On 21 October I took my first shot to pass the VCAP7-DTM Design exam and failed as you already know from my this article. Today I am happy to share that I finally passed the exam! 🙂
What did I do with the last information and notes I had about my weaknesses from the last exam score report? I read a lot additional VMware documents and guides about:
- Integrating Airwatch and VMware Identity Manager (vIDM)
- Cloud Pod Architecture
- PCoIP/Blast Display Protocol
- VMware Identity Manager
- vSAN 6.2 Essentials from Cormac Hogan and Duncan Epping
- Horizon Apps (RDSH Pools)
- Database Requirements
- Firewall Ports
- vRealize Operations for Horizon
- Composer
- Horizon Security
- App Volumes & ThinApp
- Workspace ONE Architecture (SaaS & on-premises)
- Unified Access Gateway
- VDI Design Guide from Johan van Amersfoort
Today, I had a few different questions during the exam but reading more PDFs about the above mentioned topics helped me to pass, as it seems. In addition to that, I attended a Digital Workspace Livefire Architecture & Design training which is available for VMware employees and partners. The focus of this training was not only about designing a Horizon architecture, but also about VMware’s EUC design methodology.
If you have the option to attend classroom trainings, then I would recommend the following:
- VMware Horizon 7: Install, Configure, Manage [V7]
- VMware Horizon 7: Design Workshop [V7]
- VMware Horizon 7: Troubleshooting and Performance Optimization [V7]
- VMware Workspace ONE: Deploy and Manage [V9.x]
- VMware vSAN: Deploy and Manage [V6.6]
I had two things I struggled with during the exam. Sometimes the questions were not clear enough and I made assumptions what it could mean and that the exam is based on Horizon 7.2 and other old product versions of the Horizon suite:
- VMware Identity Manager 2.8
- App Volumes 2.12
- User Environment Manager 9.1
- ThinApp 5.1
- Unified Access Gateway 2.9
- vSAN 6.2
- vSphere 6.5
- vRealize Operations 6.4
- Mirage 5.x
But maybe it’s only me since I have almost no hands-on experience with Horizon, none with Workspace ONE and in addition to that I’m only 7 months with VMware now. 🙂
It is time for an update, but VMware announced already that they are publishing a new design exam version called VCAP7-DTM 2019 next year.
What about VCIX7-DTM?
 In part 2 of my VCAP7-DTM Design exam blog series I mentioned this:
Since no VCAP7-DTM Deploy exam is available and it’s not clear yet when this exam will be published, you only need the VCAP7-DTM Design certification to earn the VCIX7-DTM status. I have got this information from VMware certification.
This information is not correct, sorry. VMware certification pulled their statement back and provided the information that you need to pass the VCAP6-DTM Deploy exam, as long as no VCAP7-DTM Deploy is available, to earn the VCIX7-DTM badge.
I don’t know yet if I want to pursue the VCIX7-DTM certification and will think about it when the deploy exam for Horizon 7 is available.
What’s next?
Hm… I am going to spend more time again with my family and will use some of my 3 weeks vacation time to assemble and install my new home lab.
Then I also have a few ideas for topics to write about, like:
- Multi-Domain and Trust with Horizon 7.x
- Linux VDI Basics with Horizon 7.x
- SD-WAN for Horizon 7.x
- NSX Load Balancing for Horizon 7.x
These are only a few of my list, but let’s see if I really find the time to write a few article.Â
In regards to certification I think I continue with these exams:
This has no priority for now and can wait until next year! Or…I could try the VDP-DW 2018 since I have vacation. Let’s see 😀
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