70-290 Passed today!

Passed 290 this morning with a 760. 30 questions, 5 sims. MSPress Self Study guide and Measure Up test questions provided with the study guide were my only study source this round. Moving onto 291 now.

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Devin McCloud

Nice job... I hope to take it by the end of December.

skrpune

Congrats on the pass!!

So did you do any hands on practice, or did you just review the MS Press book & do practice questions? I am thinking of taking 290 next and don't really have much hands on server experience other than some monkeying around with SBS 2003, so I was wondering what your experience or hands on practice with it was.

Essendon

Congratulations on the pass!

skrpune: You want to lab it up mate. Besides, the aim should be to learn the stuff, not just pass the damn MS tests. Without experience, I'd say your going to struggle. Setup atleast a couple of servers, break-fix stuff. Just my $.02

Sie

Congrats!

Well done on the pass and good luck for the 291, give it the respect it deserves

skrpune

Essendon wrote:

Congratulations on the pass!

skrpune: You want to lab it up mate. Besides, the aim should be to learn the stuff, not just pass the damn MS tests. Without experience, I'd say your going to struggle. Setup atleast a couple of servers, break-fix stuff. Just my $.02

Thanks Essendon - I hear you, I'm not one to just memorize & test & forget. I planned on getting a study kit with an evaluation copy of Server 2003 & doing a vmware install or something of the sort, but it sounds like I might have to ramp up that plan to really get some good practice. 290/291 will be my most difficult tests so far, and to be perfectly I'm a weee bit scared and not really sure what to expect...

Zerubb

I did all the labs in the book. Installed the server OS that's included with the study guide and set-up an extra XP pc I have as a client (you'll need a client for the labs). I believe if you read the book, do the labs, run through the practice questions you will be prepared for this exam. These study practices served me well.

skrpune

Zerubb wrote:

I did all the labs in the book. Installed the server OS that's included with the study guide and set-up an extra XP pc I have as a client (you'll need a client for the labs). I believe if you read the book, do the labs, run through the practice questions you will be prepared for this exam. These study practices served me well.

Cool, thanks for the info!

Devin McCloud

I totally I agree on the hands on experience. If you got the space, it's a good investment to by the equipment and set up your own rack server. I built a compaq rack with 6 dual 2.8 Xeon servers with two switches and one 8 port kvm for under $2000 off ebay. If your patient you will find some good steals. Considering high end PC still run $1000 or so, it's really not that expensive. In the end it will pay off when you get a job.

dynamik

Have you looked into virtualization at all? Why do you need that much physical equipment?

Devin McCloud

Yeah I know a little about it. But I bought these server way before I decided to go get certified. I had no intention of getting my MCSE but now I do and it's nice to have the equipment to set up my domain and troubleshoot problems. Besides networking, splicing cable, running cable and installing racks is good knowledge to have for job experience. Some people collect trinkets I like computers. I also have a modded xbox two laptops and 2 desktops. Sure, it's over kill!

UncleCid

I totally went for the virtuallization on my labs. I was able to create an test enviroment. Luckily you can reuse the eval cd over and over on your test enviroments. ^^ You can set it up with virtual pc for your xp's and vista's, and virtual server if you use your server OS's.

The only prob i had was that Virtual Server would loose permissions to the virtual networks if i restarted the computer's OS. Only way i found to fix it was to change the settings in the virtual networks. Then it would access them just fine. /shrug

stlsmoore

Yea I have my PC setup with Server 03/XP using VMware and a cheap (very heavy) $50 IBM Netvista server setup with Server 03 and XP using VMware. This way I could create two separate domains and also to practice hot swapping with RAID for my earlier A+ and Network+ exams.

UncleCid

You sound like you have had to lug that server tower around a few times.

Devin McCloud

If your referring to me, yes I have. It a beautiful thing , these Compaq rack server, but so damn heavy. You have to take off the sides , doors and strip out every case just to move it. And then it still like 150 pounds! I plan to some day rent out a small office and run a webserver/business from it.

Slowhand

Congrats on the pass, and good luck on your 70-291 studies.

Bulletz

Nice one man, wish all luck on your 70- 291, i will be taking my 70-290 early next year,