70-640 Labs

catak

Has anyone deployed a Windows Server 2008 environment to reflect their studies towards the exam? Does anyone have any resources where I can follow a process to mirror the questions involved in the exam. I remember when studying for the CCNA, I used Packet Tracer in conjuntion with labs? I'm wondering if there is something of this nature for this exam.

Thanks.

pandiculator

What training are you following? Both the MS Press Books and TrainSignal/Pluralsight will walk you through how to set up a lab.
You won't find any lab material that helps you mirror exam content as the exam is not a practical test.

A reasonably well specified PC, e.g. quad core processor and 8GB of memory should be sufficient for most of the labs for 70-640. You can set up the environment using virtual machines for which you'll require a hypervisor; there are several free hypervisors. I chose VMware Player.

For my test domain, I used TrainSignal's Globomantics scenario. Generally, it was not necessary to run more than 3 or four VMs at once. This consisted of 2 Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers, a Windows Server 2008 R2 member server and a Windows 7 client PC. You could probably do most exercises with a single domain controller and a single member server though if you're pushed for hardware resources.

TechNet has some excellent step by step guides for installing and configuring the various technologies that you need to understand to pass 70-640.

SteveFT

Virtualbox + Windows Server 2008 R2

I'm running a W530 with 20GB of RAM, so I can comfortably run any reasonable number of VMs.