5.0
Reviewed Jul 27, 2018Awesome course. Skilled instructors delivered very solid content. I really recommend this course to any forward looking individual interested in software defined networking and security approach.
Although the course’s topics are highly relevant and the provided info is okay-ish, several things reduce the course’s quality.
As a previous reviewer already mentioned, the NSX part of the course focuses on NSX-V, which is the precursor to NSX-T. If you are primarily interested in learning about NSX-T and are already familiar with NSX-V, then this course will not be very useful. Although there is some overlap between the two, NSX-T uses different concepts, a different architecture and different components.
The course offers (optional) hands-on labs to internalize the theory. Unfortunately all five hands-on labs for this course, i.e. HOL-1903-01, HOL-1903-02, HOL-1921-01, HOL-1925-01 and HOL-1925-02, have been discontinued, severely diminishing the course’s practical value. See https://docs.hol.vmware.com/catalog/ for details. The discontinued hands-on labs are the main reason why the course forums are abandoned. Almost all of the past forum threads were requests to review someone’s lab results.
If you want hands-on experience with NSX-T or associated topics such as vRealize Automation (vRA), you need to search for active hands-on labs yourself and work your way through those labs. Doing so can be done independently of this course, since the hands-on labs are self-contained and explain things well.
As is the case in other Coursera courses with multiple presenters, the quality of the presenters deviate highly. Some really “take their time”, explaining the material in an engaging fashion. Other presenters appear to be in an extreme hurry, focusing more on covering as much material as possible and rushing over slides, instead of conveying information in an understandable manner.
Now some generic remarks, not necessarily good or bad. The learning curve can at times be steep, especially if you have never dealt with NSX or VMware before. Some videos superficially cover topics, neglecting necessary details to fully understand the material. This can cause confusion, and might require quite some extra study time. A basic knowledge of routing, networking and virtualization is also a requirement. If you lack basic networking knowledge, you might want to take a look at existing hands-on labs before starting this course. See e.g. “Virtualization 101” on https://www.vmware.com/try-vmware/try-hands-on-labs.html.
IMHO, to improve the course, the course creators need to do the following:
(a) update all the course content to cover NSX-T.
(b) update all links to external resources (e.g. the dead link in chapter 8 to the NSX Day 1 Guides).
(c) update all hands-on labs, so that the practical assignments can once again be completed.
(d) consider including more practical material, such as a hands-on lab for SD-WAN (HOL-2140-01-NET) and vRealize Automation (HOL-2121-03-CMP).