ERPadmin's MCITP:EA Experiences

Hello all,

While I am working toward my other classes, I figured it might help me (and perhaps you if you are pursuing this cert) to post some thoughts about how I'm prepping for the MCITP:EA. I'm awaiting my server memory which should be arriving today, and I should have my W2K8 burned DVD today as well, which I acquired from MSDNAA through WGU (RTM, R1, whatever...it's not R2 though, and, for now, that's ok). The order I plan on taking my exams are the 642, 640, 643, 647, and the 680. I know folks like starting with the client first, but since my Windows 7 experience is very limited, plus knowing how people with a great tech background are failing even the 70-270 (XP exam), I know not to take the 680 lightly.

I will be utilizing the Claymoore stickies, the Sybex 70-642 and the MS Press 70-642 guide beginning tonight after I built my server. I probably won't have any VMs tonight unless I need them, but when I get there, I will let you know. If I am starting today, my target for the exam will be at the earliest 10/16/2010. At the latest, 10/30/2010. I will have Transcenders by my side (maybe uCertify...haven't crossed that bridge yet). I want to get through at least one guide before I take a practice exam and have some good labbing experience with W2K8. Assuming things go according to plan, I will take the 70-640 by the end of the year. Two MCTSes in 2010 won't be so bad.

Everything related to my MCITP:EA experiences will be posted here. If I have some VM issue, I'll post it in the Virtualization forum, but will post a link to that thread here. (My VMs will only be used for the MCITP:EA for now).

I do this to motivate myself and conquer my fear of the MS exams. Been around since Windows NT 3.51/4.0, but have no MS cert to my name. The DPYO principle (see siggie) will be in full effect now!

Everything related to my success and/or failure (God forbid) will be in this thread. My personal target for achieving this certification will be 6-7 months (might be a little sooner, might be a little later). But these certs I feel are the bottleneck to my graduation, so I want to try to end them as quickly as possible.

Will post again here later tonight after work.

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Comments

rogue2shadow

Awesome. Can't wait to see your progress

earweed

With the experience you already have this thread wont have a lot of "I'm stuck on something" entries. Have you thought about doing a blog yet?
I'll be following your progress.

erpadmin

earweed wrote: »

Have you thought about doing a blog yet?

To be honest, I have, and I've tried blogging with other stuff before. I did the whole google adwords stuff, blah blah. I just wouldn't have the time for it.

I like the forum setting that TE provides because the people come from a variety of backgrounds. I have always found that to be extremely important and valuable. I don't think I would get the same type of feedback from a blog as I would in a setting like TE. So I figure, hey, since I'm going to take some stuff away in terms of knowledge, let me do my best to give back.

Hopefully I'll have a meaningful post tonight. Whatever I do MCITP:EA related, I will document here. I was inspired from reading some threads...(not including THAT "trek" thread....

) and figured I would do the same.

Psoasman

Looking forward to reading about your progress. I am heading down the MCITP: SA route next year, once I finish the 685 and this quarter at school.

erpadmin

Well, the server is installed with all of my hardware. 8GB of RAM and 1 out of my 2 250GB HDs is installed because some moron forgot to add SATA cables to his initial order.

(moron=me...)

While I plan on RDPing into this box, I'll most likely get a KVM for those times I may need to "physically" be there. So I'll get that plus SATA cables (Newegg had a nice sale on some cheapy KVM for $20...may have to pick that up and see how that works).

Gonna work on another class tonight while I'm still up. I have to narrow down a few topics for that class. But tomorrow, I plan on cracking open the Sybex book and MS Press. I think what I'm gonna do is work through Sybex 642 guide first and then work through MS Press 642 guide afterwards. I should be able to do them both within the month. When I start getting confident, I'll order Transcenders and see where I'm at. Tomorrow night will definitely be more meaningful, as I'm installing the 2K8 updates right now. I think it was something like 340MB of updates it was doing, so I'm thinking there ain't gonna be much to do with this box until tomorrow anyway.

Tomorrow I will begin some MCITPing.

erpadmin

Psoasman wrote: »

Looking forward to reading about your progress. I am heading down the MCITP: SA route next year, once I finish the 685 and this quarter at school.

The SA is something I will most likely do after I'm done with the EA. Thought about doing it before the 680, but I figure I'll wait until the EA is out of the way. At that point, I figure it's one test, so why not.

brianeaglesfan

Good luck with this erp, definitely something I'm looking at once I get this semester of schooling out of the way, as well as get the MCSA done.

brewd

Best of luck erpadmin! With as much effort as it sounds that you're putting into this you'll find it a piece of cake!

earweed

erpadmin wrote: »

The SA is something I will most likely do after I'm done with the EA. Thought about doing it before the 680, but I figure I'll wait until the EA is out of the way. At that point, I figure it's one test, so why not.

I'm thinking of knocking out the SA too at some point after the EA and WGU are done. I'll probably squeeze it in somewhere as I'm going to try to get my CCNA after I complete WGU. You already know I'm here to root you on during your EA journey but I don't think it'll be that difficult a journey for you.

pml1

I agree with the others. I'm sure you'll have no major hang ups at all. Thanks for documenting your progress; it will be a great benefit to the rest of us!

erpadmin

Thank you all! Seriously, I feel the same way, but I always have had reticence when it comes to MS exams. For me, I kind of have to do this so that that goes away. Now mind you, whether I have reticence or not for MS exams, I have to do them anyway for WGU requirements. Since I find the EA exams to be a true bottleneck, I'm working on those now as I work through my other stuff.

Hopefully today will be an early day at work and then I can get busy. My updates are done....SP2 and all updates got done and as of right now, no updates are required. My updates are done and I have my partitions on this drive ready and formatted. I look forward to finally cracking open the Sybex guide today!

erpadmin

Well, I read the intro a couple of days ago as well as read Chapter 1. Pretty much yet another review of the OSI model. I literally fell asleep as this stuff is also covered in the the CIW Associates v5 cert I have to take soon PLUS Network+ and Security+. I think I can definitely lecture about the OSI model by the end of the year. Took the end of chapter quiz and I got 1 wrong out of twenty. I am guessing whatever I skimmed made it, but I'm going to assume I knew it already. LOL. With this guide being 9 chapters, it's looking like I'll be done within the week. Hopefully if I get home early enough and if I am done with my other assignments, I can read Chapters 2 & 3 and do whatever labs. Work has been kicking my butt...but I will still press on.

I know subnetting is part of the first chapters, and that was the reason I bought this guide, as I haven't done that by hand in YEARS. But it's like riding a bike....lol.

Even though this book is thick, I think I can go through this and plus maybe go through the MS Press book. I do plan on getting a Practice Exam afterwards to see how much of the information I retained.

Oh and I did get my SATA cables. One of my help desk buddies had a bunch of them from scavenged machines...he gave me my three (1+2 for my future drives). Let this be a lesson...be nice to your desktop support team....especially if you were in that team/help desk at some point of your career....always stay humble, as you never know when you might need something in a pinch. So now my 2x250GB (non-raid) is online and operational.

Will be back on this thread tomorrow.

it_consultant

I am taking the EA exam next week, I will let you know how it goes for me. Between Cisco and Microsoft, Microsoft is much easier. Don't psyche yourself out!

erpadmin

it_consultant wrote: »

I am taking the EA exam next week, I will let you know how it goes for me. Between Cisco and Microsoft, Microsoft is much easier. Don't psyche yourself out!

I'll look forward to that! I know you'll pass.

The more and more I read about Cisco here, the more I want to one day take the CCNA, only for academic reasons. I probably wouldn't even list it on my resume, but would still have the card to let folks know I know what I'm talking about.

But that's a much, much, much later adventure....lol. After I get my SQL stuff out of the way, and even then that's a maybe.

erpadmin

Hello,

Just wanted to give a quick update. I really underestimated this research paper and the amount of time I need to spend on it, so I am trying my best to knock that out first...hope to be done by the end of next Saturday with that (shooting for earlier). Once that is done, then depending on my presentation class, I might be able to get back into the 642. But this won't be set aside...I have to be a MCITP:EA to graduate, and I do want to start 642 soon and hopefully take the exam by December at the latest and mid-October at the earliest. But before 2010 is over I am shooting for one MCTS.

Definitely stay tuned though....we'll be rocking and rolling with this soon enough.

earweed

Erpadmin
Guess you already know about my humiliating defeat at the hands of the 70-643 Server 2008 R2 Application Configuration. You're definitely gonna need some new study material so that you don't get blindsided like I did.
The test was heavily weighted on new stuff which I hadn't labbed at all or had labbed very little.

erpadmin

earweed wrote: »

Erpadmin
Guess you already know about my humiliating defeat at the hands of the 70-643 Server 2008 R2 Application Configuration. You're definitely gonna need some new study material so that you don't get blindsided like I did.
The test was heavily weighted on new stuff which I hadn't labbed at all or had labbed very little.

EW,

There is NOTHING to be humiliated about. You didn't pass a cert test, not fail in life.

You will definitely pass the next time, based on what I have read from your past study habits. You didn't poorly prepare; in this case, you weren't given updated materials. Do not be discouraged, my friend.

I have the 2008 R2 DVD at work, but will need the Enterprise Key (lest I get stuck with Standard). Forgot to hunt down the guy today.

When I am done with LAT1 and LUT1, I will focus my entire energies on R2 with the 642....I believe based on your experiences and from other reading all of these exams are R2. I will share my prep work when I get to it which I hope is soon.

What angers me about that is that I spent significant money on the MS-Press Kit and to find out that I can't even use it pisses me off to no end!

MS is going to have to do something and soon as well the other publishers. This is definitely some crap!

In the meantime, you will definitely get it next time! Don't give up!!

erpadmin

Well, after all the hubbub about MS updating their exams to reflect R2, and on top of the fact that my Upgrade/future production environment is on R2 anyway, I decided to finally upgrade my server to R2 as well. I could have done an inplace upgrade since I'm was on a 64 bit environment with a 64 bit O/S, but decided to start from scratch anyway. Didn't have anything on there, so it wasn't an inconvenience.

I also received a 16X DVD burner (with a SATA cable

) so I installed that first before I started the upgrade. I also received the R2 Enterprise key as that is definitely going to be needed, so I now have the 4 VM capability as well as other necessary features for when I start labbing SQL Server 2008 R2 when that time comes.

I will be taking my own advice that I gave to Earweed and Za3bour and purchasing either or both Amazon.com: Mastering Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (9780470532867): Mark Minasi, Darril Gibson, Aidan Finn, Wendy Henry, Byron Hynes: Books and Amazon.com: Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed (9780672330926): Rand Morimoto, Michael Noel, Omar Droubi, Ross Mistry, Chris Amaris: Books

Beautiful thing about that is both of them are on Kindle! So that's going to be great when I start reading either of them. I am hoping that I can do some labbing with them so I might have to defer to the cert kit for that. It's my hope that there is some updates either online or in print that Sybex and/or MS Press can make available for R2. Since considerable coin was spent, that will be something I will personally pursue on top of staying informed via TE and the rest of the "In'net."

It is my hope that I can finish both my work tasks and other school work (damn LAT1/LUT1.....lol) so that I can get back to this (which has to happen anyway; it was always a question of "when"....). But rest assured, we will get back to it and it will get documented.

puppy001

Keep us updated.

erpadmin

Hello all,

Just wanted to let you all know this thread has not been forgotten. Between work and my research paper (which I really thought initially would be a walk in the park but instead was an uphill mountain bike ride on a rough path...doable, but not "cake"), I could not put in proper study into 70-642. Within the next couple to few days, that's gonna change, as I have to knock out a video presentation based on that paper (that is the "cake" part).

But I have been reading the other threads. I have those to be of particular interest in my proposed MCITP studies. Based on earweed's review of Mastering Windows Server 2008 R2, I will be invoking my free B&N gift cards and get the hard copy of that book sent to me. I also will be utilizing LabSim 70-642 and will be working through that in conjunction with my Sybex guide. As I am going through it I will take notes, and then write the summary of my notes here. This will be a 2-4 week ordeal as I am not going to enroll in anymore WGU classes for the rest of the term. At the latest, this is gonna start next week.

But basically, what I see for the 70-642, you're gonna see, right here. I will utilize other resources of course like Technet and just get into my "Microsoft way" frame of mind. When I think I'm close to ready, I will purchase uCertify and see how well I do on that before asking my mentor for a 70-642 voucher.

I will continue to keep you posted.

erpadmin

Hello,

Now this thread can go back to the focus of documenting my progress. I am shooting for late November/early December to take this exam. Here are the resources at my disposal:

TestOut's Labsim videos 70-642
Sybex's 70-642 study guide
MS Press 70-642 (will probably use that for the labs)
Mastering Windows Server 2008 R2
MeasureUp 70-642 practice exam (not even going to bother with that right now)
(uCertify 70-642) (cheaper than Transcender and by all accounts, a decent/good practice exam tool...I haven't bought it yet, but plan on it after I'm done with the LabSim.).

I plan on dealing with Labsim in it's entirety, even if I'm already familiar with the topic. Right now I just finished going over what Server Core was. Went over what it was and the roles it's only good for (File and Print services, DHCP, DNS, AD, IIS, Streaming Media, Hyper-V, etc.) It went into RDC, WinRM and MMC-Snapins as ways to access a server core box remotely and how ocsetup.exe is used to add role names. TS gateway was discussed and how it uses SSL to encrypt RDC traffic.

Learned that RSAT replaced AdminPak for remote administration tools (and that I need as a minimum a Vista machine with SP1 for it....it appears that XP is not going to cut it anymore...)

Also was reacclimated to subnettting, something I haven't done by hand since around 1999-2000. (Thought I wanted to be a networking guy, but it wasn't in the cards...

). A good idea for subnetting if you're learning it (or relearning it) is to do EVERYTHING by hand. The adding, subtracting, etc....you do not want to run calc, or anything as you won't have a calculator of any sort for the exam. Subnetting definitely is not hard, especially when you have to deal with subnet masks. I'm still on IPv4....I can only imagine that IPv6 will be a beast.

Gonna go back into the labsim after breakfast. Then will post some more later.

earweed

R2 added some roles to Server core but you'll get to that when you read the Mastering Server 2k8 R2 chapter on Server core.

MentholMoose

erpadmin wrote: »

Also was reacclimated to subnettting, something I haven't done by hand since around 1999-2000. (Thought I wanted to be a networking guy, but it wasn't in the cards... ). A good idea for subnetting if you're learning it (or relearning it) is to do EVERYTHING by hand. The adding, subtracting, etc....you do not want to run calc, or anything as you won't have a calculator of any sort for the exam. Subnetting definitely is not hard, especially when you have to deal with subnet masks. I'm still on IPv4....I can only imagine that IPv6 will be a beast.

I had just passed the CCNA going into the 642, so I didn't spend any extra time on IPv4 subnetting. I did spend some time on IPv6 subnetting and as far as the 642 exam went the time spent was wasted. What turned out to be useful was a chart I made and memorized with the common IPv6 address ranges (global unicast, link local, 6to4, etc.).

Anyway, IPv6 subnetting is basically easier than IPv4 since there is no need for VLSM. The difficulty is getting comfortable with hex and the other differences, plus there aren't any good resources that explain it well (at least I couldn't find any in early 2009). If you do find a great resource please post it.

erpadmin

MentholMoose wrote: »

Anyway, IPv6 subnetting is basically easier than IPv4 since there is no need for VLSM. The difficulty is getting comfortable with hex and the other differences, plus there aren't any good resources that explain it well (at least I couldn't find any in early 2009). If you do find a great resource please post it.

I plan on it; that's a promise. The LabSim was great at reminding me what to do with IPv4 subnetting and VLSM, plus looked at a couple of youtube videos. There is a table Labsim provides that has me learning the CIDRs of /20 through /30 so I know their mask value and the number of subnets.

I have been doing well with the practice questions labsim threw at me. I believe IPv6 is the next module, so I'm gonna see how that is and take some sweet notes on it. I trust MeasureUp and uCertify will reinforce what I have to do on.

I have been suplementing the networking stuff with whatever credible resources I find on the Internet. If I find IPv6 stuff, I will definitely post it here.

za3bour

I wouldn't worry about IPv6 for this generation of MS exams, it's not covered heavily on the exams and using a chart that has them is an effective way to memorize it's types which is really what is tested for now.

I used this table hope that it's a help

http://www.ripe.net/info/internet-management/ipv6table.pdf

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about IPv6 for this generation of MS exams, it's not covered heavily on the exams and using a chart that has them is an effective way to memorize it's types which is really what is tested for now.

I used this table hope that it's a help

http://www.ripe.net/info/internet-management/ipv6table.pdf

Za3bour,

Could you give me an non-NDA violating example of what you mean by this? Like are you saying MS is testing on what an IPv4 address looks like and what an IPv6 address looks like? I'm sure that's not what you meant (because it can't be that easy), but that's why I'm asking.

Thanks for the PDF. Looked at it, and when I get to the IPv6 topics in Labsim, I hope it will make more sense.

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

Za3bour,

Could you give me an non-NDA violating example of what you mean by this? Like are you saying MS is testing on what an IPv4 address looks like and what an IPv6 address looks like? I'm sure that's not what you meant (because it can't be that easy), but that's why I'm asking.

Thanks for the PDF. Looked at it, and when I get to the IPv6 topics in Labsim, I hope it will make more sense.

Well I don't know if there is an easy way to say but since you didn't read about it yet I don't think what I will say will really be any help. When you read the book though you will understand what I mean IPv6 is not discussed in details, I found books about it that is 1000+ pages while in the book it's like one chapter. It is still a new technology it's easier to config than IPv4.

Just don't worry about it let's say this for now

I think who ever took MCITP exams can confirm that questions about IPv6 are easy to figure out.

RobertKaucher

za3bour wrote: »

Just don't worry about it let's say this for now I think who ever took MCITP exams can confirm that questions about IPv6 are easy to figure out.

I would say make sure you know the very basic stuff. Like how Torredo works and what it is, what the IPv6 version of "public" and "private" addresses are, what the loopback is, how to read the IPv6 shortened format, DNS record types, just the most basic stuff.

I cannot imagine you will be required to do very much at all with the very minimal adopion that exists.

earweed

At the minimum know what Robert and Za3bour mentioned. MS can throw whatever they want at you.

erpadmin

No really, I did.

When I read Za3bour's reference card earlier and saw Teredo, I at first thought it was some misspelled city in Ohio.

. I now know what it is thanks to LabSim. Basically NAT's replacement, as NAT does not exist in IPv6. I also now know there is no broadcasting as there was in IPv4...it's either all unicast or multicast traffic, plus reserved, loopback, and anycast). What was stressed to me was to know the interoperability methods of IPv4/IPv6 (a Manual Tunnel, ISATAP, 6-to-4 tunninglling, and Toledo, errr I mean, Teredo

) ). I will need to know the prefixes that are in the reference card (that's gonna be something I'll write down on the scrap paper...I'll be practicing doing that before I take an exam...practice or otherwise). But the address types, the prefixes, and whatnot definitely need to be memorized for the exam, and it isn't a lot, like Robert stated.

The IPv6 deal is definitely something that I see happening in the next half-a-decade. It is my hope that I'm on the management side of that implementation...a lot of old-school router techs are going to be very, very sorry if they don't start learning the differences now. I imagine for WGU that this must be a popular topic for the tech writing class/capstone (IPv6 implementation). I have an idea of how to take my own spin on it, but I have to do research on that. But IPv6 is certainly a lot to take in and I'm very glad I've taken this exam as my first crack into MS certification. But me leaving notes here will help me tremendously when I utilize my other resources. I think I'm still on track for late November/December.