70-640 and 70-642 retirement date changed? or not?

Ambidextrous

On January 31 2014 Microsoft said will retire the following exams on Windows Server 2008:
70-640 Active Directory and 70-642 Network Infrastructure

On this site
Retired exams
Under Exams scheduled to retire>Windows Server>Retiring on January 31, 2014
The exams 70-640 and 70-642 no longer appear on the retirement list.

What is going on? Did Microsoft will retire those exams or not?

There is only 3 months left until Jan 31 2014. I'm studying like crazy to take both exams before dead line.

Did anyone knows the official answer to: if Microsoft will still retire 70-640 and 70-642 on Jan 31 2014?

ScrawnyRonnie

They are not retiring them so no need to rush. I'm studying for 640 right now too.

Ambidextrous

Thanks for your answer.

I have 2 questions:
1) As far as you know, when did Microsoft cancelled the retirement of those 2 exams?
2) I will like to know where to have an official answer by Microsoft that those 2 exams are no longer to be retired on Jan 31 2014.
Thanks!

By the way, I dont know if you knew this. If you got your A+ on 2011 or after that, when you get your CCNA, or your MCSA, it will renew your A+. ( I think also any 70-640, 70-642, 70-646 will renew A+ too) check Comptias' requirements to renew A+ by taking a higher non Comptia certificacion.

lamha88

Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

Scroll down to the section that pertains to the Microsoft Servers. You can see that Microsoft specifically states that the MCITP titles are the ones that will be (or have already) retired. Below that, it states, "The MCSA: Windows Server 2008 certification will remain in market." That should be enough to tell you that the 70-640/642/646 aren't retiring in January.

Qord

Ambidextrous wrote: »

1) As far as you know, when did Microsoft cancelled the retirement of those 2 exams?

I don't think they ever put those exams up for retirement, so there was no cancellation of retirement. What's getting retired is the MCITP title certification, not those exams. You can still take those tests and get the MSCA title.

Ambidextrous wrote: »

2) I will like to know where to have an official answer by Microsoft that those 2 exams are no longer to be retired on Jan 31 2014.

The link you yourself posted and the link lahma posted show it.

ScrawnyRonnie

Ambidextrous wrote: »

By the way, I dont know if you knew this. If you got your A+ on 2011 or after that, when you get your CCNA, or your MCSA, it will renew your A+. ( I think also any 70-640, 70-642, 70-646 will renew A+ too) check Comptias' requirements to renew A+ by taking a higher non Comptia certificacion.

I was looking at the CompTIA site and I saw this too. I took my A+ in Jan 2012 so it'll be nice to not have to take that one again after getting MCSA 2008

Slowhand

Perhaps the confusion comes from the fact that they're retiring the MCITP: Server Administrator certification on January 31st of 2014, but the exams won't be retiring since they still apply towards MCSA: Windows Server 2008. Honestly, I can't recall ever having seen 70-640, 70-642, and 70-646 on the exam retirement page.

Ambidextrous

ScrawnyRonnie wrote: »

I was looking at the CompTIA site and I saw this too. I took my A+ in Jan 2012 so it'll be nice to not have to take that one again after getting MCSA 2008

Also if you take Network+ and/or Security+, both get upgrated with MCSA or CCNA. CCNA needs to be renewed avery 3 years (same as Comptia exams). So every time you renew CCNA (or higher Cisco cert), your Comptia gets upgrated... as long you have a Comptia version that is previos to the current one. Example. You can upgrade 220-701 to 220-801. But you cannot upgrade 220-701 to 220-901.

Ambidextrous

lamha88 wrote: »

Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

Scroll down to the section that pertains to the Microsoft Servers. You can see that Microsoft specifically states that the MCITP titles are the ones that will be (or have already) retired. Below that, it states, "The MCSA: Windows Server 2008 certification will remain in market." That should be enough to tell you that the 70-640/642/646 aren't retiring in January.

Thanks, just what I need it. 2 Microsoft pages that comfirm the issue. I was looking a confirmation because of Microsoft practiceof changing stuff, web sites and info.

jimbobway

So if you take one test, do you get anything now? Back in the day, if you took one test, you get MCP then it was MCITP. I looked on the MS website and it says you can get an MCP by taking one test, so seems like it, but it was tucked away in some far corner of the website...could be outdated.

tier~

Through January 31, 2014, you'll still get the MCTS for the individual tests if I understand what MS is doing correctly. After that you won't get the MCTS for the 640 or 642 but can still earn the MCSA after passing all 3 tests that are required.

As far as the MCITP on 2008 goes, I believe that was retired on July 31, 2013.

srabiee

The MCITP: Server Administrator has already been retired and can no longer be obtained. The MCITP: Enterprise Administrator will be retired on January 31, 2014.

Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

sacredboy

Guys is there the information regarding MCSA 2008 exams (70-640, 70-642, 70-646) retirement day?

Asif Dasl

sacredboy wrote: »

Guys is there the information regarding MCSA 2008 exams (70-640, 70-642, 70-646) retirement day?

There is nothing listed on the official Microsoft page for MCSA 2008... I wouldn't expect a retirement date for at least the next 6-9 months.

MCSA: Windows Server 2008 | Microsoft

Slowhand

Considering that the retirement date for the Windows Server 2003 exams came to pass on July 31st of last year, two weeks shy of a decade after their initial release, I wouldn't worry too much about the remaining 2008 exams being put out to pasture anytime soon. While Windows Server 2008 is still popular and heavily used in production, the exams will also be in demand.

Asif Dasl

Mainstream support for Server 2008 R2 ends January 13th 2015.

If you look at the Vista exams when mainstream support ended for Windows Vista on April 10th 2012 - the exams were retired a little over 12 months after mainstream support ended.

If they stick to the same kind of schedule then Server 2008 exams could be similar, but who knows what Microsoft will do...

ajs1976

the exams are usually around until the OS two generations after is released. Windows 2000 exams retired around the time Windows 2008 was released. Windows 2003 exams retired around the time Windows 2012 was released. They had planned to retire the 2008 exams with the release of 2012 R2, but backed off of that and only retired the EA specific ones as they reworked the certification structure.

MTciscoguy

Based on my experience in the field, I don't see exams or support ending anytime soon, there are still a lot of companies out there running 2008 r2, in fact in my area I only know of one company running 2012, as with many of their products, I expected XP to die years ago and it didn't, Microsoft seems to gauge how many users they have, then look at how much damage it will do to stop support, that is why XP hung on so long, ending support for that product earlier than they did would have really damaged them.

I don't think you will see 64bit support end any time soon, you have to realize, the end of support can cost millions of dollars for some companies, Microsoft is not that dumb.

Asif Dasl

I never said support was going to end, mainstream support is. Extended support isn't. There is a difference.

I am just looking at precedence - Exchange 2010 SP3 mainstream support ended in February 2014 - the exams are being retired July 31st 2014. About 6 months after mainstream support ended.

To me, in my opinion, it looks a pattern - mainstream support ends, the exams retire..

MTciscoguy

Asif Dasl wrote: »

I never said support was going to end, mainstream support is. Extended support isn't. There is a difference.

I am just looking at precedence - Exchange 2010 SP3 mainstream support ended in February 2014 - the exams are being retired July 31st 2014. About 6 months after mainstream support ended.

To me, in my opinion, it looks a pattern - mainstream support ends, the exams retire..

Time will tell my friend, in my experience over the last 30 years, Microsoft, does not follow any patterns. When I was in the Military working on Security software, believe me, we needed to know when things were going to change.

Slowhand

Asif Dasl wrote: »

I never said support was going to end, mainstream support is. Extended support isn't. There is a difference.

I am just looking at precedence - Exchange 2010 SP3 mainstream support ended in February 2014 - the exams are being retired July 31st 2014. About 6 months after mainstream support ended.

To me, in my opinion, it looks a pattern - mainstream support ends, the exams retire..

It's also been the case that Microsoft pushes the retiring of certain technologies, like messaging, more aggressively than others. Also, keep in mind that, while Windows Server 2008 R2's mainstream support ends next year, the support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 doesn't have an official end-of-support date on the retirement page. Microsoft considers service packs a major enough of an upgrade to an OS to list support separately. This was the case for the RTM versions of Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, and 2003 R2. Hell, for that matter, note that Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 doesn't have a retirement date listed, either.

Asif Dasl

Server 2008 R2 SP1 should have mainstream support end the same time as non-SP according to the note:

Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first. For more information, please see the service pack policy here .

Like I said earlier, who knows what Microsoft would do but I'm placing my bets they will set a retirement date next year.

MTciscoguy

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Server 2008 R2 SP1 should have mainstream support end the same time as non-SP according to the note:


Like I said earlier, who knows what Microsoft would do but I'm placing my bets they will set a retirement date next year.

As I said, time will tell. You being Europe, you might be right for the products distributed overseas, here in the US, I don't expect it to go away anytime soon, heck if you want to pay for it, you can still get mainstream support for XP, which officially ended almost 2 months ago.

Asif Dasl

XP does not have mainstream support, that ended in April 2010 - it has extended support (security updates only).

Server 2008 R2 is almost 5 years old already, if I were starting out I would go with Server 2012 R2 exams. Not only is it one exam less (no upgrade exam), and the book for the upgrade exam is very lightweight at 400 pages.

But in my opinion you want to be ahead of the curve, not behind it. Server 2008 R2's best days are over - why would you certify in something which tons of people already have, you don't stand out and it's not like Microsoft re-invented the wheel or something. Being certified in Server 2012 is fine for working on Server 2008 for the most part.

davidoff

Hi, I would like to know, if it is still relevant to review the exams for win server 2008? since someone told me that the microsoft will retire the 70-640 this september, I am very dissapointed because I am currently reviewing this, and the guy told me that I should review for mcp or 70-410 for win server 2012, Please Help me so that I will not waste any time in my life

Asif Dasl

The exams for Server 2008 R2 haven't retired yet nor is there a retirement date set. If you really wanted to take Server 2008 exams then no you wouldn't review a Server 2012 book. You would be looking at the 70-640 R2, 70-642 R2 and 70-646 R2 books = MCSA 2008.

In real life you just learn the differences between the two versions but if you work for a MS partner or will be implementing Server 2012 or generally just need an MCSA/MCSE for your job hunting I personally would choose the Server 2012 exams as the place to start. But that's for you to decide.

MTciscoguy

Asif Dasl wrote: »

XP does not have mainstream support, that ended in April 2010 - it has extended support (security updates only).

Server 2008 R2 is almost 5 years old already, if I were starting out I would go with Server 2012 R2 exams. Not only is it one exam less (no upgrade exam), and the book for the upgrade exam is very lightweight at 400 pages.

But in my opinion you want to be ahead of the curve, not behind it. Server 2008 R2's best days are over - why would you certify in something which tons of people already have, you don't stand out and it's not like Microsoft re-invented the wheel or something. Being certified in Server 2012 is fine for working on Server 2008 for the most part.

I am getting my exams done for 2008, because it is the prevalent server OS in the market I currently live and work in, I know for a fact there is only one company that is running 2012, and virtually every other company I have talked to are not planning to upgrade anytime soon, and getting the certs after 2008 are done for 2012 are not that difficult. As I am retired with a good retirement income and living in a smaller area, I don't need to compete with the young guys in the big cities and I have no plans on moving now or in the future, I am kind of a big fish in a small pond where I live and besides it is not a waste of time for me, I find learning fun and will continue to do so, I don't have to reach any goals to make a living, so for me, it is just extra money to play with.