This book, MCSA/MCSE 70-290 Exam Prep (Exam 70-290), is for technicians, system administrators, and other technical professionals who are pursuing the goal of becoming a Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA) or Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE). This book covers the Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment exam (70-290), which is a core exam for both of those certifications. The exam is designed to measure your skill in managing and maintaining servers in a Windows Server 2003 environment. This book is designed to cover all the objectives Microsoft created for this exam. It doesn't offer end-to-end coverage of Windows 2003; rather, it helps you develop the specific core competencies that Microsoft says administrators who support Windows Server 2003 will need to master. You can pass the exam by learning the material in this book, without taking a class. Of course, depending on your own personal study habits and learning style, you might benefit from studying this book and taking a class. Even if you are not planning to take the exam, you may find this book useful. The wide range of topics covered by the Microsoft exam objectives will certainly help you to accomplish the server-management tasks at your job. Experienced MCSA/MCSEs looking for a reference on the new features of Windows Server 2003 R2 in particular should appreciate the coverage of topics here. Also, this book has been updated to include coverage of service pack releases up to SP2. How This Book Helps YouThis book gives you a self-guided tour of all the areas of the product that are covered by the Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment exam. The goal is to teach you the specific skills that you need to achieve your MCSA or MCSE certification. You will also find helpful hints, tips, examples, exercises, and references to additional study materials. Specifically, this book is set up to help you in the ways detailed in the following subsections. OrganizationThis book is organized around the individual objectives from Microsoft's preparation guide for the Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment exam. Every objective is covered in this book. These objectives are not covered in exactly the same order you will find them on the official preparation guide (which you can download from http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-290.asp) but are reorganized for more logical teaching. We have also tried to make the information more accessible in several ways:
Instructional FeaturesThis book has been designed to provide you with multiple ways to learn and reinforce the exam material. Here are some of the instructional features you'll find inside:
Extensive Practice Test OptionsThe book provides numerous opportunities for you to assess your knowledge and practice for the exam. The practice options include the following:
Final ReviewThis part of the book provides you with the following valuable tools for preparing for the exam:
This book includes several valuable appendixes as well:
These and all the other book features mentioned previously will provide you with thorough preparation for the exam. For more information about the exam or the certification process, you should contact Microsoft directly:
What You Should Know Before Reading This BookThe Microsoft Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment exam assumes that you are familiar with Active Directory and networking in general, even though there are no objectives that pertain directly to this knowledge. We show you tasks that are directly related to the exam objectives, but this book does not include a tutorial in working with the finer points of Active Directory and networking. If you are just getting started with Microsoft Windows and networking, you should check out some of the references at the end of each chapter for the information you will need to get started. For beginners, we particularly recommend these references:
Hardware and Software You'll NeedThis volume is intended to be a self-paced study guide. As such, the concepts presented are intended to be reinforced by the reader through hands-on experience. To obtain the best results from your studies, you should have as much exposure to Windows Server 2003 as possible. The best way to do this is to combine your studies with as much lab time as possible. In this section, we will make some suggestions on setting up a test lab to provide you with a solid practice environment. Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is available in the following versions:
You should be able to complete all the exercises in this book with any of the first three editions of Windows Server 2003. (If you can afford to use a datacenter server as your lab machine, invite me over.) Your computer should meet the minimum criteria required for a Windows Server 2003 installation:
Of course, those are minimum requirements. I recommend the following, more realistic, requirements:
In addition to a machine running Windows Server 2003, you might want one or more client workstations to test accessing shares over the network, Terminal Services, and other functions. For best results, Windows 2000 or Windows XP clients are recommended because they are required to support features such as Group Policy and the Software Update Serviceitems that will probably appear on the exam. Two products that have proven invaluable to us in the writing field are VMWare (www.vmware.com) and Microsoft Virtual PC (www.microsoft.com). These products enable you to create and run multiple virtual client sessions on your PC. Microsoft, of course, is highly motivated to spread the word about Windows Server 2003 to as many people as possible. So you can download trial versions of Windows Server 2003, along with other Microsoft products, at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/default.mspx. You might find it easier to obtain access to the necessary computer hardware and software in a corporate environment. It can be difficult, however, to allocate enough time within a busy workday to complete a self-study program. Most of your study time will probably need to occur outside normal working hours, away from the everyday interruptions and pressures of your job. |