Yesterday I ticked off the first of my study and certification targets for the year…

This is a one-off exam as it does not currently sit in any of the MCSA or MCSE tracks and qualifies for a standalone certification, a Microsoft Certified Specialist. I am not sure where this sits in the Certification stack as shown on the Microsoft Learning Server Certification Pages 

Currently the MOC20409 courseware is available but not shown as available online, I don’t know of any scheduled classes. There is no specific training that I know of for this published electronically or in paper form.

So how does one study for an exam on some very complex topics without access to formal training.

EASY! – Microsoft Virtual Academy virtualization courses are excellent. The latest is specifically aimed at this certification. Be aware though that this is not an online cheat sheet it is a series of PowerPoints and videos from the November 2013 JumpStart run by Symon Perriyman (twitter @SymonPerriman) and Corey Hynes. This is two full days of training by industry experts on the details of the products and demonstrations of key tasks.

Also anyone taking a Microsoft Exam should be aware that no training is good enough to pass an exam on its own, you need hands-on. Either build a lab for this or got to the free Technet Virtual labs. Here.

I was a little disappointed to find that there were a couple of errors in the questions and commented on them at the end of the exam, but nothing too dramatic and certainly not enough to cause great concern.

This is a great certification for anyone who wants to prove their skills in creating managing and monitoring virtualized servers or clouds.

Also be aware it covers aspects of Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, System Center VMM, System Center Operations Manager, System Center Service Manager, System Center DPM

Not just overviews but deep technical aspects so make sure you prepare well.

Dive in and have a look – remember MVA and Labs is the key to this one.