Hi everyone! On September 4th I took the VCAP-DCV Deploy 2022 exam and passed it so this post will be focused on my experience of taking it remotely through Pearson Vue platform.
Long time ago, I wrote a post about preparing for a VMware exam https://fcardarelli.com/2021/01/02/how-to-prepare-a-vmware-exam/ and a couple of things have changed since January 2021 related to deploy exams.
First and foremost, by the time I wrote that post, deploy exams were not allowed to be taken remotely but now they are. The process of scheduling it is exactly the same as for any other exam so nothing change on that side.
To give more detail to the ones that don’t know how a VCAP Deploy exam is, you are given some questions (the amount depend on the exam) with multiples tasks to do (e.g.: create a cluster and then configure HA, DRS, DRS rules, syslog, etc.). The type of questions will be related to the blueprint of the exam (read the post mentioned earlier to understand where to get the blueprints). The environment you are given is exactly as a HOL Labs experience (when taking it on site) with the difference that is exam is embedded into the Pearson Vue app (when taking it remotely). On each sides you will have a console and a manual tab that can be pined or floating to allow resizing. You are allowed to have 1 screen only so having a higher resolution would be you best ally for this type of exams.
Regarding the exam itself, the overall experience was really good. I was using QHD resolution and the exam environment adapted automatically to my resolution (Note: don’t know if this is always done automatically as I only took this exam remotely by the time of writing). This was extremely important during the exam because there was no need to spend time adjusting the browser zoom.
Some recommendations about the exam:
- Pay attention to the instructions given, if it says not to reboot the host, DO NOT REBOOT IT. Read the complete instructions first and then go into what you are being requested.
- Don’t wait for tasks to end if it’s going to take long, for example: rebooting a virtual machine, send the reboot action and come back later.
- If you have some buttons on the either side and they are hidden because of the manual and/or consoles panel, pin it to the other side and keep going with the exam. Don’t lose time trying to zoom in/out the browser to make that button appear, it might never happen if it to close to the edge of the screen.
- If you don’t know how to do a question, skip it and come back later when finished with the ones that you know, time management is very important.
- Use notepad to make some notes about tasks that you have to finish yet if your memory is not good enough.
- Avoid using the console tab unless you are sure that you need them, it takes time to change between them and you might lose some valuable time there, especially if you are doubting which one you need and clicking between multiple of them. Try to access that resource through the network first and if you can’t then go to the console tab.
- Be confident on how to use VMware documentation and KB’s, some resources are being given to you to help but you should know where to look for the steps.
They exam environment had some struggling parts too. When I started to use keyboard shortcuts my right click “got stuck”, not physically, but digitally. I was not able to click between tabs or access any other shortcut on the desktop or taskbar. What saved me was to know a couple more keyboard shortcuts to bypass that click restriction in some areas, using ALT+TAB to reach the desktop and then hit the first character of the shortcut that I was trying to access (e.g.: putty), so my recommendation is to be confident with this too before taking the exam. I temporary fixed it going back and forth between consoles, but it got stuck again later on.
Going into the results, they are not shown automatically like any other exam (VCP or VCAP Design). It takes between 24-48 hours to arrive. Mine took less than 24 hours, including the VMware certification and badges (VCAP and VCIX) so great timing.
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