This exam was retired by the vendor on December 15, 2025.
VCP-DCV can no longer be scheduled. The practice material below remains available for reference and for learners studying the underlying skills. See the VCP-VVF Administrator certification, VCP-DCV's direct successor under Broadcom's restructured program
VMware certification practice
Practise VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization VCP-DCV across all 6 official exam domains — vSphere Lifecycle Management, Configure and Manage vSphere Networking, Configure and Manage vSphere Storage, vSphere Architecture, Products and Solutions, and more — with original exam-style questions, full explanations, and wrong-answer analysis. Courseiva helps you prepare with realistic practice questions, topic-based revision, explained answers and structured study routes.
Ways to study VCP-DCV
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
New here? Start with this
Start with a 25-question practice test
Covers all 6 domains · takes ~5 min · no account needed · shows your weak areas immediately
Historical facts for the VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization VCP-DCV exam, which the vendor has retired.
Exam cost (historical)
$250 USD / ~£200
Duration (historical)
130 minutes
Question count
70 questions
Passing score
300 / 500
The VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization (VCP-DCV) is VMware's core certification for vSphere administrators and engineers, validating skills in configuring, managing, and troubleshooting VMware vSphere environments including ESXi hosts and vCenter Server. The current version (2024) covers vSphere 8.x features including vSphere Lifecycle Manager, vSAN, NSX-T integration, and high availability/DRS clusters. It is a prerequisite for advanced VMware credentials including VCAP-DCV and VCDX-DCV, and is one of the most recognized and sought-after data center virtualization certifications in the enterprise market.
Official prerequisite
Candidates must attend one required training course (such as VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage) as a mandatory prerequisite to sit the VCP-DCV exam.
Recommended experience
6–12 months of hands-on vSphere administration experience; familiarity with ESXi, vCenter, storage (VMFS, NFS), and networking (vDS, NSX-T basics).
6+ months of vSphere 7.x or 8.x administration experience in a production or lab environment.
Should you skip this exam?
Those focused on public cloud platforms rather than on-premises virtualization, or administrators who have not yet attended the required training course.
Courseiva study tip
Complete the mandatory VMware training course, build a home lab (even on a single nested ESXi host), and use the official VCP-DCV exam guide alongside mock exams from MeasureUp.
UK salary range
£45,000–£75,000
US salary range
$75,000–$120,000
Job roles that cite VCP-DCV
What certification to take next
VCP-DCV was retired by the vendor and can no longer be scheduled or booked. See the VCP-VVF Administrator certification, VCP-DCV's direct successor under Broadcom's restructured program for the current path.
The VCP-DCV exam (2V0-21.23) costs $250 USD per attempt. Note that you must also attend a required VMware training course, which adds to the total cost.
The passing score is 300 out of 500 (60%) on the scored scale.
The exam contains 70 questions with a 130-minute time limit.
VCP-DCV covers ESXi host deployment and configuration, vCenter Server management, virtual machine management, vSphere networking (vDS), storage (VMFS, NFS, iSCSI, vSAN), vSphere HA and DRS, vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), resource management, and troubleshooting.
Yes. VMware mandates attendance at one required training course (such as vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage) as a prerequisite. You cannot sit the exam without meeting this training requirement.
VCP-DCV is valid for 2 years. Renewal requires passing a recertification exam or an upgrade exam before the credential expires.
Systems administrators, data center engineers, and infrastructure engineers who manage VMware vSphere environments and want a recognized credential to validate and advance their virtualization expertise.
See how VCP-DCV stacks up against related certifications.
100% free — no account required
Everything on Courseiva for VCP-DCV is free — no subscription, no trial, no email wall. Pick a mode that matches your study phase: practice questions early on, mock exams closer to your exam date.
Practice Test
Start a 20-question session with a full explanation after each answer.
Mock Exam
Simulate the real exam with a timed, full-length question set.
Quick 25
A 25-question warm-up — ideal for a short daily study session.
Domain Practice
Practise domain by domain to find and fix weak spots.
50-Question Set
Mid-length practice covering the full domain spread.
Cheat sheet
The key facts and numbers for this exam on one page.
Acronyms
A full glossary of acronyms from the official blueprint.
Official objectives
The vendor's own blueprint, linked straight to practice resources.
Exam glossary
Every term VCP-DCV candidates need to know, defined.
Practice by topic
Topic-by-topic practice pages covering the full exam.
Courseiva Exam Intelligence
Data confidence: BuildingDerived from Courseiva's continuously updated practice dataset: 281 exam-style questions. Updated 2 July 2026.
Question difficulty mix
Average time per question: 92s
6
Exam domains
official blueprint domains covered by the bank
281
Questions
exam-style questions in the VCP-DCV bank
Exam guide
Start with a short practice session, review each missed answer, then return to the topics that caused mistakes.
VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization VCP-DCV spans 6 official exam domains (vSphere Lifecycle Management, Configure and Manage vSphere Networking, Configure and Manage vSphere Storage, and more). Questions test whether you can apply each objective in a realistic scenario, not just recall a definition.
Related practice questions
Use these internal links to move from the exam guide into focused topic practice pages.
vSphere Lifecycle Management practice questions for VCP-DCV.
Targeted VCP-DCV practice covering Configure and Manage vSphere Networking.
Targeted VCP-DCV practice covering Configure and Manage vSphere Storage.
Sharpen your VCP-DCV knowledge of vSphere Architecture, Products and Solutions.
Sharpen your VCP-DCV knowledge of vSphere Security.
Work through VCP-DCV questions on vSphere Performance and Scaling.
Sharpen your VCP-DCV knowledge of VCP-DCV fundamentals.
Targeted VCP-DCV practice covering VCP-DCV scenario.
Sharpen your VCP-DCV knowledge of VCP-DCV troubleshooting.
Practice directory
Every practice set is a unique selection of questions — numbered tests, domain-focused sessions, and topic-specific quizzes.
Showing 8 of 22 tests. See all 22 VCP-DCV practice tests →
Official blueprint
Target weak areas by practising questions from a single domain. Each domain page shows all questions, difficulty breakdown, and a focused practice session.
Target this domain to strengthen your VCP-DCV score →
Focus your VCP-DCV prep on Configure and Manage vSphere Networking →
Focus your VCP-DCV prep on Configure and Manage vSphere Storage →
Practise VCP-DCV questions in this domain →
Drill vSphere Security questions for VCP-DCV →
Focus your VCP-DCV prep on vSphere Performance and Scaling →
Deep-dive questions
The most-searched VCP-DCV questions — each with a detailed explanation, worked example, and full answer breakdown.
Learn the concepts
15 book-style chapters cover every VCP-DCV objective in plain English. Read the theory here, then test it with practice questions.
Chapter 1
Introduction to Data Center Virtualization
12 min read
Chapter 2
ESXi Installation and Configuration
12 min read
Chapter 3
vCenter Server Deployment and Management
12 min read
Chapter 4
Virtual Machine Creation and Management
12 min read
Chapter 5
VMware vSphere Networking
12 min read
Chapter 6
VMware vSphere Storage
12 min read
Chapter 7
VM Migration and Cloning
12 min read
Chapter 8
Resource Management and Clusters
12 min read
Free study guide
The Courseiva VCP-DCV study guide covers exam format, the official domain blueprint with weights, a structured study plan, and domain-specific tips for each section. Use it alongside practice questions to build both conceptual depth and exam confidence.
Sample questions
Original exam-style questions — not copied from any exam or dump site. Open a question for the full answer breakdown.
An administrator needs to create a datastore cluster for a set of VMs that require high availability. The VMs should be automatically balanced across datastores based on I/O latenc…
An administrator configures DRS on a cluster with two hosts. The administrator wants to ensure that two critical VMs (VM1 and VM2) always run on separate hosts. Which rule type sho…
A vSphere administrator is designing a network for a cluster of ESXi hosts. Each host has four 10GbE uplinks. The cluster will host mission-critical VMs that require maximum throug…
A company experiences frequent host failures. The cluster has 5 hosts with 128 GB RAM each. The VMs have vCPU and memory reservations ranging from 1 GHz/512 MB to 4 GHz/8 GB. The a…
A company requires all vMotion traffic to be encrypted. The vSphere administrator enables vMotion encryption at the cluster level. What else must be configured to ensure vMotion op…
The administrator configured this LAG on a distributed switch and corresponding LACP settings on the physical switch. But the LAG is not coming up. What is a likely issue?
Related certifications
Studying for VCP-DCV? These related VMware certifications share concepts and are common next steps.
All VMware certifications →Courseiva provides free VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization VCP-DCV (VCP-DCV) practice questions with original exam-style questions, detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics. Courseiva is an independent platform and is not affiliated with VMware.