1.0 VCAP-DCA Study Guide - Overview

Posted on 07 Feb 2011 by Ray Heffer

If you are an existing VMware VCP then you are probably already aware of the VCAP-DCA exam which is why you’ve landed here. There are two VCAP certifications available, the DCA (Datacenter Administration) and DCD (Datacenter Design). Just a few days before writing this post, VMware announced the new Desktop Certification Program, the VCA-DT (VMware Certified Associate, Desktop), VCP-DT and VCAP-DT. This is great news as it strengthens the VMware certification even further with a recognition into the valuable skills a desktop virtualization specialist will have.

I intend to share my study guides, based on what you need to know with essential learning points. If you are studying for this exam then I will assume you are already a VCP, and I would be surprised if you don’t already know the difference between different RAID levels. With that assumption in mind, I will also guess that you are not that comfortable (like me) with commands like esxcfg-mpath. It is not my intention with my study notes to regurgitate the exam blueprint, but I will follow the order and provide key learning points for each topic.

The VCAP-DCA is the next step for most VCP’s that have set their sights on the VCDX, so I intend to start collating my study resources here for my own reference and others to share. These resources are intended to compliment a lab environment as the VCAP requires a huge amount of lab study.

  1. First, get the latest Blueprint from VMware
  2. Attend official VMware training for the VCAP-DCA.
  3. Check out the VMware training videos by TrainSignal.
  4. Get a collection of PDF’s to read, here are my some suggestions to get you started!

Note: Make sure you have a copy of the latest VCAP-DCA blueprint which outlines the topics you need to be comfortable with in order to take the VCAP-DCA exam.

VCAP4-DCA Exam Format

  • Lab: 210 minutes and 40 lab tasks. vCenter server, ESX hosts, vSphere vMA, SSH client (PuTTY)
  • Scoring: Scored on lab assessment
  • Where: PearsonVUE
  • Materials: vSphere 4 PDF documentation
  • Results: Within 10 days