70-401 Exam

[SimonDavies]

Guys just to split it out from the other thread that went a tad off tangent (due to me I must admit).

70-401 is a multiple choice exam with 50 questions, the pass mark is 700 with a maximum score of 1000.
It's a timed exam allowing 100 minutes for the exam itself.

The exam is pretty easy as long as you have a good understanding of both AD and SCCM (know about both SCCM installation modes as well). It's generally a common sense exam and as long as you're logical you should do just fine.

I have just over two months of experience with Config Mgr 2007 and some exposure to SMS 2003 but not a great deal.
For the last week I have been on the M6451 course (Microsoft Official Course) for SCCM and today I sat the 70-401 exam.

I passed with a score of 957

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[kmcferrin]

Awesome. I have no experience with SCCM and I haven't even looked at SMS since 1999, so I'm a bit out of the loop. Fortunately I have the 6451 class coming up in about 3 weeks.

What did you think of the course material?

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[SimonDavies]

The only thing that lets the course down is the Virtual Environments, half the time things just didn't work, or they took far too long to accomplish anything. Luckily for me I had been playing with the product beforehand so I knew what should be happening, the one bit of advice I would give is definitely play with the product as soon as possible.

The material definitely gives you enough to be able to pass the exam on but I would also look into forums such as

http://www.myitforum.com

and the blogcastrepository.com for some extra assistance (luckily for me I have about 1.5 hours of travel to work each way, gives me plenty of time to pop something onto a portable media player and look into that little extra item you want to know about).

Unfortunately one of the bad things about the exam is that there really isn't too much in the way of practice material out there, no practice exams or even books (other than the excellent SCCM Administrators Handbook).

Having no upto date experience isn't really going to hinder you infact it's probably going to be better that you don't because a lot of what you had to do with SMS2 and 2003 you don't have to do with CM2007.

Funnily enough tho I am now deciding which exam to do next (I have all the books to get 3 ITP exams out of the way Vista, EA and A). How did you find the ITP exams?


SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[kmcferrin]

I thought they were a walk in the park compared to the MCSE exams. I don't know if they needed to tune the questions a little more, but I was a bit disappointed by the difficulty. I took the upgrade from MCSE 2003 to get the three MCTS certs, then I just had to do the Vista exam (which took me about 20 minutes) and the Enterprise Administrator "PRO" exam. It's more of an true Enterprise-type exam in that you need to know a little bit about other MS products (like System Center) than just Server 2008, but not in great detail.

For someone who doesn't already have an MCSE they would probably be harder, but the upgrade path seemed to focus more on what's new to the way things work rather than how they worked.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[SimonDavies]

Thanks, as I pretty much have the same certs as you (I don't have the A+, Server+ or N+) then it shouldn't be too hard.

I actually thought about just sitting the Vista exam yesterday.

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[kmcferrin]

I haven't done the 401 yet, but now I'm worried. I just finished the 6451 class yesterday and was pretty disappointed. The book (from MS Press) was basically a copy of the slide deck with a few notes and then a "for more reading, see help topic xxxx" at the bottom of each page, and the instructor was a full-time instructor who had never implemented SCCM and had only taught the class three times. We were so far behind by Friday that we didn't even touch on the modules for Troubleshooting SCCM and Designing a Multi-Site Hierarchy.

On the other hand I didn't have any problems with the labs at all. I was the only person in my class (of three!) who managed to get everything to work correctly without much fuss, so maybe that counts for something. So now I'm downloading an eval to install into my virtual test lab so that I can at least do "an implementation".

Did you have an simulation questions?

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[SimonDavies]

Let me dig something out for you.

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[SimonDavies]

A couple of questions for you, are you planning on installing on W08 or W03? if it's W08 then be warned that it's not as simple to install.

You really need to be playing with the product every day, you need to know how to do the OSD side of things, app deployments, DCM etc.

I must admit that the course for me was ok but I think that was because we didn't just rely on the MOC book (I did it with GK who also produced their own book to go along with the MOC book). As I also mentioned it's well worth getting the MS Press Admin Guide book.

It's a shame there isn't a way to PM people here with email addresses, I have an installation guide that I wrote for SCCM and W08 that I could give you, it's straight forward and something the guys on my course certainly appreciated (there were 12 of us ). I do admit tho that I really wanted to be on that course and I guess that's why I made sure I knew what each module was about before as well as having extra material to use (Blogcastrepository videos are well worth the investment as well).

SimonD.

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[SimonDavies]

A couple of questions for you that I got from the class. Answer them and then I will tell you the actual answers

You have packages that consist of large files. The files are updated on a regular basis. You need to reduce the time that is required for distribution points to receive the files when updates occur. What should you do?

A. In the software distribution settings, increase the maximum number of threads per package to use when transferring data to the distribution points
B. In the package properties, select the Use a compressed copy of the source directory option
C. In the package properties, select a Sending priority of High
D. In the package properties, select the Enable binary differential replication option


You have an SCCM 2007 environment running in mixed mode and you configure the site server in the central site as a device management point. You create a mandatory assignment for a software package for distribution to mobile devices. You discover that software distribution to mobile devices on the LAN is failing. You need to configure Configuration Manager 2007 to support software deployment to mobile devices. Which two actions should you perform?

A. Enable Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) extensions on the distribution point
B. Disable Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) extensions on the distribution point. Add an Internet-based fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to the site system role
C. Grant the Read permission for the package to the Authenticated Users security group
D. Enable anonymous connections on the distribution point

You need to view the advertisements that ran between 12:00 P.M and the current time. What should you do?

A. View status on the Package Status Home Page
B. View top 10 advertisement activity on the Software Distribution Home Page
C. View advertisement activity on the Advertisement Status Home Page
D. Run an advertisement status report for all recently created advertisements


Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[SimonDavies]

Some other bits for you.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...8A-EC98-47F2-B31E-57443A8AE88F&displaylang=en

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[kmcferrin]

Simon,

Thanks for the info, that looks promising. The instructor did mentioned the Administrator's Guide being much better than the textbook. I have taken classes through GK several times in the past and I have always found them excellent, this is the first time that I used another provider.

I intend on installing it on Windows 2008. We used 2003 for the course and I think I have enough of a handle on that part. Realistically I think I'll be using it on 2008 more often anyway.

The answers that I suspect to your questions:

1. D
2. A (we didn't really touch on the mobile chapter, but I recall him saying that WebDAV was required).
3. D, but it's really just a shot in the dark.

If you want to email that guide for installing on 2008 you can send it to ocbwilg@yahoo.com. Or you could create a FAQ here in the appropriate Tek-Tips forum.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[SimonDavies]

Hi mate,

answers are.

1. D

2. A and D

3. C

With regards to Webdav, it's actually an installation requirement for a working SCCM site.

I will send you the document tomorrow, I will be working on a new document for a Native mode installation in the not too distant future.

As far as a FAQ goes, the document is currently about 76pages but thats because it's got screen grabs when I could so I would have to think carefully about how I would do it, perhaps I will have a look to see what it would look like without screen grabs.

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[kmcferrin]

Awesome. Thanks for the document Simon, it looks like it will be a big help.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[Ramyabadri]

Dear Simon,

I am also planning to do a certification on SCCM 2007. I have not done any certs yet and this is a requirement for my Job to write this exam. Kindly provide me your guides which would help me to clear the exam and have a good understanding of SCCM.

Thanks.
Ramyabadri

 

[SimonDavies]

Hi mate,

There are no 'guides' as such, my experiences were from installing the software a large number of times and playing with it in a virtualised environment.

The document that Kmcferrin is referring to was an installation document for installing SCCM onto the 2008 Server platform (it's actually since been used by MS Engineers as the baseline document for an SCCM Deployment Guide).

The only thing I can suggest is reading the SCCM Admin guide and playing with the software.

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.