So it’s no secret that since being laid-off, I’ve hit the certification trail again. 8 exams in 5 weeks to be exact. The fact is, certification is supposed to be a confirmation of someone’s skill set. That is what I believed when I got my original MCSE in January of 1999. But over the years, the popularity of “brain-dumps” saturated the market with what most refer to as “The Paper MCSE”, the guy that has his certification, but has no real experience in the market. I think in the US, most employers do a good job at screening out paper MCSE’s. But overseas, in particular India, they seem to hire paper MCSE’s in hoards.

This was visibly noticable at my last job where a lot of our work went to Best Shore teams that were barely capable of patching boxes.  They were not skilled enough to serve on-call rotations, or participate in critical implementations.  Yet they held the same titles as the rest of us.

So what has changed?   Microsoft has!  Or at least they are trying to.  Many of the new Windows 2008 Server exams I’ve taken had questions that seemed much more real world than exams of the past.  This was clearly evident to me as I lined up my exams in order of score from least to greatest.  It truly mirrored the experience.  Exchange 2007 is new to me.  It is something I am self studying.  I have a lab environment setup, I’ve seen it implemented live, I’ve read a few books, but I’ve never been an actual Exchange Administrator.  And to that end, it was the exam I scored the ‘worst’ on.

So what else have they done?  Well, the 70-620 exam is littered with simulations.  Or I should say; Emulations.  More on that later.  So now you click on the a simulation button and are forced to actually perform actions.  Setup user accounts, configure applications, etc…  Usually several tasks; and some involving multiple PC’s, in which you have to switch back and forth.   There is one problem with this though.  The simulations are setup so that you can only click on items actually related to the simulation.  If you try and click on a unrelated area, it will inform you that “This function is not available or required to perform the necessary objectives.” or something like that.   So what happens is that if you click enough, you’ll eventually find what you are looking for.   Imagine being in a room with 100 doors, 99 of which are locked.  So basically it’ll take you some time, but eventually you’ll find the unlocked door.

But here is what is coming.  True lab based simulation testing.  Now while you are sitting at your test cubicle, you will be connected to a live server in Redmond.  You may be given a list of several exam objectives, and it’s completely up to you as to how you achieve them.  So if you are more comfortable using the command line, that’s there.  If you are more comfortable using the GUI, well that’s there to.  Decide that you don’t feel like configuring Active Directory?  Well then play a few quick rounds of Minesweeper instead.  :-)

The point is, these new performance based objectives will finally weed out the people who actually know what they are doing, and will actually simulate real world problem solving skills. From what I’ve heard, even the help system is included!! So going back to my Exchange exam, the questions that gave me the most trouble were the Powershell commands, since I hadn’t really used them, when presented with 4 multiple choice options, I was left to guessing. Now had I been on a live server, 1st of all I could have used the GUI. But even if I had been forced to use Powershell, I could have used the knowledge I do have about Powershell to help complete the commands. If you type “Get-” and begin pressing Tab, Powershell with cycle through the available commands.

So here are the Key Benefits to lab-based testing

• Real-life, hands-on testing format requires individuals to actually execute a task, rather than simply answering questions about it
• Places a higher value on results—how closely a solution meets the requirements—not the path taken to achieve it
• Provides a more accurate assessment of demonstrated actionable skills
• Reproduces work environments that more accurately reflect problem-solving in the real world
• Mirrors the actual job demands made in the workplace to help build confidence
• Transforms preparation and practice for an exam into genuine experience

We aren’t there yet, but it’s coming.

Certification, Exchange, Microsoft

Curses!

OpenFiler was originally introduced to me by Greg Shields (ps, that article is a good read) as part of his training series on VMWare ESX Server, where he demonstrates the VMotion Technology using an OpenFiler IP SAN.  This is what originally gravitated me towards using OpenFiler in my own lab.

Well, I got all of my resources online and ready to go.  I added the Failover feature to each node of the cluster.  I started by creating a new cluster using just a single node.   And then when I tried to add the 2nd node, the cluster validation wizard was showing failed checks related to the shared storage.  I should have taken a screen shot of the exact text.  But the point is, while searching for what might be the cause of the problem, where should I find the answer?  Why Greg Shields of course.  This time in the form of an entry on his Blog entitled “No, OpenFiler Does Not Work with Windows Server 2008 Clustering“.

Apparently there are a few solutions out there that will work, however they are either not free, or are only provided by Microsoft OEM providers in the form of a specialized version of Windows Server called, “Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003″.

The cause of the problem is that Windows Server 2008 clustering requires support of persistent reservations.  I’d have to say that I’m a fan of persistent reservations, they can prevent some nasty data corruptions that can occur in a shared storage environment, but dang…  I wish I could disable the requirement for my testing.  :(

blog, Cluster, iSCSI, Microsoft, Openfiler, SAN, training, vmware

I just got back from the Live Microsoft Skills Week event in Irving, TX.  As expected, the event was geared at selling training, and introducing people to the new certification designations Microsoft has come up with.

I didn’t really learn anything new, although I did get some more information about the Microsoft Certified Masters program.  This is something I may be interested in the future, that is, if I can find $18-$20 THOUSAND DOLLARS lying around to pay for it. 

I guess my main motivation for attending was to try and win some free swag!  I knew they were going to be giving away a free class, and that is what I was most interested in.  I’ve been wanting to get my VCP (VMWare Certified Professional) certification.  Honestly, I don’t need the training from an educational stand point.  I need the training because VMWare has said that in order to become a VCP, you not only have to pass the test, you HAVE to have taken their official curriculum as well.  Essentially making the cost of the certification around $3,175.  Words can’t describe how much that annoys me.

Certification, Microsoft, training, vmware

A new version of my resume is now online.  I just got back from passing exam 70-501 Microsoft Certrified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments, Configuring, and Managing.  I really enjoyed the test.  The questions covered a wide variety of topics from not only IIS, but also to include Database servers.  Since the two really go hand in hand, it makes a lot of sense.  Other topics include Network Load Balancing, and both Database and Content Server failover.  Again, completly makes sense.  The only questions I found to be out of scope (in my opinion, it’s listed right on the exam objectives as valid topics) were the questions about automated server deployment services, and SharePoint.

IIS, MCTS, Microsoft, resume

I have been using an Intel Smithfield 2.66 Dual-Core machine for just over 2 years to run most of my home lab tests. It’s actually been a very good box, and I’ve built it up and blown it away on many occasions using it for everything from a Domain Controller to a Mediacenter box. But during the last big storm the power went out, and the power surge must have fried the motherboard.

Now it would have been pretty easy to diagnose the problem, and maybe it would be something simple and easy to fix, but this really presented itself as the perfect opportunity (excuse) to build a new system! I had just recently been through a Microsoft Hyper-V class, which only gave me a small taste, and I was dying to play with it some more!  Well, one of the requirements for running Hyper-V, is a processor that supports hardware virtualization assistance. Something my old processor didn’t support.

So I ordered the following system:

• Gigabyte GA-EP45 — motherboard
• Intel Kentsfield Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz — processor
• 8 gigs of SDRAM

The whole thing was pieced together for under $500, so not bad at all. However, I had problems from day one getting the operating system to install. Constant blue screens no matter what I tried. I was pretty frustrated by the end of the evening, but eventually I tracked the problem down to a single bad stick of memory. The memory I ordered came in 2 packages, each with 2 sticks of RAM, so while I only needed to return 1 stick, I was forced to RMA 2.  

The ’server’ has been running great the past month with only 4 gigs of RAM. However, as you can imagine, you can only run so many Virtual Machines with 4 gigs of RAM.  Especially considering Microsoft’s Hyper visor requires a full blown parent operating system to run parallel to the multiple guest operating systems. I could basically get 4 guest operating systems up simultaneously, which really wasn’t too bad. Just not good enough to be able to run a NLB IIS cluster along side of a SQL fail over cluster, which requires a minimum of 5 boxes when you add in the domain controller. Which brings me to my point…. The new RAM arrived! Going to go install it now, cross my finger, and run Memtest and hope for the best.

Cluster, Hardware, Hyper-V, IIS, Intel, Memtest, Microsoft, NLB, RAM

Well, I think I got the basics worked out. My resume is now uploaded, and as you can see, there are download links provided in the most popular formats.

In addition, I provided a web version as well.  I think I spent the majority of my time today trying to get Microsoft Word to gracefully export from the .docx format to at least presentable HTML.   It’s certainly not as neat as I’d like it to look, but for the time being, it’s quick.  Sure, I could take about 20 to 30 minutes and clean up the HTML manually and make it look exactly like I want it to.  But I probably make at least 2 -3 changes to my resume each week.  Sometimes it’s just minor tweaks, but other times it’s adding a new certfication to my credentials.  And if I’m going to be making regular revisions, I need a quick and easy way to export my resume into several formats, including HTML.  So I guess that will be my 1st project!

In addition to providing recruiters and hiring managers an easy place to find my latest resume, I will also be using this website as a technical Blog.   I guess you could say that I’m one of those people that takes his work home with him.  I love to tinker in technology, and I have quite an impressive setup that I use at home to evaluate software, or simply train myself on new technologies.  My current pet project is setting up an iSCSI SAN using Openfiler.  I have a mid-sized dual core system with 6 hard drives currently setup.  The NIC is connected to an private router which then feeds into a private virtual port on my Hyper-V server.   The iSCSI targets are then being presented to multiple hosts to setup fail over scenario’s in Windows 2008.  I would like to evaluate the high availability of Exchange 2007, File Services, and SQL 2008.   After that I add the SQL cluster, I’ll add a seperate IIS NLB cluster sperated by an ISA 2006 server.

So if that didn’t bore you to death, you can subcribe to my RSS feed and check back for updates as I finish getting everything setup.

blog, Cluster, Exchange, HTML, Hyper-V, IIS, ISA, iSCSI, Microsoft, NLB, resume, SAN, SQL Server, Websites, Word