Passed Server + & Information on what to study

thegreatbelow

I took the Comptia Server + test yesterday and I will say it was a bit more difficult then expected(but I still passed with a good score). A lot of the information came from the A+, Network + and the Security + tests so if you have taken these this should help. One thing that I should mention is that having experience is really important because when it comes to the troubleshooting part of the test (which is a large portion) The questions are all over the place, a few of them have more than one reasonable answer.

The only resource I used was Jonathan Lau's book (kindle edition found on amazon)
It is a useful resource it was enough for me to pass, but if you haven't taken the other CompTIA exams nor have working knowledge on the subject .. you may want to use more resources for preparation.

Before taking the test I looked on this site for resources and checked for previous test takers and their advice. This poster was very helpful in letting me know what I should pay attention to:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/server/94080-server-what-you-need-know.html

Taking his list and some of my own hopefully this list will help anyone planning to take the SK0-003

• RAID 0,1,3,5,10, 50 know not only how to decide which is the best to implement but know how to calculate disk space after adding the hard drives. There are a lot of questions on RAID so I would focus alot of time in understanding it.
• AMD & Intels Socket Types (There are a few questions on these and was also asked about which processors were multicore)
• SCSI, iSCSI know about terminating the chain and read over the revisions of SCSI (Wide, Ultra etc)
• Fire Extinguisher Types
• Port #'s (Telnet, DHCP, DNS etc etc)
• Backups - Know about Son, Father, Grandfather, know about tape drive troubleshooting and Incremental, Differential, Full, Bare etc.
• Worm - Write once read many (CD-R)
• Know about HBA cards/fibre channel/SAN/SAS
• Know about Hot/Cold/Warm sites and which one to choose based on circumstances
• WSUS, ACL & Virtualization
• What the benefit of Virtualization is (Less power consumption, less physical space)
• Know that changing the boot order can help in troubleshooting boot errors
• Know the different RAM types and be able to recognize which type they are by their names (PC6400)
• Know the benefit of using a blade server
• Know about HVAC and Server rooms (optimal humidity level) That you clean servers with condensed air, know that dust builds up and causes problems
• Know about server security (Physical security is important but also know the what you have, what you are, what you know)
• Know that 1U is equal to 1.75in and be prepared to know what a full rack, half rack are
• Know all the command line for testing a network (ping, nbstat, nslookup .. also know the LINUX versions of them)
• Know about Jumpers (Slave/Master) and Dip Switches
• Know about PCI, AGP, ISA, PCIe (know bus speeds and what they are capable of)
• Know what KVM is
• Know how to troubleshoot user logins (whether it be permissions, issues with server, or using a remote login)
• Know the terms RISC/CISC (hardware/software complex/simple)
• Know about cooling processors (Watercooling, active and passive cooling, fans)
• Know when a NAS would be useful
• Know about Dispart, Chkdsk and when an admin would try and repair a disk vs reformatting
• Know about cloning, system images, snapshots, how to make copies of open files
• Know to when to escalate an issue

Good Luck!

thegreatbelow

Also don't forget that ProctorU is offering this test right now to be proctored at home for $99
(Almost 1/3rd of the usual going price)
http://www.proctoru.com

Shawks

Excellent job on the Server + pass and notes. I am going to check into the Proctor U. This test is $277.00 or $267.00 at getcertifiedforless. My work does not require it, but I've always wanted this cert.
Thanks for the help and continued success.

fuz1on

Shawks wrote: »

Excellent job on the Server + pass and notes. I am going to check into the Proctor U. This test is $277.00 or $267.00 at getcertifiedforless. My work does not require it, but I've always wanted this cert.
Thanks for the help and continued success.

Congrats! I passed Server+ and Cloud+ on ProctorU already; taking Project+ in a couple weeks. I would compare the difficulty to Security+; also, there is extreme emphasis on RAID implementation for High Availability.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats on passing!

c0mptia

Thanks for the awesome notes...Do you if this all i need for the exam.? Thanks

JohnnyUtah41

thanks for this list, i used it to look up a few things that i was unfamiliar with. I got an 855/900 today and saved a ton of cash by jumping on that ProctorU deal.

thegreatbelow

c0mptia wrote: »

Thanks for the awesome notes...Do you if this all i need for the exam.? Thanks

If you understand everything that is listed I feel pretty confident you will/can pass. They will always throw in a few curve balls... but from my personal experience this is what was needed to be successful.

Smilies

found this really informative, will take your notes along with the other persons notes and prepare my study hours.

ccnpninja

Congrats on the pass and thanks for the notes

Gess

Thanks for the help. I used the Mega Guide, Amazon.com: The Concise Server+ Study Guide (SK0-003) eBook: Jonathan Lau: Kindle Store was available for free in the Prime Lending Library so I read through that real fast, and then I used your notes to touch up on some things. I thought I did poorly but ended up getting a 834, must've done well deciding on a bunch of them when I narrowed it down to two.

I'm not sure if I would've passed if I weren't currently setting up my MCSA lab. Doing the research for purchasing the hardware went hand in hand with this exam. Very nice.