640-911: Introducing Cisco Data Center Networking DCICN – Exam Resources

A little over a week ago I took and passed the 640-911: Introducing Cisco Data Center Networking DCICN by Cisco. I had a month to study and achieve this as my CCNA Routing and Switching was set to expire.

After much discussion and thought, I felt the CCNA Data Center was more relevant to the job I currently do. I can confirm once passed the 640-911 does extend the life of the CCNA Routing and Switching by a further 3 years.

Having already completed the CCNA Routing and Switching, I felt I knew some of the material already, such as how networks work, VLANs, Spanning-Tree, IP addressing/Subnetting and Routing. It was more a case of learning the new stuff – which for myself was around the Nexus devices.

The official cert study guide (linked below) has a ‘Do I know This Already’ quiz for each chapter, which is useful in establishing where you need to focus your efforts. I would recommend practising on subnetting for speed to save time in the exam.

The resources I used were as follows:

Book:

Training Videos:

Website resources:

I highly recommend this – How to prepare for Cisco CCNA Data Center 640-911 DCICN by Jens Depuydt

Exam prep

  • Review the exam objectives
  • You can book the exam via perarsonvue.com, make sure your name on your PerarsonVue account matches the ID you’re bringing. I noticed when trying to book the exam, a warning message in red advising of this
  • Make sure you have two forms of ID as per PearsonVue requirements
  • Get a good nights sleep
  • Arrive at least 15 minutes early
  • The exam is 90 minutes and consists of 65-75 questions
  • Do the tutorial at the start of the exam to get a feel for the format of the questions
Best of luck if you’re thinking about taken this exam!