Time to get Certified – VCTA DCV 2020 (1V0-21.20) exam experience

VMware Certified Technical Associate - Data Center Virtualization 2020

I’m not usually one for taking exams but thought it’s about time I get officially certified. Data Centre Virtualisation is my bread and butter so this is where I want to focus in the immediate future and the usual VCP > VCAP path is already mapped out. Whilst I’m lucky enough to have been on all of the vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 Install, Configure, Manage, Optimize & Scale and Troubleshooting courses, these don’t satisfy the requirement to take the latest VCP-DCV exam as it’s based on vSphere 7.0. I’m looking in to attending the Optimize and Scale plus Troubleshooting Fast Track training early next year but VMware announced new Technical Associate certifications for Operators at VMworld 2020 so I thought I’d go for the VCTA-DCV to get the certification ball rolling.

The VCTA is not a prerequisite for the VCP and there isn’t a requirement to attend a training course before taking the exam. VMware do offer a great self paced course available to anyone with a Premium Subscription on the VMware Customer Connect Learning platform which will cover an overview of the SDDC, VMware features and the skills to perform day to day operational tasks in a vSphere environment.

The exam is online proctored so requires a webcam which is recording and monitored at all times. I had to send photos of my work space and room to prove any additional monitors were removed, my desk was clear and no electronic devices were present. I then had a quick chat with a proctor and had to scan around my room with my webcam to ensure these pre reqs were met again.

The 1V0-21.20 exam consists of 51 questions and has a time limit of 135 minutes. This is a generous amount of time if you’re comfortable with vSphere and covered the provided self paced course but the questions were a lot more technical than I thought they would be. I felt the exam requires you to have managed a vSphere environment for a considerable amount of time so you know its features, the environment and have a good understanding of what would happen in certain day to day scenarios.

Check out this link to the Official VMware website for more info on the VCTA-DCV certification: https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification/vcta-dcv.html

So I’ve passed and started my VMware Certification journey. This was a great beginner exam and does test your technical knowledge for day 2 operations. I’ve caught the bug to stay certified and I’m looking forward to testing myself further when I’m eligible to go for VCP-DCV in 2021.