Exam Profile: VMware Certified Advanced Professional - Cloud Infrastructure Administration Exam VCAP-CIA
Date: Jul 29, 2013
The VMware Certified Advanced Professional—Cloud Infrastructure Administration Exam VCAP-CIA is one of the new cloud-focused certifications from VMware that go beyond core vSphere virtualization knowledge. The exam validates your ability to install, configure, and administer complex, single, and multi-tenant public/private/hybrid VMware vCloud environments. It tests knowledge of installation and administration of vCloud Director, vCenter Chargeback, and the vShield Manager and Edge products. It requires the candidate has the core vSphere platform knowledge necessary to serve as a base for vCloud Director and its associated components.
The VCAP-CIA exam is one of two exams a candidate must take to achieve VCDX-Cloud certification, but it is only open to individuals that have achieved a VCP-level certification. Candidates that do not hold the VCP5-DCV, VCP5-DT, or VCP-Cloud certification must obtain that certification prior to attempting the VCAP-CIA exam. For more details about the VCAP-CIA exam and recommended courses, please see the VCAP-CIA Official Cert Guide and the VCAP-CIA site from VMware.
Exam Details
- Number of Questions: 32 live lab activities, with a short pre-exam survey consisting of 9 questions.
- Type of questions: These are real life lab activities, which have to be performed on real hardware; no multiple choice questions or simulated activities are used. Passing Score: 300, on a scaled score of 100 to 500
- Time Limit: 210 minutes for the exam plus an additional 15 minutes for the pre-exam survey. Candidates testing in countries where English is not the primary spoken language will have an additional 30 minutes for the exam (240 minutes total)
- How to register: http://www.pearsonvue.com/vmware
Trouble Spots
In general, candidates should have thorough knowledge of all aspects of the exam blueprint (listed below), but there are a few objectives that could cause particular trouble.
This exam builds on the VCP5-DCV and VCP-Cloud foundation knowledge; however, in additional to knowledge of VMware vCloud and virtualization concepts, the exam requires extensive experience of the technology to correctly configure each task.
In a typical work environment, a candidate will gain experience of the implementation of a particular storage type or network configuration, for example. Be prepared to configure any network type (Direct Connect, Routed or Isolated) or storage profile. Also prepare to create pVDC, Merge them, create Org and Org vDC etc. Prepare to create vApps and vApp Catalogs as well.
Networking is a very key component of a vCloud environment and the exam reflects this importance. Networking is generally one of the weaker skills of vSphere and server administrators, so this can be an area of particular difficulty. With this, one can get difficulty in understanding and implementing VXLAN also. Another aspect which is newly introduced is Storage Profile which is combined with VMware vCloud Director. There are some caveats which need to be taken care while handling Storage Profile combined with vCloud Director.
Similarly, vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS, formerly vShield Manager and vShield Edge devices) is also a key component of vCloud Director and the VCAP-CIA exam. Knowledge and experience with DHCP, NAT, and VPN services, and how these are configured within vCloud, are all necessary for success with this exam.
Chargeback is a relatively new concept for most vSphere administrators but should be thoroughly understood prior to taking the exam. Reporting, cost models, and configuration details of vCenter Chargeback are important components of a VMware vCloud infrastructure and candidates should take care to fully understand the details of vCenter Chargeback.
Preparation Hints
The most important aspect of this exam is practical experience of the technology. To enable efficient and thorough study of the blueprint content, build a test lab consisting of at least one vCD Cell Server, one vShield Manager, two ESXi hosts and a vCenter Server and one vCenter Chargeback Manager. This can be accomplished using VMware Workstation or Fusion or similar products running on a powerful workstation or laptop, or with dedicated home lab resources.
Practice installing and configuring each aspect of the blueprint. Understand how to complete tasks from the vCloud Director GUI, vShield Manager GUI, vSphere Web Client and the vCenter Chargeback Manager GUI. It also requires you to practice some command line options in vCD Cell, specially configuring certificates and some management functions.
Unless the exam question states otherwise, no specific method is required to complete the tasks; however, in some cases the command line interface is the only method. For an example, you can only use command line to put a vCD Cell in maintenance mode.
Ensure all documentation in the blueprint is covered in preparation work. By being familiar with the information contained in each paper, time can be saved during the exam.
Join the VMware community for VCAP. There is a wealth of VCAP information to be found, primarily created by IT professionals studying the content. There are several web-based study groups who present videos on various blueprint objectives and one of them is vBrownbag. These are ideal to save and watch while completing the tasks on a home lab.
There are no prerequisite courses; however, the following official course is recommended: vSphere: Optimize and Scale.
Take advantage of the free online labs available via the VMware Hands-On Labs (HOL) online. Many of these labs are the same as those that were available during VMworld 2012, while others are new. In addition, several videos are available on the official VMware YouTube channel.
Recommended Study Resources
Aside from the official courses and other material mentioned above, the following study resources are recommended to ensure success on the exam:
- The Official VCAP-CIA Certification Guide
- Blueprint on the VMware Certified Advanced Professional—Cloud Infrastructure Administration Exam site
- The official product documentation referenced in the blueprint.
- The free videos offered by VMware Education Services
Exam Objectives
Prior to taking this exam, candidates should understand each of the following objectives:
Section 1—Configure and Maintain vCloud Director
- Objective 1.1—Configure centralized logging
- Determine use cases for and configure local and syslog options for vCloud Director
- Configure and administer logging options for VMware vShield Manager
- Configure Log4j options for vCloud Director
- Objective 1.2—Configure vCloud Director for scalability
- Identify vCloud Director Installation methods
- Identify vCloud Director Installation options
- Generate vCloud Director response files
- Add vCloud cells to an existing installation using response files
- Set up vCloud Director transfer storage space
- Configure vCloud Director load balancing
- Objective 1.3—Maintain vCloud using command line tools
- Manage and maintain vCloud Director cells using the cell management tool
- Install and manage a vCloud Director installation using the configure script
- Manage vCloud services using Red Hat command line tools including service, chkconfig and netstat
- Collect logs for troubleshooting using the support script
- Objective 1.4—Configure Alarms and Notifications
- Configure SMTP and notification settings
- Configure warning alerts
- Create System maintenance message
- Objective 1.5—Manage vCenter Chargeback reports
- Generate and archive basic reports
Section 2—Manage vSphere Resources
- Objective 2.1—Add vSphere compute resources to vCloud Director
- Add new vCenter servers to vCloud Director
- Prepare/unprepared hosts in vCloud Director
- Add ESXi hosts to vCenter
- Manage ESXi hosts and DRS resource pools in vCenter
- Objective 2.2—Manage vSphere storage resources
- Identify components, characteristics and features of vSphere storage
- Decommission storage
- Create and manage storage profiles
- Objective 2.3—Manage vSphere network resources
- Identify vSphere networking components
- Create and manage vSphere port groups
- Configure vSphere network options including MTU and VLAN
- Prepare vSphere cluster for VXLAN
Section 3—Manage vCloud Director Resources
- Objective 3.1—Manage Provider VDCs
- Identify Provider VDC options
- Create and Provider VDCs
- Merge or Expand Provider VDCs
- Manage Provider VDC options
- Objective 3.2—Manage vCloud Director network resources
- Identify vCloud Director network pool types
- Create and manage network pools
- Create Provider external networks
- Manage and remove network resources
- Objective 3.3—Manage Organization VDCs
- Identify org VDC types
- Identify org VDC options
- Identify org VDC network options
- Configure storage tiers
- Create, manage and delete org VDCs
- Objective 3.4—Manage an Organization
- Identify Organization options and their uses
- Create and manage Organizations<
- Manage Organization policies and settings
Section 4—Manage Complex vCloud Director Networks
- Objective 4.1—Configure Organization and vApp network services
- Configure DHCP and DNS relay
- Configure and maintain Virtual Private Networks
- Configure and maintain firewall rules including source and destination NAT
- Configure and maintain static routes
- Objective 4.2—Create and maintain cloud networks
- Configure and maintain direct and routed internal, external and vApp networks
- Configure Edge Gateways for availability and scalability
Section 5—Manage Security
- Objective 5.1—Manage vCloud Director SSL Certificates
- Create and process certificate requests
- Replace default certificates
- Objective 5.2—Configure and manage vCD access control
- Configure LDAP (Active Directory and Open LDAP)
- Import users and groups from a LDAP source
- Create and assign roles
- Configure Organization LDAP using a unique DN
- Configure and maintain VMware Single Sign-On for vCloud Suite products
Section 6—Manage catalogs and vApps
- Objective 6.1—Share vApps and catalogs
- Manage catalog sharing and access levels
- Manage vApp sharing and access levels
- Manage Catalog and vApp ownership
- Objective 6.2—Create and deploy vApps
- Customize vApps
- Manage guest customization including SYSPREP utilities
- Create and deploy vApps
- Objective 6.3—Create and configure catalogs
- Create and share catalogs
- Import vSphere virtual machines and templates in to a catalog
- Import media into a catalog
- Manage vApps and media in a catalog
- Objective 6.4—Manage vApp storage settings
- Create and share catalogs
- Create and share catalogs
- Import vSphere virtual machines and templates in to a catalog
- Import media into a catalog
- Manage vApps and media in a catalog
Where to Go from Here
The VCAP-CIA certification, regardless of the path taken to obtain it, is a mid-level certification for the VMware vCloud suite of products. The certification will validate your ability to install and administer a vCloud infrastructure and position you to move deeper in the cloud infrastructure certification track. The VMware Certified Advanced Professional—Cloud Infrastructure Design certification should be your next goal if you intend to continue within the track and on to VCDX —Cloud. VCAP Cloud Infrastructure Design (VCAP-CID) exam takes a much deeper dive in to architecting and designing a vCloud infrastructure. Both the VCAP-CIA and VCAP-CID certifications will be necessary to pursue the coveted VCDX certification in the cloud track.
Whether your vCloud certification ends with VCAP-CIA, or you intend to journey all the way to the top and obtain VCDX-Cloud…good luck!