CompTIA Cloud+ CV0-003 – Introduction to the CompTIA Cloud Plus Bootcamp (CV0-002)

1. Introduction to the CompTIA Cloud Plus Exam (CV0-002)

I’m over here at the CompTIA Club plus webpage at the CompTIA website. Now this page is still referencing CV 1. That’s the first revision of the exam. Now you’re getting sort of a head start here, to be honest. Taking this specific course before it’s officially released in February is what I’m understanding at this point, and that’s February 2018, and I will update it once this new page is up. But I took the beta exam about two months ago, so I have a pretty good idea of what’s on the test. The objectives are about 85% similar, and I will go through the objectives in an upcoming module. Now, you’ll want to take a look at the exam details. Again, this is all pretty much the same.

The only thing that’s really different is the description, which was slightly different, but it’s really testing you on the same thing. I don’t know about the pricing yet. If they’re going to keep it the same or raise the prices, I hope they leave it the same or lower it, which I’m sure they won’t. But again, this is a costly exam. And then, as far as preparing, they’ve got links for additional training. For example, if you want to take an instructor-led course or if you’re ready for the exam, you go over the testing locations here, and I go through all of this in more detail at the end of the class. So we’ll walk you through signing up; I’ll walk you through how to sign up for CEUs; I’ll walk you through all that stuff so that you are going to be as successful as possible with CompTIA and the exams. So let’s proceed on to the next module.

2. Let’s Review the CompTIA Cloud Plus Test Objectives

So this PDF here is actually the CompTIA Cloud Plus exam objectives for CV 2. So this exam here is going to teach—or is actually going to test, I should say—this specific area around making sure that you understand the standard cloud methodologies that you’re able to implement, maintain, and deliver cloud technologies. This could include anything from networks to storage to virtualization technologies, but it could also include understanding areas such as IT security and best practices for cloud implementations.  When we talk about Comp Cloud Plus, just be aware that there’s going to be some ideal candidates that should be looking at this exam. You will most likely need a Network Plus or a Server Plus certification. It is not required, but it is highly recommended.

You’re going to have two to three years of work experience, but you’ll also have some kind of work experience with hypervisors. Now, this exam isn’t going to test you specifically on VMware. It’s not going to test you specifically on Hyper. It’s going to test you more or less on what a hypervisor is, what it does, how you can migrate, and areas of focus you may have to look at with planning for cloud deployments, for example. But you’re not going to get tested on what the motion is, how you set it up, or anything else that’s not going to be part of the test.

Now this is the area that Ideally want you to focus on. There are five domains in this exam, and what I like about CompTIA exams is that they tell you the percentage of the exam that’s going to be dedicated to that domain. This is sort of a differentiator among a lot of other testing-service organisations like CompTIA, for example. CSA could be an example, or XN ITIL, or whatever. Then, when you look at vendors like AWS, Google EMC, and VMware, not all of them give you an idea of what percentage of the exam will be dedicated to that domain. So this is a good starting point for you to determine where you want to focus your efforts. Perhaps some people may be really good at security and troubleshooting but might not have any kind of deployment experience. So you want to look at the domains and try to determine where you want to focus on. Now, if you look at the number 10, you can see that it represents 24% of the exam; what you want to do is go down here to where it says domain 10. So what exactly is in domain 10? That would be configuration and deployment.

Now, it’s fairly straightforward. I am certainly not going to read all this to you because there are approximately 23 pages, of which I think ten or 13 somewhere around that range are actually dedicated to the domain areas. But I would recommend you go through and look at, for example, the different areas that are going to test you on areas that are going to be a focus area. Now, one of the things about the exam—and I’ll be honest—is that they’re not going to test you on every one of these. They want you to know what it is. It could be testable, but I wouldn’t expect to have, based on the number of questions you may get, of course, two or three in one of these subdomains, maybe one at the most, depending on how the test falls. Now, generally, there are at least two pools of questions on the test itself. So what does that mean? Now, in general, most vendors and testing organisations have at least two versions of the test, because they don’t want someone to be able to go on the Internet and memories the answers to that exam. So having two or three different versions of the pool can generally help mitigate people cheating. Basically. That’s not always the case, but it would help for sure.

So that’s generally why they like to do that. So, for example, if you and your colleague, Frank, go to the same location and take the same exam, both of you may actually get different versions of the exam. So that’s really the goal. So you’ll see that, for example, given a scenario, you can analyses the system requirements to determine if a given testing plan is appropriate. So you want to go ahead and take a look at this and make sure you understand certain aspects of it.

So, for example, if you’re going around analysing system requirements, what are the requirements you’re going to analyze? Why are you analysing those? Would you look at production differently than development or QA? Right? You want to look at different areas around testing, maybe vulnerability testing, penetration testing, or load testing. These are different tests that could be run. So you want to go through each of these subdomains and get an idea of where you think you may be doing well. For example, one dot at eight is a good one. Migration types. You’re going to definitely see a couple of questions just in this area. And from taking the beta exam, I can tell you that it will be wise to know this area fairly well because, like I said, two or three questions could definitely make the difference between passing or failing on this exam.

Security—again, go through here—makes, you know, security. Security is about 20% of the test, I believe, right? If we go back up, let’s go up to the domains and just validate how much of the test it is, right? It says “Security” at 16%. Okay, that’s not too bad, right? So, 24% for the first domain, and then the third domain is 18. So, as you see, the first domain is tested more heavily than perhaps the second or third domain. However, 50 is tested heavier than security. So again, you want to go to the domains and try to figure out, do you really know the different ways to migrate to the cloud? Is P to V correct? Is it C to C, V to C, or whatever the approach is? Do you know your storage types? Right? For example, do you understand what object storage is? So my recommendation is to go ahead, select the link here, make sure you download the domain objectives here, and maybe print them out, and go through certain areas that you think you’re weak on. Now, the majority of these are covered in my course.

Now, the one thing I will say is that if you notice certain areas, some of these are redundant. So in my course, I’ve weeded out the redundant areas, and I just covered it pretty much all at once. So you might want to go through different areas like analysing requirements, troubleshooting maintenance, and determining where your strengths and weaknesses are. Backups. Right? So it’s a good idea to know the different backup types. So why would you want to use a clone over a full back up or differential, right? Management.

So, again, a lot of areas, and then look in the back. There’s essentially a dictionary, or an acronym list, as I guess you would call it. You can expect to be tested on all of these acronyms. All of these are fair game, which is sort of what they’re saying for the exam. So make sure when you read an exam question that if they say “Cmdv,” you understand that they’re referring to a configuration management database. Because they’re not going to spell out “configuration management database,” they’re going to say “CMDB.” So just be aware of that. So take some time to review these. You can see that there are a lot of acronyms throughout this—highlight your strengths, so on and so forth. It would be a good idea. So that’s the objective. Let’s proceed on to the next module.