VMware Certified Advanced Professional – Desktop and Mobility Deploy Exam
Backstory
I’ve been waiting a long time for this latest version of the exam based on 7.X of Horizon. I attempted the old version of the VCAP Deploy last year, but did not pass. Mostly because it was so outdated when I took it and I was not experienced enough with Mirage. I couldn’t justify the time to learn Mirage since it was already EOL. We finally have an updated VCAP-DTM Deploy exam, although you could argue it’s already out of date, but that’s to be expected with the rate of change in technology these days.
I recently posted a study guide for the VCP-DW. The overall study process I outlined there applies to the VCAP-DTM and probably most VCP/VCAP exams. Obviously the content is exam specific. One big change which I’ll cover here is the VCAP Deploy exams are hands-on with the products, not multiple choice. Therefore I put greater emphasis on the “hands on” part of the study guide.
Quick Recap of Study Approach
- Familiarize yourself with the exam guide found here.
- Get Organized by creating a list of topics or areas to study or lab out. Base this list on the exam guide. The exam guide tells you which topics are not on the test so those can be skipped, saving some effort. Below is a picture of the list I made when starting out my studying effort.
- Hands on practice with the products.
- Final review of topics before the exam.
- Take and pass the exam!
The VCAP
It’s important to note there are typically two VCAP exams per Track. The DTM exams fall within the Digital Workspace Track and consists of a Design exam/cert and a Deploy exam/cert. When you complete both in the same track you receive the VMware Certified Implementation Expert Badge (VCIX). This is key if your ambition is to move on to the VCDX.
When searching for information and also registering for the VCAP exams it’s important to note the difference. With “Deploy” and “Design” visually similar it’s easy to click on the wrong exam or guide. The Deploy is focused on being able to use the product and actually administer it within a live environment, while the Design focuses on design concepts.
The Deploy exam is a full lab based exam. You are given a set of questions that require interaction with a functioning environment. There are no multiple choice questions. Keep in mind some things may be intentionally misconfigured for the exam.
The Design exam is a multiple choice exam similar to a VCP, but more challenging. I am not covering the design exam in this post.
VCAP-DTM Deploy Topics
Products that can be covered as a part of the VMware Horizon 7.x Portfolio Include:
- VMware Horizon 7.X (at the time of my exam it was 7.9)
- VMware App Volumes 2.X
- VMware Dynamic Environment Manager (User Environment Manager)
- VMware Identity Manager (Workspace ONE Access) 3.3
- VMware vSphere as it relates to supporting Horizon components. 6.7
Outside of Horizon, but relevant:
- Be familiar with Active Directory User and Machine management as it relates to Horizon and Group Policy Objects (GPO) for Horizon.
- Basic Windows 10 administration as it relates to a Horizon deployment. Optimization and troubleshooting are key.
- Basic Windows Server administration for RDSH via Horizon.
*Please Note* Be sure to check the latest exam guide in case the versions or topics have changed since I took the exam, which was the end of Dec. 2020.
Expanding on “Hands on Practice”
Why use a Lab?
The whole point of the VCAP Deploy exams is to test whether you can actually implement, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot the products covered by the exam. In the case of the DTM Deploy that means being experienced with installing, configuring, optimizing and troubleshooting VMware Horizon 7.X and supporting products of the EUC portfolio. Assuming you’re at the point to think about a VCAP you already have foundational knowledge of Horizon by passing the corresponding VCP exam. This is great, but it’s typically not enough to pass a VCAP. According to the official description it’s recommended to have 2 years of experience with the products. If you use Horizon daily in your job there’s a good chance you are well prepared for the VCAP. For others it’s going to take some lab time.
Having a lab environment where you can run through an install, or preferably several, and then run through various administrative tasks and optimizations to become familiar with how it all works. Having a non-production lab or a home lab is best. This allows you to test and break things. Understanding how to troubleshoot Horizon and the various components is a large part of the exam.
VMware Hands on Labs (free)
For those without access to a lab environment of their own VMware provides an awesome free option to gain experience with their products. VMware Hands on Labs (HOL) are free to use, although they do come with time limits. There is nothing preventing you from running through labs multiple times. The HOLs are designed with a lab guide that helps walk you through basic configuration of various VMware products. The best part is there is nothing stopping you from doing other tasks within the lab environment. You are not limited to the lab guide.
I’ll typically log into a HOL if I want to familiarize myself with admin settings or configuration options within a given product. It’s quick and already functioning so no real level of effort to get started. The only downside is the time limit, but that is understandable since these are free to use. When your time is up the environment is wiped clean. If you need to complete a multi-step process be sure to plan to get it done in one sitting.
HOL I would recommend:
VMware Horizon – Getting Started with App and Desktop Virtualization
HOL-2151-01-DWS – This is a great Horizon environment for desktops and applications. It also has vIDM/WS1 Access to integrate with, as well as DEM and App Volumes. This may be the best lab to use for studying since it incorporates almost everything on the exam and is very similar to the environment provided for the actual test.
Important Note for the Exam
At a minimum you should familiarize yourself with the HOL interface if you have never used it before. The VCAP Deploy exam presents the lab and questions in the same format and GUI as an HOL. The first time using the HOL interface can be a little different and there are a few options on how to display things. Play around with maximizing the console desktop and how to move around the lab guide. This way when you sit for the exam you can set it up to your preference right from the start. I would also practice with a single monitor because most test facilities, if not all, limit you to a single monitor for the exam. The most time consuming part is flipping between the questions and the lab environment. If you’re like me and need to keep referencing the questions as you look for things in the environment it can be very frustrating. Sometimes it’s easier to write down some notes or the full question on the scratch pad the test center provides.
Real World Experience
Arguably having real world experience with VMware Horizon may be the best way to prepare for a VCAP Deploy exam. Managing a working Horizon environment will always bring unique situations that an administrator has to work through. Some of these can be hard to replicate in a lab, such as end user experience issues, or it can bring up design situations you may never think to try in the lab. I’ve found hands on experience can be powerful, but it’s also time consuming and unique to a candidate’s current job role. I wouldn’t count yourself out of the VCAP if you don’t have experience managing a production Horizon deployment. It just may mean you need to spend extra time running various scenarios in a lab environment. Luckily the exam guide can help direct where you focus.
I consider a home lab or even a work lab to be fairly close to a real world experience. You may not have the option of real end users, but you can always get creative. Maybe use the desktops yourself or have some family or colleges log in. Even without “real” users you can still simulate a lot of scenarios that will help you prepare for the VCAP exam. Having your own lab allows for a lot of flexibility on implementation. If you have the resources you can simulate CPA with a multi-site Horizon deployment. Plus you can experience larger and more complex configurations that may require time to setup. Something you may not be able to do in an HOL. Of course this comes at a cost and time expense. I don’t see this as a requirement for the exam, but it’s a nice benefit if you have access to your own environment.
Training Courses
VMware does offer official training courses that can help prepare you for a VCAP exam. These are paid training courses lasting between 3 and 5 days depending on the course. As helpful as the basic training courses can be for a good baseline of products such as Horizon I find the advanced courses will better prepare you for a VCAP level exam. Typically the troubleshooting course or design workshops have overlap with the VCAP exam prep. There are also App Volumes and DEM specific classes now that may be helpful. I cannot speak from experience though. For me and others who have gone down the VCAP path the course is not enough to walk in and pass the exam. I’m sure there could be an exception to this, but for the most part I see the courses as a baseline when preparing for an exam. I wouldn’t consider a training course a requirement for the VCAP either, outside of any VCP required classes of course. Using the products can be one of the best ways to prepare for a VCAP Deploy exam.
Side Note for VMware Employees or Partners
If you’re fortunate enough to be eligible to take a VMware Livefire training class, reserved for VMware employees and partners only, I’d highly recommend one. These courses can be powerful for not just exam prep, but some of they are some of the best training available. It seems most of the Livefire courses are tailored towards Workspace ONE right now, which is not the main topic on the VCAP-DTM. They do cover some areas of Horizon, DEM, and vIDM that can help for the Deploy exam. In this situation these courses may not be as applicable, but I can’t say enough positive things about Livefire.
Another option for employees and parters is VMware TestDrive. This is a level up from HOL in my opinion. I use it extensively.
VCAP-DTM Deploy Test Time
If you’ve prepared and feel confident in all the topics outlined on the exam blueprint you should be good to go.
I’ll leave you with a few notes from my exam experience. Be sure to focus on the latest exam guide and spend time working with the products.
- Be familiar with all the various provisioning options and steps involved to provision pools of desktops and applications within Horizon. The more you build out pools and run through the operations of Horizon the easier it will be.
- Understanding basic administrator settings within Horizon is helpful. Knowing where to configure them within the console is key to saving time.
- Troubleshooting was a large part of the exam. The exam outline covers many of the topics I saw on the exam. Also be familiar with troubleshooting performance issues from within the virtual desktop and remotely, using more than just Horizon. Think Windows Performance.
- Knowing the options within the Horizon Helpdesk tool and how to use them.
- Spend time running through Windows optimization for virtual desktops. Understand the basics or key steps in building an image. A full guide can be found here.
- Spend some time with VMware Identity Manager and the integration it can provide for Horizon. Understanding how to add and permission users with and without vIDM is important.
- Be familiar with the Active Directory requirements and configuration options to support a Horizon deployment. You may have to spend some time in AD to complete some questions. Knowing how basic optimization and some settings can be controlled by GPO is helpful.
- Just because this is focused on the EUC portfolio, don’t forget best practices within vSphere. Knowing best practices for the Horizon infrastructure within vSphere and how to set it up could be helpful.
- Running through various user assignment scenarios including admin, pool/app assignments, as well as Global CPA entitlement is helpful.
- Make sure you run through basic administrative tasks within App Volumes and Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM). Some of these tasks can take a little while to complete so the more familiar you are the easier it will be.
- Logging. This can be a tough topic as different components have their own location and/or collection of logs. Spend some time here and understand how to collect logs from each component in the environment (Horizon, Client/Agent, UAG, etc). Some may require CMD while others can be gathered folders or a GUI.
A final note on the exam is to pay attention to the time. It’s easy to feel as if you have a lot of time to complete the 28 questions, but some of the questions require multiple steps and navigating around between multiple interfaces or virtual machines. I find it important to skip questions I don’t find easy and focus on getting as many questions completed right away. Then I spend the remaining time on the harder questions. The worst thing you can do is spend an hour fighting through question #2 causing you to run out of time and miss attempting the last few questions. You never know if the last 3 questions may be easy for you to answer.
I’d love to hear about other tips and tricks or how your exam experience goes so feel free to leave comments or reach out on twitter.
Good Luck and thank you for reading!
