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Using Windows Server 2003 Planning Tools and Documentation • Chapter 1
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Summary of Exam Objectives
The 70-293 MCSE exam measures skills related to the planning and maintenance of aWindows Server 2003 infrastructure.This exam covers tasks relating to all aspects of net-work design and planning, including making provisions for network security, performance,and availability.This chapter has introduced you to these topics; subsequent chapters willexamine the tasks introduced here in far greater detail.The upcoming chapters in this guidewill take you through all the necessary steps to prepare for the 70-293 exam.The first skill set measured by this exam involves the ability to plan roles for installedservers in your network.We’ll discuss how to evaluate existing technologies and hardwareto select the appropriate function for each machine in your network, including Web servers,database servers, and domain controllers.You’ll also learn how to plan and configure yourphysical network infrastructure, including TCP/IP addressing schemes, traffic monitoring,and planning for Internet connectivity.Windows Server 2003 includes features to provide fault tolerance and increased avail-ability for your network environment. Network Load Balancing and server clustering willenable you to configure logical groups of servers that will function as a single entity,allowing you to continue providing network services to your users and clients in the eventof a hardware or another type of system failure.We’ll also examine the steps needed to setup an effective security infrastructure, including the use of Internet Protocol Security(IPSec) and PKI.To begin our look at the exam objectives here, we started with an overview of the net-work design process. As you can tell, this process is as much interpersonal as it is technical;in order to develop a useful network, you need to understand what your users, clients, andtheir managers are expecting the network to do in the first place. Before you can get downto the specifics of choosing server operating systems, software, and hardware, it’s critical todevelop a high-level perspective on your organization’s overall makeup, managerial struc-ture, and business requirements.This can include specific functions like e-mail, Internetavailability, and printer sharing, along with overall organizational requirements like fault tol-erance, growth capacity, and information security.You’ll use this information to design anetwork that will meet the needs of all members of the organization and make their workas smooth and efficient as possible.Once you’ve developed a design that you’re satisfied with, you should test the designplan rather than immediately implementing it in a production environment.This will allowyou to work out any quirks in the design or to spot something that doesn’t work in realityquite as well as it seemed to on paper.We covered the various options available in creating atest lab, including using temporary equipment, creating a permanent site for testing, andusing third-party tools to simulate multiple operating systems when time, space, or moneyare too tight for a full-blown test lab.We also talked about design considerations for the testlab itself and how best to secure the test lab so that any changes you make there won’taffect your production equipment and environment. Finally, we looked at the importance ofnetwork documentation, during the planning stages as well as throughout the life of yournetwork.
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