Failover Clustering on 74-409

Hey guys, I'm really hoping someone can help me out with this. I'm just wondering if any of you who have taken the 74-409 exam already can tell me what you used to study for the Failover Clustering portion of the exam. I seem to grasp the concepts fairly well by watching Pluralsight and John Savill videos but when I take the MeasureUp practice exam I always seem to do horribly in the Failover Clustering questions. The videos I've watched and labbed along with and the TechNet articles I've read seem very straightforward and I can pretty much build a Failover Cluster now without any guidance but struggling with the practice exam. Have any of you used the MeasureUp practice exam for the 409? Please as always don't break Microsoft NDA but any help is certainly appreciated. Thanks!

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MariusRZR

Uuhm, well. First, ignore MeasureUp. I used them for 70-410. Couldn't break 50%. The actual exam questions were way easier.

Kyrak

I didn't do 409 but it is something I am interested in.

You already did these too?
https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/failover-clustering-in-windows-server-2012-r2-8489?l=r4LHqAYz_3104984382
https://vlabs.holsystems.com/vlabs/technet?eng=VLabs&auth=none&src=vlabs&altadd=true&labid=20339&lod=true
https://vlabs.holsystems.com/vlabs/technet?eng=VLabs&auth=none&src=vlabs&altadd=true&labid=12026

NotHackingYou

I watched the MVA videos and read this Hyper-V book. https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Server-Hyper-V-Installation-Configuration/dp/1118486498/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467849308&sr=8-2&keywords=Hyper+V

I passed on the first go with only these materials.

poolmanjim

Admittedly, I took the 70-412 and not the 74-409. However, looking at the HA section on the test page (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-74-409.aspx). Looking at the requirements they aren't too different from the Hyper-V HA requirements from the 70-412 so some of my 412 study will probably be relevant here.

The quickest and easiest solution is to lab it. The challenge with this is you can't install Hyper-V within Hyper-V (at least not very easy). So you really have two solutions.
1. Microsoft does have some free labs, they have been linked further up. This is what I ended up doing and it ended up helping out considerably.
2. Nest Hyper-V within another Hypervisor. VMWare is probably the most common and easiest. I would suggest using VMWare Workstation since it can be run on an existing Windows install. Using this, you can install the needed separate Hyper-V servers and configure the broker between them. This way you can play with all aspects of Hyper-V HA.

AndersonSmith

Thanks guys. I've built a lab using VirtualBox and was able to install Hyper-V Management Tools and lab around with it, plus I downloaded the SCVMM evaluation and have been playing around with that as well. I checked out the Technet Labs too and they are helping. The Pluralsight videos are really good and I've found a lot of other ones on YouTube which are helpful. I went back and watched the High Availability section of the MVA videos and took notes as I went, paused and re-wound some things, and I think that helped me get a better grasp on them too. I'm just curious as to how good the MeasureUp practice tests are for this exam. They seem to be kind of hit or miss for a lot of people for the 410 and 411 but I haven't heard anyone talk about them for the 409. I really wasn't going to get them but they were only an extra $25 with the booster pack so I figured for that price I'd give them a shot. Of all the objectives on the exam this is the one that I really have the least interest in so I think that's part of my problem. Thanks for all the help guys, I always appreciate it!

NotHackingYou

Anderson, I think you're going to be just fine. I didn't use MeasureUP so I can't comment on them for this exam - but I found the MVA and book to be sufficient. Granted, I took this exam in 2014.

AndersonSmith

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

Anderson, I think you're going to be just fine. I didn't use MeasureUP so I can't comment on them for this exam - but I found the MVA and book to be sufficient. Granted, I took this exam in 2014.

Thank you. I've heard from others that this exam isn't as tough for them as most other Microsoft exams so I'm hoping this to be the case with me as well. I appreciate your input!

techfiend

Clustering (MSCS) may be uninteresting to you but it's a very useful skill to have as a systems engineer. Most companies need great uptime and this is one of a few ways to improve it.

AndersonSmith

techfiend wrote: »

Clustering (MSCS) may be uninteresting to you but it's a very useful skill to have as a systems engineer. Most companies need great uptime and this is one of a few ways to improve it.

I understand that Techfiend and I really am trying to learn the whole technology rather than just learn the bare minimum needed to pass the exam. I just don't use it in my current job at the moment but I can definitely see the value in it and why Microsoft includes it in the exam. But I do feel like many of us have trouble at one time or another studying for certain objectives we're not quite interested in. But you're right, it is absolutely a very useful skill to have!