OCM 12c Preparation - Recommended Hardware

As we will need to create RAC (with Hub and Leaf Nodes), Dataguard (with Far Sync instance), Single Instance and Oracle EM machines scenarios, let's consider a scenario where we will need to simulate 4 VMs running at the same time. So, you will need at least:

• 16 GB RAM
• Quad core fast CPU (Something similar or better than a Core i5)
• 250 GB Flash Storage HD

I have almost this scenario, but instead of i5 I'm using a i7. I didn't have any problem until now.

Oracle also gives an important information about the keyboard:

It is also recommended that candidates practice on the type of keyboard that they expect to find in OCM Test Center.

• All countries, except those listed will use country-specific keyboards
  • United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Egypt, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand.

Since I started studying for OCM 11g about 2 years ago, I keep my keyboard layout as US standard even though the keys say another letter or symbol (my country's keyboard is Brazil ABNT2). I did it because I planned to have the exam on Romania and the keyboard there was US standard.

So when I type any key I need to forget what is written and just pretend some other thing is there! You can put some stickers with letters in the keys to force you adapt with the exam KB layout.

I heard some people saying that you can bring your own keyboard during the exam. After talking to some OCM proctors, they said this is not officially accepted. The keyboard is a hardware and is even listed to them as an item banned during the exam. So you can try to bring yours, but be prepared to not be able to use it.

UPDATE May/2017: Now it is very clear that you are not allowed to bring your own keyboard. In the official website it's written: "You are not allowed to use your own keyboard. We recommend you practice on the type of keyboard you expect to find in OCM Test Center."

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