My VCP-NV exam experience

Network Virtualization logoKind of late (I took a long Christmas and NYE break) but I’m coming back to my blog sharing my VPC-NV (Network Virtualization) exam experience. The exam code is VCPN610 and, as usual, you need to get authorisation from VMware before you can take it.
There are 120 question for 120 minutes, pretty much 1 minute per question. I don’t want to quote the entire blueprint but basically you need to be fairly confident with the following topics:

  • Layer 2 switching and both static and dynamic Layer 3 routing
  • integration with virtual standard and distributed switches
  • management of networking policies for performance, scalability, and ease of administration
  • creating and administering NSX logical switches, Layer 2 bridges, routers, load balancers, VPNs, firewalls
  • creating and administering Edge services, such as DHCP, DNS, and NAT, configuring and managing High Availability
  • operational tasks, such as user permissions and roles, automation, monitoring, logging, auditing and compliance, backup and recovery
  • troubleshooting an Enterprise-class NSX networking implementation

At this link you can download the last blueprint and here you can see the mock exam. If you follow and review the blueprint accurately you’ll easily get it!

I personally struggled with questions on upgrade order & versions requirements (sorry I can’t be more specific :P) and found a lot of questions on encapsulation (be sure you know how MAC addresses are encapsulated and translated on each hop from end to end!). Make sure you review stuff like vCNS because you’ll find questions on this as well.

If you can’t afford to have a home lab for your preparation, I found VMware HOL awesome, in particular HOL-SDC-1403 and HOL-SDC-1425. You can spin-off a session in minutes and you’re ready to go.  Quick and easy, as oppose to wait a minimum of 15 minutes to power on my physical box and all the related VMs.

I sat for my first try Dec the 23rd-14, just in time before the massive Christmas meals 🙂 and luckily I passed with 357 (you need 300) so just about right, but as they say, a pass is a pass right? 😀

That said, given the score I probably need to get back to my home lab and spend some time reviewing concepts. At the same time ‘ll keep writing the “NSX for Newbies Series” so stay tuned!

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