it to 62TB
VMware 5.5 now supports 16Gb E2E (end-to-end) Fibre Channel
Microsoft Cluster Services Enhacements (MSCS)
Permanent Device Loss (PDL)
- occurs on failures or is incorrectly removed from hose
- based on SCSI Sense Codes
- host no longer sends I/O to these devices
- PDL AutoRemove frees up one of 256 device per host limit
UNMAP Improvements:
- VAAI UNMAP / Reclaim command: # esxcli storage vmfs unmap
- creates temp files and uses UNMAP primitive to inform the array that these blocks may be reclaimed.
- enhancements:
- reclaim size can now be in blocks rather than percentage
- dead space can be reclaimed in increments rather than all at once
vSphere Flash Read Cache:
- built in and fully integrated with vSphere
- new flash server based tier
- improve virtual machine performance (for read intensive workloads)
- integrated with vCenter, HA, DRS, vMotion
- scale-out storage capability: 32 nodes
- pooled into a new file system called VFFS