As a VCDX Mentor and NPX Panelist, I review many designs. During a recent review I saw an interesting twist to the design documentation that could be of benefit to all VCDX and NPX candidates.
Category: VCDX
VMware Certified Design Expert Study Resources
VCDX – Throwing Bones
In movies about courtroom dramas, you will commonly hear objections from the prosecution or the defence to the judge about leading the witness. That is, the witness has to think and speak independently without live coaching or prompting. The panel-based defences for VCDX, CCAr and NPX have the same premise.
DISCLAIMER: This article is completely based upon my experiences as an NPX Certified Examiner. However, my panel training was by former VCDX panelists and moderators.
VCDX – Enhanced Blueprint
Earlier this year RoundTower hosted the NPX Boot Camp in Cincinnati. During the three day boot camp one of the participants came up with a way to summarize requirements on a diagram during white-boarding which was very interesting.
Why am I blogging about it? One of the problems that I have always experienced as a consulting architect, is that the level of time and effort to produce VCDX-level designs for customers is actually cost-prohibitive and time-intensive. So how can I deliver sophisticated designs for customers on a budget with the minimum of risk?
VCDX – Pricing Increase
As of April 1, 2017, the cost of the VCDX certification will increase from US$1,200 to US$3,995. Unfortunately for most candidates, this means the VCDX journey will now be an employer sponsored process.
Update: The VMware Education blog post on this subject states that you can purchase a voucher now to be used later and VCDX candidates defending May/June will be charged the current fees. It also mentions prices for “Developing” countries, which is the first I have heard of it, so definitely ask about it.
If you are into HCI, then the zero-fee Nutanix Platform Expert program is also an option.
vSAN Design Considerations
I have gone through the vSAN 6.2 Design and Sizing Guide, the vSAN 6.2 Network Design Guide and the vSAN 6.2 Stretched Cluster & 2 Node Guide (230+ pages) and aggregated all of the design decisions, design considerations and best practices into one page of bullet points that is easy to consume. If you read any other articles on my blog, you will realise that I am very fond of condensed lists and summarized bullet points. Here is a comprehensive list of resources for all things vSAN.
If you are interested in Nutanix HCI design, I also have my design decision summary for ESXi and AHV.
vRealize Suite Link-O-Rama
The VMware vRealize Suite Link-O-Rama Resource Page
This is an aggregation of resources for the VMware vRealize Suite. If I have missed any other resources, reach out to me on Twitter and I will add them. This page will continue to evolve over time and new content will be marked as “NEW!”.
Since vCloud Director is well and truly alive, I have included it as well.
Until I go through and list each individual blog post from an author, you can click on the author name to jump to their latest content. Continue reading vRealize Suite Link-O-Rama
VCDX – The 60m Multi-VCDX Defence
The 60 minute “remote defence” was added as a requirement for Multi-VCDX in early 2016. This was added to protect the integrity of the Multi-VCDX certification. This post is based upon my preparation and observations for the VCDX-CMA track I defended recently. Parts of this post could also be applied to VCDX candidates that are defending for the second time remotely.
