Hi all

In this post I want to describe my personal experience in preparing and taking the VMCE exam.

I know that there are some other topics written about the VMCE exam, like a good post of our top legend @MicoolPaul , but I also want to share my personal experience.

It’s very hot these days because some of our legends have recently received a free VMCE course of VEEAM. How cool is that from Veeam .

So especially for these co-legends (and in the meantime I luckily have met them in person at the Veeam 100 Summit event ) and hopefully other people wanting to take the course and exam.

Requirement :

Yes, indeed taking an official 3-day VMCE course is a requirement before taking the VMCE exam.

For me it’s almost 5 years ago that I took the VMCE course – version 9.5 at that time.

Because I work for a certified Veeam reseller and service provider, one of the requirements is that we have to have at least 1 VMCE in the company if we want to keep a Gold Partnership with Veeam.

Because I’m the one being technical responsible for the backup and disaster recovery category and being the Veeam product owner in the company, it’s one of my goals – requirements to have a VMCE certificate and to keep it updated everytime a new version is available.

Yes, when you are VMCE 9.5 certified, that certificate never expires, but as an employee of a partner - like me -  you need to update your VMCE certificate each time to the newest version in order to keep the Gold Partnership with Veeam – at least 1 person in the company.

Experience :

So 5 years ago I took the VMCE course. A colleague of mine being already VMCE (and the backup responsible at that time) told me to prepare myself very well because he had to take the exam twice before passing (at least 70%) and some other colleagues never passed.

So I was warned and prepared myself very well : study and practice in a lab and checked settings, possibilities at the customer setups .

I took the exam at a certified pearson vue test center and passed from the first time with +/- 90%, so happy of course.

Afterward I became the responsible of the backup and disaster recovery category.

I my daytime job I nearly use Veeam every day being the Veeam expert in the company – this goes from making designs, doing presales, implement complex setups, implement easy setups, solve issues and doing 3rd line backup-related cases.

Next to that I’m also the responsable for the Veeam Cloud Connect infrastructure and setup.

And the list keeps going : vSphere virtualization, Hyper-V virtualization, Remote Desktop Services, … next to doing Veeam 

2 years ago I took again the VMCE exam – now version 2020 without taking any course (not required because when you are already VMCE certified from the last version you can upgrade without taking the course again). But there are 2 things you have to keep in mind : the time between the 2 versions – exams may not be too long and of course you have to have a lot of experience and have to know the changes between different versions.

This time it was during COVID and could not take the exam at a test-center and took the exam at home as an online proctored exam. More about that later.

Again I passed the first time with more or less the same score.

Recently I took again the latest VMCE exam – now version 2021, again without taking any course, just by studying and practicing and passed again for the first time with again +/- 90%.

Again I took the exam as an online proctored exam.

Preparation :

How do I prepare myself?

• First I read everything I need to know and take notes – create a summary – especially with the things I’m not that familiar with (yes – I think no one has experience in everything you need to know or at least not as experienced as needed in every topic)
• Then I practice the things I’m not that familiar with
• Then I study my summary
• Then I do the official VMCE test exam
• Then I to the VMCE test exams of @haslund  and the video’s on his Youtube channel - (990) Rasmus Haslund - YouTube (really those are great - @haslund  : keep on doing those )

That’s it, in my opinion you have now prepared yourself to take the exam.

The exam :

Don’t be too nervous and believe in yourself, you have time enough in my experience. I had always enough time to complete the exam in time.

1 big tip of @haslund  that really helps : don’t look at the answers and try to answer the question yourself (if possible – not applicable to all questions).

If the answer is in between those, that will be probably the correct one – but read them all carefully.

• The exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions
• If you don’t hesitate about the answer – don’t go back to this question
• If you hesitate – flag it
• If you are at the end, go back to the flagged questions and read them again
• End the exam and if you have prepared yourself very well, you will pass

If you think you are very good – try to beat @Michael Melter, myself and @regnor next time of the stage at the Thunderdome VMCE at the Veeam 100 Summit 

If you are VMCE certified you will receive a PIN from the VMCE-lady @Federica herself if she’s in-person on a Veeam event where you also are present .

Test-center or online proctored exam :

Both have their pro’s and con’s.

I have done them both.

I recently are doing those online because of the transport time elimination because it would be 2-hour driving to the test-center and 2-hour driving back.

But if I had a test-center more locally I would prefer that.

Why : you must be sure that no one is in your house, no one calling, no issues with your internet connection and computer, … if you are doing an online exam.

But that’s a personal preference.

Difference between different VMCE version exams :

(my personal opinion)

The questions are less hard than before.

Why ? Because of having more personal experience of course but the focus is now on understanding very well the product and components and possibilities and not every exception and remark. In former versions the focus was a bit more on those exceptions and remarks.

But do not mistake !!!!

The content you need to know now is much bigger. So bluntly you know need to know the whole helpcenter... That seems a bit overdone, but not far from the reality to have the feeling you find yourself confident taking the exam.

In my last exam I didn’t had enough time to prepare myself and skipped some parts. Of course there were some questions about those parts but could easily answer them correctly because of the daytime experience and I presume that is not for everyone the same case. If I had not the experience, I would not answer those questions all correctly...

From my personal experience :

You won’t pass if you don’t study !!!

You won’t pass if you are not practicing !!!

The combination is a requirement and I think that’s the correct way !!!

So Veeam, in my opinion you are doing a great job in creating the VMCE exams!

Good luck all !!!