Exam Ref 70-413 Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure (MCSE) 1st Edition

It's okay if all you want is a general outline for what's on the exam.It used to be, that when Microsoft Press released an exam reference book, it would be a comprehensive guide for whatever you needed to know for the exam. Now, they're releasing both an exam reference and a training guide for the same exam. The 70-413 training guide hasn't yet been released, so for now, you'll need to chase down articles on the TechNet site in order to get any comprehensive writeups about the topics on the 70-413 exam.

I've been taking Microsoft exams for the past 15 years. Today I had my first ever failed Microsoft exam, thanks to this so-called "exam reference", a.k.a. "training" book.This book is a joke. A bad and expensive one - the cost doesn't stop with the purchase of the book, but includes the cost of a failed exam and the time that goes into it. It is THE worst training manual I've ever held in my hands. It definitely fails to "train" and it is not a "manual". At best it is a collection of references to TechNet articles. It is not worth the paper it's written on. A couple of highlights to qualify my position:1. Contrary to its claim, it is NOT an exam reference. A decent exam reference features frequent exam tips, with a focus on technically accurate content and tips for passing the exam. Exam tips in this book are a rare occurrence, and technical accuracy is also questionable.2. Talking about technical accuracy, here are a couple of blatant mistakes that I've come across:Page 77: The author asserts that Active Directory is required for the DHCP server to dynamically register DNS entries. I am not sure where he got that from.Page 96: Incorrect description of what IPAM ASM Administrators can do.Page 112: Firewall design considerations: Insufficient details as to which interface needs to be configured, whether traffic is inbound or outbound, and there is no reference. It is an exam "reference", right?Page 113: "...but also to connect sites or data centers to each other. This can be done to provide redundancy." - Redundancy of what? Umm... any references please?Page 113: "When used for redundancy, the Remote Access server has two network adapters, each connected to a different Internet service provider (ISP). The sites can then have tunnels created between them." - So we need two adapters connected to two different ISPs to create a tunnel. Hmm... Not according to my experience. Redundant connections? Yes, but the author fails to mention this little detail. Further, if the RRAS servers have only two adapters, both connected to ISPs, where does the LAN connect? If it cannot connect because there is no adapter left, then what's the point of redundant tunnels? This is a classic example of wording liberalism resulting in technical incorrectness.Page 140: "...remediation servers provide services to clients that are non-compliant for any number of reasons including virus infections..." - NAP has no policy to check for "infections". You cannot control access on whether a computer is "infected" or not. The author grossly misleads the reader, setting the reader up for failure.Page 172, talking DirectAccess: "Finally, the certificate configured in the DirectAccess configuration should be the same used by the clients and servers." - Really?Page 182: "You can virtualize Active Directory in Windows Server 2012 much more easily, thus enabling a domain controller to be deployed in a cloud-hosted environment." - Technically wrong: older operating systems too can be deplyed in the cloud.And the list goes on.3. The author is liberal in wording and superficial to the point where his text borders technical incorrectness or complete uselessness.Page 85: Liberal wording such as "normal" and "general" DNS resolution. Such words as "normal" and "general" imply that there must be an "abnormal" and "specific" DNS resolution too.Page 180: Partial copy from TechNet, with some gentle massaging of the original content; the result is a skewed meaning. The author goes as far as taking the liberty to rename policies. In contrast, the 40-417 upgrade manual dedicates an Exam Tip box, warning not to fall for incorrectly named policies in the exam. Yet the author of this book does exactly that: he liberally uses incorrect policy names.Page 182: The author manages to finish off cloud technologies in two paragraphs. No clarification of concepts, no references. While there is nothing wrong with the content, it is so high level that it is totally unusable. Someone who hasn't deployed anything in the cloud will rightly ask "What on earth is the author talking about?"For the full list of dodgy content I encourage you to read the book, but bear in mind:- If you have to spend money, then don't. It's a total waste.- Do not attempt to take the exam based on this book - you'll likely fail.I should demand a refund from the author and Microsoft for the book and for the exam, as well as claim damages for tainting my spotless exam history.If anyone wants to pass the exam then look up the objectives on the Microsoft training site and read the relevant TechNet articles.The blaim isn't on the author alone: Microsoft is equally quilty for failing to conduct a proper QA. Those who QA'd this book have likely nothing to do with the exam and the technology it covers. A beginner would have picked up many of the blatant incorrect statements and the fact that the book is anything but an "exam reference".Additionally, the online errata is a year old. The author did not take the effort to review the errors that were posted, and at least comment whether the reports are valid or not. His silence speaks volumes.It gets one star from me for the sheer effort of typing it up.Do not buy this book.

great book and go to use with train signal and exam sims. highly recommended, a good result using this book

I passed the 70-413 exam this week.To be fair, this book covers the test material well, but has too many URL links and not enough content e.g. Virtual Fiber Channel - here's what it is (brief) and here's how to do it (link). This is not a bad book, but there is not enough detail to warrant calling it "Exam Ref", whereas "exam overview" would be more apt. With patience, you could review the Microsoft Learning site objectives ([...]), and read the TechNet articles for yourself.Best of luck!

This book overall is pretty good. It has a lot of good information, but isn't sufficient prep for the exam. I've been an MCSE/MCITP-EA on every version since Windows 2000 and have been working with Server 2012 for quite a while. I read/studied this entire book, then crammed for 3 days, and scored a 550... Disappointed that there aren't more study resources available for this exam.

I took my 70-417 and this was the next on my list. I have many years of System Engineer experience. I did find the book to offer good explanation and practical information. This helped me pass the exam. Exam is pretty focused on only 5 topics. I do not think someone could pass on this book alone but will help your chances.

I would love it if Microsoft Press would produce a certification guide that was complete enough to pass an actual exam. Exam Ref 70-417 was the closest they ever got. (see my review on the 70-417 book...) However, 70-413 is an extreme test. It's very deep and requires a lot of proficiency in HyperV AND System Center 2012 (Configuration Manager, Orchestrator, and other sub-products). 70-413 also tests very heavily on certificate based topics AND Windows Azure. This little 280+ page book doesn't even begin to cover topics in a way that will give you a chance of passing the exam. BUT what it does do is provide you a road map to areas in TechNet where you can get all the information you need to properly prepare for an exam. I would still recommend getting this book so you know what exactly you will be tested on; then go root around on TechNet for all the particulars you need to prepare in depth. (And the 70-414 test is any easier... I finished my MCSE 2012 for Server Infrastructure and for me, it was difficult at best...)

I am a Microsoft professional of 14 years. I have MCSE 2000/2003 and MCITP 2008 certifications, and am working on my MCSE for 2012. This is a very frustrating book to use for exam preparation. It has no logical flow to it. Topics are covered as minimally as possible and technical concepts are not explained well whatsoever. Statements are simply made without any attempt to help the reader understand the concepts or rationale behind the technology. I'm baffled at how this book even made it to publication. I had to refer to TechNet for an explanation of virtually every new 2012 concept mentioned in this book, because there's just no attempt by the author to explain topics that are can be very confusing. I've read 30+ Microsoft Press books and this has to be the most disappointing one to date. I'd recommend alternative preparation materials.

Having found other titles in this series of Exam Ref books useful and informative I didn't hesitate too much in purchasing this one when the time came for me to prepare for 70-413, I wish I hadn't bothered...The more I read the book the more frustrated I became by the lack of content. In too many places the book seems to circumvent detailed discussion of topics which would be considered prudent for this exam, and instead provides little more than a summary of information (sometimes little more than a statement of the obvious!). To add to the annoyance too many of the pages are wasted on providing meaningless and useless screen shots of configuration wizards. If you're going to limit a book on such a broad range of topics to 250 pages please use them to provide some more detailed information, and not to show me what a configuration page with one option on it looks like - THIS IS NOT HELPFULL!I have now passed the exam and in fairness found some of the technet pages referenced by the book helpful in my preparation, but this is nothing you can't find with a web search. For me, the best thing about this book was the 15% exam fee discount code provided on the back page (although this still left me short changed).Overall I can't help but think that Microsoft released this title just to put a tick in a box, unfortunately there appears to be very little in terms of alternative publications covering this exam, but I can't recommend this one with any degree of integrity.

This book is little more than a list of links to existing technet articles.Having been certified in microsoft since the NT4 days, I can't help but think the latest offering from Microsoft Press represents a mere fraction of the quality of previous titles. MS Press produced fantastic books for NT4/2000/2003/2008 but seems to have put it no such effort for the 2012 range.Appauling book to prepare for the exam, added to the fact that the proper study guide isnt due for release till Oct2013 (...hello the O/S is called Server 2012!!!!),Don't bother wasting your money on this toilet paper.

I purchased this book as a training guide for the 70.413 exam. Please don't make the same mistake! This is more of a guide to a guide. It merely lists the subjects you need to learn but does not provide the information you'll need in the exam. A full 25% of the book is he index.This is the worst MS press book I've ever seen. I've never given a Amazon product a rating before, but I was compelled to by this dross.

Thanks

I have enjoyed this book, it is as it states "an exam reference" book and not an instructional manual. It goes into just about enough detail on the topics required for this exam and points to relevant TechNet articles for further reading. I found this useful and it was structured well, well written and sends you for further reading at the right points to the correct pages on TechNet. So for this alone the book is worth the money.