Microsoft 70-413: Designing and Implementing a Server Inf...

Explore how Windows Server 2012 topology supports infrastructure design and lab-based learning, and learn to replicate a lab environment and emulate server and Active Directory scenarios.

Explore how to plan and navigate a lab-based server environment using Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V, with focus on Active Directory, acronyms, and exam best practices for 70-413.

Set up hands-on labs on Hyper-V, building virtual machines on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, and even client OS like Windows 8 to practice server infrastructure.

Leverage Microsoft TechNet resources and sandbox environments to set up a dev lab with Hyper-V and trial Windows servers (2012, 2008 R2, 8) and 90–180 day licenses on VHDs.

Explore presentation types—video, slides, and visuals—while guiding hands-on labs with Hyper-V, domain controller, and interrelated server design for enterprise functionality.

Preview what Microsoft is showing us through quick screen caps, offering a brief look at key points.

Explore the Microsoft 70-413 exam framework by examining how to plan, deploy, design, and implement a server infrastructure, network services, and Active Directory components through scenario-driven questions.

Prepare for the Windows Server 2012 exam by exploring server design, implementation, and hands-on demos in a lab environment using Hyper-V, emphasizing terminology and clarity.

Plan and design your server deployment strategy by assessing locations, servers, clients, and operating systems, then choose images and deployment automation levels to fit bandwidth and architecture.

Explore Windows Server 2012 infrastructure typology, comparing client and server OS flavors, deployment tools, and image-based vs binary deployments, with lab prep and BPA best practice analyzer insights.

Evaluate your organization's size, locations, and bandwidth to design the 2012 server deployment topology with image strategies and automation levels for scalable, efficient deployments.

Explore the flavors of Windows Server 2012 editions to match licensing, roles, and deployment needs, including Core, Standard, Data Center, Essentials, Hyper-V, and Storage Server additions.

Assess hardware requirements from minimum 64-bit processors and modest RAM to scalable data centers with up to 640 processors, terabytes of RAM and storage, and clustering for high availability.

Examine fresh install vs upgrade and migration options for a 2012 server deployment. Assess hardware minimums, boot from VFP, and migration tools when upgrading from 2003/2008 to 2012.

Demonstrate the structure and components of Windows image files, focusing on the Wim format and its header, resources, data, and integrity tables used in single or multicast deployments.

Discover the Microsoft deployment tool kit and Windows automated installation kit basics for end-to-end deployment, covering server, client, and management components and group deployment.

Explore automated server deployment from a network image using tools like imagex, wake toolkit, and dimsum, enabling driver integration and unattended answer files for Windows Server 2012.

Explore automated server installation using deployment shares, answer files, and the user state migration tool to migrate files and settings, with multicast deployment via WDM and front-end automation for scale.

Design and deploy efficient Windows Server 2012 images by planning content, testing builds, and choosing thin, hybrid, or customized images; leverage virtualization, templates, and bandwidth considerations to accelerate deployment.

Discover System Center and Configuration Manager for deploying operating systems in server environments, including side-by-side, wipe-and-load, and in-place upgrades. Use distribution points, sequencing, and Virtual Machine Manager for private clouds.

Prepare for deployment by practicing on demonstration machines, and set up an image store to host files that install the role on Windows Server 2012.

Set up a Hyper-V lab on server 2008 R2 with domain controllers and Florida server, then install Windows deployment services via server manager for image-based deployments.

Prepare for deployment part 3 walks through creating an image store, connecting to it, and using a custom install.wim from an ISO via a DVD drive on Windows Server 2012.

Prepare for deployment by configuring image permissions on the e drive, mounting an install.wim, running as administrator, and adding a web role to the mounted image.

Mount the image, install the web server role, and enable the web server feature, then commit changes. Unmount the image and configure the image store and mapped drive.

Configure Windows Deployment Services in Server Manager with Active Directory integration and a remote installation folder; add boot and install images from the command line.

Prepare deployment by configuring Pixi response, applying a server-based naming scheme with a user-name based format, and verifying network boot and Windows installation via Hyper-V for the Florida server.

Deploy a complete Windows Server 2012 using image stores with a hands-off setup, accept the license, set a password, log in, and verify installed roles in server manager.

Learn practices for preparing a Windows Server 2012 image with the Best Practice Analyzer. Run BPA from Server Manager or PowerShell to identify errors and optimize the server before deployment.

Wraps up chapter by comparing Windows server flavors and deployment options, from hands-on approaches for small setups to image-based deployments using MDT and the weak tool kit for larger environments.

Explore upgrade and migration paths for Windows Server design and infrastructure, focusing on the map toolkit and planning whiteboarding techniques to visualize capacity plans.

Plan your rollout by weighing upgrade versus migration options for servers, apply OS migration lessons to server environments, cover licensing activation, and explore 2012 virtualization for private or hosted clouds.

Diagram your network and servers to establish a concrete baseline of hardware, operating systems, and service packs, then explore virtualization and cloud options with the Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit.

Plan a server upgrade by assessing people, resources, and timelines, leveraging centralized management where possible, testing in virtual environments, and mapping a weekend rollout with clear documentation.

Explore upgrade plans for moving to Windows Server 2012, weighing pros like keeping apps and settings vs cons of carrying existing issues; ensure 64-bit compatibility and test thoroughly.

Explore migration plans to deploy a fresh install, improve data consistency, test in a sandbox, and leverage new operating system enhancements for security, performance, and functionality in production.

Identify 2012 requirements such as RAM and hard drive needs, and distinguish upgrades from migrations. Note data center features like 640 processors, terabytes of VRAM, and multi-node clustering.

Explore server licensing options, including automatic and manual activation, key management system and volume activation tool, and Active Directory integration for licensing automation.

Discover activation options for Windows Server, including no grace period, using slmgr.vbs, rearm, and Active Directory activation. Leverage KMS and volume activation services to license and activate machines offline.

Examine capacity, storage, and virtualization in Windows Server 2012, including cohosting and running multiple roles on a single machine, plus migrating services for high availability.

Understand private cloud concepts by offloading routine IT tasks to cloud services, and compare private versus public clouds with hosted e-mail and Office 365.

Explore virtualization that maximizes hardware use by virtualizing servers and applications, optimizing memory and storage, with Hyper-V enabling high availability, migration, and cloud hosting through synchronized management.

Open the Microsoft assessment planning toolkit resources, explore the getting started guides, case studies, reports, and videos, and follow with a brief whiteboarding session.

Discover how the Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit, MAP, inventories your servers and workstations, analyzes performance and ROI, and generates Excel reports to support virtualization and migration decisions.

Explore the assessment planning toolkit to inventory your environment, run discovery across IP ranges or ad domain services, and generate maps, reports, and proposals for Windows Server upgrades.

Assess how the Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit checks Windows Server upgrade readiness, evaluating 64-bit compatibility, disk space, and memory. It generates a proposal with remediation steps and virtualization benefits.

Use the map tools to assess your environment and document details. Build a plan weighing hardware, cloud or hosted options, licensing, storage, and SQL usage.

Plan storage for a Windows Server 2012 infrastructure by exploring storage options and SAN technology, with insights from enterprise storage practices and price trends.

Plan storage for virtual machines by examining direct attached storage options and demonstrating iSCSI to develop a SAN, including a Windows Server 2012 setup demo.

Explore storage basics in Windows Server 2012, including storage space with SMB data duplication to shrink storage, and review iscsi architecture, branch cache, dfs, and client caching.

Explore raid options for large enterprise storage, from software raid in desktop environments to hardware arrays in servers, covering raid 0, raid 1, and raid 10, and consider san and das.

Explore storage options such as a storage area network, network attached storage, and direct attached storage, and learn how LUNs influence speed and cost in small or home environments.

Direct attached storage (DAS) is physically attached to your machine, often via USB, offering low cost but limited flexibility and scalability when multiple users access it.

Explore how network attached storage units plug into your network to share files across multiple clients, operate as a scalable file-level storage appliance, and support protocols like NFS and SMB.

Explore storage area networks, enabling block-level storage across fiber networks for databases such as Oracle, with LUNs, virtual drives, pooling, and NAS/SAN hybrids.

Explore how iSCSI enables ip-based communication with scsi devices over a san, outlining the configuration that coordinates initiator and target and detailing 2012 authentication enhancements.

Explore iSCSI target server concepts, including how the server role manages block storage for Hyper-V, supports diskless boot, and enables heterogeneous storage with test and lab scenarios.

Explore how high availability uses MSCS session failover and MPO network failover to keep storage accessible, while applying defense-in-depth security to segregated data, hosts, and applications.

Watch a live demonstration of configuring iSCSI virtual disks on servers, and learn how to set up storage in this session.

Install the iSCSI target server feature under file and storage services to configure this server as an iSCSI target with virtual disks, then restart to complete the setup.

Set up iSCSI virtual disks via the storage wizard, selecting the C: drive and naming Disk 1. Configure initiator ID, IP access, and authentication, then repeat for an existing target.

Connect the iSCSI initiator to remote targets, initialize the discovered disks in disk management, bring them online, format them, and use the three gigabyte virtual disks in this iSCSI setup.

Explore iSCSI virtual disks and storage options, from affordable NAS appliances for small offices to large enterprise arrays, and compare SAN and NAS approaches in Windows Server 2012 contexts.

Compare direct attached storage, NAS, and SAN to choose cost-effective, scalable, secure, and controllable options for enterprise storage needs.

Explore dns in depth, assess its expanded role with ipv6 in enterprise infrastructure, and learn how naming conventions and naming services support planning and operations.

Explore domain name system basics and advanced planning for Windows Server 2012, including namespace, zones, zone types, and replication, to improve DNS security, availability, and integration across multiple sites.

Explore how DNS resolves host names to IP addresses, manage zones and records, and implement forward and reverse lookups, including IPv6 and local storage options.

Plan active directory domain services with dns, covering naming conventions, sites and replication, zone types and dns roles, plus security, legacy support, and ipv4/ipv6 considerations.

Design and implement a namespace using DNS to resolve names from local hosts to DNS servers, manage aliases for disambiguation, and ensure unique names like Microsoft.com and mail servers.

Explore how to name exchange servers with internal and external namespaces, avoid publishing private namespaces to external DNS, and use unique or subdomain naming to separate internal and external addresses.

Compare primary, secondary, and stub DNS zones and explain writable versus read-only or partial copies. Explore AD-integrated DNS and multi-master replication that keeps zones authoritative across domain controllers.

Explore DNS zone types by examining A, AAAA, CNAME, SRV, and PTR records, and see how name servers provide authoritative support for clients and services.

Plan DNS data storage across primary–secondary and AD integrated servers, with domain controllers, replication, and multi-site design, while addressing legacy NetBIOS, WINS, and global names zones.

Explain full transfers in a time zone from one to another, incremental transfers with recorded updates, and a fast zone transfer using a compressed record.

Using Active Directory integrated zones enables automatic DNS record updates and replication across domain controllers via multi-master replication, reducing troubleshooting and increasing reliability.

Understand how an initial query triggers iterative questions vs recursive questions, and how DNS forwards to authoritative sources via local ISP, conditional forwards, and business partners to resolve answers.

Configure caching and root hints to speed DNS lookups, maintaining a local copy; disable local subnet prioritization and round robin to optimize performance with a primary setup.

Strengthen DNS security with global query block lists, security extensions, randomizing the DNS query source port, a large socket pool, and cache blocking plus time-to-live controls.

Explore DNSSEC as another layer of built-in security, covering trust anchors, zone signing, distribution points, and name resolution policy tables to secure DNS requests.

Explore how DNSSEC improvements in 2012, including a wizard for zone signing, trust anchors, and resource records, simplify DNS security with a public key, delegation hashes, and signatures.

Identify common DNS attacks such as denial of service, data modifications, and redirection to attacker controlled DNS servers, and learn how footprinting exposes naming conventions to protect against them.

Assess high-availability dns designs by weighing one versus two dns per site or zone and the role of centralized network load balancing in enterprise resilience.

Explore DNS basics on a server. Install DNS, set up a primary and secondary, and review available options.

Install and configure DNS server roles, use the DNS Manager and DNS command-line to create zones, including a secondary zone, and enable Active Directory integration with automatic DNS data replication.

Master DNS administration tasks by using DNS commands to add zones, populate forward lookup data, transfer zones from the master, and configure forwarders in DNS manager.

Configure DNS to validate records, disable round robin, enable automatic scavenging, load zone data from Active Directory, remove root hints, and implement global name zones with secure dynamic updates.

Plan dns design by assessing organizational needs, site count, and namespace strategy. Evaluate zones and replication options, including Active Directory integrated replication, to ensure security and high availability.

Explore networking fundamentals in Windows Server 2012, including DNS essentials, IPv6 considerations, and the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) for automatic address assignment.

Explore the core dhcp components—scopes, the dhcp server service, and options like suffixes, dns addresses, and gateways—and how management tools access the dhcp database and leasing basics.

Explore how dhcp uses address scopes and a server service, with options like dns suffixes, dns addresses, and gateways; manage it via remote tools and store data in system32 dhcp.

Explore how to plan and manage IP address assignment with DHCP, balancing static and dynamic allocations, reservations, and subnet- and site-based segmentation for servers, devices, and mobile clients.

Decide on an IP schema, weigh private versus public addresses, plan NAT to serve hundreds of thousands of users with few public IPs, and design scalable subnet patterns.

Review how the DHCP process assigns addresses on the local network, with default eight-day leases, renewal checks, and security-driven tweaks per subnet for corporate versus public devices.

Align dhcp and dns to play nice by deciding who creates or updates resource records when a client lease ends, including automatic pointer and host record updates and expiry deletion.

Learn dhcp failover in server 2012 without clustering, featuring hot standby and load sharing modes. Configure maximum client lead time, auto state switch, message authentication, and firewall port 6:47.

Explore super scopes, dual networks, and multi-netting, and configure multicast scopes for Windows deployment services to efficiently reach a large volume of clients.

Understand IPv6 concepts, including stateless and stateful address assignment, DHCP involvement, and where addresses are handed out—server or router—covering link-local, prefixes, lifetimes, and scope.

Enable name protection on the server to enforce precedence in IP address assignment, reducing DHCP conflicts, named squatting, and IPv4/IPv6 address contention across static and dynamic clients.

Demonstrates basic dhcp setup and failover on servers, showing how to configure and test the failover.

Log into server 1 to install the dhcp role and establish a failover with the domain controller. Plan subnets and scopes, set static ips, and authorize the server.

Configure dhcp failover with the wizard, set a partner, enable load balance, adjust max client lead time, and secure a shared secret for stateful switchover.

Design and plan before implementation by examining ipv4 and ipv6 addressing, dhp failover, and subsetting across public and private ranges, with dns interoperability, name protection, high availability, and security.

Explore IP address management (IPAM) within a Windows 2012 infrastructure, building on DNS and DHC concepts to plan and implement scalable networking addresses.

Explore IP address management (IPAM) in Windows Server 2012, including planning, deployment requirements, benefits, and securing IP addresses, with a demonstration of installing and configuring IPAM.

Explore a small network and identify opportunities to optimize IP address management to improve network topology planning.

Adopt a repeatable IP addressing scheme to reveal device type and location at a glance. Apply /24 CIDR notation to separate data and telephony subnets for easier troubleshooting.

Explore IPAM basics and how automated IP address management integrates DHCP and DNS, with discovery and planning, centralized monitoring, and Windows internal database for compliance, change management, and forensics.

Choose a single management point to streamline DHCP and DNS across growing organizations, scale to thousands of DHCP scopes and DNS zones, and monitor IPv4 utilization, reclamation, and long-term inventory.

Explore four Pam components: EPM discovery, address space management, multi-server management, and operational ordering and tracking, interacting with DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory on Windows 2008/2012 domain controllers.

Deploy a single-purpose member server on Windows Server 2012 with RAM and drive space, segregated from domain controllers, and enable logging; ensure 2008/2012 SP2, NET Framework 4.0, and IPv6 readiness.

Explore IP address management security in IPAM, detailing delegated admin roles, view and monitor permissions, and how to manage DHCP, DNS zones and records across multiple servers.

Plan the approach for implementing IPAM, discuss exam-style scenarios, and demonstrate the installation and configuration on servers.

Install and configure IPAM on the IP address management server, provision the server via the provisioning wizard, and run server discovery to enable DHCP and DNS integration.

Select and configure IPAM across domain controllers, force group policy updates, and verify DNS and DHCP servers, using GPO provisioning to monitor two additional servers.

Explore installing and configuring iPad hardware, streamline IP address management, resolve conflicts, assemble components, and use EPM to meet compliance, utilization, and planning needs.

Explore the basics of Active Directory and Active Directory domain services. Introduce domains, forests, and trusts and outline the logical framework.

Explore forests and domains, including single versus multi-master modes, functional levels, and upgrading, and learn how trusts, planning, and active directory components shape domain and forest setup.

Explore how a forest is the top-level administrative unit in Active Directory, linking domains and enabling shared resources, and consider forest models and security boundaries.

Explore the domain tree concept as the hierarchical, logical grouping of users, computers, and objects within one or more domains, including domain controllers, replication, and security scope.

Explore main domain models in Active Directory, including single domain, single domain tree, regional domains, and resource domains, and note replication traffic, name space, and fine-grained passwords and account lockouts.

Explore the benefits and risks of a single domain or single forest design, including simplicity, centralized management, and potential loss of security boundaries.

Examine why organizations split into multiple domains or forests to improve replication, decentralized management, and regional control, and how passwords and count lockouts enable segregation in Active Directory environments.

Explore how domain and forest functional levels evolve from Windows 2000 to 2012, enabling features such as fine-grained passwords, read-only domain controllers, Kerberos armoring, and the forest recycle bin.

Upgrade from 2008 to 2012 in place with a wizard to simplify migration. Plan ahead and use Active Directory migration tools for SIDs and moves of users, computers, and groups.

Understand how to design and implement trusts, including forest, domain, and external trusts, with Kerberos v5 authentication and UPN suffix routing, with emphasis on testing and less is more approach.

Plan the directory by aligning business and security requirements, evaluating must-have versus want-to-have features, and adopt a simpler domain-level structure to ease administration and replication.

Explore forest trusts by setting up a forest in a domain and performing a live server demonstration to illustrate trust fundamentals.

implement forest trusts between two forests by configuring dns conditional forwarders, then create a two-way, transitive forest-level trust in active directory domains and trusts, using administrative accounts in both domains.

Set up a forest trust between two forests by completing the wizard, confirming the outgoing trust, and move on to examine domain trusts.

Complete the forest trust setup and promote a server to a domain controller using the AD DS configuration wizard, add a domain to the forest, and review the PowerShell script.

Restart the joined machine to complete this part of the domain forest demonstration, then add a server as a domain controller and join it to the domain.

Explore active directory concepts across single and multi forests, domain functional levels, and forest trusts, and plan migrations or upgrades to leverage Server 2012 features for simpler infrastructure.

Demonstrate advanced group policy management by designing and implementing GPOs within Active Directory domain services, including server-side and client-side controls, and conclude with a practical GPO setup demonstration.

Explore the basics and design aspects of group policy objects, including migration, types, planning, monitoring, and backup strategies, to understand how AGPM and GPOs shape domain management.

Explore how a group policy object enables centralized configurations for users and computers by linking to active directory containers, leveraging hierarchical processing, inheritance, and domain, server, and domain controller scopes.

Apply organization-wide control over users, computers, and servers with group policy, restricting programs, downloads, and software versions while locking down desktop appearance and security features.

Explore how Windows Group Policy Objects empower administrators to manage software installation, firewall settings, and user access through administrative and security templates across networks.

Enforce domain-level password policies with complexity and length requirements, and deploy and control software, ActiveX, and plugins via group policy for a centralized, secure corporate environment.

Explore how group policy objects apply user and computer settings, including enabled, disabled, or not configured options, rsop results to compare policy effects, and inheritance blocked or enforced.

Explore how GPO templates in the system root policy definitions interact with container settings in Active Directory to create the modified object and trigger a registry change.

Central store houses Adium X files to apply language-neutral settings via policy definitions and the registry, shaping the end-user experience.

Plan design decisions using multiple local gpos for machines and users, compare policy versus preference, and apply desktop icons, backgrounds, drive mappings, shortcuts, mapped printers, and start menus with rules.

Understand how inheritance and precedence decide which group policy prevails, including blocking inheritance and enforced GPOs. Compare managed versus unmanaged templates and learn about GPO tattooing and test environments.

Discuss how slow network links affect group policy processing and boot times, and how Windows Server 2012's network location awareness adapts policy application for remote sites and clients.

Use templates to standardize configurations, from starter presets to high security, including government use cases. Lock machines with GPO for kiosk or receptionist roles, and import, export, and share templates.

Explore importing and exporting for migrations across domains and forests, using cab files and delegated control for remote deployments and GPO reuse.

Delegate GPO creation and editing, assign permissions across domain, enterprise, creator, and local levels, and monitor with auditing of system events, logons, logoffs, object access, and account changes for troubleshooting.

Move from planning to action by building, designing, implementing, and testing a GPO on your server. The session shows the GPO design process on the server.

Design a GPO part 2 guides you to create and edit a group policy object, configure computer and user policies, enforce automatic updates, and block registry and command prompt access.

Create and manage group policy objects to control access, interactive logon messages, and drive mappings, then delegate administration for sales and marketing to streamline security and deployment.

Design and apply a GPO to disable command prompt and registry editing, control Windows Update and system settings, and display access messages for authorized users.

Implement a GPO design to lock down sales and marketing users, restrict registry edits and command prompt, and tailor rules for IT and administrators, including Windows updates and drive mappings.

Discover how GPA evolves to control enterprise infrastructure through policies, inheritance, storage and templating of policy sets, and applying filters to shape end-user and server experiences.