70-411 Done

Well guys/girls

That was a monster of an exam. I passed though with 805 which I am shocked about. I always mark down if I am not sure on a question, and I had like 8 marked down as possible wrong.

So happy that's done AND before Christmas. Any questions please feel free to ask:

Here are some pre-answers:

1. I used ITPro.TV, CBT Nuggets, Boson, TechNet and YouTube
2. I have been studying it for over 7 months
3. 46 Questions

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JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass! Looking at your list of materials, did you not use any of the books out there?

knownhero

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Congrats on the pass! Looking at your list of materials, did you not use any of the books out there?

Classic.... Totally didn't list the books I used:

1. Mastering Server 2012 (Chapters that I needed, not the whole bible)
2. MS Exam Prep 70-411

I also read bits from different books. But that list would be huge.

tmurphy3100

Which optional test did you take to become MCSA? Just curious, still debating my options for when I am there.

knownhero

I did 410, 411 and then 462 (SQL)

ed_003

good work, how many hours a day did u study?

knownhero

Weekdays - 3-4 hours
Weekends - 5-7 hours (on and off)

I had a month of doing nothing as I burnt myself out.

advanex1

Congratulations.

Ataxic8338

If you thought that was hard, wait till you get onto the 412 I just passed that one a few weeks ago. Labbing is the key word here.

techfiend

Congrats!

I had the same thoughts on 412 when I was studying the training guide. Some of it was fun but a lot of the topics were so uninteresting that after passing the 411 at around 750 I figured 412 is going to be a real struggle. Jumped to 74-409 instead, very interesting, hyper-v, and a relatively easy test.

knownhero

Ataxic8338 wrote: »

If you thought that was hard, wait till you get onto the 412 I just passed that one a few weeks ago. Labbing is the key word here.

Lucky I don't have to do that as I did the 462 instead as its more inline with my job. I have looked at the 412 and all I can say is.... Thank god!

gncsmith

Congrats!

techfiend wrote: »

I had the same thoughts on 412 when I was studying the training guide. Some of it was fun but a lot of the topics were so uninteresting that after passing the 411 at around 750 I figured 412 is going to be a real struggle. Jumped to 74-409 instead, very interesting, hyper-v, and a relatively easy test.

techfiend So, which courses did you take total? I guess I'm not following something here. Is there an optional course?

gncsmith

Ah, nevermind, I found it!

Under Additional Options > You can substitute Exam 346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements, Exam 409: Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, or Exam 462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases, for Exam 412.

SconnieInShorts

Congrats! I hope to get mine done before July of next year. Taking 74-409 tomorrow!

gncsmith wrote: »

Ah, nevermind, I found it!

Under Additional Options > You can substitute Exam 346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements, Exam 409: Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, or Exam 462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases, for Exam 412.

Yeah, it took me a while to find those too. I kept seeing people talk about 74-409 being easy, but had no idea how it qualified them for MCSA. Makes life easier, that's for sure!

techfiend

Good luck! I should add that it's easy in relation to 70-411 and possibly 70-412, which doesn't make it a walk in the park. In some ways it's easier than 410 but it's much more difficult to lab. It needs a general understanding of a virtual hyper-v enterprise.

gncsmith

techfiend wrote: »

It needs a general understanding of a virtual hyper-v enterprise.

Yeah, I can see how that would be an issue. So, how did you prepare for it? Did you homelab or are you already working with it?

techfiend

I went in with only knowledge and experience of hyper-v labs in 410-412 training guides. That provided about half the knowledge needed. I then read the free study guide from veeam (from the same author of the training guides), setup system center in a vm at home to control other vm's and used microsoft virtual labs. It took about 150 hours of study.

You really don't need an enterprise environment or experience in an enterprise to do it. You have to be interested in virtual design and function, that really helped me and it made for a very enjoyable study. The veeam study guide is a quick read but I wouldn't strictly rely on it, microsoft also has free video training.

SconnieInShorts

techfiend wrote: »

Good luck! ... It needs a general understanding of a virtual hyper-v enterprise.

Thanks! Now, when you say "it" you mean the 74-409, right? I work in our Hyper-V environment day in and day out, so I'm hoping that helps

I did go over the MVA course where I felt I needed to brush up, and did some labbing with DPM as well. Banking that experience, labbing, and common sense are enough for me to pass on try 1

techfiend

74-409 yes, the other MCSA tests only lightly touch on hyper-v in my experience. What makes it difficult to lab is system center, there's a trial available but it's a real pain to setup. At least the ram requirements aren't as astronomical as vCenter but it was a fairly similar experience. System center wasn't a large part of the test but it was enough to not ignore, esp SCVMM and SCOM.

agbunag

how nice!