The VMware Cloud Professional Multi-cloud (VCP-VMC) Certification: Better Know Your Networking

I recently passed the still-shiny VMware VCP-VMC Exam. As a VMware employee, I got to take it before its official release, so I got to be a guinea pig, as it were.

And just in case you need a little more detail, the VCP-VMC is VMware’s multi-cloud certification, focusing on VMware’s various multi-cloud and cloud-agnostic offerings.

And no, I am not going to do a brain dump or word-for-word sample questions because I don’t want to like, get fired and stuff.

I will, however, give you some tips and tricks and some priorities for you to focus on, so you can be warned about topics you need to know like the back of your hand.

The Lowdown

You can start where you should start with any exam: the exam guide.

From that very Exam Guide:

“The VMware Cloud Professional (2V0-33.22) which leads to VMware Certified Professional – VMware Cloud 2023 (VCPVMC 2023) certification is a 70-item exam, with a passing score of 300 using a scaled scoring method. Candidates are given 135 minutes to complete the exam, which includes adequate time to complete the exam for non-native English speakers.”

Feel free to read the rest of that for the requirements and what not, but that’s the gist.

One observation I can make is that if you are not a huge Network Engineer (which I am not; I am a compute/storage/OS/containers/kubernetes/automation engineer), then this exam might prove to be a challenge for you.

Anecdotally, I observed that any candidate with a Networking background seemed to have an easier time with it.

Those Tips and Tricks I Promised

Here are some focus points in no particular order. This is by no means an all-inclusive list. If you’ve ever taken an IT exam before, you should be aware that everything in the exam guide is up for grabs. You have to study everything. Here I am listing the types of things do do a deeper dive on, especially if you are a strict on-prem vSphere Engineer; this exam is meant to broaden your horizons:

1. You will need to know VMC on AWS to a 300-level. Particularly networking. Lots of networking. Like what methods to connect to VMC on AWS, VPC connections and their types, and so on. You’ll need to know this inside and out.
2. Don’t forget about Azure VMware Solution and Google Cloud VMware Engine, including cluster config maximums and hardware types.
3. Configuration and setup of the various VMware clouds (as above) and how to troubleshoot them.
4. HCX Setup and Networking. You’ll need to know this inside and out: how to connect HCX from on-prem to VMware Cloud implementations. Additionally, study what components you’ll need for setting up HCX given a scenario.
5. NSX architecture is also important.
6. The various Disaster Recovery options are also a big focus: SRM, VCDR, and VMware Site Recovery.
7. vSAN/VCF/SDDC: Everything in the various VMware clouds are built on these pillars.
8. Cloud Management in the form of vRealize (now Aria), including vROPS, vRLI, vRNI, vRA.
9. Troubleshooting, any of the above.

You’re Not Getting Out of Here Without at Least One Rant

There were only three . . . “recommendations for improvement” . . . we’ll call them, for the exam:

1. I am being a little nit-picky here, but on the topic of cloning VMs, you need to know that creating a clone of a Powered On VM is, “not an exact copy” because since the ensuing copy is not powered on, the two VMs are almost immediately inconsistent.
   
   Okaaaay . . . that’s true. But knowing that is completely meaningless. So what if it’s inconsistent? Are there people out there who expect it to be? It just seems a bit more about semantics or just making a point rather than knowing something useful.
   
   In my 12 years as a field engineer, I never wanted an exact copy of a running VM. I cloned it because I needed to scale up, make a non-prod clone, make a template, or make a quarantined copy.
   
   My cartoon brain keeps having this vision of a couple of the test-makers arguing in a meeting for hours about it until finally someone threw their hands up and said, “FINE CARL, WE’LL PUT YOUR STUPID QUESTION IN ABOUT CLONES NOT BEING AN EXACT COPY . . . JESUS! . . . Now let’s move on to the real work of coming up with messed up networking questions these poor schmucks have to answer.”
   
2. Memorizing the hardware specs available for each node type in VMC on AWS, AVS, and GCVE seems too ephemeral to be on an exam. First of all, you can look that up. Second of all, and more importantly, by the time I took the exam both AVS and VMC on AWS had added new node types and had announced that another was EoL. Maybe it was unfortunate timing, but I think it’s best to just stick to config maximums, like nodes per cluster and number of clusters.
   
3. And finally, I was told after I took the exam that the best place to give feedback about the exam is during the exam.
   
   . . . What kind of psychopath has the ability to give feedback about an exam . . . during the exam?
   
   “Yeah, question 42? Would not take again. 0 stars.”
   
   I am way too busy trying not to soil myself or to keep my heart from beating out of my chest, so taking the time to give feedback during the exam is not exactly top of mind while I am taking the exam.
   
   On the other hand, I get it. Sifting through all the unfounded complaints might prove untenable, so I can see the logic there.

Hit me up on twitter @RussianLitGuy or email me at bryansullins@thinkingoutcloud.org. I would love to hear from you!