Which is Higher..

[Kjonnnn]

Which Microsoft certification is higher... MSCE or MSCA?

 

[dwmatteson]

MCSA (Microsoft Certified System Administrator) is sort of a subset of MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer). MCSA consists of three core exams and one elective. MCSA is sort of an "intermediate" certification for people who need to have good familiarity with MS products but who don't need to be all-out network engineers.

Requirements are as follows (see the bottom of the post for links to much more succinct and palatable listings).

For MCSA, you need:
[ul]
[li]1 Client OS exam: 2000 Professional or XP Professional
[li]2 Networking System exams: 2000 Server or .NET Server AND Managing a Windows 2000 Network Environment or Managing a .NET Network Environment (i.e., 1 server exam and 1 network environment exam)
[li] 1 of the following: Administering SQL Server 7.0; Exchange Server 5.5; Proxy Server 2.0; Windows 2000 Infrastructure; Exchange 2000 Server; ISA Server 2000 Enterprise; SQL Server 2000 Enterprise; Supporting and Maintaining NT 4.0 Network OR CompTIA's A+ and Network+ OR CompTIA's A+ and Server+ (whew!)
[/ul]

MCSE requires:
[ul]
[li]4 core exams: Windows 2000/.NET Professional; Windows 2000/.NET Server; Windows 2000/.NET Directory Services Infrastructure; Windows 2000/.NET Network Infrastructure
[li]1 of the following core exams: Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure; Windows 2000 Network Security; Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure; High Availability Web Solutions with Windows 2000 Server
[li]1 of the following: SNA Server 4.0; SMS Server 2.0; Data Warehouses with SQL Server 7.0; SQL Server 7.0/2000 Database Design; Administering SQL Server 7.0/2000; Web Sites with Site Server 3.0; Exchange Server 5.5/2000; Proxy Server 2.0/ISA Server 2000 Enterprise; Internet Explorer 5.0 Administration Kit; Managing a Windows 2000 Network Environment; Designing Windows 2000 Directory Infrastructure; Designing Windows 2000 Network Security (good luck); Designing Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure; Migrating from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000; Clustering Services with Windows 2000 Advanced Server; Messaging Infrastructure with Exchange Server 2000; Highly Available Web Solutions with Windows 2000 Server; BizTalk Server 2000; Highly Available Web Solutions with Windows 2000 Server and Application Center 2000; Commerce Server 2000; Supporting and Maintaining a Windows NT 4.0 Network.
[/ul]
Note: listings with a slash in them represent that you need take only one of the exams (e.g., 2000/.NET means you need to take either the 2000 exam or the corresponding .NET exam).

Also, you can only count a core exam once; that is, you can't count it as a core and as an elective.

You can get a nice (and much clearer) picture of the requirements at selftestsoftware.com:

For MCSA:

http://www.selftestsoftware.com/generic.asp?page_id=p00304

For MCSE:

http://www.selftestsoftware.com/generic.asp?page_id=p00302

HTH and apologies for the length,

Don

 

[dwmatteson]

Oops! With all that typing, I was bound to make a goof. You need 2 electives for MCSE, not just 1 as I listed above. Sorry!

Don

 

[Kjonnnn]

Thanks for you help. I have MCP and was one test short of MSCE under NT4, but all those are retired now, so I think I want to get cert again.