Mcitp-sa

LAN_Guru

Since I should have my MCITP-EA in 3 weeks, is there any reason to take 70-646 and get SA also?

What skills would preparing for 70-646 give me that the EA doesn't?


I am doing MCITP Enterprise Messaging and Virtualization certs in 2012. Also doing Citrix CCIA, a couple of more Cisco certs, and starting WGU in 2012. I will never let my certs get stagnant again like I did before.

Thanks!

LAN_Guru

hmmmm, it didn't save the changes from Mcitp-sa to MCITP-SA

Sykk

Do it. It's just one exam among your lots! Any extra knowledge is a big +. It may be asked why you skipped it by an employer should they require such exams.

Btw your schedule is insane

neathneathneath

The 646 is a planning exam rather than a design exam (647), I believe.

Personally, I found the 646 very difficult due to the type of questions asked.
i.e. what type of tools do you need to.... rather than how do you configure......
Like a lot of MS exams its content is wide rather than deep.

CChilderhose

Do the 646 as there is overlap in all the MCITP exams for SA & EA. I have done both and having the 646 helped on the 647.

Good luck.

LAN_Guru

CChilderhose wrote: »

Do the 646 as there is overlap in all the MCITP exams for SA & EA. I have done both and having the 646 helped on the 647.

Good luck.

Maybe having earned the EA will help make 646 easier if I do it afterwards?

You seem to be doing some of the same certs I am working towards and planning on doing next year: MCITP-EA, MCITP-Virtualization, and MCITP-EMA.

How difficult did you find the Virtualization cert to be? I am actually using 2008 R2 Enterprise and Hyper-V for my lab so I am getting a lot of experience working with Microsoft virtualization technology while working on my other certs.

How difficult does EMA seem to be so far? Do you think fairly extensive experience working with Exchange 2003 (and some 2007) via tons of Small Business Server implementations and support will help me any on that one?

Thanks!

LAN_Guru

Sykk wrote: »

Do it. It's just one exam among your lots! Any extra knowledge is a big +. It may be asked why you skipped it by an employer should they require such exams.

Btw your schedule is insane

insane is a good way to put it. I've always said that if I wasn't crazy, I would go crazy.

Insane? Yes, but very do-able...

LAN_Guru

Sykk wrote: »

<snip>It may be asked why you skipped it by an employer should they require such exams.

Btw your schedule is insane

My employer = ME

But you make a good point. I may end up asking myself "Why didn't you do SA?"

CChilderhose

LAN_Guru wrote: »

Maybe having earned the EA will help make 646 easier if I do it afterwards?

You seem to be doing some of the same certs I am working towards and planning on doing next year: MCITP-EA, MCITP-Virtualization, and MCITP-EMA.

How difficult did you find the Virtualization cert to be? I am actually using 2008 R2 Enterprise and Hyper-V for my lab so I am getting a lot of experience working with Microsoft virtualization technology while working on my other certs.

How difficult does EMA seem to be so far? Do you think fairly extensive experience working with Exchange 2003 (and some 2007) via tons of Small Business Server implementations and support will help me any on that one?

Thanks!

I took a course on the 659 which was the R2 Hyper-V course and then took the exam at the end of the week and got 1000/1000.

I then did the other 2 exams - Desktop and Pro. I got 1000/1000 on the Desktop one and the Pro exam I got 940 (I think).

So I did not find it that hard as I too use 2K8 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V at home.

I have started reading a good book for the EMA - Amazon.com: Exchange Server 2010 Administration: Real World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-662 and 70-663) (9780470624432): Joel Stidley, Erik Gustafson: Books

Very good book as it is updated for SP1 and covers both 662 & 663 together. I am going to read the Pocket Consultant book or skim it and also Mastering Exchange 2010 probably.

I am also going to set up Exchange 2010 in a VM to get practice and if possible have 2 servers so I can use DAG and other features.

The SMB experience will definitely help. That is much of mine working as a Consultant and also I will be upgrading our SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 which has Exchange 2010 in it. So this will be good experience also. Many of our clients have been migrated or have Exchange 2010 installed now so I manage it every day.

Good luck in your studies. If you find any study notes for the EMA let me know.

LAN_Guru

CChilderhose wrote: »

I took a course on the 659 which was the R2 Hyper-V course and then took the exam at the end of the week and got 1000/1000.

I then did the other 2 exams - Desktop and Pro. I got 1000/1000 on the Desktop one and the Pro exam I got 940 (I think).

So I did not find it that hard as I too use 2K8 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V at home.

I have started reading a good book for the EMA - Amazon.com: Exchange Server 2010 Administration: Real World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-662 and 70-663) (9780470624432): Joel Stidley, Erik Gustafson: Books

Very good book as it is updated for SP1 and covers both 662 & 663 together. I am going to read the Pocket Consultant book or skim it and also Mastering Exchange 2010 probably.

I am also going to set up Exchange 2010 in a VM to get practice and if possible have 2 servers so I can use DAG and other features.

The SMB experience will definitely help. That is much of mine working as a Consultant and also I will be upgrading our SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 which has Exchange 2010 in it. So this will be good experience also. Many of our clients have been migrated or have Exchange 2010 installed now so I manage it every day.

Good luck in your studies. If you find any study notes for the EMA let me know.

Thanks! Awesome information. It looks like you do well in an accelerated study mode also.

I've actually done one SBS 2008 to 2011 upgrade so far. 2011 is pretty slick. Heck, SBS in general is pretty slick. Been working with it since SBS 2000. Have TONS of SBS 2003 and 2008 experience. The SharePoint experience should help considerably with 70-643. And I have been working with Citrix and TS since NT 4.0 TS Edition and even go back to WinFrame 3.51. and I've probably rolled out 100 or more 2008 R2 RDS/XenApp 6 servers. All that should help on 70-643 also. And the SQL experience is great real-world stuff but I don't have plans at this time to do SQL certs...

As for my lab, I am a MS partner and have Action Pack and Technet subscriptions so I have tons of software for labs.