Study help: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (70-462)
I can honeslty say that I am extremely happy with my new job as a Junior BI/DW Consultant. Challenging projects, flexible work hours, great colleagues and a downtown work location - I can't really ask for more!
Since we have a huge storm rolling into Gothenburg I decided to stay home today and focus on my Microsoft Certifications. I am currently studying for the Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (70-462) Certification. It's going good however I would be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge!
I haven't really worked much with Server Administration and tbh it is a difficult area to jump right into if you lack prior knowledge and work experience. My colleagues agree that it is not an area of expertise and even those who have worked within the DBA field (10 years experience) find the exam questions to be vague and very difficult. So how am I supposed to pass the 70-462 exam?
Well I figured I needed to start somewhere and I started by reading these books:
The Training Kit lost me at times and was more like a quick overview than an explanation of how things work. I preferred the Apress book as it gave me a great overview, however do take into account that I am a beginner therefor my opinion may not be valid for anyone with prior experience.
I also did all the labs from a 10775A course which I found easier than the labs in the training kit book (considering the 6 VM setup and configurations gah...) The 10775A course labs only required an AD and one VM with 1 default instance and 3 named instances.
So what do you need to know? The 70-462 exam includes the following:
Installation Planning
Installing SQL Server and related services
Implementation of a migration strategy
How to configure additional SQL Server components
Managing the SQL Server Agent
Database management and configuration
How to configure SQL Server instances
Implementing a SQL Server clustered instance
SQL Server instances management
How to properly Identify and resolve concurrency problems
The collection of and how to analyze troubleshooting data
Auditing SQL Server instances
Configure and maintain a back up strategy
Database restoration
Implementing and maintaining indexes
Importing and exporting data
Managing logins and server roles
Managing database permissions
Managing users and database roles
Troubleshooting security
Implementing AlwaysOn, database mirroring and replication
From what I've heard, there are a few fundamentals that will be on the exam:
Installation/Configuration
Security
Backup/Restore
High Availability (including, Replication, Clustering, Always-on Technology, Mirroring)
I am still in the study phase but I'm getting close to my exam date - hopefully I will be ready by next week but it all depends on my projects and how much time I have leftover at work. So we'll see how it goes!














