VMUG Advantage Home Lab Licensing refresher exam

A year after passing one’s first VMware Certified Professional - VMware Cloud Foundation (VCP-VCF) certification exam valid for VMUG Advantage home lab licensing, a refresher exam must be taken.

VMUG Advantage

VMUG Advantage is the highest-tier membership that VMUG offers. It comes with several benefits, but foremost VMware Cloud Foundation licensing, including the vDefend add-on for NSX, and Avi.

Do also see my VMware home lab licensing with VMUG Advantage blog from last year

VMUG Advantage Membership - Benefits

In the portal, this is what the membership will look like.

VMUG Advantage Membership - Subscription

VMware vExperts receive complimentary VMUG Advantage membership

VMUG advantage also affords subscribers an annual voucher with $125 off on one exam

Context

flowchart TD
    A[Home lab enthusiast] --> B(VCP-VCF Admin/Architect certification)
    A[Home lab enthusiast] --> C(VCP-VVF Admin certification)
    A[Home lab enthusiast] --> D(VMUG Advantage membership)
    B & C & D --> E(Licenses)
    E --> F(Refresher exams)
    F --> E

Like Eric Nielsen mentioned in step 11 in last year’s blog post about VMUG Advantage licensing, the refresher exam is non-optional and needs to be taken a year after passing the first certification valid for VMware Cloud Foundation licensing, such as VCP-VCF Administrator or VCP-VCF Architect. To receive VMware vSphere Foundation licenses, the VCP-VVF Administrator exam must be passed as well.

VMUG Advantage Home Lab License Guide - Step 11

In my case I passed VCP-VCF Administrator of the 5.2 varietal in July 2024 - note the Initial credential date.

Broadcom Certification Portal - First VCP-VCF exam

As such, requesting new licensing in the Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal for vSphere Foundation, vDefend or Avi isn’t possible until passing the renewal exam - it will simply say Award Expired.

The “Award Expired” message will be there in spite of passing newer generations or other valid exams - the refresher exam is still necessary

Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal - Award Expired

Refresher exam

Start by logging in to the VMware Certification Portal and then SSO to PearsonVUE.

Broadcom Certification Portal - SSO to VUE

Use the VMUG Advantage private access code to enumerate the refresher exams.

If you haven’t received the private access code for PearsonVUE, contact VMUG Advantage Support

Broadcom Certification Portal - Private access code

Since this is year two of the licensing scheme, choose the VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Refresher 1 option. This opens up a two day window to begin the exam from the PearsonVUE portal.

Broadcom Certification Portal - Refresher exam

Start the exam when ready, but within 2 days of requesting it

Broadcom Certification Portal - Refresher exam

New licenses and closing thoughts

After passing the refresher exam, a new set of licenses for VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vSphere Foundation, vDefend and Avi become requestable in the Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal.

Thanks to this I have another batch of licensing for my home lab until November when I need to do the second refresher exam!

SKU	Description	Comment
ANS-VDEFEND	VMware vDefend add-ons	Traditional license keys
ANS-VMW-ALB	VMware Avi Load Balancer (Enterprise)	Traditional license keys
VCF-VSP-FND-1Y	VMware vSphere Foundation	Traditional license keys for 8.x, subscription for 9.x
VCF-CLD-FND	VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x	Subscription based

The subscriptions for VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x and VMware vSphere Foundation will manifest in the VCF Business Services Portal after the requests for VCF-CLD-FND and VCF-VSP-FND-1Y have been finalized, granting a new subscription valid for a year

Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal - Request Licenses

Request those that you will use. Another few hours later, with the notice of an email, all of the licenses have been generated!

Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal - New VCF licenses

Broadcom VCP Certification Production Licenses portal - New VVF licenses

And also in the VCF Business Services Portal:

Note that the reason for the warnings, and the double amount of cores available, is because the first term’s subscription will be ending in a few days

VCF Business Services Portal - New licenses

Credits

Some photos showcasing VMware and PearsonVUE. Featured image from TV series Silicon Valley.