Failed NBU 250-371 Exam Twice

[chucksysadmin]

The company I work for registered me for the 5-day Symantec NetBackup 7.5 for Windows: Administration course. I took the course and scehduled the exam for two weeks after taking the course. I've been with the company for four months. Before this job, I'd never used NetBackup or any enterprise-level backup software like it. The enviroment I work in uses a small fraction of what the product is capable of. Everything in our environment is backed up to tape using one robot with two drives. We have maybe 15 policies. Of those, we have a catalog backup, one HPUX server, 5 NDMP file systems, a couple Windows servers, and the rest are VMware virtual Windows servers. 

Ever since my first exam attempt two weeks ago, I've spent every night during the week and every weekend, day and night, studying my notes from the lectures and the material Symantec provided and I still failed. What surprised me most was the number of questions not covered in the material or lectures. 

Have any of you taken this exam and succeeded? What did you do to prepare? How long did you prepare? How long had you been using NBU before taking the exam? Did you take the 5-day course? 

Thanks in advance. 

[Adonis_Manansal · Accepted solution]

Hi Chucksyadmin,

To answer your inquiry, yes I also did attended a 5-day instructed lead training and successfully passed a NetBackup certification.

With regards to certification, below link is the suggested preparation on how to passed the exam

http://www.symantec.com/products-solutions/training/certification/path.jsp?pathID=250-371

also, you can check below link (a sample of NetBackup exam)

http://www.symantec.com/en/uk/products-solutions/training/certification/path.jsp?pathID=sample_exam_...

NetBackup Certification exam comprises of tricky questions that test your in-depth knowledge with the product.

As per the first link, it recommended

• that the examinee should have a minimum of 8-12 months hands-on experience administering NetBackup.
• Please read and understand NetBackup Documentation Guide. The questions are all derived from the said documentations.

Good luck on your next exam..

[chucksysadmin]

Thank you for your reply, Adonis. If you don't mind, I have a few questions I'm hoping you'll answer. How long had you been working with NetBackup before taking the exam? Did you succeed on your first attempt and what was your score? How'd you prepare? In other words, did you study the Administration Guide, Installation Guide, Command Guide, etc? How long did you prepare? Again, I appreciate your input. 

Chuck

[LucSkywalker195]

Chuck,

I can understand your frustration. The certification exam is meant to gauge a certain level of practical functional experience too which only comes with experience. Once I pushed myself to learn how to do everything at command line it forced me to study the product more. I did 2 weeks worth of Symantec online academy classes and labs and read every PDF for the product I could get my hands on. I've been using it for about 12 years too. Keep pressing on and you'll get there! Repitition really helps! It takes me to do a task a dozen times before I feel like I can own it.

[Adonis_Manansal]

Hi Chuck,

To answer your inquiry:

1. How long had you been working with NetBackup before taking up the exam?

From my previous job, I am handling NetBackup (before Symantec purchased Veritas) version 4.5. As I transfered to my current company (a distributor of Symantec Product) almost 10 years now, my company required me to be certified and gave me two months.

2. Did you succeed on your first attempt?

To become a Symantec Data Protection Certified Professional I have to to passed three exams. Yes. I did succeed my first attempt on the first two certification but I failed on the third exam. I passed on my second attempt. And since I am still connected with my current company, I am required to take every new Version of NetBackup.

3. How'd you prepared?

I setup a test environment (one master/media server and two client server). I also did read almost every NetBackup documentation and applied to my test environment. From time to time, I accessed the sample Netbackup Exam link i provided to test myself.

As per Luc had mentioned, repitition helps. Practice makes perfect. Good luck on your next exam