Today I passed Microsoft test 70-640: Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring.   This test covers quite a large spectrum of information, including:

• DNS
• Multi-Site Domains (Sites and Services)
• Group Policies
• Auditing
• Federation Services
• Rights Management Services
• Cert Services
• Windows Backup
• Authorative & non-authorative restores of Active Directory
• FSMO Roles
• Trusts
• RODC (Read Only Domain Controllers
• And more…..

The test was harder than other Microsoft tests I have taken, and study material seems lacking, only because most study material is pre R2, and the test has been updated to include quite a bit of 2008 R2 material.  The test was spread out well, and didn’t seem to focus too many questions on any particular area.  I would estimate it was about 5ish questions for each category.  Some areas were not a problem for me, such as DNS, Sites and Services, Trusts, AD restores, and normal things you would find in most company’s AD structure. 

 Some things I don’t work with on a day-to-day basis:

• Windows Backup – Even Microsoft recomends using a dedicated product.  It’s rare to find this used in the wild.
• Certificate Services – Fantastic, but rarely used in anything other than very large orginizations.
• Rights Management – Neat idea, but I’ve never seen it in the wild, and I question the amount of end users that would understand their part enough to use it.
• Federation Services – Glad its an option, but not a high demand in the area for sharing data in a manner that requires this type of authorization.

Within the next week, I’m going to dive a little deeper into Federation Services, and Rights Management Services, and RODC (Read Only Domain Controller).  Now it is time to study for 70-642!