Introduction
Welcome to the VCP Exam Cram. The purpose of this book is to properly prepare you and equip you with the needed knowledge to successfully sit and pass the VCP-310 exam. Here, we provide a general overview of the VMware certification program and discuss how this Exam Cram book will help you reach your goals of becoming certified.
This book, as with its predecessors in the Exam Cram family of certification books, concentrates on reinforcing your knowledge of the subject matter at hand and preparing you to sit the exam. That being said, this book will not teach you everything there is to know about the technology because this is not its primary purpose. We instead concentrate on the material that is most likely to appear on the test.
Before you dive in head first into the information provided, we recommend you take the self-assessment that immediately follows this introduction. This self-assessment will help you evaluate your knowledge of the VMware material both in the real world and under ideal exam circumstances.
Based on the results of the self-assessment, you may feel that additional education is necessary. Numerous resources are available, including
• Official VMware-authorized training. VMware Infrastructure 3: Install & Configure V3.5 is the ideal course for the VCP exam.
• VMware product documentation and technical white papers are available at http://www.vmware.com.
• VMware VI3: ESX Server 3.5 & VC 2.5 Training DVD by Elias Khnaser goes in depth on the subject matter and is a great way to learn again and again at your own pace. See http://www.eliaskhnaser.com.
• Other books, including Mastering VMware Infrastructure 3 by Chris McCain, are also excellent resources on the subject.
Although reading a book is an excellent way of learning, we strongly recommend that you take the knowledge you acquire from book learning and use it to install and configure VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter. Hands-on experience is imperative not only to your successful completion of the exam, but also to your successful endeavors in properly implementing and maintaining an ESX environment.
About the VMware VCP Program
The VMware VCP program was designed to allow candidates to demonstrate their expertise with the software by completing certain requirements and passing an exam. The program is open to any individuals who complete the requirements. There are many advantages to becoming VCP certified. For some, it will be for career advancement; for others, it will be to become VMware partners, and so on.
The requirements set forth by VMware on becoming a VCP are as follows:
• Attend a VMware authorized course. These instructor-led courses provide a great learning method and hands-on exposure to the product.
• Gain hands-on experience with the product.
• Sit and pass the VCP-310 exam to demonstrate your expertise on the matter.
VMware also provides various documents on its website that help you gain a better understanding of the topics that you will be challenged on during the exam. I would like to single out the VI3 Exam blueprint as a great reference for the exam.
Taking a VMware Certification Exam
As of this writing, VMware Education requires you to attend a VMware-authorized training class to fulfill your eligibility on becoming a VMware Certified Professional (VCP). After you have attended the VMware-authorized class and have completed your preparations for taking the exam, you need to register at a VMware testing center in your area. Currently, all VMware certification exams are administered by Pearson VUE. You can register online at http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware or by calling 1-800-676-2797 in the United States and Canada. Outside the Americas, please consult the Pearson VUE website for contact information in your region of the world.
The VCP-310 exam costs $175 USD and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance. You may reschedule your exam up to 24 hours before the date you intend on taking it. Cancellation may be subject to a fee, so please consult the Pearson VUE website for more details on the policy.
When scheduling the exam, you need to provide personal identification to validate your identity, the name and number of the exam you want to take, and a method of payment. Online registration requires the creation of a personal account with Pearson VUE; this account will track all the exams you have taken, with the result of the exam in the form of a pass/fail. Your account will also be used for all future tests you want to take that are administered by Pearson VUE. On the day of the exam, you must provide appropriate identification to verify your identity. Typically, two forms of identification are required, with one of them being a photo ID.
Plan to arrive at the exam location at least 10 to 15 minutes early so that you can fill out any last-minute forms, be seated, relax, and prepare prior to the start of the exam. All VMware exams are completely closed book. No study aids—or anything else for that matter—are permitted into the testing area. This includes coats, bags, or purses, all of which must be left with the administrator before entering the room. The best advice is to bring as little as possible with you to the test facility.
In the test room, the administrator logs you in to your exam, verifying that your user ID and exam number are correct. After you review the introduction information, the exam begins.
The VCP-310 VMware Certification exam has 75 questions, and native English speakers have 105 minutes to complete the exam. Non-English speakers have an additional 30 minutes, for a total of 135 minutes. The testing application is Windows based and presents a single question per screen. On the top right, you will find the time and number of questions remaining.
Questions are typically multiple choice, and the difficulty level varies from question to question. You can expect the following:
• Select the correct answer: With these types of multiple-choice questions, you are asked to choose the one correct answer that most appropriately answers the given question. In some situations, different answers may be correct under slightly different configurations, so make sure you read the question carefully and answer it according to what is asked in the specific question.
• Select all that apply (or don’t apply): These types of questions ask you to select all the answers listed that correctly apply to the question given. None of the answers to all of them may apply, so be sure to read these types of questions carefully. In many cases, subtle wording has been purposely used to trip up those who aren’t paying attention. Partial credit is not given for these types of questions. Unless the correct answer is given, you receive no credit for the question.
• True or False: These types of questions present you with the option to agree with the statement in the question or refuse it. Read the question carefully and choose true or false.
When your test is scored, no added penalty is given for a wrong answer compared to a giving no answer at all, so answering every question asked is worthwhile even if you are not sure and must guess. To the best of its ability, VMware has attempted to make the questions as fair as possible and to ensure that all questions have a single correct answer. Of course, mistakes do happen, and a “poor” question may find its way onto your test, presenting you with a poorly worded or ambiguous question that may not have a clearly correct answer.
In this situation, the best thing to do is to answer the question to the best of your knowledge. You are not allowed to leave the test area with any written exam questions or notes or any kind of information, so you are not able to write down the question for later review. Clearly, you can contact VMware regarding a particular ambiguous question so that it may be corrected on future tests, but you should not expect that your exam will be rescored because of a single question. If you have properly and adequately prepared for the exam, a single question will have no bearing on whether you pass or fail.
After you complete the exam, the testing software responds with your score after a few seconds and informs you whether you have passed or failed. The VCP-310 exam requires a minimum score of 75% to pass the exam.
If you don’t pass the exam, the key point is not to become discouraged. We have all had days when things just didn’t quite go as well as we had hoped. Take some time after the exam to review areas where you struggled during the test. Maybe a particular area caught you by surprise, or you felt you had a stronger handle on it than you actually did. The best method in this situation is to return as soon as possible to the study process and brush up on your weak areas in preparation for another exam attempt.
You can reschedule a new test through Pearson VUE as soon as available if you so choose. We recommend that you schedule time sooner rather than later so that material that you have already studied is still fresh in your mind. You are required to pay the full fee to take the test again.
How to Prepare for the Exam
Preparing for the VCP exam, as with any other technical exam, requires that you dedicate time to both acquiring and studying directly related material to the VCP-310 exam. To pass this exam, you are expected to know the different components and technologies that make up the VMWare Infrastructure 3 suite, which includes intimate knowledge of both ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5.
The following is a general list of material that can be helpful in preparing you for the VCP-310 exam:
• This Exam Cram book, which provides you with a concise and thorough review of the material considered vital to your exam-taking success. This book serves as a supplement to reinforce your knowledge of the technology.
• VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 evaluation kits from VMware. By acquiring an evaluation of the software, installing it, and getting intimately familiar with it, you are training yourself hands on, and this knowledge is extremely valuable as you learn better as you do things. This step also takes you from the theoretical to the practical.
• VMware-authorized training course. The instructor-led four-day class enables you to focus your training on a mixture of lecture and hands-on labs. The instructor-led class is filled with valuable information and helpful labs and is sure to prime you for the VCP exam in addition to its being a requirement for fulfilling the VCP requirements.
• VMware Infrastructure 3 Training DVD from http://www.eliaskhnaser.com is a great way to learn, reinforce existing knowledge, or simply have handy as a reference any time you need it. The DVD is filled with information and goes beyond the VCP-310 requirements. It is a study-at-your-own-pace training course.
• Exam preparation tests from respectable vendors. Getting accustomed to the types of questions that are asked on the VCP exam is extremely helpful; you will find that VMware has some sample questions on its website. You may also find certification exam vendors that sell respectable preparation tests.
What This Book Will Do
This book is designed to be read as a pointer to the areas of knowledge you will be tested on. In other words, you might want to read the book one time just to get insight into how comprehensive your knowledge of this topic is. The book is also designed to be read shortly before you go for the actual test. We think you can use this book to get a sense of the underlying context of any topic in the chapters or to skim-read for Exam Alerts, bulleted points, summaries, and topic headings.
We have drawn on material from VMware’s own listing of knowledge requirements, from other preparation guides, and from the exams themselves. We have also drawn from a battery of technical websites, as well as from our own experience with VMware ESX Server and the exam. Our aim is to walk you through the knowledge you will need.
What This Book Will Not Do
This book will not teach you everything you need to know about VMware Infrastructure 3 and ESX Server 3.5. The scope of the book is exam preparation. The book is intended to ramp you up and give you confidence heading into the exam. This book reviews what you need to know before you take the test, with its fundamental purpose dedicated to reviewing the information needed on the VMware certification exam.
This book uses a variety of teaching and memorization techniques to analyze the exam-related topics and to provide you with everything you need to know to pass the test.
About This Book
We suggest that you read this book from front to back. You will not be wasting your time because nothing we have written is a guess about an unknown exam. We have had to explain certain underlying information on such a regular basis that we have included those explanations here.
After you have read the book, you can brush up on a certain area by using the index or the table of contents to go straight to the topics and questions you want to re-examine. We have tried to use the headings and subheadings to provide outline information about each given topic. After you have been certified, we think you will find this book useful as a tightly focused reference and an essential foundation of VMware Infrastructure 3 configuration and management.
How to Use This Book
Each Exam Cram chapter follows a regular structure, along with graphical cues about especially important or useful material. The structure of a typical chapter is as follows:
• Opening hotlists: Each chapter begins with lists of the terms you need to understand and concepts you need to master before you can be fully conversant in the chapter’s subject matter. We follow the hotlists with a few introductory paragraphs, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.
• Topical coverage: After the opening hotlists, each chapter covers the topics related to the chapter’s subject.
• Exam Alerts: Throughout the text, we highlight material most likely to appear on the exam by using a special Exam Alert that looks like this:
Even if material is not flagged as an Exam Alert, all the content in this book is associated in some way with test-related material. What appears in the chapter content is critical knowledge.
• Notes: This book is an overall examination of ESX Server configuration, management, and troubleshooting. As such, we delve into many aspects of computer networks. Where a body of knowledge is deeper than the scope of the book, we use notes to indicate areas of concern.
• Tips: We provide tips that will help you to build a better foundation of knowledge or to focus your attention on an important concept that reappears later in the book. Tips provide a helpful way to remind you of the context surrounding a particular area of a topic under discussion.
• Practice questions: This section presents a short list of test questions related to the specific chapter topic. Following the questions are explanations of both correct and incorrect answers. The practice questions highlight the areas we found to be most important on the exam.
The bulk of the book follows this chapter structure, but we would like to point out a few other elements:
• Practice Exams: The book has two practice exams so you can practice on all the exam topics.
• Practice Exam Answer Explanations: Each practice exam is followed by an answer key that includes thorough explanations to each question so you know why you got it wrong or right.
• Glossary: Near the back of the book is an extensive glossary of important terms used in this book.
• Cram Sheet: This feature appears as a tear-away sheet inside the front cover of this Exam Cram book. It is a valuable tool that represents a collection of the most difficult-to-remember facts and numbers we think you should memorize before taking the test. Remember, you can dump this information out of your head onto a piece of paper as soon as you enter the testing room. These are usually facts that we have found require brute-force memorization. You need to remember this information only long enough to write it down when you walk into the test room. Be advised that you will be asked to surrender all personal belongings other than pencils before you enter the exam room itself.
You might want to look at the Cram Sheet in your car or in the lobby of the testing center just before you walk into the testing center. The Cram Sheet is divided under headings, so you can review the appropriate parts just before each test.
• CD: The CD features an innovative practice test engine so you can practice taking the exam electronically. See Appendix B, “What’s on the CD-ROM?,” for more details.