MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-648 & 70-649): Transitioning Your MCSA/MCSE to Windows Server 2008

This book is just EXCELENT! The exercises helped to understand better the content, wich is explained so well.

The book helps you to obtain a strong knowledge of new technologies and tools delivered with Microsoft Windows Server 2008. I read an "Introducing Windows Server 2008" by Mitch Tulloch and several experts from Microsoft before, and I thought that I am ready to pass the 70-649 exam. But after reading the 70-648/649 Training Kit, I realize that I was wrong. However, that book is also very useful and interesting (after its reading I have successfully introduced my first Windows Server 2008 installations). The Training Kit is full of very useful information on the key improvements of Windows Server 2008 like AD RMS, AD FS, Windows Deployment Services, KMS, etc. The book provides sufficient information (as well as several references to other resources) to plan and deploy the corresponding services in your production IT infrastructure. Of course, it also has some bugs like the information that Entreprise CA is supported only in Enterprise and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2008. The Standard Edition also supports this type of CA. However, such bugs do not change a positive relation to the book. They even stimulate you to check the information in the real world... The materials of the book and practice tests enclosed are also adequate source to the exam preparation. I have pass the exam 70-649 from the first try with a nice result. I have not used any other preparation guides, have not bought any practice tests, etc. And after reading the book and passing the exam I feel that I have a strong knowledge of Windows Server 2008. The only one suggestion is that a new revision of this book should be even more helpful if it will reflect some changes in Windows Server 2008 R2 that are sometimes very important. For example, Windows Backup utility in R2 is m

I recently passed the 70-649 exam with good scores and this book, 70-648/70-649 Transitioning Your MCSA/MCSE to Windows Server 2008 Trainng Kit, was very helpful. However the text of this book alone, nor any other, most likely would not allow one to pass the 70-649 exam that covers a lot of territory via 3 in 1 exam. But if you have several hours [let's say over 100] minimum hands on experience with Windows 2008 exploring it's capabilities and developing expertise for, either on the job or in your training lab, including Active Directory and Roles/Features covered by the exam and remember most of what you learned obtaining your MCSE 2003 you are well on your way to passing the 70-649. The labs in the book were helpful if you do not have hands on with the topic or want more in depth as were the URL links to additional info sources if you feel you want more detail as configuration info in some cases was sparse BUT keep in mind that there are entire dedicated books covering topics on most of the chapters in this book . Some of the topics such as ADFS and ADRM are very complicated. I did not do the labs in total for those, other then installing the roles and configuring them as much as I could, but read through them until I understood what was being accomplished. The questions on the exam for those topics did not expect you to know configuration in great detail but you need to know in general what they are used for, high level how they work, the flow of the processes, and how authentication is accomplished. The exam focuses heavily on what is new with Windows 2008 and assumes you have retained your MCSE 2003 knowledge about networking, DNS, Group Policy, Active Directory, forests, global catalog server, trusts, sites, replication, etc. If not I suggest you also study with the Microsoft Press books for 70-640 and 70-642 or if you want some extra reinforcement on those topics. I found that IPV6 in the book to be a bit overwhelming as in "do I really need to know how to subnet IPV6 and all the interim solutions such as Toredo". There were no hard IPV6 questions on the exam and I believe I had only 1 question. Knowing basics such as what is the IPV6 equivalent of an IPV4 private/public/APIPA address and how to troubleshoot IPV6 connectivity using basically same tools you use for IPV4. I found the chapter on IIS7 very helpful in learning the new management interface, which has been totaly revamped, and new features such as management delegation and additional configuration for application pools such as recycling, and was all that was needed for the exam. There were also plenty of command line examples for IIS7 and other topics throughout the book and you will see a fair amount of those on the exam where you need to choose the correct command for a task. The exam places great emphasis on security including what remote solutions need only port 443 TCP open in the firewall, certificates needed for SSL and implementing client trust for such certificate

For the most part, this book follows the same structure as most other Microsoft Press books. The practice tests are just like those you'll find with any of the other Microsoft books that were published in the last year or so. They also made some nice improvements to the layout. There are more notes on pages, and overall much more readable format than in some other Microsoft Press books I've read in the past. I also liked how in within the chapter they gave the overview of step-by-step instructions in paragraph form which makes it a littel more readable. Then, when you get to the practice section at the end of the chapter, they have the step-by-step instructions where it's more appropriate.