My torn data pages - Preparing for 70-649, part 7 of many.

Updated 2007-08-03 with added stuff on IIS, WDS and Windows Activation. 

I haven't done much in terms of blogging about my preparations the past couple of days. Mainly because I've taken a more structured approach after I caught myself reading an RFC to prepare for an MCTS exam (see part 5). To keep track of what I did, I use the table below so I can match the skills to be tested to the resources I used. So far I’ve gone about the following route;

Don’t forget you’re an MCSE. Windows Server 2008 is yet another evolution in the Windows Operating System. Your skills will evolve along with it (in other words, there’s only a little real new stuff). Or as Lukas Beeler stated: “An MCSE on 2003 could probably answer 50% of the questions without having touched WS2008”

• Search resources (find this documented in some of the previous posts).
• Watch the IPv6 white-paper webcast, followed by selectively reading through the white paper itself. Link (Resource A).
• Skim / glance trough the reviewers guide (Resource B).
• Watch the screencasts by Keith Combs (Resource C).
• Get some hands-on experience with IPv6 (but don’t overdo it). (Resource D).
• The E-Book, well only the chapters from Windows Server 2008 (Resource E). I haven’t looked at the PowerShell Step-By-Step chapters, as PowerShell is not on the exam.
• Some background information on Rights Management Services from Windows Server 2003 (Resource F).
• E-Learning 5934 collection. For a little more detail on the E-Learning and why I didn't add the last clinic, see my previous post.
  • Course 5936 Hindsight, take this after reading the EBook, the clinic is lacking in overview and seems to miss some essential bits (I toke this module before reading the EBook) (Resource G).
  • Course 5937, good clinic but not much new info after having worked with resources B, C and E (Resource H).
  • Course 5938 (Resource I).
• Windows Deployment Service Role Step-By-Step guide (Resource J).
• Volume Activation 2.0 Frequently Asked Questions for Windows Vista and Windows Server codenamed "Longhorn"- Beta 3 (Resource K).
• I’m not sure if "Custom application directory partitions" means the same as in the Windows Server 2003 exams. If yes, check page 5-26 from the MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit for Exam 70-291 (isbn: 0-7356-2288-4). Online Chapter 5 included as Resource L.
• IIS was a story for itself, which I described in my last preparation post. For the table below, I labled this post as Resource M (which means the whole post in general) and some further qualified resources (like M_1, M_2, etc.) with specific links in that post (Resource M).
• Get some hands-on experience with Server Core (Hindsight, not a priority. Keith’s screencast probably shows enough) (Resource Z).

Resources reviewers guide (B) and E-Book (E) have their respective chapter denoted as well, like (B_2) for chapter 2 from the reviewers guide.

What’s up with the table? First of all, these are the skills being measured from the 2007-05-25 prep-guide with a priority column and a resource column. Each time I encounter a comment on the internet about the skill being heavy tested, it receives a plus. Plusses are direct or inherited from the group, that is; if I felt a comment could be pointed to a group, that’s where the plus landed. Resources point to thing I used, did or read to cover that topic; finally comments are things I want to mention on the particular topic.

One general comment though, the exam is said to heavily focus on command-line tools. So I specifically paid to attention to the command-line tools used in the various topics.

If time is less of an issue, visit the TechCenter which has lots of resources (Step-By-Step guides) to get the knowledge and Hands-On experience.