New Hardware for the Home Office

Since I wrote my original post on my home office I have expanded my network and hardware at the house. Some of this came about as I discovered some things I wanted to change and part was just chance.

I decided to change around my network just slightly to accommodate having a persistent IP address for the house. That way I can bring up a development server to test new sites and I want to develop for customers and to provide a test environment for Windows Sharepoint Services. So I changed out my cable modem and went with CableOnes Small Office Home Office plan. The cost was the same as I was paying for high speed internet before but now I get 8 Megaabits download and 1 Megabit upload and a persistent IP address.

To provide a permanent server for the network at the house I got

• A Dell Poweredge 840 with a quad core processor and 4 750 gig drives in a raid 5 configuration for 2.25 Terrabytes of disk storage and 8 gigabytes of ram. It run windows server 2003 63 bit. It's primary purpose will be to act as a domain controller, support my sharepoint site and host virtual machines for testing and certifications.

My primary laptops are as follows:

1. A Dell 1720 with 4 gig of memory, a wireless card, a gigabit card, dual 160 gig 5000 rpm hard drives and a 2.2 Ghz core duo processor (this is a T7500 that can run 64 bit OS's). It has Vista Ultimate on it. It has a windows experience score of 3.4 primarily because of poor graphics performance.
2. A Dell Precision M90 workstation with 4 gig of memory, a wireless card, a gigabit card, 160 gig 7200 rpm hard drive and a 2.2 Ghz core duo processor (again a T7500). It has windows Vista Business 64 bit on it. It has a windows experience score of 5.2. It has a much better graphics board so I use it to drive my dual Samsung 26" monitors.

So my office at the house now consists of the following:

1. Dell poweredge 840 server with 2.35 TB of disk in a Raid 5 array.
2. Mac Mini with 2 gig of memory and a 1TB FireWire drive. I probably need to get Leopard for it sometime.
3. Both the Mac Mini and the Poweredge are hooked into my 25" flat panel (one through the DVI and one through the VGA)hat I use to watch TV and downloaded moves. It also doubles as a monitor for the two computers. I just wish it had Picture in a Picture so I could have both monitors up while watching TV. I might have to break down and buy a new one that supports PIP and POP.
4. My two 1TB World Books for SAN storage and to back up the poweredge.
5. Dell M90 workstation docked with dual Samsung 25" monitors.
6. Dell M65 workstation docked (3 gig of memory in it).
7. Dell Inspirion B series laptop running windows XP (1.25 gig of memory and full MS office for development testing).
8. HP 2840 all in one LaserJet printer / scanner / copier
9. Dell 1720 workstation docked
10. All connected through a 16 port switch with a wireless N router for my wireless devices (a couple of mobile phones and the laptops occasionally).

All of the local network is 1 Gigabit with Internet access through the cable one modem at 8 megabit.

Actually it never ceases to amaze me how cheap all this was compared to when I had SmartBridge 10 years ago.

MCSA and MCSE Certifications

If I go after the MCSA and MCSE certifications it would be to support the developer certifications.  I would be focusing on Exchange and Database certifications to support consulting for sharepoint and Team Foundation Server.  The primary focus here is to get into the collaboration and development side of the current MS offerings.  To be clear I am only going after the latest certifications.

• For the MCSA and MCSE the Certification will be for Windows Server 2003.  There are no certifications yet for Windows Server 2008
• Client certifications would be for Windows Vista (MCTS).

So the certifications and the order I would get them are:

• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) 
• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) for Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) for Windows Server 2003

There are several MCTS Certifications.  Some are not really available yet and some I am not interested in.  The ones I am interested in that are available are listed below in the order I would get them:

1. Technology Specialist: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuration (one exam)
2. Technology Specialist: Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft  Office System Desktops, Deploying and Maintaining (one exam)
3. Technology Specialist: Windows Vista, Configuration (one exam)

There are also several MCITP Certifications.  The ones I am interested in and the probable order are:

1. MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator (2 additional exams)
2. MCITP: Consumer Support Technician (1 additional exam)
3. MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician (1 additional exam)

The MCSA certifications would be a extension of the collaboration focus.  As such you would want take the two core exams:

1. Exam 70-290: Managing and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Environment
2. Exam 70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

All the rest of the requirements for the MCSA are covered by the other exams.  The client focus would be Vista.

The MCSE certifications would be a extension of the collaboration focus of the MCSA.  As such you would want take the two additional core exams:

1. Exam 70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
2. Exam 70-294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure

All the rest of the requirements are covered by the MCTS and MCITP certifications. 

So to get 8 certifications it takes 11 exams (once you get rid of the common exams).  If you completed this plan including the developer certifications you would have

• 6 of the seven MCITP Certifications (No training for the Project ones is available yet).
• 12 of the 19 MCTS Certifications
• 3 of the Primary Certifications (MCPD Enterprise, MCSA and MCSE)

If you can pull this off it is 23 certifications and 29 tests.  There are short cuts through this and once you have the Vista and Database Certifications you could have go straight for the MCSA and MCSE certifications and abandon the Enterprise Messaging certification.  That would cut back 2 certifications and 4 tests.  Not that much after you already have 25 tests under your belt.

Basically this is a good year of training.  6 months if you are a real stud.  In addition you are looking at 3k in test costs.  Of course by then the 2008 product line is out :-).

Notes on Developer Certifications

I have been focusing on trying to get some Microsoft Certifications completed and a couple of people have emailed me about them.  The following list are all the ones I would like to get.  There are a lot so I don't expect to actually get them all done.  To be clear I am only going after the latest certifications.

• For developers this is the MCPD series (the MCAD series was for .NET 1.x)
• For databases this is the MCITP series (the MCDBA series was for SQL Server 2000)

So the new certification and the order I plan on getting them are:

• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) 
• The Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Web Developer (3 exams)
• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Windows Developer (2 additional exams)
• Microsoft Certified Professional Developer: Enterprise Applications Developer (2 additional exams)
• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)

There are several MCTS Certifications.  Some are not really available yet and some I am not interested in.  The ones I am interested in that are available are listed below in the order I plan to get them:

1. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications (Part of the MCPD Web and is two exams)
2. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications  (Part of the MCPD Windows and is one additional
3. Technology Specialist: .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications (Part of the MCPD Enterprise Applications Developer and is one additional exam)
4. Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuration (No Study materials on this I am relying on a few books and the MCPD and is one exam)
5. Technology Specialist: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Application Development (No Study materials on this I am relying on a few books and the MCPD and is one exam)
6. Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuration (No Study materials on this I am relying on a few books and the MCPD and is one exam)
7. Technology Specialist: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Application Development (No Study materials on this I am relying on a few books and the MCPD and is one exam)
8. Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2005 (Part of the MCITP Database Developer and is one exam)
9. Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence (Part of the MCITP Business Intelligence Developer and is one exam)

There are also several MCITP Certifications.  The ones I am interested in and the probable order are:

1. MCITP: Database Developer (3 exams)
2. MCITP: Database Administrator (2 exams)
3. MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer (2 exams)

So to get 15 certifications it takes 18 exams (once you get rid of the common exams).  The number of exams and certifications is as follows:

1. To get the MCPD and MCTS developer certifications (6 certifications) it takes 7 exams.
2. To get all of the MCTS Certifications for Sharepoint (4 certifications) is 4 exams
3. To get the MCITP and MCTS for Database developer Certifications (2 Certifications) is 3 exams.
4. To get the MCITP for Database Administrators (1 Certification) is 2 exams.
5. To get the MCITP for Business Intelligence Developers (2 Certification) is 2 exams

Too Close to Reality

I get a email every day of new postings to rec.humor.funny.reruns. Jokes previously posted to rec.humor.funny. Here is the one from today

Relayed-From: hall@wsl.dec.com (Jon "Maddog" Hall)

VMS is like a Soviet railroad train. It's basically industrial-strength, but
when you look at it closely, everything's a little more shabby than you might
like. It gets the job done, but there's no grace to it.

The Mac operating system is like the monorail at Disney World. It's kind of
spectacular and fun, but it doesn't go much of anywhere. Still, the kids like
it.

Unix is like the maritime transit system in an impoverished country. The
ferryboats are dangerous as hell, offer no protection from the weather and leak
like sieves. Every monsoon season a couple of them capsize and drown all the
passengers, but people still line up for them and crowd aboard.

Having used (or am currently using) all of these OS's I think the joke is far to accurate :-).

Virtual Server 2005

I have not blogged much about this one because I am still trying to read up on it. I have been reading Professional Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback). Like all WROX programmer to programmer books this is very good.

I have used virtual pc quite a bit but had not really done anything with Virtual Server. Man this is one cool product. I can't believe all the things you can do for testing alone with this thing. I will be using it in conjunction with a lot of the MS 180 day licenses for testing and getting my MS Certifications. In addition for interoperability testing, testing new lan connections (using the Virtual networking) and testing new beta products this thing can not be beat.

SPAM-A-LOT

Went to see Spam-a-lot today. Primarily it was the Holy Grail on stage but there were a lot a little pieces from other Monty Python scripts in it. I particularly liked that they started with the song Finland. Always fun. If you get a chance you should definitely go see this.

I think it is time to head to new York again and catch a few of these on Broadway. Maybe I will try to get a consulting gig in NY just to catch a few (and make a little money :-)).

A Nifty Little Utility

First I need to explain that over the last year I have collected a lot of Digital Copies of Movies, Podcasts, TV Shows and Music. A lot as in around 1 Terabyte. Since ITunes will not let you down load the files more then once you have to have backups of your downloads.

So here is the problem. How do I backup a Terabyte of data and keep the backups in Sync. I was originally going to write some custom software to do this, but I just found this power toy from MS today. It is called SyncToy and you can use it to keep two directories in Sync on two different machines. This is exactly what I needed.

Now I have my 2 Terrabyte Raid 5 array backup to my two 1 Terabyte Mybooks. The MyBooks are two 500 GB disks stripped and can effectively backup half of my 2 Terabyte raid. In addition the My Books hang off the 1 Gigabit switch. This means I if I need to take down the Server where the RAID array is I can still write to the MyBoooks. SyncToy will keep the devices in sync no matter what. Pretty cool since it lets me treat the RAID array and the MyBooks both as Master copies and let SyncToy keep them in Sync.

I am also using Sync toy to back up my 4 Laptops to the Raid array. That way all my Laptops are in sync too. I definitely like having the 1 Gig switch for all this. Way to slow to move all this data through the wireless router. In addition with over six computers in the house keeping them all in sync was getting to be a pain.

Note: These two My Books are the World Editions that have Ethernet attachments so you can use them as SAN devices. I just noticed there is now a 2 Terabyte version of this.