SY0-201 - Virtualization?

jeffslaw

I've seen a few posts here mentioning that Virtualization questions caught testers off guard. I hate it when you study from 4-5 sources & test questions come up that you've never even heard of. I've read several books & am following up with study notes from this site & Transcender (planning on taking my test in a few weeks). I have found very little in my study material that talks about Virtualization. Does anyone have a site link with more detailed virtualization study notes that might come up on the exam?

CompuTron99

Your right. I think the Sybex and Exam Cram only give about a page worth of information. I'd like to know how in-depth the exam (201) gets with Virtualization.

amtt81

I 3rd this opinion. I am having the same difficulty.

mark076h

jeffslaw wrote: »

I've seen a few posts here mentioning that Virtualization questions caught testers off guard. I hate it when you study from 4-5 sources & test questions come up that you've never even heard of. I've read several books & am following up with study notes from this site & Transcender (planning on taking my test in a few weeks). I have found very little in my study material that talks about Virtualization. Does anyone have a site link with more detailed virtualization study notes that might come up on the exam?

I would like some info on this also.

jay754

Hi all
I dont know if this will be much help but the only mention of virtualisation in the 2008 objectives (downloadable from CompTIA site) is the following:

"1.6 Explain the purpose and application of virtualization technology"

As it's mentioned as a minor objective early on, I dont think you need to know too much, just the benefits of using virtual servers, particularly from security point of view. For example, at my work I know that the Ms Virtual PC based virtual servers that host VMs I use for connecting to customer sites has it's access controlled by Active Directory permissions. So if you dont have permissions to access the virtual server in AD you cant use any of the VMs hosted on it. This practice of segmentation protects your own servers and assures the safety of those you connect to from the VMs so maybe this is the angle the questions take.

This may help too, free custom copy of Virtualization for Dummies to download here :

Virtualization for Dummies

UPDATE: Just found this link that may also help:

Virtualisation for Security

jeffslaw

Thanks for the post Jay. I'll check out the links you provided.

NightShade03

Virtualization as far as the exam goes is very basic. I've done some research from different sources and they all point out some key things. You should have a basic understand of how virtualizing a server protects the network or makes the server more secure. This also applies to browser virtualization as well.

ie. If my browser is fully virtualized and becomes compromised...it doesn't take out the whole system, it only effects the browser (this technique is known as sandboxing by the way).

blackegg

jay754 wrote: »

This may help too, free custom copy of Virtualization for Dummies to download here :

Virtualization for Dummies

I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't get the Virtualization for Dummies to download!
I filled out everything it asked of me :~

CompuTron99

Thank you for the info... It will help me preparing for this exam ( which os only a few weeksn away).

bleScreened

Hey folks. I've been using MeasureUp and they have virtualization questions on there.

If you need info on virtualization, let me know, PM me or something. I work on several production servers running in a VMware Infrastructure environment.

Note, just virtualizing a server will not necessarily make it secure. If it's a virtual production server on the actual production network (passing production network connectivity through the host to the virtual machine) , it's just as susceptible to attack as any physical server.

From what I've seen so far in my studies for Sec+, I have seen a question similar to this: Lets say you have a new application that requires network connectivity and you want to test it in a network environment. The answer would be to load a virtual client PC (like XP) and a virtual server PC onto a standalone host PC off the production network. Within your virtual environment, the virtual client machine and virtual server machine will have an internal network between them that is away from your production network. That way those two virtual boxes exchange data over a completely isolated network.

TILLMANIS2

I don't think that you're just supposed to read a book about a topic and expect to pass a test on that topic. You're supposed to have experience. These test are here to prove that you have knowledge and experience on the topic, experience being the key word. Don't rely on the study guides...rely on your experience.

jeffslaw

I get Tillmanis2's point, but don't fully agree on tests involving a lot of theory & concepts. One big reason people work on certs is to open up new opportunities that they may not be currently getting (with their current employer or in the job market). A lot of IT pros that I know with extensive experience thumb their nose at most certs. I've worked in IT for 11 years in a mix of help desk & sys admin work, but have very limited experience dealing with the security+ topics covered by this exam. In medium to large size orgs, IT staff often get stuck into rigid job roles that don't always offer the wide range of experience that would prepare them for "some" certification tests. That's why I get annoyed when I buy books & courses that claim to prepare the customer for a test & then get blind sides by obscure questions that I've never seen. Not trying to start a flame war here, just my 2 cents .

bleScreened

jeffslaw wrote: »

I get Tillmanis2's point, but don't fully agree on tests involving a lot of theory & concepts. One big reason people work on certs is to open up new opportunities that they may not be currently getting (with their current employer or in the job market). A lot of IT pros that I know with extensive experience thumb their nose at most certs. I've worked in IT for 11 years in a mix of help desk & sys admin work, but have very limited experience dealing with the security+ topics covered by this exam. In medium to large size orgs, IT staff often get stuck into rigid job roles that don't always offer the wide range of experience that would prepare them for "some" certification tests. That's why I get annoyed when I buy books & courses that claim to prepare the customer for a test & then get blind sides by obscure questions that I've never seen. Not trying to start a flame war here, just my 2 cents .

IT Pros that thumb their nose at certs don't really belong in the biz in my opinion.

Yes, certs sometimes are invalidated by schmucks out there that have all the certs in the world yet can't actually be relied on to do real work or are just in it for a paycheck.

However, it's been my experience that I learn some additional things when studying for certs. For instance, there have been several situations where my uncertified co-workers are doing things in an ineffective way because it is the way they are used to or it is just the old way of doing it. After studying for certs, I can find easier ways to do things.

The day you stop learning in this business and become stuck in your ways is the day you become obsolete. In my opinion, certs are just one of the ways you keep learning because they are usually updated when the common technology is updated.

If I had a choice of hiring a person with 25 years experience and his last cert was NT4 and someone with 10 years experience whos last cert was on Windows 2003, i'd pick the 2003 guy, because it's possible the person who isn't willing to update his cert isn't going to learn the new features in an OS that are going to benefit the company or security.

jeffslaw

I totally agree with everything blescreened said 100%. I wasn't trying to discredit certifications at all. My point was to a prior poster who said you should count on real world experience to get through tests, not study material. His comment isn't really wrong (if you have the prior experience - of course use it), but that advice can be discouraging to people who are working on certs to advance themselves in new areas. People shouldn't be afraid to target certifications that they haven't already worked in. Sometimes that's how to get your foot in the door to get the real world experience.

blackegg

I learned a virtual ton syudying for the Network+ exam. I have actually corrected my boss a time or two with what I learned and he's been in the business for 30+ years. He didn't know about APIPA and I did. We had a situation where this certain IP range had been handed out and he was unsure what it meant or where ut came from.
I've been studying for the Security+ exam now for a couple of weeks and I'm learning quite a bit from this as well. I agree, sometimes you get stuck doing one task and literally can't do much "on the job" training and have to fall back on what you've studied. Just being in the business helps tremendously. I got lucky when I fell into my current job. Just never stop learning......

skrpune

blackegg wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't get the Virtualization for Dummies to download!
I filled out everything it asked of me :~

Did you enter a legit email address on the info page? I got an email with the link to download the pdf within a few seconds of submitting the info.

LaosLady

The above link worked for me as well. Thanks for sharing!

I took the Sec+ (I failed) and was also caught off guard by the virtualization questions on the exam and have been looking for more information as well on this topic as well as general Sec+ study material. I was just using the Sybex by Emmett Dulaney before, but after failing don't think that's enough so I am now also reading the Sec+ All-in-One Exam Guide.

Thanks, everyone for sharing your experiences.

msbachman

bleScreened wrote: »

IT Pros that thumb their nose at certs don't really belong in the biz in my opinion.

So if a person can pass a test but chooses not to take that, that's a DQ in your opinion?

I know plenty of people who are quite competent at certain tasks but they just don't care to fork out money to prove it.