My technique of booking the exam before I’m entirely comfortable has worked, the nerves are beginning to kick in and I’m getting a bit of tunnel vision which is building as I get nearer to the day. I’ve also got a daily entry in my diary saying how many days to go to the exam, so due to the all day event I’ve put in Outlook, my M600 buzzes at about midnight every evening to remind me I have, for instance, 6 days to go.

I’m at the stage when I use Transcender test software to poke holes in my knowledge, and then scour the resources for the proper answer. At the moment I’m needing to get a bit more of the variants of unattended installation into my head, and final tweaks to the different volume options available. There are a number of scenarios for multi-disk volumes when failure occurs in a disk, and how to get it back, or how to add it in.

I’m working away on basic IP routing too, which I suppose I should know after all these years doing web development. It helps me to realise what a simple view I had of such, and the headache that proper routing and subnetting has in just the basic config of IP networks. Although not really covered in any depth in this exam, the power of Active Directory is beginning to dawn on me, and again is leading to a bit of appreciation at the job Infrastructure engineers have doing the design work. Planning out the organisation to make the most powerful use of the Group Policies is an impressive feat of skill. Hat’s off to my colleagues who consult on such matters.

Working away at this exam has been a good eye opener, and I’m increasingly impressed at good old Windows 2000. Windows 2003 must be really good, and we have Longhorn on the horizon!