70 640 - DS, CSVDE, LDIFDE, Powershell and VBscript...

mattipler

Hi guys,

Just working my way through the 70-640 self paced training kit. I'm a little bewildered. The book states YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW MOST OF THIS BUT WE'RE GOING TO TEACH YOU IT ANYWAY then exhaustively lists DS, CSVDE, LDIFDE, Powershell and VBscript commands for things such as creating a new object, changing passwords, adding an object to a group etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc... I've gone through about 100 pages now of complex commands to do tasks that would be easily done within moments within the Windows environment rather than command line or scripting! Why teach us this if we don't need to know it for the exam!?!??! It would take months to learn all these commands!!! Who in their right mind would use a command line or script to create a new object!?!?!??! It's not made clear what they are teaching us for the hell of it and what we actually need to concentrate on for the exam. I could waste weeks of my time learning this nonsense?!?! I don't want to know what is on the exam! But if someone could let me what command structures it's necessary to know inside out and what Microsoft have decided to just through in for the hell of it, it would be greatly appreciated.

Ta.

GagHalfrunt

I remember thinking the same thing when I read it. I think basically you need to know which options you can use for each thing rather than knowing exactly how to do it.

As for "real life" how would you create 200 users from AD Users & Computers? It`s situations such as these where scripting wins. Payroll might for example give you a CSV file full of people`s names and you could write a script which reads them in creating new users with groups etc.

dynamik

Because it's good to know what's possible. I doubt you'd be able to manually enter 500 users faster than I could import them from a CSV. The exam covers a lot of material and I highly doubt that you'll be asked to identify insanely complex commands. I'd focus on learn what each one is capable of and what it's limitations are.

Hyper-Me

The questions arent as in depth on those commands as you might be fearing, but the bottom line is that in the REAL WORLD a lot of environments require dozens or hundreds, or in some cases tens of thousands of accounts to be created and managed on a routine basis. So know whats possible and when certain avenues arent the best for the job.

At work we have over 60,000 accounts that needed to be created in AD, and accounts that change daily...we purchased an application that runs on its own server and had to be custom scripted just to meet the daily needs of our account management.

mattipler

Thanks for your responses guys - however I think I've been a little misunderstood here.

origdav - I'm not "naively assuming" anything! Yes - if I was going to create 400 new users or change details for 400 new users then scripts and command line execution is invaluable. However - 90% of the commands taught in the book are for moving one object using powershell - would you do that!?!? Change the password for an object etc etc! So wind your neck in ya smug tit.

The rest of you, thank you for your responses. The 70-640 exam engine has helped me better understand what is required of me.

HeroPsycho

I used to think this way. Then I began using PowerShell. Even if I'm performing an action on just one object repeatedly, I make a function to do it in PowerShell. It's faster than pulling up ADUC to do it.

I had functions for example to check proxyaddresses on accounts, move accounts between OU's, etc.

Bottom line is you should know of the commands, and how they basically work. They were showing you how to do it on one object, so you could apply it to many objects at once.

origdav, spot on advice!

phoeneous

mattipler wrote: »

So wind your neck in ya smug tit.

Is that vbscript or powershell?

neathneathneath

mattipler wrote: »

wind your neck in ya smug tit.
QUOTE]

Less of the smug

Hyper-Me

phoeneous wrote: »

Is that vbscript or powershell?