VCP6-DCV Delta Beta exam experience

Today, I took my very first VMware beta exam. I took the 2V0-621D exam, known as the VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization Delta Beta Exam, at a local Pearson VUE test center. This exam is a possible migration paths from a valid VCP5-DCV, or any valid solution track VCP, to the VCP6-DCV certification.

The benefit of a beta exam is the low price (currently 50 US-$) and a chance to upgrade the associated certification, in this case the VCP6-DCV. This was the main reason for me to request the authorization and schedule an appointment at a local Pearson VUE testcenter. When I pass the exams, that would be a very effective and simple upgrade.

Exam topics

The blueprint for the delta beta exam consists of 10 sections and it covers a bit more then only VMware vSphere 6.

  • Section 1: Configure and Administer vSphere 6.x Security
  • Section 2: Configure and Administer Advanced vSphere 6.x Networking
  • Section 3: Configure and Administer Advanced vSphere 6.x Storage
  • Section 4: Upgrade a vSphere Deployment to 6.x
  • Section 5: Administer and Manage vSphere 6.x Resources
  • Section 6: Backup and Recover a vSphere Deployment
  • Section 7: Troubleshoot a vSphere Deployment
  • Section 8: Deploy and Consolidate vSphere Data Center
  • Section 9: Configure and Administer vSphere Availability Solutions
  • Section 10: Administer and Manage vSphere Virtual Machines

Each section includes one or more objectives. In opposite to exam 2V0-621, the VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization Beta Exam, the delta exam doesn’t include the objectives

  • 7.4: Troubleshoot and Monitor vSphere Performance
  • 7.5: Troubleshoot HA and DRS Configurations and Fault Tolerance
  • 8.3: Consolidate Physical Workloads using VMware Converter
  • 10.3: Configure and Maintain a vCloud Air Connection

Manfred Hofer highlightes this already in a blog post about his exam experience. But instead, the delta exam includes the objective

  • 9.3: Setup and Configure AppHA

So if you take the delta beta exam, you better take a closer look at VMware AppHA.

The exam

The exam consists of 75 single and multiple choice questions. You have 90 Minutes time to answer all questions. If you are a non-native english speaker, you will get 30 minutes extra. The questions are not always related to VMware vSphere 6! There are also questions about vSphere in gerneral, or prodcuts around vSphere, like Replication or AppHA. In my case, the questions were very unevenly distributed over the blueprint sections. I got a relatively high number of questions involving HA, DRS, Resource Pools and troubleshooting in general. Carefully reading the question and answers was very helpful. In most cases, I was able to eliminate wrong or unlikely answers. Answers must not be correct, sometimes answers were “best fit” answers.

With 75 questions in 120 minutes, I had more than one minute per question. That’s much more time as you get in the VCP5-DCV (vSphere 5.5) exam. There you have to answer 135 questions in 120 minutes. After 60 minutes I clicked the “End Exam” button. Now I have to wait. The results will be published after the end of the beta phase. This may take 6 to 8 weeks.

I don’t know if I passed the exam. In fact, I did not really prepare for the exam. I have the documents just flown over. But it was a very nice experience.