We asked Contributing Editor Jim Blakely to answer the questions you ask us most often about Microsoft exams. Also, Erin Dunigan took the two new Windows NT 4.0 Server exams in beta; here's her report on what to expect.
Windows NT Server 4.0 (Beta 71-67)
Title:
Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 (Beta)
Number of questions:
159 on beta; live exam will probably contain about half that.
Passing score:
Won't be known until exam goes live.
Time allowed:
Four hours for beta; live exam will be significantly shorter.
Current status:
Live exam expected in early November.
Who should take it?
Will be a core requirement for MCSEs following the NT 4.0 track. Can be used
as the operating system exam for MCPSs.
Reviewer's rating:
"Not bad if you know NT 3.51 well. Server tools are a biggie, at least on
the beta."
By Erin Dunigan, MCSE, MCT
Windows NT 4.0 shipped to moderate acclaim in late August, introducing a host of new features, including a look and feel that matches Windows 95. Close on the tail of the new version, Microsoft has released the beta versions of two of the three new exams that will cover Windows NT 4.0. I took the first two NT 4.0 exams in beta during the week in September that they were offered. The schedule for the third exam, to cover NT Workstation 4.0 (71-63), hasn't been announced.
With the NT 4.0 exam series, Microsoft has implemented its plan of two operating system exams for NT 4.0-one for LANs, you might say, and one for WANs. Passage of both exams is a core requirement for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs) who elect to follow the NT 4.0 track. (You can also continue to follow the earlier, NT 3.51 track, which requires passage of only one NT Server exam, 70-43; but you can't mix and match Windows NT exams from the two tracks). For Microsoft Certified Product Specialists (MCPS), who are required to pass a single operating system exam, 71-67 can be used. [For a summary of the new NT 4.0 track, see "What's 4.0's Impact on Certification?" in the July/August issue, or posted at our Web site.-Ed.] Eventually, I suppose the NT 3.51 Server and Workstation exams will go the way of all upgraded products, and only the NT 4.0 exams will remain, but that day is a long, long way off, given the large number of installed, stable versions of NT 3.51 out there.
Beta exam 71-67, Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, might be called the "LAN" version of the NT 4.0 exam set. Microsoft has attempted with the NT 4.0 exams to differentiate between individuals who work in a smaller, single-domain network vs. those who must implement NT in a complex WAN environment-two very different situations.
Microsoft's list of what the test will cover (see sidebar) says that the exam tests your ability to "implement, administer, and troubleshoot information systems that incorporate Windows NT Server 4.0 in a simple computing environment." A simple computing environment is defined as a "homogeneous LAN-(with) one or more servers, a single domain, and a single location." What that means (and this will be especially meaningful if you've already taken the NT Server 3.51 exam) is: no questions on trust relationships on this exam. Those were some of the most difficult aspects of the NT 3.51 exam, but on this exam at least, you no longer have to worry about them.
Enough about the positioning-what's actually on the exam? What should you study? First, if you've taken the NT 3.51 Server exam (70-67), and you feel comfortable with that material, you won't find much new information on this exam. The beta exam was 159 questions, with a whopping four hours allowed, but no one I spoke to afterward took more than an hour and a half to finish.
Let's start off with what's not on the exam, especially if you've taken the earlier NT Server 3.51 exam. There are no questions on the Macintosh. (If you look at the testing domain, the Mac isn't even listed.) And as I said, there are no trust questions-all questions assume a single domain. Also, you won't be required to know installation requirements for a RISC box-again, not listed on the testing domain. Remember, this exam assumes a single location, so TCP/IP is not covered much at all either.
So, what is covered? Let's look at Microsoft's topic list for the exam and break it down into main categories.
The first item on the domain list is planning, which includes being able to choose the right fault tolerance method for a given scenario. Does the situation require mirroring-for instance, to protect the boot partition? Or would striping with parity be appropriate for ensuring that data can be recovered in the event of a disk failure? Hint: Remember that striping with parity requires at least three physical disks, and you can recover data in the event of the loss of only a single physical disk-no more. Also, don't be tricked by questions that ask for a fault-tolerant solution in which disk striping is an available answer-disk striping isn't fault tolerance. Study up on this whole area, since fault tolerance was one of the largest question areas on the beta. I suggest working with the various options available on the Disk Administrator.
Know how to install NT Server from DOS, as an upgrade to NT 3.51, over the network, and from a CD. Be familiar with installing from the three setup disks, and using the WINNT.EXE switches. (If you're upgrading from NT 3.51, you can use WINNT32.EXE to perform the upgrade.) Remember the differences between server as a domain controller vs. an ordinary server.
You'll also need to know how to configure certain core services of NT, such as Directory Replicator (and, believe it or not, License Manager, which has been completely ignored in previous courses and exams). In a given situation, would Per Server or Per Seat licensing be the best option? For example, if you had one server and a 20-user license using per-server, and you were going to install another server, would it make sense to buy more per-server licenses, or to purchase per seat licensing? Remember that typically, anytime you add more than one server, per seat is the less expensive method of licensing.
So far, I've discussed the parts of the exam that are surprisingly similar to NT 3.51. One difference on the 4.0 exams is coverage of some of the printing features. The best way to prepare for this part is to actually install a printer on NT 4.0, taking a look at what's new. For one thing, you're now given the option during printer installation to also install the drivers for other NT 4.0 platforms, for various NT 3.51 platforms, and for Windows 95. You also need to know how to set up a printer pool-many print devices, one printer. There were quite a few printing questions on the exam.
Brush up on the rights of the default groups installed on a domain controller. Can Account operators log on locally? Can Backup Operators restore or simply back up data? To what group should you assign a user who needs to create user accounts? Also, look at the user rights listed in User Manager (on the Policies menu under User Rights).
Another of the few completely new areas on this exam is policies and profiles. If you've already taken the Windows 95 exam or are otherwise familiar with how system policies and user profiles work in Windows 95, you have a head start. What's important to remember about system policies is that they're implemented through the creation of an Ntconfig.pol file placed in the ntlogon directory of the domain controller. What's new for profiles in NT 4.0 is where in the system interface you administer them-it's now the System icon in Control Panel, not the User Profile editor.
Server tools are another biggie in terms of number of questions, at least on the beta. (Remember that only about half the questions on the beta will survive the final cut to appear on the live exam.) How do you create a share on a remote server from a Windows 95 machine or NT Workstation with the NT Server tools installed? How would you share a printer? How would you change file permissions? Create users? In short, know which server tools are used for which tasks.
This is the "LAN" test, so you won't see much on connectivity. GSNW does show up, but not too heavily. You'll see a little on NWLINK and TCP/IP, but mainly in the form of "I want to connect to the Internet-what protocol should I use?" or "I need to communicate with a NetWare server-what protocol should I use?" The biggest topic area within connectivity is probably Remote Access Services, or RAS; that was perhaps one of the top five areas in terms of number of questions asked. The questions covered such topics as what protocols to use for RAS in a given scenario, call-back security, and other sorts of configuration questions.
If you haven't already, be sure to play with Performance Monitor. Be familiar with the different items you can monitor, and the most common items to monitor. Know how to optimize a system by moving the pagefile from the boot drive to a separate physical disk. Know how to monitor performance remotely, to activate the counters for the hard disk, and to recognize problem areas in performance.
So how should you study? If you've taken the Windows NT 3.51 Server and Workstation exams, don't lose a lot of sleep over this. Play with the new NT 4.0 interface and some of the new features specific to NT 4.0, so that you know where things are. If you haven't taken the old exams or the old courses, I highly recommend taking the Microsoft Approved Curriculum Course 687, Supporting Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Core Technologies. That should be enough information for you to pass the exam, and it will help prepare you for the new course 689, Supporting Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Enterprise Technologies, and the much tougher NT 4.0 Enterprise exam.
Title:
Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 in the Enterprise
(Beta)
Number of questions:
175 on beta; live exam will probably contain about half that.
Passing score:
Won't be known until exam goes live.
Time allowed:
Four hours allowed for beta; live exam will be significantly shorter.
Current status:
Live exam expected in early November.
Who should take it?
Core requirement for MCSE candidates following the NT 4.0 track. Can't be
used as the operating system exam for MCPSs.
Reviewer's rating:
"Trust me-it's tough."
By Erin Dunigan, MCSE, MCT
Exam 71-68 is a tough one-trust me. Yep, you guessed it. All those trusts that didn't show up on 71-67 are there with a vengeance on 71-68, the "WAN" version of the two new NT 4.0 exams. Officially, it's called Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 in the Enterprise. Those final three words are the key. According to Microsoft, this exam measures your ability to "implement, administer, and troubleshoot information systems that incorporate Windows NT Server 4.0 in an enterprise computing environment." That enterprise environment is defined as a "heterogeneous WAN" including "multiple servers and multiple domains" and "sophisticated server applications." (I guess that rules out FreeCell questions!)
As with exam 71-67, which I also took in beta during the same week in late September, if you've already taken the NT 3.51 exams, you won't find all that much new, 4.0-specific information on this test. The information you need to know comes from Microsoft's five-day "Expert Series" course.
In fact, Microsoft's preparation guide suggests you prepare for the exam by taking the Expert Series course (soon to be 689), but it doesn't bother mentioning the standard NT 3.51 Server course, 659. That's because the new structure of the NT 4.0 classes moves the discussion of trusts out of the NT core technologies course and into the Expert Series. If you've already taken the NT Server 3.51 course 659 or an equivalent, you may have enough preparation for this exam with a little outside studying, but I would strongly recommend the Expert Series class in addition. According to Phil Root, an MCSE and trainer for the Expert Series, the new Expert Series course, 689, seems to cover about 75 percent of the exam. As I write this, there aren't yet any third-party prep tools available for guidance on preparing for this exam, although I'd expect some shortly.
One other logistical note about the exam is the appearance once again of scenario-based questions. This is the question type that surfaced on the recently released Networking Essentials exam, the Exchange beta, and beta exam 71-67. They give you a situation, with the required result, and a few (usually two or three) optional results. Then you're given a proposed solution. Your job is to figure out which of the required and optional outcomes the solution satisfies. There were six scenarios on the beta, each with two to five questions with proposed solutions. That many probably won't show up on the released exam, but you can expect to see a few. Take the time to reason through the scenarios; for the most part, the answers tend to be fairly logical.
So, what should you expect to see in terms of content? Trusts, trusts, trusts. There are a lot of questions on trusts, and they're more complicated than just "Domain A trusts Domain B." You need to be familiar with the term "Directory Services." The Directory Services architecture refers to having a single account per user, universal resource access, and scalability of your NT environment. As part of that, be familiar with your domain models. You might get an example that says you need centralized control of accounts, decentralized control of resources-which domain model should you use? (master domain model) Make sure you write the trusts out on the scratch paper you're given-they get complicated and you can lose track of them if you just try to think through the answer.
Be familiar with how groups work in NT as well-mainly across trusts. Know the group strategy for putting a user account in a global group, the global group in a local group, and then assigning the local group access to a resource. Know what groups can include what other groups (local can contain global, but not other local groups).
Printing is another heavily tested area on this exam. Know how to set up a printer pool and how to share a printer for use by various Microsoft clients. Understand printing in a mixed environment with NetWare or Unix. Know how to accommodate an environment in which you have different groups of users needing different types of access or priority to a particular print device or group of print devices.
The other heavily tested area is monitoring and optimization in your NT server environment. You'll need to know how to recognize if there's a bottleneck on the server, using Performance Monitor readings. Regarding Performance Monitor, focus on processor, disk, and memory. You'll also need to be familiar with the use of Network Monitor, which now ships as a component within NT. While Performance Monitor allows you to track performance and utilization on the server itself, Network Monitor lets you analyze network traffic and use.
Not only does the exam test your "real world" knowledge through monitoring and optimization, it includes questions on recovery. What do you do if NT crashes with the dreaded "blue screen of death"? Can you interpret what you see? Have you used the kernel debugger? What is an effective plan to protect the server in the event of a power outage? How do you implement effective fault tolerance? Be careful here-make sure you look for "striping with parity" vs. just "disk striping," which isn't fault tolerant.
Remember, this is the enterprise exam, so along with "complex" topics, you also get questions about a "complex" WAN environment. Understand how to reduce the logon validation or directory services synchronization that occurs across a wide-area link. The Replication Governor setting comes into play here, as does TCP/IP. According to MCSE/MCT Larry Passo, who also took the exam, he hasn't seen this much subnetting since the TCP/IP exam. Don't worry, you won't be asked to calculate the subnet mask given a certain number of networks and hosts, but you do need to be familiar with the connectivity issues having to do with TCP/IP that exist in a WAN-WINS, DHCP, and DNS are all a standard part of NT 4.0. Along that same line, NT 4.0 also includes Internet Information Server, so you may see some questions relating to the configuration and setup of IIS as well.
So, what else is on the exam-for example, what about NetWare? What about Macintosh? There were some NetWare questions on the exam, most of them having to do with configuring GSNW and using NWLink as a common protocol for NetWare clients to access a client/server application on an NT server. Macintosh questions were minimal-I wouldn't suggest that you focus your studying too heavily there.
Also, system policies and a new implementation of User Profiles are now a part of NT 4.0. If you are familiar with how Windows 95 treats system policies, you should be fine, because they function similarly in NT 4.0. However, the default policy file is Ntconfig.pol instead of just Config.pol. User profiles are configured within the System icon in Control Panel now, not User Profile Editor, and can be configured as local or roaming.
If the live exam turns out anything like the beta (about half the questions on the beta will be dropped as unsuitable; the remainder will be used for the live exam), this test is a good one. Why? Because it's very "real world." It contains plenty of difficult troubleshooting-type questions. That's good for testing standards, but makes it tough for those taking the exam. Don't get me wrong-NT 4.0 in the Enterprise is far from impossible. But you'll need to go into this exam ready to think and be challenged.