Wednesday, May 27, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 50

Overview
Week 50 of my MCSE studies was not as focused or busy as I would have liked, but I still managed to accomplish a few things. I finished the KnowledgeNet 70-411 Live Learning course, and worked on the prerecorded lesson for the same exam. I also managed to secure sufficient funding to renew my subscription to KnowledgeNet, a resource that I am finding very valuable.

Cool Stuff
There wasn't anything that I would consider especially cool, but I did enjoy learning more about the Distributed File System (DFS), and getting into the details of how to setup and configure this service. Even in this age of collaboration tools like SharePoint, DFS can still play an important role in managing and replicating certain types of files. Namely, files that do not change frequently, such as updates, software repositories, and corporate policies and procedures.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
I once again did not focus a lot on PowerShell this past week, so I don't have a cmdlet for you this week.

Stats
Total time studying: 7 hrs. 55 min.
  • 70-411: 7 hrs. 55 min.
Resources used:
In Closing
I did have a bit of difficulty carving out enough time to study this past week, mostly due to far too many late nights. I do need to be quite a bit more focused, as I am scheduled to write the next exam, 70-411, in about two months. I plan to continue the 70-411 prerecorded sessions and work some more on my PowerShell studies. I also have the option to take the KnowledgeNet 70-412 Live Learning course starting next week, so hopefully I'll have a bit of time to sit in on that as well.

Have a great week everyone!
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Sunday, May 17, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 49

Overview
Week 49 continues my journey of becoming an MCSE. I have passed the 70-410 exam, earning the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) certification. My studies are now focused on preparing for the 70-411 exam, Administering Windows Server 2012. I am looking forward to being able to focus more on this exam now that it is the next one in line. There are some interesting technologies in this exam that I am eager to learn.

Cool Stuff
Perhaps the coolest thing I learned last week was the concepts behind VPN technologies, including things like RADIUS, authentication protocols, encryption, encapsulation, and integrity algorithms. There is a lot to know, but as I study these concepts more and more, I am starting to understand how the pieces fit together. Over the next week or two, I am hoping to finally cement my understanding of these concepts.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
I seem to have gotten away from looking for a specific PowerShell cmdlet as of late. I will ensure that I pick up my PowerShell studies again, and I'll make sure I have a cmdlet here for you next week.

Stats
Total time studying: 16 hrs. 40 min.
  • 70-411: 12 hrs.
  • Lab Maintenance (Prep for 70-411): 4 hrs. 40 min.
Resources used:
In Closing
It was a really good feeling to get back to studying for a specific exam. I have changed my study style slightly for 70-411, opting to focus on taking more, and better notes than I have in the past. My intention is to focus a lot more on the details related to each of the objectives in addition to obtaining a solid foundation. It will require more focus than I have been giving to my studies, but I am ready for the challenge. For an example of just how detailed I plan to get, hop over to this post on my other blog, "The Frozen Geek". It is an exploration of an unlikely scenario, but I figure if I can answer questions like this, I should be able to ace the 70-411 exam.

Have a great week everyone!
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Sunday, May 10, 2015

MCSE Studying - What Happened During Weeks 39-48?

As you may have noticed, I have not made one single blog post in the past 10 weeks. What happened? Life. Circumstances changed quite rapidly over the past 10 weeks, and things are only now starting to settle down. In this post, I will try to catch you up on the events of the past few weeks. I will also try to get back on track doing regular weekly blog posts. So, without further delay, here's what has been happening.

On March 10, I went into the testing center, ready to write the 70-410 Exam: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012. Unfortunately, due to a technical error at the testing center, I was unable to write the exam that day. The test center did what they could to try to correct the error, but ultimately it was up to the test provider to correct the issue. The staff at the test center encouraged me to stay in Edmonton for the remainder of the week, just in case the exam could be rescheduled before I left for home.

It was not rescheduled. In fact, It was just over a week before I heard back from the test provider, and a further 3 days (due to another technical glitch) before I could book a time to write the test. I finally managed to book the second attempt at exam 70-410 for April 29.

Also adding to the chaos of my life, I started a new job on March 16. I am working on the help desk for a local college. This is only a temporary position, as I am covering for an individual who is on maternity leave. I have been having a great time, as this job is considerable less stressful than the last position I held. It has, however, reduced the amount of time I have to study.

During the seven weeks between the first and second attempt at the exam, I managed to get very little studying done. I would say that it was less than 5 hours a week. It was very difficult to find that balance between work/home/study time. Needless to say,  few things fell by the wayside during this period, not the least of which was this blog.

I went back into Edmonton on April 29, and managed to write, and pass exam 70-410. The experience taught me a lot about myself, my studying habits, and just what is required to pass a Microsoft certification exam. I was glad I wrote it, and even happier that I passed. Upon my return home, I took a couple of days off from studying and took an opportunity to relax a little bit.

I am now back into studying, preparing myself for the 70-411 Exam: Administering Window Server 2012. I have finally managed to hit my stride, and the studying is once again back on track. I have not yet booked the exam, but I plan to do that over the next few days. I would expect to be ready to write it sometime in late May, or possibly early June.

I will be back on track with my blog posts starting next week, so look forward to more information on how things are going, and what I am learning.

Have a great week everyone!
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Monday, March 2, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 37 & 38

Overview
I have missed a week of updates, so I will summarize weeks 37 & 38 together this time. The past two weeks were definitely not as productive as I would have liked. They were, however, more productive than I expected, since just about everyone in our family has been out with a nasty stomach bug. Everyone is feeling much better now, and I am looking forward to focusing for this last week before I take my 70-410 exam.

Cool Stuff
The coolest thing from the past two weeks, well, at least the most surprising, was how easy it is to do an offline domain join. Using djoin, I was able to pre-stage and provision computer's account in Active Directory, copy the file to the currently non-domain joined, non-networked computer, and add the computer to the domain. After a reboot, I reconnected the network adapter and the computer was able to access domain resources just as it would if it had been online for the domain join process. Very cool!

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
As I have been focusing on exam prep, I will not be posting a cmdlet here this week.

Stats
Total time studying: 40 hrs. 55 min.
  • 70-410: 20 hrs. 45 min.
  • 70-411: 6 hrs.
  • 70-412: 1 hr. 45 min.
  • 70-413: 6 hrs.
  • PowerShell: 6 hrs. 25 min.
Resources used:
In Closing
With only one week to go before I write my first exam, I will be focusing heavily on practice exams and brushing up on any topics where I need improvement. It's going to be a great, but busy week.

Have a great week everyone!
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Friday, February 20, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 36

Overview
Week 36 of my MCSE studies was another step towards my goal of becoming an MCSE. I knew going into the week that it would be tough to top last week, and I was correct. It was difficult to maintain that laser focus that is required to exceed 30 hours of studying in a week. It was not a bad week by any stretch, just not as productive as the previous week. It was a quite simply, a week full of review work as I prepare for the 70-410 exam.

Cool Stuff
As last week was a review week, there wasn't anything that stands out as being particularly cool or interesting.

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
This week, I picked a cmdlet that I learned about some time ago, but forgot just how useful it really is.

Show-Command

This cmdlet will allow you to pop open a dialog box that gives you a handy form to fill out the parameters, parameter switches, and other information for a given cmdlet.

In this example, I used the following command to bring up the dialog for Get-Service

Get-Command Get-Service

I then filled out the ComputerName and Name fields as show below:


At this time, I can choose to either run the command, or copy it to the console. In my case, I simply chose to run the command. This returned the status of the DHCP Client on the server PS-MEMBER01.

For those of you wondering about the tabs along the top, those allow you to select from the various parameter sets available in the cmdlet.

Stats
Total time studying: 26 hrs. 50 min.
  • 70-410: 11 hrs. 45 min.
  • 70-411: 6 hrs. 10 min.
  • 70-413: 6 hrs.
  • PowerShell: 2 hrs. 35 min.
  • General: 20 min.
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Monday, February 9, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 35

Overview
Week 35 of my MCSE studies was quite possibly the best week I have had since I started my studies. My focus has been extremely high, and I have studied more, and learned more than I though was possible. I also exceeded the previous record for number of study hours per week by almost 12 hours. This is the level of focus that I have been trying to achieve for months.

To summarize last week's activities: I started the KnowledgeNet Live Learning courses for both 70-411 and 70-413, Mapped out the exam objectives for 70-411, started a review of "Learn PowerShell 3 in a Month of Lunches", started into the Sybex Complete MCSA Study Guide, watched a Channel 9 video, listened to the PowerScripting podcast, and completed three more chapters in the 70-410 Study Guide. I'm going to call that a very successful week.

Cool Stuff
Wow! I scarcely  know where to begin. There was so much cool stuff learned last week . I think the best part of the week was finally being able to put together a PowerShell script that will setup and configure a new Gen 2. virtual machine in Hyper-V. The only thing I have to enter now, is the server name. The script takes the name and proceeds to setup the virtual machine with all of the settings just the way I like them. PowerShell has saved me some more time. Thank you PowerShell!

PowerShell cmdlet of the Week
This week, I am going to use four cmdlets to demonstrate how to customize the boot order in a Gen. 2 virtual machine in Hyper-V.

Get-VMDvdDrive
Get-VMNetworkAdapter
Get-VMHardDiskDrive
Set-VMFirmware

The scenario is that we want to configure the boot order on a virtual machine called "Ceres" to boot first from the DVD Drive, then from the Hard Drive, and lastly from the Network Adapter.

Step 1: Assign each of the boot device properties to a variable. We do this because the Set-VMFirmware cmdlet will not accept data type <string[]> as input for the -BootOrder parameter. It expects to be given the list of objects as type <VMComponentObject[]>

$vmdvd = Get-VMDvdDrive
$vmvhd = Get-VMHardDiskDrive
$vmnic = Get-VMNetworkAdapter

Step 2: Change the boot order on the server named 'Ceres'.

Set-VMFirmware `
    -VMName Ceres `
    -BootOrder $vmdvd,$vmvhd,$vmnic

You can confirm the boot order either by using the Get-VMFirmware cmdlet, or by checking the virtual machine settings in Hyper-V manager.

Simple and effective.

Stats
Total time studying: 37 hrs. 45 min.
  • 70-410: 16 hrs. 20 min.
  • 70-411: 10 hrs. 20 min.
  • 70-413: 6 hrs.
  • PowerShell: 4 hrs. 30 min.
  • General: 35 min.
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Sunday, February 1, 2015

MCSE Studying - Week 34

Overview
Unfortunately, I spent most of week 34 with a head cold that then decided to move down into my chest (I assume it moved because the rent was cheaper). I listened to the PowerScripting Podcast, trying to get caught up on some back episodes. I also spent about an hour jotting down some notes for doing a domain controller setup using media as a replication source vs. the normal method of replicating over the network from another DC. I plan to do a post on this topic over on  "The Frozen Geek" sometime next week. So, while I did not make much progress, I still managed to get some study time in.

Stats
Total time studying: 10 hrs. 5 min.
  • 70-410: 1 hr.
  • PowerShell: 9 hrs. 5 min.
Resources used:
PowerScripting Podcast - Episodes 217, 218, 220, 289, 290, 291, 292, & 293

In Closing
Well, I really need to get back to my studies next week. The plan is to continue the 70-410 exam preparation, take the 70-411 (and maybe 70-413) Live Learning courses from KnowledgeNet, and get back into some serious PowerShell training. I'm still not back to 100% health, but I am well enough now to continue with my studies.

Have a great week everyone!
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