R2 Books

Man I just bought these books:
MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-640, 70-642, 70-646): Server Administrator Core Requirements (PRO-Certification)

You think they have R2 stuff?

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earweed

No, they don't. Your best bet is to supplement them with technet articles and perhaps buy a copy of either Mastering Server 2008 R2 or Server 2008 R2 Unleashed.

Essendon

+1 to what earweed said, TechNet is probably the most exhaustive resource. Of course, you should supplement with other resources.

troyt93955

Thanks.

Dracula28

When do you guys think the R2 books will be out?

earweed

Dracula28 wrote: »

When do you guys think the R2 books will be out?

Truthfully, I don't. MS uses I'Reilly publishing right now for it's books and the old books are presently well stocked up. If they are nearly out of stock, or in danger of being so. Then MS may have writers edit in changes for R2 and just do a limited printing.
The MOAC (Microsoft Official Academic Course) for the 70-647 hasn't even been released yet. If it is EVER released now is a big question mark and just as big of a question mark if it incorporates the changes for R2. MS is a huge corporation and we (people certifying on their products) are pretty low on the totem pole.
I don't see MS ever releasing new Training kits specific to R2. By the time they went through development, editting, and finally printing MS would be trying to get Training kits ready for their next Server OS release which will probably be around 2013 or 2014. If we're LUCKY MS will hold off until 2015 for the next Server OS.

erpadmin

Your best hope will be to continue your labbing efforts with R2 based on all current cert materials available (either MS Press or Sybex). The best approach will be to use the materials in hand and then supplement it with both labbing using W2K8 R2, using Technet articles, and then getting R2 specific books such as Windows Server 2008 R2: Unleashed, and/or Mastering Windows Server 2008 R2 .

Those books are NOT certification-only books and are not intended to be used solely for "certification." HOW-EV-ER, the real world knowledge you obtain from going through those aforementioned books, plus your own labbing based on the current objectives with the exams based on R2 content will make you more comfortable in passing the exams. And those books, unlike the cert guides, make much better reference guides for your quest on being a real world admin, or if you're already an admin, then a better one.

I read through an Unleashed book for Exchange 2003....very informative for when I needed to maintain that environment on top of my other duties. I have no doubt the other Unleashed books are (hopefully) just as good (at least Server 2008 R2 anyway). The reviews on Amazon are promising for either Mastering and Unleashed and I know earweed and za3bour are reading them, respectively.

Dracula28

Well, there were second editions for the MCSE 2003 books, and I own both editions of the 290 book. There are a few differences in the two books. SUS has been exchanged with WSUS for example in the second edition. So perhaps there might be second editions for the 2008 track books as well?

In any case, thanks for the information guys.

earweed

The mastering book is really good and I highly recommend it. I'll be using it a lot for my 70-647 studies as it is more of an overall look at everything.
For your Server 2008 studies I highly recommend getting the Labsims and repeat all the labs that they go through on an R2 machine. THAT is the best way to truly learn the differences. I just got Labsim for the 70-643 a few days ago and it's helping me to not only learn the differences with my labbing but also to fill in some holes I have in my knowledge of Server 2008 which will help me when I retake the 70-643..
The R2 tests aren't significantly different for the 640 or for the 642. The 643 has a lot more changes than the other 2 combined.
When I take the 647 I'm hoping that the extra studying I'm doing with the 643 and my studying from the Mastering R2 book will be enough.

earweed

Dracula28 wrote: »

Well, there were second editions for the MCSE 2003 books, and I own both editions of the 290 book. There are a few differences in the two books. SUS has been exchanged with WSUS for example in the second edition. So perhaps there might be second editions for the 2008 track books as well?

In any case, thanks for the information guys.

There are presently no plans for a second edition of the Server 2008 books and I doubt MS does one. The primary reason being that MS isn't going to let happen to 2008 what happened to 2003. What happened with 2003 is that corporations are so entrenched with 2003 that they are not changing to 2008.
This is the same as what happened with XP. XP now has a market share in the 60% range but that mostly reflects consumers switching. The corporate use of XP is much, much higher and that is in large part due to Application incompatibility with Vista and Windows 7. The same probably holds true for switching to Server 2008.
Corporations who switch to Server 2008 will undoubtably utilize Virtualization and AppV which will enable the new Windows 7 desktops to run the old Apps on the Server while it appears on the Desktop. As more corporations at the upper level begin to utilize more virtualization strategies then you will start to see XP finally start to fade away as a desktop OS.
I haven't seen anything in particular about it yet but MS will be very well off to eventually fade out XP EXCEPT for use as a Virtualized OS and continue support for it as such.

erpadmin

earweed wrote: »

What happened with 2003 is that corporations are so entrenched with 2003 that they are not changing to 2008.

That is going to change if not in 2011, definitely by 2012. A lot of enterprise-level applications are being written to be supported in 64-bit architecture only. My PeopleSoft ERP is a perfect example, but I am SURE there are others. When folks have to replace 32-bit servers with 64-bit they're not going to put 2K3 64-bit on it, they're going to put 2K8 R2.

What happened with 2K3 was that because of the economy/recession, many companies and government IT shops were not doing infrastructure upgrades. so 2K3 had to stay put in a lot of shops. Now that the economy is improving, folks are starting to make the moves (at least around here).

By the end of my fiscal year (end of June), my shop will probably be on a 2K8 R2 domain as that was budgeted.

earweed

erpadmin wrote: »

That is going to change if not in 2011, definitely by 2012. A lot of enterprise-level applications are being written to be supported in 64-bit architecture only. My PeopleSoft ERP is a perfect example, but I am SURE there are others. When folks have to replace 32-bit servers with 64-bit they're not going to put 2K3 64-bit on it, they're going to put 2K8 R2.

What happened with 2K3 was that because of the economy/recession, many companies and government IT shops were not doing infrastructure upgrades. so 2K3 had to stay put in a lot of shops. Now that the economy is improving, folks are starting to make the moves (at least around here).

By the end of my fiscal year (end of June), my shop will probably be on a 2K8 R2 domain as that was budgeted.

I'm definitely hoping that more shops switch to Server 2008 R2 as that will make my MCITP:EA that much more valuable. Since application developers are starting to switch to 64 bits all it will take is for more businesses to upgrade their applications. This is where a lot of the stalemate is currently as companies are able to tweak and extend the lifetimes of applications then there is no need to upgrade. If there is no need to upgrade the application then the OS has to stay the same due to compatibility issues.
I see on the job boards where the majority of what is being called for right now are developers and I doubt very much these people are actually developing new applications on new technologies but they are merely being brought in to "extend" the usefulness of old applications as that is cheaper than an infrastructure upgrade.
And the process keeps spiralling until the infrastructure eventually wears down and replacement equipment is no longer available to run the old stuff. When it gets to that extreme then you will probably see a lot of places utilizing the "cloud" to keep their old apps up and running and their profits up.

cablegod

earweed wrote: »

I'm definitely hoping that more shops switch to Server 2008 R2 as that will make my MCITP:EA that much more valuable.

I deal with large banks, brokerage firms, and other large financial institutions every day at work with our software. We saw NO push for compatibility with Vista or 2008 R1 from our clients. We are now getting a VERY LARGE push for Win 7 & 2008 R2 certification of our apps. That was exactly what I was expecting

erpadmin

earweed wrote: »

I'm definitely hoping that more shops switch to Server 2008 R2 as that will make my MCITP:EA that much more valuable. Since application developers are starting to switch to 64 bits all it will take is for more businesses to upgrade their applications. This is where a lot of the stalemate is currently as companies are able to tweak and extend the lifetimes of applications then there is no need to upgrade. If there is no need to upgrade the application then the OS has to stay the same due to compatibility issues.
I see on the job boards where the majority of what is being called for right now are developers and I doubt very much these people are actually developing new applications on new technologies but they are merely being brought in to "extend" the usefulness of old applications as that is cheaper than an infrastructure upgrade.
And the process keeps spiralling until the infrastructure eventually wears down and replacement equipment is no longer available to run the old stuff. When it gets to that extreme then you will probably see a lot of places utilizing the "cloud" to keep their old apps up and running and their profits up.

I wasn't talking about in-house developers though. I'm talking about enterprise level applications that are only going to utilize 64-bit computing in server environments. A lot of servers are nearing end of life and when they break and have to get either a new Proliant or Poweredge, it's going to have a 64-bit CPU (most likely at least 1 quad-core or perhaps at least 1 six-core...though typically you'll get a server with two of those). Windows 2003 mainstream support has already ended back in July.

I can tell you this much about "cloud" computing. It sounds sexy, and people love new and sexy things but a lot of places are not going to buy into it (universities are a great example) until and unless things like data ownership and privacy issues are addressed. Those things need to be ironed out before cloud computing goes prime time.

Many places that use PeopleSoft, for example, had to upgrade to a 64-bit environment. 64-bit Unix, Windows, etc., etc (many platforms are supported) for the latest Tools release: 8.5x (8.51 just came out, but we're staying the course with 8.50) and it's written in 32-bit code, but if it's not in a 64-bit environment, Oracle will not support us. Many places (my shop included) pretty much had to bite the bullet and replace our entire infrastructure and it has to be done by July (we're slated to have it live on February). But that's just one example, there are probably others....but that's just the one I know.

earweed

I'm hoping for places down here to soon follow suit and begin to upgrade to the new stuff.