This post is a review of the vSphere 6 – Install Configure and Manage (ICM) course with 360 GSP.
I previously took the vSphere 5 ICM course via 360 GSP, the review can be read here. As I had such a good experience with 360 GSP and the excellent lecturer Dai, I decided to go back to 360 GSP and do the vSphere 6 course. Now already being VCP5-DCV certified I did not need to take the course, I could have taken the VCP6-DCV exam straight away. I liked how the course was run previously and felt this would be beneficial to me in my study plan.
360 GSP offer the course over 4 weekends (Saturday and Sunday) – which is great for people working Mon-Fri. For anyone looking for a career move or advancement – I would recommend investing in yourself and taking this course if visualisation is the route you wish to go down. For example, I was previously working in the NHS, invested money and time and then progressed within my career. Of course this does not happen overnight but if you are dedicated, keen and highly motivated then this is possible.
Venue
360 GSP is located near Wembley.
The local station is StoneBridge Park and is on the London Overground and the Bakerloo line. The venue is within walking distance.
Parking on site – I was informed by students they had to park on local roads – this is free – however, do check there are no events happening at Wembley, as the rules on the road change. The car park located on site was half empty, and I am surprised the management of the building (Wembley Point, not under 360 GSP control) could not offer something here… Students inquired about this with security but was told to “contact management”.
The dodgy pub I mentioned in my last review is no longer there!
There is a local fast food place opposite the venue and some shops to grab alternative food.
Equipment and materials (including licenses/voucher!)
360 GSP have an established lab on site which is more than powerful enough for the labs exercises.
You get 2 course books and 1 lab book.
Once the course is completed you get a 70% exam voucher – this covers both the associate exam and the VCP – if you do not have a valid VCP exam – you will need to do both.
360 GSP also offer a 1 year free license on vSphere 6 Enterprise Plus, vCenter Server 6 standard, VMware Fusion 8 and VMware Workstation 12 via their OnTheHub webstore, so you can install the lab and get familiar with the material to pass the VCP exam.
The structure
As mentioned, this is spread over 4 weekends, Saturday and Sunday, the structure of the days are as follows:
Day 1
- Module 1 – Software-Defined Data Center
- Module 2 – Creating Virtual Machines
Day 2
- Module 4 – vCenter Server
- Module 5 – Configuring and Managing Virtual Networks
Day 3
- Module 6 – Configuring and Managing Virtual storage
- Extra module – Fibre-Channel SAN Storage
Day 4
- Module 7 – Virtual Machine Management
Day 5
- Module 8 – Resource management and Monitoring
Day 6
- Module 9 – Virtual HA and vSphere Fault Tolerance
- Module 10 – Host Scalability
Day 7
- Module 11 vSphere Update Manager and Host Maintenance
- Extra module – Access and Authentication
- Extra module – Storage Scalability
- Extra module – vSphere DPM
Day 8
- Module 11 vSphere Update Manager and Host Maintenance
360 GSP included some extra modules that were in the vSphere 4 ICM and vSphere 5 but were taken out by VMware to accommodate for new features.
Dai, the instructor, understands the subject and communicates very well. Dai interacts with the class and where possible asks the class for them to give their experiences and understanding on the subject – this makes it interactive and far more enjoyable but more importantly to stay awake (I have been in courses where I have fallen asleep due to the lack of interaction). Dai also takes questions during the course to make sure the subject is clear.
To make things clear, as someone made a comment about this on the previous review I wrote, Dai from 360 GSP states the course covers 60-70% of the exam material, this is quite common with most courses as its hard to condense all the information into a small time period. Therefore, you should use material from other sources to further your knowledge, read the exam blueprint, read the white papers from VMware, use vBrown videos and I would recommend grabbing a Pluralsight subscription (can cancel anytime) and watch the vSphere 6 course by Greg Shields.
For anyone reading this and decides to book the course, you won’t be disappointed. Please say hi to Dai from me 🙂
Next for me is to take the VCP6-DCV exam, i shall follow this up with a blog on the resources I have used (some briefly above).