Tag: Certification

How I studied for the VMware VCP-NV 2023 Network Virtualization NSX-T Exam

I recently took the VCP-NV 2023 exam, also referred to as 2V0-41.20. The platform has been completely rebuilt since I took the VCP6-NV exam in 2018. I want to share some of the resources I used and hopefully help someone else to take and pass the exam.

Pluralsight

There is a Pluralsight course called: VCP-NV 2022: VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (2V0-41.20). This course goes through many concepts and then has labs you can follow along with. Watching the approximately eight hours of content was very helpful for me because although I understood many of the networking concepts, I needed to know how things were done differently in NSX-T.

Hands On Labs

If you do not have a lab or maybe you don’t have the storage and compute resources necessary in your home lab to run a full NSX implementation, I would highly suggest using VMware Hands On Labs. It’s free and it is a great way to learn.

Using Your Home lab

I spent quite a bit of time messing with NSX in my home lab. This is one of the best ways for me to learn. I even found a way to install NSX from vCenter that was not mentioned in the videos on Pluralsight. The things I learned were a little bit less about helping me with the exam and more about understanding how things would work in a production environment.

Practice Exams

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any practice exams. What I had to do was make notes around everything listed in the exam guide. Also took a look at some resources, like this one from vBrownBag on YouTube to prepare me for the exam. The one I linked is for the 2.4 version of NSX-T, but I found a lot of the concepts to be the same.

Conclusion

These are the tools that I found invaluable in helping me learn the material needed to pass this exam. I hope that they can be of service to you as well.

How I studied for the AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions Exam

I recently took and passed the AZ-305 exam. I wanted to share some of the resources I used so that they may help someone else take and pass this exam. I took the AZ-104 exam four months before and felt there was a natural progression, but the AZ-305 was much more difficult.

Free Microsoft Resources

There are three resources from Microsoft that I found helpful in studying for this exam. First is the Microsoft Learn portal. It has tons of modules to browse through, especially if you only need help with certain concepts. Second, there is the lab material on GitHub. Third, is the study guide, which gives you an outline of what topics you should fully understand in order to pass the exam.

John Savill’s Technical Training on YouTube

Just as I did in studying for the AZ-104 exam, I relied heavily on John Savill’s videos on YouTube. Specifically, the AZ-305 playlist and the AZ-305 study cram video. These videos were crucial for me to better understand what I had read.

Playing Around in the Azure Environment

Just like with my AZ-104 exam preparation, I cannot overstate how important it is to actually play around in Azure. Create a VM. Create a resource group. Peer a network. All of these things were very important for me to understand how the different services interact.

Using the Official Practice Test from MeasureUp

Once I felt that I had mastered all the concepts, I turned to the official practice test from MeasureUp to ensure that I had a feel for what type of questions would be asked. This helped me bring everything I learned together.

Conclusion

These are the tools that I found invaluable in helping me learn the material needed to pass this exam. I hope that they can be of service to you as well.

How I studied for the AZ-104 Azure Administrator Associate Exam

When I took the Azure AZ-104 exam in August, I was able to pass confidently because I used the following resources. I hope that if you’re studying for the exam, you find the same resources helpful.

Exam Ref AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator

I actually bought and read the physical copy of the exam reference guide from Microsoft. I took it with me everywhere for about a month. Anytime I had to wait for anything, I started reading the book. This helped me build a framework for understanding the various concept the exam covers.

Playing Around in the Azure Environment

I cannot overstate how important it is to actually play around in Azure. Create a VM. Create a resource group. Peer a network. All of these things were very important for me to understand how the different services interact.

John Savill’s Technical Training on YouTube

John Savill’s AZ-104 playlist and study cram video were very instrumental in helping me pull all the concepts together. It is amazing that all his content is available on YouTube for free.

Using Tutorials Dojo Practice Exams

The Tutorials Dojo practice exams helped me bring all the concepts together. The questions were similar in concept to what was in the exam, but crucially, they were not brain dumps. The reason I like practice exams is that I learn to think a little more critically about scenarios that I may experience in real life.

Conclusion

These tools helped me study for and pass the exam. I hope that they help you along in your Azure certification journey.