I had many questions around this and was always told I was not allowed to “talk” about the Application Form and the requirements for the VCDX defense. Apparently this has changed as VMware just published it on MyLearn and it is available to anyone with a MyLearn account.
Now, I want to remind everyone that this Application Form is subject to change:
The final step in becoming a VMware Certified Design Expert is the VCDX Defense. In this step you will need to successfully complete an interview, project review, and design defense activity. The VCP3 certification, the VMware Enterprise Administration on VI3 Exam pass, and the VMware Design on VI3 Exam pass are all pre-requisites to theVCDX Application. Applications will not be accepted unless all pre-requsites have been met.
Anyone going through the process will benefit from reading the application form. The questions I had most where what the minimal set of deliverables are. Those can be found in the application form, but for your convenience have been listed below:
- VI Architecture Design. This document provides a complete design for the virtual inf rastructure and dependencies. It provides detailed specifications for all architectural components, as well as the decisions and justifications behind design choices. It includes architectural schematic diagrams (a.k.a Design Blueprints)
- VI Installation and Configuration Guidelines and Procedures. This document provides guidance on how the specified design will be put together. This document i s sometimes referred to as an “assembly and configuration guide.”
- VI Operational Verification. This document provides a test plan t o be used to validate an implementation using the design documents.
- VI Operational Procedures. This document provides steps and guidance on how to use an implemented architecture from an operator’s perspective. This document is sometimes referred to as “standard procedures.”
- Next Steps. This document summarizes design requirements, objectives and issues. It provides recommendations for proceeding with the implementation as a wrap-up to a typical design project.
If you are going through the process, read the application form! Keep in mind that filling it out will take time. Especially the section on Design Decisions where you will need to come up with a consideration, decision, justification and impact in several sections of which for instance Storage, Networking, Cluster Design and VM design.
For those who will be submitting their design: READ! If it say “a minimum of four” stick to that as anything less is a straight reject.
Wow thanks VMware/Duncan! This will be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help for candidates as far as knowing what to expect and preparing ahead of time! Wow is all I can say to this!
Just a head up, in the section Design Deliverable Documentation: you must list the document name which includes the requested specific diagram. It also asks for the page number(s), what we want to know is on which page the specific diagram is shown, NOT how many pages the mentioned document has.
For instance:
Logical Diagram of vCenter, ESX hosts, and HA/DRS clusters and how they are related
Document Name(s) and page number(s): Blueprints.pdf page 1 and page 2
Great post Duncan. This will go a long way in helping those that are looking for “the path” and more importantly, how to find it!
I have said this before: In my experiences with the whole VCDX process, I found the application itself to be the toughest part. Once everything is down on this form, the rest is cake because you can just follow it when you prepare for your defense.
I absolutelly agree with the author, throw would like to got more detailed info with updates about this. Thanks for good article, keep on doing good job. Cheers 🙂
I really liked reading about VCDX Application Form » Yellow Bricks and think it was well worth the read. The only other site I found on AOL wasnt as good as this one, thanks.
I was looking for more information on VCDX Application Form » Yellow Bricks on Yahoo and this page was the first site I saw about it. Thanks for your opinion and now I know where to discover good stuff when I want it