I recently sat the VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Desktop and Mobility Deployment exam (3V0-653). I thought I would share my experience with this exam, as I found several blogs on the DCV exams, but not on Desktop and Mobility.
This was my second attempt for the same exam as first attempt failed because of lab issues and I got voucher to. retake it again and I cleared it successfully
The Good , the Bad and the Ugly:
- VCAP6-DTM Deployment is still required to achieve VCIX7 as till now November 2019 there is no VCAP Deployment exam for DTM rather than version 6 and if you want to go for VCDX-DTM you have to complete VCAP7-DTM Design+VCAp6-DTM Deployments
- The exam include VMware Mirage which is going to end of life phase , so need to lean practice and master something you will use in future, however I got the chance to use this product which I can say its very storing solution and I like it honestly J
- Most of HOL (hands of lab)related to this exam have been removed from VMware website include Horizon 6, Thin App and Mirage
- In the first attempt of the exam I face a lot of issues related to VMware lab and VUE and I had to escalate it in order to look in my issue and at the end they confess there was technical issues …this because most of products in exam obsolete. However Than you VMware for the following up and the Voucher
- I can say here , the time assigned for this exam is very tight ,and there is no much time to think about any solutions which is somehow they want it like this by design
- Since the exam is designed for Horizon 6 you need to thin as Horizon 6 , so whatever you know in Horizon 7 or 7.10 will not help you here much unless it is same in Horizon 6
- I took this exam in Riyadh and there is no much VUE exam centers to attend for exam (1 or 2 maximum ), the nearest appointment would be 3.months from your booking date so I took a decision to travel 300 KM by car to attend the exam were I lost more than half day in driving the car
Tips and Hint
Some tips for the time management when you will attempt the exam:
- To give your self motivation, schedule the exam before you start your exam study or somehow not after you finish but allow for a reasonable study preparation period.
- Manage the time carefully in the exam ,there is no non-native English speaker time extension, 205 minutes is what everyone gets.
- Go through the exam blue print it include all you need to close this exam
- It worth to have home lab or lab in your office to practices , this will enhance your skill and your speed to answer in the exam
- The exam is life case scenario so don’t thin much in questions and answered it directly
- Familiarize with the subjects. Read through the exam objectives and practice those in your own lab or hands on labs. These blog posts were very helpful:
- Going through the VCAP6-DTM Deploy Study guide several times with this blog post series: https://szumigalski.com/2016/08/01/vcap6-dtm-study-guide/.
- Prepare yourself about the exam lab environment with this blog post: http://sostechblog.com/2016/07/26/vcap6-dtm-desktop-and-mobility-deployment-exam-launch/.
- https://tpetersit.blogspot.com/p/vcap6-dtm-deployment-guide.html
- https://virtualdesktopsite.wordpress.com/home/vcap-6-dtm-deployment/
- Sometime you will face a problem in the lab related to network , license or even windows error , if you can solve the issue fast do it , however I recommend to ignore it and go for another question as your time is limited
- Mirage base layer and application layer capturing, restoring, as well as App Volumes capturing take time to complete. Make a note on your whiteboard and do some other questions while these are capturing. Return to see the progress.
- Set your environment to a comfortable screen resolution, mine was to set the screen to 1024×768. Also change this resolution in the Remote Desktop Manager. If you happen to need console access to a virtual machine (mostly RDP will work), use the web client not VMRC or the vSphere client console as the CTRL-ALT are not working.
- Prepare your exam lab experience. Do VMware Hands on Labs from the EUC mobily courses. Is it not for the subjects, is it knowing how to operate the lab environment. The exam lab is the same as the hands-on labs. I used several HOL-1751-MBL-1 and so on. Do note the Horizon are not the versions used in the VCAP6 version, but most items are still in the right place. I have also used Ravello Cloud for my labs. Bonus with the HOL’s is that you already have the password to use in the exam drilled.
- Once at the exam, go through the exam questions, start the capturing’s, complete the ones you know, skip the ones you don’t know or are not sure about. You can navigate back and forth through the tasks, but don’t go skipping in berserk mode. Have some idea what questions are for what subjects, use your white board to write done the questions, make notes and mark completed, in progress or fail.
- Don’t panic in the exam , especially in the last minitues and keep calm as your last question my save you in this exam
The Exam
The exam VMware Certified Advanced Professional 6 – Desktop and Mobility Deployment Exam (3V0-653) is comprised of 39 questions and you have 205 minutes to complete them. The questions are lab environment with tasks to be done or problem to be solved technically, you will have ace through control station to your lab where you will have reachability to all solution components the passing score is 300
The exam is validated against Horizon version 6/Mirage 8.x and identity manager . You are allowed to use a calculator and windows resources in your lab , also you are allowed to use the whiteboard sheet and marker provided by the examination center.
This exam tests your skills and abilities in implementation of a VMware Horizon 6.x solution, including deployment, maintenance, administration of Horizon components, desktop optimization, desktop pool management, endpoint management and storage.
+ Section 1 – Configure Horizon Components
+ Objective 1.1 – Configure and Manage Horizon View Components
+ Objective 1.2 – Configure and Manage VMware Mirage Components
+ Objective 1.3 – Configure and Manage VMware Identity Manager Components
+ Objective 1.4: Configure and Manage vRealize Operations for Horizon
+ Objective 1.5: Collect Diagnostic Information and Locate Log Bundles
+ Section 2 – Configure and Optimize Horizon Desktop Images
+ Objective 2.1 – Configure Group Policy Settings Related to Horizon View
+ Objective 2.2 – Configure and Optimize Desktop Images for Horizon View and Mirage
+ Objective 2.3 – Configure vSphere Resource Management to Support Horizon Desktop Pools
+ Section 3 – Create and Manage Horizon Desktop Pools
+ Objective 3.1 – Create and Configure Horizon Desktop Pools
+ Objective 3.2 – Create RDS Farms and Application Pools
+ Objective 3.3 – Recompose/Refresh/Rebalance Desktop Pools
+ Objective 3.4 – Modify/Reconfigure Desktop Pools
+ Objective 3.5 – Entitle Desktop Pools Based on Requirements
+ Objective 3.6 – Configure/Modify View Composer Persistent Disks
+ Objective 3.7 – Configure Cloud Pod Architecture for Multi-Site Pool Access
+ Objective 3.8 – Configure and Manage App Volumes AppStacks
+ Objective 3.9 – Configure and Deploy ThinApp Packaged Applications
+ Section 4 – Configure and Manage Horizon Endpoints
+ Objective 4.1: Configure and Manage Horizon Desktop/Device/Web Endpoints
+ Objective 4.2: Configure a Kiosk Endpoint
+ Section 5: Configure and Administer VMware Mirage
+ Objective 5.1 – Configure/Capture/Deploy Reference and Endpoint CVDs
+ Objective 5.2 – Configure Common VMware Mirage Management Options
+ Objective 5.3 – Restore a VMware Mirage Endpoint
+ Objective 5.4 – Configure the Mirage File Portal
+ Section 6 – Configure and Administer VMware Identity Manager
+ Objective 6.1 – Configure User Access to VMware Identity Manager
+ Objective 6.2 – Integrate Desktop and Application Resources with VMware Identity Manager
+ Objective 6.3 – Integrate ThinApp Package Services with VMware Identity Manager
+ Objective 6.4 – Integrate Active Directory with VMware Identity Manager
+ Section 7 -Configure and Manage Storage for a Horizon Deployment
+ Objective 7.1 – Create a Virtual SAN Cluster and Configure View for Virtual SAN
+ Objective 7.2 – Configure and Optimize Storage for Horizon View Pools
+ Objective 7.3 – Configure Storage for VMware Mirage
+ Section 8 – Troubleshoot and Monitor a Horizon Deployment
+ Objective 8.1 – Troubleshoot a Horizon View Deployment using vROPs for Horizon
+ Objective 8.2 – Troubleshoot Performance Issues in Horizon Components
+ Objective 8.3 – Troubleshoot Mirage Installation/Configuration Issues
+ Objective 8.4 – Backup and Restore Horizon View Components
+ Objective 8.5 – Troubleshooting Connectivity Issues with Horizon Components