As I begin to study for my VCAP5-DCA I realize that I have just over 8 weeks to get ready.  Now I'm familiar with a lot of the blueprint material as I cover it off in my day job, however some items I have never even used.  I've decided that I'm going to try and do a post on most of the material that I'm not familiar with and link to it here under it's corresponding objective.  Here's hoping this works 🙂  Big thanks to Tom Verhaeg (blog/twitter) for helping out with a lot of the scenarios as well!

Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage

• Objective 1.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Storage Solutions
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – LUN Masking
• Objective 1.2 – Manage Storage Capacity in a vSphere Environment
• Objective 1.3 – Configure and Manage Complex Multipathing and PSA Plug-ins
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – iSCSI Port Bonding
• Practice Scenarios
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Random Storage Scenarios Section 1 – Part 1
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Random Storage Scenarios Section 1 – Part 2

Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking

• Objective 2.1 – Implement and Manage Complex Virtual Networks
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Migrating to vSphere Distributed Switches
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Netflow, SNMP, and Port Mirroring
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – CDP and LLDP
• Objective 2.2 – Configure and Maintain VLANs, PVLANs and VLAN Settings
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Private VLANs
• Objective 2.3 – Deploy and Maintain Scalable Virtual Networking
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – The rest of section 2 – Port Binding, CLI, DirectPath I/O
• Objective 2.4 – Administer vNetwork Distributed Switch Settings
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Network I/O Control
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – The rest of section 2 – Port Binding, CLI, DirectPath I/O
• Practice Scenarios
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Network Scenario by @tomverhaeg
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – More Networking Scenarios

Section 3 – Deploy DRS Clusters and Manage Performance

• Objective 3.1 – Tune and Optimize vSphere Performance
• Objective 3.2 – Optimize Virtual Machine Resources
• Objective 3.3 – Implement and Maintain Complex DRS Solutions
• Objective 3.4 – Utilize Advanced vSphere Performance Monitoring Tools
• Practice Scenarios
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Host Cache Scenario

Section 4 – Manage Business Continuity and Protect Data

• Objective 4.1 – Implement and Maintain Complex VMware HA Solutions
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – HA
• Objective 4.2 – Deploy and Test VMware FT
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Fault Tolerance

Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance

• Objective 5.1 – Implement and Maintain Host Profiles
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Host Profiles
• Objective 5.2 – Deploy and Manage Complex Update Manager Environments

Section 6 – Perform Advanced Troubleshooting

• Objective 6.1 – Configure, Manage, and Analyze vSphere Log Files
• Objective 6.2 – Troubleshoot CPU and Memory Performance
• Objective 6.3 – Troubleshoot Network Performance and Connectivity
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Private VLANs ​
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Netflow, SNMP, and Port Mirroring
• Objective 6.4 – Troubleshoot Storage Performance and Connectivity
• Objective 6.5 – Troubleshoot vCenter Server and ESXi Host Management
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – The ESXi Firewall
• Practice Scenarios
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Syslog Scenario

Section 7 – Secure a vSphere Environment

• Objective 7.1 – Secure ESXi Hosts
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Security
• Objective 7.2 – Configure and Maintain the ESXi Firewall
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – The ESXi Firewall

Section 8 – Perform Scripting and Automation

• Objective 8.1 – Execute VMware Cmdlets and Customize Scripts Using PowerCLI
• Objective 8.2 – Administer vSphere Using the vSphere Management Assistant
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)

Section 9 – Perform Advanced vSphere Installations and Configurations

• Objective 9.1 – Install ESXi hosts with custom settings
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Image Builder
• Objective 9.2 – Install ESXi Hosts Using Auto Deploy
  • 8 weeks of #VCAP – Auto Deploy