I recently passed the VCAP-DCV Deploy 2022 exam. I was able to take this exam remotely from the comfort of my own home, which ended up being a significantly better experience than previous exams I have taken where they required the candidate to be on site at a testing center.
In 2018 I took the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert for Data Center lab exam (CCIE DC). There were many months of preparation and training required for that exam, and I would say that this exam was comparable in its complexity and the depth of knowledge required to pass it.
I think that if you are an experienced admin who has worked with vSAN and other main parts of the SDDC stack your chances are quite good at passing. But there will be more advanced questions or tasks that are "seen less commonly in the wild" in my opinion. So a candidate should take the following bullet points into consideration:
Intimate knowledge of the vSphere 7 GUI and location of configuration buttons and fields
Understand how to deploy and manage vSAN, and advanced vSAN configurations such as vSAN File Services and HCI Mesh.
Be able to comfortably use and implement advanced configurations with esxcli commands
Deep understanding of vSphere networking (vDS, Standard Switch) including security policies and Day-0 deployment tasks
Understanding of vSphere security mechanisms, such as identity and access management
All VMware lab exams are running in a VDI desktop environment. With that being said you should expect some latency and the occasional screen freezes that normally come with that territory. Its best to insure that you have a very stable internet connection before taking the exam.
I used these training resources that are freely available from VMware:
Virtualization 101 (HOL-2210-01-SDC)
VMware vSphere - Advanced Topics (HOL-2211-02-SDC)
VMware vSphere Automation - PowerCLI (HOL-2211-04-SDC)
VMware vSAN - Getting Started (HOL-2208-01-HCI)
VMware Odyssey - vSAN - Advanced (HOL-2208-81-ODY)
vSphere Distributed Switch - Lightning Lab (HOL-2210-91-SDC)
vSphere continues to be a well polished and reliable product that has kept up well with the times. I am proud to have completed this exam and will be working on other VMware certifications in the future.
