"Pivot3 vSTAC VDI Professional" Certification

Having completed the "Pivot3 vSTAC VDI Certified Professional" certification exam, I thought it will be a  nice idea to share some of the keynotes and guidelines for the aspiring candidates.

Pivot3 is a VMware partner, closely integrating with VMware's turnkey VDI solution: VMware View. They are the first one to be awarded by VMware for it's "Rapid Desktop Deployment" program. They also have partnership with other major vendors like Citrix, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, CA etc. Their products can be majorly divided into: vSTAC VDI (for VDI) and vSTAC Watch (for Storage). 
As you can see below in the picture, Pivot3 VDI Offering consists of two products mainly: the base appliance 



1. Pivot3 P Cube Starter Appliance: This acts as one single starter appliance with considerable storage, network etc. (see the picture below)

The necessary Virtualization Software (VMware vSphere ESXi and VCenter Server) and VDI servers (VMware View Connection Manager, Composer), Domain Controller (Active Directory with DNS, DHCP configured) are pre-installed. All you need to do is do the initial configuration and it is ready to 
deploy Virtual Desktops up to 1oo, aptly suited for POC approach. This can also connect to your production Active Directory through a Trust relationship in case you want to turn your POC Virtual Desktops to Production Desktops.


2. Pivot3 vSTAC VDI: Now as soon as you are satisfied with the POC and want to scale up, you will need larger storage. Go for a low-cost SAN type device. And there comes "Pivot3 vSTAC VDI" array appliance which caters up-to 1000 desktops per appliance.

Now that you have a brief idea about Pivot3's VDI offering, let's talk about the certification part:

Pivot3's certifications are not publicly available. You need to send an email to training@pivot3.com requesting for the training material and exam links. On this blog post, I will focus on "vSTAC VDI Certified Professional" certification only.

The study material consists of 6 audio/video modules to be downloaded from the link that you receive from Pivot3. The study time is approx. 4-5 hours depending on your prior knowledge on VMware vSphere and VMware View. They will also provide you with a link to some technical documents which I strongly recommend you to go through. Additionally, I would advise you to have some background on VMware View 5.x In case you are not familiar with it, you can sign in to http://mylearn.vmware.com and register for the FREE "VMware View: Fundamentals [V5.0]" course of 4 hours duration. I also suggest you to go to VMware's Official Youtube Channel to know more about VDI and View before you attempt this exam. The exam consists of 40 questions and 80% (32 out 40) is the passing mark. The exam will focus on two turnkey products of Pivot3: 

Pivot3 vSTAC VDI Architecture

1. P Cubed (Starter Appliance) 

2. vSTAC VDI. (SAN Storage or Storage Up-gradation) 

(Refer to the picture on the left)

Before going through the training modules and after you have gained substantial VMware View knowledge please go trough the product documentations thoroughly. The modules are NOT enough to pass the exam. I am going to include some of the links of technical documentation in my next blog post where I talk exclusively about Pivot3 VDI products.

The exam is free of charge, open book format and it is not time bound. But for this don't consider it to be a very easy exam to pass. You need real product studies to understand Pivot3's offering on the View (VDI) segment. And only way to do so is as much as you can read about P Cube Starter Appliance and vSTAC SAN Appliance. Since there is no sample question or any blog related to it, you may find it initially little difficult. But if you have good understanding on vSphere, View and Storage, it will be easy for you to crack. Once you hit the submit button you will receive a screen like this:

If you are interested to know more about Pivot3's products stay tuned to my blog. I am going to give an understanding from a beginner's point of view and probably will give a short tutorial (if I can) too.







Wish you all the best for "Pivot3 vSTAC VDI Professional" Certification! :)