After passing my VCP 6 DCV in early September and recently attending the VMware vSphere Design and Deploy course, I’ve decided to study towards the VCAP 6 DCV Deployment certification.

I’m planning to take the exam in mid January 2017, so that gives me just under three months or around 11 weeks to study the 8 sections that the exam covers. Those sections are as follows;

1. Section 1 – Create and Deploy vSphere 6.x Infrastructure Components (4 Objectives)
2. Section 2 – Deploy and Manage a vSphere 6.x Storage Infrastructure (3 Objectives)
3. Section 3 – Deploy and Manage a vSphere 6.x Network Infrastructure (4 Objectives)
4. Section 4 – Configure a vSphere Deployment for Availability and Scalability (3 Objectives)
5. Section 5 – Configure a vSphere Deployment for Manageability (4 Objectives)
6. Section 6 – Configure a vSphere Deployment for Performance (2 Objectives)
7. Section 7 – Configure a vSphere 6.x Environment for Recoverability (3 Objectives)
8. Section 8 – Configure a vSphere 6.x Environment for Security (3 Objectives)

Reference; Exam Topics by VMware (https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=88753&ui=www_cert)

My plan is to study 1 Section a week, using the following resources;

• The Tools listed under Exam Topics > Section > Objective at https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=88753&ui=www_cert
• My ‘home’ lab (My employer allows me to run this hosted at my workplace, so its not technically a ‘home’ lab)
• VMware Hands on Labs
• Materials from the Design and Deploy training course
• Mastering VMware vSphere 6 by Nick Marshall
• Essential Virtual SAN by Cormac Hogan and Duncan Epping
• vSphere 6.0 U2 HA Deepdive by Duncan Epping
• Additional resources where relevant for each Objective

Hands on labs will be particularly useful as the Deploy exam uses the HOL engine for the actual examination. Getting familiar with the HOL interface will be very useful.

The first step is to get my lab up to speed and then kick off Section 1. More on that soon.

Cheers

Chris