taking 70-236 with little experience with Exchange 2007

sthomas

I have a voucher from Microsoft that entitles me to a free exam. I went ahead and signed up to take the 70-236 exam on June 21 and am going to order the MS Press book or Sybex as soon as possible. My question is this exam a good place to start to get a solid basic understanding of Exchange 2007 or would I be better off getting some experience in exchange first before I go for the certification(s)? I don’t have any experience with Exchange 2007 or 2003 other than add/removing email accounts. I would like to pick up some extra projects on the side implementing Exchange so I could make some extra cash and more importantly get the experience, and if I get enough knowledge I would like to eventually get the MCITP: Messaging Administrator certification. Any advice or info would be appreciated.

dynamik

If you don't want to spend the money on CBT Nuggets, check out the 24 hours of Exchange MS webcast: http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/tnexchangeserver.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42340 (you probably should even if you have the Nuggets as well).

Also, setup a VM or get the VHD and dive in. That's my plan

royal

How to **** at configuring Exchange 2007 is a good book for an Exchange 2007 novice. The 24-hour webcast series is very good. The very first thing I did when I began to learn Exchange 2007 was to watch every single 24-hour webcast series.

So the steps I would take to approach it is:
1. Set up a VM with Server 2003
2. Start watching the webcasts and install Exchange 2007 when you feel comfortable
3. Continue watching webcasts and try to follow along
4. Look up things in the technical library when you need more detail
5. After you finish watching the webcasts, start reading the How to **** book.
6. Mix in CBT Nuggets if you want with the How to **** book.

I also dedicated 3-4 days to doing nothing but doing get-help powershellcmd and then reading up on powershell articles for Exchange. At the time, the articles that were out there were the ones that seemed to be used the most. Make sure you fully understand how resource calendaring works and how to configure it via PowerShell.

Also, where in IL do you live? I'm in Naperville.

sthomas

I downloaded the Exchange VHD yesterday but have not had time to set it up yet. I also downloaded the trial version of Exchange 2007 from MS. My plan is to install Windows Server 2003 on a spare computer I have and also use VMWare. I will also check out that book you recommend royal. Thanks for links and the step by step guide guys.

hypnotoad

This test scares me. I have both the MS and Sybex book. I think the MS book comes with VHD's and the Sybex comes with practice exams.

HeroPsycho

Make sure you know Powershell basics and the Exchange 2007 cmdlets, or you will likely fail.

To get the basics, I highly recommend you complete this guided tutorial. It's quite excellent in helping you learn the basic features of Powershell.

https://blogs.technet.com/chitpro-de/archive/2007/05/10/english-version-of-windows-powershell-course-book-available-for-download.aspx

Good luck!