Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) v8 – Exam experience
After attending the Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) version 7 course and passing the VMCE v7 exam last year I needed to update the VMCE to version 8 during the grace period which is 120 days after a major version of the software, course and exam was released. In our case the deadline was extended to June 31 ,2015. Not much time if you’re a VMCE v7 and want to upgrade to v8.
The Veeam Certified Engineer (VMCE) course is a technical deep-dive that provides extensive information on Veeam solutions.
The VMCE certification is documented proof that an engineer possesses the necessary level of expertise to correctly architect, implement and configure Veeam Software solutions. It is a great investment for an IT professional looking to increase productivity, reduce operating costs, propel personal career advancement and achieve industry recognition.
Exam prerequisites
You have to attend the Veeam Certified Engineer technical training course. This course provides the core knowledge necessary to both implement and optimize the Veeam solution. This class has a focus on the integration of the Veeam Software with VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments. The class will also educate the engineer on techniques used to implement & optimize the backup, recovery and replication setup to maximize the value achieved in the Veeam solution.
This course is delivered through Veeam distribution partners using certified instructors in a live in person or live online course setting.
ILT is held on pre-scheduled dates in a consecutive 3 day period, scheduling is established by the individual VMAEC’s and the entire schedule is available on the Veeam website.
The whole course material is PDF only, for some people this is good (like myself) for other people who need to mark pages or write direct to the course book it’s not so good.
If you have an existing Pearson VUE account you have to register an additional account for the VMCE exam. I don’t know, why you can’t use the existing. If somebody know that please leave a comment.
If you’re a VMCE v7 and it’s still during the grace period you don’t need to attend a VMCE v8 course. You only need to complete the free online “VMCE v8 – What’s new” course which is available at Veeam University.
Exam
Like the VMCE v7 exam the v8 exam includes 50 randomized questions from each of the course modules. The exam must be taken at a Pearson VUE local testing facility. The VMCE certification is awarded to scores of 70% or higher. If you take the VMCT (Veeam Certified Trainer) exam you need a score of 85% or higher.
The exam duration is 70 minutes plus 30min time extension for non-native English speaker living in non-English-speaking country. So i had a total of 100 minutes to complete the exam which is a lot time. I finished my exam in 60 minutes which was little bit longer as for the v7 exam.
Some of the questions were answered in second others need some time to recall the available items in the GUI. A lot of question can also be answered by the method of elimination, e.g. 2 out of 4 or 3 out of 4 where you “only” need to find the answers which is not correct.
Overall I found the exam good. If I had more time to prepare I would have got a better score.
Preparation
Unfortunately I had not enough time for doing home lab preparation. I completed the What’s new online course and did both VMSP and VMSTP on v8 to get a little bit prepared for the exam. In addition I read through some new features in v8 using the User Guide.
Exam result
I was really nervous after I clicked “End Exam” and I was not getting better when I first saw the survey which you need to compete before you get your final results. But in the end I passed with 78% which was not bad but also not as good as the 86% for the v7 exam. There is lot of room for improvement but because I don’t use it at the customer side anymore the exam was only for staying up to date without attending a course.
Another good VMCE v8 exam experience posts can be found here:
My experience with VMCE Exam 8 – Andrea Mauro
Veeam VMCE v8 Exam Experience – Dean Lewis
My personal VMCE 8 experience – Niels Engelen