***

Just the Study Guide, please!

***

VMware has already said that NSX-T is our future. It is what underpins our VMware Cloud on AWS solution. As such, it was my targeted future to learn and obtain the VCP-NV based on NSX-T. In reality, this was on my radar since I joined VMware nearly 4 years ago but I just never got “around” to it. I know a lot of you know that feeling. I once heard someone on the VMware Women’s POD say, “It’s either a priority or it isn’t.” How true those words ring for you and I as well in our personal pursuits. What I’m trying to say is that obtaining this certification is either your priority or it isn’t. For me personally, this was not an easy certification. Actually, none of them are easy for me. And yes, I have failed them before. No one ever shouts at the top of their lungs that they failed. However, there is no shame in attempting. I hear that devil on your shoulder saying, “That’s easy for you to say since you’ve already passed the exam.” Yes, and part of the way I calmed my anxiety is using the tactics I read in the book I currently recommend called Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown. There were many things to learn from that book but one that stuck with me was how the human brain learns(or how the synapses that make up our memory are created) is through repeated exposure to the knowledge. One of the most well known and effective methods of learning is to test yourself. So if you fail an exam, it will help you remember the parts you missed so you go back and review those topics. It’s literally “muscle memory.”

Ok, enough philosophizing. Get to the point, Frances. Where’s the stuff I need to learn?

Fine. First things first.

Do you know what NSX-T even is?

And I don’t mean, “Yeah, I know NSX is network virtualization.”

No, I mean do you know the portfolio and all the things it’s capable of?

Let’s start there.

General NSX-T Information

VMware’s Networking Business Unit Blog has a great starting point because you’ve got to know what VMware’s perspective is on how NSX addresses the networking industry as a whole. Yeah, there’s some kool aid but you have to know what’s so good about NSX in order to orient your thought processes. Frame your mind up on how you are going to discover the good stuff that makes NSX unique and powerful. Your approach must be one of fascination and curiosity. Otherwise, it’s a bore. 5871 on RabbitMQ. 1235 for topology changes. Zzzzzz……

How about one of the three NSX Brains Controller uses port 1235 to push the validated firewall rules to the ESXi hosts and the ESXi host sends the stats/metrics back to another NSX Brains Manager through port 5871? Well, now the guts of this beast is a little more interesting.

Ok, so I’m nerding out some. And really, if this stuff doesn’t interest you, it’s going to be an uphill battle. (And for you, I would heavily recommend using the Flash Cards to solidify the concepts)

Explore the vCommunity Resources

Next up, we have a number of vCommunity members that have done a great job of covering NSX. Again, I recommend these because their overlapping content helps reinforce the information again and again in your brain. Only until you start filling in the words to the next sentence you read do you realize you finally have remembered what was written.

Britton recently did a 4 part series on NSX-T on vBrownBag:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Paul wrote up Test/Practice Questions for you to test yourself.

Honestly, I wrote up the Study Guide because I could not find much complete study materials on NSX-T 2.4 specifically.

**Short Tangent on my Study Tactics

My Exam Study Process

Material Review

I go over the same material 4 or 5 times. <- Use the Study Guide below.

Lab It UP

Then I practiced in a lab a few times. <- Use the On Demand Class or HOL‘s.

Recall, then Recall again via Flash Cards

Then I use flash cards to see if the synapses have been created and are strong enough to recall the data. <- Use the Quizlet Flash Cards below.

Do you need to recall that data 4 years from now? No, but the memory needs to be strong enough to recall and process the information easily within a few weeks.

For example, if I asked you how I would troubleshot network connectivity from one vm to another vm in a NSX-T environment, do you know what tools you would use? I would assume you already know what UI tools and what command line tools you need to assess.

***End of Tangent

Formal Training

Alright.

Let’s move on to the formal training.

Look. If you’re coming in cold, VMware requires that you complete (ahem, pay for) a class as a part of the certification requirement. Since I took the NSX-T 2.4 Exam, I will provide the courses for NSX-T 2.4.

This is the in person (& today virtual only) class:

NSX-T 2.4 ICM (Install, Configure, & Manage Course)

Next up is the On Demand Class, which I actually recommend to take at your own pace. If you have done some of the reading above and been looking at NSX for a while, the On Demand class will dive deep and provide a lab for 30 days for you.

NSX-T 2.4 ICM On Demand Course offered in the VMware Learning Zone

So I will list that there is indeed an Exam Prep Course that VMware offers but I found it difficult to follow the pace. You may have better results. Regardless, it is another resource.

VMware Professional NSX-T Data Center 2.4 Exam Prep

As you may have noticed, the last two are available on the VMware Learning Zone. I personally have been a fan of the VMware Learning Zone for many years, even before I joined VMware. I had purchased it for myself at my last company. Don’t quote me but I think it is $1000 for a year of unlimited on demand training of whatever VMware’s got thats pre-recorded. If you can get your company to cover it, it might be worth it. I like it because it allows me to do a class whenever I want and not beholden to some scheduled course that clashes with whatever I have going on.

*Current as of today, June 4th, 2020, VMware is offering the VMware Learning Zone for 6 months free of charge.

Check it out here!

The NSX-T 2.4 Study Guide

We come to this big document that I started building, the NSX-T 2.4 Study Guide. It is 29 pages long. It will cover ONLY what is on the exam. I took the Exam Blueprint and ripped out everything that they said they would not test you on. Then I filled in all the basic information in every section that was covered in the NSX-T ICM courses. I included screenshots to help you reference where things are as the material can get a little dry.

Quizlet Flash Cards

And last but not least, I did create a set of 90 Flash Cards on Quizlet when I ran through both the live and on demand NSX-T class to help me remember the materials.

You can access them here.

Yes, my Quizlet ID was created on a whim. 😀

These flash cards will test you on your knowledge and I tried to help test your comprehension and usage of the concepts as well.

Taking the Exam

Two last things about the exam.

One – I found half the exam will test you on theoretical and half will test you based on real world scenarios. You must be adept at both. When I was in practice, I would get the real world questions really well but the theoretical threw me because when you are practitioner, you just care about how to get it to work and troubleshot. And when you are architecting, you need to know high level how everything works and where everything is.

Two – If you are taking the Pearson Vue Virtual Exam, allot plenty of time for prepping for getting into the exam alone.

Goodness, I nearly had a heart attack when I couldn’t log in to take my exam. It took me 25 minutes to figure out my privacy blocker was killing the link and would default me into the VMware Certification site. Click the link and check the link to unblock. Click another link and check to make sure the next one is not blocked either.

Then if you make it through (like seriously, I was hyperventilating at this point), you have to download their specific app of 88Mbs. (!!!)

Yo, it’s not over yet!

Ok, you’ve done everything they asked for(take pictures of your office, kick everyone out, you can no longer go pee, etc), now you have to wait for a live person to check all the stuff you sent them. The app turns on your camera and records you waiting.

Yeah, you read that right. And you can’t leave the screen. Otherwise, they threaten to revoke your exam altogether.

Mind you – you are now in the queue and can’t get up. Their default notes say they aim to start your exam within 15 minutes of your scheduled time.

I waited 45 minutes.

I feel asleep a few times.

Do you have any idea how excited a person can get when they get a chat message after 45 minutes where you can’t do sh.t on your system, can’t move, can’t pee, can’t scratch your…???

Ok, then they proceed to tell me I can’t use an external monitor and have to unplug. Of course, the moment I unplugged, the app died a horrid frozen death. Thank goodness I screenshot their custom check in code and the person helping me already had my cell phone number so we could restart.

Now, my exam was over 2 hours. I ended up late to my meeting afterwards due to this hoopla. So lesson here is don’t schedule anything important afterwards either!

Yeah, other than that ^^, the exam experience was great at home. =|

I guess that’s why a bunch of us blog. Ain’t no one want to repeat that across the world!

And with that, Good Luck to everyone looking to take the exam!