MCITP: Virtualization Administrator on Windows Server 2008 R2

Horhif

Hi all,

I'm thinking of starting this course. Has anyone completed it and can reccommend some books etc?

Also what would i need to do the labs?

I was told to get a server setup with at least 4GB RAM.

I have a PC that holds 4GB RAM, would that do? It currently running 32bit XP........so if i was to download something like HyperV and use it, would it then recognise the 4GB (as the 32bit XP will only recognise up to 3.5GB)?

Do i really need something with 4GB? Also i was told i'd need 2 Nics.....is that correct?

Thanks for any advice & help

saspro

I'm pretty sure you'll need to wipe that machine as hyper-v runs in 64bit, you'd also really need more RAM as 4GB isn't a lot when you're virtualizing things

undomiel

I don't know about the course but you'll definitely need to wipe the machine since hyper-v is a type 1 hypervisor so it takes over the entire machine. You'll need to make sure that it has a 64-bit processor with virtualization extensions enabled as well. Again, don't know what sort of labs you do in the course, but at least for self study 4 GB is tight but workable. I'd prefer 8 GB though. If you could have two other machines, one to use as an iscsi target, then you'd be able to do all of the clustering as well which is definitely something you'll want to be familiar with for the exams.

MentholMoose

Do you have experience with Hyper-V? I believe the 70-652 exam has been retired so you will need to take 70-659, which requires enterprise-level Hyper-V knowledge. This means familiarity of setting up and using a cluster of Hyper-V hosts with shared storage. As far as study material goes, I believe only one book is necessary, Mastering Microsoft Virtualization. With this book I passed 70-669, 693, 403, and 656. I believe it is enough for 659 (I passed 652, using the Sybex study guide, before going through this book). It is not a study guide so there are no practice questions, but it has a lot of information and labs you can go through which help with learning the material.

QHalo

You passed all that with just that one book? I'm sure you have extensive experience but impressive none the less. Good info here on those exams.

MentholMoose

QHalo wrote: »

You passed all that with just that one book?

Pretty much. For the 656 I did have to study the MDOP stuff besides App-V on TechNet (so about a day of reading and labbing... App-V is the most complicated component of MDOP so the rest does not take long to learn), but that was about it... everything else seemed to be covered by the book.

QHalo wrote: »

I'm sure you have extensive experience but impressive none the less. Good info here on those exams.

Before starting I did have App-V experience which helped a lot, plus I had already completed the MCITP: EA and had real world experience which helped with RDS, roaming profiles, and a few other topics. I didn't have much Hyper-V experience, so that was mostly what I had to learn for the exams. I also had to learn MED-V and XP Mode, but those are not complicated and covered in the book.

QHalo

I did some App-V research at my last position, so I'm pretty aware of what it takes to setup a small lab environment and to get apps running with it for testing. That book is very good about running you through the setup, in fact its exactly what I used to setup my lab. I think with the book it took me about a week or so of setup and fiddling before I was comfortable with getting a few simple applications on machines and sequenced properly. It's actually pretty straightforward.

Horhif

Hi, the PC i have is a GX280 Dell........and i've 4GB ram with 160 hard-drive. the hard-drive blank (i took out my hard-drive with XP installed) so i can use the whole hard-drive.

would this not be enough. how would i find out about the processor supporting 62bit OS?

Intel® 915G Express chipset, Intel® Pentium® 4 processor with 800 MHz front side bus and Hyper-Threading and 1MB L2 cache or Celeron D® processor with 533 MHz front side bus and 256K L2 cache

is this fine cause its "hyper-threading"?

thanks guys

cyberguypr

Horhif wrote: »

Hi, the PC i have is a GX280 Dell........and i've 4GB ram with 160 hard-drive. the hard-drive blank (i took out my hard-drive with XP installed) so i can use the whole hard-drive.

would this not be enough. how would i find out about the processor supporting 62bit OS?

thanks guys

First of all you will need 2 more bits to complete the 64.

If I am not mistaken GX280s came with a variety of P4 processors. Only types 662 and 772 of the P4 family support Intel-VT. Run CPUz and check out which model you have. Whatever the outcome, I think with that system you'll not have a smooth experience.

CChilderhose

MentholMoose wrote: »

Do you have experience with Hyper-V? I believe the 70-652 exam has been retired so you will need to take 70-659, which requires enterprise-level Hyper-V knowledge. This means familiarity of setting up and using a cluster of Hyper-V hosts with shared storage. As far as study material goes, I believe only one book is necessary, Mastering Microsoft Virtualization. With this book I passed 70-669, 693, 403, and 656. I believe it is enough for 659 (I passed 652, using the Sybex study guide, before going through this book). It is not a study guide so there are no practice questions, but it has a lot of information and labs you can go through which help with learning the material.

I used this same book to pass 669 and 693. I took a course on 659 and passed the exam at the end of the course.

Good luck.

Budzy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Do you have experience with Hyper-V? I believe the 70-652 exam has been retired so you will need to take 70-659, which requires enterprise-level Hyper-V knowledge. This means familiarity of setting up and using a cluster of Hyper-V hosts with shared storage. As far as study material goes, I believe only one book is necessary, Mastering Microsoft Virtualization. With this book I passed 70-669, 693, 403, and 656. I believe it is enough for 659 (I passed 652, using the Sybex study guide, before going through this book). It is not a study guide so there are no practice questions, but it has a lot of information and labs you can go through which help with learning the material.

Can second that with reference to the Sybex Book: Mastering Microsoft Virtualization. A guy in the office is using it to study for the 659 - has some really good material.

I managed to get away with using only 4GB of RAM for my Hyper-V lab server (with a quad core CPU), although 8GB as people say is recommended.

Good luck with the study and exams.

metalli445

MentholMoose wrote: »

Do you have experience with Hyper-V? I believe the 70-652 exam has been retired so you will need to take 70-659, which requires enterprise-level Hyper-V knowledge. This means familiarity of setting up and using a cluster of Hyper-V hosts with shared storage. As far as study material goes, I believe only one book is necessary, Mastering Microsoft Virtualization. With this book I passed 70-669, 693, 403, and 656. I believe it is enough for 659 (I passed 652, using the Sybex study guide, before going through this book). It is not a study guide so there are no practice questions, but it has a lot of information and labs you can go through which help with learning the material.

I hate to bring up an old thread but I had a question regarding the book "Mastering Microsoft Virtualization." I see the book is a little over 500 pages and covers many different topics. Do you feel as if reading all of the chapters was necessary in order to pass the 70-659 exam? I wasn't sure how much the exam catered towards topics like deploying Microsoft VDI, desktop virtualization and other RDS topics. Thanks!

MentholMoose

You don't have to read the entire book for 70-659. Check the Skills Measured and read the appropriate sections. I believe you should read the RDS sections if you are not already familiar with RDS.

metalli445

Thanks! I placed an order for this book today and the "Mastering SCVMM 2008 R2" book. I'm hoping to take the exam soon.

TheAccuser

Great info in this thread...and glad to have found this forum.

I am planning on obtaining my MCTIP: Virtualization Administrator as a lot of our clients are starting to opt into Hyper-V over VMWare.

A couple of questions:

1. The book Mastering Microsoft Virtualization is from 2009...is there another book I should supplement my studies with, or is this book still current for the 070-659, 070-669, and 070-693 exams?

2. I was thinking about taking the 15 hour Microsoft Online Learning course "Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization". Do you think this will benefit me, or be a waste of time and money ($200)?

3. The 070-669 test (desktop) will be kind of pointless for me, but is required for the MCITP. How difficult is this test?

Thanks!

CChilderhose

TheAccuser wrote: »

Great info in this thread...and glad to have found this forum.

I am planning on obtaining my MCTIP: Virtualization Administrator as a lot of our clients are starting to opt into Hyper-V over VMWare.

A couple of questions:

1. The book Mastering Microsoft Virtualization is from 2009...is there another book I should supplement my studies with, or is this book still current for the 070-659, 070-669, and 070-693 exams?

2. I was thinking about taking the 15 hour Microsoft Online Learning course "Implementing and Managing Microsoft Server Virtualization". Do you think this will benefit me, or be a waste of time and money ($200)?

3. The 070-669 test (desktop) will be kind of pointless for me, but is required for the MCITP. How difficult is this test?

Thanks!

For your questions -

1. Yes this book should still be relevant. You can supplement it with the Mastering: Hyper-V Deployment book as that is a good one too.

2. That course is excellent as I took it at a training facility and it helped me to pass the 659.

3. The test isn't too bad. It covers more of the App-V and Med-V stuff. All of the exams overlap quite a bit. You should also know RDS for all of them too.

Good luck.

TheAccuser

CChilderhose wrote: »

For your questions -

1. Yes this book should still be relevant. You can supplement it with the Mastering: Hyper-V Deployment book as that is a good one too.

2. That course is excellent as I took it at a training facility and it helped me to pass the 659.

3. The test isn't too bad. It covers more of the App-V and Med-V stuff. All of the exams overlap quite a bit. You should also know RDS for all of them too.

Good luck.

Gracias!

tprice5

I'm sitting for the 659 today. Wish me luck!

I fully expect to fail as I have had zero hands on. I have read the book and studied so hopefully that will suffice. I am only taking the exam because I was able to track down a free voucher from microsoft. Would have put more time into labbing and such but the voucher expired a month after I received it and I have yet to purchase a pc powerful enough to run all the VMs.

Will report back with results tomorrow.

tprice5

I was so close! Failed with a 680. Alwell!

I work the morning shift and by the time I get off work and make it to a test center its all ready my bed time. I am not using this as an excuse as to why I failed, but that is why I can't offer more insight into the test. That and my memory is just horrible! For the amount of studying I did, and the score I received, I would say it is not extremely difficult. Definitely easier than 70-680!

I may come back to this after I complete my EA. For now, the VA is not a priority.

nodeuces

I've completed 659 and 693 - still studying for 669. Lots of AppV and MedV