The VMware Certification website has released the information around certification and paths to VCP on vSphere. This was leaked from the beta program by some other bloggers on the vSphere launch date but is now confirmed and not NDA.
There are multiple options and paths depending on where you sit with your current education and certification path. You may be a VCP on 2.x or you may be a VCP on VI3 or you may have sat a course. Each of these requires a slightly different path so read carefully.

The exam will be released in Beta 30 days after the GA date. So this means it should be available around the 21st of June 2009. The courses will be released shortly after.

Basically, the short of it is :

• If you are already a VCP on VI3 (most of you) then you really only need to sit the VCP on vSphere 4 Exam and it must be done before the 31st of December 2009, after that date you will need to sit the "What's New" class in order to upgrade.
• If you are a VCP on ESX 2.x, then you can sit the VI3 exam. Pass that and then you can sit the VCP on vSphere 4 Exam, once again this option is only available until the 31st of December 2009. After that date you would need to sit the "What's New" class in order to upgrade
• If you are NOT VCP on anything, then you do need to sit the VMware vSphere "Install, Configure Manage Course" or the "VMware vSphere 4: Fast Track" class and then sit the VCP on vSphere 4 Exam. Both of these courses are not currently available and not expected until after late June 2009.
• If you are not a VCP but have attended one of the VI3 courses (Install & Configure; Deploy Secure and Analyze or fast track) then you can take the VI3 exam, and the the VCP on vSphere 4 exam OR sit the vSphere 4 "What's New" and take the VCP on vSphere 4 Exam.

The full details of the associated requirements and course materials can be found at the VMware Certification Website.

It is a little known fact that the vpxd.exe executable has some powerful command line switches.

The vpxd.exe file is actually the VirtualCenter server daemon and the process that is launched when the VMware VirtualCenter service is started.

To access the command line switches, the process must NOT be running. This means stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service if it is running.

Once you have stopped the vpxd.exe process, open a command line and browse to the C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server\ directory.

Then run the following command to display all of the relevant commands.

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\VirtualCenter Server>vpxd.exe -h

Usage: vpxd.exe [FLAGS]

Flags:

      -r       Register VMware VirtualCenter Server

      -u      Unregister VMware VirtualCenter Server

      -s      Run as a standalone server rather than a Service

      -c      Print vmdb schema to stdout

      -b      Recreate database repository

      -f cfg  Use the specified file instead of the default vpxd.cfg

      -l licenseKey     Store license key in ldap and assign it to VirtualCenter

      -p      Reset the database password

      -v      Print the version number to stdout 

Thanks to a friendly VMware SE for the idea of sharing this on the site.