MCITP: EA - count me in

Hi Guys.....only me!!!!!! (Harry Enfield annoying man character, only UK pats might get this)

My Goals

Well, I will have my Security+ passed within the next 6 weeks or so (fairly confident) making me MCSA when i bind the comptia cert accross. As part of my appraisal personal tech goals, I am gonna take the transistion exam next to get me on my way:-

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/windowsserver/2008/transition/default.mspx#FIRST

That will give me 70-640 70-642.

After that im gonna work towards the other 3 exams needed:-

70-643 + 70-620 + 70-647

My study materials:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Paced-Training-70-640-70-642-70-643/dp/0735625727/ref=pd_sbs_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1213880774&sr=8-1

&

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-Exam-70-620/dp/0735623902/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213888579&sr=1-1

A Intel quad core vista 64bit 8GB PC with VMWare installed. Not sure about HyperV yet or Virtual PC, direction would be apprechiated from others.

My funding

Well, hard choice this one. I can get the books and exam fees waved by work. But then im bound to paying back 100% of the funding I use if I leave the company within a year. While I dont see that happening anytime soon I obviously wont be doing all exams on the same day anytime soon, so I am gonna self fund this for now.

Any pointers or experiences, i will give you massive kudos and may even encourage Mark or WM to put a gold star by your name!

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Comments

dynamik

Wow, that's surprising. I always figured you were more of a Cisco/network guy.

What flavor of VMWare are you currently running? Hyper-V requires a 64-bit version of Server 2008, and has some picky hardware requirements. Run this to see if you have a compatible hardware configuration.

Don't just assume it'll work for you since you have new hardware. I have compatible hardware, but the BIOS in my laptop doesn't allow me to enabled hardware DEP, so I can't run it

Why don't you just open a savings account and put the money for your exams and books in there, and then take it out and reimburse your company if you ever decide to leave?

Good luck!

Pash

dynamik wrote:

Wow, that's surprising. I always figured you were more of a Cisco/network guy.

What flavor of VMWare are you currently running? Hyper-V requires a 64-bit version of Server 2008, and has some picky hardware requirements. Run this to see if you have a compatible hardware configuration.

Don't just assume it'll work for you since you have new hardware. I have compatible hardware, but the BIOS in my laptop doesn't allow me to enabled hardware DEP, so I can't run it

Why don't you just open a savings account and put the money for your exams and books in there, and then take it out and reimburse your company if you ever decide to leave?

Good luck!

Hi Dynamik,

Well I have been twoing and swaying for about a year now on what I want to dedicate my time to certification wise. I did actually start getting my CCNP BSCI lab together at home, two 2600's routers and a desktop 19" rack mount sitting at home not even powered up atm. But....ive decided I really prefer windows environments. All I am reading about currently is energy crisis price wars, 12% of Global companies are now passing the energy bills to IT (imagine the shift in this), virtualization and consolodation of server roles within windows is gonna be hot hot hot. I wanna go in this direction for now. Most of you vets probably already realise this or invisioned it several years ago, but im small fry new timer

I am gonna be running VMWare Server 1.0.6 which is the latest according to their website. Probably a few 2008 and 2003 mixed eval server installs and same for xp vista clients. Obviously they wont all be powered up at once but I will pick good lab practices to understake. Ill probably take snapshots of the systems when they are installed clean to make it easier to rebuild later. Thanks for the advice on Hyper-V, I will look at that for sure.

That is a very good idea about the savings account, but I dont know if I wanna be 'bound' to the company at this stage of my career. I would prefer to get the certs myself and then see how I can use them for my current company, attract new customers or upgrade excisting ones and then make the decision whether staying on is progressing me.

Pash

Already im experiencing issues while starting out, luckily they are technical only!

Windows vista has an issue with VMware server 1.0.6 where driver signature feature needs to be turned off when booting the host. press f8 on startup and turn off driver signature feature.

It is a little annoying but hopefully there will be a fix sooner rather than later.

Pash

Been practising promoting a 2008 member server to a dc, forest and domain prep etc when ive had time recently.

Didn't realise that you already need a 2k8 server on the domain to make the dc a RODC, interesting stuff!

Will post more stuff when I can, had to put these studies back a bit, should be in flow soon.

Starke

I personally think VMware is a better product. Since you are taking exams that will test you on HyperV I think you should actually use HyperV. You have to run HyperV right on your machine, so you couldn't install Virtual PC and then run a server with the HyperV role installed through it. These are just my thoughts, hope they help.

Slowhand

Sounds like a good plan, Pash. I've been thinking about if I want to do the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator cert before I go down the CCNP path, or vice-versa. I'll probably end up finishing the MCSE, then figure out what happens next.

I look forward to hearing about your progress. I've done a little bit of work with Server 2008, so I feel your pain on some of the pitfalls I'm sure you'll run into. Good luck with all your studies, and keep us updated on your path.

Pash

Starke wrote:

I personally think VMware is a better product. Since you are taking exams that will test you on HyperV I think you should actually use HyperV. You have to run HyperV right on your machine, so you couldn't install Virtual PC and then run a server with the HyperV role installed through it. These are just my thoughts, hope they help.

Hi Starke, thanks for your advice, much appreciated. I am actually running vmware server 2.0 as of this week. It's actually a much improved free piece of software, very impressed with it. I might actually buy vmware workstation in the new year, depends on how far I get with the studies and whether I can justify needing the workstation platform.

Starke wrote:

Sounds like a good plan, Pash. I've been thinking about if I want to do the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator cert before I go down the CCNP path, or vice-versa. I'll probably end up finishing the MCSE, then figure out what happens next.

I look forward to hearing about your progress. I've done a little bit of work with Server 2008, so I feel your pain on some of the pitfalls I'm sure you'll run into. Good luck with all your studies, and keep us updated on your path.

Hi Slowhand, thanks mate. Yeh I really set out to get these certs for next year, but obviously work always has things thrown in our direction, and of course life does as well. I will post my updates as reguarly as possible!

Slowhand

Pash wrote:

Hi Slowhand, thanks mate. Yeh I really set out to get these certs for next year, but obviously work always has things thrown in our direction, and of course life does as well. I will post my updates as reguarly as possible!

I know how that goes. In the past two years, I've "meant to get" different certs that were geared towards the jobs I had, including LPIC, SCSA, and CSSA. And, of course, in the meantime, I got delayed on the certs I'd set out to get either way, like the MCSE, CCNA, and now, CCNP. Stay focused, you'll be getting that Server 2008 work piled on your shoulders in no time.

jibbajabba

Is it allowed to ask, according to the NDA, how many questions this cert has ?

If not ignore me and please don't answer ..

Pash

Gomjaba wrote:

Is it allowed to ask, according to the NDA, how many questions this cert has ?

If not ignore me and please don't answer ..

Hi Gomjaba,

Sorry for late reply. Yes, it would be against Microsoft's NDA to disclose how many questions are in the exam. Instead the below link will tell you the percentage weighting on each exam. That might be useful for study.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcitp/windowsserver/2008/enterprise/default.mspx

I have got the MCTS study guide pack and 8GB of RAM running in vista ultimate 64bit. It begins.

Cheers,

Pash

I have x3 2k8 servers now in my lab. Going to build some vista vmware pc's early Jan, probably gonna use vmware converter and use the Microsoft vhd vista trial.

sprkymrk

Wow Pash, I am sorry I missed this thread until now. Best luck to you, I know you will accomplish whatever you set out to do.

Pash

sprkymrk wrote:

Wow Pash, I am sorry I missed this thread until now. Best luck to you, I know you will accomplish whatever you set out to do.

Hi Mark,

Thanks

Well thats not entirely true, I wanted Secrutiy+ before 2009! I know I wanted to pass enough, but it was a failure on my part.

My retake won't be far off though

I will post my progress in this thread all the way and hopefully it will help others looking to do these exams.

Cheers,

Pash

Well i decided to build the vista clients yesterday when i got home after being at my mums for christmas.

All I am missing at the moment is some 2k3 servers and XP clients to throw into the mix, might be good to practice various upgrade/migration paths I guess.

Starting with the 70-642 material at the moment. The first chapter starts with introductions on network encapsulation, OSI and DoD models. I can skip a lot so far based on my previous networking knowledge.

Pash

Here is a question for anyone who pops by on the off chance:-

Anyone using PowerGUI to administer vmware via powershell? I am interested on how much control you have on this.

Cheers,

HeroPsycho

Yes, it works with VMware Server 2.0 or ESXi. You can do just about anything you need to save an interactive console to a VM.

Pash

My god I do take time to get around to things!!!!!

70-648 booked for April 12th, I am propbably not quiet ready yet but working hard before the exam date should be ok.

Rootstonian

If I may ask, what is your current position in the company and how long have you worked there?

If you only have to stay a year to have the cert materials reimbursed, then that's a deal in my opinion. A year goes by pretty quick in an organization (I'm shocked I had 13 years in before I had to leave 10.2009).

Unless they budget you really tight, get the MS Press Books, a Sybex book, get the Transcender Practice Exams and Study guides. Some of this can be $300 (or more) per cert (or say 4 certs for $1,200). Let the company pay for it by all means; the year will go by faster than you think

Hyper-Me

Just an FYI, pash. You can actually state how many questions are on an MS exam, but you CANT state how many questions you had on a particular topic or what was in the question.

Pash

Rootstonian wrote: »

If I may ask, what is your current position in the company and how long have you worked there?

If you only have to stay a year to have the cert materials reimbursed, then that's a deal in my opinion. A year goes by pretty quick in an organization (I'm shocked I had 13 years in before I had to leave 10.2009).

Unless they budget you really tight, get the MS Press Books, a Sybex book, get the Transcender Practice Exams and Study guides. Some of this can be $300 (or more) per cert (or say 4 certs for $1,200). Let the company pay for it by all means; the year will go by faster than you think

Hey, yeh its a smaller company I work for, I have been here for just over 3 years. I don't mind funding my certs for now, it's not as though I give out my transcript willy nilly, they wont get it from me now without specifically asking me. I am not helping with renewing a gold partnership when they they make no contribution to my studies.

Pash

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Just an FYI, pash. You can actually state how many questions are on an MS exam, but you CANT state how many questions you had on a particular topic or what was in the question.

Thank you Hyper. Didnt actually realise that.