Windows Server 2016

August 29, 2016 by VCEWin

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Complete Study Guide PDF Free Download

As discussed in the previous post, MCSA Server 2012 certification is going to be upgraded as per the syllabus included in Windows Server 2016 platform. One of the most important things in the IT sector (to remain a successful IT professional) is the skill to quickly upgrade yourself as per the market changes. If you are an MCP professional, we assume that you already familiar with MCSA Windows Server 2012 certification. But, now its time to grab the opportunity to become an MCSA Windows Server 2016 certified professional before others could be certified. It will surely enhance and boost your chances in the IT sector, especially for the Windows Server-related platforms and profiles.

When you search free MCSA Windows Server 2016 free PDF files, you will get a lot a results displaying the free MCSA PDFs. However, typically most of the links are paid or advertised links that will redirect you to third party sites. Here, we are going to explain easy steps to download free MCSA Windows Server 2016 Study Guide PDF.

Steps to Download MCSA Windows Server 2016 Free PDF Study Guide

For an IT professional, the steps might be pretty simple. But, since we don’t know the level of the reader, so we would like to start it from the most basic.

First of all, visit Microsoft’s official virtual academy (MVA) ebooks store site. If you are not logged in to MVA already, sign in to Microsoft Virtual Academy using your Microsoft Live account. Here, you will see all the free Microsoft official PDF files.
Scroll down and find the Windows Server 2016 study guide or any else that you may wish to download.
Click again Download and select the desired format such as PDF and then click Download. The downloading process should start.

Once the Windows Server 2016 Study Guide is downloaded use it to enhance your Windows Server 2016 knowledge and skills. This free PDF MCSA book covers the concept of almost all the latest Windows Server 2016 roles and features. However, this guide does not cover the step by step instructions to configure Windows Server 2016.

Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2016 Step By Step Lab Guide

To setup your own virtual lab and perform step by step Windows Server 2016 configuration, you may use the following MCSA Windows Server 2016 Step By Step Lab Manual. You may need to download and install Kindle Reader to read this book which is fairly easy to use.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Step By Step Lab Manual Guide

Please share any other Windows Server 2016 books or study materials that you may know. It will help our readers to learn more and more about Windows Server 2016.

August 28, 2016 by VCEWin

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification Exam Details

When I started my career in IT, it was the time Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Since then almost a decade has passed and we have witnessed to a lot of changes. From Disk Manager utility, Orkut social site, 700 MB capacity Compact Disc media, and Outlook 2003, we have completed the journey of technologies changes till the Hyper-V, Windows Azure, Office 365, Facebook and Whatsapp. It is about to one decade when we had used Windows Server 2003. Now it’s time of Windows Server 2016 to take up the responsibilities of Windows Server family. At the time of Windows Server 2003, Microsoft’s basic server level certification was known as Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE). From there, now, we reached till MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification.

Note: Don’t be confuse with MCSE Windows Server 2003 certification and MCSE (Microsoft Certified Solution Expert) Windows Server 2012 certification. Both have different exam codes and objectives.

Since Windows Server 2003 is no longer used in nowadays, so we will not waste too much time to remind about MCSE Windows Server 2003 certification.

Important: Windows Server 2016 is still in the Technical Preview (5) state, so the official MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification exam (currently in the beta exam state) information may slightly change when it would be officially launched.

MCSA Windows Server 2008 Certification

After few years, Microsoft launched Windows Server 2008 as the successor of Windows Server 2003. The most noticeable features of Windows Server 2008 were Hyper-V and RODC. Since the exam syllabus and objective were different from Windows Server 2003. It was required to clear five exams in order to earn the MCITP certification. Microsoft also changed the name of certification for Windows Server 2008. Now, it was known as Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP). The MCITP certification was categorized in two ways: MCITP Server Administrator and MCITP Desktop Administrator.

MCSA Windows Server 2012 Certification

After few years of Windows Server 2008 launching, we entered in the first decade of the 21^st century (2010). The technologies in the IT sector were changing so rapidly and Microsoft was unable to integrate all the trending new features, services, and products through the Windows Update service. Now it was the time when Windows Server 2012 was officially launched to handle the rapidly-changing and cloud- and virtualization-compatible technologies. The Certification name was also changed from MCITP to MCSA (Microsoft Certified Server Associate). In order to earn the MCSA Windows Server 2012 certification, you have to clear three exams: 410, 411, and 412.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification

Now finally, we come to our current era. Now, everything is going to be virtualized. The cloud technologies are becoming an integral part of our life. Now, we are habitual of social media, Internet, online marketing, and virtual things. The servers are now just not only used to provide IP address (DHCP), name resolution (DNS), and domain environment (AD DS), there are so many other things that are needed to handle and control the latest virtualization and Cloud technologies. That’s why Microsoft launches its next and latest version of server product family called Windows Server 2016. The name of Windows Server 2016 associate level certification is unchanged as it is still tagged as MCSA. However, the exam syllabus and exam codes are changed.

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification Exam Codes

The new MCSA 2016 certification exams code are as follows:

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Exam 740: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016. The exam objectives of this exam are almost similar to the objectives of MCSA 2012 exam 410. The most noticeable new exam objectives for this exam are configuring Nano server, Windows containers, and MDT.

Complete list of MCSA 740 exam objectives

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Exam 741: Networking with Windows Server 2016. This exam is almost similar to the MCSA 2012 exam 411. The new MCSA 2016 exam objectives also consist the configuration of Software Defined Networking (SDN).

Complete list of MCSA 741 exam objectives

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Exam 742: Identity with Windows Server 2016. This exam is almost similar to the MCSA 2012 exam 412. Further, this exam required the knowledge of Microsoft Windows Azure AD.

Complete list of MCSA 742 exam objectives

MCSA Upgrade Exam: If you already hold the MCSA Windows Server 2008 or MCSA Windows Server 2012 certification, you just need to pass MCSA exam 743 to earn your MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification.

Complete list of MCSA 743 exam objectives

MCSA Windows Server 2016 Study Guides

Since Windows Server 2016 is the latest product of Microsoft family and is still in the Technical Preview state, hence there are not too much study materials/guides are available for MCSA Windows Server 2016 exam. However, we would like to mention few resources that will certainly help you to learn Windows Server 2016. We would recommend the following study materials if you are serious to learn Windows Server 2016.

Windows Server 2016 Complete Study Guide Free PDF: This is completely free pdf that you download from the Microsoft press store. For this, you need to register to Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2016 Lab Manual: This is a step by step lab manual guide with complete virtual lab setup for Amazon kindle readers. You can download Amazon Kindle reader to use this step by step Windows Server 2016 configuration guide.

Frequently asked questions about MCSA Certification

What is the cost of MCSA Windows Server 2016 Certification?

The cost of an MCSA Windows Server 2016 certification exam paper depends on the country you reside. However, roughly it is $150.

Where to register for MCSA exam?

Once you are familiar with all the exam objectives and syllabus, you can register yourself to Pearson VUE for the MCSA Windows Server 2016 exam.

For more Microsoft Certification exam policies and FAQs visit the following link.

Microsoft exam policies and FAQs

Have you enjoyed the article? Please share you feedback and suggestions.

August 25, 2016 by VCEWin

Whats New in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V

We have posted various articles about Windows Server 2016. Here comes another useful article that describes what’s new in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. There are various new features and improvements have been added to the Hyper-V server role in Windows Server 2016. Some of the major new features of Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V are listed below:

Host Resource Protection

When you run multiple applications on a Hyper-V virtual machine, the virtual machine starts to consume more resources of the Hyper-V host. If the Hyper-V host does not have much of resources, the performance of Hyper-V host will be degraded. Host resource protection feature helps you to overcome these issues. It allows you to enforce a virtual machine to use only the amount of resources for that it is allowed. So the virtual machine cannot use the excessive resources of the host machine. Thus preventing from degrading the performance of the host or other virtual machines.

Recommended for You:

Hot Add and Remove Network Adapters and Memory

How swapping is a technique that allows you to add or remove components to a system or device while the device or system is running. In Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V, you can now add or remove a network adapter without shutting down the virtual machine. However, this applies only to the Generation 2 virtual machines. In addition, now, in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V role, you can also modify the amount of virtual memory for a virtual machine while the virtual machine being used.

Linux Secure Boot

Secure boot is a trending security feature in nowadays. It prevents the systems from the malicious users who try to take control of the system by inserting a code or script that works even before the system or machine boots. With the help of Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V, now, you can enable secure boot for the latest Linux-based virtual machine. Secure Boot is supported on the following Linux platforms and versions:

Ubuntu 14.04 and later
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later
CentOS 7.0 and later

Nested Virtualization

Nested virtualization allows you to run a Hypervisor inside a Hypervisor. Means, you can run a virtual machine inside a virtual machine. This was initially supported by VMware platform. But, now with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016, you can install and use Hyper-V role on a virtual machine that is already running on the Hyper-V host. Nested virtualization is especially useful in the development, training, and testing environments. In order to use nested virtualization, the Hyper-V must have at least 4 GB of RAM and the Intel VT-x supported processor.

Note: Currently, only Intel processors support the Nested virtualization.

Windows PowerShell Direct

In the previous version Windows servers, the virtual machines are typically managed by using the VMConnect and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). However, RDP requires a proper network connection and Windows Firewall configuration. With the introduction of Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016, a new method has been introduced to manage Hyper-V virtual machine called “Windows PowerShell Direct”. By using this feature, you can directly run the PowerShell cmdlets on virtual machines from the Hyper-V host. More importantly, you don’t need to setup networking or configure Windows Firewall.

Discrete Device Assignment

This feature enables Hyper-V virtual machines to directly and exclusively access to some PCIe devices. Logically, it acts in the same manner as a physical machine access the PCIe devices. Thus resulting the faster access the host resources.

Shielded Virtual Machines

With the more and more use and rapid growth of the Cloud technologies, data security becoming a major concern for the companies who want to deploy their virtual machines on the vendor’s Cloud. On the Public Cloud platform, a cloud service provider typically hosts the virtual machines of various customers. What would happen if somehow a customer get access (or copy) the virtual machines’ Virtual Hard Disk (VHD or VHDX) files of another customer’s VHDs? The copied VHDs can be imported and used on the other compatible Hyper-V hosts. Now, I think you got the idea behind introducing the Shielded Virtual Machine feature.

Here, comes a new security feature called “Shielded Virtual Machine” for Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V hosts. Shielded virtual machines make it tougher for unintended Hyper-V administrators and malware on the host to access, interfere with, or steal data from a shielded virtual machine. For this, first, you need to encrypt the virtual machine. Once the virtual machine is encrypted using the Shielded virtual machine, it can run only on the authorized Hyper-V hosts. The authorized Hyper-V hosts are determined by a server called Host Guardian Server.

Hyper-V Containers

Hyper-V containers are the light-weight form of virtual machines. Each Hyper-V container allows you to run many isolated applications on a single system. The most important things behind the popularity of containers are their fast to build, highly scalable, and portable behaviors.

August 23, 2016 by VCEWin

Whats New in DNS Server in Windows Server 2016

Windows Server 2016 is almost ready to be launched. The expected release date for Windows Server 2016 is the first quarter in 2017. There are various new features and enhancement (improvements) have been introduced with Windows Server 2016. Here, we are going to discuss what is new in DNS server in Windows Server 2016. If you are serious about the learning Windows Server 2016, following eBook may help you a lot.

You may also like the following articles:

New Functions in DNS Server in Windows Server 2016

The following are some of the key features and functions that are available within DNS Server in Windows Server 2016.

Note: This article is based on Windows Server 2016 technical preview 5 version.

DNS Policies

You can configure DNS policies to define how a DNS server answers to DNS queries. DNS responses can be based on client IP address (location), time of the day, and several other parameters.

In which scenarios, the DNS policies can help you?

The following are some of the common scenarios where DNS policies can be helpful:

Application high availability: DNS clients can be redirected to the best-suited endpoint for a specific application.
Traffic management: Now, DNS server helps to utilize bandwidth in the better manner. In order to reduce the bandwidth consumption, DNS clients can be redirected to the nearest datacenter.
Split-Brain DNS: DNS records are split into different Zone Scopes. The DNS clients receive an answer depending on whether they are internal or external clients.
Protection from malicious users: Malicious IP addresses and FQDNs can be blocked to prevent from performing DNS queries. In addition, malicious DNS clients can be redirected to a specific network zone (where they can be managed) instead of the system they are trying to access.
Time and day based redirection: This allows you to redirect specific DNS clients to specific datacenters during the specific time of the day.

Response Rate Limiting

You can enable response rate limiting on your DNS servers. Doing this allows you to avoid the possibility of malicious systems using your DNS servers to initiate a Denial of Service (DoS) attack from a DNS client.

Click here to know more about the response rate limiting.

DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities

With the DNS in Windows Server 2016, you can use Transport Layer Security Authentication (TLSA) records to prevent Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks.

Supports Unknown Records

With the DNS in Windows Server 2016, you can add records which are not explicitly supported by the Windows DNS server. This is done by using the unknown record feature.

Supports IPv6 Root Hints

Now, DNS server in Windows Server 2016 supports the native IPv6 root hints. It helps to perform the Internet name resolution using the IPv6 root servers.

Along with the above-mentioned new features of DNS Server in Windows Server 2016, there are various new Windows PowerShell cmdlets have been added. These new cmdlets allow you to configure and manage the DNS server in Windows Server 2016 with more flexibility and CLI control.

Here, we have discussed what’s new in DNS server in Windows Server 2016. Would you like to share it? Please share it.

Deal of the month