8 weeks of #VCAP

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
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