How to Study CCNA Data Center Certification Exam?

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How to Study CCNA Data Center Certification Exam?

2019-09-03

The Cisco Data Center certification track is quite new and I read that a lot of people would have failed in their first attempt. In order to gain the CCNA-level of Data Center, you would be needed to clear two exams: 640-911 DCICN and 640-916 DCICT. After looking at the objectives for DCICN, it seemed to me like CCNA Routing & Switching but on the platform for the Nexus. Well, after my first attempt to clear the exam, I realized that it would be requiring a lot more studying and that the official books don’t completely cover the exam objectives. Herein, I would be trying to explain what I have been studied to pass the exam. Also, in my second and last attempt, I have acquired valuable preparation courses, offered by the SPOTO CLUB, which helped me a lot in clearing the CCNA Data Center Certification Exam.

About the exam

To prepare for the DCICN (640-911) exam, I have bought the Official Certification Guide from Cisco Press as well as went through the book completely. To verify the topics as well as information, I would also have a look at the book from Todd Lammle. Going through both books made me realize that the DCICN-exam is just CCNA Routing & Switching on the Nexus platform. Since I have already a CCNA Routing & Switching and later cleared the passed from the first attempt on both exams, I just focused on studying the differences between Nexus & IOS and took some practice on the same. Of Course, I also repeated details of basic networking concepts and did some practice exams supplied with the book.

As it turns out, both books don’t prepare you enough for the exam. There is a whole list of topics that isn’t even briefly mentioned in the books. Probably the exam changed over time, became a lot more difficult and had some new topics introduced.

After finding out the above information the hard way, I decided to read a little more about the exam and its objectives. A lot of information and people that had the same experience as me can be found on the CCNA Data Center study group. This is the first place you should start, to my idea. Especially the posts about people that failed their 640-911 and learned what to do extra to pass, helped me a lot.

If you’re new to Cisco and have no prior experience of working with Cisco devices, the exam will be hard. I don’t think it’s a good starting point. To my idea, it’s like all contents of a CCNA Routing and Switching with an addition of a lot of detailed information about Nexus as well as understanding most concepts of the 640-916 (DCICT) exam.

Exam theory preparation

To prepare for my second and last attempt, I have created a summary of the information which I would have gathered everywhere around. Part of it comes out of both books which I mentioned above, part of it comes from what other people experienced and a lot of information I gathered by just searching on Google or the Cisco website. A good basic understanding of routing and switching concepts is required to use this information but I think it still can be valuable for people preparing for the exam.

By only studying the information in this post, you won’t get there. You need to completely understand basic network concepts (switch/hub/router, collision domains/broadcast domains, VLAN, OSI layer differences, subnetting). Knowing basic information about IOS as well as the differences between IOS and Nexus isn’t bad either.

Hence, understanding the above-mentioned topics and getting enrolled in the preparation courses offered by the SPOTO Club, helped me a lot in gaining the CCNA Data Center Certification. So, I would recommend you to gain the same if you wish to have the CCNA Data Center Certification in one single attempt.