Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Plumbersmate/archive/2020/01/27/working-towards-mcsa-windows-server-2016-certification.aspx
A little too late, it could be argued, I’ve decided to refresh my Windows server skills to improve my job prospects. Looking at my MCSE certification, the story is quite woeful. Although I was sitting (and passing) MCP exams up until I left Microsoft in 2010, none of the products were particularly leading edge at the time. The last exam I passed, for example, was 70-299 - “Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network”. On reflection, it may have been more useful to instead go for 70-649 “Upgrading Your MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008” which came out in 2007.
That means I’m back on the MCP trail where setting myself a certification target will generate the self-study required to pass. I’m going for Windows server 2016 on the assumption that more companies will be running this operating system rather than last year’s release. There are three to pass before achieving “MCSA: Windows Server 2016” certification:
- 70-740 Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016
- 70-741 Networking with Windows Server 2016
- 70-742 Identity with Windows Server 2016
((743 “Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA: Windows Server 2016” is unavailable as I don’t already have the qualifying MCSA: Windows Server 2008 or 2012 R2 certification))
I’ve booked myself in for the first one so need to get to work on learning. There’s a lot of online training to use but a hands-on server lab is essential although not usually the sort of thing most people have at home (although looking at the demographic I associate with, it does depend who you know as to what counts as “usual”).
Looking at hardware, I definitely don’t want to repurpose my Microsoft Surface but there are a couple of old desktops lying around which I could make use of instead. Or not…
System Requirements
- Processor - Minimum: 1.4 GHz 64-bit processor
Well, they can be used to run Linux instead which is going to be another learning project.
Luckily, Sue has been complaining that her PC, an old 64-bit Dell Dimension E520, needed replacing after 10 years of service. After buying a new Dell Inspiron, the E520 was designated ‘test server’.
The DataCentre evaluation ISO downloaded from Microsoft installed easily enough and the PC was soon a domain controller of its own forest. Next step was to add some features so I could create some virtual machines to play with Hyper-V and Nano servers. Unfortunately, this was when I discovered that not all PCs can support virtualisation, which was a surprise.