Resources for MCDBA certifications

Ok, another one of these.

The MCDBA certification is for the MS SQL Server 2000. It is the main one if you work on mostly SQL Server 2000 boxen.

Requirements for certification

You need a total of 4 exams for the MCDBA certification. These are 2 SQL, 1 Server and 1 Elective

The 2 SQL ones are are the ones I will concentrate on, as the other 2 are also used in other certs and will be probably covered in due time.

The 2 SQL Server exams are

70-228 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition

70-229 Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition

Preparing for the exams

Each of the exams are questions only, and require the standard 700 out of 1000 to pass the exam. Unlike the newer server exams there are no simulations on either of these exams.

As with any of these exams, the best thing is to get a copy of the server software to play with. This will get you familiar with the UI and also with the basic concepts that you will be examined on. Also make sure that you install the Northwind and AdventureWorks sample databases. This will save you having to create databases with sample data in them.

70-228

This is the server exam. This is the one that is concerned with things such as filegrowth, RAID levels, upgrading the existing 6.5/7.0 servers and other such server tasks. System admins will prefer this one over the 229 exam.

The exam matrix details what is being tested on this exam.

Main things, is know the different RAID levels by either their number or description and know the difference between them. Backups are also a normal topic in any server based exam as well as disaster recovery. Know the difference between differential and incremental and where and why you would use one over the other. Windows security principles, NTLM and such stuff are also good things to know.


70-229

This is more the database design exam and appeals to developers more than pure system admins. This exams deals a lot with schemas, database design, normalisation, SQL, views and stored procs.

The exam matrix details what is being tested on this exam.

Make sure you are familiar with security principles, DDL (data definition), normalisation and optimisation. Also indexing, creating clustered indexes, what is the best based on a couple of given queries etc.

Books

As the MCDBA is a very established certification (read that as old!) there are plenty of books out there for the SQL Server parts of the exam. The main 2 are the MS Press ones which are very thorough. Now as with all prep books, they only cover so much and if you just use the books alone, then you may find yourself short of the mark for the exam.

The 70-228 exam is fairly well covered in this book. All the stuff on RAID, basic networks stuff can be got off the web. Follow the exam matrix just to make sure that you are covering it all. It does help, if you have a good grounding of Windows Security principles as well.

This book covers the 70-229 material, but you may need to supplement it with additional texts.

Both books also comes with the trial version of SQL Server 2000 Enterprise, and I would always recommend that you install it on a virtual machine image rather than on a desktop computer. This is mainly so you can copy the images and set up things such as replication and linked servers. Also from a purely different point of view, you can backup the image and if the worst happens, you just get a fresh copy of the image and start again. You can download Virtual PC 2007 for free and you can also pick up a copy of Windows 2003 server trial edition to install.

Sample Exams

There are plenty of providers out there saying they give sample questions. MeasureUp is one of the few certified sample providers. You should invest in a sample question set purely to get used to the exam format especially if this is your first exam. Wording will cause you the most hassle as you need to be very thorough in reading the questions. This goes for every MS exam.

A standard way of reading an exam question, is to first read all the answers quickly. Then with the answers in your mind, read the question slowly and thus eliminating most of the incorrect answers. This will reduce the stress of the exam and also allow to put in the right frame of mind for the question. Because each question could be similar to the previous one, knowing what they are looking for before reading the question will focus you into the specifics of the question.

Main points to consider

Things to keep in mind when doing the exams..

1. Least effort/privelage. A main theme running through any of these exams. Any change to the system, should require the least effort either in administration, time or impact to the sytem. Any security should be of the least privelage variety, in that you should only have the least amount of permissions to do the job.
2. Windows Principles, is a very strong theme in any admin exam. Mainly security and securing the system.
3. RAID levels. Know them by name, number and function.
4. Backup levels. Again by name and function and how they do their type of backup.
5. Schemas and how to change them using TSQL
6. TSQL. This is very much part of the 70-229 exam and to a lesser extent the 70-228 exam.