Trouble Spots
The thing that tends to be the most problematic for candidates taking the 70-663 exam is that the exam is really different from a lot of other Microsoft exams. On Exam 70-662 for example, Microsoft tests basic Exchange 2010 knowledge. A sample question from that exam might look like this:
You are an Exchange administrator for your company. You want to prepare the Active Directory so that you can deploy your first Exchange 2010 server. Which command should you run:
A: ADPREP /ForestPrep
B: ADPREP /DomainPrep
C: Setup /PS
D: Setup /NewProvisionedServer
In contrast, here is an example of a question that you might see on the 70-663 exam:
You are an Exchange Administrator for your company. Your Exchange Server organization currently contains two servers, both of which are running Exchange 2003. One server is acting as a front end server, while the other is configured as a backend server. You want to migrate to Exchange Server 2010, while still continuing to use a similar front end / back end architecture. What should you do?
A: Buy two new servers. Configure one server to act as a CAS server, and then decommission the Exchange 2003 front end server. Deploy your other new server as a mailbox server and then migrate the existing mailboxes to the new server. Decommission the Exchange 2003 mailbox server and then set the Exchange organization to native mode.
B: Perform a standard Exchange installation to the new server. Reconfigure the MX record to direct mail to the new server. Migrate all of your Exchange mailboxes to the new server and then decommission the old Exchange 2003 backend server. Decommission the front end Exchange 2003 server. Reformat the server and deploy the Exchange 2010 CAS role. Move the MX record to point to the new CAS server and then remove the CAS role from the other Exchange 2010 server.
Obviously, this isn’t a real test question. I have no doubt made my answers a lot less formal than Microsoft would, and I only provided two possible answers. Even so, my sample question is sufficient to make my point.
Exam 70-663 requires you to think through a lot of different steps and consider which solution would not only accomplish the required task, but also adhere to all of the requirements and best practices. There are also things thrown into the questions to make sure that you have basic Exchange 2010 proficiency. For example, in answer B I referred to a Standard Exchange installation. Microsoft would assume that you know that a Standard installation includes the Client Access Server, Hub Transport Server, and Mailbox Server roles.