Are You Certified? (Part 3)

This is the third and final post on the “Are You Certified?” topic on the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate track. As a refresher, the MCSA track contains three components:

• Exam 70-410, Installing and configuring WS 2012
• Exam 70-411, Administering WS 2012
• Exam 70-412, Configuring advanced WS 2012 services

I covered exams 410 and 411 in my first two posts, so today’s topic is exam 412, Configuring advanced WS 2012 services. You should consider taking Exam 412 once you’ve got your WS 2012 servers installed and configured, and now you are ready to start leveraging more advanced features and services available in your new WS 2012 environment. One VERY interesting topic included on this exam is configuring Hyper-V replicas. All topics covered in this exam include:

• Implementing Advanced Network Services
• Implementing Advanced File Services
• Implementing Dynamic Access Control
• Implementing Network Load Balancing
• Implementing Failover Clustering
• Implementing Disaster Recovery
• Implementing AD CS
• • Implementing AD FS

The question distribution on this exam is weighted as follows:

One company has now developed an online practice exam which is available for around $125. Link is here. They promise a money-back guarantee if you purchase their practice tool and fail the 70-410 exam.
Microsoft is offering a 5-day training class for MCSA, and I found a few other resources available here:

• http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-412
• http://www.quickcert.com/freedemo4mcsa.cfm?source=gomcsa5&gclid=CN6ytZT6tbMCFQUFnQodhToAOw

I recommend using the practice test questions and resources. Who’s going to be the first to achieve MCSA status?
Good luck with your studies!