MCTS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Complete Study Guide (Exams 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643)

I'm probably a little late on this, but I thought I would share it anyhow:

Amazon.com: MCTS: Windows Server 2008 R2 Complete Study Guide (Exams 70-640, 70-642 and 70-643) (9780470948460): William Panek: Books

I'm probably going to go down the Microsoft path next year.

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spd3432

Looks like it may be available already in e-format for nook (Barnes & Noble) thing. Hard copy street date is 4/26/2011. I'm anxiously waiting for this myself.

Sean

techlady007

I will be picking this up soon as it is released

earweed

Hopefully I don't need this after Saturday...lol

veritas_libertas

earweed wrote: »

Hopefully I don't need this after Saturday...lol

Good luck with the exam

Nobylspoon

Very nice. Hopefully they get this on Books24x7. I have no room for any more print editions but kindle editions lack bonus disc.

spd3432

Just an update. Received an email from Amazon today. This book (hard copy) is being released earlier than originally scheduled and I should have my copy sometime next week (email said between 20th and 22nd).

sean

za3bour

it's about time

Hypntick

spd3432 wrote: »

Just an update. Received an email from Amazon today. This book (hard copy) is being released earlier than originally scheduled and I should have my copy sometime next week (email said between 20th and 22nd).

sean

Yep mine has been ordered and should be here next week as well. Can't wait!

hackmer

Whether scanning of the books is interdicted?
If not, whether somebody from you, guys, can scan the book and send it on a e-mail?

shon541

Or you could buy the book(s) and get the PDF copy of them.

Hypntick

Well according to the USPS it's been delivered. However knowing my local mail carrier it's still on the truck. They'll try and deliver it tomorrow when no one is going to be here, so they'll leave a notice. Then it'll be probably Friday before I can actually pick it up, oh well i've got other things to do first before I can even crack it open to read.

Nobylspoon

hackmer wrote: »

Whether scanning of the books is interdicted?
If not, whether somebody from you, guys, can scan the book and send it on a e-mail?

They now have a Kindle edition available. You can use that on your PC.

eansdad

Received mine yesterday, doesn't come with a pdf version on disk. Haven't had a chance to read it yet but will over the long weekend this week.

spd3432

According to tracking info, mine is being cross-decked from FedEx to USPostal Service this morning. It's been 50 miles from me since Monday. I'll probably get it Friday.

drew2000

Has anyone had a chance to crack it open yet? I am getting close to taking the test and need to know if this book has tons of hands-on labs or not.

I'd buy it if there are walk-through labs of R2-specific concepts.

Thanks,
Drew

erpadmin

drew2000 wrote: »

Has anyone had a chance to crack it open yet? I am getting close to taking the test and need to know if this book has tons of hands-on labs or not.

I'd buy it if there are walk-through labs of R2-specific concepts.

I only read the first couple of sentences...lol. Just enough to verify that R2 is mentioned.

I can't immerse myself in it though until after Friday when I (God Willing) pass the CIW Javascript exam. Panek would not write a book without labs though and I am sure they're in there.

The book is written in three parts to correspond with the 640, 642, and 643. Since I want to read them in order, it looks like I'll be taking the 640 first instead of the 642 like I previously wanted to do. I'm pretty confident that I'll slay the 640 in short order though.

BTW, I want to apologize for starting this thread with the same name when Veritas had already done so. I didn't see this thread until much later.

Hypntick

drew2000 wrote: »

Has anyone had a chance to crack it open yet? I am getting close to taking the test and need to know if this book has tons of hands-on labs or not.

I'd buy it if there are walk-through labs of R2-specific concepts.

Thanks,
Drew

Opened it last night, ready a couple of pages or so. Although it's gonna have to sit until I can finish up BAC1 and the CCENT. So probably another month or so before I can even really dig into it. Did sign on to do a 08 r2 deployment for a client up here at work however, should give me some good hands on experience.

spd3432

drew2000 wrote: »

Has anyone had a chance to crack it open yet? I am getting close to taking the test and need to know if this book has tons of hands-on labs or not.

I'd buy it if there are walk-through labs of R2-specific concepts.

Thanks,
Drew

Mine has been delivered. There's a foldout inside the front cover that has the "skills being measured" right off the Microsoft certification web pages with notations indicating in which chapter(s) the skills are presented in. Since I've already taken the 640 and 642 exams, I jumped straight to the beginning of the 643 exam coverage.

There are eight exercises in chapter 19 (storage - first chapter of 643 exam stuff). The exercises are low level (install storage related features). Only a couple of paragraphs on iSNS and the exercise to install it but nothing that really explains it or how to use it, but really nothing new in this chapter.

Chapter 20 has coverage of remote desktop services -- 44 pages including review questions and answers, with 25 exercises that appear to be more in depth than those in chapter 19.

There are additional chapters on the remainder of the subject areas on the exam (wds, media server, sharepoint foundation 2010, hyper-v, iis, etc). The chapters are not very large, but since the "MCTS candidate should have at least one year of experience implementing and administering ..." there are bound to be many things that will only be mentioned in passing with the caveat "beyond the scope of this book".

Since I didn't already have anything formal for 643 (no earlier books, so was using the links in the sticky) this appears to have everything in one package but if there are (concepts / features / command-line tools) a reader isn't familiar with, then additional research would be required (as it should be anyway).

Sean

neathneathneath

spd3432 wrote: »

Mine has been delivered. There's a foldout inside the front cover that has the "skills being measured" right off the Microsoft certification web pages with notations indicating in which chapter(s) the skills are presented in. Since I've already taken the 640 and 642 exams, I jumped straight to the beginning of the 643 exam coverage.

Since I didn't already have anything formal for 643 (no earlier books, so was using the links in the sticky) this appears to have everything in one package but if there are (concepts / features / command-line tools) a reader isn't familiar with, then additional research would be required (as it should be anyway).

Sean

I've got the Sybex 70-643 version of this book series by Joel Stidley which is fine but its not got the R2 stuff. Would it be worth buying this book just for the 643 R2 stuff? (although could be used as a reference book for the other two exams, not doing those as I did my 70-648 instead.

The other problem is that this book has not yet been released in the UK

drew2000

spd3432 wrote: »

Mine has been delivered. There's a foldout inside the front cover that has the "skills being measured" right off the Microsoft certification web pages with notations indicating in which chapter(s) the skills are presented in. Since I've already taken the 640 and 642 exams, I jumped straight to the beginning of the 643 exam coverage.

There are eight exercises in chapter 19 (storage - first chapter of 643 exam stuff). The exercises are low level (install storage related features). Only a couple of paragraphs on iSNS and the exercise to install it but nothing that really explains it or how to use it, but really nothing new in this chapter.

Chapter 20 has coverage of remote desktop services -- 44 pages including review questions and answers, with 25 exercises that appear to be more in depth than those in chapter 19.

There are additional chapters on the remainder of the subject areas on the exam (wds, media server, sharepoint foundation 2010, hyper-v, iis, etc). The chapters are not very large, but since the "MCTS candidate should have at least one year of experience implementing and administering ..." there are bound to be many things that will only be mentioned in passing with the caveat "beyond the scope of this book".

Since I didn't already have anything formal for 643 (no earlier books, so was using the links in the sticky) this appears to have everything in one package but if there are (concepts / features / command-line tools) a reader isn't familiar with, then additional research would be required (as it should be anyway).

Sean

Thanks Sean. I ordered a copy last night. I am hoping to find some decent labs in the 70-642 section, just for more practice with 2008 R2-specific topics.

Drew

erpadmin

So I have gone ahead and started reading the new R2 book.

One of things I'm reading in the "Tip" section describing the Microsoft exams (before I get to the real stuff) is that Microsoft no longer offers a score. And I quote:

"Also, Microsoft no longer offers a score. Now you will only be told if you pass or fail."

I don't know if this is a recent change or not, but I could swear I've read posters saying they got 900, 700, 6xx on their exams. Is this accurate?

It's not like I'm not going to keep reading if it is or isn't, but I'm just curious, is all.

hackmer

My last exam was on 7 april. And it was scored. May be in near future?

za3bour

erpadmin wrote: »

So I have gone ahead and started reading the new R2 book.

One of things I'm reading in the "Tip" section describing the Microsoft exams (before I get to the real stuff) is that Microsoft no longer offers a score. And I quote:

"Also, Microsoft no longer offers a score. Now you will only be told if you pass or fail."

I don't know if this is a recent change or not, but I could swear I've read posters saying they got 900, 700, 6xx on their exams. Is this accurate?

It's not like I'm not going to keep reading if it is or isn't, but I'm just curious, is all.

This has caught my attention too in the past, I believe this is actually an old statement that they didn't remove or update.

We would've heard of it if it's something new (like the price increase)

erpadmin

za3bour wrote: »

We would've heard of it if it's something new (like the price increase)

I don't have to (as of yet) worry about the price increase as I get vouchers for the exam. This becomes a concern when I gun for the DBA-2008 exams, and if things go according to plan, I might actually have that by year's end. I may or may not do the 646 but I gotta see if I can fit that in my schedule. My primary concern is doing the EA, which are already covered by vouchers.

BTW, I know I'm terribly late, but congrats on your EA [I can't remember if I did or not already.] I've been so busy with my other classes that I haven't been following the MCITP thread.

I still plan on going what I call the "za3bour" track of one exam a month...

I know you had to deviate from that, as you got a new job...but you are still my hero.

In my case, I have to do it if I plan on graduating by the end of the year.

erpadmin

Ok, this one is a real annoyance.

As alot of you probably know, the Support Tools for Server 200X (I had to do this in a 2003 domain in a previous environment) had to be installed separately, by loading up your Windows Server CD and navigating to \support\tools (maybe i386\support\tools...can't remember). I remember doing this because I needed to deal with ADSI edit to make some LDAP changes for PeopleSoft to work with AD connectivity.

Anyway, I'm on chapter 3 of the guide, and it's saying that you have to do that again so that you can run the ldp.exe utility.

Well, according to Technet, when you install AD (after you set up DNS), ADSI Edit and LDP are installed and placed in the system32 folder after AD is installed (however other support tools have been deprecated in R2).

This is still not a dealbreaker, but it's a minor annoyance. The book is so far easy to follow along and since much of this stuff is coming back to me, I envision sitting for the 640 exam very soon at this rate. I'm waiting until I'm done with Part I of this guide to envoke the uCertify prep kit I bought. I don't think uCertify is R2, but I don't see anything other than a couple of new AD features that are wowing me.

One thing is for sure...I will finish this book and take the exams it covers....then I can properly review it. Just wanted to leave this note for myself to get back to it, as well as let you guys know what to expect.

drew2000

I have now read three chapters (2, 12, and 13), my first impressions:

I am getting exposed to some new topics I haven't encountered in the MS Press books, which is good. There is still a lot of overlap, but this is a good backup source.

The chapter review questions are more detailed (harder) and there seem to be more of them (~10 per chapter).

The exercises seem a little basic so far (installing DNS, setting up a DHCP scope, etc.). I am really hoping they have some advanced exercises for NAP, etc. later on.

Drew

neathneathneath

Just wondering for those who have bought this book, whether they find it a bit thin on the ground. I purchased it specifically for the 643 R2 material (chapters 19 to 27), having done my 640/642 via the 648 upgrade exam.

Got exam in two weeks. Looks as if I will need to supplement it with other books that I have. I'm also using Transcenders, Sybex 70-643 and MS Press 643 (which does not cover R2).

spd3432

neathneathneath wrote: »

Just wondering for those who have bought this book, whether they find it a bit thin on the ground. I purchased it specifically for the 643 R2 material (chapters 19 to 27), having done my 640/642 via the 648 upgrade exam.

Got exam in two weeks. Looks as if I will need to supplement it with other books that I have. I'm also using Transcenders, Sybex 70-643 and MS Press 643 (which does not cover R2).

I also had bought it for the 643 material. Yes, very thin coverage.

RDS --
I ended up getting more out of the 'unleashed' book than the Sybex book. If you check the 643 sticky, I posted some links for the Microsoft RDS labs a couple of weeks back.

SharePoint Foundation --
I had purchased a Wrox book on Sharepoint administration that I used to study for that portion of the exam ( Amazon.com: Beginning SharePoint 2010 Administration: Windows SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (Wrox Beginning Guides) (9780470597125): Göran Husman, Christian Ståhl: Books ).

Media Server --
The Sybex book and technet.

WDS --
The Sybex book and my Windows 7 Configuration book for the 680 exam.

IIS --
Technet and playing with the options (lab) for the most part. Sybex book barely touched on AppCmd which seems to be the most granular way to do any configuration.

Hyper-V --
Technet and many years working with VMWare server and workstation since a lot of the concepts are the same.

Failover Clustering --
Self-directed labs setting up failover clustering (file and print services and am trying to set up an exchange cluster). Search for prior threads on setting up iSCSI - there's a couple of links for using a linux build to host the shared storage. I also have over 10 years supporting Microsoft clusters on NT4, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003.

Sean

medic

Can this book be used the primary book to study from or is it better as just a supplemental review guide?

pzero

I suppliment every exam objective with as much material as I can find and lab. It does take long study wise tho.