A quick heads up on how Broadcom training access works and what to check before you get started.
A few weeks ago I posted on LinkedIn about my Zero to VCAP journey, outlining my study plan, the Broadcom Learning portal training I’ve been working through, and my goal of earning the VCAP-VCF Administrator certification. The response was really encouraging, and several people reached out asking if they could follow along and join the study group.
One of those people was a friend and fellow infrastructure engineer. When he tried to access the free On Demand training I had been referencing, he discovered that Learning@Broadcom did not appear anywhere on his dashboard.
That sent me down a small rabbit hole, and what I found is worth sharing before anyone else runs into the same surprise.
How Learning@Broadcom Access Actually Works
Access to the free On Demand training in Learning@Broadcom is tied to Broadcom support portal entitlements, which usually come through being a Broadcom customer or partner. If your employer is running VMware Cloud Foundation in production, or is a VAR, MSP, or SI with a Broadcom partner relationship, you almost certainly already have access through your company support portal account.
When you think about who actually pursues VCAP-VCF, this makes sense. Most people working toward this certification are enterprise administrators managing VCF environments, VAR and MSP engineers, or partner solution engineers. Those roles typically come with Broadcom portal access through their day job. The free training is designed primarily for that audience, and most of that audience is already covered.
My friend’s situation was a bit of an edge case. He previously worked at a VAR and had partner portal access. After moving to a company that is not a Broadcom partner, that access stayed with his previous employer.
It’s worth knowing that access is tied to your employer, not to you personally.
The group this does affect is anyone studying independently without an employer connection to Broadcom. Career changers, engineers whose companies run a different hypervisor, or anyone self-funding their certification journey without a partner backdrop. If that’s you, keep reading.
What About VMUG Advantage?
A natural question is whether VMUG Advantage unlocks access to the training. The short answer is no, and it’s worth being clear about that so nobody spends money on the assumption that it will.
That said, VMUG Advantage is still absolutely worth having for this certification journey. Here’s what it actually provides.
- $125 off your VCP exam voucher. At $250 for the exam, that discount alone covers a large portion of the membership cost.
- VCF stack licenses for home lab use once you pass the VCP-VCF certification. A full stack license for three years is currently one of the best home lab opportunities available in the VMware ecosystem.
- Community access, webinars, and VMUG event discounts. Direct connection to the broader VMware community and learning opportunities.
- Training discounts through partners such as New Horizons and EnterOne if you decide to pursue paid instructor-led training.
Think of VMUG Advantage as an investment in certification and community. It’s not the mechanism that unlocks training access.
How to Follow Along Regardless of Portal Access
Whether you have Learning@Broadcom access or not, you can still follow this study group. I have partner access through my day job, and this blog serves as the equalizer. Each post breaks down the concepts from the training modules, highlights what matters for the exam, and documents the hands-on lab work. You don’t need to watch the same videos to keep up.
Here are the resources everyone can use.
- This blog. Each post distills the training into practical takeaways. No portal access required.
- The VCP-VCF exam blueprint. Publicly available from Broadcom and the north star for everything we study.
- VMware documentation. Free, comprehensive, and honestly underused. If you’re not reading the VCF administration documentation, you’re leaving points on the table.
- VMware Hands-on Labs. Free browser-based labs available at labs.hol.vmware.com. No hardware, no installation, just hands-on experience.
- Your own lab hardware or VMUG Lab on Demand. If you have access to a lab environment, use it. Nothing replaces hands-on time working in a real environment.
A Quick Thing to Check Before You Get Started
If you’re not sure whether your company has a Broadcom support portal entitlement, the easiest way to find out is to log into support.broadcom.com using your work email address and see if Learning@Broadcom appears on your dashboard.
If it does, you’re good to go.
If it doesn’t, reach out to the person at your company who manages the Broadcom relationship. In many cases it’s simply a matter of linking your user account to the company entitlement.
And if you truly are studying independently without any employer connection, the free resources listed above are genuinely strong. Plenty of engineers have successfully passed this exam without ever touching the On Demand training videos.
Want to Join the Study Group?
The group is open to anyone working toward the VCP-VCF or VCAP-VCF Administrator certifications. Partner engineers, VMUG members, or anyone who simply found this blog and decided to pursue the certification.
No gatekeeping.
Drop a comment below, connect with me on LinkedIn, or reach out through HumbledGeeks.com.
Let’s figure this out together and help more engineers get from Zero to VCAP.