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70-290

Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70-290 is one of the two core requirements for the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) and one of the four core requirements for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certifications. Microsoft’s stated target audience consists of IT professionals with at least six months of work experience on a medium or large company network. This means a multi-site network with at least three domain controllers, running typical network services such as file and print services, database, firewall services, proxy services, remote access services and Internet connectivity.

However, not everyone who takes Exam 70-290 will have this ideal background. Many people will take this exam after classroom instruction or self-study as an entry into the networking field. Many of those who do have job experience in IT will not have had the opportunity to work with all of the technologies covered by the exam.

Exam 70-290 covers the basics of managing and maintaining a network environment that is built around Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003. Objectives are task-oriented, and include the following:

• Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices: This includes managing basic and dynamic disks; monitoring server hardware; optimizing disk performance on the server; troubleshooting hardware devices; and installing and configuring hardware devices.
• Managing Users, Computer and Groups: This includes managing different types of user profiles; creating and managing computer accounts in the Active Directory environment; creating and managing groups and user accounts; troubleshooting computer and user accounts; and troubleshooting user authentication issues.
• Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources: This includes configuring access to shared folders; troubleshooting Terminal Services; configuring file system permissions; and troubleshooting access to files and shared folders.
• Managing and Maintaining the Server Environment: This includes monitoring and analyzing logged events; planning and managing software updates; managing software site licensing; remote management of servers, using Remote Assistance, Terminal Services, and available support tools; troubleshooting printing problems; monitoring performance; monitoring disk quotas, print queues, and server hardware; monitoring and optimizing the environment for better application performance; and managing a Web server.
• Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery: This includes performing a system recovery for a server; managing backup procedures and scheduling backup jobs; restoring backed up data; and recovery from hardware failure.

This exam costs $125 USD and may be taken from Pearson Vue or Thomson Prometric.

70-290 Practice Exams

• 70-290 Exam Simulator by JRK Software.
• CERT-70-290 by Transcender

70-290 Resources

• 70-290 Exam Review
• 70-290 Exam: 10 Thing to Practice