Finally got my MCP/MCS

[rr_dRock]

So, about two months ago I found out that Microsoft was giving away exam vouchers for the 74-409, so I grabbed one up, and started studying, despite the fact that I had never used System Center before in my life, much less gone in depth with things like Data Protection Manager, or Service Manager.

 

Well. I took the exam on the 30th, and scored an 875. =D  After waiting for a couple weeks for my exam results to be passed back to Microsoft, I have my transcript and can legitimately say that I now have my Microsoft Certified Specialist: Server Virtualization with Hyper-V and System Center 2012.

 

I think I'm going to add that whole line to my email sig.

 

 

 

Anyway, some people will say it's not much to be proud of, I'm sure. But I am extremely pleased with myself, and as it looks now, this will help my employer, as we're moving to a unified Microsoft solution for our infrastructure (currently on novell/vmware/other third party), and now will be pursuing my MCSE for Server 2012.

 

Now I'm wondering, how many people here took this exam?

[spikey_richie]

Awesome, well done. I've played with Hyper-V and SC in the past, but not in anger.

[badb0y]

I have completed Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) on Windows Server 2003.

[Skiver Veteran]

I don't really use it much anymore but I've played with System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and a tiny bit of 2012 but haven't got any real qualifications to my name. My job role changed after I took this new position and I used to spend quite a bit of time looking after a Hyper V and VMware cluster. I have to say I enjoyed it and found it all quite interesting!

 

Good on you for taking the initative and bettering you're own knowledge etc in, what i believe, to be one of the best markets in IT at the moment. Talking to a few people, virtualisation is only going to continue to get bigger.

[xrobwx71]

Nice job! Congrats!.

[Bertch]

Congrats!  I have an older MCSD which I am still trying to upgrade but I never seem to find the time to study.  And when I say upgrade I mean take the new tests as the upgrade path is now longer than retesting with all the .NET releases.

[rr_dRock]

I don't really use it much anymore but I've played with System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and a tiny bit of 2012 but haven't got any real qualifications to my name. My job role changed after I took this new position and I used to spend quite a bit of time looking after a Hyper V and VMware cluster. I have to say I enjoyed it and found it all quite interesting!

 

Good on you for taking the initative and bettering you're own knowledge etc in, what i believe, to be one of the best markets in IT at the moment. Talking to a few people, virtualisation is only going to continue to get bigger.

 

The amount that you can do from the VMM console is mind blowing. I spent a good week just going over it. It is a magnificent beast.

 

I figured it was worth the effort, hopefully it allows me to increase my worth to this company, and others that I deal with.

 

 

Congrats!  I have an older MCSD which I am still trying to upgrade but I never seem to find the time to study.  And when I say upgrade I mean take the new tests as the upgrade path is now longer than retesting with all the .NET releases.

 

That seems a bit ridiculous. Understandable if it's an early 2000's MCSD though. The exams tend to change every six months lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for your kind words! =D

[funny_bala]

Congrats!!      

 

I'm working as a Senior Systems Engineer . As I'm in field nearly 10 years, I achieved the following certifications

 

Microsoft Certified IT Professional - Enterprise Administrator - 2008

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate -2012

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer - Security -2003

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist - ISA2006

Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center Specialist

 

I'm now preparing for MCSE - Private cloud. My employer sponsored me for all these exams and each certification got me around $1500 in salary increment.

[Skiver Veteran]

The amount that you can do from the VMM console is mind blowing. I spent a good week just going over it. It is a magnificent beast.

 

I figured it was worth the effort, hopefully it allows me to increase my worth to this company, and others that I deal with.

 

 

yeah it's pretty powerful, Horrible when it goes wrong though!

 

After having a mixed VMWare and Hyper V environment, I much prefer SCVMM to Vsphere as a management interface. Like I said most of my experience was with 2008 but from what I saw of 2012 the "cloud" setup was a much better way for sharing resources amongst different groups. 

 

Hopefully one day my company will spend the extra time we need to get the 2012 setup into production and I'll get to see it a bit more.

[rr_dRock]

 

Congrats!!      

 

I'm working as a Senior Systems Engineer . As I'm in field nearly 10 years, I achieved the following certifications

 

Microsoft Certified IT Professional - Enterprise Administrator - 2008

Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate -2012

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer - Security -2003

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist - ISA2006

Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center Specialist

 

I'm now preparing for MCSE - Private cloud. My employer sponsored me for all these exams and each certification got me around $1500 in salary increment.

 

Wow, that's quite the list. Congrats!             Hopefully my employer feels the same way =P

 

yeah it's pretty powerful, Horrible when it goes wrong though!

 

After having a mixed VMWare and Hyper V environment, I much prefer SCVMM to Vsphere as a management interface. Like I said most of my experience was with 2008 but from what I saw of 2012 the "cloud" setup was a much better way for sharing resources amongst different groups. 

 

Hopefully one day my company will spend the extra time we need to get the 2012 setup into production and I'll get to see it a bit more.

I haven't worked with vsphere too much, so I don't have a really solid opinion on it, but I do love SCVMM It's not a nightmare to look at the dashboard. It's so easy to use, that the first time I set up a cluster, I had to go back and check and make sure I didn't miss 20 steps lol. It just felt too short and simple.

I also really like that the majority of tasks will give you a "Show Script" button, so you can save the powershell scripts for super easy automation.

 

I'm finding I really like the way everything is segregated. It didn't make any sense at first, but a couple of times, and you're flying through it.

[Skiver Veteran]

Wow, that's quite the list. Congrats!             Hopefully my employer feels the same way =P

 

I haven't worked with vsphere too much, so I don't have a really solid opinion on it, but I do love SCVMM It's not a nightmare to look at the dashboard. It's so easy to use, that the first time I set up a cluster, I had to go back and check and make sure I didn't miss 20 steps lol. It just felt too short and simple.

I also really like that the majority of tasks will give you a "Show Script" button, so you can save the powershell scripts for super easy automation.

 

I'm finding I really like the way everything is segregated. It didn't make any sense at first, but a couple of times, and you're flying through it.

 

I've only ever added nodes to a cluster, never created one but I imagine its not much different. The more confusing side was setting up SAN storage for me, lots of iSCSI this and MPIO that... flew over my head!

[astropheed Veteran]

Good job rr_Drock!

[rr_dRock]

I've only ever added nodes to a cluster, never created one but I imagine its not much different. The more confusing side was setting up SAN storage for me, lots of iSCSI this and MPIO that... flew over my head!

 

There's a wizard that you essentially just point and click for creating a cluster, and the powershell isn't much different. Type five letters, tab, type two letters, tab, etc. =P 

 

I'm not a storage guru either, but going through the labs at aka.ms/sclabs helped a lot. I still am not 100% on FibreChannel (I've never used it, never seen it, never want to lol).

 

Good job rr_Drock!

Thanks! =)