Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

vcdx

Upcoming two weeks…

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I will be really busy the upcoming two weeks so I don’t know if and when I will be blogging. Tomorrow I will be flying to San Francisco. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I will be in VMware HQ – Palo Alto. Some of you reading this probably know why, VCDX Defense Panels. So if you’re scheduled for this week maybe we will run into each other. Of course the week after I’ve got VMworld on my schedule, two “Ask the experts sessions”, booth duty and the VMworld Run the Golden Gate Bridge event.

For those who don’t know me, it’s probably time to reveal my “secret identity”. Although my avatar might have gotten you confused I really don’t look like  “yellow bricks”, or at least I hope I don’t. If you see me walking around don’t forget to say hi! Or come over to the Community / Bloggers booth as that will most likely be my home base during VMworld.

Congrats to those that passed the Design Exam

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Finally, the results have been emailed today. Congrats to all of you who passed the exam! (And those who didn’t, I’m sure you will next time now you know what to expect.) I know at least a couple of you bloggers passed: Heino(Virtual troll) and Rick Scherer(VMware Tips). Of course there are some more names floating around on twitter.

Again congrats and I will see you guys during one of the “defense” sessions, have fun and good luck on your preparations.

VCDX Enterprise Exam prep material

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Lately I’ve been receiving so many emails/dm’s/pm’s about how to prepare for the Enterprise Exam(VCDX) that I decided to actually write an article as I did not have one yet.

As a start I would like to recommend the Deploy, Secure and Analyze course. The course covers 99% of the exam. If you don’t have the budget you could also use the following material to prepare:

Besides these links my tip would be: Just do it!

ps: if someone has additional docs/links they would like to have added, leave a comment and I will add them to the list.

Want to become a VCDX before the end of year?

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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.

VCDX Enterprise Administration and Design Exams available at VMworld 2009!

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Jon Hall posted this info on the VMTN Communities which I wanted to share with you guys.

VMware will be providing onsite testing services at VMworld 2009. A great deal is available on the VCP exam (see my post at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/222191?tstart=0 ), but more importantly, the VCDX Enterprise Administration and Design Exams will be offered! You must be pre-authorized to take these exams, so if you are already in process to take the Enterprise Administration Exam, contact certification@vmware.com to inquire about the availability of the exam at VMworld. You can register at Pearson VUE for the Design Exam, but again you must already be in process and have authorization from VMware to take the exam. The link for registering with Pearson for the Design Exam is http://pearsonvue.com/vmware/vmworld/ . For the Enterprise Administration Exam only, you must contact us directly.

For those who want to do the Enterprise Exam check the mock exam that has also has just been released: Enterprise Administration Mock Exam.

Dave Convery also posted about discounts for these exams, which might be a nice incentive to get you guys studying!