Practice Labs for MCSE: Server Infrastructure

Daonis

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a good starting point in order to start doing some labs so I make sure I have a firm understanding before I even think about taking the test (70-410 to start). I'm currently using CBT Nuggets in order to study for the exam. I'm looking for something in the scope of projects or something that can help to get some solid hands on understanding of the technology. Kind of along the lines of (Step 1: This is what X is do X. Step 2: This is what Y is do Y which will then work with X). I would also be happy with just some general parameters of an AD environment in order to simulate doing hands on work. (Basically anything that gives a task for which to use my lab. I need some guidance )

What I'm not looking for:
1. Pay to use labs (I already have my own VM's setup)
2. Practice Exams or ****
3. Flaming


Thanks,

Dao

CompTIA Security+

ITMonkey

I faced this same question early in my certification trek. If a service or feature is totally unfamiliar, I tend to look for step-by-step demo instructions found by searching on Google, Bing and TechNet. When I am familiar with something, I imagine an environment that I might need to use the service or feature, and I try to lab it from scratch.

Here is a 70-410 example. Server Manager has changes are emphasized in the objectives of the 70-410. A major point of emphasis is to begin using RSAT on a workstation. Simple, right?... Well, maybe not so simple. I hit a problem that I had to troubleshoot upon moving my environment management to RSAT running on a workstation. Was not a time consuming problem, but it did make me pause and go through 20-30 minutes of problem analysis and resolution. Now I am a little embarrassed I took a half-hour to fix it. It's called experience!

210mike

The exam objectives gives a decent framework of the 70-410. If I was building a personal lab for the 70-410 I would plan on the following at a minimum. You might need to build/destroy others for certain exercises, but this would be my core list of machines I would keep around.

2 Domain Controllers
1 Member Server
2 to 3 Client VM's at least 1 Win7 and 1 Win8 for the Group Policy portion

Then just go down the list of exam objectives. If you're doing this on a beefy desktop PC, I'm a big fan of VMware Workstation, but VirtualBox is free and will work as well.