Barely failed 70-640

hackshaq

I took the 70-640 and failed with a 687 which relly pissed me off. I really felt I had it in the bag.

The main areas I had issues with were "Maintaining the AD environment" and "Configuring AD Cert Services".On both of these I was less than half right.

I have seen the resouces listed on the sticky for 70-640 but was wondering if that was anything else that really drills into these areas from a test prospective.

Thanks. David

antielvis

CBT Nuggets for the 70.646 exam have a 2 part nugget (video) series on AD Certificates. Good stuff that goes deep on the subject.

Everlife

Sorry to hear you had trouble David. The exam isn't simple by any means, and if you haven't worked with AD CS (like me), you will need to do a ton of labbing.

For AD CS I would recommend you review the Technet guides and setup the advanced lab that they outline in one of the step-by-step guides. Practicing installing and configuring ADCS is extremely important in the process of understanding the concepts and functionality. The MS Press Book does a horrible job covering the topic, and you really need to rely on Technet.

I put my notes up in my 70-640 thread (http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts-mcitp-windows-2008-general/79317-passed-70-640-a.html). You may want to download the ones pertaining to AD CS.

For Maintaining the AD environment, make sure you know how to compact an AD database (ntdsutil), mount AD snapshots (ntdsutil,dsamain,dsa.msc), setup the AD recycle bin and recover objects, wbadmin.exe, monitoring AD, and some other topics I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Good luck!

joehalford01

I'm good at taking tests, I found this test to be really really really hard. I wouldn't beat up on yourself too bad. I labbed both those areas out extensively, creating my own scenarios as well, just so I could get up to speed on doing it. Labsim had some helpful videos as well, but I think labbing was the primary benefactor.

hackshaq

Everlife, thanks for the info. I had seen the link to your notes earlier, but was not able to get to them as they block Dropbox at work. Now that I am home I have downloaded them and they are excellent. Thanks for the tips on the direction for Maintaining AD.

Main thing I have been having an issue with is that I have been in IT since NT was cool but I am kinda spotty on 2008. Filling in the blanks without relearning everything you already know is a real pain. And I really don't have any experience running a MS CA.

Devilry

Everlife, thanks for those notes! added to my collection