VMware/VCP550D

VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam
Delta Exam - New VCP-DCV Exam - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=51919&ui=www_cert

The exam is offered to current VCP5-DCVs who need to renew their VCP5-DCV credential. The exam will be available through May 8, 2015 and offers some key advantages:
 * Based on new material between the vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams – you save hours of prep time
 * Available online – you can take it from any location
 * Far less expensive – you save money

Download the Exam Blueprint - https://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/web/portals/certification/VCP_Blueprints/VCP-DCV-VCP550D-Exam-Blueprint-v1_3.pdf

Request Authorization - http://mylearn.vmware.com/quiz.cfm?item=60020

Ready to register? Click Associate and Professional Level Exams on http://pearsonvue.com/vmware/exams/ and select exam VCP550D.

Take advantage of the FREE 1-hr online course VMware vSphere: What’s New Fundamentals of V5.5 to help you prepare for the exam. - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrreg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=one&id_subject=51301

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VCP550D Online Test-VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam - VMware Exams Test Base - http://www.vca-vcp.com/vcp550d-online-test-vmware-certified-professional-5-data-center-virtualization-delta-exam/

todo:

http://www.vmwarerecertification.com/

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=40280&ui=www_cert

http://landing.vmwarecertificationmarketplace.com/VCP_Prep_Bundles

VCP550D Delta Exam
VCP550D	- VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam

The exam will only be offered until May 8, 2015

You want to upgrade your VCP510-DCV to VCP550? Pass the Delta Recertification Exam VCP550D - www.running-system.com
 * Based only on new material between vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams
 * You take the exam online from any location – no need to go to a Pearson VUE testing center
 * costs about 120 US-Dollar
 * The exam consists of 65 questions and 8 pre-exam survey questions – you have to reach a passing score of 300.
 * Time limit is 75 minutes

Ready? 
 * read what VMware writes about the VCP5-DCV Delta Recertification Exam
 * then download the Exam Blueprint (pdf file)
 * invest one hour in the Free online course to prepare for the exam: What’s new fundamentals of V5.5
 * ready to pass the Exam? Here you can request authorization
 * and here you can register: PearsonVUE.com -> select exam VCP550D

Topics cover: VSAN, vCOPs, HA, DRS, FT, Storage and Networking (primarily dvSwitch specifics), SRM, vSphere Replication

Certification - (VCP5-DCV) VCP-Data Center Virtualization - http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert

vSphere Virtual Machine Administration - ESXi 5.5 - vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-virtual-machine-admin-guide.pdf - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-55-virtual-machine-admin-guide.pdf

What’s New in the VMware vSphere 6.0 Platform - VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf

vReference - http://www.vreference.com/

VCP550D Online Test-VMware Certified Professional 5 - Data Center Virtualization Delta Exam - VMware Exams Test Base - http://www.vca-vcp.com/vcp550d-online-test-vmware-certified-professional-5-data-center-virtualization-delta-exam/

Recertification Policy and FAQ - https://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=46667&ui=www_cert
 * The new policy gives you four options to recertify:
 * 1) Take the current exam for your existing VCP certification solution track. For example, if you are a VCP3, you could take the current VCP5-Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) exam.
 * 2) Earn a new VCP certification in a different solution track. For example, if you are a VCP-Cloud, you could recertify by earning VCP5-Desktop (VCP5-DT) certification.
 * 3) Advance to the next level by earning a VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certification. For example, if you are a VCP5-DCV you could earn VCAP5-DCA certification.
 * 4) Renew your current VCP5 DCV by completing a limited-time, streamlined delta exam. The exam is based only on the delta (new) material between the vSphere 5.0/5.1 and vSphere 5.5 exams.

VMware Certification - retake policy - http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/faqs.cfm?ui=www#4871
 * "There is a 7 calendar day period between exam attempts for unsuccessful candidates. If a candidate passes the exam, they cannot take the exam again until a new major revision of the product and certification is released"

Passed VCP 5 Delta Test | vmexplorer - http://vmexplorer.com/2014/11/21/passed-vcp-5-delta-test/
 * Test was 65 Questions and you have 75 Minutes to complete it, I had about 15 Mins left.
 * I passed my VCP5 in January of 2012 and I don’t believe there was one repeat question from that test
 * I didn’t get any min max questions
 * Lot of Virtual SAN Questions
 * Know your licensing Models and what features belong to what
 * Great Guide here
 * Don’t skip studying around vDP or vSphere Replication
 * Really know vRealize Operations (aka vCOPS) badges and how they are calculated (I got at least 3 questions on this)
 * The questions seem to be longer in length and more multiple choice / select all correct << Not my favorite type
 * I would say I passed for two reasons
 * It was open book, how nice was that! So have your best documents and guides ready
 * I followed the blue print, read my documents, and made sure I read every ‘Note’ section

VMware KB: Product offerings for vSphere 5.x - http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001113

VMware delta exam VCP550D... Passed! - Mike Tabor - https://miketabor.com/vmware-delta-exam-vcp550d-passed/
 * "Overall it felt a lot like taking the VMware VCP-DCV exam all over again, though just a few less questions and shorter time frame to complete as the Delta Exam is 65 questions in 75 minutes vs 85 questions in 90 minutes. "

VCP550-D-DCV - Taken and passed. : vmware - http://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/2ivd5u/vcp550ddcv_taken_and_passed/
 * VCOP's badges - what they represent
 * VSAN - what happens when you enable and disable it
 * Port Blocking
 * HA constraints
 * Data protection
 * Replication

VMware Certification FAQ - http://mylearn.vmware.com/portals/certification/?menu=faq

VCP550D Class: VMware vSphere: What’s New Fundamentals [V5.5]
New feature topics:
 * vSphere Platform
 * vCenter Server
 * vSphere Network
 * vSphere Storage

New features are centered around:
 * Scalability
 * Performance
 * Availability

--- vSphere New Features ---

Increased Configuration Maximums:
 * 320 physical CPU (double core capacity)
 * 4TB memory
 * 16 NUMA Nodes (from 8)
 * 4096 vCPUs
 * per ESXi host

vSphere 5.1 | vSphere 5.5 160 pCPU     320 pCPU 2TB memory   4TB memory 8 NUMA nodes 16 NUMA nodes 2048 vCPUs   4096 vCPUs

Virtual Machine Compatibility ESXi 5.5 (vHW 10) - Virtual Hardware 10
 * LSI SAS support for Solaris 11
 * New CPU architectures
 * AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) support
 * SATA controller that supports both virtual disk & CDROM on controller
 * Support 30 devices per controller, up to 4 controllers with total of 120 devices

Support for additional vGPUs support: nVidia, AMD, Intel

Hot-Pluggable SSD PCIe Devices
 * Hardware and BIOS must support Hot-Plug PCIe

Support for Reliable Memory
 * Reduce memory corruptions (memory corruption = PSOD)
 * Uses a hardware feature called "reliable memory"
 * Critical Components:
 * VMkernel
 * UW (User Worlds)
 * Init Thread
 * Hostd and Watchdog

Previously only P-States (Performance States) were well supported

CPU C-States now used to help
 * More eager to enter deeper C-States

Feature Summary:
 * Configuration maximum increases (2x from 5.1)
 * vHW 10 (LSI SAS, CPU enablement, AHCI controller
 * Expanded vGPU and GP-GPU support
 * Hot-Plug SSD PCIe Devices
 * Support for Reliable Memory

--- vCenter Server Features ---

Improvements:
 * Security
 * Single sign on
 * User Interface
 * platform support
 * usability experience
 * Scalability
 * appliance maximums

Appliance
 * scalability of embedded database (vPostgres)
 * supports up to 100 hosts / 3000 powered on VMs

vSphere Web Client

vSphere App HA
 * Reduce application downtime
 * Several off-the-shelf applications supported

VM-to-VM Anti-Affinity
 * Optimal workload placement

--- vSphere Networking Features ---

New Features:
 * Scalability
 * 40 Gig NIC support
 * Performance
 * Enhanced SR-IOV (Single Route - IO Virtualization) for low latency applications
 * Availability
 * Enhanced LACP
 * Operations
 * Packet capture tool
 * Port security through traffic filtering
 * QoS tagging for End to End SLA

vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS)

Packet Classification
 * Traffic filtering (ACLs)
 * DSCP Marking (QoS)

Troubleshooting
 * Host level packet capture tool (tcpdump)

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
 * standards based link aggregation method
 * automatic negoation of link aggregation properties between virtual and physical switches
 * Advantages:
 * plug and play
 * detects link failures and cabling mistakes and reconfigures links automatically
 * provides higher bandwidth and redundancy

Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV)
 * standard that allows one PCI express (PCIe) adapter to be presented as multiple separate logical IO devices (virtual functions)
 * advantage: offload io processing to adapters and reduce network latency
 * disadvantage: vmotion, FT, HA not available when enabled

40 Gig NIC support
 * support on Mellanox ConnextX3 VPI adapters

--- vSphere Storage Features ---

New Features:
 * Scalability
 * support for 62TB VMDK
 * Performance
 * 16 GB E2E support
 * vSphere Flash Read Cache (Enterprise+)
 * Availability
 * MSCS Supportability enhancements
 * vSphere Replication Multiple Points-In-Time
 * Storage vMotion & SDRS compatibility
 * Expanded Replication Topologies
 * Operations
 * VAAI UNMAP Enhancements
 * VMFS Heap Enhancements

Why 62TB? Is actually 64TB, but overhead from snapshot and VMFS reduce it to 62TB

VMware 5.5 now supports 16Gb E2E (end-to-end) Fibre Channel

Microsoft Cluster Services Enhacements (MSCS)

Permanent Device Loss (PDL)
 * occurs on failures or is incorrectly removed from hose
 * based on SCSI Sense Codes
 * host no longer sends I/O to these devices
 * PDL AutoRemove frees up one of 256 device per host limit

UNMAP Improvements:
 * VAAI UNMAP / Reclaim command: # esxcli storage vmfs unmap
 * creates temp files and uses UNMAP primitive to inform the array that these blocks may be reclaimed.
 * enhancements:
 * reclaim size can now be in blocks rather than percentage
 * dead space can be reclaimed in increments rather than all at once

vSphere Flash Read Cache:
 * built in and fully integrated with vSphere
 * new flash server based tier
 * improve virtual machine performance (for read intensive workloads)
 * integrated with vCenter, HA, DRS, vMotion
 * scale-out storage capability: 32 nodes
 * pooled into a new file system called VFFS