010-151 DCTECH study plan
010-151 DCTECH · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Data Center Hardware and Cabling
Identify the physical form factors, port counts, and typical rack-unit heights of common data center switches, routers, and servers, and state where each is mounted in a standard 42U rack.
Explain the difference between single-mode and multimode fiber, name the common connector types (LC, SC, MPO) and their typical use cases, and match each to a transceiver type.
Describe copper cabling categories used in data centers (Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, DAC/twinax) and state the maximum supported distance and speed for each.
Trace a complete physical path from a top-of-rack switch to a server NIC, naming every cable, patch panel, and port involved.
Your checkpoint
A one-page cabling reference sheet listing at least 8 cable/transceiver combinations with connector type, maximum distance, and speed, plus a hand-drawn rack elevation showing 10 devices placed by U-position.
Data Center Hardware and Cabling
Distinguish AC and DC power distribution in a data center, including PDU types, redundancy models (N, N+1, 2N), and how to calculate power budget for a rack.
Explain structured cabling standards concepts: horizontal vs backbone cabling, patch panels, cable management, and labeling schemes.
Identify common physical safety and airflow practices: hot/cold aisle containment, blanking panels, and proper cable bend radius.
Diagnose three realistic cabling faults (wrong polarity, mismatched transceiver, excessive bend) and describe how each is detected.
Your checkpoint
A written troubleshooting worksheet covering 5 cabling or power faults, each with symptom, likely cause, verification step, and fix, scored against a self-made answer key.
Data Center Server and Storage Architecture
Describe server architecture components (CPU sockets, DIMM slots, PCIe lanes, NICs, BMC) and explain how each affects capacity planning.
Compare RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 on fault tolerance, usable capacity, and read/write performance, and select an appropriate level for three given workloads.
Explain the difference between SAN, NAS, and DAS, naming the protocols (FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB) associated with each.
Identify common storage media types (HDD, SATA/SAS SSD, NVMe) and state where each is appropriate in a tiered storage design.
Your checkpoint
A storage decision table covering at least 6 workload scenarios with recommended RAID level, media type, and connectivity, each with a two-sentence justification.
Data Center Server and Storage Architecture & Data Center Hardware and Cabling
Explain server virtualization concepts: hypervisor types, virtual machines, virtual switches, and how virtual resources map to physical hardware.
Describe GPU and high-density compute placement considerations, including power, cooling, and PCIe topology.
Review the week 1-3 cabling and storage notes and correct at least five errors or gaps found during self-testing.
Answer 30 practice questions spanning domains 1 and 2 under timed conditions and analyze every wrong answer.
Your checkpoint
A timed 30-question practice set on domains 1 and 2, with a written error log categorizing each miss by root cause (knowledge gap, misread, or guess).
Data Center Networking and Virtualization
Explain Ethernet fundamentals as applied in data centers: VLANs, trunking, spanning tree basics, link aggregation, and jumbo frames.
Describe IP addressing and subnetting well enough to determine whether two given hosts are on the same subnet and to size a subnet for a stated number of hosts.
Compare top-of-rack, end-of-row, and spine-leaf network designs, stating the scalability and latency tradeoffs of each.
Explain basic routing concepts (default gateway, static vs dynamic routing) and how they appear in a data center fabric.
Your checkpoint
A completed subnetting exercise with 10 problems (network address, broadcast, usable range, host count) plus a diagram comparing three network topologies with pros and cons noted.
Data Center Networking and Virtualization
Describe virtualization and overlay networking concepts: virtual switches, VLAN tagging in virtual environments, VXLAN basics, and VM mobility requirements.
Explain how storage traffic (iSCSI, NFS, FC) shares or is separated from data traffic, including the role of separate VLANs and QoS.
Identify common network services in a data center (DNS, DHCP, NTP, load balancing) and state the failure impact of each.
Interpret a simple network diagram to trace traffic between two VMs on different hosts and different subnets.
Your checkpoint
A traffic-flow writeup tracing three scenarios (same host, different host same subnet, different subnet) step by step through virtual switch, physical switch, and router, with each hop named.
Data Center Operations, Support, and Troubleshooting
Apply a structured troubleshooting method (identify, isolate, hypothesize, test, verify) to five given failure scenarios spanning hardware, storage, and network.
Interpret common status indicators: link lights, PSU LEDs, BMC/management logs, and RAID controller alerts, and state what each indicates.
Describe change management and escalation practices, including how to document an incident and when to escalate.
Explain monitoring basics: what metrics matter for servers, storage, and network, and how thresholds trigger alerts.
Your checkpoint
Five written incident reports using a consistent template (symptom, scope, evidence gathered, root cause, resolution, prevention), each at least 150 words.
Data Center Hardware and Cabling & Data Center Server and Storage Architecture & Data Center Networking and Virtualization & Data Center Operations, Support, and Troubleshooting
Complete two full-length timed practice exams covering all four domains and record scores per domain.
Re-study the two weakest domains based on practice exam results, targeting at least 20 new practice questions in each.
Recite from memory the key facts for each domain: cable distances, RAID tradeoffs, subnetting steps, and troubleshooting sequence.
Build a final one-page cheat sheet condensing the highest-value facts across all four domains.
Your checkpoint
Two completed timed practice exams with per-domain score breakdown, a ranked list of remaining weak areas, and a final one-page cheat sheet.
Milestones
Week 2: Can state cable/transceiver distance and speed limits for at least 8 combinations from memory and correctly place 10 devices in a rack elevation without notes.
Week 4: Scores at least 70% on the timed 30-question domains 1-2 practice set and can justify every corrected answer in the error log.
Week 6: Correctly solves 8 of 10 subnetting problems and can trace VM-to-VM traffic across subnets naming every hop without notes.
Week 7: Produces five incident reports that each identify a plausible root cause and a verification step consistent with the stated symptom.
Week 8: Scores at least 80% on both full-length practice exams with no single domain below 70%.