ccnp datacenter large

Exam Experience – Cisco CCNP Datacenter – 642-998 Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing (DCUCD) – #vDM30in30

Evening,

Sorry for the long title.

There is two reasons as to why you would be taking this exam. The first is because you want to achieve the CCNP Datacenter title, or the second is because your company requires you to, so they can achieve the Unified Computing Technology Specialization.

My reason was the second, but the Cisco Datacenter track is something I am interested in in the long run.

If your going for the partner route like me, you are not required to have the CCNA DC under your belt. But if you want to achieve the CCNP DC, you need to complete the correct pre-reqs, which can be found here.

The exam is 90 minutes with around 70 questions. The recommendation is to undertake the Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing course from an authorised Cisco Learning Partner. Which is exactly what I did, and then sat the exam straight after.

I will blog about the course separately.

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Exam Experience

So the exam was the usual Cisco, its made of majority multiple choice questions, and I also had two small testlets.

I found the majority of the questions easy, however I also noticed a few things, such as CCNP R+S type questions being present. And a number of questions which I’d expect to be found in the Unified Fabric exams as well. Overall though if you take the course you should be fine, but pay close attention to whats in the course no matter how small, or seemingly marketing type questions.

For this exam, especially for anyone without a good knowledge and experience of the Nexus/UCS portfolio as well as the technologies which surround the products, I would read the exam blueprint back and forth until my eyes bled. I was slightly thrown off by one technology that cropped up that I had only read about once, luckily the answers were obvious if you knew what that technology was trying to achieve.

Unfortunately this exam is a bit hard to write about without breaking the NDA, but study hard, know your Cisco terminology and read carefully in any text books, study guides etc, how things are worded, as this is key to some of the questions. Oh and get ready to know your nexus and UCS server products.

Summary

I think for this exam, even if you’re doing it for partner accreditation reasons, you need to have a good understanding of Networking up to a CCNP Level, or an awareness of the topics and technologies in the CCNP R+S course. Secondly, I would say that CCNA DC has to at least be understood and the study book read once, otherwise you will find gaps in your knowledge as these technologies, software and fancy terms come out of nowhere.

This exam isn’t your usual partner exam that’s slightly easy so you pass, and your company gets added onto the partner program. This is a full on exam used for the CCNP Datacenter track, so don’t waste your money and under-estimate!!!
Regards

Dean

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