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MCSE 70-290 Certification Primer |
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Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed,
pursued, and achieved technical certifications in the IT industry.
The demand for Microsoft Certified Professionals in the job
market is increasing every year.
Microsoft offers a number of certification levels depending
on specific areas of proficiency and nature of job. Some of
the certifications pertaining to networking are:
Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA)
Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)
Each certification level has certain exams associated with
it. You can decide the appropriate certification exam based
on your experience, skills, and interests.
Benefits of Microsoft Certifications
Microsoft Certifications provide a standard method for testing
employee skills. The certifications provide employers a valid
benchmark for evaluating the employee's abilities. This will
provide you the recognition and reward as per your expertise.
Microsoft Certifications offer prospective employers a baseline
to judge your knowledge, skill, and expertise in the field.
Certifications can provide added advantage if you are at the
same level of experience as another person without certifications.
Certifications are a valuable tool if you have no or very
little experience. The certifications that you hold can prove
and reassure your employers and consultants about your knowledge
in the field. This will help you secure good job as well as
negotiate a good salary.
Pre-Requisite Experience (Recommended) for Microsoft Certifications
To pursue this certification you should have at least
1 year of experience in:
Implementing and administering a network operating system
in environments with 50 to 26,000 supported users, in approximately
3 to 150 physical locations.
Implementing network services and applications such as file
and print services, database services, messaging services,
proxy server or firewall services, dial-in server services,
and Web hosting.
Implementing and administering a desktop operating system.
Designing a network infrastructure with 3 or more domain
controllers.
Significance of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Windows
Server 2003
Microsoft has developed independent certification requirements
for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. An aspirant can certify
directly for MCSE/MCSA in Windows 2003 if they are new to
certification process. If the aspirant is already a certified
MCSE /MCSA in Windows 2000, then they can follow the upgrade
path for MCSEs in Windows 2000 to secure Windows 2003 Certifications.
If the aspirant certifies in MCSE for Windows NT4.0, they
can earn MCSE in Windows 2003 by following the upgrade path
for MCSEs in Windows NT4.0.
The exams are slightly more challenging than their Windows
2000 counterparts, but they will actually test your hands-on
knowledge since that is the most important part of ensuring
that a certification is credible.
Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 Environment
Exam 70-290 is the first in the series of the core
exams for MCSE certifications.
When you pass the Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 Environment (MCSE 70-290) exam, you achieve Microsoft
Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit
toward the following certifications:
Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator
(MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification
Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
(MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification
MCSE 70-290 exam objectives are:
Objective 1: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical
Devices
In this objective you will need to demonstrate expertise
in managing and maintaining physical and logical devices.
As an administrator, you should understand Basic and Dynamic
disks, RAID configuration and troubleshooting, driver signing,
and the use of tools, such as Device Manager and Hardware
Troubleshooting Wizard. Familiarize yourself with Device Manager
and the warning and disabled icons found when problems are
present on installed devices.
Objective 2: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups
This objective includes many topics, so you should be prepared
to face many questions that fall into this category. Have
a healthy introduction to profile management, user and group
accounts, permissions, and troubleshooting. Practice a lot
on GPOs and perform a variety of administrative tasks, including
configuration of desktop settings, control of security settings,
assignment of scripts, redirection of folders, and software
distribution. Also, get a clear understanding on inheritance
and filtering.
Objective 3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources
Knowing how to configure, monitor, audit and troubleshoot
NTFS permissions based issues are one of those most important
areas that you need to know this concept thoroughly and also
be sure to brush up on your share permissions and share/NTFS
permissions interaction. Do not forget to brush up on how
folder and file permissions can change or stay the same when
copying or moving within a drive or between drives.
Objective 4: Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment
In this objective you'll find questions from topics, such
as Event Viewer, System Monitor, software updates (including
the functionality of Microsoft's Software Update Service or
SUS), Remote Assistance, disk quotas, print queues, performance
objects and IIS 6.0. Spend time understanding IIS topics around
Web sites, Virtual and physical directories, files and host
and cname records in DNS. New to Windows Server 2003 is SUS.
Understand clearly how SUS is used for deploying and managing
client and server critical updates.
Objective 5: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery
In this objective you'll find questions on ASR, VSS, backing
up files and system state data, configuring security for backup
operators, verifying backup jobs, managing media, restoring
and scheduling backups and recovering from server hardware
failures. You should take some extra time to get familiar
with the various types of backups that Windows Server 2003
supports, as well as the various configuration options that
are available to you. Practice making backups of different
types and then practice restoring them.
MCSE 70-290 Exam Model
Most of the questions in the MCSE 70-290 exam are multiple
choice type. The questions require the "best" answer
from several close responses. Other questions may present
an implementation scenario, requirements, and a proposed solution
and then ask if the solution meets all of the requirements
or combinations of the primary and secondary requirements.
Microsoft has introduced some testing innovations for the
certification exams. These question types present a more realistic
visual representation of the tasks a MCSE would do in future.
These are:
Hot Area Questions - This type of question requires indicating
the correct answer by selecting one or more elements within
a graphic.
Active Screen Questions - This type of question asks you
to configure a dialog box by changing one or more elements.
Drag and Drop Questions - This type of question asks you
to drag source objects to appropriate targets within a work
area.
Build List and Reorder Questions - This type of question
asks you to indicate the correct answer by building an answer
list. In a Build List and Reorder question, you need to build
a list by dragging the appropriate source objects to the answer
list and then placing them in the correct order based on criteria
defined in the question.
Create a Tree Questions - This type of question asks you
to create a tree structure. You indicate the correct answer
by dragging source nodes to the correct locations in the answer
tree. Nodes consist of text and a small icon.
Windows Simulation Questions - This type of question asks
you to indicate the correct answer by performing specific
tasks such as configuring and installing network adapters
or drivers, configuring and controlling access to files, and
managing hardware devices. Many of the tasks that systems
administrators and systems engineers perform can be presented
more accurately in simulations than in most traditional exam
question types.
You can get hands-on experience on new set of questions that
are available in Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator. This
will help you plan your study regime to ensure success.
Passing Score
Microsoft has normalized scoring for all MCP exams, so the
same passing score applies to all exams. 700 is now the minimum
passing score for all MCP exams. However, the maximum score
(which used to top out at 1000) varies per exam, depending
on the complexity of the skills measured.
Time Limit
The exam duration is 175 minutes with 45 questions. You will
have plenty of time to answer the exam questions, so there
is no need to rush. If you have spare time available, you
can double check the questions and ensure that you have read
them correctly and actually answered the question as intended.
Exam Result
Instead of reporting results based on major categories for
exam objectives as it used to, Microsoft is now providing
numerical scores and bar graphs for "skills clusters".
Visually, the bars in the exam report show you how well you
fare in each skills cluster. If bars that represent cluster
scores are close to one end of the graph, they indicate stronger
skills; bars near the other end indicate weaker skills. Please
store your exam results in both paper and electronic format
for later reference.
Sample Questions
Question 1
You are a systems administrator for TicTacToe Toy Manufacturers.
All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server
2003. The company's Active Directory infrastructure consists
of a single domain hosted on two domain controllers named
Tic1 and Tic2.
Tic2 experienced a hard disk failure, and hence has been
taken offline. Tic2 remained offline for some days while all
Active Directory updates were made to Tic1. You proceed to
restore the data from backup while ensuring that the latest
Active Directory changes are replicated to Tic2.
How should you restore the lost data from backup?
Choices:
Perform authoritative restore on Tic1.
Perform normal restore on Tic2.
Perform primary restore on Tic2.
Perform authoritative restore onTic2.
Correct Choice: B
Explanation:
Choice B is the correct answer.
During a normal restore operation; Backup operates in non-authoritative
restore mode. That is, any data that you restore, including
Active Directory objects, will have their original update
sequence number. The Active Directory replication system uses
this number to detect and propagate Active Directory changes
among the servers in your organization. Because of this, any
data that is restored non-authoritatively will appear to the
Active Directory replication system as though it is old, which
means the data will never be replicated to your other servers.
Instead, if newer data is available from your other domain
controllers, the Active Directory replication will update
the restored data. Hence, choices A, C, and D are incorrect.
Question 2
You are a systems administrator for Blueberry Packaging Industries.
All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server
2003.
You create a folder named Custom Package on the company's
file server to contain the company's files. You share this
folder as Custom Package. The folder is configured with default
NTFS permissions and default share permissions. The file server
is located in a secure room.
Within the shared folder, Managers should be able to add
and change files and subfolders. Employees in the Sales and
Packers department should be able to change and delete files
and subfolders. All other employees should only be able to
view the files.
All Sales employees are members of the Sales domain local
security group. All Managers are members of the Managers domain
local security group. The Packers are members of the Packers
global security group.
How should you modify share level permissions on the Custom
Package folder so that the appropriate users have the minimum
required privileges? (Choose all that apply)
Choices:
Grant Change share permissions to Managers.
Deny Full Control share permissions to Managers.
Grant Change share permissions to Sales.
Grant Full Control share permissions to Sales.
Grant Change share permissions to Packers.
Grant Full Control share permissions to Packers.
Deny Full Control share permissions to Everyone.
Remove Everyone from the share permissions list.
Correct Choices: A, C, and E
Explanation:
Choices A, C, and E are the correct answers.
Change permissions allow the users to create, delete, and
change any files and folders in the shared folder, provided
the users have appropriate NTFS permissions on the files and
folders. The default NTFS permission in Windows Server 2003
is Read for Everyone and the default share level permissions
grant Read access to Everyone. You should not remove Everyone
from the share permission list. By default, share level permissions
grant Read access to Everyone.
How to Prepare for Microsoft Certification?
Following are the steps to prepare for Microsoft certification.
MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites.
The MCSE Certifications are tough, so plan to put in a lot
of time and effort getting ready for your certification exams.
Get all information you can about the certification exams
and then start working towards your goal.
Get hands on experience. The first step in the preparation
for any Microsoft Certification is hands on experience with
the related product. For MCSE, the aspirant needs to have
at least a year of working experience and for MCSA, the minimum
recommended time of experience is 6 months. If you are not
working anywhere, it will help, if you can volunteer your
IT skill services to gain valuable experience.
You can set up a small network at home to practice. Setting
up the home network will give a great opportunity to learn.
You can practice the lab exercises in the home network as
and when you study. This will give you a better understanding
of the theories than just studying the exam guides.
Get trained in the related product. If possible, try to get
training in the related product in a Microsoft Authorized
Training Center. You can use training resources to supplement
your skills and experience. You can also use the Microsoft
Official Curriculum for the related exam as well as Microsoft
Press books that are available for the exam.
For Exam 70-290, the main areas that you need to concentrate
are
Automated System Recovery (ASR)
Diskpart utility
Diskraid utility
Emergency Management Services (EMS)
File Replication Service (FRS)
Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)
Open File Backup
Password Backup and Restore Wizard
Remote Assistance
Remote Desktop
Shadow copying of shared folders
Software Update Services (SUS)
Virtual disk service
Permissions -Share and NTFS
Users, Computers, and Groups
Use the preparation guide of the exam that you want to take
and read it thoroughly. You should know all the exam objectives
of MCSE 70-290 covered in the exam preparation guide.
Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs MCSE 70-290
Exam Simulator is an example.
Do NOT use Braindumps. Braindumps might help you get the
certification, but you will lack important practical knowledge
about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing a good
IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead
you. So BEWARE!
You can participate in any online discussion forum, where
you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even ask doubts
if you have any. You are sure to get the right guidance.
You've learned the details about the MCSE 70-290 Exam, its
pattern, objectives etc. Download the MCSE Exam Preparation
Guide to learn how Whizlabs can help you achieve the MCSE
credential.
Resources
Exam simulators
Whizlabs MCSE 70-290 Exam Simulator
Besides identifying your weak areas and giving you a feel
of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures
your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not
only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your
career too.
Articles on Windows 2003
Microsoft's Windows 2003 Server Home Page
What's New in Active Directory
Windows Server 2003 Demos
Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
Microsoft Online Resources
TechNet : Designed for IT professionals, this resource includes
Howto's, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much
more.
MSDN : The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference
for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles,
newsgroups, chats, and more.
Training & Certification Newsgroups : A newsgroup exists
for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the
ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity
to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including
more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)
worldwide.
About the Author:
Whizlabs (www.whizlabs.com), an ISO 9001:2000 certified company,
is a leading provider of IT skill assessment and certification
exam preparation tools. Whizlabs' suite of offerings include
"IT Certification Exam simulators and Instructor-led,
Online Trainings" for various exams by Sun, IBM, Oracle,
Microsoft, PMI, BEA, Cisco, and other leading IT vendors.
Whizlabs also offers "IT Skill Assessment Management
Solution" for Corporations, Training Institutes, and
Universities.
Whizlabs provides “24x7 customer support” to be
able to assist its clients at all times. The customer care
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in touch with this team through phone, e-mail (support@whizlabs.com),
and online chat (LIVE CHAT feature provided at www.whizlabs.com).
This would help the clients get a real time solution to their
queries.
In its first three years of inception, Whizlabs has helped
over 380,000 software professionals in realizing their dream
of acquiring IT Certifications of their interest.
Whizlabs offerings have fuelled the career growth of IT professionals
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across the globe.
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