Like David Davis, Sean Crookston, and Damian Karlson with their posts regarding the exam experience or the notes associated with VMware's blueprint guide, my experience was similar.
1. You get 3.5 hours to do anwhere between 30-40 interactive (hands on labs) there are no MC questions.
2. About halfway through my exam I realized how much time had really flown by. In the end I had to skip a few of the harder questions and move on to save time.
3. The exam collectively was very difficult and by far the hardest I've taken in a very long time.
It took VMware 12 business days to process my scores and I got my results today and unfortunately I didn't pass but I didn't do as bad as I thought. If I studied another month I think I would have passed. Some things I can strongly suggest is that you take the VMware course on Performance and Scripting with PowerCLI. There are interactive labs in these courses that I am sure would have helped me with prepping for this exam (I've only taken Troubleshooting and the Fast Track (which is what helped me get my VCP4).
Regardless, I felt like I had really learned alot in studying for this exam (for example MSCS clusters, iSCSI and FC storage, vSwitching vs vDSwitching architectures, vCenter Hearbeat, Update Manager, Orchestrator, and others. I plan on taking the exam once my schedule frees up at the end of this year and I graduate with my masters degree. Additionally, I'll be going to VMworld and hope to learn additional things that may help me prep for the exam in addition to trying to get into those before-mentioned courses as well. For now I've included some information from Crookston/Karlson's VCAP-DCA study guide material and the blueprint.
VDCA 410
For a PDF version of Crookston's study notes can be downloaded from http://www.seancrookston.com/vcap-dca-studyguide-ver3.pdfAdditionally there are a series of mock labs which can be found on his site here http://www.seancrookston.com/?s=mock+lab
The below is the web version of the guide.
Section 1 – Implement and Manage Storage
Section 2 – Implement and Manage Networking
Section 3 – Deploy DRS Clusters and manage Performance
Section 4 – Manage Business Continuity and Protect Data
Section 5 – Perform Operational Maintenance
Section 6 – Perform Advanced Troubleshooting
Section 7 – Secure a vSphere Environment
Section 8 – Perform Scripting and Automation
Section 9 – Perform Advanced vSphere Installations and Configurations
Other Great Resources for studying for the VCAP-DCA exam
Download the latest blueprint from http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-12751
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