Just an Update

Hey all. This post isn't a troubleshooting, from-the-trenches post, it is just an update post due to the sad fact I haven't posted anything in more than a month. What am I doing? Well I'm still studying in my time from work for the MCSA: Server 2012 certification. I'm actually studying for all three exams before I take an exam; a studying tip from Ed Liberrman of Trainsignal. At first I wasn't sure about that method but now I completely understand his advocating that method. Studying for all three exams before taking the exams will give you a full understanding of Server 2012, which is what Ed suggested and I know this to be true now that I'm applying his method to my study time. Having studied Active Directory at the 70-411 and 70-412 levels has helped me to understand Active Directory better at level 70-410! It's just a great study method I think.

Study Tools
I'm using the Server 2012 certification book from Sybex that is authored by William Panek (an excellent tech writer) for all three exams. I have and am also using the Exam-ref book for 70-410 from Microsoft Press and the 70-410 Training Guide from Microsoft Press by Mitch Tulloch (another excellent tech writer). An additional and amazing study tool I'm using is TrainSignal. I can't recommend their videos and practice exams enough. Their practice exam for the 70-410 exam let me know quickly that I wasn't ready to take that exam. Ed Libberman is a great teacher too. His personality is engaging and you can just tell he knows what he is talking about. What about the books? The questions at the end of each chapter in the Sybex book are great questions in that they are scenario based and make you actually think instead of just matching the correct definition with the term. Also in each chapter are exercises which is always nice. The Exam-Ref book is a good book for giving you information for exactly what Microsoft requires you to know on the 70-410 exam. The author doesn't go any further than that and he doesn't exactly go in the deep end either so I can't say that book alone will prepare you for the 70-410 exam. There are practice exercises peppered throughout each chapter which, again, is nice. The 'Training Guide' form Tulloch is a very nice tool. He goes deeper on the exam objectives and his practice exercises are fun, challenging and helpful. This guide is a nice companion to the Exam-Ref book.

Is this study method and are these tools a great approach to earning the MCSA? Well I guess I'll see when I go in and take the 70-410 exam. I can't see how my current study method with all the tools I'm using is setting me up for failure. If I fail it will be because of me.

For work, I'm currently doing the day-in and day-out stuff. I'm not doing anything special but my current job is what it is: entry-level. Hopefully after earning the MCSA, along with my continued experience will land me an exciting System Administrator job elsewhere.

Subscribe to the blog! Tell people about it.

Road to MCSA: Week 3

Dude, week 3 has been a major letdown. I planned on knocking out objectives 4 and 5 in one week just like I did with objectives 2 and 3 last week. Week 3 has hit me hard because I've been incredibly busy with my full-time job and my job outside my professional life. So, I've only managed to barely get through objective 4 studying Zacker's book. I still have videos from TrainSignal to watch. My plan is to watch those this weekend.

Highlights of objective 4:
* New DHCP failover options: load-balancing and hot-standby. Very cool.
* Subnetting: always interesting.
* IPv6: another one of those always interesting topics.
* DNSSEC

Road to MCSA: Week 2

Week 2 was a huge success. I was able to get through objectives 2 and 3 in that week without speed reading or skipping "stuff I know." I read carefully the chapters in Zacker's book and watched the videos offered from Trainsignal. I also did the exam exercises. Guess what? I also learned "stuff." It was a good week.

Things I especially liked from the week:
* ReFS
* High availability printing
* Hyper-V, i.e., all of it: virtual storage, scalability, virtual networks, etc.
* Remote management via server manager
* of course, doing all of the above in powershell!

Road to MCSA: Week 1

Well, week 1 isn't over because I'm studying tomorrow also, but I wanted to go ahead and blog my progress.

Week 1
Read and completed the exercises in chapter 1 of Training Guide to Server 2012 by Tulloch
Read and completed exercises for Objective 1 in Zacker's Server 2012 Exam-Ref book.
Watched two videos on the 70-410 exam from Trainsignal (highly recommend).
Read Technet wiki for Objectives 1.1 and 1.2

So far so great. I'm doing both the powershell and GUI routes for the exercises because from what I understand, so far, that is the goal of Server 2012: powershell administration. It's honestly not too bad. I'm not a scripting guy, but I hope to be after earning this MCSA.

Week 1 is a success I think. I've learned a lot just from this chapter: installing and deploying Server 2012.

On the road to MCSA Server 2012

Well, it's here. I'm out of excuses. I need to earn a Microsoft certification. What better route than the MCSA server 2012 certification? I think it's a good route to take, especially since Server 2012 is so awesome. I'm going to blog about my progress. So, if you care, keep up with it. It might help you out. Please comment, follow, and if you're on the road to the mcsa too then share it here with me.

My resources
Server 2012 training guide by Mitch Tulloch
Exam Ref 70-410: Installing and Configuring Server 2012 by Craig Zacker
The 90 days to MCSA from Microsoft: Videos, forums, wikis for training
Home lab :)

A reveiw of training guide: configuring windows 8

 

Are you an IT rookie or Pro looking to get a firm understanding of how to implement Windows 8 in the enterprise? Or are you a geek who just wants to know how Windows 8 works? If you're in any of the two mentioned groups you will get a firm understanding of Windows 8 due to the excellent writing, questions, and lab exercises in Training Guide: Configuring Windows 8. How does this book differ from other books on Windows 8? I think it differs in the  writing style and the structure of the book. I have read other books on Windows 8 that are focused on tips and tricks; focused on the expert IT pro; and one that covered every "bit" of Windows 8. Yes, those other books have their purpose and that's fine, but this book is aimed at "teaching" the reader Windows 8 from the "surface" level to the advanced level without going off on unnecessary tips and theory.

The authors clearly know their subject, but they don't beat you down with it. Also, the authors offer real-world examples and tell the reader what is necessary for learning Windows 8. I really like that. When I read a training guide, I only want to know how the hardware/software functions and how to make it work for my environment. When I want to read the theory of the technology I go to a different kind of book. I like that this book at the beginning of each lesson tells the reader what he or she should know by that point, what is required for the lesson suggestions and labs, and that at the end of each lesson is a lesson summary. Throughout each lesson there are real-world examples and quick hits of information related to the topic of the lesson.

Are there any cons to this book? I gave an honest consideration to this and I did think of a con. I think there could have been more questions at the end of each lesson. Each lesson ended with 2 to 5 questions. While there could have been more, I don't think this does any damage to the book. The amount of questions asked still help the reader to reflect on the lesson learned so it's not a con that takes away a rating star.

While this book lets you know in the beginning it's not intended as a sole source for the Windows 8 exam, it does cover some of the required topics for the Window 8 exam so this is a great addition to your study tools for the exam. I think the lab exercises will help you as well.

Anyway, rambling aside, grab this book to learn about Windows 8. In my mind it's currently the best book available to train you on how to use Windows 8. Hey, I bet you'll even have fun doing it.

Excellent Group Policy How-To

I've been testing Window Server 2012 via the "Early Experts" class, which is a very cool class, and experienced this very informative, super user-friendly TechNet how-to article on Group Policy. I'm not a GP guy. What I mean by that is that my job doesn't require a deep understanding of GP, only a foundational level understanding of GP, so I don't know the really cool things you can do with GP for your network(s). After going through this how-to for Server 2012 I now understand some deeper things about GP.

The how-to is for Server 2003, but it works for Server 2012 at least for the part we are at in Administering GP.

Check it out here.

I highly suggest going through, at your own pace, the Windows Server 2012 Early Experts challenge.

Wrath of the Data Center!

There is a new podcast up over at Packet Pushers called Wrath of the Data Center. It's worth checking out. The official description of the podcast is: "...the new podcast dedicated to the pursuit of the CCIE Data Center certification. The host of the show Tony Bourke brings guests to the show to talk about CCIE Data Center study topics." Even if you're not actively pursuing the CCIE Data Center cert, the podcast is still worth checking out because of the wealth of information coming from professionals who are in the field, which is always profitable for IT pros.

The podcast page can be found here.

I passed the CompTIA Network+ exam!

Whoo-hoo! I passed the exam! I'm now Network+ certified. It feels good.

My study method was the following: 

* I read through Mike Meyers' book on the network+ exam three times. I underlined and wrote down key points to put into memory. 

* I studied the key points a few times through the day before and the day of the test.
* I took the practice tests and exams available on the cd that came with Meyers' book. 

* Took the practice exam from CompTIA located on their website. 

* prayed :) 

I have to say that the practice exam on CompTIA's website was much more difficult than the actual exam. I think it's because the official exam asked more scenario based questions whereas the practice exam from compTIA focused more on defining terms. 

Anyway, I'm an excited fellow right now. I now have two certifications to add to my associate degree in IT. I guess next I will focus on a Microsoft certification?

Network+ test coming up soon!

My comptia network+ exam is this coming Wednesday! Am I nervous? Yeah, I am just a little bit nervous. I've read Mike Meyers' Network+ book two times through, now working on the third reading prepping for Wednesday. I didn't think a third reading would be beneficial, but it actually has been beneficial for me. Subnetting makes more sense now and so does distance-vector and link-state routing. So, this third reading had rocked so far.

I'm also working on my official third year as an IT professional. By 'official' I mean employed. Before employment I was a tech enthusiast, but not professional. I think working in the IT field helps tremendously with these exams, but I guess I can't know that for sure until I pass the Net+ exam this coming Wednesday.

Buy Mike's Network+ book here. Note: I'm studying the 2009/4th edition book because that is the exam I registered to take. The 2012 exams, I believe, are out and ready for registration and so are the books. I know for sure that Mike's 4th edition book is solid and well worth using for prepping, but I can't say for sure if his newest book is a good tool because I haven't personally used it. However, based on my experience with his books, I'm sure it's a good read and tool. 

Chart your path with the CompTIA pathway chart

This is a very nice, informative, and interactive chart CompTIA has released for those interested in a charting their certification path. I'm only posting a picture of it here in this post, so to interact with it you will need to click here to go to their site and tinker with the controls. I highly recommend this tool. Click on the picture below to enlarge it of course.