70-680 next?

Hi guys, I recently passed the 98-349. I was told to focus on workstation for Windows 7 next. So is my next step the 680 and 685? Thanks.

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MCITBound

Yep! 70-680 is a beast, so make sure you study well before jumping into that one

GPD

Thank you for the reply! I was almost hoping the answer would be a no. From what I've read about this test, it's a mofo. I have no IT background as far as actually working in the field.

lsud00d

GPD wrote: »

Thank you for the reply! I was almost hoping the answer would be a no. From what I've read about this test, it's a mofo. I have no IT background as far as actually working in the field.

You will need to study and lab a LOT then. The exam is pretty thorough. Good luck!

srabiee

Yes the exam is difficult, even for those that have been in the industry for a few years. Make sure you lab everything as you go along.

GPD

Forgive me, I haven't searched this much. But by "lab" what do you mean?

srabiee

GPD wrote: »

Forgive me, I haven't searched this much. But by "lab" what do you mean?

You will want to set up a physical or virtual lab/environment for you to practice and learn on. For example, studying for the 70-680 will probably require you to configure a Windows 2008 R2 server in a domain environment with AD, DHCP, and DNS. You will also need a reference workstation, a manager/deployment workstation, etc. Once you actually start reading 70-680 books or watching 70-680 training videos, this should all make more sense to you.

I used VMware Workstation to setup up my lab environment using multiple virtual machines. Worked out great.

GPD

srabiee wrote: »

You will want to set up a physical or virtual lab/environment for you to practice and learn on. For example, studying for the 70-680 will probably require you to configure a Windows 2008 R2 server in a domain environment with AD, DHCP, and DNS. You will also need a reference workstation, a manager/deployment workstation, etc. Once you actually start reading 70-680 books or watching 70-680 training videos, this should all make more sense to you.

I used VMware Workstation to setup up my lab environment using multiple virtual machines. Worked out great.

I hope so, cause I'm lost already.

I can use a normal computer as a server, right? And can I network virtual servers off of one machine, or do I need an additional machine? No need to go way in depth, as it's my job to search this out. But how many computers are we talking about? I thought I could get two machines with Windows 7 Pro and call it good.

Anyways, I've got a hankering to build another machine.

srabiee

Yes you can use a single computer as long as you have sufficient RAM and a multi-core processor. You will also need Windows 7 licensing for Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise edition. I believe you can download trial licenses from Microsoft for free. There are several good choices for software out there that you can use to set up your virtualized lab, such as VMware Player, VMware Workstation, Oracle Virtualbox, etc. It's going to take some playing around with and experimentation to get everything working properly, but it's also a great learning experience.

GPD

srabiee wrote: »

Yes you can use a single computer as long as you have sufficient RAM and a multi-core processor. You will also need Windows 7 licensing for Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise edition. I believe you can download trial licenses from Microsoft for free. There are several good choices for software out there that you can use to set up your virtualized lab, such as VMware Player, VMware Workstation, Oracle Virtualbox, etc. It's going to take some playing around with and experimentation to get everything working properly, but it's also a great learning experience.

Thank you. So one good computer starting with Win7Ultimate as the OS. Can do. I'll just build another one. I don't want to mess around with my current build and mess something up. Thank you.

srabiee

I recommend going with something like an i5 or an i7 processor with at least 12GB RAM. I would also recommend using an SSD disk to run your VMs on.

GPD

Piece of cake. My next build was going to go without an HDD and be based on an i5-3570k. Something that can stand a steep clock. Will an i7 have any benefit over an i5 in this case?

lsud00d

The i7's support HT (hyperthreading) which "doubles" (virtually) the CPU cores available.

TBH with a basic VM setup there won't be much noticeable difference since you're not going to be running anything uber CPU intensive...the RAM is what you will want to focus on, and then as srabiee suggested fast storage (an SSD) is ideal in this situation.

srabiee

That's a very good question. i7 may have the same number of cores but features Hyperthreading. That would be a good one to do a little Google research on regarding virtualization and Hyperthreading. I don't know the answer right off the bat.

EDIT: I see someone already answered your question.

GPD

Thanks for the info, guys. My next build was going to utilize an SSD only, as opposed to my last build that was HDD/SSD. I already have just the one in mind. Basically, I'll go through with the build I had planned anyway, but up the RAM from 8gb to 16gb. Harder to achieve a high stable overclock, but you can still get plenty high.

MrBigglesworth

What steps did you go through to actually configure the lab? I have access to Dreamspark and can get Win 2008/12 and the like. I have a MacBook Pro with an i7 processor, 16GB of RAM that I dual boot from Windows 7 to OS X and I use VM Ware to boot my Windows setup from time to time.

srabiee

MrBigglesworth wrote: »

What steps did you go through to actually configure the lab? I have access to Dreamspark and can get Win 2008/12 and the like. I have a MacBook Pro with an i7 processor, 16GB of RAM that I dual boot from Windows 7 to OS X and I use VM Ware to boot my Windows setup from time to time.

The free VMware Player worked fine for me when I was studying for the 70-680. I had to experiment with the VMware settings for a few hours to get everything to work properly (bridged vs NAT vs private VLAN) but after some Google research it worked perfectly fine. Didn't cost me a dime either.