Passed: Exam 70-243 Administering & Deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager

After a bit of a delay, Prometric finally posted results for those of us who sat for Microsoft beta exam 71-243 Administering & Deploying System Center 2012 Config Manager. A special thanks to Helmer Zandbergen for posting about Prometric's issue in providing the results to Microsoft.

Exam Date	Exam Name	Exam Number	Exam Status
23-Feb-2012	Administering & Deploying System Center 2012 Config Manager	Microsoft 071-243	Passed

I was also fortunate to be able to attend the two System Center 2012 Configuration Manager courses, in a beta teach at Microsoft, which was a huge benefit in allowing me to quickly design, deploy, and implement ConfigMgr12 at Shoreline Community College.

For more info on those courses see:
10747A: Administering System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (5 Days)
10748A: Deploying System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (3 Days)

MCSA Windows Server 2008

Microsoft recently granted a new certification to those holding Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification: Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA). Thank you, @MSLearning.

The MSCA certification is for Windows Server 2008 and is one of the first in Microsoft's new solutions-based certifications.

I studied long and worked hard to attain

• MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008
• MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator on Windows 7
• MCITP: Virtualization Administrator on Windows Server 2008 R2

The knowledge gained through this process has been imensely helpful to the execution of my daily job as a network, storage, and systems/virtualization administrator.

With MCSA Windows Server 2008 under my belt I look forward to earning MCSE Private Cloud certification once I pass exam 70-246: Monitoring and Operating a Private Cloud with System Center 2012.

Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

I took my first virtualization exam in April 2011 and passed the fourth and final exam on February 14, 2012 thus earning my third MCITP certification.


Although only three exams are required I ended up taking all four exams to attain MCITP: Virtualization Administrator on Windows Server 2008 R2:

• 70-652 - TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring
• 70-659 - TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
• 70-669 - TS: Windows Server 2008 R2, Desktop Virtualization
• 70-693 - Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization Administrator

Exam 70-652 retired as of September 30, 2011 but it can still be used to qualify for the MCITP certification. I took its replacement, exam 70-659, partly because I had already paid for it through the Virtualization Jump Start training.

I found exam 70-669 to be the most difficult due to a lack of experience with MED-V and App-V.  In addition to some hands-on experience with MED-V, I found reading through the TechNet documentation on MED-V to be helpful.  For the App-V portion of the exam I used "Getting Started with Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6" by Augusto Alvarez to ramp my knowledge.  And finally, for the Remote Desktop Services material I relied on Windows Server 2008 Remote Desktop Services Resource Kit.

I'm now looking forward to the new Microsoft Private Cloud Certification.

70-246 - Private Cloud Monitoring and Operations with System Center 2012
70-247 - Private Cloud Configuration and Deployment with System Center 2012

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McAfee VirusScan 8.5i Patch 7

Patch 7 for McAfee VirusScan 8.5i has been released.

McAfee® Rogue System Detection 2.0 for ePolicy Orchestrator® (ePO) v4.0 has been released!

McAfee announcee the release of Rogue System Detection (RSD) 2.0 today.

RSD provides real-time detection of rogue systems by means of a sensor placed on at least one system within each network broadcast segment (typically a subnet). By rapidly identifying rogue systems, administrators are empowered to significantly improve system security compliance and eliminate the potential vulnerabilities posed by rogue, non-compliant systems.

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator 4 patch 2

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator 4 patch 2 is scheduled to be available on June 2.  Read the known issues prior to installing.  This update resolves 22 bugs in addition to those fixed by patch 1.

17th May Celebration in Seattle

The Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (meaning May Seventeenth), Nasjonaldagen (The National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (The Constitution Day). -Wikipedia

In Seattle there will be a celebration in Ballard. The 17th May Celebration in Seattle includes a Parade, Kid's Games, Norwegian Fjord Horses, Lunch, Dinner, and more.

Bring the kids and have a fun day!

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.5

Symantec announced Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 was released on May 4. New features include:

• Bundled WinPE 2.0 PreOS
• Both the console, and the standard tools include WinPE 2.0 in addition to PC-DOS. This greatly improves hardware compatibility.
• DeployAnywhere
• The new hardware-independent imaging feature allows a single image to be deployed to diverse hardware, and obtain the necessary drivers from a centrally managed driver database.
• Hot Imaging
• Images may be created hot, using Volume Snapshot in Windows and Logical Volume Manager in Linux.
• Secure Computer Decommission
• The Console has a task to perform the secure erase of a computer for decommissioning, or prior to re-imaging.
• Support for VMDK and V21/PQI Images
• VMDK virtual disk, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (V2I) and Symantec Deploy Center (PQI) images can be deployed directly from the Console and from Ghost.
• Better Sysprep Support
• Console contains a Sysprep Answer File Editor as well as being able to edit the raw file.
• Bundled Linux PreOS
• Linux Thinstation distro is bundled as and unmanaged PreOS.
• Native Linux versions of Tools
• Linux versions of Ghost, Gdisk, Ghconfig, Ghregedit, Omnifs.

You can read more about Symantec Ghost Solution Suite at Ghost.com

VMWare Thinstall beta

VMWare acquired Thinstall not too long ago and has a new beta available today.  The beta is named Thinstall Project North Star and add two new features:

• Application Link: allows administrators to dynamically link Thinstall packages to one another, making it possible to create separate packages for interdependent components (such as Java or .NET) and use them across multiple Thinstall packages.

• Application Sync: allows customers to execute updates to virtual applications through a secure Internet connection, increasing application portability while reducing security and patch risks to offline and out-of-network machines.

Is application virtualization going to replace the current method of deploying and managing apps in the enterprise?  I wonder where Apple will find itself in this new paradigm...