Posted by Apparently, people like blog articles on exam prep because I have been requested to write this article. I felt the VMConAWS exam was more than fair and straight forward. There aren’t any questions on the exam meant to stump the chump. I would say 6 months VMConAWS hands on experience & you should be more than good.
Background:
I was part of the EA (Early Adopters) program for VMC. I have 12 months hands on experience deploying, managing, and just getting crazy with VMC.
Exam Blueprint:
https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification/vmware-cloud-on-aws-management-exam-2019.html
Useful links to study material:
https://assets.cloud.vmware.com/v3/assets/blt58b49a8a0e43b5ff/bltad0e40fc908bb741/5bc4e2118083cb576f2a8bad/VMware_Cloud_on_AWS_Solution_Brief_Final.pdf
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-on-aws-getting-started.pdf
https://assets.cloud.vmware.com/v3/assets/blt58b49a8a0e43b5ff/blt848b480b2d060379/5bc0fef15fffa02515b920e6/VMware_Cloud_on_AWS_TCO.pdf
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/partners/vmware-cloudtm-on-aws-technical-overview.pdf
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-on-aws-networking-security.pdf
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-operations.pdf
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/vmw-cloud-aws-service-description.pdf
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vmw-deploy-horizon-seven-on-vmware-cloud-on-aws.pdf
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-manage-data-center.pdf
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS/services/vmc-aws-manage-vms.pdf
First attempt: Score 456
Not much of a summary to write here. This exam is straight forward and if you have been working with VMC for at least 6 months and have used it for a couple different use cases then you should fly right through.
Things to focus on:
1. Know your maximums and your minimums. Pretty straight forward as there are not a lot of minimum and maximum host requirements.
2. Stretch clusters are kind of a big deal so you should know why to use them, maximums/minimums, and their limitations.
3. Do you know all the components of AWS and what they do? You should because they would “ALL” be fair game on an exam.
4. Do you know how VMC builds itself and by which practices?
5. AWS CloudFormation – yeah you should probably be able to explain this and understand the benefits.
6. Do you know the difference between the vSAN Datastore and the workloadDatastore?
7. Do you know all the pre-requirements to deploy SDDC?
8. Do you know know how to add hosts or clusters to your VMC?
9. Do you know how to delete or deploy a SDDC?
10. Do you know all your default settings, especially, your security policies?
11. Do you you know all the different pricing models that VMConAWS provides?
12. API’s are kind of important
13. Do you know how deep into the infrastructure you can go? IE can you deploy a new NSX Manager or a vSphere replication appliance?
14. When you create a VM do you know where it’s files are stored?
15. Did you know you can configure NAT rules? If yes, do you know how and all the requirements?
16. Can you name all the ways to contact support and which is the quickest?
17. Do you know what you can do in the vSphere client vs the SDDC Console?
18. Migrations – how many ways can you perform one? Which is the easiest? Which would you use for a bulk migration? What is required to perform every type of migration?
19. Roles and Users – how many are there? What can they do? What can’t they do?
20. AWS account information – you should spend some time in your AWS console
21. HA in VMConAWS – how does it work? What happens if a host fails?
22. Automation is becoming a big deal. How would you deploy vRealize Automation in the cloud and how do you get groovy with it?
23. I have a link to deploying Horizon in VMConAWS in the study material for a good reason
24. DRaaS – not only does it work and not only did it help my career but I am certain you might want to study this
25. Hybrid link mode – why use it? Is it needed? How would you set it up?
Summary:
I hope y’all found this article useful in preparing for the exam. I think VMC is a great solution and as more people adopt VMConAWS this cert will be very valuable to anyone’s resume. Until then, good luck.