My Experience with 1Y1-A05

astorrs

I took the 1Y1-A05 (Implementing Citrix XenApp for Windows Server 200 beta on Wednesday and thought I would give a quick summary for anyone (you know who you are) interested in taking it.

179 questions (Citrix beta exams are longer than production exams)

The exam is based on the XenApp 5 Release Candidate (not the RTM) and covers the same objectives as the Presentation Server 4.5 Administration (1Y0-259) exam. It's mostly focused on Windows Server 2008 implementations (since there are few changes to the XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2003 release). Make sure you know the changes to the supporting components (Web Interface, Access Suite Console, etc) and the new features added to the 2008 implementation and you'll do fine. Oh and make sure you know the new names for everything!

All in all I think I passed, but I'll have to wait a few months to find out.

stupidboy

Nice one, I'll have to take a look at XenApp 5 once I have finished XenDesktop.

I've never take a beta exam, perhaps that'll be my aim for next year

Anything new and exciting in XenApp 5?

astorrs

stupidboy wrote:

Anything new and exciting in XenApp 5?

I'm feeling lazy today: http://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/salesdocs/Citrix-XenApp-Comparative-Matrix(Aug0.pdf

Essendon

astorrs wrote:

179 questions (Citrix beta exams are longer than production exams).

. 179? Really? How lond do you have to answer them? Must be a few hours, I'm sure.

astorrs

MobilOne wrote:

astorrs wrote:

179 questions (Citrix beta exams are longer than production exams).

. 179? Really? How lond do you have to answer them? Must be a few hours, I'm sure.

More than enough time, the worst was the BEWS 12 beta, it was 240+ questions - it went on and on and on...

Essendon

240+ questions. OMG!! I can believe there's an IT test that's got that many questions. It should be called the BEWS 12 beta Endurance test. So you have like 3-4 days to answer them all??

BTW, Andrew, seems like your going to set a world record for having the most certs. Quite frankly, some of your more recent ones are a bit vague for me. But I know that when an IT guy gets to the stage your at, most things are relatively easy and your brain acts like a sponge, absorbing anything remotely related to IT. Right?

astorrs

MobilOne wrote:

240+ questions. OMG!! I can believe there's an IT test that's got that many questions. It should be called the BEWS 12 beta Endurance test. So you have like 3-4 days to answer them all??

The worst part was that since it was a beta they were asking questions about the same thing in a few different ways, so not only did it go on forever, but it was repetitive.

MobilOne wrote:

BTW, Andrew, seems like your going to set a world record for having the most certs. Quite frankly, some of your more recent ones are a bit vague for me. But I know that when an IT guy gets to the stage your at, most things are relatively easy and your brain acts like a sponge, absorbing anything remotely related to IT. Right?

Not really, I have yet to actually learn anything new, all I've been doing is filling in the gaps in my knowledge about the products I have implemented and for those projects that are listed on my resume. At some point down the road I'll decide to pick something new to dive into... at this point it's a toss up between the RHCE and SCNA (I do have a few years of Solaris experience but it dates back to the SunOS 4/5 & Solaris 2.6 days). I look forward to then, but I felt it was most appropriate to focus on the things I know (since it just backs up my resume further).

Essendon

Jeez, Solaris! I envy the SCSA guys a bit, pretty hard to find, alteast here in Melbourne. At Mobil, we had only the one guy managing the entire South Pacific region for the company. That's fair dinkum responsibility.

So what made you switch to MS from Sun/Solaris.

P.S. Please have a read of a question I posted in the 291 section. Royal answered the initial question, but I have another...

astorrs

MobilOne wrote:

So what made you switch to MS from Sun/Solaris.

P.S. Please have a read of a question I posted in the 291 section. Royal answered the initial question, but I have another...

Got a 3 contract to do a couple of process control migration from VMS and VAXeln to Windows NT 4 for some large industrial plants.

And I was working in an environment with Solaris, IRIX, Windows NT, Mac OS, hell even some NEXT terminals (I'm sure I left a few out)... my early career was very heterogeneous.

P.S. I'll have a look.

Essendon

Sounds cool. Does someone still switch from something to NT4 these days, or is this from the good ol' days?

astorrs

MobilOne wrote:

Sounds cool. Does someone still switch from something to NT4 these days, or is this from the good ol' days?

LOL, that was 1999.

P.S. Your question was answered right? I saw royal's follow-up.

Essendon

astorrs wrote:

MobilOne wrote:

Sounds cool. Does someone still switch from something to NT4 these days, or is this from the good ol' days?

LOL, that was 1999.

P.S. Your question was answered right? I saw royal's follow-up.

Yes, it was. Thanks.

astorrs

The beta exams now free for everyone and not just those with invites:

http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/keirad/2008/09/15/Get+certified+on+XenApp+5+at+NO+COST+for+a+limited+time

stupidboy

astorrs wrote:

The beta exams now free for everyone and not just those with invites:

http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/keirad/2008/09/15/Get+certified+on+XenApp+5+at+NO+COST+for+a+limited+time

SWEET! I am down on this, booked for the 08/10/08 as there seems to be no time limit

Anything better than the admin guide out there?

undomiel

Booked it for the end of October for me. Time to start learning! I haven't done an exam for a while now so I hope I'm not too rusty and don't embarrass myself like with the 2008 Virtualization exam.

astorrs

stupidboy wrote:

Anything better than the admin guide out there?

Honestly? No.

Grab the admin guides (for all the components) and pickup an eval and get that lab running...

stupidboy

astorrs wrote:

pickup an eval and get that lab running...

I think the office Xen Server/play thing (HP DL385, 32GB RAM + 2 Quad core AMDs) is due in this week, I think I have a plan

astorrs

stupidboy wrote:

astorrs wrote:

pickup an eval and get that lab running...

I think the office Xen Server/play thing (HP DL385, 32GB RAM + 2 Quad core AMDs) is due in this week, I think I have a plan

Throw XenServer 5 on that guy, the new XenCenter looks great.

Oh and does XenServer support NPT on the Quad AMDs?

Edit: Looks like 4.1 and later do, http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1297948 nice.

stupidboy

astorrs wrote:

Throw XenServer 5 on that guy, the new XenCenter looks great.

BUGGER, missed that one! Looks like I'll be installing that next week (have 1 customer that likes to be bleading edge, even he missed this ... very odd).

astorrs wrote:

Oh and does XenServer support NPT on the Quad AMDs?

Edit: Looks like 4.1 and later do, http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1297948 nice.

Actually this is something that Citrix neglect to even mention, but it does not surprise me Xen Server does support this. Much of the speed comes from hardware support thus not wasting CPU cycles watching.

astorrs

stupidboy wrote:

astorrs wrote:

Throw XenServer 5 on that guy, the new XenCenter looks great.

BUGGER, missed that one! Looks like I'll be installing that next week (have 1 customer that likes to be bleading edge, even he missed this ... very odd).

astorrs wrote:

Oh and does XenServer support NPT on the Quad AMDs?

Edit: Looks like 4.1 and later do, http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1297948 nice.

Actually this is something that Citrix neglect to even mention, but it does not surprise me Xen Server does support this. Much of the speed comes from hardware support thus not wasting CPU cycles watching.

Some screenshots for you: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2008/09/16/XenCenter+5+in+Pictures

The NPT support will make a big difference (ESX 3.5 supports it too) when working with CPS workloads since the high context switches won't be a debilitating factor.

stupidboy

I too have taken the 179 monster exam today, I am no longer a beta virgin

I had 30mins left at the end and very sore eyes.

There was a handy button on the exam (next to the back and next buttons) marked terminology which has a table with old and new names.

stupidboy

Has everyone had their results on this exam yet?

Did anyone pass?

astorrs

Took a look at the site today (after your reminder):

Pearson VUE wrote:

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 at 08:45:AM
1Y0-A05: 1Y0-A05 Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008
pass

Sweet...

stupidboy

astorrs wrote:

Took a look at the site today (after your reminder):

Pearson VUE wrote:

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 at 08:45:AM
1Y0-A05: 1Y0-A05 Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008
pass

Sweet...

Congratulations, it was a painful (physically and mentally) exam.

I too have passed, I would just like to see the score sheet now and see just how much by. (I passed all my PS4 exams with over 82% and considered CCI)

roberto.alves

stupidboy

roberto.alves wrote:

Congratulations, like I have already said, it was a painful exam.

I have been thinking and remember commenting on a number of questions and can remember 2 that were totally wrong (correct answer not an option). Did you find you spent some time writing comments?

I am very happy as I did not get any where near enough time to study this one.

I'll post my score when it comes through.

Mishra

Congrats you lucky SOBs.

I want to pass free beta exams and get random certifications...

90-85005 Terminating Firewire Devices in Network LANs that had 4 DHCP servers certification

undomiel

Congratulations! I signed up for that exam but then they had to reschedule me and I couldn't find the time due to the new job transition so it just fell through the cracks.

stupidboy

I've just had the hard copy (yuck!) posted through the door.

The passing score was 68% and I scored 77%, my new Citrix low :0)

roberto.alves

stupidboy wrote:

The passing score was 68% and I scored 77%, my new Citrix low :0)

I got the same score! 77%

Tonight I will put here the score for each subject to you compare by subject!

May be they had problems with some questions and supposed that we were wrongs... May be they gave the same score to everybody that passed...

Conspiration ideas...

stupidboy

roberto.alves wrote:

May be they had problems with some questions and supposed that we were wrongs...

Three attempts to write this without NDA breach.

There was one for sure that was wrong which made me quite upset, as the correct information was in the Technical Introduction to XenApp 5 for Windows Server 2008 (and seen during the install).

My break down is as follows.

* Understanding the Citrix Architecture -

100%
* Licensing and Installing Citrix XenApp - 83%
* Installing and Configuring Web Interface - 67%
* Configuring ICA Sessions - 58%
* Managing Applications - 75%
* Managing Citrix XenApp Policies - 67%
* Managing and Maintaining the Server and Farm - 69%
* Configuring Printing - 100%
* Troubleshooting Citrix XenApp - 83%

I think the 58% is due to me always getting Speed Screen technologies mixed up (I'll never learn) !

Also forgot to say, it's nice to see another contributor on the Citrix forum.