Passed 70-403
Claymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
Yesterday with an 850.
My goal was to pass this by March 1st to meet the MS partner competency requirements and I originally scheduled the exam for 2/19 to give me time to use a Second Shot just in case. I had to move up the date for a client commitment and I am glad I did not waste another two weeks studying. My goal on an MS exam is an 850 and I hit that with little effort in the exam room.
I started off using the MS Press 652 Training Kit since it also has sections on SCVMM, but my primary resource was the Mastering SCVMM book from Sybex. I skipped a couple of chapters that didn't match up to the exam objectives and then used my resource guide here as a review.
After taking the exam I can understand why 403 is not arequirement for the MCITP: Virtualization Administrator certification. There is just not enough material to test in depth, and the designers seemed to be stretching to write enough questions for this very short exam. I spent less than 30 minutes on the actual exam. I maxed out the Deploying and Migrating VMs section while my weakest area was the Administering SCVMM section, something that should improve with more experience. Virtualization is not my primary skillset, but I believe you need to understand the technology since almost everything you will be working on will be virtualized. If I can make a few bucks doing some Hyper-V assessments or migrations along the way, even better.
My goal was to pass this by March 1st to meet the MS partner competency requirements and I originally scheduled the exam for 2/19 to give me time to use a Second Shot just in case. I had to move up the date for a client commitment and I am glad I did not waste another two weeks studying. My goal on an MS exam is an 850 and I hit that with little effort in the exam room.
I started off using the MS Press 652 Training Kit since it also has sections on SCVMM, but my primary resource was the Mastering SCVMM book from Sybex. I skipped a couple of chapters that didn't match up to the exam objectives and then used my resource guide here as a review.
After taking the exam I can understand why 403 is not arequirement for the MCITP: Virtualization Administrator certification. There is just not enough material to test in depth, and the designers seemed to be stretching to write enough questions for this very short exam. I spent less than 30 minutes on the actual exam. I maxed out the Deploying and Migrating VMs section while my weakest area was the Administering SCVMM section, something that should improve with more experience. Virtualization is not my primary skillset, but I believe you need to understand the technology since almost everything you will be working on will be virtualized. If I can make a few bucks doing some Hyper-V assessments or migrations along the way, even better.
Comments
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Hyper-Me
Banned Posts: 2,059
Claymoore,
Ive used SCVMM 2008 heavily for about a year with about 25 hosts/60 VMs and a hyper-v Faliover cluster.
Do you think it is likely I could do some light review and walk in and pass? How many questions are on the exam? -
Claymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
Claymoore,
Ive used SCVMM 2008 heavily for about a year with about 25 hosts/60 VMs and a hyper-v Faliover cluster.
Do you think it is likely I could do some light review and walk in and pass? How many questions are on the exam?
44 Questions. Skip the review, sign up for a second shot and take the test.
On a side note, I was looking over something for a client tonight and and saw something that was on the test that I now know I missed. Hate it when that happens. -
Claymoore
Member Posts: 1,637
Congrats!
What's the next, "real" exam you're going after?
663, the Exchange 2010 design and deploy exam is the only 'real' MS exam on my schedule. I plan on taking it after my next Exchange project, but I don't know if it will be my next exam. I still need to renew my CCNA and retake the BCMSN before it expires.
I have been doing a lot of proof-of-concept, pre-sales and packaged services work for the last few months and I have already been asked to pick up a couple more exams in support of more of those services. I like working with Exchange and won't be passing up Exchange projects but the bosses are happy with my POC work. The project must be sold before it can be designed and delivered, and by participating in the sales process I can kind of get my choice of project to deliver. -
bertieb
Member Posts: 1,031 ■■■■■■□□□□
Nice one Claymoore. I think I'm gonna have to take this before this year is out. Our American counterparts seem to love Hyper-V (more than ESX it has to be said..... causes a bit of friction with some of my UK colleagues hehe) and we'll be more involved with SCVMM because of this.
Good luck with the next ones
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they are genuine - Abraham Lincoln
