After obtaining the Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP) certification back in February, I decided I needed a break from studying Cisco material for a couple months. I’ve been working with Exchange 2007 more and more over the last year, mostly migrations from Exchange 2003. I figured an Exchange 2007 cert would be a good thing to add to my resume, not to mention I’ll no doubt learn some things in the process.
Microsoft offers two certification levels for Exchange 2007.
The Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) Exchange 2007 requires one exam (70-236). The exam material covers topics related to install and configuration, server roles, clustering, monitoring, the exchange management shell, and disaster recovery.
The Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) Exchange 2007 requires two additional exams (70-237, 70-238). These exams cover material related to larger enterprise level design and deployment.
For now I’m focusing on the MCTS certification. I picked up two books, Microsoft Press Exchange 2007 Administrator’s Companion and the Sybex MCITP Exchange 2007 Messaging Design and Deployment Study Guide, the latter of which I found on eBay for $3.99! In addition, Microsoft has a Second Shot promotion where you can retake a failed exam. I started studying back in March and attempted the 70-236 exam after two weeks of reading over the material. I missed passing by 38 points, bummer. Well, at least now I know what areas I need to focus on.
I have a lab set up consisting of a DC and two Exchange 2007 VM’s running on my home ESX server. I’ve been reviewing clustering, various powershell commands, client access, and permissions all of which were areas where I struggled on my first attempt. I’m scheduling another attempt for late this week or early next week.
