Showing posts with label Exam Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Exam Tips. Show all posts

Thursday, March 2, 2017

A "Thank You" post - passed the VCP-NV 2V0-642! A look back

Wow, what a ride it has been.

This blog, from the beginning, has been dedicated to helping a current VMware admin who works in DataCenter Virtualization, to get accustomed with network virtualization, and a big thing for me has been pointing out free resources and opportunities to get the equivalent certs and training that this VMware administrator had to take. So I made posts like:



I was able to talk from this point of view, since that was exactly me! The more I learned about NSX, and the more I looked for information, the more resources I found from amazing people who give a lot back for free. 

I'm also very proud to have been selected vExpertNSX in 2016. This was because I shared my enthusiasm for NSX with my VMUGparticipated in SocialLabsvBrownBag and the large latin community. There are many, many, many others that are ahead, technically, over me - this has always been the case in many things - but I decided that I would do my part in letting people know this is the next big thing. If anything, what I want people to feel is a sense of excitement of what's possible, that wasn't possible before!

I decided my first big milestone would be getting the VCP6-NV certification. You may remember from this post that the VCP6.2 NV beta dates coincided with Elver Sena's book release during VMworld (where I actually met him, and got my signed copy!). Meeting Elver was super cool (we got an interview in Spanish done), and having his book, plus the accessible cost of the exam, made me take the plunge, and I got the happy news today that I passed! I wholeheartedly recommend getting the premium edition from Pearson, as those 4 practice exams have lots of questions that I feel helped me a lot!




I think there is a lot more to come for NSX, much more than what we have already seen. I highlighted it is a unique product that offers capabilities no other product can match, especially in security. Likewise, it requires some skills, and busting silos inside companies. I even have some ideas for what will come in the future, when NSX will simply be able to handle all IT assets in the company, starting with IPAM. I know now its next step is that it will be able to handle all IT assets, being the one glue for real visibility and automation, on premises and in the cloud.

My next milestone> I'm looking forward to more experience with NSX (vExperts have both NSX and vRealize Network Insight licenses for homelab use, while vExpertNSX's have had it for a little more time than that) and taking on the VCAP6-NV exam. I already have some great vCommunity resources lined up from Gabriel Maciel and Clinton Prentice and Iwan Hoogendoorn. I just wish I had some real networking switches to play with, but I hear Tim Davis, the official Face of #vExpertNSX, may find some cheap for my homelab - and with a little work, we can make some cool blog posts!

If anything in this blog post, I want you to Get excited about NSX, and do something about it. Go for that first cert, push for a POC or some licenses in your company, and play with it. Dive deep. I guarantee you that it is time well spent, and may I hear about your success soon!

PD, if anyone is still thinking you can't download NSX, I would like to remind you that you can; because it's the only supported upgrade of VCNS, almost all paying customers can access the bits, and this has been the case since NSX 6.2.3. The documentation is public, you can play all day in the HOLs, and everything you need to "hop on" is available. 

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Exam Tips - VCAP6-NV Deploy with Gabriel Maciel @gmaciel_ca

Gabriel Maciel is one of the smartest NSX engineers that VMware has and part of a "Dream Team" of Latin American NSX experts such as Elver Sena, Raymundo Escobar and Stalin Pena. Particularly for the VCAP6-NV Deploy, you will notice Gabriel is one of the exam contributors so heed any advice he gives out (without breaking NDA of course!).

Today he presented "Section 7 - Perform Advanced VMware NSX Troubleshooting" in the LATAM chapter of @vBrownBag. Once the video is live I'll embed it into this post. The presentation is in Spanish but the advice is Universal :D

Here are some of the tips covered for the exam in this session in written form:

  • HOL 1625 has everything you need to study for this topic
  • The documentation is your best friend: https://pubs.vmware.com/NSX-62/index.jsp
  • Apart from the Troubleshooting Guide mentioned in the blueprint, make sure to also study the Command Line Interface Reference manual! CLI is very important for both the exam and real life.
  • Learn how to check Manager and Cluster Health through GUI
  • Take advantage of Central commands that show information for the whole NSX deployment (new in 6.2)
  • Learn how to check common controller issues, such as lack of space, a wrong deployment network, or an exhausted IP pool!
  • Don't erase a failed controller unless 1) your other two have majority 2) you've already opened a case with GSS and uploaded logs 3) all other options are exhausted. There is normally a bigger problem that is manifested as a problem in the controller, so that needs to be fixed first.
  • Very important to understand the limits that transport zones represent. Make sure the correct clusters are members. This ties in with cross-vCenter NSX in Section 6.
  • Take advantage of the GUI troubleshooting tools to check for Flows and Logs, but be comfortable with the CLI options as well. Most networking guys will be happy that there is a CLI option to check all firewall rules applied to an interface or load balancer details.
  • For Section 7.3 search for "service" in the CLI Reference and learn and practice the commands in the mentioned HOL.
  • Gabriel keeps a document with all his frequently used commands - he graciously shared it with us for all vBrownBag listeners. You can download this document here.