Exam dumps
Unfortunately I’ve received numerous requests for an exam dump of 74-409 which really upsets me.
For those that are not aware of it, you are not allowed to share or use exam dumps. “If Microsoft learns that a candidate used a “brain dump” site to prepare for an exam, this candidate will be permanently banned or prohibited from taking any future Microsoft Certification exams and may be decertified from the Microsoft Certification Program. In addition, test scores and certifications, if applicable, may be revoked. These actions may be taken even if the candidate did not intend to defraud the Microsoft Certification Program.”
For more information, see:
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2013/01/02/why-brain-dumps-are-bad.aspx
Preparing to take the exam
This is generally what I do for preparing to take the exam:
- Determine the skills that are measured in the exam 74-409
- View the online course Server Virtualization with Windows Hyper-V and System Center at Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA)
- Reflect how confident you are that the online course has provided you with sufficient skills to take the exam.
- Optionally enhance your knowledge using:
- If you (know someone who) attended the course for this exam (20409A-ENU), then be sure to take a look at the book. It contains a lot of details that are missing from the jump start videos.
- Windows Server 2012 R2 Private Cloud Virtualization and Storage Poster and Mini-Posters
- Community/user created content for taking the exam
–Study resources 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center
–Born To Learn wiki
–Veeam Study guide
–Free MCP Training study guide (in progress)
- Blogs by people that already took the exam, to see how they prepared.
- Recordings and slides of the Virtualization IT Camp
- Additional Hyper-V and Server 2012 R2 related courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA)
- Real life or virtual meetings, presentations and user groups. Microsoft has started a Microsoft User Group Portal wiki, but unfortunately it’s not widely being used yet. Therefore I suggest searching the internet or taking a look at the Microsoft Events website.
- Your own lab to work with the products. You can use the existing Microsoft Test Lab Guides (TLG) or if you don’t have the hardware for your lab, just browse the document.
- Technet library documentation about Hyper-V. This can also be downloaded here for offline use.
- Technet TechCenter
- Training videos. By example on YouTube, or from commercial companies like CBT Nuggets and PluralSight. Nowadays you can get monthly subscriptions or just get trials for a couple of days to help you get a good start.
- Great TechNet Blogs.
- Guided labs / guided experiences like by example the Microsoft Private Cloud Guided Labs. Note: these might not be updated to 2012 R2 yet, but they should provide you with a better understanding.
- Virtual labs (search for hyper or virtual machine manager)
- Twitter by following people with interesting information on Hyper-V, by searching for tweets containing hyperv or hyper-v or by connecting with the community.
- Forums to discuss and share information. Since I’m from the Netherlands I use Tweakers.net a lot and can be found discussing Microsoft Certification related stuff in the topic “[Microsoft Certified] Ervaringen en discussies”.
- Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Best Practices (In Easy Checklist Form)
- Free e-books:
–Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2
–Microsoft System Center Microsoft System Center
–Windows Server 2012 R2 Overview White Paper
–Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Virtualization White Paper
- Printed books, but as far as I know there are no specific books yet for 74-409 and most books covering Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V or System Center 2012 have not yet been updated to the R2 release.
- Channel 9 to search for relevant content.
- Technet Video to search for relevant content.
- Server Posterpedia Windows store app or component architecture posters.
- Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guides
- Survival guides
Specific topics and resources I used while studying:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 074-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, 70-409, 74-409, blog, Born To Learn, brain dump, brain dumps, braindump, braindumps, CBT, CBT Nuggets, certification, certified, certify, Channel 9, channel9, cheat, component architecture poster, component architecture posters, dump, dumps, Exam, exam dump, exam dumps, Free, guided experience, guided experiences, guided lab, guided labs, Hyper-V, hyperv, Infrastructure Planning Design, Infrastructure planning design guide, infrastructure planning design guides, IPD, meeting, Microsoft, Microsoft Events, Microsoft Virtual Academy, MVA, PluralSight, presentation, Server 2012 R2 Virtual Labs, Server 2012 Virtual Labs, survival guide, survival guides, Technet, Technet Blogs, Technet Library, Technet Library Documentation, Technet TechCenter, Technet Video, Test Lab Guide, Test Lab Guides, TestLab Guide, Testlab Guides, TLG, Tweakers, Tweakers.net, Twitter, User Group, usergroup, Veeam, virtual lab, virtual labs, virtualization IT camp, Youtube
Microsoft is offering free exam vouchers for the new exam “74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center” to attendees of the Jump Start. The amount of free exams is limited, so be sure to register for the “Server Virtualization w/ Windows Server Hyper-V & System Center Jump Start” as soon as possible.
Also for those interested in free VMware Certified Associate (VCA) exams, time is running out. For more info, take a look at my previous post.
Tags: 074-409, 074-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, 74-409, 74-409 Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, Exam, free exam, free exam voucher, jump start, jumpstart, Microsoft, Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft Virtual Academy Jump Start, Microsoft Virtual Academy JumpStart, MVA, MVA Jump Start, MVA Jumpstart, Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center, VCA, VMware, VMware Certified Associate
Last week Mark Minasi presented a webinar made possible by http://www.learnit.com called:
“The Case for PowerShell: Why To Learn-PowerShell So You Needn’t Leave-Industry”.
The recording can be found here.
In this webinar he explains why ICT administrators need to be(come) familiar with PowerShell. He also explains the basic principles of PowerShell to help lower the threshold for people that have been shying away from command line interfaces (CLI) and scripting in the past. He does this by explaining how PowerShell is different from by example the CLI and Visual Basic Scripting (VBS).
I share his opinion about the necessity to learn PowerShell and therefore I hope I can help spread the message.
You can keep track of Mark Minasi by following him at Twitter: https://twitter.com/mminasi (@mminasi).
Tags: automation, CLI, Cloud, ICT, Microsoft, PoSh, Powershell, recording, scipting, Scripting, vb, vbs, video, video recording, visual basic, visual basic scripting, Windows
Even though it seemed for a while that MSDN and Technet subscribers would not get early access to the latest Windows versions, Microsoft decided to listen to customer feedback and reconsidered.
As a result, they just made the RTM versions of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 available for MSDN and Technet subscribers. General availability for both Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 is still October 18. For the official statement, read this blog post.
Personally I’m very stoked about Server 2012 R2 and I’m already running the preview version. I especially love the improvements on Hyper-V and de-duplication. For more information about new and improved functionality, take a look at the free e-book : Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release.
Tags: e-book, ebook, ICT, Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release, Microsoft, MSDN, RTM, server 2012 r2, Technet, Windows, Windows 8.1
Today I helped a colleague troubleshoot a couple of systems were unable to activate using Key Management Service (KMS). Basically for this situation it boiled down to this:
Determine for the KMS service
- Which server is hosting the KMS service.If an SRV record has been added for KMS DNS auto discovery, run from CMD: nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
- If the server hosting the KMS is functioning correctly:
- Check if the server is up and running.
- Check if the “Software Protection” service (sppsvc) is running.
- Verify if the KMS service is listening on port 1688: telnet localhost 1688
- Verify the KMS status. Run from CMD: slmgr.vbs /dli
- Verify if a KMS key is installed and activated.
- Verify if the minimum threshold for activation is being met.
- Verify if other clients are able to activate using KMS. Even though the output of “slmgr.vbs /dli” gives you an indication, you can use the “Volume Activation Management Tool” (VAMT) for more insight and functionality.
- Verify that a VLK key is being used.
For clients that are not able to activate
- Verify if the correct KMS server can be resolved correctly:
nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
- Verify if the KMS can be contacted:
telnet <KMS FQDN or IP> 1688
- If this is not the case, perform a traceroute to determine potential causes. Reasons could include:
- No default gateway configured on the client to reach the KMS.
- No route configured on the client to reach the KMS.
- Firewall on the client is blocking the traffic.
- Firewall on the server is blocking the traffic.
- If it is a VM, the virtual network might be misconfigured.
- Routing on the network is not correct.
- Firewall on the network is blocking traffic.
- Clear any previous (mis)configuration: slmgr.vbs /ckms
- Attempt activation: slmgr.vbs /ckms
NOTE: If you have lots of systems where you need to clear configuration and then attempt activation, you can also perform slmgr.vbs on remote computers using:
slmgr.vbs TargetComputerName [username] [password] /parameter [options]
Additional information
If you haven’t been able to resolve the issue, you might want to take a look here:
Tags: 1688, CMD, command, command prompt, DNS, ICT, Key Management Server, Key Management Service, Key Management Services, KMS, Microsoft, nslookup, Office, slmgr, slmgr.vbs, VAMT, Volume Activation Management Tool, Windows, _vlmcs, _vlmcs._tcp
Troubleshooting can be very difficult and there are many different approaches and personal preferences. Also the chosen approach can even differ based on the situation.
Even though there is no troubleshooting process that is best in all situations, it is considered a good practice to troubleshoot in a structured manner.
This is why I’ve created a sample ICT troubleshooting flowchart in Visio for companies that:
- Have separate dedicated management teams for various IT disciplines like Windows, Linux/Unix, Database, Backup, Storage, Virtualization and Applications.
- Have both offshore and onshore IT personnel where all tickets are initially routed to the offshore team.
- Uses a ticketing system:
- To log events, incidents, changes, problems, etc.
- To route tickets to various disciplines.
- Use a CMDB.
- Use a change calendar.
Keep in mind that this is a sample troubleshooting flowchart that was only created to provide some structure or inspiration for troubleshooting.
I hope it is useful. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave a message.
PS: If you don’t have Visio, you can download Microsoft Visio Viewer 2013 from Microsoft.
Tags: flowchart, ICT, Microsoft, sample, Troubleshoot, troubleshooting, troubleshooting flowchart, Visio, Visio Viewer
In October 2012 I took the beta exams for Exchange 2013. Since there were no books yet, I created a One Note document with all kinds of notes gathered from various sources including TechNet, blogs and 3rd party tech websites. I totally forgot to post these on my blog back then, but better late then never.
I’ve uploaded the original One Note document and a PDF version and a Word version, because the conversion from One Note to WordPress is not really perfect.
But still it’s up to you to use whatever you prefer. Also since there are now books and video training materials, I would recommend you use these as well for preparation.
Enjoy.
General
- Various
- EAC (web based Exchange Administration Center)
- Set-ServerComponentState to take CAS or Mailbox offline
- Cmdlet enhancements
- Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) –> Exchange Online Protection (EOP)
- EAC Feature Panes info
- Site mailboxes accessible through sharepoint and Outlook 2013, but don’t appear in OWA
- Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW)
What’s New in Exchange 2013
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 2013, 70-341, 70-342, Exam, exam notes, Exchange, Exchange 2013, Microsoft, notes
As you might have already read by now, TechNet subscriptions are going to disappear. For more info take a look at this blog post and the Subscriptions retirement FAQ.
The most important stuff:
- TechNet Subscription are sold through the TechNet Subscriptions website until August 31, 2013.
- Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013.
- The TechNet benefits portal and the subscriber downloads page will remain available for non-Volume Licensing subscribers through September 30, 2014.
- Alternatives mentioned by Microsoft are:
- MSDN subscriptions
- Windows Azure.
- Technet Evaluations (time limited).
- Technet Virtual Labs.
I personally think this is not a good way to go because the TechNet software is used by many people to increase their skills (often even for a large part in their own time). Because of this, Microsoft products can add even more valuable for companies. Making it harder to get the required software and to keep it running for a longer time will probably scare people away or it will steer them towards hacked/cracked versions.
Basically if you want to have access to non time limited versions of enterprise products of Exchange, Lync, Sharepoint, System Center, etc. you need to take a $6000+ MSDN subscription. Currently I’m paying for TechNet Pro myself which costs 375 euro and I will take a Technet Subscription for this last year. I hope that Microsoft will have come to its senses by then and has provided a proper alternative. For now I would like to ask everyone that feels the same to sign the petition to get a decent TechNet alternative.
Tags: ICT, Microsoft, MSDN, subscription, Technet, Technet Evaluations, Windows Azure
With Windows 8 one of the major issues especially when used in an enterprise was that the Windows Store and Windows Store apps wouldn’t work when you were behind an authenticated proxy unless you specifically allowed URLs to pass through the proxy unauthenticated.
I even created a blog post about this before and since it gets many views I believe it is an issue a lot of people are having.
As such I’m happy to inform you that with Windows 8.1 Preview you can configure your authenticated proxy to be used for Windows Store apps. Press Windows key + W and type “Change proxy settings”.
The settings from Internet Explorer are also automatically used, so existing configurations set using a GPO work as well.
Tags: authenticated proxy, ICT, Metro, Metro App, Metro UI, metro ui app, Microsoft, Modern, Modern App, Modern UI, modern ui app, Proxy, Store, Store app, Windows, Windows 8, Windows 8 App, Windows 8 Store, Windows 8.1, Windows store, Windows Store App
blog.bjornhouben.com 