Study material for the 83-640

clay_07

What are some good study materials for the 83-640? Thanks

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ciscog33k

The content of the exam is exactly the same as the 70-640 exam, so you can use the material for that exam.

cbt nuggets are great. Depending on your level of knowledge, you might be able to pass with these alone. They hit on all the little issues for the exam. When tech is totally new to you though, I recommend reading a book. You probably want the mspress books. People complain about them being dry, but what do you expect? They aren't novels. :P

clay_07

What could I use to help with the Labs that are now part of the test?

earweed

I used the practices in the MS Press (Self paced Training Kit) book and did some from the Sybex book as well. I had the Labsim for the 83-640 but don't really recommend it.
Set up the labs on a home lab. I did mine with VMWare workstation.

Lunchbocks

I am using the MS Self Paced Training Book, the MS Official Academic Course, Exam Cram, CBT Nuggets, and a home lab for my labs. I am also expanding my labs. For instance, after following the labs for automating account creation, I performed each lab 3 more times, using user names from Formula 1 racers, the Orlando Magic players, and friends. I ended up creating somewhere around 100 user accounts, and I feel pretty solid about automating user account creation.

ciscog33k

You can actually get VMWare server 2.02 to run on Windows 7, even though it's not officially supported. It's better for running multiple VMs at once, which you'll want to do for labbing. You prob want to play with having different domains, forests, DNS servers, sites, certificate authorities, etc. On my network, I've always had a home domain, but I'm actually running a CA now, have 802.1x and radius configured for my wireless access, IPSec enforcement policies, etc. Most secure home network ever! i also have about 25 VMs, though usually only 4-5 running constantly (the more ram the better) b/c I only have 8 gigs of ram in my current machine.

Since you're gonna be tested on it for other exams, you could just go with Hyper-V on server 2k8.

Setup your own labs based on chapter topics. The main thing for the lab section on the exam is just knowing where things are in the interface. The configuration details they require of you are really not complicated and don't really require any though. You just have to know where the options are, so if you're new to it, the more practice you get the more familiar it will be and the easier the exam will be. For people that are really familiar with the administering windows server through years of on the job experience, the labs are a ridiculously easy, and probably require little or no preparation.

Claymoore

ciscog33k wrote: »

Since you're gonna be tested on it for other exams, you could just go with Hyper-V on server 2k8.

Great Advice!

clay_07

Do the technet virtural labs help at all?

ciscog33k

Couldn't tell you. But if you go ahead and configure the roles/services that you read about in the book, play around in the screens and look at all the options, that will be a very good start. Try to test anything you're not clear about in your lab environment.