Pass 70-414 MCSE Certification Exam Fast

70-414 Exam Has Been Retired

This exam has been replaced by Microsoft with new exam.

Microsoft 70-414 Exam Details

The Microsoft 70-414 is one of the five elective tests for the expert-level MCSE: Core Infrastructure certification. Passing it is an endorsement of a candidate’s proficiency in designing, implementing, and maintaining the Windows Server 2012 in an enterprise environment that is scaled and highly virtualized.

Potential Candidates

This test caters to the skills of those candidates who are gearing up for responsibility in planning, configuring, and managing the Windows Server 2012. Commonly, it’s for systems administrators, systems engineers, and computer specialists.

Prerequisites for 70-414

Candidates taking such a test must have either the MCSA: Windows Server 2012 or the MCSA: Windows Server 2016 certification.

Exam Details

When it comes to 70-414 details, exam-takers will be up for 40-60 questions, whose clearance must be accomplished within 2.5 hours. Besides the MCQ, applicants might also experience other types of questions like active screen, build lists, mark review, short answer, and others. With 700 points and above, one can acquire the aforementioned certification. The registration for this Microsoft validation costs $165.

Topics to Master for 70-414

Overall, there will be four objectives to explore for this test and they are as follow:

  • Managing and Maintaining a Server Infrastructure;
  • Planning and Implementing a Highly Available Enterprise Infrastructure;
  • Executing a Server Virtualization Infrastructure;
  • Designing and Putting into Operation Identity & Access Solutions.

Each of these domains breaks into several areas to be considered for those who wish to accomplish the requirements of 70-414 exam. The first topic starts with designing an administrative model. This captures considerations like user rights & built-in groups, designing a delegation of structures for administration for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2, using System Center Service Manager in designing portals for self-service, and utilizing AppController & System Center VM Manager in delegating rights for private cloud management. This tested area goes further into designing a strategy for monitoring. Thus, matters addressed include using ACS (Audit Collection Services) & System Center Global Service Monitor, application monitoring, centralized reporting, and performance control to maintain servers. Implementing and optimizing System Center 2012 - management packs for Operations Monitor and planning for monitoring AD are as well detailed within this scope. The last bit of such a category is about planning and implementing automated remediation. This takes care of creating & updating Baseline VM Manager, putting into practice Desired Configuration Management (DCM) Baseline, executing VM Manager integration together with Operations Manager, configuring VM Manager for moving a VM dynamically depending on the policy, integrating System Center 2012 concerning automatic remediation into an existing infrastructure of an enterprise and finally, designing as well as implementing Windows PowerShell DSC (Desired State Configuration) solution.

The first issue reviewed by the second segment is about the planning and implementing failover clustering. Here, the attention is given to executing multi-site and multi-node clustering, which includes using networking storage, GUM (Global Update Manager), and name resolution. Designing considerations such as settings for network priority, redundant networks, resource failover & failback, DNS and heartbeat settings, storage placement, cluster aware updates, and Quorum configuration are also looked into in this domain. The second task concerns planning and implementing network services that are highly available. The subjects captured here include planning and configuring NLB (Network Load Balancing), designing considerations like networking for fault tolerance, state management, unicast vs. multicast configuration in addition to deploying NLB with the use of service templates for VM Manager. The third subtopic touches on planning and putting into operation storage solutions that are highly available. In particular, such a sector covers planning for and configuring storage pools alongside storage spaces, designing highly available & multi-replica namespaces for DFS, outlining and composing multipath I/O (MPIO), arranging highly available iSCSI Target & iSNS Server, and planning for and implementing storage with the use of SMB multi-channel and RDMA. The fourth subdomain is focused on devising and implementing highly available roles. So, of concern are tasks like planning for a highly available DHCP Server, a Namespace Server for DNS, Continuously Available File Shares, and Hyper-V clustering. In addition, planning for and implementing highly available apps, scripts, and services with the use of Generic Application, Generic Service clustering roles, and Generic Script are also highlighted here. The fifth part of a topic like this captures outlining and implementing a solution for business continuity & disaster recovery. This scrutinizes planning a strategy for recovery and backup, AD forest & domain recovery, and Hyper-V replica, which includes the usage of Microsoft Azure Site Recovery, AD object & container restore with the use of authoritative restore & Recycle Bin, etc.

The third domain concerns devising as well as executing virtualization hosts. All in all, this area is about planning for and implementing the delegation of virtualization environments (services, hosts, and VMs) that include self-service abilities. Planning and implementing multi-host libraries, host resource optimization, integration with third-party virtualization, and the deployment of Hyper-V hosts to bare metal are also explained within this subtopic. To know more, such a topic also sheds light on planning and implementing VMs, which includes highly available VMs, guest resource optimization, placement rules, and creating templates for VM. There is also the part about outlining and putting into practice virtualization for networking, which delves into planning and configuring logical networks for VM Manager, IP address settings including the MAC ones, virtual network optimization, and others. Another issue in this category is centered on planning and implementing virtualization storage. This covers Hyper-V host clustered storage, Hyper-V VM storage, storage optimization, and more. Apart from these, devising & implementing VM Movement is another aspect of the third topic. Particularly, it looks at live & storage migration between Hyper-V hosts, P2V &V2V, and VM migration between clouds. Lastly, a domain like this talks about managing and maintaining an infrastructure of a server and covers dynamic optimization & resource optimization, integrating Operations Manager with System Center VM Manager & System Center Manager, etc.

The fourth and last tested area starts by covering designing a Certificate Services infrastructure. This is about multi-tier CA (Certificate Authority) hierarchy with an offline root CA, deployment for multi-forest CA, disaster recovery, Certificate Enrollment Web Services, and others. What’s more, it’s also explaining implementing and managing a Certificate Services infrastructure and comprises offline root CA, Network Device Enrollment Services, the role separation for administrators, trust between organizations, and more. Another area is focused on executing and monitoring certificates. This gets into certificate templates & deployment, renewal, validation, publishing, and revocation alongside key archival & recovery. Such a topic as well discusses the design and implementation of federated identity solutions and reviews claim-based authentication, rules for Claims Provider & Relying Party Trusts, attribute stores, and others. The last bit regards designing and putting into operation AD Rights Management Services (AD RMS), where some issues to delve into include AD RMS deployment, AD RMS client deployment, support for Federated Identity, and upgrading or migrating AD RMS.

Career Opportunities, Job Posts, and Salary

Those who have qualified through passing 70-414 test and received the MCSE: Core Infrastructure certificate can send their applications for positions like a systems administrator, infrastructure engineer, support engineer, and senior systems engineer. As PayScale.com puts it, such professionals are entitled to the pay of around $96k in one year.

Career Path: What Is Next Certification?

The MCSE: Core Infrastructure ranks at the top in the current structure of Microsoft. This means that by the time you’ve earned it, you will already have taken possession of expert skills. So, to build them further, you can branch into a certification from another vendor like Cisco or Oracle if you desire all-round master skills.