What is there to say about NS1-050…
Avoid taking it if you don’t have a good understanding of FAS equipment and Data ONTAP
It doesn’t require an advanced understanding, but a good solid foundation, having worked with equipment for some time, as well as some basic diagnostic and configuration work.
Still nothing published about this on the NetApp Certification site, but betas are as betas will be!
Good luck taking it!
As you can tell from past postings – I keep an eye out for Certification exams.
I usually check specifically for Microsoft ones, and I also keep my eyes out for NetApp exams.
So, with that – NS1-050 is available in Beta until August 15th
It clocks in as a 3:15 minute exam, so normal par for the course of a NetApp Beta Exam
These type of exams are simply $0.00 cost, no associated Promotion code nor Voucher needed.
I imagine we’re looking at a fairly straight forward “What is involved in Installation”
Where the exam will play out in the big picture – hard to tell, I cannot find any details on this!
But nonetheless – you Storage guys out there, interested in taking it, knock it out!
If I find any details posted about this, I’ll be sure to let you know!
I love Trika! She’s such a wealth of knowledge, information, lolcatz and a number of other sillie things!
In this episode, we cover two (more) beta exams.
71-654 – TS: Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Configuring
The promo code is “EBS08”
The beta is initially scheduled from 7/22 to 8/12.
About EBS: “Windows Essential Business Server 2008 combines software for management, messaging, and security features into one integrated server solution that will help customers increase the manageability and reliability of their IT systems, and boost businesses productivity and growth.”
This credential is designed for information technology (IT) professionals working in or consulting with medium sized businesses that use Windows Essentials Server 2008. A candidate for this exam should have at least one year of experience deploying, configuring, and managing network solutions in an environment with the following characteristics:
* 75+ company network connections
* Company networks with Internet connectivity
* Individual users or user groups that connect to the company network from remote locations
* Messaging (Internet, and Exchange)
* Anti-spam
And the second (and cooooolest one)
71-660: TS: Windows® Internals
The promo code is “WINT”
Beta exam period runs: July 21, 2008– August 5, 2008
About this Exam
This exam validates deep technical skills in the area of Windows Internals. Including troubleshooting operating systems that are not performing as expected or applications that are not working correctly, identifying code defects, and developing and debugging applications that run unmanaged code or that are tightly integrated with the operating system, such as Microsoft SQL Server, third party applications, antivirus software, and device drivers.
Audience Profile
Candidates for this exam are engineers, developers, or IT staff who work with Windows at a level that requires Windows Internals knowledge. Candidates for this exam are typically in the upper echelon of the technical staff at their companies. These individuals typically hold such positions as escalation engineer, technical lead, and software design engineer. Their level of knowledge spans products both inside and outside the Microsoft Corporation. These individuals are involved in resolving problems that require deep understanding of Windows Internals rather than problems about planning and infrastructure development or how to use or configure a product that runs on Windows.
As a security guy, I can tell you – There are a lot of really good security best practices to be applied across all systems, applications, servers and a world over. But when implemented unchecked – Problems will arise.
What I am talking about specifically is this little doozy – EnablePMTUDiscovery
Value name: EnablePMTUDiscovery
Key: Tcpip\Parameters
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Valid Range: 0, 1 (False, True)
Default: 1 (True)
The following list describes the parameters that you can use with this registry value:
Important Setting EnablePMTUDiscovery to 0 negatively affects TCP/IP performance and throughput. Even though Microsoft recommends this setting, it should not be used unless you are fully aware of this performance loss.
That little excerpt taken from:
How to harden the TCP/IP stack against denial of service attacks in Windows 2000
This KB article is still used and is applicable to the Windows 2003 space, but what does this do exactly?
This will drop all transmissions over TCP/IP down to 576 byte packets. Oh and this is a global setting.
So, you go to connect up to an iSCSI LUN, and it connects up just fine.
Your host is working, your storage is working everything is all doozy.
When you start to try to actually -use- that connection for storage though, you’ll begin to experience exponential latency. This latency will translate into IOPS problems and access to the disk, masking this making it appear to be a disk issue. This effectively cripples your application, yet is hidden so well from the system as a problem without sniffing or using something like mturoute you’d never know it is happening.
MTURoute is your friend and will help you determine your current MTU
With that said, on any systems with iSCSI connectivity, I strongly encourage you to NOT disable this setting, ensuring that EnablePMTUDiscovery is always set to 1
Thanks for your time!
I received this email today… see below! It’s amazing!
Cisco and Pearson VUE Launch Global Test Delivery Exam Security Enhancements
Cisco and its global testing provider, Pearson VUE, a business of Pearson Inc. are pleased to announce a series of security enhancements that will reinforce the integrity and value of its Career certification program.
The advanced security enhancements include the use of digital photographs for candidate-identity verification and forensic analysis of testing data. The new measures, to be implemented beginning on Aug. 1, will include:
* Photo on Score Report and Web – On completion of a certification exam at the test center, candidates will receive preliminary score reports imprinted with their photos and unique authentication codes. The authentication code can be used to access a candidate’s official score online at Pearson VUE’s website usually within 72 hours of the examination. The online score report will also display the candidate’s photo. Candidates may share access to their online records with employers or other third parties.
* Forensic Analysis – Exam results and other testing data will be continuously analyzed by forensic software to detect aberrant testing behavior and to flag suspect exams for further investigation.
* Preliminary Score Report – All paper score reports will be preliminary, pending the results of forensic analysis, until official exam scores are posted to the Web usually within 72 hours of exam completion. Once the exam scores are official, candidates may use the authentication codes on their score reports to access the Pearson VUE website for score and photo verification.
These new exam security measures are part of Cisco’s overall strategy to protect the value and integrity of its certifications. Other measures include simulation-based testing, dynamically generated questions and emulations to help ensure that Cisco certified networking professionals continue to have the knowledge, skills, and credentials to perform well on the job.
So, you might be thinking “What does this mean to me?”
This means a new era is upon us! A new way of testing! A whole new paradigm shift…
Well, not exactly.
Am I confusing Cisco – the company who guarantees your certification will expire in 2 years (sometimes 3!) with another company? I must be confused.
No, alot of people WILL get burned, that’s a fact. This is the positive out look on it.
Walk in, expecting this to be painful, and I think we’ll be fine.
I expect and imagine a lot of very good things from this, hopefully inclusive with this is a reform of the entire Cisco Certification track to make it more applicable, viable and useful – Too much memorization involved.
Good Luck!