MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-648 & 70-649): Transitioning Your MCSA/MCSE to Windows Server 2008 [Hardcover]

I recently passed the 70-649 exam with good scores and this book, 70-648/70-649 Transitioning Your MCSA/MCSE to Windows Server 2008 Trainng Kit, was very helpful. However the text of this book alone, nor any other, most likely would not allow one to pass the 70-649 exam that covers a lot of territory via 3 in 1 exam. But if you have several hours [let's say over 100] minimum hands on experience with Windows 2008 exploring it's capabilities and developing expertise for, either on the job or in your training lab, including Active Directory and Roles/Features covered by the exam and remember most of what you learned obtaining your MCSE 2003 you are well on your way to passing the 70-649.

The labs in the book were helpful if you do not have hands on with the topic or want more in depth as were the URL links to additional info sources if you feel you want more detail as configuration info in some cases was sparse BUT keep in mind that there are entire dedicated books covering topics on most of the chapters in this book . Some of the topics such as ADFS and ADRM are very complicated. I did not do the labs in total for those, other then installing the roles and configuring them as much as I could, but read through them until I understood what was being accomplished. The questions on the exam for those topics did not expect you to know configuration in great detail but you need to know in general what they are used for, high level how they work, the flow of the processes, and how authentication is accomplished.

The exam focuses heavily on what is new with Windows 2008 and assumes you have retained your MCSE 2003 knowledge about networking, DNS, Group Policy, Active Directory, forests, global catalog server, trusts, sites, replication, etc. If not I suggest you also study with the Microsoft Press books for 70-640 and 70-642 or if you want some extra reinforcement on those topics.

I found that IPV6 in the book to be a bit overwhelming as in "do I really need to know how to subnet IPV6 and all the interim solutions such as Toredo". There were no hard IPV6 questions on the exam and I believe I had only 1 question. Knowing basics such as what is the IPV6 equivalent of an IPV4 private/public/APIPA address and how to troubleshoot IPV6 connectivity using basically same tools you use for IPV4.

I found the chapter on IIS7 very helpful in learning the new management interface, which has been totaly revamped, and new features such as management delegation and additional configuration for application pools such as recycling, and was all that was needed for the exam. There were also plenty of command line examples for IIS7 and other topics throughout the book and you will see a fair amount of those on the exam where you need to choose the correct command for a task.

The exam places great emphasis on security including what remote solutions need only port 443 TCP open in the firewall, certificates needed for SSL and implementing client trust for such certificates, solutions for revoked certificates, which authentication methods use certificates, CA types and hierarchy to use, distributing certificates to internal and external computers/users, Terminal Services, minimizing risk of having a domain controller in a branch office, and when to use ipsec/EFS/Bit Locker for a stated scenario and which one accomplishes the task. I felt the book did a good job covering those topics.

In addition to this book it would be well worth your while to study Microsoft documentation on what is new in Windows 2008, and individual what is new papers such as for Terminal Services. I felt that I easily got my moneys worth with this study guide.

EDIT 09/05/09: I recently completed my MCITP for Server Administrator and Enterprise Administrator. As the Microsoft Press books mention using Hyper-V to create virtual machines was extremely helpful in my learning process. I found that the ASRock A780GXE mainboard [around $80] with the latest bios update and using a AMD Phenom II quad core processor worked great for Hyper-V and has 4 RAM sockets. Don't assume any modern mainboard or processor will support Hyper-V. Hyper-V is easy to learn. Just remember to install the Hyper-V Integration Services on any guest OS you install right after the install to get networking and the mouse to work correctly! I believe you also need SP2 for W2003 and SP3 for XP for Integrations Services to install.

About myself: I've been an MCSE for 10 years. I'm also a CCNA, RHCE and CISSP. I've had to read a *lot* of manuals and study guides over the years.

I'm a fan of the Microsoft training books and have found them to be excellent resources for preparing for Microsoft certification exams. I originally ordered the Syngress book while waiting for MS finally print theirs...Unfortunately, this book is far below the standard that has been set by its predecessors.

After only 3 chapters, I'm about to toss this book into the nearest wood chipper and go back to using the Syngress one.

Chapter 1 dives straight into IPv6 and breathlessly screams through a very brief description on what it's capable of, Microsoft's implementation of it, notation, scope.... it leaves a lot to be desired.

If you're studying for this exam and using this book, do find supplementary material on IPv6- you'll need it.

Chapter 3 is a complete abortion, and where I found myself thinking that I wasted $45. The instructions on setting up VPN is confusing for it references screens and options that I couldn't find for the life of me. It also fails to mention until MUCH further down the chapter that adding roles to RRAS requires deactivating the service and unconfiguring it. If you're following along with the book, you're going to be wondering how the hell to "Bring up the RRAS Wizard".

Details into NPS is similarly scant, and doesn't go into detail, leaving a LOT of questions unanswered. It seemed more of a "do this, this and this, and hey! it works!". It's stuff like this that devalues the MCSE - excuse me, MCTS now- and why there's tons of "paper MCSEs" walking around that know only how to do whatever was in the book they read.

By the time I got to the scenario questions, I just about gave up in disgust. The second scenario question asks about setting up 802.1x for a company with standalone servers... unfortunately there was ZERO mention of how to set up standalone servers. The answer to the scenario question offered some hints, but I had to go reading through a MS blog entry to figure out what was going on.

Do yourselves a favor- even if you're going to buy this book anyway, don't let this be your only study guide.

I'm sure this book might have been useful when the exam first came out, however, MS has changed the exams. Currently, about 40% of the exam is based on new features that come in Windows 2008 R2 for example Direct Access. I took the exam and failed it, using this book was a huge mistake. It is good in that it gives you the concepts and instructions for being a good windows 2008 administrator/architect, but it does not prepare you for the exam. This book does not have any of the new material from windows 2008 R2.

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