my way to MCSA
Berlin Germany. In September 2007
I started school again at Indisoft-Upgrade in Berlin.
This was a six month course all paid for by the berlin
arbeitsamt and of course the german tax payers. thanks
to these people I am now a microsoft certified systems
engineer or ingenieur. the first exam i had to prepare
for was the 070-270 which is the:
Installing, Configuring, and
Administering Windows XP Professional
This was quite an easy exam
although there was a lot to learn, basically it
scratches the surface of all the components that can be
found in a windows environment not including server
systems of course. the preperation for this exam had a
time span from four weeks. After this was completed I
started on the next course which was the 070-290:
Managing and Maintaining a Windows
Server 2003 Environment
now things were starting to get
really interesting and also harder, managing hardware,
disks and raid systems, configuring access to shared
folders and also started sniffing at active directory,
user accounts and so. terminal services and remote
support and so on, things were really getting deep but
still only scratching the surface and blind because i
did not know what was still to come. Still after four
weeks it was time to take the exam which i passed with
flying colours so i was happy. then it was time to start
the next course which was the 070-291. this is the
hardest of them all, and didīnt I know it.
Implementing, Managing, and
Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
well first shot at this one went
down like a lead balloon. failed but not to
dramatically, though it is fair to say i had a hard time
getting there, what with moving house and all. Also
things did not stop at the indisoft school in berlin,
no, we had to continue with the next course which is the
isa server, a proper windows firewall with all sorts of
different settings and filters. this was something new
because i have only been used to using ipcop which is a
linux based firewall but with only half of the goodies
compared to that of the microsoft isa server. three
weeks later it was time to take the exam, this one is
the 070-227
Installing, Configuring, and
Administering Microsoft Internet Security and
Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000, Enterprise Edition
All that was left for me to do was
to re-take my 070-291 exam, pass and i would become a
microsoft certified systems engineer, and that is
exactly what i did.