As a holder of many technical certifications every few months I have to renew some.

When possible I try to renew the certifications with a new track instead of doing the newer version of the exam I’ve already done.

This time was the turn of HP ASE - Network Infrastructure 2011 to be renewed as HP ASE - FlexNetwork Integrator V1 and HP ASE - FlexNetwork Architect V2 .

Four exams are availale to upgrade, I choose HP2-Z31 - Creating HP Software-defined Networks because I hear a lot about SDN but I had not the opportunity to explore this topic yet.

To prepare the exam I used the official study guide from HP Press .

The book is well written, very clear and complete, I needed to search some topics on Google just a few times for a better understanding of the concepts.

There’s no need to say that the manual focuses on the HP VAN SDN Controller Software but all the core topics about how OpenFlow and an OpenFlow enabled switch works are useful for any vendor.

I really liked the final chapter about Mininet and how to use it to do labs with OpenFlow.

I recommend this book to those interested in SDN and want a good starting point to explore the topics.

Enjoy.