A couple of weeks before VMworld 2012 I built a portable VCAP5-DCA replica on my Lenovo W510 laptop that included all of the major components of the DCA environment. It matched the IP scheme, naming convention, password pattern, available utilities and documentation available on the DCA. The one component it didn’t have was the initial “blank desktop” you log in to during the DCA with the floating toolbar.
Note that while Test Track doesn’t have FCP storage available like the real exam, it still features a scenario on FCP. It also has multipath iSCSI and NFS plus 3 separate networks just like the real exam.
I then wrote sixteen scenarios for it (actually fifteen, plus a “vExpert only” scenario I wrote on the flight out there) that were “in the spirit of” the scenarios on the real exam. The scenarios were intended to give prospective candidates some “hands-on” time with the exam.
Note that the real exam items are repeatedly peer-reviewed and are written for the DCA blueprint. The Test Track scenarios have only 4 topics: Storage, Networking, Virtual Machines and Misc. Mine also tend to be “trickier” than the real ones.
TT has been run at US and EU VMworlds, and a bunch of VMUG conferences in the US. I also occasionally open it up via RDP for remote access (hit me up on Twitter if you are working towards VCAP5-DCA and want to try it out). I also just worked out a user-initiated reset script which should come in handy. While the original 16 scenarios were intended to be completely independent I have them grouped into sets of 4 which seems to work well.
The lab runs fine on my i7 Extreme w510 with 16GB RAM and an SSD – in fact I ran it off the second 7200RPM WD Black drive initially. The SSD/7200 performance difference was hardly noticeable other than the lab booting ~90 seconds faster with the SSD. I did make a secondary startup script that stops all non-essential services as it just barely fits in the 16GB of RAM.
Test Track lab layout running under Workstation 9 on Win7:
VC 1CPU, 4GB, Win2k3 vCenter 5.0
vCenter, Autodeploy, Syslog, SQL Express
SC02 and SC03 (ESXi 5.0) 2CPU, 3GB
DC 1CPU, 3GB (Win2k8 R2)
AD, DNS, DHCP, NTP, iSCSI target, NFS, scripts to populate observed network
for RDP access to test track, this serves as the initial desktop
VMA 1CPU, 600MB
VUM 1CPU, 2GB, Win2k3, vCenter Update Manager 5.0
With any luck I’ll have a DTA and CIA version out in the near future, tho probably not with 16 scenarios each. A user-initiated scoring function is on the drawing board, we’ll see if I have time to implement it. I do also have new hardware in the form of an Alienware 18″ laptop – however that is really proven to be a terrible system with all kinds of problems and mediocre performance.
Previous posts about Test Track:
Building a VCAP live exam lab environment
vSphere scripting : wait for vCenter
Automating your vSphere Demo environment with a vmrun batch file
Joshua, I absolutely commend you for all your hard work with the lab discussions.
It’s fantastic to see someone giving back!
Thank you
Well, it is kind of my job even if it’s not actually in the job description 😉
Hah, true..so true..
Hi Josh,
I did attend one of the test track exams in your lab during the 2012 vmworld in SFO and won a price. It was a nice experience and you deserve a big salute for your efforts.
Still looking forward to my real VCAP test.
Regards
Manoj
No time like the present! Let me know via twitter if you want to RDP in and run some more scenarios.
Hello Josh I am Preparing for The VCAP-DCA550 , have only 20 Days to prepare is it sufficient ? have some experience with vmware products
If you are an experienced, senior-level vSphere Admin with day-to-day exposure to the topics listed in the blueprint, 30-days should be fine.
Hey Josh, I took my DCA5 at PEX this year, Probably the best thing i did to prepare (since i didnt really study) was take your test tracks at VMworld. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to CIA and DTA
Glad you liked it, I’ll post here when DTA is ready (I haven’t started yet!). I might put out a “call for papers” to help come up with scenarios.
Josh; how does your lab layout look compared to the new VCAP-DCA on 5.5? I am looking at building a lab to use and wondering what to build out to prepare. I see you are using w2k3 for vc and vum do you know if that is still the case? I was planning 2 hosts/dc/vc/vum/freenas.
Pingback: My VCAP-DCA (VDCA550) Experience | craigwaters.org
Pingback: Best VCAP Study Aid is another person’s time & effort | Nealo's Blog
Pingback: VCAP-DCA: Will I ever get it done...
Pingback: My VCAP5-DCA Experience | vRyan.co.uk - Technical Blog
Josh, where can you get hold of the Scenarios?
The scenarios are not available outside of Test Track.