Certification Information

The MCSE 70-294 exam is based on planning, implementing, and maintaining the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory infrastructure. It is a fairly difficult exam with a difficulty rating of 4/5 and consists of approximately 50 questions, most of which are form-based multiple choice questions but there are also drag and drop questions, hot spot questions, task simulation questions and list, sort and order questions. You will have 2 hours (120 minutes) to complete the exam.

When you pass the 70-294 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status if it’s the first exam you pass. You also receive credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification as the 70-294 exam is a core exam for the MCSE on Windows Server 2003 certification.

What you need to know for the Microsoft 70-294 exam

• Creating domain users and groups and planning strategies for managing domain users and groups in Active Directory.
• Creating user authentication strategies and authentication concepts.
• Planning a smart card authentication strategies and what’s new in smart card authentication for Windows Server 2003.
• Creating password policies for domain users and planning a security group strategy.
• Working with forests and domains and the functions of forests and domains in the Active Directory infrastructure.
• Creating a forest and domain structure.
• Installing domain controllers and creating the forest root domain and child domains.
• Naming and renaming domains and setting the functional level of a forest and domain.
• The role of DNS in the Active Directory environment and the relationship of DNS and AD namespaces.
• How DNS zones are integrated into Active Directory and how to configure DNS servers for use with Active Directory.
• Working with trusts and Organizational Units (OUs) –the two important components of Active Directory: trust relationships and organizational units (OUs).
• The different types of trusts and how to create shortcuts, external, realm and cross-forest trusts.
• Verifying and removing trusts, how to secure trusts using SID filtering.
• Creating and managing OUs and applying Group Policy to OUs and delegating control of an OU.
• Planning an OU structure and strategy for the organization, considering delegation requirements and the security group hierarchy.
• Working with Active Directory Sites, the role of sites in the Active Directory infrastructure, how replication, authentication and distribution of services information work within and across sites.
• The relationship of sites and domains, the relationship of sites and subnets and how to create sites and site links.
• Planning, creating, managing and configuring site replication and manage a replication topology.
• Configuring replication between sites and how to troubleshoot replication failures. Monitoring of the File Replication Service (FRS).
• Working with Active Directory Domain Controllers, planning and deploying DCs on the network and how to upgrade DCs.
• The placement of domain controllers within sites and backing up the domain controllers. The operations master (OM) roles and the functions of all five OMs: the schema master, domain naming master, RID master, PDC emulator and infrastructure master.
• Understanding the server roles and where they fit in.
• Transferring and seizing master roles and role dependencies and planning the placement of OMs and responding to OM failures.
• Working with Global Catalog Servers and the Schema.
• Understanding the role the Global Catalog (GC) plays in the network and customizing the GC using the Schema MMC snap-in.
• Creating and managing GC servers and GC replication.
• Understanding the Active Directory schema itself and the schema components, including classes and attributes, and the naming of schema objects.
• Installing and using the Schema management console, extending the schema and deactivating schema objects.
• Working with Group Policy in an Active Directory Network, the basics of Group Policy terminology and concepts.
• Understanding user and computer policies and Group Policy Objects (GPOs).
• Understanding the scope and application order of policies and Group Policy integration in Active Directory.
• Planning a Group Policy strategy and implementing Group Policy.
• Performing common Group Policy tasks and Group Policy propagation and replication.

The best practices for working with Group Policy and troubleshooting problems with Group Policy.

• Deploying Software via Group Policy and the components of software installation using Windows installer packages, transforms, patches and application assignment scripts.
• Deploying software to users and to computers, assigning or publishing applications.
• Preparing for GP software installation, working with the Group Policy Object Editor and setting installation options.
• Upgrading applications, configure automatic updates and remove managed applications. Troubleshoot problems that can occur with Group Policy software deployment.
• Ensuring Active Directory Availability, maintain high availability of your Active Directory services.
• Planning fault tolerance as well as AD performance issues and performing maintenance tasks, including defragging the database, and monitoring or moving the database.
• Backing up and restoring Active Directory, and the different restoration methods that can be used and when each is appropriate and troubleshooting Active Directory availability.

Getting more resources

For more information visit Microsoft Learning - MCSE 70-294 exam.