Hey all, I have been wanting to do this for a while but am just now getting around to it.

I passed my Hoirzon VCAP Design cert several months back and wanted to post about my experience and what I thought about my exam.

I have taken a good amount of VMware(and other) certifications over the years and I have to say this is probably one fo the more difficult exams I have taken. It isn’t that the exam was “hard” and like most VMware exams I thought the exam was pretty fair.

The difficulty with this exam comes from the shear breadth of knowledge that is needed to do well on this exam. Let’s look at the number of things someone needs to know to do well on the exam:

  • Horizon
  • App Volumes
  • User Environment Manager
  • Thinapp
  • Unified access gateway
  • Identity Manager
  • vROPs with how it relates to Horizon

Any two or three of those could probably be enough to create an exam. Not to mention the design and sizing of all of these products. For instance, you can find tons of documentation about Horizon pods being able to support 2k(or 4K) desktops. This itself can be confusing because when you are trying to answer sizing questions it can be difficult to determine which number you should use.

Design around Thinapp can be tough from the the number of different deployment options. It can be deployed with Horizon, App Volumes, or even Identity Manager. Each of those deployment are not only different but the way Thinapp is entitled changes between each of them.

I am not ashamed to admit that I didn’t pass this exam on the first time. Again the exam is fair, like most VMware certification exams. Just the scope of topics are so broad it is pretty difficult to feel like you have appropriately studied for everything.

Anyway, I am not here to dissuade anyone from taking the exam. I just want to make sure everyone is adequately prepared.

In fact, as I am sure you might be looking for…here are some resources I found helpful:

Workspace One and Horizon Reference Architecture

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/workspace-one-and-horizon-reference-architecture

Horizon 7 Sizing Limits

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2150348

Sizing Formulas for Linked and Instant Clones

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.3/horizon-virtual-desktops/GUID-01B2506F-401E-4DA9-942C-311FB1F727EE.html

App Volumes Reference Architecture

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/app-volumes-reference-architecture

App Volumes Database Best Practices

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/vmware-app-volumes-2x-database-best-practices

UEM Deployment Considerations

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/user-environment-manager-deployment-considerations-guide

VCAP7-DTM Study Guide(For an older version of the exam, but still good information)

http://www.euc-kiwi.com/vcap7-dtm/

Setting Up True SSO

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.6/horizon-administration/GUID-7314E2AF-2DA0-4BD0-939D-F5F352B3EEE0.html

Hands On Labs Documentation

http://docs.hol.vmware.com/

Horizon Architecture Planning

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.7/horizon-architecture-planning/GUID-5CC0B95F-7B92-4C60-A2F2-B932FB425F0C.html

Horizon Upgrade Matrix

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon-7/7.5/horizon-upgrades/GUID-E9BB81A4-1054-4BBB-A43B-CB60A6EF909E.html

Deploying IDM

https://techzone.vmware.com/deploying-premises-vmware-identity-manager-vmware-workspace-one-operational-tutorial#265718

Horizon 7 Hero Path

https://techzone.vmware.com/becoming-horizon-7-hero

All the Techzone Horizon Resources

https://techzone.vmware.com/resource/horizon

This list is by no means the only things you should study, however I hope maybe there is an item or two you can add to you own study plan.

I hope this helps!

Categories: VMware

1 Comment

sumanthk · December 30, 2019 at 3:40 am

Thats true, Its so Confusing even i given two times without progress and my third one cleared it..

Leave a Reply