Yesterday I posted an article that the required exams for the VCDX certification would be available at VMworld at discounted prices. Today Rick broke the news that VCDX Defense panels are also scheduled for VMworld.
This reminded me that I still haven’t heard from VMware on the results of my VCDX Design Exam beta. I was really hoping that I would receive my passing grade (hopeful huh?) and schedule the defense during VMworld.
Well, I called Tina (she’s so famous now!) at VMware and chatted about this. She sounded hopeful that the results would be sent out by end of business tomorrow (Friday 7/24). She also informed me that in addition to VCP and VCDX exams being available at VMworld, that VMware will also be scheduling VCDX Defense sessions during the week. Great news!
I didn’t know we were allowed to talk about it but now that the word is out… Like Rick said, design exam results will be sent really soon. VCDX Defense Panels will be scheduled before and directly after VMworld, not during as far as I know. Those who passed the exam better start preparing, good luck and maybe we will meet at one of the sessions as I will be part of the panel. For the European candidates who are not attending VMworld, panels will also be scheduled in Europe. Dates and location are still to be confirmed though.
I’d love to be a VCDX before the end of the year, but it’s kind of hard when VMware won’t let you schedule the exam!
I keep hearing that candidates should be ‘preparing’ for the Defense portion. What does that *mean* ?? There is such an information vacuum surrounding this certification that I am certain all non-VMware-employee candidates are tearing their hair out.
Come up with a defensible design? I think most of us on the consulting side can do that in our sleep. Anyone care to comment on what we should be ‘preparing’?
It would be good to get ahead of this in the event that any of us are lucky enough to be selected to go through the process at VMworld! 🙂
I wrote an article that outline what the defense will be about: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2009/06/16/vcdx-defense-the-blog-article/
Besides that you will need to submit a design that meets the requirements, you will need to fill out the applications (a lot of work!), you will need to prepare an executive overview and you would need to know the “why, when, what, how” of all the decisions you made. This is something that requires preparation in my opinion.
After reading my previous post, I wanted to clarify. I don’t mean to trivialize the design process AT ALL. Coming up with a ‘design’ isn’t generally a problem, but a COMPLETE design for a large implementation can be a lengthy process once all of the variables are taken into account. Currently, I don’t know that many of us understand what needs to be part of the VCDX Defense ‘design’, so we don’t know what is expected or what depth of work or time commitment is required.
I totally agree that this requires preparation. If you can answer any questions about the ‘fill out an application’ and ‘submit a design’ portions, that would be great.
Is this an already implemented design or an ideal design? Essentially, is there a scenario we should be designing against, or is this free-form? If there is a ‘design workshop’ portion of the evaluation, I would normally put this at the front of the process to understand requirements that drive the design, rather than something following the overview and defense.
As far as the application portion, is this a something we can get started on ahead of time?
The design can either be an implemented design or a fictional design which could be ideal in your situation. On the other hand I would try to keep it realistic as this would make it easier to fill out the applications. If you passed the Design Exam you will receive all requirements / details for the defense part. I don’t think I can really go in to details so gar….
I completed the Enterprise Exam in Cannes and I still haven’t got an invite for the design part.. so I strongly doubt it’s possible to do it this year 🙂
Friday 7/24 has come and gone but still no Design Exam results.
Still no results for those of us that took the design exam beta back in March…