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Sub Rosa posted:Stanley email came today. I'll be in the class starting May 19th. Lucky bastard.
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Apr 16, 2014 23:36
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Is there anyone else a bit daunted by the sheer amount of information you need to retain for the VCP? I just finished reading and writing my notes for two of the seven sections from the official blueprint and I'm sitting at 20 pages typed. Some of it is repetitive (not a huge amount of difference between vSwitches and dvSwitches, but still gotta keep track of them), but a lot of it is so broad that I'm beginning to doubt my sanity. Think I need to do some more labbing, but I don't feel like I have enough time between now and when I take my test in 3 weeks to get the reading, note-taking, and labbing done in sufficient quantities to make a difference and help out. Something is going to have to suffer, and I have a feeling it's going to be the note-taking, because it is taking a day just to do one part of a section with sufficient detail to make it useful as a study guide (and that's working on it at work with my team lead's blessing, so long as I keep up with my other duties).
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Apr 17, 2014 02:23
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Barely passed the Healthcare IT Technician cert yesterday. Study effort definitely waned over the last couple of months, burnt out on healthcare and looking for other opportunities. But a pass is a pass. Now on to the CCENT.
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Apr 17, 2014 15:14
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Is there anyone else a bit daunted by the sheer amount of information you need to retain for the VCP? I just finished reading and writing my notes for two of the seven sections from the official blueprint and I'm sitting at 20 pages typed. Some of it is repetitive (not a huge amount of difference between vSwitches and dvSwitches, but still gotta keep track of them), but a lot of it is so broad that I'm beginning to doubt my sanity. Think I need to do some more labbing, but I don't feel like I have enough time between now and when I take my test in 3 weeks to get the reading, note-taking, and labbing done in sufficient quantities to make a difference and help out. Something is going to have to suffer, and I have a feeling it's going to be the note-taking, because it is taking a day just to do one part of a section with sufficient detail to make it useful as a study guide (and that's working on it at work with my team lead's blessing, so long as I keep up with my other duties). It quite a bit of broad information. If you want to study some let me know steam is Dilbert as gently caress. I can also do vent or what ever you have. Vhersey.com has a bunch of he notes and key points that we go over in study sessions at tcc migh be useful.
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Apr 17, 2014 16:57
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Is there anyone else a bit daunted by the sheer amount of information you need to retain for the VCP? I just finished reading and writing my notes for two of the seven sections from the official blueprint and I'm sitting at 20 pages typed. Some of it is repetitive (not a huge amount of difference between vSwitches and dvSwitches, but still gotta keep track of them), but a lot of it is so broad that I'm beginning to doubt my sanity. Think I need to do some more labbing, but I don't feel like I have enough time between now and when I take my test in 3 weeks to get the reading, note-taking, and labbing done in sufficient quantities to make a difference and help out. Something is going to have to suffer, and I have a feeling it's going to be the note-taking, because it is taking a day just to do one part of a section with sufficient detail to make it useful as a study guide (and that's working on it at work with my team lead's blessing, so long as I keep up with my other duties). That's about on par from the Sybex VCP5 book I used. It's a lot of info. The read/write combo does a lot, but it's the labbing that really helps. If you want to just throw $10 my way for shipping I'll send you the book and my illegible notes. Could be a useful backstop against the blueprint; it goes heavy into detail.
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Apr 17, 2014 17:35
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MJP posted:That's about on par from the Sybex VCP5 book I used. It's a lot of info. The read/write combo does a lot, but it's the labbing that really helps. If he doesn't take it, I will
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Apr 17, 2014 18:31
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Scan your notes and post them you son of a
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Apr 17, 2014 19:58
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OhDearGodNo posted:Lucky bastard. Got mine too! I think I signed up initially for the wait list in August. Excited to start studying but I really need to get a lab up and going for when I take the test.
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Apr 17, 2014 20:51
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Sec+ pass! But, I do have to say that based on all the praise for Darrell Gibson's book I went in feeling completely confident and quickly my heart sank into my gut when I saw the questions. Some of the questions on the real exam I had never seen anything similar to in the slightest and am hoping that those were the survey/freebie questions. One was literally UNIX code that I've never seen referenced in the book.
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Apr 17, 2014 23:46
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Sec+ pass! Was there any sims or configuring of anything or was it all just question/answer?
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Apr 18, 2014 00:30
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MrBigglesworth posted:Was there any sims or configuring of anything or was it all just question/answer? Yes there were 5 (I think), including laying out security measures for hosts and firewall rules.
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Apr 18, 2014 02:09
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Wow. I took the 201 a while back and I don't recall any sims.
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Apr 18, 2014 02:13
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Moey posted:Wow. I took the 201 a while back and I don't recall any sims. There are (I believe) three versions of the exam, and you either get 1 sim, 5 sims, or 8 sims. If you get the 1 sim then you lucked out and got what people have told me is the easiest of the three. The 5 sims are a bit tougher and throw in some poo poo you've never seen from the review guides. And if you get the 8 sims then just pray you pick the right questions. I had a couple other co-workers take the exam the both of them got the 8 sim exam - one bombed it completely and quit soon after rather than endure taking it again, and the other just barely passed. When I took it I also got the 8 sim exam and passed by the skin of my teeth. There were so many drat questions that were never even mentioned in any of the 4 study guides I used, so I was (I think justifiably) perturbed. Frankly, I don't ever want to have to take that exam again.
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Apr 18, 2014 02:23
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I remember hearing they added sims in 301. I dunno, I took 201 and never plan on taking it again.
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Apr 18, 2014 03:24
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Daylen Drazzi posted:There are (I believe) three versions of the exam, and you either get 1 sim, 5 sims, or 8 sims. If you get the 1 sim then you lucked out and got what people have told me is the easiest of the three. The 5 sims are a bit tougher and throw in some poo poo you've never seen from the review guides. And if you get the 8 sims then just pray you pick the right questions. I had a couple other co-workers take the exam the both of them got the 8 sim exam - one bombed it completely and quit soon after rather than endure taking it again, and the other just barely passed. When I took it I also got the 8 sim exam and passed by the skin of my teeth. There were so many drat questions that were never even mentioned in any of the 4 study guides I used, so I was (I think justifiably) perturbed. Frankly, I don't ever want to have to take that exam again. That's kind of how I feel, and I got the 5 sim one. Either way, DONE. Now I'm on to ITIL (required by job) and then I'm trying to decide where to go from here. My contract will be up by the end of June and I want to get into a more admin / hands on role. I do want to just go ahead and finish my degree (about a year left) but I want to keep up the momentum of getting certs. After 70-680, Sec+, ITIL, and with the info I just put in, what would you guys recommend?
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Apr 18, 2014 11:51
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:That's kind of how I feel, and I got the 5 sim one. Depends, but RHCSA is popping up on more and more job postings I've been looking at, and a Linux Admin demands about $10-15k more than a Windows Admin from what I can tell. Personally I think I'm going to skip the MCSA/MCSE certs for now and focus on Linux because of the two points I just mentioned.
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Apr 18, 2014 12:23
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Depends, but RHCSA is popping up on more and more job postings I've been looking at, and a Linux Admin demands about $10-15k more than a Windows Admin from what I can tell. Knowing nothing about linux, I think I'm going to go for MCSA and then I want to get into linux / vmware / learn some python/powershell... I'm sitting here at work and for once I don't have the pressure of a required cert looming over my head. And, being a holiday, we're getting very low call volume. I find myself at a loss.
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Apr 18, 2014 14:24
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Knowing nothing about linux, I think I'm going to go for MCSA and then I want to get into linux / vmware / learn some python/powershell... My buddy has dabbled in Linux and looked at getting an RHCSA a while back. At least for the NY metro area, any Linux job guns more on experience than certs, but at least it's better than nothin'. MC Fruit Stripe posted:Scan your notes and post them you son of a My notes are more or less drat near illegible and are just a lot of the critical points and stuff, more a transcription as I studied than anything else. There are big gaps because the other notebook is AWOL. Daylen Drazzi, if you want the book + notes, please PM me or post here.
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Apr 18, 2014 16:38
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ICND2 scheduled for Wednesday  Time to brush up on poo poo before then. Every STP prediction and EtherChannel configuration problem I can think of.
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Apr 18, 2014 17:35
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So does anyone do the adaptive tests anymore where it would try to kick your rear end with more questions on topics you weren't doing well on, etc?
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Apr 18, 2014 19:55
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Passed Security+ this morning with an 869. I had 74 questions total with 6 of them being Sims. Took me about 30 of the 90 minutes allotted. The sims were pretty straightforward with 4 of them coming pretty much directly off of Darril Gibson's blog. I studied by reading Gibson's book and doing his practice test as well as an "official" practice test from this book that I picked up on sale when they were running a 75% off sale. Overall, pretty easy and straightforward. Know your common ports (AND TCP or UDP!), understand PKI, and know the difference between encryption ciphers and you should pass without difficulty.
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Apr 18, 2014 20:02
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The Interpolator posted:Passed Security+ this morning with an 869. I had 74 questions total with 6 of them being Sims. Took me about 30 of the 90 minutes allotted. Did you get that unix coding question? I had several questions that I would have never expected had I not read other blogs.
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Apr 18, 2014 20:40
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Hello IT thread. My boss has told me to go find training/certification for SQL Reporting. This sounds a lot like an IT thing because it has an acronym and uses computers, so I am going to ask you guys if you think the MSCE Business Intelligence cert is worth pursuing, or if there is another worthwhile cert program dealing with SQL Reporting that I should look in to? If I am going to spend my time learning this stuff (and my company is going to throw money at it), I'd like some sort of neat thing for my resume so I don't have to rely on LinkedIn endorsements.
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Apr 18, 2014 20:40
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Did you get that unix coding question? I had several questions that I would have never expected had I not read other blogs. The only question I had that mentioned unix involved SCP and SSH. I thought it was straightforward since Gibson mentioned both in his book. It wasn't really unix specific since it said "secure", "control", and "file transfer" in the question.
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Apr 18, 2014 21:27
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MJP posted:My notes are more or less drat near illegible and are just a lot of the critical points and stuff, more a transcription as I studied than anything else. There are big gaps because the other notebook is AWOL. I've got my own notes, plus I have like 4 review books I'm scanning. However, assuming I successfully pass the exam in 17 days I will be happy to post the entire mass of notes that I've typed up for anyone that wants them. If you only want the first two objectives I could definitely email what I have to anyone who asks - that's 20 pages in Word document format. You can either PM me here or send me an email to mguerns at gmail dot com. I'm not adverse to sharing my pain and maybe helping someone get ahead a little. Unfortunately for me I learn best by actively creating my notes, plus if something doesn't seem to make sense I can review them while working through the exercise and modify so that it sticks in my head.
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Apr 18, 2014 22:38
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Passed N+ today, now on to bigger and better things. If I'm thinking of heading for a server admin role, is there value in the MTA nowadays? Or should I be jumping straight to MCSA? Also, how much trouble am I going to have with entry-level HR screens with N+ but not A+? Should I get it just to get past the resume robot part? I'd rather save the $300 if I can swing it.
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Apr 19, 2014 03:51
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:
CEH or GCIH would be a good start. SysAdmins with any idea what incident handling is are tough to find. You might also think about trying to get a DOD or DOE clearance, if you want to travel and get paid more that is.
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Apr 19, 2014 03:51
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Preparing to take the comptia A+ exams at my vocational school. Assuming I pass, I have the opportunity to take the S+, is it worth the money/effort? Was told about the HR wall, would the S+ help me get past that?
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Apr 19, 2014 04:32
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xertrez posted:Preparing to take the comptia A+ exams at my vocational school. About the only HR wall that you would get past with the S+ is for a company that will be using you as a contractor with the Department of Defense. I have yet to see any company other than defense contractors require employers to have S+, and even then you will have six months to earn the S+ after they hire you. I have a feeling your efforts would be better spent on either Net+ or CCENT/CCNA (CCENT should be possible even without lab equipment, and I would advise it over the Net+). Of course, another option would be to look at Linux+ if you want to get into the sysadmin lifestyle (or hell, better yet RHCSA - if you have a beefy enough desktop you can buy VMware Workstation and run a virtual environment on it without having to change Operating Systems). This brings me to some general advice for everyone just starting out. You stand a better chance of getting noticed if you have actual experience with different OS's. If you have a desktop with a quad-core processor and 8-16 GB of RAM and an SSD then by all means bite the bullet and either buy VMware Workstation or download Oracle's VirtualBox for free. Set up the virtual environment and start playing around with the enterprise-level OS's. Windows Server comes with a 180-day trial license, and you only have to download the ISO once and then you can install it and re-install it as many times as you want with no repercussion. And get your hands into Linux - there are three major distros out there that hold a lot of enterprise cred - Slackware, Red Hat, and Debian. Slackware is free for anyone to use, but it's also considered to be not quite user-friendly since it is extremely customizable so doesn't come with a lot of options pre-configured (and loading a GUI of any kind was a major accomplishment up until a few years back, but hey - you got lots of CLI experience). I personally use Slackware on my home server, and it's smooth, stable, and easy to use. Red Hat is an enterprise-level OS and you get the source code only after you purchase a support contract. However, you can download CentOS and use it since it uses the same source code. In fact, the CentOS developers by-and-large work for Red Hat, so everything they do is with Red Hat's blessing. And finally Debian - if it sounds like a problem then you've probably heard of the community port of this distro - Ubuntu. Get them and go to town, so that you can legitimately state that you are familiar with multiple OS's. Set up your virtual environment, play around with the VM configuration settings, then go to town installing, configuring, breaking and re-installing. When you get to a part that you don't understand then pop over to Google and search - your searching may take you to some really weird places, but no effort is ever wasted. Sorry this is so long-winded, but inspiration hit while I was reading the posts and things resonated with me.
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Apr 19, 2014 12:48
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Going for MS 70-410 today, wish me luck
QuiteEasilyDone fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Apr 19, 2014 |
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Apr 19, 2014 12:55
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Daylen Drazzi posted:This brings me to some general advice for everyone just starting out. You stand a better chance of getting noticed if you have actual experience with different OS's. If you have a desktop with a quad-core processor and 8-16 GB of RAM and an SSD then by all means bite the bullet and either buy VMware Workstation or download Oracle's VirtualBox for free. Another thing to think about is that if you have or are willing to spring for a second (or third!) PC with similar specs that VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft all have free/trial versions of their hypervisor products available. Actually, you don't necessarily need the quad-core and SSD. I'm getting by okay with a pair of i3's with 8 GB RAM each and spinning disks.
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Apr 19, 2014 13:30
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Oy Gevalt! posted:Another thing to think about is that if you have or are willing to spring for a second (or third!) PC with similar specs that VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft all have free/trial versions of their hypervisor products available. My setup: ESXi hypervisor on this I have OpenIndiana as storage server (ZFS-Z2, controller for the storage disks is connected with direct path) and different kinds of linux distributions for different kind of taks (like media server, bnc, etc etc). Also a single win 2k8 r2 sever. I use an Intel Xeon E3-1230 processor and a supermicro motherboard (kvm over ethernet!) etc. Very convenient, excellent performance and allows me to spin up more servers when needed to play around. Anyway on certification, I recently got XenApp and XenServer certifications, working on XenDesktop now. I am using the online courses citrix offer which includes access to virtual environment to actually implement things. They use toolwire for this and it is terribly slow sadly. The course info is pretty good though, I supplement it with the citrix docs and such as needed. I always at least read the ones the exam prep guide says because those things are very likely to be on the exam.
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Apr 19, 2014 14:01
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psyopmonkey posted:CEH or GCIH would be a good start. SysAdmins with any idea what incident handling is are tough to find. You might also think about trying to get a DOD or DOE clearance, if you want to travel and get paid more that is. I've been looking into CEH or CISSP, haven't looked at GCIH yet. Also, since I have taken windows 70-680 I was thinking about taking the 685 to get MCSA. I do have a secret clearance already. Thanks for the input!
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Apr 19, 2014 17:08
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Depends, but RHCSA is popping up on more and more job postings I've been looking at, and a Linux Admin demands about $10-15k more than a Windows Admin from what I can tell. On this note, what books would anyone recommend for studying for the RHCSA? Preferably with labs included that I can run in VMware
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Apr 19, 2014 18:43
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Alright thanks, the S+ was just going to be an extra, I'll just focus more on my CCNA. I'll also play around with VMWare some more. Hopefully I get an internship at the place I want next somewhere and they'll pay for most certs I'll want to take (there is like 10  )
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Apr 19, 2014 19:02
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The Interpolator posted:On this note, what books would anyone recommend for studying for the RHCSA? Preferably with labs included that I can run in VMware Michael Jang's book is good.
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Apr 19, 2014 19:47
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I used Jang's book. Owns. Also, when I took the RHCSA, I studied pretty hard for KVM stuff. What a waste. PS, Exam is pretty cool. Only exam I've ever gotten 100% on. "Do this" exams are far more fun than "answer multiple choice."
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Apr 19, 2014 21:41
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Anyone here study take the CCP? I see some books on amazon gotta dive into some citrix poo poo to take us from 6.5 to latest.
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Apr 19, 2014 23:18
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So I'm getting up the courage to take the SEC+ now that the class will be done on Monday, I have a voucher, but my eyes jumped out of my head to see the normal cost at $293! WTF.
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Apr 19, 2014 23:49
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:I've been looking into CEH or CISSP, haven't looked at GCIH yet. Also, since I have taken windows 70-680 I was thinking about taking the 685 to get MCSA. I do have a secret clearance already. With Sec+, Net+, a vendor specific certification(s), and a level 3 clearance you should expect to be making 60K+ minimum. If you take a position overseas you can also haggle for the company to pay for a rent stipend. I dont know if youre actively looking for jobs but I would highly suggest getting a profile setup on clearancejobs.com, dice.com, and to a lesser extent monster. People with your level of clearance are a lot more flexible than someone who has a TS and above.
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Apr 20, 2014 01:15
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