Passed 70-238

royal

Overall the exam wasn't that bad although it definitely had more difficult scenarios than 70-236 and 70-237. The exam is the most difficult between the 3. Study hard!

Glad I have finally accomplished my MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator certification. Woohoo!

Now on my agenda:
1. Read more about Exchange disaster recovery and set up a bunch of labs to become more familiar with disaster scenarios and feel more comfortable with ESEUTIL.
2. Start learning SQL
3. Start learning PowerShell. I've debated on whether I should learn VBScript and Powershell, but I'm leaning more towards Powershell.

CoryS

Congrats! Thanks for the heads up!

Probably best to focus on powershell since it will become one of the more leveraged components with the upcoming MS releases. I was in the same boat as you but also aimed my sights at more thorough powershell knowledge...

Again, good job on your MCITP cert

sprkymrk

Congrats royal, I mean Mr. Royal, sir.

7255carl

congrats

HeroPsycho

Congrats!

Mishra

What? Royal passed a certification? Okay can someone give me some actually NEWS. NEWS has that NEW word in it you know.

dynamik

If it makes you feel any better about me not chiming in with a "congrats", I actually combed through the Exchange posts the other day looking for your "pass" post to see what resources you used. I guess it serves me right that you didn't list any

I'm planning on:
CBT Nuggets 236 and 237 (no 238 yet)
24 hours of Exchange MS Webcasts
Transcender MCITP:EMA pack

I'm kind of unsure which written resources to use. I'm leaning towards the Unleashed book as well as Syngress' How to **** at configuring Exchange (it seems like the books written for the specific exams are getting abysmal reviews). I might give that Sybex 237/238 book that Hero listed in his 237 post as well. I should probably add a Powershell resource or two as well, right?

Oh, and congratulations

royal

I did post in another thread all the material I used. I can't seem to find that thread so here is what I used:
1. Mastering Exchange 2007 - http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Microsoft-Exchange-Server-2007/dp/0470042893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209567594&sr=8-1
2. How to **** at configuring Exchange 2007 - http://www.amazon.com/****-Configuring-Exchange-Server-2007/dp/1597491373/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209567572&sr=8-1
3. Countless Exchange Blogs
4. Reading a ton of the Technical Library
5. Lots of hands on experience
6. 70-237/70-238 Sybex book (Excellent Book) - http://www.amazon.com/MCITP-Microsoft-Exchange-Messaging-Deployment/dp/047018146X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209567615&sr=8-2

dynamik

Yea, I thought I saw it somewhere too. Maybe it was your 237 post, which is why everyone figured 238 was sort of a given for you

Thanks for taking the time to list all that again.

Mishra

You never listed your score BTW.

Thiassi

Congrats.

royal

Mishra wrote:

You never listed your score BTW.

I scored in the upper 900s for each of them. Don't remember the exact scores.

70-236 was the 2nd most difficult
70-237 was by far the easiest
70-238 was the most difficult

snadam

well done! So how does it feel to be a MCTIP: Enterprise Admin?

HeroPsycho

Hey Royal,

If you don't mind me asking, what is so difficult about the 238 exam? Not asking for anything that violates NDR or anything, just trying to understand why it's the most difficult.

royal

They were more tricky complex scenarios. I wouldn't say it was all that difficult, but the most difficult out of the bunch. 70-236 was more either it's right or wrong.

70-237 very easy and obvious changes into the environment. Such as, if you want to replace a FE, what do you do? Well, you add a CAS and change the Host record to the CAS and if you want the CAS to proxy OWA to a 2003 back end, you need the CAS separated from the Mailbox role. If your FE is also a bridgehead for SMTP, then you need a HTS in addition to the CAS.

70-238 adds more complexity with adding things such as security, hub transport policies vs edge transport policies, VSS, CCR, LCR, infrastructure optimizations, etc...

royal

snadam wrote:

well done! So how does it feel to be a MCTIP: Enterprise Admin?

Always feels good to work towards a goal and accomplish it. But as with everything else, the cool factor wears out pretty fast.

blargoe

Excellent! Great job, sir.

b

snadam

royal wrote:

snadam wrote:

well done! So how does it feel to be a MCTIP: Enterprise Admin?

Always feels good to work towards a goal and accomplish it. But as with everything else, the cool factor wears out pretty fast.

Financial compensation usually lengthens the cool factor

royal

snadam wrote:

royal wrote:

snadam wrote:

well done! So how does it feel to be a MCTIP: Enterprise Admin?

Always feels good to work towards a goal and accomplish it. But as with everything else, the cool factor wears out pretty fast.

Financial compensation usually lengthens the cool factor

Touché. That would actually require you to get financially compensated right around the time your coolness factor starts to fade.