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The VCAP-CIA is the administration VCAP related exam for the VMware Cloud certification path. Was released some months ago (after the common beta period) and is the second type “admin role based” exam (after the VCAP-DCA one).

Considering how is recent and new there are only few info about it: some exam experiences (mostly in the beta period), the confirmation that is based on vCloud Director 5.1 and of course the official page and documentation (including the blueprint). There is also a CIA LinkedIn Group to discuss your study plans.

Strange but there isn’t yet a demo of the virtual lab environment, but probably will be similar to the VCAP-DCA one (maybe with more VMs and systems).

I’ve not take it during the beta period, so also for me it’s just a work in progress. Hints are similar for the DCA exam: use the blueprint, the official documentation (that you also have in the exam lab, but only the official PDF as listed in the figure on the right, not the KB or the white-papers) and build a good lab to make practice!

The lab it’s very important so give more time as possible to it, and build and rebuild more than one time to make practice.

Lab

• Use the vCloud Director Virtual Appliance on Workstation (vInfrastructure blog)
• Building a vCloud Lab (Justin Paul posts series)
• Create your own virtual vCloud lab (Timo Sugliani posts series)
• My vCloud Journey Journal: Installing vCloud Director for Enterprize HomeLabs (Mike Laverick post)
• A vCloud Director lab is within reach, even on virtual lab setups

Resources

• vCloud Director concepts and architecture videos (based on v1.5 but still good for an overview)
• VMware vCloud Director Essentials (Trainsignal course)
• vCloud Director related posts on Yellow Bricks
• vCloud Director related post on Tom Fojta’s Blog
• VMware vCloud blog (there are some good posts)
• VCAP5-CIA and CID | TheSaffaGeek

Blueprint

• The VCAP-CIA 5 Study Sheet
• VCAP-CIA Study Material and Blue Print

Exam experiences

• My personal exam experience
• VCAP-Cloud Infrastructure Administration Exam Experience (Tom Fojta)
• VCAP-CIA Beta Experience (Kenny Garreau)
• VCAP-CIA (Cloud Infrastructure Administrator) Beta Experience (Manfred Hofer)

Andrea Mauro

Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.