Certificate Questions

mike3 · July 2008

Question 1: If you earned your ISA 2004 which gave you your MCP has your MCP expired?

Question 2: If I choose courses to achieve my MCSA and those courses happen to expire, do I loose my MCSA?

Question 3:How long will the MCSA be valid for? They say it will not expire until the next release of client and server versions come out. Is the next release after Windows 2008 server???

dynamik · July 2008

No, no, and forever!

The exams retire, but your certifications don't expire.

mike3 · July 2008

From what I understand a friend of mine's MCP has expired.

HeroPsycho · July 2008

Absolutely not. Mainstream support for his cert has ended, but his cert didn't expire.

mike3 · July 2008

Okay, I am deciding weather to pursue my MCSA. However, when the next version of server after 2008 and client after Vista comes out, I'm guessing they'll be an upgrade path?

dynamik · July 2008

There's an upgrade from the 2003 to the new 2008 MCTS/MCTIPs, but it's not likely you'll be able to upgrade directly from a 2003 MCSA or MCSE or whatever comes after 2008. I don't think you could upgrade from NT4 to 2003, and you can't upgrade from 2000 to the new certifications.

mike3 · July 2008

Which would be the smartest path then?

mike3 · July 2008

HeroPsycho wrote:

Absolutely not. Mainstream support for his cert has ended, but his cert didn't expire.

Which means it is not VALID correct?

dynamik · July 2008

niter3 wrote:

Which means it is not VALID correct?

The certification is still valid. If you got an NT4 MCSE, you'll be an NT4 MCSE for life. They just lose value as the technology becomes obsolete. The exams retire, but those certifications don't expire.

niter3 wrote:

Which would be the smartest path then?

Dive in whenever you want. Just be prepared to upgrade each time a new version is released. You can start with 2003 or 2008; it depends on your circumstances.

bwcarty · July 2008

Certs and passed exams don't expire, but they may not be very valuable in the real world.

I passed 70-227 (ISA 2000) earlier this year simply because I had paid for the CBT Nuggets videos and Transcender tests as part of bigger packages and didn't want to waste it. It still counts towards an elective for my MCSA (and MCSE/A + Security) even though the exam itself is no longer offered.

Slowhand · July 2008

If you still have your doubts, there is a Q&A page that goes over a lot of the new policies, as well as the New Generation Certification Lifecycle Policies which talks specifically about how new and old certs will be handled once the lifecycles of the products they represent are over.

As for what you should start with, I can give you this piece of advice. There's nothing wrong with going the Windows Server 2003 route, but it is an aging product. While the MCSA and MCSE will be relevant for years to come by virtue of the rather large install base of Server 2000 and 2003, it's only a matter of time before the MCITP series of certifications will begin to gain recognition, as they're Microsoft's new flagship-certs. The real difference between the old certs and the new is that the MCITP series digs deeper into specialties, such as Exchange and SQL Server. For Windows Server 2008, there are two paths: MCITP: Server Administrator and MCITP: Enterprise Administrator.

If I were you, I'd start with the Vista test, which is applicable to both MCSA/MCSE and MCITP: Enterprise Administrator as a desktop OS exam, and choose the path you want to go afterwards.

royal · July 2008

Damnit, I thought this was going to be a challenging PKI question that would cause me to look stuff up to refresh my memory (which is a good thing).

undomiel · July 2008

royal wrote:

Damnit, I thought this was going to be a challenging PKI question that would cause me to look stuff up to refresh my memory (which is a good thing).

That's what I think every time I see the thread title.

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