HELP choosing certification to take?

hi folks

basic run down, i am in my 5th year of help desk/desk service desk tier 2 role. i would like to move into a tier 3 role of either a sys admin or network admin and be one of the specializaed guys that no longer works taking calls but focuses on third level support.

i have no certs just experience working for large orgazniations.

i am confused on what to take and what is no longer suppported and what is hot on the market right now.

things to remember i would like to do it myelf coz im on a budget and being a contractor my compnay wont pay for it.

i was told mcitp - server 2008 for sys admin or ccna for network admin.

i think sys admin will help me move up faster so i got the first of the exams books.

70-640 mcts for mcitp. now i just realized i will also need server 2008 which i have a trial on vmware is this enough? i dont wanna take it myself if i need more harware software.

someone help thx

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Comments

Essendon

That is enough, how much RAM have you got on your computer? Also keep in mind that these exams now test on Server 2008 R2, so you need a host computer that is 64bit which will let you create 64bit VM's.

dtakhar

i have a laptop that has windows 7 64 bit on it. i have 500gb hard drive and 4g of ram. how much should i allocate for the vm image.

i am going to be putting it on a vm image i have vmware workstation 7.1.

what else would i need to properly pass the 70-640 exam. i got the study guide, i am talking more in terms of hardware.

would i need a full version of server 2008 r2. i got the trial version which is good for 180 days, althought it is asking for activation online.

thx

Essendon

dtakhar wrote: »

i have a laptop that has windows 7 64 bit on it. i have 500gb hard drive and 4g of ram. how much should i allocate for the vm image.

i am going to be putting it on a vm image i have vmware workstation 7.1.

what else would i need to properly pass the 70-640 exam. i got the study guide, i am talking more in terms of hardware.

would i need a full version of server 2008 r2. i got the trial version which is good for 180 days, althought it is asking for activation online.

thx

You can get by with 4GB RAM, only barely though. Win 7 when idling using more than 1GB, that leaves you with say 3.8GB. So you can have 3 VM's with 1GB each and still leave 800MB or so for your Win 7 host computer. Windows Server 2008 R2 needs 1GB RAM, so that's how much you need per VM.

You dont need the full version of Windows Server 2008 R2, that'll cost you a load of money anyway. Just the trial will do for labbing purposes. Create a VM, activate the OS online. You can activate the same trial over and over. I have a trial version too, and have activated it more times than I can count.

N2IT

With 5 years of experience I suggest going for something higher level. The 70-640 sounds like a perfect certification for you. My advice would be to make sure you see it to completion. Don't get caught getting involved with 3-4 different technologies and not complete any of them.

Good luck