Review of the free E-Learning collection 5934 towards preparation of 70-649. Certainly not a catch-all resource, but the first three out of four clinics did add value in my preparation.
Clinic 5936, covers Network Access Protection (NAP). Though the E-Learning doesn’t mention it this way, NAP basically is an extension build around NPS (Network Policy Server, Microsoft’s RADIUS implementation and replacement for Win2k3 IAS). To use NAP, you need clients that are NAP-capable and can validate their Health (think Firewall, AV, Malware protection, patching) with the servers for compliance with the companies System health policy. For better results, combine the E-Learning with the Reviewers Guide sections 5.02 and 5.03. I found this clinic quite lacking in terms of providing a decent overview, but it enhances the Reviewers Guide by adding visualization.
Clinic 5937, focuses at the branch offices. With Windows Server 2008 this means lots of RODC, but also TCP/IP improvements (for WAN), BitLocker, some administration delegation and stopping the AD Service for maintenance (rather than rebooting the server into Active Directory Restore Mode). Good and useful clinic, but also includes some topics that bear no relevance to the exam.
Clinic 5938, with Terminal Services at the core of this clinic. Listen to the intro and stop wondering why it looks like Citrix (in other words, leverage your experience with MetaFrame or Presentation Server). This clinic throws a lot of different scenarios at you, so you may want to combine it with chapter 3 from the Reviewers Guide to keep an overview. This clinic (like the 5936) adds visualization to the Reviewers Guide.
Clinic 5939, focuses at the “initialization” (initial configuration tasks and adding roles and features) and management of a server. Many topics however, aren’t relevant to the exam (PowerShell, Remote Management, Troubleshooting and Diagnostics). It is a useful clinic in getting to know some new features of Windows Server 2008, but with next to no relevance to the exam. The parts that are relevant to the exam, are already covered by Keith’s screencasts, the EBook and the Reviewers Guide.