70-413

Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure

Focused on the planning, configuration, and implementation of Windows Server 2012 services.

Motivation? My employer is a Microsoft partner and needs one person who has passed MCP 70-413, 70-414, or 70-659 and another engineer who has passed one of 70-410, 70-411, 70-412, 70-417, 70-640, 70-646, 70-647, 70-648, 70-649, 70-690, or 70-691. I elected to do 70-413. (https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/us/pages/membership/server-platform-competency-requirements-silver.aspx has the gory details.)

Get some bits to play with

This test is all about the Windows Server 2012 product. It's available for a free 180 day evaluation straight from Microsoft. Follow the links at Microsoft's Download Windows Server 2012 page.

Installing those bits on a server

So, chicken and egg problem here. I'm going to need to do a network install somehow -- I don't have any spare servers with DVD drives I can use. I do have plenty of machines that will PXE boot, though, so I'll try to sketch out that process here.

PXE installs of Linux are old hat to me. Network installs of HP-UX and Solaris, too. Windows is a bit of a different animal.

Exam Objectives

Plan and deploy a server infrastructure

(Objective 1.1) Design an automated server installation strategy

So I'm not a Microsoft oriented computer geek. I can install random versions of Windows, put updates on them, create users and groups (locally and in AD), drive the Windows server DNS and DHCP services, and so on. But I've never built an whole Windows Server infrastructure from scratch. But it can't be that hard, right?

So when the trying to installed the Windows Deployment Services role on my brand new WS2012 VM I get a message saying I need the whole AD+DNS+DHCP thing going already, I get a bit worked up. A second, more careful look, says I can do the Transport Server pieces without all that other stuff. (All that other stuff comes later in the book. D'oh!)

So, base OS installed. No updates done. No user accounts created. New (not necessarily improved) GUI running. Install WDS role. Only installing the Transport Server role service part. Perhaps I'll circle back after the AD infrastructure is up and running.

For now, DHCP and DNS will stay on the Linux infrastructure.