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.