Starting My 2008 Journey

PD75

Hello. I plan to pass 70-640, 70-642 and 70-646. I know it depends one experience but which of the 3 would be the 'easiest' and which the 'hardest'?

Would this book be a good purchase?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCITP-Windows-Server-2008-Administrator/dp/0735663289/ref=dp_ob_title_bk/280-3110598-9917350?tag=10xxx10064-21


Are there any other materials you would recommend?
Thanks

paulgswanson

Honestly from everyone around me that has studied for a Microsoft exam (myself included). Microsoft Press Books are usually the least adequete and most error ridden books your can get your hands on. Using those would likely require a good bit of errata reading. Not to mention the info that is completly left out.

Unfortunetly I don't have a differnt literature suggestion for you, I don't start my R2 2008 studies until my next term at WGU.

Perhaps someone else wil be able to assist on that.

PD75

OK after looking at these courses i might be on the wrong track. Im basically looking to at how to install Server 2008, configure it and support it. Are the certs i mentioned what i need or should i be looking at other certs?

Thanks for any help

hackmer

Hello, PD75!
Good luck on your journey.
IMHO 642 is much simpler than 640.
I'll be glad if notes from my jourey will be useful for you (http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts-mcitp-windows-2008-general/63027-my-way-mcitp-ea.html#post513954)

PD75

hackmer wrote: »

Hello, PD75!
Good luck on your journey.
IMHO 642 is much simpler than 640.
I'll be glad if notes from my jourey will be useful for you (http://www.techexams.net/forums/mcts-mcitp-windows-2008-general/63027-my-way-mcitp-ea.html#post513954)

Thanks i will check out the books you recommend.
Do you think passing 643, 642, 640 and 646 (in that order) would be the best route?

nosoup4u

PD75 wrote: »

Thanks i will check out the books you recommend.
Do you think passing 643, 642, 640 and 646 (in that order) would be the best route?

You don't need the 643 for SA(646), did you mean 647 or just taking 643 for knowledge?

PD75

nosoup4u wrote: »

You don't need the 643 for SA(646), did you mean 647 or just taking 643 for knowledge?

643 just for knowledge. Some people on this forum recommend it as a good starting point for the others?

jaidin

Hello to everyone.... I just started to prepare for the MCITP SA at "self study mode".... But i do have a couple of questions i would like you(anyone?) to answer... So here goes....
1)Is there a "correct" order for the 640, 642 and 646?
2)Where do i start in order to get the VMs running ?
3)Is it doable at self study mode?
4)Do i need the 643?(i have no administration experience)
5)What about timeframes.... I can give 15 hours per week for studying.... How long do you think it will take for each exam to complete? (i know it depends on every person's absorption level, but i want you experienses...)

well that's about it..... Thanks all......

kriscamaro68

The 70-640&642 are both not going to tell you how to install Server 2008R2. You really don't need a book at all to tell how to install it as it is basically just a few easy to navigate windows about which drive to install it on and thats it. Getting passed that though and into the good stuff is where you will want to start looking into the books/technet.

Take a look at safaribooksonline.com and check out the subscription options with them. They pretty much have every book out there for these tests and they keep the books current with the errors corrected in them. Also check out Technet as it is a great resource for digging into the deeper topics.

Also check out IT Free Training | Where free means free and look at the server 2008 videos there to get an idea of some of the topics that will be on the exams.

To get teh MCITP:SA you need to take the 70-640, 70-642, and the 70-646. There technically is no order to take them in and the numbers don't mean easiest to hardest or correlate to the material continuing onto the next exam. It will depend on if you are strong in networking. If so start with the 70-642. The 70-646 is the generalist exam that kinda covers everything but it will not get you a cert alone and is a pro exam so it will be asking pretty indepth questions.

The 70-646 might be the place to look for how to install and configure server08 though. Check out the skills measured page here: Windows Server 2008, Server Administrator

Goodluck with your studies.

zrockstar

I have not taken any of the 2008 certs, but I am currently enrolled in a program at my community college. My college does things a little different by starting with the 70-646 first. At first I didn't like it, but now that we are getting further into the material, I am really glad they do it this way. It seems like the 70-646 is a little about a lot so I don't feel like there is anything in there that is too mind blowing in depth. So far what we have studied is deployment, DNS/DHCP, application servers, RDC and terminal services, and planning and design. To me this seems like a solid foundation for any networking study. Of course I haven't taken the test yet, so I don't know if I am going to be in way over my head, but so far, so good starting with the 70-646.

Lunchbocks

jaidin wrote: »

Hello to everyone.... I just started to prepare for the MCITP SA at "self study mode".... But i do have a couple of questions i would like you(anyone?) to answer... So here goes....
1)Is there a "correct" order for the 640, 642 and 646?
2)Where do i start in order to get the VMs running ?
3)Is it doable at self study mode?
4)Do i need the 643?(i have no administration experience)
5)What about timeframes.... I can give 15 hours per week for studying.... How long do you think it will take for each exam to complete? (i know it depends on every person's absorption level, but i want you experienses...)

well that's about it..... Thanks all......

1) There is no correct order. I would suggest either 640 or 642 first, because either one of those will give you an MCTS certification, and the 646 has a lot of 640 and 642 material in it.

2) Take a look at either VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V. Myself I used VMware esxi 4.0 as my virtual server.

3) It is very doable in self-study mode, and many of us do it that way. Just make sure you use the correct books (make sure they are R2), use Technet, lab a lot, and ask questions here that you do not understand.

4) Not for the SA exam.

5) Can't answer that one, as everyone learns at a different speed. I would guess that 15 hours a week could get you to exam prep in around a month. But that all depends on your experience and ability to understand the material. I studies for about 1 - 2 hours a day and about 6+ hours a day on the weekends. I went from not ready to ready in about 6 weeks, but I also have experience with NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3, and W2K8.

Good luck!

jaidin

Thanks for the info.... I am about to setup my lab.... and since i'm in the repair business i managed to get my hands on 5 pc's.... they all have 2 gigs of RAM, 100 gigs HDD's, gigabit lan and the CPU's are AMD 64 X2 6000+, AMD 64 X2 4200+, AMD 5050e and 2 PC's with AMD ATHLON XP2600+ (they allready have win7 installed so i can run them as clients).... oh.... and a netbook (HP DM1 cpu su2300 on win7)....i also have a KVM switch. So the question is ... do i need VM?

neilperry

I'd spend all the time you would likely spend on looking at whitelists and cobbling together hardware and just use what you have right now to study with.

sratakhin

jaidin,

You can just get a KVM switch instead of using VMs, but think about how much room all these computers will take, not to mention the electric bills.

jaidin

sratakhin wrote: »

jaidin,

You can just get a KVM switch instead of using VMs, but think about how much room all these computers will take, not to mention the electric bills.

point taken....

so the best solution is...

the most powerfull pc running linux and the VM's?.... I'm kinda lost here ...... how do i start is my main problem.....

So, you say...... a)Setup linux (or windows 7) b)setup VM's c)setup windows 2008r2 on VM's d)study ?

Sorry guys but i need to start studying ASAP.... So, if someone could point me to the right direction it would be very much appreciated .......

neilperry

Being that we are having this discussion I would scrape the idea of using virtual machines all together. Use your existing hardware to build your labs. Not to be rude but if this is becoming difficult to grasp then it may be wiser to look at other certifications.

pumbaa_g

Take the most capable machine and Virtualize it with Windows 2008 R2 Hyper V, make on VM as DC/DNS and another DHCP. Use the rest for other infrastructure, leave the slowest as a Win 7 Client (you can login with various profiles for testing). With the hardware you have mentioned you can have a nice lab setup. Use Virtualization judiciously and when required
In most scenario's you will not need all machines hence power consumption should not be a major issue.
1. Start with downloading Windows 2008 R2 Hyper V or VMware ESXi (Both are free) and install it
2. Start to get comfortable with the command line (it will help later) and install the DC/DNS and DHCP
3. Join the Win 7 machine to the domain
Start studying
The only difference with what you are doing and what most people do is that most of us have limited number of physical machine which we by virtue for virtualization divide into Virtual Machines. You on the other hand already have multiple physical boxes!

ForeverIT27

Some of us need more like a hands on assistance to get started with some things. I think I know why you're so anxious about what to do or use for your lab. Here is what I think is the best and easier way to get started. First get a decent PC that could run a 64bit OS, nothing special, look around, you'd find something decent. Ebay is flooded with used server listings. (I got me a used Dell Poweredge Server with Dual Xeon on Ebay for $200). Get at least 320GB to 500GB HDD, at least 4GB Rams, and install Windows Server 08 R2 (download 180 trial version from Microsoft). Get the OS installed, set up an admin account to manage it, and slowly go on from there. It's important to know the fundamentals of this course before getting too deep into it, if you start with something too complicated you'd be stressed out, tired and frustrated with your studies. This is a pretty complicated exam, so you need to take time to understand the materials and the concepts of the course. "Any fool can know. The point is to understand" A. Einstein said so. Have fun. Cheers.

jaidin

neilperry wrote: »

Being that we are having this discussion I would scrape the idea of using virtual machines all together. Use your existing hardware to build your labs. Not to be rude but if this is becoming difficult to grasp then it may be wiser to look at other certifications.

I propably didn't make my self understood (i thought my english are OK .Thinking in Greek and writing in English is sometimes hard..) .... By the way you are not rude... I don't want instructions on how to install... I am looking for the best solution so i won't have to resetup the lab (it is time consuming) for the entire cert.... Thanks for the answers people..... ForeverIT27 i will start with your solution and i'll see how it goes.....