Study suggestions for VMS V7 to V8 Migration Exam

[Jason Irons_1]

Hi Everyone

I'm presently preparing to sit the VMS V7 to V8 Migration Exam (HP0-277) to upgrade my VMS CSE certification to V8.

Can't afford to attend the HP OpenVMS V8.x Technical Update (u8631) training. (Not available in New Zealand anyway)

Does anyone have any recommended reading material that could assist with preparation?

Have already gone through the VMS 8.2 Release Notes, Update & Installation Manual and New Features documents and have been using VMS 8.2 / 8.3 for well over a year....

Thanks

Jason

[Andy Bustamante]

The Exam Preparation Guide, ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/hpcp/epgs/HP0-277_EPG.pdf provides an outline of topics covered and few sample questions. If you've studied the release notes, you have a good start. Don't forget to look the the TCPIP release notes.


Andy

[Jason Irons_1]

Thanks for your comments Andy.

I already have a copy of the preparation guide, and have gone through the sample questions.

Just wanted to really ensure that I am as prepared as possible.

Thanks

[Ian Miller.]

I did that exam at last years bootcamp. I had read RN and NF and had been using V8.x. I think as you have been using V8.x for a year you will be fine. The new stuff is mostly on the I64.

[John Gillings]

Jason,

Make sure you're familiar with recent technologies, like SAN storage & networking features. Also don't be too concerned. The exams test your experience, rather than your memory. You've been around long enough that you should be able to work out the answers, even if you haven't crammed it.

[Stanley F Quayle]

This was the hardest HP certification exam I've ever taken. No SRM console stuff that's familiar, it's mostly the Itanium stuff, with changes to DCL (hmmm I know I can get stuff in megabytes, but HOW?).

You'll definitely want to read both 8.2 and 8.3 docs -- I think this exam is straight to V8.3.

Good luck!

[Andreas Vollmer]

Hi Jason,

Familiarize you with the Itanium (Integrity) servers and the system design - BMC etc.
Please get familiar with the "special" console for Itanium . Read the release notes for the available firmware. Ideal would be hands-on training for the console.
Knowledge of Integrity family and basics of the configurations such as...
http://h20341.www2.hp.com/integrity/cache/452309-0-0-225-121.html
Try this link for firmware information for a rx2600...
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=ch&prodNameId=88839&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=447335&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2061
Good luck.
Cheers
Andreas

[John Gillings]

re: Stanley "read both 8.2 and 8.3 docs -- I think this exam is straight to V8.3."

While it certainly won't hurt to review the V8.3 docs, the exam is based on V8.2 and does not contain any questions requiring V8.3 specific information (for one thing, the V8.3 docs didn't exist when the exam was compiled!)

[Jason Irons_1]

I would like to thank everyone for your responses.

Unfortunately I don't have access to a Integrity Server, so will have to rely on the suggested documentation to cover this.

Thanks again

Jason Irons

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

Ask for access to one of the HP Test Drive servers? There are recent or current versions of OpenVMS loaded onto various systems including Integrity servers. For information, see http://www.testdrive.hp.com

[Stanley F Quayle]

> does not contain any questions requiring V8.3 specific

Okay, I stand corrected.

When I was HPTF last year, I suggested that they not eliminate the V7 credential, since many customers will be on that version for a long time.

It was a surprise to the certification people. They thought once the new stuff was out, the "old" stuff goes away.

My futher suggestion of certification for V5.5-2 and V6.2 wasn't received with much excitement. Heck, I have customers running versions back at least as far as V4.7.

[John Gillings]

Stanley,

>My futher suggestion of certification for
>V5.5-2 and V6.2 wasn't received with much
>excitement. Heck, I have customers running
>versions back at least as far as V4.7.

It's a similar issue to supporting multiple versions by engineering. Exams are difficult and time consuming to create. There aren't a lot of resources for creating and maintaining them (it's mostly done by volunteers), and the difficulties in creating a V5.5-2 or V6.2 specific exams are significant - just trying to filter out hindsight is a big issue.

Add that to the potential market size - how many people would really want to certify on "just" V5.5-2? (OK, there's arguably a specialisation in knowing what you can do in V5.5-2 without all the newer stuff, but that in itself implies a skill in the newer versions!).

With the economies of scale (or lack thereof) it's really only feasible to have a few exams, and even then, keeping them up to date has been a struggle (and will probably be even worse into the future).

What (the collective) YOU can do about it is use the certification scheme to prove to HP and everyone else that OpenVMS is alive and well, with a healthy population of professionals. Since HP doesn't (yet?) treat certification as a revenue stream, and the exams are based on experience rather than "pay lots of money to learn the answers from our book/course/cram session" they're relatively cheap to do, and actually mean something! ;-)

[Stanley F Quayle]

> how many people would really want to certify on "just" V5.5-2?

I sell VMS support as a part of my consulting business.

I've encountered customers who want to know why my V7 and V8 certifications mean anything towards their V5 system. There are enough "issues" to complete the transaction without adding any more.

I realize that creating a new exam (even on an old subject) is very expensive. At least keeping the pre-V8 exams up-to-date isn't an issue.

I support the HP Certified Professional program 100%. If I could just pass the storage exam, I'd be able to get all of them for VMS...

[John Gillings]

Stanley,

>I've encountered customers who want to
>know why my V7 and V8 certifications mean
>anything towards their V5 system. There
>are enough "issues" to complete the
>transaction without adding any more.

That should be simple to fix! Lobby the certification folk to include the phrase
"up to and including Vx" somewhere in the certification documentation. I can't think of a valid reason why it shouldn't say that, and it's certainly a very cheap way to satisfy the issue you (or, more correctly, some of your more pedantic customers) have.

[Jason Irons_1]

Would just like to thanks everyone for your suggestions and input.

Completed the exam in about 20 minutes earlier today and got a successful result. Was easier than I expected.

Found several presentations which covered OpenVMS on Integrity which certainly helped in the preparation.

Thanks again

Jason Irons

[Jason Irons_1]

Thanks to everyone for your help