Exam 70-743 – Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA: Windows Server 2016

I have been studying for the 70-743 exam (upgrading from MCSA: Windows Server 2012) for the past 6 weeks, and was able to pass it with a decent score 817 (min. passing score is 700).
In order for me to pass, I used differrent study materials such as books, videos and websites.

If you are on the same journey, I’m providing a study guide of which resources I used, and which questions you will need to answer right of the bat for you to pass.

Before you start studying for the exam, you should take a look of which areas Microsoft have included in the path for the upgrade.

You can find the information here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-70-743.aspx.

Books

The official exam ref. book from Microsoft, isn’t a good source for knowledge. It gave a decent overview of which technologies the exam consisted of, but in regards to actually getting the knowledge needed to pass, I wouldn’t recommend it as a single source of research.

Videos

I used CBT Nuggets as a visual walk trough for the new technologies in Windows Server 2016. Although they don’t have a dedicated course for the 70-743, they have one for the complete MCSA: Windows Server 2016 (70-740, 70-741 and 70-742) certification. I didn’t watch all the videos in the series, but only those areas which is mentioned on the official exam website. The instructors gives a really good overall explanation on the technologies required.

Additional Material

If you can answer the following questions regarding Windows Server, you should be ready to take the 70-743 exam. Foreach question I will provide a link to the answer. There might be more than one correct answer to a question below, but the questions link points to which tool or technology you should know about in order to pass.

  1. How do you create a Windows Server Nano Server image through PowerShell?
  2. What does “WindowsFeature”, “Present”, “Service” and “Running” mean in regards to PowerShell DSC?
  3. What does AVMA stand for and is internet connectivity required?
  4. How do you restore group memberships from a group where a user accidentally changed it?
  5. How do you change password for the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip?
  6. What port is WSUS default using for clients?
  7. How do you see which server own a FSMO role?
  8. How do you change the Docker daemon to a specific port?
  9. How and where do you allow a certain security group to  administer Docker?
  10. Which PowerShell cmdlet allows you to track a VM’s network traffic inside a Hyper-V host?
  11. Which security group allows you to administer a DHCP server in a IPAM setup?
  12. Which role do you need to install for enabling Web Application Proxy?
  13. What pre-authentication is required for Remote Desktop (RD) gateway service through Web Application Proxy?
  14. How do you add a new domain to a forest through PowerShell?
  15. How do you trigger a password replication to all read-only domain controllers?
  16. Can a generation 1 VM boot from a VHDX disk?
  17. How do you remove a disk from a storage pool with a parity storage layout?
  18. How do you add an network traffic ACL for a VM hosted on a Hyper-V?
  19. In Hyper-V, which object do you set the VLAN subnet ID?
  20. How to disable a DNS server to use root hints through PowerShell.
  21. How do you identify if a server role is installed on a Nano Server?
  22. Which VPN protocol supports reconnect in Windows Server 2016?
  23. In a failover cluster which PowerShell cmdlets should you use to move a cluster role to another node, and stop the cluster node?
  24. How do you create one single DHCP scope from two logical IP subnets?
  25. Know what Set-VMNetworkAdapterTeamMapping does?
  26. How do you export and import a VM?
  27. How do you limit the network bandwidth between 2 servers running storage replica?
  28. In nested virtualization in Hyper-V what doesn’t work?
  29. Do you know how to configure failover cluster Hyper-V load balancing through PowerShell?
  30. Which role should be installed for enabling NAT on Windows Server 2016?
  31. What does the following package install “Microsoft-NanoServer-Compute-Package” on a Nano Server?
  32. How do you create a interactive session to another server through PowerShell?
  33. How do you add drivers to a Windows image in a offline state?
  34. Which roles can be added to a Nano server?
  35. What is a NSG?

If you had trouble answering most of the questions above, you should do some more research in the areas for the exam.

I encourage you to do your own labs and if you have a subscription for CBT Nuggets, you get this for “free”.

Let me know if the above helped you, share your experience in the comments below.

Experienced advanced operations engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Windows Server, Azure, Ethical Hacking, Office 365, Exchange, Jenkins, SCCM, Octopus Deploy and PowerShell to name a few. Strong engineering professional with a big passion for knowledge.

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