70-415 and 416 exams released today; Sitting the 70-415 on Friday

tycoonbob

Hello everyone. In case you aren't aware, the Microsoft 70-415 and 70-416 exam were released today, which along with your MCSA: Server 2012 will give you your MCSE: Desktop Infrastructure.

Over the past month I have done a lot of self-study or Server 2012, and have passed my 70-417 (upgrade to MCSA: Server 2012) as well as the 70-413 and 70-414, which gave me my MCSE: Server Infrastructure. I also have my MCSE: Private Cloud (since a lot of this is stuff I am currently working with anyway), so I am taking the 70-415 on Friday! I'm excited, and from looking at the topics covered on the exam, I am feeling very confident (basically content that a Desktop Engineer should know, which is what I have spent the past two years doing). If all goes well, I hope to sit for the 70-416 sometime before the end of the year!

Just thought I'd share!

MrAgent

Good luck and let us know how you fare!

aaronchristenson

What did you think of 417? I will be taking it near the end of January. I am reading the green book on 417 right at the moment.

tycoonbob

70-417 wasn't too bad. If you have the MCITP:Server Administrator, and have working experience with Server 2008 (R2) and spend some time with Server 2012 and learning the differences and new things with 2012, you will do just fine. It takes the 70-410, 411, and 412...and gives you 20 questions from each (well, you should have 21 questions from the 70-412).

Play with the new features of 2012, and you should do just fine.

gabypr

congratulations. let us know how are the exams and difficulty. good luck!

tycoonbob

Great news...I passed the 70-415! I scored an 820/1000. There were 40 questions, and I think I had 2 hours (120 minutes).

A lot of my questions revolved around OSD (creating images, deploying, servicing) with topics such as ConfigMgr 2012, MDT, ImageX, Dism, Mount-WindowsImage, and WDS.

The other majority of the testing was revolving a VDI with Server 2012, utilizing the Remote Desktop Services. You need to know the difference between Pooled and Personal VMs, as well as Managed vs Unmanaged. Was also a question about applying updates to a Pooled collection, that sticks out in my mind.

I had two questions relating to EFS and certificates, but can't remember much about them.

Overall, it was an easy test for me (the test, pre-survey, feedback, and exam center feedback all together took no more than 20 minutes). I have been working with OSD for the past 4 or so years, so a lot of that comes natural. I have also been playing with Server 2012 in a lab environment since b1, which really helped me to understand the VDI (deployed a full on VDI in my home lab at one point), and of course did some reading on TechNet about VDI.

Now on to the 70-416...and I will have my third 2012 MCSE, with the Desktop Infrastructure one!

MSP-IT

Congratulations! I'm sure it's exciting knowing you're probably one of the first few certified in the world!

gabypr

Wow soon your third MCSE thats great, congratulations!!! Im interested in getting MCSE Server Inf. next year but the desktop one sounds interesting. Could you tell us what lab setup you currently are using to practice? Thanks.

tycoonbob

Yes, it is definitely exciting knowing that I have passed a test that not many have, but it's not really that big of a deal.

As far as my home lab (which is more than just a lab; I consider it production)...in short, it consists of 2 Hyper-V hosts and my storage server.

I built a custom NUS (Network Unified Storage) server, which acts as both a SAN and a NAS, and I have 2 custom built servers (consumer parts) each with an 8 core AMD FX-8120 CPU and 32GB of RAM. 2 60GB SSDs in Raid 1 for the OS, and 1TB 7200 RPM drive for VM storage. I did have my two hosts clustered, using iSCSI from my NUS...but the NUS was a single point of failure. Right now, all of my VMs are running with local storage...and I have a DC (AD DS, DNS, DHCP) on each host. Everything is running Server 2012 (minus my SEL server). This is how I test everything. I rebuilt my environment about 2 months ago, and as soon as I can get my hands on the System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 RTM, I will be reinstalling ALL of the System Center 2012 products. But having all of this gives me an opportunity to test, play, and do what I want. Here is a link to a build log for my storage server, should anyone be interested:
NUS Server and mDC Build Log - Overclock.Net

My future plan is to rebuild my Hyper-V hosts, with server grade hardware. Going to be Dual Xeons or Dual Opterons in each host, with around 24 CPU Threads...and somewhere around 48GB and 96GB of RAM. I will be running Server 2012 Hyper-V on these, and will utilize the Hyper-V Replica Server which is new to Server 2012. This way, I have all the power I need but still Highly Available...well, technically not...but I have a quick failover, should one host die. I still utilize my NUS server to spit out a few LUNs to certain VMs, depending on storage needs.

I spend wayyyyy too much money on my home lab, but it's one of my hobbies...and I love it. I have a 45U server rack sitting in the garage right now...and I plan to build a small 8ft. x 8ft. server room in the corner of the garage, with insulation and sound proofing...and a wall mounted A/C unit.

/NerdRant

gabypr

Thats one nice and complex setup there man. Its great to invest on stuff for education and personal usage just like you did. I have a more simpler setup running virtualbox on my laptop lol. But at least I can practice the stuff for my master and the MCSE exams. Thanks for sharing, definitely will checkout your log.

tycoonbob

Yes, I love my setup that I have right now. I'm in the process of purchasing new hardware for more beefy Hyper-V hosts, since I am running out of resources lol.

Also, I am sitting the 70-416 tomorrow at 1PM EST...which if I pass, I will have my MCSE: Desktop Infrastructure!

tycoonbob

Passed the 70-416 today, giving me my third MCSE, the Desktop Infrastructure one (to go along with my Server Infrastructure and Private Cloud).

Exam was pretty much split between App-V 5.0 and Remote Desktop Services (RemoteApp basically), as well as deploying applications and application upgrades via GPO. It also touched on SCCM 2012 (seems a lot of exams are), but specifically for Asset Intelligence. There was also a question about the Windows AIS (Asset Inventory Service). 40 Questions, 120 minutes...not too bad if you know App-V and RDS...which I do. Yippie!

gabypr

Nice, congratulations again. Thanks for your information. I have a basic setup of VM's in my sony vaio 8gb ram, i3 quad core, and a new 750gb 7200rpm HD (I was getting short in space) to study and practice stuff. I hope next month start from scratch in Win Server 2012 which is my first goal,although I would like to get some experience in System Center 2012 too.

Essendon

Nicely done!! What are you doing next, is there another MCSE you can get or is it onto something different?

tycoonbob

Umm, I really don't know whats next for me...lol. I have 3 of the new MCSEs, plus the MCSA: Server 2012. I am kicking myself for not getting my MCITP: SA or MCITP: EA yet, so I may still give those a go. I have my SCCM 2012 exam passed, as well as some previous MCITPs (Virt Admin, Ent Desktop admin, EDST)...so I have been thinking of getting some basic SQL exams done. No SQL MCSEs, but just like the querying SQL exam. I'm not a messaging guy, but I have experience with Exchange...but I refuse to take any Exchange/Lync exams, unless work makes me...lol.

My current and only goals for 2013 are my CCNA, CCNA Security, MCSA: Windows 8, MCSA: SQL Server, and some kind of security cert (not Sec+...maybe CEH, but doubtful. GSEC, GPEN, GCWN, or something along the GIAC lines). Who knows...maybe more!