1Y0-A06 - Exam Today

I took and passed the Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 exam today. I was in and out of the exam in 35 minutes, leaving with a score of 96%

I used the following resources to prepare

CPV-200P-1W Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 (Partner Offering)
Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Administrators Guide
Citrix Provisioning Server Installation and Configuration Guide
Citrixxperience Study Guide and exam simulator

Hope this proves useful to someone

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MentholMoose

stupidboy wrote: »

I took and passed the Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 exam today. I was in and out of the exam in 35 minutes, leaving with a score of 96%

I used the following resources to prepare
CPV-200P-1W Implementing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 (Partner Offering)

Citrix Provisioning Server 5.0 Administrators Guide

Citrix Provisioning Server Installation and Configuration Guide

Citrixxperience Study Guide and exam simulator

Hope this proves useful to someone

Congrats!! What's next, more Citrix?

I'm actually planning on taking the A06 soon. I use PVS with an XenDesktop deployment. Did you read all of the admin and install guides? Would you recommend reading them both in order to pass, or is one more important for the exam?

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Congrats!! What's next, more Citrix?

I'm actually planning on taking the A06 soon. I use PVS with an XenDesktop deployment. Did you read all of the admin and install guides? Would you recommend reading them both in order to pass, or is one more important for the exam?

Thanks man, I am looking at doing XenDesktop next. I have booked up a trip to Citrix UK on May 19th for a XenDesktop CCA workshop so I have the next 7-8 weeks to study the on-line course and labs.

I skimmed the installation guide and as I had access to the on-line course was able to install a number of times in the labs. The admin guide, I did read most of, especially the last section on the Stream Console as it seems to be missing from the on-line course.

I would say read the admin guide and defiantly get your copy of the Citrixxpereince study guide (currently Jeff is giving them away FREE so no reason not to

) and if you have some spare cash buy the practise exam engine they really helped me.

MentholMoose

Great, thanks for the tips. I'm done with the install guide, but I want to get through the admin guide and take the exam ASAP. I'd like to get my first CCA before Citrix Synergy next month, and do a second one while I'm there (my work is sending me); attendees can do one CCA exam on-site for free, so I'll take the A09 exam to hopefully get the CCA for Citrix XenServer 5 Platinum Edition cert. I've used the free XenServer a lot so I think with some labbing of Essentials I'll be OK.

This summer I'll be upgrading a XenDesktop deployment to version 4 (currently on 3) and doing some XenApp, so I'll get a chance to study for the A17 and A05, and there's a chance I can get some training so I'll push for the course required for the CCAA and take the A08 exam.

OK, now I'm getting way ahead of myself. I gotta get moving on A06!!!

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Great, thanks for the tips. I'm done with the install guide, but I want to get through the admin guide and take the exam ASAP.

Don't forget to pick up your FREE Citrixxperience A09 Study Guide

MentholMoose wrote: »

I'd like to get my first CCA before Citrix Synergy next month

First CCA? Odd entry point into the world of Citrix, most come in through Presentation Server/XenApp.

I can't go to Synergy

and when I was up at Citrix UK a few weeks ago it kept getting dropped in to conversation rubbing salt into the wounds

MentholMoose wrote: »

and do a second one while I'm there (my work is sending me); attendees can do one CCA exam on-site for free, so I'll take the A09 exam to hopefully get the CCA for Citrix XenServer 5 Platinum Edition cert. I've used the free XenServer a lot so I think with some labbing of Essentials I'll be OK.

I love the idea that you can take a CCA for free while you are there and I think its great you are going to take it up.

I did A09 (XenServer 5.0) in November (I did XenServer 4.1 the year before) and was impressed with how it has grown but keeping the simplicity. The XenServer exam is easy enough (I think my score was between 85-90%) but I am sure that you don't NEED to look at Essentials, I don't see it mentioned in the Citrix Prep Guide. I would recommended at look at the Citrixxperience study guide, which is currently FREE for A09 as well as this always helps hammer it home.

MentholMoose wrote: »

This summer I'll be upgrading a XenDesktop deployment to version 4 (currently on 3) and doing some XenApp, so I'll get a chance to study for the A17 and A05, and there's a chance I can get some training so I'll push for the course required for the CCAA and take the A08 exam.

I have been lucky enough to get the XenDesktop 3/4 e-learning (company paid and as it was the Partner course was cheaper

) which I will be working through this month. I aim to take a crack at the XenDesktop 3 exam before the end of the month as it is retired on the 30/04/2010. Then in May there is a session at Citrix UK for partners that is a CCA workshop for XenDesktop 4. I have booked in for this as it is a morning of XenDesktop 4 revision and coverage from Citrix's own XenDesktop team, then in the afternoon you can take your exam there (if you have an exam voucher to hand). I plan in taking the XenDesktop 4 exam while I am there, it would seem as good a time as any

MentholMoose wrote: »

OK, now I'm getting way ahead of myself. I gotta get moving on A06!!!

Good luck on the A06 and all the others planned. It nice to see someone else on the Citrix certification route, its a quiet road

MentholMoose

stupidboy wrote: »

Don't forget to pick up your FREE Citrixxperience A09 Study Guide

Will do, already got the A06 guide and it looks useful.

stupidboy wrote: »

First CCA? Odd entry point into the world of Citrix, most come in through Presentation Server/XenApp.

Yeah definitely. The thing is I have very little PS/XA experience, but I've worked a lot with XS/PVS/XD as part of a building and managing a XenDesktop deployment, so I wanted to get the familiar stuff out of the way.

stupidboy wrote: »

I can't go to Synergy and when I was up at Citrix UK a few weeks ago it kept getting dropped in to conversation rubbing salt into the wounds

I love the idea that you can take a CCA for free while you are there and I think its great you are going to take it up.

I hear ya. It's my first Synergy so I'm excited, the free exam is just icing on the cake.

stupidboy wrote: »

I did A09 (XenServer 5.0) in November (I did XenServer 4.1 the year before) and was impressed with how it has grown but keeping the simplicity. The XenServer exam is easy enough (I think my score was between 85-90%) but I am sure that you don't NEED to look at Essentials, I don't see it mentioned in the Citrix Prep Guide. I would recommended at look at the Citrixxperience study guide, which is currently FREE for A09 as well as this always helps hammer it home.

Thanks for the tips, I'll take a look at the guide. I hadn't looked into it in detail yet so I was mostly just assuming Essentials would be covered. If it's not I'm probably OK to just take the exam now.

stupidboy wrote: »

I have been lucky enough to get the XenDesktop 3/4 e-learning (company paid and as it was the Partner course was cheaper ) which I will be working through this month. I aim to take a crack at the XenDesktop 3 exam before the end of the month as it is retired on the 30/04/2010. Then in May there is a session at Citrix UK for partners that is a CCA workshop for XenDesktop 4. I have booked in for this as it is a morning of XenDesktop 4 revision and coverage from Citrix's own XenDesktop team, then in the afternoon you can take your exam there (if you have an exam voucher to hand). I plan in taking the XenDesktop 4 exam while I am there, it would seem as good a time as any

I was planning on doing the A14, but since they announced that it was being discontinued, I hadn't really considered still taking it. Do you think it's worth doing both A14 and A17? I've used XD3 extensively so I think I could pass, I'm just worried about the XenApp coverage on the exam (though it seems app delivery is only weighted 8% on it).

stupidboy wrote: »

Good luck on the A06 and all the others planned. It nice to see someone else on the Citrix certification route, its a quiet road

Thanks!!

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

I was planning on doing the A14, but since they announced that it was being discontinued, I hadn't really considered still taking it. Do you think it's worth doing both A14 and A17? I've used XD3 extensively so I think I could pass, I'm just worried about the XenApp coverage on the exam (though it seems app delivery is only weighted 8% on it).

I always regretted not attempting an NT 4 MCSE and waiting until the Window 2000 track was launched before getting started

So as both 1Y0-A14 and 1Y0-A17 are current, I will at least attempt 1Y0-A14 then after a few more weeks (when over at Citrix UK) will attempt A17. It makes sense in my mind and as my company is picking up the exam fees there is even less reason no to

stupidboy

stupidboy wrote: »

I will at least attempt 1Y0-A14

I did that very thing this week and managed a 77% beating the required 62%

Don't forget 1Y0-A14 gets discontinued at the end of the month so if you are studying get that exam booked sharpish

MentholMoose

Well I passed the A06 today. Only managed a 92%, though.

astorrs

MentholMoose wrote: »

Well I passed the A06 today. Only managed a 92%, though.

Wow that's a really disappointing score. You really should have provisioned yourself this morning as a standard image using stupidboy as the master, instead you obviously opted to use a new private image and look where that got you... only 28% more than you needed to pass. Better luck next time!

MentholMoose

astorrs wrote: »

Wow that's a really disappointing score. You really should have provisioned yourself this morning as a standard image using stupidboy as the master, instead you obviously opted to use a new private image and look where that got you... only 28% more than you needed to pass. Better luck next time!

I was actually studying the admin and install guides for PVS 5.1, whereas the exam is for 5.0! I'm pretty sure some of the four questions I missed were because of this. The Citrixxperience guide did help with some of the differences, though.

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Well I passed the A06 today. Only managed a 92%, though.

Congratulations.

Up for a quick A14 before the end of the month?

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

I was actually studying the admin and install guides for PVS 5.1, whereas the exam is for 5.0! I'm pretty sure some of the four questions I missed were because of this. The Citrixxperience guide did help with some of the differences, though.

There is a big problem right there PVS 51 is full of bugs, you need at least SP2

MentholMoose

stupidboy wrote: »

Congratulations.

Up for a quick A14 before the end of the month?

Yeah I'm going for it, scheduled for the 29th. Any suggested study material?

stupidboy wrote: »

There is a big problem right there PVS 51 is full of bugs, you need at least SP2

5.1 SP1 with all patches has been OK for the XD3 deployment I'm working with. I'll be upgrading it to XD4 in the coming months so I'll upgrade to the latest PVS at that time.

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Yeah I'm going for it, scheduled for the 29th. Any suggested study material?.

Have you read the exam prep guide? The resources used to create the exam include just about every admin guide ever written

You have a XD3 environment that you are working with?

I would say the following are good things to cover.

Have an understanding of what Provisioning Server is and how it streams vDisks
Look at how Provisioning Server integrates with XenDesktop and where possible run through provisioning some desktops via the XenDesktop Set-up Wizard
Understand where Active Directory fits in and understand why it is used
Understand more about Provisioning Server
Be very comfortable with the XenDesktop architecture and all the components involved
Be comfortable with the communication flow and the ports and protocols used, if you’ve been working through the courseware those 15 steps might just save you
Read the Citrixxperience and be sure there is noting that takes you by surprise (I know it is for version 2.0 but there is some very useful information in a highly condensed format) I always find it helps make things clear

Good luck.

MentholMoose

Thanks for the tips. I've been using XD3 for about a year now, and I actually read most of the admin guides (a year ago), but I want to do some review in the next few days. I'll start with Citrixxperience and go from there. Thanks again!!

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Thanks for the tips. I've been using XD3 for about a year now, and I actually read most of the admin guides (a year ago), but I want to do some review in the next few days. I'll start with Citrixxperience and go from there. Thanks again!!

Good luck with A14, I found it a little bit tricky but I really do not have a great deal of hands on out side my lab. I am sure with all that experience you will do well.

MentholMoose

stupidboy wrote: »

Good luck with A14, I found it a little bit tricky but I really do not have a great deal of hands on out side my lab. I am sure with all that experience you will do well.

Well I'm exhausted, not from the exam, but from the bike ride to and from the exam center. It was further than I thought, and it is windy today making for a difficult ride.

Anyway, not having XenApp experience brought down my score, but I did well enough on the other sections and passed with an 88%.

astorrs

MentholMoose wrote: »

Anyway, not having XenApp experience brought down my score, but I did well enough on the other sections and passed with an 88%.

Congratulations you 've redeemed yourself from that horrible 92% you managed on the A06 exam last time - This time you've thoroughly whipped stupidboy by getting 11% more on this exam than he did - and without any XenApp knowledge to boot.

All silliness aside, congrats to both of you on knocking both exams off in such a short period of time

MentholMoose

astorrs wrote: »

Congratulations you 've redeemed yourself from that horrible 92% you managed on the A06 exam last time - This time you've thoroughly whipped stupidboy by getting 11% more on this exam than he did - and without any XenApp knowledge to boot.

All silliness aside, congrats to both of you on knocking both exams off in such a short period of time

Thanks!! Now I am going to try to knock out A09 ASAP.

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Anyway, not having XenApp experience brought down my score, but I did well enough on the other sections and passed with an 88%.

Congratulations, nice work, I said you would do fine

stupidboy

astorrs wrote: »

Congratulations you 've redeemed yourself from that horrible 92% you managed on the A06 exam last time - This time you've thoroughly whipped stupidboy by getting 11% more on this exam than he did - and without any XenApp knowledge to boot.

All silliness aside, congrats to both of you on knocking both exams off in such a short period of time

Oh man, whipped is an under statement

I really need more hands on and less of a head ache when I take the XD 4 exam on the 19th of May. I will be working with CLL-001-1W Conducting a XenDesktop POC which is a free online lab (not sure if this is just for partners but seems accessible to all) from Citrix e-Learning. Very useful for that missing hands on and with 365 days of free toolwire access there is no reason not to

Thanks, I've been looking at XD on and off since 2.0 but this is the first time I have really "got it", the PVS study and PVS project I am working on helped bring it all together.

Whats on your plan dude, not seen any Citrix from you for a while

Waiting for the CCEE to become available?

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Thanks!! Now I am going to try to knock out A09 ASAP.

Are you using the admin guide for this one?

Are you working with XenServer 5.0 in your XD environment?

I suggest getting the FREE study guide from Citrixxperience maybe consider purchasing the practise test to aid your study (and support Jeff)

Hey just remembered that PvS + XenServer = Citrix Certified Administrator for Citrix XenServer 5 Platinum Edition that will look nice with the Citrix Certified Administrator for Citrix XenDesktop 3 Platinum Edition that you already have

Good luck.

MentholMoose

stupidboy wrote: »

Are you using the admin guide for this one?

Are you working with XenServer 5.0 in your XD environment?

I was planning to go over the install, admin, and guest guides. I probably don't need to study that much since I'm using XS 5.5 at work (eight hosts for the XD stuff).

stupidboy wrote: »

I suggest getting the FREE study guide from Citrixxperience maybe consider purchasing the practise test to aid your study (and support Jeff)

I'll think about it. It's kind of a tough sell since I'm paying for all of this out of pocket, and $150 per exam is already a lot.

stupidboy wrote: »

Hey just remembered that PvS + XenServer = Citrix Certified Administrator for Citrix XenServer 5 Platinum Edition that will look nice with the Citrix Certified Administrator for Citrix XenDesktop 3 Platinum Edition that you already have

That's the plan!!

EDIT: Actually I just checked and it seems the CCA for XD 3 Platinum requires three exams, A14, plus two of 740, A05, A06, A09, or A13. So if I pass A09 I'll get the CCA for XD 3 Platinum and XS 5 Platinum.

stupidboy

Well as you know I was off up to Citrix UK for a CCA Clinic on XenDesktop 4 today. The clinic was supposed to be to assist with understanding of the product(s) and then the opportunity to take the exam in the afternoon.

To start the day it took me 3 hours to get there (lucky I left plenty of time this morning to get stuck in traffic). The day seemed to start off OK but it soon came clear that we were not going to go into the levels of detail (in fact any real detail would have been something) I would have liked. Around 5 or so slides in I realised that I had already seen the presentation as I had downloaded it a few weeks back. To add to the woes, I am sure the guy talking about XD, PVS and Profile Manager did not have the greatest knowledge on the subject and was clearly glazing over some aspects with less than useful information.

All of this topped with me having zero study time in the last 4 weeks due to working on a customer site, did not full me with confidence going into the exam. In fact I thought what the hey just give it a go and see.

It took several attempts to get the exam delivered to one of the test stations and the whole thing was quite slow. I worked through the exam and was horrified with almost every question as there were several that made little to no sense at all and most with terrible English that left me guessing which answer they really wanted. All this said I did manage to get 71% (I think) which beats the required 59% pass mark. I finished up expecting to receive a print out so I could see which areas were weakest only to be told that they are unable to print any score reports (hence why I think that's what it said).

I waited for the other guy that decided to take a punt to see how he got on. It turned out that two others decided they would set up next door to do some last minute "study"! Their idea of study was reading through some sort of brain **** / **** sheet and then expecting me to fill in the questions that did not have answers (yeah like F**K! I was going to help). Totally gob smacked that they were using this kind of material inside Citrix outside the test room I just did not know what to say so just looked puzzled and played dumb. After the question "What is the Desktop Deliver Console" from one of them, I was even more shocked in the total luck of understanding of the product, coupled with the sheer audacity of the situation. I engaged with a "surly that can't be right" only to be told that it was perfectly acceptable as though this was the normal way every one does it and that I was wrong. I saw that the guy I was waiting for had finished and saw this as my exit from the situation. We both chatted with the education lady at Citrix about the questioning and were both in agreement about the terrible English and just how badly worded the whole thing was. She was going to take up the comments that we both made throughout the exam as well as those comments that we made at the end. I hope for everyone else's sake it does get addressed soon.

I left Citrix and the two cheaters and made my way home (wondering if they would take the exam and accept the 12 question agreement). Now I am not sure what to do and or who I should contact to make them aware, I don't think I can let this go as it has really annoyed me the more I think about it. Any suggestions?

astorrs

stupidboy wrote: »

I left Citrix and the two cheaters and made my way home (wondering if they would take the exam and accept the 12 question agreement). Now I am not sure what to do and or who I should contact to make them aware, I don't think I can let this go as it has really annoyed me the more I think about it. Any suggestions?

Wow that's disgusting...

I know the Manager of Exam Development at Citrix, send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with her.

MentholMoose

Sounds like a horrible experience! Hopefully astorrs' contact can do something. In any case, congrats on the pass!!

stupidboy

astorrs wrote: »

Wow that's disgusting...

I know the Manager of Exam Development at Citrix, send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with her.

Disgusting and totally shocking, I was actually stunned and unable to deal with the situation in my usual way.

Thanks astorrs, I got in touch with Education in the UK. She was in fact the lady that proctored the exam yesterday too so I think this was a good stating place.

stupidboy

MentholMoose wrote: »

Sounds like a horrible experience! Hopefully astorrs' contact can do something. In any case, congrats on the pass!!

It was certainly a day to chalk up on the old experience board if nothing else

Thanks, I'm glad of the pass, I have been working so hard over the last 4 weeks that study has been physically impossible (unless I gave up sleep)

. Just glad that the hard work has been with XenServer, Provisioning Server and XenApp